The cult leader, who had once reigned over countless people with a power she couldn't handle, met an utterly anticlimactic end.

  She simply collapsed, requiring no further description. She fell like a dried, wizened old tree.

  Perhaps the death of a person who once made countless individuals tremble with fear at her very breathing, and who had killed so many in this place, should have been more dramatic.

  But, as with most things in the world, the cult leader's collapse was not particularly dramatic.

  Perhaps it was because everything she had done had merely boomeranged back to her through a small catalyst.

  The truth.

  The few words Jihyeon spoke were a spear and an awl piercing deep into her heart. The moment she recalled the truth, everything she had done came back to her with multiplied force.

  The cult leader, whose body was already ruined by the uncontrollable tool and who had only been standing due to sheer madness, crumbled before the shock of the returned reality.

  Jihyeon approached the fallen cult leader. Knowing everything was over, there was something he had to do.

  The collapsed cult leader could barely breathe. The moment she faced the truth she had deliberately ignored somewhere deep in her memory, her weakened body couldn't endure it.

  She was now a corpse that couldn't die, barely breathing with a beating heart. Of course, the cult leader was still alive.

  Her chest was slightly moving up and down, and she was still breathing.

  But that was all.

  The cult leader would never recover. Her breathing was visibly becoming more labored.

  Jihyeon looked at the cult leader with eyes devoid of emotion. Her crimes were too numerous for him to feel pity, yet her fate was too tragic for him to simply hate her.

  A wrong encounter and a twisted destiny.

  A lost family.

  And anger and jealousy.

  All of it might have been too harsh for an ordinary woman. Up to that point, he could have felt sympathy.

  But what followed could not be forgiven. She had committed more wicked deeds than the miracles she performed.

  Jihyeon knelt down and held the cult leader's hand without a word. He could feel her hand getting colder, but Jihyeon said nothing.

  Instead, he directly made everything about her his own: her life story and even the forbidden knowledge.

  "So, she really knew nothing..."

  Jihyeon let go of her hand. She was no longer a person of this world. The woman who had been the cult leader breathed her last, taking countless bad karma with her.

  A feeling of emptiness weighed down on Jihyeon. He had achieved the biggest goal of saving Mina, but he hadn't even achieved half of his goal of securing the necessary knowledge.

  The cult leader knew nothing. She had merely lived a life driven by power.

  But he didn't come away entirely empty-handed.

  Transfer of ownership.

  Jihyeon moved his hand toward the cult leader's stomach. And he concentrated his mind. Simultaneously, the source of the corrupted power in the cult leader's body moved into his hand.

  The source of the miracle that had been gnawing away at her life force. The foreign object, directly implanted in her body, was a fragment from the other world.

  The object that should never have existed drove the cult leader to madness and led her to death.

  There was no need to mention how many tragedies it had created.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  But Jihyeon didn't want to think about the dead. That was all the cult leader's karma and had nothing to do with Jihyeon.

  Instead, Jihyeon focused his mind to make the foreign object in the cult leader's body his own.

  He already had a foreign object from the other world in his body. Because of this, Jihyeon was able to make the new foreign object his own.

  Of course, it was quite a painful process. The pain, like tearing all his blood vessels and injecting a new poison, was difficult even for Jihyeon to bear.

  Fortunately, the time of pain was not long. After the short but intense pain subsided, Jihyeon could feel the desired message.

  —Legitimate User Authentication—

  Now, this power was completely his. Although he would need more time to master it, this power would now draw fuel from the place it was supposed to, not from his life force.

  When everything was over, Jihyeon raised his hand and briefly checked the crackling power. Then, he turned around to look at Mina. She was still vacant-eyed and in shock.

  Jihyeon approached her. Carefully, being as gentle as possible for someone who was out of her wits from shock.

  And he told her that everything was over. That was enough.

  When Mina heard Jihyeon's voice, she finally realized that everything had ended. The moment she was released from the fear of death, Mina's clock started ticking anew.

  Tears flowed. Mina cried for an unknown amount of time, leaning on Jihyeon. Jihyeon lent her his embrace until she calmed down.

  Simultaneously, Jihyeon accessed the network of the place and erased some of the contents of the hard drives where the internal affairs were recorded.

  When Jihyeon returned home after the police investigation, the atmosphere in the house was a mix of subtle excitement and relief.

  Not only his mother but also Jisoo and Jihyuk were worried about him being involved in the incident. That was understandable.

  His visits to the police station had been too frequent recently.

  But he had gone to save someone, and Jihyeon had saved the life of a female student named Mina.

  They couldn't scold him for that. It was partly because of Jisoo's past incident that someone else's trouble didn't feel like a stranger's.

  Therefore, despite the great offense of not preparing dinner, Jisoo did not scold Jihyeon too harshly.

  Jihyuk's eyes sparkled at his brother's new feat, and he was busy asking him various things.

  Although tired, Jihyeon answered as gently as possible, satisfying his siblings' curiosity.

  "Go rest... You've been through a lot, haven't you?"

  His mother said just that, releasing Jihyeon from his siblings. Jihyeon merely smiled faintly for his mother.

  When he finally took a shower and lay down on the sofa, Jihyeon felt like he had truly arrived home.

  He had managed to escape quickly before the reporters arrived, but things would be quite noisy now. Besides the lottery incident, those with keen instincts would clearly continue to focus on Jihyeon.

  But that was for the future.

  And perhaps this incident could even lead to something helpful down the line. So, Jihyeon decided to forget about the future for a moment.

  However, the news on TV made Jihyeon feel slightly uncomfortable.

  Sensational news with no substance. Knowing their worthlessness, Jihyeon merely scoffed and changed the channel.

  They were only moving for their own money, after all. Their shallow nature was too clear to Jihyeon.

  Well, perhaps it was cruel to criticize them, as they had their own lives.

  Instead, Jihyeon thought of something else.

  Mina's parents, upon hearing the news, came with faces completely distraught. And they hugged their daughter and cried for what felt like forever.

  Mina, released from the fear of death, cried once again. But now, she wouldn't have to suffer from this kind of thing anymore.

  Once Mina's parents calmed down somewhat, they thanked Jihyeon repeatedly. Their gratitude was utterly sincere, as they might have lost their daughter forever if it hadn't been for Jihyeon.

  Receiving their thanks, Jihyeon felt once again that he had not made the wrong choice.

  Of course, it was regrettable that there were casualties in this incident. At least no one died, but Jihyeon still felt a slight sense of guilt.

  But he couldn't intervene in everything in the world. And without their sacrifice, he wouldn't have been able to save Mina.

  It couldn't be helped.

  Still, thanks to them, a life was saved, and power was gained. So, Jihyeon resolved not to forget their efforts.

  "Hmm... So now I have combat ability?"

  Jihyeon took advantage of the moment when his family wasn't looking to briefly test his new power.

  A power like a high-voltage current.

  It could be utilized in various ways depending on how he used it. Even without direct contact, it could be used to manipulate smartphones or as a weapon in a crisis.

  However, unlike the cult leader, Jihyeon could use this power without depleting his life force. Jihyeon felt irony in that fact.

  The power given to a mother who desperately wanted to save her child had twisted her, gnawed away at her lifespan, and ruined everything.

  But he, who gained the power forcibly, now had new strength and could take another step forward.

  Of course, the fear that he might also be consumed by this power, like the cult leader, was unavoidable.

  Jihyeon didn't want to be driven by power. Instead, he wished to become someone who could control it.

  Could he truly do that?

  It was true that he was a little worried. But he could resolve one thing.

  That he would do what he needed to do within the scope of his reach. Saving people and taking down villains was ultimately a task someone had to do.

  And that brought Jihyeon pleasure and satisfaction.

  Of course, he shouldn't cross the line. Jihyeon knew well that the moment he did, he would become a monster, not a human.

  Still, the desire to save people within the possible range if he had the power was also true.

  Doing what he could do, within the limits of what he could do.

  He didn't know how long he could keep it up. And he didn't know how far he could go.

  But now was the time to do what had to be done. Just like the heroes in TV or movies.

  "Though I don't know if I'll be good at it."

  Jihyeon muttered that and got up. Anyway, incidents would continue to happen now, regardless of his will.

  It would be like iron clinging to a magnet. If so, shouldn't he enjoy it a little?

  Jihyeon thought that and went into his room. Now it was time for rest.

  He didn't know what would happen tomorrow. So, now was the time to rest deeply.