Killing and being killed—there was nothing more exhausting than that.
I looked down at the blood on my hands. Today’s assignment had been the assassination of a chief administrator in a major corporation whose stock value was soaring.
Of course, this mission too had ended successfully. Yet the emptiness afterward only grew heavier, the more flawlessly I completed each task.
'Ah… how long am I supposed to keep doing this…?'
I had grown up an orphan, only to be adopted by an organization that specialized in teaching children how to kill. From childhood, I was raised to be their strongest assassin. My mission success rate was a full one hundred percent.
Perhaps once upon a time I had feared killing. But now, murder was as natural as breathing.
And yet, as the requests piled up, my mind only became more and more corroded.
'I’m sick of it. I feel like I’m going to go insane.'
I stared at my blood-soaked hands with weary eyes, wiped them roughly on my clothes, and returned home.
At least today, unlike most days, there was something I was looking forward to.
Wednesday.
The day the next update of my one and only hobby—a webtoon—was released.
I had discovered webtoons by accident, on the subway after finishing a job.
Some high school boys had been loudly chatting about how fun this one series was, the one with a dragon, and despite myself, my interest was piqued.
My life was unbearable, day after day. And they said a webtoon was fun?
At first I’d only looked out of curiosity. Now it had become an indispensable part of my life.
'Today’s the day the protagonist finally enters the SSS-rank dungeon, kills the Corrupted Dragon, eats its heart, and becomes stronger, right?'
The hero’s already impressive ability was about to make the leap into overpowered territory.
It was exactly the opportunity he needed.
I had always prayed for the protagonist—who only barely scraped out victories in every fight—to grow stronger soon. This was the chapter I had been anticipating the most.
I washed up quickly, grabbed my phone, and threw myself onto the bed.
Let’s see… The World Conquest of the Munchkin Esper.
Found it!
The story was unusual, centered around Espers and Guides.
Gates had appeared all over the world, each swarming with monsters. The only way to close them was to enter and kill the boss inside.
Luckily, certain people with extraordinary abilities had appeared in time, and they were called Espers.
The problem was that Espers were too powerful. Many of them couldn’t control their own strength, and their rampages threw the country into chaos—until the Guides appeared.
Special people capable of regulating an Esper’s power.
From the first time I encountered this “Guideverse” setting in a webtoon, I was utterly hooked.
The fantasy elements, the way it made me forget my own reality, struck straight at my imagination.
If only I had an Esper’s power, I would have erased the organization that shackled me from the face of the earth….
Whenever I let myself daydream like that, my obsession with the webtoon only grew deeper.
And besides, there was the fun of watching relationships unfold—connections I could never have myself.
Every heroine in the series was alluring.
What was unusual was that there were not only female heroines, but male ones as well.
Of course, the central plot was about closing Gates and the protagonist becoming more and more of a hero, but the occasional fan-service scene was not to be missed.
“Yes!”
I nodded eagerly as I watched the panel.
The protagonist’s sword sank cleanly into the dragon’s heart. The vivid artwork made me gasp in awe.
So realistic—it felt like staring down a dragon in real life, enough to make my heart tremble.
If I ever met one in reality, even with all my assassin training, I’d be dead in a single blow.
The protagonist really was amazing.
This was why I loved this brisk, cathartic series. It blew away the suffocating weight in my chest like a fresh breeze.
His hair shone golden, each strand like a spun thread of sunlight, and his eyes were a brilliant blue. I nodded in satisfaction.
Another perfect chapter.
Next time, I’d finally see the protagonist fully empowered.
The villains had been growing stronger, and I’d been worried, but now I could breathe easy.
Smiling in contentment, I set down my phone. It was time to return from fantasy to reality.
'What was tomorrow’s mission again…?'
I thought through the plan for tomorrow’s job as I slowly closed my eyes.
Would this mayfly life of mine ever end in any other way? A little helplessness gnawed at me. At the very least, I worried that I wouldn’t live to see this webtoon’s conclusion.
With those thoughts, I drifted into sleep.
I didn’t notice that, unlike usual, the phone’s screen never turned dark, but glowed brightly to the end.
***
“!ㄲ$%$%$^$#^$^##^”
“@@#@%%%#@@!+*&&”
“$$%^$###!!!”
So loud.
I’d only just fallen asleep, so why all this racket?
Noise from upstairs? No, it couldn’t be this loud. Which meant… could it be?
Had my identity been exposed?
The thought alone was terrifying enough to make my eyes snap open.
But the scene that met me blew every expectation apart.
'…What are those people?'
It was something I’d never imagined.
Men and women with brilliantly colored hair sat encircling me, their faces grave as they talked in low voices.
A few even had tears welling in their eyes, gazing at me with looks of pity.
Was this a dream? Otherwise, why would such beautiful strangers be gathered around, staring at me like that?
They weren’t trying to capture me, or kill me, but looking at me as though I were pitiful….
I couldn’t make sense of it. I had to try speaking to them.
“Grrraaah?”
What the hell was that sound, like a slaughtered beast?
The fact that it came out of my mouth made me freeze. And come to think of it, my body hadn’t been moving properly since a moment ago.
Slowly, I lowered my gaze.
I’d been trained as a killer to keep calm under any circumstance. But right now, I couldn’t follow that creed.
'…What the hell is this!?'
One nap, and I woke up with black scales covering my entire body—who wouldn’t be horrified?
My view towered high above, my flesh cloaked in reptilian scales, my hands and feet monstrous and inhuman. And I was bound tight in chains, barely able to move.
Turned into a monster overnight, my head felt ready to burst with confusion. Yet the figures before me only looked at me, conversing among themselves.
At first I couldn’t make out their words, groggy as I was. But as I woke fully, their speech became clear.
“…He was always the kindest of dragons… but betrayed by humans, he finally went mad.”
“Why does my son have to sit there like that? The humans are the ones who sinned! Wouldn’t it be better to release him now and exterminate those wretched humans once and for all?”
“…We are God’s agents, neutral beings. To wipe out humanity ourselves is impossible.”
“Then what about my son! My son! What will happen to my son, who’s lost his mind?”
“That…”
The situation was new, yet the dialogue felt strangely familiar.
When the story of the Corrupted Dragon came up in the webtoon… there had been a brief mention of something like this.
The dragon had only been a side character, existing to provide the hero with an elixir before disappearing, so its backstory had been short. But I remembered the rough outline.
'Wait… does this mean I’ve become that dragon? The one who dies as the hero’s nourishment? And all of these before me are dragons too?'
Unbelievable—but how else to explain this situation?
I go to sleep, and wake up as the insane Corrupted Dragon… what the hell….
I was simply dumbfounded by the absurdity.
A dream? But could a dream feel this real?
The sense of reality was far too vivid.
'Wait….'
But that dragon had gone insane, hadn’t he?
Driven mad, until they judged he could no longer remain here, and cast him into another dimension.
That dimension was the very Gate Dungeon setting of the Guideverse webtoon. But me, in this body—I was confused, but entirely sane.
I could control this body just fine. So did that mean I wasn’t a mad dragon? Then what would happen to the webtoon?
First, I had to try speaking.
“Graaaah! Graaaaaah! Graah!”
Damn it. I was clearly trying to talk, but all that came out of my mouth was a beast’s roar.
The cave quaked from my bellow, chunks of stone tumbling from the ceiling.
Startled, I clamped my jaws shut.
What kind of roar could bring down a cave with one shout?
“As I thought… we can’t keep him here any longer.”
“Lord, what do you intend to do?”
“Send him to another dimension.”
Wait, this was taking a bad turn.
I struggled against my bonds.
I’m not mad! I’m in my right mind! I only want to talk!
But the more I thrashed, the darker the dragons’ expressions grew.
“Where are you planning to send my son!”
“To another dimension. You’ve felt it too—the limits of keeping him imprisoned here are near.”
“B-but…”
“The seal will soon break. Before it does, we must send him away. Right now, it’s the best option—for us, and for Aru as well.”
Aru… so that was this dragon’s name?
More importantly, that “Lord” was just as irresponsible as I remembered from the webtoon. Protect your own dimension, and never mind if someone else’s gets destroyed?
“Let’s begin at once.”
With those words, the Lord began chanting a spell.
The one who seemed to be this body’s mother let out a scream, but the dragons around her lent their strength to the Lord, as though agreeing this was for the best.
'That’s… Mana!'
A mysterious power began to swirl around me.
The sight was so breathtaking I forgot to resist, staring blankly as the currents of Mana surged.
Beautiful.
Like a cascade of stars, the radiant Mana poured down on me. Instinctively, I squeezed my eyes shut against the blinding light.
To be possessed, only to be exiled right away….
What a wretched life, I thought, as consciousness slipped away.