Of course. I was curious.
About this perk.
About what this perk was.
There was no need to ask.
《YES》
BANG! BOOM!
《You will receive a total of three perk rewards.》
“Whooaa!”
Three perks.
I did not know what they were, but an exclamation escaped me first.
《The first perk is being granted.》
《Congratulations! Lucifer has awakened as an Adventurer.》
FLAAASH!
At that moment, I instinctively knew that I had become an Adventurer.
The methods for accessing a Status Window, summoning summons, the Exchange, and various other features were engraved into my mind.
Awakening as a perk?!
This alone was an incredible windfall!
Yet there were still two more left?
《The second perk, the ‘End Summoning Tome,’ has been provided.》
An End Summoning Tome?
I did not even have time to wonder what it was.
THUD!
A thick, blackish-purple book dropped before my eyes.
When I tried to pick it up, it was surprisingly heavy. It seemed to weigh around ten kilograms.
“What the hell is this? What am I supposed to use it for?”
As if in answer to my question, the System displayed a message.
《You can perform an ‘End Summon’ through the Summoning Tome you have received.》
“End… what?”
Then the final perk was granted.
《The third perk, an ‘End Summon Selection Ticket,’ has been issued.》
As soon as that message appeared, a blackish-purple ticket was summoned.
The ticket was immediately drawn into the End Summoning Tome in my hands.
I stared blankly at the sight before finally noticing something strange.
An End Summon?
Judging by its name, it seemed to refer to the rank of a summoning ticket.
However, as far as I knew, Legend Seven had no rank called ‘End.’
Legend Seven had a total of six ranks.
「Common–Advanced–Rare–Heroic–Legendary–Mythic」
‘Would that make seven ranks if End were included?’
It seemed that a new rank I did not know about had been added.
Since it was called a ‘Selection Ticket,’ it was probably an item that let me choose and summon a summon of that rank directly.
The question was where this ‘End’ ticket stood among the existing ranks.
‘At least it must be higher than Rare, right? It is a clear reward, after all.’
I did not even hope for Legendary or Mythic.
Those two ranks commanded astronomical prices even for ordinary summoning tickets, let alone selection tickets.
Of course, even a low-rank summon would be more than useful in my hands.
Its applications would merely be somewhat limited.
Still, the higher the rank, the better.
“Come on! If it is a perk, act like a perk! Let me get at least one decent summon!”
I slowly took a deep breath and rubbed my hands together in prayer.
It was the kind of summoning ritual every player of a collectible RPG had.
A superstition that said the results would be better if you did this.
The odds were so atrocious that you had no choice but to rely on superstition.
《To use the End Summon Selection Ticket, please open the End Summoning Tome.》
As the message window appeared, I looked at the Summoning Tome I had received as a perk.
It was a thick blackish-purple book decorated with intricate moon-and-sun motifs.
At a glance, it even looked like a binder for storing cards.
Even as I lightly touched the book, my hands broke out in sweat.
“Phew!”
After taking a deep breath, I carefully opened the book.
At that moment, a display that made me doubt my own eyes flickered before me.
【End Summon Selection Ticket】
Description: A selection ticket that can summon an episode villain bound to Lucifer.
[List]
Ruinbringer, the Siren of the Hundred-Valley King (Darkness)
Marena, the Heaven-Defying Priestess (Light)
Caligo, Liberator of Death (Darkness)
Ariel, Lord of the Heavens (Light)
Black Prince Theo (Darkness)
Lucevar, the Immaculate Apostle (Light)
Hertiya, the Witch of the End (Darkness)
I doubted my own eyes.
‘I can summon episode villains?!’
It certainly was a perk.
I could form a team with an episode villain from the very beginning.
However.
‘…Is it really all right to summon a villain before I have anything to my name?’
Unlike when Legend Seven was a game, summoning did not necessarily mean a contract in reality.
Most summons agreed to contracts, but high-rank summons or particularly temperamental ones sometimes refused a contract and disappeared immediately.
And as I had said before, villains were generally fierce and disobedient.
I had succeeded in taming them through immense effort when it was a game, but it was impossible to know whether they would listen to O Hyeon-woo rather than Lucifer.
-TICK.
Moreover, I had never heard that the summons I used in the game retained their memories of the player, so what would appear would ultimately be an ‘untamed villain.’
In other words, I could find myself in the dangerous position of facing a vicious villain with nothing but my bare body.
‘Hiss… No. Rather than rush into it and get myself hurt, it would be better to get some things in order first and summon one slowly.’
As I said again, I was confident.
Even with ordinary summons, I was confident that I could grow overwhelmingly faster than anyone else.
As I built a solid foundation, I could prepare the strategy and setup in advance, then summon the villain that suited me best…….
-TICK.
“…No, what has been ticking this whole time?”
The incessant ticking irritated me, and just then another message window appeared before my eyes.
Wondering what this was now, I checked its contents.
《There is little time remaining to use this item. Time remaining: 05 minutes 16 seconds.》
《If you do not complete the contract within the remaining time, the perk will disappear.》
“Why the fuck?!”
Why was the time limit so short?
People said nothing in life came easy, but a perk I had waited ten years to receive expiring in five minutes was excessively heartless!
No, this was no time to think about anything else.
I had no choice but to decide now.
Should I lose the villain summoning ticket like this, or take the risk and aim for the jackpot?
My deliberation did not last long.
“This… shitty game! Go for broke!”
It may have seemed reckless, but I had my reasons.
‘A summon cannot directly attack the summoner who called it.’
It was a rule that had never changed, whether Legend Seven was a game or reality.
At worst, my cramped studio apartment might be turned upside down, but that was a risk worth taking a hundred times over.
“Think, think. Who would be the best choice?”
Each villain possessed exceptional individual abilities.
However, some of them required enormous investments of resources to use properly.
But right now, I had absolutely nothing.
Naturally. I had only just awakened as an Adventurer.
‘Someone I can raise without capital. That is the first condition, no matter what.’
That ruled out three of them already.
Four remained.
‘I can only summon one right now. So it has to be versatile enough to overcome disadvantages in equipment, skills, and level too.’
Two more villains were eliminated from consideration.
‘And above all… they are villains. It would be better not to expect them to listen to me. Then I need someone relatively easy to befriend. I need to raise their Affinity quickly before they will listen.’
There was one who met every condition.
The boss of Episode 1.
Hertiya, Queen of the Shadow Elves.
Having made up my mind, I clicked her name with my finger.
《Summoning Hertiya, the Witch of the End.》
WHOOOOSH!
In an instant, dark clouds began to whirl through my entire room.
The vortex sent my clothes, bedding, and dishes flying all over the apartment.
‘Oh, ohhh!’
I was slightly worried about cleaning up afterward, but how could that matter in the face of the spectacle before me?
Soon, the dark clouds that had filled the room gradually subsided, and a woman emerged from the black vortex.
Long, lustrous silver hair.
Pale skin and delicate features.
Her appearance was captivating, but rather than feeling attracted to her as a woman, I unknowingly tensed beneath the pressure of her chilling aura.
A smile rested on her face, yet a sticky killing intent, like predawn mist, flowed down from the corners of her eyes.
Hertiya, the Witch of the End.
She looked even more like a villain in person.
That only made me more satisfied.
Gulp.
I swallowed once before slowly addressing her.
“Her… tiya?”
At that moment, her slender hand closed around my throat.
“Ghk!”
《Hertiya has broken the summoning contract and attacked her summoner!》
《The summoner has 80% Vitality remaining.》
A summon could not attack the summoner who had called it.
It was one of the few rules that had remained unchanged both before and after the Great Cataclysm.
Yet she had broken that rule at will!
‘I-I cannot breathe……!’
I knew she would be difficult to handle, but I had never imagined she would directly attack an Adventurer.
“How dare a mere human summon me?!”
“Ghk… hhk……!”
“This body belongs to Lord Lucifer! Not to some wretch like you!”
Even in the middle of the chaos, the name ‘Lucifer’ lodged itself in my ears.
How did she remember that name?
They had clearly said that summons had no memories of their past summoners!
“We may be of the same race, but you are worlds apart from him! Rather than belong to an ordinary man with neither dignity nor spirit, I will kill you and die as well!”
《The summoner has 50% Vitality remaining!》
The System flashed red, as if ordering me to do something quickly.
Fuck, what exactly was I supposed to do?
‘Give me some information, at least! You call a summon that kills people a perk?!’
The moment I spat out my resentment toward the System, a new tooltip appeared as if on cue.
Right. It was not planning to let me die after all!
《Warning! A summon that breaks its contract and attacks its summoner will disappear if the summoner dies!》
Fuck you, System!
It seemed that the System was more worried about the summon than the summoner.
Apparently, the System was not to be trusted.
That did not mean I intended to die like this.
If I died like this, what would happen to my remaining family? To my sister, who would have to care for our parents alone? To the life I had lived?
I absolutely could not die like this. Absolutely not!
《The summoner has 30% Vitality remaining!》
Without realizing it, I bit down hard on my lip.
It seemed I had no choice but to give up on Hertiya.
No matter how regrettable it was to waste a selection ticket, I had to save my life first.
‘Reverse Summon! Now! Reverse Summon!’
《Attempting to reverse summon Hertiya, the Witch of the End.》
“What a pathetic trick……!”
CRACKLE!
《The summon refuses reverse summoning!》
This was insane!
As if attacking her summoner was not enough, she was even refusing reverse summoning now?!
How was I supposed to stop this crazy bitch’s rampage?
“Ghk, huff…….”
This would not do. I could not think clearly.
Oxygen was no longer reaching my brain, and I felt increasingly sleepy.
‘Is this… the end…….’
My breath grew more and more obstructed.
My vision slowly darkened.
Beyond it, my twenty-eight years of life flashed by like a panorama.
‘My life… flashing before my eyes?’
It was a phenomenon that had always seemed so convenient in comics that it made me laugh. I never imagined I would experience it for real.
What was more, most of the scenes flashing before my eyes were from Legend Seven.
Even in this desperate situation, I nearly laughed at the realization that I had truly lived obsessed with that game.
However, there were a few pieces of unexpectedly useful information.
-My children! My children!
Hertiya’s life.
Born a Shadow Elf, she had lived under the elves’ persecution.
The joy she felt when, despite those hardships, she found a mate and had three children.
The despair when the children she had raised so dearly were chosen as sacrifices for the World Tree.
The helplessness she felt when she tried every method to change their fate but ultimately lost them.
The anger she felt toward the King of the Shadow Elves, who had condoned it all.
The elation she felt when she usurped the throne by force and, after a long war, burned the elves and the World Tree.
As I revisited her entire story, I reviewed Hertiya’s words one last time.
It had been a very short exchange, but the answer had to be there.
-This body belongs to Lord Lucifer! Not to some wretch like you!
‘Lucifer…!’
Hertiya had been enraged that a mere human, rather than Lucifer, had summoned her.
Then what if I could prove that I was Lucifer?
‘Think…! Remember something, anything!’
The key that could prove to her that I was Lucifer.
The only way out that could save my life and, if things went well, make Hertiya my subordinate too.
‘…This could work!’
At last, I thought of one method.
To be honest, it was a little embarrassing, but this was no time to be picky.
‘Does embarrassment matter in a situation like this? Just close your eyes and do it once!’
From this moment on, I would act as my past self.
The tempestuous O Hyeon-woo, who had suffered from a belated case of adolescent delusions of grandeur.
I deliberately lowered my voice.
As though changing the filter on my voice, I made it low, dignified, and solemn.
Using every last breath, I uttered a single word.
“Hert.”
“?!”
I saw Hertiya’s startled expression.
The grip of the hand choking me loosened slightly, giving me room to breathe.
I did not miss the opportunity and immediately began speaking.
“That hasty temperament of yours has not changed.”
“H-How do you know that pet name……?”
Startled, Hertiya quickly removed her hand from my throat.
Then she covered her mouth with both hands.
She looked as if she could not believe it.
I spread my left hand over my face.
Then I lowered my gaze at a sixty-degree angle.
It was a pretentious gesture that eighteen-year-old O Hyeon-woo had thought was incredibly cool.
“Did I not say that I would make your dream come true? Ser, Ner, Bar. And the dreams of the three siblings who vanished in vain as well.”
At that moment, Hertiya pointed at me with a trembling hand and opened her mouth.
“Could it be, Lord Lucifer…?”