Chapter 230

Words : 2146 Updated : Oct 5th, 2025

Chapter 230 [One point lesson! You can also learn how to manipulate Puppeteer.] Reading the phrase written on the whiteboard in the workshop seemed like a joke, but the man standing next to it, Se-Hoon, was being upmost serious about it. “Alright, starting now, I'll explain how one can control Puppeteer.” Turning to face the whiteboard, he drew a large Earth and then sketched a small person on top of it. “As you saw, Puppeteer controls her puppets using a combination of celestial magic and ancient enchantments. The control range extends across the entire planet.” Drawing a large circle surrounding the earth, he glanced at Lea, who was staring blankly at the whiteboard. “But no matter how vast of a range it covers, the core of it is remote control via key stations. In other words, if you really want to, you can always separate a puppet from the main body.” Circling the small person, a puppet, that he had drawn earlier, Se-Hoon added a question mark above it. “Now, I have a question for you. What happens to the puppet if it loses its connection to the main body? “Um... it would just stop functioning, right? Since it’s controlled remotely.” “That’s right, at least that’s what would happen normally. But if you add the power of Boundaries to the equation, things change.” Facing the board, Se-Hoon erased the circle around the puppet and closely outlined it instead. “The power of Boundaries grants independence to the puppet. Simply put, it turns the puppet into something like a clone, rather than just a lifeless doll.” It was a little bit different from Wurgen's consciousness, which was resurrected using the Eternal Nocturne’s Phalanx, and the Seeker, who was revived using Se-Hoon’s corroded mana circuit, but the underlying mechanism was the same—using the power of Boundaries to grant independence. “The clone's consciousness is formed based on the memories and emotions just before the connection is cut. And I'm planning to exploit this feature.” “So you’re saying... that we’ll induce hostility toward the Dream Demon and then use the power of Boundaries through Abgrund to sever the connection, right?” Pleased by Lea’s correct guess, Se-Hoon smiled and nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m planning to do. But there's one more thing we need to add.” Se-Hoon then drew several additional smaller puppets around the one outlined and then marked a “No.?” above them. “Judging by Puppeteer’s choices so far, she's likely stationed at least two Single Numbers in the Pleasure District. On top of that, she probably added extra parts in them to take direct control in emergencies.” Even if Se-Hoon managed to successfully manipulate one puppet, if Puppeteer just switched to another one, their plan to sow discord between Puppeteer and the Dream Demon would almost certainly fail. “So, aside from manipulating the puppets, we also need a way to prevent the main body from intervening...” “And that would be the enchantment installed in Puppeteer’s base?” “Exactly.” No matter how skilled Puppeteer was, if a problem occurred in an internal region of her spell formula, it would take time to recover. And given her obsessively cautious nature, there was a good chance she wouldn’t interfere before the Dream Demon was eliminated. “The Sphere will activate the enchantment as soon as I pierce Puppeteer’s body with Abgrund. That’s how I designed it from the start.” “Impressive...” Lea uttered. She couldn’t help but admire the elaborate plan. Not only was it amazing that he had devised such a thorough strategy, but he had even fully prepared for it. Yet, despite it all, she was still worried. Will this really work? While the whole plan seemed logically possible, the opponent was formidable enough to make certainty impossible to be assured of. So, unable to avoid anxiety, Lea pushed herself to prepare even more thoroughly for any unforeseen circumstances. BOOM! And now, whether that would pay off would be determined by the chaos unfolding right before her eyes. “Aghhhh!” A bolt of blue lightning shredded through the purple fog surrounding the city, toppling the building it hit with its immense power. But that wasn’t the end, shockwaves were sent rippling outward like waves. “No... no, this can't be happening...!” The shockwaves completely incinerated those near the city center and made those hundreds of meters away collapse with convulsions. It was the handiwork of the young boy with hair crackling like electricity, Single Number Three. Zone Seventeen descended into chaos. However, the lightning strike was only the beginning. Thud, thud, thud! Single Number Four, a massive black automaton standing at least three meters tall, swung its ten fists wildly in all directions like a colossal bulldozer plowing through the streets. Neither the district's residents nor its buildings were spared. Following behind it, a woman with hair longer than her body, Single Number Eight, raced down the path of devastation. Whip-crack! With a light shake of her head and a simple twist of her white fingers, her long hair spread out in all directions, the strands of hair moving as if they were playing cat's cradle. “Ahhhh!” “My... my torso!!” With just a flick of her hand, she mercilessly yanked dozens of residents fleeing in all directions into the air. Boom! Their bodies all promptly swelled up and exploded, causing a black liquid to spray down like rain. Sizzle! “Ahhhh!” “It's acid rain... no, it's cursed!!” The cursed rain caused the other residents to vomit blood as they melted, adding to the contamination all around them. And that had all occurred in just a mere two minutes. Is this... the power of S-ranks? Lea gasped. The landscape had changed after just a few attacks. The destruction of an S-rank battle, something she had only heard of in stories, sent chills down her spine. But what gave her even more goosebumps was the realization that she was the one who had caused it. Though she didn’t feel much guilt because most of those in the Pleasure District were criminals involved with the Demon Force, the sight of hundreds of people dying and buildings collapsing with just a wave of a hand made her shudder—what if it had happened in the real world, not the Pleasure District. If this is the level of havoc an S-rank can cause, what happens if the Ten Evils... or the Perfect Ones were to get involved? It was only now that Lea began to truly understand the heights of the world’s true scale of power and... how precariously the world outside was hanging. At that moment, a snap brought her back to the present. Confirming that Lea had snapped out of it, Se-Hoon calmly reprimanded her, “Stop spacing out and focus. If you’re not careful, Puppeteer might regain her senses again.” The absurdity of it all made Lea fall into a daze. “We’re supposed to... kill that?” She couldn’t stop herself from muttering those words. It was said that even the Perfect Ones couldn’t kill the Dream Demon when she was inside her Pleasure District. However, even though Lea had heard the rumor as well, she had never expected it to be to this extent. She even wondered: if gods were real, wouldn’t they look like this? She was completely overwhelmed, freezing her steps in place. In contrast, Se-Hoon, who had been observing the Dream Demon, began to move forward. “It’s my turn now.” Startled, Lea spun to face him. “W—Wait! Are you really going to join that fight now?!” “I have to. That was the plan from the beginning. But I can’t promise you that I’ll be able to take care of you after this, so I’ll send you outside first. If something unexpected happens, go immediately to the location we previously agreed upon. “...” Lea bit her lip at his calm words. When they first infiltrated Puppeteer’s base, she had believed that he would somehow pull through. But not now. The problem at hand was much bigger. It’s impossible. Not even a Perfect One could be sure that they could kill that monster. But she knew; she couldn’t help or stop him, and that made Lea clench her fists in frustration. “It’s fine.” Se-Hoon patted her shoulder in reassurance. “As long as you’ve done your part, that’s all that matters. I have a heart too, you know. I won’t blame you for being unable to help me out in a situation like this.” His voice was steady and he seemed genuinely relaxed, as if everything would be okay. But Lea still looked at him with worry. “But...” “And it’s not just empty words—you really don’t need to worry.” Se-Hoon’s gaze shifted toward the Dream Demon, who was still fighting fiercely. “After all, this is all just a dream.” Boom! A torrent of rain began to pelt the five puppets. It looked like an ordinary downpour at first glance, but each drop contained the mass of a large building, compressed into a single droplet. In the dream realm, even such attacks were possible. The sheer physical force of each droplet alone would be enough to crush most S-rank heroes, but not Puppeteer. Crash! She deflected every drop or diverted them, sending them all in directions, while using curses to form miniature black holes between the raindrops. Puppeteer’s stubborn resistance made the Dream Demon, who was holding an elegant purple umbrella, narrow her eyes. Is it because of the parts installed in them...? My magic isn’t as effective as I thought it’d be. Puppeteer was constantly adjusting her consciousness and synesthetic mindscape, reducing the dream magic’s effectiveness. It seemed Puppeteer had anticipated such a battle coming all along, leaving the Dream Demon sighing in frustration. How exhausting. Why was it so hard to get everyone on the team to cooperate? Although the Dream Demon herself also didn’t completely trust the other Ten Evils, antagonism to this extent was exhausting. Sigh... Perhaps it was inevitable, given the origins of demons like them. Everyone had their own desires, after all. Setting aside her minor grievances, the Dream Demon turned her attention away from Puppeteer for a moment and scanned her surroundings. There’s still no sign. She intuitively knew that someone had interfered with Puppeteer to cause the current situation, but no matter how much she searched, there was no trace of the culprit. The only clue she had was the faint trickle of dream mana she sensed earlier in Puppeteer’s workshop. With only that clue, the Dream Demon pondered the possible culprit, and various suspects passed through her mind. Could it be him? Given that he possessed her eye, it wasn’t an impossible scenario. But the Dream Demon quickly dismissed the thought. More than anything, she hoped that he, Se-Hoon, wouldn’t be foolish enough to interfere—he was the only one capable of understanding her in this dream realm after all. I guess I should just wrap this up. She considered investigating further, but her previous injury was beginning to make it harder to control the situation. If she were in her normal condition, she would likely have been fine, but with so many things already in motion, she needed to be cautious. With her decision made, she was about to move to finish Puppeteer, but then— RUMBLE- A foreboding sound echoed from the sky. It was a sound that shouldn’t exist in her dream realm. Quickly turning to look at the source, the Dream Demon’s eye widened in shock. “That’s...” Something unfamiliar and massive had taken root inside the heart of her dream, in the deepest part of the Pleasure District. The overwhelming sense of something foreign made even the Dream Demon shudder. Raising her guard, she decided to move away. However, that was when she sensed something odd. “...!” She spun her head back and forth, finally spotting a young man standing on the rooftop of a nearby building. The man had the same purple eyes as her own, and he was looking at her with a fierce expression. He was the last person she ever expected to see, making her feel bewildered—it was Se-Hoon. “It’s time to wake up.” Noticing the Dream Demon’s gaze, Se-Hoon raised the Phantasmal Spyblade and thrust it into his own chest. Shank! The strike left no visible wound. But that single action—the same exact one that Se-Hoon had done moments before the end of the world—triggered a flood of thoughts to rush through his mind. Woong! The tsunami of thoughts then engulfed the Synesthetic Mindscape Storage Devices taking root across the Pleasure District, throughout the entire dream realm. [Activating Awakening Dream] Crack- A massive fracture appeared across the Pleasure District.

Chapter 230

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