“Ugh…”

My head was killing me. I managed to open my eyes and look around. I was in an unfamiliar place.

"Where on earth am I…? Ugh."

Clank.

“…?”

As soon as I sat up, something on my left arm made a noise and felt heavy. I looked at it in confusion. A handcuff-like object was attached to my wrist, with a metal chain trailing from it along the ground. My eyes followed the chain—and then I saw the back of a man lying face-down not far away.

"Ah."

That’s when I finally remembered what had happened before I ended up here. I’d been on standby with the exploration team when the ground suddenly shook—then someone deliberately shoved me, clearly with bad intent.

I glanced over at the man who was still out cold. Seeing that even an S-rank like him hadn’t woken up, it must’ve been a pretty rough teleport.

As for me, I was practically covered in armor. Since I didn’t need to raise any other stats, I’d focused everything on defense—and ended up with a body tough enough to rival most S-ranks.

“Phew.”

Still, armor alone wasn’t enough to completely absorb the impact.

My whole body ached like I had muscle soreness, but I forced myself up, groaning involuntarily. Even so, I could move without any major issues.

Thank god. If I’d landed at a bad angle and broken a bone, I’d be in serious trouble—especially since I’m alone right now.

I glanced around, but everything was pitch black, and I couldn’t see much.

After a moment’s hesitation, I pulled a few items from my inventory.

“So this bastard was the traitor all along.”

To be honest, I’d suspected Liam White the most. But it turned out to be someone else entirely.

Joshua Lehmann—Guildmaster of Ur, one of the biggest guilds in Europe.

Why would someone like him betray the alliance? I had no idea. It hadn’t been mentioned in the novel, after all. So I’d just have to ask him myself. Humming to myself, I tightly bound Joshua Lehmann’s body with a restraining item. It was an S-grade item I’d stolen from Sim Dante. Once he was secured, I removed the item I’d placed on him earlier.

“Hmm, all set.”

I gazed down at Joshua Lehmann, lying there with his arms tied behind his back, feeling pretty satisfied. This much preparation should be enough.

Even if he somehow broke the restraining item with some crazy S-grade skill I didn’t know about, I still had plenty of other items I’d stolen from Sim Dante.

“…But why isn’t he waking up?”

I found myself getting irritated at Joshua Lehmann for not waking up.

I didn’t even know where we were, and I needed to interrogate him and track down the other exploration team members—but he just wouldn’t wake up.

He didn’t die from the shock, did he? No, an S-rank wouldn’t be that weak.

Growing slightly suspicious, I gave Joshua Lehmann’s motionless body a few nudges.

“…”

“Hey, Joshua Lehmann.”

“…”

“Hey!”

Finally losing my temper, I flipped his body over and yelled at him.

Then I started slapping his cheek while he just lay there with his eyes still closed.

“Wake up, you bastard!”

“Urgh…”

“…!”

After yelling at him for a while, Joshua Lehmann finally opened his eyes.

His pale blue eyes slowly opened, then widened the moment he saw me.

“H-Han Yi-jin?”

“What?”

“W-Why are you here…?”

“…!”

Surprised by Joshua Lehmann’s reaction, I instinctively touched my face. Had the potion’s effect worn off, and had I reverted to Han Yi-jin’s form? According to Lee Chae-jin, the effect was supposed to last a few days—but it must’ve worn off when I was teleported here. I had unexpectedly come face to face with Joshua Lehmann in Han Yi-jin’s form. But it didn’t really matter. I gave Joshua Lehmann a cold look as he kept up his disgustingly convincing act of being surprised.

“Why don’t you drop the act?”

“…”

“You knew exactly who I was from the start.”

I clearly heard what Joshua Lehmann said.

–A variable like you needs to disappear.

A variable. Even that nameless god had called me a variable.

Because I was someone who had possessed another’s body from a different world.

And now Joshua Lehmann had said the same thing.

He must’ve known who I really was from the very beginning.

Maybe… he even knew I was someone who had taken over this body.

“Joshua Lehmann. You damn traitor to humanity.”

“Shut up!”

Joshua shot me a furious glare, like he was ready to kill me at any moment.

He struggled, but there was no way he was getting out of Sim Dante’s S-grade restraining item that easily. Realizing his body was completely restrained, Joshua Lehmann began breathing heavily and shouted at me.

“Untie me!”

“You think I’m crazy?”

“Damn it!”

“…”

The moment he stopped pretending to be calm, he turned pathetic fast. I clicked my tongue at him without even bothering to hide it.

“Who's backing you? Is it Raisu?”

“…”

“Or maybe…”

The moment I started digging into who was behind him, Joshua Lehmann clamped his mouth shut. I smiled at him and asked again.

“Is it a god?”

“…!”

“So it is the constellations backing you, huh?”

“You…!”

“I’ve already met one, you know.”

“Wh–!”

Joshua Lehmann’s expression twisted in surprise—he clearly hadn’t expected me to say that. And just like that, one thing was certain: the gods of Asgard were involved in this world’s destruction.

The one who contacted me probably doesn’t want the world to end, while the one supporting Joshua Lehmann seems to be pushing for the opposite. But why?

If that god was telling the truth, the fall of this world would drag Asgard down with it.

Are they really trying to bring everything down with them, just so no one survives? That’s insane. I stared at Joshua Lehmann, my eyes full of disbelief and contempt.

“Are you out of your mind? Do you even know what happens if the final dungeon isn’t cleared?”

“…”

“As expected from a villain.”

Well, I used to be part of a villain guild myself. But seriously, I’ll never understand how these guys think. What’s so wrong with just living a peaceful life? I really couldn’t get what they were trying to achieve.

“An outsider like you could never understand.”

“Oh, is that so?”

Not that I had any interest in understanding a villain trying to destroy the world, anyway.

I shrugged and rummaged through my inventory. I was planning to give Joshua Lehmann the same confession potion I’d used on the dwarf. Joshua Lehmann tensed up the moment he sensed something was wrong.

“Th-That’s…”

“The confession potion the dwarf drank.”

“Fuck…!”

After years of reading countless novels, I’ve come to one conclusion—people like Joshua Lehmann, powerful and unrepentant in their villainy, don’t flinch at threats.

They’re always consumed by some twisted ideology that ordinary people could never hope to understand. So I didn’t bother trying to reason with him or hold a real conversation.

Instead, I decided to take a slightly more aggressive approach from the start.

“St-Stop… stop…!”

“Oh? How can the guildmaster of a major guild be this scared?”

“…”

For some reason, Joshua Lehmann was looking at me like I was the villain here. Maybe I was just imagining it. I took the potion out of my inventory and held it in my hand. All that was left was to get Joshua Lehmann to drink it… But there was no way he’d do that willingly.

Kang Yoo-hyun had used force to make the dwarf swallow this confession potion. It looked like I’d have to take the same approach. Still, even if he’s restrained by an item, an S-rank is still an S-rank. Forcing his mouth open won’t be easy—and it would be a waste if I dropped this precious potion. I stood there, holding the bottle and thinking. I was still trying to figure out how to make him drink it when a voice suddenly came from beside me.

“Should I help you out?”

“Yeah, if you coul—whoa…!”

“…?”

I instinctively turned to the side—and immediately stepped back in surprise. A man I’d never seen before was standing there, tilting his head as he stared at me. When did he get here? I hadn’t even noticed his presence. His long black hair hung in an odd, unnatural way, and there was something about him that just felt… off.

Was he part of the exploration team? Or maybe the raid team?

No—that didn’t make sense. There’s no way a raid team member would be here.

Then I saw it. A red window floated beneath him, and my eyes widened.

「The Evil Dragon, Fafnir

Rank: ??

Level: ??

? ?? ?? ??, ?? ?? ??

…」

“You’ve got to be kidding me…”

A bright red window flashed beside me, signaling that he was a monster, accompanied by a low, warning-like buzz.

An evil dragon—the owner of the legendary weapons the dwarf had mentioned.

My eyes trembled as I stared at him. On the outside, he looked like any ordinary man, nothing like a monster. Under my gaze, he seemed flustered and scratched his cheek with a finger.

“Huh? Wait, you’re not one of my kind?”

“Me…?”

“That’s strange. You definitely have the scent, though…”

“W-What are you doing?!”

The man suddenly stepped in close and sniffed me. Surprised, I backed away, and the man stared at me with his jet-black eyes, muttering something under his breath.

“Ah… so you weren’t one of our kind in disguise after all.”

“…!”

“But then why do you smell like one of us? Who are you, really?”

He fixed me with a cold, wary gaze.