Seomun Ye-jin’s actions in saving people from the villains were certainly praiseworthy.

However, as a result, she had drawn the attention of those very villains.

With her exceptional beauty, striking figure, growing fame, and status as a mana awakener, she was now being targeted by the villains far more than she could have imagined.

By saving someone in the northern region of the Korean Peninsula, she had effectively exposed her whereabouts to them.

In the end, SS-Class villain Park Ji-hoon and his followers attacked her, specifically targeting her.

No matter how much potential she had, there was no way she could contend with an SS-Class villain. Helpless and overpowered, Seomun Ye-jin had been captured and was now being dragged to a hidden location.

“Hmmph! Hnnngh!”

With restraints sealing her mana and ropes tying her up, Seomun Ye-jin struggled with tears in her eyes. But in her current state of powerlessness, there was nothing she could do.

Even if she somehow managed to break free, she would still stand no chance against Park Ji-hoon, the SS-Class villain. Her hope was already gone.

“Wow, this little bitch already has some killer tits and ass.”

“She’s not even in high school yet, and she’s overflowing with sex appeal. Heh heh~”

“Boss, can’t we just have a little taste of her? Just once?”

Of course, the villains dragging her away were full of lust for her.

Every word and gaze directed at her sent chills down Seomun Ye-jin’s spine, filling her with the overwhelming urge to just die.

The idea of being raped by these villains in a place like this was far too horrific and humiliating to bear.

“No.”

Fortunately, Park Ji-hoon had no intention of allowing it.

“This girl is a precious commodity. A mana awakener with this level of beauty and figure? If we put her up for auction, she’ll fetch an unimaginable price.”

“Her value?”

“That’s right. If she were at least 20 years old by Korean standards, her price would skyrocket. But raising her for five years… well, that’ll be torture.”

“That’s true, heh heh. Every time I look at this bitch, my dick goes crazy. Shit~ even her scent is intoxicating.”

“Damn, I just want to shove my fist up this bitch’s ass and let her feel the terror of having her guts ripped out.”

“Kekeke~ You psycho. Trying to shoot a gore movie again?”

“Shut the fuck up! You’re no better. You’re the one who gets off on shoving red-hot rods up women’s assholes!”

The villains, true to their nature, were anything but sane.

Every word they spoke made Seomun Ye-jin tremble with disgust and terror at the thought of actually being subjected to such horrors.

If she hadn’t been a mana awakener capable of controlling her body’s functions, she might have already pissed herself in fear.

“I’m warning you: if anyone so much as lays a finger on her and takes her virginity, you’ll taste hell before you die. She’s going to auction as a virgin.”

“Yes, boss.”

“Damn, if I had a trillion won, I’d spend it just to fuck this bitch.”

“A trillion? If we put her on auction, she could easily fetch two trillion.”

“By the time she’s over 20, it could hit three trillion.”

“Unbelievable. That kind of insane price is actually possible?”

“Only if she’s a virgin, though. So be careful. If anyone touches her, even the boss won’t be the only one hunting you down. The rest of us will scream for your blood, too.”

As experienced participants in the slave auctions, they were well aware of Seomun Ye-jin’s value.

The money circulating in slave auctions was beyond imagination.

In particular, female mana awakeners with exceptional beauty were valued even higher because their mana capabilities were enhanced alongside their looks.

The buyers weren’t just mid-level villain organizations like theirs. The real customers were the mega-villain syndicates that ruled the world, dark market tycoons whose combined assets rivaled the budgets of entire nations, and Middle Eastern billionaires.

Women like Seomun Ye-jin, who possessed overwhelming beauty as mana awakeners, were in far greater demand than the general public knew.

The information was deliberately hidden under the guise of human rights and preventing chaos, so ordinary people had no idea why beautiful mana awakeners were such prized targets for villains.

“Hnnngh!”

In this hopeless situation, Seomun Ye-jin was being dragged deep into the mountains.

“This place should do nicely.”

Park Ji-hoon had his subordinates lay out a mat in the clearing. Seomun Ye-jin was then placed on top of it.

Though it seemed clear they had no intention of raping her, her body still trembled with fear as she lay on the mat.

She couldn’t stop worrying about what exactly they planned to do to her here.

“Bring out the virgin detector.”

“Yes, boss!”

One of the villains pulled a small pouch from subspace storage and took out the so-called “virgin detector.”

It was a mana-powered device, commonly used by villains to verify whether women being sold as slaves were virgins or not.

The villain brought the long device close to Seomun Ye-jin’s lower body, checking both the front and back.

“Boss, she’s confirmed to be a virgin. Both front and back are untouched.”

“Good. Take a photo for proof. This will serve as evidence when we put her up for auction.”

“Yes, boss.”

“Hnnngh!”

Seomun Ye-jin writhed and struggled, desperately trying to free herself from the ropes binding her body.

But these restraints, made of special mana-infused material, couldn’t be broken even if she were at full strength. In her current state, with her mana sealed, it was utterly impossible.

***

‘What’s going to happen to me now?’

Seomun Ye-jin sobbed in despair as she thought to herself.

She couldn’t understand how things had ended up like this.

What had she done wrong to deserve this?

No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t find anything she had done to warrant her current situation. It was infuriatingly unfair.

Soon, she would be sold as a slave for an exorbitant price, and imagining what might happen to her afterward was so terrifying that she couldn’t even bear to think about it.

‘Someone, please….’

Desperate for a miracle, Seomun Ye-jin wished with all her heart that someone would come to save her.

Zzzt—

At that moment, deep within the mountains, something strange began to occur.

Both the villains and Seomun Ye-jin were mana awakeners. As such, everyone present could feel the distortion in the flow of mana.

“Boss, what’s that?”

“That’s not a gate! It’s a rift!”

A rift.

A passage leading to an unknown space that would occasionally appear in the world before vanishing without a trace.

Unlike gates that led to dungeons, this phenomenon was entirely different. And now, it was happening here.

And from the gaping rift, a person emerged.

‘A person?’

Seomun Ye-jin was stunned by the sight of someone coming out of the rift.

It was unheard of—nothing, not people or mana, could survive the rift; everything that entered it simply disintegrated.

“Has it been five years?”

The person who appeared was a boy with azure-blue hair and deep crimson eyes, like red gemstones.

Strangely, a black snake was coiled around his shoulders. Judging by his appearance, he seemed to be around the same age as Seomun Ye-jin.

“Hoo~”

The boy inhaled the mountain air deeply, a faint, refreshed smile spreading across his face as he calmly took in the scene before him.

“I didn’t expect this kind of situation to be happening where I came out.”

Seomun Ye-jin could feel his gaze shift toward her.

“What are you?”

“How did you come out of the rift?”

Even the villains seemed stunned by the boy’s appearance. Despite their shock, they kept their guard up, warily watching him.

Even though he appeared to be just a young boy, they weren’t foolish enough to let their guard down.

The mere fact that he had emerged from the rift alive suggested that he was no ordinary being.

“Hey, miss. Looks like you’ve been captured. Want me to save you?”

At the boy’s casual question, Seomun Ye-jin frantically nodded her head.

She couldn’t bear the thought of being dragged away and sold into slavery, where her life would be worse than that of a common sex slave. In fact, the thought of becoming a mere plaything was terrifying enough, but she knew it could end in something far, far worse.

Driven by fear, Seomun Ye-jin nodded desperately, signaling her desire to be saved.

Seeing this, the boy smiled faintly.

“Alright, I’ll save you.”

***

Five years.

It had been five long years since I was trapped in the rift.

To think that the moment I emerged, I’d encounter a situation like this.

‘Villains, huh?’

The bastards giving off that ominous, murderous aura were clearly villains.

One of them even appeared to be SS-Class. How convenient.

— “Seo-jun, are you going to kill them?”

Of course, I was.

Whether they were connected to the villains who tortured me or not didn’t matter. I hated all villains.

I had sworn countless times to kill every villain I came across.

‘And to think I’d run into this here.’

When I opened the rift and stepped out, I never expected to encounter one of the original heroines.

Seomun Ye-jin.

She was the only heroine in the original story who was four years older than the protagonist, Baek Seo-jin. She was also an active Hunter and a renowned hero.

And now, here she was, captured by villains and begging me to save her.

“Alright, I’ll save you,” I said once again.

With a casual motion, I loosened my hands and added,

“…After I kill all of them.”