She had begged him to save her, but the scene unfolding before her was utterly shocking.

The SS-Class villain, Park Ji-hoon, had lost all of his pride, groveling for his life like a pathetic worm. And the overwhelming power that had forced him into this state—

It was so one-sided and brutal that anyone watching might have been confused about who the real villain was.

The most surprising part was the boy’s age. He looked no older than herself, yet he possessed such unfathomable strength.

“Did you spare the people you talked to like that?”

Baek Seo-jun’s icy gaze fell on Park Ji-hoon as he asked the question.

“Y-Yes, of course!”

Park Ji-hoon blurted out a lie without hesitation. Even Seomun Ye-jin frowned at his shamelessness.

Just moments ago, he had been talking about selling her as a slave, and now here he was, pathetically begging for his life while pretending to be some pitiful figure.

“That’s a lie.”

Baek Seo-jun looked down at him with a chilling expression.

“As expected, there’s no such thing as redemption for a villain. You can die and serve as nourishment.”

“W-Wait, plea—”

Before Park Ji-hoon could finish begging again, his body vanished without a trace.

The black energy emanating from the tendrils that had pierced his body consumed him entirely, leaving nothing behind.

But Park Ji-hoon, being an SS-Class villain, had a soul of considerable caliber.

[AAAAAAHHHH!]

A shrill wail echoed through the forest.

It was the desperate scream of his soul. Because Park Ji-hoon’s soul was of such a high quality, his death cry resonated clearly in the ears of the living.

— “The energy content is decent. As a harvest on a global scale, it’s small, but if there are enough of these guys, the overall yield wouldn’t be bad.”

At Ramisa’s comment, Baek Seo-jun nodded slightly.

“You’re not wrong.”

But collecting energy like this wasn’t the ultimate solution.

His true advantage lay in growth.

It wasn’t just about absorbing power to grow stronger. The most important thing was his ability to develop his strength on his own.

It wasn’t just about revenge.

An even greater threat than Ramisa, The Black Serpent That Devours the World, the original story’s final boss, was approaching this world.

The fact that he now possessed the power of Ramisa was because of this impending threat.

‘To stop it, I need to expand my influence.’

Of course, the grandiose reason of saving the world took a back seat. His emotions—his overwhelming desire for revenge—were what drove him forward.

It was that thirst for vengeance that had brought him back from the rift into this world.

***

Seomun Ye-jin watched the boy approaching her.

“Miss, are you okay? Can you stand up?”

The boy approached her and effortlessly cut through the ropes and mana restraints that had bound her, setting her free.

With her sealed mana now released, Seomun Ye-jin felt a refreshing sense of liberation as she stood up.

Her senses, dulled while her mana was blocked, reawakened, alleviating the suffocating feeling that had weighed on her.

“Yes. Thank you… for saving me.”

Seomun Ye-jin bowed her head slightly to thank the boy in front of her.

His methods for killing the villains had been brutal, but he didn’t seem like a bad person.

Perhaps it was because she had been a direct victim of those villains, but to her, this boy was a savior.

“Good. It doesn’t look like you’re hurt.”

“No! Oh, um, may I introduce myself? I’m Seomun Ye-jin, and I’m 15 years old.”

“We’re the same age. My name is Baek Seo-jun, also 15.”

“Oh! You’re the same age as me!”

Seomun Ye-jin’s eyes sparkled as she realized they were the same age.

Thinking that the mysterious boy who had saved her was the same age as herself somehow made him feel less distant.

The reason she had initially felt a sense of distance wasn’t because of his particularly striking appearance—it was his mature aura.

His strength, his identity—she was curious about those things. But she decided not to pry.

She wouldn’t ask how someone her age could be so strong or how he had emerged from a rift.

She only wanted to confirm two things.

“Do you happen to have a phone number?”

“No, I don’t. I’ll need to get a new phone.”

The first was his contact information, but she couldn’t get that.

“I see… I don’t have anything with me either.”

Normally, she carried business cards.

Since she had done some modeling work, people recognized her at times, and various agencies had approached her with cards for potential casting or jobs.

She wasn’t interested in being a celebrity, but sometimes she shared her card when she wanted to take on a modeling gig.

However, in the situation where she had been kidnapped by villains, there was no way she could’ve grabbed her phone, wallet, or cards.

Her intention had been to add her contact information to Baek Seo-jun’s phone.

“Then… do you have a place to stay?”

The next thing she asked about was his residence.

“A place to stay, huh?”

Baek Seo-jun closed his eyes briefly at her question, as if recalling something.

His expression darkened slightly, as though he were remembering a particularly terrible, unpleasant moment.

“No, not anymore.”

Hearing his response, Seomun Ye-jin asked cautiously.

“‘Not anymore’… Did I ask something inappropriate?”

She worried that perhaps his family had been killed by villains, that she had unknowingly touched on a painful past.

Feeling anxious that she might have overstepped, Seomun Ye-jin’s concern only deepened when Baek Seo-jun smirked slightly.

“You worry too much, miss. Don’t worry—it’s nothing. My ‘family’ is alive and well, I’m sure. After all, they sold me to villains to save their own necks.”

“Huh?”

The words that followed went beyond anything she could have imagined.

But Seomun Ye-jin didn’t have the nerve to ask what he meant.

Her assumption that he had simply lost his family to villains suddenly seemed like an innocent, naive thought. The reality he spoke of was far grimmer.

“So… you don’t have a place to stay, right?”

“Yeah.”

Seomun Ye-jin quickly changed the topic, trying to lighten the mood.

Such a heavy subject was too much for a 15-year-old like herself to handle.

So the new topic she brought up was Baek Seo-jun’s living arrangements.

“Uh, well… if you don’t have anywhere to go, how about staying at my place? I live alone, so there’s no one else at home!”

In truth, Seomun Ye-jin’s family situation wasn’t great either.

Her parents had died in an accident, and she had been raised with the help of her grandmother.

But since she didn’t live with her grandmother, she had been living alone in her house.

“Miss, are you suggesting we live together?”

Baek Seo-jun looked at her as if she were saying something absurd, and Seomun Ye-jin felt her chest tighten with embarrassment.

A wave of belated shame crashed over her.

“Ugh! T-That’s not what I meant…! Wait. No, I guess that’s exactly what I meant. No, um… just think of it as boarding! Boarding!”

Stumbling over her words, Seomun Ye-jin finally managed to calm herself and clarify.

This wasn’t cohabitation—it was simply boarding.

“There are plenty of empty rooms in my house. You can just stay comfortably. How does that sound? Isn’t it a good deal?”

Baek Seo-jun folded his arms and looked like he was considering it.

For some reason, Seomun Ye-jin felt nervous, even though she couldn’t understand why. To her, this was merely an attempt to repay him for saving her life.

“How much is the rent?”

When Baek Seo-jun asked about the rent, Seomun Ye-jin shook her head vigorously.

“There’s no rent! I won’t take any! You saved me, so you can stay for free!”

“Hmm. Sounds like you’re saying, ‘You saved me, so here’s my house.’”

Hearing his slightly cynical words, Seomun Ye-jin puffed her cheeks in mild frustration.

“It’s not like that… I really mean it as a thank you.”

She then pointed to the black snake coiled around Baek Seo-jun’s shoulder and added,

“Besides, with that snake of yours, you’d probably need to register it as a pet. But that doesn’t look like an ordinary snake, so it’ll probably be difficult. Finding a house that allows pets and doesn’t charge rent would be hard, too. Staying with me would be easier.”

Baek Seo-jun stroked the black snake on his shoulder and replied,

“You have a point.”

“Not that it’s unsolvable,” he muttered under his breath before looking back at Seomun Ye-jin.

“Alright, I’ll take you up on your offer, miss.”

“Yes! Oh, um, about the villains you defeated here… There aren’t any bodies left, so it’ll be hard to collect the bounty. Do you want me to testify as a witness?”

“No, it’s fine. I don’t plan on reporting this.”

At Seomun Ye-jin’s suggestion, Baek Seo-jun shook his head with a faintly cold expression.

The sudden shift in his demeanor sent a chill through Seomun Ye-jin, making her flinch slightly.

Baek Seo-jun spoke in a cold tone,

“For now, I’d rather my existence remain unnoticed. There are people who would make things difficult if they found out.”

***

‘I can’t afford to have my existence discovered yet.’

Baek Seo-jun remembered it clearly.

The SSS-Class villain, So Kang-seok.

He had recorded the events of that day, and Baek Seo-jun had never forgotten it for a single moment.

He absolutely needed to secure that recording.

‘Still… this girl. Even if I saved her, how can she just invite someone like me into her house? Doesn’t she have any sense of caution?’