“Are you a half-man with some kind of deception skill card?” I ask.

He’s dying, but he could last long enough to talk.

He spits blood and struggles to speak. “You... shameless brat.”

“Hey, hey. Answer my question, shithead.”

He raises both arms high. “I’ll take you down with me!”

He’s about to bring them down on my head, but suddenly, he stops, frozen as if hit by something shocking.

Visions explode in his mind. I used Mind-Projection to blast him with memories—my memories—of brutally slaughtering the half-men in the jungle.

“Tell me what I want to know, and I’ll heal your fatal wounds,” I say.

His mouth trembles. “I’m not a half-man... I just work for the organization.”

“What do you all do?”

“We collect the bodies…”

“Why?”

“We...”

His entire body turns rigid, like stone, confusing me. Then, he starts gurgling on his own blood as his stone-like flesh begins to swell—and then, he explodes.

The explosion is like a grenade going off. Stone-flesh fragments burst out, piercing walls, ceilings, and the ground like shrapnel.

But I’m only mildly hurt. My clothes, especially around my stomach, are shredded. I’m bleeding, and some stone shards are embedded in my skin, but that’s mainly it.

Still, I should deal with this situation. And not by myself.

Maybe that’s why the woman’s expression changed when she learned our levels. We’re not prey.

I step out onto the veranda. The other men standing at their doors look at me with concerned expressions.

“Lumine!” Hessien shouts, his voice tinged with anger and disappointment.

The woman beside him looks equally unhappy. They must have heard the explosion.

Then Hessien notices my slightly wounded state. “Wait, what the hell happened?”

“This whorehouse is a scam. They’re luring people here to kill them. Don’t kill that lady—she probably has important information.”

The woman shakes her head furiously. “H-have your friend gone mad? We wouldn’t do such a thing!”

While she runs her mouth, I glance at the men on the same floor. At the end of each of my fingers is a small fireball.

I’m wondering if I should kill them.

I say, “Whoever didn’t know about the murders happening here, raise your hands.”

All sixteen men shoot their arms up.

“I—I’m new here!”

“I didn’t know anything about murders!”

“Y-yeah, first time hearing this too!”

“I swear, I wouldn’t get involved in something so sick!”

Then I notice one door is closed.

“You,” I point at a muscular blond man, “open that door.”

He hesitates but obeys, anxiety etched into his face as he grabs the handle and slowly opens it.

“Hey, hey, what the fuck, man?!” a voice yells from inside. “Close the fucking door!”

The blond guy winces, trying to sound polite. “Calm down… You gotta… Um, stop for a bit. There’s an emergency.”

“Fuck off! Jealous bastard. You’re just mad you’re not getting a bonus this month.”

Blondie sweats even more. “Come on… let’s just cool it.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Heavy footsteps approach the door. “Hell no!” A skinny guy with messy brown hair storms out, pointing angrily at the blond man.

His hands are stained with blood. “Last month, I asked for a spare brain to make my quota. I didn’t get shit!”

“Brains?” I ask.

All the men, excluding the angry one, are stunned and start babbling excuses.

“N-not literally. It’s a metaphor—”

“Y-yeah.”

“As in, like, cool… points for hot women…?”

The angry guy glances at me, then sneers. “Who the fuck are you?”

“Is the person in that room alive?” I’ll figure out what he meant by ‘brains’ later.

He looks even more pissed, glaring at the fireballs at my fingertips like they’re a cheap party trick. “Bitch, I asked who the fuck—”

Four fire bullets are shot, burning through his head in an instant.

He doesn’t get to talk anymore. He collapses, lifeless.

The rest panic—some run, some summon their skills to fight back, and others beg, claiming innocence.

But none of them are innocent.

Screams erupt from the other floors. Some are abandoning ship, fleeing. But I make short work of everyone with Time Freeze.

There’s no fear of them tagging me when I turn off Time Freeze to kill them. They’re all just level 16 to 19.

By the time I’m done, I’ve reached level 30. But that’s not what matters. I searched every room during frozen time to check for survivors.

There’s only one.

She’s in the room where the angry guy came from. It’s a mess. The white bed is broken and soaked with blood. Cracks mar the walls. Looks like she put up quite a fight when she realized what was about to happen.

I’m staring at her now. She has brown-reddish hair and a skinny frame, like she’s been starving.

She’s lying on the ground, in a pool of blood leaking from a wound in her stomach.

I have no idea how long my Time Freeze lasts, but I probably shouldn’t push my luck.

I unfreeze time, then isolate the effect to her alone. I pick up her body. I’m relieved that I, and I alone, can reposition things I’ve locked in time.

I walk over to the others.

Vacinay mutters, “That Time Freeze is seriously scary. One moment, people are running for their lives, and the next, they’re all dead and there’s blood everywhere.”

I hand the woman over to her and release the freeze. “And you still wanted to fight me?”

“And I’d win,” she replies calmly, taking the lady from my arms.

“I already told you how I’d kick your ass.”

“You act like we can’t gain skill cards to counter other skill cards.”

“...We should be using our precious points to coordinate and kill enemies, not for one-upping each other!” I snap.

Vacinay just shrugs. “Who knows when you might get mind-controlled.”

“Just… heal the lady, please.”

“I’m trying.” Vacinay’s hand is pressed against the woman’s stomach, but I notice something’s off.

“Why isn’t the wound closing?” I ask, confused.

“Yeah… I don’t think my Self-Repair is working on her.”

“But it worked on Hessien!”

Ghomas chimes in thoughtfully, “Maybe it’s because she views Hessien as part of her? If she doesn’t know this woman, her skill can’t see her as an extension of Vacinay, so Self-Repair can’t be tricked into healing her.”

Honestly… that doesn’t sound insane. I glance at Vacinay. “Is that true?”

“Hm… yeah, probably. Makes me wonder if my Self-Repair would even work on you guys.”

I take the woman back and freeze her in time again. “We can figure that out later. Right now, we need a hospital.”

Hessien asks, “And what about Miss Pimp? Just hand her over to some random guards to figure out what’s going on here?”

“P-pimp?!” The woman’s face twists in disgust. “You damn ingrates, you have no idea what you’re doing!”

Hessien grabs her by the shirt, lifting her off the ground. “Then tell us.”

“And what, so you can kill me the moment I give you what you want?”

She has a point. I step forward. “Let me help you with that. Tell us.”

I use Mind Projection, but instead of pushing my memories into her, I try to pull hers into my mind—

My thoughts go blank, and suddenly, I feel… distant from everything.

This—this isn’t how the skill’s supposed to work. What’s happening?

The she-pimp—smiles. I hear her thoughts echoing in my mind. “You shouldn’t have done that. Stupid little girl.”

Then, a crushing pressure closes in around my head.

Vacinay’s voice breaks through the haze. “Hey, you okay?”

I want to respond—want to say no—but I can’t even open my mouth.

What the hell?!

I feel like I can move, but my body isn’t listening to me. I’m screaming at myself to move, but nothing happens.

Hessien notices something’s wrong and moves toward me, but Vacinay stops him. “That bitch is probably behind this. Keep an eye on her, I’ll try to help Lumine.”

“How?!”

I want to touch my face, my throat, anything, but my body is shaking uncontrollably. The only thing I can move are my eyes.

Vacinay grabs my shoulders. Her head morphs into the giant maw of a tiger, and she bites through my throat.

Oh… that’s smart.

“P-pimp?!” the woman cries out, like she’s been called a slur. “You damn ingrates, you have no idea what you’re doing!”

I reach up and touch my neck, then open my mouth. It’s weird. But… I’m back. I’m in control again.

“Ah…” I make a small sound. I can talk.

I exhale in relief. I’m free.

I turn to confront the pimp, ready to say I know about her mind control, but she makes eye contact with me.

And suddenly, my heart is hammering, my throat drying up.

“Have I conquered your mind before?” she asks.

“W-what are you talking about?” I manage.

Hessien narrows his eyes. “Is she trying to scare us?”

“A lame attempt,” Ghomas scoffs.

The pimp’s gaze never leaves me. “So we have. And yet… you came back to me?” She looks surprised, then delighted. “I’m happy.”

A strange feeling wraps around my heart. Fear.

“Let’s kill her,” I say, my voice tight.

Hessien frowns. “What? No, we need information from her.”

“She’s dangerous. We have to kill her now!” I can feel my body heating up, flames slowly licking my skin.

The woman just smiles, and it makes me sick.

I shout, “What’s so fucking funny?! I thought you wanted to live—now this is funny to you?!”

“Lumine, calm down. She’s probably using some kind of emotion skill to mess with you,” Hessien says, trying to keep me steady.

I want to explain what happened, but I can’t. I don’t want her to know why I’m scared. And I can’t project my thoughts while she’s here.

She then says softly, “When I get in your head this time, I’ll make it worse. I promise you that.”

Why? Why is she so confident this time?!