Happy squinted his eyes. With his D rank in perception, he could see up to eight feet in front of him. The sudden change in lighting could potentially benefit him, but at the cost of the situation no longer being in his control. Happy didn't like this.

Crouching, he slowly scurried forward. He took careful caution in staying as silent as possible, the advantage of knowing the locations of the angry girl and the monster had disappeared along with the light. As he got closer to the opposite end of the lobby, his ears picked up the faint sound of the girl's breathing. It was ragged and uneven, a sure sign that she was exhausted. Just as Happy was about to consider his next move, the sound of electricity was followed by a faint light from the hallway he had came from.

That hallway's lights were shattered before... are the lights regenerating?

Happy could work with this. If he wanted to play it safe, he could wait until the lights went back on in the lobby and let the two fight each other to the death while he ran away and escaped. However, there was another option that was quite riskier, but with a far greater reward. The boy made up his mind. In his past life, he always played high stakes.

Happy swerved towards a different direction, creeping right past the angry girl. He kept going until he saw a corpse standing eerily still in the corner of his eye. Turning around, he observed the condition of the monster. The body it was possessing had definetly seen better days. Both of its hands were mangled and its left arm was twisted in an unnatural angle. It seemed it had also taken a hammer right to the face, the corpse's nose was shattered and the lips had popped entirely like an overflated balloon. Despite all the damage, the Possessor stood oddly still, unmoving and unblinking.

Ah right. It's blind in the dark...

Happy slowly raised himself up and approached the monster quitely.

"...It's me... the human you made a deal with," Happy whispered in an extremely hushed voice. Almost instantaneously, the corpse's head twisted at an unnatural speed. The dead face now stared in the general direction of the boy's voice with a furious scowl.

"... keep looking in this direction. The last girl is standing right ahead."

The monster jerked it's head forward which Happy presumed was a sign of agreement.

The boy then crawled behind an overturned sofa, he had around forty seconds until the lights returned. He stealthily walked around fifty more steps until he saw the angry girl once more.

"... It's me. Matthew."

Happy shifted his tone higher up and made his voice a little nasally, trying his best to mimic the dead boy's voice. The angry girl turned and looked around, her eyes shaking frantically. Her small body shuddered as she hyperventilated, gasping for air. The girl was in an extremely bad condition, her sense of judgement and perception were probably both impaired as well.

"M-Matthew? How are you still...a-alive?"

Happy grinned, it seemed his gamble had worked.

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"Listen... we don't have much time. The monster possessed a different body ... so now I'm free. I'll watch out for the monster from this side," Happy pointed away from the Possessor's view, "...and you can watch my back from that side."

Happy pointed in the direction where the monster was looking.

"G-got it..."

The naive girl shook her head in agreement. Happy shut his eyes as the two took their stances, the shard of glass clenched in his right hand.

It should be right about...now.

THUMP

As soon as the overhead lights flickered on, Happy heard the sound of a corpse dropping onto the floor and a muffled gasp. Giving no chance for the Possessor to even take a single step in its new body, the boy spun around and lunged, tackling the monster to the ground. Bringing the shard of glass high above his head, he slammed it down into what he assumed was the body's cranium. Stumbling to his feet, Happy lifted his right foot up and stomped on the piece of glass embedded inside the monster's head, pushing it further into it's squishy brain. He lifted his shoe again, bringing down another devastating blow to it's skull.

"... we just...wanted... to escape..."

Happy kept stomping, keeping his eyes closed tightly. He couldn't tell if it was the monster who was speaking, or if it was the angry girl. In the end, it didn't really matter.

"...Did you forget?"

Happy whispered, his knuckles clasped together. He swung downwards in a devastating arc, the blow connected.

CRACK

The body's skull opened like a bloody watermelon.

"I have always been a killer."

[Isabella Kamo (NPC) has been slain.]

[The Possessor (MONSTER) has been slain.]

[POTENTIAL ABILITY UNLOCKED]

Happy only opened his eyes until the notifications appeared. He wiped the sweat that had formed on his brow and placed his palms on his knees, trying to regain his breath.

[ABILITY: MASTERMIND (RANK: S)]

[CLAIM ?]

The boy's golden eyes shined as he saw the S ranked ability. He slowly raised his hand and clicked the claim button.

[TUTORIAL COMPLETE]

[TRANSFERRING TO: MAIN SERVER]

Happy's vision grew dim until it faded into black. When the darkness dissapeared, the boy now found himself in a simple, antique theater. Confused, he made his way to one of the seats in the middle of the theater. All the chairs were a little worn, some of them leaking stuffing. As he took his seat, he observed the bright screen at the front of the room. It was playing a movie of him in the school. As the reel spun, he witnessed his feats, each frame etching itself into the recesses of his fractured mind.

[THE ORIGIN STORY OF HAPPY SINCLAIR]

The moment came, frozen in time, when Happy Sinclair tore asunder the very essence of his nemesis, the Possessor. The boy's eyes gleamed with a primal hunger, a hunger born a lifetime of torment and anguish. As he devoured the heart of the monster, a seed was planted inside the boy—a seed of malevolence that would soon blossom into an insatiable thirst for power.

As Happy gorged on the bloody organ, a revelation pierced the veil of his fractured psyche. He understood now, the true nature of existence. For in the heart of darkness lies the key to absolute dominion, and he would stop at nothing to claim it.

Thus, from the ashes of despair arose Constantine, a harbinger of chaos and destruction. His purpose was clear—to shatter the illusions of order and forge a new reality in the crucible of his own design.

Armed with the knowledge of his newfound identity, Constantine ventured forth into the neon-lit abyss, his laughter echoing through the empty streets. For in the end, it was not the hero who defined the course of history, but the villain who dared to defy it.

[THE VILLIAN CONSTANTINE HAS BEEN BORN]

Happy scratched his head as he watched the overdramatic origin story.

I never ate the monster's heart...?

As the film ended, Happy's vision darkened once more.

[WELCOME TO STAR CITY!]