"I met that person... About eight months ago."

Kim JaeHyun began talking.

KangWoo leaned on the chair and listened carefully.

"You're talking about the person who was wearing a red mask. Right?"

"Yes."

"You don't know who that person is?"

Kim JaeHyun nodded with a heavy expression on his face. He didn't seem to be lying.

'So even Kim JaeHyun doesn't know who that man is?'

The information he wanted to know the most had disappeared.

"Keep talking."

"When I met him eight months ago, I received a proposal. He said that as long as I can provide offerings necessary for the ceremony, they'd turn me into a demon."

"You accepted that...?"

Chae YeonJoo looked at him in disbelief.

To provide them with living offerings.

It was something so crazy that it could make him lose everything he had achieved until then.

Why did someone like him want to become a demon?

"Hng. You can say that because you don't know about the beings called demons."

"What do you mean..."

"Demons have eternal life. As long as their neck isn't cut or their heart explodes, they can live forever without getting old."

Eternal life…

Someone who doesn't die…

As long as you're born as a mortal, it was probably an offer one couldn't resist.

In the end, even those who were richer than rich died.

Maybe it was understandable for someone like Kim JaeHyun, someone who had a lot of money and influence, to want to live forever.

"Oof, eternal life?"

"Yes."

"How do you know that?"

"Because they've been alive for thousands of years."

"What...?"

It wasn't just Chae YeonJoo who was surprised by that.

KangWoo, who had been silently listening, opened his mouth.

"The Demon Cult is more than a thousand years old?"

Players had started to appear on Earth five years before then.

So KangWoo had thought that the Demon Cult had appeared after that day.

Kim JaeHyun nodded with a heavy expression.

"They were present here a thousand… No, even for a longer time than that. They were silently and secretly growing in size. Of course, they started to move actively only a few years ago."

"Hmm."

KangWoo frowned.

If they'd been present for such a long time, it would probably be hard to wipe them out.

"Then... You began providing them players as offerings with the goal of eternal life?"

"Yes."

"You crazy bastard."

Chae YeonJoo looked at him in disgust.

"Did you want eternal life so badly that you were even willing to commit such hideous acts? Do you think a human could maintain their mind while living for thousands of years?"

There were lots of novels and manhwas where eternal life appeared…

But the result was always a catastrophe.

She thought a human would lose its mind if they lived for such a long time.

Kim JaeHyun laughed at those words.

"That's because you don't know about the body of a demon. The body of a demon preserves the mind and increases your desire and lust."

"What do you mean..."

"You can't get bored of life. You can have a young man's mind with the body of a human eternally. Isn't that the best?"

"Don't say bullshit. There's no way that's possible..."

"It is. Do you think I'd risk everything if it weren't?"

"..."

Chae YeonJoo shut her mouth.

She knew that Kim JaeHyun wasn't stupid.

'If it's as he says...'

It would be understandable why they'd so easily gained that much power and influence.

The reward was something hard for a human to resist.

"Bullshit."

"KangWoo...?"

KangWoo mumbled in a low tone.

Chae YeonJoo looked at him, surprised by his tone from which she could sense an intense killing intent.

"Do you think having a desire and lust you can never fulfill is something nice?"

KangWoo looked at him with sharp eyes.

There was no limit to one's desires.

Even people—if they had two, they wanted to have three.

A demon's desire had no comparison to a human's.

Unfulfilled desires made you thirst, and that thirst was hard to understand for someone who had never experienced it.

* * *

It was comparable to eternally wandering around the desert in search of water.

It was like trying to breathe somewhere with no oxygen.

It was a pain that couldn't be compared to anything else.

While feeling such pain, KangWoo had learned a way to control his desires.

Despite that, he wasn't able to control it completely.

Even though he'd live for ten thousand years…

Even though he had devoured Hell's seven archdukes…

'You're the one who doesn't know anything about demons.'

KangWoo stopped himself from saying anything else.

Things could get bothersome if he talked as if he understood and knew about demons.

"Well, I understand why you did that. Say something else."

KangWoo forcibly changed the topic of the conversation.

He felt he would throw up if he kept listening to the previous topic.

"Ugh..."

Just looking at KangWoo made Kim JaeHyun angry. He bit his lip to calm down.

"After hearing their proposal, I offered them offerings and made a few guild members receive demonic energy through the ceremony."

"Demonic energy? Is it similar to mana?"

"It's the power of Hell. It's similar to mana but fundamentally different."

"Hmm... So do you also have demonic energy?"

"No. I haven't accepted it yet."

"Why? Didn't you make a deal with the Demon Cult to get that?"

"Yes. But if you carelessly accept demonic energy and can't control that desire, rather than a demon, you could become an existence closer to a monster."

"Just accepting demonic energy can transform a human?"

"Yes. They said that, to become a demon while maintaining your consciousness, there had to be more preparations."

"Then why did you make your guild members accept it? You said that it could make them transform into monsters."

"You can obtain a lot of strength. The guild members are nothing more than soldiers. As long as they can fight, it doesn't matter if they're human or monster."

"You crazy bastard."

Chae YeonJoo frowned.

He made her sick.

After hearing his explanation, she began feeling that KangWoo had been too soft with him.

"Then what's the summoning ceremony about? What are they trying to summon?"

"A demon..."

"A demon?"

KangWoo looked at him with narrow eyes. Kim JaeHyun nodded and kept talking.

"I don't know the exact details, but I'm sure that they're trying to summon a demon."

"The Demon Cult's goal is to summon demons?"

"I'm also not sure about that, but what I do know is that they're obsessed with summoning a demon."

"Hmm..."

KangWoo nodded.

Since their name was 'Demon Cult', it would've been weird if they weren't trying to summon a demon.

'It's not like I devoured every demon.'

KangWoo had devoured tens of thousands of demons…

But it wasn't like he'd managed to devour every single one of them.

The Hell of Nine Skies was incredibly big.

Even though KangWoo had lived for ten thousand years in Hell, there were places he'd never been to and even demons he'd never met.

KangWoo had always fought to survive, and he hadn't eaten demons that hadn't done anything to him.

'I'm not sure what rank of demon they're trying to summon...'

If they managed to summon a demon that belonged to the 7th or a higher hell, KangWoo would probably struggle because of his current strength.

"Did they successfully summon a demon before?"

It was an organization that had been on Earth for more than a thousand years.

There was a chance they'd successfully managed to do it before.

"I'm not sure, but they said that this was the first try in Korea."

"This is the first try?"

"They said that, recently, the dimensional wall has gotten weaker—that was about a month ago. They said that, because it had gotten weaker, it would be possible to summon a demon."

"..."

KangWoo's expression hardened.

After hearing that the dimensional wall had weakened, he naturally remembered the Gaia System.

The time he said that the dimension wall had weakened and when KangWoo had returned to Earth was similar.

'So...'

Because the Gaia System had gotten weaker, they'd begun moving more actively.

'So it's all my fault.'

KangWoo frowned.

Based on the information he had, he could conclude that he was the reason why the dimensional wall had weakened.

"Is the dimensional wall still in a weakened state?"

"They said that it's getting even weaker."

"Fuck."

Not only was it not repairing itself, but the situation was also worsening.

'If things keep going on like this... Won't Earth get invaded by demons and demonic monsters?'

It wasn't just Hell.

There was also the chance that beings like Reinald from the Ernor Continent would go there.

'Maybe there are even more dimensions besides Hell and the Ernor Continent.'

It was clear that the situation was worsening.

The problem was that there was no way to solve that situation.

'Did I really fuck things up this badly?'

It was as if the atmosphere of Earth had disappeared and asteroids were coming their way.

Not only that, but he wasn't sure what would happen if the Gaia System completely disappeared.

"Oof..."

KangWoo took a deep breath.

He felt his head clearing up a bit.

'Let's concentrate on what I can do right now.'

It wasn't like he would get an answer by thinking about the Gaia System.

What he could do for the moment was try to mess up the Demon Cult's plan and figure out who they were.

"Do you know where the red mask-wearing man is? Or the base of the Demon Cult that's in Korea."

"I know... But by now, they've probably moved to another place."

"Another place?"

Kim JaeHyun nodded.

"They're probably preparing for the ceremony."

"Wasn't it that they needed more offerings...?"

"Well. That isn't a piece of information I have."

"Wait. The information doesn't add up. Weren't you guys providing the offerings?"

If they had enough offerings, there was no reason for Kim YeongHoon to target Kim ShiHoon.

It was weird for them not to know whether there were enough offerings or not.

Kim JaeHyun smirked.

"That's because we're paid based on our performance."

"Damn..."

KangWoo frowned.

KangWoo understood what those words meant.

Chae YeonJoo tilted her head.

"What does he mean?"

KangWoo clearly and concisely answered her question.

"It means that more than one big guild is collaborating with the Demon Cult."