Ming Jun's eyes opened uncontrollably.
His body twitched, and his red eyes were sinister.
His chubby face morphed into an evil expression.
He rose from the ground and stretched his muscles.
The fat on his body jiggled with the movement.
But it did not stop there—the skin squirmed and stretched or compressed randomly.
His figure became distorted, and then he took a step.
The symbols drawn on his body were still present as his body deformed.
The bulk of the fat and inner layer moved up and then went down.
His steps were steady, but his body was dishonest.
Sometimes the skin would drag, or his eyeball would pop out.
Then Ming Jun would use a hand to push it back in, while the skin on that hand aged and wrinkled.
The malformations grew worse as thin lines appeared.
Blood trailed down those lines like spilled ink.
That slit grew wider until it opened into a gaping maw the length of a finger.
The muscles would spill out along with the blood, like there was something inside trying to push its way out.
But it couldn't—not as long as the actual parts of his body, bulging like someone had placed a ball inside him, were still present.
Ming Jun's body became an oddity.
The shape and size were the same as before, but the proportions were unique in a disgusting way.
Namely, there are three different types of monsters.
The first group of monsters belong to the type who have sharp razor teeth and claws—hideous, hard, scaly skin.
Each part of their body is a representation of danger.
A single slash or barely grazing it could lead to death or an injury close to it.
Monsters that look like they could kill, lacking the rationality to dissuade, constantly set off alarm bells.
And the second type of monster is what Ming Jun had turned into.
A monster so disgusting that not even a human could ever imagine it.
It evoked a sort of primal fear because it goes beyond what your body and senses could tolerate.
The degree of danger it brought could look negligible on the outside, but the degree of contamination and attack on the mentality is far worse than a physical one.
See, at least a person could be stimulated by the fear of death to fight against the first group of monsters.
But a person faced with a hideous monstrosity instantly loses in terms of psychological battle.
And once you can't even think—even an instinctual thought gets buried—then the battle is over with a crushing sense of victory.
All that's left of that person is fear.
Fear of death, surely—but it's more than that.
The fear of fighting against the monster then becomes all that's left.
And death feels like a release—just as long as you don't have to face that thing again.
The third group of monsters is the foundation upon which Ming Jun's new hideous body was formed.
Monsters in human skin.
The major reason why this is the most terrifying type of monster is because of the transition—when the known becomes unknown.
The concept of the unknown would always cause fear in humans.
That is why anyone who looks too different is only received with fear or discrimination.
Or people with strange and unique abilities that have never been seen before.
It all comes down to the fact that human pride can't accept that there is something so beyond their reach that they can't even grasp it at its basis.
That pride is instinctual and exists in every human.
Maybe that is the reason why, when a human reveals such a dangerous unknown part of themselves, it only elicits panic.
Human hearts are deep and diverse.
Human hearts are scary and have a lot of layers—layers that those people might not even be able to completely peel off in a lifetime.
Those humans whose layers only reveal darkness and danger, turning them into monsters despite looking the same, are truly monsters.
So the mere sight of Ming Jun, who was so ambitious as to mix the two, evoked only one reaction—vomiting.
Then a mix of disgust and fear.
The first person to see this was, of course, Park Haeun.
The two who were heading in the same direction but on mirror sides—one person coming up and the other going down—crossed paths.
One looked on with a hideous expression on his face, filled with pus and bumps.
The other person took one look and vomited.
Park Haeun heaved until the discomfort passed, and she wiped her lips.
Her mind kept replaying that disgusting figure, and the nausea slowly built up again.
But she forced herself to look away while rushing back.
Ming Jun, who was taken over, sneered and stomped after her.
The lump that was formerly his leg bulged, and his speed increased until he was almost a blur.
Park Haeun, whose eyes were a bloodthirsty red, didn't dare glance back.
She threw three tiny metal balls in the direction of the sound of a body moving fast enough to split the wind.
The bombs went off with a boom, causing an explosion the size of a mansion.
A blue magnetic shield that shimmered in the light with sparks of electricity surrounded Park Haeun as she came out of the dust cloud.
Her stride never slowed because of the silence that lasted for the span of a minute.
Which was the correct decision, as another figure burst out.
It was a round, fleshy ball the size of a human.
The flesh, which was burnt, squirmed and fell off—revealing an unharmed Ming Jun still running toward her.
But that one minute was enough for Park Haeun.
After all, it takes her only a minute to set all her parameters and give a mental command to her weapon bot.
Three metal robots modeled after female mannequins rushed over from a car parked close by.
They wore combat uniforms and had no facial features.
They reached the battle just as Ming Jun stretched out a hand to touch Park Haeun.
She rolled away, and a robot replaced her position, already slashing with a long blade.
Another aimed the gun in its hand at Ming Jun and let out continuous shots.
The third took a kneeling position, holding a huge metal rectangular gun with a very wide mouth and only one long stick as its trigger.
It shifted the weapon as the battle advanced, seemingly waiting for an opportunity.
Ming Jun fought with everything he had—literally.
When he wanted to punch, he would distribute everything in his arm and layer it around his fist until the only thing connecting his hand and shoulder was bone.
The punch was heavy, and the injuries were not important.
Instead of flowing out, the blood that dripped from having his hand cross the blade would turn into tentacles that tried to wrap around the robot.
The robot with the blade ignored the blood tentacles.
That was because robot number 2, with the gun, would accurately shoot a bullet and break off those tentacles—giving robot number 1 freedom to attack.
The two went back and forth with Ming Jun using his body to either block or punch.
Robot number 1 would slash at him with its blade.
Robot number 2 would take care of the tentacles made of blood while applying pressure to Ming Jun's body.
The ground, stained with ash from Jae-Hyun's battle, was now added a touch of red.
Not only from Ming Jun's blood but also flesh, muscle, and slices of organs chipped away.
The two robots with endless energy eventually wore Ming Jun down—if one looked from the outside.
His body was chipped away until there was only blood and strands of muscle clinging to his visible skeleton.
The organs in his body spilled out in different places.
It looked like he was at the end of his rope.
Yet Park Haeun wasn't deceived.
She, who was recovering her breath and watching the battle with palpitations and clenched fingers, was scared.
Scared because even with barely anything left hanging onto his skeleton, his figure was still grotesque.
The parts of his body squirmed even as they fell off, so that he didn't look ravaged—but hideous.
And most importantly, it was his smile.
That smile, bursting with madness, was somehow etched on his face.
Even with his skin peeled off and only the muscles barely hanging on, the bones of his face were stretched unnaturally to fully show that mad smile.
Park Haeun shivered and quickly pressed a few buttons on the screen displayed on her arm.
Her control unit was embedded in her body, and the screen could appear on any part of her body depending on her desire.
After issuing a command, a drone flew out of the car she took to come here.
She was cautious after the death of Kang Jiyeon and brought her strongest robot combination, along with the weapons paired with the robots and a drone.
The same silent drone flew without making a sound and hovered over the battle high in the sky.
A red light blinked from the lens below it, attached to a camera-shaped build.
Park Haeun ensured the stability of the drone as it recorded.
Her gaze was distracted by the sound of a heavy cannon.
Robot number 3, which had been silent all along, finally made a move.
With a flick of the trigger, a hot round beam shot out of the gun and directly collided with Ming Jun, who had jumped back to create some distance.
His figure was covered with light, and only the sound of his laughter could be heard.
Park Haeun found that laughter creepy.
Robot number 3 blasted him for a full minute before the beam stopped.
There was no figure where Ming Jun stood—only a mass of blood, flesh, and organs all mixed into a mushy paste the height of a basketball.
Robot number 3 recharged the gun and blasted the paste mercilessly, which caused it to reduce to a small flat smear.
The three robots gathered together to stomp on it and push it around.
There was no reaction.
They turned their backs and started walking toward Park Haeun, who finally believed that she had won and smirked.
She turned to the director's body, which had remained unharmed, and smirked at it.
Then, remembering someone else, she hurriedly turned to check for Jae-Hyun's body and found it gone.
She looked around and confirmed with relief that the thing inside him had taken him away.
She stood up and dusted her clothes to get rid of the ash.
In the process, her eyes came into contact with the screen still recording the battle.
What she saw horrified her so much that she quickly raised her head to look for the robots.
And to her dismay, they lay in pieces scattered in random directions.
The last robot was spat out of a gaping maw.
That huge mouth belonged to a round ball of pure body fat.
It was as big as a jeep, and the maw took up the entire front once it was open.
Inside lay bony spikes circling around until there was only a thin gap seen.
The round fat squirmed and stretched.
It distorted, and every part molded itself by bending inward or expanding until Ming Jun's original figure was formed.
Now a completely human Ming Jun—whose entire body was squirming in different ways and directions.
Sometimes a tentacle of skin would stretch out.
Sometimes a slit with a bony maw would appear.
Sometimes blood would flow down his bare skin without injury.
"Not happy to see me?" The same voice as the normal Ming Jun she had once heard. He started to walk toward her.
"Why, is it because you think I'm too fat and ugly?" His voice was sincere, but his body was the opposite as his eye bulged until it looked like it was about to burst out.
"But being too beautiful isn't necessarily a good thing, is it?" Ming Jun smiled, and one side of his mouth stretched out to his ear, blood flowing.
"Poor girl, you were very good with computers, but no one wanted to give you a chance because you were attractive."
"They only wanted to take advantage of you and never listened to your ideas while you were in college.
You tried to look ugly using makeup and clothes, and then they disdained you for your looks.
You were desperate to prove you were more than a pretty face and hot body.
But you couldn't take it anymore and seduced your professor to give you a chance," Ming Jun spoke each word with laughter.
"No, I was forced!" Park Haeun refuted while glaring at him.
"I understand, I understand.
Wearing tight clothes in the name of fashion to all his classes was by force."
"What's wrong with dressing the way I want to?" Park Haeun refuted.
"Brushing your skin against his accidentally was also a misunderstanding," Ming Jun looked at her with pity.
"Contact is required to collect the internship form," Park Haeun took a step back.
"That internship form that could only be chosen by one person to get into the Ming Corporation—a choice based entirely on the professor," Ming Jun gave her an understanding look.
"Shut up! What do you know?" Park Haeun spat at him.
"You got in through indecent means and expected the people at the corporation to be better.
You flaunted yourself to every executive member whose information was gotten illegally through hacking.
Then raised your nose at other female staff because you felt like they were looking down on you.
Until this led to carefully selected words spoken in front of the male staff to debase those female staff.
So now I ask you—do you think you are some chosen one who received my blessing because you are beautiful?" Ming Jun laughed in her face at the end.
"I was the victim taken advantage of because of my looks. I just made sure to get something out of it.
What's wrong with taking something from those scums who only love what's under the skirt?
As for those girls, they were the ones who isolated me just because they thought they were pure.
So I showed them what that purity gets them in this harsh world.
It's not my fault they couldn't handle the truth," Park Haeun's face was vicious.
"It's exactly because of this unrelenting malice toward those who do not deserve it that you were chosen to die," Ming Jun, who now stood in front of her, said.
His hand was placed on her shoulder, then removed.
"But you haven't answered my question yet—do you look beautiful now?" Ming Jun smiled at her.
Park Haeun felt something was wrong.
It was like she was hit by a spell.
She brought out the same mirror that had always been stuffed in her pocket and held it to her face.
It was only one minute.
Park Haeun's pupils constricted as she looked in the mirror.
She let out a piercing scream.
Then her eyes rolled back, and her heart stopped.
Park Haeun was dead—killed by the same beauty she used for malice.
"Ritual complete," Ming Jun hummed as the blood symbols on his body, which had always been present through his transformations, were absorbed into his skin.
"So ugly," a voice said in disgust.
The evil Ming Jun frowned and turned to the other Ming Jun standing far away from him, wearing a school uniform.
"Ming Jun," it sneered.