Chapter 7: The "Lizard" in the Vents
Han Do-Hyun was hiding in the master bathroom, a chamber of Italian marble and gold-plated fixtures so large it echoed. He wasn't admiring the decor. He was staring at a ventilation shaft near the ceiling, his entire body trembling.
'There's something in there,' he thought, his knees knocking together. 'I can hear it scratching. A spy camera? A listening bug? A genetically engineered venomous snake sent by the Association to 'clean up' the evidence of my fraud?'
Suddenly, a small, scaly head popped out of the grate. It was a lizard, about six inches long, with scales as black as pitch and tiny, glowing ruby-red eyes. It looked like it had been through a meat grinder and survived, with nicks and scars covering its body.
Do-Hyun's POV: 'Oh, thank God. It's just a little lizard. Poor thing, you look as beat up as I feel. You're probably a Level 0 loser, too. Exiled from your lizard family for being weak.' A wave of pity washed over him. 'Come here, buddy. We can be losers together.'
He reached out a trembling hand, offering it a piece of expensive Wagyu beef he'd managed to snatch from the floor after Min-Ah had dropped it.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
Target Identified: The Abyssal Void-Dragon (Ancient Larva Stage)
Threat Level: Extinction Class
Current Status: Starving / Possesses God-Slayer Soul
[Action Detected: Divine Taming]
The User has offered a 'Sacrifice of Flesh' to the Ancient Terror, establishing a bond.
The tiny dragon tilted its head, its jewel-like eyes blinking slowly. It swallowed the beef in one gulp and let out a puff of smoke that smelled faintly of ozone. Then, it crawled down the wall, onto Do-Hyun's shoulder, and nuzzled his ear affectionately.
Do-Hyun's POV: 'He likes me! I'll call you… "Sooty." Because you look like a forgotten piece of charcoal. Don't worry, Sooty. I'll protect you from the scary Ice Lady waiting in the living room.'
The View from the Living Room
Park Min-Ah was deep in meditation, trying to parse the infinitesimal clues from her master's ambient mana, when Do-Hyun finally emerged from the bathroom. He looked haggard, his hair a mess, and he was whispering to something on his shoulder.
"Look, Sooty," Do-Hyun whispered, his voice barely audible. "That's the lady I was telling you about. Stay very, very still, or she might freeze us both."
Min-Ah opened her eyes, and her heart almost ceased to function.
Resting on Do-Hyun's shoulder was a creature that had no right to exist in this dimension. Its aura was not an aura; it was a hole in reality, a literal void that passively consumed the light and sound around it. She recognized its form from the most forbidden chapter of the Ancient Texts: the Prophecy of the End.
'The… The Void Dragon?' Min-Ah's teeth began to chatter, a thin layer of frost forming on her lips. 'The Star-Eater. The creature prophesied to consume the cosmos itself? He… he's treating it like a common garden gecko?!'
She watched in paralyzed horror as Do-Hyun reached up and gently poked the Dragon on its snout because it was sniffing his earlobe.
"Stop that, Sooty," Do-Hyun chided softly. "That tickles."
Min-Ah's POV: 'HE JUST POKED AN EXTINCTION-CLASS DISASTER ON THE NOSE! AND IT... IT PURRED?! He has utterly subjugated the will of a primordial God-Beast with a single piece of meat. He isn't just a Sovereign... he is the Master of the Apocalypse itself.'
"Um, M-Miss Min-Ah?" Do-Hyun squeaked, trying to sound formal so she wouldn't execute him on the spot. "I... I think I need to practice my swordsmanship? Could I please use the training dummy over there?"
He pointed to a Grade-S Mana-Reinforced Training Pillar in the corner of the room—an obsidian monolith designed to withstand a direct nuclear blast.
"Of course, Master!" Min-Ah scrambled to her feet, bowing a full 90 degrees. 'He's going to demonstrate! He's going to show me a glimpse of his true power!'
Do-Hyun cautiously approached the pillar, holding his rusty kitchen knife. He was so nervous about her watching him that his palms were sweating. As he raised the knife, his grip slipped. He fumbled, trying to catch it, and the blade swung forward in a clumsy, uncontrolled arc.
[Skill Activated: The Panic Ripple]
Effect: Your profound clumsiness is converted into a 'Spatial Severance Wave.'
Click.
There was no sound of impact. No explosion. Just a faint, almost imperceptible noise.
Do-Hyun blinked, opening his eyes. The pillar was still standing, completely unharmed. 'Phew. I didn't even hit it. She must think I'm hopelessly weak now, but at least I didn't break anything expensive.'
"I... I missed," Do-Hyun sighed, his shoulders slumping in dejection. "I'm so bad at this." He turned and shuffled back to his bedroom to hide with Sooty in shame.
Five seconds after his door closed, a low groan echoed through the city. The S-Rank pillar didn't break or crack—it simply dissolved into fine, motes of dust. Simultaneously, the three skyscrapers directly behind the Lotte World Tower—each a masterpiece of modern engineering—silently shed their top 50 floors, which slid off into the clouds along a perfectly clean, impossibly thin horizontal line.
Min-Ah fell to her knees, her gaze fixed on the impossible sight through the window.
"He said... he missed," she whispered, her eyes wide with a terror so pure it bordered on religious ecstasy. "He 'missed' the target... and he accidentally cut the horizon in half. If he had actually tried to hit it... would the planet still be here?"