Chapter 4: Enigma
Avery—no, Yeomra.
He had witnessed countless deaths.
Back when he was known as the Night King in the martial world,
he had always eliminated his targets swiftly and cleanly.
His blade was fast,
delivering painless deaths.
But—
What was happening on the screen right now was completely different.
The so-called 'Artists' in this place
Did not see death as the end.
They rejoiced in suffering
And turned cruelty into art,
Dragging out their victims' pain until they begged for death.
His finger hesitated over the screen.
And then—
Curiosity made him move.
He pressed play.
The video began.
The camera focused on a man wearing a red oni mask.
In his hands, he held a heavy toolbox.
Through the slightly open lid,
A glimpse of gleaming, sinister tools could be seen inside.
But—
What caught Avery's attention even more was—
A girl running in the background.
She was gasping for breath,
Frantically dashing through the house.
Room to room,
Desperately searching for an escape.
The cctv camera followed her relentlessly.
Doors opened, slammed shut,
Her ragged breaths filled the air,
Tears and sweat streaked down her face.
Then—she spotted a window.
She grabbed the handle, shaking it wildly.
But it wouldn't open.
"Please…!"
With despair in her voice, she pounded on the glass.
But her tearful screams
were swallowed into the silence that filled the house.
And then—
The camera shifted back.
The man in the red mask.
He moved with unhurried steps.
In contrast to the girl, who was desperately running for her life,
His movements were calm and deliberate.
He wasn't in a hurry.
If anything, he was enjoying this "chase."
And then, suddenly—
"BANG—!"
He intentionally dropped something.
A loud crash shattered the silence.
The girl's body stiffened instantly.
She swallowed her scream,
Terror-stricken, she slowly turned her head.
She froze.
Her pupils trembled with fear.
Clamping a hand over her mouth, she desperately held her breath.
At that moment, it felt like she would be caught any second.
But—
She quickly crouched down and squeezed herself into a nearby cupboard.
A cramped space.
She had to hunch over and pull her knees to her chest just to fit inside.
And then—
Silence.
The room fell into an oppressive stillness.
The man in the red oni mask slowly approached.
His movements were precise, deliberate.
As if he were acting out a scene on a theater stage—
Purposeful. Calculated.
Through the slits of his mask,
His eyes gleamed with a cruel amusement.
He scanned the room.
And then—
His gaze stopped in front of the cupboard.
At that moment,
His shoulders subtly shook.
—He was laughing.
But he laughed silently,
Covering his mouth with his hand to avoid making a sound.
He already knew.
He knew exactly where she was hiding.
Yet, he didn't open the cupboard right away.
Instead—
He wandered around the room,
Pretending to search elsewhere.
Slowly, deliberately, dragging it out.
Letting her believe she still had hope.
Avery watched the screen intently.
The cruelty of the masked man
Was woven into every step he took.
His goal wasn't simply to kill.
It was the fear,
The despair,
The slow, methodical destruction of his victim.
That was his way.
The room sank into an oppressive silence.
And then—
He returned to the cupboard.
His movements stilled.
A dark, looming shadow cast itself over the wooden doors.
He stood there wordlessly,
As if savoring the sound of her ragged, terrified breaths.
And then—
BANG—!
The cupboard doors burst open at explosive speed.
A hand lunged forward.
It was sharp, lethal—
Like the strike of a venomous snake.
"AAAAAAAHHH!!!"
The masked man's fingers snatched her by the hair, yanking her out.
Her screams ripped through the air.
Raw, unfiltered terror.
Not the sound of a scripted performance—
But a scream Avery heard before.
The kind of sound only someone standing on the edge of life and death could make.
A desperate cry,
Like the final wail of a trapped animal before its end.
She struggled desperately.
She clawed at his arm,
Kicked, twisted, fought with everything she had—
But it was useless.
His grip didn't waver.
"Why… why are you doing this to us…?"
She barely managed to force out the words.
Her entire body trembled, her voice fragile, nearly a whisper.
She had cried too much, screamed too much—
Even making a sound now felt like agony.
But—
The man in the red mask—
"…Hmm?"
Tilted his head slightly,
Feigning confusion, as if he hadn't heard her.
Yet—
Behind that mask,
His eyes gleamed with unmistakable amusement.
"Why… are you killing us?"
She asked again.
And then—
The man in the red oni mask shrugged.
As if the question was too obvious.
As if it didn't really matter.
And then,
With a smile, he answered—
"No reason. I just felt like it."
His gaze shifted back to the toolbox.
The sharp-edged tools gleamed under the light.
He slowly ran his fingers over them,
Casually inspecting each one,
As if he were contemplating his options.
Then, suddenly—
He looked up at the ceiling.
What was he thinking?
A moment of indecipherable silence.
And then—
He reached for—
A pair of pliers.
In the darkness,
The cold metal glinted ominously.
The moment she saw it—
The girl's eyes drowned in despair.
Fear wrapped around her,
And as she realized what the tool in his hand meant,
Her body thrashed violently in resistance.
"Y-You demon! Let go! Let me go!!!"
As if squeezing out the last of her strength,
She kicked and struggled wildly.
Her body twisted,
Her nails clawed at the air,
She fought with everything she had to break free.
But—
The man didn't waver.
Calmly,
He simply grabbed her wrist and held her down.
Her resistance was frantic, desperate,
But she was too weak to push him away.
And then—
"BANG!"
Something slammed against her head.
Fast, heavy—
A single, brutal impact.
A hammer.
With a sharp downward motion,
The hammer in the man's grip struck her forehead with full force.
Her body collapsed—limp,
Crashing onto the floor.
But—
She wasn't fully unconscious.
A faint groan slipped from her lips,
Her body trembled weakly.
She hovered on the razor-thin edge between consciousness and oblivion.
The man,
Without a hint of hesitation,
Casually set the hammer down.
And then—
He picked up the pliers he had chosen earlier.
The man grabbed her hand.
Her fingers trembled helplessly.
She tried to resist,
But she no longer had the strength to escape his grip.
And then—
Without hesitation, he gripped each of her fingers and pulled.
"Khh… ugh…!"
A muffled groan escaped through her lips.
She twisted in agony, desperately swallowing her screams,
But the pain ripped through her mercilessly.
For her, this was a living nightmare.
But for the man in the red oni mask?
It was just a task.
Like dismantling spare parts,
Like disassembling a useless object,
He saw her as nothing more than a thing to break and discard.
Cold. Precise. Meticulously calculated movements.
Like…
An artist completing a new "masterpiece."
To an ordinary person,
Watching this scene would be a nightmare.
But not for Avery.
This wasn't some horror movie.
This was reality.
The madness and cruelty felt all too familiar.
And—
This was the true face of the world he had stepped into.
Even beyond the screen, he could feel it.
A sharp, unmistakable killing intent.
A heavy, suffocating malice pressing down on the space around him.
This wasn't staged.
It was real.
Avery muttered under his breath.
"…Disgusting."
Then,
His gaze drifted downward, almost by accident.
And in that moment—
His eyes froze.
Views: 20,312
More than 20,000 people—
Had watched this "masterpiece."
This horrifying video had been seen by over 20,000 people,
Yet—
Why hadn't anyone reported it to the police?
How could something this blatant, this brutal remain unnoticed?
How could this exist without any interference?
What kind of world is this?
A world where fear becomes entertainment,
Cruelty is praised as art,
And death is consumed as content?
Avery needed certainty.
He needed to know his role in this nightmare.
He immediately tapped the screen.
[Profile]
Nickname: Enigma.
And then—
A profile picture of a bloodstained rabbit mask.
Unfamiliar, yet somehow eerily familiar.
His fingers hesitated.
But in the end—
He clicked on the video list.
Play.
The screen displayed—
Someone wearing a rabbit mask.
But this time…
It wasn't just another hunting video.
It was a tutorial.
A "training video" on how to process human meat.
Avery swallowed hard.
A single line in the video description
Turned his uneasy suspicion into certainty.
This video had been uploaded by 'Enigma' himself.
"I… actually did something like this?"
He muttered, unable to believe it.
The figure in the rabbit mask.
Moving without revealing their identity.
No face. No voice.
But—
Avery knew.
He knew how thorough these kinds of organizations were when verifying identities.
Which meant—
The "original Avery" in this body—
Was likely connected to all of this.
"…This is insane."
He muttered softly.
He scrolled down and opened the earnings tab.
And then—
He nearly dropped his phone.
The number that appeared on the screen.
$1,215,023
1.2 million dollars.
For a moment, his brain refused to process what he was seeing.
"This account barely had any views or subscribers…?"
Then where the hell did this money come from?
This wasn't reality.
It felt like some twisted nightmare.
The more he learned about this world,
The more his idea of a "normal life" crumbled.
Avery scrolled down again.
The app was filled with countless videos.
Most of them were beyond imagination in their brutality.
He couldn't understand.
How did this "organization" create these videos?
Where did they get such an absurd amount of money?
And—
The most important question—
How did this organization actually pay creators like "Enigma"?
At that moment.
A memory flashed in his mind.
The Whisperer's call.
The "deadline" she had mentioned.
"No way…"
A cold chill ran down his spine.
"Shit… the deadline!"
Avery clutched his face.
This wasn't just shock anymore.
A completely different kind of fear
crashed down on him.