Draggarius

Kaito Renzaki, a ruthless contract killer, meets his end in a brutal betrayal—only to awaken as Jin Tae-Hyun, a weak, arrogant noble in the Murim world. Destined to die as a minor villain, he refuses to accept his fate.

Armed with an assassin’s instincts and a lifetime of deception, Kaito will carve his own path. He is not a warrior. He is a killer. And in a world where strength reigns supreme, he will rise—not as a forgotten side character, but as a force that reshapes Murim itself.

But his rise does not go unnoticed. Powerful sects, hidden warlords, and even the protagonist stand in his way.

Will he remain a villain lurking in the shadows?

Or will he become something far more dangerous?

Blood Reforged

The assassins hesitated. Kaito's smile wasn't the grin of a desperate man—it was calculated, deliberate, as if he knew something they didn't.

The moment they had stepped into this alley, their fates had already been sealed. Kaito had ensured it.

The first assassin lunged, blade flashing under the moonlight, but Kaito barely moved. The ground beneath them groaned.

A deafening blast erupted behind them as hidden charges, placed beneath the alley's wooden crates earlier, detonated with precision. Thick smoke swallowed the narrow space, shrouding everything in chaos. The assassins stumbled, coughing, their formation breaking.

He moved like a shadow, low and fast. His dagger found the throat of the nearest enemy before they could react, severing flesh with chilling ease. One down.

The second assassin swung wildly through the smoke, panic overriding skill. Kaito ducked under the clumsy strike, snapping his wrist around the man's arm, twisting it until a sickening crack echoed through the alley. The assassin screamed, but the sound was short-lived—Kaito's blade silenced him within seconds.

The last assassin stumbled back, his composure shattered. He wasn't looking at a trapped man anymore. He was looking at a monster.

"You…" His voice shook. "You planned this…?"

Kaito exhaled, shaking the blood off his blade. "Of course."

And then, with terrifying speed, he closed the distance.

A flick of his wrist. A gasp. The last assassin collapsed, lifeless.

As silence returned, Kaito leaned against the cold stone wall, catching his breath. His eyes flickered toward the bodies at his feet, his lips curling into a smirk. They had never stood a chance.

Because everything—from the moment he entered this world to this exact night—had been orchestrated by him.

He had known how Jin Tae-Hyun's life would play out.

Not because he was the protagonist. But because he had read about him.

A flash of memory surfaced. In the original manga, Jin Tae-Hyun had only ever been mentioned once—in the past of a supporting character. That man had encountered Jin Tae-Hyun long after he had become a feared figure in the underworld. The scene had been brief, but it had stuck with Kaito back when he was alive.

"There was a man I once met," the character had recalled. "A man who should've died, who was cornered time and time again. But no matter how many times fate tried to kill him… he always survived. And every time, he would smile, as if he had seen everything coming."

Kaito had taken those words to heart.

And when he was reborn as that very man, he knew exactly what he had to do.

Everything up until now—every action, every decision—had been leading to this moment. He had controlled the narrative, twisting it to his advantage. He wasn't just playing the game. He was rewriting it.

As the smoke cleared and the bodies grew cold, Kaito exhaled, looking up at the night sky. His story wasn't following the manga's script anymore.

The Mastermind's Game