Mind Demon's Path of Domination

Then, he walked out into the lab and just walked around silently. Choi Sung was out somewhere, Dona and Yuri were asleep, and his only awake companion was the hamster tonight. He kept it atop his head, and it tousled about.

On the way, Mark ended up before a mirror and paused, looking at his reflection for a while.

It\'s so wild. I am a demon in myths. I, I am.

Life was so weird. It never ceased to amaze him. Days ago, he was just a human male from Earth, yet, today, he was a Demon. But in the end, nothing much seemed to have changed either. Deep down, he was the same man.

His movements did little to change the vast world. Whether he lived or died, the world moved on. His heart felt rushed.

Stress is no good; I should be calm and collected. I\'ve heard before that a man\'s success could be counted on how much stress he can bear—I am still too silly.

He was facing people who saw life seriously. In fact, seeing Yuri and experiencing life around her had made Mark think a lot about himself.

Yuri was professional. She knew what she was doing, like the back of her palm. What she was doing, she was super serious about it.

The Hunters. Those people were not some simple prey. They were very serious people who were working hard for their world\'s survival. For their world, they would kill. Most of his enemies were going to be just as professional as Yuri in their own fields.

But Mark was different from Yuri or the Hunters.

He was no professional in anything. He was a newbie in fighting tactics. He was not even sure if what he was doing was all leading towards what should be his ideal life—being capable of living carefreely with no worries about anything.

And even though he was no expert in anything, he was fighting against truly experienced men and women for opportunities. Watching Yuri, Mark could tell the difference between them with each of her words and actions.

He was a demon due to circumstance. It just happened that he gained all this power out of nowhere. If they were in his stead, those professionals, experienced men—they would be much more capable than himself already.

I have to become serious, professional. Like Yuri and my enemies. Only that would make me survive serious battlefields.

His goals were lofty, and to match that ambition, his mind would have to develop.

As of now, he only had strength.

By the time he cleared his mind into a meditative calm, he was down in the basement of the lab and looking at the white-haired woman trapped inside the ice wall. He looked at her for a long time.

Who was she? What was she?

Mark could now guess why the laboratory was a Dungeon, even though no Dungeon Demons were around. This woman was a sort of repellant. Her body itself seemed to be repelling the World Wills from her place.

It was as if she had a Dungeon Heart Seed inside her.

He silently touched the icey wall and felt the coldness prickle his skin. If it was a human hand, it would probably get ice bites just by that. But his demon hand just felt the coldness.

The woman didn\'t even stir. Her icy hair just floated behind her, her eyes were perpetually closed, and her naked body, as alluring as it was, seemed more like a corpse.

"You really intrigue me," he said. "You seem more serious than anyone I\'ve ever seen. It\'s kind of a hunch, though."

The hamster squeaked lazily atop his head, and Mark smiled. He calmly began thinking of his current major goals in this world.

Conquer a Nation in this world and steal Shiden\'s Ability.

For that, he first had to tame the animals and plan as many Dungeon Heart Seeds as he could as fast as possible. Then, he also had to find a way to kill Shiden.

…

As in everything in life, if there was a rise, there was bound to be a fall. Once again, the recently chaotic Hunter World outside the laboratory entered a strangely peaceful period. Truly, the calm before the storm.

But even in calm, not always were things stationary. Something moved. It always did.

On the internet, the Trio Hunters had their reputations utterly slaughtered more and more by the day, but the trio hadn\'t learned of that due to their currently out-of-touch living style—they were in a part of their life where they did nothing but train with their mentor.

Yet, Mark didn\'t mind their inaction and fueled the hate for them from the shadows.

From heroes, the public began to see them as nuisances. Bullies. People who should not be allowed to wield so much power. There were criminal-oriented Hunters out there, too. Choi Sung was a prime example. Many wanted the Trio Hunters on at least a juvenile criminal list.

Yet, it is such a funny thing, Mark chuckled. The focus was still on the Trio Hunters and not the young man they caused to commit suicide. Indeed, people just wanted to see the Trio\'s downfall more than getting justice for Seo Jin Hu.

Yet, I have more things to do.

In due time, Mark extricated himself from the mess and focused on his own life. He was sure the Dream Gamble was going to be won even if he didn\'t interfere anymore. The only requirement was for him to ruin the Trio\'s reputation after all, which was nearing its boiling point.

By proxy of their ruined reputation, it would be the same as the dead kid getting the justice that he deserved. Mark didn\'t give two shits about that, though.

As days passed, he began to put together a plan to hunt Shiden while also beginning to tame the animals in the laboratory one by one. Dogs, cats, parrots, and pigeons. He planted a Dungeon Heart Seed in each of them and then let them go out into the city outside the lab.

Making them acknowledge him as their master wasn\'t hard. Those were tameable creatures for a reason. But sadly, his idea of covertly conquering the entire world and turning it into a Dungeon didn\'t come to fruition.

His demonic trick suddenly stopped working when he reached exactly [100] Dungeon Heart Seeds in total, including the Hamster and Dona.

He had tamed a hundred animals in around ten days\' time. Yet, he could produce no more Dungeon Heart Seeds.

One hundred seemed like a limit of sorts. Even though that alone had the potential to cover 500 meters of land into a Dungeon where the World Will wouldn\'t notice him, that was still not a huge enough distance to cover a nation.

To cover an entire nation, he would need to create at least hundreds of thousands of Dungeon Heart Seeds in exactly that many animals and spread them out to cover a nation as a whole.

That is impossible now. A hundred is the limit.

Mark was pissed, but he couldn\'t do much. Not everything went according to plan—if it was so easy, the Mega-Dungeon wouldn\'t be such a big deal. There would be Dungeons everywhere, and the world would have been conquered already.

Now, that way of conquering a nation was gone. He couldn\'t create more than a hundred seeds, so he had to find some other way.

As irritating as that was, Mark could think of other ways to conquer a nation. After all, doing that was one of his main goals in this world. Yet, he had more rushing matters to focus on for now, so he ignored what he could and focused on something else.

Maki, Fulan, and… Shiden. Then, there is the pesky Hanmo.

Mark had to get rid of Hanmo first to get a hand on Shiden. Dealing with an A-Rank Hunter was still too much for Mark, and he didn\'t want to bite off more than he could chew. He had to plan this thoroughly and hunt Shiden before the Trio ended up becoming A-Rank Hunters themselves.

So, he was indeed rushed.

…

One day, Choi Sung arrived late at night in his usual truck. More than half a month had passed since the Hunter Awakening, and by now, Choi Sung had seen multiple Heal-type Hunters and had his own dysfunctional arm fixed.

He looked healthy.

Due to Mark\'s constant Heart Inputs, the C-Rank Hunter had also become unconsciously more reverential of the demon.

Entering the lab, Choi Sung looked at the current space with admiration. "Damn, this lab feels like I am living in a sci-fi movie. My sister loved that shit before she died."

Mark smirked from the couch. "So, did you do what I said?"

"Yes, boss!" Choi Sung nodded. "I spread the animals you gave me around the entire mountain range."

Mark nodded. Dona wrapped her hands around his neck and rested her head on his back. He gently held her hand.

Those animals Choi Sung mentioned were the one hundred animals he planted the Dungeon Heart Seeds on. The mountain range Choi Sung had spread them around was where the Trio Hunters were currently training. It was time he finally gave them a visit.

Mark had a solid plan ready—now, it was just action that awaited.

And reaction.