The Alcity language dictionary placed in the corner caught his eye. Because the room was narrow, he could grab it just by reaching out his hand. There were a few pages with folded corners, and no pencil or pen marks. Who would look at this kind of dictionary these days? You could just search on your phone and the meaning would come up. Come to think of it, there wasn’t even a phone charger in this room.
If I take a picture of this and post it, the reaction would be amazing.
The media would go crazy and rush over the combination of Tar’s young hero and poverty. Even he… if such a photo appeared as an article, he would have been interested. However, the owner of this small room was a guy who earned hundreds of millions from two commercials. Even earning that much money, he always lacked money and lived in a place like this. Poverty stemming from self-abuse wasn’t worth sympathy.
“Idiot.”
Evil lay down in that spot and looked at the ceiling. When he stretched out his legs, the cold wall touched them.
In the semi-basement room, there was a damp moldy smell and cigarette smell, and a very familiar smell. He remembered that in the hospital room where only the refugee was alone a while ago, this smell had been mixed with the cigarette smell. Something he couldn’t not know,
It was the fishy smell of blood.
***
Evil spent time in that small room and came out timed to Cheche’s leaving time. Because autumn had short daylight hours, the sunset had already disappeared leaving only faint traces.
After pondering briefly, Evil headed to a club. Not a club where people danced and sang to loud music, but an underground club where Soul Aura Users operated.
Aura Users live while influencing many people’s lives, culture, and civilization. They mainly influence in helpful directions, but as with all human activities, dark shadows also existed on the flip side of the era. The society ‘underworld’ where all kinds of criminal acts by Aura Users were rampant—Aura Users active in this underworld were called ‘Night Users,’ meaning users active at night.
The most rampant illegal activity in the underworld was illusion arts.
All Aura Users, whether Souler or Motioner, could create illusions, but among them, Soulers with meticulous and emotional personalities produced even more realistic illusion arts. When such Soulers’ illusion arts combined with emotion transmission abilities, many things became possible.
For example, they could create an illusion of a deceased child laughing and chattering before the eyes of parents grieving after losing their young child through illusion arts, and furthermore, through emotion transmission abilities, they could even make the parents feel the affectionate emotions of a child loving their parents.
These illusion arts and emotion transmission abilities were once used as part of psychological treatment. However, as many people clung to what was merely an illusion and forgot reality, it was banned for anyone without official certification to use illusion arts. But meetings between people who lost loved ones and Soulers who needed money continued in the underworld, and over time, the subjects of demand for underworld illusion arts became quite distorted.
In the current underworld, distorted illusion arts also flourished. For example, making someone you love but who isn’t yours into yours within an illusion. When a buyer brought photos or videos, Soulers either created desired situations as illusions or overlaid the illusion on themselves and enjoyed dates in that state.
The place Evil came to was that kind of club. At this place called an ‘Illusion Club,’ there were rooms selling illusion arts one-on-one, and there was also a stage showing unrealistic scenery. When music flowed, beauties of forms that didn’t exist in this world (with long ears or wings) danced and sang on the stage.
Vivid as if watching a musical or play, but if you reached out your hand to them, your hand would just cut through empty air. Because they weren’t overlaid on people but were complete illusions created entirely by illusion arts. Those who visited this place knew that everything visible before their eyes was an illusion. People tired of real-world people were drawn to things that didn’t exist and visited this place.
“Evil, what are you doing? Coming without even contacting me.”
A friend approached Evil, who was sitting at a second-floor table watching the pathetic no-Users absorbed in illusions. **Leo Davids**, the owner of this club, was someone whose family knew Evil’s family, and though older than Evil, they got along like friends. Evil barely acknowledged the greeting and asked with a sulky expression.
“What grade were you again?”
“A, why?”
“Do Aura Users catch colds?”
“They can. In weather like this, if you’re careless with management, you catch a cold right away. Motioners like us wouldn’t catch one even swimming in ice water in midwinter, but among Soulers, there are many whose stamina is worse than no-Users.”
Leo sat next to Evil with some distance and looked down at the stage.
“Our Night users are also resting because a few caught colds. There are lots of reservations tomorrow too, what a headache. Damn it…. But why the cold? Did someone catch a cold?”
“The refugee was coughing.”
“Refugee?”
Leo, who tilted his head, soon realized who he was talking about.
“Ah… Cheche?”
“Fuck, is the refugee your friend? Acting so fucking friendly and just calling his name.”
“…Sorry.”
When Evil’s eyes turned cold, Leo immediately apologized in a submissive posture.
“He came from a hot place, so it’s understandable he wouldn’t adjust. But won’t it just make your image worse if the refugee catches a cold?”
“Refugee, refugee. I know that bastard’s a refugee even if you don’t say it, so stop fucking yapping.”
“If you don’t like refugee or his name, what should I call him?”
“Obviously call him my secretary.”
“Okay…. Your secretary.”
Only then did Evil relax his eyes as if satisfied. Leo didn’t think deeply about the behavior Evil just showed. His friend was always this capricious, sensitive, and rough.
“Colds must be going around. Our people too, and your secretary too.”
“How cold is it anyway? Everyone’s so weak.”
“I know. Anyway, I’m worried about tomorrow. Should I borrow a Night user from **Turans**…. Tomorrow’s customer order is a bit tricky.”
Leo rattled off supplementary explanations about tomorrow’s customer that Evil wasn’t even curious about. An order from a customer who liked some idol, saying he had a hard time holding back nausea while listening to the request, and Evil grimaced hearing it all.
“Fucking disgusting. Is it nice living off money extracted from perverts?”
“Don’t say things that prick my conscience. Still, it’s not only those kinds of people who come.”
Various types of customers visited the club. Some people wanted illusions of sitting on a park bench with a loved one watching the moon, some wanted illusions of passing exams and receiving praise from parents. Someone wanted to become a war hero, and someone wanted to float on a snow-falling sea.
From large-scale to very trivial things. Demand for illusion arts was always high, so the club always thrived.
To Evil, who had never seen any illusion arts as more than falsehood, it was incomprehensible.
“Big brother came by a while ago too. Business isn’t going well, he seemed to be having a hard time.”
“Your big brother does military supply business, right?”
“Yeah, firearms are banned everywhere and the business has been declining for a long time, but he’s still clinging to it like an idiot.”
“There’s Tar.”
“At least there’s Tar. Otherwise big brother would have starved to death.”
Leo laughed as if he’d heard a funny joke after saying it himself. He looked down at the faces of people reaching out their hands to grasp illusory fantasies on the stage.
“I think positively. It’s a peaceful era. Can’t be helped.”
A peaceful era.
Evil laughed coldly. It was something someone who would have laid down their body in a narrow one-room by now would never agree with.
Evil, who had been looking down at the first floor while thinking of the refugee who would sleep without blanket or pillow in that cold and cramped place, suddenly turned his eyes chillingly cold.
“Don’t tell me there are bastards among the customers who order the refugee?”
“Refugee?”
“Fuck, can’t you understand? I mean my secretary.”
“Ah, Che… of course your secretary is also popular….”
Leo, who was about to answer that he was very popular, discovered Evil’s blood-red eyes and awkwardly pulled up the corners of his mouth.
“Not popular. Not at all. No one was looking for him.”
“Which crazy bastard!”
Evil, who realized it was a lie befitting a sensitive Soul User, slammed the table and stood up.
“Which fucking perverted bastard! Who is it? How many? Drag them all here. So I can kill all those damn things!”
“Ah, I get it, so calm down.”
“How dare they touch, those filthy insect bastards! How dare they touch….”
Evil ground his teeth with a *kkeudeudeuk* sound. He looked like he was about to roll back his eyes soon, so Leo was very flustered. The table Evil struck with his fist split in half, and when he couldn’t control his anger and hit the railing, it shattered into powder. His already eerie red eyes flashed even more terrifyingly. The air instantly sank.
The music flowing through the club stopped and the first floor became chaotic. Leo gestured to his subordinates, urgently giving instructions to evacuate customers and staff.
“Did you let those crazy bastards touch him?”
“Touch, you say… it’s, it’s just an illusion… actually there haven’t been any until now! Tomorrow is the first time.”
Leo had no choice but to lie. In fact, Cheche had been continuously on the list as a regular since his name became known, but for now he had to gloss over it with a lie. However, Evil didn’t listen at all.
“Fucking bastard, don’t lie. Now that I think about it, there’s no way something as pretty and cute as him wouldn’t be popular.”
“…Really there were only a few times until now… one or two people….”
“Give me all the names!”
“Ah, okay. I’ll tell you everyone. Please calm down, okay?”
Leo nodded hurriedly. At the threat that if he accepted orders related to the refugee again from tomorrow, he’d eliminate this club and blow off his head too, he said he absolutely understood.
Even so, Evil’s anger didn’t seem to subside. Just then, a subordinate brought alcohol. High-proof alcohol that would burn down an ordinary person’s esophagus immediately upon drinking was exclusively for Evil. Leo quickly changed the table to an intact one and poured the drink. Evil gulped it down like water.
“Disgusting perverts, bastards… without knowing anything about that guy….”
Evil’s red eyes blazed fiercely. With his naturally angry personality, it didn’t seem like it would subside easily. It was a sight Leo was seeing for the first time. His friend was capricious, sensitive, rough, and always angry, but he’d never gotten angry because of harm suffered by someone other than himself.
In fact, Evil was a devil who would say “So what?” even if orders came in for his family members. Leo wanted to ask what the hell that refugee was that he was acting like this, but was too afraid of Evil to say anything and permanently excluded Cheche from the club’s illusion arts subjects.
