A grotesque crime—cutting off the victims’ heads and decorating them with ribbons.

Three dead, no less.

“This is driving me insane.”

A public wanted notice went up, too.

The suspect’s appearance was clearly caught on CCTV.

“It’s not John Cossack’s face...”

Since he was an assassin, there was a high chance he’d disguised himself.

Or it could be someone else entirely... it could be a coincidence.

But there was no way there were two murderers tying ribbon knots on heads.

“Did I summon a devil? Since he’s a ghost, an evil spirit—something like that?”

After he finished watching the morning TV news.

Bong Juhyeok searched the internet.

SmileCash murder case.

But the general public’s view of the case was unexpected.

The community comment sections were mostly like, good riddance.

└ Should we call him the Ribbon Killer?

└ Killer, my ass! He’s the Ribbon Righteous Person.

└ These guys were illegal pretending to be legal, right?

└ It’s so damn satisfying. How many people do you think got hurt? I heard some people even had organs taken.

└ I borrowed 1,000,000 won, and I barely got free after paying back 5,000,000.

└ That’s nothing. My friend borrowed 8,000,000, and the interest alone is 10,000,000 with the principal still untouched.

└ Who killed them?

└ Well, obviously one of the victims, right?

└ Those sons of bitches—don’t know who killed them, but at this point isn’t it self-defense?

Juhyeok let out a long sigh and shut his laptop.

“Wasn’t it absolute obedience?”

He’d never given an order to kill.

Other than telling him to watch TV.

Then why?

Juhyeok called up the Status Window and looked over the Catalog entry.

<Catalog : The Insane Assassin of the CRUEL ASSASSIN GUILD>

Name : John Cossack

Rank : SR (Super Rare)

Type : Assassin (Human)

Manifestation Time Limit : 6 hours

Satisfaction Rating : None.

Resummon Cooldown: 3 hours (Designated Summon currently available)

He could summon him.

Should he call him and ask?

Did you really kill people? If you did, why did you kill them?

But—

“I’m scared.”

What if he harmed him, the summoner?

“...No. It didn’t feel like he would.”

If anything, it might have been something he did to protect him.

He decided.

Call him.

“...John Cossack, Designated Summon!”

That was when it happened.

DING!

A hologram floated before Juhyeok’s eyes.

Five achromatic stars.

[Before Designated Summon, please leave a Satisfaction Rating for John Cossack.]

[Please move your finger to set the star rating.]

Ah! So that was why the Catalog had a Satisfaction Rating.

“Stars, huh.”

It felt like he had to give it.

But...

How many stars should he give?

Juhyeok was the type who always gave 5 stars whenever he had the chance to rate.

Because his mother’s job was as a rental water purifier coordinator, he knew all too well how heartbreaking low Satisfaction Ratings could be.

But he couldn’t give 5 stars to a murder suspect.

Then...

TAP!

[John Cossack’s Satisfaction Rating has been set to 3 stars.]

A vague 3-star rating that was neither this nor that.

He was dissatisfied, but it wasn’t 1 star.

This was the Weak Man’s star rating.

In that moment!

WHOOOSH! SNAP!

[John Cossack has been designated-summoned.]

“Loyalty! Nice to see you again, sir! Thank you for 3 stars, sir! I’ll work even harder, sir.”

“...Yeah.”

An innocent expression.

This guy killed three people?

No way!

“I called you because I have something to ask.”

“Yes, sir! Ask anything, sir.”

“Did you... kill the people who came to our place yesterday, Mr. Cossack?”

“That’s right, sir. I took care of them last night, sir. Right before I got reverse-summoned.”

“...”

Ah.

So this guy was the culprit.

Right now, he was face-to-face with a murderer.

Every hair on his body stood on end.

He had to be brave.

GULP.

He swallowed once, afraid he might hiccup.

“...H-how? You wouldn’t even know where their office is.”

“When those guys broke into Summoner Bong’s place, I planted a Mark of Tracking, sir. I know exactly where they are, sir.”

A Mark of Tracking?

It was probably some kind of skill.

“W-why? Why go that far?”

“Because they are a threat factor, sir. It is good to handle it in advance, sir.”

“Mm. But I didn’t give that order.”

“...Th-that’s because of the Three Principles, Article 3, sir.”

If it was the Three Principles—

Article 1: value the summoner’s life.

Article 2: absolute obedience to commands.

Article 3 was...

“Article 3 is the part that says if Article 1 and Article 2 conflict, Article 1 is set as the highest value, sir.”

“Ah!”

He thought he understood what it meant.

For example, if he ordered Cossack to kill him, he’d refuse—because Article 1 took priority.

“But there wasn’t an actual threat. Isn’t that your own judgment?”

“That’s true, sir. However, Article 3 can be interpreted broadly, sir. If we leave them alone, one day they will definitely threaten the summoner’s life, sir.”

“...”

This was insane.

The conjecture that illegal debt collectors might kill him.

Since he couldn’t stay summoned to guard him at his side, he must have judged that killing them was best.

“Wow! You really are insane— ah! Sorry.”

“It’s fine, sir. I hear that a lot, sir.”

Unpredictable behavior based on his own judgment.

It was ambiguous.

How was he supposed to take this?

“...I shouldn’t think this is something to be grateful for, but this is extremely dangerous.”

He was basically a time bomb.

It might be hard to control him.

For example, say Juhyeok was walking down a crowded street together with John Cossack.

And by accident, some punk bumped shoulders with Juhyeok.

The guy who got shoulder-checked would say something like this.

You wanna die? I’ll rip your eyes out!

Then John Cossack would feel that the guy had threatened the summoner’s life.

And as a result, another bow-ribbon-knotted head might appear—

That couldn’t happen.

He didn’t know if he’d keep summoning this man in the future, but—

“Killing wasn’t for my sake. Because of that, I could end up in a difficult situation.”

“...Uh, no one will know, sir.”

Even so, as Juhyeok kept frowning, John Cossack slowly bent his knees and knelt.

“I was wrong, sir.”

“...Don’t kneel.”

“Yes, sir!”

“You won’t do it again.”

“I, I can’t promise that, sir.”

He rolled his eyes around, and it didn’t feel reliable.

But it seemed like he wasn’t lying.

“Unless my life is truly at a critical point, killing people based on a guess is—”

“YES, SIR! I’ll judge situations well, sir!”

The answer was spirited.

“Alright. Go back now.”

“B-but aren’t you going to climb the tower, sir?”

Tower climbing.

Since it came up anyway, he should be honest.

It was embarrassing, but—

“I still haven’t decided. ...I’m a coward, so I’m scared. I don’t want to die either.”

“Ah-ha! I understand, sir. In my experience, the summoner who calls us should be like that, sir.”

Huh? A summoner had to be a coward?

And in his experience?

“Have you had another summoner too? Someone who summoned ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) you like me.”

“I have, sir.”

There was?

So there were more people like him?

“...From the same Earth?”

“No, sir. It’s a different world, similar to Earth’s civilization, sir. There are quite a few worlds like that, sir.”

“Hm.”

A world similar to Earth’s civilization...

Was it a parallel universe?

“Then someone over there could summon you too.”

“They can’t, sir.”

“Why can’t they?”

John Cossack answered with a choked, regretful expression.

“They died, sir.”

“Ah.”

“That world collapsed too, sir.”

The mood turned solemn.

“They were a truly brave person, sir.”

“I see.”

“They ran out ahead of me and hunted monsters, sir. They were a really strong summoner, sir.”

“You must miss them a lot.”

“I don’t know, sir. I don’t even remember anymore, sir.”

His feelings turned strange.

A trace of humiliation, his face reddening with shame.

That other summoner was brave, so why was he so cowardly?

“You’re comparing me, and I look pathetic, right?”

“Huh, sir?”

“Because I’m a coward who’s scared to go into the tower.”

John Cossack waved his hands wildly, horrified.

“No, sir! Absolutely not, sir! I like it better, sir! I really like it, sir!”

“...Huh?”

What was this?

“Summoners have to be like that, sir. If you’re brave, it’s poison, sir. Cowardice is the greatest virtue, sir.”

“Uh...”

“A brave summoner is dangerous, sir. You never know when they’ll die, sir. If you die, we can’t come out either, sir.”

So that was how it connected?

“Summoner Bong, keep your head down and live a long, long time, sir. I’ll do all the dirty work, sir.”

“Yeah, well, sure.”

That was easy.

Even if someone told him not to, he would.

“Anyway, I’ll think about tower climbing.”

“Decide slowly, sir. Even if you don’t do it, there’s no problem, sir.”

“Then I’ll—”

“Yes, sir! Please call me again next time, sir!”

Juhyeok used the Dismiss Summon skill.

POP! John Cossack disappeared.

“He’s gone.”

His mind went blank.

Yesterday and today, it had been nothing but impactful things.

Now back to daily life.

He had to go to work.

Juhyeok worked two jobs.

Convenience store part-time in the day.

Barbecue restaurant part-time at night.

There were a lot of places money had to go.

His father was still far from fully recovering from rehab, and his mother was a water purifier company coordinator.

He had to help with the household finances as much as he could.

So rather than getting hired somewhere, running two part-time jobs was much better.

With the money he earned, he sent some home, saved some, and paid off debt.

“...Do I even need to pay the debt?”

Well, the people who were supposed to collect it were gone.

He’d be late. He had to hurry out.

※ ※ ※

The convenience store where Juhyeok worked.

Even though it was a day shift, he couldn’t get his hands on work at all.

0.01% awakening.

And a summoning-trait Player.

No matter how good his trait carried him, it was definitely dangerous.

Was summoning really that easy?

“It’s better not to do it.”

But Juhyeok was young.

A desire to challenge it at least once rose up.

“Fuck! Why can’t I do it too?”

Also, an unclear future.

He couldn’t live his whole life doing part-time jobs.

Do it, don’t do it.

Back and forth.

Weak man trait!

Indecisive, decision paralysis.

At this rate, his awakening would get canceled.

If tower climbing didn’t happen within 3 months after awakening, you lost your Player qualification.

Even existing Players got canceled if they didn’t work.

“It’d be a waste to just let it get canceled...”

In a way, maybe it was fine if it passed with nothing happening.

“Should I at least take a look at what it is?”

If you became a Player, the country stepped in and supported you fully.

Legal consultation, even agreeing to requests for identity protection, buying rewards obtained from tower climbing at high prices—plus endless other benefits.

In the early days, people hid that they were Players, but now many Players revealed their identities and operated openly.

Almost like entertainer celebrities.

They even go into the tower with video recording devices and record and broadcast the strategy process.

If you searched, there were a few.

“Is there no strategy video for a summoning-trait Player?”

There was.

A video filmed by a Player with a trait that summoned golems.

“...Wow!”

Monsters surging in.

A summoning-trait Player gesturing toward them.

THUD THUD THUD THUD!

A golem that looked about 3m tall tore the monsters apart.

Because there were so many, it got pushed back a little, but...

“This trait is more of a honey-sucking trait than I thought.”

The summoner didn’t even look like they were doing anything.

It seemed doable.

“Should I do it?”

But the comments on the video—

└ What’s a 30LV doing on Floor 21? Climb Floor 31.

└ He tried once and got scared, right? That place is a trap zone and monsters come out like crazy.

└ Just get the hell back down to Floor 1.

└ If you repeat-clear Floor 21, is that enough to make a living?

└ You coward bastard.

└ Hey, don’t be too hard on him. If you die in the tower, you can’t even find the body, so you have to understand.

Players who stop climbing.

There were quite a lot.

Of course it got harder the higher the floors.

If it was only hard, that would be fine.

If you slipped up, you died.

So you parked on easy floors and just ate rewards.

Because you could repeat floor missions multiple times.

“I like this guy.”

Even better.

What’s wrong with honey-sucking on an easy floor?

If it was like that, it changed things.

In a corner of Juhyeok’s heart, the thought, should I try it once, began to quietly bloom.

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