Chapter 22
A few moments later.
We were standing in a dark, pitch-black hallway.
“Ladies and gentlemen! Are you ready for another sexy, hot, blood-splattering night?!”
A sharp, mic-amplified voice echoed, followed by the faint roar of the crowd.
The pounding of club music shook the walls, the bass thumping straight into my chest.
A man wearing a headset approached me and Ji Won-gil.
“When I give the cue, you two walk out.”
He spoke like a professional staff member working a normal show.
His voice was so calm and practiced that it stunned me for a second.
“……Are you sure we should really follow this? Wouldn’t it be better to call a support team right now……?”
Once the staff walked away, Ji Won-gil began trembling uncontrollably.
He had seen these shows before, he said.
Not as a spectator—he had been backstage staff.
And apparently he hadn’t been able to eat for three whole days after watching the stage turn into a sea of blood.
I grabbed his hand.
His shaking subsided a little.
“If we call support, you don’t get paid, and I don’t catch the real organizer of this ‘game’. So just do what I tell you.”
Our eyes met.
Ji Won-gil opened his mouth, wanting to say something—
“Cue!”
The staff shouted suddenly.
At the same moment, the door at the end of the hallway opened.
Chiiiiik—
Fog and lights spilled in as if someone had activated a stage effect machine.
I released Ji Won-gil’s hand and calmly walked out.
Outside the door was a giant steel cage.
Beside the cage stood the flashy MC, addressing both the audience around the cage and the VIP spectators seated in private box sections.
“Tonight’s prey… or hunters! Introducing Miss Rosie and Mr. Philip!”
Rosie? Philip? What kind of trash names are those?
Well, what can you expect from people who call other humans ‘prey’.
According to the original novel, somewhere in those VIP booths is Kevin Choi—or even if he’s not physically here…
I looked up at the monitor flashing above the cage.
Cameras covered the entire cage, leaving almost no blind spots. Every second of the bloodbath inside would be streamed live.
‘Kevin Choi is definitely watching this broadcast.’
That bastard is a maniac for this kind of video.
While I was thinking that—
“Now, let’s introduce today’s hunter… or prey! Mrs. Melinda! Everyone altogether—MRS. MELINDA!”
Masked spectators outside the cage roared her name.
Some on the second-floor railing stomped and shouted, “KILL THEM! KILL THEM!”
A second door—opposite the one Ji Won-gil and I entered through—opened with a hiss.
From within the fog came a scraping sound, like something covered in scales dragging along the floor.
Then, two round, beautifully blue eyes emerged through the mist.
The face was stunningly pretty—almost hypnotically so.
But that beauty didn’t match the fact that her lower body was a snake’s—
HAAAAAAAK!
—or that when she opened her mouth, jaguar-like fangs flashed, bits of flesh stuck between them.
She was gorgeous enough to fog my brain for a moment, like she was clouding my judgment.
No—maybe that wasn’t just a feeling.
‘Lamia—a monster that specializes in mental attacks.’
If you touch a lamia, your mind starts to fade. I had to be careful.
I extended the attack item in my hand, shaping it longer.
I chose a spear. Ji Won-gil chose a whip made of flame.
Both were trash-tier items with garbage durability—and D-rank against a C-rank lamia? Useless.
‘Chief Gil—when this is over, I’m locking your ass up.’
I watched Mrs. Melinda’s tail slither.
At the end of that long tail was a venomous stinger.
A single hit could kill even a C-rank hunter instantly.
Fortunately—or unfortunately—C-rank lamias could only use the stinger once.
Lucky us, right? One-shot death by poison, or get beaten to death by the tail instead. What a great set of options.
“Mrs. Melinda is checking out her meal! Our master chef Melinda—how will she cook tonight’s dish?!”
The moment the MC finished, Melinda’s tail lashed toward Ji Won-gil.
KWA-BOOM!
He barely dodged. The impact left a massive crater in the floor.
Her upper half kept its beautiful blue eyes fixed on me while her tail chased Ji Won-gil relentlessly.
HAAAACK!
She hissed at me—like an angry cat!
Ji Won-gil kept running but was eventually cornered near the cage wall—one of the cage’s blind zones.
The cage was made of a special material—touching it caused agonizing pain.
A toy designed to force hunters and monsters toward the center for a better show.
‘These bastards built torture devices… just for entertainment.’
I cursed internally and glanced toward Ji Won-gil—
—but that moment of distraction was enough. Melinda’s claws slashed toward me.
Instead of blocking, I lunged forward with my spear, aiming straight for her heart.
Thud.
It hit something.
“KYAAAAAA!”
My spear, longer than her claws, stopped her advance.
But a D-rank item piercing C-rank lamia scales? Not happening.
“Oho! This prey is putting up a fight! That speed, that judgment, that accuracy! Hard to believe that’s an F-rank hunter!”
Meaning: I only gave her a tiny scratch and made her angry.
Melinda whipped her tail away from Ji Won-gil and toward me.
It wrapped around me instantly, lifting me off the ground.
“I Yoo-ji!”
Ji Won-gil screamed.
He looked like he was about to crack his whip—but his hand froze.
‘Remember only two things.’
He remembered what I told him backstage.
‘First. Do not try to help me.’
The constriction tightened, ribs threatening to snap. The pressure crushed my chest; breathing became agonizing.
The venomous stinger circled my neck, threatening me, teasing me.
Melinda’s expression twisted—almost like a smile—
“Urgh…!”
—before she slammed my body into the electrified cage wall.
Pain exploded through me.
“Yoo-ji!!”
Ji Won-gil’s voice cracked, desperate.
‘Second. Don’t die.’
‘…But promise me this: You don’t die either.’
He had answered, “Yeah.”
Even with my vision fading and pain blurring everything, I stared at the stinger creeping toward my throat.
Now.
NOW.
‘Your body is my body, my body is my body!’
Through chattering teeth and overwhelming pain, I triggered my skill.
And then—
I became Mrs. Melinda, the very monster who had been killing me.
