Mind Demon's Path of Domination

[The Dream Gamble—Seo Ran Hun v/s Marcus Haeligarth]

[Dream: Ruin the facade of the Trio Hunters and get justice for the dead cousin whom they bullied into suicide by destroying the Trio’s reputation.]

[Conditions:

1. Successfully achieve the Dream.

2. Do not hurt Seo Ran Hun’s immediate family unless they go against you on their own.

3. Do not let Seo Ran Hun die throughout the Dream Gamble’s duration.

[Success Reward: You can take any one thing from Seo Ran Hun as your own (except his emotions or life)]

[Failure Price: Seo Ran Hun can take any one thing from you of his choice ((except his emotions or life)]

When Mark initiated this Gamble of whether he could accomplish Seo Ran Hun’s dream if he were in the youth’s shoes, Seo Ran Hun was nothing worth noticing. He was neither a Hunter nor did Seo Ran Hun have something worthy of Mark taking from him.

But now... that was different. Now, Seo Ran Hun was a Hunter with an incredible Hunter Ability. Mark had given birth to that incredibleness himself. And now, Mark wanted to win the Gamble and take the fruits for himself.

Becoming a Hunter was not Seo Ran Hun’s dream. The youth’s dream was the ruin of his once classmates and his cousin’s murderers—The Trio Hunters’—reputation. Now, Mark had to prove that if he were in the youth’s shoes, he could, in fact, succeed in that dream while adhering to the conditions of the Dream Gamble.

Ruining someone’s reputation was not hard if you knew how to do it. On social media, in conversations, and everywhere else, the Trio Hunters were currently celebrated individuals. They were young, rising stars with the potential to save the world.

They even had an amazing master.

Why was that so when they were, in fact, murderers?

To Mark, the answer was clear. It was a media narrative. Everyone used the social media: Facenote, Latergram, MeTube. Those were media owned by supermassive companies.

People like Hanmo—the A-Rank Hunter—were the top dogs of this world. How could the media speak against them or their disciples? Who would dare?

Then, what happens if they choose to say only good things about the Trio Hunters? Every reel, every short, and every little piece would show their good sides, making their faults insignificant to the less discerning eyes.

Content talking bad about them wouldn’t be allowed to have any traction and content speaking good about them would go trending easily. The owners of the media decided what the world would think. If they wanted the Trio to be the villain, they were the villain. Since they were said to be heroes, they were heroes.

It was a cage made of truths and lies, and Mark liked it for what it was—an excellent tool for mass control.

Mark was calm, though. Ruining someone’s reputation was easy, especially for him.

There were methods out there that even the owners of the media couldn’t stop. Even if they wished they could. By early morning, he began his preparation.

In a good corner of the new lab, he recorded a video in his Puppet’s form. Seo Ran Hun was the dead Seo Jin Hu’s cousin, so his words would have more punch than anyone.

The youth spoke with devilish charm and bitter indignation—all an elaborate act of a demon in disguise.

Can’t you all see that they are murderers? Bullies? Why give them so much fame, love, and adoration while forgetting my cousin? Was he not human?

Shouldn’t we at least make a memorial for him? It’s like... everyone is deliberately working hard to make him forgettable. Why? So that all of us would forget the Trio Hunters’ dark past?

Yes, I know these media want them to be seen as heroes. I bet this video will get canceled, banned, and then removed for no reason. They don’t want my narrative. What they want is to ride the dick of the already powerful.

The video was of utter hate.

When it was over, Mark published it on all social media platforms he could find without hesitation. He also asked Yuri for help getting it promoted with money for more initial reach. It was not going to get much traction—the higher-ups would stump the fire before it could get wild.

Copyright, Content Violation, there were many ways they could use to cancel this video. They ruled it, after all—they decided what to make popular. They decided what trends the world followed.

Yet, they were playing against a demon who could mess with people’s hearts. It was not going to be that simple for them to cut his ambition.

Mark floated out of the Laboratory Dungeon with a hamster atop his head. He could see the early morning sun mot the city below in a tangerine light. He could also see a lot of simple workers working around the dismantled buildings for minimum wages.

They were shifting this city’s reusable materials away. This was a city awaiting the mega-dungeon’s arrival, after all.

Mark hid in the skies and used his Soul Sense to cover one of the resting workers who were on their phones. The man in a construction worker uniform had a scowl on his face and a cigarette between his lips. He was scrolling through his phone.

Now that Mark had Soul Sense, the distance that his Heart Input could cover was huge. He used the power and entered the scowling man’s mind.

Chuckling, he whispered a calm thought into the man’s mind, "Search for the current hot topic, Trio Hunters’ dark history and their cursed heroic reputation."

The man bit his cigarettes hard and searched on Metube. Indeed, soon enough, Seo Ran Hun’s video, which had been just uploaded—and promoted using money with Yuri’s help—immediately came to his feed and he opened it with visible interest.

"Indeed, I knew those three were not good men," the man snorted. "Cheap fame, bastards. I should have gotten that power instead."

Then, seeing that he was one of the first viewers, a thought occurred to him. This video seemed like it was going viral, and it might even get banned or canceled—maybe if he reuploaded it from multiple accounts, one of them might go viral from his end after it got banned.

If he went viral, money would soon follow. Greed flickered in his eyes.

After downloading it, he began uploading his own versions and then sharing his video with his friends. For the sake of it, he even edited in a sad music.

Mark made tens of people from this city do similar things, and he also planted a seed of hatred for the Trio Hunters in all of them—he planted a hateful thought: "These Trio Hunters are so disgusting, and people who support them are even more disgusting."

Thoughts were like a disease since most people already had some resentment for the fortunate people; when they began hating, hate was something that could turn wild. Men can go feral if they have a purpose to go behind.

People are so foolish. Even my kid thinks the Trio Hunters are so cool and someone he should become like. But no, those people are the real criminals walking in daylight. I should at least comment once about this.

I should also tell my family to beware of such things and not trust the media.

Many shared the videos, many reuploaded them, and many kept them in their downloads. If it was canceled, there were already tens of them in this city alone who would reupload it again. Mark gave the last bit of oil to the already blaring fire.

He released another video of Seo Ran Hun. It was a different vibe all around.

The young man had vines growing out of his arms, and his eyes were an ominous green.

"Surprisingly, the world seems to want me to be a Hunter, too. But to me, one thing is clear—those trio will be criminals in my heart. If I have the chance, I’ll beat them down by myself."

Mark’s laughter was cold, and his puppet just laughed along.

The Trio Hunters had everything—a mentor, a powerful ability each, fame—and Seo Ran Hun had nothing. Do you know what people love more than a hero?

It was an underdog hero.

Soon enough, Seo Ran Hun was a viral sensation, and the Trio Hunters were starting to lose their lofty reputation. A demon laughed beyond all that. Yet, having done the initial seed planting, he calmly took the back seat and returned to the Laboratory.

He had other things to handle while his wicked trick marinated. He had a bunch of animals inside the lab that he could finally plant the Dungeon Heart Seeds, and he also had to understand how to evolve. Dona had to become a Pinnacle Lower Demon, too.

More than anything, he had to prepare for the ambush against the Trio Hunters.

After all, I have to gain justice for the cousin by stealing Shiden’s Alchemy Shapeshifting ability and making it my own.

Ruining reputations did nothing for him, what he wanted to do was actually gaining true profit for himself.