Pain changes everything. So does trauma.
I was a weak child once — trembling at the smallest thing, smiling for the most trivial of reasons, nauseated at the sight of blood. A frail, hollow creature who couldn't face anyone.
But now...
I've changed.
I stand ready to face the world with a smile. I kill demons with a calm soul and a cold heart. I am, by any measure, the worst nightmare that could ever cross a person's life — and I owe all of it to pain.
After years in the criminal underworld, after becoming king of the most notorious gangs, no one stood in my way. No one challenged me. Everyone feared even the act of speaking my name. I had planted terror in the heart of every soul around me.
I was the absolute king of death. The architect of darkness.
And every day I became filthier than the one before it. I killed for pleasure. I oppressed for pleasure. I took and destroyed and ruined — all for pleasure.
I loved the ocean. I worshipped the night. I would descend to the depths and drift through the water beneath pale moonlight.
I remember one particular night.
I was at the bottom of the ocean — the moonlight filtering down in weak, broken ribbons around me. In my hand was a head. It wasn't in good condition. A large dagger was buried deep in the skull.
It belonged to someone I despised. So I decided to let the sharks eat his filthy, rotten head. The worst mind in human history deserved to be devoured. I half-believed that skull alone would drive the sharks to extinction.
He hadn't come with a weapon or a threat. He came asking for money. Said he missed me. Said he wanted to live with me.
He said he was my father.
I didn't speak. I only smiled — because I remembered everything he had ever done to me. Every single thing.
He was no longer the giant I remembered from childhood. A short, bloated old man now, with a swollen belly, a cursed tongue, and unkempt hair tilting sideways. He looked like a beggar who had wandered in from the street.
I closed my eyes in revulsion, raised my dagger, and buried it in his skull.
Speaking of skulls...
The tiger before me had its skull completely caved in — crushed by a single blow from one of the Dark Corpses standing behind me. I had simply glanced at the soldier and thought the command, and before I could even form the word aloud, the corpse had already crossed the distance and shattered the tiger's head in one strike.
Now I understand how this works.
"Attributes."
┌─────────────────────────────┐
│ JOKER — STATUS │
├─────────────────────────────┤
│ Level : 31 │
│ HP : 100 / 100 │
├─────────────────────────────┤
│ STR : 38 INT : 60 │
│ END : 31 LCK : 43 │
│ CHA : 20 MAG : 34 │
├─────────────────────────────┤
│ Points Available : 32 │
└─────────────────────────────┘
I thought for a moment, then decided.
┌─────────────────────────────┐
│ JOKER — STATUS │
├─────────────────────────────┤
│ Level : 31 │
│ HP : 100 / 100 │
├─────────────────────────────┤
│ STR : 46 INT : 65 │
│ END : 33 LCK : 50 │
│ CHA : 25 MAG : 39 │
├─────────────────────────────┤
│ Points Available : 0 │
└─────────────────────────────┘
I also activated several powerful new abilities across all four of my specializations — Warrior, Mage, Beast Tamer, Shapeshifter.
Then I began testing my soldiers. I sent them against the white tigers. I watched them move. I watched them fight. Then I killed a few of them myself — and discovered something remarkable.
They don't die.
I severed a head — the soldier picked it up and placed it back. I cut off a limb — it regrew. They were not simply soldiers. They were an immortal army, and they belonged to me entirely.
A month passed.
I think I got a little carried away.
But what can I do? This is who I am.
Before me: one hundred Night Wolves. Their den. Their territory. And yet — not a trace of fear in my body. My skin hummed with something far better.
Was it the thirty-five Dark Corpses at my back, all Level 40? The ten powerful wolves now fighting at my side? The fifty white tigers on my flanks?
No. It's simpler than that.
I'm happy because I'm about to participate in a massacre.
The wolves spotted us and surged forward at full speed.
Not yet. Wait. Wait.
"Warrior's Cry!""Soldier's Blessing!""Heaven's Light!"
Sunlight detonated outward and crashed into the charging pack. In the past, this skill had only scorched skin. Today, more than ten wolves ignited completely.
"Earth Thorns!"
▶ Earth Thorns — Learned ◀ 「 Massive thorns erupt from the ground, impaling and tearing apart everything in their path. 」
Giant thorns tore upward from the earth and ripped through wolf bodies like parchment.
The survivors closed the distance. When they crossed a certain point — thirty-five hands erupted from the ground beneath them. The arms of my Dark Corpses, shooting upward, tearing through more than thirty-five beasts at once. Blood sprayed into the air in a wide arc — a crimson mist hanging against the sky. Anyone who witnessed it would have collapsed from shock alone.
My soldiers rose from the earth and joined the slaughter. I won't let them have all the fun.
"Attack!"
I charged alongside my tigers. Shadow Steps carried me into the wolves' midst in an instant.
"Cleaving Strike!"
I cut off heads and I laughed — strange, unhinged, hysterical laughter. I was genuinely enjoying this.
I drove Athena's Blade into the earth.
"Lightning Strike!"
An electric charge surged from the ground and paralyzed dozens of wolves where they stood.
Blood coated everything. Howls and screams filled the air. It was perfect.
I took wounds. Many of them. I didn't care.
There are three auras in this world — blue, red, and black. But there is a fourth. One that has nothing to do with level or realm. It is the Joker's aura — the aura of blood, ruin, and absolute killing intent.
Mine.
Then I felt it.
▶ Level Up ◀
My level hadn't risen in a month. And now, finally — in the middle of the bloodshed — it climbed.
"Blazing Meteors!"
▶ Blazing Meteors — Learned ◀ 「 Summons a storm of flaming meteors from the sky, raining destruction across a wide area. 」
They fell like burning fists — dozens of them, trailing fire, crashing and detonating. My tigers died in the storm too. I hadn't yet learned to control the range. It didn't matter.
Not one Dark Corpse fell.
Everything around me became fire.
And I smiled.
And smiled.
And smiled.
As long as there is blood and death — I will always smile.