After only six hours into his journey, Haru began to see the true face of this world: news of murders everywhere, nations steeped in corruption, war criminals holding high positions, and ordinary people treated as nothing more than tools. Organizations kidnapped civilians, forcing them into labor and brainwashing them for their own purposes.

  Some heroes abused their powers in the worst ways imaginable — stealing, killing, looting. Yet the public still called them symbols of justice, even though they had no real authority, merely puppets of their governments.

  There was no such thing as justice in this world. The truth was simple — the law itself did not exist, only tools pretending to be it.

  At that moment, as Haru stepped onto a remote island, anger consumed him. “Even this world isn’t perfect… it’s worse!”

  His rage built until the veins in his neck nearly burst. Bafris laughed hysterically. “These worlds never disappoint me! Crushing the dreams of fools like you, my na?ve master! Did you really think something like a perfect world existed?”

  Bairo lowered his voice, trying to calm him. “My lord, I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to give you false ho—”

  Before he could finish, Haru glared at him coldly. “Shut up! I’ve had enough of your pathetic hopes! You could’ve just stayed silent like the others, but no — you had to start this nonsense! You act as if you know everything! I’m sick of you and your delusions! From now on, you don’t speak unless I allow it!”

  Bairo bowed his head. “…I understand your disappointment, my lord. Since I was young, I only wanted to make you happy in any way I could. If silence is what you wish, then I’ll remain silent. I’m sorry I failed to meet your expectations, my young master.”

  Bairo then returned into Haru’s body. In that moment, Haru lost all hope. The faint light that once lingered in his eyes faded completely.

  He decided then — he would crush every organization, every being that had twisted the meaning of justice. Only after that would he rest, perhaps in a peaceful place like Japan, and live a quiet life.

  At the same time, in Japan — specifically Greater Tokyo — everything was calm and peaceful… until something strange happened. In an instant, the traffic lights and sensor systems shut down, all communications jammed.

  Moments later, deafening explosions erupted across Tokyo, drowning the city in chaos. Hundreds of thousands perished in the blasts, while giant rats tore through the streets, devouring people alive. Tens of thousands of children were kidnapped.

  And all of it happened in less than three hours.

  Twenty minutes later, Haru appeared, stunned. Buildings were burning, the screams of people echoed everywhere, and corpses filled the streets. All of this — and not a single hero had arrived.

  Haru stood frozen. “Where’s the fire department? The medics? The police? And most importantly… where are the heroes?”

  Disgust and fury twisted inside him. “Even a peaceful life has become impossible! Beautiful on the outside, but hollow and meaningless within!”

  In his frustration, he noticed one of the giant rats descending into the sewers. Haru shuddered — he hated and feared rats — and ordered his shadows to follow it quietly.

  The shadows tracked the creature through massive tunnels until they reached a colossal mobile industrial machine.

  They infiltrated the drilling device and found thousands of children forced to work mercilessly, hauling cargo. One child, a white wolf-like boy, collapsed from exhaustion.

  One of Dr. Malvern’s subordinates began beating the boy with a metal rod. The poor child barely had the strength to cry out as the man shouted to the others, “Anyone who dares to slack off will be punished — tortured — and turned into a giant rat!”

  The other children trembled in terror as the beating continued. Just before the man could kill the boy, he suddenly stopped.

  Confused, he turned around — and saw Bairo standing behind him. Before he could react, Bairo sliced the man cleanly in half.

  Meanwhile, in Dr. Malvern’s main facility — where he was transporting stolen goods, kidnapped children, and supplies with the help of his monstrous rats — the scientist felt uneasy. Something about returning to Japan and launching this attack suddenly seemed like a terrible mistake.

  His assistant, Rindo, tried to reassure him. “Oh, come on, boss! Everything’s fine! No stupid heroes have shown up, and no one can find us thanks to the signal jamming.”

  Before he could finish, a loud crash echoed through the base.

  Dr. Malvern and everyone around him froze. One of them asked, “…What was that?”

  The sounds of intrusion grew louder — screams, gunfire — then, suddenly, silence.

  Everyone was terrified. The children began to cry, except for a few who were too numb to react. The assistants barked at them to shut up and prepared their weapons.

  Then the noises returned — but not from the steel door. They were coming from below.

  From the shadows beneath the floor, a swarm of black monsters emerged, tearing through Malvern’s men with terrifying ease.

  Dr. Malvern panicked. He ordered Rindo to activate the teleportation device, but before the man could move, his head was severed brutally by Bafris.

  Bafris then bit off Malvern’s arm with his jagged teeth. The scientist screamed in agony but managed to slam his hand on the control panel at the last second, teleporting himself away from the carnage.

  Moments later, Haru arrived, following the trail of Dr. Malvern.

  Silence fell. One of the children whispered, “Are we… free?”

  At that moment, a little girl stepped forward from among them. In a blur of terrifying speed, she destroyed the massive machine effortlessly — and followed after Haru.

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  After that, the events shift to Dr. Malvern’s device deep within the sewers. He emerged from the small mobile machine, blood pouring heavily from his arm.

  Then, memories flooded his mind — his childhood. His mother had died giving birth to him, and he was born without any special powers. As he grew up, he was bullied by other children for his frail, pitiful body. He spent most of his life alone.

  When he turned twenty, his father died of a chronic illness, leaving him all his possessions and research. The son wanted to make his father proud, to continue his legacy — but he was consumed by cursed, grotesque experiments.

  He began kidnapping children because they were the easiest to control. He stole, he killed, all in the name of perfecting his experiments. In the end, he lost everything he had built long ago.

  Bleeding and enraged, Malvern cursed and shouted, “Damn that useless assistant! Damn that so-called Dominus Umbrae! This was a suicidal idea!!!”

  Before he could finish, the sound of footsteps echoed through the sewers. From within the shadows, Haru appeared.

  Dr. Malvern froze in terror. “Stay away from me!” he screamed. But Haru didn’t care. He grabbed Malvern’s leg — and severed it.

  The doctor howled in agony, his screams echoing through the tunnels as blood gushed from the wound. “Please… stop!” he begged, but Haru didn’t listen.

  Haru summoned Bafris and said coldly, “Do as you please.”

  Bafris grinned, his expression twisted with delight as he looked at the terrified doctor. “As you command, my lord.”

  Malvern’s fear grew unbearable. “If you let me live, I’ll tell you everything!” he pleaded. But Haru ignored him and walked away.

  The tunnels filled with the sound of Bafris’s laughter — and the sickening noise of flesh being torn apart as he butchered Dr. Malvern into pieces.

  After this, Haru emerged from the sewers to the surface, amidst the rubble and destroyed buildings, and said: "I've accepted reality: there is no perfect world. I thought I would find an ideal world—a world without evil, without chaos, a world free of suffering or disasters. I no longer have a purpose, I no longer have a reason to live."

  Haru tried to aim at his own heart or cut off his own head, but his body prevented him, realizing he would never find peace.

  But before he could leave, a little girl appeared, gripping his cloak tightly. Haru shouted at her: "Get away from me! Let go of my cloak!"

  The girl refused, saying sadly: "Please, don't leave me! I don't… I don’t want to be alone!"

  Haru began to pity her, until Bafris appeared and said to Haru: "Have you really been moved by the words of a weak, pitiful creature like this? And what will you do? Think, think about it, my na?ve master! What if she's trying to deceive and use you? And even if you trust her, what will you do? Will you take her with you? She’s just a worthless being with no meaning, like all the worlds you've visited!"

  Unfortunately, Haru was convinced by his words and began to pull the girl away, but the girl refused to let go of the cloak. Instead, she used her power to pin Haru down so forcefully that the ground began to crack—yet Haru remained completely unaffected.

  He angrily told her: "Give me the cloak!"

  The girl refused and stammered: "I… I…"

  The girl released the cloak and said sadly: "I’m sorry… I just didn’t want to be alone. My family died because of this world, and I—along with the other children—were enslaved to serve it. They made us do all kinds of hard labor. We weren’t allowed to speak or interact with each other. I just want friends."

  The girl began to cry sorrowfully, saying: "Can… we become friends?"

  Haru did not answer, but continued walking. However, before flying away, he asked her: "What's your name?"

  The girl answered hesitantly: "My name is Mitsuri."

  Haru gave her one last look and said: "My name is Haru." Then he flew away from the place.

  After this, Haru opened the rift using the force of his power. Bafris was astonished and said to him: "I can’t believe you not only showed those disgusting things called emotions, but you also told her your name!"

  But before he could finish, Haru said to him: "Shut that filthy mouth of yours! All you want is killing and amusement. You are nothing more than a nuisance to me now, so be quiet!"

  Bafris was angered by this dismissal, but Haru paid no attention. However, just before leaving, he heard a nearby voice: "W… wait a moment, please! What did you just do?!"

  Haru was surprised and asked him: "Where did you come from?"

  The man said: "Um… I came from the rubble? Anyway, my name is Haruma Tsukishi, I'm 25 years old, and I'm unemployed."

  Haru wondered and asked in surprise: "Why were you following me and telling me everything about yourself?"

  The man, trying to catch his breath, said: "Take me with you if possible, and I promise I’ll build a giant company in all fields of energy, machinery, technology… and much more."

  Bafris was baffled, calling the man an idiot or a psychopath. Haru told him he didn’t care what he said, even though he found the matter interesting, and said he had nothing to lose—the real loser would be him.

  But Haruma said with full confidence: "Don’t worry about me. I no longer care about setbacks. Loss, failure, and frustration never mean surrender—only moving forward with a pure heart."

  Haru was surprised by this stranger's words, but agreed. As the man entered with him, Haru asked: "How will that thing called a company be built?"

  And just as Haruma began explaining everything to him, the portal vanished from existence.

  Minutes passed slowly as a group of heroes descended into the depths of the sewers. One of them, scanning the area cautiously, said, “Sir Ignis Rex, shouldn’t we inform the exploration team first?”

  The commander replied coldly, “There’s no need. The children have already been recovered. Our main objective now is to find the remaining escapees.”

  Before he could finish, one of the heroes shouted from afar, “I found one of them!”

  They rushed toward the voice, only to find a mutilated corpse—torn apart completely, blood mixing with the filthy sewer water, while rats and worms devoured the flesh greedily. Some of the heroes staggered back, vomiting, as one of them stammered, “We should examine the body, maybe we can—”

  Ignis cut him off sharply,“Bring it to the passage.”

  They lifted the corpse with difficulty, and as soon as it was laid down, the commander extended his hand. Flames burst forth, consuming the body in seconds.

  Aqualion shouted,“Sir! We weren’t supposed to move the body! We were supposed to—”

  Before he could finish, Ignis struck him hard in the stomach with a fiery blow, forcing a gasp of pain from him. Ignis’s voice was sharp and furious, “Do you want the public to see proof of our failure? To hand them our disgrace on a platter of ashes?!”

  Aqualion raised his head weakly, his voice hoarse, “But… we already failed…”

  Ignis stepped closer, his eyes glinting with a deadly calm, “No. We didn’t fail. The government did. The people did. We’re merely cleaning up their filth.”

  Then, in a quiet but threatening tone, he added,“ Because of your insolence, your pay will be cut. And if you dare expose what happened here, I’ll make sure everyone believes you’re allied with the criminals. Don’t test me, Aqualion… I can extinguish your life as easily as I extinguish fire.”

  Ignis walked away with steady steps, leaving Aqualion kneeling amid the smoke and ashes, unsure whether what had burned before him was a corpse… or his conscience.

  Two years passed after those events. Haru was now eleven years old and had built his own company—an enormous enterprise with branches and products spread across worlds. It was known as Infinity Nexus, employing beings of all kinds: humans, aliens, and even cosmic entities.

  One day, as Haru was walking through the company halls, two of his top employees—Ane and Ina—approached him, informing him that two individuals wished to meet him.

  Haru told them to leave, saying he was busy, but before he could finish, the two figures were already standing before him.

  He stared at them in surprise. Their bodies were small, as if they were around fourteen years old, but what shocked him most was that both of them possessed the same energy he did.

  One of them stepped forward and introduced himself as Goo1, saying, “I won’t waste time talking. Either you come with us quietly to the organization… or we’ll drag you there ourselves.”