Chapter 1

Kurono Kousuke stands amidst seven corpses.

These severely damaged bodies are the result of his own destruction and disposal.

One could also call it extermination.

He had no intention of killing.

It was impossible to embrace them.

The people who had turned into foul-smelling filth were, to put it mildly, scum even in life.

Now, with no trace left, all seven of them were young men around Kousuke’s age of eighteen, but their conduct was so abhorrent that if a god truly existed, they would have been the first to receive divine punishment. The number of people they had directly or indirectly led to death easily exceeded a hundred.

Yet, until that day, they had continued to live without any punishment, indulging in their wickedness and savoring their pleasures as if breathing was a right granted to them.

Evildoers under the protection of the powerful go unpunished.

The darkness that inevitably arises within the structure of society.

A reality that, on a global scale, is not so rare.

However, for those who have suffered because of it, it is far from something that can be tolerated.

Kousuke felt the same way.

What they had taken from him could never be recovered.

No matter what actions he took in this world, he could never get it back.

And yet, their lives continued.

The harm they caused never ceased, piling up endlessly.

Someone had to put an end to it.

One could say that this is a normal human reaction, rooted in a sound ethical sense.

Pests must be exterminated.

An irrefutable conclusion.

Thus, Kousuke spent five long years and finally succeeded in exterminating them on that day.

He felt no sense of accomplishment.

He thought he might feel like shouting in triumph, but no emotion stirred within him.

Despite achieving the desired result, all he felt was a profound sense of emptiness and desolation.

Of course.

There was no way he could feel satisfaction from such a non-productive act of revenge.

And that was fine.

His goal was achieved, after all.

There was no longer any reason to linger in this world.

No reason to live.

He placed the knife he held against his carotid artery.

All that was left was to end it.

"Isn't it a waste?"

The moment he heard this voice, Kurono Kousuke’s life ended.

If it wasn’t a delusion, the knife should have slit his throat.

He should have watched, detachedly, as dark red liquid gushed from below his field of vision.

He thought he felt no pain, perhaps because he had lost his sense of reality.

However.

His suicide did not succeed.

Or perhaps it succeeded, but he did not die.

Kousuke was alive.

Then, when he next awoke, who would he be?

What does it mean for someone whose life has ended to not be dead?

The answer is—.