Leveling Up by Executing Monsters

According to Jelas’s confession, on his way home from work one day three years ago, he met the love and treasure of his life, a young woman named Erica.

She just smiled at him and instantly captured his heart.

He soon found out she was a cashier at a women’s clothing store. He then spent a month fawning over her, pouring in considerable time and money before finally winning her over.

The two immediately entered a period of shameless passion.

In the process, Jelas fell completely for her. He felt his girlfriend wasn’t just beautiful and poised; she also had a smoking hot body. Her personality was clever and quirky, but she could also be sweet and cling to him adorably. She was an excellent cook, and even in bed, she was passionate and took the initiative.

She was like the perfect woman, straight out of a fairy tale.

Jelas, in turn, gave almost everything for her, vowing to give her the best life and make her the happiest woman in the world.

He even replaced his Saint Statue with one in the woman’s likeness.

Next, he took out half his savings to help his girlfriend open her own clothing store, but it soon went under due to mismanagement, a total loss, and was forced to close.

Then, he took out the other half of his savings to invest in stock index futures with a friend of his girlfriend’s from the financial sector, hoping to strike it rich.

He lost his money even faster this time; his position was liquidated that very day.

Yet Jelas felt no regret, nor did he blame his girlfriend in the slightest, and he continued to fund her expensive lifestyle.

His perfect girlfriend had originally offered to lower her spending and standard of living, but all it took was a small, pitiful look, a hint of hardship, a longing glance at an expensive dress in a shop window, and Jelas would start borrowing from all over to provide for her.

When no one would lend him money anymore, he decided to take a desperate risk: using his position as an Executioner, he started stealing recyclable organs to sell on the black market.

When his perfect girlfriend found out, she first cried and tried to talk him out of it. But seeing his resolve, she "reluctantly" introduced him to a few black market merchants.

Just like that, Jelas unwittingly became a toy in her palm. All it took was a single tearful, coquettish plea, and Jelas would do anything for her.

And before he left for the current mission, after a passionate interlude, his girlfriend suddenly asked him a question:

"I heard there’s someone in your Holy Judgment Court named Lloyd, who’s supposed to be incredible. I wonder if he’ll be with you this time?"

Jelas became inexplicably jealous and immediately pressed her for details.

His girlfriend gave a reasonable explanation, saying her best friend’s younger brother had just joined the Holy Judgment Court and had specifically requested an assignment to the Eighteenth District to find "the famous Lloyd, who loathes evil as if it were a personal enemy."

This immediately sparked a sense of rivalry and competitiveness in Jelas, which is why he became so fixated on Lloyd.

Completely lost in her tender embrace, he didn’t sense anything was amiss, nor did he wonder why his girlfriend would ask about a complete stranger who was totally unrelated to them.

Then, as he was leaving the next day, a black market merchant with whom he had a good working relationship specifically drove him to the spaceport. During their idle chat on the way, the merchant ’casually’ remarked:

"When I was young, I also took part in a failed ’Great Expansion.’ That was thirty years ago, and damn, was it dangerous..."

"But I was lucky enough to escape. I even earned my first pot of Gold from that operation, but several of my friends were left behind forever..."

"I absolutely hate the people who were in charge of setting up the Orbits. It was their negligence that caused a problem with the core prison cell. The Demon inside broke out and killed so, so many people..."

In this roundabout way, the merchant impressed upon Jelas the importance of the core prison cell—Prison Cell One.

He also ’offhandedly’ mentioned that the Demon in the core cell was a treasure trove, and that even its most worthless scraps could be sold for a handsome price on the black market.

This explained the cause and effect behind all of Jelas’s subsequent abnormal behavior.

In fact, it was more or less what Lloyd had already guessed. This guy wasn’t some professional mole, just a pathetic fool being played like a fiddle.

’What a complete waste of his considerable talent!’

Obviously, his "perfect girlfriend" was an incredibly cunning woman. Through various subtle and veiled tricks, she first swindled Jelas out of his fortune, then slowly hinted that he should break the law, ultimately setting him on a path from which there was no return.

The viper’s methods were brilliant, and she was incredibly patient. The young Jelas stood no chance against her tears and coquettish pleas.

’This just goes to show how important it is to choose the right partner.’

’On the other hand, there’s my Weiya. When she heard I was out of money, she offered to lend me some. The difference is night and day!’

Lloyd thought to himself, feeling a little smug.

’But was this viper just after his money? Or is there some other plot? And why would she mention me?’

The transcript didn’t have the answers to Lloyd’s current questions, so he read on.

The rest of the transcript was Jelas’s description of a hallucination.

"Without realizing it, I had forgotten I was performing a Divination, and forgotten where I was. All I saw was my love, as beautiful as ever, circling a pillar. That’s our favorite game. If I can catch her, I get to enjoy..."

"As I chased her, I saw that she began to strip, just like always, piece by piece, stoking my desire. Soon she was completely naked, and then..."

"She peeled off her own skin!"

"She had completely transformed into a blood-soaked Demon, roaring and writhing..."

"I was terrified. I started running for my life, but I felt trapped in some bizarre maze. I could only run in circles, watching the Demon get closer... and closer..."

"AHHH!!! Please, stop asking! I love her! No matter what she becomes! I will always love her unconditionally!"

Lloyd quickly finished the last page and shook his head.

’This simp is a lost cause...’

’How can he still be so unrepentant after all that?’

He wasn’t sure which system of power had caused the man’s hallucinations.

His own [Twist] could do it, but so could the butler’s [Manifestation] and the Chief Judge’s [Wisdom].

Moreover, this might not have happened just because the Divination was pointed at him. The truth could be as the Knight Commander had said: Prison Cell One was highly significant in its own right, and it was only natural for a reckless Divination concerning it to go awry.

That was all the information the transcript held. It still failed to answer Lloyd’s previous questions.

’I hope that viper was just in it for the money, and that her interest in me was just because she was tired of Jelas.’