Meanwhile, on the other side, the streets echoed with nothing but the shrill scream of police sirens, and between them moved a lone shadow—Cheng. His legs were exhausted, his breaths broken, yet the weight crushing his heart was far heavier than the strain on his body. The pain of leaving his mother's corpse on a cold stone bench outside the hospital was tearing his chest apart. With every step, it felt as though he was running not only from the police, but from his own life.
The sound of bullets fired from police vehicles sliced through the air, and Cheng understood now that this was no mere arrest operation—it was a planned hunt. Marcus had long ago removed the option of capturing him alive. He was no longer just a "criminal"; he had become a disposable body for the system, a scapegoat on whom the police could dump their failures by pinning all their old, unresolved cases on him.
He turned into a narrow alley where the darkness was so dense that even the streetlight seemed to have surrendered. There, his steps faltered, and he collapsed beside a wall. Blood was flowing from his knee—perhaps he had been shot, or perhaps a bullet fired by the police had grazed past it. The pain reminded him that he was still alive… but for how long?
Cheng was deeply troubled, and at that moment there was no one by his side to guide him toward the right path or to help him. He was crying, remembering his loneliness and the loss of his mother, when suddenly her voice echoed in his mind: "My son, do not walk the wrong path, no matter how cruel the world becomes."
Cheng laughed—a bitter, broken laugh. "The wrong path? Mother, when did the world ever let me choose the right one?" He was still lost in his thoughts when a faint sound suddenly startled him.
Then he felt as though someone else was there in the darkness. Not the police… something else. An unnatural chill lingered at the corner of the alley, the air seemed frozen, and then he saw it—a tall shadow, shaped like a human, but with a red glow in its eyes, slowly moving toward him.
"Why are you running, Cheng?" The voice carried a strange echo, as if several people were speaking at once.
Cheng replied with a mix of laughter and anger, "Who are you, and why have you come here? And why shouldn't I run? Wealthy and powerful people have turned an innocent man like me into the world's most wanted criminal, because of which I couldn't even perform the last rites of my dead mother." As he said this, Cheng suddenly fell silent.
Hearing Cheng's words, the shadow slowly moved forward and then spoke, "On this earth, the wealthy and the powerful have always exploited the weak and the helpless, and it is those helpless people who are forever punished for crimes they never committed. But what the world does not understand is that when such innocent souls, broken by their circumstances, come to settle their accounts with people, no one is able to stand against them."
In that moment, Cheng felt that whatever that shadow was, it was speaking the absolute truth. After all, what had the world ever given him? First, his father had died when Cheng was still very young. Then his mother had worked tirelessly to somehow complete his education so that he could secure a good job—but because of the government's bogus system, he never got one. When he started his own business, the wealthy shut down his shop. And when he finally began earning a little money by walking the wrong path, committing small thefts, the police turned him into a scapegoat just to make themselves look better.
For the first time, it was not just revenge that was born in his heart, but hatred—hatred for the system, for the hospital, for Marcus… and for that Secret Admiral whom the world had begun to worship as its messiah.
"You're right," Cheng said in a trembling voice. "In this world, being born into poverty and helplessness is itself a crime. The world has exploited me enough, but now I will return every wound they ever gave me. Even if, for that, I have to become a devil."
Hearing Cheng's words, the shadow standing in the darkness began to smile, because it knew that the Cheng who had once been a petty thief—someone his mother had always stopped from committing any serious crime—had now changed. The raging fire of anger and revenge burning inside him had forced him to become a living beast, and that was exactly what the dark shadow standing before him in the alley desired.
At the same time, in another part of the city where Victoria's house was located, Victoria had reached home, where her parents were already seated and preparing for dinner.
"Oh, so you're finally home. Where have you been all this time, young lady? Today neither your college was open nor our office. So where exactly were you roaming around the city with your car?" Victoria's father, Allen, asked as he looked at her.
"Nothing, Dad. I just went out for a while with Rozer. I wanted to come back early, but that Rozer simply wouldn't let me. Then we went for coffee, and after that we completely lost track of time. But didn't you find out that Mom has sent both David and Daniel back to their boarding school?" Victoria said as she sat down on the chair beside him.
"Yes, I did find out. And really, who else could argue with your mother and win?" Allen replied, then added in a teasing tone, "But tell me one thing—this Rozer, is he just your friend, or something more than that? I mean, your boyfriend?"
"Oh, Dad, please!" Victoria burst out laughing. "He's a total madman. And even if he were the last boy on earth, I still wouldn't make him my boyfriend."
Victoria and Allen were still talking when Olivia came out of the kitchen carrying the food. Looking at Victoria, she said, "It's already quite late. Go wash your hands and face, and come have dinner quickly."
Saying this, Olivia began serving the food at the dining table with the help of a maid, but at that very moment, Victoria suddenly remembered the Truth Fairy—someone she had completely forgotten until now.
"Oh, Mom! I'll just be back from my room in a minute. You set my plate till then," Victoria said, and hurried upstairs to check her room.
At the same time, Garie's treatment was going on at the hospital, where he was having his wounds dressed—the wounds that Marcus had actually inflicted on him. Yet in the report, Marcus had claimed that those injuries were caused by Cheng when he was escaping from custody. Garie was still lost in the same thought: how he could possibly help Cheng.
"Garie, if your dressing is done, let's go. We have to return to headquarters. Marcus sir called," said the policeman who had brought Garie to the hospital, looking at him.
"Yes, alright, let's go," Garie replied, getting up to leave.
Ever since Garie had arrived at this Metro Hospital, his eyes had been searching for Cheng everywhere. And just as he was about to step out, he overheard a doctor saying that a man had been creating a huge scene in the morning when his mother had passed away, and now that he couldn't pay the hospital bills, how could any doctor possibly treat a patient for free?
When Garie heard the conversation between those two doctors, he was deeply shaken. He began thinking to himself, Oh my God! First, this Marcus beat Cheng mercilessly and tortured him, inflicting unbearable physical pain—and now they've taken his mother away from him, torturing him mentally as well. Who knows what that poor Cheng must be going through right now. Lost in these thoughts, Garie stepped out of the hospital with the policeman and headed toward the police headquarters.
Meanwhile, in the city's old industrial area, in that dark alley, Cheng had now completely fallen under the influence of the dark shadow's words.
"You won't have to fight just the police or humans," came the voice of Aethna, hidden within the darkness.
"What do you mean—then who else will I have to fight?" Cheng asked, startled.
"You will have to fight that god who created the poor merely to entertain and serve the wealthy in this world. You will have to fight everyone who claims to be the guardian of pure light and the representative of god—because if god had even the slightest concern for you, he could have saved your mother."
The dark shadow's hands slowly moved toward Cheng, and in the very next moment, a black smoke seeped into him.
The dark shadow had now taken control of not only Cheng's mind but also his body. Slowly, it revealed its faint face to him—and it was none other than the Dark Goddess Aethna herself, who had come to turn Cheng against God and the Secret Admiral to serve her own purpose on this earth.
As the black smoke seeped deeper into him, Cheng closed his eyes, and a strange fire of power began to ignite within—a power born solely from pain and rage.
"I want… I want so much strength that I can make the world feel the same pain it has given me," he whispered to himself.
As the words left his lips, Aethna placed her hand on his shoulder, and a dark energy surged through his body. He was no longer just human; his blood, his anger, and his power merged together, awakening the demon within him.
Now, Cheng could clearly feel the flowing darkness and malice coursing through him. In the silence of the alley, only the sound of the wind and Aethna's hidden smile remained.
"Remember," Aethna's voice echoed, "there is no turning back on this path."
Within Cheng, a new identity was born—a force that was not human, a perfect fusion of demon, pain, and evil. A new war had begun, and this time, the Secret Admiral would face a villain whose very existence had been unknowingly created by her own hands.