Mind Demon's Path of Domination

Dream Gamblers Mortal Puppet was a bizarre demonic trick.

When Mark first got the trick and saw its description for the first time, he was incredibly disappointed. It was a very useless power that would only make him weaker.

It seemed very flashy and exuberant in all its implications at first sight, but at the same time, its actual benefits for him were rather useless.

He had thought of his new demonic trick as an incredible… dud.

Anybody would think the same if they saw this description and put some thought into it.

_

[Dream Gambler's Mortal Puppet:

You can manipulate the World Wills of any World and make it link your Destiny to that of the Destiny of a Mortal (a person without any supernatural powers), and then challenge the Mortal into a Dream Gamble—a gamble with a dreamer regarding whether you can achieve their dreams if you were in their shoes.

[As long as you win the Gamble, you can ask for one thing that they have (except for your life and non-material things like feelings), and you will get it. If you fail, they can ask for one thing that you have (except for your life and non-material things like feelings), and you can't deny them whatever they ask of you.]

[Doesn't work on the same World Will twice.]

[Only works on Mortals.]

[If the Puppet dies while the Dream Gamble is on, the Puppet Master will also die.]

[You can win either by successfully accomplishing the Dream of the Puppet or by destroying the wish to achieve that Dream entirely.]

[Cannot use any demonic trick of the main body using the puppet.]

_

The use of the demonic trick was simple.

He could use it to touch upon the terrifying powers of the World Wills and use it to challenge a Mortal into a Dream Gamble—a gamble to see whether Mark can accomplish a Mortal's dream if he were in that mortal's shoes.

The Mortal can accept it, but they can also deny it.

In case they accept, the Mortal's body will turn into Mark's puppet and he will have full control over it.

Then, he will be revealed what the Mortal's dream is, and if Mark successfully completes the dream—or destroys it outright from the Mortal's wish—Mark can take any one thing from the Mortal and make it his own.

Throughout the event, he couldn't use any of his other demonic tricks to help either.

At first, Mark had been totally frustrated at the demonic trick. It was useless to him.

Yes, it was flashy and seemed rather exuberant.

But for Mark, anything that a Mortal could get, he could get that too. He was a Lower Demon already, and he was already beyond what Mortals could achieve.

They had nothing to give to him, and they might have ridiculous Dreams. If they won, they could ask for anything from him, including one of his demonic tricks. As for the other way, Mark didn't care for anything that a mortal with no supernatural powers had.

Their money, women, anything, for that matter, was useless to him.

But then, he slowly started generating ideas, and soon enough, he was pretty sure this ability was going to be the greatest thing he received after entering this world.

As long as his ludicrous ideas worked.

Standing outside the school washroom with his wings tucked behind him and Dona in a princess carry, Mark went over his ideas one last time.

The overall plan was to succeed in challenging a mortal into a Dream Gamble, and then, turn that mortal into a 'Hunter' while he was using the mortal as a Puppet, and then, win the Gamble and take the mortal's Hunter Ability for himself.

Since Yuri had said she had learned a way to make Hunters awaken, this plan seemed credible. She had said that as long as one killed a Demon while having a somewhat similar Life Structure to it, they would awaken that power and become Hunters.

That was still a bit complicated, but as long as he had the Puppet, he could make it become a Hunter and then complete its dream to win the Dream Gamble.

He just had to make sure he won the Gamble in the end and didn't lose anything of his own.

If he does win, he will have a totally new ability for free.

But there were risks.

If the mortal he gambles with has a totally ridiculous dream, like attaining immortality or eating the sun, he would lose for sure, and if the mortal were at least someone with half a brain cell, Mark would lose something important from him due to that.

That important thing could even be his violet screen.

But Mark was no fool.

In fact, he had already come up with some methods to mitigate the risk of this demonic trick. Only because of that was he here today. He planned to make the risks super low and the rewards super high.

It was simple, really.

Mark's face stretched into an unconscious grin as he watched Seo Ran Hun inside the public toilet. The youth was salvaging his backpack with a disgusted face.

The demon took a deep breath and used Heart Input.

Without any resistance, he entered Seo Ran Hun's complex mind. It was full of thoughts, and accurately predicting what he would not go against was nearly impossible.

But one could guess.

Mark whispered into the guy's mind, "I will one day take revenge against the Trio Hunters!"

That seemed like a thought that the boy would have naturally.

The bend-backed student sighed at the thought and looked at his drenched backpack with a sad expression.

It was impossible. They were good Hunters, and he was not even a bad Hunter. He was just a simple human. Revenge was impossible.

The chance of him winning was way higher than him losing if he used everything he had efficiently.

That was it. Exactly this was what would make Dream Gambles way easier for Mark.

He will make the mortal's 'dream' that he had to complete as easy as possible by… using Heart Input. He would warp the mind of the mortal so much that their dream would become something easy peacy to accomplish.

After all, it was just a mortal, so, with his current Mind stat, he could use many Heart Inputs on them at once, and making them dream something wouldn't be too hard after that.

That meant he would have to first turn Seo Ran Hun's dream into something very easily achievable. Then, he would have to make him accept the Dream Gamble—which could also be done using Heart Input—and then turn Seo Ran Hun into a Hunter, and then, he would have to win the gamble.

It didn't sound that complicated.