The man was what many would call a natural-born winner.
From early childhood, he possessed an intellect that placed him head and shoulders above his peers. He navigated life by leaning into his strengths. He breezed through a prestigious private middle school, followed by a top-tier preparatory high school. He passed the entrance exams for the nation's most elite university on his first attempt and secured a position at a major bank. His life was a journey devoid of setback.
Even at the bank, he showed remarkable success. As he advanced along the promotion track, his life was the very definition of smooth sailing.
However, he harbored one significant flaw—his methods as a banker.
There is a saying that a bank lends you an umbrella on a sunny day only to take it back when it rains. His approach was a cold, calculated intensification of that sentiment. He flooded thriving clients with unnecessary loans to maximize his returns. In contrast, he used every ruthless tactic at his disposal to claw back funds from struggling businesses, ensuring his own losses remained at zero.
While his methods weren't technically wrong in a business sense, he appeared to those around him as a man devoid of blood or tears. He paid no mind to the whispers or the glares, dismissing them as the "inconsequential noise of fools."
In his eyes, the world belonged to the powerful.
To him, power wasn't merely martial strength—the crude ability to win a brawl. True power was intellect, authority, and money. The intellect required to find an opponent's weakness and exploit it was far more useful than martial strength, which could do nothing more than punch the person in front of you. Once a person secured a superior position, those below them would prostrate themselves, rendered unable to defy their better.
And with money, almost any objective could be fulfilled. Conversely, those without money were destined to remain as pathetic existences whose dreams were never realized—people who existed only to be robbed.
Money, in particular, was a form of magic power. As long as one had money, those who lacked it would obey any command as if under hypnosis. The sight of humans occasionally staining their hands with illegal acts for the sake of money was nothing more than an object of ridicule and contempt for him.
In his line of work, he often saw people stripped of their wealth, their precious belongings, and their pride. He threw himself into his career to ensure he would never become such a miserable creature. While his ascent created many such victims, he steadily climbed higher and higher.
However, in contrast to his meteoric rise at the bank, his personal life was utterly barren. The people around him sensed his inner nature—cold, arrogant, and condescending. Coupled with his machine-like personality, he had not a single friend, let alone a lover. He did not consider this a problem; he had never felt such connections were necessary. To him, lovers and friends were merely bothersome burdens. He was glad to be rid of them.
His perspective changed on one fateful day.
While walking home after a routine day at the office, he was ambushed and stabbed with a knife. The assailant was a man who had lost his livelihood, his family, and his future because of the banker's cold efficiency. His motive was simple: revenge.
In his final moments, the man reflected on his choices. His regret wasn't for his lack of compassion; rather, it was for his tactical error in acting alone. He had inadvertently made himself an easy target by being predictable.
Since he had no social life, he simply went straight home after work every day. His behavioral patterns were exceedingly easy to grasp. He knew humans would commit illegal acts for money, and since the world was full of such fools, he should have anticipated that an idiot would strike out in a fit of revenge—a foolish act that didn't yield a single yen of profit.
I knew I was resented, so I should have been more careful... he thought, just before losing consciousness.
(If there is a next time, I will gain power based on this lesson. If I obtain the strength to ensure no one can kill me, I can go even higher...!)
He lost his life that day, but he was granted a second chance.
Applying the hard-won lessons of his first life, he began to accumulate power. He sought out allies and formed a faction. While they were merely in a relationship of mutual exploitation—far from anything resembling friendship—this suited him perfectly. Thanks to this arrangement, he enjoyed himself and obtained everything he desired. Cooperating for a shared purpose was far more efficient than the cloying sentimentality of true friendship.
With intellect, authority, martial strength, and the power of a collective behind him, the current version of himself had no blind spots. He would continue to wield this power and remain a superior existence.
Hypno—the man who dared to claim the name of a god—knew no fear. He would use his power to triumph, to plunder, and to rule. That was his nature, and it remained unchanged even by death.