Johan had left the ruins of a small town behind him, but his ambitions had grown far beyond its crumbling remains. That had only been a test. He considered them an experiment in control, a way to sharpen his understanding of how easily people could be broken. Now, he was ready for something greater. He had chosen his next stage carefully. A city of wealth, power, and secrets. A place where corruption was woven into the very fabric of daily life, where men in suits shook hands in dark rooms, exchanging deals and lies with the same ease. And yet, for all its filth, for all its hidden sins, the city functioned. People lived under the illusion of order. They believed in rules and laws. They truly believed in a system that kept them safe. They were comfortable. And that, to Johan, was the most dangerous lie of all. Because comfort made people weak. It made them blind. And he would be the one to make them see. Johan did not draw attention to himself. That was never his way. He had no interest in making a grand entrance. He did not need to announce his presence. He only needed to exist. To become a part of the city's unseen landscape. A shadow moving through the streets, unnoticed. A presence that no one recognized until it was too late. He found a place to stay, a temporary home among the thousands of faceless residents. It did not matter where. No one would remember him anyway. When he got there, he began his work. Johan’s first step was always the same. He watched, listened, and learned. Like he had always done. He spent his days walking through the city, blending into crowds, sitting in cafes, standing on busy street corners, his eyes always moving, his mind always working. People revealed everything without realizing it. A nervous glance. A hesitant handshake. The way someone hesitated before answering a question. Every movement, every word, was a window into their fears.  Johan had spent years learning how to read those fears. Every system, no matter how strong, had cracks. And this city was full of them. Johan saw it in the way the politicians spoke in carefully measured tones, afraid of saying too much. He saw it in the way businessmen guarded their reputations, terrified of a single scandal ruining them. He saw it in the way the wealthy locked their doors at night, convinced that money could keep them safe. They were all afraid of something. Afraid of losing power. Afraid of losing control. Afraid of being exposed. And fear was still the greatest tool of all. Because fear did not just break people. It made them break themselves. Johan never acted immediately. That was the mistake of lesser manipulators acting too soon, too eagerly. He had patience. And so, he took his time. He began by planting small doubts. A whisper to a city councilman. "Do you ever wonder if your allies truly trust you?" A note slipped into the office of a journalist. "There are stories you’ve missed. Things happening in the shadows. But maybe it’s safer that way." A casual conversation with a wealthy investor. "Markets are so unpredictable, aren’t they? It only takes one mistake to lose everything." He never told them what to do. He simply let the ideas fester. Let them take root in the darkest corners of their minds. And once the seed was planted… the mind would do the rest. Johan watched as his whispers took effect. The councilman grew paranoid, doubting even his closest allies. The journalist started digging too deep, chasing stories that were better left buried. The investor made rash decisions, his fear of failure outweighing logic. One by one, they began to unravel. Their small, private doubts turning into public mistakes. Their confidences turning into crumbling facades. The cracks in the city were widening.  Johan simply smiled. Because he had seen this before. He knew how it would end. It was subtle at first. An argument in a government meeting, voices raised higher than usual. A business deal gone wrong, investors suddenly pulling out. A rumor spreading through the streets, vague yet powerful. And then the fear began to spread. People started questioning everything. Was the government hiding something? Were the banks really as stable as they claimed? Had someone uncovered a secret too dangerous to be spoken aloud? The paranoia grew. Trust eroded. And soon, the city was no longer the calm, ordered place it had once been. It was on edge. Everyone was afraid. And that was exactly what Johan had wanted. Johan had learned something new in his time in the city. It was not enough to simply plant doubts in a few people. The true art of destruction was making an entire society destroy itself. And this city, with its power and wealth, carefully maintained illusions. This was the perfect place to test his theory. He had set the pieces in motion. Now, all he had to do was watch. Watch as the city tore itself apart, piece by piece. Watch as order collapsed, replaced by suspicion and fear. Watch as power crumbled, not because of outside forces, but because he had made them destroy themselves. Johan did not need recognition. He did not need people to know his name. Because the effects of his actions was enough. The destruction, the fear, the chaos. That was his legacy. They would never know who had done this. Never realize that the child in their midst had been the architect of their downfall. But he would know. And that was enough. Because Johan was not just a boy anymore. He was an idea. A whisper in the dark. A force unseen, yet inescapable. And soon, this city, just like the town before it, would learn that no one was safe.