Chapter 175
Dammit, Seong-Hwi thought as he looked around the white field, clicking his tongue.
He and his team had completed Operation Pest Control a few days ago and were in the middle of their Subterra exploration. They had climbed down to the sub-fourth floor and were hunting Adora-rank Moledens. The lucid dream began as soon as he closed his eyes for a quick break after the battle was over.
I thought the lucid dreams stopped after what happened in Ferrum.
The lucid dreams, which he had been free from thanks to the Steel Rice Grain, had returned.
Why? I’d bet it’s because of Operation Pest Control.
Well over ten thousand Dark Humans had lost their lives in Subterra. He had personally selected only those who would become infamous in the future, and had killed around three thousand of them himself. Three thousand people were enough to pack an entire school gymnasium. He had destroyed over three thousand worlds.
Am I feeling guilty? Was I still capable of such a thing? It must mean my humanity has yet to be completely worn down.
Seong-Hwi couldn’t decide whether to feel happy that his humanity remained or sad that the lucid dream would corrupt his psyche.
The only choice I have is to invest more Karma into the Steel Rice Grain, he thought as he walked across the snowy field.
He could hear the sounds of snow crunching under his feet. No, perhaps it was the sound of snow gathering, embracing each other. They may be snowflakes, but they might be capable of feeling cold.
His vision was impaired because of the blizzard. It was pure white, so he couldn’t tell where the path began or ended—just like human destiny. Just then, he noticed the color red. Seong-Hwi stared silently at the farce playing out before him.
A skinny Mexican man with black, curly hair cackled and said, “Kekekek! Why have I never thought of this before?”
He wore a deep blue AC/DC baseball cap, jeans, and a Members Only jacket. His teeth were brown, and he had terrible breath. He was the Night Stalker, Richard Ramirez. He repeatedly stabbed a woman on the ground with a fruit knife. She was wearing something like a white coat or a gown, and her face was empty like a black void.
“Killing a mother! Kekek! I can’t believe I missed out on such a stimulus!”
The woman he was stabbing to his heart’s content was Seong-Hwi’s mother, whom he had separated from when he was five.
“Stop,” Seong-Hwi mumbled blankly, but Richard did not stop.
“Ahhh, Satan! Satan! Why did you take away my opportunity to kill a mother?! The ultimate taboo?!”
“Stop.”
“I’m jealous of you, Cheon Seong-Hwi! You’ve been killing your mother tens of thousands of times in your mind!”
A red flower bloomed on the white field, as red as the blazing mark eternally engraved in his heart.
“AHHHHH! STOP IT, YOU MOTHERFUCKER!!!” Seong-Hwi screamed as he sprinted across the white field.
Richard Ramirez cackled. The world became distorted—no, perhaps Seong-Hwi was the one who was distorted. He couldn’t reach his mother no matter how much he ran, possibly because of the strong blizzard.
“AHHHHH!”
The voice formed from his excruciating imagination echoed throughout the white field alongside a screeching ring in his ears.
“Wait for me right here. Mommy will come back to get you, no matter what. Wait for me right here. Mommy will come back to get you, no matter what. Wait for me right here. Mommy will come back to get you, no matter what. Wait for me...”
“I’M NOT WAITING FOR YOU ANYMORE!!!”
The world turned black.
***
“Huff! Huff! Huff!” Seong-Hwi opened his eyes as he panted heavily.
He grabbed the Titanic Tide Kris on his back by habit. He felt at ease holding its familiar grip. It reminded him of the fruit knife he had held during his first murder—the same one that Richard Ramirez had. He was Richard, and Richard was him.
He looked around once his breathing calmed. His teammates were gathering the Moledens they had killed in one place. He could hear Leo and Enrique talking.
“Hmm, this makes me feel a little bad. These Chaos monsters still think they’re subterraneans, not Chaos,” Leo said.
“I know, right? I’ve never experienced anything like this,” Enrique replied.
The others were also discussing the abnormal phenomenon they were experiencing in Subterra.
Seong-Hwi remained silent momentarily and then said quietly, “You can stop now, Chaya.”
“Yes, hyung-nim.”
Chaya, holding his kukri tightly, appeared beside him. He had been protecting Seong-Hwi while he was asleep.
“Did I say anything in my sleep?” Seong-Hwi asked.
Chaya remained silent and then replied hesitantly, “No.”
“I see.”
Seong-Hwi stood up and walked toward his teammates, gathering the corpses, as if nothing had happened.
Chaya stared at him from behind, then said, “I will do my best to kill even more, hyung-nim.”
“What?” Seong-Hwi asked as he turned around. He could see an unmoving determination in the boy’s black eyes.
“I will kill even more... so that you won’t have to get your hands dirty.”
Seong-Hwi stared at Chaya silently. Chaya had risen to become the Cecil Hotel’s Chief of Execution in Seong-Hwi’s past life. He thought that such a position was unbefitting of a pure-hearted warrior like Chaya, but he changed his mind after hearing the truth about the Cecil Hotel from Kang-San.
The Cecil Hotel did not exist to help Dark Humans, but to lure them. The Chaya of Seong-Hwi’s past life had likely risen to the position, knowing the truth. Then or now, he was still exterminating Dark Humans.
I’m sure he did so for the sake of his dead sister in my past life, but what about now? What is he doing this for, and for whom? Seong-Hwi wondered, but couldn’t bring himself to ask.
He simply smiled and answered, “You sure have grown. You’re going after my prey now?”
***
Douglas and Evgeny chatted as they explored the dungeon.
“Shouldn’t we get out of here?” Douglas asked.
“And do what?” Evgeny replied.
“I’m the spec force captain. I can’t afford to be absent when such a massive incident has broken out.”
“The same goes for me. I’m a pioneering faction Ranker.”
Their teammates understood their sentiment. There had been commotions throughout Subterra due to the humans inside simultaneously receiving Akasha Messages about the world quests, Lumber the World Tree, and Kill Insectum. It was clear what was happening in the Mirror World.
“It appears a few clans have left Subterra,” Ha-Eun remarked.
Chaya commented, “They gave up on a golden opportunity. Hyung-nim gave them only one ticket to enter Subterra. They must be insane to leave this field of growth so early.”
Ha-Eun snorted but couldn’t deny it since she had already opened one gold cube and eight silver cubes since entering Subterra.
“Are you sure we’re doing the right thing, Seong-Hwi?” Douglas asked.
Seong-Hwi nodded and said, “Don’t worry about what’s happening outside. Lee Kang-San has already made his move.”
“Huuu. I trust the Tortoise Emperor, but this concerns the World Tree and the Tenth Fiend.”
“Exactly. The World Tree and the Tenth Fiend are involved, so your involvement won’t make a difference.”
“That’s a bit harsh,” Douglas mumbled, but did not push his opinions further because they were in a dungeon, and Seong-Hwi was their commander.
Don’t worry. That’s why we’re here. That aside, the Kill Insectum quest, huh? Already? Seong-Hwi thought as his eyes shone.
Enrique, at the vanguard with his Spy Drone Controller, shouted, “They’re coming! At least over a dozen of them!”
“Get in formation. This is the sub-fifth floor. Consider our enemies all Uluhatu-rank,” Seong-Hwi commanded.
His teammates moved at lightning speed.
***
Vibrations felt like they had been amplified severalfold because they were underground. Seong-Hwi and the others looked forward with slight tension and leisure.
Seong-Hwi shouted, “They’re coming from under. Yuki!”
“Okay,” Yuki replied as she activated a skill.
[Activating Unique Skill: Mannequin Control.]
[Mannequin - Filipe Kabuka]
A slouching white mannequin appeared and moved its right hand with a gold ring on it, activating Kabuka’s skill, Almighty Gold. The gold that shot forth from the ring proliferated, creating a giant gold plate. Moments later, dents formed on the gold plate here and there as if it were a game of whack-a-mole. Something was striking the gold plate.
“Gunner and cannon, fire! Match their rhythm, Yuki,” Seong-Hwi commanded.
Douglas aimed his cue stick at the ground, and Evgeny summoned his D Weapon, Chekhov’s Gun.
[Activating Unique Skill: Billiards.]
[Activating Unique Skill: Act I Scene I Magnum.]
Douglas struck the mana balls of various colors with his cue stick, and Evgeny pointed a magnum revolver at the ground and fired. Yuki finely controlled the gold plate, eliminating the gold just enough that only Douglas’s billiard balls and Evgeny’s bullets could pass.
As a result, Seong-Hwi and the others were protected by the plate while they attacked the Moledens. The ground vibrated as fifteen Moledens, having realized an underground attack wouldn’t work, rose from the ground.
[Steel Moleden of the race Chaos, discovered.]
[Copper Moleden of the race Chaos, discovered.]
[Explosive Moleden of the race Chaos, discovered.]
...
“Intruders!”
“Get out of our city!”
“This land belongs to us subterraneans! Exterminate the outsiders!”
The shouting Moledens came in various shapes and sizes, as one would expect from Uluhatu-rank Chaos. Some were over two meters tall, unlike regular Moledens; some had arms resembling those of a praying mantis, and the hands of some were pointed like a drill instead of their usual wide, shovel-like hands. They had all undergone their secondary transformation.
“Stopper,” Seong-Hwi said.
“Huy gaga!” Leo shouted as he stood at the vanguard with his D Weapon, Rhodes.
[Activating Unique Skill: Armification.]
[Activating Unique Skill: Spirit of Maasai.]
Rhodes roared as he transformed into an oval shield. The Moledens that resembled mole crickets simultaneously charged at the group. Leo blocked them without budging, but failed to stop six Moledens from going around him.
“Draw their attention, Targetman,” Seong-Hwi ordered.
“Leave it to me!” Yong-Su said as he summoned his D Weapon and threw his straw hat.
Straws gathered from under the straw hat, forming a scarecrow with its arms straight out.
[Activating Unique Skill: Empty Words.]
“The general is riding a Maybach! Flashing in the east, flashing in the west! Grasping and releasing the world at will! Ruling over a thousand-mile defense line! The general is riding a Maybach!” the scarecrow screeched a song ear-splittingly.
The Moledens reacted to the racket. Yong-Su was a targetman, a tank that specialized in taunting enemies.
“Destroy that thing!”
“I’ll do it!”
Three of the six Moledens were drawn to the mana of Empty Words. They attacked the scarecrow, but it held on despite its straw scattering everywhere.
“I used to shit on Karl Marx even when I was fighting against the commies! You won’t find a man harder-boiled than me!” Yong-Su shouted as he laughed, unsheathing a longsword from his waist and attacking the Moledens taunted by the Straw Scarecrow.
“Bind the rest, Rifinitore,” Seong-Hwi ordered.
“Yes, Commander,” Ha-Eun answered concisely as she grabbed a cylindrical plastic container resembling a film canister.
She opened the container’s lid, and something purple surged forth from inside.
[Activating Unique Skill: Sticky Swamp.]
The Moledens were stuck inside the purple swamp.
“What the hell is this?!”
“Cut it!”
“It keeps replicating! We must burn it!”
This was Ha-Eun’s D Weapon, Liquid Monster, a perfect D Weapon for a rifinitore, also known as a chancemaking binder.
“I’ll burn it!” said a Moleden as it glowed red, about to use its fire element skill to burn the sticky purple liquid.
Just then, Chaya charged at the Moleden—while Concealing Cloak was active, of course. He stabbed the head of the Moleden, who was about to activate its fire skill.
“Kurgh!”
Its os was broken, and it collapsed as dark red blood poured out of it.
“Tch! I hate his guts, but we have a good affinity,” Ha-Eun mumbled.
Chaya was a stealthy assassin. Combined with Ha-Eun’s Sticky Swamp, Chaya could become the ideal poacher position. As Yong-Su and Ha-Eun kept the six Moledens at bay, Leo fell back after fulfilling his role as a stopper. All that remained was a full assault.
“Let’s bet on who kills the most, Doom Sniper,” Douglas remarked as he activated a skill.
[Activating Unique Skill: Three-Cusion.]
The mana balls Douglas fired curved freely in the air, striking the Moledens. The mana balls exploded upon contact, creating massive gusts from the release of condensed mana.
“Whoa, there, spec force captain. You’re the gunner. Of course, you’d kill more. I’m a single-target cannon,” Evgeny replied as he activated his skill, not wanting to lose.
[Activating Unique Skill: Act I Scene II Magnum.]
The Act I Scene I Magnum in his hand vanished and was replaced with the Act I Scene II Magnum, a larger revolver with more rounds in the cylinder. The bullets, their power amplified as much as the size, destroyed the Moledens’ os.
“Good,” Seong-Hwi smiled in satisfaction at the magnificent team.
Considering its members, it was harder not to be magnificent. Leo was as powerful as a Ranker. Douglas Montgomery and Evgeny Lazarev were seventeenth and eighteenth in the human ranking, respectively. On top of that, Seong-Hwi was on the level of a High Ranker, and Onie Yuki was a High Ranker.
[825,180 Karma obtained.]
[887,155 Karma obtained.]
[751,122 Karma obtained.]
...
[Purification merits obtained.]
[Purification merits obtained.]
...