Chapter 23
“Is that the only way?”
“Our hands have been tied for two days already, boss. We only have fifteen days left.”
“He’s right. We don’t know how many Teleport Rocks there are left. It’s too dangerous to waste any more time.”
Three men were discussing inside a cave in the third zone. The man addressed as the boss was a large mestizo with a handlebar mustache. He was Eugenio, the boss of the Chedbell gang, which had taken over District 10 and was expanding its forces by absorbing people from other districts.
“Hmmm,” Eugenio fell into thought.
They had no issues facing the Black Dogs and the Bodies. Not only was Chedbell a large gang, but their stats, skills, and items, which they obtained from hunting humans, boosted their confidence. However, everything changed with the appearance of the third Chaos.
The more people gathered, the more Radanmos appeared, and the stronger they were. There were currently ninety-five people in the hideout; twenty-five were from District 9 and sixteen were from District 8. The two men with Eugenio were the leaders of each district, Tenzin Gurung and Kim Su-Yeol.
“Divide into ten teams, huh?” Eugenio mumbled.
He did not like the plan because his influence over the gang would be lower if it were divided. However, there was no other way to get past the Radanmos.
Tsk. Reaching the Mirror World comes first. Only then can my plan truly begin.
Eugenio refused to miss this golden opportunity. The Mirror World was run by power. He had been nothing but a gang boss who ruled a small territory in El Salvador, but was now the boss of a group of superhumans who transcended human limits.
I’ll take these guys to the Mirror World and run wild. Eugenio, the drug trafficker, will become the king of the Mirror World!
Just the thought excited Eugenio.
“Alright! We will divide into ten teams and begin hunting first thing tomorrow!”
***
“Smart,” Seong-Hwi said as he stared at a rocky plain with a cave entrance in the center.
If a hundred people traveled together, multiple Skin or Armed Radanmos would attack them. Radanmos traveled underground, but could not travel through bedrock. Their base camp was the perfect place to avoid Randanmo attacks.
You’ll have no choice but to split up.
Seong-Hwi could easily guess their concerns. Because a group of a hundred people was much more likely to be attacked by several Radanmos at once, they had to travel in smaller groups.
The mandatory quest was a rite of passage—a stage that tested the qualifications of the Lost individuals before they reached the Mirror World. The Black Dogs tested courage; humans had to be brave enough to face ferocious dogs with sharp teeth and claws that humans did not have.
The Bodies developed immunity; killing monsters that took the shape of humans removed their psychological boundaries. The more Bodies they killed, the less they would feel guilty about murder, and the fainter their moral boundaries would become.
The Radanmos were cruel to those who traveled in groups. In the third zone, those with numerical strength were powerless—the only way to survive was to split into smaller teams.
But that would make my job harder.
Seong-Hwi did not have the time to track and hunt each team individually.
I’ll wipe them out before they split up!
He had to begin now since he had no idea when they would split up. The hundred meters around the cave were open space, and two individuals stood guard at the entrance at all times. If Seong-Hwi were to be noticed as he snuck in, the hundred people would attack him simultaneously. Not even he could face them all at once.
I’ll have to kill them one by one.
Seong-Hwi decided to open some Magic and Destiny Force stat cubes since killing a hundred people one by one would take a while. He could open four stone cubes since he had gathered 4,219 Karma through hunting Chaos and humans.
[Magic E(14) obtained.]
[Magic E(12) obtained.]
[Magic F(99) → Magic E(26)]
Seong-Hwi upgraded his Magic stat to E-rank first. The flow of mana, which felt like it was slowly moving through a tiny straw, became as fast as water moving through a garden hose.
[Destiny Force E(15) obtained.]
[Destiny Force E(19) obtained.]
[Destiny Force E(16) → Destiny Force E(40)]
Seong-Hwi then raised his Destiny Force. He gained confidence that he could do anything and certainty about his future. Although he only had 219 Karma left, it was fine since he would earn more than twice as much Karma as he had before opening cubes.
The problem is how to sneak into the cave. Should I use the Hermit’s Robe?
Wearing the Hermit’s Robe, one of the symbols of No.9 The Hermit, disoriented the senses of those around Seong-Hwi and made it seem like he was invisible. However, it was too superior a symbol for him to use at his current level, and it did not last long either.
Not only that, but I can’t take the risk of one of those lookouts possibly having a detection skill. I need another way... Oh!
Seong-Hwi suddenly remembered an item as he thought about how to sneak into a space where the area around it was completely open.
[Myriad Cheoyong Mask (Artifact)
Rank: F(0)
Description: A cheoyong mask that drives away the God of Misfortune. It possesses a countless number of faces.
Skill: Myriad Faces]
Seong-Hwi put on the Myriad Cheoyong Mask. The menacing black mask looked even scarier in the moonlight.
[Activating Artifact Skill: Myriad Faces.]
[Target: Carlos]
[Continuously consuming mana.]
[Cooldown: 23:59:58]
[Cooldown: 23:59:57]
...
The menacing mask contorted like clay and became the face of the deceased brown-skinned mestizo, Carlos.
“I knew it. There’s no such thing as a useless skill,” Seong-Hwi mumbled as he looked at his reflection in the Shaco Knife.
He walked out of the thicket. If he couldn’t sneak in, he would just walk in proudly.
***
“Nepal, huh? Then you’ve been to the Himalayas, right?”
“Why do you Mexicans always think every Nepalese has been to the Himalayas?”
“Hey, we’re not Mexican. We’re from El Salvador.”
“Same thing to us.”
A Salvadoran and a Nepalese were standing watch at the cave entrance. They both had detection skills.
The Nepalese asked, “Do you know how strong our boss is right now?”
“Boss Eugenio? I’d bet he’s the strongest since he obtained the most Karma out of us all.”
“So, how strong?”
“From what I’ve heard, he’s killed fifteen people.”
“Hah! Amazing. Then I’d bet he has tons of skills and items.”
The Salvadoran, happy from the Nepalese man’s amazement, pounded his chest and said, “Of course, he does! I’m sure the boss is the strongest in all the districts combined. You’d better be loyal to him, too. That way, you’ll earn tons of good items.”
“I want a shield, but haven’t been getting much luck in my cube pulls. I suppose the best way is to kill people... Huh? What’s that?!”
[Activating Skill: Long-Range Vision.]
The Nepalese noticed a silhouette from afar and immediately used a skill.
“Someone’s coming! We have to alert the others!”
“Wait!” The Salvadoran stopped the Nepalese as he was about to run into the cave. He squinted to take a better look at the silhouette. “Carlos?”
“Oh, he’s one of you? Now that I’m taking a better look, he’s Mexican.”
“I told you, we’re not Mexican!”
Seong-Hwi, disguised as Carlos, approached the two men.
“Carlos, where are Jose, Diego, Luis, and Miguel?” the Salvadoran asked.
“Having tons of fun by now, I’m sure,” Seong-Hwi replied.
The Salvadoran smiled and replied, “Hehe, you must’ve found some nice prey. You didn’t kill them, did you? If you did, the boss would be livid. Everything has to be shared equally.”
“I know. It’s fine as long as we don’t kill them, right?”
“Huh? Come to think of it, where did you get those clothes? They’re different from what you were wearing before.”
“Oh, these? I took them from some moron.”
“Heh, they look nice. You look like a New Yorker.”
“I got something even better. Wanna see?” Seong-Hwi said as he reached inside the back of his hoodie and swung the Shaco Knife faster than the blink of an eye.
The Salvadoran’s neck split like a banana and left a fountain of blood.
“It cuts well. Items sure make good weapons,” Seong-Hwi remarked.
“I-Intru—”
Seong-Hwi threw the Shaco Knife into the Nepalese man’s throat before he could scream. He grabbed the knife from the man’s neck before he could collapse and carefully laid him on the ground as if placing a sausage stabbed by a fork on a plate.
𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎
“That was easy,” he said to himself.
The infiltration was successful. Now it was time to kill them one by one.
***
“Hey. The boss wants everyone to gather.”
“What? What are you talking about? Huh? When did you get back, Carlos?”
“Just now. Is it just the four of you here?”
“Yes, but what does the boss want?”
“No idea. He’ll be joining you in hell later, so ask him there.”
“What?”
Seong-Hwi stabbed the man’s forehead, neck, and heart so fast that it couldn’t be caught with the naked eye. The man collapsed lifelessly.
“Chaparro!”
“Carlos! You betrayed—kurgh!”
The other three men who were resting on the ground turned into Karma without even being able to put up a fight.
[112 Karma obtained.]
[130 Karma obtained.]
[109 Karma obtained.]
...
Looks like they haven’t accumulated Murderer Karma.
However, it did not matter since Seong-Hwi had already decided to kill everyone in this cave.
Huuu. It’s been about an hour.
The cave contained several tunnels like an ant’s nest. Seong-Hwi killed the groups of people closest to him that he detected with his senses. The Myriad Cheoyong Mask was an immense help each time.
The fact that it continuously consumes mana is a minus, though.
“Did you hear something?”
“Are those motherfuckers fighting again?”
“Go stop them.”
“What? No, I hate those Salvadorans.”
Seong-Hwi heard voices from afar—they were too far away for him to detect their presence with his sense stat.
Sounds like they’re Nepalese this time.
He needed to kill them with a surprise attack since this face would not lower their guard. He quickly dashed into the darkness.
***
Another hour passed of Seong-Hwi killing members of the Chedbell gang inside the cave. Those who killed at least one person usually glorified the act. Those who killed at least ten developed a strong sense of identity and ego, drunk on power. Those who killed at least a hundred craved murder as if it were a narcotic, driven mad by blood. Only after killing a thousand people did one no longer put any meaning in the act of murder; to them, it was but a means to an end.
Seong-Hwi had acquired the Thousand-Man Killer trait in his past life. He always abided by one rule whenever he killed someone; ironically, the rule was that they must not be human.
“Kurgh!”
“Gah!”
Seong-Hwi’s Shaco Knife was no longer the original brass color—only red from the blood.
“Huuu,” he caught his breath as he wiped the blood off the knife on his clothes.
However, the blood did not come off because his clothes were also soaked with blood.
This is getting tiring.
No matter how superhuman Seong-Hwi was, his opponents had also opened cubes by earning Karma. He needed to go all out so that he could kill them in one strike before they could resist.
But I’ve killed over sixty of them.
Just then, the shouts of people running echoed throughout the cave.
“Intruder! Intruder!”
“An assassin is in our ranks! Everyone, get up!”
Seong-Hwi’s eyes shone as he thought, They finally noticed.
He could no longer kill them one by one; a frontal assault was the only choice now. The game of blood had almost reached the last minute.
Around thirty more to go until I get the Hundred-Man Killer trait.