episode_0055

The road to the attacked village is completely blocked.

Because if an ignorant worm goes there and knows nothing, you never know what will happen.

Of course, the gate was blocked. Soldiers were also stationed in that direction.

The lord of this place was quite a timid person.

Control there must have been tight.

That’s why all the people heading to that village were scouts.

What does this mean?

At least, those who had even a slight chance of being brainwashed.

They all had to be scouts.

But suddenly, six civilians who had never heard of a window in their entire lives were discovered as victims.

This wasn’t simply a matter of the number of victims increasing by six.

The point is that there are people who have been brainwashed through unknown means.

Because of that, my head is in disarray.

‘Where on earth did this happen and how?’

Did the guy’s abilities have any infection properties added to them?

An ability that didn’t even exist in the game?

No, that can’t be.

If it had the ability to infect, it wouldn’t have ended here.

If that were the case, this city would have already been destroyed without anyone knowing.

If it was like that from the beginning, this guy would have already eaten the Four Heavenly Kings.

So that means there was another route after all.

So how?

There were so many things that came to mind.

A brainwashed scout may have slipped through the walls without the lord knowing, or perhaps there are humans sneaking around the city, or perhaps a puppet master has entered the city.

The guy is a high-level wizard who can even use polymorph magic, on par with the Magic Tower Master. Of course, that’s the worst case scenario, so I hope it’s not like that······.

Anyway, the problem was that there were too many cases.

But there was one silver lining.

In times like this, it’s okay to act rashly.

I looked at the party members and said.

“Saint, please heal the people who have been brainwashed here. My lord, please gather all the troops and control the villagers right away. Others, please help the soldiers and immediately subdue anyone who runs wild.”

“Ha, but then the residents’ complaints will pour in huge amounts···.”

“Is now the time to be complaining?”

This is the so-called declaration of martial law.

It is about mobilizing the military to monitor and control the lives of civilians. There may be some dissatisfaction, but the puppets can definitely be caught.

In addition, we also provide treatment to scouts.

Fortunately, the guy’s powers could be cured by the priest’s divine power.

Since he is a guy who mainly uses his abilities, I can’t define the principles, but he is a guy who is in the Demon King’s army anyway.

And the Demon King’s natural enemy is divine power. In other words, the guy’s authority can also be driven away by divine power.

“Ugh··· Where······?”

As I began to treat them, the scouts began to come to their senses one by one. I went to each of the scouts who had awakened and asked them what had happened.

Even though you may not remember being brainwashed, you will at least have memories from before.

“Yes? What did you do at the end? Well, I remember following my classmate, but after that, well······.”

But unfortunately, there was no satisfactory result. Perhaps because everyone was still mentally unstable, they could not remember the ending very well.

Because of that, I had no choice but to go to the last scout’s treatment without getting any other information.

The last were the first characters Rigby, Nelby and Kelvin.

Despite eight days of reconnaissance, they were not even seen, and were only discovered at the very end.

Their behavior was a bit peculiar. First of all, their entire bodies were extremely dirty. They had black dust all over them, as if they had rolled around somewhere, and when you got close, you could smell a nauseating stench.

It’s not just that he hasn’t washed yet, he looks like he’s been to a dirty place.

The guys’ comments when they are released from brainwashing are also unusual.

Maybe it was because the puppet period was so long. He seemed to be out of his mind.

“Keuuu··· Su······.”

“What?”

“W··· W······.”

number?

What on earth are you trying to say?

Did you even see anything?

But these worries did not last long.

Because a soldier came rushing in, out of breath, towards us.

“Oh, we’re in trouble!”

I wish that damn thing would stop, please.

Why on earth can I never have a day of peace?

Even though I was complaining in my mind, I turned my head to see what was going on. As the attention turned to me, the soldier continued speaking.

“Oh, people are suddenly doing strange things!”

The fact was that the puppet company had started to move.

*

People walking around the streets. Soldiers with spears controlling the surroundings.

Among them, several citizens can be seen with dilated pupils and sobbing.

It’s not like they were wielding swords or anything.

However, he was drawing pictures all over his body.

He brings something like black ink from somewhere and draws strange patterns all over his body.

The soldiers tried to stop them from doing it, but there were quite a few people who were painting their bodies, so they couldn’t stop them all.

It hasn’t even been an hour since martial law was declared. People haven’t even gathered yet.

“It’s a magic symbol.”

As I was looking at it wondering what it was, Lily came up next to me and opened her mouth.

She certainly has a lot of knowledge, perhaps because she is well-versed in magic.

“All the brainwashed people are drawing witchcraft patterns on their own bodies. What the heck···? I know it’s witchcraft, but what kind of witchcraft is it······.”

It’s a shame that I didn’t even realize the form of witchcraft.

But that’s okay. There was one scene that came to mind as soon as I heard the word ‘witchcraft’.

One of the brainwashed people, sorcerers, and puppet master’s henchmen.

Several words combined in my head and one worst-case scenario emerged.

I muttered, feeling a faint goosebumps.

“··· Human sacrifice.”

“What?”

“This is human sacrifice. What kind of magic are you trying to cast with people’s lives right now?”

“What?! Then we need to stop it right away!!”

Lily cried out urgently.

Ironically, the answer to that question came from among the citizens.

“It’s already too late.”

He was an old man with a beard that covered his entire chin. His eyes had a strange, cloudy look.

As soon as the guy spoke, I realized that he was not the original owner of that body.

In simple terms, who is controlling the brainwashed elderly man?

And the subject is not a puppet master.

The puppet master had handed over control to someone else, and now that guy was manipulating the old man.

I called out the name of the guy behind the old man.

“···Oleg.”

Oleg the Warlock.

The puppet master’s most loyal confidant.

“Haha, I didn’t know you’d notice this. It’s an honor. It was worth my hard work during the last war,”

“I was wondering if it would be long. I didn’t think you guys would be participating too.”

“I was surprised myself. I never thought I would meet a warrior in such a remote city. I thought you would still be sucking your thumb in the empire, since you were known to be incompetent. It seems you are more capable than I thought?”

The face of the guy who had been speaking leisurely suddenly became cold and hard.

“Thanks to you, my plans got a little messed up.”

“······.”

“The original goal was to offer over 500 sacrifices··· but I couldn’t even fill half of that. Haha, I didn’t know you’d find all those scouts and cut the thread.”

I guess it helped that it all came together in one sweep.

Thanks to this, we were able to save more than 190 people.

Thanks to this, I could understand why they tried to brainwash so many people.

Because they wanted to offer tribute to as many people as possible.

Because of that, a lot of his plans went wrong… but he didn’t seem to care much.

“What a pity.”

Immediately after, the offering began.

Saaak!

Strange patterns glow over the bodies of the brainwashed people.

Those patterns sucked people’s souls in real time, gathering their strength in one place.

I ordered my soldiers and party members to stop the people offering food even if it meant cutting them down.

What on earth are you trying to accomplish by sacrificing so many people?

“The power of my master, Net-nim, is certainly very powerful. However, its shortcomings are also clear. The fact that you cannot use your abilities if you get too far away. Ultimately, the fact that brainwashing takes some time is a disadvantage. ”

That curiosity was quickly resolved by the guy.

“Originally, this village was going to brainwash monsters and attack them, but I opposed it. Isn’t that inefficient? When will we ever brainwash all those monsters?”

He continues.

“Just lure them.”

Cloud Village, a town on the outskirts.

This place is located particularly close to the demon world among the human world.

What this means is that there are a lot of monsters around.

“I made you smell human flesh. Come here. Come and greet me for dinner. I originally planned to gather monsters within a radius of 500 ri, but thanks to that, I can only gather 100 ri. Hahaha···.”

There’s no need to hear any more.

I quickly cut off the guy’s head.

I felt sorry for my grandfather who had his body taken away, but I had to prevent at least one more sacrifice.

“You’re late··· .”

But it was already too late.

Grandfather wasn’t a caster. He was just a victim.

This spell was cast by all the brainwashed puppets together!

“Sigh··· .”

I sighed.

Although the puppet master wasn’t the strongest of the Four Heavenly Kings, I always hated this guy the most.

Well, puppeteer or Oleg. These guys play the game so shitty.

Phew! Phew!

The sound of people bursting could be heard everywhere.

The puppets that have lost their vitality just ‘explode’.

People covered in blood were screaming out of nowhere. It was an apocalyptic situation, but the main game hadn’t even started yet.

I quickly headed towards the city walls.

Interference with the offering? I’ve already given up.

The spell is already in progress. The puppets are acting according to their own will.

It was impossible to save all those people one by one, and the best we could do was to block at least one of the monsters that were coming at us during that time.

As we reached the end of the wall, we could see monsters gradually approaching.

At the end of my vision, I see a black mass swarming in.

Each and every one of those black dots was a monster.

I muttered, complaining.

“What a fucking game.”

But what can I do?

This is the original game.

Because I’ve been through so much, my mental state hasn’t deteriorated to this extent.

The good news is that the situation isn’t the worst.

It’s definitely not good, but at least it’s the lesser of two evils.

It’s worth a try.

I drew my sword with vague hope.