episode_0144

Immediately after leaving the Gyeophwa family, I headed to my destination without any delay.

The destination was old China, relatively close to the original home of the Gyeophwa family located on the Korean Peninsula.

Warp gates were not used in the process.

To begin with, China is a representative gray area.

There weren’t even a few gates on that land. Also, since Lee Ha-yul’s identity was not used, he just went on his own.

Of course, it would have taken some time to just walk on two feet, but since I had my own way, I was able to get there right away.

So we arrived in China… where is this place? According to old place names, it would be somewhere between Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Liaoning Province.

I slowly looked around with observation.

I expanded the scope of observation without overdoing it for a while.

A wave of information coming in like a flood. I held down my pounding head and took a moment to organize the information.

‘It’s underdeveloped.’

The first thought that came to mind was that it was underdeveloped.

I gently touched the ground with my toes.

Dark soil was dug up from the ground where the asphalt had been removed. Even at first glance, the soil appears to be of poor quality.

All of the surrounding infrastructure is in poor condition.

The gray concrete building has cracks here and there, as if it might collapse at any moment.

There are miscellaneous graffiti and dark grime on the walls of the facility, and there are no clean windows to be found.

This building was at least a nobleman. On one side, there were a lot of shantytowns made of concrete and roughly woven wood and cloth.

The people living in these places were also far from healthy, looking thin and emaciated.

It was quite different from the facilities in the world that I had experienced over the past few months.

There is no city to feel peaceful and no modern beauty.

Sifnaha, which had been treated as a small town on the outskirts, was a rough but developed city, while this place looked like an abandoned house that was no better than a small town or the countryside.

‘Most of China is like this.’

After the cataclysm, China is one of the countries that collapsed without even leaving behind a proper shell.

The bigger the country, the more there is to protect.

China has a vast territory, so there is a lot to protect.

There is a huge burden of having to not only stop external enemies, but also deal with dungeons and monsters that arise internally.

Therefore, after the cataclysm, most countries with vast territories were reduced or disappeared, and were often split into several small groups.

Among them, China was in a pretty good situation.

With the emergence of superhuman beings, human resources became more important than anything else.

As China had a large land area, it had a large population, and there were many people who awakened to superhuman status.

The disposition or character of the awakened adepts was not important. Bad or good, they are human.

In the end, in order to survive, you had to defeat monsters and conquer the dungeon.

The country was split into dozens, and countless people died and disappeared.

As the population was large, there were many victims, but realistically speaking, it was not at the level of extinction.

In modern times, China has collapsed. Almost all groups that were divided into dozens were destroyed. A significant portion of this territory has become unusable land.

That was the work of a monster.

‘Two-headed poisonous dragon.’

The individual name is a two-headed poisonous dragon.

Alpha is the 3rd level in the association measurement hierarchy.

At level 3, it is impossible to defeat even the highest level heroes.

Therefore, you must lead a large number of top-level heroes and support troops to help them in the subjugation.

Although it is a third-tier country of its own stature, there are many reasons why China, a huge land, has been left alone and unable to recover.

This is mainly due to the disease and toxicity of the two-headed poisonous dragon.

As its name suggests, the two-headed venomous dragon, the individual had the appearance of an oriental dragon with two heads.

One head spits out poison, and the other head spits out a lump of disease.

Its killing power was so horrific that even the highest level hero would virtually die on the spot if it hit him directly, whether it was poison or the breath of disease.

A more serious problem is that the scalability of such poisons and diseases was enormous.

The poison not only affected people but also the terrain itself. Thanks to this, the surrounding area was transformed into a poisonous land of death.

The disease was extremely contagious. When the two-headed venomous dragon first appeared, hundreds of thousands of people were massacred, and the disease spread from the few survivors, causing enormous damage.

Although the two-headed poisonous dragon’s natural physical abilities were lower than the average of the third rank, it was an individual that specialized in causing damage to humans.

Because of this, the territory of China was completely destroyed.

Although it may not be in relatively remote areas such as here, the deep area centered around Sacheon, where the two-headed poisonous dragon appeared, is still poisoned and neglected.

Thanks to this, much of ancient China has long since become a gray area where both monsters and humans live.

On a fictitious day, monsters appear and people are eaten, and in places where people live, there are superhumans who violate the international laws set by the association.

In a way, it was natural that it had become so backward.

‘Tsk.’

It was an uncomfortable situation.

After clicking my tongue for no reason, I took a step and approached the pillar installed on the outskirts of the road.

Branches extending from the top of an elongated gray column. Black wires hung messily there.

‘long time no see…’

It’s a telephone pole.

While it was a commonly seen facility in the previous world, in this world it is a facility from the past that has long since disappeared.

Now it uses horsepower rather than electricity.

Additionally, mid-range horsepower is supplied by burying a cable in the floor.

Therefore, there was no reason to build facilities such as electric poles.

I knocked on the telephone pole with a new feeling.

All kinds of leaflets were stuck to the poles, which were riddled with cracks.

After taking a quick look, there are leaflets about organ trafficking, illegal drugs, bounty lists, etc… that you would see in a shadowy area.

‘It’s stuck here too.’

I ripped off one of the fliers hanging around.

Among the old leaflets that were torn and tattered here and there, this one was relatively recent.

The content wasn’t that unusual.

Follow God. He will soon descend and save his humble followers from death… blah blah blah.

It was a religious promotional text full of long and complex sentences.

Naturally, it is not a proper religion, but a private organization that can be treated as a cult.

China has long been a gray area.

Since there are so many people whose lives are so devastated and without hope, it is the perfect environment for a cult like this to run amok.

If you roughly follow God, you will be saved, so there is no way that telling you to just shut up and follow is normal.

‘…the god of death.’

He overcame death and ascended to the throne of God, that is, he became death itself.

Therefore, he is the god of death who saves the spirits of death…

The god referred to in the religion in the leaflet is referred to as the god of death.

It was filled with all kinds of rhetoric and included religious phrases praising the god of death.

The cover depicted something wearing a black robe holding a scythe.

Feeling annoyed, I looked at the spell engraved on the leaflet and crumpled it up in my arms.

‘…It’s a giant snake that can’t be considered a god.’

Owner of Command Tower.

I don’t know what happened, but there were quite a few forces following this guy who hadn’t even started the invasion yet.

This force later finds the spirit of the two-headed poisonous dragon and resurrects it, causing another disaster in China.

Due to this disaster, even the remaining humans were completely wiped out, and China was transformed from a gray area to a black area… into a devil’s land.

‘That’s not allowed.’

This is a fucking thing that shouldn’t happen.

The Sifnaha incident was a big enough incident, but if that disaster were to occur, the number of casualties would be different.

Above all, the three major families closely related to China also suffer.

Baek Arin of the Changhae family and Hong Yeonhwa of the Gyeophwa family also suffered damage.

‘You should pull out the buds in advance.’

Of course, it was necessary to improve the specifications first.

It is very difficult to find the entrance to the magical lake in this large land mass, but if you have the power of observation, it can be done in no time.

The entry condition is… It will be possible if you rub it with the power of space.

While exploring the dungeon, he also searches for cult members.

Even if we can’t completely eradicate it this time, we need to do some damage.

There is also an emergency escape button in case things get dangerous.

I sighed and stopped walking.

Before I knew it, I was approaching a dilapidated building.

Next to the entrance, a man with a grim expression was sitting on a chair.

Judging from the magical power within his body, he was a superhuman.

The man’s gaze turned to me as I trudged along.

I am wearing a loose robe.

He looks suspicious, wearing a hood attached to his robe and covering his face with a black mask without eye holes.

“Outsiders are prohibited from entering. Don’t be interested and just get out of the way.”

A cold order to congratulate guests before even saying a word.

The man tapped the sword on his waist and made a grim expression.

Considering my outfit, this reaction is somewhat understandable.

‘……’

“Are you a deaf bastard? Why doesn’t it turn off?”

I ignored him and observed the building again, just in case.

The number of floors is 2 above ground and 2 underground.

The first floor was a spacious lobby, and the second floor had several rooms for residence.

It was like a pig pen as there was no maintenance or even simple cleaning, but there were no problems.

And in the basement.

There were people locked in iron cages for animals, and there was a priest-like person performing offerings at an altar in the center of the basement.

The corpse of a man with his stomach cut open was placed on a rough stone altar.

Blood was flowing down the stone altar, filling the grooves carved into the floor.

Judging by the horribly distorted face of the corpse, it appears that the body was torn apart alive.

“Tsk, if you say it with words, it will go away.”

The man stood up from the creaky chair. He put his hand on the handle of the sword on his waist and trudged over.

“These days, rats keep snooping around and saying hello.”

Grumbling…

The sword was pulled out with a creaking sound. The appearance was really awkward. The sound coming out was also noisy.

Although they say there are no people, I can clearly see what the security situation is like here because they are openly trying to kill people.

Since public security is like this, the supply of wealth should be quite easy.

The man drew his sword.

I stretched out my feet when I saw that he wasn’t even wearing steel gear.

– Quang!

The instep was stuck in the exact center between the man’s eyes.

Crump! A man with his neck bent backwards was shot and hit the door of a building.

The wooden door collided with the man and was torn off.

The door opened wide of its own accord without me touching it.

When I saw that, I glanced at the corner of my vision.

Also, the text in the status window (presumed) seemed to have changed.

‘…Is the correction working?’

My body felt a little lighter…

I tilted my head and entered the building where a cloud of dust was rising.

* * *

[Savior Correction System: Annihilation Blade]

[Confirmation of main quest “Tower of Command” linkage]

[Assist the savior]

…

[Savior Correction System: Salvation Island]

[Confirmation of mental state ‘salvation’ and ‘good will’]

[Assist the savior]