Part 1, Chapter 8, Section 9

At that moment. Dongchang’s secret base.

“It seems we’ve been framed by the Director-general.”

Lin Lei, a former Dongchang operative and a man with the hero name Sajae, finished his report while prostrating himself on the floor.

“They saddled us with the blame.”

Bonghyo, a handsome young man lost in thought while sitting in a chair, ground his teeth, infuriated by a major blow from his father, Mao Zeping, the de facto head of Dongchang.

“That kidnapping of the woman named Cheonghwa, they pinned it on us.”

“The plane was blown up in mid-air. It was probably a self-detonation caused by mana, or an explosion of similar magnitude.”

“Since no bodies could be recovered, there’s no evidence either. Are they really killing even foreign talents who can control monsters just to catch us? They’re insane, absolutely insane.”

Bonghyo clicked his tongue and stroked the head of the gray-haired girl sitting on his lap. The girl was sleeping soundly, receiving Bonghyo’s strokes.

“For now, have everyone cease their activities. If they engage in combat, they’ll inevitably be labeled as a terrorist group.”

“Understood. I will have them return here as ‘ghosts’.”

“Good. And you, don’t go around causing trouble just because you’re back on your feet.”

“…Keuheum. Admiral.”

Sajae gestured with his eyes towards the girl Bonghyo was stroking.

“Admiral, you must be pleased to hold the Goddess?”

“Tsk. My man. Do you think I’m holding her because I want to? It’s because this esteemed person is sleeping here.”

Bonghyo barely managed to keep the corners of his mouth from twisting.

“Because the Goddess wished to sleep here, I haven’t been able to go to the bathroom for over half a day.”

“……May you have good fortune.”

“No need for good fortune. …Hmph. Still, Hwangeonjeok, huh. My father is truly an easy person to read.”

“Then are we doomed to be destroyed now?”

Sajae chuckled softly. That laugh was clearly a scoff directed at Director-general Mao Zeping, who, in the past, would have truly died if asked to lay down his life, not just pretended to.

“No. No. We cannot be destroyed.”

Bonghyo stroked the girl’s head and smiled confidently.

“The Goddess has entrusted us with a great undertaking; how could we fall? You must repay the Goddess’s grace, too, mustn’t you?”

“Of course.”

Sajae bowed respectfully to the girl.

“The grace of releasing me from Dongjagong’s clutches, I shall never forget it for the rest of my life. Oh Goddess.”

“……I’m not a goddess.”

The girl opened her eyes. Sajae turned pale and prostrated himself on the floor.

“I, I dared to disturb the Goddess’s slumber! I have committed a mortal sin!”

“……Be quiet. I’m going back to sleep, so leave.”

“Yes!”

Sajae vanished like a ghost. As Bonghyo, suddenly left alone in the room, blinked in embarrassment, the girl, with her eyes open, stared blankly before raising her head.

“……Oh.”

“Did you sense something?”

“I think a crazy bitch just passed by above.”

“……A crazy bitch?”

Bonghyo felt a chill. It was the first time the girl had shown such hostility towards anyone.

“……Never mind. I’ll just leave her be. It’s too much trouble to go meet her.”

The girl yawned and rose from Bonghyo’s body. Stumbling as if still half-asleep, she lay down on a bed with a soft mattress.

“Heuaam.”

“Um, Goddess?”

“……Yuringi.”

The girl smacked her lips and gave Bonghyo an order.

“I want to eat chicken.”

“……I will go buy it.”

Bonghyo bowed his head in greeting, then vanished like a ghost.

“……Hmm.”

The girl turned her gaze towards the direction from which she felt mana. Even though it was hundreds of kilometers away, she could feel its hot mana reaching her.

“Did she come looking for me?”

The direction the flame was heading was the underground tomb where she had been sleeping. If she left it as it was, the person would surely make a wasted trip.

“……She’ll come on her own, I guess.”

It was too bothersome to even get ready to go out and greet her. The girl pulled a cotton blanket over herself and closed her eyes.

“Heuaam.”

The girl, Hon-don Hwan-ryong, fell back into slumber.

* * *

Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum.

This place, the tomb of Qin’s absolute monarch, Emperor Qin Shi Huang, would later become Hon-don Hwan-ryong’s lair and China’s worst dungeon.

“But that’s two years from now, so right now it’s just a historical site.”

I swung a stone club, breaking the waist of a charging Terracotta Warrior.

Paddeuk!

With the sound of earthenware shattering, one Terracotta Warrior collapsed. The clay figure, armed only with a sword as a light infantryman, was destroyed by a stone bat wrapped in flames and returned to dust.

“Is it because of the dimensional gate? Ghosts are already possessing them.”

I deflected an arrow shot towards my forehead with the stone bat. The arrow bounced off weakly and fell to the ground, and I immediately spun the bat and threw it at the archer who had fired the arrow.

“Deokbae Boomerang!”

The stone bat flew in an arc like a boomerang.

Wajajang!

The bat, thrown with mana, smashed the head of a shield-bearer, then shattered the arm of an archer who was just drawing his bowstring. Blue flames rose from the long stone club, which was over a meter in length.

Kkieeeek!!

The ghosts dwelling inside the clay figures, Banshees, screamed in pain and burst out of the figures. Though they were phantom-attribute spirits and didn’t take physical damage, my flames had the property of burning mana itself.

Kkieeek, Kkuaaaak!

The ghost monsters, Banshees, shrieked and vanished from within the clay figures. I retrieved the stone club and held it tightly at my waist like a flamethrower.

“Fire!”

Hwareureuk!

The cave was filled with blue flames. The flames engulfed the clay figures, and the Banshees inside them were incinerated before they could even scream.

Tadak. Tadak.

Holes began to open up in various parts of the clay figures’ bodies, and gray phantom-attribute Cores flowed out of them. I picked up a gray phantom-attribute Core that rolled to my feet.

“Hehehe. Farming is so easy.”

After the fire attribute, the phantom attribute has the fewest individuals. Just as a sparrow cannot simply pass by a mill, I decided to poach all the Cores while I was passing by.

“Anyway, if I left them alone, they’d just be Cores used for human sacrifice!”

So this isn’t poaching. It’s merely preliminary work to use Cores that would otherwise be used for world destruction for a good cause.

“Hmm. Are they all dead?”

I scanned my surroundings, checking if there were any Banshees left inside the clay figures. Fortunately, there were no Banshees left on this floor.

“Then, subordinate number two, it’s break time.”

I stuck the stone bat into the ground and released its mana. Flames enveloped the stone bat, and Jo Deokbae, the rock monstrous human who had been a weapon, returned to his human form.

“Hey! What did you just do?!”

“Core acquisition?”

“Those are all World Heritage Sites!!”

Deokbae pointed at the Terracotta Warriors rolling on the floor and lost his temper. I crushed the head of a spearman rolling at my feet and replied.

“Then should I just let the monsters attack me? The ghosts were possessing the clay figures and trying to stab me, you know?”

“Then at least control your firepower!”

“I apologize. They were so low-level that they died in one basic attack.”

I picked up a broken piece of a soldier figure. The clay figures themselves had low durability to begin with, and the Banshees inside them were D-rank monsters.

“Get used to it. This kind of thing will happen often from now on.”

“……What are you talking about?”

“It means that the things you, Deokbae-ssi, the culture protector, are worried about will happen a couple more times.”

In my mind, I recalled the cultural relics that would be destroyed, or rather, the battlefields that would become dungeons where I would fight against each executive.

“Let’s see. The Parthenon, and the Taj Mahal Palace, and…”

“Are you planning to fight there?”

“No? But if the enemy is there, I have to fight. Anyway, they’ll all collapse if the monsters run wild.”

I pointed at the clay figures coming up from the lower floor. Their eyes emitted gray ghostly energy, indicating that they were all figures possessed by Banshees.

“Then, Deokbae-ssi. Stop complaining and turn around. I’m going to collect all the Cores and farm the lower floors too.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to just go straight to the end?”

“What a foolish thing to say.”

I changed Deokbae back into the stone bat.

“Clearing a dungeon from start to finish, achieving 100% mapping, and defeating all monsters is a basic principle of RPGs.”

So, what was charging at me wasn’t cultural heritage, but just monsters. I swung Deokbae around like a baseball bat to test its feel, then gripped the bat’s handle tightly.

“Oh.”

That one looks like Mao Zeping.

Woodeudeuk.

My hand involuntarily tightened. I leaped towards the chariot soldier charging at the front and brought the club down.

“Chesto—!”

It felt like some accumulated stress was being released.

…

…

…

About 30 minutes later.

From the entrance to the very bottom floor, I successfully dealt with all thousands of D-rank Banshees, and with a refreshed feeling, I stood before the entrance to the final secret chamber.

“I hope I get opportunities like this often in the future.”

I returned Deokbae to his original form and handed him a bag woven from mana.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a bag.”

“So what am I supposed to do with it?”

“Oh, Deokbae-ssi. Why are you pretending not to know when you do?”

I pointed at the Cores rolling on the floor and grinned widely.

“After a hunt, you naturally have to pick up the loot, don’t you?”

“Are you telling me to pick it up all by myself right now?”

“No, of course not. How could you work alone? I’ll give you subordinates.”

I placed a few Banshee Cores I had deliberately saved onto my palm. Five D-rank Cores, identical in size, shape, and form, gathered snugly on my palm, and I whispered as I infused them with mana.

“Oh, vengeful spirits wandering the netherworld. The sun shall watch over you and care for you.”

“Uwek.”

Deokbae gagged and let out a gasp of dismay. I ignored him and continued to concentrate on turning the Banshees into monstrous humans.

“In the name of Changyeom, be reborn into new bodies and stand upon this land with two feet. Manifest!”

Woowoong.

The Cores glowed. I scattered the Cores around Deokbae as if sowing seeds, and the Cores, imbued with my mana, began to form bodies made of mana, just as Deokbae had been revived.

“Fire attribute and phantom attribute…. Let’s just call them Flame Phantoms.”

“Your naming sense is terrible.”

“Be quiet. Now, get up.”

The Flame Phantoms, following my command, rose from the floor and stood at attention. As all Banshees are, they were all women.

“Deokbae-ssi. You’ll be in charge of this Flame Phantom unit.”

“What?”

“It’s about time subordinate number two started acting like an executive, isn’t it? Alright, I command the Rock Monstrous Human Squad.”

I pointed at the scattered Cores on the floor and the ceiling.

“Pick them all up. Every single one.”

“Yes.”

The Flame Phantoms began floating through the air, picking up Cores. It was like watching women gleaning grain, which made me laugh, but I turned around and deactivated the mechanism leading to the basement.

“Can’t I go see her with you?”

“Go pick them up.”

Deokbae wanted to see Hon-don Hwan-ryong with me, but I had to meet Hon-don Hwan-ryong alone. I didn’t want Deokbae’s presence to cause a commotion and wake her up from her sleep.

“Tsk. It’s not like it’ll wear out.”

“She’ll lose mental strength if she sees you, so just go upstairs. Think about it.”

I gestured between myself, Phoenix, and Deokbae.

“Which is better to see right after waking up: an absolutely beautiful girl, or a grim-faced bald old man?”

“Ugh, what a dirty world. Yeah, it must be great being so damn pretty. Ptooey.”

Deokbae spat on the floor, gathered his bundle, and went upstairs. The Flame Phantoms, who were diligently picking up Cores, trotted along and followed behind Deokbae.

“Pffft. He knows Phoenix is pretty, too.”

Even though the compliment wasn’t directed at me, it made me feel good. I deactivated the gimmick of the basement, the real room with the coffin, and walked down the hidden stairs.

Kkiiik.

“The dungeon structure is exactly the same.”

It wasn’t a dungeon now, but it would become one later. Hon-don Hwan-ryong had driven out the boss monster of the dungeon built here and made herself the owner of the dungeon, securing a cozy sleeping place.

“Then, it’s about time…?”

Why was the coffin lid open?

“……No, seriously, this is just wrong.”

If there was a god, I would curse them for creating such an absurd situation.

“The girl who would go back to sleep because it was too much trouble to resist even if she was attacked and taken advantage of while sleeping, got up on her own and left…?”

I couldn’t understand it. Was this a completely different Hon-don Hwan-ryong from the one I knew? Or was she a workaholic five years ago, not a slacker?

“The traces clearly show she left recently.”

Not much dust had accumulated. But there were clear signs of a girl kicking open the coffin lid and leaving.

“Haha, ha.”

There were distinct traces of her exiting through the passage on the opposite side, not the entrance I had used.

I couldn’t help but feel sorry for a mummy that had probably been dragged around by Hon-don Hwan-ryong and then tossed aside at the exit of the emergency passage.

“……It’s probably her, isn’t it?”

I picked up the mummy and gently laid him back in the coffin. I hoped he wouldn’t be angry.

“……Sseueup.”

Unable to close the coffin lid, I had to remain lost in thought for a long time.