The Star of New Calamity
A new star.
Honestly, I had been a bit complacent.
Immovable Mind might not be the absolute best, but it ranked right below it—a top-tier mental trait. I figured that if things got dicey, I could always chug some holy water to keep my balance.
The side effects were nasty, sure. But Heavenly Slaughter Star, Blood Seed, and Asura Divine Art all delivered exactly what they promised in terms of raw power, internal energy, and skill.
The evil triad. How the hell was I supposed to handle that?
I couldn’t. Not even close.
I slaughtered cosmic monsters with glee, butchered apocalypse zombies, and whenever the chance to kill appeared I took it first and asked questions never. All that frenzied rampaging must have finally triggered the full-blown madness.
“Guess I’m a little fucked up, huh?”
Sitting on the bed in the eleventh-floor rest area, I sorted through my plans and scattered thoughts.
The moment I returned I had bought holy water from the shop—stupidly expensive, by the way—and downed it. Right now my mind felt not just clear but practically bleached. As long as I didn’t kill anyone and bathe in their blood, I would probably stay sane.
Yeah. As long as I didn’t kill anyone.
Not killing? What was I, some kind of healer? For an explorer who had to climb the tower, that was impossible.
The second I stepped into the next floor, started slaughtering monsters and cleaning up villains, my sanity would flip like a switch.
Killing strangers was fine. But dying because I lost control and rampaged like a lunatic in a berserk state? That was a terrible story.
I wasn’t the strongest yet. Even if I reached that level, the moment rational thought became impossible I would still die.
Just in the mid-levels alone, plenty of explorers existed who made my current self look like a joke. Former rankers. Tower natives who had lived for centuries. If a whole crowd of them showed up, dropped meteors, and stabbed me in the back, I would die.
The same logic applied to missions on the lower floors. No matter how balanced the difficulty seemed, life had a way of throwing a demigod-level monster at you the moment you stopped paying attention.
The character who thought “this time will be different”—did he understand how I felt when I ran into Cthulhu right at the start and got wrecked?
Besides, this wasn’t a game. This was real life, where blood actually splattered.
Maybe I needed to ease off the accelerator a little.
Immovable Mind is currently active.
I had almost stepped outside the boundaries of a decent citizen. Thanks to my trusted Immovable Mind, I was somehow still breathing. I needed to quit while I was ahead.
I knew it. Immovable Mind knew it. Heavenly Slaughter Star and Asura Divine Art probably knew it too.
Yes, everyone knew.
But if simply knowing was enough to quit alcohol or cigarettes cold turkey, wouldn’t we have done it already?
A foolish, stubborn human who had fallen to pleasure—I suddenly sank into deep agony.
‘Isn’t there some nice method that lets me feel good while killing and still keep my sanity…?’
Humans are foolish. We repeat the same mistakes. (Though sometimes we do gain enlightenment!)
A way to operate the triad of Heavenly Slaughter Star, Blood Seed, and Asura Divine Art while maintaining my mind. I racked my brain harder than I ever had in my entire life, searching for that brilliant solution.
‘Because they’re just too damn good.’
Why would I throw away abilities that performed perfectly and felt amazing? I couldn’t rebuild my entire character now anyway.
I would need a compromise, but I had to carry all of them if possible. By any means necessary.
After considering every mental trait, skill, and artifact I could remember, I finally broke free of the torment.
“Hmm. In the end I’ll have to head to the mid-levels.”
That was the place with dragons, immortals, Cthulhu, legendary swords, medicinal herbs—everything under the sun. Surely there would be artifacts that blocked mental corruption or spiritual elixirs that purified evil qi.
No, they definitely existed.
At the very least it would be better than scraping together a mental trait weaker than Immovable Mind from the shop.
‘Anything is better than sitting around like an idiot.’
With my thoughts organized, I rose from the bed and stretched my stiff limbs. I tucked a bottle of the ridiculously expensive holy water into my robe and gripped the now-familiar Excalibur (Model 4) tightly.
The sudden onset of madness had startled me so badly that I had rested far longer than usual after returning from other floors. If I wasn’t going to lie in bed munching on achievement rewards and waiting for natural recovery, it was time to move.
Besides, who knew? The next mission might suddenly bring some incredible fortuitous encounter or enlightenment.
Yes. No one could predict what the world would bring.
Once all my preparations were complete, I cracked my stiff neck once and set out.
Moving to the 19th floor, Sichuan.
The Murim is vast. Even if you exclude the territories governed by official offices, the world of those who live by the blade is still enormous.
Across the wide central plains, heroes shouted about justice. Opportunists chasing profit were even more numerous. In the northwest, around the Heavenly Mountains, sects filled with demonic practitioners swarmed like rats.
The great clans had grown quiet; now it was an age in which sects and factions competed fiercely for supremacy.
In Henan’s Songshan stood Shaolin, the big brother of the righteous path. Right beside it in Shaanxi was Mount Hua, famous for its plum blossoms. A little farther down in Hubei lay the Wudang faction and the Zhuge clan, renowned for their sharp minds.
Beyond those famous Buddhist and Taoist sects, the number of sword-wielding factions and families was beyond counting. And in every region, how many self-proclaimed noble houses bragged that they were the greatest?
Centered around Luoyang, the provinces of Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, and Hubei overflowed with people. Naturally, the cities teemed with martial artists as well.
By comparison, the distant Sichuan region could only be described as neglected.
Entered the 19th floor, Sichuan.
Strategy Mission: Sichuan
📍 Objective: Locate the Black Hand Granny of Chengdu and protect her for seven days.
In the middle of all that, a girl appeared on a plain several hours away from Chengdu in Sichuan province.
She had the pitch-black hair common to Easterners, yet her eyes were a vivid crimson. The woman frowned deeply.
“Protect? What?”
Liz scratched her head, thinking.
Almost every mission she had experienced involved killing or eradicating someone. Requests to protect a target were rare. The only exception was briefly escorting a group of zombie-apocalypse survivors on the eighteenth floor.
‘Even then, it was mostly because I needed to build a safe zone anyway.’
So this was essentially her first true protection mission.
If the old woman died, the mission would fail. While failing an escort request wouldn’t kill the explorer, Liz—full of ambition—had zero intention of failing.
Yes. She would succeed no matter what.
Having made up her mind, Liz suddenly frowned again and muttered.
“……So where is Chengdu, exactly?”
Unfortunately she had never read wuxia novels, and her knowledge of Chinese geography was practically nonexistent.
After wandering around for a while, she encountered some good-hearted farmer uncles—who happened to be holding plows and sickles rather aggressively, but they were farm tools so they still counted as farmers, right?—and managed to reach Chengdu just before the evening sun set.
“Whew. Finally made it.”
She had nearly been locked out after dark. No matter how much of a good citizen she was, a woman roaming the streets at midnight with glowing red eyes would definitely raise alarms.
With her considerate nature, she had sprinted ahead to prevent any conflict with the constables and successfully entered the city.
Chengdu, at last!
‘Now what?’
In a city where she knew nothing and no one, an outsider’s options were limited. At least the system had changed her into Eastern clothing while transporting her for the mission. That was a relief.
People kept stealing glances at her face, but no one seemed to question her identity itself.
Hmm. Might as well walk around.
After watching people stroll the streets with indifferent expressions for a while, she felt the urge to wander aimlessly too.
‘It’s rare to see scenery like this in the Eastern floors.’
Her status window was now cluttered with Chinese characters, but most of her previous characters had been fantasy-based. She had walked the path of a holy knight using divine power or mastered magic breathing techniques. Even in the mid-levels she had only operated on the western continent.
After receiving Heavenly Slaughter Star as an achievement reward and obtaining Blood Seed, things had simply turned out this way.
If you weren’t interested in something, you tended not to know much about it. She barely knew Korean geography, so expecting her to know Chinese geography was asking too much. The finer details were the same.
To be completely honest, she had only realized Chengdu was the heart of Sichuan while interrogating some bandits.
Which meant this was the headquarters of the Sichuan Tang Clan—the famously vicious and cunning faction even someone who never read wuxia would recognize.
‘There must be a reason the mission area was set in Sichuan.’
She couldn’t be certain, but she had a strong feeling she would end up entangled with them.
Just as that ominous premonition crossed her mind, a commotion broke out on one side of the street.
“Die! Die! You bastard!”
At the voice dripping with murderous intent, Liz smiled brightly and turned her head.
As a good citizen, she had a duty to intervene in any fight disturbing the peace of the streets.
After confirming that Excalibur (Model 4) was still at her waist, she strode forward with majestic confidence.