EP8: The Incomplete Demon King
Korea without Choi Jae-jun.
The world was still buzzing with stories of Jae-jun, who had burned brightly only to end his life as a hero.
Some insisted he was still alive somewhere, and others claimed to have seen him with their own eyes.
But they were just rumors.
And then.
Starting from the official date of Jae-jun's death, the rate of gate outbreaks began to plummet dramatically.
The world seemed to be stabilizing, thanks to the hero's sacrifice.
"Huff... huff!"
The man's ragged breathing echoed through the alley as he ran.
Bright red blood dripped from his clenched left arm.
'I have to let them know—fast!'
Ignoring the blood splattering on the ground, the man sprinted toward the light.
Through the gap between tall buildings, he could see people walking along the main road.
Then, in an instant, a shadow loomed over his head and vanished.
Krrrrrr.
A guttural growl like phlegm bubbling in a throat came from ahead, where someone blocked the alley entrance.
Bloodshot eyes panted with beastly breaths.
Fangs protruded sharply from between its lips, glinting wickedly.
It was a vampire.
"...Get out of my way!"
The man drew a short dagger.
With the momentum of his sprint, he swung it at the vampire.
Clang!
'No way!'
The vampire's claws effortlessly batted the dagger aside.
"You can't escape from us!"
Splat!
At the same time, another vampire dropped down from the rear of the alley.
More vampires peeked their faces over the rooftops lining the alley.
'Too many!'
The man abandoned any hope of survival.
Discreetly, he twisted the dagger's handle sideways.
Kiiiiiik.
Then he charged ferociously at the nearest vampire.
"Grab him!
Take him to Her Majesty the Queen!"
Kyaaaaah!
The man swung his dagger wildly, resisting as best he could, but he was ultimately seized by the vampires and bitten in the neck.
As his blood drained, strength fled his body in seconds.
'Urgh!
Sorry...
President Jang!'
Clunk.
The dagger slipped powerlessly from his hand and hit the ground.
Its twisted handle began to realign.
Kiririk.
Click.
BOOOOM!
The dagger exploded, incinerating the entire area without leaving a single speck of ash.
Figures clad in deep hoods that covered even their heads gathered one by one at an abandoned church.
They all headed familiarly downward to the basement.
There lay another grand hall.
"We worship our god."
"We worship our god."
"We worship our god."
The people knelt uniformly, offering prayers toward the front of the hall.
Until recently, they had been atheists or followers of other faiths.
But by chance, they learned of this religion and had miraculous experiences.
Every single one of them had their desires fulfilled without exception.
'A religion that grants anything, even if it's not good!'
This faith had never worshiped a benevolent god to begin with.
And neither were its followers virtuous people.
They were devotees of an evil god.
'Make someone die.'
'Let me make money.'
'Make her mine.'
Their wishes were all granted through malevolent means.
They were all people infected by evil.
Thud!
Thud!
What emerged into the hall was, astonishingly, a goat-headed monster.
"Eeeeeh!"
As the monster bellowed, the basement reverberated, and the prayers cut off abruptly.
Clank.
A door opened from behind, and men in identical robes dragged someone in.
"Mmph!
Mmph!"
His mouth was gagged, but everyone knew he was begging for his life.
Because it wasn't the first time.
When the goat-headed monster raised its massive guandao,
the people bowed their heads deeply, praying for their own wishes.
'Let me have her!'
'Grant me great power!'
"Mmmph!"
Whoooosh!
Slash!
The man's head was severed, blood spraying like a fountain.
Blood splattered everyone in the basement, but they shed their robes and drank it as if it were holy water.
Among them were Congressman Go Gil-dong and Hunter An Jeong-mu, whose arm had recently been torn off by a spider.
"Eeeeeh!"
The goat-headed monster sneered at the foolish, desire-ridden humans filling the basement, but they didn't notice.
Wooooong—
Their filthy desires and dark emotions converged into one, flowing toward Demon King Belphegor.
Belphegor was recovering her body in the underground sewers of a nearby treatment plant.
'Not much longer!'
The goat-headed monster let out a cry of joy at its master's response.
As Earth's situation edged toward a storm's prelude, Jae-jun was in a similar predicament.
"So, you're saying the way this Demon King's Castle got food was by using the prison slaves as rations?"
"...Yes, that's correct."
"How many slaves are left?"
"...Point 87."
'This is insane.'
The more Jae-jun talked with Citri, the harder it was to hide his bewilderment.
The previous Demon King, Vine, clearly hadn't given a damn about the castle's state.
"Drought is the biggest problem right now."
Demons wouldn't starve to death after a few days without food.
If they got really hungry, they could just hunt and eat monsters.
The issue was the drought.
If it continued, even the monsters would dry up.
Even the monster count was barely 520.
Jae-jun was pissed that he had to worry about monster numbers now, of all things.
'If I can just make it rain somehow.'
'Shop window!'
Welcome to The Gamer Shop.
You can buy and sell items here.
Transactions are in gold only.
[Purchase] [Sell]
Shop Gold: 50
Jae-jun clicked Purchase and searched for the skills tab, but it was gone, replaced by Authorities.
'Please be there.'
The Authorities tab listed countless powers.
Most were useless to Jae-jun.
And way too expensive.
'Something water-related, please.'
As Jae-jun scrolled down the shop window, he froze.
'There it is!'
◈ Boasts the highest attack power among water magic, but mana consumption is immense.
◈ Even the sage who created it never used it, so effects are unknown.
'What?'
Jae-jun was stunned by the price.
A single B-rank magical core was worth 10,000 gold, so even roughly calculating, he'd need at least ten.
He opened his inventory to check his cores: 2 B-rank, 5 C-rank, 9 D-rank.
Even converting them all to gold would only yield 39,500.
'Screwed.'
He considered hunting all the remaining monsters and demons in the castle for cores, but D and C-ranks wouldn't get him anywhere near 50,000 even if he scraped every last one.
"My lord.
Are you alright?"
Citri asked with a worried expression.
With nothing to lose, Jae-jun pulled a magical core from his inventory.
"Do you know anything about these? I have a bunch."
Citri tilted his head.
"Stones... aren't they?"
'Sigh.'
Jae-jun wore a resigned look.
But Citri's next words made him snap his head up.
"...The cave in the back has them overflowing.
My lord."
"What?"
Jae-jun practically dragged Citri to the cave.
Sure enough, countless magical cores emitting faint glows were embedded in the walls.
Thousands at a glance.
'A mana stone mine here of all places.'
No—he hadn't even known mines like this existed.
Mana stone mine discovered in Demon King's Castle.
Link this mine to the shop?
If linked, mined mana stones will auto-convert to shop gold!
'Link it!'
It eliminated the hassle of inventorying and selling manually—who wouldn't?
'To mine the place, I'll need good workers.'
Jae-jun immediately thought of the perfect candidates and shouted.
'Legion Summon!'
Stone Golems deployed to mine relentlessly!
Soon, the mine overflowed with stone golems tirelessly excavating the wall-embedded cores.
—Afterword—
Thank you.