Murim's National Rule
The defining trait of strong Padak Murim warriors—regardless of whether they belonged to the righteous or demonic factions—was that everyone introduced themselves before a fight. Even the assassins reeking of the demonic path were no exception. The two figures who had been hiding their faces beneath hoods now threw them back and declared their affiliation and names.
“…I am Blood Ghost, a first-class assassin of the Black Sound Hall.”
“And I am Poison Eye, also of the Black Sound Hall. Today, we shall take the life of Padak 1 and spread our names far and wide.”
‘…So this really was the national rule? Kind of creepy.’
What was the point of assassins revealing their faces and names right before killing someone? The situation was absurd, but I pushed the thought aside and heightened my focus on their next moves.
Meanwhile, Blood Ghost—who had been watching me with a mix of curiosity and wariness after the unexpected variable appeared—spoke up.
“By the way… it seems you’re that Padak 3 I’ve heard about.”
“Correct! Wait, no… how did you know?”
“Is there any other outsider who can use the Snow Shadow Ice Flower Step besides you?”
“…Fair point.”
That was a careless slip. How embarrassing.
“Our luck is good. I was already planning to carve up Padak 1, but if I take your head as a bonus, I might earn some favor with the Black Curtain Valley Lord, Dokgo Hyeol.”
Poison Eye chimed in from the side, spitting as he spoke.
“We might even receive his poison arts. If that happens, we’ll instantly—”
“Hey, you two do realize that’s the kind of dying speech only extras make before they get wiped out, right?”
Ah, their cliché behavior made me butt in without thinking. My casual retort made both assassins’ faces twist in rage.
“How dare you run your mouth…!”
“Since our original target was Padak 1, I’ll at least make your death pretty and bring your head back!”
With those words, both assassins reversed their daggers and charged. But their speed was far slower than I had expected—like watching a YouTube video at 0.5x speed.
‘This should be manageable.’
I lightly kicked off the air. A burst of cold qi from my toes bloomed into a massive ice flower in the void. Using the Snow Shadow Ice Flower Step, my body ignored gravity and shot behind Blood Ghost in an instant.
“Wh-what…!”
Before the startled Blood Ghost could even turn his head, I spread my right hand and activated the Ice Snow Sword Technique. Moisture in the air rapidly froze, forming an ice greatsword in my right hand and a sharp ice spear in my left.
“I never thought my first kill would happen like this, but… there’s a famous saying, isn’t there? If you come at someone ready to kill, you should be ready to die in turn.”
“W-wait a second…!”
Crack—!
Without hesitation, the ice greatsword cleaved diagonally from Blood Ghost’s shoulder to his waist. His companion, Poison Eye, watched in horror as the body collapsed without even a scream, blood spraying like a fountain. His eyes trembled violently.
“An outsider can wield martial arts to this degree…? What kind of monster—!”
Realizing instinctively that they were no match, Poison Eye spun around and leapt desperately toward the broken window, clearly intending to escape and report back. In any cliché story, this would be the part where I let him get away, only for it to come back to bite me later.
Unfortunately for him, I had no intention of letting that happen.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
I muttered indifferently and hurled the ice spear from my left hand like a javelin.
Whoosh—!
Bang!!
The spear tore through space and pierced straight through Poison Eye’s heart, pinning his entire body to the cement wall of the basement room.
“Guh…”
His head slumped forward limply, unable to put up any real resistance. The slaughter was over in seconds. I dispersed the ice weapons in my hands into powder and approached Lee Sieun, who was sitting dazed in the corner of the room.
“Hey, we need to get out of here fast. Before more of them show up after smelling the blood.”
“……”
I extended my hand toward her. Lee Sieun glanced between my face and the corpse embedded in the wall, then reached out with trembling hands to grasp mine.
“Y-yeah…”
But the moment she tried to stand using my support—
Thud.
Her legs gave out completely, and she collapsed back onto the floor.
“Ah…”
She looked up at me with a flustered expression, patting her own legs.
“Sorry… my legs have no strength left at all…”
“……”
The penalty from her Lazy Padak trait had already drained her physical stats, and the recent terror had left her lower body completely unresponsive. I scratched my cheek lightly, glanced once at the bodies sprawled on the floor, then checked the situation outside the window. The moment it became clear their contact had been lost, a much larger follow-up force would definitely arrive. We didn’t have time to dawdle.
“Agh, our Padak 1 really is something else.”
I clicked my tongue briefly and bent down. Sliding my arms under her back and knees, I lifted her up in one smooth motion.
“E-eh…?”
Lee Sieun’s eyes widened like saucers as she found herself suddenly princess-carried in my arms. Before she could say anything, I stepped lightly onto the windowsill and leapt outside.
“Keep your mouth shut and hold on tight. Unless you want to bite your tongue.”
Using the Snow Shadow Ice Flower Step in rapid succession, I began racing across rooftops and empty alleys toward my studio apartment.
“Hah, these damn basement detective bastards. How do they always manage to find the exact gap that opens when auto-moderation turns off? Truly impressive. I’m in awe.”
I shook my head in disbelief. Lee Sieun, who had been looking at the community window with me, also had her mouth hanging open in disgust.
“It’s horrifying to think that came out of the same human stomach… right?”
“Why are you staring at it so closely?”
I immediately deleted all the filthy posts and comments, then turned to look at her sitting beside me.
“Anyway, I have to ask… Hiding like this is fine for now, but you can’t keep running and relying on my protection forever, can you? Do you have any kind of plan?”
“……”
At my direct question, Lee Sieun bit her lip slightly. After a moment of serious thought, she carefully opened her mouth.
“I didn’t have one at first… but after seeing that auto-moderation mode you have as Padak 3, I thought maybe I could use a loophole.”
“A loophole?”
“Yeah. If you’re okay with it, could you lend me the moderation mode permissions?”
“You want my skill?”
The sudden request made me ask reflexively. What was she talking about? Seeing my dubious expression, she quickly added an explanation.
“My trait penalty weakens the more I moderate, right? But if I borrow your auto-moderation mode, I could rest lazily while building up strength, and the system would still register it as me moderating. That means I could fully recover my power without the penalty restriction.”
A faint but hopeful light flickered in her eyes.
“If that works… I’ll finally have the strength to properly stand against the Murim and Chinese bastards.”
“That does sound…”
It was a plausible plan. But my position was different.
“Hey, that sounds great for you. But from my perspective, there’s no reason to do it. Why would I hand over this lucrative skill that brings in coins and stats to some complete stranger like you?”
I crossed my arms and spoke firmly. Yeah, I wasn’t running a charity. Under my thorough capitalist mindset, there was no such thing as giving something away for free.
At my cold response, Lee Sieun lowered her gaze to the floor for a moment, seemingly deep in thought, before looking up again.
“You’re right. So I’ll pay a price.”
“What kind of price?”
“I’ll give you sixty percent of the rewards I earn through the Lazy Padak trait and auto-moderation. On top of that, I’ll handle all the household chores—cleaning your room, cooking, everything. Would that be enough? It’s all I have to offer right now.”
She looked at me with an earnest expression, her hands clasped together.
‘Hmm… sixty percent plus all the housework…’
Honestly, I’d been too busy moderating the community and climbing the tower lately to take care of the house. I only did the bare minimum visible cleaning. Meals were mostly delivery, meal kits, or skipping them altogether. Plus, if she gave me sixty percent of her rewards, it wouldn’t be much different from the benefits I got from running auto-moderation myself.
‘Doesn’t sound bad. Actually, isn’t this basically getting a true unpaid slave who cleans the whole place in exchange for food and shelter?’
What was certain was that accepting it wouldn’t be a bad idea.
“Hmm, well… alright. That doesn’t sound too bad.”
I immediately opened the system shop and purchased a 500-coin magic contract scroll. As the parchment appeared in the air, I began writing down the exact terms she had mentioned—sixty percent reward distribution and full responsibility for household chores. Of course, I didn’t forget to include the brutal clause about massive system-enforced penalties for any breach.
“Here. Sign it.”
“Okay.”
Lee Sieun carefully read through the contract before extending her finger without hesitation and adding her signature.
A magical contract has been established.
I smiled in satisfaction and opened my status window, transferring the auto-moderation mode skill—which was part of my Premium Padak authority—to her.
“Looking forward to working with you, my unpaid slave Padak.”
At my casual greeting, Lee Sieun let out a small laugh.
“If anything, I should be the one saying that.”