Who the Hell Are You?
Crunch!
There were no tedious descriptions of massive explosions echoing through the air, or immense energies clashing in a titanic struggle of power. Just a split-second flash, and a bone-crushing pressure reverberating up the handle of my club.
Rumble!
With a single blow, his shattered maw collapsed, and his demonic energy lost control, splintering into nothingness. It was like watching crushed teeth, shredded flesh, and blood spill from a ruined mouth. Seizing the opening, I brought my club down hard on Jeon Gu-seok's slumped head.
Clang!
"Oh."
Harder than I thought. Or maybe I just swung too light? Well, it didn't matter. I could just pump wind into every single one of his orifices and puree him from the inside out. Or, if I wanted to keep it crude, I could just choke him out by crushing his throat and windpipe. I was just about to wrap gale-force winds around my knuckles and feed them directly to Jeon Gu-seok's shattered maw when—
"Did... I lose?"
"Looks like it."
"As promised... I'll give you... the good stuff."
"Hey, what's the rush?"
I began funneling wind into every single one of Jeon Gu-seok's orifices. It was going to hurt like absolute hell, but a Dokkaebi wouldn't die from just this.
"Spit it out."
"Under the tatami door... there is a Qi Circulation Pill."
"Why the hell is it there?"
"Killed a few strong bastards... and one dropped."
"But why under a tatami door? Did you die in your past life because you couldn't afford one or something?"
At this point, it wasn't just an obsession; it was a deep-seated grudge. What was it with this guy and tatami doors? Honestly, I didn't even want to know. It wasn't like listening to a dying man's rambling was particularly entertaining anyway.
"Is that all?"
"No... there's one more thing..."
"What is it?"
Jeon Gu-seok smirked at me, his eyes gleaming with a malicious 'hope you get fucked over too' look.
"A secret."
"Die, then."
I snapped my fingers, triggering a burst of razor-sharp wind inside him. Jeon Gu-seok's body spasmed once, then went completely limp.
"Should've behaved while you were alive. Leave your core as an inheritance."
Squelch.
I reached in and pulled a large, spherical bead from Jeon Gu-seok's belly. It wasn't much larger than mine, but it was a far denser, translucent crimson monster core. Damn, now we're talking! A genuine Qi Circulation realm monster core. No matter how pathetic he was, the core itself belonged to a Qi Circulation cultivator, meaning it was top-tier stuff without a single flaw.
As I rolled the smooth, round core in my palm with a satisfied grin, So-wol began eagerly digging beneath the tatami door.
"And that's that."
Jesus, what a shitshow. Did that old bastard have some sudden epiphany on his deathbed? I thought this would be an easy cleanup, but I almost died.
"How the hell was that 'Late Core Condensation'? I should go file a complaint... Ah."
Now that I thought about it, the request had said 'Core Condensation or higher', hadn't it? I can't believe I fell for such a basic scam.
"Fucking hell."
Still, I got a Qi Circulation core out of it, so I'd let it slide. If anything had happened to So-wol or me, I would've ground my teeth and added this to my list of grudges, but we survived.
Scritch-scratch!
I watched So-wol tearing up the floorboards like an eager cat. The more I got to know her, the more I wondered how she had managed to hide this personality during our first meeting.
"Man, I'm exhausted."
My bones and muscles ached, and my demonic energy was completely depleted. Feeling utterly drained, I sat down on the back of Jeon Gu-seok's face-down corpse.
"Ack."
"Huh?"
Crack.
Startled, I immediately snapped his neck.
"You were still alive?"
I crushed his cervical vertebrae to splinters with my stone-gloved hands until he finally went quiet. As a dutiful son, I guess I was finally giving him the neck massage I never got to give him while he was alive—only after his death.
"He's definitely dead now."
Honestly, I might have just overreacted. Post-mortem spasms are a real thing, after all. I once saw a video of freshly slaughtered beef twitching like it was cursed by Cthulhu, so it was probably just that.
"But just in case."
Squish!
I thoroughly crushed his head. Disgusted by the thick, gooey mess that coated my hand, I hastily deactivated the stone glove, letting the unpleasant contents slide off and splat onto the floor.
"That should do it."
His core was gone, his internal organs and bones had been pureed like they'd been put through a blender, and his head and neck were completely crushed. If he could still survive that, then no matter how buffed up this corrupted Jeon Gu-seok was, it would defy all logic. I dusted off my knees and stretched lazily.
"Alright, now I can finally relax and get up... is what you thought I'd say, you bastard!"
Springing up like a startled cat, I glared down at the mangled heap that used to be Jeon Gu-seok.
"Are you insane?!"
Because I had finally seen it.
Roll.
An eyeball, rolling shyly as if pretending it had done absolutely nothing.
"Hey."
"..."
"Can't talk?"
Sigh. Right, what kind of conversation was I expecting to have with this guy? I brandished my club threateningly, summoning a swirling vortex of wind around it.
"Shall we see if you can survive being ground down to bone meal and then cremated?"
"..."
"How about I dissolve your body in acid and flush it down the drain?"
"..."
Tsk. Still no response? Just to be sure, I used a gust of wind to lift the eyeball from a distance and forced it to look at me.
"Hey. Yo. Answer me. Do you really think I'm just going to walk away?"
"..."
"Hell no. If I leave something like this behind, how am I supposed to sleep at night? Let's talk. Uh, Mom? Do you miss your mom? Want me to send you to her?"
The eyeball merely dangled in the wind, completely unresponsive. Staring at its vacant, lifeless droop, I almost wondered if I was just seeing things.
"Hey."
"..."
I stared at the thing, which lay there as limp as soggy seaweed. Staring at the swirling patterns etched into the pupil, the kaleidoscope-like distortion of its focus, and the vivid red staining the whites of the eye... it looked exactly like the eye of an ordinary corpse.
"What, so it really was nothing?"
Feeling suddenly light and refreshed, I left Jeon Gu-seok's corpse behind and walked over to where So-wol was. Right now, retrieving the Qi Circulation Pill the bastard had hidden under the tatami door was far more important than worrying about a dead loser.
"Come to think of it, I have two Qi Circulation Pills now."
I had been putting off taking the one Kang Ha-yeon gave me, telling myself the time wasn't right because I was too stingy to waste it. I had hidden it inside a smutty book I bought at the market. I figured even if someone was bold enough to sneak into my room, no one would be pathetic enough to steal a smut book hidden in the darkest corner under my bed. Now that I had a spare, I could afford to use one more casually—half as a gamble, half for the experience.
"If I succeed on the first try, maybe I'll give the other one to So-wol?"
So-wol had a livestock restriction seal placed on her body when she was young, preventing her from progressing past the early stage of Core Condensation. But if I could just find a way to break that seal, she'd be fine. When all was said and done, she was the only person I could truly trust and rely on right now.
Hmm, I guess I need to start expanding my social circle beyond this isolated island. Ultimately, my goal was to gain recognition from the family, which made networking absolutely essential. If I could just get on the good side of one of the elders, I'd secure a vote before the final evaluation even began.
"Man, I'm busy."
I had made an incredible profit for the time invested, but there was still so much to do. I had to cultivate, accumulate those vaguely defined merits, and now manage my social network. Should I ask Ha-yeon for help with that? Honestly, the thought of just taking her support and running had crossed my mind, but that was a shallow, short-sighted way of thinking. Putting her strength aside, if I just devoured the generous support of someone like Kang Ha-yeon and then played dumb, my reputation and networking prospects would be completely ruined overnight.
I couldn't lose sight of reality. This wasn't a fair, point-based competition; it was a political game. At the very least, I needed to make myself someone the members of the Kang family wanted to be close to. Why bother bleeding and suffering to build heroic merits the hard way? Why sweat like a pig trying to earn merits when I could just hand out bribes to the judges and trade votes?
"Ugh, my head."
Does that mean I have to introduce myself to the other elders and prepare gifts for lobbying? Those old geezers in power were always simple yet difficult to please; if you wanted to ask for a favor, you had to at least make a show of stuffing their mouths with cash.
"First, I'll break through to the Qi Circulation realm. Then, I'll use my legendary speedrun record to squeeze more support out of Ha-yeon, and then..."
It was then. Perhaps hitting myself in the head with my own hand at that moment was a pure survival instinct.
Crack!
"Kyaaaah! Master!"
So-wol, who was running toward me from a distance holding the box containing the Qi Circulation Pill, shrieked in horror. Ah, I'd shown her something unsightly. But right now, this was more important.
Creak, groan—
I immediately manifested the stones of the Great Peak across my entire body. I didn't drape them like armor or wield them as weapons like I did during my fight with Jeon Gu-seok. This was a straitjacket. I burned every last drop of my remaining demonic energy to manifest it, leaving me without even enough energy to deactivate it. I looked ridiculous, with only my head poking out like a turtle, but it was as practical as it was absurd.
Soon after, a slick, feminine voice echoed in my mind. The Jeon Gu-seok I knew didn't have a hobby of mimicking such an alluring woman's voice. If he had added cross-dressing to his terrible personality, my mother would have packed her bags and left long ago.
Ah, seriously. Why is everyone giving me a hard time today? I tried to open my mouth to speak, but my jaw felt locked, as if blocked by something.
"Master? Master, have you lost your mind? Master? Master! Hey! What the hell do you want me to do, you pervert?!"
So-wol cried out, pounding on my stone straitjacket. Her words were surprisingly gentle for someone addressing a guy who had just smashed his own head and turned into a stone turtle. Of course, that didn't change the fact that she had just cursed at me.
What? You can hear my thoughts? Well, that's a bit embarrassing.
Perhaps because she had heard something completely unexpected, her voice pitched up in sheer horror as she scolded me. Still, calling it a "lower half" was kind of cute. Are words like "cock" and "cunt" really that embarrassing to you?
For someone trying to commit such a heinous act, her sexual sensibilities were surprisingly prudish.
Ah, well, I didn't really have an excuse for that. If I were in her shoes, I'd rather kill a guy like me cleanly than trust him.
Well, isn't that obvious?
Did the flattery work? She sounded slightly pleased.
This was the biggest reason I could afford to act cocky in front of this woman.
A chilling voice scraped down my spine. She had only projected her intent, yet cold sweat broke out across my skin, and my survival instincts screamed in alarm. But I couldn't run. Even if I jumped from the edge of this cliff, what other outcome was there besides my bones being shattered in a gruesome death? When dealing with a crazy bitch, you have to act like a crazy bastard.
No matter how hands-off Kang Baek-jin was, his prized investment was on the verge of being ruined just as it was about to peak. Surely he'd perform an exorcism for me. Of course, that would make me look like an idiot who got possessed while trying to kill his biological father, but still.
So even ghosts care about their age. Anyway, my point was simple.
Both of us were talking too much while pretending to be calm. Throughout history, when people start rambling, it's a dead giveaway that they're backed into a corner.
I was absolutely terrified. But she had to be just as terrified as I was, right?
Praying to whatever gods were listening that she was bluffing, we fell into a tense, silent standoff, staring each other down in the quiet of my mind.