Chapter 184
Chapter 184
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 184
Chapter Title: Duoksini
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Blood smell, sure, but it's kinda faint, don't you think?"
"Faint?"
"This is the Waste Alley, after all."
Paju might be crawling with danger everywhere, but a few spots stand out as especially hazardous.
'Like Tanheon, Chopyeongdo, Jangmyeongsan, Gamaksan... hmm, too many to list.'
Anyway, Waste Alley is one of those places. Murder's no big deal around here, and if you die, your body's gone before you know it.
The crows prowling the alley snatch it up, strip the organs and meat for sale. Even the bones get bought up by some cult or necromancer.
"These Kim brothers these days are something else. Like yokai themselves."
"Capitalism puts a price on everything."
Seo Cheon-seol mutters something about how capitalism must be one terrifying yokai.
"And what I meant by faint is the sheer volume of the blood scent."
"Volume?"
"For a Duoksini rampage, it's way too weak."
I press forward with confident steps. Sure, I'm not immune to the revulsion and fear, but I can't show weakness to Seo Cheon-seol.
I choke down the rising nausea and scan the alley—
"Hmm. Didn't see this coming."
Just as I expected, no blood.
Not a single drop.
Instead, we're greeted by something even more absurd.
"H-Hiiik!"
A voice from deeper in the alley.
[You have witnessed a bizarre scene. The first thing that catches your eye is a person slumped in the corner of the alley, groaning. He's filthy beyond belief. But the strangeness isn't him.]
A message window pops up.
[Beside him are scattered clothes. Six pairs of shoes, three pairs of pants, three shirts, and even one hat—exactly enough for three people to be fully dressed. Bizarre enough already. But then, you spot something unidentified amid the clothes.]
"What? Don't just narrate on your own."
"H-Hiiik—Hiiiik—"
It's a dead-end alley.
At the far end, huddled under the wall and shadows, a figure trembles and spasms.
Surrounding him, clothes laid out like a perimeter.
As if three people standing there had vanished entirely, leaving only what they wore behind.
'Something's inside those clothes?'
I raise my Four Signs True Sword and flip the garments aside.
"Ah-ha."
I get it now. And what happened here.
[Among the clothes, you find corpses completely drained of blood and fluids.]
"No heads."
[That's not all they lost. These withered husks are headless too. Confronted by this shocking sight, you feel the terror of grotesque death. Your sanity...]
I ignore the sanity check text scrolling by and turn to the sole survivor and witness of this bizarre murder scene.
A vagrant wrapped head to toe in a rag-like coat and burlap sacks.
He's even got a thick scarf wound around his neck, totally out of place for the weather.
"Hmm, you look familiar."
"Mr. Kim, can I come in?"
"No blood, so sure."
Seo Cheon-seol's footsteps approach from behind.
[Sanity check... Success!]
In that moment, my Sanity stat resists the shock from this grotesque death.
Once the blocking message clears, my Intelligence stat kicks in, pulling up a memory of this guy.
"Ah, the junkie who got beat down back then."
"P-Please spare me! Spare me!"
"That was months ago—still haven't kicked the habit?"
"Mr. Kim, you know him?"
"Eh, not really. But not a total stranger either—"
Wait. These clothes. Arranged in a familiar pattern.
"Ah, these three. The thugs who helped me out."
"Mr. Kim, Mr. Kim. What're you talking about?"
"Guys who helped me when I first got here. Looks like they went on one hell of a crash diet in the meantime."
Right, the very day I first dropped into [Cthulhu World].
The punks I mugged for motel cash. Which gang were they? Three Heads Society or maybe Bongil Cheonpa.
Like NPCs stuck repeating the same script in the same spot, they met their end doing the usual.
"So this Mr. Kim here is the w-witness? Something like that."
"Hiiik—I-I don't know anything!"
"The Bagua Compass is spinning like crazy. What the hell?"
Seo Cheon-seol's using that compass all wrong from the start. To work properly, it needs a single tracking target.
Trying to track multiple targets in different spots? No wonder it's whirling.
I've been holding back on telling her on purpose, but now—
"Hey, witness Mr. Kim. See who turned those Kim brothers into jerky?"
"W-Well, um..."
"What? Speak up, witness Mr. Kim. Can't hear you."
Under Seo Cheon-seol's questioning, the witness hunches and mumbles. Something squirms oddly under his vagrant coat.
That looks like classic Mi-Go pattern.
"Cheon Geum Captain. Better not get too close..."
"Kkeeeek! Die!"
Too late with the warning. It plays out just as expected.
Shrrrrk!
Something long and red shoots from the witness's mouth toward Seo Cheon-seol.
"Hup!"
She spins away from the ambush.
The slithering, serpentine thing—a tongue, stretched impossibly long. It whips like a tentacle, striking at her again.
"Got you, you bastard!"
But Seo Cheon-seol turns her evasion spin into an attack.
"Come forth, Vajra Rod!"
The glowing golden rod smashes the enemy's head.
Kwachijik!
The head comes off way too easily.
But the usual aftermath of decapitating a human doesn't happen.
No blood.
Like they just plopped a severed head on a headless corpse. It simply bounces away.
No time to gawk at the absurdity—the headless body swings viciously overgrown claws at Seo Cheon-seol.
"Just as this body thought!"
Kwaang! Peong!
Her Vajra Rod slams the headless torso next.
Kwachijik!
It flies back, smashing into the wall.
The wall craters, spiderweb cracks blooming. Yet the Duoksini body rises with wooden creaks and groans.
"I'll beat this Duoksini bastard some more!"
"No, Cheon Geum Captain! Don't!"
Despite my warning, she charges in with cocky vigor.
Ugh, she's too careless!
"Cheon Geum Captain! Duck!"
"!?"
Whirrik!
The Duoksini's tongue lashes at her head again.
[Scorching]
Fwoosh!
I swing my Four Signs True Sword, unleashing magic. A blade of flame slices the long tongue clean off.
"Kwaaaak! You bastard!!"
I aim my sword at the source of the scream.
There—the head Seo Cheon-seol just knocked off—is flying.
Blackened grotesque eyes, huge fins like a fish's ears spread wide. A head-only abomination.
"Krrruk—"
The severed tongue writhes on the ground like a snake.
"Hmm, cutting with fire means no blood, as expected."
Sliced and cauterized in one go.
Last time the target was human, so I held back from killing. No need now. As long as there's no blood, right?
The Duoksini head uses its ear-fins like wings, snarling in flight.
"Krrruk—Cheon Geum Captain! I'll kill you!"
"Hah—learned some weird sorcery in the meantime, you vile Duoksini!"
Seo Cheon-seol leaves the head to me and leaps at the body, pressing the attack.
Kwaaaang!
A wall-crashing boom.
The barely risen Duoksini body slams into the wall again. Seo Cheon-seol raises her rod for the finisher.
"Wait, Cheon Geum Captain, don't hit it more!"
"Why?"
"It's got something in its gut!"
"Gut?"
Ppak! Peok!
She ignores me and keeps pounding. Fine, whatever.
Kurruk—
Fresh red goo gushes from the neck stump. Ughhh—
"Uwaaht!"
Seo Cheon-seol leaps back.
"M-Mr. Kim! Do something about that!"
"I told you not to hit it! You idiot captain!"
"Kkieeek!"
The head dives in, along with the snaking tongue-tip! Total mess!
[Gate Creation]
I cast a spell, opening a small hole in the air.
"Reddy!"
"Kkii—!"
Fwoof!
A snowy white owl emerges from the gate.
Reddy attacks the Duoksini head.
At the same time, I hurl something from my backpack.
[Invisible Hand]
Prepped for a gore fest. This is part of it.
A black sheet unfurls—nothing fancy, just high-elasticity, fully waterproof black vinyl.
Shrrrk—
It wraps the Duoksini body tight. The blood that's already spilled... whatever.
[Engulfing Wave]
Kwaruk—
Water cleanup's the best.
"Impressive! To think you'd prepare all that for this body!"
It was for me, but she thinks it's for her blood phobia and gushes admiration.
"Yeah, you're welcome?"
Not over yet. From another direction, chittering voices and sinister tones.
"Cheon Geum Captain."
"Allying with the feast's sacrifice."
"Interfering with our grand rite."
On fences, rooftops, alley mouths—black-skinned Duoksini appear everywhere.
Grotesque forms.
Oversized skulls, bulging eyes. Huge ear-wings. Scrawny limbs. Bloated bellies ready to burst.
"Good work, Mr. Kim. Lured 'em all in as planned."
"I feel like we're the ones who got lured, not them."
Anyone can see we're cornered.
"Eh, same difference. Whatever plan they had, my Vajra Rod'll make it mine."
"All good, but see their bellies?"
"Swollen as hell. Sucking human blood and storing it there?"
"Yeah. Hit 'em with the rod, and boom?"
"Ah."
Seo Cheon-seol goes quiet, smile frozen.
"Mr. Kim, are we screwed?"
"Yep."
Prdddk—
"B-Blood... share some b-blood—."
The twisted mummies amid the clothes rise. Headless throats rasp voices alone.
"B-Blood... share some b-blood—" "Hey—share the blood."
Similar things crawl from the wall Seo Cheon-seol smashed.
"Bwahaha!"
She laughs at the sight.
"Now we've got ones that won't bleed when hit."
Seo Cheon-seol pulls a goblin mask covering half her face from her robes and dons it.
"I'll handle those. You take the potbellies, Mr. Kim."
"You're insane. Totally."
Without my blood phobia, I'd laugh and fight too. Not now.
"Krruk—"
Duoksini charge from all sides.
* * *
"Hmm, peculiar. Most peculiar."
The fight wrapped up easy. The Duoksini scattered every which way the moment they sensed they were losing.
Still, not without gains.
"That all we caught?"
Seo Cheon-seol scratches her head, surveying our haul on the ground.
Dozens of pulverized mummies from her rod.
Over ten charred Duoksini heads.
A few torsos still twitching, rolled in vinyl.
Big commotion, but this is Waste Alley.
I sense shady eyes watching, but no one dares approach.
"Mr. Kim, how is this possible?"
She removes the mask.
"These aren't goblins!"
"But they are Duoksini."
At my confirmation, she unleashes pent-up shock.
"Right! Duoksini! But these are Kim brothers!"
They are Duoksini, sure. But not the kind from corrupted goblins.
What we caught and crushed were originally human.
Humans turned Duoksini.
"Hmm, infected."
"Infected? What spread?"
"No—humans bitten by Duoksini become Duoksini."
"Mr. Kim, that's nonsense. Duoksini don't have that power."
"True, normal Duoksini don't."
'But in this world, some can artificially grant them that power.'
Held out long enough. The moment's here.
I let her flounder on purpose.
Time to seize control.
I smile under my mask.
"Cheon Geum Captain, care to hear my theory?"
Customer, extra charge from here on out.