Chapter 201
Chapter 201
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 201
Chapter Title: Self-Replication
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"It's a new religious movement that's been expanding its influence with fanatical zeal in the southern region of the capital lately."
Specifically, it's a cult that worships a surreal entity known as the [Wizard King].
They claim that the great prophet and spiritual leader called Kim Shin-hwa issued the commandment: "Those who wish to board the [Wizard King's] ark must practice filial piety and service."
"Additionally, among the crime syndicates in the northern region of the capital, some are claiming their boss is [Destroyer Wizard Kim Shin-hwa]. And there are even people saying they've seen Kim Shin-hwa's ghost in some abandoned house."
As the explanation reaches this point, even the "higher-ups" start showing expressions that suggest they're struggling to keep up with this absurd [Kim Shin-hwa legend].
One of the "higher-ups," who bears a striking resemblance to a tangerine, flushes even redder on his already ruddy face and speaks up.
"Team Leader Yang Seo-ho. We know of your reputation and your achievements so far. We also know what role you've been playing at the Immigration Foreigner Affairs Office. But isn't the presenter here the Director, not you?"
Commonly called the Foreigner Management Office, its official name is the Immigration Foreigner Affairs Office.
Their original duties involve managing and supporting foreigners entering and exiting Korea.
They're still handling tasks for "ordinary foreigners" normally.
However, within the Immigration Foreigner Affairs Office exists a separate team for managing those who aren't "ordinary foreigners."
A team that oversees "supernatural entities"—a catch-all term for extraterrestrials (off-worlders), aliens (other star beings), monsters, mutants, cryptids, mythical beings, etc., who don't hold Korean citizenship.
It already wields more power, scale, and budget than its parent organization, the Immigration Control Office, but it can only operate under triple-layered restrictions.
The point the "higher-up" is raising is exactly that.
Though he doesn't voice it, Yang Seo-ho interprets the criticism as follows:
Are you trying to break free of those restrictions right now? If you want to keep enjoying the power and authority we've granted you, you have to follow the rules and regulations we've set.
Yang Seo-ho puts on a face like he's spacing out for a moment, tapping the corner of the table he's sitting at with his finger.
Tap-tap-
"Then how about increasing our personnel? To figure out if this Kim Shin-hwa thing is one guy, six guys, or if every weird incident just gets slapped with the name Kim Shin-hwa, the idiots I have working for me aren't enough."
"As we said last time, no further personnel increases are possible. This has already been decided by the committee."
It's the same response he always gets.
Before Yang Seo-ho can reply with words, her hand answers first.
Crack-crunch-
"Gasp-"
The "higher-ups" inhale sharply with pale faces. The Foreigner Management Office Director looks on the verge of fainting.
Yang Seo-ho casually places the chunk she's torn off the corner of the table onto the tabletop and says,
"I'll repeat what I said last time. The era of flimsy peace is over. If things continue like this, we'll soon face a crisis similar to the chaos right after the Great Collapse."
"...That's an important point. We'll consider it carefully."
"Ah, consider it? That's fortunate. May I go now? I need to interrogate the cultists from the Gourmet Expedition I captured the other day."
With that, Yang Seo-ho leaves the conference room.
Bang.
The door closes.
A brief, uncomfortable silence follows.
It's an attitude no ordinary civil servant could pull off, but Yang Seo-ho doesn't exist to handle tasks within the realm of common sense.
"That monster, how dare she to us..."
Someone mutters.
He must have intended it to be quiet, but in the conference room designed for voices to carry well, the complaint echoes louder than expected.
Coughs erupt here and there, along with barbs like, "If you're going to say that, why say it now?"
Only then do the "higher-ups" start buzzing energetically again.
Curses against Yang Seo-ho, blame toward the Director for failing to control a single team leader, and worries about the bizarre phenomenon called Kim Shin-hwa tangle into endless meaningless desk talk.
"Will Yang Seo-ho actually do her job properly?"
"Should we give her the personnel increase she wants?"
"No. She's already hard enough to control as is—if we make her stronger, who knows what could happen?"
"She's just a monster to fight monsters. It's better to keep her on a short leash, half-starved."
"There's no budget allocated for us anyway."
"We should at least figure out what this Kim Shin-hwa is."
"It'd be nice if it were a friendly entity. Seems like there's a chance."
"Either way, we need to identify it quickly, put a leash on it, or eliminate it."
"Agreed. Its numbers might be growing even now, for all we know."
* * *
"Hmm. The ratios look good. Next up..."
I peered into the cube floating by my side.
The blue liquid inside swirls in a mystical pattern, creating tiny waves. It almost looks like a slice of Eastern ink painting trapped within.
"Status normal for now. Increase the flesh's mana ratio by 3%, and divide the core's persistence into quartiles—"
Dozens of notebooks floating on my left side simultaneously print out massive amounts of text. No ink needed—the paper's composition shifts, changing color directly into words.
Matching the speed of my thoughts, the text doesn't fill line by line; entire pages manifest at once.
I extend my right hand, firming my intent.
"Place three A-grade magic stones."
Red magic stones fly up from a shelf, moving to the positions I desire.
"What's this? One of poor quality mixed in?"
I flick my finger, sending the low-quality stone back and pulling out a replacement.
"And next—"
The grimoire spread out beside the notes flips to the next page. I've memorized all the contents, so no need to check again, but the grimoires of this world hold power beyond mere knowledge.
Some provide benefits simply by having a specific page open.
"How's it feel?"
Click-
The lich golem lying in the stone coffin signals.
"Good. Let's begin."
Click-click-
This isn't one of the combat-oriented lich golems I've used before—it's a relatively bland one.
"Alright, everyone in. Slowly now."
Squish-glorp-
The flesh masses, adjusted with mana, crawl slowly into the coffin.
Not a small amount. Enough to fill the coffin the lich golem was in to overflowing.
"This will become your flesh—"
The cube follows my hand as it moves toward the coffin.
Seo Cheon-seul called it poison, but it's mana accumulated by dozens of cultists devouring massive quantities of creatures and monsters over decades.
Depending on how it's used, it could be a fine medicine—or something entirely different.
Liquid spills from the cube's edge. Just one drop is enough.
Plip.
It falls into the coffin.
"And this will become your blood."
I focus mana in my eyes to peer into the slime's composition.
The state looks excellent.
I take out one of my masks and place it atop the slime in the coffin.
The three-eyed mask I took from Hee-in. The one with the stealth skill, right?
"You will walk the shadows once more, emerging from between them as an assassin reborn."
I slowly kiss the mask and breathe mana into it.
Glorp-squish-
The slime slowly engulfs the mask.
Grumble- The coffin's lid closes slowly.
The lid is also made of stone. This house is full of such stone coffins. The previous owner, Heo Joo, must have used them to experiment and research various necromancy techniques.
"Well, I'm no different."
I release mana toward the closed coffin and flip to the next page of the grimoire.
[Dreamscape Enlightenment Oblivion Scripture (夢裏聞道謐忘經).
A tome dealing with the principles of life and death, and the secrets of reincarnation. It describes the afterlife and dream realms in detail, and outlines paths to enlightenment.]
A grimoire I secured from Mi-go's lab with Curtain Call back then.
I kept researching it thinking info on reincarnation or the afterlife might relate to escaping the [Cthulhu World], but nothing useful for escape.
Oddly, it synced well with Heo Joo's research, giving me unexpected help in weird directions.
Next comes the incantation. I could skip it with my traits, but it's tied to the lich golem's ego formation, so I can't omit it entirely.
"Ahem."
A short cough.
"སྐབས་འདིར་ཁྱེད་ལ་རང་ཉིད་ལ་རྒྱུས་ལོན་བྱེད་དུ་བཅུག དེ་ནས་དེ་མུ་མཐུད་དུ་འདུག་ཏུ་འཇུག་དགོས།."
Is the pronunciation right? Would've been nice if the grimoire had phonetic guides, but oh well.
Bubble-bubble-boil-
Seems like I chanted it convincingly. Reactions start immediately. I weave the stirring mana into a complete spell.
[Spirit Body Phase Shift (靈體相轉移)]
Whiiiiiinnn!!!
Light floods the basement.
Grumble-
Now, a fully formed human lies in the stone coffin.
Wearing the three-eyed mask. Same build as me... a humanoid lifeform.
I lean down, breathe into his mouth, and say,
"How's it feel this time? You're no longer a lich golem."
Not that he's fully human, either. More like a homunculus?
"......"
The homunculus in the coffin tries to turn his head toward me, but his neck twists and mangles.
"!!"
"Ah, don't panic. It hasn't solidified yet. Needs more maturation. About a month? Stay put a bit longer."
He returns to position without responding.
"Yeah, sleep some more. I'll name you once you're complete."
Grumble-
The coffin closes again. I wave my hand, shoving it to the corner of the basement. Two more identical coffins are already there.
"Hmm, works without [Cognition] now."
With [Cognition], I could skip the process and finish in completed form.
This time, I tested completing it without that cheat key.
I shudder unconsciously for a moment.
The homunculus in the coffin somehow triggered—my phobia.
[Madness – Automatonophobia]
"Hmph. At least it doesn't trigger full madness from mere metaphors or associations."
On the flip side, it means the phobia wields enough influence to make my body tremble from metaphors alone.
Thinking about madness brings on a slight headache.
Anyway, this one's the type I can easily avoid if I try.
My phone suddenly rings.
"Who's calling at this hour?"
Though I have no idea what time it is. How long have I been holed up in the basement?
I reach out and pull my smartphone from the table.
"Ugh, morning already?"
11 a.m.
I came down after lunch for sure. Time doesn't flow backward, so I've been down here 23 hours. Maybe 47?
Nah, at that point, Hyun-saeng would've come down nagging, so 23 hours it is.
"Hello?"
- It's Kim Shin-hwa! Your exclusive broker.
Park Kwang-rim. Sounds like he's in a good mood.
"Uh, not exclusive."
- Come on, does that matter?
It matters a lot.
"If you go around calling yourself my exclusive broker and Tudor finds out, your lifespan's gonna shorten big time. You okay with that?"
- Urk, you're right.
"So, what's up?"
- About that new fighter robot you lent me? This one's way better than the last one with all the arms.
"Yeah? Glad to hear it."
Robot? Homunculus, but whatever.
- Anyway, the job wrapped up without issues. Fee and commission deposited.
"Good."
It's my automated hunting system.
Normally, you'd hire fixers or take disciples—a management element. In the game, buggy as hell with low NPC survival rates, so it was dead content.
But loaning Park Kwang-rim upgraded lich golems has been raking in cash surprisingly well.
The lich golems help, but Park Kwang-rim himself is a pretty capable NPC.
'If not for the high betrayal risk, he'd be perfect.'
- So, keep calling it 'Kim Shin-hwa' from now on?
"Yeah, Kim Shin-hwa's great, right? I wanna get more famous, so keep cashing in on my name."