Chapter 241
Chapter 241
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 241
Chapter Title: Various Problems
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“I’ve been watching over Mr. Hyun-deok’s body for a long time.”
In the dim lighting of the basement, Heo Sang-hyeon spoke quietly.
His face, positioned higher than mine, was shrouded in eerie, ominous shadows, making it look sinister and indistinct.
“Because he was the very ‘material’ that my former master... that is, Lord Heo, had been desperately searching for.”
There it was again—that word ‘material’ from that guy. Heo Sang-hyeon was a good person, but he often used these alien terms.
Words he must have picked up during his time as a socialite, a priest, an assistant to a mad sorcerer, and as someone living to embody the abyss’s darkness and malice in this world.
“And?”
“That’s why I sensed that his base mana had surged dramatically after drinking the Dream Haze recently, but it shouldn’t have been enough for him to achieve magical prowess that quickly.”
This wasn’t Heo Sang-hyeon claiming to fully understand Jang Hyun-deok’s constitution. This was something more fundamental.
Having a lot of mana didn’t mean you could just start casting spells right away. Otherwise, I’d have ditched that ridiculous Demon-Slaying Sword and gone around using magic from the Curtain Call onward.
That’s why proper wizards were treated like royalty.
And the point Heo Sang-hyeon was getting at was...
“You’ve interfered with Mr. Hyun-deok’s—someone else’s—body to artificially enable him to use magic?”
I pondered for a moment before answering honestly.
“Yes, that’s right. I did that.”
Heo Sang-hyeon wore the expression of someone struck by utter defeat.
“Truly astonishing.”
Truly, truly astonishing—small mutterings repeated from the corners of his mouth. Truly, really. Astonishing. How is that even possible?
Anyone could see it was an unnatural state.
To calm him down—or to figure out why he was so shaken—I called his name.
“Mr. Sang-hyeon.”
“Mythos.”
But instead of responding to my call, Heo Sang-hyeon called my name. This might not even be a conversation.
“Do you know what experiment my master obsessed over most when he was alive?”
Heo Sang-hyeon didn’t correct it to “former master” or “Lord Heo”—just “master.” His eyes seemed to wander into the past from years ago.
“I’ve seen his experiment notes, so I have a rough idea.”
Experiments befitting a necromancer versed in life and death. Stitching and weaving corpses into new forms, then raising and controlling them. Or forbidden arts to extend a wretched life eternally—or to postpone death forever.
At my response, Heo Sang-hyeon nodded.
“And through those forbidden arts, what he sought to create was a stronger humanity to survive the coming apocalypse.”
“...”
What nonsense.
If Lord Heo’s research had succeeded, something would have walked this land even after the apocalypse—but it wouldn’t be called [human] or [humanity].
‘They’d call it zombies or walking corpses.’
I couldn’t bring myself to say it, but Heo Sang-hyeon continued with a bitter expression, as if he’d already heard my reply.
“He was a man with a different set of ideals and morals from ours. But his convictions were unwavering, and to realize them, he slaughtered an immense number of humans.”
Lord Heo had disassembled, dissected, and reassembled hundreds of corpses before barely producing something resembling his goal.
And Heo Sang-hyeon himself was a byproduct of that very experiment.
“The reason I can wield your mana... is because I’m not a living person. I’m a corpse animated by your mana.”
“Mr. Sang-hyeon, you don’t need to put it that way.”
Heo Sang-hyeon wasn’t a revived ‘person.’
He could eat, drink, sleep, smile, and walk like a living person, but he was just a corpse mimicking one.
A corpse powered by my mana, and at the same time, a familiar under my command.
“It’s not that you’ve accomplished the impossible with Mr. Hyun-deok. I know others could achieve something similar with enough time, technology, resources, and effort.”
Modifying human bodies to grant new abilities and talents wasn’t impossible. Holistic and their rival company Cure were already producing hordes of modified humans.
“But to do it this simply, with just the will to do so, and relying solely on your own power—no human I know of can pull that off.”
“No. It might look like some steps were skipped on the surface, but it was far from simple.”
I said that, but I too now recognized the unnaturalness of what I’d done.
Lord Heo borrowed the power of the [One Who Comes from the Darkness] to create undead. The cults in Masquerade did the same, each in their own way, drawing on the power of the gods they served.
Even Holistic and Cure, who seemed to use hyper-advanced science, relied on fluids from otherworldly races or alien tech granted by abyssal entities.
So whose power had I borrowed to do this?
“Mythos, the one who revived my dead self and granted me new life.”
Heo Sang-hyeon—whether he intended it or not—was originally a cultist.
“Who are you? Where exactly did you come from?”
He gazed up at me with the expression of a devotee beholding a transcendent being.
“Could you bestow upon me—even me—the same blessing you gave Mr. Hyun-deok? True resurrection—the strength to walk out of this cursed estate on my own two feet—to meet my family who must be waiting for me—could you grant me such a blessing as well?”
For a moment.
No, after quite a long deliberation, I slowly reached out and touched Heo Sang-hyeon’s chest.
“Mr. Sang-hyeon. Something’s off.”
Then his shoulder with my other hand,
his ear next,
his eyes,
and finally his forehead. I confirmed that the spiritual construct linking his body and soul was partially damaged.
“This is why.”
It must have been mana released during the [Perception] process causing unintended issues for Heo Sang-hyeon.
“Don’t worry. I can fix it.”
I infused mana to resolve the problem afflicting him, then continued slowly.
“You saw nothing. The moment you leave this basement, you’ll forget every thought you’ve had until now. You’ll forget these unnecessary worries and obsessive urges—and be free to think again, free to desire again.”
I also erased some memories that would only cause him pain.
Heo Sang-hyeon stood there blankly, looking like he was dreaming, then silently left the basement without a word.
Alone in the dark, damp basement, I muttered to myself.
“I can do this too, huh.”
Truly fascinating.
I’d brushed off Heo Sang-hyeon’s desperate plea and just fixed his ‘malfunction.’
How did things end up like this?
I had no idea.
There were mountains of urgent tasks ahead, ones that brooked no delay. I’d worry and fret later.
Once this moment passed, I’d have the leisure to agonize more comfortably.
* * *
In the end, Kim Shin-hwa chose to set aside his growing anxiety and worries for now and tackle the pressing matters first.
Whether this was the best judgment, even Kim Shin-hwa didn’t know—but for some, it triggered the worst possible scenario.
“What the hell—what the actual hell? Why did this happen? Is there no one here with any answers?”
Even cultists steeped in blood, madness, and wicked ideologies would have someone with talent as a strategist or tactician.
Yet none of the cultists gathered before the Blood Marquess could provide a satisfying answer.
And these were precisely the ones who had fallen into the worst situation due to Kim Shin-hwa’s choices.
“......”
“......”
“Why! Why! Why is everyone keeping their mouths shut? If you’re all going to clam up like oysters, I’ll pry your mouths open myself—the same way I force open an oyster’s shell!”
The way to open a tightly shut oyster was simple: wedge a knife into the gap or roast it over fire.
Finally, the Blood Demon Cult’s cultists began to speak up hesitantly.
“No matter how we look at it, their movements are... utterly unpredictable.”
“Could it be precognition at play?”
“From those thugs?”
Those thugs.
The ones driving the Blood Marquess to the brink of madness were the Bongil Heavenly Wave and Blue Tiger Gang.
Their movements were utterly chaotic. No one could predict or comprehend why they moved in that order, at that time, in that way.
They moved roughly, disorderly, and noisily, occupying meaningless buildings, attacking random spots. Sometimes they even bombed empty lots.
It was impossible not to see it as the antics of madmen...
“But it’s getting more serious by the minute. This has to be some kind of scheme.”
The enemy just happened to show up there, forcing them to cancel a ritual.
By sheer coincidence, they seized a spot the cult had eyed as a new base.
By some twist of fate, they attacked it, destroying a hard-built altar.
The enemy...
“Damn it, enough!”
The most recent incident was an absurd bombing. The Bongil Heavenly Wave’s prank had, in the most infuriating way, spread to the Blood Demon Cult’s secret outpost, turning decades of accumulated spiritual assets to ash in an instant.
Because of that, despite forging an alliance with the Red Bean Faction, the Blood Demon Cult was tied down in pointless ways, unable to act.
If this continued, the cult’s long-cherished aspirations and plans would collapse into ruin.
“Damn it all!”
The Blood Marquess smashed nearby objects, stomped her feet, spat curses at the sky, called out the Blood Demon King’s name several times in lament, and finally calmed down enough to speak.
“Fine, you’re right. There’s something behind those thugs. But what is it?”
One cultist cautiously offered a new theory.
“The Corpse Burners are pointing to Kim Shin-hwa.”
“Kim Shin-hwa? That bastard’s the one puppeteering those thugs?”
“That seems to be their thinking.”
“Kim Shin-hwa... Kim Shin-hwa... The sacrifice from the banquet. Yeah, that makes sense. Can’t be coincidence.”
Right, that bastard was the problem.
The mad wizard who’d wreaked havoc on the brother cults, the Gourmet Expedition Corps and the Corpse Burners.
That Kim Shin-hwa had stolen abyssal knowledge to incite those thugs, stolen abyssal power to arm them.
“Then once we assassinate that Kim Shin-hwa, those thugs will go back to being the dumb sheep they were.”
“You know this already, but he’s an incredibly vicious and horrific bastard. Remember the riots at Paju Three Tombs and Paju Central Hospital?”
The Blood Demon Cult hadn’t joined those riots.
Of course, the [Blood Demon King]’s power had played a major role back then, but unlike other incarnations based in the [Predator of the Mountains], it hadn’t moved its followers.
And that held true now.
“Plus, remember the Blood Demon King’s oracle forbidding approach to the banquet’s sacrifice.”
“Urgh...”
As the Blood Marquess’s groans and anguish deepened, someone finally came up with a meaningful plan.
“The Corpse Burners have lost their base right now. Without sufficient marshland and stable soil, their prophet, the Screaming Demon Frog, can’t be born.”
“I know that. That’s why those frog bastards aren’t helping us at all.”
“What about the opposite?”
“The opposite?”
“The Corpse Burners couldn’t properly resist that Kim Shin-hwa last time because they lacked a unifying force. If we provide them a stable base, ample marshland, and blood, they can finally birth the Screaming Demon Frog.”
“I see. And use the Corpse Burners as the spearhead to counterattack him?”
“The Screaming Demon Frog embodies the Corpse Burners’ ancient history and secrets—an ultimate demon beyond compare. Even Kim Shin-hwa won’t face it lightly.”
“Indeed, sound advice.”
“Plus, the Gourmet Expedition Corps has lost their base too. If we support the Corpse Burners and pull in the Expedition Corps, things might resolve without us needing to step up much.”
“Hmm—yes. I like it. I like it.”
With a direction set, the Blood Demon Cult’s cultists began offering plausible schemes one after another.
“I’ve heard that in an abandoned factory in the old publishing complex, there’s a grimoire created under the Great Abyss’s revelation. How about retrieving it to restore our lost power?”
“There’s a rock in Tanheon infused with the [Fear Drinker]’s mana. What if we borrow the [Fear Drinker]’s power through it?”
“I’ve scouted a new base too. The secret church once used by the now-defunct [Offspring of Fomalhaut]...”
As the cultists’ schemes converged, a grand plan formed to deliver a horrific, devastating defeat to Kim Shin-hwa.
All that remained was to set the noose and lure him in.