Certifying the Bone Soldier. You Bastards.
One of the Death Knights I made. Can't remember his original name, but I know he used to be a Sword Master from the Raheta Kingdom.
"These fucking assholes?"
They asked for proof, so I laid it all out clean. They asked questions, so I answered every one of them honestly. And the thanks I got for it was being treated like a psychiatric case. This is exactly why you should never be nice to people whose faces you don't even know.
"Shall I slay them?"
The Death Knight, who until that moment had been kneeling in silence in the same posture he'd been summoned in, had somehow drawn up beside me and was now seeking permission with the utmost care.
"...Huh? Kill who?"
"Those scoundrels presently insulting my lord, of course."
He answered as if I had asked something self-evident, pointing with a fingertip at my System screen floating in midair. At the sight of it I covered my mouth with one hand, overcome.
"You... you. All those hundred and seventy years I spent teaching you Hangeul weren't wasted! You read this entire thing... wait, no, that's not the point. You can see this System screen right now? How?"
"I know not the particulars, my lord. But ever since you returned to Earth, something akin to a System has manifested within me as well."
"Yeah? So you can post on the forums too?"
I asked with a little hope creeping into my voice, and the Death Knight — apparently deciding it would be faster to show than tell — immediately called up his own status window in the air.
Age: ??? (42 in life, currently unknown)
Traits: Immortal Knight, Sword Master
Rank: SSS
◈ Sword Soul — Recreates the swordsmanship he possessed in life, reshaped into a form specialized for the undead.
◈ Warhorse of the Dark Night — Summons a warhorse wrought of wraiths.
◈ Immortal Loyalty — Absolute obedience to his master. Complete immunity to mental domination, charm, curses, and all other status ailments.
◈ Soul Devourer — Absorbs a portion of a slain enemy's life force and abilities.
◈ Undead Army Command — Amplifies the combat power of nearby lesser undead by 200% and holds independent command authority.
◈ Overwhelming Presence — Strips beings of a lower caliber of their will to fight.
◈ Otherworldly Language — May share languages and knowledge acquired by his master.
◈ World Anomaly — Cannot have his rank determined by standard measuring devices in Earth's environment.
◈ Immortal Armor — All physical defense +500%. Automatically regenerates even if destroyed.
I read the status window the Death Knight had shown me from top to bottom.
"Ahhh — that's right! Now I remember!! Yeah, your name was Death Knight MK-1!!"
"That is correct."
Nothing else on that screen mattered. I clenched both fists and bounced in place, giddy with the simple joy of having recovered the name I myself had given him. I carried on like that for a good five minutes before I finally remembered what I had actually wanted the status window for in the first place, and promptly ordered the Death Knight onto the gallery.
"It asks that I choose something called a... nickname. What shall I name myself?"
"Whatever you want. Just don't make it anything connected to my registered handle, NecroEmpress."
"Understood... It is done. Shall I compose a post now?"
"Yeah. Take whatever's filling up that skull of yours and dump it onto the page!"
I waggled both hands at him, telling him to write whatever the hell he felt like.
"I shall take it to heart."
The Death Knight began carefully tapping at a keyboard in midair with his thick fingers. A short while later, a new post appeared on the Awakened Gallery.
I am called MK-1.
Thanks to the language my lord taught me — Hangeul — I am now able to leave a post upon this gallery.
King Sejong, who created Hangeul, is a true sage-king. He opened a path so that even a soldier who had lost his letters, even the most ignorant of commoners, might learn with ease.
Even I, who had lived by the sword alone, came to read and write. Ah... what a magnificent achievement this is.
I am an immortal knight who has transcended even death. And yet, before the accomplishments of King Sejong, I humbly bow my head.
Had it not been for him, I could never even have dreamed of posting here.
Loyalty.
"...Aigoo. That is not what I meant...."
I had fully expected MK-1, being a Death Knight, to write something along the lines of how he was going to slaughter every human being alive, or overthrow a nation. That prediction missed by a mile. At the same time, I had a pretty good idea why he'd written what he had.
"Still. You remembered how great King Sejong is from everything I taught you? That's my boy!"
"Of course. I could never forget my lord's teachings."
The reason was simple. I hadn't wanted to forget Hangeul, so every chance I got I had praised King Sejong's achievements until their ears wore thin — to every soldier I created, and to every undead friend I took on as a companion.
"Alright. Now that I've confirmed you can actually use the gallery, and that you've got a status window on top of that, let's get some real information."
"As you command."
With every last question about Death Knight MK-1 settled, I immediately wrote up a new post and put it up.
Looked at my status window and it spat out a rank, stats, skills, all that. How high do those actually need to be before you can make a living?
"...Huh? The strongest hunter's average stats are 400? MK-1, is this for real?"
I asked, incredulous, as I read through the comments, and MK-1 shrugged as if he couldn't make sense of it either.
"I do not fully understand this concept of 'stats,' but one thing is certain. Earth's humans are extraordinarily weak compared to the humans of Barzena."
"...Yeah. I never imagined it'd be this bad."
Not that I had so much as a speck of interest in slaughtering people and crowning myself king of the world the way I had in Barzena, just because these so-called hunters were weak. Back then I had only been carrying out a quest to exterminate every living thing because I had no other choice if I wanted to survive.
Or was it? After I became a Lich, I think I actually started enjoying it...
Anyway, this changed my thinking. Originally, if my stats or traits had turned out to be mediocre, I had planned to run these so-called gates myself and make money that way. Now it occurred to me that I could just send Death Knight MK-1 into the gates — and he was already far stronger than the hunters they called National Power-Level.
Someone out there would probably say a necromancer has to go along with their summons. That's only half right. A bottom-feeding, talentless moron of a necromancer has to glue themselves to their summons' side. A once-in-a-generation genius like me, Ha Yuna, could use her summons like SCVs with no restrictions whatsoever.
Having settled that, I called out to the Death Knight, who was staring blankly at the gallery beside me.
"Well, I didn't get to become a ridiculously handsome alpha male like I wanted — but I did become a ridiculously pretty woman, right? Close enough. Anyway, as long as I've got money I can live easy. MK-1, you ready?"
"Of course. However..."
MK-1 scrolled wildly through the posts as if searching for something, then held a particular comment up for me to see.
"I would ask that you look at this first."
"...."
I finished reading the comment and left no reaction at all — just a short reply to the registered user who had decided to pick a fight.
"......"
Having successfully extracted the bastard's address, I looked over at the Death Knight, who was quietly reading the room beside me.
"...MK-1."
"Yes, my lord."
"Don't kill him. Do that thing... yeah, you remember PT Gymnastics number 8? Make him do it a thousand times and come back. If he looks like he's gonna die, feed him a potion."
"As you command."
On that order, the Death Knight vanished from the apartment in an instant.
"...."
I watched the empty space for a moment, then left one last comment for the registered user who was still running his mouth.