The Necromancer's Disguise
The dwarf necromancer Olivia perished, and Baengnae returned to the waiting room. The chat window erupted into chaos. Thanks to her bizarre “gulping show,” the public had dismissed her, yet analysts still ranked Olivia among the absolute top contenders of Stage 3.
Pat—the chat window I glimpsed right before the room vanished showed that no one had realized Baengnae was a zombie. That was an excellent development. Look at Bak. He had created a powerful entity like Olivia, yet he scattered information everywhere and collapsed pathetically. The same principle applied to me. The less they understood our true nature, the more advantageous it was for me.
“Well… the outcome itself wouldn’t have changed anyway.”
The resources poured into Baengnae and the sweat she had shed were by no means small. Even if she had fought normally, defeat was never an option. After all, I wasn’t a dropout who joined this tournament by accident—I had been branded a freeloader while doing nothing.
Cat-nim was in an excellent mood. Not merely because we had won. Right after the battle, Heaven’s Snake had tried to cross into the space where I was. The reason was obvious. Yet her action had been rejected by the Central System. Thanks to that, even more eyes turned our way, and eventually Heaven itself had to step in. Heaven’s Snake had been disciplined and expelled from the tournament. Exactly the result I wanted.
“Now it’s truly irreversible…”
I needed to grow stronger. I couldn’t keep relying on Cat-nim and the sponsors forever.
“I’ve collected quite a few tokens. Can I use some?”
[Of course. You have 45 right now. What do you want?]
“The summoners are suspecting Baengnae is a necromancer. Is there a way to amplify that misunderstanding?”
I hadn’t expected much from Cat-nim. I had simply planned to browse a list and choose something myself. But Cat-nim immediately granted the reward.
[If that’s what you need, ten tokens will solve it!]
Surplus Disguise
Store anything recognized as food inside your stomach and retrieve it later to consume.
The phone alarm chimed. Impatient as ever, Cat-nim had chosen the reward without asking. The screen displayed the skill Surplus Disguise.
“Can I get a refund…?”
[That skill lets you store anything recognized as food in your stomach and take it out to eat later!]
The description matched exactly what Cat-nim had said. I stared at the skill.
“Storing food, huh…”
Fools sometimes displayed sudden genius in specific fields. Cat-nim’s field was probably snacks. This was clearly a cheap way to deceive other users.
“I see… corpses count as food too.”
[Nyahaha, exactly!]
In other words, store dwarf corpses inside Baengnae’s Surplus Disguise and pull them out on the battlefield to use as zombies.
“How did you even think of this…?!”
[I used to sneak out tons of snacks with this skill back in the day. Reminds me of old times. Nyaa… those nostalgic days.]
“Figures.”
Cat-nim suddenly coming up with a brilliant idea was almost impossible. Still, it was a good plan no matter how it came about. I clapped and praised her.
“As expected of Cat-nim! Amazing!”
[Nyahaha! That’s right, I’m a genius!]
Side effects appeared. I had half-expected something like this. The zombies came running in a panic, shouting that a thief had broken into the food warehouse. An enormous amount of food and ingredients had vanished overnight. But there could be no thieves in this city. If anyone could steal, it was either me or the zombies. Since it wasn’t me, the culprit had to be a zombie.
“In just one day…”
Normally I kept the zombies well-fed. High-grade ingredients served as supplements, but ordinary food was outside my interest. That was why the zombies who finished training could freely enter the warehouse. The only rule was that food had to be eaten in the dining hall—nothing could be taken outside. Recently, however, one zombie had exploited a loophole and gained the ability to carry food out. I had summoned that very zombie from the city into the waiting room.
Woong—
“Mm. Baengnae here.”
I placed my hands on my hips and glared at her. Baengnae glanced around nervously. Without a word from me, she opened her mouth and began spitting out food in a torrent.
Uwee— Uwee—
The floor filled with food. An absurd quantity.
“Good grief… where was all this even stored?”
Baengnae pouted.
“Baengnae was hungry.”
“Liar! I literally just asked Cat-nim whether Surplus Disguise makes you hungrier!”
Baengnae looked caught.
“Go store some dwarf corpses. If you keep all this in your stomach, where are you going to put the dwarves?”
“Arata…”
Slap— Slap— Baengnae headed toward the corpse storage. Without boots, her bare feet slapped against the asphalt.
“Sheesh… that troublemaker.”
All the high-grade food belonged to Baengnae anyway. I couldn’t understand why she had stored it inside herself. I picked up a piece of jerky and tossed it to her.
“Eat that and get ready for the next match.”
“Hehe. Arata.”
The third round was about to begin. Because some opponents had run away, there had been gaps between matches. I welcomed the extra training time. The room opened, and the arena formed—a colosseum. Strangely, the viewer count was lower than when we faced Bak. Usually, those who stirred up the community were skilled fighters. True newbies never drew aggro in the first place. By round three, matchups between notable players had started, and everyone had gone to watch those. The ones left in my room were either anti-fans who loved Olivia too much and wished for Baengnae’s defeat, or obsessive fans who adored Baengnae. Neither group was particularly welcome.
“What a headache.”
They had started fighting among themselves, so I simply closed the chat window. I wished they would just leave.
“Still, I have work to do.”
Even with few people in the chat, the necromancer act had to continue. Every match was recorded and archived on the community. Opponents would look up my previous fights regardless. I summoned Baengnae onto the battlefield. She pulled out the three cloths she had brought, spread them on the ground one by one, and casually pushed corpses underneath.
“Looks extremely suspicious.”
But what could I do? If corpses crawled out from under the cloths, that made her a necromancer. The opponent began summoning as well. This time it was a sunflower summoner. Plant-type summoners were quite rare. Their strengths and weaknesses were clear: when rooted, they gained minor stat bonuses. Creak— Creak— Two massive sunflowers with 2.5-meter stems burst from the ground and drove in their roots. Between them appeared a creature roughly Baengnae’s size—five eyes, holding a watering can. A plant-human, an upper-tier plant entity.
“Feels like a mandrake…?”
Baengnae seemed ready too. She raised her thorn sword high and shouted.
“Go!”
At her command the cloths writhed. Three dwarf zombies crawled out, shrieking.
Keeeek! Kigigi! Kekiki!
“Good. That looked like a necromancer! Probably?”
Ding— The battle began. Exactly five minutes later, the plants disappeared into the zombies’ stomachs. After all, there had only been one upper-tier entity. This opponent was a lucky rat summoner—a newbie who had ridden luck all the way to round three. The zombies then vanished into Baengnae’s stomach as well. Ever the thrifty eater, she wasted no food.
Over three thousand participants had been reduced to one-eighth after three rounds. Four hundred remained. Naturally, debates about who was the strongest raged everywhere. Gradually, attention began turning toward Baengnae as well—the rising star who had defeated Olivia, the dwarf necromancer who summoned dwarf zombies. There were plenty of weirder contestants than Baengnae, yet she drew more spotlight because of our final opponent.
That opponent was a golem summoner. But his fame did not come from the golems. In reality he had been a notorious criminal—twelve assaults, seven aggravated assaults. Only after he was released again and finally committed murder did he receive a life sentence. Then he was summoned here from prison. He had posted his criminal record on the community as if it were an achievement. People were furious. Yet in this solo-play game, no one could punish him. He had even been a high-ranking user who led the early stages. His shameless attitude only grew worse by the day. Still, he met his downfall in Stage 3. Calling it “fighting practice,” he assaulted his own summons until an accident occurred. Mockery flooded in. People sneered that reaching Stage 3 with the intelligence to beat up golems was a miracle. Just when it seemed he would be forgotten, he encountered a rescue team and was saved—his twenty-first chance at redemption. Fury erupted again. By then, however, many users had shed their civilized masks and grown accustomed to slaughter. A faction defending him appeared. Thus he became a named villain who stirred aggro and collected countless antis on the community.
When Baengnae heard the story, she whined. Golems could not be eaten. I was angry too. Of course the shameless man’s actions deserved condemnation. What angered me more, however, were the people who had decided to release such trash back into society.
“What is the law even for? What is control for?”
First, I would eliminate him here. He had already been given far too many chances.