Chapter 278: Labyrinth of Change: Labyrinthos. (7)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 278: Labyrinth of Change: Labyrinthos. (7)
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say the Human Butcher was the most infamous group among the villains who had survived Labyrinthos.
Their numbers, bolstered by an infinite supply of food, were overwhelmingly superior. Moreover, thanks to Wild Dog’s knack for killing or crippling experts stronger than himself through cowardly means, they had no real rivals.
To top it off, they would seize artifacts from those they killed, so it was only natural for the group to grow larger and larger.
Yes. A symbol of terror, the pinnacle of madness.
At least within this labyrinth, they were the atrocious monsters that no one wanted to cross.
That was the group known as the Human Butcher, and I was their leader, Wild Dog.
But, but how on earth did it come to this?
“Hurry up. Faster. You know you’re dead if I catch you trying anything funny, right?”
“Don’t… don’t worry. It’s only a little further.”
“Huh? Dropping the formalities?”
“…Please do not worry. We will arrive at our base shortly.”
Shit.
How did someone like me end up in this state, being treated like this by a brat and a few girls?
I should have just fought them head-on from the start. When my initial ambush failed, I took too much damage.
Who the hell is this kid? How does he see through all my techniques and acting?
If the others had attacked first, it wouldn’t have turned out like this.
“Hey.”
“Huh?! I mean, yes!?”
“Fix your face. Before I decide to just kill you. I’m keeping you alive to make things easier for us, but you’re not exactly essential, you know? Do you really think I won’t be able to find your base if I kill you?”
He’d kill me. This bastard would definitely take my head off the moment I annoyed him, regardless of profit or loss.
It takes a madman to know one. This guy was the same kind as me… no, he was a lunatic even more deeply steeped in madness than I was.
I had let my guard down because he looked normal, but beneath that cute shell was an impossibly violent insanity.
And for some reason, this maniac seemed to despise me, so now was the time to lay low.
Fine, actually, this worked out.
They needed food, and they were greedy for a map since they wanted to escape the dungeon.
Thanks to that, I still had a chance for a final reversal.
Since I’d left both the map and the canned food at the base, I had a reason to lead them there. Once we arrived, I could use my most powerful artifact.
“Hehe, you didn’t like my expression! You should have said so sooner!”
“…Never mind. Just keep scowling. You look even more disgusting when you smirk.”
“…Haha, understood.”
Go ahead, laugh all you want.
No matter how great you think you are, the ultimate artifact—one you can never defeat—is waiting for you.
* * *
Well, he’s probably thinking something along those lines, right?
It’s obvious what’s going through his head.
— Please, please spare me. I was wrong! I didn’t recognize someone as great as you…!
In the 1st Timeline, after I blocked his final artifact and was getting ready to kill him in the foulest mood possible, he had begged for his life quite desperately.
Well, I was in such a bad mood that I just killed him anyway.
That “final artifact” is actually quite threatening. I really almost died in the last timeline.
“Um, Disciple. Is it okay for us to just follow him like this? He said it’s his base; what if he’s leading us into a trap?”
“It’s fine. No matter what a guy like him prepares, how great of a trap could it really be?”
“…Haha, a trap? Perish the thought. I’m the type to bow down completely when I have to. There’s nothing like that.”
He’s not lying. There are few people who can act as groveling and pathetic as him when they want to live.
The problem is that the moment an opportunity arises after bowing, he’ll immediately stab you in the back.
“No, if you want to do it, go ahead. But you’ll have to take responsibility for it afterward, okay? If you’re going to lead us into a trap, be prepared to die for it.”
“Haha, that won’t happen, but I’ll keep that in mind…”
Anyway, because of that, I’ll act the part of someone who isn’t on guard—someone careless.
I’ll throw out bait so delicious you won’t be able to resist, and I’ll show you a state of such blatant carelessness that you won’t be able to stand it unless you finally strike me in the back.
So please, don’t hold back. Just go for it.
Use your strongest artifact—the one with the absolute worst compatibility against the current me.
After walking for a while, we arrived at his dwelling, which was filled with a rather unpleasant stench.
“Hehe, I kept it in a deep spot. My subordinates are greedy, you see. If you wait just a moment, I’ll go bring it out.”
Pfft. He really hasn’t improved his act at all. If anything, it’s regressed.
His acting was a bit better back then.
Ah, right. It’s an old memory for me, but from his perspective, that was his future self.
With ragged breathing and a back that looked anxious, he desperately rummaged through his belongings, praying I wouldn’t notice.
After waiting for a bit, he suddenly stopped moving.
“Hey, want me to tell you an interesting story?”
Look at this guy. The moment he thinks he has the upper hand, he drops the polite speech.
“Go ahead.”
“I, you see… I eat human flesh.”
“I know. That’s why you called yourselves the Human Butcher.”
“But honestly, I don’t eat it because it tastes good. Obviously. Compared to livestock that’s had its quality improved and its feed controlled for a lifetime, there’s no way a human who lived haphazardly would taste better, right?”
Ah, I remember now. Yeah, even in the past, before he died by my hand—right before he used his final artifact—he told me the reason why he started eating human flesh.
“What I used to do was closer to hunting. I just liked the act of killing itself. I enjoyed the expressions my prey made before they died, their resistance… that kind of thing.”
Click.
I heard the sound of him unlocking something.
“But some hero told me that what I was doing was meaningless slaughter, that I was a villain. When I thought about it, he wasn’t entirely wrong.”
He was clearly nervous; it seemed he wasn’t very used to that artifact yet.
“So, while I was torturing that hero, I thought about it. How could I enjoy killing without it being meaningless slaughter? The answer was surprisingly simple.”
““You just have to eat them.””
My voice overlapped with his.
“…Huh?”
“Why are you surprised? I figured as much. If you kill and eat a wild animal or livestock, people don’t call it meaningless. That’s what you were going to say, right? Oh, and you were going to mention how the first person you ate was that preaching hero, and how his screams sounded, or whatever.”
I heard it from the man himself, so of course I’d be accurate.
Yes, he was trash who had been thrown in here after being caught eating the heroes and citizens he had killed based on that insane logic.
“Dumbass, I know you were stalling for time with that bullshit, so just use it already. But you’re responsible for whatever happens next, okay?”
In the first place, the reason he eats human flesh is a device to instill disgust or fear in his opponent through that background story.
But I’m not exactly at a level where I’d be scared by something like that.
“You’ll regret falling for it even while knowing! Strength and weakness mean nothing to this artifact…!”
He hesitated for a brief moment, but eventually turned around and aimed the artifact at me. What he held out toward me was a ring-shaped artifact.
How nostalgic. It was an artifact I used quite a lot after taking it from him.
[The Song of the Dead uses its second ability in exchange for an offering.]
[Drains the life force of the designated target, leading to instant death.]
A murky energy surged from the ring and enveloped me, but I didn’t bother dodging.
“I smashed the skull of a necromancer who came here and took this artifact! It will never stop until it has devoured every last bit of your life force…!”
And here, I’ll show a bit of showmanship by staggering once.
“Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!”
Then I stood up straight.
“…Huh?”
Hmm, Song of the Dead. It’s a good artifact. A necromancy-type artifact, Hero-grade.
Even without knowledge of necromancy, you can create low-level undead through bones, and if you sacrifice a certain number of corpses, you can use an instant-death skill that drains the target’s life force.
However, perhaps due to the limitations of being Hero-grade, there is a limit to the amount of life force the instant-death skill can drain, which is roughly equivalent to ten people.
There was a reason I’d been provoking him and staying at the front.
Well, since there are five of us, he probably thought it would be enough.
“Y-You, what are you?”
It is a threatening artifact, sure.
“What about me?”
Except against someone like me, who has life force to spare.
Still enveloped in the ominous energy, I walked toward him. He collapsed, trembling violently.
“U-Uwa…! Uwaaaa!!!”
I felt the unpleasant sensation of my Innate True Qi rapidly draining from my body, but the pain was barely different from using Multiple Reinforcement.
Ah, hey. Thanks. Seriously, thank you. I was worried about what I’d do if you actually handed over the artifacts obediently.
But thanks to you acting out like this…
I have a reason to kill you now, don’t I?
“Disciple.”
The moment I heard Master’s voice, I stopped my hand as it reached for him.
“It is fine to harm him since he is a wicked man, but it is not good to enjoy the opponent’s pain while losing yourself like that.”
I snapped out of it.
…What kind of expression was I making while trying to kill him? Was I smiling? No, the fact that I reached out with my hand instead of a blade meant I was planning to toy with him before killing him.
“Are you back to your senses?”
When I turned my head, everyone was indeed looking at me with somewhat worried faces.
If even these people are looking at me like this, I wonder what would have happened if I’d come with the others.
Even if I kill him, I should do it with a single stroke, without pain…
“Mm, good boy. Now, finish it.”
“Huh? I thought you said enjoying the pain itself is bad?”
Master tilted her head as if she had no idea what I was talking about.
“When did I say that? I said you shouldn’t torment him while you’re not in your right mind.”
…Eh? So what does that mean?
“It’s a waste to torment someone when you’re not even sane enough to appreciate it. Now that you’re clear-headed, you can process him while savoring it to the fullest!”
Ah, um, right.
Now that I think about it, this is exactly the kind of person Master was.
— So-hyun! What is Wuxia! Yes! Wuxia, the Murim, is a wonderful place overflowing with martial arts, chivalry, and revenge!
In Master’s theory of Wuxia, revenge was an element that could never be omitted.
Turning my gaze back, I saw the man trying to crawl away.
I approached him with a smile.
Don’t worry. Since I’ve come to my senses, I don’t think I can kill you too cruelly.
“Spa…!”
“Oh, you’re showing your teeth?”
I’ll just break every single one of those teeth before I kill you mercifully.
* * *
Mm, I feel refreshed.
If my naive friends had been here, I never would have been able to feel this level of catharsis.
“…You look like you’re in a good mood. Was there a personal reason?”
“Yes, well. A little?”
“…Wow, So-hyun, was that expression you usually wear in front of your friends all an act?”
“Mm, it hurts my feelings when you put it like that. A person can just really dislike villains, you know.”
While the Chairperson and Aisha confirmed that I had finished the guy off, I was able to organize the artifacts with the help of Baek Seol and Master.
“I guess this is it for now.”
In the past, I had taken his other artifacts too, but this time they were mostly useless, so I threw everything except the essentials to the Black Shadow as food.
Among the items we kept, Baek Seol took a whip that secreted poison, and the Chairperson took the Song of the Dead, saying it was dangerous.
And we also obtained the map and the infinite canned food, which were our original goals.
Yes, this is it. This is the artifact I used so much before my regression.
[Infinite Canned Food Factory]
A Rare-grade artifact that uses the owner’s mana to spit out up to three random cans of food per day.
Fortunately, it seemed he hadn’t used it yet today, so let’s test it right away.
When I poured mana into the artifact, the rattling lid of the can opened, and with a pop, a small can appeared.
‘Canned Bread’
“With this, our food worries are lessened.”
“…There’s even canned bread?”
Is it just bread?
Thanks to this guy, I’ve tried every kind of canned food in the world.
“Anyway, the basic preparations are finished now.”
Since we’ve obtained both food and a map, it means we can finally begin our exploration in earnest.