The Abyss Spits Out R-1004

The Humanity Clones were raising hell, waving their consciences around like protest signs — all because they refused to accept my perfect plan of trading in Personal Trade Mode and then killing the neutral NPCs to farm both experience and slaughter energy.

Come on, was it really that bad a plan?

Opinions flew from every direction, and somehow not a single one of them was backing my plan. Honestly, it hurt a little.

With that thought simmering, I decided to wipe out all the red dots — the "monsters" — first and then try asking the neutral NPCs again. I pulled out the Wheel.

The Wheel rose above my head and began to roll, while the Chopsticks arrayed behind me like a halo locked onto every red blip on the minimap and poured down in a rain of needles.

I'd brought out the Wheel specifically to tighten my control over the slaughter energy so it wouldn't hit the neutral NPCs. Without it, the Chopsticks would attack monsters and neutrals alike without discrimination.

Screams and howls erupted almost immediately. Absolute chaos.

Oh, for fuck's sake — why were the neutral NPCs and the monsters all mixed together!?

On top of that, some of the ones whose monsters I'd just killed didn't gain favorability at all — their gray dots flipped straight to red instead. My head was spinning.

It would've been so much easier to just kill them all. If it weren't for the Humanity Clones watching from inside me, I swear I would've—

True to the moral character of cultivators everywhere, they started hurling other cultivators at me like human shields. Both of them were monsters anyway, so I swung a Spoon-buffed sword and cut them down together, leaving the shattered remains of the blade behind me as I opened my mouth.

"Auto-Battle."

Sweeping the monsters took no time at all. With only a single monster above level 300 in the entire pack — never mind anything near my level — the outcome had been decided from the start.

No matter how hard low-level monsters thrashed around, without the power of an Eok-kka event behind them, they couldn't so much as scratch someone over a hundred levels higher.

Sure, my defense was basically nonexistent, so a hit would land for full damage — but I'd killed them all with speed attacks before they could even swing. So yeah, zero damage taken. Close enough!

Ignoring the Humanity Clones' scolding about my nonsense, I turned to look at the remaining neutral NPCs among the hundred-plus cultivators. Fifteen — no, wait, fourteen now.

"Any NPC with spiritually potent herbs or flowers... no, gray dots... that doesn't quite work either... humans... even less so? Then, cultivators?"

Talking to myself with the Humanity Clones made me sound like I was rambling, but the neutral NPCs were all frozen in terror — either weeping silently or retching on the ground.

"So, anyway — any cultivators with something to trade?"

Nobody?

Only then did the fourteen neutral NPCs realize that the horrific Wheel which had just devoured every last scrap of blood and flesh from over a hundred cultivators was still spinning above their heads. They scrambled over each other to speak.

I have this, the guy who just died has something in his eastern compound, my in-law's cousin's younger sibling's master has such-and-such, some guy in another fortress has a treasure...

Fourteen people shouting over each other at once, and somehow not a single one of them actually had a tradeable item.

Why the hell did I even install Personal Trade Mode if it was going to put me through this? There weren't many mods this painful in the early game.

Not a single item window popped up for anything they pulled out. Not a single quest window either, no matter how desperately they babbled. The only conclusion was that they were just saying whatever came to mind to stay alive.

"Nothing, then."

"Please spare us, Demon Immortal!! Please!"

The Humanity Clones went berserk inside me. After all that careful effort to keep them alive, if I was going to kill them now, why not just kill them from the start?

But killing neutral NPCs was the correct play, wasn't it?

Should I kill them? No.

Why was that the instant answer from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠all of you?

"If you've got nothing to trade, that's fine."

I didn't feel any particular need to enter the fortress either. Satisfied enough with the solid haul of slaughter energy and experience for a low-level map, I zone-transferred to the next area.

"If sparing those guys just now triggers an Eok-kka event, next time I'm killing everything my way — neutral NPCs or not. Got it?"

I laid down the threat to the Humanity Clones and continued my map circuit.

The immediate main objective was to check every single minimap marker one by one while clearing maps — markers I'd normally just skip over — hunting for items worth giving to Cheon Nan-cho, while farming slaughter energy and experience on the side.

Of course, the best outcome would be another Training Ground appearing, but I wasn't holding my breath.

Either way, I was smoothly clearing events, raising stats, leveling up, and stacking drop items — but nothing suitable for Cheon Nan-cho was turning up.

Not like I could sense spiritual power and go hunting for hidden herbs or other fortuitous encounters in places thick with spiritual energy, either.

"Still, the levels are climbing nicely. Can't complain."

Clearing an entire map — wiping every single dot that appeared on the minimap — netted me a full level. The leveling speed was so fast you'd never guess I'd already broken past level 400.

Having this much spiritual power was seriously great. Was it basically an experience booster?

"Would be nice if I could just cruise like this all the way to level 500!"

But that peace turned out to be an omen. A prickling unease ran through my hair like static, and an event message appeared.

"Oh, you son of a—?!"

I didn't even get to finish the curse. A dark violet portal burst into existence without warning, and the instant I registered it, my instincts wrenched slaughter energy free and invoked a Law.

A dark violet portal meant the Abyss. So this was an Abyss Eok-kka event?!

What came out was an angel whose wings had been stained and discolored by dark violet. Originally a level 350 raid boss — if it had just been a simple palette swap, how nice that would've been.

In the blink of an eye, the angel closed the distance and swung a wing dyed in dark violet straight at me.

I didn't even have time to move the Wheel or the slaughter energy. The wing caught me clean and sent me flying like a bullet, slamming me into the mountainside next door.

"You... fucking... seriously...!"

A late Golden Core stage raid boss monster — something near level 500 — had just appeared out of nowhere.

"At least Elder Togo didn't show up... small mercies...!"

This was the Eok-kka event also known as an Abyss Assault: it took the monster with the highest raw stats among everything a player had ever hunted, applied level correction, and threw it at you.

It only activated after you'd entered the Abyss at least once, and every time you entered, the event's appearance cooldown reset. Absolute garbage of an Eok-kka event.

I told myself I was lucky it was just a raid boss monster — Elder Togo hadn't been something I'd killed so much as taken prisoner, so he hadn't spawned — and started healing my wounds with slaughter energy. The moment I tried to get up, the angel was already looking down at me, foot raised to stomp.

It wore a human shape, but its true nature was a puppet of metal. Still lying flat, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I urgently opened my mouth.

"Burrow!"

I thought the charge skill had let me dodge the direct hit — and then dark violet torrents of energy erupted outward from the angel's stomping foot.

"Kh—?!"

I blasted slaughter energy to cancel it out, but as always, the slaughter energy would rather fly past the torrent and attack the angel than defend. I took the hit full-on.

"Urgh—!"

Debuffs stacked up in a cascade. A few of them I automatically resisted, at the cost of coughing up blood. I scrambled to my feet and deployed the Chopsticks.

The Chopsticks fanned out behind me like a halo and poured down like a rainstorm, locking onto the angel — and in the same instant, the angel spread its dark-violet-stained wings.

"Oh, you absolute—?!"

From the wings, pure white eyeballs with sickening dark violet pupils writhed as if alive and fired purple lasers, swatting aside every last Chopstick while simultaneously closing in to cage me.

"Transform!!!"

My body of slaughter energy tanked a laser hit dead-on, held, and then ballooned in an instant into the form of a small giant. The short arm I swung at the angel was immediately ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠seized by a dark violet tentacle that shot up from nowhere.

"Would you fucking stop already!? You never had patterns like this originally!"

Goddamn reality patch! It throws a raid boss with higher stats than me at someone who just brute-forces everything with raw stats and slaughter energy!!!

"I wasn't trying to have a conversation with you!"

My insides were boiling. And on top of that, the Humanity Clones were blocking me from hitting the [Rage] emotion expression, so I couldn't even go berserk properly — which made it even more infuriating!

...Huh?