I Won, But the Loot Filter Was Empty

"Hah... fuck... seriously..."

This thing was disgustingly tough!

The potions surrounding us — wait, no, the neutral NPCs — whether they were hemming us in or just watching, every last one of them had been driven to the absolute brink of exhaustion. And still the field boss showed no sign of going down.

It had the kind of insane defense that refused to take a single point of damage unless I hit it with a direct Spoon-boosted attack, and it was a field boss specialized in close-quarters brawling. If I hadn't killed its ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠minions early and stripped some of that defense, I wouldn't even have been able to hold out this long.

"I'm exhausted too... but what about you, Demon Immortal? Your regeneration's been lagging for a while. I don't know how much more you can heal, but it doesn't matter. I will kill you."

Dried, crusted scabs of blood clung thick over the field boss's eyes as it spoke. I scoffed inwardly, barely managing to haul my freshly regenerated body upright — then toppled straight onto my back again.

It felt like every scrap of strength had drained out of me.

But every time I regenerated, I'd poured out slaughter energy, and looking at the Tetris I'd carefully stacked through all of that, a deep satisfaction welled up. I'd ignored the Humanity Clones nagging me to switch out with Reason and just kept stacking, after all.

"This is the end, Demon Immortal."

"That's my line."

I looked up at the field boss staring down at me — and collapsed the Tetris.

All day long, while we grappled, the slaughter energy had rolled and rolled and rolled without rest, swelling endlessly in size. It had grown so massive that even I, the one stacking the Tetris, had thought wait, what the fuck, why is this working this well?

A cultivator who couldn't see slaughter energy would never understand this confidence of mine.

They wouldn't be able to see the colossal slaughter-energy Tetris collapsing — so huge it would have been visible from anywhere on this map, with me at its center.

Like the end of the world dropping out of nowhere, a brief silence fell, and then the bomb skill detonated in utter quiet, erupting as if to erase the entire area in a single blast.

The longer the slaughter energy chained together, the more violently it compounded — like compound interest — and I'd accelerated that force through the Wheel all day long. The resulting power was nothing a late Golden Core cultivator, already worn down from grappling with me, could possibly withstand.

But the field boss held on.

As if that Tier-1 prefix wasn't just for show.

Even under a blast that melted flesh, shredded muscle, and shattered thick bone, the field boss forced its red muscle to move, staggered out of the explosion to crush me underfoot — and then crumpled, powerless, and vanished.

"I won."

The level-up messages scrolling up like a confirmation kill finally let the tension drain out of me all at once.

A small sense of achievement even flickered through me — I'd won without the Humanity Clones' help. Lying there, I was about to close my eyes when I frantically forced myself upright.

"No fucking way — not a single drop?!"

After all that hell to kill it?!

Not a single light beam from the item filter mode anywhere. No, seriously, was this even real? Don't fuck with me. I'd dumped how many consumables into that fight, and the few pieces of gear I had left were all wrecked.

I seethed in pure injustice for a long while before finally getting a grip, standing up, and checking the quest window. Fortunately it was still there — which meant the quest NPC was still alive.

I flopped onto the Wheel and drifted weakly, wobbling through the air in search of the quest NPC. How far the hell had this bastard run?

The quest NPC bolting to an entirely different map — what was that about? I told him to hide, not run away. Still, the chopsticks I'd handed him hadn't dropped and were still stuck firmly in place, so that was something.

I even had to change regions before I finally found him — the quest NPC, hanging out with three neutral NPCs.

"Is there really no way to remove this?"

"Hmm. A technique and a curse we've never seen before — fascinating. As I've been saying, who exactly did this to you?"

"Kh — I'll give you more spirit stones. Isn't there anything you can do? Time is almost—"

The quest NPC finally looked up at me, so I gave him a little wave.

And as the neutral NPCs followed the gaze of the quest NPC — who had just collapsed onto his seat — their faces went bone-white in an instant.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Demon Immortal...?"

"But Lord Gangdae-in said he was going to subjugate the Demon Immortal..."

I crooked a finger, and the chopsticks stuck to the quest NPC flew back, slotting into place among the halo of chopsticks fanned out behind me before vanishing like a mirage.

"Demon Immortal! I have nothing to do with that man! Please!"

One of the cultivators, finally realizing what they'd been fiddling with belonged to the Demon Immortal, dropped flat on his face and begged for his life.

"Oh, so then it's fine if you die?"

With the clear, chilling voice of a little girl, he became a single handful of bloody pulp.

"I brought what you asked for!"

I held out the quest item to the quest NPC. He was shaking so hard it looked like he had a tremor, but he still tried desperately to take it. It was so pitiful I just shoved it into his arms and turned to the remaining two neutral NPCs.

"So. What's your relationship with Green?"

"Demon Immortal!"

Jesus — nearly gave me a heart attack. The quest NPC suddenly raised his voice and threw himself in front of the remaining two neutral NPCs, shielding them with his own body. I clicked my tongue. Ah. My potions.

Still, one of them had been enough to top off my HP for now. I pulled up the quest window, then barked at the quest NPC again.

"This is the thing you asked me to bring, right? Check it. Now."

Only then did the quest NPC inspect the quest item, and system messages scrolled up in a cascade.

Oh. The secret realm itself was nothing special, but the rewards were generous. Or wait — considering I got into a full-blown brawl with a field boss the second I came out, was it actually a loss? I asked myself.

You racked up plenty of slaughter energy and exp, so isn't that enough? Even if you didn't get any items, came a Humanity Clone's reply, and I almost sighed for no good reason.

No, seriously — a field boss with zero drops? How does that make any sense?

What the hell was the Field Boss Enhancement Mode even doing?

You buff it up that hard and the only rewards are exp and slaughter energy? I was so pissed about the missing drops that I briefly disabled the item filter, scooped up the leftover corpse of the field boss — which was only green-grade — and tried grinding it in the millstone. It was too hard to grind, and I just burned through the millstone's durability instead.

Nothing works. Nothing!

"I'm leaving, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠then."

No red dots, not in combat — so I Base Teleported straight back to base, flopped onto the bed to rest, then suddenly thought the time would be wasted and closed my eyes.

I dumped the work on the Humanity Clones and went to sleep on the Wheel in the Mental World. This time I was genuinely, completely spent.

I'd gone out looking for Cheon Nan-cho's gift.

Got hit with Abyss eok-kka, did a quest, and then fought a disgustingly strong field boss on top of it. So much pointless chaos that my mind felt completely wrecked.

Especially getting my mythic item stolen by the Abyss eok-kka, and the field boss having zero drops — that pissed me off so hard I was just exhausted.

So I'm taking a break.

I'm at the base anyway. The Humanity Clones will handle the AFK grinding. It's not like I'm out on the map, so no risk of losing the Training Ground either!

Work hard, Humanity Clones! I'm going to sleep!

"That's everything the main body was thinking. Not sure I needed to write it all out on the blackboard for you, though."

"But if I misread the main body's thoughts, I think I'd throw ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠up."

"It's way too gory."

"You're all overreacting. The main body is the same as us — she just thinks in game-dot graphics, that's all."

"That's even scarier."

"So what's the one who went out doing right now?"

"Playing with Yeona."

"Well, that's fine! More importantly — the Elder? Still not back from the prisoner expedition, no, the walk?"

"Yeah. She needs to get back soon, while the main body is asleep."

"Anyway, while the main body's consciousness is sleeping, time at the base is paused relative to the outside."

"Oh, it was?"

"The main body completely shuts down, so she never notices. We don't really think about that kind of thing either."

"Honestly, watching Double Speed Mode get used however it wants, we can't even estimate our real ages. You can't see total playtime from inside the game."

"Still, wouldn't we be at least two hundred?"

"Only that much? It feels like we've lived way longer."

"Shouldn't we count past lives too?"

"Do we have to? And by that logic, it's only been a few years since we died and were reborn."

Conversations derailing into completely unrelated territory was a common occurrence among the Humanity Clones. They chattered away cheerfully inside, all except the one who'd gone out to the tower to pilot the body while the main body slept in the Mental World —

And quietly, in the mansion within, a door that had been shut tight for a long time slowly opened, the moment Yu Hee fell fully asleep in the Mental World.