The Reef in the Sea of Slaughter

In the Mental World, a rain of slaughter was falling.

It was the leftover slaughter energy — the unused remainder of the vast quantity hauled up by waterwheel from the Great Sea of Slaughter and poured out — turning into rain and returning once more to the sea.

Of course the Great Sea of Slaughter looked a little diminished, but it would recover soon enough. Now that the sea had widened once, unless she permanently drew upon the third ocean lying deep below, the Seas of Slaughter would circulate among themselves and regenerate the slaughter energy on their own.

Which meant that accumulating slaughter energy and experience wasn't really about stacking it up. It was closer to expanding this Mental World, carving out space for the Great Sea of Slaughter to grow, and at the same time reinforcing the innate talent that served as the foundation holding that sea aloft.

So the spectacle of slaughter rain falling was, in truth, meaningless. A sea, after all, does not get wet from rain.

Coming to in the Mental World suggested she still hadn't fully regained consciousness and woken up. Wondering what on earth was going on, she looked around her Mental World — and then.

?

On one side of the Great Sea of Slaughter, something like a tiny reef had taken root.

In the middle of that entirely blood-red expanse, a minuscule reef was holding its ground against the waves, as if trying to hide itself.

What the hell was this now.

The Golden Core hanging in the sky of the Mental World shifted, looking down at the small reef, and her consciousness focused to examine it. What are you supposed to be?

The outer shell of the reef felt familiar — pieces of the Status Window she had previously torn free, fragments of the deep-sea floor composed of her own stats.

Being a piece of the Status Window that had withstood the pressure of three layered seas of slaughter, of course it was holding up just fine against the waves of the first sea.

But looking inside the reef through the Golden Core, she found ocean trash she had thought was gone — no: residual stats and Small Heavenly Tribulation, mixed and clotted into red lightning, running through the reef like blood vessels.

That red lightning was the culprit. It had gathered up the remnants left after she spat out the stats along with the purified blood, and forged them into a reef.

Setting aside the speculation that, being residual stats to begin with, they could be interfered with even as part of the Status Window because they had existed in the form of stats, she used spiritual energy and divine sense to poke and prod and scan the reef this way and that.

Hmm.

Hmmmm.

A thought suddenly struck her — previously, when she had tried to train her transformation skill by building a tower in the middle of the Great Sea of Slaughter with chopsticks and the Golden Core, she had failed spectacularly and botched the whole thing.

With this reef here, the natural thought arose that she could use it as a foundation atop the first sea and properly rebuild the tower.

But before she could put the thought into practice, she somehow regained consciousness and slipped out of the Mental World, blinking blankly up at the blue sky.

"You've opened your eyes, Senior?"

"...What?"

She reflexively went to throw her chopsticks, then stopped after checking the minimap. A green dot was displayed right next to her — not red, not gray.

A Quest NPC?

Come to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠think of it, she hadn't been at her base. She had lost consciousness right there on the map because of an Eok-kka event.

"You got something to ask of me?"

"How could I make such a shameless request? I already owe Senior a great debt of gratitude."

Only then did she look away from the minimap. A middle-aged beauty in clean blue robes who looked slightly older, with a familiar slaughter-energy chopstick stuck into her updo like a hairpin — and at last she managed to dredge up a scrap of memory.

"Grandma?"

"This junior is called Yeon of the San Gi family."

So that was the unspoken request not to call her Grandma. But why had she come looking? No — before that, how had she even found her location?

"How did you find me?"

"Please speak more casually, Senior. I followed the Dharma treasure you gave me."

"You followed the chopsticks and found me, San Gi-yeon?"

"I would be grateful if you called me Yeona, Senior."

Damn, she wants a lot of things!

If she weren't a Quest NPC — no, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a Friendly NPC — she'd have dunked her straight into the Sea of Slaughter! And normally even interacting with Friendly NPCs, she would have skipped most of it!

"Though this body of mine is insignificant, as a human being, should one not repay kindness?"

"Yeona, you're a cultivator walking the path of cultivation now too, aren't you? Do you really need to?"

"Heh heh. That's precisely why. Just because one is a cultivator doesn't mean there's any particular reason not to live as a human being."

"Uh... well, that's true?"

"Enough so to grant the insignificant request of a worthless Mortal with no power and nothing to offer in return."

"No, that was just because you were a Quest NPC, Yeona."

Quest NPC — meaning an NPC with neutral or higher affinity who has a quest for her. Of course, because of the Reality Patch, if you killed surrounding neutral NPCs, Quest NPCs could turn red or stop giving quests.

Especially since her evil alignment was maxed out ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and staying that way. When alignments differed, affinity dropped faster.

And yet this Friendly NPC in front of her still seemed to have high affinity even after not seeing her for quite a while.

"Would this insignificant junior be permitted to serve Senior?"

A 100% Prisoner Mode popup, here of all places?

Of course, aside from this mode, there was originally no interaction mode for taking NPCs as subordinates or managing them! But still — a prisoner?!

"My name is Yu Hee. Looking forward to working with you, Yeona."

At first she simply thought: more talent to send on prisoner expeditions!

Common rank. Unlike Cheon Nan-cho, who was field-boss rank and would only pick up one or two injuries or debuffs even on a critical failure when sent on a prisoner expedition, Yeona could end up with permanent injuries or go missing outright.

So for sending on prisoner expeditions, she'd need at least an elite rank with a Tier-1 prefix before she could send her with peace of mind.

"More importantly — it slapped the Hwanga-gongdong prefix on her the moment she became my prisoner? Cheon Nan-cho never got that."

Hmm.

"Yeona, try saying this after me? Base, Return."

She had Yeona try it while suppressing slaughter energy and spiritual energy so she wouldn't accidentally return first. Even though she was a prisoner, unlike Cheon Nan-cho, San Gi-yeon couldn't be put in the inventory.

Wondering if it was because of the Hwanga-gongdong prefix that she couldn't put her in, she looked at Yeona as Yeona opened her mouth.

"Do I just say Base Return, Senior? Wait—?!"

Spiritual energy was being consumed. For Yeona, who was only at Qi Condensation level, it was more than she could handle — Yu Hee urgently tried to pull a spirit stone from her inventory to hand over, but at that moment the chopsticks stuck in Yeona's hair like a hairpin vomited out slaughter energy, and—

With a small spatial tremor, Yeona vanished.

"Base Return!"

Following right after, she found Yeona looking around blankly.

"So it works."

A prisoner with the Hwanga-gongdong prefix who could use Base Return!

"What's this now?"

"Hmm? A new prisoner. Yeona, say hello."

"Greetings, Senior!"

"Hmph? No idea where you picked this one up."

Leaving Yeona pale as a sheet behind Cheon Nan-cho, who was examining her this way and that as if looking at something fascinating, Yu Hee went to the warehouse, opened her inventory, and dumped out all the materials and equipment she'd gathered while running the map.

"Kyaaaaah?!"

Then she tried to poke Yeona, only to get bounced by the restriction that you can't attack allies, and caught the flying Cheon Nan-cho. What, had she been trying to threaten her or something?

"What are you doing to a low-level newbie?"

"I was just trying to check lightly! These standards are ridiculously strict!"

"Of course they are. Doing that to a low-level under level 50. Anyway, teach Yeona ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠how to manage the base. Then I can send you on prisoner expeditions."

"How about just leaving base management to me and sending her instead?"

"She's low-level. Can't send her on prisoner expeditions yet."

"Tsk, what a waste, but fine! I'll teach her well! Hee-a, don't worry about it — you're going into the training ground again anyway, right? Just get in there already!"

"Then I'll leave Yeona in your care, Cheon Nan-cho."

And just like that, as if she'd been waiting for it, she dumped Yeona on Cheon Nan-cho and went straight into the training ground. Somehow Yeona's eyes had gone sad like an abandoned puppy's, but since prisoners couldn't attack each other anyway, it didn't matter!

Then she immediately sat down on the spirit vein Cheon Nan-cho had created on one side of the training ground. It was a slaughter-attribute spirit vein, so if she did slaughter energy training sitting on it, the spirit vein that was supposed to last permanently would lose its power all at once — but that didn't matter right now.

The training she was about to do was building a kind of tower in the Great Sea of Slaughter within her Mental World.