Friendly NPCs Are the Best

The one-eyed man looking down at the small bead lowered his head. His crimson pupil stared endlessly into the orb, but when no image appeared, he set it down for the first time in a long while and smiled with quiet satisfaction.

"As expected of the Village Chief."

What could possibly please him so much? Inside a bizarre little stone chamber whose every surface was covered in golden Hangul characters ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— the word Stop repeated until it hurt the eyes — the man let his red eye gleam.

Silver needles were driven through his entire body, and gray shackles bound his limbs and throat. He looked barely able to move, yet he forced himself upright all the same.

That single red eye turned toward the chamber ceiling.

He could feel his lifespan running out. Neither reincarnation nor any art, method, or external treasure that extended life could reverse the merciless yoke that was steadily devouring him from within.

So ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠before that — before every last scrap of the lifespan and power still permitted to him ran dry.

When a small, expressionless girl appeared inside the bead that had shown nothing at all, the one-eyed man sank back down, picked the orb up again, and resumed staring into it without end.

"Ghk-kik-ge-gek!"

Inside the bead, the tiny girl twisted her body with a blank face while letting out some idiotic noise that was neither scream nor howl, then finally poured out a complaint toward the cold hunk of metal.

"Elder Togo! Elder! It hurts!"

I mean, for fuck's sake — under normal circumstances slaughter energy would have regenerated me, but this genuinely hurt like hell! Huh? Why did it hurt? The Humanity Clones beating me with their consciences and landing a critical hit only hurt my feelings.

No — Elder Togo had summoned me to the base, saying I was being jerked around by a star and that he would sever the connection for me. The moment he used his power, the pain of my soul being ripped into shreds came surging up!

"It hurts… Hee-ah really hurts…"

I was babbling so hard I started referring to myself in the third person, whining about the pain to my friendly NPC Elder Togo like a spoiled brat before I even realized what I was doing.

"I'm sorry, newborn. My power wasn't enough…"

Pat, pat.

Cradled in the hologram formed from Elder Togo's spiritual power and getting thoroughly petted, I felt the pain slowly subside.

That hand, stroking my soul directly, carried so much of the affection, fondness, and worry Elder Togo felt toward me that the warmth reached straight into my spirit.

So this was the power of a friendly NPC?

Mmm.

"Yeona! I hereby grant you permission to pet me!"

"Truly?! Then I shall not refuse!"

So I requested petting from San Gi-yeon — another friendly NPC — and got thoroughly stroked. Hmm. Was it an interaction effect? The sensation of my body loosening and the tension melting away was incredible!

The difference was that Elder Togo's spiritual hologram stroked all the way down to my soul, while San Gi-yeon simply petted me physically with warm hands.

I granted Cheon Nan-cho permission to pet me too, but that one refused flat-out. Seriously, way too cold.

Anyway — after suffering the agony of my soul being torn to pieces, I spent roughly a year holed up in the base doing absolutely nothing except recovering from the aftereffects and receiving pets. And then:

While getting petted, I attained enlightenment, leveled up, and broke through to the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm all at once.

In other words, I had finally hit level 350!

In a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠situation where five years of grinding hunting grounds or locking myself in the training hall might or might not have netted me five levels, a single enlightenment had raised me a full seven levels.

Of course, what the enlightenment granted was pure, refined experience free of any slaughter energy — and that was exactly why the efficiency was so good. Most of the experience I had accumulated came from processes that generated slaughter energy, so it always needed several extra rounds of separation and purification.

Experience from enlightenment was pure raw experience, just like quest — no, mission — experience rewards. Naturally the efficiency was absurdly high!

Sure, people said that gaining enlightenment strengthened the Heavenly Tribulation as a drawback, but the experience was still far too sweet.

"Enlightenment is not something one attains so easily, newborn. I do not understand what has you in such a hurry."

Look, more than a hundred years have passed in game time and I'm still only level 350, okay?! Does that make any sense?! And for reasons I still don't understand, the higher the map level gets, the more the monsters just vanish, so leveling through hunting alone is ridiculously hard!

None of the experience bugs I knew were working properly, and what I had thought was a training-failure experience-duplication bug turned out to just be residual byproducts from slamming slaughter energy and spiritual power together until they wasted and annihilated each other.

"This is kind of a cheap trick, but… Elder Togo."

"What is it, newborn?"

A brief worry that my favorability might drop flickered through me — and then I couldn't resist the temptation any longer and just blurted it out.

"Would it be all right if I… received Elder Togo's wrath?"

"Will you be all right?"

A few of my inner Humanity Clones started raising hell with their consciences, as if asking what the hell I thought I was doing to an elder who worried about me first before anything else — until the other Humanity Clones shut them down.

Right. Experience was a matter of critical importance.

"If you release your killing intent, I'll take it all in."

"I know that you, newborn, turn slaughter energy into power, but I still worry. Are you aware that cultivators sometimes go mad when killing intent surges beyond control?"

"Thank you for worrying about me, Elder Togo. But I'll be fine. You've already seen it, haven't you? My Mental World."

Recalling that nightmarish Mental World — a toxic, death-like sea of crimson slaughter energy so dense that even his own Nascent Soul, which had once touched the Hwashin realm, could not properly examine it — Togo finally could not refuse any longer and nodded.

The mechanical device housing Elder Togo's Nascent Soul took its place in the farthest corner of the training grounds. Since the killing intent of a Nascent Soul realm cultivator could easily sweep up bystanders, I gave strict warnings to Cheon Nan-cho, the decorations, and even San Gi-yeon, then sat facing Elder Togo.

"Are you ready, newborn?"

"Yes, Elder Togo!"

Watching vivid, purposeless killing intent slowly erupt from Elder Togo and creep outward to claim the surroundings, I activated Heavenly Slaughter Art and my Transformation skill at the same time, wrapping slaughter energy and killing intent both inside and outside my body.

It was far lower in both quality and power than the killing intent he had unleashed when first sealed by the Successor, but even so, the killing intent of a Nascent Soul cultivator was something I could fully absorb with just those two skills ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— no need to draw my Natal Dharma Treasure.

Crimson clouds of pure killing intent began to drift through my Mental World.

Once sufficiently gathered, the killing intent was refined by the spiritual power radiating from my Golden Core, became slaughter energy, and fell like rain into the Seas of Slaughter. From those seas, unrefined killing intent was expelled skyward again to form new slaughter clouds — completing a full cycle.

Because it was Nascent Soul–grade killing intent, even a modest amount was enough to establish circulation. The problem, as always, was quantity.

The volume of killing intent was overwhelmingly insufficient.

Strictly speaking, slaughter energy regenerated through its own crude, massive self-circulation. Slaughter energy could only be obtained by taking lives, while killing intent was a resource one could generate oneself — so refining killing intent into slaughter energy was the proper order of operations.

The problem was that I could not emit killing intent at all.

Because I had no related emotional expressions!!!

Gyaaaaah! What a complete fucking garbage game!

Even so, I kept receiving Elder Togo's killing intent into my inner world and repeating the process of turning it into clouds, over and over again.

It didn't matter that I couldn't sustain it for long. The more I repeated the cycle, the more experience would accumulate.

If I could gather a massive amount of killing intent all at once and permanently install a spiritual organ — a cloud of killing intent — inside my Mental World, it would be convenient… but I had no idea where I was supposed to pick up that kind of volume.

Thinking that, I gradually felt Elder Togo withdraw his killing intent. I finished one last cycle in my inner world, checked the Mental World that looked essentially unchanged, and only then opened my eyes.

"Khhh…"

Three raw levels in a single go. I flung my arms wide and threw myself straight at Elder Togo's main body.

The hologram of Elder Togo appeared in a hurry to catch me. I nuzzled my face against him and whispered softly.

"Thank you, Elder Togo…"

Friendly NPCs really are the absolute best!