The Hungry Ghost

I took the head off the assassin aiming for Li Mei.

"Foolish. What makes that woman so important?"

From Lord Salon, who had claimed the space at my back, I felt condensed killing intent and raw power.

My back is completely exposed. No way to deal with this. I'll die once and take his life for it.

I finished steeling myself to use Complete Recovery.

Li Mei, who had been writhing under the effects of the Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation, suddenly hiked up her skirt. White panties marked with a clear axe scar came into view. Lord Salon's momentum broke. She had hit him with Charm. He was a man, after all.

I spun and swung my sword. Lord Salon scrambled into a backstep, but the tip of the blade still raked across his side. The coppery smell of blood filled the air.

"Damn it… Subdue that woman first!"

Cursing, Lord Salon barked the order. Assassins who had been lying in wait deliberately showed themselves. They had seen me protecting Li Mei and were openly targeting her, trying to split my focus. Half of the masked assassins were women — insurance against Li Mei's innate Charm trait.

"Cheonma. You don't need to worry about me."

Li Mei rose to her feet.

"That was pretty close just now, though."

"My head was killing me. And now… I've gotten used to it."

I decided to trust her. Li Mei was an executive of the Black Pillar Alliance. She was no ordinary woman. Her Agility alone rivaled my own. She was not so weak that common assassins could take her down.

"KRAAAAAAAAGH!"

Lord Salon roared. The black wind vanished, and my ears rang. That was no ordinary scream — he had poured mana into his voice.

I closed the distance and swung. With his side wounded, Lord Salon's movements had grown sluggish. If I kept pressing like this, I could win cleanly.

After a hard exchange, an opening appeared in his guard.

I've got him.

Certain of victory, I brought the sword down. An assassin burst in from the side and interfered, catching my blade on twin daggers before flying backward and slamming into the floor. The assassin collapsed with both arms bent a full hundred and eighty degrees, groaning.

Irritated, I hurled my sword at the fallen assassin. The blade punched straight through the body.

"You did the same thing with Li Mei earlier… You're emotional. That kind of feeling has no place in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a fight."

Lord Salon charged.

"I only did it because I could afford to."

I reverse-summoned the sword from the assassin's corpse, called it back into my hand, and met Lord Salon's assault.

"Now!"

Two assassins lunged for my back. I formed a clone of Stormbreaker in my left hand and spun. The blade carved through the assassins and knocked aside Lord Salon's crescent blade in the same motion.

"You talk a big game, then fight dirty."

"There's no such thing as dirty in a fight. Win and it's over. Win."

Killing intent glittered in Lord Salon's eyes.

I quietly checked on the Black Pillar Alliance Leader. He was still sitting in his chair. Whatever his purpose, he showed no intention of moving yet. Li Mei was handling herself well — feigning flight from the assassins, then counterattacking, deploying Charm at just the right moments. She didn't need my help.

The mana cost is steep, but ending this fight fast is better.

I swung at Lord Salon. His forearm twitched. His crescent blade, packed with everything he had, knocked my sword aside. Three assassins timed their rush perfectly.

The black flames exploded in front of me. The assassins' bodies burst apart. Through the spray of blood and chunks of flesh, Lord Salon closed in. A twisted smile pulled at the mouth of a man who had been fighting in deadly earnest.

"I win!!"

I smirked. I had known he would come in like that. To Lord Salon, the assassins were consumables. From the start, he had been hunting for a single opening.

I barely slipped the crescent blade aimed at my throat. Skin parted along my neck and blood sprayed. Even with Charna, it came that close. Without it, that strike might have killed me.

But I lived.

The counter landed immediately. My sword swept across Lord Salon's throat. His head fell.

Six assassins who had already accepted death charged from every direction.

Stormbreaker.

The sword disassembled and, in an instant, became full-body armor.

Clang! Claaang! Kakakang! Kiiing!

The assassins' attacks could not pierce the armor. Their striking power simply wasn't enough.

Thud.

I seized the head of the assassin on my right and crushed it, then shifted my weight and shattered another assassin's leg.

Trash. Leave them and they'll just keep being a nuisance. Kill them all.

I killed the assassins with hands and feet. They spat toxic smoke and tried to open distance. The helmet reshaped itself, sealing mouth and eyes completely so the poison could not enter my body. The eye slits remained transparent, so I could still see outside.

At the assassins fleeing from me, I formed Stormbreaker's clone swords and clone spears and hurled them. The assassins died. I killed the ones targeting Li Mei as well.

"Li Mei. You okay?"

"I'm fine. Nothing serious. With Combat Recovery, this much toxic smoke is nothing."

So Combat Recovery covered that too. I shed the Stormbreaker armor and returned it to sword form. Stormbreaker's power source was my mana and stamina. Keeping a transformation active drained mana continuously.

"You were scrambling pretty hard to get away."

"…I wasn't only running."

Li Mei flung a dagger at the wall. The orb embedded there shattered.

The debuff vanished. It felt like a dead weight had finally dropped off my back.

"Well done."

I praised her and turned my gaze on Wang Xuan, Leader of the Black Pillar Alliance. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Even now, Wang Xuan sat motionless in his chair.

"Remarkable."

"Lord Salon, you mean? He was pretty useful, I'll give him that."

"Ah. You misunderstand. I was not speaking of you."

His gaze shifted sideways. The space beside Wang Xuan rippled, and a man appeared. His forehead was shaved clean and the hair at the back was braided into a queue. He had a weasel's face — sly and thoroughly mean. At ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a glance his eyes looked closed, but a closer look showed they were narrowed to slits.

I knew him for who he was: Qing Guoli, the Vice Alliance Leader and Wang Xuan's right hand.

…That wasn't spatial magic. Was he here the whole time?

Magic, barrier, skill, item — whatever the method, he had completely erased his presence. Not someone to take lightly.

"Guoli. Once again, everything unfolded exactly as you said."

"Of course. Li Mei is a clever woman. She would never have started without a path to victory, and that path was secured by Helten's support."

"To predict even Helten's movements… Your stratagems reach all the way to heaven."

"You flatter me. Now then, Alliance Leader. Shall we finish what remains?"

"Very well."

Wang Xuan heaved his massive frame upright.

I looked at Li Mei.

"Well?"

"…Charm doesn't work on either of them. It's like they have no sexual desire at all."

Li Mei bit her lip lightly. The original plan had been to Charm Wang Xuan, extract everything worth taking, then kill him. That was the only way to maximize the profit.

"Don't panic. Charm didn't work on that Chink last time either."

"…I'm Chinese too. You haven't forgotten that, have you?"

"Chinks and Chinese people are different."

Wang Xuan's form began to change.

His skin flushed red, his mouth split wide, and his already enormous belly swelled further. The mass of flesh that he had become cracked its jaws open.

"A magnificent sight no matter how many times I see it, Alliance Leader."

Qing Guoli offered his admiration in a voice laced with mockery and scorn.

"Hungry… so hungry…"

Wang Xuan muttered. The monster he had become waddled toward an assassin's corpse — and bit into it. Crunch. Crunch. Li Mei and I both flinched at the sudden cannibalism.

"Li Mei. Wasn't that pig's ability supposed to be partial body transformation?"

"R-right. Whether he could turn into a full monster… this is the first I've seen of it."

"No. Looking at that, he didn't use a transformation at all — he revealed his true form. He was a monster from the start."

I tightened my grip on the sword. Pitch-black demonic energy surged up the blade. I swung it straight at Wang Xuan. Sword aura flew and carved through his body — but not a single drop of blood fell.

Instead, a pale ghost appeared. It shrieked — Kyaaaaaaaaah! — and vanished.

"Haha. One pitiful soul has been annihilated. Cheonma, was it? True to the name, you are cruel. You just extinguished a human soul."

I ignored Qing Guoli and sent more sword aura at Wang Xuan as he tore into the corpses. Again a ghost screamed and disappeared. I repeated the swing several more times. The result was the same every time.

Wang Xuan kept eating the nearest corpses as he gradually closed the distance toward us.

"Hungry… so hungry…. Thirsty. When does this hunger ever end…?"

Wang Xuan mumbled on. Blood and scraps of flesh clung around his mouth, and bone fragments were wedged between his teeth.

"That looks just like… a Hungry Ghost."

"A Hungry Ghost?"

"You don't know what a Hungry Ghost is?"

"I know. The monster from hell. The one that keeps starving no matter how much it eats."

"Yes. Exactly."

Snap.

Qing Guoli folded his fan. His thin lips curved into an arc.

"As expected of Li Mei. You saw through its true nature at once. Though anyone who couldn't would be an idiot, in my opinion."

"You little shit. You calling me an idiot? Die."

I swung at Qing Guoli. Black sword aura flew. Qing Guoli did not so much as flinch. A barrier enveloping him blocked the strike.

"Not a martial artist — a mage."

"Regrettably, I had no talent for martial techniques."

"A black mage at that. Necromancer line, I'd guess."

"You deduced that from the corpses? You can use that head of yours after all."

Qing Guoli remained perfectly at ease.

I glanced at Wang Xuan, now a Hungry Ghost.

"You did that to him?"

"I did. The Alliance Leader desired power, and I used everything at my disposal to give it to him."

"Bullshit. You used him as a lab rat."

"Pffhk-hk."

Qing Guoli laughed in that bizarre way of his.

I let out a breath.

"Gotwall."

The smile vanished from Qing Guoli's face. He opened his fan again, covering his mouth, and asked,

"…So you know about us. Or rather — of course you would, being Helten. How much do you know?"

"As much as I know."

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

Gotwall.

A faction that appeared in the latter half of the original story. Their purpose ran directly opposite to Helten's.

Helten's ultimate goal was to end Atlantis so thoroughly it could never rise again — in other words, to kill the gods. As long as gods existed, Atlantis would continue.

Gotwall were those who sought to become gods. Setting aside the unrealistic path of fully clearing Atlantis and wishing for divinity, they pursued godhood through other powers and methods.

A full clear of Atlantis hinges on contribution. The wish you can make depends on your contribution rank. More importantly, the odds of failing a full clear are higher.

So they sought divinity another way.

Wang Xuan, turned into a Hungry Ghost, was nothing more than a test subject.

One question remained. Why did the System and the gods leave alone humans who dared to reach for godhood?

Arrogance. Go ahead and try, if you can.

Did Helten not know about Gotwall? The other executives might not, but Samuel — Helten's boss — knew Gotwall existed. He knew, and he left them alone.

He's hanging a faint hope on the chance that he can use them to find a way to kill a god.

I laughed at them inwardly. Becoming a god, killing a god — both were surprisingly simple.

"Cheonma! The Hungry Ghost is getting close!!"

Li Mei's voice was urgent.