It's Not a Dream
"...?" "...?" "???" The third-class disciples of Cheongseongpa stood frozen like stone statues. This was their first journey into the martial world, under the command of their senior, second-class disciple Jin Hun. They had successfully wiped out a bandit group called Heukpyochae and were proudly escorting the remaining captives back. But then. Myeong Ho, who had been laughing and chatting with them just moments ago, had been reduced to a bloody pulp by a single blow—his form barely recognizable. He had always been clumsy and poor at martial arts, but he was a fellow disciple they had shared joys and hardships with for a long time. Now he had become nothing more than a lump of meat.
"Myeong Ho!!!" It was Jin Hun's desperate scream that broke the silence. It was only natural for instinctive fear to wash over them—after all, a person had been obliterated without leaving a trace. But even so. "You bastard!!" "Aaaaaagh!!!" As befitting disciples of the noble Cheongseongpa, one of the Nine Schools and One Clan, the grief and rage at losing a fellow disciple overwhelmed their fear. Sreung-!!Sreureung-!! "I'll kill you!!" Determined to avenge Myeong Ho even if it cost them their lives, the disciples drew their swords in unison and were about to charge.
"W-wait, don't act rashly!!!" Jin Hun urgently spread his arms to block his junior disciples. At his desperate command, the disciples' movements halted. "S-senior brother!?" One disciple questioned with tears of blood in his eyes. "Don't stop us! I'll cut that madman down!" Another disciple shouted, losing his reason. "Please, stop!!!" Jin Hun screamed, veins bulging in his neck.
How could he not feel bitter and enraged? A fellow disciple, like a blood brother, had been so horribly crushed that even his corpse couldn't be properly recovered. But if they lost their reason here and charged at that unidentified monster with drawn swords, it was obvious that all the remaining disciples would end up as lumps of meat just the same. Jin Hun and the disciples bit their lips, shedding tears of blood. It was a tragic scene, too heartbreaking to behold.
'Hmm...' Do Gwang, standing at the center of it all, didn't feel much. In his memory, Cheongseongpa was: [You idiots! Block them, what are you doing!][Senior brother Jin Hun, are you trying to abandon your disciples!?] Around the middle of the game's story, when the Demon Cult invaded, they were hypocrites who would sell out their own disciples to save themselves. So the strong brotherly bond playing out before his eyes now just seemed like a tearful farce.
And if they truly intended to avenge him, they should have already charged at Do Gwang. But they only made a show of it, immediately following Jin Hun's words. Because they didn't want to die. Anyway, more than that, only one thought now dominated Do Gwang's mind. '...It's not a dream.' This is reality. And it had to be—the lukewarm temperature of the blood droplets on his face and the nauseating stench of blood piercing his nose were too vivid to ignore. No matter how dull and insensitive his senses, he had to accept that this was real.
'...Is this a big problem?' Do Gwang muttered inwardly. He had already killed three people without a second thought, and in a brutal way at that. He had become an undeniable serial killer! But surprisingly, Do Gwang felt not an ounce of guilt. Even though he had clearly realized that this insane situation was real, his heart remained as calm as a lake. '...Strange.' It had to be strange. Do Gwang was usually lazy and lethargic, finding everything troublesome. But even so, there was no way he could be this at peace after tearing people apart. Moreover, he, who had never done anything more than breathing exercises his whole life, was now absurdly strong enough to swing a massive iron pillar as if it were a feather. That was definitely strange.
Then. '...Huh?' Do Gwang stopped moving as he saw his reflection in the pool of blood where Myeong Ho had been. It wasn't his original face. This unfamiliar yet familiar face... '...Ah.' Now all the pieces fell into place. The face reflected in the puddle was the face of the character he had created to start the 101st playthrough after spending thousands of hours to see the ending of the 100th. But since he had to go to work the next day, Do Gwang had only set the appearance and traits, then turned off the game and gone to sleep. And the result was... '...Yeah, I've possessed him.' Just as Do Gwang was calmly trying to assess his current situation, Jin Hun's voice, filled with anger and resentment, pierced his ears.
"Who the hell are you, to so brutally kill my disciple without warning!?"
"..." Do Gwang did not answer Jin Hun's question at all. "Hey! I'm talking to you!" Whether the bastard shouted or not, Do Gwang completely ignored him. 'If I remember correctly, I loaded this body with a ton of traits...' His mind was focused solely on analyzing the state of the body he had possessed. 'It's strange that I, who am not a psychopathic madman, can kill people so casually. It must be because of the traits. What did I put in?' He had put in quite a few eccentric ones. But he couldn't remember each one exactly. So.
"...Status window." Do Gwang muttered quietly. It was a ritual that was practically mandatory in possession stories. But. ....... No system window appeared in the air. Only complete silence lingered. "......." Do Gwang's hand, which had been staring at the empty air, awkwardly hovered and then lowered.
"Status window...?" Jin Hun's brow furrowed. It was a word he had never heard before. What was certain was that it was absolutely not the name of a sect or martial art belonging to the orthodox martial world. "...!!!" In an instant, the last words of the Heukpyochae chief he had beheaded flashed through his mind. —You bastards! My brothers will never let this slide!—Hmph, a dirty bandit sure talks big before dying. Sweak-! At the time, Jin Hun had dismissed it as the pathetic last struggle of a dying man and cut off his head. He thought the bastard was just barking, relying on one of the lowliest bandit dens in Nokrim that he paid tribute to. Would those dark path bastards dare to seek revenge against the great Cheongseongpa? '...A mistake...!' Jin Hun bit his lip in regret. He should have listened to the bastard's story before cutting him down.
Having completed his misunderstanding with miraculous logic, Jin Hun shouted in shock. At this, the third-class disciples of Cheongseong behind him also turned pale. Status Window! "S-status window ()!?" . Death. . Womb. . Window. "A window that conceives death...! The name alone is chilling!" "The Nokrim bastards... they were raising such a terrifying monster behind the scenes!" The disciples expanded their worldview endlessly, beating their own drums and playing their own cymbals. Of course, Nokrim had never raised such a bizarre assassin group. Anyway.
At that grand spectacle of misunderstanding, Do Gwang's body flinched slightly. "...." He had muttered it in a voice as quiet as a mosquito, hoping no one would hear, but that second-class disciple, having trained in martial arts, had managed to catch it. And now he was shouting it out loud for everyone to hear! '...Tch...' Do Gwang felt quite awkward and embarrassed. Thanks to Taeheojeonggyeong, his mind was as calm as a lake, but the urge to kick the blanket in shame was an unavoidable instinct.
"...."...." After a moment of silence, he reached a very clean conclusion. '...Let's kill them all.' Kill them to silence them. To the Cheongseongpa bastards, he was already a madman who had turned their fellow disciple into a lump of meat without warning. So the orthodox route was impossible. And likewise... crushing the faces of the two Heukpyochae bastards on the cart was, from Do Gwang's perspective, self-defense (?), but to them, he was just a murderer. So the unorthodox route was also impossible. It had long been impossible to proceed according to the game's story. So, he would just kill everyone here.
And above all. "Junior disciples, run! This senior brother will hold him off even if it costs me my life! Make sure at least one of you survives and returns to the main sect to report this to the elders!" "S-senior brother! We can't!" "We are also disciples of the great Cheongseong! How can we cowardly run away and leave you behind!" The bastards were starting to put on a pathetic show of bravery. It was a real farce. The funny thing was, while they were spouting such loyal words, Jin Hun's eyes were constantly scanning for an escape route to flee alone. And the third-class disciples, though they were shouting with veins bulging, were actually slowly backing away. Truly icons of hypocrisy and betrayal.
'Who would expect anything less from an orthodox sect...' Jin Hun was probably planning to slip away alone while Do Gwang was busy dealing with the weaker disciples. The third-class disciples had no intention of fighting together; they were just shouting about righteousness while planning to use their senior as a meat shield to escape. '...Yeah, let's just kill all the ones I don't like in this opportunity.' From the moment they heard his embarrassing mutter of 'status window,' their lives were already forfeit. Seeing them misunderstand and spout hypocrisy like that only solidified his killing intent. So.
"Huk... Senior brother! I will never forget this favor!" Do Gwang, pretending to wipe away tears, swung his iron pillar at the face of the third-class disciple who was the first to retreat. "Make sure you survi... Kuaaaaagh!!!" Kwaaaaaang-! With a loud cracking sound, the bastard was crushed into the ground, becoming a real scattered roast, smashed like meat.
"...That's one." The relentless club strikes continued without hesitation. "Next." "Hieeek! R-run..." Kwaang-! "Kuaaak!!" Kwajijik-!Ujijik ujikke!!!!!! The heads of the cowardly bastards who had been shouting about loyalty while fleeing for their lives burst open like watermelons one after another. What was it about face and honor that made them waste time running their mouths instead of running? Well, even if they had run immediately, they wouldn't have been able to escape Do Gwang's grasp. Although his body had not learned even a single basic martial arts move, let alone internal energy, the pure physical strength and speed his body emitted were already at the peak level.
And so, in an instant, the place was swept into a mess. Only one person remained from the Cheongseongpa escort team. Thud. "...Ah, aah..." Jin Hun, the second-class disciple, collapsed with his legs giving out, frozen like a stone statue. Before his eyes lay only the bloody carnage.