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Chapter 1: Preface, Reincarnation
"The case of the disappearance of CEO No of Daedo Mulsan occurred on XX/XX/20XX..."
Dong Bong-su was in the middle of cleaning up after finishing his hobby, as usual.
Swoosh—the sound of water, whirr—the noise of the vacuum cleaner, and swish swish—the sound of sweeping soon came to an end. Finally, he rolled up the special vinyl sheet that had been laid across the entire floor to prevent blood from dripping and tossed it into the trash.
Click.
Next was the result of his hobby, lying sprawled alone. Unlike the things he had handled before, this was a very large corpse. Nevertheless, Dong Bong-su easily hoisted it onto his back and headed toward the freezer.
Creeeeak—
With an unpleasant noise, the large double doors opened.
He went to a corner of the freezer and neatly arranged the still-warm body. Already in the freezer, Fatty's seniors were lined up in a row, leaning against the wall.
Of course, this was a warm newbie for now, but this corpse would soon become a senior too.
"Police are tracking Mr. No's whereabouts while also investigating the company funds he embezzled..."
The news flowing from his smartphone was about Fatty, who had just become a member of the freezer family.
The reason Mr. No became a target?
It was nothing special. Simply because this fatty was a 'carnivore.'
Most humans are herbivores.
Even when their territory is invaded, they laugh it off with a hehe, and even when subjected to violence by others, if the opponent is strong, they endure it—just for that moment. Enduring is their daily routine.
But carnivores proactively hunt, attack and kill their prey, and devour them. When other competitors challenge them, they bite and sever their windpipes. Just like lions or tigers who have reached the apex of the survival pyramid.
Dong Bong-su enjoyed attacking and killing such carnivores.
As the apex predator, it was his sole reason for living and his hobby.
"During the investigation, police discovered a dozen people bound in chains in Mr. No's basement. They were all women, and at the time of discovery, all had their tongues cut out and were unable to speak... The National Forensic Service determined... they were all young girls who had gone missing years ago..."
Rattle, thud.
The cleaning was completed by closing the iron door of the freezer.
Dong Bong-su leisurely left the warehouse, still listening to the news flowing from his smartphone.
"Next news. Claims that murders have increased due to the harmful effects of a recently developed virtual reality game have been raised, drawing attention from academia..."
As news typically goes, as soon as the news about the freshly dead Fatty Newbie Mr. No ended, new news immediately began flowing.
"..."
Tap.
The footsteps of Dong Bong-su, who had been climbing the stairs, stopped.
The news was passing from the announcer to a reporter, and from the reporter back to an expert for an interview.
"Murim Online must immediately cease service or be patched to make excessive synchronization with reality impossible. By indiscriminately and vividly showing scenes of bloodshed and limbs and heads being severed, it stimulates murderous impulses in young students and immature adults. This is highly likely to be linked to actual murder cases..."
It was common for the news to inform him about new prey.
But,
"Murim Online, huh."
This was the first time it had informed him about a new hunting ground.
Dong Bong-su stood still for a while, staring intently at his smartphone until the news ended.
After the news ended.
He returned to his room and ordered one item online.
"This should be fun."
A Murim Online-exclusive capsule.
A new hunting ground.
***
Chapter 1. Reincarnation
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
***
The Death God Belteruk was bored. It wasn't because he had nothing to do. There was more than enough work. Even now there was a mountain of tasks, but he was simply indulging in a brief moment of leisure.
The main duty of Death Gods was to collect the souls of people whose lifespans had ended.
The dead, the dying, or those who must die—finding them and severing the thread of their souls. That was the job.
It wasn't that he had any particular complaints about the work. It was just that the daily repetition of the same tasks was tedious. Gods aren't any different from people in that regard. Gods also feel most of the emotions that humans feel. However, depending on their respective duties, there are certain emotions they cannot feel, or there are sensations or impressions they feel more intensely—that was the only difference.
The singular creator god or perfect god that humans imagine?
No such thing exists. Or rather, there might be one in some world. But at least in this universe, as far as Belteruk knew, such a being didn't exist.
The difference between humans and gods—as far as Belteruk knew—was merely a difference in lifespan and duties? If one had to add something, perhaps a difference in strength?
Even this wasn't an absolute difference. Sometimes among humans, there were those who, through training, encroached upon the divine realm. Their lifespans could be tremendous, and their strength could definitely rival that of gods. The souls of such beings were difficult for Death Gods to easily retrieve.
Generally, when such situations arose, Death Gods would have headaches. In severe cases, the entire Underworld would go on alert.
'Me?'
Belteruk shook his head briefly while lost in thought.
Like that gesture, he was an exception. If only this boredom like eternal snow could be eliminated, he actually wished such incidents would happen in abundance.
But,
Such events happened once every tens of thousands of years, if at all.
'Such an incident won't happen today either.'
As always, Belteruk took out the Death God Registry. As soon as he faced the text-filled pages, a yawn poured out. It really was tedious.
Creaaak—
Still, he couldn't postpone his duties as a Death God. There was nothing more absurd than being annihilated for neglecting his work.
He yawned loudly while getting up from his chair and glanced at the top of the Death God Registry.
3789028376.
The first death number. Today's first customer.
Since he had previously collected a soul from the 110th Dimensional Realm, this time it would definitely be the 111th Dimensional Realm. Taking turns handling dimensional realms in order was an old rule among Death Gods. It was due to the teaching of the previous Death Gods that staying in one dimensional realm too long could cause one to be tainted by that place's energy.
Setting aside the dimensional realm number, he checked the number once more.
3789028376.
Belteruk put the Death God Registry into the Divine Space and took out the Death God-exclusive terminal. The terminal made of black crystal was only palm-sized, but it was a powerful tool that connected all kinds of dimensional realms.
Beep-beep-beep—
With his light hand movements, the surrounding scenery changed instantly. The gray fog of the Underworld and the cold air disappeared, replaced by the warm, humid air characteristic of the 111th Dimensional Realm. He had instantly teleported from the Underworld to the 111th Dimensional Realm.
Belteruk operated the terminal again to search for the location of soul number 3789028376.
Seoul, Gangnam-gu, XX-dong, XX Villa, Republic of Korea.
He flew straight to the location the terminal found. Winding through the densely packed buildings filled with all kinds of greedy emotions, he arrived at his destination. Humans couldn't see it, but to the Death God's eyes, the energy of desire and obsession rose from each building like hazy smoke. Especially in this area called Gangnam, the concentration was particularly thick.
Today's first customer. The building where he lived was a villa with a neat exterior.
"Uhaaaam—"
Belteruk poked his eye once with his Death God's scythe to ward off the drowsiness threatening to overtake him from boredom. Letting the cool energy of the Death God's scythe seep deeply into his eyes to chase away sleepiness was his own habit.
Having chased away the drowsiness, he entered the villa.
The interior of the building was as clean as the exterior. It was quite a large villa, and since the owner of soul number 3789028376 seemed to live alone, he didn't feel the movement of any other souls at all.
He headed to the 5th floor, the top floor of the villa, where the soul's vibration was felt. Passing through the wall and entering, there was someone presumed to be the owner of soul number 3789028376, sitting in an oddly shaped chair.
'That thing again?'
Belteruk knew what that sealed black chair from all sides was. It was something called a virtual reality game capsule.
He didn't know how humans had gained such abilities, but they had created a new dimensional realm called virtual reality. Of course, it was a lower-concept dimensional realm distinct from real dimensional realms, but what was amazing was still amazing.
Virtual reality.
As the words literally meant a virtual world, souls couldn't directly belong there. Nevertheless, souls belonging to the true dimensional realm could come and go through that thing called a capsule as a medium. Although the humans themselves weren't aware of it, the Death Gods knew well that their souls were repeatedly entering and exiting.
For that reason, some senior Death Gods were taking this matter very seriously.
Right now it had the label 'virtual' attached, but if it developed further like this, within dozens of generations? Perhaps within one or two generations? Couldn't it develop into an actual 'realm'?
...Such absurd excessive worry.
Even though humans were such variable beings that they couldn't be controlled.
'That's going too far.'
Chuckling and dismissing the concerns of the elderly senior Death Gods, Belteruk penetrated the capsule wall and entered inside. A man with an ordinary face and ordinary physical build—extremely ordinary—was lying down wearing a hat for connecting to the virtual reality server.
Belteruk swept his gaze over the man once and without any hesitation raised his scythe high and cut the neck of the owner of soul number 3789028376. There was no blood or actual severing of the physical neck.
A Death God's scythe doesn't cut matter, but only the thread of the soul. Though it appeared that nothing had happened on the outside, the body of soul number 3789028376 was already dead.