Chapter 162
Chapter 162: Psychopath in the Border Realm
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
***
Thud, rumble rumble rumble.......
The Eighth Border Realm Monster Palmiko twisted its eight tails into knots like rope and pounded the ground out of boredom. The entire Border Realm trembled finely as if about to collapse.
The reason for its tedium wasn't lack of work. Work was overflowing. Even now, there was a mountain of things to do, but it was simply indulging in a brief moment of leisure.
The main duties of a Border Realm Monster, especially the Eighth Border Realm Monster, were to collect the lives of those who approached the Upper Realm without qualification or to dispose of things discarded from the Upper Realm.
Those who hadn't reached the Nascent Soul realm or equivalent level, or those who had arrived at this Border Realm for absurd reasons, or exiled sinners.
And disposing of failed Immortal Pills, corrupted Dharma Treasures, and such—that was its job.
It wasn't particularly dissatisfied with the work.
Just that the daily repetition of the same tasks was tedious.
Being a Monster didn't mean it was anything special compared to the rabble of the Lower Realm. Monsters and immortals felt most of the same emotions that mortals felt. It was just that depending on their respective duties, certain emotions couldn't be felt or certain sensations and impressions were felt more intensely.
The Monster Clan and Immortal Clan that mortals imagined? The Divine Clan?
Such things didn't exist. At least as far as Palmiko knew, they didn't exist in the Upper Realm above.
The difference between lowly mortals and sacred supernatural beings was merely a difference in lifespan and duties.
If one had to add anything, perhaps a difference in strength.
Even this wasn't an absolute difference.
Sometimes there were even those among mortals who reached the realm of immortals through cultivation. Such individuals gained the qualification to cross this Border Realm and enter the Upper Realm.
These were commonly called Cultivation Seekers. Of course, sacred powerhouses worthy of opening this path were extremely rare.
'Has it been about 100 years?'
It couldn't remember the exact period.
Anyway, a very long time ago, one fellow passed through and he...... no, that person turned the Upper Realm upside down.
Enough to claim one of the vacant Immortal Divine Seats.
Well, such an event happens maybe once every thousand years.
'Today won't bring such entertaining events either.'
"P-please spare......"
Crack.
One of Palmiko's massive tails lashed out like a whip and struck down where the voice had come from.
A Cultivation Seeker who was already half-dead turned into pulp and departed for the Underworld. Well, meaning they died.
As expected, killing ants was the best flavor.
A yawn poured out.
Boring, so boring.
The ones who visited after so long were such trashy weaklings.
Palmiko yawned widely,
Moving four of its tails to tap and brush off each of its four paws one by one as it stretched.
Thanks to that, the blood messily stuck on them scattered in all directions at once.
About 100 people, was it?
Commoners who weren't even close to having qualifications, let alone possessing them.
The ant bastards who visited this place today.
Lowlife Cultivation Seeker bastards who had just barely reached the Core Formation Stage demanding a path be opened.
"I didn't expect anything anyway, but even more worthless scum."
Palmiko narrowed its triangular eyes and tried to properly settle into sleep.
However,
Step, step.
It seemed it wasn't time for that yet.
Footsteps.
"Did misfortune strike today? Ant bastards are frequent."
Another commoner was walking in this direction.
"Heh heh heh heh."
The fellow just crossing over from the adjacent cavity toward this side was laughing.
"Is this a grand welcoming gift left by the Heavenly Demon? Interesting. If it's a gift."
The fellow paused briefly then walked this way again.
"I should enjoy it and taste it deliciously."
A language it was hearing for the first time.
'Or is it? I think I've heard it a few times.'
Well, that wasn't important. It was just that the uninvited guest who suddenly appeared was peculiar somehow.
Palmiko's triangular pupils expanded and contracted repeatedly as it read the fellow's abilities.
Heavenly Origin Discerning Eyes.
It was a technique unique to the Fox Clan for assessing opponents.
Continuously gazing at the commoner who had already narrowed the distance to about thirty meters, it spoke.
— How did a commoner without Spirit Roots even reach this Border Realm?
It deliberately used Mind Speech and simultaneously deployed Mind Communication Technique. Since the fellow used a peculiar language.
Meanwhile, Palmiko's pupils didn't stop moving. Inside its eyes, triangles—more precisely, triangular pyramids—spun ceaselessly.
— No, that's not it. It's not just lacking Spirit Roots.
"Spirit Roots?"
A fellow who didn't even know what Spirit Roots were had reached the Border Realm.
The Heavenly Origin Discerning Eyes didn't stop, continuing to identify the fellow's abnormalities.
— No Blood Passages and no Spirit Roots either.
Slurp.
Palmiko's long red tongue shot out instantly to lick its pointed nose.
Spirit Roots were of course the source of Spiritual Energy. The problem was that this Spiritual Energy, this Immortal Origin, was the number one contributor to ruining the taste of living beings. In the natural world, the less Spiritual Energy, the softer and more delicious the meat quality became.
An existence without Blood Passages or Spirit Roots?
Absolutely delicious.
Earlier the fellow had said something about the Heavenly Demon or tasting it deliciously, but that would be the nonsense of a clueless commoner babbling.
Whirrrrr—
Spiritual Energy began circulating from Palmiko's Monster Spirit Roots.
— Then shall I taste just how delicious it is?
Palmiko's massive bulk explosively rushed toward its prey all at once.
And.......
***
It tasted worse than it looked.
Crunch.
However, that wasn't what mattered.
What mattered far more was supplying protein to a body that hadn't fully recovered yet.
Dong Bong-soo sat using the giant fox's torso as a chair. The ribs were appropriately crushed to create a good angle for sitting. It was damp from insufficient blood drainage, but now wasn't the time to worry about such things.
Moving his creaking hands, he continued tearing off and eating one of the creature's tails.
A giant fox that looked easily 10 meters at a glance. One with eight tails at that.
It was a fellow with a level difference of 10 or more, but it wasn't as strong as he'd thought.
'No, it would originally be strong.'
From his experience in the Martial World, a level difference of 10 or more should normally mean an overwhelming gap in accumulated power and realm.
He had fought by mobilizing all his various knowledge, skills, techniques, tricks, and more to overcome all those differences.
He confirmed that this fellow briefly used techniques that might be magic or sorcery rather than martial arts. Even so, rushing into close combat was the creature's mistake. Not knowing its own strengths and weaknesses, relying only on its size to charge in, it ended up as minced meat like this.
Crunch.
Taking another bite, he continued his thoughts.
This fox and the atmosphere overflowing with indescribably dense energy alike.
'This definitely doesn't seem to be the Martial World.'
He hadn't gone outside yet, but this place definitely wasn't the kind of world he'd been in before.
It wasn't particularly strange or awkward. The Martial World hadn't been his world to begin with anyway.
Turning his head, he looked around in all directions.
Hundreds of corpses, presumably killed by Palmiko, were scattered here and there. Most were human, but occasionally non-human things were mixed in.
An entity with a fish head and human body.
A centaur-like entity with a human upper body and horse lower body.
Sub-human entities with only abnormally gigantic hands and feet, and so on.
If it could be called fortunate, it should be called fortunate.
Anyway, the species called human seemed to be mainstream in this place.
In a state of not knowing exactly what kind of world this was, going out as a stranger would be no different from wandering the jungle naked.
Swoosh.
Standing up, he first put Palmiko's remaining corpse into his Inventory. He didn't know what kind of world this was, but a fox that used magic—or sorcery—would likely be valuable.
Next, he looted the belongings left by the hundreds of corpses presumably killed by that creature. Assuming this wasn't the Central Plains, various objects would be a great help in understanding this world or surviving.
He basically gathered precious metals that looked more valuable and books written in this place's language. It would be nice to gather everything, but since the [Inventory]'s capacity was limited, it couldn't be helped.
The characters written in the books were unfamiliar writing, but at a glance they somehow resembled Chinese characters. Even looking at the language family system, they looked similar enough to be called cousins.
'Ideographic characters.'
It was too early to define what kind of society this was, but he could predict the class system would be distinctly vertical. The fact that each character contained meaning inevitably meant the number of characters had to be large, and it implied that commoners who didn't receive education couldn't possibly learn them.
Unless it was a very modernized society, ideographic characters inevitably became a tool that greatly divided the literate and illiterate classes.
In that sense, the attire of the corpses scattered here also varied.
Some wore robes, some wore armor, others wore priest robes or monk robes.
What kind of place was this location in this world that such various types of people came to die?
A brief question crossed his mind, but right now there was neither a way to determine it nor a need to.
While gathering this and that.
"......"
Something quite surprising was captured by his eyes.
Dong Bong-soo's pupils, which rarely had their composure broken, wavered very minutely.
At the end of his pupils, one miserable corpse embedded there.
A person whose skull was split in half, perhaps chewed and eaten by that fox earlier.
Step, step.
Dong Bong-soo approached that direction step by step carefully.
Soon reaching before the corpse, he knelt with one knee on the ground.
Then.
He reached toward the left chest of the corpse.
A light Super True Energy Field arose and the 'name tag' attached to the corpse's chest was sucked into his grasp.
「Kim Rae-won」
Three letters engraved in clear Hangul on blue plastic material.
An encounter with the worldview of his previous life that came too suddenly.
Dong Bong-soo reached toward the 'school uniform' the corpse was wearing to examine it more closely.
Thud thud thud. Thud thud thud thud.
Stone fragments or something fell onto his head and shoulders.
Immediately raising his head to look up, the ceiling—no, all the walls around and even the floor—were all cracking.
'Was this a system maintained only while the fox was alive?'
It was speculation, but probably correct.
The cracks rapidly grew larger and soon everything around shook as if an earthquake had occurred.
Whirrrrr—
Dong Bong-soo immediately utilized the Super True Energy Field to sweep up and absorb objects indiscriminately up to maximum capacity. Especially the corpse of the 'middle-aged student in school uniform'—he put everything including even stone fragments placed around it into the Inventory.
Next, he ran around here and there in the cave.
An exit.
The door out that must be somewhere.
However, no matter how much he searched, he couldn't find an entrance.
Then only one path remained.
Whoooosh—
Dong Bong-soo gathered all his stamina, energy, JP and more to swing [Demon-Expelling Annihilation Wheel Sword].
Toward the ceiling that had already cracked wide open.
With a tremendous roar, a sky appeared.
Dong Bong-soo shot upward through that opened hole without hesitation.
But.
"......"
He came outside...... but that place was empty air.
Naturally, since he shot upward it made sense to be in empty air...... but he never expected that empty air to be the firmament.
Urgently looking down, the cavity where he'd just been was a large island floating in the sky.
A Floating Island.
That Floating Island was now slowly collapsing and pouring down toward the ground.
And—
Airborne structures of some kind visible hazily through several layers of clouds piercing that sky above.
He was uncertain until just a moment ago, but now he could be certain.
This place was a completely new world, neither his original world nor the Martial World.
Of course, right now finding ground to land on quickly was a far more urgent priority than such facts.
Since he had already lost all the propulsion applied during ascent and started descending downward due to gravity.
Moreover, that speed was much faster than expected.
Was this place's gravity greater than Earth's?
He couldn't know, but without time to deeply contemplate, his body was plummeting toward the world below.
Woooooooooong—
A sound that made his ears ring.
Crackle crackle crackle crackle crackle—
The falling speed was so fast that all the surrounding scenery looked like full-color arrows rapidly passing by.
Screeeeeeeeeech—
Keeeeeeeng—
With sounds like grinding eardrums, fierce winds roughly scraped his skin, but Dong Bong-soo calmly flipped his body to point his feet downward.
Then.
Bang!
Bang!
He fiercely shot Energy Waves downward with his feet into the empty air.
Bang!
Bang!
Continuously.