Black Smoke Apocalypse
It reeked of rot and shit, but it wasn't a vengeful spirit. Not a Sal (Killing Curse), but Sal (Malice). A vicious curse at that.
Grinddd...Crack.Crunchhh!
The moment I spat out the name Kang Rokgi, the nurse's body started twisting in grotesque ways. The sound of bones snapping was horrifying. Black light crawled up her arm. Up to her neck. Her body began swelling like a balloon, slow and steady. It looked like it was about to burst any second.
'Master. This is an insane curse. You should dodge it.'
I unfurled the yellow Post-it notes, wrapping my body like armor. Flying Talisman Slash Armor. No one around to see, so why not use it now? It looked like a total joke, but the performance was top-tier.
'Oh. As expected.'
'Impressed?'
'Yes.'
That's when it happened. Footsteps pounding up the stairs. A figure spotted us on the second-floor landing and screamed.
"Kang Suhu! What the hell is this spiritual power? ...What? Kyaaah!!"
Samada Miku. She caught sight of me shrouded in yellow Post-its and started shrieking.
"Kyaaaaah!"
Was wearing the Post-its like a hat that shocking? Plus, her eyes darted back and forth between me and the nurse on the verge of exploding.
Miku just stood there between us, spacing out.
"Yammat. Defend. Dangerous..."
Boom! It burst.
With a dull thud, her body disintegrated into black smoke. The smoke didn't vanish. It seeped up the stairs, through wall cracks, floor gaps—into the entire villa.
Samada Miku, who took the exploding curse head-on. Too dumb to even put up a barrier. Was my Post-it getup really that startling?
'Miku must've inhaled the smoke properly, Master.'
"It blew up right in her face."
'Master, judging by how her killing intent thickened after breathing it in, it seems like a curse that compels you to kill anyone with info on the target.'
Intense killing intent began radiating from Miku, who'd sucked in the smoke. And it was aimed straight at me.
"Fuck..."
If I opened the first-floor front door, the smoke might escape and cause even bigger damage. A disaster-class curse was the kind that wiped a whole city off the map in Mexico a few years back. Dangerous shit.
I shook the frozen Miku.
"Hey, idiot. Miku. Snap out of it."
Her blackening eyes narrowed as the darkness deepened. A first-grade sorceress's spiritual power could only stall the curse for a bit. Black drool leaked from her plump lips.
If I left her like this, she'd get fully consumed and turn into a human bomb too, right?
Just as her killing intent thickened, a powerful spiritual energy appeared, gently enveloping her. A halo of energy formed above Miku's head, wrapping her in golden light.
"Oh ho? She has a guardian spirit?"
'Duikryeong, please allow me to protect my granddaughter.'
The telepathic message to me came from some seriously potent spiritual power. An Spirit Grade vengeful spirit in the shape of an old man. Or maybe more than that?
"Yeah, do whatever."
'Thank you. I'll keep your secret.'
Not many knew what a Duikryeong was. How'd he figure out I wielded Duikryeong-level power?
'Master, Miku's got some chops, huh? Keeping an Spirit Grade guardian gramps as her protector.'
'Yeah. Guess that's why she was such a cocky bitch—bathed in that old man's love.'
With the guardian spirit showing up, the curse didn't worsen, but it wasn't getting cured either. A disaster-class curse was no joke.
Thud... thud.Clank.
Footsteps multiplied in the second-floor hallway. Doors opening. 201, 202, 203—all at once.
Residents poured into the hall. Their eyes pitch-black, proving they'd been cursed. Like evil ghosts dying to kill me, they flailed their arms and charged.
Their malice stung my skin.
"Feels like being a celeb hounded by paparazzi."
They had radar on my location or something. Every resident in the villa was itching to off me. If they spilled outside? Big trouble.
I tucked the frozen Miku under my arm and headed up the stairs.
Thud thud thud! People bursting out on every floor.
'Seems the whole villa's infected, Master.'
Anyone who inhaled the smoke was cursed. Way more headache than expected. Smoke turning people into living zombies.
Smoke? If the curse was smoke-based, dispersal might be easy. Dilute it in the air, let it rise to the sky.
A five-story building—rooftop in no time.
Bang—!
I kicked the rooftop door open hard, Miku still under my arm, and stepped out. Cambodia's sunset sky felt ironically beautiful.
"Come on, everyone—follow me to the roof!"
I'd become the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Except my followers weren't rats—they were villa residents with jet-black eyes, howling like beasts.
"Kraaaah!!"
"Kieek!! Keeeek!!"
Pajama-clad uncle, school-uniform kid, even a hunched grandma. All who'd breathed the disaster-class black smoke surged through the rooftop door, hellbent on tearing me apart.
'Master! They've lost all reason. The curse has hijacked their brains, numbed their pain receptors!'
"First time seeing a curse like this for you too?"
'Yes.'
I stopped in the rooftop center, gently laying Miku on the ground. The golden light—her Spirit Grade guardian geezer—desperately blocked the black curse spreading through her body.
'Duikryeong, please protect my granddaughter. This old man's power can only delay it.'
'Don't worry, gramps. I'll keep your girl safe—just hold that barrier tight.'
I left Miku to Mongshili and the gramps, then slowly turned to the thirty-odd infected swarming me.
"Alright, time to shoot a zombie flick."
Like the infected, they scraped across the rooftop floor, beasts lunging from all sides. The butcher from the third floor led the charge, bloodshot hands reaching for my throat.
I didn't dodge. My body was perfectly shielded by the Flying Talisman Slash Armor.
Splat!
The butcher's fist flew at my jaw but bounced off the Post-its.
"Kraaaah!"
Bone-shattering impact, but he felt no pain—immediately clawing at my shoulder with his other hand.
Dozens of cursed fools piled on, biting and pounding like animals. But their attacks hit the Post-its encasing me and fizzled.
The blade-hardened talismans moved organically, thickening the barrier where strikes landed.
"Ho, this really is feather-light armor. Performance is killer."
Amid the barrage of impacts, I casually clasped my hands behind my back. Then focused my spiritual power into my eyes.
My Spirit Eye opened a level deeper.
Suddenly, I could sense the spiritual flows in the cursed bodies. The black smoke they'd inhaled wasn't like poison cycling through blood from the lungs.
"It's reversing their energy meridians?"
Humans have twelve meridians and energy channels cycling life force. The black curse clung like leeches, polluting the pure energy black, forcing it into overdrive. Especially from the dantian, the murky curse climbed the spine, blanketing the cerebral cortex—reason's seat—in darkness.
'Pain blocked, adrenaline overdrive. Stimulates the brainstem, maxing attack instincts.'
And rage. The curse tapped into human nature. The primal shit usually veiled by thin reason and morals. Without that filter, humans became raging beasts.
Proof of the innate evil doctrine.
"Kraaaah!!"
They moved to kill me, the one with info on Chairman Kang Rokgi.
Then—hide my vital signs, problem solved?
Thump thump thump.
I used spiritual power and the talismans to conceal my very existence. Heartbeat, body heat, scent—all perfectly masked.
Thump thump.
With the last beat, all sounds from my body cut off.
"......"
'Ooh... Master, they're stopping. Impressive?'
Nailed it. They were mindless beasts, slaves to simple kill-or-not instincts.
Sensing their target dead, they halted the frenzy and shuffled back the way they came. The hunched grandma. The kid in uniform. The raging butcher. Even the last straggler kid vanished through the rooftop door.
I quietly shut it behind them.
'Master, perfect situational call.'
"Whew..."
I sighed deep, crafting a chair from Post-its and plopping down. The yellow paper chair shocked Mongshili—eight eyes blinking at me.
'Bench from Flying Talisman Slash too? Master transcends imagination.'
"Spare the flattery. This curse... Mudang No.1 executive protecting Kang Rokgi, right?"
'Yes.'
'Your answers are always so fucking crisp.'
'Yes.'
A sorcerer dropping disaster-class curses... No clue on their realm. If we clashed, they'd be my toughest foe yet?
Kang Rokgi. Shockingly, he was behind all this chaos.
"Then what the fuck's Park Taejun?"
Whatever. Beat 'em down, climb the ladder one by one.
Then the guardian gramps's telepathy wailed pitifully.
'Duikryeong, please save my granddaughter.'
I glanced at Miku sprawled on the ground. Her shorts had hiked up, exposing her plump, taut ass. Adidas tracksuit jacket half-open, cleavage spilling out. Nah, her sweat-soaked silk bra was basically nonexistent.
Gulp.
Mongshili read my face, squinting all eight eyes. That little shit.
Sensing my gaze, the guardian gramps looked at me and bowed low.
'Duikryeong... My granddaughter inherits Japan's ninja Samada clan. Save her, and... I'll never forget the grace.'
"Why should I?"
My icy reply startled the old man.
'Save her, and while she sleeps, I'll serve as your subordinate, obeying the Duikryeong's commands.'
An Spirit Grade spirit-controlled ninja subordinate? Like the Virgin Ghost puppeteering Kang Mina, but the gramps handling it.
Japanese beauty... ninja. Honestly, tempting. Big-titted ninjas from my old fave eroge flashed in my mind.
'I can assassinate any foe. Please... save my granddaughter...'
Gramps knew how to negotiate. My mouth kept watering.
"Spirit Grade control would burn through her lifespan fast, no?"
'It would drain her life, but better than dying now.'
That's when Mongshili hopped off my shoulder to the ground, striking a cocky pose.
'Hey, gramps. Know why our Master descended from the netherworld to the human realm? Just one reason. Guess what?'
'Mongshili, you keep circling it—you wanna get sidelined?'
