Pain of the Living, Mourning the Dead
The outpost was wrapped in a bizarre mix of eerie silence and subdued bustle as dusk fell.
Kang Jinhyuk's unyielding majesty—crushing the enemy without budging until the sun dipped low—had left a shiver of awe in every soul inside.
Yet the area around the inner chambers was more heavily guarded than ever.
On the surface, elite guards handpicked by Beom Dal himself—loyal mercenaries and ronin—stood rigidly, filling the corridors.
But that wasn't all.
Assassins from Doksa's 1st Company lurked in the rafters overhead and shadowy corners, holding their breaths in silent vigilance.
Even as crippled slave soldiers with shattered dantians, their killer instincts and senses missed not even an ant's twitch in the aftermath.
But inside those heavily guarded inner chambers, the scene was utterly wretched.
"Beom Dal... please... go easy... my bones are gonna snap..."
Jinhyuk buried his face in the bedding, gnawing the pillow as he yelped.
Beom Dal kneaded the muscles around Jinhyuk's groin and thighs with rough hands, clicking his tongue.
"Brigade Commander, with bruises this bad, gentle won't cut it. Just endure a bit. If we don't loosen them properly now, you'll hobble like a jiangshi tomorrow in front of Wiji Gang and the tribal elders. Want to look like a stiff wooden doll?"
"Aaaagh! Jiangshi or doll, whatever... Ah! Not there! Don't press there! Urgh!"
Jinhyuk's screams were muffled by the thick walls, leaking nothing outside.
The guards from Beom Dal's and Doksa's units outside caught the stifled groans and faint killing intent seeping from Beom Dal. They exchanged solemn glances.
They firmly believed their leader was calming Beom Dal's bloodlust while honing his own in solitary training inside.
Aaaagh!
Beom Dal's grip dug deeper into the groin muscles at Jinhyuk's scream.
Jinhyuk tore at the bedframe planks, tears streaming down.
The agony of forcing open muscles scorched stiff for half a day was a different hell from battlefield wounds.
'System... why the hell doesn't this damn thing have pain relief?'
Just as he cursed the system inwardly—
> [First Real Battle: Settling first combat...]
> [Achievements: 1,172 enemies killed, 8,851 hostile forces surrendered, 120 allies absorbed]
> [Battle Result 1: Allied deaths 29, serious injuries 22, minor injuries 102]
> [Battle Result 2: Ally deaths 77, serious injuries 11, minor injuries 31]
> [Action Log: Mounted combat, mounted archery 8 times, mounted bludgeoning 41 times]
> [Settlement: Body modification and rewards forcibly executed. Time remaining: 00:05:00]
"Wha... what?! Forced execution?!"
Jinhyuk jolted upright in shock. Beom Dal, massaging his right thigh, blinked wide-eyed.
"Brigade Commander? What's wrong all of a sudden? I haven't even touched the left thigh yet..."
"Beom Dal! Right now—fetch Hwang Yeong-gam, Cheongun, Dogwi, Dok-an! All the elders, get them here to the inner chambers! Hurry!"
Jinhyuk's voice carried desperation beyond mere urgency.
The pressure of 'forced execution' drowned out even the groin pain.
If the system started ripping his body apart on its whim, he needed people to grasp the anomaly and assist.
The Survival Demons—old slaves who knew his body best, unflinching veterans who'd seen it all.
"Huh? At this late hour, all of a sudden..."
"Now! Less than five minutes left! Tell Doksa too! Tight security—bring the elders and brothers without anyone noticing!"
Beom Dal read the unnatural glint in Jinhyuk's eyes and bolted from the chamber.
Moments later, the four Survival Demons burst in.
"What's the racket this late, Brigade Commander? Your groin still... Whoa, it's started already."
Hwang Yeong-gam, tossing a jest as he entered, saw Jinhyuk collapsed unconscious on the bed and the bamboo slips spread on the floor. He clicked his tongue.
業 (Karma)
格 (Rank)
"Cheongun, Dok-an! That damned bloodline karma curse from before is kicking off again!"
Cheongun checked Jinhyuk's face and paled in shock.
"This mad... It's not qi circulating—his body's withering in real time! Way faster than last time. We barely made a dantian, and now it's burning his own flesh since even that tiny qi wasn't enough!"
"Heh heh heh! He'll end up a bony demon like before!"
Sapa Dogwi grabbed Jinhyuk's arm and shouted.
"This fool's body temp's fluctuating wild. Fuel shortage—it's just burning his muscles and blood willy-nilly!"
"Shut it, Dogwi. His flesh can't keep up with the rank shift. Just like before—adjust the blood flow, control the current."
Dok-an from the Demonic Cult glared with his one eye, clutching Jinhyuk's thinning wrist.
They were convinced: Jinhyuk's transformations were a bloodline tragedy—stack karma, sacrifice flesh to raise rank.
Hwang Yeong-gam bellowed like thunder at Beom Dal outside the door.
"Beom Dal! Don't just stand there! Before the Brigade Commander's body burns out, stoke the fire! Grab every herb from the outpost stores, all the Great Snow Bear blood and meat left! Good, rotten—everything! If not here in fifteen minutes, your master's a withered corpse by dawn!"
Beom Dal fled in panic, and the four elders pressed Jinhyuk's acupoints or muscles, forcibly anchoring his combusting life force.
"Hang in there, Brigade Commander. This bloodline's brutal, but cross it and you'll grow stronger."
The all-night forced execution was pure hell.
The system rebuilt to match the engraving, siphoning energy from Jinhyuk's fat, muscle, blood. By morning light, he was mummy-dry.
"Open your mouth somehow! Skip this and you're done for!"
The four Survival Demons hadn't rested.
Hwang Yeong-gam mashed Great Snow Bear blood and meat into thick gruel.
They pried open Jinhyuk's seizing jaw, shoving the fishy spirit essence down his throat nonstop.
As the system burned his flesh for fuel, the elders poured in bear vitality to fill the void.
Thanks to their desperate aid, Jinhyuk clung to life by a thread.
"Feeling better, Brigade Commander?"
At Beom Dal's cautious voice, Jinhyuk slowly opened his eyes.
His mouth reeked of forced-fed bear blood and mashed meat remnants.
His body tingled like thousands of ants gnawing his joints—aftereffects.
Jinhyuk staggered to sit on the bed's edge; Beom Dal rushed to steady his shoulders.
"No way! After that ordeal, rest half a day—no, the whole day. Step out now and you'll collapse before the door!"
"Beom Dal... bring my armor."
Beom Dal gaped at Jinhyuk's raspy command.
"Brigade Commander!"
"The kids... are waiting outside. Corpses still there. A commander holed up inside... gotta see the dead off. Hurry, help me suit up."
Beom Dal fetched the child-sized armor, face crumpling at Jinhyuk's stubborn glare.
Hwang Yeong-gam, watching, wiped night-sweat from his body, lit his pipe, and tsked.
"Tch tch, that fool doesn't value his own hide—family trait? Hey, idiot, guzzling that much bear blood and moving right away wrecks your body!"
Cheongun chimed in.
"Any group leader must care for his flesh's well-being... Collapse out there, what of your slave soldiers?"
But Jinhyuk ignored the elders' nagging, letting Beom Dal layer on the heavy armor.
Thankfully—system mods or new engraving—his legs no longer buckled awkwardly, but each step screamed through his body.
Jinhyuk shrugged off Beom Dal's support and opened the inner chamber door.
In the outpost center lay yesterday's fallen: Iron Blood Unit and Cheonrang Company corpses.
Iron Blood: 77 dead, 11 serious, 31 minor.
Cheonrang: 29 dead, 22 serious, 102 minor.
Iron Blood survivors were battered head to toe, yet straightened and lined up at Jinhyuk's emergence.
His sunken eyes and pallor from system torment and elders looked, to them, like he'd shared the fallen's pain all night—a chilling mystique.
Jinhyuk stood before each corpse, bowing his head in silence.
The tribute lasted nearly an hour, yet no one questioned or grumbled.
They felt the meaning of his silent rite in their bones...
After, in a whisper like deflating wind, he murmured to Beom Dal beside him.
"Beom Dal... translate. Voice won't carry."
Beom Dal's throat tightened at Jinhyuk's pallor, then he roared with heart-shaking grandeur and solemnity.
"The Brigade Commander declares! Thanks to their blood, flesh, and deaths, we live! The fallen comrades' sacrifice must never be in vain!!"
Cheonrang Company, Iron Blood Unit, and Myeongma Hall fell into heavy silence.
Jinhyuk mouthed quietly once more.
"Give survivors the best... For the dead, at least engrave names on outpost and base gates..."
Beom Dal amplified, voice booming higher.
"The Brigade Commander proclaims! To survivors, bestow seized weapons and spoils... For the fallen, carve deep into this outpost and the Outpost's gates—so at least we never forget their names and sacrifices!!!"
As Beom Dal's voice peaked, Wiji Gang and the 120 surviving Iron Blood men's eyes shifted from loyalty to fanaticism.
Waaaaaaah!
Jinhyuk received the massive roar of devotion and turned toward the outpost gates.
Each step dizzied him, but he walked steadfast, refusing all aid to the end.
Watching his back, the Survival Demons tsked once more.
"Mad bastard... true lone wolf."