The Serpent's Recurring Nightmare
Kim Hwang-je gripped his trembling left hand with his right.
The talisman shaking against his chest slowly rose into the air. The intricate patterns within it spun, radiating a brilliant glow.
Emperor's Talisman
Mental Protection: Success
The Touch of Temptation dissipates...
“Aratta!”
Poyu stood atop his head with both feet planted and shouted at the top of her lungs.
“Emperor Ahjussi! This is a dream!”
“What? A dream where?”
“Ehem. Poyu knows because Poyu is both a fairy and a dragon. Someone put their dream on top of reality!”
Poyu hopped onto the table, planted her hands on her hips, and puffed out her belly.
Kim Hwang-je, utterly helpless against this particular temptation, reached out and stroked it.
“Kyarru~ That tickles~”
Poyu burst into giggles and rubbed her face against his arm.
While continuing to rub the little dragon’s belly, Kim Hwang-je asked, “Can you wake me up, then?”
“Of course! Watch this. Mommy always says this when it happens. Hero, awaken!”
In a flash, the world flipped upside down.
The beef-and-rice soup that had been sitting right in front of Kim Hwang-je had turned into a bucket of rotting sludge. The table and floor were now covered in rust and thick mold, revealing a derelict ruin.
“Ugh.”
Kim Hwang-je shot to his feet and staggered backward.
“Hiiing, it’s dirty!”
Poyu flew over with a flutter and settled on top of his head. A ring of shimmering light now encircled her body; only the space inside that ring looked like the real world.
“Covering an entire city in a dream…?”
So this was what an Evil Spirit Class could do.
That meant he had to break the dream if he wanted to send the steel mill back to the royal castle.
Just to be sure, Kim Hwang-je activated Tribute Trade on the earthenware pot.
Perfect. In this state he could plunder the entire mill.
“R… rot… ten…”
A voice groaned.
The old woman had become a desiccated corpse, skin stretched tight over bone. She rose slowly, arms outstretched, shuffling toward him.
“Child… go… home… go home…!”
“Damn it. Damn it all.”
She was already dead, but the way she had cracked those eggs for him earlier had felt so real.
Kim Hwang-je gripped his anti-evil golden bat, hesitating. No. How could he swing at a talking grandmother?
In the end, he bought the spell from the priest on the castle wall and cast it. Silver chains erupted from the floor and wrapped the zombie grandmother tightly.
At that moment an arrow flew in and embedded itself in the table beside him. A red flag was tied to the shaft—a clear warning signal used by hunters.
Kim Hwang-je looked out the window. Every person on the street was now shambling toward the restaurant where he stood.
He channeled Resident Summon through the Emperor’s Robes, casting it repeatedly.
“Hmph! Your Majesty! We’re only helping because we like you…!”
“Enough. Just watch the approaching enemies.”
Their sassy tone had shifted slightly. Even gangsters couldn’t resist absolute loyalty, it seemed.
What was the difference between gangsters and bandits?
It was the same as the difference between trees and wild grass. No matter how strong a bandit was, he stole alone and in secret. If no one saw it, it was simply theft.
Gangsters, on the other hand, were exactly what the name implied. No matter how weak, they moved in organized groups to rob people. In the kingdom they were known as mountain bandits.
And just as the name suggested, nearly thirty male and female bandits armed with axes now stood before Kim Hwang-je.
At his command they blushed, then rushed outside with a thunder of footsteps.
“His Majesty looked at me!”
“That’s just because you look like a rare animal, you pumpkin-headed fool!”
“He looked straight into my eyes!”
“No, he was looking at that old hag.”
“He’s going to take me to the royal castle! Long live His Majesty the Emperor!”
Why did people with such delicate sensibilities become bandits in the first place?
They must have had nothing to eat…
What Kim Hwang-je didn’t know was that these bandits didn’t only rob people. They were specialists who plundered anything from goblins to orcs.
Feeling a strange mix of emotions he couldn’t quite name, he stepped out into the street with them.
The road that should have been noisy with traffic was now silent. Every car had stopped; people were climbing out and shuffling forward.
They moved like patients in the final stages of some terrible disease.
The moment they entered the shimmering circle around Poyu, their true forms were revealed. Half spirit, half zombie.
Then a green flash of light shot skyward from the city hall.
Suddenly the people snapped back to their senses and fled in every direction, screaming.
“Kyaaaaah!”
“Run! Run away!”
“I don’t want to die!”
The bandits who had been standing proudly with axes in hand looked at one another in confusion.
“Should we chase them down and smash them, Your Majesty?”
“No… wait. Just bring a few of them back.”
“Yes, sir!”
The bandits scattered and returned with captives. It was honestly pitiful. The prisoners were screaming, thrashing, and leaking every fluid imaginable.
Kim Hwang-je ended up having to cast the undead binding spell on them as well.
“Ughhh…”
A clear voice came from behind him. He turned to see the foul-mouthed grandmother had regained her senses.
“Aigoo, you young fool. Run! Don’t stay in a place like this!”
“Grandmother?”
Thank goodness. If he had actually hit her with the anti-evil bat earlier…
“We stay sane as long as that blue flame doesn’t go out. And while we’re sane, we have to die again soon.”
The old woman lowered her head, trembling, then fell completely unconscious from the binding spell.
What on earth did that mean?
At that moment a hunter returned carrying two people under his arms.
“Your Majesty, I finally understand. These are wraiths.”
“Wraiths?”
The hunter was clenching his jaw so hard the muscles in his face visibly twisted.
“Whenever those Evil Spirit bastards rose up, these things would follow. It used to happen all the time.”
“Used to? Then why didn’t you notice at first?”
“They were normal for a little while, weren’t they? Normally they aren’t, but something seems to be suppressing the evil spirit. They only wake for part of the day.”
Was that how it worked?
“Hm. Anyway, bring all the wraiths I bound with the spell. I want to ask them some questions.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
At his order the bandits moved in a rush. They dragged the dazed wraiths back and tied them to every pillar in the restaurant.
This really does feel like I’m the bandit chief leading a crew.
Kim Hwang-je looked around and woke the largest, meanest-looking man among them.
“Kuhahaha… Another hunter bastard…? Useless pieces of trash…!”
Even bound, the man cackled, then suddenly began to rave.
“Pigs who only care about their own bellies! Get lost! You’ll just watch the show and leave, won’t you… sob… fuck…”
He drooled and started to cry.
Kim Hwang-je had to admit the man had a point. As someone who only cared about his own belly, he gently stroked his stomach.
“You rude bastard! How dare you speak that way to His Majesty!”
The hunter, however, had a different opinion. He strode forward and smacked the man across the face with his longbow.
“Gaaack!”
Black blood sprayed from the man’s mouth.
It was honestly a relief. If the foul-mouthed grandmother had come into the house with them, things could have gone very badly.
But the sensible part of Kim Hwang-je quickly reasserted itself and he protested.
“W-wait. Isn’t that a bit much?”
“Sorry, Your Majesty. But trash like this only listens when you beat the message into them.”
“…”
Was he right?
The ghost clearly hadn’t expected to actually get hit; his already pale face went even whiter. He immediately became docile.
“What happened here?”
“When the government fired a nuke at Manta… something rose up…”
“Pardon?”
“It rose up…”
See how quiet he became?
“Lowlife trash daring to speak informally.”
The hunter snorted.
Cold sweat trickled down Kim Hwang-je’s back. Both the bandits and the hunter gave off the vibe that if he summoned these medieval locals into modern society, he would never be able to control the consequences.
The beaten man muttered, “The news played all day… They said they killed every last snake. But we saw the souls that came out of the snake’s body descend on city hall…”
“Souls coming out of the snake’s body? So this Evil Spirit Class was created from the soul of a Disaster Class monster?”
Weren’t those things supposed to die when you hit them with nukes?
Kim Hwang-je’s mouth fell open in disbelief.
Then what about that ogre Billy who had been smashing the castle gates? They said Earth had destroyed him with a nuke too. Did that mean his spirit was still alive somewhere?
His head spun.
Did that mean events like this were still happening all over Earth?
“Huuuuhng, waaahhh!”
The woman beside him suddenly woke up and began sobbing uncontrollably.
Fearing the hunter would hit her too, Kim Hwang-je asked quickly, “And then?”
“We lived normally… but when night came we died again… It used to be once per night… but lately it’s three times…”
“Aaaaaagh!”
The woman screamed and wept. The silver chains binding her rattled violently.
The man watched her and let out a long sigh.
“A snake will come matching the number of us here. It will kill us just like always…!”
He started crying again.
Then an explosive scream tore through the air.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaah!”
Kim Hwang-je felt as if ice water had been poured down the back of his neck.
It was exactly six in the evening.
Outside the window, snake-shaped monsters were pouring in from every direction. They were mottled cobras roughly four times the size of a normal person.
They shook their neck frills and leaped into the fleeing crowd. People were swept aside as if kicked across a sandbox. Some flew through the air and crashed onto rooftops; others smashed through windows and fell. Still others were crushed and pulped on the spot.
People trampled one another to death while trying to escape. A mother stared blankly as her baby was stepped on and killed. The legs of people swallowed alive dangled from the snakes’ jaws.
A thick red mist of blood rose from the slaughter, and screams echoed between the buildings.
“What the hell is this?”
Kim Hwang-je gripped the windowsill so hard his arms shook.
The image of Seoul burning was seared into his mind.
“What the fuck is this?!”
Kim Hwang-je roared.
A sight he never wanted to see again in his life…
They were forcing the victims to relive the exact same day, every single day, for years without fail?
What kind of grudge could justify something so cruel?
Monsters were evil by nature—he could accept that. But some people knew about this and still allowed it to continue?
“It is a ritual that reenacts death. The evil spirit grows stronger by feeding on their fear and despair! It is trying to resurrect itself…”
The hunter trembled as he met Kim Hwang-je’s burning rage.
The royal castle resonated with the emperor’s fury, sending power surging in every direction. It was a vast force that even Poyu’s saliva could not conceal.
In the face of this, he was not about to simply steal a steel mill and go home.
He could not allow it.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
The surging wave of people and screams drew steadily closer, like a mosh pit from hell.
“KyaAAAAH!”
Crunch. Crack.
Finally a giant snake head smashed through the door, ramming it with its skull.
The first thing visible was a pair of yellow eyes. The vertical pupils, like black crevasses, were as large as a human being.
The enormous maw lunged forward to swallow Kim Hwang-je whole.
He did not avert his wide-open eyes.
He ignored the Auto Combat window that popped up beside his head.
Even beating it to death with his own hands might not be enough to vent his rage.
“Die!”
Kim Hwang-je swung the golden bat with all his strength and smashed the lunging snake’s head.
Boom!
The anti-evil golden bat’s power was incredible. The serpent’s skull exploded like a watermelon hit by a shotgun.
In an instant the snake looked as if someone had stuffed dynamite down its throat and lit the fuse. Gushing blood and brain matter soaked Kim Hwang-je from head to toe.
The stench of snake was nauseating, yet his chest felt refreshingly clear.
“There will be no stealing.”
Kim Hwang-je declared.
More snake heads the size of bulls poured through the shattered doorway.
He raised the golden bat high overhead.
“I’ll smash every last one of you and take what I want!!”