The Emperor's Avatar
Bullets could be useful or useless depending on the situation.
For instance, when facing hunters, you needed overwhelming firepower to kill them for certain. The moment you slipped up and allowed them to close the distance, it was game over.
"Guh!"
"Aaaargh!"
The warlord's private soldiers were like the knights of La Mancha charging at a windmill... except the windmill was the one doing the charging.
With enough force to thresh their very souls, Sirius's greatsword swept the soldiers away in wide arcs.
It looked like someone scooping up dolls and hurling them in every direction.
All kinds of bullets slammed into Sirius, but the giant warrior was built like a fortress.
"Stacking a thousand layers of protection magic is pretty damn effective."
One shield per bullet.
In any normal situation that would be an absurd waste. But when you had an entire kingdom inside your body and could mobilize hundreds of mages at will?
Tribute Trade
Ratatatatatang!
"What the hell is this? How is some hunter blocking every bullet?!"
The soldiers screamed in panic.
"Keep firing! No matter how much mana he's got, he's still just one man! He can't have many potions either. Pour it on!"
Their logic was sound.
A hunter was one.
An army was many.
And bullets were most effective in overwhelming quantities.
"Kahahahaha! It tickles! This body carries the divine grace of His Imperial Majesty!"
Sirius rampaged without mercy, snatching soldiers up and flinging them like ragdolls.
"That ogre bastard!"
Even the cheapest shield could block a single round. Right now, a thousand of them were layered over Sirius.
Only three people had come here: Kim Hwang-je and his two subordinates.
But inside Kim Hwang-je's stomach sat an entire legion of mages.
Bang!
Observe.
A single bullet had struck Kim Hwang-je directly in his right eye.
It was an anti-materiel round, powerful enough to destroy an armored vehicle rather than a human being.
Yet the bullet simply crumpled like a discarded cigarette butt and slid off the bridge of his nose, falling harmlessly to the ground.
"Hmm."
Remaining Shield Charges: 1,999
Estimated Auto-Combat Cost: 132 million won
Proceed with auto-combat? (Y/N)
N.
Kim Hwang-je rejected it without hesitation.
You had to save money to live comfortably.
With Baekju and Sirius right here, there was no need to waste a single won.
"Bullets are precious too."
Kim Hwang-je stretched his hand toward the enemy soldiers.
Labor Correction
The shadow of Labor Correction erupted from the ground and swallowed every last soldier.
"Aaaaaaaaagh!"
"Uwaaaaaaaaagh!"
From every direction, the soldiers were sucked into Kim Hwang-je's shadow.
Like dirty water swirling down a drain.
"Run away!!"
"Where did that monster come from?!"
At that moment Baekju pointed toward the enemy camp.
"Your Majesty. Over there. It's a heavy machine gun."
"For real?"
Kim Hwang-je's eyes lit up with genuine delight.
That was exactly the kind of hardware he'd come here to steal!
From the opposite encampment, a Soviet-era heavy machine gun—the DShK—revealed itself.
"You sons of bitches! Taste the power of the heavy machine gun!"
The weapon immediately began spitting out heavy rounds.
Dudududududu!
Each bullet was as large as an adult man's palm. Anything hit by those wouldn't just pop like a chicken—it would explode like a calf.
"Step back and observe."
"Yes, sir!"
Kim Hwang-je used The Castle Becomes Me to purchase basic shields and float them into the air.
Basic Shield
50,000 won each
[1,000 units purchased.]
Production process initiated.
Of course, since the number of mages was under a thousand, they weren't created instantly. The mages worked the production facilities at full capacity to supply the shields.
"Hmmm."
Translucent hexagonal barriers appeared in the air, layer after layer. Tracer rounds mixed with the heavy machine gun fire smashed against them, shattering the barriers one after another.
Crack-crack-crack-crack!
Dozens of walls twisted and shattered simultaneously.
Through World Observer he could see several mages rolling across the castle walls, gasping for breath.
Kim Hwang-je immediately Bestowed them with Blue Mana Potions. The mages were drenched in falling mana potions like rain as they continued creating new barriers.
It was a literal human factory. Their eyes were sunken, their hands trembling—an extreme overtime labor site.
I should treat them to something delicious once this test is over.
They were taking shifts, but it was still an exhausting forced march that blurred the line between day and night.
Secretary Seo was right. In theory it's solid. It's more than enough.
The magical barriers shattering in every direction formed hexagonal patterns that actually began pushing the heavy machine gun back.
"About forty per second makes the exchange rate worthwhile."
It was only natural. They were creating more than they were destroying.
In a real battlefield it would be difficult to receive this level of concentrated fire. In other words, this much firepower could turn regular fodder into perfectly cooked slices of meat.
"Nice. Extremely useful."
Of course, a calamity-grade monster would shred these cheap shields with pure mana pressure alone. But these warlord thugs didn't have that kind of power.
Kim Hwang-je declared, "Test complete. Capture them."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Baekju drew his short bow and shot the heavy machine gunner through the forehead with pinpoint accuracy.
"...Huh?"
Kim Hwang-je had said "capture," not "kill," right?
But the deed was already done. The gunner collapsed onto the heavy machine gun.
The weapon, unable to bear the weight, began spinning wildly, spraying bullets in every direction like a crazed beast.
"Uwaaaaaaaaagh!"
The warlord soldiers were turned into human beehives and collapsed.
The atmosphere had suddenly become a massacre.
Kim Hwang-je used short-range teleportation to appear above the heavy machine gun and Bestowed it into Sinal Port.
He then shoved every surviving soldier into the 218 Prison using Workforce Deployment.
"...Ah."
The metallic smell of blood mixed with the thick stench of gunpowder suddenly brought him back to his senses.
It was an overwhelmingly pungent odor.
Kim Hwang-je looked down at his own palm.
He had been wielding his power so naturally that his sense of reality was beginning to fade.
"Trample them!"
It seemed they weren't going to give him time to dwell on such thoughts.
Armored vehicles charged in from all sides, but it was pointless.
Kim Hwang-je simply placed his hand on each vehicle and sent only the "vehicle" itself to Sinal Port through Tribute Trade.
"Eh?"
The soldier sitting in the driver's seat fell on his backside in shock.
"Yeah."
Kim Hwang-je sent him to the prison as well.
For objects, as long as they weren't magically protected or bound by contract, he could plunder them freely. For people, if they couldn't resist with raw power, they could all be thrown into the prison.
In this manner, in less than a few minutes, an entire armory had fallen completely into Kim Hwang-je's hands.
He had become a merciless plundering machine.
"Uuuuugh...!"
"Kneel before His Majesty!"
Sirius dragged the armory manager before Kim Hwang-je and forced him to his knees.
The manager trembled on the ground, completely lost.
Just three intruders had wiped out three hundred armed soldiers. Of course he was terrified.
Kim Hwang-je cast a translation spell on him.
"Where have you come from?! How is this possible... how?! No matter how strong a hunter is, to withstand sniper fire with their body...!"
"Your power and mine exist in a complete vertical hierarchy."
Kim Hwang-je spoke with his hands clasped behind his back.
Sniper rounds were certainly dangerous, but they couldn't penetrate all his shields.
"Now. Hand over every important item in this place."
Kim Hwang-je didn't bother with tedious persuasion.
When Sirius slammed his greatsword into the ground with a heavy thud, the earth split into eight massive fissures.
"Uuuugh...!"
"Let's go."
Kim Hwang-je moved through the facility, Bestowing every foodstuff, article of clothing, shelf, and miscellaneous item into Sinal Port.
"Ah... no..."
A walking human vacuum cleaner.
The kind of thoroughness that would lick clean even the bottom of a delicious stew pot.
There had never been plunder like this.
The heroes of old tales might sneak into houses and rummage through shelves for coins, but none of them had ever torn an entire room out with them.
But Kim Hwang-je did.
Those heroes were merely heroes. Kim Hwang-je was the Emperor.
He would plunder everything, leaving not even a single speck of dust behind.
"So what?"
Kim Hwang-je shrugged as he walked. Sirius suddenly growled.
"Hey. What about that place? Why are you skipping it?"
"That... that is..."
Kim Hwang-je looked at the door Sirius was staring at. It was subtly hidden.
"Break it."
"Ehh, Your Majesty!"
Sirius threw a punch that smashed the door inward with a loud crack.
Thick dust billowed out from inside.
"Ugh, damn it."
After ripping the door off its hinges, cold wind and sunlight poured into the lightless secret room.
White powder was spread across the tables in a stuffy space lit by yellow heat lamps.
"Don't tell me this is all drugs? Wait, they set up a greenhouse in here?"
He had wondered how they managed to sell drugs in this freezing northern region. It turned out they were growing crops inside the armory using electric heaters.
"Yes, Your Majesty. It is all narcotics."
Sirius spoke as he looked at the white powder scattered across the table.
Kim Hwang-je addressed the people still standing motionless around the tables.
"Are you all alright?"
The people—men, women, young and old—were all completely naked.
Seeing it in reality rather than in a movie made the sight truly horrific.
Kim Hwang-je spoke again.
"Come out. I've taken care of all the bastards outside."
"Uuu..."
"...Hm?"
At Kim Hwang-je's gesture, Baekju approached the people standing there blankly. They groped at Baekju's clothes with trembling hands and muttered in unintelligible voices.
"Your Majesty. Their eyes and ears have been taken, and their tongues cut out. This is how those who make drugs usually handle their workers."
"..."
The shock he'd felt earlier at the deaths outside now seemed utterly trivial.
The world was already broken beyond repair.
Kim Hwang-je glared at the armory manager.
Faced with the terrifying helmet of the Black Knight, the manager trembled and prostrated himself on the floor.
"Fucking bastards."
No matter how cheerfully he laughed and talked to hide it, there were moments when the unhideable reality came crashing in like this.
"...Sir Benedict."
"You called?"
A voice came from the necklace.
He hadn't fully recovered his strength yet, but he could at least hold a conversation now.
"Is healing possible?"
Even if healed, could they return to normal daily life?
"If you speak of technique, then given time it is possible. However, what matters most is Your Majesty's will."
"Then we must heal them."
Kim Hwang-je answered immediately.
"...Splendid. We are currently rebuilding the Temple of Light within the royal castle. I believe that place will accept them and aid in their healing."
"Understood."
Kim Hwang-je Bestowed all of them to the Temple of Light in the royal castle using Workforce Deployment. They were enveloped in white light and flew toward the temple at the center of the royal castle.
Looking at the remaining drugs and the crops growing inside, Kim Hwang-je said, "Burn it all later."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Kim Hwang-je grabbed a handful of packaged drugs from the table with his gauntlet.
"You too are a pitiful sinner. Your superiors must have ordered you to make drugs, right?"
Reading the mood, Sirius grabbed the manager by the collar and slammed his head into the ground.
Kim Hwang-je sprinkled the drugs into the manager's mouth like salt.
"Uwaaaaaaaaagh!"
It was a lethal dose.
After letting the manager, who was shaking violently, suffer for a long time, Kim Hwang-je used a Purification spell to detoxify him.
"Now go inside."
"Aaaaaaaaah!"
To become a drug addict and be thrown into prison—what a fate.
While the manager was still lost and confused, the shadow swallowed him and deposited him in the prison.
"..."
Had his anger subsided?
No. Instead, something even colder and harder settled deep inside his chest.
Places like this weren't limited to just one or two along the border.
Kim Hwang-je shook his head and stood up.
He then entered the armory proper and seized every single firearm piled up like a mountain.
Kim Hwang-je took out a map and said, "Where was the next armory again? Let's loot as many as we can today."
Playing the righteous bandit.
It seemed Kim Hwang-je had started before any actual bandits could.
That evening.
After completing his plunder tour(?), Kim Hwang-je returned to Korea using ultra-long-range teleportation.
Thanks to that, Sinal Port's courtyard was now piled high with an absurd amount of weapons.
Caw, caw.
Seagulls rolled their large eyes around at the sudden appearance of a concrete warlord fortress.
"It just turned out that way. Don't worry too much."
They had gained many new people for labor correction and obtained buildings as well.
He should have started raiding resource sites earlier.
The military buildings were plain reinforced concrete structures. The larger ones were cut into pieces and sent over, while smaller ones were transported whole. As a result, Sinal Port had become a town packed with a variety of armories.
The fishermen and the kingdom's army gathered there, taking the weapons into their hands.
The advantage of firearms was that even without mastery, they still fired bullets.
While they couldn't match the power of arrows infused with a skilled archer's techniques, they could still place an enormous burden on the enemy's defensive systems.
"Is everyone able to operate them properly?"
Secretary Seo Jun-seo was at Sinal Port with the knights and King Dave, sorting the firearms.
Dave held an AK-47 rifle, turning it over in his hands.
A blond middle-aged man holding that weapon somehow looked strangely fitting.
"Well, it doesn't seem particularly difficult to handle."
"Guns are better than that, right?"
The AK-47 was made in 1949. Just how many years had these weapons been in use?
Yet they had been dumped wildly onto the civilian market. After the monster outbreak, they had mass-produced an enormous quantity of these already stockpiled items out of desperation.
As a result, they had ended up responsible for every crime across the former communist bloc.
In any case, tools bore no sin.
The sin belonged to the one who wielded them.
And the kingdom would use the AK-47 well.
That wasn't all.
There were thousands of land mines, AK rifles, heavy machine guns, a small number of RPG missiles, and tank shells without any tanks.
Just where had they acquired and stockpiled all this?
He had raided many places, but there hadn't been any tanks.
Regardless, the RPGs and heavy machine guns were certainly useful.
The knight order and skilled archers would continue using swords and bows, but the true value of these firearms was their ability to arm ordinary citizens.
"Will they be effective?"
"Monarch-grade can't be helped. We'll have to deal with those using holy swords or similar."
But for regular soldiers, these would suffice.
Kim Hwang-je was satisfied.
"Your Majesty."
"Yes?"
The Leather Artisan appeared before Kim Hwang-je.
He was carrying a large black coffin on his back along with a gleaming golden chair carved with lions.
His strength was impressive to carry both at once.
"I have found the method you requested!"
"You found it faster than I expected?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. The Archmage's collection contained more useful items than anticipated."
"Then can I enter the castle now?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. With this, there will be no problems."
Kim Hwang-je placed his hand on the coffin with a pounding heart.
Though why did it have to be a coffin of all things?
"Is it alright to open?"
"Of course, Your Majesty."
The artisan opened the coffin's lid.
Kim Hwang-je was startled.
Inside slept a being that looked exactly like him!
"I have prepared a doll to serve as Your Majesty's substitute."
"...It's identical. Amazing."
There was only one difference.
"Isn't it a bit big?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. Please forgive this subject for imagining what lies beyond the whirlwind."
"Ahem. Well, it's about average."
What a refined flatterer.
"Using the body you hunted as a base, I sculpted a doll from Your Majesty's 'fragment.'"
They had covered Catiyu's body with Kim Hwang-je's 'fragment' and applied various magical techniques.
He didn't understand the exact principles, but in the end this too was now part of Kim Hwang-je's body.
"If you sit upon the specially prepared golden throne, the doll and Your Majesty will link through magic."
"Hmm... this sounds familiar somehow..."
"Your Majesty. Once linked with the doll, you will be able to enjoy exploring that world with great pleasure."
He set down the gleaming golden chair and took out what looked like a diamond eyepatch resembling goggles.
"...Virtual reality game?"
Kim Hwang-je let out a chuckle at the absurd thought.
"The fun of spending real money on this is going to be absolutely killer."