The Legendary Beginning of Guji Village
The splendid dance drew to a close.
Pop songs that had once ruled the era and girl-group tracks that made today feel brighter were all deployed during the ritual.
Kim Hwang-je and the fairies of Jeolla perfectly executed the pop-art choreography and the group’s razor-sharp synchronized moves.
Boom—!
Yet the music Kim Hwang-je remembered was far from over.
Malice and false thoughts exploded in midair with a sharp pop, transforming into hopeful energy that painted the sky in brilliant colors.
It looked like fireworks going off.
“…Whoa!”
“Oh!!”
The music poured forth, a heavy bass thumping against the heart. Drumbeats that set the blood on fire. Familiar hook melodies. A dazzling psychedelic laser show. Blood spraying in every direction.
This burning party lacked nothing.
Naturally, a great many hunters joined the incredible festival.
“…These crazy bastards.”
Kim Hwang-je muttered, watching from the hilltop.
But regardless of how Kim Hwang-je felt, this was a thoroughly realistic phenomenon.
If one person danced in a park, no one would spare them a glance. Research showed, however, that if a single person danced for thirty seconds, roughly one more would join in. Once that grew to two, three, four—and finally seven people were dancing?
The water boils. The walls collapse!
The crowd of onlookers would rush in, and a massive dance floor would form. This was the collective unconscious engraved into human genes made manifest. Could any phenomenon be more scientifically sound?
“No… you lunatic…”
In truth, Kim Hwang-je had lost all desire to dance long ago.
When the Melancholy Bard detached from his body, a chill ran through him. He hurriedly pulled on every piece of clothing he had.
Then he asked the spirits.
“Why are those people dancing?”
The all-night cheers of the festival echoed throughout the entire valley.
A spirit gazed down with satisfaction and replied, “Yes, Your Majesty. Gujiga was a grand rite in which every citizen participates together. They rejoice that evil has been driven away.”
In other words, they were drunk on magic.
“How long will they keep dancing? Any health problems?”
“They will likely dance for two days. Do not worry, sire. They may collapse from exhaustion, but every impurity in their bodies will be purged.”
It sounded like something straight out of a martial-arts novel. Something about opening the Conception Vessel and expelling waste?
“………”
So the scene below was what they called a wide-area fortuitous encounter.
Never mind. Where was Mr. Seo Jun-seo?
They said that when five people gather, one is bound to be abnormal. Why was everyone here completely insane?
“Let’s go.”
Kim Hwang-je called for the magical cloth.
The spirits bowed deeply around him.
“Your Majesty, may your jade body enjoy ten thousand years of health…”
“Yeah, yeah… And I hope you people wear proper clothes.”
“Do not worry, Your Majesty. Knowing that would be your command, we have prepared aprons for service.”
Kim Hwang-je immediately kicked the Gujiga spirit who had spoken off the cliff.
“Uwaaaaaah~!”
The Gujiga spirit flew into the distance and vanished.
He couldn’t simply leave things like this.
“Erase all their lower bodies. Right now.”
“Yes?! Y-yes?!”
“I won’t repeat myself. Execute the order. Why do spirits need legs anyway? They’re just decorations, aren’t they? Why don’t you people understand that!”
“…Hic… Understood, Your Majesty.”
“We receive your imperial command!”
The legs of the naked spirits melted away into nothing.
Ah! How much more pleasant the view became.
They now looked exactly like genies from a lamp.
“I’m leaving. Don’t try to stop me.”
“Yes, Your Majesty! We shall prepare a place for your return!”
The spirits waved at Kim Hwang-je as he flew into the distance. He was in such a hurry to escape that he didn’t catch most of what they said.
At any rate, this was the beginning of the legendary Guji Village.
Kim Hwang-je leaped down from the magical cloth.
The scenery at the uppermost level was markedly different from the floors below.
“The New Moon Tower… Even the temple at its peak has collapsed like this.”
The place looked like an ancient ruin that had crumbled long ago and been swallowed by the jungle over countless years.
Stone steles and collapsed buildings lay scattered everywhere. Leaves, stems, and thick vines resembling kudzu hung heavily over every structure.
“What was it like before?”
“At the summit of this pyramid temple there once stood a golden capstone known as a pyramidion. That stone bore a magical eye…”
Now, however, only the shattered temple and heaps of rubble remained. Patterns resembling magical eyes were painted everywhere, but their colors had faded long ago.
“Mages dispatched from the empire maintained the facilities and kept watch over the elves. All of that glory has now vanished into the past.”
“I see… My condolences.”
Kim Hwang-je ventured deeper into the temple.
Inside the cold, gloomy space he purchased and cast a Light spell. The radiance pierced the deep tunnel and revealed a massive door.
The door was tightly sealed.
Your Majesty.
This area ahead leads to the Brikiya Continent.
Crossing over would cause a serious disaster!
“I won’t cross.”
He already knew the consequences. They said your insides and outsides would flip, resulting in death.
But right now something far more important was at stake.
“They’ll be here soon.”
When Kim Hwang-je checked the map, the siblings were racing straight toward him. Shortcuts really were wonderful.
“It would be nice if we can capture them this time. I’ll seal them inside the royal castle somehow and rehabilitate them.”
“Ah… Please, anything but the whip…”
“Ahem… Yes. Understood.”
He hadn’t been thinking of using a whip, but Benedict—who had personally stormed the detention center alongside the overseer—clearly had a very different impression.
“Can we locate the imperial records before those two arrive?”
Kim Hwang-je’s heart raced.
Imperial records!
Exactly how had this world been destroyed? What unknown force now ruled this vast continent?
A world the tiny kingdom of Adel could never have known lay spread across this enormous land of fantasy.
“Night will fall soon. When it does, the Moon Gate will open within the darkness. We should be able to find the data inside.”
“So we wait for both. Well, there’s plenty to do while we wait.”
Kim Hwang-je sat on a nearby rock and observed the royal castle through World Observation.
Buildings were steadily rising within the castle. A few days ago it had felt like a primitive-city simulation game, but now Sinal Port had been added as well.
Teacher Labanus was desperate to repair the broken road between the castle and the port, yet that could not be allowed. An open road made it easy for friendly troops to march—but equally easy for enemies to reach the capital.
Instead, the royal castle poured all its energy into a single project.
⊳ Yes, Your Majesty. I am so happy I do not even need to eat.
⊳ Happy?
Sirius wore a broad, beaming smile unlike any Kim Hwang-je had seen before. The muscular man looked surprisingly good in a beanie. Thanks to His Majesty’s boundless grace, he had traded the sweltering full-body wrestling tights for comfortable hemp farmer’s clothes.
⊳ Of course, Your Majesty! Is this not healthy labor? Wholesome joy? Had Your Majesty not taken me in, this humble one would have lived each day committing vile deeds just to survive!
Stockholm syndrome. Truly terrifying.
Kim Hwang-je scratched his head.
⊳ Hehehe!
Still, watching someone live so diligently was pleasant.
The Minister of Agriculture was preparing for rice planting and converting the plains before the royal castle into paddies. Of course, Kim Hwang-je had not yet paid him a salary.
Well… he hasn’t asked for it…
A rice paddy was essentially a swamp, and creating swamps was the domain of mages. While Sirius pounded the earth with his cauldron-like hands to excavate rocks, several mages worked together to transform the ground into wetlands and channel water into them.
In this manner the plain before the royal castle was rapidly turning into neat, square rice paddies. Water flowed from the river that ran through Adel Castle into the moat, then from the moat into the fields—the true waterway of life.
The irrigation canal project!
The only issue was the astronomical construction cost, but that was no problem. Kim Hwang-je was rich.
⊳ Unfortunately, Your Majesty, they say the bloodline has dried up.
⊳ Can’t be helped. Keep up the good work.
After listening to Sirius’s various farming reports and preparing to inspect Sinal Port’s defenses, a light flashed on the map.
The siblings had finally arrived right in front of him.
Kim Hwang-je took out a chair and sat directly before the door.
“Who should I call…”
UNAVAILABLE
・ Melancholy Bard (currently summoned)
・ Eyes-Darkened Hunter
・ Rice-Harvesting Farmer
・ Leather Artisan
・ Dirty Cook
・ Yamanok Fisherman (Sinal)
・ Thick-Fingered Thief (Earth – Dungeon)
・ Sassy Gangster (Earth – Dungeon)
・ Illiterate Mage (Resting)
・ Skinny Undertaker (Resting)
The fisherman was guarding Sinal, the thief was raiding the dungeon, the illiterate mage handled cuteness, and the undertaker had no brain. In the end, the only useful ones right now were the bard and Kim Hwang-je himself.
“Can’t be helped. Let’s trust auto-battle.”
“I shall assist you.”
Soldiers standing atop the giant barrier erected before Sinal Port aimed their rifles toward the distant sea.
Bang!
Far away the temple door shattered, and a blast of scorching wind poured out. The door twisted, melted into molten iron, and flowed between the bushes, setting them ablaze. The bright glow of the molten metal illuminated the dark passage.
“You were already here.”
With the sound of grinding teeth, Katima and Catiyu appeared.
“Let’s surrender nicely and go home.”
Catiyu frowned, but Katima seemed to be seriously weighing the option.
“If the opponent is a madness that embeds the universe itself, I cannot simply endure it. I must use that method now.”
“But doing so would put us in their debt…”
“Do not doubt my judgment.”
Katima swung her staff wide and shouted.
"Descendant of the Sloth Dragon!"
"Dragon of the dark forest!"
"I offer a sacrifice that shall bring you joy!"
⟨ Come forth, Nax! ⟩
Kwaaaaaaaaah—!
The back of the door Kim Hwang-je sat behind crumpled inward. He flinched and dodged to the side.
“Nax? Isn’t that the bastard who beat up our kids?”
The forest dragon that had knocked down the hunter, the artisan, and the farmer had answered the summons!
Green mist swirled, and the forest dragon crossed over through the magical gate.
“Hoo.”
Merely walking caused the entire building and tower to tremble. The dragon’s body was overwhelmingly imposing. Its terrifying scales, layered like tank armor plates, writhed in the darkness, reflecting faint lights like grains of sand.
“Hoo…! To live long is to see many things—the puppet of that person actually seeking help from me!”
It flicked its tongue and rose within the dark space. Red eyes flashed, scanning both Kim Hwang-je and the puppet siblings.
“Hoo… A powerful human… possessing the strength of tens of thousands…!”
The dragon showed clear interest in Kim Hwang-je.
Katima stepped forward. “Indeed. We face a powerful foe and are in crisis… Please kill him.”
She spoke decisively.
The dragon narrowed its eyes and thrust its head toward Kim Hwang-je. A nauseating rotten stench washed over him.
“Now then… that side has spoken. What can you offer me? You must have something to give for a deal. Offer me a suitable tribute, and I shall save them without harming you…”
“What is this, dragon? Are you proposing a double contract?”
Katima protested, but the dragon merely smiled faintly and continued staring at Kim Hwang-je.
“I can smell money extremely… truly extremely… well… You reek of gold far more strongly than that female! And for the right amount of gold, I would gladly grant your request.”
The dragon’s greed was immense. It was like buying a game only to be asked to release the protagonist as DLC.
Kim Hwang-je looked up at the colossal dragon and contacted the Leather Artisan.
⊳ Yes, Your Majesty! That dragon is an extremely powerful ancient monster! Fighting it head-on will be very difficult, so perhaps retreat would be wisest…!
The advice of someone who had already been beaten. The words came so fast there wasn’t a single comma or period.
⊳ …Pardon? Ultra-what?
⊳ His Majesty shall have his revenge.
The artisan didn’t quite understand, but Kim Hwang-je felt an inexplicable certainty. The artisan nodded solemnly.
Thud!
A black coffin emerged from inside Kim Hwang-je’s body. It settled before him, emitting white steam.
In the midst of Kim Hwang-je’s silence, the dragon spoke on its own.
“Hmm… So this is what you offer me. I sense a precious power… You are wise for a lower life-form. Very well. Offer this and I shall refrain from harming you.”
“No! If you do not kill him now, he will surely bring calamity upon you and all of us!”
While Katima protested, Kim Hwang-je vanished toward the Imperial Repository via teleportation. Only his final words echoed throughout the chamber.
“Transform!”