Despair (2)
“Wh-what the hell does that mean?!”
At someone’s shout, a survivor grabbed his shoulder and vomited blood.
“Just kill Jin Sowoon…… Just kill Jin Sowoon……!!!!”
Tremble, tremble, tremble.
The survivor, foaming at the mouth, shook violently. Then, in an instant, his body went rigid and collapsed to the floor like a wooden puppet with its strings suddenly cut.
“……”
“……”
“……”
A heavy silence settled over the area at the chilling sequence of events. Those watching the survivor held their breath, slowly shifting their gazes one by one.
Haa.
Heavy stares focused on me. They stared with lips pressed tight, eyes filled with complex emotions.
They probably didn’t even realize it themselves. That their gazes mixed resentment, blame, grudge, doubt, killing intent, regret, outrage, denial, and every other emotion imaginable.
Or that those pent-up feelings could pour out at any moment, seeking an outlet.
This is going south fast.
Humans desperately seek reasons when faced with incomprehensible phenomena. Anyone, any meaning, any cause—it doesn’t matter. They have to latch onto something, or they’ll be helplessly swept away by the intangible terror.
That’s why even those who spend their lives chanting exterminate the demons and pursuing the pinnacle of the Dao react so fiercely to absurd nonsense like a spirit’s curse, feeling real fear.
Before being warriors, they’re all human, and humans are inherently like that.
If this chaos drags on.
If time passes without proper handling.
Survival becomes even harder.
Having resentment directed at me due to misinformation is a situation we absolutely can’t afford.
Right now, correcting the false info and grasping the true situation is the only way to solve this.
I need to snap these guys out of it fast……
“Roar!!!!”
Fuck, that startled me.
Whoa, my eardrums almost burst.
Why’s this bald bastard suddenly yelling……
“What nonsense is this!!!”
While I was stunned, momentarily forgetting what to say next, Ilgak let out another lion’s roar.
“Saying we live if Donor Jin dies…… What kind of bullshit is that!”
“……”
We live……? No, he didn’t say that.
“What kind of idiotic crap is this! Donor Jin couldn’t possibly be the cause of this incident!”
Cause……? He didn’t say that either, you bald idiot—why keep adding bullshit!
“W-wait, Ilgak……”
“Stay put, Donor Jin!”
Did he just block my hand with Maitreya’s Three Thousand Seas?! Shaolin’s top golden hand technique used like this. Overwhelming.
“The Young Master never even mentioned monstrous strength or evil spirits. We who cultivate martial arts strive daily to overcome the world’s impurities and chaos, don’t we! And human sacrifice, of all things!!!”
“……”
Ilgak spoke, his shiny bald scalp flushing red.
“In this world…… human sacrifice…… How barbaric and irrational is that! And even if we sacrifice Donor Jin! Is there any proof we’d survive?!”
“B-but…… what if……”
Shit. This is fucked.
“Even if human sacrifice solved everything!!!”
Snap! Suddenly, Ilgak’s finger pointed straight at me.
……Is this bald guy pointing at someone?
“Do you think Donor Jin would just accept it!!! The madman who faced down the instructors head-on under pressure…… No, that human! The Black Flame Dragon who even makes black path thugs yield! You really think he’d meekly become a sacrifice?!”
Damn, if I’d known Ilgak was this good with words, I’d have made him spokesman ages ago.
Look at that—their dazed, confused eyes are now burning with fighting spirit.
“Furthermore!!! I absolutely will not help with sacrificing Donor Jin! No, I’ll go further and do everything to stop you all from ganging up. It goes against the Buddha’s teachings!!!”
“……”
“……”
Silence fell again, but paradoxically, the atmosphere heated up.
Now the guys looking for reasons were pondering how to offer me up as a sacrifice.
I sighed, eyeing Ilgak’s flushed bald head.
“……You done?”
“Donor Jin! Don’t worry. I’ll stand by your side and protect you to the end!”
“You done?”
“Wh-why look at me like that? What did I even……”
“Shut up and step back.”
“……”
The bald guy’s shoulders slumped.
Now it was my turn to wake up the academy students he’d stirred.
I stepped forward past Ilgak and raised both hands above my head.
Clap.
The academy students flinched at the sound of my palms, infused with inner energy.
“Anyone here thinking of offering me up like this bald guy said?”
“……”
Shing.
I drew the Red Light Sword and poured in my qi.
Kiiiiiaaaaa!
With a chilling scream of unknown origin, red light poured from the center of the blade.
“I’m not planning to die quietly. Choose: die to the bastards trying to kill us in this forest, or die by my hand.”
Snap. Clang. Ch-ching.
As my words ended, my team members stood behind me in unison, drawing their weapons.
The stinging killing intent eased bit by bit, and the academy students glaring like they wanted to kill me began averting their eyes one by one.
“What’re you waiting for? Come at me!”
“……”
As I took one step forward, they retreated two.
Then, a voice came from among the academy students.
“Representative Jin. Enough. This isn’t the time for games.”
The students parted for the voice’s owner, and Jong Chuoak stepped through.
“You know no one here came to sacrifice Representative Jin.”
Doesn’t seem like it. Their flushed faces and averted eyes screamed they wanted to nail me to a post somehow.
Jong Chuoak turned back with a sharp glare.
“How many in the Murim Academy would believe such stupid nonsense!”
At his words, the students began nodding one by one. Some flushed red, realizing how dumb their thoughts were.
I thought I’d have to beat a few to snap them out of it, but a few words from Jong Chuoak did the trick.
Of course, the sight wasn’t all that pleasant.
Does communication beyond factions only start after everyone’s fucked?
To me, it looked like another wall.
“For now, let’s rest a bit. Everyone’s in rough shape, right?”
As Jong Chuoak said, less than half a day had passed since the battle ended. Physically and mentally, we were too exhausted for more bloodshed.
“Y-yeah.”
“I’ve been sleepy since earlier.”
“Anyone got golden sore medicine?!”
The gathered crowd dispersed one by one. Like at the Murim Academy, like when entering Mukrim, like in battle—they split into their factions and grouped up.
Seeing it, I couldn’t help a smirk.
“Looks like…… we’re all gonna die here.”
“What do you mean?”
Eunho, still gripping his drawn sword warily.
I shook my head heavily.
“Feels like a scene I’ve seen before.”
Not this life, but memories from my previous one.
“……And?”
Too familiar a sight.
I closed my eyes and murmured softly.
“They all died.”
“……”
No matter how hard I tried to suppress it, the despairing memory stood out vividly.
# After the first survivor appeared, they tried forming another scout team to check the camp’s surroundings, but there was no need.
“Huashan disciples!”
The second group of survivors appeared right away.
“Senior Brother Cho!”
Then the third.
The later returnees didn’t say to kill me, but they came back to camp in a dazed, broken state.
“……Donor Jin, are you sure we don’t need to send scouts? We should verify what the survivors are saying.”
The common mutter from the returnees was “encircled.”
“They’re probably encircled for sure.”
“……Why so certain?”
We’d fired the assembly signal flare, but I didn’t expect those who saw it to make it back.
If they had guides, they’d have gathered before the flare. Without guides, finding the way just from the flare in Mukrim’s hellish terrain? Impossible.
I nodded toward the returnees.
“Because they made it back.”
The academy students sat with blank, soulless expressions. Their clothes in tatters, weapons lost—unbefitting warriors.
Ilgak, staring with me, tilted his head.
“What’s that got to do with encirclement?”
“Ilgak, ever been through natural terrain without a guide? Think you could navigate that?”
I recalled the Jeongdo Council members who couldn’t find the path despite smoke right in front of them.
“Getting here means someone led them.”
“Led them……? Who?”
“Who else.”
“……”
“The bastards who want us dead.”
So-called “corpse tossing.” Sending back qi-corrupted, killing-intent-broken prisoners to sow chaos in the enemy camp.
“Donor Jin…… I don’t get it.”
To Ilgak, who couldn’t even imagine the enemy’s identity, it was incomprehensible.
His thinking was rooted in “common sense.”
He couldn’t grasp bothering to send someone you want dead back to kill them twice.
I gestured around with my chin.
“No need to get it. Look over there.”
The brief joy of surviving the night raid faded; the academy students already at camp saw the returnees’ states and realized their own desperation.
“Sniff…… hu-hu-hu.”
Those with proud dignity wept like children.
“This is mine! Give it back!”
“That’s communal supplies…… Let go!”
They turned feral over immediate necessities, drawing blades without hesitation.
“W-we can survive, right? Right? The Murim Alliance will protect us…… Right?”
Those fearless of the world couldn’t overcome anxiety, staying up all night wide-eyed.
“Just one day after the raid, and they’re already like this. What do you think? A few more days, and they’ll be even easier to kill, right?”
“……”
A few more days like this, and delirium would spread, blades flashing between people.
High physical achievement doesn’t guarantee mental stability.
Especially for academy students who skipped steps via sect investment.
Selected for talent, fed elixirs and pills disproportionate to effort, they achieved quick results—but their minds were like a single-line stone pagoda.
And such shaky towers crumble at the slightest shock.
“We need to move.”
“……Where to?”
“Where else? Out of Mukrim.”
“……But everyone’s in no shape to move. And many want to wait for instructors.”
Repeating old talk. But I knew—the instructors probably wouldn’t return.
If alive, they’d be back. Even seeking outside help, they’d leave some here.
Wasting time waiting for ghosts throws away our slim survival odds.
“We could all die like this?”
Ilgak hesitated, then spoke after thought.
“……Still, we need time to treat wounds at least. Can’t carry everyone.”
“……”
Instead of answering, I looked at my team.
Far better off than other students. In Mukrim, they’d outshine even Jeongdo Council elites.
Recalling the Murim entrance exam, I calculated escape with just them.
Analyzing countless detachment ops against the Demonic Cult—their successes and failures—to compute breakthrough odds.
Sinking into thought, external noise faded.
“……Donor.”
Circuits spun endlessly in my mind.
But.
Failure, failure, failure, failure.
Every simulated plan flashed warnings.
“……Donor Jin!”
I looked up briefly at the noisy bald guy.
“……I know. We can’t move right now. Still, as soon as possible……”
Then.
A chill ran up my spine.
Ilgak felt it too—his eyes widened.
“!!!”
“!!!”
A sinister sensation creeping up slowly like dispersing smoke at our feet.
It was none other than killing intent.
“D-Donor Jin, this is……”
This kind of environmental shift meant one thing.
“Th-the Heavenly Net, isn’t it?!”