Chapter 37
Episode 37
All I had to do was keep pulling undead out of the subdimension.
As expected, resource management comes first for a Necromancer.
I'd thought this before, but Necromancers are a lot like talisman users.
Talisman users normally store their sorcerous power in talismans, then unleash the stockpile all at once.
Take a martial artist as an example.
A martial artist can't stockpile sixty years' worth of internal energy somewhere outside their body. Talisman users, though, can spend surplus sorcerous power making talismans imbued with their arts.
In other words.
While a martial artist is simply going about their day, a talisman user can keep banking sorcerous power.
This is more annoying than you'd think.
Just take Gal Seo-hyeon, whom I'd fought in the past—Gal Seo-hyeon threw all kinds of talismans at me and was incredibly irritating.
If I hadn't possessed inexhaustible internal energy after reaching the realm of Heaven and Earth Union, I might have died back then.
That was what I was thinking when it happened.
[An intruder has appeared on this floor.]
A new message from the Tower appeared.
I knew what this was.
I hadn't been interested in Necromancers, but that didn't mean I wasn't interested in the Dimensional Tower.
In the case of the labyrinth breakthrough stage I was in.
Normally, it's a stage where I'm alone.
Someone had used an item or skill to force their way in.
Usually, this happened when someone wanted to rob another climber inside the Dimensional Tower—kill them and strip them of their items.
[An intruder has appeared on this floor.]
[An intruder has appeared on this floor.]
[An intruder has appeared on this floor.]
The same message appeared three more times in succession.
Four times in total.
"Well, now...."
I let out a hollow laugh and leaned back deeply into the throne.
Four of them came in at once?
At this point, they'd definitely come with intent.
"It's certain they came targeting me."
Intruding on another hunter's stage inside the Dimensional Tower is usually for robbery.
Stealing items, intercepting rewards, or just killing them and going after the head-hunting bounty.
But four at once?
This wasn't robbery—it was a unit-level operation.
-Wait hold on what's going on???
-Corpse-Spirit bro four intruders???
-Who came to kill Corpse-Spirit bro??!
-Not one but four??
-Are people already moving to keep him in check??!
-Where is this? Russia? Or China?
-Would a foreign country really send people in person just to kill a super rookie??
-Ah seriously who sent these guys who is it??
-Unless it's state-level, they can't get in here
-Corpse-Spirit bro run!!!
-I don't know where this is but this is a bit......
The viewer chat window was instantly buried in a fuss that bordered on screaming.
Everyone seemed to have reached the same conclusion.
That this was an operation impossible unless it was state-level.
Well, it was a reasonable guess.
But.
I didn't feel threatened.
If anything, my heart was pounding.
A bloody battle of life and death.
It felt like my blood was boiling for the first time in a while.
It even brought back memories of my previous life.
"Come. My blood thirsts for battle."
The viewers had a fit over my words, but I paid them no mind.
* * *
At the same time.
Inside another passage of the labyrinth.
A man swathed in a black coat stood in the middle of a fork in the narrow passage.
A slender build. But faint killing intent clung to his shoulders and wrists.
The Lower-Floor Decapitation Unit.
A covert department directly under the Dimensional Tower Administration.
A specialized elimination unit targeting hunters below level 30.
The deputy commander of that unit.
Xu Xinlei.
Level 29.
Because Floor 2 became inaccessible at Level 30, he had received a class that kept him permanently at Level 29.
The class was called [Raider].
It was an absurdly powerful support class that allowed unauthorized entry into other hunters' stages and could summon allies to his vicinity.
On top of that, he possessed assassin-type skills like [Stealth] and [Ambush].
"Assemble."
Xu Xinlei gave a short command.
Flash!
A blue magic circle rose from beneath his feet.
And almost simultaneously.
Flash! Flash! Flash!
Three more magic circles rose around him, and three figures emerged.
Three squad members wearing the same black coats.
They were the elites of the Lower-Floor Decapitation Unit.
"The target is one person. The jiangshi user Lee Mu-seon."
Xu Xinlei began a brief briefing.
"Current Level 20. Class: Necron Emperor. The jiangshi he commands have been confirmed to be impervious to blades."
The three squad members gave crisp nods.
"The order from above is just one thing. Elimination."
"Yes."
"Begin tracking."
At Xu Xinlei's command,
The squad member standing furthest to the left slowly stepped forward.
His body was enveloped in blue light.
[Beastman Transformation] activated.
Whoosh.
The hem of his black coat transformed entirely into dark gray fur.
His frame swelled in an instant, and he dropped to all fours.
A massive gray wolf.
The beast's fangs gleamed black.
Grrrr.
With a low growl, the wolf began sniffing.
It seemed to be catching the scent of something in the labyrinth's air.
Soon the wolf began walking slowly ahead in one direction.
Xu Xinlei and the remaining two squad members followed behind it.
After proceeding like that for quite a while.
The wolf suddenly flinched.
It was a junction where the narrow passage bent once.
The wolf lowered its posture in front of that corner and began flicking its tail back and forth.
Quickly, left and right.
That was the signal.
"Target confirmed. Beyond the corner."
Xu Xinlei acknowledged the information in a low voice.
It was a prearranged signal of the Lower-Floor Decapitation Unit.
The distance seemed close.
Xu Xinlei slowly raised his hand.
Then came two quick hand signals.
The remaining two squad members each activated their own class skills.
Rumble.
The squad member on the right transformed into a gray mass of stone.
[Petrification] activated.
His muscles and skin hardened into rough granite until a massive stone humanoid stood in that spot.
He was a physical-defense tank.
Rumble.
The left squad member drew a black magic circle on his palm.
[Summon: Black Spider] activated.
From beneath the magic circle, pitch-black spiders crawled out in a line.
Dozens of palm-sized spiders.
Black liquid was dripping from every one of their venomous fangs.
He was a stealth-oriented attack scout.
Then the wolf reared higher and changed posture.
Whoosh.
The wolf's spine straightened like a human's.
That posture, standing on its hind legs alone.
It had a massive head and fangs, yet its hands were unmistakably human, complete with fingers.
[Beastman Transformation Stage 2: Werewolf] activated.
Grrrr.
The massive werewolf lowered its posture in front of the corner.
Xu Xinlei quietly pulled up his coat and activated his final skill.
[Stealth] activated.
Whoosh.
His form blurred and dissolved into the labyrinth air.
It was a level of stealth where even the human eye could barely tell whether he was still in that spot.
"Charge."
Xu Xinlei gave the quiet command.
The three squad members rounded the corner simultaneously.
The massive lump of stone led the way, the werewolf took the flank, and the black spiders scattered in all directions.
And at the sight that unfolded there.
All three squad members momentarily faltered.
A narrow passage.
The passage floor was carpeted wall to wall with corpses.
They weren't undead.
There were so many corpses that counting them was difficult; they covered the entire floor.
It was a grotesque sight, but to these four it inspired less fear than a mounting sense of menace.
A Necromancer laying out corpses too numerous to count?
They couldn't help but feel pressured.
And at the end of it.
In the deepest part of the passage, about a hundred meters away.
A massive throne palanquin sat imposingly, and on top of it, a young man could be seen sitting with his legs crossed.
Two jiangshi stood guard like escorts on either side of the throne.
The young man slowly opened his mouth.
It was a low, deep voice tinged with unmistakable arrogance.
"Welcome, strangers, to my trap. I am the enlightened emperor who gazes down in contempt upon his enemies—the Corpse-Spirit Martial Sovereign."
Xu Xinlei's eyes, positioned at the rear in stealth, narrowed.
A trap, he said.
That single word set off his assassin's instincts.
Should they withdraw? Or should they test the waters first?
He made his judgment immediately.
"Charge."
The lump of stone led the way, heavily pounding the ground, and the werewolf clung to its side like a shadow.
Around them, the black spiders scattered in all directions across the ceiling and walls.
They knew it was a trap, but they needed to see what the enemy would do.
After all, everyone had a hundred lives inside the Dimensional Tower.
They could afford to do this because a few deaths meant nothing.
That was the moment.
The young man, still seated on the throne, lightly twitched a single finger.
It was an utterly indifferent motion.
"Corpse Explosion."
A short, calm command left the young man's lips. Then a tremendous explosion swept through everything.
Caught up in that immense explosive force, Xu Xinlei lost consciousness.
* * *
-?
-???
-No wait what was that just now??
-Corpse Explosion???? There was a skill like that???? When did he get it?
-Whoa I couldn't see the screen at first but once I came to my senses everything's smashed to bits
-What the hell was that...?!
-Hundreds of them just exploded at the same time;;
-So this is a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood....... First time seeing it
-Isn't this seriously an adults-only broadcast?
-Corpse Explosion = literal suicide bombers
-Looks like all four raiders died instantly??
The chat went wild in an instant.
Well, I understood.
That sight wasn't exactly an everyday thing.
"Everyone calm down a bit."
I lightly waved my hand while seated on the throne.
"As you can see, I laid a trap. Isn't setting traps what labyrinths are supposed to do?"
-No Corpse-Spirit bro that's that but also not that
-The owner of traps is originally the labyrinth, yet Corpse-Spirit bro filled the labyrinth with traps
-At this point Corpse-Spirit bro is the labyrinth
-He's the walking labyrinth, the Corpse-Spirit Martial Sovereign
-The man who adds traps to traps lololol