Purging the Guilds

Kang! Swish! Swish!

"Gyaaah!"

"He's a maniac!"

With my hood pulled low over my head, I danced through them with my blade.

I wasn't using my familiar daggers. I'd decided to take advantage of this opportunity to learn how to handle other weapons as well.

He hid away quite the arsenal….

The day after formally accepting the commission, I'd grabbed a sword and launched a surprise assault on the hideout where the demons were holed up. Over the course of roughly an hour, I killed every last one of them.

The sword works pretty well, actually.

Mid-fight, I'd swapped between a spear, a greatsword, and more, but the sword suited me best of the lot.

Maybe I should see how it pairs with the footwork.

I could try that out at the next location. There were still plenty of sites left to purge.

At this pace, it won't even take two weeks.

Even clearing just one place a day, the whole thing would be done within a week.

The problem is that one of the guilds on the list is a major guild.

Might as well take care of the guilds too.

The guild that had been sheltering the demons here was also on my list of targets.

I can't exactly leave this place as it is….

Demons or not, they left corpses behind. And corpses like these couldn't simply be abandoned.

Just then, someone approached.

"Who goes there?"

"I'm with the Association."

The man who identified himself as an Association employee was wearing a mask.

"Executive Office?"

"Yes, sir."

The Executive Office was the Association's division for handling dirty work — an unofficial department whose personnel and size were both unknown.

If they've mobilized the Executive Office….

That meant the Association President was dead serious about seeing this matter through.

"You're here for cleanup?"

"Yes, sir. A few Executive Office agents have also been dispatched to Daon Guild."

Daon Guild was the name of the mid-sized guild I was set to deal with this time.

They work fast.

He truly deserved to be called the Association President — support was arriving precisely where it was needed, exactly when it was needed.

Basic Footwork.

Speed.

I used my footwork to head for the building where Daon Guild was based. I'd already shown the footwork to Guildmaster Han Min-joon and Team Leader Woo Sang-shik, so there was no point in hiding it any longer. I'd brushed it off as a technique powered by Taoist energy, and left it at that.

Speaking of which, this demonic energy is nastier than I expected.

The Daon Guild headquarters. The moment I arrived in front of the building, I sensed both faint traces of demonic energy and some that was genuinely potent.

Basic Footwork.

Concealment.

Muffling my presence entirely, I slipped inside the building.

Once I entered the guild's headquarters, I could pick out with certainty the individuals carrying demonic energy.

A few executives and the guildmaster, probably?

From here on, the judgment was mine to make.

Anyone carrying demonic energy would be killed on the spot. That was the method I'd chosen.

If demonic energy was detectable in someone, they had already become a demon.

I can't leave trash like that alive.

Dealing with that kind of garbage early was always the best approach.

I channeled the properties of mana into my blade.

What kind of guild was Daon again?

It had nothing to do with me before my regression, but the rumors circulating about it hadn't been pretty. A predatory guild that squeezed its own members dry down to the marrow — that was Daon Guild's reputation.

Judging by the scene in here, the rumors were right.

Not a single person inside the headquarters had any life left in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠their eyes. Every last one of them wore the hollow, half-dead stare of corpses.

Honestly, it sickens me.

It reminded me too much of who I used to be before my regression, and that was exactly why it made my stomach turn.

I reformed the broken hilt into the shape of a sword and set my footwork in motion.

Basic Footwork.

Speed.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

They might have become demons by taking in demonic energy, but there was no way any of them were stronger than me. My weapons were Legendary, I had the footwork, and on top of that I wore the Ring of the Earth at Legendary+.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The faster my blade moved and the longer my footwork carried me, the higher the bodies piled up around me.

Unbelievable.

Nobody even flinched at seeing people drop dead. They behaved as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening at all.

I think I've cleared out everyone who was mixed in….

The demons hiding among the rank-and-file guild members had all been cut down. All that remained was the demonic energy I could feel from the upper floors — a handful of executives and the guildmaster, most likely. The ones who'd been scattered among the ordinary members just now had been roughly squad-captain level.

Should I just bring the whole building down?

Tearing the building down was far easier than climbing up to hunt down executives one by one as they fled. Besides, the presence ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of the ordinary guild members had been moving outside since a while ago.

The Executive Office must be directing the evacuation.

Once every ordinary guild member was out, I used my footwork to sweep the building and confirm the headcount.

Search Footwork.

Detection.

No ordinary guild members registered under my footwork — only demons carrying demonic energy. The demonic energy drenched through every corner of the building left a foul taste in my mouth.

"Well then, let's bring it down."

I boldly set my footwork ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in motion.

Nameless Footwork.

Earth-Leveling.

A technique I had already used once before. My body remembered the footwork — and if my body remembered, nothing could go wrong.

Still, it's a strain.

With my current stats, this footwork definitely pushed my limits. Even so, it was the single best technique for demolishing a structure like this.

KUUUGUNG!

The instant my foot struck the ground, the earth began to heave. Cracks spidered across the walls, the pillars split apart, and the whole structure lost its ability to hold itself up. One more tap and it would come crashing down — that kind of state.

Basic Footwork.

Speed.

Using the footwork to slip out of the building, I toppled one of the pillars at the entrance as I went. Then, like a chain reaction, the other pillars began to collapse one after another.

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

Pillar by pillar they fell, and a building without pillars cannot stand.

CRASH!

When the last pillar went, the structure could hold itself up no longer, and it collapsed in on itself entirely.

Done.

The moment the building came down, the demonic energy I'd been sensing vanished with it.

My apologies to the Executive Office, but this was the easiest and most certain method.

Presumably….

And with that, Daon Guild was finished. Its guildmaster and executives were all dead, and the surviving members alone could never sustain a guild.

The problem was that this was only the first. More guilds like this would keep falling in short order.

The Association President has his work cut out for him.

Cleanup wasn't my job. My role was simply to carry out the commission — purge the demons and the guilds colluding with them. The aftermath was the Association's concern.

Should I knock out one more before I go?

Setting my footwork in motion, I headed for the nearest demon hideout.

"Damn it all!"

Ramen slammed his fist down on the desk and spat out a curse.

Until only recently, he had been living the good life under Envy's protection — right up until those thugs had come swarming in and killed his king, Envy herself.

How did it come to this?

The moment the attacks began, Ramen had grabbed a handful of demons and fled. Even if the ordinary demons died, so long as the king survived, they could rise again.

But those thugs had gone and killed the king anyway.

Should we cross over to Japan?

Or China?

Every possibility under the sun ran through his head.

Rallying the surviving demons after the king's death had gone smoothly enough. The problem was that there was no one left to shelter this many demons.

Just as he was pacing in anxiety, one of the major guilds sent him a trade offer: ally with their mid-sized guild partners, and they would protect the demons.

Accepting the deal was the right call.

But that was as far as his luck went. A few days ago, the mid-sized guilds in the alliance had started getting hit. And on top of that, the scattered hideouts where the demons were sheltering had been raided one after another.

"Lord Ramen! We've been hit again!"

"Where this time?!"

"Viper Guild, my lord!"

"Haah…."

Every fresh report of an attack made his temples throb. After Envy's death, most of the surviving demons had fallen under Ramen's command.

Getting to Japan is the best option. Plain and simple.

At first, he'd planned to rally the demons here and seat himself on the vacant throne of Envy. But in a situation like this, even that was impossible.

I'll place myself under Lust's protection.

Ramen had risen all the way to Envy's inner circle. If Lust had any sense, he wouldn't turn Ramen away.

"Send word to Pagwon Guild."

"What should the message say?"

"That they'll honor the contract and support us."

"Heh heh."

For the first time in a while, I was in a truly excellent mood.

I'd wiped out the demons to my heart's content and torn down the guilds that had stabbed me in the back in my past life. To a few of those guildmasters, I'd even granted permanent hair loss.

I'm so happy.

This was freedom. This was joy. Only a little while ago, I couldn't even have dreamed of doing any of this.

But who could have guessed that in that brief span of time, I'd end up riding on the Association President's backing while exacting my revenge?

All that's left now is….

I had cleared every name on the list the President had handed me. What remained were the targets named in the intelligence I'd extracted while tearing down the mid-sized guilds.

"The major guild, Pagwon…."

According to the documents I'd obtained from the mid-sized guilds, the mid-sized guilds had clustered around Pagwon Guild as their core, receiving shares of demonic energy in exchange for sheltering the demons.

Only Pagwon Guild signed a formal contract with an Archdemon.

The other mid-sized guilds hadn't made pacts with any demon — they'd merely received power secondhand from Pagwon.

"This one's a problem I can't handle alone…."

Up through the mid-sized guilds, raw stats and footwork had been enough to carry me through. But a major guild was a different animal entirely — in scale, in intelligence networks, in strength, everything existed on another dimension.

Their guildmaster, Pagwon Seong, is over level 500.

On top of that, he'd contracted with a demon and gained demonic energy. Going up against him at my current level would only summon a monster I couldn't fight.

I'll need the Association President's help.

I approached one of the Executive Office agents stationed nearby and handed over the intelligence I was carrying.

"Deliver this to the Association President."

"Understood."

With my request received, the agent melted out of sight. Their work was reliably thorough — I could trust them with it.

In the meantime, I should collect my reward.

What I needed to grow stronger right now was elixirs. I still hadn't received the elixir reward from taking down Envy.

"Cheongun."

"Did you call, contractor?"

"I'm going to borrow the gate for a bit."

I entered the gate together with Cheongun and received my reward elixir.

The message appeared, and after a short wait, another followed.