Chapter 34
In the place where even the faintest thread of hope for atonement had withered away, endless despair bloomed relentlessly. Kang Min-cheol's mouth gaped open in horror.
"What the hell are you talking about...!"
Veins bulged across his flushed face. Bam! Unable to contain his rage, he stomped down on the stone tile floor. Shards of broken rock sprayed up around him amid the vibrations. Naturally, I didn't so much as blink.
He jabbed a finger toward the players beyond the barricade. "Are you kidding me right now?!"
"Kidding...?"
I raised one eyebrow, a flicker of displeasure crossing my face. I could feel the tension building in my crossed arms.
"You think it's realistically possible to get forgiveness from thousands of people?!"
Ha. Look at this guy. I shot back immediately. "So, you never even intended to apologize to the victims?"
Kang Min-cheol's shoulders twitched. That reaction confirmed it for me. This bastard's just trying to slither away?
I pierced him with a profound gaze. "Or... did you just see me as some disposable tool to save your own skin?"
His pupils quivered ever so slightly—barely noticeable unless you were looking closely. Yeah, that's it. I realized then: his head was filled not with remorse or reflection, but only with schemes to save his own hide. I'd shattered that illusion, and now he was losing it. Committing crimes this grave and still clinging to life proved he had no right to it in the first place.
I glanced at the other two as well. Chae Hwa-yeon stared blankly ahead, as if her soul had fled her body. Lee Cheol-woong hung his head in dazed despair, as though he'd lost all will to live.
Kang Min-cheol let out a hollow chuckle, as if in a trance. "Ha, hahahahaha! You crazy bitch!!"
He wore a human guise, but he was already a beast stripped of reason. Maybe he'd been that way all along.
"You were gonna kill us anyway! You never planned to let us live from the start, right?!"
His scream, laced with desperation, echoed through the silent city streets. I clicked my tongue and shook my head.
"Even at the end, when you should be repenting nonstop, all you care about is your own safety."
I closed my eyes and exhaled sharply in anger. "You're still the same as ever, aren't you?"
When I opened them again—
Rumble!
The atmosphere shifted in an instant.
"Urk!"
"Agh!"
An intangible pressure crushed the landscape. Darkness thickened as my crimson eyes blazed fiercer. With a gaze that scorned life itself—
"Then, should I let you live?"
—I took a single step forward.
Crack!
The tiles beneath my sole shattered and erupted upward, as if denying the very concepts of mass and gravity—a bizarre phenomenon.
"Tell me."
Kang Min-cheol, pale as a ghost, staggered back. The skyline bled red as gooseflesh prickled my skin.
"Give me one reason why I should spare you, defying the will of all those victims."
I advanced another step. Groooar! The blood-soaked sky roared like a beast in agony. Clouds twisted like volcanic plumes, parting dramatically.
"Do you, unforgiven as you are, have any worth like that?"
Kang Min-cheol's pupils trembled like aspen leaves. I saw the fury blazing in his eyes. A position where a single word could sway thousands of players. The pinnacle of power no one dared defy. That's what he'd been—until I'd intervened moments ago.
Creak. His sword hilt groaned under his grip. The torrent of rage had consumed his last shreds of sanity.
"No... that's not it! Who the hell are you to spout off like you know everything?!"
His blade and mad glare locked onto me. "You think you'll get away with killing me? Play the hero all you want—you're still a world boss. Those guys over there will come for your head!"
He pointed at the players. I glanced at them indifferently. In that instant, Kang Min-cheol twisted his lips into a smirk and extended his hand.
"Yeah, why not join forces with me right now? Let's rebuild this land together!"
"...Me, with you?"
"Or go ahead and massacre them all. You know it too—if things stay like this, you're dead. Even if not this country, the whole world will hunt you down!"
His wild, bloodshot eyes were utterly unhinged. Maybe this was his true nature.
I stared down at his face like he was some exotic specimen. "An intriguing offer. But..."
I scoffed with a bored expression. "My resolve doesn't change."
This guy was trash. Utterly irredeemable scum. Honestly, the proposal had piqued my interest a bit—I hadn't expected him to spew such lunacy right in front of me, no matter how deranged he was.
The smirk vanished from Kang Min-cheol's face, replaced by pure rage and madness. "Ha, hahahahaha! You think you're hot shit? Sure, it's just thousands now... but what about tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands later? You handle that?"
He sucked in a deep breath and bellowed, "You don't care if the whole world comes for your head?!"
I nodded without hesitation. "I don't."
"You fucking psycho!!"
Reason shattered, Kang Min-cheol raised his sword and charged. I met his gaze head-on, equipping Blood Eater in my right hand.
Flash.
The blades crossed.
Slash!
Kang Min-cheol's scream followed. "Gaaaaahhh!!"
Both his arms, still clutching the sword hilt, spun through the air before hitting the ground. I shook off Blood Eater lightly.
"I won't betray my principles for the sake of survival."
"M-My arms...! Aaaaagh!!"
On his knees, Kang Min-cheol stared at his severed stumps, shrieking. No blood flowed—I'd manipulated its circulation.
"Grahhh! Why?!"
He looked up at me in disbelief. "Why spare them?! You're Sertina! Why let those guys live and kill only us?!"
He cried out in injustice. Ah, so that's why. The reason for his absurd proposal. He saw me as the game world's boss 'Sertina'—a blood-mad slaughterer, true to her lore.
...I extended my hand toward Kang Min-cheol, manipulating his blood like a magnet to bind his movements.
"Nice try. But..."
Right before execution, I whispered softly into his ear. "Unfortunately, I'm not the Sertina you think I am."
His veins swelled. The blood particles circulating in his body tore through vessels, pierced muscle, and surged toward his skin. Kang Min-cheol's eyes rolled back.
"Aaaaaagh!!"
Tiny blood particles burst from every extremity, like mist from a fine spray bottle.
"Feel the weight of your sins in agony."
His throat choked, screams fading to whimpers. Drained pale as all blood fled his body, he slumped like a ragdoll.
Dead. That was the end of the Republic of Korea's No. 1 guild master, leader of the Hyeonwol Guild.
Chae Hwa-yeon and Lee Cheol-woong, who had watched it all live, turned ashen as corpses.
"P-Please spare me! I'll do anything you say! Please!"
Tears streaming down her face, Chae Hwa-yeon clasped her hands desperately, ignoring her broken wrist.
Lee Cheol-woong slammed his forehead into the ground, pleading earnestly. "Please show mercy, Lady Sertina! We'll take full responsibility for our crimes!"
But I looked down at them coldly, arms still crossed. "Didn't I say it already?"
I turned my gaze to the players beyond the barricade. "It's not me who holds your lives in their hands."
Despair washed over Chae Hwa-yeon and Lee Cheol-woong's faces.
"If you want to live, go beg for forgiveness."
My crimson eyes flashed sharply. "From every single one of them there."
"Ugh, urk!"
Chae Hwa-yeon bolted up and rushed toward the players, collapsing to her knees before the barricade. In a trembling voice, she pleaded, "I-I'm sorry! I've committed a mortal sin! I'll atone for the rest of my life, so please... just give me one chance to repent...!"
She smashed her forehead into the shattered ground repeatedly, skin splitting and blood flowing. But no one responded.
"Everyone knows how many citizens died because of them, right?"
"Ha... I'm just shocked they were scheming for lifelong dictatorship in a situation like this."
Chae Hwa-yeon looked to her old friend Lee Ye-eun with her last sliver of hope. But Lee Ye-eun recoiled, glaring at her with contempt. "It's disgusting you're still breathing, you bitch. Just die."
"Ahh..."
Chae Hwa-yeon realized there was no hope left. In that brief moment, she replayed her life, drowning in regret—but it was futile. Even she knew Sertina was right. If you'd sinned, wasn't it only natural to atone to those you'd harmed?
She'd committed unforgivable crimes. And now she faced karmic retribution.
Delivered in this world by 'Sertina'—the absolute arbiter.
"Seems like a waste of time."
I approached the two slowly. Lee Cheol-woong's lips quivered in terror, but he couldn't muster any excuses. Chae Hwa-yeon hung her head, sobbing helplessly.
I extended my hand toward them.
......No more mercy.
"Then, farewell."
The two murderers screamed as their limbs twisted. Blood slowly pierced through their skin from head to toe. Yet even as they wept in death's throes, no one on this Earth pitied them.