What's Inside the Vault?
The outside was still quiet.
It would take time for Maung San and the military dictatorship resistance forces to storm in.
Inside the compound, two or three hundred were scurrying about, dispersing the dictator's subordinate soldiers.
Just enough to scare them off and send them running.
Some soldiers might have been truly loyal to the military regime, while others had no choice but to join under threats.
Sorting the wheat from the chaff was a job for the new government.
Taeju cut a square hole in the basement vault door, large enough for a person to fit through comfortably, and stepped inside.
"Whoa..."
The interior was jaw-droppingly vast.
Its size was impossible to gauge.
As expected, the scale of a dictator's vault defied imagination.
The first sight upon entering:
Piles of cash stacked in neat cubes.
Up close, they were all high-denomination bills: dollars from the Amerian Republic, euros from the European Empire, won from the Samhan Empire...
And more besides cash.
Bonds, stock certificates, bundles of unidentified papers.
Not like this is a bank vault or anything.
Hand these over to the new Burmese Republic government.
They'd know what to do with them.
Dictatorships or revolutions—without money, nothing gets done.
Anyway, the center was piled with cash, surrounded by rooms with doors.
Fortunately, each door was unlocked.
Taeju picked one at random and went inside.
Is this room themed around fashion?
It looked like a department store luxury boutique, with high-end bags, shoes, wallets, and accessories neatly displayed.
Even items Taeju couldn't buy.
The kind you had to order and wait a year for.
Sweep them all up.
Luxury goods, after all.
Leaving them wouldn't help run the country.
Guess I won't need to hit the department stores for a while.
Not just men's wear—plenty for women too.
Rumor had it Minta Nu had dozens of lovers; probably for them.
Leaving the luxury room, he entered the next...
Right, it's a secret vault—figures there'd be something like this.
Shiny gold bars.
Hundreds of them.
But no real greed stirred.
Gold's value wasn't what it used to be.
What kind of world was this nowadays?
Currency had long shifted from the gold standard to the crystal standard.
Gold still had intrinsic value, of course.
Pass on the gold bars too.
The next room held jewelry and watches.
Rings, necklaces, earrings, timepieces gleaming with splendor.
Small volume, high price—perfect.
Oh! Jackpot.
Scoop them all up and send to the celestial realm.
It was insane.
Just what he'd seen so far could sustain a small kingdom.
The more I think about it, the more of a bastard he was.
Minta Nu: dictator, discriminator, illicit hoarder—triple crown winner.
This was just the surface; digging deeper might reveal worse.
In truth, the people of the Burmese Republic were in dire straits.
With the middle class collapsed, everyone except a few rich folk was poor.
But Burma hadn't always been poor.
Large population, oil fields, developed agriculture.
Minta Nu—that fucker—had ruined the country.
Had there ever been a dictator who truly cared for their nation?
They spout "national interest" while using laws to oppress innocent opponents and overlook crimes by their cronies.
That's what happens when power goes to the unqualified.
Anyway, the next room.
This one's... elixirs?
Neatly arranged.
Mana enhancers from various countries—elixirs—displayed in protective cases on glass shelves, complete with authenticity certificates.
Leave the elixirs too.
Why bother taking low-quality stuff?
The room beside was an equipment warehouse.
Armor, swords, spears, all sorts of weapons.
Some elite-grade gear among them, quite pricey.
Pass on all of it.
Taeju decided not to touch cash, gold bars, raid necessities like elixirs or gear.
The new Burmese regime would need them.
Instead, he cherry-picked rare, overinflated luxuries.
Is that all there is?
He'd toured all the vault rooms...
Something felt missing.
He froze!
Hm?
Taeju stopped before an empty wall.
A familiar energy seeped from beyond.
A wall, huh.
He tapped the wall with his hand.
Tap tap, here and there, tatatap, tap tap!
But?
Tatatangtang.
The sound's different.
Something's inside.
Suddenly,
Camera-equipped electronic device pops out from the wall.
Retina scan system?
Definitely.
Secret room beyond the wall.
Just cut through.
He drew the Thousand-Mile Flying Sword again,
Thrust it in,
Grind, grrrrind,
Cut neatly,
"Heave-ho,"
and slipped through the hole.
It was a fairly large room.
A secret room inside the vault...
Like an office.
A desk in the center, topped with a sturdy-looking thick laptop.
And on the wall shelves...
Elite mana crystals?
Hid them here.
How many?
Rough count: about 100.
Quite the hoard.
Hmm.
Tough call.
Take them all?
Dictator's stash, but technically Burmese national assets.
But I took him down...
Though he did snag the luxuries and jewels.
Decision made.
Split 50-50.
Who's getting 50? ...Obviously me.
More elite mana crystals, the better.
If an amusement park gets built in the celestial realm, it'll guzzle electricity.
Portable generators couldn't handle that output.
Need proper power plants eventually.
Taeju had that in mind.
Mini celestial power plants.
Would require more elite mana crystals.
Finally, the desk.
Opened the drawers.
Nothing special.
Just junk.
What about the laptop?
Boot it up?
Why bother?
No, let's do it.
Curiosity piqued, honestly.
Was this a normal place?
Deep vault, then retina scan for the secret room, and the laptop inside.
Had to wonder what was on it.
Taeju opened the laptop and powered it on.
Password protected?
Yep.
Wouldn't boot.
Button was fingerprint recognition.
What the hell was on here?
Might as well go all the way.
Taeju grabbed the laptop and headed back to the room with Minta Nu and his cronies piled up.
"You okay?"
Minta Nu was still sprawled on the floor, gasping for breath.
The others were out cold, unconscious.
"Huff, guh, y-you..."
"Shh! Lend me a finger."
"...What? Ah, th-that?"
Minta Nu's eyes widened in shock at the laptop in Taeju's hand.
"Why so surprised? Got porn on here?"
"N-no, don't."
"Yes, I will!"
"You dog bastard..."
"Jeez, so chatty."
Tap, tap tap.
Taeju sealed Minta Nu's mute acupoint.
Quiet at last.
Then pressed the bastard's finger to the laptop's scanner.
Beep!
The laptop powered on.
"...Hm."
Desktop screen.
One program icon.
Click.
Position your face straight ahead for facial recognition via webcam.
Facial recognition?
Another security layer, clearly.
How many steps already?
Vault, secret room, fingerprint, now face.
Taeju quickly lowered the laptop.
Grabbed Minta Nu's head—eyes darting wildly—and forced his face toward the screen.
Verified. Welcome to the world of Deep World, member A1153.
Deep World? What's that...?
Then.
Pop, pop pop!
Several windows auto-opened.
Some kind of web browser.
Mostly English posts, prefixes on titles.
Jobs wanted, hiring, for sale, wanted, info sharing...
Seemed normal at a glance, but
...
Hah.
I get it now.
Deep Web.
Criminal community lurking in the network's darkest depths, evading the law.
Even Samhan Empire listings.
Parentheses showed reply counts.
War imminent? Where?
"These crazy fucking bastards!"
He'd heard rumors of the Deep Web.
But seeing it firsthand was new.
Suddenly!
"Meowr!"
Ilbaek trotted into the room.
"Chased all the soldiers off?"
"Meow! Meeeow, meowr, meow..."
"Ah... Got 'em all out, but Maung San's coming?"
"Meowr."
"Got it."
Maung San must've rallied the resistance and was incoming.
Anyway, this laptop...
Take it with me.
To access Deep World, needed specific tools, fingerprint, facial recognition.
He had the access device, but other verifications?
Couldn't drag this dictator Minta Nu around forever...
Not that there weren't ways.
Taeju pulled out his smartphone.
Close-up shots of Minta Nu's face and eyes: click, click. Fingerprints too: click, click...
Reverse sorcery.
Face swaps were easy, but matching pupils and prints? Tricky.
Practice makes perfect, though.
One more thing.
Taeju approached the fallen Minta Nu.
No choice now—he couldn't stay here.
Even anonymous, Deep Web admins knew member info.
"You need to go missing. Fled abroad to escape the revolution."
"Mmph mph!"
He seemed to grasp what was coming.
Terror-stricken, eyes rolling wildly,
Swish,
Taeju gripped his throat and squeezed hard.
Crack!
Life drained from Minta Nu.
Whoosh!
The corpse vanished into Taeju's infinite storage.
Outside grew noisy.
Resistance fighters had reached the residence.
"Let's go, Ilbaek."
"Meowr!"
Could inform them separately about Minta Nu's disappearance.
They'd handle the rest.
The celestial realm had day and night too.
Days brought celestials laden with heavenly flowers, reveling joyfully.
Games, movies, electric kart racing, futsal in the front yard, drinks and ice cream when hot.
Nights for construction.
Reapers from the underworld arrived first, opening hell's gates to summon sinners.
Immortal Zhongli the Architect conjured brilliant light sources overhead for seamless work.
Still basic groundwork.
Fetching timber and stone from spirit beast or demon realms, shaping them, digging foundations, setting cornerstones and pillars.
Reapers and underworld messengers oversaw the sinners.
Occasional rebels, but...
"That lazy fucker's slacking? Off to Scorching Heat Hell with him."
"N-no, I just glanced away for a second..."
Poof!
The slacker vanished instantly.
Terror gripped the sinners.
Scorching Heat Hell was the one they dreaded most.
Literally scorching.
Flesh burns to ash, regenerates, burns again...
Compared to that, this was paradise.
Good workers even got snacks.
Juseon, bored and visiting the site.
"You! What's your name?"
"Ch-Chun Sam-i, sir."
"Ah, you're that famous Chun Sam-i. Come here, have a beer."
"...Beer?"
Blood Demon King Chun Sam-i reverently accepted the frosty glass with both hands.
"For good work."
"Th-thank you, sir."
One sip,
"Kaaah!"
"Refreshing?"
"Ughhh... Yes."
"Special treat too. This is called chicken."
Fried chicken leg, one bite.
Crispy crunch!
"Delicious, right?"
Blood Demon was too blissed out to reply.
Deadly sweet-salty harmony.
With frosty beer.
By the time he came to, Juseon was gone.
Geomseon's pounding and hangover had sealed his soul; he kept his mouth shut and worked obediently.
But this reward...
First food in centuries since hell.
Celestial-grade, at that.
Want more.
Meant work harder.
Sinners stirred.
Gulp, gulp, gulp...
Swallowing sounds everywhere.
Heavenly Demon was going mad.
Soul link let him taste the beer and chicken better than anyone.
Just beer?
Immortals' clothes, shoes, electric karts ahead, roads stretching everywhere.
No doubt.
Two worlds exchanging.
Earth goods flowing to the celestial realm.
What madness was this?
Celestial or Earth?
I got nothing but soul link—why does Dang Gunak have all this?
Anyway, losing it.
That chicken and frosty beer.
Familiar tastes are the scariest.
Eat, drink.
Couldn't suppress such basic urges.
Heavenly Demon sped up.
Peak divine arts unleashed power.
"...Fuck!"
Embarrassing, but no choice.
Sticky chicken scent lingered.
Thud thud thud!
Every swing dug deep.
One Heavenly Demon Overlord step flattened and packed earth; Thousand-Jin Thrust drove pillars.
Blood Demon narrowed his eyes, glaring.
A serious rival.
This fucker...
Blood clot daring to eye my beer?
Blood Demon accelerated too.
Reapers, messengers, immortals cheered them on.
"Good! Great! Forget safety. What's the point? Throw your bodies in! You're already dead anyway."