The Necronomicon

'...Huh?'

What the hell. So she'd just been going around calling herself a holy knight.

"Hmm."

Something was off. Skim the gallery for five seconds and the case for putting them down was ironclad.

'Don't tell me she's Parona Order?'

That would explain the reaction, at least. Maybe because she'd never actually played the game, she couldn't tell the people you were allowed to kill from the ones you weren't.

Hmm. She asked because she thought I'd just tell her?

"Hey."

At the voice cutting in out of nowhere, I killed the gallery screen on the spot. Not that he could have seen it anyway.

'Damn it. I was at least gonna watch them get wiped.'

Nothing for it now but to check a little later.

"You little shit, you're awake, so go out and make some money. What are you doing just sitting there? I called you and you didn't even listen!"

Lakins's shout arrived with a kick driven into my left side.

"Agh!"

Son of a bitch. This brat again.

"You only get your head on straight after a beating, that it? Huh? Everybody else already left. What the hell are you doing here alone!"

"Augh, agh!"

Still, it was fine. This pain only lasted through today.

"Oh-ho, look at those eyes. Gonna kill me, are you? Go on, kill me, kill me, you little bastard!"

"Augh! Agh!"

Lakins had one thing wrong. I had no intention of killing him. I did intend to hurt him until he begged me to.

"Boss, this... you sure this is really all right?"

"What."

"That guy who posted..."

At Hall Master Li Haijing's question, Guild Master Xue Yinghua let out a scoff.

"What, you scared? Of some nobody with nothing to his name, running his mouth on the gallery?"

"No, ma'am!"

"Looks scared to me. You wanna leave, then leave."

"W-would that be all right?"

"Yeah. It's fine. You shabi bastard."

"Agh!"

Dozens of blows laced with qigong followed. Hall Master Lin Huazi caught her by the shoulder.

"Guild Master, you're going to kill him!"

"What, you want to die too? Should the two of you take it together?"

"..."

"Jing-ah. How many times have I told you. Whatever I do, don't talk back. You've got a problem, get out, or come at me ready to die. Still don't get it? What the strong say is the right answer."

"...I'm sorry... Guild Master."

Li Haijing got the words out between mouthfuls of blood, and Xue Yinghua let a thin laugh slip.

"Sorry, and that's the end of it? Talking that well means you haven't been hit enough."

"Kgh, kugh..."

"Let's hit you a little more. Until you can't talk."

"G-Guild Master! Big trouble!"

A man's voice, sudden, belonging to no one she knew. Xue Yinghua's brow tightened.

"If it isn't big trouble, you take the beating instead of him."

"S-some crazy woman with a sword is killing all our people!"

"Ah. She's here?"

Xue Yinghua wiped the fist she'd been using on Li Haijing against a towel, then spoke.

"You all stay here. I'll finish this quick and come back."

"Yes, ma'am!"

Three minutes later.

"What the fuck, why are you this strong? You a ranker like me too?"

Xue Yinghua's voice shook with fear as she ran, throwing her own subordinates up as shields. There had been two hundred of them. In the space of three minutes, that woman's sword had split those two hundred in half or punched them full of holes.

"Fuck, somebody asks you something, you answer! Why the hell are you this strong!"

At Xue Yinghua's howl, Lee Seongji's brow drew in.

"Please don't swear."

"You fuck, you call that an ans—"

Xue Yinghua never finished. Lee Seongji's sword opened a far larger hole through her navel.

"Kugh..."

"But it's strange."

"What is..."

"I've killed this many and my divine power hasn't dropped at all. Is it that Karma thing? I was only going to kill a few, but my divine power barely went down, so I just killed all of them."

"..."

Lee Seongji kept rambling about something else entirely, even with her standing right there. Xue Yinghua bit her lip and forced the words out.

"Cao ni ma... laozi..."

"No, doesn't what I'm saying make sense?"

Lee Seongji gave the sword a light swing. A head went tumbling through the air.

"I told you not to swear."

After the last of them was dead, Lee Seongji knelt straight down in the blood and pressed her palms together.

"Lord Parona, please forgive my sins... ah. Maybe I shouldn't do this here."

She turned her head, and there was the statue of the Goddess Daina that the Cheonhwa Guild had been holding. Guild blood had spattered it, or something like that; a faint red clung to the stone, and the whole thing gave off a bleak, unpleasant air.

"...Tsk."

Honestly, she hadn't wanted this job. More believers for the Daina faith meant that many fewer people ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who might have joined the Parona Order. The only reason she'd taken it anyway was the unidentified ranker, and the information on Eridus's weakness.

"...But it is strange. Why did that ranker ask me to do something like this?"

It wasn't really a question of why they'd made the request. The tone had sounded as if even bothering to step in themselves was a hassle. You don't butcher a chick with a blade meant for cattle.

"Why me..."

What Lee Seongji wanted to know was why it had to be her. Why give this to a Paladin of the Parona Order, strict about killing, and not to someone else? There were plenty of rankers who could have massacred chaff like this.

"Don't tell me..."

Every possibility turned over in her head, and a single word flickered through.

"Fun?"

"...Mm."

The underpass in the Royal Capital of Elia. Almost nobody came through here. I looked at the gallery and smiled, satisfied.

'Faster than I expected.'

At this level, telling them Eridus's weakness ought to be fine. Knowing it didn't mean they could take the thing down on the spot anyway.

"...Hmm."

A flash of irritation, and I hammered the hologram keyboard.

Mm. You apologized, so you're forgiven. Way ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you talk, unlike the other idiots, there's some promise there.

"...I think I've seen everything worth seeing."

The rest was nothing but shitposts with no real content. A gallery never was anything but a place where shitposts got uploaded. Anyway. Enough killing time.

"Whoa."

The shop tab showed a full thirty thousand more than when I'd looked that morning. And they'd keep climbing.

"...So. What should I buy."

I looked over the items I'd wishlisted in advance to fit a hundred and thirty thousand points, and fell into thought.

"Qigong practitioner... mm. Pass, for now."

I cleared the Basic Qigong Manual and the gear under it off the list. It wasn't as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠if I was short on points. Write one post and the score copied itself, so there was no reason to take a class that ran on my body. The ceiling was high, sure, but getting to that ceiling was brutally hard. From where I stood, having to leverage information, a qigong build that was nothing but grind didn't appeal. And more than anything, after all the scummy shit those Cheon-Ggae had been pulling, I had a feeling I'd catch their bad karma for nothing.

"Then mage?"

Looking at the points I had, it was the most reasonable choice. The gear added up just right, too.

"But can I even learn magic?"

One thing worried me. The in-game stat gate. Mage demanded a base Intelligence of 50 or higher. I'd played every class; I already had the mage information down. What I didn't know was how you actually learned magic now that the game was reality. Because it had been a game, the combat formulas and magic circles you were supposed to build in your head had been skipped. Was any of that possible for an empty-headed idiot like me?

"So then what's left is..."

Warlock. The class had clear strengths and clear flaws. The strengths: stupidly strong, a high ceiling, no real need for Intelligence, and an all-purpose entertainer of a skill set that could do whatever you needed. The flaws: every path of growth meant doing things at the edge of what a human should do, or coming face to face with outer entities, so your sanity got shaved away in strips. And you were the enemy of every believer of every god, which meant hiding what you were, forever. I thought of the characters who'd class-changed into warlock and had their minds completely shattered before they even cleared the tenth floor, and the tears came rolling down... They did not.

"But maybe I'd be fine?"

How had I felt, just now, looking at the photos of Cheonhwa Guild members split in half or full of holes? Before disgust or guilt, hadn't the thrill come first? When I'd watched one possessor's head get sliced off, I'd only felt a little queasy, and given some time I'd been fine. If that was me, maybe I could do it. Warlock. Honestly, if you could just manage your head and keep your identity hidden, there wasn't another class this efficient, or this good.

'...Damn it. I don't want to.'

Of course all of that was motivational horseshit. The real feeling was that I didn't want to. Kind, righteous, full of ambition, a person like me, wanting a class that grew by offering up lives? I was only doing it because there was no other way. No other way. Mm-hm.

More upvotes must have stacked in the meantime. I set the extra points aside.

"Obviously, yes."

I'd already made up my mind.

"But how does the stuff even get here— oh!"

The mutter hadn't finished before a white light bloomed in front of my eyes.

"So that's how it comes."

A book faded brown with age, and a case made of black leather, dropped to the floor.

"...Huh?"

The color of the book was wrong, and the title was wrong before that. I had definitely bought the Basic Dark Grimoire.

"The hell is this?"

Why did some book I'd never even heard of show up?