Three Dark Humans closest to Seong-Hwi approached him as they cackled.
“Who the hell is that?”
“Kekek, aren’t you too old for this kind of play? Are you a Power Ranger, or something?”
“Oi, take that off if you don’t wanna die.”
Seong-Hwi’s hand zipped past his waist, and the heads of the three men fell to the ground with the smiles that they had. Three fountains of blood poured from their heads.
“I am giving you all a second chance, as I had been given. I ask you again, will you live? Or will you die?” Seong-Hwi reiterated.
“W-what the fuck is he?”
“He killed the butcher duo, Lenny and Benny, and Joseph the rapist!”
The Dark Humans stared warily at the masked man who had killed three considerably well-known Dark Humans in one blow. Even the expressions of the infamous Dark Humans who had been on the sofas, chatting among each other, hardened.
I... couldn’t see it.
He unsheathed his dagger, slashed their necks as if it were natural, and then sheathed it.
He’s a monster!
They understood from that one attack that they might die without even being able to resist.
“Are you... GM?” El Chapo asked.
His question brought smiles to the Dark Humans who had been on high alert.
“Oh, I see!”
“GM!”
Not a single person in the reception room had seen GM in person; they did not even know whether GM was male or female.
GM could easily do something like that!
I see, he’s trying to instill discipline into us.
The stronger GM is, the better it is for us!
The Dark Humans had still not understood the gravity of the situation.
Seong-Hwi asked apathetically again, “This is the third time. Will you live? Or will you die?”
“Live, obviously!”
“Please guide us, GM!”
“Let’s take over the Capital!”
“You’re number one in the human ranking now!”
As the Dark Humans shouted and cheered, Seong-Hwi nodded and said, “So, you’ve chosen to live.”
A card with a golden sheen flew out of the Tarot Deck of Destiny. It showed a woman in red clothes, sitting between two grey pillars. She held a silver sword in her right hand and a golden balance scale in her left.
[Activating Unique Skill: Symbol Embodiment.]
[Scale of Balance, one of the symbols of No.11 Justice]
[Sword of Justice, one of the symbols of No.11 Justice]
The Sword of Justice, the natural enemy of those with Murderer Karma, appeared in his right hand, and the Scale of Balance, which became perpendicular only when two items of negotiation were deemed of equal value, appeared in his left.
“I will place each of your lives on the left side of the scale. If you wish to live, make the scale horizontal. I will spare your life if there is a valid reason why you must live,” Seong-Hwi declared as fourteen iridescent wings sprouted from his back, and the golden Absolute Crown floated over his head.
Those who recognized the Wings of Evolution, Seong-Hwi’s signature, began to shout.
“T-those wings!”
“He’s not GM! That son of a bitch is Cheon Seong-Hwi!”
“He must have a death wish to come in here!”
Seong-Hwi vanished and instantaneously appeared before El Chapo and his underlings.
El Chapo’s eyes widened as he stepped back. He pulled the trigger of his machine pistol and shouted, “Sicario! Esmeralda!”
“I couldn’t kill you before, so this is perfect!” Sicario shouted as he charged from El Chapo’s left.
“Kyahahaha! Let’s dance! Ecstasy is limitless!” Esmeralda shouted as she charged from El Chapo’s right.
However, Seong-Hwi simply brought his left hand toward them. The Scale of Balance tilted to the left.
“Guilty,” he apathetically declared.
Seong-Hwi swung the Sword of Justice in front of him like a whip. No one in the Cecil Hotel could see Desire serenely shining above the Capital’s night sky.
I can’t dodge this!
I’m going to die!
Sicario and Esmeralda were certain that they would die from this attack—it had already been deemed so. They felt a sense of deja vu—they would have likely died the same way before. As Sicario and Esmeralda had predicted, they were sliced into dozens of pieces and scattered across the floor like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
“W-wha...” El Chapo mumbled in disbelief as he stared at the pieces of flesh, oozing blood after realizing they had been cut.
Sicario and Esmeralda weren’t just some run-of-the-mill murderers—they were Rankers, within the top one hundred of humanity. Such individuals had been killed so easily.
“I-I won’t die. The Black Saintess said that I wouldn’t die as long as I remain in the Cecil Hotel!” El Chapo shouted, stepping backward in terror.
Seong-Hwi brought his left hand toward El Chapo, and the Scale of Balance tilted as if bidding him farewell.
“Guilty.”
***
The sword of justice has no scabbard.
Antoine de Rivarol
***
Hundreds of Dark Humans fired countless skills at the walls of the Cecil Hotel.
“Dammit! Hurry the hell up!”
“The monster is coming!”
“You help too! It’s way too hard!”
The concrete walls were broken all too easily, but the silver-grey metal walls were the real issue.
[The Iron Vein Seal is closing off this space.]
“Urgh! This barrier is insane!”
“Iron Vein Seal?”
“Did Remy Martin have this kind of sealing skill?”
Their efforts were naturally meaningless. The upper World Ranker Bafor had reinforced the metal box enveloping the Cecil Hotel with the Iron Vein Seal, and it had even been augmented with his unique caliber. Any skill infused with one’s unique caliber carried a deterministic power that allowed its purpose to be fulfilled without fail, and Bafor had written in the Akashic Records that no one would escape the metal box.
Just then, the Dark Humans heard footsteps behind them.
“Gasp!”
“H-he’s here!”
Seong-Hwi, with a balance scale in his left hand, a sword in his right hand, and wearing the Myriad Cheoyong Mask, appeared from the darkness. Iridescent light shone from his back like stained glass, and a golden crown that symbolized his absolute power floated over his head.
The Dark Humans gave up on escaping, throwing down their weapons and kneeling. They had learned from experience that running was meaningless—the repeated attempts of those before them yielded no success.
“P-please spare me! I’m sorry!”
“I beg of you! I am a terrible human being!”
“I will live kindly from now on! I swear to help others!”
“Sniff! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
The Dark Humans prostrated as lowly as they could, but Seong-Hwi simply brought the balance scale toward them.
“You shouldn’t be apologizing to me, and your apologies aren’t even genuine,” he remarked, seeing that the Scale of Balance was still tilted toward the left.
“I-I’m telling the truth! I am reflecting on—Kurgh!”
“I swear to be born anew—Argh!”’
The Sword of Justice was drenched with blood—the silver sword was now blood-red. Seong-Hwi walked past the sprawled corpses along the Cecil Hotel’s hallway. Since there was nowhere to run, the spring cleaning would end by today.
Seong-Hwi hummed as he walked down the hallway; he was in a good mood from checking the utility of his new item through the spring cleaning.
“This Absolute Crown is amazing,” he remarked.
[Absolute Crown (Item)
Rank: S(5)
Description: An absolute crown made from the treasures of 128 children, each holding the desire to help their benefactor. A special skill is available when equipped by Cheon Seong-Hwi.
Skill: Perfect Save]
He had invested his remaining Karma into the Absolute Crown to promote it to S-rank, allowing him to load the power of the Fruit of the World Tree into the crown via Perfect Save.
The stats boosted through the Absolute Crown come with almost zero side effects, Seong-Hwi thought as he examined his status window.
[Cheon Seong-Hwi
Health: S(18+15) Strength: S(20+15)
Dexterity: S(10) Sense: S(1)
Magic: S(30) Destiny Force: S(55)]
He was currently a Hexa-S human. He could boost his stats even further if he received the Fruit of the World Tree’s power directly from Desire. On the other hand, the overclocking with the Absolute Crown acting as the intermediary did not boost his stats as much, but it came with less recoil and lasted longer.
It’s probably best to switch between overclocking through the Absolute Crown for long battles and overclocking through Desire for short ones.
To Seong-Hwi, hunting Dark Humans was as easy as breathing. He carried out the spring cleaning while restructuring his combat style in his head.
***
Blood, oil, and pus from the mountain of corpses clung thickly to the red carpet. The reception room was likely unusable from now on—it would never echo with celebratory cheers and claps.
“South Earth is done for,” mumbled Don Carlos Giuseppe, the Godfather, sprawled on a sofa. “Life sure is unpredictable. I never would have thought that fighting against the dragons to save my partners... would end up saving my life.”
The old man felt like he had aged several years in a moment. The undefiable voice still echoed inside his head.
“Withhold.”
“Withhold, huh? Meaning, he’ll be watching me. Haha, Cheon Seong-Hwi... He is number one, without question. A king more radical than even Lee Kang-San has been born.”
“I-I suppose it was the right choice to play things safe. I never thought that such a m-monster was in the Capital,” said a woman with a trembling voice. She was Katrina Carol, the Dark Lady of Clan Pure Ladies and Gentlemen.
“Don’t worry, Carol. W-we chose to cooperate with him. As promised, we’ll hand over a list of druggies and drugmakers to the Drug Crime Squad,” said Christopher Lambert, the Dark Gentleman of Clan Pure Ladies and Gentlemen.
The judgment for the two of them and their clan had been withheld because, unlike Clan Hard Drug, they had never randomly distributed narcotics to average humans.
Nicholas Art, the Heart Collector, had also survived—to be more exact, the head on the right, Art, had.
“N-Nicholas,” Art mumbled blankly, holding his older brother’s severed head. “I-is it okay... if I don’t kill people anymore? Huh? Please, tell me, Nicholas... I don’t know... I’m stupid.”
A few other Dark Humans had survived from Seong-Hwi’s judgment, and they were all thankful for even the smallest of good deeds they had done in life.
“Y-you must be happy, Onie Yuki,” Katrina said to Yuki, standing still with her hands in her windbreaker pockets. “Y-you were the only one among us to be judged innocent.”
The gazes of the survivors shifted toward Yuki. They had heard loud and clear when Seong-Hwi pointed his balance scale at Yuki, and the scale had tilted to the right for the first time.
“Innocent,” Seong-Hwi had said.
Yuki recalled Seong-Hwi’s apathetic voice from under his mask. She was filled with an odd sense of unfamiliarity.
Seong-Hwi... was that really you? Yuki wondered.
She had first worked with him in the S-rank dungeon to secure the Elixirs, then in the Subterra dungeon, then for the third time during the Capital invasion, and now for the fourth time. It felt as if his personality was changing over time. He had the qualities from the beginning, but Yuki felt that Seong-Hwi was becoming even colder, more robot-like, and much more goal-oriented.
“You’re changing... like a mannequin,” Yuki said as she summoned her mannequin of Onie Rikako and let herself be held in its arms. “But I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. Right, Mom?”
Yuki blushed—she was not particularly sane either.
***
Seong-Hwi walked inside one of the Cecil Hotel’s public washrooms. The faucet was still on, leaving the floor drenched. Seong-Hwi kicked open the stall doors one after another. He kicked open the final stall door, revealing no one inside. The sound of footsteps leaving the washroom was heard.
Moments later, a short man appeared from on top of the last stall’s toilet. He was holding a paint bucket with one hand and a brush in the other.
“Huuu, that was close. He would have caught me if it weren’t for my Transparent Paint,” the man said as he stared proudly at his D Weapon and jumped down from the toilet.
He had survived the monster’s clutches. He had made the right choice to leave the faucet on so that he could better hear incoming footsteps.
Just when the man walked out of the stall, a voice said, “Yeah, you could’ve fooled anyone but me.”
The man gasped. Seong-Hwi appeared from thin air after canceling Hermit’s Robe and Shadowless Plum Blossom Branch. He brought the balance scale toward the man, and it tilted to the left.
“Guilty,” Seong-Hwi said.
“P-please spare my life! I’ll stop peeping and stealing—Gaaah!”
The Sword of Justice sank into the man’s right shoulder and nailed him to the washroom wall at the back of the stall.
“Hurgh! Gurghhh! P-please!” the man begged.
“Do you want to live?” Seong-Hwi asked.
“Y-yes! I-I want to live!” the man shouted, his eyes desperately gleaming with a sliver of hope.
“In that case, do exactly as I say. If you succeed, I will spare your life.”
“A-anything! I’ll do anything you ask!”
“Re-establish your D Weapon rule right now. Include Destiny Force, the secondary force of humanity, into your rule. Destiny Force is a stat created by a human who questioned the legitimacy of predetermined destiny to...”
Seong-Hwi explained in detail how he obtained Destiny Force. After a few minutes, the sound of a slash echoed from the last stall. The water on the floor was dyed red and flowed into the drain on the ground.
Seong-Hwi walked out of the stall, his feet splashing on the water.
“As I’d thought, it doesn’t work... Destiny Force... isn’t the secondary force of humanity. It’s only my secondary force.”
He had become certain of it after undergoing several experiments. No one had been able to add Destiny Force to their status windows. This power was special. Hence, as the only one who could use it, Seong-Hwi was also special.
As Seong-Hwi was about to leave the washroom, he stopped in front of a mirror above the sink with an open faucet. The man in the mirror removed the Myriad Cheoyong Mask. He was smiling.
“Don’t smile,” he said.
His facial muscles didn’t listen to him; they only twitched. Seong-Hwi used his thumb and index finger to pull the corners of his mouth down, but they stayed in that position as if his face were made of clay. The man in the mirror was frowning, on the verge of tears.
“Don’t frown either,” he said.
Seong-Hwi covered his face with the Myriad Cheoyong Mask again, putting his mind at ease. He turned the faucet off, and once the water stopped, a deathly silence filled the washroom. Seong-Hwi broke that silence by saying something that only an innocent child would say.
“I’m special.”
Seong-Hwi walked away from the mirror, his feet still splashing on the water.
“Why am I special?”
Just then, a mumble filled with curiosity sounded from far, far away—no, deep inside Seong-Hwi’s subconscious.
“That is why I observe you. What makes you special? Come find me if you wish to know the answer.”
***
[Trait Quest: Collect Ten Thousand Souls, complete.]
[Converting Trait: Thousand-Man Killer to Ten Thousand-Man Killer.]
[You accumulated countless Murderer Karma.]
[An undeniable sinful feat.]
[Recording the story of Overcoming Deficiency in the Akashic Records.]
[One shall bear the weight of desiring life.]
[Causality accumulates within Desire.]
...
[Ten Thousand-Man Killer (Trait)
Rank: B(7)
Description: The energy of one who has killed ten thousand humans. The ten thousand souls can be converted to bloodlust, allowing the use of Ten Thousand-Killing Aura. A Ten Thousand-Man Mark can be stamped on one person per 24 hours.]
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