91-92

Chapter 91: The Lee Man Corps 4

Demon King

The Lee Man Corps – 4

"Hmm."

"Whoo…"

"Captain, why the long sigh?"

"It's just…"

In the end, we found a Chinese restaurant on the university street in Jongno-gu. The very same one where I died. Since I had been unable to find a meal in Seongbuk-gu, I was determined to come here and completely cut off any regrets I had.

"This is a place where I was once greatly respected." I heard Lee Chan-yu mumble these words, a bit surprised. I turned to look at him as I entered the store.

"Is it okay if you show up here?"

"It's alright. I evolved several times in the dungeon, after all, so my face has changed quite a bit." That was how it happened with me as well. When I evolved into a Crimson Elf, Lee Chan-yu had said he was envious of the way I looked. But in my opinion, I thought he was the one that looked pretty cool. I sat down at a table that had just been wiped off as I considered these idle thoughts.

"The last time I was here, I was still human."

"Look." Following Lee Chan-yu's gesture, I gazed outside the store. I had been so focused on the restaurant that I didn't even notice the other stores around. There were all sorts of businesses around us: Italian and Indian restaurants, clothing stores, and even a movie theater directly across the street. Thinking back to my human memories, I didn't remember this place being so active. In fact, I assumed that most of the places here would be destroyed in the attacks. But instead, it appeared to be flourishing.

Thinking about it, it started to make sense. The facilities and people here were all gathered in one place, which meant the manpower required to defend them would be reduced. They wouldn't have to spread thin to defend a large area; they just needed to protect this fortified place. It was an effective way to deal with enemies and reduce the number of allies sacrificed. Theoretically. The danger would never be zero. Now, humans had to risk their lives every day, and if they were afraid of dying, then their only choice would be to hide inside their houses and wait for death. Knowing that everyone here had to live with death at every corner, the sight of them laughing and talking looked different to me. Perhaps more determined.

"The whole world has changed in such a short time."

"It's hard to adapt to it. For me as well." He muttered with a bitter smile after we ordered some jajangmyeon and sweet and sour pork.

"It's a good thing that communications and transportation are still working."

"No kidding." Many of the humans we had seen in Seongbuk-gu weren't original residents of the town. There wouldn't have been enough to deal with that group of monsters if that were the case. Other administrative districts nearby, Jongno-gu included, were supporting them. Not that battles like that were commonplace. Everywhere was dangerous, but that would be too much to deal with even given how effective humans were at moving together to solve problems. It was necessary for them to do so, after all, to keep their population safe. They were sending those with the ability to fight to struggle against the odds, so that the others may be safe.

"Here's your meal." The clerk brought us several plates. The dishes were a proud reminder that this restaurant had survived despite the world around it. I couldn't help but recall the events of when I faced my death here.

"If you need anything else, please let me know." I felt like I could even hear the voice of an old friend. I raised my head, the young male clerk stepping back as he felt my gaze upon him.

"Are you a college student?"

"What in the world is a college student in a place like this? I'm just working here."

"I'm sorry for asking something weird."

"No, it's alright." He waved it off and left, my eyes staring blankly at his back. I let out a sigh and put a hand to my forehead, closing my eyes.

"Captain, what's up?"

"That was someone who was with me when I died." I let out a laugh, the situation so absurd. He was working at a restaurant where his friend died. Lee Chan-yu gave me a bitter smile.

"Life is often full of irony."

"It doesn't sound like a joke when you talk about it." He retorted as he lifted up his chopsticks. I decided to push it all aside, the jajangmyeon before me much more important than those reflections. I had to eat before it got cold, after all. I dug in right away.

'Ah.' Inexpressible emotions filled me, countless memories filling my mind rather than the taste of the food. The jajangmyeon before me was no longer a simple meal. Instead, it became a symbol for my life, my death, my patience, and my suffering. Everything that happened since I rejected Rain's offer. I couldn't be a human, but here I was. I became a man who could fool all these humans. I hadn't accomplished everything, but I was here, eating jajangmyeon. It was delicious. So delicious that I wanted to cry.

"If there was an eating contest, you would definitely take first place, Captain." I ignored his words, focused on the food in front of me. There was no time to joke around.

"Ah, wait. Don't eat in such a hurry; we have plenty of time!" Lee Chan-yu's chopsticks moved faster, as well. Neither of us said another word until our bowls were cleared out.

"Your total is three silver and thirty-eight bronze." I went ahead and paid for both of our meals, leaving the restaurant as I expanded the range of my senses. It was second nature to me by now, although I had to laugh at myself for being so cautious. I was too used to the dungeon where there were monsters around every corner. Comparing this place to that experience, or even the tower or the garden, this world was overly peaceful.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing in particular."

"No?"

The elves. The Knights of Elakatra. Even in this world, we still had to be alert. I had Lee Chan-yu use a flying creature to scout around for us as we moved about.

"We should've done that in Seongbuk-gu as well." The Elakatra were pretending to be cooperative with the humans and couldn't just betray them. That would jeopardize their already strained alliance. So they wouldn't do anything flashy in a place like this, at least. As I wondered what their plan was here with these monsters, a hypothesis came to mind.

'On the Rookie's Battlefield…' I destroyed hordes of monsters on the battlefield enough to create quite a void. Even one of the knights died. I wondered if they were in disarray right now, trying to get things back under control. Maybe that was why they hadn't shown up to help the humans earlier. The thought made me happy that my enemy could be so hurt right now.

"Lee Chan-yu, can you find a place to stay for a bit?"

"I'll go find a room in this neighborhood."

"Alright, let me know by message when you do." I waved him goodbye and continued down the street. Using the power of Reaper, I slowly erased my presence and floated in the air. No one around me noticed as I vanished, unable to register this power born from a higher system. I floated alone in the air, wanting to reach a place away from all the city noise. But that was just my desire to escape. I already ran away once. Not this time.

'I have to move forward.' I took a step through the endless sky, making full use of Ubiquitous to move. It let me jump several kilometers forward at once. While returning to Seongbuk-gu wouldn't be instantaneous like this, it was faster than riding in a car. The distance I could leap kept growing longer as my control increased, and I became accustomed to using it in the sky. The mana consumption was massive, but my recovery was able to keep up with it. As I became used to it, the amount it consumed decreased as well.

[Ubiquitous became Lv2. The power of the skill has been amplified.]

The notification popped up when I reached the halfway point, a welcome sight. Not much longer, I already reached Seongbuk-gu. The place where I had lived. It was completely gone.

"…" I landed there, looking around. Initially, it had been a place where apartments and houses had been built, but now, it was little more than a vacant lot. There had even been some popular restaurants nearby, and a supermarket that you had to use because it was so close, even though the prices were high. Now, a clean stone wall was placed in the space, several tombstones standing within the walls—a cemetery.

I jumped over it, passing right by a young guard who couldn't sense me. I paid him no mind as I passed through the tombstones, one after another. It didn't take me long to find them, although I was hoping I wouldn't. My parents, the two great people who had raised me. One tombstone, their names written upon it in black letters.

"…Ugh…" Even though I knew that I wasn't originally a human, it was impossible for me to forget the ones who raised me, who loved me. No, rather it was because I wasn't human that I knew how noble they had been. I thought I couldn't cry anymore, but the tears flowing down my cheeks and onto the ground proved that wrong. I sobbed for a few minutes, unable to even apologize. Even after my tears stopped, my emotions didn't calm down at all. Only a sliver of reason returned to my mind.

'Why is this tombstone so large?' My parents hadn't been great heroes or celebrities. They were just ordinary citizens.

"Who are you?' The voice of a young woman came from behind me. This was someone who could tell me the answer.

"I came here to visit after the battle, but a strange person is crying in front of the tomb of another's parents." I didn't turn to look at her, unwilling to see her with my own eyes. I was afraid of being caught by the past; my eyes were fixed on the tombstone as I responded.

"My father's name was the same. I must've been mistaken."

"Ah." I sensed her behind me and could only marvel at her strength.

"I'm sorry, I'm just a bit tired after the battle. I thought I would come to see my parents."

"No, you don't need to apologize. I'm the one at fault."

"I want to apologize still…"

"Excuse me."

"Ah." I stepped away from the tombstone, walking to the other side of it, so I didn't have to meet her face to face. This girl, who had an ordinary bandit as a partner, had succeeded in attaining a level above 150 in such a short time. I didn't know how, but I knew it must have been incredibly painful and incredibly difficult for her. All I wanted to do was hug her and comfort her.

But I didn't.

Ignoring her gaze upon my back, I left my sister in the cemetery and went outside.

Chapter 92: Rebellion-1

Demon King

Rebellion-1

After being separated from society for the long years that I was, I wasn't worried about finding my way back. Now that I was here, however, it was easy to see that things were completely different than before. At a surface level, the world still appeared to be driven by laws, morals, and social order. But looking inside, the existence of levels and gold had changed the power dynamics entirely.

"Most places like the mountains and forests have been branded too dangerous since Chaos Souls' appearance."

"That's probably for the best."

Even though the distance between civilization and monster-infested lands would only take about twenty minutes on foot to cross, the value between the two territories was markedly different. The land outside of the concrete barriers built by human power was worthless if it couldn't be protected and, as such, could be bought cheaply for silver. The next day, after we stayed at a hotel Lee Chan-yu found, I acquired a plot of this cheap land outside of the protected area of Seongbuk-gu. I hadn't run into any issues needing identification or paperwork, as the person I bought the land from had been in the battle the day prior.

"Thank you so much for your help! I didn't think you'd want to stay in Seongbuk-gu." The man was in his mid-30s and was going bald a little bit. With his help, the process of acquiring a real estate contract was a breeze.

"I intend to stick around and observe those Chaos Souls for the time being."

"I see. As a citizen of Seongbuk-gu, it's reassuring to have you around… but why are you trying to settle down on the mountainside?"

"It's more comfortable for me, and there's nothing dangerous to me out there."

"I wish I could be strong enough to speak with such confidence."

"With the monsters scattered about this world, you need to be strong." The man laughed in response to my off-handed comment.

"My partner was the president of a small business. I'm afraid this is my limit; if I wanted to raise my level, I would have to jump into some advanced dungeons. I want to be strong so that I don't die, but I'd have to face death to become stronger. It's almost funny."

"Ah, is that so?" I didn't think he was wrong fundamentally. We just happened to be different.

"Would you like to start by building a house? I have an acquaintance who is good with architectural magic that I can introduce you to."

"No, that's alright." After finishing up my purchase, Lee Chan-yu and I headed to Bukhansan, where the land I had acquired was located. There was a time when the mountain was managed by the government and was a popular hiking destination. Now, however, the roads had been irreparably damaged due to a lack of management. The Great Fusion had also changed the terrain to be rockier than it had been.

But just because of that, and the appearance of monsters didn't mean people stopped going there. Several large guilds flocked to the dungeons within the mountain range. Bukhansan itself was where the Black Palace District 7 dungeon was. However, the land I bought was a bit further away from that since it had already been secured by other guilds. It had initially been misunderstood to be a simple goblin dungeon and didn't attract much attention. But now that it was known for the difficulty spike at the later levels, it had become a hotspot. At least, until the guild's combat units were annihilated by the 'elves.'

They were blinded by the possibility of rewards and failed to kill the elf, and thus the humans had become anxious that they would make an enemy of the entire elven race. Added to that, the allied forces of several large guilds had been completely annihilated. It was clear that the Black Palace wasn't the type of place that could be conquered by just one or two big guilds, and there was no guarantee of reward. Ultimately, that encounter had gone well. The increasing hostility between humans and elves, or, more specifically, the Elakatra, was fine by me.

"It's really out in the middle of nowhere." Lee Chan-yu muttered to himself, spreading out the monsters he controlled to sweep the area clean. There were no people around this far out in the wilderness, but there were plenty of monsters.

"So why did you refuse his offer of an introduction? You planning on building a hut by yourself?"

"We can't leave our home to outsiders."

"So, we're building a hut."

"No, a citadel." I cut him off by raising a hand, activating the Belkena spell. The wind began to blow, bending the trees. A fire began to form, consuming an entire tree, while the land surrounding us began to change, stone walls emerging. Lee Chan-yu was staring forward with a blank expression.

"Captain…?"

"It's not something that I can finish instantaneously. Can you bring some monsters here?"

"No, it's already going plenty fast!" He began to yell out orders to his monsters as I laid down the foundations for our new fortress with my mana. It was kind of funny to me how much the game I played with L was helping me out now.

"It's a bit tricky with the terrain…"

"Is that so?" Little by little, mistakes began to pile up due to my unfamiliarity with the land's mana. It wasn't difficult to keep the magic steadily going, however, despite it.

[Kururururahh!]

"He brought some food."

"Please keep bringing them." The number of monsters that Lee Chan-yu was accumulating was no joke, but the efficiency of my mana recovery had dropped. Even if I absorbed all of them, it wouldn't have restored much. I needed to focus on leveling up soon.

"I need to go steal some stuff from the Black Palace."

"One of the larger guilds got it staked out, be careful."

"I know, thanks." I needed to fight other higher-leveled entities. If I went to some remote place where humans dare not tread, I would undoubtedly encounter monsters that could pose a threat to even me. It would be a suitable place to train away from the prying eyes of the Elakatra, too. But there was a better place to train in than the wilderness.

'After I'm done here, I'll have to go back there.' I had already technically accomplished my goal of finding my family; my parents were dead, and my sister wasn't in a position to know who I was. Once I finished creating a base for my activities in human society, I had to return to the places that needed me. That was Jinma's Tower, where L and A were trapped in. It wasn't the only citadel in that world; no doubt, there would be things inside that could threaten me and help me grow. My hands didn't stop as my thoughts unraveled and rearranged themselves. Like the conductor of an orchestra, I managed the symphony of mana flowing the air with my hands. The wind turned to fire, and pressure molded the earth to form a towering stone pillar.

"Captain, where did you even learn architecture?"

"Are you an architect?" I retorted, shutting Lee Chan-yu up as I continued to build the fortress. Time passed, and night arrived, but I continued to control my mana without moving an inch. Since there was no point in watching me work, Lee Chan-yu roamed about the area doing other things. The groundwork was already complete, and the main castle structure was built up to the first floor. I had already organized the interior a bit as well.

Although I had already done all of this myself, it wasn't a task I could complete in a single day. However, if my level and the level of my Belkena skill rose, I could probably work faster than this. Thinking about this, I stayed my hand and halted the work. I felt someone approaching from a distance but decided to stand there without hiding. Since I had already cleared out the trees in this area, I could see them coming from the side. It was the person I had seen yesterday—my sister. I hadn't looked at her yesterday, but now I could see she had grown quite tall. The year and a half since I saw her had resulted in a much more significant change for her than I thought.

"We meet again." I hadn't shown her my face, so I didn't think she would recognize me, but I suppose tricking someone with a level of 150 wasn't so simple.

"Are you building this?"

"Yes."

"We also have a base on this mountain. Oh, my guild is called Erkindra." My expression was one of boredom for just a moment before I smoothed it over. I already knew all about it, as I had learned it from the balding man earlier. It had been one of the reasons why I decided to settle in this location.

"As the master of that place, I came to greet the people who helped so greatly in the battle. I didn't realize it was you…"

"I've been stuck in a dungeon for quite some time, but the world has changed so much. I've decided to stay here while I figure some things out."

"I see." She didn't inquire any further about the dungeon I mentioned, and I couldn't help but think of how much she had changed. 'Was she this mature before? Has time really changed her like this? How bitter…'

"I'm Kang Si-yeon, twenty-one years old." She could tell I had no intention of continuing to talk, so she broke the silence.

"Twenty-one?"

"What? I'm really twenty-one." She did look older, and slightly more mature, but she couldn't be any older than seventeen by my memory. As I examined her closer, I could tell she was wearing a bit of make-up as well. This was probably her armor. When you're younger, people look down on you, so she tries to make herself appear older. She was the head of a group; I didn't have to think hard about whether a seventeen-year-old or a twenty-one-year-old would be more respected.

"I'm Fate, twenty-three."

"Fate, is it?"

"Yes." She made a look I didn't like, my heart stiffening in my chest, although I was careful to keep my expression blank. I had to be careful not to reveal my identity.

"You seem to be about twenty-years-old yourself. Are you just pretending to be older?"

"No." Her expression remained as I tried to laugh it off and deny her accusation. She rolled her feet and her cheeks puffed up, looking like the very image of a cute high schooler.

"Then, should I use honorifics to refer to you?"

"Just keep it simple, that's more comfortable for both of us." I retorted and waved her off.

"We've greeted each other, so you can go. Does a guild master really have so much free time?"

"I'm not busy unless there's a battle. The other members take care of most of the work."

"You speak so proudly."

"Will you be making a guild? I could assist you if you are." I thought about it for a moment. I had created this fortress to observe the movement of humans around the Black Palace and keep an eye on my sister, who worked around here to protect her. So I supposed it wouldn't be bad to have a casual relationship with her so long as I didn't reveal my identity.

"I think I'll take you up on that once the castle is built."

"Did you already pick a name?"

"Rebellion." She paused for a moment but then quickly nodded with shining eyes.

"That's a good name."

Three days later, the fortress was completed, and my Belkena skill had become Lv2. I created the guild Rebellion with Lee Chan-yu and myself as the only members. With my sister and that balding man's help, it was exceedingly simple to create one.

After taking care of all of that, I left the castle to Lee Chan-yu and opened the door to head into the underground castle.