Chapter 101 - Event Mob

With the moon high overhead, his shadow was far shorter than he was.

Then, at some point, it swayed like a flower stirred by the breeze, though the moon could hardly have moved.

As if it had something to say.

"What is it?" the old man asked, looking down at his shadow.

"A message has arrived from Old Uncle," the shadow replied.

The look in the old man's eyes changed. Apparently, this was news he had been waiting for.

"And Youngha?"

"She has reportedly arrived safely in Zhengzhou."

"Ho ho ho. Safely? Did you just say safely? Do you truly not know who that child is?"

"... My apologies, my lord. For a moment, I forgot what sort of being she is. Please forgive me."

"Safely. Safely, you say."

"Hearing that makes me feel that this truly is the beginning."

"The world will know no peace. Not from this moment on."

"The Murim Alliance seems to have arranged this affair with the intention of doing something about her, but in my eyes, no one can do anything to that child. Not unless the Two Gods or that unknown force lurking in the shadows intervenes."

"There is, however, one other thing that concerns me..."

The old man turned his eyes away from his shadow. Looking up at the moon, he continued.

"The Strange New Star. That star that concealed her. It troubles me. I thought its purpose was to shield Youngha until she came of age, yet now that she has entered Murim, its light has grown stronger instead."

In truth, he was looking not at the moon, but at a single star hidden beside it, barely visible.

Two years ago, it had clearly been losing its light and falling into decline. Then, at some point, it had regained its radiance, and now it shone with a fairly strong, colorless, transparent light.

An ordinary person would have been unable to see it through the moonlight, but the old man's keen eyes discerned it clearly.

"I cannot fathom what is going on."

The old man, Gong Nachu, Lord of the Hall of Gathered Evil, stood gazing at the Strange New Star for a long while.

The 'Extreme Yin Cursed Killing Star' had already hidden behind the moon and vanished completely from sight.

And soon, the Strange New Star would follow it behind the moon.

'Will those two come together again when that happens...?'

Perhaps they would, perhaps not.

They might coexist in harmony.

Or they might fight.

Until one of them disappeared...

Today, repeating for the third time.

As always, 'it' entered Bright Cheer Tavern.

It.

Yes. That was certainly the word for this being.

Something human, yet not human.

Something different from the thing that lay deep within her body, chattering incessantly.

Yeon Youngha studied its eyes, just as she had on the second iteration of today. Once again, she could see nothing.

'Is it truly not human, then?'

If it were human, there was no way her eyes would fail to read it.

She interlaced her fingers, set her elbows on the table, and gently rested her small face on her hands. Her hands trembled, though her head was hardly heavy. Perhaps it was because the Cursed Killing Intent dormant deep, deep within her heart was trying to burst free.

That man, Dong Gwangcheon, entered the tavern and looked above the entrance, just as he had on the first and second iterations of today. As always, he must have realized that Old Uncle was hiding there. Even she did not know how he could do that. It made him all the more incomprehensible.

Dong Gwangcheon wandered around the tavern with the waiter until his eyes met hers.

She gave a little smile.

Perhaps it was because she was so delighted to see him. Never in her life had she seen a being like that. No, to be more precise, this was their third meeting. Yet in another sense, it was also their first. Perhaps they would meet again on 'another today.'

She rose and approached Dong Gwangcheon. Then she repeated what she had said when she met him on the first and second days, changing it only slightly.

Third. Only that word changed; everything else was identical, down to the last syllable.

Twice. Again, apart from that word, everything was the same as on the second day.

This, too, was the same. She was telling him her name for the third time.

His gaze sank into emptiness. Then he closed off his inner self completely, becoming a presence that seemed scarcely there at all.

He had been unreadable to begin with, but now he was even more so.

He spoke, just as he was destined to.

It was fun. Anything grew tiresome after enough repetitions, but dealing with this man was fascinating. So much fun that she wanted to keep looking at him, keep talking to him.

But it was dangerous, too. Perhaps that was what not knowing meant. She had never experienced it before, but she thought that must be it.

["Kill. Kill them all."]

The Cursed Killing Intent within her had noticed his presence and was clamoring madly to burst out, but she could not act rashly.

Hold back. You cannot play pranks wherever and whenever you please.

Without answering him, she brushed past him and left Bright Cheer Tavern. She had already learned his name on the second day. There was no need to go out of her way to advertise that she knew it.

Looking up, she saw the exact same moon she had seen for the past three days—which were also a single day. It was very blue. Not that it mattered.

Clenching her trembling hands tight, she slowly walked away from Dong Gwangcheon. If she stayed any longer, she felt the Cursed Killing Intent would run rampant.

"Old Uncle."

Her greatly elongated shadow rippled as if in reply.

"Deploy the entire Killing Shadow Corps and bring him to me."

The shadow stirred again at her words.

"You want to send only ten of them? No. Send them all."

"Why? Because I've already sent them twice, and they all got devoured. That's why."

"Hm? Then the Murim Alliance will find out everything? It doesn't matter. They already know the Hall of Gathered Evil has sent someone here. They just don't know it's me. As long as I don't act personally, that Murim Alliance Leader will never find out."

"Anyway, from this moment on, the Central Plains are my playground. Yunnan was far too cramped. It's time I had some proper fun. And I've found myself an entertaining toy, too."

With that final, cryptic mutter to herself, she melted into the bustling crowd and disappeared. Her shadow, stretched long by the moonlight, hurried after her into the darkness.

After she disappeared, Dong Gwangcheon—no, Dong Bongsu—also left Bright Cheer Tavern. The waiter, who had followed him around chattering amiably about this and that, had begun grumbling instead, but that was still none of his concern.

He was simply turning over what the woman named Yeon Youngha had said.

'She said she'd already met me twice, and that this was our third meeting.'

What did that mean?

What was it?

She was not the 'event mob' he had expected. But he had certainly encountered a monster that intrigued him far more.

The Central Plains seemed to be a much more entertaining place than he had thought. A hunting ground teeming with more prey than he had hoped for.

It even seemed to harbor monsters so terrifying that he might find himself hunted instead.

'Perhaps one of them already sees me as prey and has its sights on me.'

If he had seen himself...

Was there any need to say it? He would have lost sleep over finding the finest prey imaginable. She was probably the same.

TAP

Having thought that far, Dong Bongsu took a step south, heading back toward the Murim Alliance.

The streets' festive bustle was beginning to fade. The hour of the boar, from nine to eleven at night, was drawing to a close, and the new day's hour of the rat was approaching.

Suddenly, he gave a low chuckle.

Something felt wrong throughout the street. He had never experienced this before, but his senses told him why.

A faint, unpleasant sense of qi pervaded the entire street. Killing intent of an exceedingly low caliber. Yet killing intent was still killing intent. Dozens of such presences combined to press upon him, making his skin tingle slightly.

"So I'm the prey now? Yeon Youngha must have sent them."

One hundred percent. There was no need to wonder, Already? It was the natural next step. The only difference was that he would have come in person.

In any case, becoming prey certainly did not feel entirely unpleasant. The pinpricks of killing intent felt refreshing, like a massage over his whole body.

Still, it was a little disappointing.

"If she was going to send anyone, she could have sent something tastier..."

His Spirit Eye remained silent. How anticlimactic. Opponents of that caliber would do almost nothing for his experience.

One, two, three, four...

He counted the faint sources of killing intent.

43.

Forty-three crude sources of killing intent lurked in every corner of the street. The walls, the ground, and the rooftops radiated hostility toward him.

Their attack would probably begin the moment he tried to leave the street.

Dong Bongsu came to a complete stop.

Naturally, it was not because he was afraid to fight. The fight itself was the problem. There were too many eyes here. And he could not eliminate all of them.

Blood and death might run rampant in New Murim Online, but that bloodshed required justification. Death without justification bred resentment and hatred.

The only justification he had—or would have—was an enemy attack. He had no justification for indiscriminately killing the homeless martial artists sprawled asleep over there or the people enjoying a night out.

The 'false hero' persona he would have to wear for some time to come must never kill or injure the innocent—by this world's prevailing standards.

Yet refusing to fight was not an option either. Nor would revealing everything be wise.

After a little more thought, Dong Bongsu made his decision. Those sources of killing intent Yeon Youngha had sent were only a sample, a test of his capabilities.

He only needed to give them a taste.