Claaang! Kwoom! Crackle!
The crash of a massive chandelier tearing free from the ceiling.
Crackle-crackle, boom!—a short flash follows.
A sudden blackout.
“What the hell? Power’s out!?”
“Somebody turn the lights on, now!”
“Hurry! Protect me!”
Arrogant orders erupt from everywhere.
But this isn’t a blackout that will fix itself. Someone fired off an electric spell and crippled the power grid.
Belatedly, phones and flashlights flick on, little points of light blooming.
Blurred silhouettes of people flailing about come into view.
[System : ‘Spatial Dominion’ trait is activated.]
Thanks to [Spatial Dominion], I don’t even need to trigger another spell.
Still, securing vision in the dark is the most basic skill.
Any moment now the others will start moving.
“Kill!”
Somebody’s order.
Bang—
A gunshot.
“Who the hell is shooting!”
Kang!
No, that’s actually impressive!?
Maybe it was luck, but Curtain Call just pulled off a ridiculous feat.
With the fork in her hand—she knocked a bullet out of the air in the dark.
“Collie, nice one!”
A cheer from one of Curtain Call’s crew.
‘I can leave that side to them.’
Shraaaa!
I turned my left hand into a tentacle and struck at the assassins hiding in the dark—those who still hadn’t shown their true colors.
“Aaagh! Tentacles! Tentacles!”
“There’s a monster hiding in the dark!”
Monster? That’s rude. They’re perfectly ordinary tentacles.
“Collie, that one!”
Hyungeun, Curtain Call’s teammate, points out an assassin hidden among the crowd.
Vector.
A gunman with decent skill.
He flings a small-caliber pistol he’d drawn from his sleeve—then shoves his hand into his own mouth.
“Grrrk—”
This is unbelievable in another way.
He grabs the double-barreled shotgun he’d hidden by ramming it straight down vertically into his esophagus and stomach.
“I told you not to screw around.”
Shlalalak!
Curtain Call, a fork in each hand, blurs in at once.
Vector hasn’t finished setting his stance. He tries to pop a smoke grenade from his waistband and back off, but—
“Headbutt!”
Crunch!
A fork punches into Vector’s temple.
Shlaaash!
Blood sprays everywhere.
“Ha! That’s the stuff!”
Looks like he took [Heart Breaker] in advance (Gain courage and valor, ignore pain. Recommended max 4 pills per day. Re-dosing within 2 hours prohibited.)
“Death or survival! Let’s see who’s still standing in the end!”
Raving, Vector aims the shotgun muzzle at Curtain Call’s abdomen.
Boom!
But a huge shadow swats Vector away.
“Awooooooooo!!”
“M-monster? No, a wolf!?”
Is that what the Fenrir of Norse myth would look like?
Full moon—so he’s bigger than usual, huh? His head alone is two meters high.
It’s Baukalak with [Beastform] activated.
On a full-moon night, transforms instantly without a check.
Bonuses to Strength, Constitution, Agility, and to any roll using the body.
However, while the power is active, no artifacts can be used, and the longer the beast state is maintained, the lower the sanity becomes (decrease 1–6 points every 10 minutes; using other abilities reduces additional sanity). If sanity hits 0 and humanity is lost, you can never return to human.
“Damn beast!”
In Vector’s place, an assassin named Gyeom dives in.
Shlaaaa!
He pulls out two extra arms from under his armpits and rushes Baukalak.
“Grrrr!”
But Baukalak counters with [Beast’s Strength] combined with [Savage Claw].
Switch attack property to [Slashing]. Add +(Level *2) + (Level *4) physical damage, pierce defense.
Kwoooom!
“Kya-ha-ha-ha!”
Curtain Call snatches a few more forks from the table and bursts out laughing.
Uh, aren’t you getting a little too excited? There’s still one more assassin left.
Crackle-crackle!
A sharp yellow spark pops somewhere.
“You all look like you’re having fun. Let me play too.”
Loric, who has a mage aptitude, is installing [Electroshock Field] all over the banquet hall.
[Electronic Darts]
Whirrrrrp!
Golden darts—now capable of acceleration and course correction by electromagnetic guidance—loop in impossible trajectories toward Baukalak.
“Grkk!”
Hard for Baukalak, turned into a giant wolf, to respond to that.
“Put your toys away!”
Curtain Call steps on Eric’s shoulder and leaps, batting aside three or four darts, but there are too many.
Not a good matchup for Curtain Call’s crew, who are all close-quarters specialists.
[Lightning Rod]
[Distortion Field]
[System : ‘Spell Thief’ trait is activated.]
“W-who’s there!? Who just stole my spell—?”
Stealing a spell from a guy who isn’t even a specialist and barely Tier 3? Easier than breathing.
“That spell was yours? I’ll give it back.”
I convert all the mana from Loric’s [Electroshock Field] into a destructive thunderstrike and send it back into him.
Best cost-performance there is.
[Chain Lightning]
Krrrrm! Crackle-crackle-crackle!
Lightning snaps toward Loric in an instant, coils his body—and then branches toward the other assassins who were lurking and waiting for a chance.
“Aaaargh!”
“Gyaaaah!”
Assassins collapse, screaming.
‘That clears Wave One.’
But this is only the spark.
“Since it’s come to this, everyone just die!”
“Yeah, if we kill them all it’s fine, right?”
Helpful lines thoughtfully prepared to “inform the players.”
And on all sides, the overflowing family love of mass chaos.
“Stop it!” “Heeaaad!” “Hahahaha! Fun! Knew it’d go this way!” “Graaah!” “Pick the stronger side!” “You’re all insane!” “Freeze!” “What is happening!” “Don’t!” “Stay back!” “Chief! Call Yang Seoho, call Yang Seoho!” “ “Kim Sinhwa!” “Mouth off and I’ll kill you!” “Take Mun Seunghee out!” “Who said that just now!” “You’ve lost your mind!” “Come any closer and I’ll crack your skull!”
Before I know it, the commotion has flowered into full-on battle and slaughter, swallowing the whole banquet hall.
“Everyone stop! I will tolerate no further rioting! Kim Sinhwa. You as well! Get to my side at once!”
Mun Gyeongha’s shout.
“Mun Gyeongha! That criminal you brought attacked my guest!”
Mun Gyeongmin, tenth in line of succession, rants and raves, shouting with shameless fury.
He’s got nothing special compared to the other heirs, not worth remembering—but he’s the one who hired Loric.
“That guest of yours? Don’t make me laugh.”
In truth, Mun Gyeongha isn’t innocent in this mess either.
All twelve heirs besides Mun Seunghee brought assassins here under the pretext of “security.”
“A truly heartwarming display of family love.”
“Hey, mask psycho! Gimme a weapon!”
Curtain Call bares about twenty fangs and growls.
“Take this at least!”
Shraaa!
I grab a chair with my tentacled left hand and hurl it to her—layering a few spells on the fly.
[Mana Imbue : Headlong Charge]
[Exploding Thunder Weapon]
[Power Boost] [Attack Radius Increase] [Explosive Impact]
Crackle-crackle!
That’s about the limit of what I can cram into an ordinary chair. The one I lob to Curtain Call is now a temporary artifact that fires a [Thunder Burst] with every hit.
“You crazy mage bastard! Hyungeun!”
“On it!”
Hyungeun plants a piledriver (Piledriver / hoisting an upside-down opponent and spiking them headfirst) on a fixer who was closing in, then grabs the guy’s leg—
Bwoooong!
—just as Curtain Call’s chair shot smashes into the one Hyungeun swung at.
Krrrrm!
“Hm!? Not bad.”
Curtain Call grins down at the chair in her hands, pleased with the [Thunder Burst].
“This isn’t the time! What did I tell you before?”
“You said kill them all?”
“No!”
I told you to grab Mun Seunghee and run!
“Help me!”
Zzzzt!
Mun Seunghee rips the skirt of her dress and, with Eric’s help, scrambles onto Baukalak’s back.
“Grrrrng!”
Baukalak kicks the banquet hall doors off their hinges and charges out. Following after—
“Bah, you dumb mutt! Where the hell are you going!”
Curtain Call rages, yelling nonsense.
“You go too!”
“Why me!”
Your principal just went that way! You hyena!
“Collie, move!”
“Ah—dammit!”
Luckily, at the rest of the crew’s urging, Curtain Call sprints after Baukalak and Mun Seunghee.
“The banquet is not over yet!”
Several fixers rush in to detain Curtain Call.
“You guys, this way!”
Vmmmmm!
[Gravity Inversion]
I swing the direction of gravity—affecting the fixers blocking Curtain Call—toward the inside of the hall.
“Aaagh!”
The fixers plunge sideways.
“Kim Sinhwa! What are you looking at!”
Mun Gyeongha’s voice cuts in out of nowhere.
“Do not look elsewhere. Look only at me. You belong at my side.”
I don’t know what bug triggered in °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° this guy to make him talk like that, but he basically means “protect me.”
A message window pops up in fact.
[System : Accept escort quest ‘Guard Mun Gyeongha’?]
“Kill everyone except me! Anyone who obeys me will be rewarded handsomely!”
A harsh voice—Mun Gyeongo, fifth in line of succession.
[System : Accept hunt quest ‘Kill the Mun Clan’?]
“Help me!” “What are you doing!” “Hey!”
Similar voices from every direction. Quest pop-ups to match their numbers.
It’d be easy enough to decline these useless requests—but I’ve got another factor to weigh.
“Sinhwa, answer!”
Mun Gyeongha scowls and demands a reply. And in the dark, a dagger flicks toward him.
Oh, for—
[Protection Circle]
Kang!
A grunt as the assassin slams into a wall of force.
[Ice Storm]
Whoooosh!!
I whip up a blizzard-wreathed vortex that flings the assassin into a corner of the hall, then tell Mun Gyeongha:
“Fine. Glue yourself to my side!”
[System : Escort quest ‘Guard Mun Gyeongha’ accepted.]
Anyway, this is one of the six events that can trigger at this banquet: [Heir Slaughterfest].
Other possible events: [Ilshin Hotel Collapse], [Evil Ritual], [Airship Collision], [Brain-Eating Chairman].
Whichever event fires, once a majority of heirs die today—a worse event triggers, and the world takes one more step toward ruin.
‘There were seven stars.’
On [T’s Clock], which marks the time left until the world ends, seven stars were shining.
Considering I still have an appointment to “doobi-dooba” with Baek Beomjin of Hellistic, I have to shut this event down no matter what.
And one more thing—
“Kim Sinhwa, come with me to the Chairman at once!”
Mun Gyeongha shouts at me in an almost commanding tone, sprinting toward Mun Taeik.
Right.
That’s the other problem.
From here on, some of the heirs will try to approach Mun Taeik with a touch of compulsion.
I wrap the frantically running Mun Gyeongha in mana—
[Invisible Hand]
[Leap]
—and jump, tucking him under my arm at the waist.
“Kim Sinhwa! What are you doing! I don’t want to be angry with you, so put me down. Now!”
I glance at Mun Gyeongha wedged under my armpit and say:
“Listen, Mun Gyeongha. If you go to the Chairman right now, you’ll get eaten.”
“Ha—at last you look at me!”
“...Did you hear what I said?”
Mun Gyeongha stares up at me, blank for a moment.
“Wait, the Chairman will... eat me?”
“Yeah. To the Chairman, all of you are youth elixir.”
More precisely, that’s the trigger condition for the [Brain-Eating Chairman] event.
