On the surface it looks grand, but [Heir Slaughterfest] is an event that’s surprisingly easy to clear.
All I have to do is get the one heir I back out alive, no matter how.
‘Besides, I could just run with [Gate Creation].’
But I can’t use that method. My goal here isn’t to “clear” this event.
I intend to ruin its progression.
If you follow the Mun Taeik–related quest chain for Yeonam Group, one way or another you reach an ending—meaning the world’s destruction.
‘Anyway, there are three conditions to block the next event.’
One, extract the designated heir (in this case, Mun Seunghee).
Two, keep a majority of the other heirs alive.
Three, keep Mun Taeik alive.
Simple, right?
The first condition is half-solved by outsourcing it to Curtain Call’s crew.
Now I just need to handle the rest, and this part is a bit tricky.
“What are you doing! Grab that bastard whelp and kill her!”
“I’ll kill you first!”
“Ha, so your true colors show! I’ll be the one to kill you!”
“Take this!” “Haa!”
If I leave these doting, loving siblings alone, they’ll run wild and kill each other on their own.
This isn’t something persuasion can fix.
The heads of those gorgeous lunatics have had a compulsion implanted to murder one another.
Oh, and yes, notables from all walks of life were invited.
People unrelated to assassination or slaughter.
Those were already gathered aside by Mun Taeik’s bodyguards.
Some are cowering from the horror of all this—but—
“Heh, so it’s come to this after all.”
“My goodness. A hint would’ve been nice, don’t you think?”
Notables watching the slaughter with leisurely faces from their safe zone.
They wear the label of “notable,” but most are trash shaped like humans—who threw away their humanity for wealth and power.
This world is run under the stewardship of people like that.
‘The Director of the Foreigners Administration is snickering too.’
Poor Yang Seoho.
No wonder the irrational system at the Foreigners Administration never improves.
“Tch, fine. I’ll block it.”
[Mist of R’lyeh]
Pffffaaah!
A white mist coils through the banquet hall.
It carries power that warps detection, but that alone isn’t enough. So I layer a new effect onto the mist.
[Spell Boost: Fear Injection]
It’s an effect I usually fired via [Mask of Carcosa].
What I’ve got on my face now is [Infi Mask], which only provides visuals—but I can replicate this much without an artifact’s help.
‘Still, it’s annoying. I’m basically here bare-handed.’
Screams start rising from within the mist blanketing the hall.
“Aaagh!” “I see a monster!” “What is this mist!?”
At the same time, I vent more spells into the fog.
[Exhaustion Shackles]
[Grip of the Dead]
[Orb of Thunderstrike]
[Spell Boost: Multi-Cast]
Rummmble! Shla-lak! Uwoooo!
“W-what the—!” “Don’t come closer!” “Gyaaaah!”
Ability-users collapse under curses, get seized by wraiths, or seize up under shock.
That handles the small fry—but I’ll need something spicier.
“Sinhwa! What are you doing right now? Why won’t you listen to me!”
Mun Gyeongha—about twice my size—thrashes under my armpit. I’m holding him with magic so I don’t feel the weight, but he is extremely cumbersome.
“Hold still. You asked for help, and I’m helping!”
For reference, Mun Gyeongha’s request is as follows.
[
Protect Mun Gyeongha, one of Yeonam Group’s heirs.
You must remain at his side at all times.
! Restriction: If Mun Gyeongha is left unattended for 3 minutes or longer, he will run to Mun Taeik. !
Reward: 1,000,000 XP + Mun Gyeongha is delighted + extra bonus based on performance.
On failure: Mun Gyeongha becomes a part of Mun Taeik.]
As the quest says, I’m protecting him, and sticking to his side just like he wanted.
“Hah, did you fail to understand me? Not for others. Move only for me. I’m telling you to clear everyone else away!”
In a splendid voice, Mun Gyeongha spills cold-blooded words.
[System : Accept hunt quest ‘Kill the Mun Clan’?]
I’m not a wish-granting magic lamp.
“I refuse.”
Maybe because I already have a quest in progress.
“W...what did you say?”
Apparently not expecting refusal, Mun Gyeongha looks stunned under my arm.
“Damn it, what more do I have to do? I did that dreadful thing for you. And you can’t grant me such a simple favor?”
“Ugh! Are you seriously going to keep talking like that!”
For the record, the dreadful thing he did “for me” was making Genovese pasta. And the “simple favor” is asking me to murder his siblings!
“Chairman! What is the meaning of this! Why that bastard whelp!”
Tch. Took my eyes off for a moment and a problem popped up.
The spells I set were cleverly partitioning Mun Taeik from the other heirs.
But the heirs include plenty who are cultists at Judge-tier levels—or outright real cultists.
Mun Gyeong, previously first in line, pierced the magical traps I placed and reached Mun Taeik.
“Clo... closer...”
Mun Taeik smiles with a deathly curl of the lips and whispers softly.
“Chairman, what was that?”
“He asks that you bring your ear to his mouth.”
The blue-dress bodyguard answers Mun Gyeong.
“Ah, understood.”
Mun Gyeong bends at the waist—and ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) a thin tendril spills from Mun Taeik’s mouth.
A white, springy tendril, with a needle-like tip, tries to burrow into Mun Gyeong’s ear canal.
“Oh, hell!”
[Wave of Rage]
Rummmmble!
Power surges in a blazing wave toward Mun Gyeong, blasting light and sound.
“Unacceptable!”
Kwoaaaaaang!
The spell shatters in midair.
An elderly man with long hair, wearing a magnificent suit styled after a hanbok, steps out—
“Danger abounds, young miss!”
—and shoves Mun Gyeong away.
The President of the Hunter Mutual Aid Association, Dochul. Ridiculous turn or not, it saved Mun Gyeong.
Planting himself between me and Chairman Mun Taeik, Dochul bellows like thunder.
“Kim Sinhwa! You vile, lawless demon-path knave! True to your wanted status, you lurk for chances to commit heinous evils! But I have had my eye on you!”
It felt weird enough in the game, but seeing someone use “this seat” in first person out loud—strange feeling.
In any case, Dochul lowers his stance and flows into a peculiar martial posture.
From the pose alone, it looks like tai chi calisthenics for health?
At a glance he could pass for an elderly wuxia fan brimming with vigor—but he’s a legendary master who defined an era with Conqueror, Hwang Incheol, and Jeong Euntaek.
“Sir, don’t you have other things to handle besides threatening me?”
“Nothing is more urgent than exterminating a demon like you!”
Hm, fine.
I can handle this easily enough.
There aren’t enough elements to induce derangement, so the Feast’s Offering lacks tension.
We should raise the difficulty a bit.
Would anyone like to intervene here through Mun Taeik?
Struggling to hold his poorly moving body upright, Mun Taeik swallows the thin little tendril that had risen to his throat.
“Sluuurp— khak. Ahem.”
The blue-dress bodyguard wipes his mouth with a handkerchief.
“Are you all right?”
Mun Taeik answers by moving his fingertips a little, then wriggles the sensory organs on his face in a peculiar way.
His hearing is rather withered, but the sensory organs that receive sight still work well. He replaced them recently with new ones.
“Kh- kh— khhmm.”
A realization flickers across Mun Taeik’s rotten, decaying brain.
Was that one’s name Kim Sinhwa?
Kim Sinhwa acts like a madman sunk in delirium, striking in every direction, but Mun Taeik has grasped what intention drives him.
‘Exquisite strikes.’
He never meant to damage Mun Gyeong in the first place. His aim was likely to draw Dochul in.
“Impudent wretch—take this, the opening blow of this seat!”
Dochul vents jet-black, smoke-like mana—firing punches and palm strikes.
“Ah, hell. With grandpas like that around, what’s the point of a no-weapons policy!”
Kim Sinhwa sprays fire and lightning everywhere as he grumbles.
Kwoaaaaang! Boom! Fwoooosh!
A clash of Dochul’s tyrannical force and the infamous Kim Sinhwa.
Inside the hall, other ability-users either back off to avoid getting caught up in it—or lose their fighting spirit, overwhelmed by the duel itself.
‘And in the midst of this he wants to grab something else? Greedy.’
At some point, a devilish smile tugs at Mun Taeik’s lips.
A small gesture toward his bodyguard.
“Here it is.”
A pistol is handed to Mun Taeik.
“Kh— kh— kuk—”
With trembling hands, he struggles to aim at the space between his own eyebrows.
Click— clack.
“Hey, what are you doing!”
Kim Sinhwa reaches toward him and fires off an odd spell.
[Gremlin’s Prank]
Viiiiiiin!
A spell that breaks machinery.
Assured, Mun Taeik pulls the trigger. The gun skips with a tikik! and fails to fire.
So it was true.
That Kim Sinhwa will protect me, no matter what it takes.
“Kh— hhh—”
Dropping the broken pistol to the floor, Mun Taeik issues orders to his bodyguards.
[System : Penalty trait ‘Feast’s Offering’ effect activates.]
“Great, I’m swamped. What now?”
There are too many cultists here with tight ties to abyssal beings.
Some heirs are even cult leaders themselves, like Mun Gyeongnam who fought me before.
‘And what the hell was that crazy old man doing?’
Mun Taeik just pulled a stunt. Now he’s wearing a grotesquely twisted smile.
Was he testing me?
Damn it, feels like I took a hit.
[System : ‘Heightened Vigilance’ trait activates.]
[System : ‘Heightened Vigilance’ trait activates.]
[System : ‘Heightened Vigilance’ trait activates.]
[System : ‘Heightened Vigilance’ trait activates.]
Exactly four warning messages.
My senses branch toward the problem spot. [Spatial Dominion] expands with ferocious speed.
In a blink I understand what’s happening.
“Wow, you son of a—”
Grrrrrrrrmm!
The event triggers the instant I realize it.
“Uwaagh!”
“Why an earthquake all of a sudden!?”
Evil mana roars up from floors above.
I can pin the exact location.
Floor 37. The rooftop lounge.
‘They’re prepping a ritual.’
Most likely Mun Taeik’s black magi intend to summon something.
[Accept quest?]
“Kyaaaa!”
“Th-the National Assembly!”
Something tremendous is happening outside the windows.
To citizens in Sejong City, it must look like the sky is falling.
The airship [Mobile Parliament Ship], which had been floating in the sky, slips its fixed orbit—and is barreling this way.
Both incidents are events that can occur at this venue.
Soon we’ll also have [Ilshin Hotel Collapse], when bombs planted by Yeonam’s hostile company explode underground—and [Invisible Monster Uproar], when beasts unleashed by Baek Beomjin of Hellistic attack people.
“Damn it. Are you kidding me?”
Time to update the checklist.
I have to keep a majority of the thirteen heirs alive, protect the Chairman who will die in one hit, and extract Mun Seunghee who’s about down to the 15th floor—
Stop the ritual being prepared on the roof, stop the airship that’s about to ram straight into the building, and stop the bombing that’s about to go off in the building’s basement.
