An impromptu welcome feast broke out on the spot.
A table was taken out, chairs were set up, and alcohol and food were laid out.
Monsters were everywhere around them, but none approached.
Gyeondallae had taken care of it with talisman magic.
"Come now, Honse-nim, have a drink."
"Oh my, Bong Daehyeop, I should be pouring for you first."
"Now, now! A guest has come from far away—it's only right that I host."
"Hahaha, then I'll shamelessly accept."
Ice-cold slushy beer chilled by Mannyeon.
Gluuug.
"Kyaah! This place really is heaven."
He picked up a chicken drumstick as a side dish.
Crunch!
"Mmm, mm, the juices are just bursting."
"There's still plenty. You can have more."
He must have been very hungry.
The Chaos Demon King devoured the chicken ravenously.
Even chewing through the bones—crunch, crunch.
The story he told while eating:
He'd been playing hide-and-seek with the Sword Immortal and the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, jumped into some hole, and when he came out—he was here.
With no clear way back, he decided to sleep it off, and then suddenly a demon appeared in the sky.
It looked like a bad guy at a glance, so he subdued it.
It didn't all sound true.
The other summoned beings felt the same way.
Whisper, whisper—into Juhyeok's ear.
"Sounds like a lie. Just look at him—he's practically a Demon King."
"Even to a maiden's eyes, that seems so. The aura feels similar to that nine-tailed fox we caught on our Black Tower Earth."
"This old one thinks so too. The demonic energy flowing from his body is no ordinary thing."
"Hooe."
"Brigadier Veronica Caliber—should I shoot first?"
"I'll smite him with radiance—"
But Juhyeok shook his head.
He partially agreed with them.
Not immortal qi, not netherworld qi—an unknown being with a strange, alien energy.
Even so, his connection to the Sword Immortal and the Great Sage Equal to Heaven was undeniable.
And the Judge's Hammer remained quiet—he didn't feel threatened.
He looked scary, but he seemed kind.
Honestly, if we're judging by looks, our farmer Duu is way scarier.
Still, better safe than sorry.
"Um… the Sword Immortal-nim and the Great Sage Equal to Heaven are doing well, right?"
"Huh? Those bast— I mean, those gentlemen? Well, lazing around is their job."
"I heard the Great Sage has been busy with delivery work."
"Delivery? He doesn't do that himself. He makes his clones do it."
True enough.
Juhyeok had heard that before.
"Those two are making a huge fuss about building a Black Tower in the Immortal Realm these days."
Huh?
Did I hear that right?
"…Building a Black Tower in the Immortal Realm?"
"Yes, yes. Lunatics, the lot of them. They even told me to be the final boss of the 100th floor."
"Uh…"
"I'm gentle by nature, you know? Otherwise, I would've flipped the whole place upside down. Barely held back."
Now it made sense.
That wasn't hide-and-seek.
He ran away.
So they wouldn't capture him and make him the final boss of the Black Tower.
Why the Sword Immortal wants to build a Black Tower, I don't know, but…
Talent like that would be rare for a final boss.
From his terrifying appearance alone, and from his ability to easily subdue an adult dragon.
Anyway.
"This dragon here…"
"Ah, right. The black silkie dragon—want me to give it to you?"
"It's actually one I was looking for."
The Chaos Demon King smiled broadly.
"Oh! Is that so? For nourishment, right? A wise choice. Health is everything. I'll take out its heart and slice it nicely for you."
Ugh.
That's gross.
Though, to be fair, a dragon heart is useful.
"Eating it is… a bit much. I'd appreciate it if you entrusted it to me instead."
"Hahaha, take it as you like."
"I'll pay you for it."
"Oh my, you can have it for free. Catching a mere dragon whelp isn't difficult."
Permission granted.
Then—
What should we do?
There are two options.
Kill it, or accept its surrender.
Evil Dragon Partalon was losing his mind.
He'd been heading east after passing through the southern teleport point.
The traitor dragon was fast, but he judged he could shake him off.
Then what was this?
He got hit by something.
Unbelievable, but wham!—one blow knocked him out.
When he woke up, his true body was bound tightly in chains.
He tried to escape.
He tried expanding his body with polymorph magic—but the chains expanded with him.
What the hell is this?
Not mana, not aura.
A bizarre energy that even disrupted a dragon's magic.
He still didn't understand what happened.
Only that he was captured.
And the summoner was there too.
They were even having a drinking party, as if celebrating his capture.
If this continues, I'll die.
First, survival.
Negotiate?
He had a card he could play.
If he revealed it, they wouldn't kill him lightly.
But negotiations might fail.
Then what's the safest option?
Partalon's eyes landed on the green-haired man.
A polymorphed Green Dragon.
A traitor who had submitted to the summoner.
A traitor, huh…
What can't you do to survive?
If it saves his life, he'd do anything.
Joining the summoner's side wasn't a bad idea.
Just look at that traitor—clinging close and enjoying the benefits.
At that moment—
Step, step—the summoner and his companions approached.
Now's the chance.
Partalon shouted urgently.
"Summoner! I surrender! Accept my defection!"
At the same time—
Ding!
[The 89th-floor Administrator, Evil Dragon Partalon, has requested defection to the Player, invoking the free will granted to him.]
Juhyeok heard it too.
"Huh? Defection?"
"A defection request?"
"He's struggling to survive."
"An adult dragon would be a useful addition to our forces."
Juhyeok was positive as well.
A system message had appeared.
Then the defection request must be genuine.
But he had no intention of accepting it easily.
"You want to defect?"
"Yes. If you accept me, I will devote my loyalty."
"Ohhh, I see. Well then—"
"Hahaha, a wise decision. From now on, I will faithfully serve you—eh?"
Partalon stopped mid-sentence.
"Um, Summoner?"
"What?"
"Why are you holding a hammer?"*
"Oh! This? Well, actually—"
Juhyeok suddenly shouted like a thunderclap.
"You wretch! You yourself have confessed your sins!"
What?
Why all of a sudden?
At that moment, energy surged from the Judge's Hammer and passed through Partalon's body.
"Guh—!"
Simultaneously—
Pop!
A vision of accumulated sins appeared.
Evil Dragon Partalon invading a mountain village.
After demanding a pure maiden from the village chief as tribute, he simply swallowed her whole.
"You son of a bitch."
"I knew it."
He was a man-eating dragon.
And that wasn't all.
He invaded elf villages, dwarf underground cities—devouring anything in sight.
As a result, he was branded an evil dragon and hunted by his fellow dragons.
He then fled into the Black Tower by contracting with a tower administrator.
The worst dragon they had ever seen.
Is it because he's black?
You can't judge good and evil by a dragon's color.
But at the very least, this bastard was a demon dragon steeped in sin.
Long ago, the shut-in alchemist Mari had also been offered as a sacrifice to a Black Dragon.
But she hadn't been eaten.
That ancient dragon had merely taken her as a hostage out of boredom—and Mari even learned alchemy from it.
In contrast, Partalon ate humans and demi-humans.
Defection?
Accept this evil bastard? Are you insane?
"He's utterly vile."
"He must be judged."
"This filthy bastard!"
"Don't kill him easily. Let's skin him alive first."
"Or accept his defection and turn him into a heart vending machine—"
"Ohh! Good idea."
"No. His heart is tainted. Eating it would cause trouble—burn him cleanly instead."
Watching all this, the Chaos Demon King was shocked.
Not because of what the dragon had done.
There were plenty of man-eating demons out there.
No—because of Bong Juhyeok.
The Hammer of Yama he possessed.
Not just possessing it—
He knows how to use it?
Just like Judge Yama himself.
How can a human wield a god's tool?
Good thing I prostrated myself early.
If he'd mouthed off without knowing, it would've been disastrous.
Now he understood why the Sword Immortal and the Great Sage Equal to Heaven kept calling him Bong Daehyeop.
So the Chaos Demon King also shouted angrily.
"A man-eating fiend! Such creatures have no value for redemption! Cast him into the Hungry Ghost Hell!"
Partalon snapped back.
"What's wrong with eating humans?! You eat cows and pigs! Don't judge me by human standards!"
Bullshit.
Of course humans judge by human standards—what kind of nonsense is that?
Time to kill him.
Juhyeok signaled to the Mad Demon and Brigadier Bae.
The two of them should be more than enough.
But—
"W-wait!"
Partalon shouted desperately.
"If you kill me now, you'll never clear the 89th floor."
What?
"The administrators will never acknowledge it."
Acknowledge what?
"First of all, no mission was assigned. If you kill me without receiving a mission, what happens then?"
Come to think of it, he had a point.
There should have been a message like:
[89th Floor Mission: Defeat Evil Dragon Partalon.]
But they never received one.
It only said mission generation was impossible.
"You'll never be judged as having cleared it properly."
Ridiculous.
"We've killed them outside the tower before."
They did it on Earth 675.
"Heh heh, you think it's the same as back then? The administrators have already adjusted the system. Do you think they let me leave the tower without any countermeasures?"
This bastard—
Juhyeok raised the hammer once more and shouted.
"Confess the truth!!!"
Swoooosh!
Power surged outward.
"Guh—! …Does it sound like a lie? I only told the truth. Heh heh heh—go ahead and check."
It wasn't a lie.
Partalon truly believed it.
That even if he were killed, it wouldn't count as mission completion.
Then—
"This is troublesome…"
Gyeondallae spoke in a grave tone.
"There is merit to his claim. Those despicable administrators would seize on any excuse they could."
"Haa…"
They'd actually experienced it before.
Disputes over mission-clear judgments.
Back then, the White Tower intervened and settled it—but—
"If they really tweaked the system, then even if we kill him…"
This was like a game.
For example, suppose there's a quest mob.
In some cases, killing the mob before accepting the quest still retroactively counts as a success.
But in other cases, no matter how many times you kill the target before accepting the quest, it never counts.
Meaning they'd changed the system to the latter—requiring you to accept the quest first.
Then the Kosak spoke up.
"How about accepting this bastard's defection? It's regrettable, but we've got no choice if we want to clear it."
"Not sure that would even work."
There were too many loopholes.
If the admins wanted to nitpick, they easily could.
Earth 843 was a world where the Black Tower's influence was strong—White Tower intervention would be difficult.
And above all, the biggest problem—
Accepting a man-eating dragon as a summoned being?
No chance.
I'd rather give up entirely.
"Hoo… So the only proper way is to take Partalon back into the tower, receive the mission, then kill him."
But how do we take him in?
If he went in willingly, sure—but there was no way he'd obey.
Then—
The Chaos Demon King raised his hand, looking at Juhyeok.
"I have a method."
"Oh? You do?"
"We put him in a gourd."
A gourd?
"It's like an infinite space. You can put anything inside."
The Chaos Demon King showed Juhyeok several gourds hanging from his waist.
"Like these."
"…Ah. I see."
Disappointing.
Juhyeok already knew about immortals' infinite spaces—no different from Rajiks's subspace backpack.
"You can't put living beings inside, though."
"Hahaha. Ordinary gourds, no. But—"
The Chaos Demon King smiled confidently.
"This red gourd is different. It can contain a living being. The only drawback is—it can only hold one."
Huh?
"It's called the Red Gourd. Our seniors—ah, I mean senior heroes—used it. The usage is…"
Whisper, whisper.
The Chaos Demon King leaned in and explained softly.
Juhyeok's expression grew brighter.
This is good.
Worth a try.
"I'll give it to you as a gift."
"Oh, such a precious item—"
"Not at all. Please, make full use of it."
Juhyeok took the gourd.
He opened the lid, aimed it at Partalon, and—
"Hey! Partalon!"
Partalon tilted his head.
What is this guy trying to do?
"Why? Got something to say?"
That was when—
Suuuuuuuuuu!!!
Wham!
A strange force poured out of the gourd.
"Guh!"
It wrapped around Partalon's body—
Swoosh!—and swallowed him whole.
Juhyeok hurriedly closed the lid.
"Oooooooh!!!"
He went in.
Success!
"Amazing! Summoner Bong is the best."
"Hahaha, as expected of you, Junior Summoner…"
"I, too, am impressed."
"Brigadier Veronica Caliber—certain victory!"
"Hoaaah!"
A gourd that can contain a living being.
The condition: call the target's name and get a response.
Size doesn't matter—but only one entity.
Of course, it doesn't work on everyone.
Powerful beings can resist.
Partalon could have—but he'd already taken a heavy blow from the Chaos Demon King,
then been suppressed by the Judge's Hammer.
He was severely weakened.
"Honse-nim, now that I look closely, you're quite handsome."
"Truly heroic. Without that gourd, what would we have done?"
"Come to think of it, I've seen this in Journey to the West. Gold Horn and Silver Horn, right?"
"Aren't they friends of the Great Sage? Birds of a feather."
"Hooe~!"
Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap!!
Juhyeok and the summoned beings applauded sincerely.
Embarrassed by the praise, the Chaos Demon King scratched his head.
Being treated like a hero for just one gourd…
His chest swelled with pride.
In the demon world, he'd only ever been looked down on.
"Bong Daehyeop, he's quite strong—he might escape. You should deal with him quickly."
He was right.
Let's finish this fast—
before he bursts out of the gourd.
"Honse-nim."
"Yes?"
"Please wait here a bit. I'll deal with him quickly, then give you the full-course treatment. You can look forward to it."
"…Ah, yes. I—I'll wait."
Spot!
Juhyeok and the summoned beings vanished.
[Entering Republic of Korea Black Tower, 89th Floor.]
At last.
Still, no mission appeared.
Then—
Juhyeok took out the Red Gourd.
He opened the lid, aimed the mouth forward—
"Partalon, come out!"
Then—
Swoosh!
Partalon's true body spilled out.
He blinked, not understanding the situation.
Juhyeok and the summoned beings tensed up, staring at him silently.
Then—
Ding!
A notification appeared.
[The 89th-floor administrator, Evil Dragon Partalon, has returned to the Black Tower.]
Then—
[System error has been corrected.]
Ding!
[89th Floor Mission: Defeat Evil Dragon Partalon.]
"Yes!"
"Mission received!"
"Whew… I've aged ten years. It's finally normalized."
At the same time, Partalon—rolling his eyes nervously—
Spot!
Transformed into his true body and shot upward like a bolt.
"Fuuuuuck! You sons of bitches! You think I'm gonna die here?!"
Ssshaaaaak!
"Hahaha, pathetic man-eating dragon bastard."
If he runs, where exactly does he think he's going?
"Brigadier Bae?"
"Brigadier Veronica Caliber."
"Dispose of him."
"Annihilate."
The magic gun glowed white-hot.
"Selector: single-shot. Target locked… fire!"
Thoom!
Partalon's head exploded instantly.
The firing sound came after the head burst.
Bzzzzzzzzzt!!!
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!!!
Whoooooosh!
Partalon's body fell endlessly.
Ding!
[Evil Dragon Partalon defeated 1/1]
[89th Floor Mission completed.]
Mission complete.
Reward: upper-grade mana crystals.
Then—
"Hoooeek!"
Tang! Whirl-whirl!
Rajiks shot forward at terrifying speed.
Why is he—?
Ah! Right.
The dragon heart.
Black as pitch—kind of gross to eat.
Am I eating it?
Nah.
Give it to the summoned beings.
Rajiks reached Partalon's corpse.
With lightning-fast hands—heart extraction successful.
And then—
[World Announcement: Republic of Korea Black Tower 89th Floor Cleared! A Korean-nationality player has achieved an S+++ rank by clearing the Black Tower's 89th-floor mission with astounding ability.]
Floor 89—complete.
Only the 90th floor remains.
Black Tower Administration Room, Earth 843.
The administrators heard the announcement.
[…What?]
[Huh? Why was it cleared?]
[Uh… how did that happen?]
Exactly.
It shouldn't have been possible.
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