Chapter 101. Event Mob?
"Ah!"
"It seems the Martial Alliance planned this affair with some intention toward that child, but from what I can see, no one will be able to do anything to him. That is, unless the Two Gods, or that hidden one, the unknown force lurking in the shadows, steps in."
"......"
"However, there is one more thing that concerns me...."
The old man withdrew his gaze from the shadow. Then, lifting his head to look up at the moon, he continued speaking.
"The Rising Star. That star which shielded the child. That one troubles me. That star, which I believed it was its duty to block the way until Yeon Yeong-ha came of age, has instead grown brighter at the very moment the child stepped into the martial world."
In truth, what he had been gazing at was not the moon, but a single star hidden beside it, barely visible.
Clearly, two years ago it had lost its light and was in decline, yet at some point it recovered its radiance, and now it was emitting a fairly strong, colorless and transparent glow.
An ordinary person would not have been able to see it because of the moonlight, but the old man's eyesight pierced through it precisely.
"I truly do not understand what is going on."
The old man, Gong Na-chu, Hall Master of the Hall of Gathering Evils, stood there for a long while, staring at the Rising Star.
The Extreme Yin Heavenly Slaughter Star was already hidden behind the moon, completely out of sight.
And soon.
The Rising Star would follow it and disappear behind the moon as well.
'If that happens, will the two of them clash again ...?'
That could be the case, or it might not be.
They could coexist peacefully.
Or they could fight.
Until one of them disappears...…
***
The third repeated today.
As if on schedule, 'that thing' entered the Nangnang Tavern once more.
That thing.
Yes. It was an existence that could only be described that way.
A person, yet also something that was not a person.
Different from that other something inside her body that had sunk deep and would not stop chattering.
Yeon Yeong-ha swept her gaze over its eyes, just as she had on the second day of today. As expected, she could see nothing.
'So it really isn't human?'
If it were human, there was no way it would not be readable to her eyes.
Yeon Yeong-ha interlaced her fingers, rested her elbows on the table, and gently laid her small face atop them.
Her head did not feel heavy, yet her hands trembled slightly. It was because the Heavenly Slaughter Energy deep within her heart was trying to burst out.
That man, Dong Gwang-cheon, just like on the first and second days of today, entered the tavern and looked up toward the entrance. As always, he must have sensed that Elder Noh was hiding there. She herself did not know how that was possible. That was why he had such an incomprehensible existence. That man.
Dong Gwang-cheon wandered around the interior of the tavern with the waiter, and then his eyes met hers.
Hut.
She smiled.
Perhaps because she was so delighted. It was the first time in her life she had seen such an existence. No, more precisely, this was the third encounter. But in another sense, it was also the first meeting. Perhaps she might meet him again on 'another today.'
Swoosh.
She stood up and approached Dong Gwang-cheon. Then, she slightly altered the words she had spoken when she met him on the first and second days, and spoke again.
"Even though this is the third time we've met, you make my heart race like crazy every single time. You."
"......"
Third. Only that word had changed, and the rest was exactly the same, not a single particle different.
"Nice to meet you. I've already said this twice, but since you probably won't remember, I'll say it again. This time, make sure you remember my name."
Twice. Once again, everything except that word was identical to the second day.
"Yeon Yeong-ha. My name is Yeon Yeong-ha."
This was the same as well. It was the third time she had taught him her name.
His gaze sank emptily. Then he completely closed off his inner self. As a result, he transformed into an existence that seemed both present and absent at the same time.
He had always been like that, but now he was even more unreadable.
"What are you?"
As scheduled, he said those words.
It was fun. Repetition usually made everything boring, but dealing with this man was interesting. It was so entertaining that she wanted to keep watching him and talking to him.
But it was also dangerous. Perhaps that was what not knowing truly meant. She had never experienced it before, but she thought that must be the case.
[Kill him. Kill them all.]
The Heavenly Slaughter Energy inside her, having sensed the opponent's existence, screamed madly and tried to burst out, but she could not act rashly.
Hold it in. It would be troublesome to play pranks anytime, anywhere.
Without responding to his words, she brushed past him and stepped outside the Nangnang Tavern. She had already learned his name on the second day, so there was no need to forcefully advertise that she knew it.
When she lifted her head, the moon she had seen over the past three days—also a single day—was hanging in the sky, exactly the same. It was vividly blue. It did not really matter anyway.
Clenching her trembling hands tightly, she began to walk slowly. Her direction was away from Dong Gwang-cheon. If she stayed here any longer, the Heavenly Slaughter Energy felt like it would go berserk.
"Elder Noh."
As if responding to her words, an unusually elongated shadow flickered.
"Deploy the entire Killing Shadow Squad and kill him."
The shadow that heard her words wavered once more.
"Only ten from the Killing Shadow Squad? No. Send them all."
"....."
"Why? I already sent them twice, and they were all eaten. That's why."
"......"
"Huh? If we do that, the Martial Alliance will find out? Doesn't matter. They already know that someone from the Hall of Gathering Evils has been sent here. They just don't know it's me. As long as I don't move personally, that Martial Alliance Leader will never know."
"........"
"Anyway, the Central Plains are my playground from this moment on. Yunnan was far too cramped. From now on, I should play a proper game. I even found an interesting toy."
After finishing her incomprehensible muttering, she melted into the crowd and disappeared. Her shadow, stretched long by the moonlight, hurriedly followed behind her and slipped into the darkness.
***
After she vanished.
Dong Gwang-cheon, no, Dong Bong-su, also stepped outside the Nangnang Tavern. The waiter who had been kindly chattering away while following him until now changed to a grumbling tone, but it was still nothing for him to concern himself with.
He was simply chewing over the words spoken by the woman called Yeon Yeong-ha.
'She said she had already met me twice, and that this meeting was the third.'
What did it mean?
And.
What was it? That thing?
It was not the expected 'event mob.' But it was certain that he had encountered a monster that stimulated his interest far more than that.
The Central Plains seemed far more interesting than he had thought. A hunting ground where more prey than expected ran wild.
Perhaps it was a place where terrifying monsters roamed, to the point where he himself might end up being hunted instead.
'Maybe one of them is already thinking of me as prey and has its sights set on me.'
If I saw myself...…
Was there even a need to say it? I would have lost sleep at night after discovering the ultimate prey. She was probably the same.
Tap.
Having reached that thought, Dong Bong-su took a step southward to return to the Martial Alliance.
"..."
The liveliness of the festival-filled street was slowly dying down. The hour of Hai had ended, and the hour of Zi of the next day was approaching.
"Kekeke."
Dong Bong-su suddenly let out a low chuckle.
A sense of disharmony spread across the entire street. Though he had never experienced it before, he instinctively understood why.
A faint, unpleasant sense of energy that had engulfed the whole street. A thoroughly low-grade killing intent. Yet killing intent was still killing intent. Dozens of such things gathered together to pressure him, making his skin tingle slightly.
"Have I become prey? These must be the ones Yeon Yeong-ha sent, right?"
One hundred percent. There was no need to think, 'already?' It was the natural sequence of events. The only difference was that if it were him, he would have moved personally.
Still, the feeling of becoming prey was not entirely unpleasant. The pounding of killing intent, like needles pricking him, felt refreshingly cool, as if it were massaging his entire body.
There was just one slight regret.
"If you were going to send them, you should've sent tastier ones."
His spiritual vision was quiet. Almost blandly so. Enemies of that level would hardly be of any help as experience.
One, two, three, four...…
He counted the faintly sensed killing intents.
43.
Forty-three pieces of trashy killing intent were hiding in every corner of the street. The walls, the ground, the rooftops were all spewing hostility toward him.
The moment he tried to leave the street, their attack would probably begin.
Dong Bong-su came to a complete halt.
It was not that he was afraid to fight. Naturally not. The problem was the fight itself. There were too many eyes here. Moreover, it was impossible to eliminate all of them.
New Murim Online was filled with blood and death, but blood required justification. Death without justification bred resentment and hatred.
The justification given to him now, or that would be given, was nothing more than an enemy ambush. He had no justification to freely slaughter homeless martial artists sprawled around sleeping, or people enjoying a night stroll.
The 'fake hero' he would have to wear for some time could never kill innocent—by this place's general standards—people.
But he could not avoid fighting either. Nor was it a wise choice to reveal everything.
After thinking a bit longer, Dong Bong-su made his decision. Those killing intents Yeon Yeong-ha had sent were merely a test, a taste.
A taste would suffice.
However, that taste would be short and intense, so much so that when they came to taste again next time, they might be afraid to even sample it.
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