In his twenty-nine years—more like twenty-seven to be exact—Eun-Ho had t countless people. So had treated him kindly, while others had been inexplicably hostile.
[An ancient vengeful spirit awakens at the sight of an unforgettable enemy!]
Yet never, not once, had there been anyone worthy of being called an unforgettable enemy—certainly not here, in a world that was not even Earth.
“Hey, I think you’ve got the wrong guy,” Eun-Ho said flatly.
[A breath heavy with sorrow and hate, bound by lingering grudges, halts your steps in the desert!]
“Huh?” he muttered.
Swoosh—!
Darkness, sharp as an arrow, poured toward him. A frost-chilled force, cold enough to pierce bone, streaked straight for his ankles.
“Petrify! Acceleration!” Eun-Ho shouted, leaping backward at the sa ti.
Arrows of shadow drifted through the air, slow to his eyes as he dodged them one by one.
Stay calm, he told himself.
He didn’t know what was happening, but he had to figure it out before ti settled back into place.
I have thirty-five seconds. Would I be able to take him down?
Even after being impaled through the skull by the weapon of the gods, his enemy was still unscathed. Rather than powerful, it ant he was unkillable.
I have thirty seconds now. This person probably isn’t an ordinary human.
His garnts were elaborate, embroidered with ornate patterns and woven from fine fabric. The title he bore, Corrupted Monarch, suggested that he had once held a rank of great power.
I have twenty five seconds now. No way this guy is referring to when he says enemy.
If soone of that status had died so miserably that even death couldn’t claim him, Eun-Ho was sure he would rember.
Okay, twenty seconds to go. If he’s mistaken for soone else, what’s his evidence?
The ssage said he had “discovered traces of searing resentnt.” Were those traces on Eun-Ho, his soul, or perhaps an object? Besides, if it was the latter, he couldn’t tell what kind of object it was.
“Summon!” he commanded.
Thump. Thud. Thunk.
Eun-Ho spread his hands wide, pouring every item from his inventory into the desert sand. Laid out in neat rows, the items were spaced evenly apart, like a rchant setting up a roadside stall.
Tick—!
He inhaled in rhythm with the second hand of his watch. Then, when ti regained its proper flow, he shouted, “Freeze!”
[Your title Ghost Butcher has been activated!]
[You will be immune to the abilities of low-tier Ghosts.]
[The low-tier Ghosts tremble in fear before the Ghost Butcher’s presence.]
Using the brief opening his title had created, he fired off his words like bullets.
“I’ve got no enemies, so speak clearly! Among these, which one carries the trace?”
The black smoke that had been hurtling toward him faltered. It quivered, hesitated for a heartbeat, and then shot forward again. This ti, with clear intent, it moved toward an antique blade he had earned after slaying a chira on the Sky Island.
[You have acquired the relics of Cho Bok!]
Woom... Woooom—!
The vengeful spirit burned with a furious black fla.
“Ah. So it was this one?” Eun-Ho said quietly.
***
When one t the enemy of one’s enemy, the first thing to do was simple: build a sense of solidarity.
“He died by my hand,” Eun-Ho said.
[The Corrupted Monarch cannot accept the early death of a hated foe, one he longed to tear apart with his own hands.]
Then, Eun-Ho might as well fess up about how much the man had suffered and how wretched his final monts had been.
“He fell to one of my teammates,” Eun-Ho continued calmly, “by the ti we found him, his body was so twisted and deford it was barely human.”
After all, nothing bonded two people quite like a shared enemy.
“By the end,” Eun-Ho said, “his body contorted, snapped and exploded. There wasn’t even a corpse left. His flesh puffed up like a balloon before bursting into shreds.”
A heavy silence followed.
[The Corrupted Monarch confirms that you are speaking the truth.]
[He finds bittersweet satisfaction in the miserable end of his mortal enemy.]
Fwoosh—!
The pale corpse, drained of all color, suddenly shone with light so brilliant that it soared toward the heavens.
Wooo—
The wind began to howl.
Wooooo—
Then, a sandstorm surged around Eun-Ho, toppling the desert itself. Beyond that swirling wall of black sand, he saw the sa man now lying lifeless before him.
Eun-Ho couldn’t tell whether it was a mory or a vision, but voices echoed faintly.
“They’re all dood anyway. I’m being generous, letting them live this long,” sneered Cho Bok, spitting contemptuously into the air.
“Your Majesty! You must survive... Please, you must live...”
“Father! Don’t—please, don’t!”
A mother and daughter, nearly identical, clung to each other even as everything faded. Then, long after they vanished, the man remained wandering the desert, screaming in madness and grief.
“... No! Please—don’t!”
Woooooo—
The wind cried like a lant.
Ding—!
[The Corrupted Monarch apologizes to you, the benefactor avenged his enemy on his behalf.]
[He expresses deep gratitude from the depths of his soul.]
Then, black marks spread across the man’s body, blooming like ink stains. Even through the thick curtain of dust, his once flawless, porcelain-like skin began to rot.
So this is it. He’s finally accepting the long-delayed decay.
In an instant, his body crossed from life to death. After holding on for centuries, the inevitable took him.
[The Corrupted Monarch enters eternal rest.]
Fwoosh—!
Watching that body crumble away, Eun-Ho thought he should’ve felt emptiness, or pity. However, the man seed at peace, so much so that he left a parting gift.
Thunk.
A ring inlaid with a black gem fell into Eun-Ho’s palm. As he read the ssage floating before him, he barely noticed the sandstorm easing.
[Corrupted Monarch’s Ring]
- A ring imbued with the Monarch’s lingering grudge.
- Absorbs the target’s Stamina upon contact.
- Absorption rate: up to 0.1% of the Stamina per second depending on the target’s defense power.
[The Monarch of the Desert bestows his blessing upon the wanderer of the sands.]
A blessing granted by the Corrupted Monarch, now reborn as the Desert Monarch.
[You will not lose your way in the desert.]
[Your movent speed will not decrease in desert terrain.]
[Your chances of discovering an oasis have increased.]
[Your resistance to heat has slightly improved.]
Even as the man’s face decayed, a faint, serene smile lingered on his lips.
[Congratulations!]
[You have defeated the final monster of the Corrupted Desert.]
[Corrupted Desert purification has been completed!]
Fwoosh—!
A massive current erupted across the endless black sands. The dark grains trembled, colliding with one. Slowly, they turned white, like rice husks shedding their shells to reveal gleaming white kernels beneath.
[Progress: 50/50]
[All parasitic monsters within the desert have been eliminated.]
[You have purified the Corrupted Desert.]
It was over.
[You have completed the sub-trial of Project OJT.]
[You have been rewarded with three points and 3,000 Welfare Points.]
He earned two points for uncovering the truth behind the desert’s corruption, and three more for purifying it entirely. On top of that, he’d claid Cheong Jeong’s keepsake pouch, the quicksand’s special effect, and a ring that drained his enemies’ strength.
What’s this pouch, though?
It was made of crimson velvet, just a little larger than his palm. He loosened the gold drawstring and slipped his hand inside. Then ca a cascade of items, far too many to fit in sothing that small.
[Proximity Ti Bomb]
[teor-Iron Mine]
[Shadow Snare]
The first few were familiar, as they were projectiles that Cheong Jeong had been using earlier. It was the sa ones that had been buried in the sand to trap Eun-Ho’s feet.
I’ll put these to good use, ntor.
He reached in again, sifting through the treasures that continued to pour out.
[Necklace of Erden]
[Ornanted Belt of Barinthos]
[Raw Blue Sapphire Gemstone]
...
Next ca a dazzling assortnt of valuables, each one gleaming with unmistakable worth.
Hmm.
They were too flashy for that bespectacled guy to have been using. Besides, he’d definitely had high-level Appraisal and Trade skills.
[Cheong Jeong]
[Skills]
- [Basic Spearmanship(Lv. 2)]
- [Appraisal(Lv. 11)]
- [Trade(Lv. 7)]
- [In-Person Reporting(Lv. 10)]
- [Written Reporting(Lv. 4)]
At first, Eun-Ho had dismissed it, thinking Cheong Jeong was a forr rchant or sothing.
Or maybe, is he a fence?Soone who steals and re-sells goods?
As he inspected each item one by one, sothing caught both his hand and his eye. There was an item he hadn’t expected to see.
Huh?
[Office Key]
- Unlocks and locks a private office within Headquarters.
- Location: Cho Bok’s Private Office (Investigation Bureau, Building C, Room 193)
“... Huh? Why the hell does this guy have this?” Eun-Ho muttered.
***
It was 6:00 PM, and the end-of-day announcent echoed through the halls.
[Attention, all new employees currently in the company premises.]
[Day one of Project OJT has officially ended.]
[Please return to your dormitories imdiately.]
Right after the desert had been purified, Eun-Ho had reunited with his manager, collected Cheong Jeong’s remains, and returned to the Investigation Bureau. They’d been alone in the office for over two hours now.
“What should we do, sir?” Eun-Ho asked.
The manager hadn’t moved an inch.
“I’ll ask you one last ti, Mr. Lee Eun-Ho. You really didn’t kill him?” His eyes narrowed into their usual calm slits, the kind that feigned kindness but waited for a confession. “You do realize I’m the one grading your OJT evaluation, right? If you’re lying, it won’t end well for you. I’ll tank your attitude score and your work assessnt straight to the bottom.”
“... It wasn’t ,” Eun-Ho said. “You saw it too, sir. The body was already rotting.”
“Yeah, I saw that, but still...”
The corpse they’d recovered had crumbled, with flesh blackened and brittle. Cheong Jeong’d been swept away by the Corrupted Monarch’s final sandstorm.
“It must’ve been the tentacles, sir. I’m sure of it.”
The manager exhaled a long, tired sigh.
“... So there really wasn’t anything? Nothing at all?” he asked again, voice edged with suspicion. He asked if nothing, no items nor loot, dropped at the scene.
“None, sir. There was nothing.”
“Then why were there no relics, huh? Not even one?”
Well... Because they’re all in my pocket, Eun-Ho thought.
Of course, he couldn’t say that.
Instead, Eun-Ho furrowed his brow and pretended to think deeply. “Maybe he used them all before he died? He was throwing around bombs and other gear during the fight.”
The manager rubbed his face with both hands, groaning, “Haah... What the hell happened out there?”
Then, the man waved dismissively, pulling up an invisible system window and sending rapid ssages to soone unseen.
“I’m sorry,” Eun-Ho said solemnly. “If only I hadn’t been caught by those tentacles...”
He clenched his fists and bowed low, voice heavy with guilt. It was a perfect picture of grief, down to the tremor in his tone.
For a mont, the manager, distracted and frazzled, mumbled without thinking, “Forget it. That bastard got killed because he was too weak—I an, it couldn’t be helped. Don’t bla yourself.”
He tried to retract those words, but Eun-Ho had already heard them.
Hmm. So that’s his real face behind the polite mask.
The chief, clearly wanting to end the conversation, gestured toward the door. “Anyway... Go get so rest, Eun-Ho.”
“Yes, sir,” Eun-Ho replied quickly as those were the words he’d been waiting for.
“Head straight to the dorm and be back here by 9:00 AM sharp tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And don’t go spouting nonsense anywhere, got it? You know what that’ll an for your evaluation.”
“... Understood.”
He stood, bowed once, and left the room. The mont his foot crossed the threshold, the system chid again, echoing through the corridor.
[Day one of Project OJT has officially ended.]
[Please return to your dormitory imdiately.]
Eun-Ho smirked faintly.
Going straight there would be too boring.
He pulled out Cho Bok’s relic that he’d obtained from Sky Island.
[Personal Vault Key]
- A key for a private vault.
- Cannot be copied due to a strong protective barrier.
He’d never figured out which vault it opened, so it had been sitting unused until now.
[Office Key]
- Unlocks and locks a private office within Headquarters.
- Location: Cho Bok’s Private Office (Investigation Bureau, Building C, Room 193)
Now he knew where to head over and each departnt’s OJT lasted only two days.
Breaking the rules on the very first night does feel risky. But who knows what might happen tomorrow night?
He glanced at the key one more ti, its tallic sheen catching the dim office light.
Guess I’ll go take a look.
***
Finding Room 193 in Building C of the Investigation Bureau wasn’t difficult at all. The door’s blank naplate all but declared its owner’s absence.
Click.
It was the second private space Eun-Ho had seen since visiting Iro’s lab.
It’s plainer than I expected...
Beyond the door lay an office that could’ve passed for a conglorate heir’s study in a drama. Except for one odd thing: everything inside was arranged in perfect mirror symtry.
There were two spotless leather sofas, two identical coffee tables, and even the cushions ca in pairs. The narrow, rectangular office stretched long, with both side walls lined entirely with bookshelves.
Are the books identical as well?
He blinked. Every single book on the left shelf faced a copy of itself on the right, with two of each title, perfectly aligned. This guy had bought two of every book just to display them symtrically.
But where’s the vault?
There was no obvious safe in sight.
Hmm?
That was when he noticed sothing faintly off.
The spacing of the shelves is kind of different.
The chandelier hung exactly in the center of the ceiling, but the distance from it to each bookshelf wasn’t equal. Perhaps it was by five centiters but no more than that.
It was a trivial discrepancy, like a single folded towel placed upside down in an otherwise perfect stack, or one beer can turned sideways in a fridge full of forward-facing labels.
Yet, for soone who’d gone so far as to buy duplicate books just for symtry wouldn’t misalign a shelf by five centiters. Either soone had moved it, or there was a reason it had to be different. Either way, the conclusion was the sa.
Clunk!
Eun-Ho braced his shoulder and pushed. The shelf, heavy with hundreds of thick hardcovers, groaned as it shifted.
Squeak—!
It slid aside smoothly, as if designed for that exact motion. Behind the towering wall of old books waited a stone door. Its pale gray surface glead faintly, and at its center was a hand-sized carving of a butterfly.
Aha. A vault hidden behind a bookshelf.How classic.
He brushed his fingers over the butterfly’s antennae until he felt the small indentation of a keyhole. Then he slid in the ornate, finger-length key.
Creak—!
It was a tight fit, but perfect.
Found it.
[Verification has been completed.]
[Lock has been disengaged!]
Clack!
As the ssage appeared, a faint vibration humd through the stone. The gears seed to turn sowhere inside.
Clack!
The carved butterfly stirred to life. Its stone wings folded inward toward the center and when they t, the door opened.
What could it be? A treasure so secret it needs both a hidden vault and a bookshelf to conceal it... What kind of item is worth that? Could it be a weapon or a rare artifact, maybe?
Heart quickening, Eun-Ho reached inside like a child opening a birthday gift. He grasped sothing cool and rectangular, and slowly drew it out from the dark vault.
It was a diary and the cover read, “Sumr Night’s Diary.”
“Huh?”
He opened it at random.
“It was a night just like this one.Starlight pouring down. Sweat clinging to my shirt. Her hair pinned up, her pale neck exposed.She said she wished ti could stop right there.So I...”
Eun-Ho blinked.
... Wait a second. What the hell is this?
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