Chapter 128
──────
Victim II
Shin No-a
5
"What the hell is that Constellation? It's pissing me off!"
Dang Seo-rin slammed the table.
This was a famous sundae gukbap restaurant in Busan. Unlike the usual Dang Seo-rin who focused solely on eating when at a dining establishment, she spent the entire meal cursing out [The Collector of All Strange Beings].
That was proof enough of how splendidly successful our
"Hmm. Well, it seems that Constellation thinks of himself as some kind of online game administrator."
"Ha. In this day and age, running a game with that kind of loser attitude would make the game fail too!"
"That's exactly why it failed. Reality."
"Ah……. Seriously, everything about this pisses me off. Does he think the Korean Peninsula is his personal playground? I'll make him regret it someday, definitely."
Aside from occasionally making people wear concrete shoes and sending them to walk the runway above the waters off Busan, Dang Seo-rin was a person of fine character.
Even someone like her was this furious. How much more so would other awakened ones be?
I set aside my apologies to Dang Seo-rin for a moment and hurriedly focused on manipulating public opinion.
――――――――――
Author: 'The Collector of All Strange Beings'
Greetings. Human awakened ones active on the Korean Peninsula.
I was surprised! To think you would defeat my apostle, the Ten Tribes, so easily. Should I say this is worthy of the region that prides itself as the gaming nation? (Smirk)
For all of you, I plan to send out strange beings with more adjusted difficulty levels.
By any chance… do you enjoy 'hide and seek'?
I would say I quite enjoy it myself. (Laughs)
The next strange being I will present to you is the World Tree Udumbara. If you fail to find it within a limited time, it's a strange being that will taint the entire Korean Peninsula, no, the entire world with a zombie virus.
――――――――――
As soon as another new post appeared right after the Ten Tribes were subjugated, SG Net exploded.
-Anonymous: No, seriously why does this bastard only appear on the Korean Peninsula and dick around?
-[Yuldokuk] Sword Queen: Oh my! I cannot contain my outrage at the vile deeds of this evil heretic that brings shame to the righteousness of the murim!
-[Baekhwa] High School Senior 4th Year: Heue >_<);; I want to tie up their limbs and slowly tear them apart from the fingertips and toes with nail clippers >_<);;
-Anonymous: Am I the only one about to lose my mind over that 'smirk' bullshit?
-Cooking Queen: How interesting.
I, the Saintess, No Do-ha, Yoo Ji-won, Sim A-ryeon.
Only five people in the world knew that [The Collector of All Strange Beings] was a fabricated product.
No Do-ha pouted his lips.
"Sometimes I wonder if we really have to go this far……. Well, the 'Monster Wave' side started the deception first. We have to counter deception with deception……."
Anyway, our public opinion manipulation,
From the beginning, I, the Undertaker, had thoroughly memorized the strange beings that would appear on the Korean Peninsula.
The identity of the strange beings. Their gimmicks. Even their appearance times.
If one used this regressor's knowledge just a bit cleverly, creating a new Constellation as 'the mastermind playing with the Korean Peninsula' was no difficult task at all.
If newspaper reporters from before the apocalypse had seen this, they would have been deeply moved, saying 'Truly, the essence of Korean journalism has not been severed even as civilization perished, and has been passed down to future generations!'
Ultimately, all the malice and ill feelings of the people gathered toward [The Collector of All Strange Beings]. In other words, toward Sim A-ryeon.
――――――――――
Author: 'The Collector of All Strange Beings'
Greetings. Human awakened ones active on the Korean Peninsula. (Laughs)
――――――――――
Now the awakened ones would have seizures just seeing the expression (Laughs).
-Anonymous: Again? It's here again?
-Literature Girl: What are the other Constellations even doing instead of catching that mastermind bastard?
Absolute evil.
An attitude that treats this century's end, where everyone struggles seriously for survival, as nothing more than a light amusement. A tone befitting a mastermind yet lacking even a speck of dignity or intelligence.
…If [The Collector of All Strange Beings] had been even slightly a serious character, a new cult worshiping this Constellation might have actually been born.
Even if it causes humanity's death, a Constellation's authority to freely dispatch terrifying strange beings was something that mortal humans could perceive as grand.
But [The Collector of All Strange Beings] was too frivolous to even be worshipped as an evil god.
Simply put, it had no dignity.
Whether one loved humanity or hated it, [The Collector of All Strange Beings] exuded such intense loser energy that no one could offer their devotion.
No one acknowledged any dignity befitting a Constellation. Only hatred, resentment, and contempt poured forth.
-Anonymous: Fuck, did you see the starlight corpses dropping while the meteor shower died?
└Anonymous: Yeah I saw. Really fucking malicious.
└[National Road] Officer: It was only blocked because Guild Master Samcheon was there, if they'd just taken that hit without knowing, the entire Gyeongsangnam-do region would've been completely devastated.
└Anonymous: Why do only these kinds of strange beings appear lol I really want to beat the shit out of that collector guy lol
Thus.
15 years passed.
[Mr. Undertaker.]
[A Monster Wave has been observed in the North Korean region. Currently, it is estimated to be moving south from the Gando area toward the Korean Peninsula interior.]
I nodded.
It was a long period of forbearance.
Who is the owner of SG Net, the sole information-sharing platform in this century's end? It is I.
Who is the person who has formed blood alliances with the Constellations that people trust as the sole information sources in this century's end? It is I, the Undertaker.
At this very moment, all information power on the Korean Peninsula had fallen into my hands. The media companies from before the century's end might have squandered this power on merely making opposition or ruling party presidents, but the work I was creating operated in a far higher dimension than such paltry political realities.
"A-ryeon-ah."
"Yes."
"Did you practice singing a lot?"
"Yes, yees……! I got certified by Her Excellency the Great Witch of the Three Thousand Worlds that I can graduate……!"
"Splendid. Now, go. Show the people."
"……."
"Healers were originally a noble profession."
"……! Yes, Guild Master……!"
There were foreshadowing. There were hints. There were setups.
It wasn't for nothing that I had focused on this child when dealing with the 'Logout Game' matter.
Everything was for this very moment.
Sim A-ryeon.
The talent who would now become the savior of the Korean Peninsula.
Former occupation, Goryeo-jang villain. Internet troll.
Alias, the bird that drinks poison.
Sortie.
6
In this world, there are very few problems that cannot be solved by overwhelming damage output to suppress and crush.
Just as I, with no particular expertise in martial arts, sliced up the Ten Tribes with aura, just as the 'Monster Wave'—an overly simple entity for a strange being—collapsed countless nations through sheer numbers.
But I, the Undertaker, now facing my 217th cycle, will deliver a cool-headed and cathartic critique to the current state of affairs, thoroughly sick and tired of the damage-output-meta.
Overwhelming damage output. Before 'overwhelming healing output,' that is nothing but the work of a commoner——.
"Hold them back! Don't let those bastards cross the Yalu River!"
"B-but, sir! The strange beings' numbers are endless! Just what we can see is over hundreds of thousands, how……."
"Don't say such weak words! The Second Coming Christ is watching over us! Even if we die, that place is precisely where we ascend to heaven! God wills it! Amen!"
The Yalu River defense line.
Until recently, the Eastern Holy Nation had been deeply immersed in their northern expedition games. It must have been so fun to simply loot the Manchuria region that the Ten Tribes had already ravaged.
However, as the proverb (13:11) of the Bible says, wealth gained easily will dwindle.
The believers of the Eastern Holy Nation were terrified as they watched the endless black tide of strange beings rushing in.
Originally, the Korean people's DNA had imprinted fear of the concept of 'offensive forces pouring from the north.' No matter how brainwashed to the marrow these cult believers were, it wasn't easy to overcome DNA with faith.
"Y-your Eminence Cardinal! The strange beings are trying to cross by filling the river with corpses!"
"No! Stop them! Stop them! If this breaks through, only the Cheongcheon River and Daedong River remain!"
Right then.
['The Morning Star of the Second Coming' takes pity on humans and descends His Saintess to the earth.']
The Resurrection Church believers struggling on the front lines looked up at the sky. The combatants with no time to even look up had their heads fly off by strange beings and perceived the sky from a closer vantage point.
The Morning Star of the Second Coming? Isn't that our sect's Jesus? He sent a Saintess?
"Ah―――."
A thread of singing pierced through the battlefield stained with black filth and crimson blood.
Step. Step.
Sim A-ryeon, that weird kid from our guild, was crossing the battlefield one step at a time with both hands gathered neatly.
It wasn't the heavenly voice that made Chinese people marvel, Japanese people tremble, and Koreans kneel like Dang Seo-rin's singing. Reaching the level of the peninsula's number one idol was still a distant prospect.
However, Sim A-ryeon was Dang Seo-rin's disciple.
More precisely, I made her into one. Dang Seo-rin squeezed out her busy time to give Sim A-ryeon one-on-one tutoring.
A full 10 years!
Then, if not the peninsula's number one idol, she could at least be discussed as Pyongyang's number one idol. Sim A-ryeon, our healer, walked forward singing a beautiful Latin requiem (though Sim A-ryeon herself didn't really understand the lyrics' meaning).
I secretly generated aura waves from the side to help Sim A-ryeon's voice spread widely, widely, even beyond the horizon.
"Ah―― Ah――."
Then a miracle occurred.
From the upper body of a combatant who had been 'split in half and killed' by a strange being just moments ago and sent flying to the entrance of heaven, a lower body grew.
"Huh?"
The arm of one whose arm had been severed surged forth.
The foot of one whose foot had been crushed rose up.
The half-corpses strewn across the battlefield each reclaimed their arms and legs, fingers and toes, eye sockets and mouth sockets, and stood up again.
The blood that had stained the ground red returned to find their owners and became flesh and blood.
Centered on Sim A-ryeon, as the wave of song spread further and further outward, the injured and half-corpses within that range were healed in turn.
Resurrection.
And that wasn't all.
What bloomed anew from Sim A-ryeon's feet was not only human life. The green grass that had been swallowed and defiled by black filth, the colorful flowers rustled and bloomed.
"Ah……. Ah……."
Verdant regeneration.
The believers looked down at their own palms. At hands that just seconds ago had bone cross-sections fully exposed.
Someone muttered unconsciously.
"It's a miracle……."
Yes.
It was a miracle.
Even in this century's end where strange beings appeared and awakened ones emerged, the sight of 'life' regenerating with every step Sim A-ryeon took was sublime enough to make one's heart ache.
The 'Monster Wave' tried to charge in, unable to endure, but I quietly handled such wicked strange beings.
I, the Undertaker, was someone who greatly valued manners. Originally, during a magical girl transformation scene, it was proper etiquette for villains to stay quietly suppressed.
"The Saintess, it's the Saintess……."
"Jesus has called Santa Maria!"
"Hallelujah! God wills it!"
The battle situation changed drastically.
The Monster Wave was bewildered. It learned the lesson of turning adversity into advantage. No matter how much they killed and sliced, there was no end in sight to the number of human heads.
Humans were originally a combat species. Under the game rule that 'strong new game' was possible as long as the head wasn't severed, Koreans awakened the savagery of their ancestors.
A full four nights passed.
The battle at the Yalu River defense line. Here, 2,000 elite soldiers of the Eastern Holy Nation achieved a decisive victory against no less than 200,000 Monster Wave creatures. It was a historic triumph.
"Woooah!"
"W-we won! We won!"
"Our Lord Christ has not abandoned us humans! Long live Jesus! Long live the Saintess!"
"……."
Sim A-ryeon smiled gently.
It wasn't that A-ryeon had suddenly come to emulate Go Yo-ri. It was because I had repeatedly instructed her, 'You look fine as long as you keep your mouth shut, so please, absolutely don't open your mouth at all.'
As long as she didn't get involved with internet communities or the Logout Game, A-ryeon was generally a good kid who listened well.
The Resurrection Church believers sent passionate cheers for Sim A-ryeon's mysterious smile.
To say it once more, this world's genre was, in fact, fantasy.
And according to the genre conventions of fantasy, a holy empire must have a Saintess.
Especially if a Saintess already existed in Seoul to the south, another Saintess must exist in Pyongyang to the north in opposition. That was the law of physics on the Korean Peninsula.
Who could have dared to predict?
The Saintess of the Eastern Holy Nation.
Her name was Sim A-ryeon.
7
There is an afterword.
Thanks to the success of
However, this 'resolution' could not be called a 'subjugation.' Beyond the Yalu River, Monster Waves continued to occur periodically.
Each time, Sim A-ryeon had to be carried on my back to the Yalu River front lines to display her dignity as a Saintess.
"G-Guild Master. Did I do well? I did well, right? I did really well, right? H-hurry and praise me……."
"Good job. It was truly perfect. You worked so hard. Truly worthy of the world's strongest healer. A-ryeon, you're really a blessing."
"Hehe……."
However, even if it was merely a stopgap measure, Sim A-ryeon consistently protected the Korean Peninsula as the north's 'unbreakable wall of life.'
In the 15th year, the 16th year, the 17th year, the 18th year, the 19th year, the 20th year, the 21st year, and the 22nd year.
Although in the 22nd year, Sim A-ryeon's ability became too powerful and 'corruption phenomena' occurred…… In fact, Sim A-ryeon had virtually defended the front lines alone until then.
A full 8 years.
—Honestly, I had many deep concerns while dealing with the 'Monster Wave' this time.
For all that, the Monster Wave was one of the mid-boss-level strange beings that had destroyed our world countless times. Naturally, many tragedies were caused by this being.
At first, I tried to write about those tragic deaths, as I had when discussing the 'Ten Tribes' or 'Meteor Shower.'
But my thoughts changed when I thought of Sim A-ryeon.
While receiving all kinds of hatred and contempt from awakened ones, while acting as a Saintess completely unlike her fate, while being dragged to the battlefield at least once a month, Sim A-ryeon never showed signs of struggle.
As this child's guild master, shouldn't I also sing of laughter rather than tragedy?
Grandeur, sorrow. At least while Sim A-ryeon is smiling, I didn't want to paint such landscapes.
Because.
"Hehe……. Ah, when we return to the hideout, please make me a cafe mocha……! With l-lots of chocolate syrup……!"
Just as this child likes my coffee, I too have come to greatly like this child's smile.
-Victim. End.