Choseon was a courtesan who'd only recently put up her hair.
Naturally, she was still young and firm. In contrast, the courtesan girl Machil embraced every payday was the cheapest courtesan at Bongyang Inn. He didn't embrace the courtesan because he liked her—his pockets were light, so he had no choice but to select her.
'Today is different.'
Now that his pockets were full, he wanted to embrace a 'higher quality' woman, at least this once.
With the money he had now, he could surely afford a night with Choseon.
In his head, he was already slapping Choseon's plump buttocks. Strength naturally entered his thing.
Worried that people on the street might see, he calmed his excitement for a moment before hurrying again toward Bongyang Inn. Perhaps because of his excitement, his steps were several times lighter than usual, and before long he could arrive at Bongyang Inn.
"Welcome. Oh my, elder brother, it's been a long time."
The waiter at Bongyang Inn recognized him and greeted him warmly. He was a guy who called all regular customers either 'sir' or 'elder brother.' Among those, the word 'sir' meant a customer who looked respectable, and 'elder brother' meant just an easy customer.
Machil knew this fact well, but he didn't particularly care. He knew well that if not here, he couldn't receive 'elder brother' treatment anywhere else.
"Call Choseon for me."
"Choseon? Not that courtesan?"
"Right."
The waiter's eyes became sly.
Of course, Machil knew well what that look meant.
"I have money. Here, look."
He tossed the money in the leather pouch entirely to the waiter. Inside was all of this month's wages. Of course, including the money Mute Sam had given him.
The waiter received the leather pouch, looked inside, and seemed a bit surprised.
"You didn't steal this, did you?"
"You bastard!"
"Ah, never mind then. Why get angry over such a thing? Go to the last room on this floor. Choseon will attend to you shortly."
An inn originally provided lodging and meals, but Bongyang Inn was a bit different.
This place sold accommodation and food, and even sex in addition to those two. It was doing business in connection with the red-light district behind Bongyang's entertainment quarter.
Not just this place—all the nearby inns were doing business in this way. Thanks to that, all these inns that had been dying came back to life. The authorities knew well about this business practice but turned a blind eye. Because among the main customer base here, there were many officials as well. They were receiving hefty bribes on top of that.
Money and women.
Those two moved in connection in any world. In other words, as long as you had money, even if you were of low status, being able to possess a pretty woman even temporarily—that was the essence of the world.
Whether it was found money, stolen money, extorted money, earned money, made money. Regardless of what kind of money it was.
Money didn't have a name tag attached. Money was just money.
The waiter immediately grinned and let Machil into Bongyang Inn. Whether Machil stole the money or not, he just needed to do business. Whether Machil got caught after doing the deed or not was none of his concern.
Machil was offended by the waiter's tone, but didn't argue further and went up to the second floor of the inn. The waiter told another waiter working inside the inn to send Choseon to Machil's room, then came back outside the inn.
In that brief moment, a new customer had come to the entrance.
"Huh? You?"
The new guest was a man the waiter had also seen once before. Though he'd become quite decent, he was still a shabby-looking man. If you lived in Bongyang, you'd mostly have heard his name... no, his nickname—a human from the very bottom.
"Sosam?"
Sosam looked around with a thoroughly frightened face, then nodded his head.
"What brings you here?"
The waiter had already heard the rumors, so he knew Sosam couldn't speak. Knowing he couldn't answer, he deliberately asked that way. If someone like this loitered around Bongyang Inn, other customers might be put off, so he intended to chase him away in advance.
All this unfriendliness was naturally taken based on the judgment that Sosam couldn't possibly be a customer of Bongyang Inn.
However,
Today seemed to be a somewhat special day.
Sosam—no, Dong Bong-su—let out a foolish smile and handed the waiter a pouch containing a few coins. Then, drooling, he said.
"Wo... wo..."
The waiter immediately understood what he was saying.
Snicker.
"You bastard, acting like a man. Go in."
The waiter raised one corner of his mouth and gestured toward the entrance of Bongyang Inn with his hand.
"Go to the second-to-last room on this floor. One of our courtesan will be there soon."
Dong Bong-su entered Bongyang Inn without any further mumbling. The waiter watching his retreating back casually spat out a comment.
"Looking at it this way, the courtesan is also a pitiful girl. Making all of Bongyang's cripples into hole brothers."
Of course, the waiter couldn't see Dong Bong-su's face laughing brightly.
Thud thud thud.
Dong Bong-su, who'd gone up to the second floor, entered the second-to-last room from the end.
That place was precisely...
The room next to where Machil was assigned.
***
"Huff huff."
"Aheuk!"
Machil's lower body was moving rapidly. Choseon matched the rhythm to that movement. When Machil struck Choseon's buttocks, Choseon went forward briefly then came back again.
Smack.
The sensual sound of flesh striking flesh.
Machil became the pestle, Choseon the mortar, and the mill work continued. Machil's rigidly enraged yang thing repeatedly disappeared below Choseon's buttocks then appeared again. Each time, Choseon straightened her waist as if her breath would stop and freely displayed excited cries.
"Haaaaang!"
As time passed, Machil's movements became increasingly violent. Now a situation where anyone could see climax wasn't far off.
Swish.
A shadow was approaching behind him, but Machil didn't notice at all. When paradise was right before his eyes, how could he have leisure to pay attention elsewhere?
"Huff huff! Good? It's good! You're dying from how good it is, right?"
"Go-good! Aah! More, more!"
Choseon was also heading to the Western Pure Land together with Machil. At times like this, you wouldn't know even if heaven and earth collapsed. She too didn't notice the shadow's presence at all.
The shadow slowly held the cloth in both hands above Machil's head. And at a certain moment!
"Kuk!"
The shadow wrapped the cloth around his neck and twisted it before Machil could notice.
Machil's pupils dilated. But only a single grain of his scream leaked out. His hands, which had been grasping and rotating Choseon's buttocks, grabbed the shadow's hands, but it was insufficient.
Machil's bloodshot pupils gradually rose upward until the pupils could no longer be seen. His entire body trembled from fear of death. Thanks to that, Choseon was heading toward climax even faster. At Machil's lower body trembling at ultra-high speed like a vibrator, Choseon became completely overwhelmed.
"Aaaak! Ah..."
Choseon didn't know that was precisely the movement of a final surge before death. Finally, Choseon's eyes lost strength. Machil's final trembling was that tremendous.
His intense trembling soon stopped. Immediately after, the shadow pressed Machil's waist with his knee.
Thus beginning exactly the same recoil that Machil had been doing.
"Ahheuk!"
Choseon's body heated up fervently once again.
The shadow's knee recoil formed beautiful harmony with Choseon's buttocks. When his knee went forward, Machil's waist went forward and roughly pounded Choseon's lower body.
"Aaaak!"
The shadow—Dong Bong-su—continued moving his knee without rest. Machil's neck was already completely broken and not functioning. But his yang thing was different.
A rigidly hardened iron skewer.
It was precisely a steel club. Though rigor mortis hadn't set in yet, the rigidity from death was a sufficiently perfect phallus.
Choseon had no choice but to go crazy.
"Ak! Kyaak! I'm dying!"
Leaving Choseon screaming in ecstasy, Dong Bong-su was looking at empty space. That appearance seemed to be confirming something.
In that state, for a while his knee and Choseon's intercourse didn't stop.
After some time.
"Aaaak!"
Precisely at the moment when Choseon violently trembled and felt a climax she'd never experience again in her life.
Dong Bong-su finished confirming what he'd been checking, unwrapped the cloth wound around Machil's neck, and wrapped it around Choseon's neck.
Crack.
With a short noise, her slender neck lost its position and dangled.
"Kk."
Even in the afterlife, Choseon was an unlucky woman. If only Machil hadn't thrown a sudden tantrum today, the woman who died would not have been Choseon but the cheapest courtesan. She departed this life with an excited death cry.
If there was any fortune for her, it was that she lost her life at the point she went to the Western Pure Land.
Who knows?
She might remain in the Western Pure Land and enjoy eternal happiness.
Dong Bong-su looked at empty space and confirmed something, just as when he'd killed Machil earlier. That was the action of confirming experience point changes.
In the experience bar.
There was change. Though very slight, there was definitely a yellow gauge filling the bar. It was almost at the level of a speck, but since there'd been no change until now, he could recognize it at a glance.
Insects and rats had no experience points.
However,
People were definitely different. If there'd been no experience point change from today's murder, Dong Bong-su's subsequent course would have been completely different.
Of course, there was also a problem. The amount of experience points was too small. Because of that, he failed to confirm whether or not there was a difference in experience point amount according to strength. The reason he gave a time difference when killing Machil and Choseon was also to confirm that.
Thanks to that, Choseon was able to go to paradise, though.
Whoosh, slash, rattle, thud...
Work sounds that continued for a while.
Dong Bong-su hung both corpses on the crossbeam supporting between the roof and pillars. Now they'd become suicides. Actually, Dong Bong-su could have put both corpses in his Inventory and thrown them away elsewhere, but he chose the method of processing it as suicide. It was from the judgment that that way would have no repercussions.
After finishing the work like that, he approached the wall. The wall had cloth beautifully embroidered with tiger stripes hanging down like a curtain.
Swish.
Dong Bong-su pulled back the cloth. A wall of wooden pillars connected in a straight line 111111... shape appeared. Wooden pillars lined up side by side like that were supporting the crossbeam, and the crossbeam was supporting the 'ㅅ'-shaped ceiling. Here in Bongyang, most houses were built as this kind of prefabricated building. It was a construction method that carved grooves in various places on wooden pillars and organically connected them to stack up. In this shape of housing, even if one or two wooden pillars were removed, the ceiling wouldn't collapse.
As if proving that, the very last wooden pillar was missing. Instead of the wooden pillar, there was a hole large enough for a person to pass through.
What on earth had happened?
By normal methods, it was impossible to remove only that single pillar. A prefabricated house was like a precise Lego block. It was truly difficult to remove one from the middle without taking them apart one by one in order from the top.
However...
Dong Bong-su was not an ordinary person.
Half-human half-character.
Even things that no one in this place could do, he could accomplish.
-x-X-x-
Dong Bong-su entered through the opened hole and took one step. Now he was standing not in Machil's room, but in the room next to it. With this, he'd completely removed himself from the line of suspicion. With just one step.
The incident was already going to be concluded as Machil and Choseon's suicide anyway, but even if someone suspected they'd been murdered, they wouldn't be able to find the culprit.
Because soon.
Thud.
That room would become a locked room.
With a light sound, a wooden pillar appeared again in the empty hole. This technique wasn't actually that simple. Pulling out the pillar was no problem since there was no glue or anything between the pillars, but reinserting it required quite precise 'Inventory control.'
When taking it out from the Inventory, he had to take it out fitting all the joints at once. For this, Dong Bong-su had honed his precise Inventory usage over the past few months. He could be certain of it. This Inventory would provide him infinite help going forward.
This incident was merely his 'first experience.'
Now there was no way for anyone to know exactly how Machil and Choseon died. Whether it was locked room suicide or locked room murder, either way didn't matter.
There were only the dead, not the killer. Whether the murderer was oneself or another.
Dong Bong-su went to the middle of the room and sat down.
He'd just confirmed another law of New Murim Online.
People were experience points. Though not perfect yet, he couldn't deny that they were experience points.
When experience points accumulated, he'd be able to level up. When he leveled up, he'd become stronger. When he became stronger, he could hunt more easily. When hunting became easier, he could accumulate experience points faster.
When experience points accumulated...
An infinite 'virtuous cycle' would occur. Of course, to someone it would become an infinite 'vicious cycle.'
With this, Dong Bong-su was given a new motive for murder.
Rattle.
Soon the door opened and a woman with a sensual figure, a courtesan, entered the room carrying a lavishly set table. This was something Dong Bong-su had ordered to buy time to deal with Machil.
Warm steam rose in wisps from the food.
That sight seemed.
As if it were celebrating the murderer's adaptation.
***
The festival began.
"Aaheuk!"
Dong Bong-su's waist moved rapidly. Matching that movement, the courtesan's buttocks rippled like waves, and her cries stickily heated the room.
Dong Bong-su's sex technique—in the language of this place, bedroom arts—was truly flawless. When it came to sex, there was no way this place, Murim, could keep up with modern Earth. Dong Bong-su was an expert in all skills necessary for murder.
Though she didn't know it, the courtesan was lucky today. She'd avoided the fate of death and was viewing paradise while alive—what great fortune was this?
Dong Bong-su's waist turned mysteriously and pounded the courtesan's erogenous zones like a storm.
"Heuuuk!"
The courtesan became overwhelmed, feeling a climax she'd never experience again in her life.
However, if she had turned her head now and looked at Dong Bong-su's eyes, the heat that had risen in her body would have cooled in an instant.
Dong Bong-su's eyes were calm. Like the surface of the Sanzu River that the dead were said to cross—low, calm, and sinister.
Perhaps even heaven was startled by that eerie appearance, as thunder suddenly struck.
Rumble!
Rain poured down immediately after.
Today was the first day since Dong Bong-su came to this place that he'd committed murder and had sex.
Even heaven was crying from fear of that 'terrible adaptation.'
***
New Murim Online 2nd Law: Dong Bong-su can put any object in direct contact with any part of his body into the Inventory. (However, its size must be smaller than the Inventory and it must not be a living thing.)
New Murim Online 3rd Law: Insects and animals (this isn't certain yet. Experiments with animals other than rats needed) have no experience points, and killing humans raises experience points. (Need to confirm differences according to strength and weakness.)
***
Anhui Province.
The Huai River flows in the north, and the Yangtze River flows eastward through the central region, forming a vast agricultural zone. Along the banks of these two rivers, wet areas surrounded by swamps and ponds are widely distributed, displaying the fertility of the land. The symbols of this were the Huabei Plain and Chaohu Lake, the pride of the Central Plains.
Since ancient times, due to the exchange of fertile and rich land, great rivers, and lakes, commerce and trade developed in this land. Geographically, it was also advantageous for business, being adjacent to Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces to the east, Shandong Province to the north, and Hubei and Henan provinces to the west.
Naturally, goods from across the nation gathered, and money concentrated.
Just as flies swarm to places that smell foul, thieves and scoundrels from evil sects naturally swarm to places that reek of money.
Many sects that defeated such people and protected the righteousness of the Martial World also emerged in Anhui Province.
Among them, the most representative sect was the Namgung Family, one of the Five Great Families of the Central Plains, located in Hefei. The Namgung Family was by far the foremost even among the Five Great Families of the Central Plains. Since they opened their doors, Anhui Province had never once been ravaged by evil sects or demonic cults.
Emperor Sword Form, Vast Sky Limitless Sword Technique, Great Swallow Sword Technique, Flash Battle Thirteen Sword Thunder, Heavenly Wind Sword Technique, Heavenly Thunder Emperor Divine Art, Vast Sky Great Swallow Divine Art, Heavenly Thunder Energy, Heavenly Thunder Three Palms, Heavenly Wind Palm Power, Great Vast Sky Limitless Sword Formation...
The Namgung Family, armed with martial arts that would make members of evil sects and unorthodox schools tremble just from hearing their names listed, was the solitary, lofty First Great Sect of Anhui.
The prestige of the Namgung Family was so tremendous that other sects in Anhui Province were as insignificant as fireflies before the moon, but still, sects existed in each county and city.
Among those many sects was the Danri Family. Though it couldn't compare to the Namgung Family, it was the greatest family in Bongyang at least. Wasn't there a saying that arose in Bongyang that people with the Danri surname rode four-horse carriages even in death?
The Danri Family had the Black Five Group as an intelligence and law enforcement organization, and the Cross Heaven Sword Group as the family's specialized martial force. They all learned the family's secret martial arts, the Flying Heaven Sword Technique and Short Heaven Flying Sword Technique, and their reputation was quite significant within Anhui Province.
In particular, the Black Five Group's information gathering ability was unmatched. To what extent? Even the beggars of the Beggar Sect, who would feel aggrieved to be called second when it came to information, deferred one level to the Danri Family's Black Five Group in Bongyang at least.
However, right now that Black Five Group was suffering from a headache over a recent incident.
***
Suicide epidemic.
It was a phrase spreading among people because suicide was epidemic-like prevalent in Bongyang these days.
In just one month, as many as two hundred people had committed suicide.
What an abnormal phenomenon was this?
There had been suicide victims before, but never this many. At most one or two people a month.
Even if there were two hundred murder cases in a month, it would be a scale that would turn things upside down as if a major incident had occurred, but two hundred suicide cases had occurred, so it was no ordinary matter in a medium-sized city like Bongyang.
Naturally, the city's residents were agitated.
Stories spread that ghosts were coming to secretly kill people and disguise it as suicide, that hairworms were making not just insects but people commit suicide, that a real suicide epidemic was rampant.
Various other hypotheses were floating around as rumors besides these.
Whichever of the numerous rumors was correct, it was equally ominous.
Among these, there was one hypothesis that the authorities focused on.
That was precisely the theory of an evil sect entering Bongyang.
That a terrifying evil faction group unknown to Murim had recently entered Bongyang and was causing these incidents.
The reason this story gained credibility was simple.
Murim people, both past and present, were beings who built walls with ordinary people and the authorities. Though they were citizens of the nation, from another perspective they were also not citizens—people of an outer world—that was the view of ordinary people.
People who flew through the sky, used earth-shrinking techniques, and split mountains and rivers. Since such things were possible, how could it be impossible for them to kill people without anyone knowing? Moreover, among them, those from evil sects killed people to suck out their liver and brain, or vital essence to build internal energy. There were no such corpses among the discovered bodies, but who could know if it was perhaps a new method of accumulating internal energy?
However,
The inspector of Bongyang wasn't a Murim person. If this hypothesis was correct, he had no way to uncover them or method to catch them.
Of course, the authorities had experts too. But most of them belonged to the imperial family, and in principle, they didn't come to help such small cities.
Eventually, the inspector came to request help from a Murim sect. The target was naturally the Danri Family.
The head of the Danri Family, Flying Heaven Beautiful Sword Danri Cheon-u, gladly accepted the authorities' request as a symbiotic relationship with them. Though such things didn't happen often, they occurred occasionally.
And each time, the Black Five Group would step forward and resolve it splendidly.
But...
***
Gi Dae-hyo, the leader of the Black Five Group, was perplexed. Under Danri Cheon-u's orders, he had no choice but to start investigating the 'suicide epidemic,' but he couldn't grasp its substance at all.
'Something is definitely strange...'
But that was it. There were over a hundred cases with only evidence of suicide, without any circumstances that could be considered murder.
The reason he thought these cases were strange was that while the crime scenes clearly said suicide, it seemed difficult to definitively call them suicides.
A considerable number of the suicide victims were people who had reasons to commit suicide. Their lives were hard, or they were abandoned by lovers, or they couldn't endure parental abuse. He could understand these people's suicides.
But the problem was that there were also many who weren't like that. People who'd lived happily satisfied with their station throughout their lives suddenly committed suicide overnight?
Gi Dae-hyo found it hard to understand.
Must there always be a reason for suicide? Then again, perhaps there could be...
'It doesn't sit right.'
He was someone who'd experienced all battles in Murim—mountain, water, sea, even dog battles.
His sense was strongly insisting that these cases smelled foul.
"Who was the first person to die?"
Gi Dae-hyo decided to trace things from the beginning.
At his question, Gi Man-ji, the deputy leader of the Black Five Group and his son, answered.
"They're called Machil and Choseon—the family's weapon servant and a courtesan."
-x-X-x-
From the family?
"The family? You mean our Danri Family?"
"Yes."
Gi Dae-hyo scratched his chin for a moment, lost in thought. It was his habit whenever he fell into contemplation.
A moment later.
"Where did the two commit suicide?"
He made his decision.
"At Bongyang Inn."
"Let's go."
"What?"
The reason Gi Man-ji was surprised was that Gi Dae-hyo was going to see it himself. Usually, the leader of the Black Five Group didn't step to the forefront in such matters. The customary practice was to just give orders from behind.
"For father to personally go to this exten—"
"No. I need to see it myself."
Gi Dae-hyo cut off Gi Man-ji's words and left the Black Five Hall without delay.
Swoooosh.
Gi Dae-hyo immediately deployed his movement technique and disappeared eastward.
That direction was where the main gate of the Danri Family was located.
***
At the time Gi Dae-hyo was heading to Bongyang Inn.
Dong Bong-su was spending his day as the groom Sosam, just as he always did.
He'd already finished waking up early in the morning, cleaning up horse dung, and feeding the horses.
What he had to do from now on was the most important task of his daily routine.
Walking the Ferghana Horse.
There was only one Ferghana Horse in the Danri Family.
Its name was Yeoro. The beloved horse of Danri Cheon-u, head of the Danri Family.
Yeoro, splendidly fluttering its white fur and mane, was by far the most expensive horse in the Danri Family.
Because of that, it was the VIP management target of all the grooms in the family. If even a small wound appeared on Yeoro, the grooms could be in deep mourning. In fact, previously when a small boil appeared on Yeoro's skin, the grooms had been collectively beaten.
However,
Since Dong Bong-su—not Sosam—took charge of Yeoro, such incidents never occurred at all.
Animals instinctively recognize 'beasts' that shouldn't be touched. All the horses in the East Stable became very docile after Sosam changed to Dong Bong-su.
Previously, they'd occasionally cause accidents, but now such things absolutely never happened. Even newly brought-in wild horses only reared at first, then became gentle lambs the moment their eyes met Dong Bong-su's.
People who saw this whispered.
[After Sosam was injured, he lost speech but gained horse spirit!]
Sometimes they also called him horse demon. To that extent, Sosam could control horses freely. As a result, the contemptuous gazes directed at him greatly decreased.
As an extremely natural consequence, managing Yeoro became Sosam's responsibility. There were several grooms in the Danri Family, but aside from Danri Cheon-u, Sosam was the only one who could perfectly control Yeoro.
From Dong Bong-su's perspective, there was also no reason to refuse taking charge of Yeoro. There were many benefits to be gained by being responsible for Yeoro.
After taking on the task of caring for Yeoro, he had more free time. Those who picked fights unnecessarily also decreased, and there were almost no humans dumping work on him anymore. Machil, who had tormented Dong Bong-su the most, had also already disappeared into the hellfire pit.
Naturally, he had more spare time.
And...
The number of people dying from the suicide epidemic in Bongyang also increased accordingly.
***
Dong Bong-su took Yeoro and left the family estate, heading for the marketplace of Bongyang. He usually searched for prey during walks. If possible, he dealt with them on the spot. However, there were also cases where immediate disposal was difficult. In such cases, he observed the target, memorized them, then killed them later.
Yeoro was like wings to him not only within the family estate but outside it as well. When he went around with Yeoro, people naturally got out of the way. Everyone in Bongyang knew well whose horse Yeoro was and what kind of being it was.
'Borrowing the horse's prestige.'
It was a phrase people coined saying Horse Dung Sam was acting big by borrowing the horse's prestige. Actually, rather than acting big, he was just passing by, but perhaps it looked that way to people.
In any case, Dong Bong-su was reaping great benefits from Yeoro. Thanks to the creature, he could comfortably stroll through the marketplace searching for suitable prey.
However,
'It's no longer useful.'
Dong Bong-su realized the time had come to stop this kind of hunting. He'd recently killed 196 people, but the experience bar was only filled about a third. At this rate, there was no telling when he'd level up and become stronger.
From an efficiency perspective, it was clear he'd nearly reached the limit of marginal utility.
'There's a clear limit to accumulating experience points this way.'
Just as he was having such concerns.
Dong Bong-su finally clearly confirmed that there was also a difference in the amount of experience points among humans.
The day before yesterday, he'd killed a man somewhere around here, and at that time the experience bar filled quite a lot. Only then did Dong Bong-su discover that the difference in experience points between people could be quite large. The last man he killed had more experience points than the previous 195 people combined.
His goal changed.
From just killing people to eliminating stronger people.
Then who were the stronger people?
There was no way to confirm, but he already instinctively knew who the relatively stronger people were and where they were.
Murim people.
Why wouldn't that be so?
Even in games, elite mobs with high levels give dozens of times, perhaps hundreds or thousands of times more experience points than rabbits in front of the village.
That was human nature.
If this was a world where a leveling system applied.
'It must be so.'
It was almost certain.
If he killed Murim people, he could easily accumulate experience points.
But he hadn't yet directly sparred with or crossed hands with Murim people.
He'd only occasionally watched them training within the Danri Family.
Based on judgment from that experience...
'Even the weakest martial artist in the Danri Family is still too much for now.'
He needed more time to become stronger.
Or.
'There needs to be an intermediate stage.'
No matter how much an ordinary person trained in high jumping, they couldn't reach the second floor in one leap.
There needed to be stairs, a footstool, or something like a ladder.
Prey in between that would bridge ordinary people and Murim people.
What was it?
People like that man he'd killed the day before yesterday. Such people were just right.
'What did that man do? Where should I go to meet more guys like that?'
Dong Bong-su was naturally strolling through Bongyang's marketplace, his walking route, while having such thoughts.
As he passed beside an alley.
A raspy voice came from inside the alley.
"Hey, Horse Dung Sam. Why are you just passing by? If you've seen your elder brother after a long time, you should greet him and have a chat. You fucking bastard."
Dong Bong-su turned his head toward the alley.
There, five or six men were squatting with slovenly postures. Especially the man looking at him from the very front appeared extremely vicious with bushy sideburns covering his lower jaw.
'Do Pal-du.'
Do Pal-du.
He was the leader of the riffraff in this marketplace. Moving about twenty riffraff, he was one of the lowlifes who extorted the marketplace's small merchants.
Since the authorities' constables had been spread throughout all the alleys recently, he hadn't been seen for a while, but for some reason he was loitering in a highly visible alley.
Their prey wasn't only the marketplace merchants. Occasionally, servants or farmhands from wealthy houses like Sosam or Machil also became targets. The reason Do Pal-du didn't bother them much was fear that the wealthy houses might find out. Especially since those wealthy houses were Murim families, he had to be even more wary.
But that was only when their bellies weren't empty.
The riffraff's eyes were gleaming.
Dong Bong-su could tell at a glance. How starved they were. Well, given Bongyang's recent atmosphere, it would be natural. They couldn't hold onto money for more than a day even when they got it. They spent it all on alcohol and women as soon as they got it. For such people, these days when the suicide epidemic was rampant must be a complete recession itself.
Should it be said that today they came down from the mountain bearing risks to raid the village?
Even wolves come down to where people live during severe droughts, and even lions hunt big game like elephants when cornered.
However,
They chose the wrong opponent.
The target they took as prey today was.
Not Sosam, but Dong Bong-su. They just didn't know that fact.
Dong Bong-su opened his mouth wide and grinned stupidly. Maintaining his expression, he approached Do Pal-du.
Do Pal-du and the riffraff took him and Yeoro deep into the alley to a place where there were no people. Do Pal-du apparently judged that as long as Yeoro wasn't hurt, he could freely lay hands on someone like Sosam.
Before entering the alley following the riffraff, Dong Bong-su looked around. Perhaps because it was still early morning, there weren't many people either. Some merchants were visible in the distance, but since this place was somewhat distant from the main road of the marketplace, no one was paying attention to this alley.
The reason for checking the surroundings was simple.
If he eliminated all 'these things' here, how should he handle the aftermath? Should he process it as suicide this time too?
That would be proper in principle. But it wasn't appropriate given the location's characteristics. Processing over ten men as suicides in an alley wasn't an easy task.
What if he staged it as them killing each other with knives or put the corpses in his Inventory and dumped them somewhere else? Not bad. But it was just not bad—there wasn't much real benefit.
Even if he killed them all, it wouldn't amount to much experience points, and the disadvantage he'd suffer by not killing them would be at most getting beaten a few times and having a few coins taken.
The scales between benefit and disadvantage, and risk, swayed back and forth.
-x-X-x-
Dong Bong-su ultimately decided not to kill them. Though that thought could change again, at least for now he judged there was no particular need to kill them.
Whether Do Pal-du and the riffraff knew their lives had instantly gone to the threshold of the afterlife and returned, they kept walking forward.
They took Dong Bong-su to the end of the alley, to a completely secluded spot. This place had rarely been visited by people even before. There was no way people would come in an atmosphere like these days.
Smack.
Convinced there were no people, Do Pal-du suddenly slapped Dong Bong-su's face without warning.
His palm was large and broad, just like the paw of a beast. Unless you were a Murim person, there was no way to withstand being hit by such a palm.
The sound of flesh striking rang out crisply and Dong Bong-su lay down flat on the ground.
It was the customary beating that riffraff did before extorting money. For bottom-feeding thugs, such violent acts were one of life's pleasures, no less than extorting and spending money.
For those living at the bottom, extorting and tormenting those living in the basement was a ray of amusement in their foul-smelling lives.
For those on the receiving end, it was cause for tears of blood, but violence to human scum like them?
It was the vitality of life.
Thud, thwack thwack.
Dong Bong-su silently endured the beating from Do Pal-du and the riffraff. However, his eyes facing the ground while lying prone were shining white. If Do Pal-du had seen those eyes, he would have either pissed himself or never thought to extort money from Dong Bong-su again.
Those weren't human eyes. Nor were they the murderous eyes of carnivores at the top of the food chain like lions or tigers.
Just void—eyes with no emotion whatsoever.
Those who wonder why emotionless eyes are scary can say that because they've never experienced such eyes.
All living things have emotions. They're very sensitive to the emotion of pain. However, Dong Bong-su appeared to be someone who didn't feel emotions at all, especially the emotion of pain.
Imagine eyes with no disturbance whatsoever while blood drips profusely. There would be very few who could remain unaffected even facing such eyes.
Thud, thwack...
The riffraff's violence continued as if it would never end. Their kicking stopped right after someone's voice was heard.
"What are you all doing right now?"
It was a heavy voice. Dong Bong-su raised his head while remaining in a prone position and looked toward where the voice came from. A sturdy man in black clothes who appeared to be in his thirties was standing. Seeing his solid build, at first glance he looked like another riffraff.
"Elder brother J-Jang Ho!"
"I asked what you're doing right now."
But that was Dong Bong-su's mistake.
Jang Ho was actually a member of the Black Snake Society, one of the three black gangs that controlled Bongyang's back alleys. Though the riffraff lived by thuggery, they were lowlifes even in that world.
All riffraff had to pay taxes to the black gangs that moved more gloomily in higher and darker places than them. Because the black gangs learned basic martial arts like the Three Talents Sword Technique, they were incomparably stronger than these back alley riffraff. Sometimes the riffraff even had to take the fall for incidents committed by black gang members and be dragged to the authorities.
Though Jang Ho was merely one of the lowest-ranking members of the Black Snake Society, he was an incomparable figure to Do Pal-du, the riffraff boss. Even if Jang Ho killed Do Pal-du, no one in Bongyang would care. The same went for Do Pal-du's subordinates.
Dong Bong-su realized things were flowing differently than expected. But he still didn't feel the need to eliminate them.
He quietly spat out the blood pooling in his mouth and straightened his back. In that posture, grasping Yeoro's reins that hung down, he closely observed the situation.
"Ah, ah, well, this guy was being insolent so as an example..."
Jang Ho silently looked at Dong Bong-su once, then looked at Yeoro.
"..."
A glimmer of interest overlaid his eyes.
Dong Bong-su's pupils, in contrast, sank deeper. It was because he read the ripple of greed in Jang Ho's eyes.
Clip clop clip clop.
Jang Ho turned and slowly approached Do Pal-du.
Sensing the atmosphere was ominous, Do Pal-du hesitantly retreated backward.
"Br-brother! Why, why are you...!"
Crack.
Jang Ho suddenly rushed at Do Pal-du, grabbed his arm, and bent it backward.
"Kyaaak!"
"Aren't you being insolent to me right now too?"
Judging by how Do Pal-du's arm was bizarrely bent the opposite way, he'd clearly become a cripple. He'd probably have to live as a left-hander for the rest of his life. That was the end of his position as riffraff boss too. Probably one of the other subordinate riffraff trembling as they retreated backward would become the new boss. Of course, that was contingent on surviving today.
Jang Ho had no interest whatsoever in the fact that Do Pal-du had become a cripple. After firmly stepping once on the head of Do Pal-du who was rolling on the ground in agony, he approached Dong Bong-su again.
"That's quite a fine horse. What breed is it?"
Jang Ho carefully stroked Yeoro's mane.
Dong Bong-su knew Jang Ho was asking him, but didn't answer. Wasn't he known as a mute right now? It wasn't that he couldn't answer if he wanted to, but the moment he answered, he'd have to kill everyone present. To do that, he first needed to know the opponent for certain. Since he'd already finished assessing Do Pal-du and the riffraff, he was confident he could handle them without any problems...
The problem was Jang Ho, who was pressuring him right in front.
Dong Bong-su just met him for the first time today. Needless to say, he knew nothing about Jang Ho. That made Dong Bong-su hesitate.
"I asked what breed this horse is."
Jang Ho's voice became even heavier.
Dong Bong-su read the killing intent nestled subtly deep in his voice.
'Is he targeting me?'
Dong Bong-su was certain of it. Though he didn't know the exact reason, the man in front was trying to kill him.
As he thought, Jang Ho had appeared here targeting Dong Bong-su from the start. No, more precisely, he was targeting Yeoro.
Bang Po-yeom, the head of the Black Snake Society, was a person who went crazy for good horses. He'd been coveting Yeoro, Danri Cheon-u's horse, for a long time.
But he knew well that if he wrongly touched Yeoro, the Black Snake Society could be erased from Bongyang.
However, could human greed be easily resolved just by enduring it?
For a long time, he'd had Jang Ho observe Yeoro—more precisely, the grooms who managed Yeoro. Then recently, he heard that an idiot named Sosam who couldn't speak had been put in charge of managing Yeoro.
He thought the time had finally come and ordered Jang Ho to steal Yeoro. Jang Ho had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to carry out Bang Po-yeom's order, and he judged the right time was now.
If he killed Sosam, Do Pal-du, and his gang all here and only disposed of Do Pal-du's corpse, all the blame would fall on Do Pal-du.
Crack, crackle.
Jang Ho lightly cracked the joints of both hands' fingers while slowly drawing killing intent from his body.
Now there was no choice.
'I have to fight.'
Dong Bong-su laughed inside while sensing the killing intent creeping up from Jang Ho's body. And unlike earlier, he became certain.
Certain he could take Jang Ho.
There's nothing more foolish than emanating strong killing intent in front of prey. Have you ever seen tigers and lions reveal killing intent before their hunt succeeds? Never.
A true hunter doesn't reveal killing intent until biting the prey's neck. They mustn't reveal it. If they stir up killing intent before hunting and the prey escapes, they lack qualifications as a hunter.
Moreover,
He wasn't such ordinary prey.
Jang Ho had misjudged the hunting target.
Step.
Placing a hand on one knee.
Dong Bong-su slowly rose from his spot. His head still faced the ground, and to anyone watching, he remained in a frightened state.
"I don't ask three times."
Jang Ho said that while grabbing Dong Bong-su's arm.
That was the moment.
"Then kill me. Why bother asking three times?"
It was a voice without fluctuation. If voices had high and low pitches, this voice would be one where all pitches were exactly the same. Unless it was a machine, who could produce such a voice? If not Dong Bong-su, it wouldn't be possible for anyone.
Those words were the first words Dong Bong-su spoke to someone since coming to Murim. And it was extremely like him. Not just the content of those words, but naturally the result was also like him.
"What!? You can talk?"
When Sosam, whom he knew as a mute, suddenly spoke, Jang Ho was slightly flustered. Though it seemed like nothing, that small gap—that was enough for Dong Bong-su. Dong Bong-su quickly raised his head.
Stab.
When on earth?
A blade was clenched between Dong Bong-su's upper and lower teeth.
"H-how..."
That blade had completely pierced through one side of Jang Ho's neck, digging into flesh, and the tip of the sharp dagger protruded from the opposite side of his neck, gleaming bizarrely with blood.
Crack.
Dong Bong-su grabbed the neck of Jang Ho who was asking how, and broke it just like that.
"I don't know either."
Even while losing his life, Jang Ho kept making keuk keuk sounds as if still curious about something, spewing bloody foam from his mouth. His eyes seemed to be saying 'how' about having a blade in his mouth.
The blade was already gone from Dong Bong-su's mouth. It was already in the Inventory.
"It just worked out like this."
-x-X-x-
"It just worked out like this."
That was the moment.
A strange and mystical white light burst forth from Dong Bong-su's body.
Holy light.
Unsuited to Dong Bong-su, it was an extremely sacred light. It was a scene he seemed like he'd never experienced in his entire life, but he'd already experienced such a thing before.
In Murim Online, that virtual world, he'd experienced such light.
"So this is leveling up."
He'd finally succeeded in his first evolution in this New Murim Online.
"..."
At the moment of leveling up, silence flowed through the alley. However, that time wasn't very long.
"Hi, hiiiik!"
The riffraff recoiled backward in horror. For them, Jang Ho's death, which seemed absolutely impossible for them to handle, and the cruelly white light that had just spread through the alley were making them react that way.
Thud.
Dong Bong-su took one step toward them. As if matching steps, the riffraff retreated one step backward. No, they tried to, but the back didn't allow them even that one step. This place was a dead-end alley.
Was he smiling?
Dong Bong-su's mouth opened slightly, revealing white teeth. His advance commenced again.
First, Do Pal-du, who was still clutching his broken arm in agony, was caught by Dong Bong-su. He raised his foot high and trampled Do Pal-du's neck just like that.
Crunch crack.
With the ghastly sound of neck bones crumbling, Do Pal-du departed this life just like that.
"Ki, ki, ki!"
The riffraff who saw Do Pal-du die so futilely rushed at Dong Bong-su all at once to survive, even while paralyzed with fear.
Dong Bong-su's response to that was simple and clear.
He lightly raised his hand to chest height.
Swiiiish.
A scene like a flower bud forming played out in fast-forward millions of times unfolded in his hand. Though it was a blade instead of a flower.
A sword that sprouted from the Inventory and bloomed in Dong Bong-su's hand.
Like the dagger earlier, all the weapons in the Inventory were things he'd secretly bought or siphoned off while helping with Machil's weapon servant work.
Slash.
His blade mercilessly split the air.
Thwack.
The blade lodged halfway into the neck of the riffraff running at the front. Having not wielded a weapon in such a long time, he'd failed to cleanly cut through the neck in one strike. Dong Bong-su immediately discarded the blade and drew out a dagger.
He gripped the dagger with the blade pointing downward and leaped into the midst of the riffraff just like that.
Stab, slice!
"Keu, keuaaaak!"
Each time the dagger moved once, the riffraff's arteries were severed and blood spurted up like fountains.
Dong Bong-su didn't know martial arts, but when it came to fighting, he was a master. He was strong enough to be proficient in almost all martial arts on modern Earth.
Not just bare-handed fighting and joint techniques, but he was also skilled in the Eighteen Martial Arts. Naturally, the weapons he could handle were endless. If circumstances didn't permit, he was a person who, like Hong Kong movie actor Jackie Chan, even had the resourcefulness to utilize all surrounding objects as weapons—that was Dong Bong-su.
Most importantly.
The fact was that he lacked what interfered most in fighting. Precisely mercy. He was deficient in that. Dong Bong-su didn't care about means and methods in any case.
Foul play? Despicable? Cowardly?
He had no such concepts in the first place. If he could subdue and kill the opponent, such things weren't considered at all.
"Uaaaak!"
Dong Bong-su's cruel dance seemed like it wouldn't stop until all the riffraff were dead.
Thud, thud, thwack!
The brutal dance of slaughter finally stopped only when the last single person remained.
After his killing dance stopped, nothing remained in the arena but corpses, blood, and the scent of blood.
"Uuuuuu..."
Dong Bong-su pressed the dagger to the last remaining riffraff's neck, then pointed with his other hand at a corpse lying behind.
"What did that bastard do?"
"A-are you asking about Jang Ho?"
Though trembling violently, the riffraff answered immediately. It was from the thought that he might possibly spare him. Even knowing it was futile, he wasn't letting go of the thin thread of hope.
"Right. What did Jang Ho do?"
"Th-the Black Snake Society, he was a member..."
"Black Snake Society? What's that?"
"I-it's one of the bl-black gangs that controls Bongyang's back alleys."
From the name black gang, Dong Bong-su could guess what it was. The riffraff were just punks. The black gangs were probably thug groups far more specialized than them. In modern terms, they'd be about organized crime syndicates.
After asking the riffraff a few more things about the Black Snake Society and black gangs, Dong Bong-su killed him. The riffraff couldn't even say a word begging to be spared before dying just like that. Since he wouldn't have spared him anyway, it probably wasn't too unfair.
Having finished his work, Dong Bong-su put all the corpses in his Inventory. Then he took off his clothes and roughly wiped the blood from the floor. Following that, he took out white clothes prepared in the Inventory and wiped away all the remaining blood too.
It was because from the moment he learned of the Inventory's existence, he'd steadily developed that ability, but still couldn't freely control liquids.
A moment later.
Though it couldn't be called perfect, he'd wiped away the blood to the extent that bloodstains could never be found at first glance. Perhaps there'd be no way to confirm the blood's existence until spraying investigative reagents used in modern forensic medicine like luminol reagent or hydrogen peroxide solution. Since such things couldn't possibly exist in this world yet, this level was a perfect crime.
In a place like this where techniques that violated physics like martial arts existed, for that level of investigative power and forensic medicine to be sufficiently equipped would require at least several more centuries. Perhaps it would be forever impossible.
Soon the arena became clean.
No one would know there'd been a bloody fight here.
Then now it was time to return to mute Mute Sam.
Having perfectly cleaned up the aftermath, Dong Bong-su took out new clothes stored in the Inventory, changed into them, then led Yeoro out of the alley.
The walk resumed.
Dong Bong-su arrived at Bongyang Mountain at the end of the walking route and disposed of all the corpses. If there'd been something called Bone Dissolving Powder spoken of in this place, he could have disposed of them much more cleanly, but it was fine even without such things anyway.
Dong Bong-su was more of an expert than anyone at such tasks.
Disposing of corpses didn't require various things. Even if he had something like Bone Dissolving Powder, he wouldn't have used it. If it was an item with such good efficacy, it would have high utility as a weapon, so why would he use it to dispose of mere corpses?
Soon the corpses were buried somewhere secret in the mountains.
Yeoro watched all of that from right beside him, but was indifferent. To Yeoro, Dong Bong-su was a fearsome beast, but a fairly friendly master who gave him food.
Dong Bong-su stroked Yeoro's nose once, then retraced the path he'd come.
He'd discovered several important facts today.
First, the existence of black gangs.
He'd been looking for prey between Murim people and ordinary people for leveling up, and unexpectedly discovered them. The goal was set. Though it was unfortunate for the black gangs, it was rather fortunate for ordinary people. Because from today, the suicide epidemic would disappear.
The next fact he discovered was the characteristics when leveling up.
First, simultaneously with leveling up, all the wounds he'd had before completely healed. On Dong Bong-su's body now, the wounds inflicted by the riffraff's beating before Jang Ho appeared had disappeared without a trace.
This was information with considerable utility value. If it was a moment when leveling up was imminent, didn't it mean he could take on some degree of risk?
Though he hadn't experimented yet, perhaps even if his heart or brain were damaged, they might recover.
The next characteristic was the light. That light that filled the alley simultaneously with leveling up—the holy light.
However, this characteristic was a disadvantage of leveling up. That light was only dazzling to look at, and had a high possibility of inviting danger. A hunter hiding among prey must be ordinary. Only when most similar to others and indistinguishable could one become the best hunter.
The moment they noticed that he was different from them, they would ostracize Dong Bong-su. Then he'd fall into danger by that much. This wasn't an exception for killing methods using the Inventory either. He mustn't be caught by anyone.
Because of this, he realized leveling up must be done at the point when hunting ends, or in a place with only prey. In a place where no one's eyes could reach. If he made a mistake, his identity could be exposed.
'I'll need to be even more careful going forward.'
He still knew almost nothing about this New Murim Online. All the events that occurred today happened unexpectedly at a point even he hadn't anticipated.
If Jang Ho had been slightly more cautious, or just a bit stronger, he could have been in great danger today.
Now it has become difficult to endure any longer with just the protective coloring of being mute. He had to become stronger faster.
Today was the day he confirmed that.
He turned and began descending the mountain. There were many things to check immediately after returning. He needed to review what happened today, and also confirm the abilities gained from leveling up.
Leveling up meant literally that his level had risen. Simply put, it meant he'd become stronger.
Dong Bong-su was actually feeling it even now. That by becoming Level 2, he'd become stronger. His body had become lighter than before, and his strength had also increased. Though he couldn't quantify it precisely, he'd definitely become stronger.
What abilities had been added exactly?
"Hiihiing!"
As if curious too, Yeoro said something. Let's go back quickly.
Dong Bong-su stroked Yeoro's nose once more and quickly descended from the mountain.
Before his eyes floated this hologram message. The sparkling hologram was broken and torn in places, making its contents impossible to know precisely.
[A Critical ERROR has... occurred in the Murim Online system. Though there should be no hindrance to proceeding with the game.....]
"A critical error."
It keeps getting more interesting.
Dong Bong-su's mouth opened slightly, revealing pure white teeth. In the real world, there was absolutely nothing to make him laugh, but here, though very occasionally, things arose that made him laugh. Though very occasionally.
His steps heading toward the Danri Family grew increasingly faster.
-x-X-x-
While Jang Ho and the thugs were being slaughtered, Gi Dae-hyo and Gi Man-ji were investigating the second-floor room of Bongyang Inn, the location presumed to be where the Suicide epidemic had first occurred. Following behind them, the inn's owner from the No family had also entered.
"Is this the room?"
"Yes, my lord."
"Were you the one who discovered them?"
"Yes. I was the first to discover Machil and Choseon hanging dead from that beam over there in this room."
The No Family Head bowed so deeply his head nearly touched the ground as he answered Gi Dae-hyo's questions.
"Hmm."
Gi Dae-hyo began examining every corner of the room, starting from the assumption that their deaths were not suicide but murder.
It was a typical inn room with nothing special about it. The seductively dyed deep red bedspread could perhaps be considered unusual, but for Gi Dae-hyo, who was well aware of Bongyang Inn's business practices, it seemed neither strange nor particularly noteworthy.
The first thing he examined was whether there was a window. If there was a window, an assassin could have entered through it.
However, no matter how he looked at all six sides of the room—front, back, left, right, top, and bottom—there was no window. In a typical house, windows were usually located on the wall opposite the entrance. But on that wall of this room, there was just a wall.
The possibility of something entering from that direction was immediately ruled out.
'Then did they enter through the door?'
Drr-rk.
Gi Dae-hyo reopened the door he had closed and examined the structure of the inn. Bongyang Inn was a typical two-story building where the first floor was open in a square (口) shape, and the second floor had corridors arranged in the character for "giant" (巨). Stairs were located in the middle of the corridor, with rooms lined up along the corridors on both sides. Looking down at the first floor from the second-floor corridor, one could see the entire interior of the inn's first floor clearly. Likewise, from the first floor, if someone moved through the second-floor corridor, it could all be confirmed.
Consequently, the possibility of an intruder entering through the door also vanished. If the culprit had entered through the door, there would have been witnesses—whether the inn's staff or guests.
The possibilities of entry from the front and rear were eliminated.
Next, the possibility of entry from the right simply disappeared as well.
This room was located at the very end of the head section of the giant (巨) character formation. The right wall of this room faced the outside. Without demolishing the wall, there was absolutely no way to enter from that direction.
Next up was the top and bottom. But entry from above or below was also impossible.
'Wasn't the top the roof?'
Unless the entire roof was removed, there was no way to enter from that direction.
The bottom was the floor.
Similarly, entry would only be possible if the entire floor were removed. Both the roof and floor were framed with wood and stone and finished with clay. A structure through which not even a drop of water could easily penetrate. This possibility was also instantly deleted.
According to the inn owner's account, since Machil and Choseon died, he had never let guests into the room nor made any repairs to it. That completely eliminated the possibility of entry from the front, back, right, top, or bottom.
The only remaining possibility was the left wall. If the Suicide epidemic was truly a murder case, the culprit must have entered this room through the left wall.
Gi Dae-hyo approached the left wall with his hands clasped behind his back. A splendid tiger-striped cloth hung down like a curtain. Though it was covered quite thickly and meticulously for soundproofing, it was still a cloth.
Swoosh—
With a wave of Gi Dae-hyo's hand, the cloth disappeared, revealing the wall arranged neatly in the pattern of the character for "river" (川).
"Hmm."
Seeing this, he was convinced his thoughts were correct. Unlike the other walls, this wall could allow free passage if only the wood were removed.
The problem was...
That this wood had never been removed.
"Look at this."
"Yes, my lord."
At Gi Dae-hyo's call, the inn owner No Family Head quickly approached and answered.
"Is there a way to remove these logs without taking apart the roof?"
"Of course not, sir. These logs are fitted into grooves carved in the ceiling beams and floor beams. Unless you remove all the beams, there's absolutely no way to pull them out."
Gi Dae-hyo already knew this fact, but he asked again for confirmation.
He examined the wall carefully once more. Between the cylindrical logs that were cleanly finished, it looked difficult even for a sheet of paper to fit through. There was also no trace at all of the logs having been removed.
'Does this mean... the series of recent suicide incidents are truly entirely due to epidemic?'
For a moment he thought that, then soon shook his head.
'It didn't make sense. Where in the world was there a epidemic that induced suicide?'
Even if such a thing existed, if it were truly a epidemic, it should spread progressively outward centered on one region, but the Suicide epidemic victims appeared irregularly throughout various parts of Bongyang.
That meant it spread selectively among people, but he had never heard or seen such a epidemic. It was absurd.
The conclusion was that it wasn't a epidemic.
Gi Dae-hyo returned his focus to murder and examined the logs.
What if there was someone who had mastered Bone Shrinking Arts to the extreme? Couldn't they pass through this gap? He had never seen or heard of such a master, but he thought it was possible. After all, the Martial World had many extraordinary people and strange events that defied imagination.
Compared to the front, back, right, top, and bottom through which even water couldn't penetrate, this direction seemed more likely.
At the very least, couldn't water pass between these processed logs? If one could make their body flow like water, they could sufficiently infiltrate through here.
Between having no possibility and having even a slight possibility, naturally Gi Dae-hyo's deduction leaped in that direction.
"When Machil died, was there someone in the adjacent room as well? Or was it perhaps empty?"
Gi Dae-hyo asked, predicting it would have been empty. If it had been empty, the culprit who had infiltrated that side must have somehow entered this room through this wall.
However, his prediction was immediately wrong.
"Yes, there was a guest in that room too. He probably came to Bongyang Inn around the same time as Machil."
"...Who was that?"
Gi Dae-hyo didn't show disappointment and continued questioning the inn owner.
"It was Sosam from the Danri Family."
The reason the No Family Head specified "Sosam from the Danri Family" was because there were far too many people with the name Sosam. If he just said Sosam, there would be dozens in Bongyang alone.
However, if he specified Sosam of the Danri Family, there was only Mute Sam.
"Sosam of the Danri Family? Who is that? Was there someone with such a name in the family?"
Gi Dae-hyo didn't know who Sosam was. No matter how famous Sosam might be in Bongyang, the gap in their status was too great. Rather, it would be stranger if Gi Dae-hyo knew of Sosam.
So he was asking Gi Man-ji.
"Father, he is one of the family's grooms."
"A groom? Why would such a person come here at that time?"
"Probably for the same reason as Machil."
The same reason as Machil?
Ah. For carnal pleasure.
Gi Dae-hyo's gaze immediately turned to the inn owner. He promptly nodded, confirming.
"Yes, my lord. When Machil was embracing Choseon, Sosam was embracing another courtesan."
"Is that so? Then go and bring the courtesan girl here."
As soon as the No Family Head answered yes, he brought the girl.
She had been in the middle of entertaining a customer and was brought here without understanding why. While she was straightening her disheveled clothes, Gi Dae-hyo began questioning her.
"Were you in the adjacent room with a man named Sosam on the day Machil and Choseon died?"
"Yes."
"What did you do?"
She laughed hollowly as if bewildered.
"Ho ho ho. What would a courtesan and a young man do here? Of course we fu—"
"Hey! Watch your mouth!"
The No Family Head urgently cautioned the girl to be careful with her words.
"...Of course we slept."
"That's all? Did you happen to see anything entering or such through the wall between you and the room where Machil and Choseon were?"
"Well... I was too busy fu— doing the work with Sosam to pay attention to anything else."
"Ahem."
The No Family Head cleared his throat again to give her a hint. Gi Dae-hyo stopped him with a hand gesture.
"It's fine. Then was there nothing else special?"
"No. There was nothing special at all. Just like usual... Ah, there was this one thing. Sosam said he was hungry so he asked us to bring food. Usually the customers who come here do their business first and then eat, but since it was Sosam's first time, maybe because he was nervous, he ate first and then did the business."
"Hmm."
After hearing the courtesan's words, Gi Dae-hyo stroked his beard. It was his habit whenever he engaged in deep thought.
However, no matter how deeply he pondered, the simple sequence of eating didn't seem important. Though he did feel uneasy about it.
He continued questioning the girl about various things after that, but similarly failed to discover anything unusual.
"Thank you for your cooperation. Man-ji, let's go."
"Yes, Father. Then where do you plan to go now?"
"Let's go to the next location where the Suicide epidemic occurred."
The two employed their lightness skill and instantly disappeared from Bongyang Inn.
The No Family Head watching that sight, shook his head and went down to the first floor. Then the courtesan girl, who had been watching the inn owner's back, casually threw out a comment.
"Now that I think about it, there was one more special thing. That bastard Sosam's stamina was truly exceptional. Ahhh—. I've never seen such amazing Bedroom Arts in my entire life. Isn't there another man somewhere like Sosam? If it's a man like that, I'm ready to give myself to him even if he's a mute and an idiot."
She smacked her lips in regret and went back to entertaining customers. Perhaps because she recalled her time with Sosam, her body was already heating up intensely. Whichever man it was, he would surely feel paradise properly today.
Bongyang Inn quickly returned to being a place where men's lewd desires squirmed, just as it had always been.
-x-X-x-
Dong Bong-su returned to the Danri Family and finished his daily routine as if nothing had happened. On the surface, he was no different from before he had left the family grounds.
To anyone who saw him, he was just Sosam.
A stupid, idiotic mute who caught no one's attention.
That was Dong Bong-su as seen by others.
No one noticed the progress Dong Bong-su had made.
Far ahead in his vision, still visible only to him, the error box of New Murim Online continued to blink.
[A Critical ERROR has occurred... in the Murim Online system. There should be no problem proceeding with the game... but...]
Creeeak. Thud.
The door closed, and the stable became his space once more.
Critical ERROR.
'A critical error.'
The very fact that he existed here was already a critical error. How could there be an additional error on top of that? Perhaps that critical error also stemmed from the systematic discrepancy caused by his existence, which shouldn't be here.
He could roughly guess why that error message had appeared.
A kind of natural disaster occurring from the 'forced grafting' of this reality and the virtual reality of Murim Online.
Dong Bong-su estimated that this problem had been latent all along, but had finally surfaced with his level-up.
And.
That was quite an accurate guess. The 111th Dimensional Realm, the 112th Dimensional Realm, and the auxiliary dimension Murim Online that became the medium between them—the laws of these three dimensional realms were colliding along with the level-up, causing a 'critical error.'
Probably, the Critical ERROR message would appear every time he leveled up. If the differences between the three dimensional realms hadn't been significant, this wouldn't have happened in the first place, but the three dimensional realms were fundamentally completely different. Naturally, the application of all systems couldn't be accepted as is. In most cases, they would appear before him as distorted systems.
Dong Bong-su didn't know these deep details precisely, but he deduced something roughly similar.
The conclusion was.
All that distortion didn't really matter to him.
He just needed to keep leveling up and adapt to New Murim Online, the newly applied system. That was his path to survival and the way to become stronger.
Dong Bong-su raised his right hand and lightly clicked the X button on the right side of the error box. The error box disappeared, and several windows that had become usable or undergone changes upon reaching Level 2 sparkled with golden light.
"Inventory, Status Window, Skill Window, Quest Window"
Dong Bong-su first opened the Inventory, which he had now become quite familiar with.
Inside the Inventory, a sword he hadn't seen before, along with a set of clothes, a pair of leather shoes, and a hood were neatly arranged in the corner.
He pulled them out and laid them on the floor one by one.
All of them appeared to be made of shabby cloth, but their sanitary condition was pristine. Like brand-new products fresh from a factory.
In fact, these were items that should have originally been provided the moment Dong Bong-su logged into New Murim Online, but due to the critical error, they were basic equipment he was only receiving now. Of course, Dong Bong-su didn't know this, nor did he need to.
Since they existed, he would use them. It was a simple and clear proposition for him.
Dong Bong-su examined the items briefly, then grabbed the sword first without much hesitation.
Click—
Just by picking up the sword, a sound like fastening metal accessories rang out. At the same time, he felt a strange sensation.
'I feel stronger?'
It was hard to explain in words.
But he definitely felt an odd sensation, as if his strength, stamina, and agility had increased.
Dong Bong-su immediately put all the shabby groom's clothes he was wearing into his Inventory and equipped the laid-out gear on his body. Each time he equipped one, a clicking sound struck his ears, and just like when he held the sword, he felt as if he had grown stronger.
"Are these items?"
He had no choice but to be certain that all of this was game items.
Equipment that spontaneously appeared within the Inventory.
The feeling of abilities increasing each time he equipped one.
The mechanical sounds coming from inside his head or ears—he couldn't quite tell which.
Putting it all together.
The feeling of becoming stronger was.
'Not an illusion.'
It must be that by equipping the equipment, his stats had actually increased.
Click.
He closed the Inventory window. As if confirming the Inventory was finished, the golden light disappeared. Now that he had equipped the gear, it was time to check how much stronger he had become.
Dong Bong-su immediately opened the Status Window.
There, too, were dramatic changes.
"So the equipment is finally being recognized?"
Items were displayed in the equipment window that had been empty. What he was currently wearing was displayed exactly as it was.
[Novice's Sword], [Novice's Clothes], [Novice's Shoes], [Novice's Hood]
First, Dong Bong-su moved his hand like a mouse and hovered it over 'Novice's Sword.' Then a transparent window appeared beside it, displaying a description of the Novice's Sword.
[Novice's Sword]
Attribute: None
Required Class: Common
Required Level: 2
Minimum Attack Power: 2
Maximum Attack Power: 5
Critical Hit Increase Effect: ?
Minimum Martial Arts Attack Power: 3
Maximum Martial Arts Attack Power: 8
Martial Arts Critical Hit Increase Effect: ?
Additional Stat Increase: None
He checked the remaining items in the same manner, and they all had similar descriptions. The difference between the other items' descriptions and the sword's was that instead of attack power, they had defense power, and instead of martial arts attack power, they had martial arts defense power. Aside from that, the format itself was identical.
Another commonality between them was that the increased effects for critical hits and defense were consistently marked with a '?'.
Dong Bong-su judged this was also one of the phenomena occurring due to the Critical Error.
He briefly pondered what effects they might have, but soon shook off that thought. No matter how much he worried about it, it was a problem he couldn't understand at present anyway. There was no need to waste mental effort on such things.
What was important was.
'The fact that I've truly become stronger.'
That.
He continued examining the changes in the Status Window. Along with equipping the gear, major changes had occurred in his stats as well.
The basic stat values for Strength, Agility, and Intelligence had all changed from the previous '?' to yellow gauge bars. Since they weren't displayed in Arabic numerals, it was difficult to know the exact figures, but they were definitely tremendous changes. Though barely visible to the eye, all the gauge bars had filled up slightly.
With the level-up, the stat gauges had finally begun to activate.
Gauge bars also appeared for Health, Accuracy, Evasion, Attack Power, Defense Power, Martial Arts Attack Power, Martial Arts Defense Power, Elemental Defense, and True Energy/Internal Energy, which increased proportionally to the increases in Level, Strength, Agility, and Intelligence. Similarly, they weren't precisely quantified.
After checking several more things, Dong Bong-su closed the Status Window. Just like with the Inventory, once confirmation was complete, the Status Window's blinking disappeared.
Click.
This time it was the Skill Window's turn.
There were as many as five skills. More precisely, there were no 'Active Skills' at all—they were all 'Passive Skills.' The four basic actions that should have existed from the moment a game character was created, plus one unidentified skill, had been added.
The four were ones he knew well. Although he hadn't played for more than a few hours, he still had experience playing Murim Online.
He immediately checked the descriptions of those five.
[Slash (Passive) Lv.1 Proficiency: 0%]
The technique of swinging a weapon.
Moving a weapon up, down, left, and right to annihilate enemies is one of the most basic attacks.
Current Action Bonus: 0%
[Thrust (Passive) Lv.1 Proficiency: 0%]
The technique of thrusting a weapon.
Moving a weapon forward and backward to inflict penetrating wounds on enemies is one of the most basic attack techniques.
Current Action Bonus: 0%
[Throw (Passive) Lv.1 Proficiency: 0%]
The technique of throwing a weapon.
The technique of throwing sharp or blunt objects at enemies to inflict injury is one of the basic attack techniques passed down from ancient times.
Current Action Bonus: 0%
[Block (Passive) Lv.1 Proficiency: 0%]
The technique of raising a weapon to block.
Blocking an enemy's attack by holding a weapon vertically or horizontally.
Current Action Bonus: 0%
These four were the basic actions that normally appeared commonly when creating a Murim Online character.
However,
[Spirit Eyes (Tester Passive) Lv.1 Proficiency: 0%]
Tester-exclusive skill.
Current Action Bonus: 0%
This was something he was seeing for the first time.
Aside from it being tester-exclusive, there was no particular explanation, so Dong Bong-su couldn't guess at all what it was. He could only speculate that it was a skill regular gamers couldn't possess.
In fact, everything within Murim Online—monsters, items, backgrounds, skills, etc.—were in principle components of the server, and as perfect artificial constructs in themselves, they were complete entities imbued with artificial intelligence.
Nevertheless, there were a few exceptional cases.
Testing.
Newly opened servers, newly created dungeons, new monsters, etc., sometimes had crude or incomplete configurations. So before revealing them to the public, testers would play through them in advance to see if they were imperfect or not. And there were separately prepared skills to help such testers with their testing.
Those were tester-exclusive skills.
Now one of those skills had been applied to Dong Bong-su through an unknown route—probably due to the Critical Error.
Why had a tester-exclusive skill been applied to Dong Bong-su, a mere player?
There were various reasons, but the most important one was, as Dong Bong-su had thought, the collision between the New Murim Online system and this reality of the Martial World. The New Murim Online system was itself a system with quite high-performance artificial intelligence, but it was currently in a considerably broken and tangled state. Things that should exist on the actual Murim Online server barely existed here in the Martial World, naturally. Because of that, the New Murim Online system came to regard all of Dong Bong-su's current gameplay as new actions—that is, 'test actions.'
Dong Bong-su had no idea about this fact, but it was a tremendous fortune for him and would be a great misfortune for the Martial World.