CH 212

Gi-Gyu’s and Kim Dong-Hae’s eyes met. It was as if they were studying each other's shells through their eyes; it gave an entirely new meaning to the old proverb: Eyes were the windows to the soul. A capable player could actually see through their opponent's every move.

Suddenly, Kim Dong-Hae flinched and whispered, “Impressive.”

He was genuinely impressed by Gi-Gyu’s power, which was far greater than his expectations. More specifically…

“I can’t see it,” Kim Dong-Hae added. Gi-Gyu’s power was so extensive that he couldn’t even see the entirety of it.

Gi-Gyu droned, “Why are you looking for Lou?”

Before Kim Dong-Hae could answer, Gi-Gyu asked another question, “More importantly, who are you?”

The smile returned to Kim Dong-Hae’s face. He felt like the situation was under his control again. He said, “I asked you a question first, didn’t I?”

Kim Dong-Hae’s body language seemed grander than usual.

“Oh, I see…” Kim Dong-Hae grinned as if he had remembered something funny. “You can’t tell me because we have too many people around. All right. I’ll help you with that.”

Thin water rivulets left Kim Dong-Hae’s arms to bind the Morningstar-Child Guild members. However, an invisible wall appeared out of nowhere and shielded the members.

Kim Dong-Hae looked at Gi-Gyu’s eyes. Gi-Gyu had his hand raised, discharging a thick and visible magic stream. This was fighting off the water rivulets from Kim Dong-Hae’s hands.

“Arrogant bastard.” Kim Dong-Hae’s face crumpled into an ugly frown as a sense of shame filled his face. Then, a single water rivulet laced with magic attacked Gi-Gyu like a sharp nail.

Kaboom!

When the two magic energies collided, an explosion occurred. Kim Dong-Hae began to change as he screamed, “How dare you! How dare you defy me?!”

An immense amount of magic and sorcerous energy erupted from Kim Dong-Hae. As he grew bigger, he said, “Do you know who I am?!”

Before long, Kim Dong-Hae’s power had engulfed the entire area.

***

Choi Chang-Yong muttered, “I knew the Caravan Guild was doing something like this, but I never expected my own guild to be a victim too.”

His long sword stabbed its opponent. Around him, corpses were littered everywhere, but these were not normal human corpses. Their skins looked sticky, and they looked grotesque. It was difficult to believe they were humans just minutes ago.

Choi Chang-Yong, looking exhausted, turned toward El and thanked her, “I’m grateful for your help.”

“Not at all.” El shrugged.

Choi Chang-Yong had just killed the Blue Dragon Guild members that the Caravan Guild switched. It seemed that he understood the situation because he didn’t look surprised. Still, he had never expected his guild to be infiltrated like this.

“You said Kim Gi-Gyu is deciding on how he will deal with the traitors. So, the Morningstar-Child Guild… Were all their members also switched like mine?” Choi Chang-Yong asked sharply.

El didn’t answer.

Choi Chang-Yong just shrugged and decided to give up on the question.

But, El replied, “Not Kim Sun-Pil.”

Choi Chang-Yong’s eyes widened as he asked, “Then who?”

‘Kim Dong-Hae. It has to be him.’ If it were just the regular guild members, Kim Gi-Gyu wouldn’t have contemplated what had to be done. Therefore, it had to be someone well acquainted with Gi-Gyu.

“Haha…” Choi Chang-Yong laughed awkwardly before asking, “How do you people know all of this? How… Didn’t Kim Gi-Gyu just return? I mean… he could’ve learned much from what’s left of the KPA, but… Even so, he knows too much!”

Choi Chang-Yong’s face was filled with confusion, but it was an astute question nonetheless.

Unfortunately for him, El shook her head, refusing to answer.

Choi Chang-Yong replied, “Then I guess I’ll hear about it later. Maybe when I meet Kim Gi-Gyu…”

He then turned toward his remaining guild members and ordered them to rest. This isolated space should provide them plenty of safety. El had already generously alerted him to the problem with his guild members. Now, he believed he wasn’t the only one looking for a chat. It looked like Kim Gi-Gyu wanted to talk to him too.

“You said I can talk to you, right?” asked Choi Chang-Yong.

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“After seeing what I saw just now, I’m feeling more certain about my decision. I will keep it simple.” Choi Chang-Yong’s face remained intense as he moved his lips slowly. He continued, “I want to ally with Kim…”

Choi Chang-Yong was about to declare his intention when El, Botis, and Choi Chang-Yong became pale as they turned toward the same place.

El screamed, “Mr. Hwang!”

Unexpected waves fired from her body echoed throughout the space. Choi Chang-Yong became very quiet. Even he could feel the incredibly dominant energy from beyond the giant wall, which had previously absorbed everything.

“Lower the barrier!” A sword materialized in El’s hand, and she ran toward the wall.

***

“No way,” Lou grumbled and let go of the Iron Guild team leader’s neck.

Plop.

The team leader couldn’t move a single muscle in his body. Within seconds, he was dead.

“Guess I was wrong,” Lou muttered. At first, he had believed the team leader could retain his mind despite the First Potion; he was wrong.

Lou already knew the First Potion had fragments of him. And his physical body wasn’t something a normal human could endure.

‘And as if that wasn’t enough, the potion also has Chaos mixed into it.’ 

Jupiter—the other meanie sealed inside Gi-Gyu—had said the First Potion had a hint of Chaos’ power.

Lou—someone who could control Death.

Chaos—something not even Lou could control.

These two powerful ingredients were what made the First Potion, which meant that no human could retain their own mind after ingesting it.

“I guess he drank a slightly adjusted version of the potion,” Lou commented out loud. In a twisted way, it was an improvement. The creator or the tweaker had increased the efficiency while delaying the side effects. However, there was no way to eliminate these side effects completely, as no mere human could handle both Chaos and Death.

“Damn. So what about that bastard Kim Gi-Gyu?” Lou grumbled in annoyance.

Gi-Gyu could control Chaos, Death, and even Life. His existence was definitely a mystery, but Lou no longer felt the need to find out who or what he really was.

“Tsk.” Lou looked down at the Iron Guild team leader with disappointment, acting like a kid with a broken toy.

Just then, the mantises called out to him, “Kwerk.”

Lou turned to look around him. No human was left standing; only the Iron Guild team’s corpses surrounded him.

“Kwerk. Kwerrrk.” The mantis leader walked up to Lou and cried out. It was trying to say something.

“You mean you want to eat them?” Lou asked with a smile.

Nod.

The mantis bobbed its giant grotesque head. These mantises from Gi-Gyu’s gate were Gi-Gyu’s faithful servants; at the end of the day, they were monsters. They could survive on magic-filled crystals, but…

Lou patted the leader mantis’ head and replied, “It’s your instinct to want to ingest living things, which include humans.”

The leader mantis seemed pleased because it purred. It was a monster’s instinct to want to eat other living things to become more powerful and get acknowledged by its master.

“But you can’t,” Lou continued.

“Kwerk?” The mantis looked up at Lou. It had seemed like Lou was about to permit them, but he had refused. Currently, Lou had seniority, so if he had permitted them, they could’ve eaten the beastly players and become more powerful.

“Kwerk.”

“I can eat them all by myself?” Lou asked. It seemed that the mantises had misunderstood Lou’s intention. They must have believed that Lou wanted to eat all the corpses alone.

“Kekeke.” Lou laughed and explained, “I want to, but I can’t.”

“Kwerk?” The leader mantis tilted its head in confusion.

“Stop asking me all these questions. I said you can’t have them, and that’s that. You’re just a monster; you dare question me?” Lou grumbled in annoyance and slapped the leader mantis’ head.

Whack.

Thankfully for the mantis, Lou had controlled his power. Instead of losing its head, the mantis only became tearful from the pain.

Lou explained, “Your grandmaster, Kim Gi-Gyu, wouldn’t like it. You can never eat humans. So just clean up this mess, okay?”

The mantises jolted in shock and began shaking.

“Dammit! Fine! Just be scared of your master!” Lou seemed annoyed that the mantises feared Gi-Gyu more than him. He pouted while the mantises got rid of the corpses. Lou suspected that everything must have been resolved by now, according to their plan. He laid on the ground to rest.

Resting became his favorite pastime when he got a physical body. He couldn’t even think about taking such leisurely breaks when he was the hell king.

“What a life,” Lou muttered. The world might be ending and everything, but all he cared about was his happiness right now.

But suddenly, he rose when he got a bad feeling.

“Dammit!” Lou screamed, “Old Man Hwang!”

Lou looked at the shaking mantes on the ground. He yelled, “Lower the wall! Fuck!”

Then, he summoned every ounce of power he had to take his adult form. An energy explosion engulfed him. He was forcing this transformation, which he knew would take a huge toll on his body, but he had no other choice.

It appeared that Old Man Hwang had heard Lou because the wall began to go down.

“Dammit!” Lou, now in his adult form, swore. Touching his long horns, he muttered, “Why did it have to be now of all times…”

He could feel “his” energy as the wall slowly went down. Because his body was still unstable, Lou’s legs shook.

“This is unexpected. I didn’t expect it to be ‘him.’” Everyone in the gate knew that Kim Dong-Hae’s body had been stolen, but no one was aware that a powerful demon had taken control.

‘Did we underestimate the situation?’ Lou wondered. They had planned everything carefully, but Gi-Gyu’s new powers and the positive changes in all the Egos…

Clearly, their hubris had made them underestimate their enemy. Gi-Gyu and his team had thought the demon in Kim Dong-Hae’s body would at most be a Seat of Power holder.

But!

It turned out that it was someone much more powerful. This truth was so unbelievable that they could have never considered it a possibility.

“Dammit!” Lou swore again and kicked the ground. He whispered, “Maybe I should be thankful that we didn’t have to work to find him?”

With that, he took to the sky.

***

“This is very interesting! I can see how you became Lucifer’s master! I had been wondering how a mere human came to own Lucifer, and now…!” a man said. This man had looked like Kim Dong-Hae a moment ago. “I’m even angrier now, Lucifer’s master!”

Forceful magic and energy swirled all around its body. He added, “This still won’t do! I should be Lucifer’s master, not you!”

The demon finally revealed his true identity, “Me! Leviathan!”

Leviathan.

One of the Seven Kings of Hell.

One of the hell kings now stood before Gi-Gyu in player Kim Dong-Hae’s body.

“Master!”

“Hey! Mr. Owner!”

El and Lou’s voices could be heard from over the wall, which was slowly being lowered.