Chapter 127
Chapter 127: Alive (1)
"But still, calling me mom is a bit much, isn't it?"
I scratched my head and returned to the poison herb field.
"Pardon?"
Omar asked me while training his martial arts.
His dark brown skin glistened attractively with sweat.
"Never mind. The training is going well?"
"Yes, I'm working hard at it."
Omar, who dreamed of becoming a Climber.
He had the talent, and he had the will.
Since I had decided to entrust him with managing the poison herb field, I thought it was right to cultivate him to at least the level of ‘Jang Pilsam’ from my past life.
The only problem was his age.
If he had been ten years younger, I would have had him diligently build the foundations of internal energy and martial arts.
But that was unreasonable now.
There was neither the time nor the leisure for it.
I had to fill the Artificial Dantian and give him a secret manual he could learn like a skill.
"Martial arts are important for their strength, but they must also suit the nature and physique of the one who trains them."
Originally, because of the yin-cold treasures like the Yin-Cold Bead obtained from the 35th floor, I had considered having Omar train in Ice Energy arts—but I quickly dismissed the idea.
Omar, who had cornered Killian and his subordinates with nothing but an empty rifle.
It had felt like watching a honey badger taking on a pride of lions.
I found the perfect martial arts for him.
The Furious Wind Sun-Moon Blade Art and the Tiger King Heart Method, discovered when I ransacked Killian's warehouse.
They were the martial arts of a prestigious family known as the Blade Soul Sangwan Family.
Though they hadn't quite reached the rank of the Five Great Households, they carried the essence of swift and domineering blade techniques that could rival them.
On top of that, I also handed over the Blood Energy Bead.
It would clearly be of great help for internal energy cultivation.
There were many Artificial Dantians I had placed in the poison herb field, and for now, I selected an appropriate one and had him train with it.
"In just a few months, you'll easily reach the level of a first-rate master."
"Yes!"
As fast as his growth was, his limits were equally clear.
Transcendent Peak would be a stretch—but then again, you never knew.
When the will of a person is met with the great fortune of heaven, one can sometimes display power beyond all expectations.
"Have you been educating the cattle properly?"
"Yes. Now they can manage introductions and greetings."
The human cattle gave me stilted, halting self-introductions in broken Korean.
It was a funny situation, but I didn't laugh.
Effort deserved praise, after all.
"Well done."
"Thank you."
"I'm surprised those guys are picking up Korean faster than expected—what's the secret?"
"I've been having them memorize K-pop songs wholesale."
"Oh?"
"If they memorize a hundred songs, they'll be able to communicate well enough. That's how I did it."
"What songs did you teach them?"
"South-Bound Train, Woman Outside the Window, Damdadi, Accidentally Encountered You."
Those are eighties songs.
They're all my father's favorite tracks.
This is supposed to be K-pop?
Omar added,
"However, those were too difficult for them, so for now I started with something much easier."
"……Understood."
Come to think of it, the song the human cattle were humming in the field had sounded oddly familiar.
Baby Shark, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo……
I-is this also K-pop?
Omar looked thoroughly proud of himself, completely at odds with my baffled expression.
Well, I suppose Omar knows what he's doing.
"Have the kids been fed?"
"Until now, I've only given them water."
"Tonight, cut up some Bungeoppang and ration it out. For cattle that work well, give the head and body. For those falling short, give the tail."
Bungeoppang performance-based pay.
Omar's eyes lit up at that.
"Understood."
"Whip, carrot, then whip again. Keep that in mind."
"Yes! Boss."
"And take this."
I handed him the notepad I had taken from his younger sister's hospital room.
The moment he saw it, his eyes glistened with tears.
"It's my sister's handwriting. Thank you."
"What does it say?"
"It's a petition to the French government. Asking them to rescue me in case I'm trapped in the collapsed Killian building……Ugh."
Omar wiped his tears.
"The kid. Can't even write French, sends it in Arabic, and expects anyone to understand……"
[Omar is deeply moved thinking of his younger sister. +500 Happiness]
"You two are close siblings."
"You and your siblings are close too, aren't you, Boss?"
"……Yes."
Omar tucked the notepad into his breast pocket and pointed behind me.
"By the way, what's that?"
"A newcomer."
"Pardon?"
Behind me knelt a young French man in a hoodie, gagged and on his knees.
"I caught myself a nasty little racist."
It was the same guy I had encountered before.
The one who had been rude to me with racial slurs, gotten scolded by the elderly gentleman, and then fled.
I had been out taking care of some business and ran into him again on the street.
He'd started pulling his eyes back and making ‘Ching-chong’ noises, following me around—so this time I couldn't hold back and dragged him here.
I pointed at the guy and gave Omar his instructions.
"I won't keep him long. I'm going to work him hard and re-educate him for about three days before sending him off."
"Is it alright to let him go?"
"It's fine. If I work my methods on him, he won't even remember being here. In exchange, I'll make sure he's reformed to the bone before he leaves. And above all else……"
I swept my gaze across the ten human cattle.
"Those guys need to see it with their own eyes, too. They need the hope that, if they do well, they might be able to leave."
Omar grinned and said, "That's a solid carrot, right there."
"Exactly."
"Boss, you have the feel of a real professional."
Omar gave me a thumbs up.
……I am a professional, all right.
I was the one locked up myself. Twice.
"But are you really going to let the human cattle go?"
"Undecided. Whether it happens or it doesn't, they're free to dream."
"Well said."
"Hand the newcomer over to those human cattle. They can rough him up—but no breaking bones or cutting anything off."
"Understood."
Omar grabbed the newcomer by the scruff of his neck and dragged him away.
The guy clearly had no idea where he was or what was happening, and out of sheer terror, he had wet himself.
Omar handed the newcomer over to the human cattle and said something to them.
The human cattle broke into wide grins, closed in on the newcomer, stripped off his clothes, and shoved a plow into his hands.
[The human cattle are delighted by ‘receiving a new recruit’. +10 Happiness]
The human cattle, whose size and misdeeds put the scrawny newcomer to utter shame.
One of the human cattle tossed something in front of the newcomer with a thud.
"……!"
It was a skull.
A cranium that had been dug up from the ground—the newcomer, who until now had thought the world revolved around him, went sheet-white.
Trembling violently, he saw ten figures like malevolent spirits encircle him.
Then one of the human cattle fixed him with a terrifying smile and quietly opened his mouth.
"Baby Shark, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo."
* * *
[Entering 36th floor of the Murim Tower (France).]
[This is your first entry.]
[Mission (36th floor): Rob the Wunbo Trading House's Treasure Vault (C).]
—Time Limit: 1 day
—On Success: 500,000 Happiness Points awarded
[A bonus mission is given upon first entry.]
[Bonus Mission: Rob the Wunbo Trading House's Secret Vault.]
—Time Limit: 10 minutes
—On Success:
① Mission (36th floor) considered complete
② Happiness Points tripled (×3)
③ One-third fragment of the Eight Great Extreme Poison ‘Blood Pigeon Plasma’ is awarded.
—On Failure: The Wunbo Trading House's elite guards, the Ice Gold Guard, will appear.
I entered the 36th floor of the tower.
"Ten minutes—will it be possible?"
I had thought extensively about the strategy in advance, but I had no confidence.
In my past life, I had robbed the Wunbo Trading House's Bae Geum-sang of his treasure vaults.
But in truth, I had never even managed to enter the last vault.
So this 36th floor.
The Secret Vault—even to me, it was unfamiliar territory.
‘The tower is specifically telling me to rob the Secret Vault—that means there must be something there.’
I surveyed my surroundings.
The situation was nearly identical.
Worthless objects scattered across the floor.
Stone statues lined up on both sides.
"On the 34th floor, I twisted the neck of Bae Geum-sang's father's statue. On the 35th floor, a trap formation was hidden beneath the hem of his mother's skirt."
But looking carefully, there were differences in the 36th floor's statues.
The first was the appearance of Bae Geum-sang's mother's statue.
She was slimmer. More beautiful.
‘Feels like I've seen her somewhere before.’
The second was a male statue standing beside the mother.
One glance was enough to know who it was.
"That's Bae Geum-sang."
Though carved slimmer and more handsome, the greed brimming in the sculpture was unmistakably Bae Geum-sang.
‘Guess that's how Bae Geum-sang wishes he looked.’
Bae Geum-sang was clearly not in his right mind.
His father's statue was positioned far off to one side.
And the one holding the hand of his mother's statue was none other than Bae Geum-sang's own statue.
"Someone who didn't know any better would think these two are the couple."
Hatred for his father. Twisted affection for his mother.
It was enough to make you sick.
I approached his statue and examined it closely—there was a faint hairline crack near the neck.
"So it's this."
I reached out, about to twist the neck—
"Something's off."
I pulled back.
‘Bae Geum-sang has a high ego and is full of arrogance. Would a man like that really let someone twist his own neck?’
I looked again.
There was an identical crack at the wrist.
I considered turning that too, then let it go.
‘Somehow I don't think he'd allow anyone to lay a hand on his own body.’
I had to be careful.
That lunatic Bae Geum-sang had installed trap formations in every treasure vault, designed to turn the whole place into a sea of fire.
‘Something that relates to him, yet is nothing to him. Something that would actually be satisfying to twist.’
I stood before the statue of Bae Geum-sang's father again.
The father's statue also looked different from the one on the 35th floor.
The expression was full of fury, as though shouting at someone.
The mouth was carved wide open—realistic enough to send a chill down your spine.
"This is it."
Without hesitation, I plunged my hand into the open mouth and yanked the tongue out hard.
Crack-crack-crack-crack—
The trap formation activated, and the door to the Secret Vault, set into the floor, slid open.
"Good grief. Impressive."
The 34th floor's Secret Vault had been packed with gold and silver treasures. The 35th had held valuables like the Blood Energy Bead.
The 36th was different again.
First, an entire wall was lined with Human Skin Masks.
"A goldmine!"
I grinned as I stuffed them into my sack.
There were common-looking faces among them, but a few were extraordinary.
They were Human Skin Masks of famous figures from the martial world.
I recognized some of them.
The heads of the Five Great Households, elders of the major sects—even those of unorthodox faction leaders.
They had clearly been crafted from molds of those very faces.
‘He must have had some scheme in mind.’
This alone was an enormous gain.
The Human Skin Masks would undoubtedly prove useful in situations I would encounter going up the tower.
And beyond the tower, their value was more than enough.
On one side were poison vials and silk pouches.
A familiar insignia.
"These belong to our Sacheondang Family……"
The poison vials bearing the Sacheondang Family's insignia, along with silk pouches containing dried herbs and seeds.
Next to them—
"Yama's Life-Chasing Threads!"
It was the Yama's Life-Chasing Threads that the White Tiger Gate's chief steward had possessed.
Bae Geum-sang must have purchased them from that steward.
Creak—
A disgusting memory surfaced and my teeth ground together, but regardless, it was an enormous gain beyond compare.
There was no time, so I crammed it all in.
The heart of this Secret Vault was at its center.
Just one thing—but a presence that filled the entire vault.
"The Iron Instrument God's Sword!"
One glance was enough to confirm this was his work.
And the crimson energy flowing through the blade.
I knew this sword well.
"The sword of Blood Drama Demon King—Ten Thousand Drama."
One of the sixteen Demon Venerables of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect.
A master who had brought storms of blood and carnage, the Blood Drama Demon King.
The reason I recognized this sword was because I had taken the Blood Drama Demon King's head myself.
"If it's the Blood Drama Demon King's sword, then among the Iron Instrument God's blades, this is a Vicious Sword."
The weapons the Iron Instrument God forged were categorized by periods, corresponding to his level of mastery at the time.
Swords made in the early period had no particular distinguishing features.
These early works were called ‘Righteous Swords’.
The sword I possess, ‘Ro-dam’, is from that early period.
As time went on, they took on an increasingly mystical and sorcery-like character.
In the middle period, swords that had drunk blood transformed into ‘Ghost Swords’.
Those without sufficiently deep internal energy who gripped the sword would suffer from auditory and visual hallucinations.
In the mid-to-late period, the condition worsened—becoming ‘Demon Swords’ or ‘Evil Swords’ that craved blood.
Simply holding the blade was enough to rouse the urge to kill.
Some called them ‘Wicked Swords’.
The Evil Path Alliance Leader's treasured ‘Blood Death Blade’ was also a work from this period.
Then came the peak, the period in which the Iron Instrument God's skill was said to have reached the heavens.
The swords he forged then were, once again, ‘Righteous Swords’.
Regardless, among the swords he forged during the middle period—when he was deeply absorbed in sorcery—a particular few were also called ‘Vicious Swords’, and there was a reason for it.
"Most of their owners met miserable ends."
The Blood Drama Demon King, whose neck I had taken, was one such case.
……And Bae Geum-sang had been a former owner, too.
After I had swept through the Wunbo Trading House, it seemed Bae Geum-sang's son had transferred the Vicious Sword to the Blood Drama Demon King.
That was how the Blood Drama Demon King's descendants had managed to avoid having their lineage severed.
Still, being called a ‘Vicious Sword’ didn't mean it only brought ill fortune.
When a master of righteous heart gripped it, it could become a blade that rivaled even the Iron Instrument God's late-period Righteous Swords, hailed as his greatest masterpieces.
The Azure Dragon Spear of the Shandong Ak Family's head—that copy which had circulated—the Azure Dragon Spear was precisely that.
Even so, I had considered it bad luck, and after killing the Blood Drama Demon King, I had hurled this Vicious Sword off a cliff.
And now I gazed at it, appearing before me again.
In my past life, this was a sword I had never taken for myself……
As if in a trance, I reached out my hand.