Chapter 23

Maybe we would’ve fought for a long time .

[The exclusive skill ‘Bookmark’ can now be activated . ]

[The number two bookmark has been activated . ]

[The level of the Bookmark skill is low, shortening the activation time . ]

[Activation Time: One minute . ]

Well, I had this . My bones might be torn out of my body or my blood might be spilt .

[Your understanding of the character is low, so only a part of the character’s skill is activated . ]

[‘Weapons Training Lv . 1’ has been activated . ]

But I didn’t . To be exact, I couldn’t afford it . I used all the powers I had . I squeezed out all of my strength and ran through the tentacles . The landscape around me flashed by . The only thing left was the afterimage of a sharp white light and the sense of cutting something .

[Your understanding of the character ‘Lee Hyunsung’ has increased . ]

[The number two bookmark has been disabled . ]

I felt like I had lost strength . I had poured everything out in one blow . Then after a while, I heard a trembling voice in the air .

[…C-Constellations . Did you all see it? I-I didn’t see wrong…?] It was the appearance of Dokkaebi Biryu, who had forgotten his duties . In fact, it wasn’t strange to be surprised .

[A few constellations are doubting their eyes . ]

[The constellation ‘Abyssal Black Flame Dragon’ is flaring fiercely . ]

It was a powerful grade 7 demon lying down with damaged tentacles in front of me .

[The constellation ‘Prisoner of the Golden Headband’ pulls his hair as if he is pleased . ]

[500 coins have been sponsored . ]

The severed tentacles lay on the ground and the surrounding ground rats had long been killed or fled in the aftermath of the fight . Only the dark keeper lay breathing roughly on the ground, its lips twitching .

“…Ki . Kii . Ki . ”

Originally, the 7th grade demon was an enemy that I couldn’t cope with . Thus, I was prepared . I wasn’t as strong as Yoo Jonghyuk and I didn’t have a good sponsor like Lee Hyunsung .

[The obsessive-compulsive constellations praise your readiness . ]

[200 coins have been sponsored . ]

It was just that the ‘information’ I had was more advantageous than others . Sometimes, ‘information’ was more powerful than anything in the world . The very result of that information was the white light sword now in my hand .

[A-An ‘ether blade’ in the beginning scenarios…C-Constellations . Is this a true story?]

Fortunately, I didn’t have to explain it as the dokkaebi was in full swing .

Ether Blade . It was the flagship technique of the incarnations supported by the highest level sponsor . The technique was often called ‘energy blade’ in Murim novels .

“To be exact, it isn’t a real ether blade . The real one is much stronger than this . ”

[T-That’s right! Strictly speaking, it is Broken Faith that has absorbed the White Pure Star Energy and made the blade…] Looking at the dokkaebi, he wasn’t a complete idiot . [Amazing… There is this guy in that brat Bihyung’s channel…]

As if waiting for this, the Blade of Faith turned off .

[Broken Faith’s durability has run out . This item is no longer available . ]

It was a pity but it did its part .

“Give me the compensation for finishing the sub-scenario . ”

[Uhh, that’s right . W-Wait!]

Biryu hurriedly entered something in the air and a message soon popped up .

[You have met the conditions to clear the sub scenario!]

[You have earned 500 coins . ]

[A handful of constellations admire your scenario . ]

The reward was smaller than I thought . It was natural because I haven’t killed the dark keeper .

[By the way, are you not going to kill that guy?] Biryu looked at me with expectant eyes .

I let out an exhausted breath and glanced at the dark keeper on the ground . Then I kindly said, “I have a non-killing ideology . ”

[N-Non-killing…?]

“I’m not someone who kills easily . ”

[The constellation ‘Demon-like Judge of Fire’ admires it!]

[100 coins have been sponsored . ]

Of course, it was a lie .

[The constellation Secretive Plotter is smiling slyly at you . ]

[100 coins have been sponsored . ]

The bewildered Biryu stammered . [B-But won’t the reward be great if you kill this guy? You will be the first to kill a grade 7 demon and I will give you 7,000 coins! Do you know how big 7,000 coins is?]

“I won’t kill it . I need to open the compensation box so please step aside . ”

I removed the irritating Biryu from in front of me . The dark keeper wasn’t the real reason I came here . So…

Puok!

[The 7th grade demon, ‘Dark Keeper’ was killed . ]

…What? The dokkaebi who looked like it was so funny he would die and the dark keeper who died with a knife in his chest . Then .

“Haha, hahahahat! N-Now I can be strong! Kim Dokja, you son of a bitch! You didn’t know this!” Han Myungoh was the one holding the knife . I had a rough idea of what happened . Then explosive messages were heard in my ears .

[A 7th grade demon has been hunted for the first time!]

[An impossible feat has been accomplished . ]

[You have earned 8,000 coins . ]

[Contribution: Kim Dokja, Han Myungoh]

Perhaps these messages were also shared with Han Myungoh . I only received a few coins because I didn’t deal the finishing blow but…

I could see Han Myungoh dying with happiness at the messages . “Non-killing ideology? Stupid guy! What is killing in this burning world? There can’t be a person like you! You know―”

Then Han Myungoh stopped . Now he knew what he had done .

[The 7th grade demon ‘Dark Keeper’ has been killed and the demon king ‘Asmodeus’ has noticed the murderer’s presence . ]

[The demon king ‘Asmodeus’ will chase the one who dealt the finishing blow until they are dead . ]

[The demon king ‘Asmodeus’ has put a terrible curse on the person who dealt the final blow!]

[Final Blow: Han Myungoh]

“W-What? What is this message?” Han Myungoh cried out fearfully .

[The constellation ‘Secretive Plotter’ admires your wickedness . ]

“Ah…didn’t I tell you? I intentionally didn’t kill it . ”

[The constellation ‘Secretive Plotter’ has recommended your scenario to Star Stream . ]

Han Myungoh stared into the air like he had lost his soul . The curse of the demon king Asmodeus was the most terrible thing for a killer . I didn’t know what it was but it was surely terrible . I looked back and saw Lee Gilyoung and Yoo Sangah looking this way with bemused expressions . I smiled as if nothing had happened .

“We’ll open the rewards together . ”

* * *

After a while, we searched through the treasures and pulled out one each .

“I got this . ”

“I have this…”

Yoo Sangah and Lee Gilyoung found a small bracelet and old shield respectively .

[Magic Power Recovery Bracelet]

[Old Iron Shield]

They were both D grade items but it was better than nothing . The Magic Power Recovery Bracelet was a useful item for everyone and the Old Iron Shield would be good for Lee Hyunsung . It was difficult to ignore the ‘iron’ in the name . This iron was much harder than Earth’s iron .

Yoo Sangah spoke with slight disappointment . “It is less than I thought . ”

Less . Her words weren’t wrong . It was too shameful to call this a ‘treasure trove . ‘ Yoo Jonghyuk . The guy who left yesterday had probably gone through this place . He knew he would be tired fighting the demon so he took a chance and stole the treasures . In the end, we were robbing a place that was already robbed .

“it is okay because the main thing is still left . ”

I looked at a black box in the centre of the warehouse . We didn’t waste any more time and opened the box . The thing in the box was a stove . It was small enough to fit into a pocket and it was shameful to call it a stove .

[Magic Power Stove] .

As expected, it was still here . This item was in fact the key item in this sub-scenario .

[Magic Power Stove can only be obtained once per person . ]

Obviously, Yoo Jonghyuk had taken one so there were two Magic Power Stoves in total .

“…What is that thing?”

“Well, I think I know a bit about its purpose . ”

I purposely trembled, activated the stove with magic power and raised a dead ground rat’s leg . It was funny since it didn’t fit the size of a plate of food, but in five seconds, a remarkable change happened to the leg of the ground rat .

“Wow! A delicious smell!”

There was a sweet smell and the leg of the ground rat changed to a golden colour .

“Meat!” Lee Gilyoung cried out excitedly . Yoo Sangah asked urgently, “C-Can we eat this?”

“I’ll try it first . ”

I grabbed the greasy hind leg and dug into the flesh . The juices ran from the flesh…I forgot to chew and closed my eyes . Tasting it was different from reading it in the book .

[A few constellations are drooling . ]

[The constellations have sponsored you 100 coins . ]

[The constellation ‘Abyssal Black Flame Dragon’ has swallowed his saliva . ]

[The constellation ‘Prisoner of the Golden Headband’ is biting his nails . ]

······ .

The messages continuously popped up . Indeed, eating broadcasts were the best . Everyone was united in front of food .

“Eat it . I think it is okay . ”

The two people rushed towards the meat as soon as I spoke . They hadn’t had a proper meal for three days so they would be quite hungry . Han Myungoh recovered and came over hesitantly, “D-Dokja-ssi…I-I went crazy for a second…”

“Eat . Don’t worry about the other thing . ”

“T-Thank you!”

“You will become a ghost after eating . ”

“W-What…?”

Han Myungoh’s complexion turned as white as death . I said it like a joke but Han Myungoh really would die . Asmodeus’ pursuit was hard for even Yoo Jonghyuk to overcome .

We each took one leg and started to eat . We were eating meat together because we were hungry after everything that started . Humans couldn’t help it . Everyone ate the meal in silence . Was it due to the light spreading gently from the Magic Power Stove? I was feeling a bit sentimental .

Killing something and eating it in order to live . This was the life of a human . It had been like this so far but I wondered why it felt so fresh . Suddenly, I looked up and met Yoo Sangah’s eyes . Ha, Yoo Sangah came to her senses and suddenly cried out, “I’m pathetic . ”

“…Huh?”

“Dokja-ssi worked so hard and I am just eating like a pig… I was no help at all…”

“No, Yoo Sangah-ssi . That…”

“By the way, how does Dokja-ssi know all this? You know how to cook a beast and…”

“Ah, that…”

“Indeed! It must be because you read fantasy novels, right? Really, I didn’t know the world was going to be like this . My silly self was just memorizing Spanish . ”

I felt somewhat strange when I heard Yoo Sangah say this . I opened my mouth to comfort her . “It is because Yoo Sangah-ssi studied foreign languages that you learned the language of the demon species . ”

Of course, it wasn’t very helpful .

“I see… Thank you, Dokja-ssi…”

I smiled at Yoo Sangah and got up from where I was sitting . The party was immersed in eating again . I took a break and headed for the back of the party . In fact, the Magic Power Stove was important but my real purpose was a separate item . I looked closely at the ‘black box’ that contained the Magic Power Stove .

It was this . There was no doubt about it . Yoo Jonghyuk, who took the Magic Power Stove, probably didn’t know about it . The real treasure of the warehouse was this ‘black box . ‘ In the original story, Yoo Jonghyuk only knew about this after the 6th round of regression .

Who was the first to discover this . Was it ‘Heavenly Maid Hori?’ Well, it was hard to remember . It wasn’t accurate but it was probably something like this:

「 “Over there . There are strange boxes in the early areas . If you put something in there…” 」

At this time, I met Yoo Sangah’s eyes and asked, “What is the box for?”

“Huh? Ah, this…” Yoo Sangah said as she looked at the box . There were unknown characters written on the box .

…Could she read them?

“Random…item box?”

Damn . This was why foreign language proficiency was important .

“Uh…that…um . So that is what it means . ”

I was a bit embarrassed . Yoo Sangah cried out, “Quickly use it, Dojka-ssi!”

“…Is it okay?”

Nod nod . Lee Gilyoung nodded vigorously .

“You don’t need to worry about us . All the items obtained here are yours . That is obvious . ”

Yes, I was caught so let’s do it quickly .

“Then I will use it well . ”

[A few constellations are nodding at your decision . ]

I took the nucleus of the 7th grade demon from my pocket . I had cut it from the dead body of the dark keeper . In addition, I took out Broken Faith which had run out of durability . According to the original plot, the use of this box was simple .

「 “Who knew? There would be a limited edition coin item . ” 」

I placed the demon core and Broken Faith into the box .

「 “Ha, you can’t believe my words? Is it real? Put sub items in there and close the box!” 」

In fact, I didn’t know what would happen when I put in these two items . But I was certain that something huge would come out .

「 “A top item will unconditionally come out!” 」

A moment later, a dazzling light burst out from the closed box .