I Became a Disaster-Class Sorcery Genius

Salvation Society (What It Used to Be) (2)

After finishing training with Shin Se-yeon, who had a strangely sullen(?) expression for some reason after today's class, Kim Dojun returned home, ate dinner, and logged into Lantiarval.

In order to meet Tia.

'I've already made her feel anger, so now I have to make her feel the remaining three emotions as well.'

With that thought in mind, he logged into the game.

[Iron-Blood: Hey, you bastard!] (whisper)
[Iron-Blood: Where are you?] (whisper)
[Iron-Blood: I said, where are you?!] (whisper)

He smirked as he noticed Tia, who seemed to have been waiting, sending him whispers, and soon began chatting.

[18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan: lol]
[Iron-Blood: Shut up and tell me where you are.]
[18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan: lol.]
[Iron-Blood: You're in the village, huh, you bastard. Just wait, I'm coming.]

With just the amazing efficacy of "lol", Kim Dojun once again managed to piss Tia off. Soon, he confirmed that her character 'Iron-Blood' appeared, surrounded by a halo of light at one end of the village.

The character stood still for a moment, perhaps loading.

However, as soon as he saw her character, Kim Dojun realized it immediately.

'Did she buy something with cash?'

No, in fact, it would be strange not to notice.

Games like this, to induce players to spend money, always made sure that purchases would show up on their characters.

For example, weapons reinforcing the character's attack power would start to emit blue or red light after a certain level of enhancement, or if you made cash purchases for the character itself, the character's appearance would sparkle.

So, he immediately realized that Tia had bought something with cash—and at this rate, there was no way he could beat her. He instantly opened his inventory.

If he just stood there, the moment Tia's character finished loading, she would chase him down and kill him.

'Of course, there are heavy penalties for PK in town. But judging by how pissed she is, she probably won't care about that.'

On top of that, because Lantiarval's developers were so obsessed with profit, even the biggest penalties could be solved with money.

In other words, if she was set on PK, location wasn't the problem.

But that was okay.

Kim Dojun had already bought items in preparation for this kind of situation.

Tsk—

As soon as Tia's character finished loading and started moving, Kim Dojun clicked on the item he had prepared using the inventory he had left open.

A short loading screen flashed across the monitor, and at once, he was warped to the 'Starting Village'.

As if she had been waiting for him, Tia's character, Iron-Blood, began following Kim Dojun's character.

As soon as her character finished loading, she rushed at 18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan to kill him.

[Iron-Blood: ??]
[Iron-Blood: What the heck is this.]
[Iron-Blood: Why can't I attack????]
[18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan: lol]

Iron-Blood could only bump her character against 18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan but couldn't attack.

'There's a reason I came to this place.'

Watching this, Kim Dojun smiled to himself.

'This is the only absolutely no PK zone in Lantiarval.'

Starting Village.

As its name suggested, this was where new players appeared as soon as they created their characters; it was called the newbie zone by players.

But why was this place, unlike other villages, a completely PK-immune area?

Of course, it was to protect the newbies who began this game as infrequently as beans sprout during a drought.

Lantiarval is a dead game.

However, even a dead game can't let all the longtime water just drain away without replenishment; if they allowed PK against newbies, the game would lose its few remaining players for good. So, as a last bit of conscience, the devs made this area no PK.

In other words, it was a measure to try and prolong the game's life enough to squeeze out as much money from players as possible.

Using this weakness, Kim Dojun had escaped to this newbie town in Lantiarval.

[18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan: lol]
[18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan: You can't hit me, can you?]
[Iron-Blood: Ah, dammit!!!!]

Unable to attack, Tia raged in chat.

[18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan: You wasted your money, huh? Feels good~]
[Iron-Blood: You bastard! I'll find you and kill you, do you know who I am!?]
[18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan: Nope, don't know~]

After teasing her for a while, Kim Dojun finally decided it was enough.

[Iron-Blood: You bastard! I'm seriously going to kill you when I find you! I mean it! You think I can't find you?]
[Iron-Blood: You son of a bitch!!!]

Once he saw Tia furiously cursing, he turned off the game with a satisfied expression.

Seeing that it was past 1 a.m., he thought about going to the Salvation Society meeting tomorrow and went to bed.

####

Salvation Society.

A heretic cult that believed in Gatura of salvation, one that had plunged the world into chaos time and again.

It was a group made up of people who truly believed that one day, all would be grateful for Gatura's salvation—a place that sorcery associations in every country considered an extremely high priority.

Because the Salvation Society was essentially a terrorist group whose next move couldn't be predicted.

Among the Salvation Society's members, there were some their sorcerers were especially wary of—the ones who had been given the title of "Sword" within the Society.

Those who held the "Sword" title had high ranks within the Society, and the sorcery they performed in the name of "Divine Power" was extremely difficult to deal with.

And currently, in Korea, five out of the eight Swords of the Salvation Society were secretly smuggled in and hiding out in a safe house in Gangneung.

The Swords of the Salvation Society had been ordered by their leader to kidnap anyone remotely related to Gatura of salvation.

After several days staking out, they had already devised all their plans to be executed within Korea.

"So the operation will be conducted tomorrow."

"Yes, sir."

"Have we confirmed that the two targets are Han Soyeon and Kim Dojun?"

"That's correct. As mentioned when we first made our plans, brother Four will handle Han Soyeon alone, and the rest of us will take Kim Dojun together."

"I heard he even blocked that one's attack."

"More than that, according to our investigation, although it's only a rumor, he's said to be a disciple of the Explosion God."

"Huh, the Explosion God?"

"That's right."

The five Swords fell silent for a moment at those words.

But then, the only one in formal attire seated at the round table—

"Even if there are such rumors about the disciple of Explosion God, we must handle the task cleanly. Since he's the one who met the Lord closer than anyone, there's much to be extracted aside from punishing blasphemy."

The man known as the First Sword of the Salvation Society declared adamantly.

"Very true."

"No matter the rumors, we cannot leave one who committed blasphemy unchecked. You are right, brother."

The others nodded in unison and agreed.

After a brief pause...

"Then, since there's little time left, let us all rest in preparation for tomorrow's action."

As the First Sword finished speaking and everyone prepared to rise—

Splurt-!

With the sound of a watermelon bursting, the head of the Second Sword, who sat next to the First Sword, exploded.

"?"

For a moment, everyone wore blank expressions, as it happened so suddenly without any warning.

Yet, true to their reputation as the main force of the Salvation Society, called the 'Swords', the others instinctively realized this was an attack and tried to form a hand seal instantly.

"Aaaargh!"

"My hands!! My hands!!!"

But all of the Swords present had their hands twisted and shattered in an instant.

Blood gushed out in fountains.

And then—

Splurt-!

With another burst, the head of the Third Sword, who was screaming, exploded.

As terror replaced composure in the Swords' expressions—

"Hello?"

Out of the darkness, Han Soyeon appeared.

She slowly approached the Swords' cries, light on her feet.

She stomped on the head of the Fifth Sword—who was grabbing his shattered hands and screaming insanely—crushing it completely.

"S, save me!"

The Fourth Sword, seeing this, involuntarily screamed and tried to back away.

But as Han Soyeon moved toward him—

"First! Run!!!"

The fear in the Fourth Sword's eyes vanished as he suddenly drew a dagger with his broken hand and leaped at Han Soyeon—as if he had been acting all along.

Splurt-!

But just like the others, he died instantly, his head exploding mid-air before he could lay a finger on her.

Han Soyeon had disposed of four Swords, known as the Salvation Society's main force, in the blink of an eye.

She turned her gaze to the First Sword, whose fingers were mangled like the others.

He had not given up, and, with his shattered hands, was desperately trying to form a hand seal.

He was forming the hand seal for the teleportation scroll in his robe.

Of course, salvation Society members did not fear death.

For them, salvation from Gatura was to die.

But there was a difference between not fearing death and letting their life go to waste; so without hesitation, the First Sword tried to escape.

Even during the brief seconds of this fight, he realized—

That there was nothing he could do here.

But then,

Crunch—!

"Keough!"

Before he could complete the hand seal, something seemed to grab his throat, lifting him into the air.

He saw it—

Something unimaginably massive writhing behind Han Soyeon.

His gaze fell to Han Soyeon below.

"Don't worry. I have something to ask you, so you won't die 'yet'."

As her voice rang out, the thing writhing behind her—the First Sword, who had never known fear of death, finally had terror flicker in his eyes.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
Damn, maybe Dojun was right...
Mayb Soyeon is a malignant spirit all along.
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】