Chapter 76 - There is nothing impossible for a king
Jin realized that any excuse he made would be futile—just empty self-justification that wouldn't change a thing.
In times like these, the best approach was to shift the topic.
"Forget it. Can you stand?"
Supporting the two fallen individuals, Jin scanned his surroundings.
A few corpses lay submerged in pools of blood.
He was sorry to say it, but he didn't recognize a single one of them.
It made sense.
When these people had joined him one by one, Jin had been trapped in a worsening hallucination, far from being in his right mind.
The only one he vaguely remembered—the chameleon beastkin—had been devoured without a trace, making the other bodies feel even more unfamiliar.
The past twenty-four hours had become nothing more than a hazy void in his memory.
And honestly, there was no reason to dig through such unpleasant recollections.
That said, seeing his younger friend's face, even if it was a fake, had been a welcome sight.
At that moment—
"...Something feels off."
Maximo muttered to himself as he ignited a signal flare, a long stick-like device.
It was practically a modern torch.
The surrounding flares that had been laid out were beginning to dim, so he was taking precautions.
Which meant that the darkness here was still very much alive.
"Weren't things supposed to be over once the vampire died?"
Maksimo murmured uneasily, and the one who answered wasn't Natasha, but the old man shaking off her support.
"...I told you. There's a magic circle drawn in blood underground. Unless it's destroyed, the darkness won't disappear."
A magic circle?
Jin scratched his cheek at the unexpectedly fantastical terminology.
Even though he was aware that this world was a mix of magic and technology, it still felt surreal.
To Jin, magic wasn't something born of understanding and enlightenment—it was just knowledge that had been forcefully crammed into his head.
"Then what do we do?"
"Destroy it."
Jin nodded at the weary response.
Then, without hesitation, he grabbed the old man, who was clutching his abdomen and drenched in cold sweat, and slung him over his shoulder like a sack.
"How dare you! Put me down! At once!"
"For someone who can't even move, you sure have a lot of pride."
The old man flailed like a fish out of water.
Even though he was reinforcing his body with mana, his struggles were laughable.
It just felt like a big fish flopping around.
A great catch, really.
As Jin was thinking this, he suddenly glanced down at his chest, which tingled oddly.
He had been slashed deep enough that his sternum had been visible.
Yet not only had the bleeding stopped, but the wound was also closing before his eyes.
It was more than just rejecting the transformation into a vampire—
It was the result of having consumed true blood.
His body had absorbed such an excess of nutrients that his regeneration had been permanently enhanced.
Thus, he remained human, yet had evolved into something distinctly less human.
But mentally?
Jin was completely unfazed.
Not seeming human didn't mean he wasn't human.
I mean, right?
That famous lady said it too—
If something tastes like a persimmon, then it's a persimmon.
I'm human, so I'm human.
Wait, is that the same thing?
Eh, whatever.
Having confidently convinced himself, Jin turned his head.
His companions had recovered and were now back on their feet.
Maximo, holding the signal flare.
Natasha, now split into Leftasha and Rightasha once more.
...And a mercenary?
"Wait. You're not dead?"
"I-I was just playing dead."
The mercenary stammered, looking embarrassed.
Even the Underheart swordsman, who had fought to the bitter end, lay dead with a broken blade lodged in his chest.
And yet, somehow, this useless excuse of a mercenary had survived.
There were people in this world with an uncanny ability to escape death.
Apparently, this guy was one of them.
Jin wasn't about to let it slide.
He gave the mercenary a skeptical once-over.
Would he suddenly reveal himself as—
"Actually, I am a high-ranking member of a secret and immensely powerful organization! I've been hiding here for a very serious and terrifying reason! My weak and pathetic act was all a deception, and now... YOU ARE ALL DEAD!"
"…W-why are you staring at me like that?"
But the mercenary's clueless expression betrayed no such hidden depths.
Even with Jin's heightened perception, now attuned to reading unseen flows, he sensed nothing.
Jin shrugged.
"Let's go."
And so, they arrived at the ruins.
The very place where everything had begun.
The site where the magic that devoured light had been cast.
At the deepest point—
Beneath an ancient, temple-like structure, the floor was covered with a massive, intricate pattern drawn in blood.
"That's it?"
Jin asked, and the old man, staring into empty space, muttered nonsensically.
"...I am a king. Show some respect."
His rambling monologue sounded all too familiar.
At first, Jin wondered what the hell was wrong with him.
But when the old man started saying things like
"I will not submit,"
"Get out of my head," and seemed to be having a conversation with an unseen presence—
Jin recognized the stench of infection.
Whether this self-proclaimed king had been given the same twenty-four hours was unknown.
What mattered was that he was resisting.
"Enough small talk with the red-blooded bastard. Time to focus."
Jin set the old man down.
The man's bloodshot eyes, which had been glaring at something invisible, now flickered with clarity.
It would be bad if he turned into a vampire.
He was originally a Second-Tier mage—there was no telling what kind of monster he would become.
Like a ticking time bomb.
And yet, despite the danger, Jin had brought him here for one reason—
He suspected that his knowledge of magic might be necessary.
"Can you dispel it?"
The old man, glaring at Jin with reluctance, lowered his gaze to the blood-stained floor.
"...There is nothing impossible for a king."
With that, he meticulously inspected the magic circle drawn in blood.
As Jin observed his profile, now fully immersed in concentration, Natasha and Maximo stealthily approached and whispered to him in turn.
"Watch carefully. If anything seems off, you know what to do, right?"
Having already been warned about the old man's condition, the two nodded naturally.
At that moment, Jin's gaze landed on the ancient architecture.
Now that he thought about it, what was he supposed to look for again?
He had been so caught up in everything that he had completely forgotten about the system's request. The realization struck him belatedly, and before he knew it, he found himself walking toward the ruins.
"Where are you going?"
"Just looking around."
"Alright, be careful."
A strange situation where Left-Tasha asked and Right-Tasha answered.
Jin blinked a few times before speaking.
"Are you two... independent entities?"
"Something like that."
"That's insane."
A clone.
Who hasn't imagined having that ability at least once?
Someone to go to work, study, and even do the writing for him.
Jin's eyes sparkled, and Natasha let out a chuckle.
"I know what you're thinking, but this state only lasts within a 30-meter range. Once we merge again, the duplicate's experiences are lost."
"Oh."
Jin nodded in understanding, and Maximo nudged his side.
"You're not planning to keep anything for yourself, are you?"
"Keep what? Did you forget already? That old man and his underlings already took everything valuable. And even those were just antiques."
"Fair point."
Looking deflated, Maximo plopped down.
Still, as if unwilling to let go of his disappointment, he muttered under his breath.
"Still... once we're back, I might take a look around too. It's a ruin, after all..."
"Do as you please."
Jin chuckled lightly and continued walking.
As he stepped into the structure, he moved his flashlight around, but nothing particularly piqued his interest.
It couldn't be helped.
A ruin buried for a thousand years?
That wasn't nearly enough to impress him when his homeland had a 1,300-year-old observatory still standing—the oldest in the world.
The Age of Light and Roses?
Please.
His people had been in the Three Kingdoms era by then.
Come to think of it, do kids these days still go on school trips to Gyeongju?
That Cheomseongdae keychain...
It looked nice hanging on the fridge.
As his mind wandered as usual, Jin's gaze suddenly stopped at something.
An open stone coffin.
He peeked inside, and his face immediately contorted.
"Ugh. The smell."
It was a stench so foul it made his head spin.
A thousand-year-old corpse smelled more like rot than history.
Having already slain a vampire, Jin quickly lost interest and resumed scanning the ruins.
His flashlight flickered from one place to another.
The beam wasn't strong enough to pierce the darkness, but when something was in front of it, the light wouldn't simply vanish—it would form a circular shape on the object.
Each time that happened, Jin walked closer to check what it was.
Of course, they were all dead ends.
"...Is there even anything here?"
He was starting to feel drained by the fruitless search.
Just then, the flashlight's beam created a distinct circular shape.
This time, the illuminated area was noticeably larger.
He waved his hand in different directions, confirming that the light wasn't just bouncing off into the darkness.
Hurriedly, he moved toward it.
"Oh."
A soft exclamation escaped him.
At the farthest end of the ruins, a massive mural was engraved into the wall with intricate craftsmanship.
"...What is this depicting?"
It was too large to take in at a glance.
Jin took a step back, but the moment he did—
A wave of dizziness struck him.
And suddenly, he was somewhere else.
A grandly constructed chamber—where was this?
A royal court?
Luxurious chairs were arranged in a circular formation, and above them, on a raised platform, sat a resplendent throne.
Seated upon it were figures whose presence was anything but ordinary.
Though their ages and genders varied, Jin could sense the transcendence emanating from each of them.
It was like gazing at a distant, massive star—an overwhelming sense of vastness.
Among them, one face stood out to him.
Fiery red hair and eyes blazing like embers.
He was the man who had burned the first vampire to ashes.
It was then that Jin realized who these people were.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
The heads of the seven families.
His gaze naturally shifted to the platform above them.
Only one person in this era could sit higher than the heads of the families.
A king.
Or perhaps, an emperor?
Indeed, there was someone seated on the throne.
The silhouette was backlit by slanting sunlight.
Up to this point, the scene was quite majestic.
That was until he noticed the figure's head was slumped to the side.
Wait.
Were they... dead?
As Jin rubbed his eyes in disbelief, another figure emerged from behind the high-backed throne.
Who...?
He squinted, but he couldn't make out the face.
The person wore a hood pulled deep over their head, casting a shadow that concealed their features.
Their hidden gaze swept over the family heads, and their eyes turned toward the newcomer in return.
In that moment, time seemed to halt.
The ticking of a second hand.
A dry swallow rolling down his throat.
A single droplet falling onto the surface of still water.
A fleeting instant stretching into eternity.
Endlessly long.
Then, at some moment, an elasticity that transcended perception allowed it to regain its original speed.
At the same time, a voice emerged from the shadows.
A new era will come.
"Hah!"
Jin abruptly regained consciousness as if he had been ejected from somewhere and staggered.
His sweat-drenched clothes clung to his back, cold and damp.
In the corner of his vision, the words (Complete!) gradually faded away.
Thunk.
A flashlight slipped from his hand and rolled across the floor.
Guuuuuuung----!!
Suddenly, the entire ruin began to shake violently.
A scream rang out from afar.
"Whoa, shit!"
"Jin! Get back here!"
Maximo and Natasha's overlapping shouts reached him.
Jin hastily picked up the flashlight and sprinted through the ruins.
Meanwhile, the deep darkness that had engulfed everything around them began to fade slightly.
There shouldn't have been any color in this underground void where not a single light reached.
Yet, Jin could feel the change.
If the darkness until now had been an ominous force artificially swallowing the world, then as it slowly receded, it became merely the natural absence of light.
Either way, it felt better.
But why the hell was the place collapsing?!
"What the hell is happening?!"
"We don't know! Damir burned the magic circle, and then suddenly—!"
Before Maximo could finish his frantic explanation, a massive boulder came crashing down beside him with a thud!
If the mercenary hadn't yanked him away, he might have been crushed on the spot.
"Ahhh!"
Jin barely spared a glance at the panicked, round-headed man before his gaze landed on an elderly figure in the distance.
The old man knelt with his arms wide open.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
"…At last, I have reclaimed it. My kingdom. My land."
The mage trembled with a feverish intensity, eyes bloodshot with emotion.
Jin took one look at him and abandoned the thought of helping him without a second's hesitation.
"Run!"
If they stayed any longer, they'd all be buried alive.
There was no telling when this self-proclaimed king would turn into a vampire.
Leaving him behind, Jin and the others bolted.
Was this a cyberpunk-style dungeon break?!
Jin let out a scream—
And right then, a notification window popped up before his eyes.
(Sudden!)(Emergency!)
Escape the dungeon within 20 minutes—
"Shut up! I already know!"
Jin shouted in frustration, pushing off the ground with all his strength.
Behind him, as his team ran, massive rocks continued to rain down.
At long last, the end of their long mission was approaching.