NOVEL NEXT Chapter 46
Buncheon Society (4)
Drrrrr—
I opened the window and looked outside.
Morning had arrived, bustling people everywhere.
They were ordinary folks living their daily lives.
Maybe it was because of my frequent interactions with the outside world through my avatar, but at some point, I stopped feeling fearful of it.
Even though I still had some mental burden about going outside, I could now casually enjoy the breeze by opening the window.
I mindlessly gazed outside while organizing my thoughts.
<Entity Information>
– Entity Name: Heinz II
– Race: Vampire (Trueblood)
– Common Traits: 「Mind Hub」, 「Persona」, 「Clear Mind」
– Entity Traits: 「Blood Clan (Trueblood)」, 「Hybrid Evolution」, 「Blood Mystery」, 「Refined Blood Essence」, 「Acceleration」, 「Enhanced Regeneration」, 「Insight」, 「Concealment」, 「Transparency」
– Special Notes: Evolved through collecting various dimensional vampiric traits. As a predator, he disregards some hostile abilities of other vampires and instills an instinctive pressure. Recently, excessive energy influx has been stored as blood essence (血精) inside his body.
After the battle at the villa, Heinz had to suffer from overeating for a while.
‘Well, it’s only natural since I drained blood from both the executives and the patrolling vampires.’
Even if the levels were low, collecting new vampiric traits helped out, and it felt too wasteful to throw them away, so he kept munching on them.
However, as physically permissible as it may be, everything has its limits.
Once he could no longer contain it in his body, reaching saturation, he used his enhanced blood control to clump and compress the overflowing vampiric traits into a singular essence.
‘Most of it was just voluminous yet useless low-grade vampiric stuff anyway.’
Though it evolved due to the influence of 「Hybrid Evolution」 after entering his body, the low quality made it awkward to use directly.
For Heinz, who had already ascended to a high level, it didn’t provide much help, and yet, it felt too wasteful to discard.
What allowed him to utilize it was the newly acquired special skill, 「Refined Blood Essence」.
‘The problem ultimately lies with the thoughts contained in the blood, right? Then the solution is simple for me.’
Hadn’t he done it before?
During the baptism ceremony with Heinrich.
Linking his skills and blood control, he extracted the vampiric traits devoid of any thoughts from ‘Heinz II’s blood essence.
The skill and result he obtained from that attempt was none other than 「Refined Blood Essence」.
An essence of vampiric evolution free of any thoughts.
If this refined essence enters the body of another vampire, it would act as a catalyst for evolving their vampiric traits.
Being just a catalyst, it should yield certain effects even in small amounts.
Of course, the more it was administered, the larger the changes would be, and the faster the mutations would occur.
‘Though there are some side effects.’
Truthfully, upon closer inspection, it wasn’t even a side effect.
All that being said, the act of ‘offering’ blood and ‘inheriting’ it was still a process, meaning the heir was bound to the giver. Just a very trivial matter!
This was nothing to a vampire!
‘Vampires are all too familiar with this kind of thing. It’s just the target that changes.’
Gained power in exchange for loyalty.
For the chaos-bringing hardliners in disarray due to the vacancies of the executives, it was nothing to frown upon.
They were the ones who craved power so much they contemplated feeding on their kin.
Accept those who embraced it, and turn those who resisted the existing order into consumed blood essence.
It was a remarkably ideal structure.
‘…Huh? This seems awfully similar to what those hardliners were planning… Hmm, no. I’m eliminating those who want to unsettle society.’
Meanwhile, I was just slightly benefiting from it.
A perfectly healthy plan akin to that of a bounty hunter.
Bam—!
I had a slip of a smile while returning to the computer, closing the window.
On the screen were search results regarding an incident.
– 20XX, August: Seoul Station Terror Incident.
The place where he lost his family.
My slackened grin stiffened, and the corners of my mouth slowly drooped.
My heart sank coldly.
It was a chaotic era.
Superhumans who gained power returning from another world flocked together, yet there were no monsters or demon kings in existence for them to unleash their strength upon the Earth.
There were only other superhumans in the same predicament.
But having the same predicament didn’t mean sharing the same values, which led to conflicts everywhere.
What could be proven in such places was only strength.
A stronger power was justice, order, and the entirety of this world that could enforce one’s claims.
Countless innocent lives were sacrificed in the process, yet those without power could only endure in silence.
It was simply an accident; something unavoidable.
They couldn’t do anything about it.
I was no different.
Bang—!
Up until then.
With a lightly thrown punch, my desk cracked.
I awakened my 「Avatar」 and had been blindly pursuing power ever since.
I never wanted to feel that moment of helplessness again.
While 「Persona」 merely helped me avoid being consumed by emotions, it didn’t eliminate them entirely.
Those feelings remained firmly in my heart.
So I poured the power I had gathered, the simmering anger and resentment, into judging those ‘villains.’
The accident was an unsolvable massacre motivated by an Awakened One, with the terrorist exploding right in front of him shortly after the incident.
Thus, even after gaining power, he had nowhere to express his anger and desire for vengeance.
All I thought I could do was to smack down the noticeable villains, and I believed that too.
“…I thought that was the case. But… there was a culprit?”
The rigid expression on my face relaxed, and the corners of my mouth curved back up gently.
A ridiculous smile returned to my face.
I couldn’t stop laughing!
‘Ah, I see.’
And I suddenly realized.
‘I had already been broken for a long time.’
If not, I wouldn’t be laughing in such a situation.
“Khuh… Kuhuhuh… Khukhe… Huh…”
Laughter spilled out uncontrollably.
I laughed so hard that not just saliva but also tears and snot flowed freely, yet I couldn’t stop.
“Haa… Haa…”
How delightful!
After a hearty laugh, my mind was clearer than ever.
With a goal in sight, a newfound motivation surged within me.
“Wow~ So it turns out like this? See? Doing good deeds brings blessings! By taking down the bad guys, I end up uncovering the background like this!”
I wiped my tears and contemplated.
How could I mess with them?
Hadn’t I done it before?
I felt like I could do better now, with enough experience under my belt.
‘If they could back down this easily, they wouldn’t have caused such havoc for so long. This time they may be hiding, but they’ll definitely stick their heads out again.’
I needed to prepare to catch them then.
To root out even the hidden manipulators.
‘Since they seem to operate worldwide, I have no idea how much of a disadvantage halting them in Korea really is.’
Tap, tap, tap.
I sat cross-legged to organize my thoughts, tapping my fingers on the desk.
With things getting this serious, it was clear that individual strength had limitations.
To take on those who had already formed a tremendous force, I would need the support of a force as well.
‘Continuously tracking and gathering information on them, creating a faction that could hold them back in emergencies.’
And that role could be somewhat played by a blood alliance.
From now on, support would help grow my faction, incorporating other organizations and expanding its scale.
Coincidentally, I had plenty of resources from the other world and crime organizations piling up.
‘It’s a somewhat shady organization, so they should handle the money laundering on their own. By the way, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to indirectly dominate the guys I traded gold bars with through the blood alliance. They’re not worthy enough to bring under my direct command, but seem quite capable as a subordinate organization.’
I glanced at the lotto tickets still stored in one corner of my room.
I wasn’t in a hurry, so I could use those later.
But just like this fight, what truly mattered was the existence of someone with absolute power.
‘Hans, Heinz… And Heinrich is steadily growing as well. But…’
It’s not enough.
This time, they suffered significantly without having prepared against us, but who knows what might happen next?
They already recognized Hans and Heinz, and with the information I had gathered so far, Buncheon Society wasn’t just any simple organization.
To handle their range of activities while ensuring matters were settled, I needed even more powerful beings.
Those who would be utterly unpredictable.
Even with ten bodies, it would be insufficient.
But I was someone who could be more than ten bodies.
If I lacked bodies, I could just multiply.
‘To do so, I need karma. I can’t afford to leisurely develop unique skills. To amass karma, I need influence over the other world.’
So what if I created a significant incident to influence the other world?
For example…
“War… perhaps?”
Once I mentioned it, I knitted my brows for a moment.
Is it truly okay to cross that line?
Am I willing to abandon my humanity, blinding myself with my desires and making innocent lives sacrifices to pursue power?
I still wasn’t sure.
I knew it was strange, but my rage and desire for revenge didn’t feel all that overwhelming.
In fact, I felt more like excitement and anticipation.
‘Hah… I’m not in my right mind.’
No matter the deeds I carried out, it felt justified, and the objectives suit for pouring all my malice into a worthy opponent.
At the same time, that enemy wouldn’t easily break, requiring me to wield my full strength against them.
…Based on my current feelings, war just wasn’t my method of choice.
‘Then it’s postponed for now. A way to impact the world without sacrificing innocents as a result of war.’
Surely there couldn’t be such a convenient way…
“…There is?”
Coincidentally, I had just the right materials at my disposal.
“Demon King and Hero.”
The evil demon king leading a dark force, threatening the continent.
The righteous hero supported by humanity to combat him.
A classic cliché among classics.
I couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.
‘The outline can be roughly set like this. Now I need to think about the scenarios, details, and balancing things along the way. Can I do it?’
The plan that popped into my head wasn’t all that grand.
Hans would lead the evildoers and take down corrupt nobles, while Heinrich would eliminate them and become a hero.
A cycle of repetition.
Then at the climax, gather all the evil forces and wipe them out, which would be a positive turn of events for the continent, wouldn’t it?
What to keep in mind was, given the scale, pulling in a plan casually would inevitably lead to civilian casualties.
Countless uncontrollable variables would arise.
But with the choice of war being so heavily refined, I didn’t feel the same level of rejection I had before.
The results could change significantly depending on our efforts.
‘As soon as I rationalize unavoidable sacrifices, I’ll be no different from them. I must try as hard as I can.’
There will always be ways.
This wasn’t something to stress over immediately.
As a long-term plan, ample preparation was necessary, and I couldn’t kick things off just yet.
Hans was still far from being ready to make moves against the continent.
Thus, the first priority must be finding the remaining ‘Fragment of the Undead King.’
‘Time is on my side. The Buncheon Society has incurred serious damage this time, so they’ll likely stay quiet for at least a few years. The time difference with the other world is 10 to 1. There’s no rush.’
It would be unrealistic to prevent their overseas activities right away.
It would be better to gather strength during this period instead.
“Hah…”
Out of nowhere, I found myself laughing again.
For some reason, I felt a surge of joy.
“Right… No matter what your goals or wishes are, I shall thwart them with my full power.”
If you have any complaints, feel free to find me.
Even if I focus on Auterica for a while, it’ll take time.
Hans had to find the fragments of the Undead King while avoiding the church’s gaze, and Heinrich needed to rise to high ranks recognized by the church.
‘Heinz must build an information network to monitor the continent.’
And I suddenly thought of some perfect candidates for that organization.
‘From now on, I’ll have to nurture ‘Hally’. Find a way for him to grow stronger as quickly as possible. Using 「Adaptation」, there must be some method!’
There was no rush.
Slowly, one step at a time.
Like setting up a theater play.
“The stage is Auterica, the lead is me. And the audience is the entire continent. The scale is a bit massive.”
The release date is still undecided, but…
Well, I don’t think it’ll take too long.