Chapter 62: The Great War of Good and Evil (1)

Chapter 62: The Great War of Good and Evil (1)

I had never read a murim novel. They never interested me, and the genre had already become old-fashioned by my generation. Old murim movies were occasionally uploaded to the internet, but due to their crude CG, they just became laughingstocks.

Mine was the generation where all seriousness was laughed upon, leaving a tiny niche for martial arts and their codes of honor. The genre was in decline.

The said declining world was snowing.

“...It’s cold!”

We, the expedition team of no hopes and dreams, safely entered the apocalyptic book’s world and were immediately greeted by a vast snowfield. Some adorable sounds were made as we stepped through the snow, but there was nothing cute about the cold biting at us.

“Everyone! Use your aura to protect yourselves!” I yelled.

The coldness would freeze everyone if they did nothing. The Viper immediately drew up his aura, but the Chemist and Medicine King couldn’t because they were supports.

“I-I-I...haven’t learned how to use aura...”

“Achoo! Aaaaachooo! I’m going to die! You’re going to kill this old man with this cold!”

It had been less than twenty seconds since we’d arrived in the apocalyptic book’s world, but their faces were as pale as corpses. Well, I had done all sorts of stuff to learn how to use my aura, so it was highly unlikely for any support Hunter to know how to use their aura.

“Tsk.”

I quickly acted to solve the situation.

“Sect Master, please take care of the Medicine King!”

“Alright.” The Viper picked up the Medicine King. He may be the king of light novels, but rather die than look weak and he was still a High Ranker built for combat. His purple aura enveloped the Medicine King in short order.

The Medicine King sighed in relief like an old man settling into a hot spring. “That’s a bit better...”

I nodded and then took the Chemist’s hand. “You’re with me.”

“P-pardon?”

“Give me your hand.”

I transferred my aura through our hands. My red aura, which I still didn’t know if it symbolized blood or fire, spread warmly over the Chemist.

She bowed. “Ah. T-thank you, Mr. Death King. But t-this is a bit ticklish...”

“I know it’s awkward. I feel the same, but this isn’t the time to worry about it.”

I looked around. The snowstorm surrounding us was as thick as fog. The issue of our body temperature was temporarily taken care of, but I wasn’t sure where to go next.

“The Indoor Librarian is a Constellation, so he used words like books and discontinued serialization. But this is a world, not a book. And we’re here to save it. You know that, right?”

The Chemist’s eyes widened slightly. “...Yes, we are. I may have taken this a little too lightly. I’ll try my best.”

“We just have to focus on our roles. I’ll protect you with my aura, but you and Mr. Medicine King should take the lead when it’s time to end the plague. Please remember that.”

“Yes, Mr. Death King.”

The snowstorm whistled past my ears. Squinting, I tried my best to figure out my surroundings.

The last two sentences of the Heavenly Demon Chronicle crossed my head: “A mysterious plague breaks out, killing the Heavenly Demon and wiping out the Heavenly Demon Cult and the other factions.”

They were simple and short and said nothing about the bone-numbing cold or the knee-high snow. It just said the world met its end.

Now we had to find out why the character named Heavenly Demon was going to die. And what was this plague that was driving humanity here to its death?

“Oh!” The Chemist suddenly squeezed my hand and pointed into the snowstorm. “Look over there, Mr. Death King! I think I saw people!”

Everyone looked where the Chemist pointed. She was right. They were hard to see because of the thick snowstorm...but I could see a forest of human shadows. It wasn’t just a couple of people—there were dozens, possibly even hundreds of them.

“Okay. Let’s head over there first.”

I took the lead. The wind continued to whip the snow into a frenzy. Through it, people were reduced to vague silhouettes. We stayed close together so we wouldn’t lose each other.

—Zombie, there’s something wrong about this. I can’t hear anything from there, the Guardian said. He was looking around me, acting as an extra pair of eyes.

Is it the snowstorm?

—Maybe. The Guardian squinted at the forest of silhouettes. But that isn’t just the sounds... They aren’t moving at all. It’s like they’re sculptures, not humans.

Fortunately, the snowstorm didn’t last long. Once it subsided, it was much easier to see. That was the only upside—the sight it unveiled left us speechless.

“...What are these?” the Viper whispered, his words accentuated by puffs of white. “Why are they all frozen?”

Hundreds of people all stood frozen in the snowfield.

* * *

“...They are human,” the Chemist said, studying one of the frozen humans. With latex gloves on, she used a tweezer to tear off some of the flesh. “According to my Life Analysis Skill, it’s already been two years and three months since he died. An illness killed him, but it isn’t registered on my Mobile Hospital.”

“How strange!” The Medicine King put on his monocle and examined a frozen human as well.

However, I found one big problem.

—Zombie, the Guardian blankly mumbled. Why are they holding sticks...?

Indeed, the old man and the woman were holding thin sticks that were usually used to inflict physical punishment. That was what they were using for weapons. The splendid weapons that always showed up in murim movies were nowhere to be seen.

The pair seemed to feel embarrassed pointing sticks at each other because they awkwardly stared at each other for a long moment.

“...Buwolseon,” the woman in black cautiously ventured, “did you lose your Jade Ax or something? Why did you bring a piece of wood? You’re just a goon from the Namgung Clan and your only strength is your powerful ax swings...”

“B-be quiet!” The old man’s face reddened. “I could ask the same about you! Where is your Bloodbane Demon Sword? You used to treat it like it was your daughter! Did you throw it away somewhere? Why are you holding a stick like that!”

“Stick?” The woman avoided the old man’s eyes. “Excuse me. It may not look like it, but I carved this wooden sword myself. It contains the essence of the millennium-long Demonic Path. I bestowed the name of Demonic Heaven Saber to this weapon.”

“Did you really call a stick ‘Demonic Heaven’?”

“I can’t...?”

After a short silence, the old man quietly coughed. “Ahem. That’s too grandiose for a stick. Why don’t you just give it a more mundane name and call it a cane?”

“That just means that it’s a stick...”

“It is a stick, you idiot!”

The woman nodded, dispirited. “Okay. Since you say so, I’ll be satisfied with the Demonic Cane.”

“Damn you! Demon this! Demon that! “ The old man’s white mustache trembled in annoyance. “Why are you cultists always so anxious to name everything demon? Just your minions are Blood Demons, Sword Demons, Ghostfire Demons, and Moonlight Demons! That’s four types of demons already! Then their captains are also called the Four Demon Kings! Is the first word you ever learn demon?”

“Doesn’t it sound tasteful...?”

“Ahhhh! I can’t believe murim ever ended up in your hands, even if it was short!”

Meanwhile, the dark snow clouds were eating away the sunlight little by little. They were unusually thick, so the world was shrouded in a dense darkness.

“Hup!” The old man gasped. “D-Demon. This is not the time to fight among ourselves!”

The two immediately stood back to back as if they’d never fought.

Cold sweat rolled off the woman’s forehead. “Shit. The laws of nature have recently been unruly...”

“You wench! You were confident that it was going to be a clear day today!”

“There are times when my predictions are wrong. How am I supposed to understand the laws of nature? I just watched how the Ghostfire Demon King does it. “

“For goodness’s sake! A fortune teller off the street would make a better cult leader than you. I can’t believe I fell for your temptation and ruined such an important event!”

“Shut up and get ready to fight, old man. You’re wasting what little stamina I have left.”

Their conversation left me and the others baffled.

“W-what do you think is wrong with them...?” the Chemist whispered.

“Well, I don’t know ei—”

Just as I was about to answer, I heard a low growl. At first, I thought that it was made by someone from my group, but then I heard growling gradually coming from the left, the right, in front of us, and behind. I realized I was gravely mistaken.

The Chemist gasped in surprise and clutched my arm, her face pale as a sheet. The Viper and Medicine King looked equally worried and I was sure I was wearing a deep frown too.

Around one thousand frozen humans, which we had believed to be ordinary corpses, slowly...moved their limbs.

The frozen corpse right beside us rolled his eyes. His pupils were dilated and most of his eyebrows were gone. It looked like parts of his eyes had been eaten away, yet despite all of that, the corpse looked right into my eyes. When I saw his eyes, I realized what was going on.

“Fucking hell...” I gritted my teeth.

The description of Heavenly Demon Chronicle read:

Heavenly Demon Chronicle

Genres: Murim, fusion fantasy

Difficulty level: B

Required challengers: 2~4 people

※Serialization is currently discontinued.

Description: This is the world where people admire, practice, and master martial arts! The Heavenly Demon shows up and tries to unify murim, leading the Heavenly Demon Cult. The other factions rise against him and fight for the world’s future. ...Well, they would have done that if that hadn’t been for a super plague.

Reason for discontinuation of serialization: A mysterious plague breaks out, killing the Heavenly Demon and wiping out the Heavenly Demon Cult and the other factions. The end.

The corpses slowly moved. They were slow, but the sight of them moving was horror itself. Now I knew what the mysterious super plague that brought this world to damnation was.

“The super plague is a zombie virus?!” I shouted.

The corpse opened his mouth and roared. The sun was now completely blotted out, and around a thousand zombies charged us.