As soon as I stepped out of the Gop-hwa Clan, I headed straight for my destination.
The destination was the old land of China, relatively close to the Gop-hwa Clan’s main house located in the Korean Peninsula.
I decided not to use the warp gate in the process.
Naturally, I was heading towards a place that was considered a typical gray zone.
That land barely had a few gates open. Since I wasn’t using Lee Ha-yul’s identity, I went there on my own power.
Of course, walking there would take some time, but I had my methods, so I arrived before long.
So, I reached China… Where exactly am I? Based on old geographical names, it seems to be somewhere between the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Liaoning Province.
I slowly scanned the surroundings.
I pushed my observational range a bit beyond its limits.
A wave of incoming information flooded me. I pressed my throbbing head and整理ed the information for a moment.
‘Wow, this place is really backward.’
The first impression that came to mind was how underdeveloped it was.
I prodded the ground with my toes.
The asphalt had peeled away, revealing dark, muddy earth. Just by looking at it, the soil looked terrible.
The infrastructure around here was in pretty bad shape.
Gray concrete buildings were cracking everywhere, as if they were about to collapse.
The walls were covered in random graffiti and an accumulation of grime, and there were no intact windows to be found.
These buildings were somewhat decent compared to other places. On one side, there was shantytown made of wood and cloth mashed together.
The people living in such places were also a far cry from healthy; they looked thin and emaciated.
It was incredibly different from the facilities I had experienced in the past months.
There was no urban beauty or peaceful atmosphere whatsoever.
Even Shiphna, considered a provincial town, was crude yet held some development, whereas this place looked worse than a small town or countryside decayed into a ruin.
‘Is China mostly like this?’
After the Great Cataclysm, China became one of the countries that collapsed without leaving a proper shell behind.
A larger land means there’s much to protect.
China, being vast, had a lot to safeguard.
Not only did they have to fend off external enemies, but there was also the burden of dealing with dungeons and monsters that appeared internally.
Thus, after the Great Cataclysm, most countries with vast territories shrank or disappeared, often splitting into many small factions.
Among them, China was in a relatively decent situation.
With the emergence of superhumans, human resources became more important than anything.
Due to its vast land, China had a large population, leading to a higher number of those awakening as superhumans.
The tendencies or qualities of the awakened superhumans didn’t matter. Whether bad or good, they were still human.
Ultimately, for survival, they had to exterminate monsters and raid dungeons.
Nations were split into dozens, with countless lives lost.
More people meant more victims, but realistically, it wasn’t at a scale of total annihilation.
In modern times, China has fallen. Nearly all of its divided factions have collapsed. Much of the territory has become useless land.
All that was due to a single monster.
‘Two-Headed Poison Dragon.’
The creature’s name was the Two-Headed Poison Dragon (雙頭毒龍).
According to the association’s ranking, it was a tier 3 alpha.
At tier 3, even the most elite heroes find it impossible to deal with it alone.
Therefore, to hunt it down, you’d require multiple elite heroes along with supporting units.
Despite being of tier 3 status, the reasons why it left a colossal nation like China in ruins were numerous.
Notably, the diseases and toxins produced by the Two-Headed Poison Dragon were significant contributors.
True to its name, the creature appeared as an Eastern dragon with two heads.
One head expelled poison, while the other exhaled disease-laden breath.
The lethality was extraordinarily horrifying; whether it was poison or the disease-laden breath, any elite hero hit directly would effectively meet their end on the spot.
A more serious problem was the overwhelming propagation of such toxins and diseases.
The poisons affected not just humans but the land itself. This transformed the surrounding area into a deadly land drenched in poison.
The diseases were extremely contagious. Initially, when the Two-Headed Poison Dragon appeared, hundreds of thousands were massacred, and the disease spread from the surviving few, causing catastrophic damage.
Although the inherent physical abilities of the Two-Headed Poison Dragon were below average for tier 3, it was specifically tailored to inflict harm upon humanity.
That was how the territory of China was utterly devastated.
In relatively outer areas like this, it’s one story, but the depths around Sichuan, where the Two-Headed Poison Dragon had appeared, remained soaked in poison, left unchecked.
Thanks to this, a significant part of old China’s lands had become areas of gray where monsters and humans roamed side by side.
Monsters would devour people every now and then, and there were superhumans who regularly violated international laws set by the association.
It’s no surprise that things turned out this decrepit.
‘Tsk.’
My mind wasn’t at ease.
I clicked my tongue and approached one of the utility poles set up around the periphery.
At the top of the tall gray pole, branches extended out. Messily draped black wires hung there.
‘Long time no see…’
It was a telephone pole.
In my previous world, it was a common sight, but in this world, it’s a relic of the past that had long disappeared.
Now, mana was used instead of electricity.
Moreover, the mid-range mana supply was done using buried cables in the ground.
So, there was no reason for telephone poles or similar structures to exist anymore.
Feeling nostalgic, I gave the pole a few taps.
The cracked surface of the pole was plastered with various flyers.
Looking around, I found advertisements for organ trafficking, illegal drugs, bounty lists, etc… a whole lot of shady flyers.
‘Oh, so this is here too.’
I pulled one of the flyers hanging down.
Among the old, torn, and frayed flyers, it was relatively recent.
The content wasn’t particularly special.
“Follow the god. He shall soon descend, and through His grace, He will save His humble followers from death…” and so on.
It was a religious promotion filled with long and complicated sentences.
Naturally, it was not a legitimate religion but rather a cult-like organization most would dismiss.
In a place that had long become a gray zone like China,
it seems people’s lives are so bleak and hopeless that such cults thrive in this optimal environment.
The gist of it was to follow the god to attain salvation, far from logic.
‘…The god of death, huh.’
Claiming to have conquered death, they became death itself.
Thus, He was referred to as the god of death who saves the dead…
The flyer glorified the same god of death with a myriad of flowery words.
On the cover, something in a black robe holding a scythe was depicted.
I glanced at the ritual inscribed on the flyer and crammed it into my pocket.
‘…For a god, that’s a pretty huge serpent.’
The master of the Tower of Necromancy.
Somehow, there seemed to be quite a few followers still out there, even before its invasion began.
This faction would soon find the Two-Headed Poison Dragon’s necromancer and resurrect it, causing mayhem once again in China.
As a result of that catastrophe, the remaining humans would be completely slaughtered, and China would transform from a gray zone to a black zone… a magic realm.
‘That can’t happen.’
A terrible event that mustn’t come to pass.
The Shiphna incident was significant enough, but if that catastrophe were to occur, the casualty numbers would be on a whole different level.
Most importantly, the three major clans closely associated with China would also suffer.
Baek Ahrin from the Changhae Clan and Hong Yeon-hwa from the Gop-hwa Clan would both be victims.
‘I need to nip this in the bud.’
Of course, leveling up was a priority.
Finding the entrance to the Lake of Mana in this vast land would be quite a challenge, but with the power of observation, it should be a quick task.
As for the entry conditions… I could probably manage with spatial powers.
While exploring the dungeon, I’d also look for the cultists.
Even if I can’t eradicate them this time, it’s necessary to deal some damage.
I also had an emergency escape button in case things got dangerous halfway.
Sighing heavily, I stopped walking.
I found myself standing in front of an old, run-down building.
Next to the entrance, there was a burly man with a fierce expression sitting on a chair.
From the mana in his body, it seemed he was a superhuman.
His gaze turned towards me as I trudged over.
I was dressed in a baggy robe.
Wearing the hood from the robe pulled over my head and concealing my face with a black mask created a rather suspicious appearance.
“Outsiders aren’t allowed. Don’t even think about staying and just scram.”
A chilling order to leave was given without even a word exchanged.
The man thumped the sword hanging at his waist with a grim look on his face.
Considering my attire, I could somewhat understand his reaction.
‘……’
“Are you deaf? Why aren’t you leaving?”
Ignoring him, I glanced at the building once more just to check.
It had two floors above ground and two below.
The first floor was a spacious lobby, while the second had several rooms meant for living.
There was neither maintenance nor even basic cleaning; it looked like a pigsty, but there was no big issue.
And in the basement…
There were people trapped in iron cages meant for beasts, and in the central area of the basement stood a figure resembling a priest performing a ritual at the altar.
On the crude stone altar lay the corpse of a person whose belly had been split open.
Blood gushed from the gash, flowing over the stone altar and filling the crevices etched in the floor.
The face of the corpse was grotesquely contorted, suggesting it had gone through the gutting process while still alive.
“Tsk, I should’ve just backed off.”
The man stood up from his creaking chair. He placed his hand on the sword’s hilt at his waist and stomped a few steps closer.
“Lately, these rats have been creeping around way too much.”
The sword slid out with a screech. The sound was as clumsy as the draw itself was noisy.
Even though there was no one around, seeing him so eager to kill made me well aware of how abysmal the situation was here.
Given how poor the security was, it’s probably pretty easy to procure sacrifices.
The man swung his sword at me.
With no ki surrounding him, I extended my leg.
– Crash!
The sole of my foot landed squarely on the man’s forehead.
Crack! With his neck snapping backward, the man’s body was sent crashing into the building’s door.
The wooden door tore away upon collision.
Even without touching it, the door swung open wide on its own.
Seeing that, I barely caught a glimpse of something changing in the corner of my view.
‘…Is the correction working as it should?’
I felt a little lighter…
Tilting my head in confusion, I stepped into the dust-filled interior of the building.
*
[Savior Correction System: Destruction]
[Main Quest “Tower of Necromancy” linkage confirmed]
[Assisting the Savior]
…
[Savior Correction System: Salvation]
[Confirming Mental State “Salvation” “Virtue”]
[Assisting the Savior]
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