Translator: HunterW
Editor: RED
Abu Dhabi Royal Palace…
“Mr. Lee, have a drink with me!”
“Have one with me too!”
“No, have one with me first!”
“I’m going to drown if you all keep this up!” This feast was to celebrate Abu Dhabi’s victory and its reunification, but it seemed that it was being thrown for me. Baden, Umaru, and the other Abu Dhabi officers never left my side and many of the soldiers who fought that day kept coming up to me to pour me a drink. If I hadn’t watched the video, I would have been so overburdened by their treatment that I would have run away.
“As the newest member of the Abu Dhabi royal family, let’s have Master Lee say a few words!”
They kept mentioning the part where I was now a part of their royal family every time they addressed me or said my name. It was so obvious why they were doing that, but I didn’t really mind, especially with what happened yesterday.
—
The night before the feast…
“I have something to ask of you, Mr. Lee.”
“Go ahead.” Baden and I were having a cup of tea in his drawing room.
“I would like the Abu Dhabi Guild to maintain a good relationship with you. That is why I would like to request setting up an embassy at your home base in Seoul, just like your other friends.”
“Hmm…” I thought for a moment about Baden’s request. As Baden said, I was holding an alliance with five other factions. At first, I didn’t really care about how they wanted to set up embassies of their own at my home base. Well, it was more like I wished they didn’t. There really wasn’t a special reason for my dislike. It was just part of my solitary personality and how I didn’t want anyone else to find out about my secret treasures.
But now, I had people I needed to protect. The perks of being allied with large guilds were definitely a plus, too. It wouldn’t hurt to have more people ready to back me up.
“Very well. Let’s do that.”
“Thank you so much!”
—
Back to the present…
“Here’s to a prosperous future for the reunified Abu Dhabi and that I may always be there to witness the full glory of Abu Dhabi. I am, after all, a part of your family now, am I not?” I put in a little showmanship and said exactly what they all wanted to hear.
“Yeaah!”
“Lee Jiwon! Lee Jiwon!” The entire party hall roared in response to my short speech.
And so, the feast went on for an entire week.
—
One week later, at my home base in Seoul…
“Jiwon!”
“Hi, mom.”
“Why did you let yourself get caught in something so dangerous?”
“I…” Everyone besides my mother, grandfather, and the eldest members all gave me a thumbs up and patted me on the back when I returned. The first thing my mother did when she saw me was lecture me. She did sound very worried though, and I could see why.
“If something happened to you, I…I don’t…”
“Don’t worry, mom. Nothing will ever happen to me. It’s the assholes who mess with me you have to worry about.” I was being confident in front of my mom, but that battle was truly dangerous. I was so close to incurring ten deity death penalties. The lost Stat points aside, I was more worried about the 3000-hour Respawn cooldown. That was 125 days for one death penalty. Ten death penalties meant 1,250 days. I shivered at the thought.
“Did you eat?”
“Not yet.” I had stuffed myself for a week during Abu Dhabi’s feast, but I always craved my mother’s home cooking. There was nothing better.
“Alright. Go freshen up. It’ll be ready soon.”
“Thanks, mom.”
I made sure to greet my grandfather and the elders before heading up to my room. It had been a while since I was last home, but my room was still well kept. I lay down on my bed and went through everything that had happened since the moment I planned to obtain Amplification to when Shaman Ko appeared before me.
“Summon: Shaman Ko.”
“…” As I had expected, nothing happened.
“Summon: Dungeon Mole.”
-Shaman Ko plays too hard!-
Kyuu! Kyuu!
This guy still worked. As soon as it was summoned, the mole made itself comfortable on the palm of my hand.
-Do you have banana candies?-
“Yeah. It’d be weird if you didn’t ask for more candies.” I handed it a piece of candy and took a well-deserved rest.
—
Guadeloupe, Mexico, the southern Mexican state bordering Guatemala…
The large basin in the highlands made by the Sierra Madre de Chiapas was the perfect place to grow one type of crop in secret. That crop was none other than marijuana. The high demand for the drug and the region’s close proximity to its largest consumer, America, gave birth to numerous drug cartels in Mexico. Of those, the Nueva Chivas Rio Cartel had its roots all over Mexico and controlled over 55% of the country’s drug distribution. For decades, the Nueva Chivas Rio Cartel controlled Mexico through corruption and intimidation, so it seemed obvious that this cartel would quickly become the strongest organization in Mexico after the world changed.
The misery didn’t end there. Once the NCR cartel wiped away its rival cartels and began establishing its power over the entire country, the US quickly closed its borders. Soon, no one was watching the country anymore, and there was no one around to hear the cries of the victims of the NCR cartel. It was only a matter time before the NCR cartel took complete control of Mexico through murder, violence and coercion and became the NCR Guild.
—
Cantana Alejandro, the heir of the NCR Guild…
“Ahahaha! Bring me more!”
{Translator’s Note: I ‘like’ how the author just makes up foreign names like this. I hate it. I really hate it. What kind of name is Cantana?}
“But the guild master said only a hundred a day… Gah!” Cantana’s subordinate couldn’t finish his sentence when a bright-red fireball flew past his face and struck the wall behind him.
“I didn’t quite hear you. What was that?”
“I… I understand. But I can’t bring you anymore after this. This is your 300th today. We need enough slaves to continue working.”
“Bahaha. We bring in more slaves every day, don’t we? If we run out, bring some from Guatemala.”
“We’ve been kidnapping so many these days that many mortals have run off south by now,” the subordinate replied, but he was thinking something else.
-Fuck! Even if I bring more, you’re going to kill them all anyway! God! Someone needs to do something about this pinche gordo!-
“Whatever. Bring me more.”
“Yes, sir.”
The subordinate left and soon returned with a hundred shackled mortal field workers who had been working in the marijuana fields.
“Please… don’t!”
“Spare us please!”
“We’ll work harder, so please let us go!”
All mortals and devas in Guadalupe alike knew what it meant to be taken to Cantana like this. It was no secret that those taken to him never returned alive. The one hundred mortals that were just brought over all dropped to their knees and begged for their lives, but to no avail.
“Hey! Hurry up and bring them over here! El Patrón is waiting!”
There were many whole families among the one hundred slaves. It could be said that dying together with your family was a blessing, but for Pedro, who had just turned of age, this was anything but a blessing. Today, he was going to lose his father, mother, and his eleven-year old younger brother right before his eyes.
—
Cantana Alejandro’s workshop…
“Hehehe.” Cantana licked his lips as he stared at the hundred slaves shaking in fear. He began to think of ways to kill them that would please his random skill, the Butcher.
==[The Mad Butcher (1/1), (Passive)
Cantana Alejandro’s exclusive skill.
Kill and kill again! Make them all squirm and scream in pain! Their pain and suffering will grant you strength.
The Mad Butcher increases ATT and MATT by 10%.
If the Butcher leaves pain:
Obtain a small amount of EXP
10% chance to obtain 1 bonus Stat point
If the Butcher leaves pain and despair:
Obtain a large amount of EXP
10% chance to obtain 2 bonus Stat points
If the user feels pain and despair, the Mad Butcher skill will be removed along with all obtained EXP and Stat points.]==
Cantana Alejandro knew he lucked out when he was able to learn this random skill. Making people suffer for his enjoyment was his specialty, after all. At first, he thought the skill only worked on devas, but quickly realized he couldn’t make them feel pain or despair by Butchering them. Devas eventually resurrected; death wasn’t the end for them.
It didn’t take him long to learn that the Mad Butcher also worked on mortals.
When he began Butchering them, he realized that even though he wasn’t chosen to become a deity, he could just as well become as strong as one. And he did it. He became so strong and so cruel that many around the world had learned of his name.
“Please spare us!”
“If you have to kill someone, kill me. Just spare my children, please!”
Cantana watched as the fathers of their families begged at his feet. The more they despaired, the stronger he grew.
“Should I show mercy this time?” Cantana asked, leaning down to the closest slave.
“Yes, patrón! I’ll do anything if you show us mercy!”
“Sir, please! At least spare my wife and children!”
“Hehehe. No.” Cantana said with a mischievous smile and pointed to a man kneeling in front of his wife and sons. “Burn!”
“Gah!”
“No!”
The man suddenly burst into flames and quickly burned to ashes.
“You monster!”
“Papa!”
“Gahahaha!” Their screams of despair were like music to Cantana’s ears. Cantana burned the woman and the younger boy, as well. But before he could kill the remaining boy, a message appeared before him.
==[You have obtained the maximum amount of EXP through the Mad Butcher.
You will no longer obtain any more EXP or Stat points today.]==
“What? It’s over already? I have more to kill though.” The one thing Cantana didn’t like about the Mad Butcher skill was the daily limit of EXP and Stat points. If there was no limit, he would have gathered all of the mortals in Mexico and killed them all.
“Oh well! Tomorrow’s another day! Soon, I’ll become even stronger than Lee Jiwon!” Cantana ceased his burning. Only five of the hundred slaves remained.
“Will you save the rest for tomorrow?” Cantana’s subordinate asked.
“Are you being serious right now? Do you want to show the rest of the slaves that some had actually survived this place? They all need to believe that coming here spells death for them, that way they will despair even more!”
“Then I’ll have them killed and their bodies disposed of.”
“Good. Oh, if that’s the case, then I may as well do this.” Cantana drew his blade and sliced into the remaining five slaves. The wounds slowly began to burn away, leaving the five slaves in unbearable pain.
“Ahh! Please! Please just kill me now!”
Cantana’s subordinates then dragged the five slaves back to the center of the slave quarters for all of the slaves to see that Guadalupe, Chiapas was Hell on earth.
“God, please! Don’t forsake us!”
The slaves cried to the heavens as the burns continued to burn away at their flesh. Cantana’s subordinates had been through this many times before, and left the slaves to die.
One of those five slaves was Pedro. And slowly, the slaves died one by one until it was only Pedro left. Pedro hated this world. He hated himself for being so weak. And most of all, he hated Cantana Alejandro. He wanted to kill Cantana over and over again for taking away his family, but right now, there was nothing he could do.
Then, just when Pedro was about to give up on his life, he felt his token of knowledge burn on his wrist and looked up. A Don Gate stood before him. With no other choice, Pedro began to slowly crawl towards the Don Gate, until he could just barely touch it with his fingertips…
