Jeongwoo, who had been swinging his whip all this time, put it away. The whip was a weapon that was trickier to handle than expected. Moreover, his proficiency with it was lower than with a sword. It was fine when he could swing it without worrying about others, but in situations like now, there was a risk of accidentally harming allies. Instead, he drew out his most familiar sword. And coated it with red flames.
“Keeee, keeeek”
No light, including artificial light made by humans, could illuminate the darkness of the dead, but the red flames embroidered on Jeongwoo’s sword were an exception. The red flames that bloomed on Jeongwoo’s sword were originally the power of the Constellation, Blazing Flame.
Every time Jeongwoo swung his arm, the red flames traced an arc in the darkness.
Kim Jisu was a fighter, but she mainly had many curse-type skills. One of them was a detection skill that sensed curses, and thanks to this skill, she could move somewhat freely even in this darkness. Since the dead were curses themselves, keeping the skill active allowed her to clearly sense the dead’s locations.
That said, it wasn’t the same as seeing with her eyes. Since she wasn’t used to it, her reaction speed was slower than when seeing with her eyes, and small wounds accumulated all over her body.
“Damn it.”
Kim Jisu opened a potion and quickly drank one bottle. She had been saving them because of the price, but she figured now wasn’t the time to be picky.
Even though they were fellow guild members, they had only known each other for a few days. It was awkward to call them comrades. Yet as they fought back-to-back swinging their swords, a sense of responsibility and community consciousness toward each other emerged.
Unlike the beginning when they had been selfish while watching each other’s reactions, as time passed, they became more considerate of one another.
Unless they were like Kim Jisu who could operate somewhat in the darkness, they fought back-to-back. Those who became too exhausted to move voluntarily went inside the Veil on their own. And once they recovered somewhat, they quickly returned for their comrades.
By the time the morning sun rose, they had built a fairly strong camaraderie.
[Everyone, the preview of the Night of the Dead, the eve festival, has ended.
The eve festival of the Night of the Dead was entirely my gift to you Earthlings. (･ω<)☆
The full-scale mission begins tonight.
Those who found the eve festival boring, please look forward to tonight! ( ͈ᴗ-)ᓂ-ෆ
There were no attacks on ordinary people during the eve festival, but tonight’s mission will include all ordinary people. ( °ㅁ° )‼✧ So you’d better prepare in advance, right?
Also, even higher-level dead will be waiting for you.
Look forward to it! Coming soon! ღゝ◡╹)ノ♡]
* * *
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
“Huh? Did what?”
Compared to the others, Jeongwoo was in fairly decent shape, but he still had traces of the dead on him here and there. Jeongwoo threw off his smelly clothes and answered Jaehee’s question blankly. Jaehee smirked watching him.
“Yesterday. The guild members who participated in yesterday’s battle became quite close to each other.”
“Aah… They say love springs up even where there was none after crossing the line of death together. Camaraderie is originally born through hardship.”
“That’s true, but watching closely, it seems you contributed quite a bit to that. Ah, I’m not criticizing. I’m thanking you. Since I, as Guild Master, couldn’t pay attention to that, you did it. Even in that situation, you looked after the guild’s atmosphere…”
Jeongwoo lightly scratched his head. He did have intentions, but he didn’t expect Jaehee to pinpoint it so accurately.
“The real thing starts from now. The battle doesn’t start tonight. It starts from now.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Soon… you’ll find out.”
In the past that Jeongwoo remembered, there was no such thing as an eve festival for the Night of the Dead.
He didn’t know why the system had been capricious, but it was true that it had been quite helpful, just as the system said.
There was a big difference between not knowing what would come out and knowing.
“Yumi-ssi, what happened with the footage you filmed yesterday?”
“Ah! I’m uploading it now. Live video was impossible, but live radio with just audio seems possible. Oh my! Vice Guild Master-nim. I thought only your face was handsome, but your body is even more handsome?”
Yang Yumi let out a small squeal watching Jeongwoo change his t-shirt.
The sharp office atmosphere that had been tense with fatigue and irritation from staying up all night suddenly disappeared, and light laughter filled the air.
“From now on, you’ll need to pay attention to internet reactions including SNS. And were there any separate requests regarding the King’s Veil?”
“Are you kidding? It’s chaos. People keep calling saying they’re subjects too so please cast the King’s Veil on them, so it’s completely jammed right now. It’s not like there aren’t kings in the provinces, so why do they have to come to us…”
One office staff member pouted and shook their head.
Indeed, so many calls had come in that they had unplugged the cord for now.
Most were requests from people living in the provinces saying they were Eternal Guild members too, so please cast the King’s Veil on them.
“Please tell them to go to the shelters we discussed before.”
“We made that announcement, but there are so many people saying they can’t get there so just cast the King’s Veil on them personally. Otherwise they’ll leave the guild and whatnot… Ugh, really.”
The King’s Veil could be deployed in multiple instances.
In other words, one in Seoul, one in Daejeon, and so on. Naturally, a King’s Veil without the King present would have reduced duration and effectiveness.
But even accounting for that, there was another problem. If multiple King’s Veils were created, the ability itself would be diminished overall.
The size also could only be created by dividing the total King’s Veil that could be made. In other words, the size of the Veil the King could make was fixed, and it was cut up and created in different regions.
Besides the disadvantages of decreased overall performance and having to split the size, there was yet another problem.
If the size of the Veil that Jeongwoo had secured was divided by setting up Veils in the provinces, the Seoul Veil would also shrink. But Jeongwoo couldn’t come forward to that shrunken Veil. Because where Jeongwoo stood was the maximum size of the Veil.
In other words, Jeongwoo would have to fight in the darkness far away from the King’s Veil.
During the eve festival, Jeongwoo hadn’t used or received help from the King’s Veil. But having options and not having them were different matters. Moreover, there were only a few people who could fight in the darkness. That meant there were also only a few people who could support Jeongwoo.
“Jeongwoo…”
“Don’t think about me. I’ll stay as far away as possible to maximize the Veil’s size, so you just think about what you need to do.”
“But will you really be okay? You’ll be quite far from the Veil.”
“It can’t be helped. And those things called the dead weren’t that dangerous anyway.”
Jaehee bit his lip. He didn’t like that this mission had to rely entirely on Jeongwoo, but there was no choice. No one could replace Jeongwoo. He just had to trust him.
“Alright. Announce that we can’t create personal Veils. Instead, tell them we’ll set up Veils at each regional shelter, so go there.”
“Yes, understood, Guild Master.”
“I’ve never overlapped this many before, so I don’t know how much the King’s Veil’s function will decrease. Are all the combat teams being dispatched to the shelters ready?”
“Yes. We’ve prepared everyone for now, but we’re short on Awakened Ones…”
“Being short on Awakened Ones is the same everywhere, so it can’t be helped. The King’s Veils installed at the shelters will have shorter activation times and lower performance. So please distribute potions generously. Oh right, just a moment, Father!”
Jaehee was giving various instructions when he stopped his father, who was passing by with a tired expression.
“Father! A place where we can evacuate people from this area…”
“I was already talking to the government about that. For now, we’ve decided to mainly use schools and large buildings. There are minor issues, but since there’s no problem during the day, I think we can solve everything.”
“Ah… Thank you. Then when people come, we should direct them to nearby schools first.”
As Jaehee spoke and gave Yang Yumi a look, Yang Yumi nodded as if she understood. With experts from various fields gathered to handle things, many matters were already dealt with before he even spoke.
“Father, have you contacted Mom by any chance?”
“About that, Jaehee.”
“Guild Master!”
Just as Jaehee was asking his father, Yang Yumi let out a sharp scream.
“Wh-what’s wrong?”
“They say three kings died just last night.”
“What do you mean?”
The dead that appeared last night were numerous but didn’t have high combat power.
Moreover, a king could avoid the dead just by deploying their Veil. Yet such kings died last night…?
