After Ten Millennia in Hell

The man got goosebumps from hearing something mucus moving. He didn\'t know what it was, but he knew that something was there.

"Wh-Who\'s there?!"

He quickly searched for his weapon. He grabbed the cane atop the table. The cane shone with a blue light, and white frost gathered.

"Hmm."

The flirtatious voice of a woman flowed across the dark room. The man gulped as his groin reacted to the irresistible sexual urge.

The woman\'s voice sounded. "Jason Hemet. You\'re that American World Ranker who challenged Si-Hun to a duel and lost miserably."

"Kuh!"

Jason Hemet\'s expression crumpled. After he lost that duel against Sword Dragon Kim Si-Hun, which had been streamed to the entire world, he had become a laughingstock.

Everyone knew how unbelievably strong Sword Dragon was now, but back then, not many people knew about him. And so, after experiencing inexplicable humiliation, he joined Guardians with the desire for revenge, and he finally got his chance, but…

"H-How…"

How had he realized his plan? No, he hadn\'t just realized it; Jason had dug the trap and had concealed his presence like a predator, waiting until his prey let their guard down and fell into his trap.

[It\'s simple.]

Oh Kang-Woo\'s voice came out of the crystal orb.

[Valencia was made with the USA\'s full support.]

He kept talking with a calm voice.

[So isn\'t it weird that the city\'s security has become this bad?]

From the USA\'s point of view, Valencia was an important territory that would act as a foothold for them to occupy free land, such as Mexico, Columbia, and other countries that had been ruined since the Day of Calamity. There was no way that they would just leave the country to rot after building it.

[It isn\'t that security wasn\'t good.]

It had just been neglected so that it would get bad, for another purpose.

[For example, it could\'ve been done to keep in check Guardians, which had gotten too powerful. Well, I\'m sure there are a lot of reasons. Even if Grace McCubbin is American, she couldn\'t be controlled, so I\'m sure people higher up wanted to prevent Guardians from getting too big.]

They had been waiting after digging a trap. They had built a place where people could set free their wildest desires and had let loose prey, the natives, into the city so that the Players could do whatever they wanted to the natives without fearing any consequences. They had likely even bribed some Players to get in on the act to instigate the other Players to do the same.

"Th-That\'s complete nonsense…"

[Things that are hard to understand usually get much simpler to understand once you think about who gets the most out of it.]

The detonator Samuel Hayden had was fake, which meant that someone had deceived him. Why would that person have wanted Samuel to pressure Kang-Woo and Si-Hun with a fake detonator?

\'If their goal had never been a terror attack…\'

Rather, if the goal had always been to fabricate proof that there had been a terror attack, it made sense.

From there, he had to think about the organization that would benefit the most from such a thing. Considering who had invested the most in the city, the answer was simple.

[Well, I\'m not saying Guardians isn\'t at fault.]

They probably hadn\'t forcibly corrupted the Guardians members, but humans were corrupted all too easily from just a simple incitement. A person could reach their lows far easier than one thought as long as they were given the chance to do things that they hadn\'t been able to do, without any consequences.

[It\'s my mistake. I should\'ve trained my hounds properly.]

Tsk.

Jason heard Kang-Woo click his tongue.

"…"

Jason remained silent and anxiously bit his lip.

"I-I already have the footage I need. If I leak this…" he anxiously said with much difficulty.

Squelch.

But before he could finish talking, the sound he\'d forgotten about grew louder. Jason\'s expression paled, and he quickly turned around.

"Frozen Nova!"

An intense frost storm raged from Jason\'s cane. A sharp ice crystal formed from the blue gem at the tip of the cane.

"Hohoho."

A woman\'s seductive giggle echoed through the room.

Squelch.

The sound of the sticky mucus grew louder.

"Wh-What the…"

Jason paled. Based on the voice, he had expected a knockout beauty to appear, but what appeared from the other side of the dark room were horrifying green tentacles.

"Urpp!"

Jason covered his nose and mouth to block the horrible stench. He\'d faced countless monsters before, but the green tentacles before his eyes felt more hideous than anything else he had seen before.

The squirming tentacles gathered together.

"Although I am lacking in combat prowess…"

Eighteen red eyes stared at Jason, and the creature licked her lips with a tongue as long as a snake\'s.

"Surely you don\'t think I can\'t face a single mere World Ranker?"

The green tentacles extending from Lilith wriggled fiercely.

"A mere World Ranker, you say?" Jason bit his lip. He recalled all of the criticisms he\'d heard after he lost to Si-Hun. "Damn monster bitch…!"

FWOOSH!

A frigid frost storm raged, and an ice spear several meters long shot at Lilith.

Crack!

A green tentacle wrapped around the ice spear in midair.

"Urgh!"

Jason burst out with as much mana as he could. Ice spikes rose from the floor, the walls, and the ceiling and shot toward the tentacle monster.

"Monster bitch? What a rude human."

The eighteen eyes narrowed. For Lilith, who had always been praised as beautiful, being called a monster was a first.

She raised her hand in intense rage. Her hair shot out and turned into green tentacles.

Spurt!

Yellow pus poured out of the tentacles and spread out like a tent.

The ice spikes all over the room evaporated as soon as they were touched by the yellow pus.

"Urpp!"

Jason blocked his mouth as a horrible stench filled the room.

"Bleeeeeeghh!!"

He threw up, unable to take the stench any longer. Lilith\'s eyes widened, and she tilted her head.

"Oh, was my perfume too strong for you?"

The aroma caused the lust of a demon to run out of control just by smelling it, but it seemed like it had a different effect on humans.

"Regardless…"

If the mage had given up on casting and was vomiting, there was no need to think about how things would end.

With a thick smile on her face, Lilith walked toward Jason.

"Kuh!"

Jason took out another communication crystal from his pocket, quickly imbued mana into it, and shouted, "Ambush, ambush! Get the hell over to my study right now!!"

The building that he was in had Players standing by twenty-four seven to be able to immediately respond to attacks. Jason wasn\'t sure how she\'d infiltrated his room without them noticing, but they would be able to buy him enough time to escape.

Tzzzzz.

As if betraying his expectations, the crystal only returned static that would play from a broken radio. He could hear terrified screams within the static.

- Arrgghh!!

- Wh-What the hell is that monster?!

- H-Help m—

Crack.

He heard bones being broken, and the chilling sound of flesh and muscle being torn apart reached him through the crystal.

- Lilith.

A low voice he hadn\'t heard before came through the communication crystal. The voice contained a fierce, beast-like energy.

- I\'m done here.

"Hoho, okay."

The tentacled monster known as Lilith nodded, and a smile formed on her face. He couldn\'t help but feel chills when he saw her smile stretch across her face, ear to ear.

"I\'m… almost done here as well."

An intense red light shone from Lilith\'s eyes. She activated her specialty, mind-control magic.

"U-Urrhh."

Jason\'s eyes widened as he was met with that red light head-on. He grabbed his neck as if he was having trouble breathing. An instinctive fear took over him.

"A-Aaaaaaaahh!!"

Clatter.

He dropped his cane and wet his pants.

"S-Stay away!!"

"Hohoho."

The tentacled monster slowly walked toward him.

Squelch, squelch.

Transparent mucus stained the ground.

Lilith reached out, and her green tentacles began wrapping around Jason\'s body.

"E-Eek!"

"Don\'t worry. I won\'t kill you." Lilith licked her lips with her long tongue. "After all, I have a lot of things I want to ask you."

Jason\'s limbs trembled as if he were having a seizure. His eyes rolled back, and he lost consciousness.

"Haaa. Being so beautiful is a sin."

Lilith sighed and shook her head.

This was why she didn\'t like reverting to her true form; people were so shocked by her beauty that they immediately lost consciousness, so she could not even interrogate them.

[…]

In the study\'s video feed, she saw Kang-Woo looking this way with a worried expression. Lilith smiled, easily figuring out what he was concerned about.

"There is no need to worry. No matter what happens, you will always be the only one in my heart, my king."

[No… That\'s not what I…]

"Fufu, so there is no need to be jealous."

Lilith caressed the crystal orb in delight.

[Fuck!]

She saw Kang-Woo in agony as he clenched his hair.

"I will interrogate this man to confirm the people who were involved in this incident."

[… Please.]

The footage was cut.

Lilith placed her hands on her cheeks while rolling her foot.

"Haaa, he is as cute as always."

She couldn\'t resist how lovely the jealous Kang-Woo looked. She wanted to devour him, and she would if it were up to her.

"I mean… I had my fill on our trip last time, so…."

She would be able to resist for the time being.

"Well, then…"

She made a bright smile and slapped Jason, who was unconscious, to wake him up.

"Now, now. Wake up, sleepyhead."

She woke him with a voice as gentle as that of a mother waking up her child.

"Urmm."

Jason slowly opened his eyes, and…

"Gyaaaaaaaaaaahh!!!"

The nightmare began.

* * *

A blue Rift appeared on the roof of Seoul\'s 63 Building, which used to be the tallest building but had long since lost that title.

Crack!

The Rift grew as if the air itself were splitting.

"Haaa, haaa."

The breath of the being that had come out of the Rift was filled with desire. They hurriedly looked around and smiled while flaring their nostrils.

"A-Aaaahh! Finally! Finally!"

The being let out an exclamation as they twisted their body. They shot up into the sky as they flapped their wings. Black feathers fell from the ceiling of the 63 Building.