Yeon So-hyeon took a deep breath. The characteristic stench of the back alley—a foul medley of excrement, decay, mildew, and the reek rising from the sewers, now mingled with the scent of melted viscera and boiling blood—was refreshing. With every cheerful beat of his heart, the Demonic Qi of the scripture surged through his veins and meridians. That energy, a force that warped and corroded reality itself, churned in his upper Danjeon and shot into his mind.

Everything around him came into sharp focus, and the world felt as if it were his to grasp. Nothing felt impossible. It was a feeling of omnipotence, and at the same time, it was madness.

Unbidden, the guttural growl of a feral beast rumbled deep in his throat. Yeon So-hyeon, the Demonic Being of the Scripture, gazed upon the long line of prey arrayed before him in the corridor.

“…Let the banquet begin.”

A voice forged of grating metal echoed down the hall.

“K-Kill him!”

At someone’s cry, the members of the Black Bone Faction raised their weapons in a convulsive fit and began to charge.

“Come!” Yeon So-hyeon bared his teeth and smiled.

The face of the man at the very front was a mask of terror and desperation. The saber he wielded was a shabby, cheap thing that could hardly be called a proper blade. He could clearly see every single filthy strand of the tassel tied to the pommel for decoration as it fluttered through the air.

But there was no need, no reason, to dodge. Yeon So-hyeon stood his ground and took the blow with his head.

With the sharp shriek of steel striking steel, sparks flew. The poorly forged, impurity-riddled saber shattered and went flying. The broken blade embedded itself in the ceiling. He hadn’t even felt an itch.

Before the hilt, which the man had lost his grip on from the shock, could even hit the ground, Yeon So-hyeon brought his palm down on the man’s head. With a deafening boom, the man’s skull exploded in the direction of the blow. Like the crack of a whip, his brains, blood, and bone fragments splattered across the floor.

Only then did the bladeless hilt clatter to the ground. The headless torso staggered sideways, spun half a turn, and collapsed against the corridor wall. At the sight, Yeon So-hyeon began to clap. A banquet, after all, would be incomplete without a dance.

“Gyaaaaaah!”

The next man rushed in, swinging an axe. Yeon So-hyeon shot out both hands, grabbed the man’s arms, and tore them from their sockets. As the man screamed, Yeon So-hyeon tossed the severed limbs to the floor.

“My aaaaaarms…!”

After appreciating the grotesque dance for a moment, Yeon So-hyeon slowly ripped the man’s jaw apart. In that gap, two more men charged, but they were torn in half at the waist simultaneously. The one after them, who had been unwillingly pushed forward by the press from behind, was caught by Yeon So-hyeon’s gaping maw and had his head bitten off.

A banquet must not lack for food, after all.

Even as Yeon So-hyeon made such leisurely pronouncements, blades flew and bludgeons fell. But none of them could do him any harm, and with every move he made, the number of dismembered corpses in the corridor grew. The foul, filthy hallway was being reborn as the ultimate banquet hall, filled with song, dance, and food.

***

With a pleasant smile, Yeon So-hyeon pierced another torso with a spear-hand. Another life was extinguished. But the Black Bone Faction was not going down without a fight. The instant he impaled the man, a gleaming blue blade shot out from the other side of the corpse. The blade lunged toward him at a terrifying speed.

“Hmph…”

With a low snort, Yeon So-hyeon leaned back, evading the blade. The longsword, which had passed clean through the body without a single drop of blood clinging to it, reflected the light with a cold, blue sheen. A violent energy roiled within the steel itself. This was the reason he had dodged the flash of light. The speed, the technique, and the obviously high-quality sword—a true practitioner of martial arts had finally appeared.

The attack did not end with that fierce thrust.

“Puppet.”

With a low murmur, the lunge transitioned into a slash, defying the laws of physics. The blue blade, cleaving the corpse in two as if it were tofu, descended on Yeon So-hyeon like a bolt of lightning.

Got him!

The swordsman was certain his attack would succeed. This monster may have managed to dodge his first strike from its blind spot with its beast-like senses, but leaning back to do so had been a clear mistake. With its center of gravity completely thrown off, there was no way it could evade the follow-up strike from his signature technique, the Puppet.

“…?!”

But his blow, which had split the corpse, cut through empty air and left a deep scar on the unfortunate floor.

“An interesting technique.”

His opponent’s icy breath touched his ear. If he had been a less experienced fighter, he would have frozen in that moment. Without thought, without judgment, his body, tempered by countless real battles, reflexively unleashed another technique.

Spinning Wheel. Another of his signature skills, one that combined retrieval and attack into a single, fluid motion. The body of his sword shot up toward the source of the breath as if launched, and he didn’t stop there, unleashing dozens of consecutive strikes in a single breath.

“Hyaaap…!”

The space was torn to shreds, as if by dozens of blades at once. This time, the monster did not evade. It began to intercept the flurry of strikes. Each time the long claws formed of black energy met his blade, a deafening screech tore through the air, and sparks flew in all directions.

“Heok, heok!”

The moment his assault ended, he gasped for air. The severe depletion of his internal energy after just a few exchanges was a problem, but the greater issue was that the reckless chain of techniques had shattered his breathing, disrupting the flow of his power.

…Damned monster.

But the biggest problem was something else entirely.

“Is that all?”

His own body had been shredded by his opponent’s claws, and he was now bathing in his own blood. But the monster in the white mask didn’t have so much as a single cut on its robes.

“And just when I was starting to have fun. What a pity.”

The monster’s coarse voice scraped at his ears.

“…Fuck you!”

He bet everything on this one strike. His remaining internal energy, his focus—he poured it all in. Of course, given the monster’s abilities so far, his final attack would surely be blocked.

But…!

Simultaneously, the walls of the corridor on either side of the monster exploded inwards, as the two remaining martial artists, who had been lying in wait, launched their own attacks. It was a perfect ambush, aimed at the moment their opponent was most vulnerable.

It worked—?!

But what he saw in the next instant was completely different from what he had expected. His own blade was caught in the monster’s teeth and shattered, and at the same time, the pincer attack was effortlessly blocked by the monster’s two hands.

The monster spat out the shards of the blade. “Is this the best you can do?”

It was then that he realized. No matter what they did, the chance of them successfully hunting this monster had never existed in the first place. The monster was simply playing with them before devouring them.

“Gwaaah!”

In his vision, he saw his two comrades abandon their weapons, which were caught in the monster’s grip, and attack with their secondary weapons and empty hands. A flash of movement, a deafening crash. Only then did he realize his own internal energy was completely depleted. A mist of blood, a fountain of gore, and a cacophony of violence continued for a short while. He, too, mustered his remaining strength and charged the monster again, but it was not an opponent one could face without power.

After a light flick of the monster’s hand sent him into unconsciousness, he was awoken by a horrifying scream.

“Kuaaaaaah!”

The monster had its back to him and was in the process of tearing apart one of the martial artists and eating him alive. The corridor was filled with the sounds of tearing flesh, snapping bone, and screams. Trapped in a state of powerlessness and terror, all he could do was wait for his turn. He wept, and he begged. But his fate was already sealed.

***

“A crazy monster, you say?” Having retracted his Demonic Qi, Yeon So-hyeon asked the last remaining man, the leader of the den. “Am I a crazy monster?”

The leader, both his knees completely shattered, screamed at him in a fit of rage. “Don’t fuck with me! If you’re not a crazy monster, what are you?! You think you’re some great master?!”

Yeon So-hyeon slowly looked around.

The last place he had reached was a butchery set up in the underground space. In one area, a collection of organs was being boiled in a large cauldron, with a much larger pile waiting its turn. On the other side, a deboning operation had been in progress; bones and meat were scattered everywhere, and in the corner, a mountain of bones was piled high. Beyond that, large cuts of meat hung from hooks in a long line, waiting. And finally, the area where he was standing was where the blood was drained. The floor was a vast pool of slick, red blood, which was flowing along a trough into a sewer drain.

And that blood was dripping from the upside-down corpses of human beings.

Yeon So-hyeon looked at the corpse nearest to him. It was a woman, so emaciated she was little more than bone. The only peculiar thing was that her stomach had been sliced open. Closing the eyes of the corpse, which were still wide open in terror, he asked the leader, “…And I’m the one who’s mad?”

The man in charge of the human butchery plant, clutching his shattered legs, spat back, “You stupid son of a bitch! This is all just business!”

“…”

For a moment, Yeon So-hyeon was at a loss for words. He picked up a bowl from the leader’s desk. He must have been in the middle of a meal before the commotion started; the bowl and its contents were still warm. Yeon So-hyeon fished out a piece of meat from within. Steam rose from what was clearly the wrist of a fetus. It explained why the woman’s belly had been cut open.

“‘Just business,’ you say?”

The leader shrieked as if having a seizure. “You crazy bastard! What do you think business is?! Why do you think we do it?! It’s all just to get by and—!”

In an instant, Yeon So-hyeon vanished and reappeared, grabbing the leader’s head and smashing it into the wall.

“Kuaaah…!”

Yeon So-hyeon slowly, deliberately, ground the leader’s head against the wall, a hollow laugh escaping his lips. He kills and eats people, and that’s madness. They kill, sell, and eat people, and that’s business. They had made killing, butchering, selling, and eating people their life’s work, a way to diligently survive the harsh realities of the world!

Yeon So-hyeon took the corpse of the leader, whose head had been half-ground away, and impaled it upside-down on an empty hook. Blood poured from the mangled skull and splattered on the floor. It seemed too quick a death, but he had his reasons. Somewhere in this underground facility, there had to be cages where they kept the living, for fresh meat. He had to find them.

As he moved, he asked himself a question.

Am I the one who’s mad?

Or is it this world?