The Novel’s Villain

[Mass release! Happy holidays!]

56.
Everyone lives in the same place.
(3)

Zombies were constantly rushing in.

The fireworks seemed to have attracted not only the ones in their vicinity but all of their kind in this city.

‘They seem used to this kind of thing.’

They certainly looked skilled in manipulating large hordes of these undead beings, even though there were so many of them that they looked like they were compressing themselves up in a train to get to work on time.

It reminded him of his old employee days, making him feel bad.

Even as an Emperor, it was hard to endure the hell of work.

The zombies tried to infect Jin-woo, but they couldn’t even touch him.
As soon as they were right in front of him, they turned to dust and disappeared, unable to withstand his magic since they were far too weak.
They weren’t even ranked.

Phewww! Bang! Phewwwww!

As the fireworks continued to explode, zombies flocked to the vulnerable areas of their base, almost as if they had already fully grasped its layout.

The defenses inside were probably a mess.

Curious about who interfered with his time for ramen and wondering why they kidnapped the children, Jin-woo looked back into the passage they discovered.

With a light wave of his hand, the zombies filling it were swept away by black flames, devouring even their ashes.
That left the tunnel in a state so clean there wasn’t even a speck of dust left.

It was like cleaning a dirty blackboard with an eraser or scratching the silver foil of a lottery ticket.

‘It’s neat.’

Jin-woo looked around him afterward, immediately noticing a thick layer of smoke created by the firecrackers, a rusty truck with a broken wheel, and zombies flocking in like sea waves.

Coming up with a plan, he immediately went to the battered vehicle and gave it a light push, some of its parts scraping against the floor.

Koo!

The truck plowed through all the zombies in its way until it reached the passageway into the building, effectively blocking it.

Witnessing the gory sight, he shook his head and frowned.

He was quite hungry, but he lost his appetite upon seeing the undead burst into pieces.
He couldn’t even think of ramen anymore.

Jin-woo stomped on the floor.

Whew!

Black flames spread in all directions from where his foot landed, killing hundreds of zombies in an instant.

‘They need to pay the price of devoiding me of ramen.’

Jin-woo moved towards the building the fireworks were being launched from, finding a man setting up even more of them.
He was wearing a mask, but he didn’t seem like he belonged to the group called Black Pot.

According to the Magic Eye of Information, he was from a predatory organization called the White Skull.

[-F] White Skull

An organization that commits murder, looting, and robbery.

When food is scarce, they often result in cooking and eating the humans they’ve kidnapped.
Currently cooperating with Black Hound.

Black Hound probably referred to Black Pot.

There were few zombies around him.
A car armored with thick iron plates was also parked nearby.
A machine gun had been mounted on top of it.

More White Skull members guarded it, using silencer-equipped firearms to kill all the zombies that came too close to it.

The man in charge of the fireworks stood up.

Their firecrackers were far from ordinary.
They emitted stronger light, released a smell that lured zombies towards it, and the noise they caused had been amplified several times.

He picked up a radio and grinned.

“One more batch to go!”

[Haha! Beer is the best at times like this.
I’ll have yours prepared by the time you’ve returned.]

“Alright.”

The man lit the firecrackers and stepped back.

As their wicks burned and they all soared, his eyes widened.

Bump!

Jin-woo had appeared, grabbing all of the fireworks just before they could leave his arm’s reach.
While held in his hands, they all erupted.

“Oh, sorry.
Here.
You can have them back.”

He aimed the firecrackers towards the man and let them go, causing them to hit his body.

“W-what? N-no! Argh!”

Terrified, he tried to remove them off of him, but they had already clung to him far too hard.

Boom!

The ensuing explosions blew away the man’s upper body and caught the zombies’ attention.
They approached the fresh corpse, most likely finding it quite appetizing, then began to flock to the rest of the group.

Boob! Boob!

Jin-woo approached their armored car.

Startled, the person manning the machine gun began to open fire at the zombies rushing towards them.

Ratatatatata!

“Damn, what happened? There are too many of them! Back up, back up!”

He struck the vehicle with his palm multiple times, making their driver immediately put its gear in reverse and drive backward.

Squeaaaaak!

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However, all that did was burn its wheels against the ground, creating clouds of smoke.
It didn’t go anywhere.

“The car’s not moving! Something’s keeping us in place— Huh?”

The driver doubted his own eyes.
Someone was holding the car through the gaps between its iron plates.

Jin-woo smiled brightly when his gaze met the driver.

“You’re no more than packaged food now.”

Wouldn’t they look that way to zombies?

When he tore the vehicle’s exterior off, its fortifications up front were completely ripped away.

The driver looked at him blankly, seemingly having seen a ghost since this entire situation didn’t feel real at all.

“Y-you’re a madman!”

The man on top of the vehicle aimed the machine gun at him and hastily fired at him until he ran out of ammo, heating up and bending its barrel.
Of all the rounds he fired, only one bullet managed to touch Jin-woo’s forehead, but it just flattened on collision and fell to the floor.

Whik!

Jin-woo jumped onto their car.
Looking at him, the man trembled in fear.

He didn’t have to kill him himself.
Pulling him up by the neck, he threw him to the zombies, who then rushed in and feasted upon his flesh as soon as he hit the ground.

‘I am never going to find my appetite today.’

Zombie eating shows weren’t worth watching.

In a state of panic, the driver tried to escape on foot, but Jin-woo easily trailed him, using him as a guide to their camp instead of killing him.

As he thought, they weren’t that far away.
They gathered in a spacious warehouse guarded by sentries.

“Ugh!”

“What’s going on?”

“S-save me! A monster… A monster—!”

The driver’s body blew up and flew backward.

Startled, the guards tried to raise their guns, but they couldn’t.

“Huh?”

Their vision shook, and they all fell to the floor.
The last thing they saw was their own headless bodies.

Jin-woo cleared out all the guards around the abandoned warehouse, but just as he was about to enter it, he decided to head to the one next to it instead, sensing something coming out of it.

‘That’s… .’

A mountain of corpses dawned upon him, but none of them were zombies.
Moreover, the White Skull members were still playing around with them.

‘Nothing’s normal about them.’

Traces of torture using knives or hot iron rods covered the bodies.
Their nails and teeth had all been pulled out, and their heads had been cut off to prevent zombification.

This clearly showed how dirty and cruel humans could be.
Their sins could make even demons cry.

Jin-woo felt a strong resentment from the corpses.
According to the Magic Eye of Information, it made the zombie virus stronger.

He hastily stopped himself from burning the corpses with black flames, thinking it wouldn’t be too bad to let them get their own vengeance.

Jin-woo could make that possible.

‘I don’t know if it’ll work since it’s been a while since I’ve done it, though.’

He had raised the dead in the Middle-World before.
He even remembered making an anglerfish out of them.

Looking at the corpses, he exuded power, which he then merged with the power of domination to increase its strength.

He learned new abilities at that moment, all because of the Emperor of Settings.

“Hmm?”

In Jin-woo’s hand was an encyclopedia.

He didn’t know when it appeared, but he didn’t really care.

Jin-woo looked at the information that came to mind.

[You can adjust appearances and ranks through the settings encyclopedia.]

[You can also bring up a list of recommendations.]

It automatically changed on its own in the past, but Jin-woo could now alter it as he desired through the book he held.

Bringing up the list of recommendations, it showed a blank page with letters beginning to be engraved on it.

[The Emperor of Gold presents a recommendation.]

*How about a luxurious rainbow skeleton with beautiful bones? To praise the Great Emperor’s perfection, I tried to make it shine with rainbow colors.

With such traits, this undead monster will suit the Great Emperor best.
There is no better choice than this.

[The Incarnation of Evil presents a recommendation.]

*Great Emperor.

When we think of the undead, we usually think of zombies or skeletons.
But neither zombies nor skeletons are worthy of the delightful revenge the Great Emperor desires.
It might consume a bit more mana and power, but how about making something more useful?

The monster I would recommend is the Dullahan.
It might be weaker if made out of human bodies, but it would still create quite the sight to behold.

Considering it’s equipped with enough strength to shatter its targets into tiny fragments, it’s the best monster suited for beginning the Blood Festival.

[The Power of Domination presents a recommendation.]

There’s no place tentacles can’t dig in!

Red tentacles! Tough tentacles! Big eyeballs! Yellow tentacles!

Special Tentacles! Painful tentacles! Weird tentacles! Slime tentacles!

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All of this belongs to the Great Emperor.

“Hmm…”

[You can now check the opinions of other Emperors.]

Jin-woo forgot what to say for a moment.
He didn’t know the Incarnation of Evil would have the most valid opinion.

He looked through the opinions of his subordinates.

[Vanity recommends the Incarnation of Evil’s idea.]

[Maze loves the idea of good tentacles.
It’s nice since they’re slippery.]

[Arcana likes her master the most.]

[The Heavenly Demon Supreme got housewife eczema while washing the dishes.]

[The General Manager recommends the Beautiful Rainbow Luxury Skeleton, thinking it’ll be great for decoration.]

…

As he expected, their thoughts weren’t worth referring to.

Jin-woo pondered about it for a moment.

He liked the shiny skeleton idea because of its iridescent color, but it didn’t fit the direction Jin-woo wanted.

As for the Power of Domination’s opinion, he decided to never use it.
He’d risk changing this world’s genre otherwise.

It seemed better to choose from the list of recommendations rather than customizing himself, which would consume more of his power.
Hence, Jin-woo chose the Incarnation of Evil’s.

[Dullahan, the Incarnation of Evil’s recommendation, has been selected.]

[Modifying the corpses’ settings using the Great Emperor’s power.]

Dark red air currents flowed from the corpses as they rose and melted.
Their white bones, now exposed, disintegrated and merged into one.

Crack! Crack!

Soon enough, they took on their new form: a gigantic, headless skeleton.

That wasn’t where its transformation ended.
A thick black armor appeared, covering its body, along with the massive sword in its hand.

The skulls on the ground also merged into one gigantic skull, which was then equipped with a helmet.
It complimented the red glow in its eye sockets.

Dullahan reached out and grabbed its head.

[D+] Dullahan The Despair Bringer

A monster created by the Great Emperor based on the Incarnation of Evil’s recommendation.

Although made of corpses brimming with resentment, it isn’t ranked high since the corpses were of ordinary humans.
Still, it harbors a strong desire for vengeance towards the person that tortured and killed them, providing it the urge to kill them as painfully as possible.

It will continue to exist until its grudge has been satiated.

*[D+] Death’s Aura: This gives Dullahan the authority over the dead and the ability to create skeleton soldiers out of corpses.

Dullahan’s height reached 3 meters.
As it raised its sword, the zombies in the vicinity flocked to it.
Their flesh then melted, becoming F-ranked skeletons.

“That’s great.”

The results were pretty good.

It fit the Death World’s theme quite well.

Jin-woo smiled satisfyingly.
When he pointed towards the abandoned warehouse, his new subordinate began its attack.

The Zombie Festival caused by the White Skull turned into an entirely new event.

* * *

White Skull used to loot and move from town to town, but they had now become a group that kidnapped survivors to sell to Black Hounds.

These days, however, Black Hounds had become pickier, no longer accepting ordinary people.

Unless their merchandise were children or women, they no longer showed interest.

‘That’s great for us, too.’ Pierce, White Skull’s right-hand man, grinned.

The boss didn’t say anything about limiting their targets to those, and he knew well they should be compensated based on how many they could deliver.

Kidnapping survivors and playing with them was their favorite entertainment activity.
They also started eating human flesh as a substitute for food, but some of their members had begun eating them on purpose.

Being the one who provided the last batch of merchandise, he recently received a lot of beer and food as his prize.
It was quite a painstaking job, but it was worth it.

Just four children would be enough for him to get a lot of supplies.

“Huh? They’re not answering.”

“They’re probably having some fun.”

“I guess so.”

Pierce’s men laughed and put down the radio, returning to their conversations.

Tee!

The lights went out right after the sound of their generator shutting down resounded.
Everyone turned on their flashlights.

Pierce frowned.

“What happened?”

“I’m not sure.
I just fixed it a while back.
I’ll go check it out.”

“I shouldn’t have killed our engineer.” He shook his head.

A bit of time passed, and Pierce began feeling strange.
The team he sent to the generator hadn’t radioed back yet.

He and his men armed themselves and stood guard, their eyes keeping watch of their surroundings.

Gigigigigig! Kung!

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The warehouse’s front door, which could no longer be moved due to rust, fell forward.

Pierce pointed his gun at the now-bare entrance.

“Ugh…”

“Sam?”

“S-save yourselves…”

Sam, Pierce’s best friend, staggered and stretched out his hand under the moonlight.
However, when he tried to help him, a shadow huge enough to envelop the entire doorway appeared.

Wheeik! Scratch!

A huge sword cleaved Sam down, splitting his body in two.
No, it would be more accurate to say it burst rather than split.

Splash!

Fluids and flesh scattered all over the floor.

“What’s going on?”

“This is madness…”

“It can’t be…”

A huge monster dressed in black entered their base.
It carried a sword in one hand and a skull in the other.

Deformed zombies often appeared lately, but they had never seen another like the one in front of them.

“Ahhh!”

“What even is that?”

They felt primordial fear rising up from the deepest parts of their bodies the moment they sat it.
It even made them wet themselves.

“Fire at will!”

Ratatatata!

At Pierce’s command, his men aimed their guns at it and pulled the trigger.

Tingtiri.

As the last bullet cartridge hit the floor, he was swallowed by sheer astonishment.

“No, that’s ridiculous!”

The monster wasn’t damaged at all.
It didn’t even seem bothered by their guns.

Walking slowly, it brandished its gigantic weapon.

“Huh?”

Boom!

Several of his men got crushed and had their bodies torn into two.
Strangely enough, however, they didn’t die.
Realizing what had happened to them, they screamed.

“Argh! My legs!”

“Aaaaghhhh!”

With only their upper bodies intact, they struggled until they started to melt, turning into skeletons with eye sockets glowing red.

“N-no!”

“Stop! Please!”

Crawling, they attacked every living entity in their path.
Pierce tried gunning them down, but it didn’t work.

They were different from the zombies, who moved slowly.

“This… This is a nightmare.
It has to be.
This can’t be real.” Pierce muttered blankly.

His subordinates, who had just been laughing and chatting with him, were now being slaughtered, some of them either being eaten alive or hoisted on bone skewers.

Pierce dropped his weapon, a stream of yellow fluids flowing down his pants.

“It’s a bit stuffy in here.”

A voice found its way into his ears.

It wasn’t loud, but it sounded so clear it was as if it came directly from his mind.
Lifting his head, he turned his gaze to the side.

There stood a man in a suit.

He was human, but he didn’t seem one at all because of the black aura enveloping him.

Swoosh!

The giant monster slashed through the building at an angle, causing its upper part to collapse right next to its foundations.

Was it because he said he found their base stuffy?

“This is much better.”

The man looked at and walked over to him.

When he came to his senses, his men had already long disappeared.
All that remained in their places were strangely twisted skeletons.

Pierce tried to back away, but the fear he felt rendered him immobile.

“I have a question.
You wouldn’t mind answering it, would you?”

A skeleton crawled down the floor and grabbed Pierce’s limbs.

Pierce tried to answer, but his throat clogged up and his jaws trembled, making it difficult to speak.

The moment a smile appeared on the man’s face, Pierce’s eyes widened so much they looked like they were about to pop out.
He then screamed as hard as he could.

Click.
Click.
Click.

The skeletons around them seemed to savor his agony.

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