INV 67

As soon as their eyes met, the immortal glared at Kwon Yihyeon as if he intended to kill him, and Gwak Deukcheon moved naturally to protect Kwon Yihyeon from the old man with the long white beard.

In the meantime, Lim Muyoung was clenching his fists so tightly that his knuckles protruded stark white.

“D-Don’t listen. You don’t have to listen to him.”

It was obvious he was incredibly tense, but Lim Muyoung spoke into Kwon Yihyeon’s ear as calmly as possible.

However, Kwon Yihyeon had no intention of covering his ears or looking away.

If he were going to do that, he wouldn’t have come to the underworld in the first place.

“If the celestial realm had caught the monsters’ movements promptly in the first place, things wouldn’t have escalated like this.”

“This would never have happened if Jae Angshin hadn’t woken up!”

“Are you going to ask the thunder why it struck? Are you going to demand an explanation from the earthquake for why it came?”

“What?”

“It is a natural disaster. Jae Angshin is a natural disaster. It’s not something humans can do anything about. Once it wakes up, you simply have to think about the response afterward. It is meaningless to blame each other, argue, and hurl insults over why it woke up. Is that not so?”

Meanwhile, the immortal paused for a moment at those words. It wasn’t a logically incorrect statement. In fact, a stir of agreement with the agonizingly realistic opinion rose from behind the immortal.

Only then did the immortal grit his teeth.

“Scram!”

The celestial realm must not be swayed by the sophistry of an underworld Reaper. He fully intended to see this mere human—one who hadn’t even achieved a celestial rank through cultivation and discipline—get his comeuppance for acting out today.

“Your insolence has reached the heavens, so know that today is the day manners shall be beaten into your head!”

“Goodness. No one who has ever tried to teach me manners has ever succeeded.”

‘W-Way to be proud of that…’

Kwon Yihyeon eavesdropped on their conversation and mentally criticized Gwak Deukcheon, but suddenly felt the wind whip up and instinctively closed his eyes. It seemed a battle was about to begin. However, the waves of energy that had been fluctuating violently just a moment ago no longer touched his skin.

Kwon Yihyeon blinked his eyes open in confusion and found himself mesmerized by the feast of sorcery Lim Muyoung was unfolding before him.

It seemed Lim Muyoung had unfurled a ceremonial robe at some point. The calligraphy written on the robe sprang out into the firmament, fluttering like crow feathers before blocking Kwon Yihyeon’s top, bottom, left, and right in the shape of a three-dimensional rectangular figure. It was as if he had built a fortress wall to protect Kwon Yihyeon. Kwon Yihyeon was briefly flustered, thinking his vision would be blocked this way, but once the fortress wall was perfectly sealed, the pitch-black ink-like surroundings began to turn transparent.

Kwon Yihyeon frantically scanned his brightening field of vision before looking at Lim Muyoung again.

A new scroll was spread in his hands, and the calligraphy bleeding out this time was overlaying a pure white veil onto Lim Muyoung’s forearms. It looked like the shields ancient generals used to wear on their arms. As if that wasn’t the end, Lim Muyoung formed a hand seal, and a burst of light summoned a pure white spear. It was a complete battle stance, but rather than fear, Kwon Yihyeon felt a sense of beauty.

Golden clusters of light were flowing down from the scroll he had unfurled. It was light itself, neither solid nor liquid, flowing viscously and slowly. Yet it flowed as if it had a definite form. Though it scattered as if evaporating when touched by a hand…

It was devastatingly fantastic. If he didn’t know that people were dying right now, he might have been enchanted just like this.

How was the fight between Gwak Deukcheon and the immortal? That side was of such a high level that it wasn’t even properly visible to Kwon Yihyeon. Kwon Yihyeon glanced at Gwak Deukcheon and the nameless immortal, who had begun to clash in earnest, and thought he might go blind from the feast of excessive brilliance. For the record, the celestial personnel were aghast at the fact that a human was holding his own against an immortal, but Kwon Yihyeon lacked the knowledge to be surprised by that.

Looking back up at Lim Muyoung, Kwon Yihyeon asked calmly.

“People must be getting hurt down there; is it alright for us to be fighting amongst ourselves? More importantly, why did this fight start?”

Lim Muyoung hesitated on how to answer those rational words before only answering the first question.

“If you look at the screen, you see the green dots in front of the red dots. The ones moving to one side… right. The underworld is leading the evacuation. There’s no way a great monster or a major evil would avoid human population centers… so the goal is to at least avoid a massacre. The damage from the minor evils brought by the great monsters can’t be helped, but we plan to clean that up afterward. More importantly, regarding ‘memories’… first, as soon as this situation is resolved, all memories related to the occult will be erased from the humans’ minds. Of course, for people with sensitive energy perception or high mental defense, faint memories might remain, but it’s still better than not erasing them…”

“Yes. If it were suddenly revealed that such a world exists, everyone might go crazy. I understand.”

Lim Muyoung looked down at Kwon Yihyeon with a bit of surprise. It was because, in Lim Muyoung’s eyes, Kwon Yihyeon accepted the hidden world as if it were nothing.

“Because I almost went crazy at first, too.”

But Kwon Yihyeon said he wasn’t. He said he almost went crazy. In front of him, as he bared his inner thoughts and grinned as if it were nothing, Lim Muyoung was flustered by a sincerity he hadn’t expected at all. However, Kwon Yihyeon continued his questions.

“The reason I am here is because it was judged that I am needed, is it not?”

“…”

“Then why are you demanding nothing of me?”

Just then, an insolent voice dropped in.

“They can’t touch you. Because Sunbae-nim is biting at them like a mad dog.”

Turning around, he saw Geom Biyeon, who had disappeared at some point, walking in slowly with a limp, drenched in blood.

“Your state is…”

“Unlike my first impression of you, it seems you’re someone I can talk to.”

Geom Biyeon, who looked like he’d been injured somewhere unknown, ignored Kwon Yihyeon’s words and said only what he wanted to say, then limped into the middle of the fight and slowly thrust his hand into the trajectory of the swords.

Slice! Thump!

He understood the intention was to stop the fight, but it was beyond reckless—it looked as though he intended to get hurt. However, the only thing cut was Geom Biyeon’s collar, and before he knew it, the immortal had been grabbed by the collar by Gwak Deukcheon and then slammed down.

Gwak Deukcheon, who had forcibly twisted his sword path to avoid hacking Geom Biyeon to death, glared at Geom Biyeon with a gaze that could pierce steel.

Kwon Yihyeon didn’t understand any of this situation, but there was still something he was curious about.

“A divine message has come down from the Mountain Spirit Generals and the God of Smallpox.”

“…”

What kind of expression was Geom Biyeon making right now?

“Apart from that, I also make an earnest request. Please stop this madness and…”

“…”

At this very moment, when he seemed about to say something important…

What kind of expression could he possibly be wearing?

“Hand over Jae Angshin’s groom.”

At that moment, Kwon Yihyeon’s voice cracked.

“Pardon? Me?”

“…”

“…”

It was a natural reaction for Kwon Yihyeon, who hadn’t realized all of this was about him.

But no one gave him any understanding.

There was no time to clear his throat. Everyone on the clouds was staring at him as if to ask who he was, and what gave him the right to interfere. To survive in a world filled only with chaos, he had to buy time first.

‘What words would be good? What should I say to effectively deal with all the attention focused on me?’

Kwon Yihyeon pulled out three hundred and seventy-three “masterpieces” from his customer service repertoire, learned through social life in part-time and contract jobs, only to put them back. It was because nothing fit the situation, but the problem was that if he didn’t answer soon, the atmosphere suggested he would be treated as a mere fool. For Kwon Yihyeon, who had been acting like a guy who was ‘something special’ in his own way, a choice as extreme as a Yaksha was lunging at him.

‘Is a fool better? Or a crazy person?’

It was the moment that would determine his future image. Kwon Yihyeon agonized intensely as if one second were a hundred.

And in the end, he made up his mind.

To be a crazy person.

“I’m sorry, but married men are sold-out items, so they are unavailable for purchase…”

“…”

“…”

Ah. He had finally committed to the nonsense.

Now, every single person on the clouds, without exception, was staring at Kwon Yihyeon in utter shock.