Chapter 131: Ruler of Death (4)

Inside the carriage heading to the capital.

There was a wounded investigator, gasping for breath.

He was the only one left of the eight who had gone to the north of the empire.

His name was Van Krite, who had lost the fight and survived alone.

“Ugh, hah…”

In the moving carriage, Van looked at his shoulder, trying to catch his breath.

A viscous liquid was dripping from his shoulder, where red blood had flowed.

Cold blood ran through his veins instead of hot blood.

His hand, which had touched his cold shoulder, moved to check his pulse.

“Ha, ah…”

Nothing.

His finger, which had penetrated his skin, felt no heartbeat.

His heart had stopped since the day of the battle.

It didn’t move anymore, nor did it feel warm.

His hand lost its strength as he felt his still pulse.

‘Did I make it out alive?’

Van had faced a wall in the fight with the king of the dead.

It was the first wall he had ever encountered as a genius.

An insurmountable wall.

It was a wall that was too distant and thick.

‘I couldn’t win.’

But he tried to resist.

And he failed.

At the moment he failed and prepared for death, the king of the dead took his heart away.

He gave him one condition in exchange for his heart.

‘Don’t say anything…’

His heart stopped.

But Van was still alive and moving.

In front of the ruler of death, life and death were nothing but simple concepts.

He had to accept death in exchange for life, and restriction in exchange for freedom.

Van Krite.

He had lost.

He had fallen to the ground in a powerless defeat.

“Hah, huh…”

A bitter smile appeared on his lips as he gasped for air.

Thud.

A tear rolled down his cheek and fell on his hand.

The tear that fell on his hand was not black.

“…”

The investigator who had lost his faith looked out the window with wet eyes.

It was a pathetic life.

But he didn’t have the courage to end it easily.

He was still alive.

“Me too…”

A voice full of lumps came out.

He had wielded a sword for 15 years.

A long time had passed.

He had pursued justice.

He had pursued heroism.

He had pursued the sword.

And again, he had pursued justice.

“Is this… the end?”

The window that let in the sunlight closed with a hollow sigh.

Van Krite.

He had failed.

***

I got up with a gloomy feeling and looked out the window.

Today, the sunlight coming in from outside was unusually bright.

I stared at the scenery bathed in sunlight with dull eyes.

Chirp chirp-.

The sound of birds chirping reached my ears.

“How peaceful.”

The world reflected in the window was peaceful.

Children riding bicycles.

A father playing with his child.

Students exercising alone.

And even ladies chatting on a bench.

It was a peaceful scene like any other weekend.

“Peace is good, I like it.”

The weather was good and the world was peaceful.

Seeing the world soaked in peace, I felt like I should do some gacha.

Come to think of it, it had been quite a long time since I last did gacha.

The last time I did gacha was definitely when I did 210 draws while sleeping, as far as I remember.

“Heh. Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps.”

I got chills all over my body when I thought of the 210 draws.

I had clung to my account because I couldn’t give it up, but it was not a small expense by any means.

But thanks to the lottery, my nightmare also subsided somewhat.

Now it was time to overcome the wounds of the past and do some gacha again.

I launched the game without hesitation and leaned against the window.

“But today will be different… I got 10 magic books with only 10 draws. Is this good?”

I muttered nonsense while waiting for the game to load, and soon the game’s main screen appeared.

As always, a poor karma.

As always, a poor inventory.

And in one corner of that inventory, there was an item named [Contract of Regression].

The name of the item looked awkward today, so I clicked on it to check the details.

“Contract… Oh, this is what I got from using the cursed sword.”

It was something I received by using a bug item with a broken name.

The effect was much more unfriendly and unintuitive than other items.

Besides, it was the kind of item that required a cost to use.

There was no reason to activate it right away unless it was necessary.

“Well, I’ll use it when I need it.”

I passed on the contract of regression and went straight to the <Paid Currency Shop>.

Right now, the 10-draw gacha was more important than that useless item.

I felt a tingling sensation in my fingers as I hadn’t done gacha for a long time.

I tapped the screen with my thumb and the shop screen loaded quickly.

“…?”

And I faced the messages that popped up on the screen.

It was a message that I hadn’t seen in a long time.

But it wasn’t a very welcome message.

I read the message on the screen with a gloomy eye.

-<Paid Currency Shop (Lv.MAX + 4)> skill has been expanded.

-You have acquired <Paid Currency Shop (Lv.MAX + 5)>.

-You can now use paid currency to purchase items from the shop.

It turned out that the shop skill level had increased.

It was nothing big.

Thud.

I pressed the confirm button and closed the message.

And I turned my head and looked at the peaceful people outside the window.

“Speaking of which, inflation is serious these days.”

The murderous prices seemed to kill me by force.

But even so, today was a very hard situation to resist gacha.

I turned my eyes back to my smartphone with a fanatic look.

Gambling addiction was a serious social problem.

But who would save the continent in danger if I wasn’t there?

I could already hear the prayers of the believers who were calling for me.

“Ah, ah… No!”

I couldn’t see or hear anything even if I covered my eyes and ears.

The believers who desired me with deer-like eyes.

The leaders of the sect who were waiting for bread and cake from me.

I briefly thought of Cuebaerg, but I shook my head and tried to get rid of the distraction.

The rabbits were well-fed and well-grown these days.

I knew it well because I had used the rabbit horde of terror once.

“Ha… You guys want me so much.”

99,900 won for 10 draws.

I tried to ignore the clear number in front of me and reached for the draw button.

I could ignore the price tag of the items, but I couldn’t ignore the screams of the suffering believers.

To them, I was a saint, a merciful savior, and a Buddha.

I obediently brought my finger to the 10-draw button.

As I felt my finger being sucked into the draw button, the item output screen popped up in an instant.

-You have acquired [Soft Black Bread].

-You have acquired [Hard Iron Sword].

-You have acquired [Demon Doll].

I quickly scanned the items that appeared one by one.

Maybe it was because the draw price had increased by 10,000 won.

Now the junk items felt like they had evolved a level.

Among them, there were also items that I had never seen before, like [Demon Doll].

-[Demon Doll]

-[Strawberry Cake]

-[Demon Doll]

My eyebrows twitched at the sight of [Demon Doll] that kept coming out.

It didn’t feel very good for some reason.

I patiently watched the draw results continue.

I was confident that I would laugh if a magic book came out at the end.

-[Demon Doll]

-[Demon Doll]

-[Demon Doll]

“Stop.”

I’m not doing a doll draw right now.

The sight of [Demon Doll] kept coming out made me choke, but I tried to hold it back and calm myself down.

That’s how nine items passed and it was time for the last item.

I took a deep breath and watched the moment when the last item appeared.

The moment when a bright light burst out of the screen as the last item appeared.

-[Karma 2x Coupon (1 day)] x 5

I had to face the 10-draw result screen with a strange expression.

[Karma 2x Coupon (1 day)].

It was a new type of item that appeared on the screen.

It was an item that seemed to have an obvious purpose just by looking at its name.

Experience coupon.

It was a common type of item that often appeared in online games.

“They give this out in gacha?”

I wondered about the value of the item in my head as I faced the experience coupon.

An item that made your level go up faster was not a bad thing.

Rather, the more you had, the better.

Some games even sold these items as products, so it wasn’t that bad to use money to draw them.

Karma was also used as a kind of currency, so it was a good situation to see a currency 2x coupon and an experience 2x coupon bundled together.

The problem was the meaning of karma in this game.

“It seems like a headache to raise it recklessly.”

If I used the 2x coupon, I would get a similar efficiency to the apostles who were starving even if I hunted myself.

But if I raised my karma carelessly, I had a high chance of getting the backlash of causality adjustment.

It was a dilemma whether to use it or not.

I had to think carefully about how to use the coupon.

As I looked at the [Karma 2x Coupon (1 day)], another item caught my eye.

“What is this?”

[Demon Doll].

It was the item that came out the most in this gacha.

Thud.

I moved my finger to see the details, and a large image of the doll appeared.

It looked like a big rice cake that resembled Cuebaerg’s main body.

From the description, it was a similar item to other normal items that only had a name value.

It meant that it couldn’t do anything other than being a doll.

“Where am I supposed to use this?”

Hmm.

I looked at the [Demon Doll] with a serious eye.

How long had I been looking at the doll?

A brilliant idea came to my mind as I glared at the screen.

When I didn’t know what it was, it was best to give it to ‘that guy’.

“I have to go there.”

Swoosh.

I quickly made a decision and moved the screen to find ‘that guy’ and started moving.

He would take care of the doll he received himself.

If he threw it away, I would just have to punish him somehow.

***

The Keterunt branch of the sect in the west of the empire.

There, a solemn worship was held in the chapel as usual today.

Of course, Estasia, the symbol of the Keterunt branch, was not free from worship either.

Estasia, who had a crown on her halo, prayed with the believers in the chapel as usual.

The only difference from usual was that there was one more angel next to her.

“Strawberries… please give me a lot.”

The halo flickered and bright lights spread around.

Tears flowed from the eyes of the believers who worshiped with Estasia’s sincere prayer.

How could there be such a pure angel?

Even though they closed their eyes tightly, some believers confessed their faith out loud.

To them, Estasia was a proof of faith and a bridge that connected them with God.

“Aronia… please give me a little.”

“Estasia…?”

“Shh. I’m praying.”

Estasia did not yield to the interference of the fallen angel who tried to disturb her prayer from beside her.

Rather, she calmed Aronia down and led her to worship.

The believers’ cheeks were wet with hot liquid at the sight of Estasia, who was an angel in the scriptures itself.

It was evidence that they had hot faith.

As the sacred worship proceeded, Estasia, who had closed her eyes, felt something and lifted her head up.

“…?”

She felt a huge presence from the sky.

Her master was surely looking at this place.

But she also felt uneasy, so Estasia quietly created a barrier.

An invisible secret barrier spread over Estasia’s head.

And soon something fell from the sky.

“Huh…?”

Thud.

The white thing that collided with Estasia’s barrier bounced off to Aronia.

Aronia screamed and looked for the culprit who hit her with something.

She turned her head and saw a white doll in front of her eyes.

It was a soft white lump doll that looked like a rice cake.

“Eh, Estasia. What is this?”

Aronia lifted up the doll that fell in front of her eyes and asked Estasia.

Estasia also looked at the doll for a moment.

But soon she lowered her head and closed her eyes again.

She did not forget to scold Aronia softly.

“Shh. You have to focus on your prayer.”

“No, a doll fell from the sky… Ack! Ugh!”

Thud. Thud. Thud.

More dolls fell from the sky and collided with the barrier several times.

The dolls that hit the barrier all slapped Aronia’s cheek.

Aronia couldn’t regain her senses and screamed from the continuous bombing of the dolls.

Maybe it was because of the noise that continued.

The eyes of the people who were praying all turned to Aronia.

“Tsk tsk tsk tsk… How impious that angel is. How can she play pranks during worship time?”

“That’s right. She must be a fallen angel after all.”

“By the way, isn’t our angel amazing? She’s still focused on her prayer even though there’s a commotion!”

The believers poured out harsh words at Aronia.

But they also didn’t forget to praise Estasia.

They still had the lumps from the attack that happened in the past.

Aronia hugged the doll with a sad face at the sight of the believers.

A spitball popped out of Aronia’s mouth that was hidden by the doll.

“…It’s not my fault that a doll fell from the sky.”

Aronia muttered quietly behind the doll.

But none of the believers believed her story.

Thud.

Another doll fell from the sky and hit Aronia’s head and passed by.

She had to bury her face in the doll with tears in her eyes.