A Regressor's Bucket List

‘…The Demonic Cult?’

Jerry muttered inwardly at the sudden appearance of the word.

Unless he had just misheard, the Black Wind Captain had clearly referred to his own organization as the ‘Demonic Cult’.

The fallen organization, said to have once split the Murim Empire with the Orthodox Murim Alliance forces until 100 years ago.

The fact that the character for ‘New’ was attached was a bit different, but this was undoubtedly the very Demonic Cult U-jin had been searching for.

“Captain….”

“They don’t even know who they have to thank for their livelihood. I should just….”

Regardless of Jerry’s train of thought, the situation unfolded. As the Black Wind Captain raised his foot once more, the bald merchant cowered with a ‘Heek!’.

Fortunately, the beating of the bald merchant ended there.

The way he glanced around seemed to indicate he was conscious of the many eyes that had gathered on him.

After a moment of thought, the Black Wind Captain lowered his raised foot with a displeased expression and turned to command the group he led in a low voice.

“Take them.”

At his word.

- By your command!!!

The men in black robes approached the slave traders in a perfectly synchronized manner. The traders, as if they were already aware of his vile behavior, expertly handed over the cuffed beastkin one by one.

“…Honestly. You just can't reason with these underlings who don't know their place.”

Muttering as he brushed the dust from his feet, the Black Wind Captain then approached Jerry.

“Hey, pal.”

“…What is it.”

“From the looks of it, you seem like someone I can talk to. You heard the gist of it, right?”

“……”

“That black-haired canine beastkin you bought. I took a liking to that wench. But I hear you bought her in the meantime?”

“……”

The Black Wind Captain gestured with his hand, wearing what he considered a benevolent smile.

“Ah, of course, I’m not just telling you to hand her over. We’re not some back-alley gangsters; we’re taking these slaves for a fair price. For an outsider like you, I’ll even throw in a little extra.”

“……”

“Get a refund for the rest from this bald guy here. How much do you want? 1 Coin? No, 2 Coins should do it, right?”

Instead of answering, Jerry’s indifferent gaze slowly scanned the Black Wind Captain’s body.

“…I don’t want to cause any more trouble, so don’t get any funny ideas.”

At that inscrutable gaze, the Black Wind Captain thought Jerry was sizing him up, but that wasn’t the case.

Jerry wasn’t thinking about him, but about the organization he belonged to, the ‘Demonic Cult’.

‘…The new Demonic Cult, huh.’

From Jerry’s perspective, it was a name that was both intriguing and puzzling.

When he had previously looked into the ‘Demonic Cult’, he had confirmed for a fact that there were no significant remnant forces left.

At that time, aside from a single ‘blind old man from the Demonic Cult’ he had found in this land of Shandong, he hadn't found any other trace of them.

In fact, when Jerry had visited last year, exactly one year ago, an organization like this hadn't existed.

Therefore, from Jerry's point of view, he couldn't help but be bewildered by this new organization of unknown origin that had suddenly appeared, claiming the name of the Demonic Cult, and wonder if it could be the foundation for U-jin’s ‘Demonic Cult reconstruction’ plan.

Considering U-jin had given him a meaningful look at the mention of the Demonic Cult, it seemed certain that U-jin was at least interested in this group called the Shinma Cult.

Of course, if that were the case, he had the nagging suspicion that the term ‘founding’ might be more appropriate than ‘reconstruction’.

But that was something he could confirm for himself later.

‘…For now.’

Putting aside his branching thoughts for a moment, Jerry, who had been calculating something while stroking his eyebrow, took out a small piece of paper from his pocket and scribbled on it with a fountain pen.

And then.

“…Take it.”

“……?”

He held it out to the Black Wind Captain.

Watching the captain accept the paper in bewilderment, Jerry murmured softly.

“10 Coins. It’s a payment check issued in my name.”

“……”

“…My apologies, but I’ll be taking the beastkin you mentioned. If you need slaves, use that money to solve the problem. The amount should be more than enough.”

“……”

An answer did not come back immediately.

…An oddly meaningful expression.

Jerry, realizing he had a bite, took out another piece of paper and placed it on top of the first.

Another 10, making it 20 Coins.

If simply converted to the price of daily necessities in the Lower World, it was a considerable sum of 20 million won.

Of course, from a macroscopic perspective, and for someone of Jerry’s stature who ran the top casino in Murim, it was chump change.

But for a gangster executive who lived off protection money squeezed from merchants in a semi-lawless zone, it was an amount that could by no means be called small.

Moreover, the official price of the beastkin slave Jerry had purchased was only about ‘2 Coins’ just ten minutes ago.

While such an offer could be offensive when one had their heart set on a specific item, that was only true to a certain extent.

Jerry couldn't know the purpose of the purchase, but the probability that ten slaves were better than one particularly favored slave was high.

‘…This should be enough.’

…Of course, it wasn’t as if Jerry was just throwing this money away to escape the situation.

He was a firm believer in materialism, and for that very reason, he disliked unreasonable contracts and deals.

Nevertheless, the reason Jerry offered what seemed like an excessive amount of money was his calculation that this much was needed to get a ‘bite’.

…After all, from his vast experience traveling between the Demon King's Territory and the Order's Territory, Jerry was a master when it came to spreading the scent of money.

And Jerry’s calculation…

Snatch—

“…It seems we can communicate much better than I thought.”

“……”

“Since things turned out this way, shall we talk about something else?”

…was, once again, spot on.

***

‘…How on earth did I not recognize this right away.’

Only after hearing the words ‘Demonic Cult’ did I remember.

The spot emblem on those black robes.

The solitary spot emblem stamped in the center of a circle was undoubtedly the symbol of the ‘Demonic Cult’.

I had definitely seen it when entering the Demonic Cult’s origin point while carrying out the reconstruction plan before my regression.

“…Even if that was the only time I saw it. To think I wouldn't recognize the emblem of the Demonic Cult.”

It was a relief I recognized it now.

I had almost wasted time searching in the wrong place with a clue to the Demonic Cult right in front of my nose.

- 10 Coins. It’s a payment check issued in my name.

- …….

- …My apologies, but I’ll be taking the beastkin you mentioned. If you need slaves, use that money to solve the problem. The amount should be more than enough.

- …….

As if proving he was my partner for a reason, Jerry seemed to have understood the meaning in my eyes without any particular prompting and immediately got to work. After a brief exchange, I saw the man called the Black Wind Captain’s lips curl into a smirk.

Glance—

He then sent a look my way.

“Let’s go.”

I naturally tucked the medal I was wearing into my pocket and headed over with Loxy.

“…These two are my personal escorts, hired for my external affairs.”

“Escorts?”

“…I will have them accompany me to prepare for any unforeseen circumstances. If that’s not possible, then the conversation we were about to have is off.”

“Hmm….”

The Black Wind Captain, cupping his chin with his thumb and index finger, slowly scanned our appearances with a somewhat displeased expression.

And then.

“Well, whatever.”

“……”

“But for escorts, they look awfully scrawny. A rich guy like you should’ve spent your money better. You know how scary this neighborhood is.”

At this critique, which was no different from looking down on us, Loxy’s hand twitched, but unfortunately for him, it had no impact on me.

“Um….”

Instead, I raised my hand in an awkward gesture and asked the man called the Black Wind Captain.

“Is it possible to learn more about the new Demon Cult? I’m very interested in it….”

“…What! Puhaha!”

He burst out laughing at my cautious question and muttered teasingly to Jerry.

“Your escort here is already thinking of switching jobs. Keuk, didn’t you pay him too little?”

“……”

“Well, it’s only natural to be interested in our Demonic Cult. We’re the first to take over these back alleys in such a short time. But give it up. If you were that interested, you should have come sooner. We don’t just take anyone anymore.”

Ssh—

“…Well, if the conversation with this gentleman goes well, I might be able to bring one person in on my own authority.”

“……”

“Let’s get going for now.”

***

“So. We might be in this corner for now, but one day, our Demonic Cult will be revived and conquer this entire Murim.”

“Wow… That’s pretty amazing in a way. Conquering Murim.”

“Kwahaha! Right? This kid is completely hooked on my story. I can see why. I like you. If you have decent skills, I’ll use my authority to make a spot for you in the Black Wind Squad.”

Such was this man’s pride in his organization that a single question thrown on the way to the Shinma Cult’s base yielded most of the general information.

[Founded about 1 year ago.]

[Started in the southeast and currently holds the entire Shandong Peninsula as its territory.]

[Engages in both illegal and legal activities, including entertainment, gambling, contract work, background checks, and errands.]

[Final goal is the conquest of Murim.]

He was long-winded and added various personal remarks, but in summary, it was the story of a gangster organization that had absorbed all the small fry in the area and become the boss.

The speed of its growth was noticeably faster than usual, though.

‘…Nothing more, nothing less.’

So far, I couldn't see any real connection to the actual Demonic Cult.

Thud—

As the conversation paused for a moment, the footsteps of the Black Wind Captain walking ahead came to a halt.

Before him now stood a mountain stronghold surrounded by a dreary wooden palisade.

It seemed we had arrived.

At the headquarters of the Demonic Cult.

Tap, tap—

“Demonic Cult.”

A sentry on guard duty at the watchtower threw out the password to the Black Wind Captain.

“Revival.”

His identity was confirmed as he replied with familiarity.

“Black Wind Captain confirmed! The three behind you are….”

“A VIP I’m introducing to the Cult Leader, and his escorts. Open the gate.”

“Yes, sir!”

Creeak—

The massive wooden gate opened, revealing the interior of the Demonic Cult's mountain stronghold, which looked a bit shabby and poor for an organization that was said to command the Shandong Peninsula region.

‘Hmm….’

Even seeing this much, it was hard to get a grasp of the situation.

What was this place's relationship to the ‘Demonic Cult’? Why, of all the many names, did they choose to borrow the name of the Demonic Cult?

Forget that, I couldn't even guess the reason why the Constellation had put a 500 Coin bounty on taking down an organization like this.

If my memory was correct, the ‘Subjugation of the Demonic Cult Remnants’ was definitely a 1-star (★) difficulty quest. That meant the ‘Constellation, Sword Sage’ had judged that a high-level resource like a 1-star Hero was necessary to subjugate this organization.

From what I could see, there seemed to be no reason to mobilize an ordained, official Hero to take down a group like this.

To put it bluntly, even if you took the weakest of the new Hero candidates and gave them a little support, it didn't seem difficult to dismantle an organization of this level.

Of course, that didn't mean the Constellation's judgment was wrong.

The fact that I couldn't see the reason even after coming this far meant there was only one place left where the answer could be found.

‘……’

Thud—

The Black Wind Captain, who had guided us deep inside the stronghold, stopped in front of the largest-looking building within.

He turned back and said to us.

“Wait here for a moment.”

“……”

“I’m warning you just in case, but this month alone, three guys have left half-crippled for disturbing the Cult Leader, who is training in his Divine Arts, for some trivial reason. It would be best not to even think about peeking inside.”

Ssh—

With that warning, the Black Wind Captain entered through a small, separate door next to the main gate.

And as soon as he went inside.

“Is this the right place?”

Loxy, who had been silent until now, threw a question as if this was her chance.

Judging by her expression, she seemed to have had similar thoughts as me upon seeing the ‘Demonic Cult’s’ stronghold.

Even considering it was newly founded, it was too shabby for a group that had once swallowed half of Murim.

“I agree, partner. I think we’ve got the wrong address. Any of the casino families in Sichuan where I used to be would be bigger than this place.”

Shrug—

Of course, having seen the same things, I agreed with their opinions to some extent, but I couldn't agree completely.

At least, the Demonic Cult I knew was not something that could be discussed without its ‘leader’.

To confirm whether this place truly had its origins in the real Demonic Cult, I had to see the leader.

“Well, for now, I don’t see anything that stands out either.”

Step, step—

“Still, since we’ve come this far, it’s only right to see the head before we go.”

“…That expression on your face right now is very familiar and unsettling. Don’t tell me you’re planning to just open that door right now—.”

Ssh—

I approached the main gate, placed my hand on it, and pushed forcefully.

Creeeaaak—

With the characteristic creaking sound of a wooden door, the massive gate slowly swung open.

Inside, frozen as if he’d seen us, was the Black Wind Captain, stuck in a bizarre posture.

And…

“……”

…a woman with long black hair, sitting cross-legged with her back to us.

Only after seeing that scene.

Smirk—

“…Of course.”

I could finally understand why the ‘Constellation, Sword Sage’ had gone so far as to put up a bounty to request the subjugation of this organization.