The World’s Greatest is Dead

The World’s Greatest is Dead – Chapter 7

Search.

The word search simply meant what its definition implied, but in the Murim Alliance, it wasn’t something done with precision.

Oh, to be precise, it wasn’t that the entire Murim Alliance was like this, but rather, it was just our team.

“Hey, fool. Did you find anything?”

“Not a thing, absurd squad leader.”

“Hah, search properly… what did you say?”

“It’s nothing.”

Following the command of our chief, we were divided into teams and sections.

The forest west of Anhui. We arrived there and were searching the surroundings.

Calling it a search sounded grand, but all we did was spend time pretending to look for footprints or traces.

The Murim Alliance, which claimed to be responsible for the safety of the Central Plains.

If people knew that their operations were like this, what would they say?

They’d probably curse, saying this wasn’t what their support money was for.

‘There are no footprints on the ground. No traces left. A top-tier martial artist wouldn’t leave any traces anyway.’

If that was the case, we needed a martial artist of a similar level to find any clues, but our team lacked such individuals.

To be detailed, perhaps Yun Sochun or…

“Senior, do you see anything?”

Maybe Yu Hyung-In.

“Hmm… Indeed, I see nothing.”

Yu Hyung-In said with his characteristic friendly smile.

As always, I was working alongside Yu Hyung-In.

‘If even the senior can’t see anything, there’s really no hope.’

Yu Hyung-In. My immediate superior and mentor was a much more exceptional martial artist than I had anticipated.

Even though we were both at the lower echelons of the Murim Alliance, he and I were qualitatively different.

While I joined through connections, Yu Hyung-In had entered purely based on his abilities.

Both of us were descendants of once-renowned families whose legacies had fallen.

But unlike me, he had genuine skills.

Perhaps, he might even be stronger than our current squad leader.

Of course, his mild demeanor and lack of backing meant he received similar treatment to me.

‘At least he doesn’t get beaten or directly insulted by seniors.’

Meanwhile, I was constantly rolling around.

I had no complaints. Yu Hyung-In was a talent who didn’t belong here.

I had never asked about his precise rank, but I guessed he was almost at the top tier.

‘I asked him once before.’

Why, with his skills, did he come to Anhui?

Why didn’t he go to Henan, where the main alliance was located? When I asked, Yu Hyung-In simply smiled and said:

‘My younger sister and widowed mother are here.’

That he couldn’t leave his family behind.

Such was the kind of person Yu Hyung-In was.

I turned my gaze elsewhere.

Among the many people, there was one notably ostentatious figure, with a handsome face and tall stature—an insufferable bastard.

Yun Sochun. He was over in that direction.

He seemed to be looking around for traces as well, and I could see others lingering around him.

They were all trying to latch onto Yun Sochun’s coattails.

Of course.

‘Our team is composed of relatively less competent individuals to begin with.’

It was odd that Yun Sochun joined our team.

Originally, it should have been expected that the major would keep him close.

‘…That guy suddenly being here means.’

It was clear Yun Sochun had some scheme.

And the reason for that might be…

‘Me.’

It seemed I was the likely cause.

‘Tsk…’

This felt like a really troublesome entanglement.

Indeed, I noticed Yun Sochun glancing in my direction even while working.

‘That bastard should just do his job instead of staring.’

Others were working hard to catch Yun Sochun’s eye.

Wait, then does that mean I’m the only one not working?

It seemed so.

No, that was correct.

Excluding me, our team consisted of seven members, all busily moving around.

‘Hmm.’

In such a case, I needed to at least pretend to search.

Deciding so, I subtly moved my body.

I rummaged through the bushes and rolled my eyes.

It was to pretend I was searching for something, but internally, I kept praying.

‘…Please let nothing be found.’

Please, let nothing appear.

If something needs to appear, let it appear somewhere else. While thinking that, I brushed aside the foliage ahead.

I cleared it, roughly, because it was in the way.

“…Oh.”

The sight in front of me rendered me motionless.

‘…Damn?’

Why did life always have to be so messy?

Could luck be this bad since my previous life?

“Junior Bang, what’s wrong?”

Yu Hyung-In approached, seeing me frozen.

Probably because he thought I had discovered something.

“Hmm?”

Yu Hyung-In tilted his head, looking at the same spot as me.

He saw nothing.

But,

‘Crap.’

What I saw was different.

‘That’s a soul remnant.’

It was a location that looked like an ordinary field.

But above it, something faintly glimmered.

As soon as I recognized it, I had to scowl.

Soul remnant.

A trace of a dead soul. Specifically…

‘A soul murdered by another.’

And it hadn’t turned into a ghost, it simply vanished.

‘That means someone died here.’

Turning my gaze, I looked around the area.

There were no traces visible to my eyes.

‘Soul remnants usually disappear within seven days and nights.’

However, the fact that the soul remnant before my eyes hadn’t disappeared meant that it hadn’t been long since the incident occurred.

Judging by the state of the soul remnant, it seemed it hadn’t been more than three days.

‘Even so, no traces?’

This implied that the body had been disposed of and traces had been erased.

If I summarized the situation in one word…

‘This is a fucking dangerous place.’

The person had been dead for only a few days, yet there were no traces.

Even though the place wasn’t far from the Anhui branch, there had been no reports, which meant…

‘I need to get out of here.’

There was something here.

I needed to escape, no matter what it was.

Even if it was found, it should be dealt with by the first combat unit.

Maybe it really was the Mountain Sky Demon as everyone said, and I needed to leave immediately.

Loyalty to the Murim Alliance?

To hell with it. My life was more important right now.

“Junior?”

I forcefully maintained my composure and spoke.

“No, we should look elsewhere, not here…”

“Wait a minute.”

“Sun-!”

Despite my words, Yu Hyung-In started to inspect the ground.

“…”

Then he furrowed his brows.

As if he had discovered something.

“Squad leader.”

At Yu Hyung-In’s low voice, everyone rushed over instantly.

“Why? What’s the matter?”

Responding to the squad leader, Yu Hyung-In picked up some dirt and sniffed it.

“… There’s a scent of blood mixed in.”

At those words, the mood of everyone became somber.

Particularly on my side, for a different reason than the others.

‘Damn it. What blood scent?’

It had already been several days, so where would a blood scent come from?

Did experts have noses like bloodhounds? It was absurd.

However, perhaps I was the only one thinking that, since the squad leader asked Yu Hyung-In with a tense face.

“Could it be the blood of wild animals?”

“If it were, there would be signs of animals around…”

Yu Hyung-In inspected here and there, his face devoid of its usual smile.

“There are no other traces at all.”

The squad leader nodded at Yu Hyung-In’s words.

“Indeed. When you look at it that way, it seems artificial.”

What seemed artificial?

It was just a forest. That was all there was to it.

I desperately wished that was the case, but…

“It seems suspicious, after all.”

“We’ll proceed with the search around this area. Song Yuk, you go to the main base and report this immediately!”

“Yes!”

“Cap, squad leader, that’s something a newbie like me should…”

“You’re so slow it takes you forever to get there! Just shut up and do your job!”

I tried to sneak away but failed.

I was screwed.

I couldn’t say anything as the conversation continued.

At this point, it was as if I had found something important.

“Well done, junior! You accomplished something big!”

“No… senior, that’s not it…”

“No, really, it’s amazing. Junior Bang, how did you know? It’s like sorcery.”

“… Actually, it feels like you should perform an exorcism or something.”

Gnashing my teeth, I barely restrained a sigh.

… Why did I have to be the one to discover this?

If only I had turned my head away immediately; now, seeing potential for a major discovery, the squad’s faces lit up.

Amidst this, Yun Sochun looked at me with a peculiar gaze.

As if saying, ‘As expected.’

Seeing his eyes, I hurried to speak, but…

“This was just an accidental…”

“Hey! Fool! Move fast!”

Damn it.

Without time to explain, I had to move my legs at the squad leader’s shout.

Fine, since it had come to this…

‘I’ll pretend to search and run away. I can sneak back out later.’

I didn’t know if it was actually traces of the Mountain Sky Demon, but it felt ominous.

Anyway, since we found something, it was beneficial position-wise.

Thinking this, I moved.

I started (pretending to) search immediately.

Rolling my eyes quickly, I roamed around aimlessly.

‘Not here, not here either.’

I moved only in areas where there were no visible soul remnants, thinking they would be safer.

But as I moved, something felt off.

‘Here too, and… there… there too?’

The more I walked, the weirder it felt.

‘Why are there so many?’

Everywhere I walked, I saw soul remnants.

There and here too.

When the number of soul remnants I saw surpassed ten…

“…”

I had to stop in my tracks, cold sweat running down my back.

The further I went, the clearer the soul remnants became.

Clear soul remnants indicated the person had died not too long ago.

When it seemed to be just a day ago, I finally realized.

‘… This.’

Something was seriously wrong.

Something majorly wrong.

With trembling eyes, I looked to the side.

The traces were vividly clear.

It seemed they had died either yesterday or early this morning.

What on earth had happened here to leave such traces behind?

Moreover…

‘The fact that such traces were found there…’

He raised his head and looked behind the traces.

There was a cave.

A cave so well-hidden that he wondered if it had always been in the western forest.

The moment he saw it, he knew.

“Ugh…”

It was bad luck, beyond belief.

It seemed he had discovered something.

* * *

A rather unusual cave.

My immediate action upon discovering it was, naturally, to inform the members.

“Have we ever seen anything like this in the western forest?”

“This is definitely the first time I’ve seen this cave.”

Even those who had been members for five or six years admitted it was their first time seeing the cave.

Though they did not usually patrol deeply, it was still strange that it had remained undiscovered.

No, it wasn’t just strange.

‘It’s bizarre.’

To think such a cave would be found now of all times.

While everyone else was busy looking for traces and evidence, enlightening their eyes.

‘Tsk…’

More than anything, I saw clear evidence before me.

Soul remnant.

It didn’t seem to be more than five hours old.

Someone had been killed there.

And right by the entrance of the cave, at that.

‘I have a gut feeling.’

A sense of misfortune.

I felt that unsettling, repulsive sensation throughout my body.

“Hmm… It would take at least one hour for support to arrive from the main headquarters.”

Fifteen minutes to get there, roughly twenty minutes to bring people back.

That was the squad leader’s estimate, and everyone thought along those lines.

“Captain, what should we do?”

What else could they do?

It looked dangerous at a glance.

‘The obvious choice would be to retreat first and come back with support.’

There were only eight people here.

Moreover, the one sent to call for support didn’t even know the exact location of this cave.

It was right to go back and prepare for now.

But—

“We’re going in.”

The squad leader’s order was absurdly enthusiastic.

“… What did you say?”

I couldn’t help but blurt out a retort.

“We’re going in there?”

At my words, the squad leader’s gaze turned towards me.

“Idiot. Are you seriously raising your voice at me?”

“Do I look like someone who can lower my voice in this situation? Have you gone mad, squad leader?”

“This son of a—”

The squad leader grimaced.

I was slightly nervous, seeing that I might get hit again, but I couldn’t let it go this time.

You could tell by looking at my eyes.

The squad leader’s eyes were filled with a different emotion.

“No matter how much you crave results, this isn’t the way.”

The initial discovery of a cave.

The traces around it.

Moreover, there was a promotion assessment coming soon.

Because of that, the squad leader’s eyes were eager for the forthcoming results.

“Are we a combat unit? We’re a reconnaissance team, right?”

“So what’s the problem if I say we’re going in to recon?”

“We’ve reconned enough and discovered up to here. The rest is the first team’s job. It’s not ours, right? What if the Mountain Sky Demon is in there, can we win?”

Setting aside the odds of winning or losing. With all we had found so far, not going further was the right decision.

What did the Squad leader learn during the Murim Alliance reconnaissance training? Did he forget everything?

Or was he pretending not to know?

I thought it was the latter.

Even if the Mountain Sky Demon wasn’t in there, with the state of the traces and the ominous feelings, I didn’t want to go in any further.

“I’m not going. I’ll just go back and report to the main headquarters.”

“What?”

My words caused the squad leader’s face to crumple even more.

“Idiotic fool. Are you defying a superior’s order?”

He called me a fool even with Yun Sochun nearby. He must have been incredibly angry.

“It’s not defiance. I’m just following branch guidelines and protocols.”

But since it was a matter of life and death, I didn’t back down.

“The one breaking the rules right now is you, squad leader. Are you defying the branch’s orders? If so, I’m just going to take this as insubordination. Damn, I’d rather take a punishment.”

Damn it, even if they cut my salary and punished me for a few months.

Was money more important than life? I didn’t think so.

Screw it all.

I would survive. Even if this led to some great achievement, I wouldn’t be envious at all.

I trusted my instincts.

Shouting defiantly, I was about to head straight to the branch.

“Haha, even those first squad captains did this. Now, even the nobodies are defying me?”

The squad leader’s voice oddly came from closer.

“Captain—! That is—!”

Yu Hyung-In urgently called out to the squad leader, but—

Suddenly—! The squad leader’s hand grabbed the back of my neck.

“Uh?”

“You don’t want to go in because you don’t know what’s in there? Then I’ll send you in personally.”

“Wait—!”

Using his second-rate martial arts, the squad leader exerted his strength, throwing me towards the cave.

Whooosh—!

By the time I noticed, my body was flying through the air.

Beyond the twisted gaze, the vile smile of the squad leader was visible.

Seeing that smile, I wanted to curse out loud.

“You son of a bi–!”

Thud-!

“Ugh!”

At that moment, my body hit the ground, rolling fiercely.

To my surprise, the cave was a downhill path.

A slope that wasn’t too steep or too gentle.

The rebound from being thrown caused my body to roll endlessly down the slope.

Rolll-! Thud-!

By the time my rolling body barely stopped.

“Cough.”

I coughed and struggled to stand up.

“Ptooey-!”

I spat out the dirt that had gotten into my mouth.

‘To just throw me like this…?’

That man was undeniably insane.

Throwing me into the unknown depths of the cave meant he didn’t care whether I lived or died.

‘Is that even a human being?’

I wanted to scream right then but held back.

I had already shouted once and couldn’t make more noise without knowing the situation.

Complete darkness.

All I could see before my eyes was pitch black darkness.

I controlled my breathing while being extremely tense.

Would my vision adapt even a little?

My body trembled at even the slightest sound.

‘It’s damp.’

The inside of the cave was quite damp.

I felt moisture, and the dirt on my body was also wet.

Could there be water flowing somewhere?

Additionally.

‘What is this fishy smell?’

A fishy smell filled the air.

A stench strong enough to sting my nose.

As I tensed up and wrinkled my nose at the stench.

Thud! Thud-!

Someone fell behind me.

They were the members who had been with me.

“Rookie! Are you okay…?”

“Ha, see? There’s nothing special just because you came in…”

“Gasp…”

The members who had followed into the cave stopped speaking midway, horror spreading across their faces.

Why were they reacting like that?

All of them stared rigidly at something in front of them, prompting the squad leader to gesture behind me.

A member took out a wooden stick and flint from his pocket and quickly lit a fire.

Snap-snap-! Whoom-!

As the fire lit up, the cave’s interior came into view.

At that moment.

“……!!”

My guts churned at the sight before me.

The interior of the cave was filled with human corpses.

Some were in the process of decomposition, while others were relatively intact.

Could it be…?

‘… Insane.’

The reason the dirt was damp was because of the blood flowing from the bodies.

The awful stench was entirely the smell of blood.

Nausea surged from within me.

My body was reacting involuntarily.

I covered my mouth with my hand and looked at the clothes the corpses were wearing.

All the corpses were wearing the same clothes.

Martial robes of blue fabric with grey embroidery.

The crest on the clothes was so well-known that it couldn’t be mistaken.

‘… Namgung?’

The Great Namgung Family.

One of the Five Great Families of the righteous faction responsible for Anhui.

These corpses belonged to those from the Namgung Family.

“This is impossible…!”

Someone exclaimed.

It was Yun Sochun.

His eyes expressed disbelief.

His reaction was quite different, but now wasn’t the time to question it.

‘Dangerous, this is really dangerous.’

Suppressing the urge to vomit, I steeled my shaky legs.

I had to move.

Before understanding the situation, the first priority was to get out of here.

“Captain… we need to get out of here first…”

“Ah, so you finally came in.”

“…!”

A strange voice echoed.

Whoosh.

The sound of the wind followed. I wondered what it meant.

Slash-!

Thud. Roll.

As something sliced near me, it hit my foot.

“Ugh!?”

I looked to confirm what it was with wide eyes.

It was a human head.

The head belonged to Dong Baek-Woo, a senior member.

His severed head lay at my feet.

Thud-!

Soon after, Dong Baek-Woo’s headless body also collapsed.

“This wasn’t in the plan.”

A voice came with the appearance of someone from beyond the darkness.

A man with a hulking figure as large as my body, carrying an ax on his shoulder.

He wore an eye patch over one eye and had a large scar across his face.

And,

An aura of overwhelming death enveloped the man.

Seeing him, I identified who he was.

“… Mountain Sky Demon.”

It had to be him, the one who created all these corpses.

Unluckily, it seemed we had finally encountered a member of the Evil Faction.