Somewhere in the Central Plains.
An underground cavern that reeked of darkness and sinister atmosphere.
In the middle of the cavern stood a large platform with a red curtain hanging over it. Someone was clearly inside, but it was arranged so no one could see them.
Though it was unknown who they were, one could tell without confirming their face that the person behind the curtain was the master of this place.
Around the platform, a hundred people dressed in black were prostrating themselves, all with their heads bowed so their faces couldn't be confirmed.
Nevertheless, it was crystal clear that they were masters. The intangible energy emanating from the black-clothed figures covered the entire underground cavern as if to suffocate it.
Just where was this place?
Who was the figure behind the curtain?
Who on earth were they to command a hundred such remarkable masters?
Did Shaolin, said to be the peak of the Martial World, have this many supreme masters? Or could Heavenly Demon Castle, the strongest single organization in the Martial World, have them?
No, even if both were combined, it seemed impossible. To that extent, the aura of those gathered here was extraordinary, and their number was tremendous.
About one tea's time after they had prostrated themselves.
"How much time remains until the Righteous-Demonic Confrontation?"
Finally, a voice flowed from behind the curtain. It was a bizarre voice, impossible to tell whether it was a woman or man, young or old.
"Two years remain."
One of the prostrated figures answered his voice.
"Two years. It's about time to begin the Grand Plan. Gwang-un."
The voice behind the curtain called the one who answered Gwang-un.
"Yes. Please speak. Mubon."
Gwang-un addressed the one behind the curtain as Mubon.
"Begin the First Stratagem. Right now."
First Stratagem. Since the Grand Plan had been mentioned earlier, this First Stratagem must mean the first step of that Grand Plan.
"Yes, Mubon. I will implement it right away."
With his answer, Gwang-un disappeared from that spot as if extinguished. It was a truly thrilling body technique.
And.
There were ninety-nine more figures in the same attire as Gwang-un at this place. They still hadn't raised their heads.
Lastly,
There was the supreme one behind the curtain who commanded them, Mubon.
Mubon.
The Root of Martial Arts.
What an audacious name this was.
Since the Martial World began its history, there had been those who used grand titles like Martial Emperor, Heavenly Demon, or Supreme of the Martial World, but no one had ever called themselves the Root.
Just how remarkable was this person? It would be nice if it were merely the groundless delusion of a madman, but seeing the ninety-nine peerless masters with their heads bowed here, they surely possessed skills befitting that audacious name.
Right now, a secret organization unknown to anyone in the Martial World had begun moving in utmost secrecy.
What was their purpose?
It couldn't be known yet.
However, there was something even they didn't know.
That was...
The existence of Dong Bong-su, the greatest 'bug' in this Martial World, no, New Murim Online.
A cauldron stands with three legs, stands with four legs, and even stands with one leg.
But when a cauldron stands best is...
When it has no legs—that's when it stands best.
A cauldron with no legs never falls over.
What Dong Bong-su needed was a cauldron that wouldn't fall, not legs or such things.
If they didn't fit in length and creaked, just cut them off.
That was Dong Bong-su's Tripod.
***
Thud, swoosh, thud, swoosh.
Someone was shoveling in a deep mountain valley of Bongyang Mountain.
Someone? Just who was there wielding a shovel so skillfully? A carpenter, a potter, or perhaps a gravedigger?
None of those.
He was precisely Dong Bong-su out for a walk. Beside him, as always, Yeoro was nickering softly with an indifferent gaze, cheering him on.
Thud, swoosh, thud, swoosh.
The shoveling sounds echoing regularly through the mountains were as mechanical and merciless as Dong Bong-su himself.
Even while digging the grave of someone whose name he didn't know, his mind was spinning rapidly. How much thrust proficiency increased with each shovel strike into the ground. Also, how much throw proficiency increased when throwing the dug earth to the side.
His brain never rested for a moment.
Thud.
The shovel plunges deep into the ground. Thrust proficiency increased by 0.031%.
Swoosh.
Earth leaves the shovel and flies to the artificial mountain piled high beside it, making the mountain that much taller. Throw proficiency increased by 0.031%.
Thud, swoosh, thud, swoosh...
Dong Bong-su's motions continued in that exact posture for a long time.
Then at some point, the seemingly endless shoveling finally stopped.
Dong Bong-su's gaze turned downward to the deeply dug pit. The culprit that made him stop shoveling was disgustingly revealing its body outside the earth.
White and hard, with no flesh no matter how hard you looked—that body. It was a bone fragment.
It was a kind of 'milestone' indicating the depth was now suitable for burying corpses. Beside that milestone, in the invisible soil, dozens of corpses must be rotting in that same way, white and disgusting.
This was a cemetery Dong Bong-su had created. Though there were no tombstones or burial mounds, it was the burial ground for the experience points that had made him the Nameless Vigilante, especially those who had died more miserably than others.
Corpses burned to death, corpses torn in half with all their entrails spilled out, corpses with limbs torn off and killed, and so on.
The reason he had come here to bury them was simple. Though it was a mask obtained by chance, it was a plausible mask he could take out and wear again anytime. To protect that mask, the name Nameless Vigilante. Wouldn't it be wrong for someone called a vigilante to kill enemies too cruelly? So Dong Bong-su began burying the corpses of Black Agents who had died messily here. Of course, the first ones buried here had been Jang Ho and the thugs.
Thud thud thud.
About ten more corpses were added to the cemetery. These were grateful fellows who had helped Dong Bong-su level up from 6 to 7. On the face of the last one thrown in, which had only half its bulk remaining, a bizarre expression still lingered.
Perhaps even quite some time after death, he was still considerably aggrieved.
That face seemed to be saying this:
[It's unfair. Fuck! It's unfair!]
Dong Bong-su didn't know what was unfair. To him, such an outcry was nothing more than empty nonsense.
In Dong Bong-su's thinking, this world was very fair. The world he had lived in before was like that, and this Martial World he was living in now was fair.
That person feeling it was unfair even after death must be mistaken.
This world being fair was.
Because it was unfair to everyone.
To you, to me, to everyone.
Death was the same.
Death came fairly to everyone. Fairly to all.
That person feeling it was unfair must be because they felt death had come to them a bit earlier. But ultimately, death came fairly to all people.
The world was therefore always fair.
That was the reason he could view the world fairly, and the fundamental reason he could ravage the world freely without guilt.
Thud, swoosh, thud, swoosh.
Earth piled up on the faces of the dead. The regular shoveling sounds faintly echoed through the mountains once more.
One by one, traces of the Nameless Vigilante's 'last chivalrous act' were being erased.
Thud, swoosh, thud, swoosh...
Now with this finished, the Nameless Vigilante would hide his traces from the world for a while.
***
Dong Bong-su finished his walk and descended Bongyang Mountain.
When he and Yeoro entered the marketplace, no one paid them any attention. He was like an invisible person on this street. Even if he suddenly disappeared from this spot, no one would care about him.
"The Nameless Vigilante finally completely swept away even the Black Snake Society yesterday, right?"
These days, the marketplace people's interest was all focused on the Nameless Vigilante. Whenever two or more gathered, everyone praised the bloody deeds the Nameless Vigilante had committed.
The three gathered on the roadside that Dong Bong-su was now passing were the same.
"Don't even mention it. The merchants and courtesans who had been extorted by the Black Snake Society are in an uproar with joy."
"But they couldn't find the society leader Bang Po-yeom, right? Did he run away?"
Of course, Bang Po-yeom was now rotting with a stench on Bongyang Mountain.
"Who knows. Either he fled and completely left Anhui Province, or he was so thoroughly destroyed his corpse can't even be found—one of the two."
Then the man who had been listening to their conversation with a somewhat unpleasant expression joined in.
"But you know. I find it a bit much. Should someone calling themselves a vigilante kill people so recklessly like that? No matter how much they're Black Agents, people are still people."
"Hey. Look at this person. Think about what those bastards have done to us until now. Aren't they bastards who wouldn't be enough even if eaten alive? Bastards like that deserve to die. I wouldn't care even if the Nameless Vigilante actually ate them as food."
"Right, right."
The two who had been talking from the beginning even glared at the expressionless man as they came to the Nameless Vigilante's defense.
"Honestly, when has the government ever properly cared about nobodies like us? If not that, those calling themselves Orthodox Faction or whatever just went around with their shoulders all puffed up—when were they ever truly righteous? To them, whether nobodies like us suffered or not was outside their concern, wasn't it?"
Under their attack, the expressionless man finally surrendered and affirmed their opinion.
"Well, that is true. Who would stand up for bottom-of-the-barrel lives like us?"
"His methods are a bit excessive, but hasn't it been said since ancient times: Evil Must Be Slain."
"Indeed, indeed."
Thus ultimately, even here the flow went toward praising the Nameless Vigilante's chivalrous acts.
Was this what they called 'the interpretation being better than the dream'?
The dream was murder. The interpretation was chivalrous acts.
A world where murder too easily transformed into chivalrous acts. Just that alone made this Central Plains truly a beautiful world, didn't it?
Dong Bong-su continued walking, paying no heed to their conversation.
As he moved away from those three, this time another two people's conversation reached his ears.
"Hey, did you hear that story?"
"What?"
"The Namgung Family's second daughter is getting married this time."
"Ah, I heard. That's why all of Anhui Province has been in an uproar lately, isn't it?"
"Right. You can be sure the sects in Bongyang here are also racking their brains about sending congratulatory gifts, right?"
"Nah, that's not it. When a place like the Namgung Family holds a wedding, they can't accept gifts from ordinary folks. Probably the only one racking his brains is the Danri Family Head."
"Hmm. Hearing you say it, that makes sense. Then what do you think the Danri Family Head will bring as a congratulatory gift?"