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chapter 169
“…Not only did we fail to take the Blue Ribbon, but the assassination of Jet in Korea failed as well? And now Black Maria has started interfering with us?”
Nayeli Vargas’s eyes twitched as she heard the report.
The butlers delivering the report immediately turned pale and bowed their heads deeply.
“Of all times, the chief of Astra happened to be present…!”
“Black Maria… she carried out the ambush under the orders of Luciano Dela Cruz! Ah, it seems she betrayed us through the waterways to improve her relationship with the 귀뢰 and expand her territory…!”
Grrr!
Nayeli’s eyes instantly blazed red. Her skin gradually turned a blood-soaked hue.
“These wretches…!!”
Her head was burning.
The reports piling up over the past few days had all been like daggers embedded straight in the heart of the City Cartel.
She knew Jet wasn’t allied with 귀뢰, yet he remained an unsavory figure. And hearing that her control over Guam had been completely lost due to 귀뢰’s influence—and that even Black Maria had turned against her—made her head feel like it was about to snap.
“B-Boss! Please calm down…!”
“Control your rage! You mustn’t be consumed by it!!”
Goooo—
A crimson aura began swirling around Nayeli, leaving the butlers’ faces drained of color.
[The Legend reveals its cruel teeth!]
Her “Legend,” the Red Queen, was beginning to manifest.
[Red Queen]
The queen of the chessboard who bound Alice in the mirror world. A tyrant who constantly shouts “Off with their head!” and a cruel, meticulous strategist of power who can design the chessboard stage of authority.
Since she rules a mirror world reflecting the opposite of reality, she can carry out irrational acts like imprisoning gods or demons. She is often likened to the Heart Queen in Alice in Wonderland.
-
Origin: Through the Looking-Glass
Nayeli’s legend was no simple fairy tale.
In many ways, it was a cruel fairy tale that “devoured” other myths.
Those caught in the blood-soaked current of the Red Queen would die, leaving neither body nor soul behind. The Red Queen used both body and soul as materials to design her “world.”
Recently, Nayeli had already spent enormous mental and magical energy repairing the rapidly deteriorating rabbit hole. Even for a top-ranked individual, the rabbit hole’s scale was vast enough to make exertion nearly impossible, and she was already mentally on edge.
‘And now this report comes back at a time like this!’
‘What should I do? If the Boss continues being devoured by the Red Queen, then…’
‘Should we… escape?’
The butlers, who always craved Nayeli’s favor, were terrified of her being consumed so pointlessly.
Gulp!
Just as someone swallowed nervously,
Tap!
A staff appeared suddenly among the butlers.
“I will persuade the Boss, so you all step back for now.”
“M-Master Butler!”
Hope immediately lit up their faces. He was the only person Nayeli truly listened to.
Bruno Calisa.
Nayeli’s left-hand man and her closest confidant, serving her even before she founded the City Cartel.
Although the cartel had other skilled second- and third-in-command members, none could match his influence.
Whenever Nayeli needed persuasion, he had to be present.
“P-Please!!”
The butlers quickly bowed and hurried out of the room.
“Heh… It seems our Boss, no, Miss, is greatly upset over this. What to do, what to do?”
Bruno slowly approached Nayeli, stroking his chin.
The red aura slashed at him like a razor blade, yet he ignored it, moving closer.
Then—
Bonk!
Bruno firmly flicked Nayeli on the head.
“Argh!”
She shrieked, clutching her head. Her blood-red eyes instantly returned to black pupils.
It hurt enough to bring tears to her eyes, but Bruno’s warm smile remained unchanged.
“Bruno! What are you doing? That hurts!”
“Heh! What’s hurt about it? This old man almost set foot in the grave after losing so much blood, you know.”
“Still…!”
“Shall I give you one more?”
“Enough!? Do you think I’m still a ten-year-old child?”
Bruno laughed.
“Even at your age, your stubbornness seems unchanged from your teenage years.”
Those who knew the Drug Queen Nayeli would be shocked. Even in front of her familia, she always ruled like a queen, yet Bruno would scold her like a granddaughter—and she would whine like it was natural.
“Are you hurt? Not badly, right?”
Nayeli checked Bruno’s body, her face filled with guilt.
He shrugged lightly.
“Heh, it’s nothing. Compared to the hardships of my youth, this is trivial.”
“…I’m sorry. I let my reason get devoured again.”
“Unavoidable, isn’t it? You haven’t devoured the Myth of Kamazots for long, so your thirst is natural.”
Kamazots: The bat god of Mayan mythology, thirsting for blood and taking humans as sacrifices.
Nayeli’s legend grew by devouring various myths and legends—her secret to rising quickly to top rank. Conversely, when rage consumes reason, her legend replaces her personality.
“It seems Camilla’s death and the loss of Guam are still haunting you.”
For a brief moment, there was a warm, grandparent-grandchild vibe. But when Bruno spoke with a serious gaze, Nayeli furrowed her brows.
“Guam was one of the key hubs in the rabbit hole. Losing it damages many rabbit holes. And, above all—”
Her face darkened with icy anger.
“They’re shamelessly tarnishing our familia’s reputation! If I could, I’d go there myself and—”
“You must not. The Boss’s steps must always be measured. And you still have the rabbit hole to repair, right?”
Tap!
Bruno struck the floor with his staff, cutting off her words.
“I understand your thoughts well now, Miss. Let this old man go in your stead.”
“What? No! Bruno—”
“No. That’s why I must go. Excluding you, I am the one who knows the most about Guam and the rabbit hole.”
“…”
“So I will go and restore order.”
Nayeli wanted to refuse, saying it was too dangerous, but she knew no one else could handle it.
“And above all,”
Bruno smiled.
“If your closest aide is absent in such a dangerous situation, what would the others think?”
Nayeli sighed deeply.
“Fine. But be careful. Your body… isn’t what it used to be.”
“Heh. Even like this, I can handle three or four young men easily.”
Bruno flexed his wiry arm; Nayeli couldn’t help but let out a wry smile.
He bowed slightly.
“I’ll go, and I will make sure that insolent child learns a lesson on behalf of you, Miss—no, Boss.”
A strange madness flickered in Bruno’s eyes.
“They will know exactly who they crossed.”
His name: Bruno Calisa. A man originally known by the fearsome title of Drug King.
Challenger Deep
A massive crescent-shaped pit at the deepest point of the Mariana Trench.
Passing through over 10,000 meters in a single stretch,
“…Truly a hell beneath the sea. Now I understand why even the U.S. failed so spectacularly despite their efforts.”
Hyun Lee could feel firsthand how extreme the environment here was.
“Why are there only ugly ones?”
Sun Wukong shook his head from atop Hyun Lee’s shoulder.
Outside the path of light created by the Classma’s barrier, countless enormous sea creatures swarmed.
From a few meters to dozens of meters in size, they fought, bit, and devoured each other. It was hell.
“I hear the deeper the abyss, the stranger the creatures become due to extreme water pressure. And bigger too.”
“Ugly things become uglier?”
“And more ferocious. The dungeon breaks originating here are still ongoing.”
The rifts in Challenger Deep were caused by dozens of connected dungeons running rampant.
Only the strongest monsters survived the competition of deep-sea pressure and dungeon battles.
Sun Wukong scoffed.
“Seems like these are all copies of Bokhae Yangban’s disciples.”
“Copies?”
“Like replicas.”
Hyun Lee frowned in confusion, so Bungma King hopped onto his right shoulder to explain.
“Bokhae Daeseong… the twin brothers of Kyoma King can release countless of their sub-species at will.”
“…!”
“Like fish laying thousands of eggs, but in this case, it’s monsters. Wherever the twins are, the area is full of monsters. They devastate the place.”
“Is that different from Daeseong’s clone technique?”
Sun Wukong frowned.
“No comparison. Daeseong simply duplicates himself; the twins just spawn hybrids indiscriminately.”
“The twins are hardly a single entity. Many yokai merge to form a collective consciousness.”
Hyun Lee finally grasped the nature of the Kyoma King, second among the Seven Great Stars.
“A sort of collective, then. Normally maintaining a collective consciousness, while lower entities mate to mass-produce offspring…”
“Close enough.”
If Sun Wukong and Bungma King were correct, the Kyoma King exceeded even the category of a mere monster.
‘As expected of the Seven Great Stars… an existence beyond imagination.’
A cluster of thousands of deep-sea monsters, following the likes of Gandharva that swallowed the sun and yokai that devoured saints and Buddhas.
‘How did Chairman Peng and his group even seal the Kyoma King here? Only divine intervention could achieve this…’
Perhaps the Kyoma King’s sealing in the deep-sea dungeon held some hidden secret.
“So all these sea monsters here are technically part of the Kyoma King.”
“Exactly.”
Hyun Lee chuckled in disbelief.
The vast ecosystem of Guam had been maintained by extracting a portion of the Kyoma King.
Suddenly,
Whoosh!
They were pulled into a rift spreading across Challenger Deep.
In pitch-black darkness, they glimpsed what seemed like an enormous dragon.
And…
[Dungeon Entered!]
[Dungeon ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’]
[You are now in a mystical tale where giants live above the clouds and humans live on blackened earth.]
[Humans believe that celestial giants hide enormous treasures in castles above. To steal them, humans have devised beanstalks to secretly infiltrate the heavens.]
[Climb the giants’ castle and steal the treasure safely.]
[Success: Treasure of the Giants.]
[Failure: Food for the Giants.]
But the scene that unfolded was far from the storybook description.
A colossal beanstalk pierced the sky from the blackened land below.
Unlike the tale, thousands of monsters—not a boy named Jack—climbed it. Thousands of giant birds swarmed the skies.
The deep-sea monsters Hyun Lee had seen, and far fiercer beings, filled the area.
“Kid! Look below!!”
Hyun Lee hurriedly looked down. The ground he thought was solid black wasteland writhed like living beings.
‘This isn’t land. It’s…!’
It was an incomprehensible mass of writhing sea monsters.
Finally, Hyun Lee realized the environment he was falling into.
‘It’s the sea!!’
An endless ocean, teeming with hundreds of millions of creatures filling the distant horizon.
