The World’s Greatest is Dead - Chapter 2

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Heavenly Supreme Has Died – Episode 002
‘If you want to succeed, go to the Martial Alliance.’
It was a saying that drifted throughout the Central Plains.
It wasn’t entirely wrong either.
The Martial Alliance.
An organization that had existed in the Central Plains for countless ages.
The Five Great Families called the Five Great Clans of the Central Plains and ten martial sects called the Nine Major Sects.
An organization woven together with twelve trading houses called the Twelve Trading Houses.
The Martial Alliance was the totality of the Righteous Path and could be seen as its central pillar.
Thus, it was already a place of considerable value.
Forty years ago, the Righteous-Demonic War ended in victory for the Righteous Path, solidifying its position even further.
If you wanted to establish a trading house in the Central Plains, you had to go through the Martial Alliance.
If you wanted to operate as a martial artist under the Righteous Path, you also had to receive a license through the Martial Alliance.
Otherwise, you’d be branded as the Heretical Sect and forced to live a hunted life.
Absolute authority and absolute martial power.
That was the strength the Martial Alliance possessed now, and if you wanted to succeed in the Central Plains, you had to enter the Martial Alliance by any means necessary.
That was what those words meant—they weren’t wrong.
Yes.
That’s probably why I’m in this mess right now.
“This is absolutely ridiculous.”
With my head wrapped in bandages, I spat out curses.
Even the slightest movement made the wound throb painfully.
“The Lust Demon? The Lust Demon?? Damn it all.”
Yet, forgetting even that pain, I couldn’t stop my internal complaints.
“Stop moving around. You’ll pass out again?”
Seeing me like this, my senior Yoo Hyeong-in spoke with a sigh.
“You said there’s no money for medicine. What are you planning to do?”
“The branch office covers medicine expenses, doesn’t it?”
“If you get hurt again here, they won’t pay, saying it’s your problem.”
“This is seriously infuriating.”
That statement being true only made me more irritated.
Yet I couldn’t stop myself.
Jang Sochul, the Lust Demon. It had been a day since the capture operation I alone hadn’t known about was executed.
“I mean, this is absurd. You said it was an operation. So why didn’t you tell me? Are you seriously insane?”
“Well, that’s… to prepare for dangerous situations…”
“Prepare for what? I was the one in the most danger!”
“That’s true. But the operation succeeded, didn’t it?”
Yoo Hyeong-in nodded, and hearing those words, my eyes blazed with fury.
“Senior. Whose side are you taking right now?”
“The Martial Alliance’s side. I can’t take my junior’s side…”
“That’s true. Even I wouldn’t have sided with my senior in that situation.”
“….”
It was a reasonable point.
“Mr. Jang from the Real Estate Office… that man was a Lust Demon?”
I’d rushed over the moment I received a report of someone causing a disturbance at the Inn.
The person creating the chaos was a Lust Demon…!
‘And he wasn’t just some ordinary martial artist either.’
Mr. Jang belonged to the Heretical Sect.
The Heretical Sect.
Or the Dark Path.
That’s what the Martial Alliance called those who had learned martial arts but hadn’t registered with them.
Most of the Heretical Sect members rebelled against the Martial Alliance’s authority, and the vast majority of them were close to being villains.
Especially a Lust Demon?
There weren’t just one or two Lust Demons called by that name in the Central Plains, but nine out of ten of them were madmen—I could have easily died if things had gone wrong.
“If you were going undercover, you should have told me! What if I’d gotten my throat slit right then and there?”
“Would you have gone if I’d told you?”
“Of course not. Do you think I’m insane?”
“….”
I would never have gone if I’d known he was a Lust Demon.
But.
“I shouldn’t have been sent in the first place. Look at me, senior. I don’t even look like I could beat the Waitress at that Inn.”
“…Why are you announcing your own weakness so confidently?”
“Senior. You have to know your place to live long. That’s the way of the world.”
Lust Demon or whatever—that man was a second-rate martial artist. I could barely qualify as third-rate. How was I supposed to defeat someone like that?
‘I really wish that bastard Daeju would drop dead.’
I ground my teeth, thinking of the root cause of all this trouble.
A Lust Demon happened to be hiding nearby.
That could happen.
Even Lust Demons needed sleep and food.
But.
‘Why send me to catch that guy?’
And without even telling me his identity.
Supposedly it was to draw attention and make the approach easier.
‘That’s such nonsense.’
It was nothing but a pathetic excuse.
I couldn’t even understand why I was sent alone.
What if someone had died in the process?
But since I actually succeeded in apprehending the Lust Demon, any complaints I had were rendered meaningless.
Results are everything.
That was the Martial Alliance’s policy and the way of the world.
He clicked his tongue repeatedly, his irritation evident in every word.
“This is infuriating. It’s all because I’m a parachute appointment.”
“A parachute appointment? What’s that?”
“Roughly speaking, it means someone who got in through connections, sir.”
“….”
As I ground out the words, Yoo Hyeong-in said nothing in return.
It was his way of acknowledging the truth.
‘Damn it all.’
I clicked my tongue sharply, gauging his reaction.
A parachute appointment.
That’s right.
I am a parachute appointment.
Forced into the Martial Alliance through my father’s connections—a parachute appointment.
If it weren’t for that, someone like me would never have even set foot in the Martial Alliance.
What puzzles me is this:
‘How in the world did he manage it?’
How did he get me into the Martial Alliance when our family had fallen to ruin?
Remarkably, my father simply told me one day to go to the Martial Alliance.
But….
“…Damn it.”
My life in the Martial Alliance, which began that way, has been far from smooth.
“In any world, being treated as a parachute appointment is equally infuriating.”
As I sighed and spoke, Yoo Hyeong-in interjected.
“That’s not quite right. The other side….”
“Ah, I didn’t explain that part, did I?”
I cut off his words and added my explanation.
“A parachute appointment with no backing whatsoever gets treated like garbage.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“…Senior, don’t nod like you’re pleased with yourself. It breaks my heart.”
What good is having memories from a past life? They’re utterly useless.
‘If only I had some talent instead of these worthless memories.’
I’m hopeless at martial arts, and my mind isn’t particularly sharp either.
I call myself a martial artist, yet I barely have enough qi in my dantian to fill a fingernail—at best, I’m third-rate.
I couldn’t hold my head high anywhere in this state.
Having joined the Alliance in such a pathetic condition, there’s no way the others could be satisfied with me.
Not just the Daeju of my battalion, but all the senior disciples around me—they all looked like they wanted to devour me whole.
The only reason this senior, Yoo Hyeong-in, treats me like a person is….
“Senior, be honest with me.”
“Huh?”
“You’re only hanging out with me because you’re also an outcast, aren’t you?”
“What does being ostracized mean?”
“It means being shunned, sir.”
“….”
Yoo Hyeong-in didn’t answer, but I understood his silence as confirmation.
‘…Just like the senior said, the other parachute appointments are doing just fine.’
Other parachute appointments.
I frowned as I recalled a certain young man who had been causing a stir in the branch.
Someone who had joined far later than I had.
Moreover, he was the one who had subdued the Lustful Demon yesterday.
“Yeon Socheon….”
His name was Yeon Socheon.
From what I heard, another parachute appointment pushed in by a family from the Anhui Region.
The young man who currently has the Daeju of the company stammering.
Not only did he possess the martial prowess to easily subdue the Lustful Demon, a second-rate martial artist.
‘There’s something unsettling about it.’
There was a reason everyone was wary of the one who had entered as the youngest.
‘Could his backing really be that solid?’
Yeon Socheon had entered with that level of martial strength on the recommendation of another family.
Which ‘other family’ it was hadn’t been revealed, but everyone was speculating the same thing.
One of the Five Great Families of the Central Plains that formed the Martial Alliance.
A prestigious clan called the lord and sword of Anhui.
‘The Namgung.’
The Namgung Clan of Anhui.
That must be Yeon Socheon’s backing. Everyone was assuming as much.
That’s why the Daeju stammers around Yeon Socheon.
Even if someone belongs to the Martial Alliance, things change if their backing is the Namgung Clan.
‘Could it really be the Namgung Clan?’
I’m not certain.
Just suspicion.
Why would the Namgung Clan become that young man’s backing?
Rumors were circulating that Yeon Socheon was a hidden child of the Namgung family.
‘Even if that weren’t the case.’
The fact that someone capable enough to enter without a recommendation letter brought one anyway.
That alone was reason enough to view Yeon Socheon with suspicion.
Take me as an example.
‘My backing is pathetic and my skills are nonexistent, so here I am in this mess.’
If I had any skill at all, I wouldn’t be treated with such contempt.
“Damn it.”
My frustration deepened my frown, and my head began to throb.
It felt like my wound was going to reopen.

* * *
Eventually, the next shift worker arrived well past the scheduled changeover time.
‘Damn it, this isn’t the first or second time… what is this nonsense?’
Looking at the time, it was clearly intentional again.
‘I need to get stronger, even if it kills me.’
I wasn’t sure if effort alone would help, but I had to do something.
With that resolve, I headed toward a building within the branch.
The building was a Training Hall set up for Martial Alliance members to use, and it was also the space where I trained every dawn.
During the day, the territorial disputes were so severe I couldn’t use it, but since no one was around at dawn, I could make use of it.
I was the only madman training right after finishing night watch duty.
‘Thanks to that, I’ve been using it productively until now….’
-Whoosh.
‘Oh no.’
As I approached the building, the sound that reached my ears made me immediately frown.
‘Again?’
For the past seven weeks, another person had started using the training hall at this dawn hour.
The training hall with its lights on.
I approached it and peeked inside discreetly.
Whoosh-! Swish swish-!
Sure enough, someone inside was wielding a sword.
Fast and delicate.
Even for someone like me who knew nothing about martial arts, it was beautiful swordplay.
I barely managed to suppress the admiration that was about to escape my lips.
It would be troublesome if I were discovered.
The young man, concentrating intently, continued swinging his sword.
It was Yeon Socheon, another parachute hire like myself.
Seeing him, I let out a sigh.
‘If you’re done, why don’t you go inside and get some sleep? Why are you working so hard?’
Since joining, he had been using the training hall like this constantly.
Yeon Socheon’s night watch shift was right before mine, the first shift, which meant he came straight to the training hall as soon as his shift ended and had been training until now.
With a handsome face, talent sharp enough to suppress a second-rate lecher, and effort to boot.
He was a perfect person in every sense.
‘…now that I think about it, that’s unfair.’
If Yeon Socheon is here, he should be the youngest, so why am I standing night watch in the second rotation?
Normally, the youngest would be assigned to the second or the last rotation.
But Yeon Socheon was assigned to the first shift as soon as he arrived and had been monopolizing the training hall like this, unable to train otherwise.
Damn it.
‘I’m screwed. I was hoping maybe not today.’
It looks like today is no different.
They said it was fine if we shared, but I had no desire to share the Training Hall with that bastard.
Besides, I’d already taken a blow to the head anyway… Given the circumstances.
‘I’ll just do some running drills before heading back in.’
Forget martial cultivation—I’d simply jog around the perimeter a few times as usual and leave.
Just as I turned to go.
“…Ah…! That… That… You can’t do it that way.”
‘Huh?’
A voice came from somewhere.
The window on the exterior of the Training Hall. Someone was clinging to it.
But.
‘That’s… huge…?’
My eyes widened the moment I saw it. It was far too massive.
So enormous that it was nearly impossible to believe it was human.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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