The Beloved Demon Sect Lord

Clothes that blended into the darkness of the night, and a mask that concealed all but the eyes. Yet despite my covert disguise, the Chunmu Alliance members still managed to recognize me. “It-it’s the Blood Hand Witch!” The sound of my nickname rang out of the hallway I had just exited. Blood Hand Witch. What an incredibly tacky nickname. Blood Hand, of all things… In this game, there were three users with built-in nicknames the NPCs (non-playable characters) would recognize – including mine, the Blood Hand Witch. But despite its tackiness, “Blood Hand” actually fit me quite well, since my character’s hand was dyed crimson during every Force Battle. “Where is the Blood Hand Witch?” Members of the Chunmu Alliance yelled, as they ran about to find me.  ‘Even if it’s just a game, the NPCs are way too stupid. Why is no one searching the rooftops? Scoffing silently, I began scaling the rooftop while inspecting the situation below. I had already completed the daily Force Quests and gathered as many Force Seals as I could within a week. Then, why did I come to the Chunmu Alliance? Because… I’m bored? I did tend to attack the Chunmu Alliance sect when I had nothing better to do. However, I had an important matter today. ‘I must proceed with caution.’ As my anxiety began creeping in, I opened my character window and pressed the Force tab to relax. Force - Unorthodox Faction(Demon Sect) Position - Upper-grade Believer Rank - 1st Rank – 1st. This affirmed my position as the highest-ranking Unorthodox faction user. Crucially, it brought me one step closer to attaining the position of Demon Sect Vice-leader. It wasn’t easy becoming the Demon Sect Vice-leader. Besides being the highest rank in your faction, you also needed enough experience points. It was a position bestowed to only one user in the Demon Sect, and the same applied for the Chunmu Alliance Vice-leader as well. I always woke up early every morning, just to ensure that my experience points were always ahead of the second-ranked user. And now, I was finally on the verge of becoming the Demon Sect Vice-leader.  ‘A big fish. I just need to catch a big one.’ I had accrued nearly enough Force experience points. But to fill it completely, I had to do more than just kill regular members of the Chunmu Alliance. To raise your faction experience points, you could kill NPCs from the opposing faction. But this was risky, as it would fall by twice the amount if you died to one. ‘No matter what happens today, I cannot die.’  While dying was always painful, I could usually recover my lead by grinding it out. But today was particularly important. So important, I even skipped cram school to raise my Force experience points. Why? Because rumor has it that increasing your Force experience points would become more difficult after the large-scale patch coming tomorrow. ‘I must succeed today, so I won’t have to skip cram school again.’ I knew it was just a rumor. Still, I couldn’t afford to lose my chance at becoming the Vice-leader. If I fell behind, school might get in the way of me gaining the experience points needed to recover my first-place position. I also knew that the second-place user was an office worker, so they could always take a day of vacation to gain experience points.  ‘Even if I die today, I can’t fall behind.’ Closing the Force window, I began moving silently towards the small annex on the opposite side of my target. *** The alliance members were still bustling about, futilely trying to find the dawn intruder. Tapping my keyboard, I made my character jump over to the rooftop of the annex. I pondered which target could immediately give me enough Force experience points. If I could, I would try to kill a high-ranking leader, but that was impossible. Even as a Demon Sect member, it was difficult for me to even scratch one of the primary NPCs. ‘The target must be an NPC from the Chunmu Alliance, can’t be too important, but must still have some standing.’ All kinds of groups came and left the Chunmu Alliance in the city almost every day. This was the same for the Demon Sect. While it was allegedly for progressing the game story, I knew the real reason was to provide quests for users. Everyone knew that if they stayed in the Chunmu Alliance headquarters long enough, they would be given all sorts of quests. And now, the target of today’s quest was just below me. Snow Moon Palace’s Vice Palace Head, Seol Baekhui. She was traveling to find a cure for her Extreme Yin Physique, which made chilly weather unbearable for her. The Snow Moon Palace was just a small sect. But I could still get a decent number of points from defeating her – given her leadership position and unique constitution. She had arrived at the Chunmu Alliance headquarters at the end of her rope. The Palace Head, Seol Binghwa, accompanied her as she was even having trouble getting around on her own. They hoped to receive help from the Chunmu Alliance Leader, Ak Chunyeom. Ak Chunyeom didn’t have an extreme Yang physique, but he was said to have the most powerful yang qi. Affiliated with the enemy, powerful internal energy, and a frail body. These reasons made Seol Baekhui my perfect target. I surveyed the surrounding rooftops, checking the patrol routes of the company leaders protecting the annex. I knew there would always be an opening, no matter how heavy the protection was. ‘Even so… It’s weird how they’re not getting aggroed – even when I’m in the middle of the headquarters, I haven’t entered anyone’s attack range? Seriously… What are the developers doing?’ I knew my assassin hiding skills were invincible. If I entered their attack range, there was a good chance I would get caught. Then again, perhaps the company leaders annex protecting the annex were so strong, that they didn’t even need a large range. Indeed, the names of the company leaders were glowing red, as if to say, ‘touch us, and you will disappear completely’. ‘Or maybe it’s a loophole or bug… But I won’t report it since this is a lifetime chance for me.’ Exploiting a bug was only rewarding if you were the sole beneficiary. It was even better when you had to work for it. While distracted by my thoughts, my mindless clicking allowed me to find a gap in the defense. A 1cm gap appeared in the overlapping aggro range. The gap shined like it was destiny. ‘Now!’ I wasn’t even this nervous when I got chased by some vigilantes for instigating multiple power battles and PK-ing (player killing). Dying didn’t usually matter so much, but this was one in a million chance. I had to make it. Thanks to my character’s smaller frame, I managed to safely land in the 1cm gap. My heart pounded as I thought about my character’s b****y demise if I had missed it.   I entered the annex without my hiding skill getting released. Although my movement was slower in the hiding state, I had to do it to avoid being discovered by the White Tiger Guild and Black Tortoise Guild members patrolling around The number of guards increased as I went further into the annex. My legs began trembling as the tension mounted. There was no room for error – the entire Chunmu Alliance would swarm me if I got caught in the aggro range of even a single guard. I began checking each room while being wary of any irregular movement by the guards. Still, there was no target in sight… My head began pounding from the stress, despite having entered the annex a short 10 minutes ago. “Please… Please be here.” I muttered as I reached the final room. If she wasn’t in the annex, I would have to go to the main room. Security would be even stricter there - since it was where the alliance leader resided. In fact, security was so tight that I’d never managed to reach the main building before – despite my numerous attacks on the Chunmu alliance. ‘Please lord, for the love of god…’ I thought as I entered the room, biting my lips in nervousness. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much. The door seemed far too simple to be hiding such a valuable guest. ‘If things don’t work out, I should just kill a few alliance members before running away.’ I managed to scan the room with the help of several potions and buff items. My eyes honed in on a bed in a corner of the room. The drapes concealed the name of the occupant, but someone was laying there. ‘Don’t tell me…?’ As I carefully approached the bed, a name appeared. [Snow Moon Palace Vice Palace Head Seol Baekhui]. Despite her sickly appearance, she was still a fair-skinned and dark-haired beauty. ‘I finally found her!’ Thankfully, the guards’ patrol route didn’t extend to this room. “But this isn’t an NPC that can’t be attacked, right?” As I stared at Seol Baekhui, my anxiety began to grow. She seemed far too unbothered that an enemy had entered her room. I noticed a health gauge above her, but there was a chance she would be hard to damage. There had to be something balancing out her Extreme Yin Physique and sickliness. To test this out, I tried throwing a dagger at her. Her health gauge dropped immediately. ‘What? Her health goes down so easily?’ Don’t vulnerable characters usually have higher defense levels, even if they are just a sickly NPC? Whatever… It was great for me since I could take her down with ease. Since I had used a poison-laced dagger, I was also able to inflict DoT (damage over time) on Seol BaekHui. It seemed she hadn’t taken any precautionary measures of her own, perhaps trusting that the strong Chunmu Alliance guard was enough to protect her. ‘This is it!’’ Due to the buff effects from the skills and potions I had used, my character was also shining dazzling – which perfectly suited this momentous occasion. “Okay, here I go…!” Pouncing onto the bed, I quickly plunged a dagger into Seol Baekhui’s body. My fingers strained from the force I was exerting on my mouse and keyboard. The character on the screen was merely using a skill but I was putting a lot of power into the hands using the mouse and keyboard. Once, twice, thrice. After three strikes that combined Deadly Poison Arts with Home Thrust, Seol Baekhui finally collapsed with a soft moan. “I did it!” I knew it wasn’t over yet. Defeating the target was easy, escaping the scene was a whole other story. But that didn’t dampen the sense of triumph coursing through my body, as I gazed at the cross-server message that had appeared. [Blood Hand Witch Chunhyangnahui has become the Demon Sect Vice-leader!]