Chapter 89: The Mound of Betrayal

2.

[Story Mode]

The source of the deafening noise that echoed throughout the entire field.

The central facility of the landfill.

Within the massive compactor that crushed mountains of waste,

a grotesque scene unfolded something neither Hae Eung Eung nor any player could have imagined.

[Hurry up! Increase the pace of your work!]

[The only reason you lowly slaves are still alive is to recover the treasures of the Yokai King buried in this landfill!]

[Ugh, ugh! Move faster, you pathetic wretches!]

A yokai overseer cracked his whip, driving the half-yokai slaves into exhaustion.

Blood dripped from their lips as they collapsed one after another.

Shaking limbs struggled to rise, and those who managed to do so carried heavy loads of garbage, hurling them into the compactor.

But those whose strength had completely given out those who couldn’t even stand had no future left.

[There is no reason to keep useless slaves alive.]

[Dispose of the ones who can’t get up!]

[Please… I did everything you asked… Please…]

The overseer’s subordinates grabbed the pleading slaves and mercilessly threw them toward the compactor.

The unrelenting executions.

The sickening crunch of bones being crushed.

The sight of their comrades being tossed away like trash made the remaining half-yokai tremble in fury,

as if they were on the verge of an uprising.

Yet, they gritted their teeth and swallowed their anger, forcing themselves to continue carrying the refuse.

They had no choice.

Stripped of their yokai energy and physically weaker than their captors,

they could not fight back against the overseer and his minions who ruled the landfill.

[Please, someone… anyone…]

[Just release the energy-sealing formation that renders us powerless…]

The desperate cries of the half-yokai had gone unanswered for far too long.

Hope had abandoned them, leaving only despair.

3.

[Player Mode]

Half-yokai enslaved in the landfill’s core facility, forced into grueling labor.

The viewers who witnessed this event scene were left stunned.

Wait, this was an actual event??

So, every time we entered this place for repeatable quests, these guys were literally dying in the background?

Damn… I feel guilty now.

Guilty about what, you idiot? Those half-yokai would suck the marrow out of human skulls the moment they saw one.–

LOL, true.

It depends! There are bad half-yokai, but there are good ones too!

“Good yokai” (only nice to Silent Swordsman)

No, but seriously, OUR half-yokai doesn’t attack people, okay?

Up until now, players had seen this location as just another event map, a place to grind for resources.

But today, thanks to Silent Swordsman, they realized it was an actual,

fully developed field with a hidden event they had never known about.

‘Half-yokai forced into labor… It’s clear where they came from.’

The passage linking the yokai realm to the human world.

The human-world stronghold personally crafted by the Yokai Queen.

‘A carefully orchestrated hell, all designed by the Yokai Queen herself.’

She had allowed even rival factions to use her portal occasionally.

But waiting on the other side were her subordinates, lying in ambush within this energy-sealing zone.

‘If she had prepared in advance by deploying yokai with naturally powerful bodies,

capturing the half-yokai and yokai flooding through the passage would have been effortless.’

The wraiths stationed on the landfill’s mounds.

They were nothing more than sentries.

Even if someone managed to defeat them, if they failed to escape the landfill in time,

they would meet the same grim fate as the enslaved half-yokai at the core facility.

‘That means at least two artifacts must be present in this place.’

One of them was the artifact that sealed yokai energy.

The core artifact that created the yokai energy-sealing zone.

And another artifact the one hidden somewhere within the landfill.

A relic said to have been concealed by the previous Yokai King, now sought after by the Yokai Queen’s subordinates.

‘Whichever one I obtain, it’ll be a huge advantage.’

But if either artifact fell into enemy hands, it would undoubtedly cause significant trouble in the future.

If she couldn’t claim them herself, then at the very least, she had to ensure that the yokai didn’t get their hands on them either.

‘I see… The purpose of this field is clear now.’

Just as Executioner’s Corpse Hill served as a tutorial, testing whether players could surpass a forced defeat event…

Just as Blood-Drenched Waterways tested a player’s ability to conquer a field in a single attempt without stacking event counters…

Just as The Sinking Great Forest challenged players to see past surface-level enemies and defeat the yokai sage within the time limit…

Just as Yokai Capital tested players’ trust by forcing them to cooperate with half-yokai and yokai allies in arena battles and subjugation events…

This fifth field, The Landfill, was yet another trial.

It tested whether players could seize artifacts while enduring the harsh conditions of a yokai energy-sealing zone, all while facing the forces stationed by the Yokai Queen.

How that objective was accomplished depended entirely on the player’s choices.

Smack! Smack!

The sound of whips striking the half-yokai slaves echoed through the landfill.

Would she liberate them from their shackles and lead them in an uprising against their overseers?

Or would she locate and destroy the hidden energy-sealing formation that rendered them powerless?

Perhaps she could even exploit the Yokai Queen’s subordinates waiting for the hidden artifact to appear and then seizing the opportunity to steal it from under their noses.

Everything was up to the player.

‘The half-yokai of the yokai realm are ultimately evil beings. There’s no issue in letting them die.’

It wasn’t the role of a human like her to save them.

That choice was meant for players who actively sought yokai blood those who had forsaken their humanity to become half-yokai or yokai themselves.

To her, as a human, they were nothing but enemies.

Saving them shouldn’t even be a consideration. It was an illogical, irrational option.

‘But… does every half-yokai and yokai really have to be my enemy?’

The Face-Stealing Spider, who had once wanted to be her friend.

The Wandering Merchant, who had parted ways with her, promising to meet again.

The Wendigo, foolish but loyal in its own way.

The Boogeyman, who silently offered her aid.

And the Bastard Prince, who called her “mother” and followed her without hesitation.

They were stronger and more dangerous than humans, but…

Sometimes, they became allies.

Sometimes, they became enemies.

They walked alongside her, and sometimes, they parted ways.

It wasn’t an unfamiliar concept to Hae Eung Eung.

‘In the martial world, that’s exactly how warriors are.’

Martial artists were stronger and more dangerous than ordinary civilians.

They could be friends, but they could also become foes.

They might fight together for a time, only to separate later.

In the end, they were just humans—humans who happened to be a little different.

Perhaps… half-yokai and yokai were no different from martial artists.

She made her decision.

‘I’ll give them a chance.’

She would try to save the enslaved half-yokai and yokai.

4.

The landfill was filled with remnants of the invasion into the human realm.

A dumping ground where the yokai indiscriminately discarded useless human-world artifacts.

Roll…

Among the heaps of trash piled haphazardly, it was common for small pieces of garbage to tumble down unnoticed.

“Ugh! This damn garbage is a nuisance!”

That is if it weren’t falling repeatedly in the same spot.

“Hey, you! Go over there and fix it so the trash stops falling!”

At the overseer’s command, one of his subordinates grabbed the leashes of several half-yokai slaves.

“You heard him. Unless you want to get crushed in the compactor, move it.”

The slaves followed in silence, their heads bowed low to suppress their resentment.

But as they walked, unease flickered in their gazes.

‘Something’s off.’

The trash wasn’t overflowing.

‘So why did something fall from there?’

Having spent their days hauling garbage endlessly, they instinctively sensed that something was unusual.

Yet, instead of reporting it to their captors, they simply exchanged glances and gave each other small nods.

“Hah… hah… Damn, this is exhausting.”

One of the guards flopped onto the ground as soon as they reached a flat area beyond the garbage mound.

“Human legs are so damn inefficient. Next time, I’ll rip off a sturdier pair from one of those half-yokai in section three.”

With that horrific remark, he casually released the leashes of the slaves.

“Make sure the mound doesn’t collapse. Not that it matters there’s no point in running, and you all know it.”

He sprawled out, stretching his twelve mismatched legs in leisure.

It was the arrogance of someone utterly convinced that no predator could possibly threaten him.

But his so-called peace one that seemed like it would last forever was abruptly shattered.

A single sword burst from within the trash heap, piercing straight through his throat.

“Gkk—!”

His voice box and windpipe were severed in an instant, leaving him unable to scream as he thrashed in agony.

A strike aimed with precision following the natural flow of his muscles, avoiding the toughness of bone and the resistance of contracting flesh.

Shhk! Shhk! Shhk!

With the same ease as when it had been plunged in, the blade withdrew and stabbed again. And again.

“Damn, that was brutal.”

“She landed a Perfect Action, then hit three consecutive Just Actions what are the odds?”

“Critical hit rate: 100%.”

“Then why even have a chance system?”

“To separate scrubs from pros.”

“Nah, but sometimes it is fun when a random attack just accidentally one-shots a weak enemy.”

Unlike players who relied on lucky critical hits, Hae Eung Eung’s precision was anything but luck.

‘By now, I’ve grown accustomed to the bizarre anatomy and distorted muscle structures of yokai.’

Her experience in Yokai Capital, where she had slaughtered countless yokai, had refined her anatomical knowledge.

Piercing vital points.

Severing tendons.

Dismembering limbs.

Her Just Actions and Perfect Actions now had an even higher success rate than before she had set foot in Yokai Capital.

Shhh.

The silent swordsman pressed a finger to her lips, signaling for silence.

The freed slaves nodded fervently, their faces burning with urgency.

Plop. Plop.

Thud. Thud.

“Oi! What the hell are those idiots up there doing?! There’s even more trash falling than before! If they’re slacking off, bring them back too! You three, go check it out!”

The yokai guards grumbled, itching to kick their lazy coworker’s ass.

Their eyes swept over the slaves, suspicion creeping onto their faces.

One of them, an alligator-like yokai, smacked its lips.

“I smell blood.”

“You there, s*ave. Where’s the guy who came before you?”

They had hidden the body but the lingering scent of blood remained.

The silent swordsman’s presence was on the verge of being exposed.

The half-yokai slaves stiffened in fear.

‘Have we already been caught?’

‘If they find out we were covering for the human who killed the guard, we’re all dead.’

‘Without our yokai powers, there’s no guarantee we can take on three of them.’

Their minds raced, fear giving way to cold calculation.

Slowly, their thoughts tilted toward betrayal.

Just before they could give her up

“The guard said he was going for a snack. He took a few slaves with him and went up the next mound.”

A frail half-yokai spoke first, cutting off the rising tide of treachery.

The weakest among them.

So weak, in fact, that they could drop dead at any moment, their life drained away before the day’s work was done just another body for the compactor.

‘Ungrateful bastards. Do you really think throwing away those who helped you will keep you alive longer?’

But by stepping forward so boldly, that half-yokai had put herself in danger.

The two yokai guards one with the body of a monkey, the other a hyena stomped closer, their eyes gleaming with suspicion.

“Which mound did he go up?”

“That lazy bastard actually moved just to eat?”

“Maybe he’s hiding snacks in the storage area?”

The half-yokai wrung every ounce of wit she had into that excuse.

The two yokai exchanged glances then nodded.

“Yeah… that greedy idiot would totally do that.”

“Food always tastes better when you save it for later instead of stuffing your face all at once.”

Hae Eung Eung had planned to pick them off one by one, waiting for reinforcements to arrive before ambushing them.

Yet out of all the half-yokai present, only one had tried to protect her.

Her gaze turned cold.