Chapter 94: The Flower of Sin and the Boogeyman’s Resolve

 The Power of Baek Mokgwi

[Player Mode]

Baek Mokgwi was stronger than expected.

In the face of her resistance, Hae Eung Eung disabled all notifications.

‘This isn’t an opponent I can face with distractions.’

The most crucial rule when dealing with a sorcerer was maintaining absolute focus.

The moment a single stray thought emerged, sorcerers had countless ways to exploit that gap.

[You must have experience facing beings like me.]

[Locking your heart away, blurring your focus, sealing your ears… such a pitiful form of resistance.]

[Ah, even that desperate struggle is so lovely. I want to gaze into those eyes, ever so carefully!]

Baek Mokgwi stood bare, the eyes carved into her thighs glowing ominously.

<The Eyes of a Man Bound by Love>

<The Eyes of a Child Bound by Blood>

<The Eyes of a Royal Bound by Duty>

A storm of emotions surged, threatening to pierce her heart.

Shock flickered across Hae Eung Eung’s face.

 Was I not enough for you?

Eung-eung Sojeo, will this love of mine truly go unanswered…?

 Cough! I’m sorry, Samae… I failed to protect our sect and left you with this disgraceful sight… This isn’t your fault. So please, don’t cry…

 The Emperor of the Great Ming… Are you satisfied with placing me upon that hollow throne?

Are you content with forcing me to spend the rest of my days watching our nation’s slow decline?!

A power that did not tear apart the body but instead ripped through the heart.

Her mental focus shattered, and her forcibly suppressed awareness was dragged toward Baek Mokgwi’s eyes.

[Yes, look here.]

[Your joy, your anger, your sorrow, your pleasure your emotions are all right here.]

Baek Mokgwi’s entire legs radiated light, with dozens of eyes mercilessly burrowing into her mind.

<The Eyes That Promise a Peace That Will Never Come>

<The Eyes That Recall a Home One Can Never Return To>

<The Eyes of a Warrior Who Lost Even Their Beliefs>

The wounds in her heart split open even wider.

Emotions she should have never known flooded her.

Emotions she should have never seen burned into her vision.

[Don’t close your eyes.]

[The emotions you abandoned are returning to you.]

[You’ve waited for too long, and you are tired.]

[Now, it’s time to face them all and accept them.]

[You may believe these twisted regrets are not yours, but soon, you won’t be able to think that way anymore.]

Memories she had cast away with her own hands.

Traces of grief that had never even existed.

Reality and delusion intertwined as a system alert rang.

[Warning. Warning. The player’s brainwaves are in a highly unstable state. If mental stabilization fails, synchronization rate will plummet.]

[Countdown: 10…]

[9…]

[8…]

Baek Mokgwi realized that the experiences accumulated by the Silent Swordsman were holding her together.

So instead of breaking her body—

She struck at the very foundation of her strength.

The failures that had shaped her, the defeats that had strengthened her resolve.

The countless moments of loss and despair layered beneath her unyielding will.

They were not her own, yet she could understand them.

With the sorrow and grief etched into countless eyes,

She forcibly imprinted those emotions onto her retinas and mind.

[Human, you are too strong.]

[ That must have left you terribly alone, hasn’t it? No one around you was ever strong enough to stand beside you.]

[How many burdens have you carried with that frail woman’s body?]

[ How many dying wishes have bent your back? How much longer until that spine finally snaps?]

[Yes, you already know the answer. You’ve simply chosen to look away. Your heart is already sick, and your body is rotting away.]

Her body didn’t crumble, but her heart did.

The legs supporting her wavered, her very awareness of standing fading away.

This was more than a mere illusion meant to cloud the senses.

It was an overwhelming, fundamental fantasme originaire a primal hallucination.

‘This is dangerous.’

Baek Mokgwi’s sorcery severed material reality, forcing upon her a spiritual one.

The hypnosis binding her dragged her deeper into a fabricated nightmare, accelerating her fall into its depths.

She had experienced both brainwashing and imprinting before

She knew what it was like when the mind forced the body to submit.

That was why she could understand this even more deeply.

‘If I let go and lose control here, I’ll be forcibly dragged into Inner Demon Possession.’

A nightmare for all martial artists.

A forbidden state that must never be encountered Deviation into Madness.

A sorcery that could forcibly induce it,

Imposing specific behavioral principles,

Compelling obedience.

That was the same cursed conditioning that had once bound her spirit

The imperial palace’s brainwashing.

The Blood Cult’s imprinting.

And now

A new terror had arrived, one that was no less horrifying than those two accursed shackles.

[5…]

[4…]

[3…]

She told herself that illusions had no substance.

That all these waves of emotional chaos were nothing more than projections

Reflections of deeply embedded trauma and the desire to rewrite painful memories.

She tried to steel herself, to lash her mind into submission

But Hae Eung Eung’s pupils trembled violently.

[The heart is a window that reflects memories.]

[The images born from suppressed loss.]

[Do you see that tainted window?]

[Your past defiled, abandoned, neglected, and long forgotten.]

[You never overcame your pain.]

[You simply turned away from it.]

[Now, the suffering you discarded is returning.]

[Memories that will remind you just how weak you truly are.]

[The harbinger of ruin has arrived.]

[Do not grieve too much when your grand illusion of success, built on falsehoods and deception, finally crumbles.]

Baek Mokgwi’s eyes gleamed with a soft, wistful gentleness as they seeped into her mind.

[The day of your inevitable destruction has merely come a little sooner, that’s all.]

Her voice burrowed deep, taking root, sprouting, and growing

Firmly embedding itself within her heart.

[Assimilation rate plummeting.]

[Signs of severe mental corruption detected.]

[Irreversible consequences anticipated.]

[Escape mental corruption as quickly as possible.]

[Failure to escape will result in forced assimilation rate drop to 0%.]

[Countdown: 7…]

She knew the name of the wretched flower blooming from the wretched scent of her memories.

[The Flower of Sin is blooming.]

[It feeds on your failures and pain.]

[Do not try to resist.]

[No one wants your help.]

[Do not wish for anything.]

[Surrender to the sin that fills your heart.]

[Ignore the ridicule and contempt.]

[Do not repent for your failures and mistakes.]

[Even within tainted purity, tomorrow still comes.]

[3…]

[2…]

[1…]

The countdown sounded as though it came from a distant dream

Growing more and more faint.

[Assimilation rate forcibly dropped to 0%.]

[A VERTICAL DESCENDING ASSIMILATION RATE HAS BEEN DETECTED.]

[CODE: BLACK.]

[Deep assimilation rate entering negative values.]

[Mental coefficient linkage index altered.]

[Depth graph inverted.]

[Assimilation rate entering negative territory.]

[Current assimilation rate: -1%.]

It was no longer her own will.

Her body and mind were being surrendered

To someone else’s will.

The wounded heart, desperate to escape suffering,

The mind seeking refuge from this cruel reality

They slowly yielded before Baek Mokgwi’s will.

[Assimilation rate being eroded by Baek Mokgwi’s will.]

[Extreme mental corruption detected.]

[Severe long-term aftereffects anticipated.]

[Sensory link for all viewers forcibly terminated.]

[Immediately abandon the game and force logout.]

[Immediately cease game progression.]

[Cease game progression…]

Pop.

Like turning off a screen with a remote control,

The critical alerts vanished from her retinas.

[Ku-hu. Kuhuhuhuhu.]

[Don’t be afraid.]

[Just quietly… quietly feel it.]

[The touch of my hand stroking your cheek.]

[The warmth lingering at my fingertips.]

[Even if that warmth begins to fade, don’t worry.]

[You just have to follow it.]

[Hurry.]

[Before this warmth disappears completely.]

[Follow it.]

[Before this hand slips away.]

[The place you truly belong is not a body steeped in sin]

[But in the fleeting warmth that offers even the smallest comfort. Isn’t that right? Kuhuhu. Kuhuhuhuhu.]

As her consciousness wavered at the edge of collapse,

And before the system could complete the forced logout countdown

A voice, deep and foreboding, shattered the silence.

“How pathetic… The inverted tree of the Cabalistic Glyph… That filthy power… it isn’t yours, is it?”

Creeeak.

Creeeaaak.

The door, which had remained sealed shut for the entirety of the boss fight,

The one that even Baek Mokgwi had dismissed as insignificant

Now trembled violently.

A chilling, ominous voice leaked through the cracks.

[Just a little more… If I let the Flower of Sin bloom fully and draw out this wretched soul into my body, I can claim the strongest vessel in the human realm.]

[This is my chance to transcend mere elevation of rank ]

[A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become the Great Usurper, a true demon beyond all yokai.]

The countless eyes adorning Baek Mokgwi’s body gleamed with a blood-red glow.

[A chance that will never come again.]

[Just a little further. Just a little more…]

[So don’t interfere!]

Baek Mokgwi’s power surged

And her assimilation rate plummeted.

[Current Assimilation Rate: -13%]

[Current Assimilation Rate: -27%]

[Current Assimilation Rate: -42%]

The mental corruption was accelerating

Faster than the countdown racing toward zero.

Then

“I won’t allow that.”

With a loud clunk, the wardrobe doors swung open violently.

Baek Mokgwi, having fully unleashed his spiritual power,

Had also released the Sealing Zone of Yokai Power.

And thanks to that

The Boogeyman regained his strength.

“This place isn’t even worthy of my power…”

“But just this once, I’ll make an exception.”

Facing Baek Mokgwi, who wielded the strength of a hundred lifetimes—

The Boogeyman extended a hundred blackened arms.

Half of them reached out to shield Hae Eung Eung.

The other half lunged toward Baek Mokgwi.

[Impossible! I’ve spent countless years in this wretched dump, absorbing the energy of discarded relics! And yet—]

[How is a mere yokai, not even a Great Demon, able to match my power?!]

“You… a fool bound by human sentiment…”

“As long as I owe a debt for that foolishness”

“I won’t allow you to crumble so easily.”

Until now, it had always been Hae Eung Eung who protected the Boogeyman.

Now

It was the Boogeyman’s turn to protect her.

A moment when Hae Eung Eung’s friendship and devotion would finally be repaid.