Bloody tears soaked the earth. In front of him was a huge hill with thousands of people, the blood had pooled into an ocean; death was everywhere. He looked behind him. People he thought were friends were lying motionless on the ground. They had died with a clean cut.
The one who now ruled millions of people... was the Celestial Demon.
"What did I do to deserve this?"
But he was the only one left standing.
---
Closing the cover of the book, Kim Byeol could not control her tears. The last sentence of the novel she had been following for a long time had brought tears to her eyes.
The Heavenly Demon Chronicles was a long novel consisting of ten volumes. It was originally released as an internet novel, but its fame among young men meant that it was quickly published. It had a fairly simple storyline but was strangely popular.
Kim Byeol was a die-hard fan who followed the novel from the first chapter. Normally she wouldn't have time to read novels. Because she worked as a Data Scientist in one of the biggest companies in Korea. She had no time for anything else outside of work.
The Heavenly Demon Chronicles had plenty of gore and drama. Its popularity among women was almost zero. However, it was one of the most famous works among young men. Betrayals intrigue, and blood-curdling battles were the main elements that connected them to the story.
That's why Kim Byeol was also hooked on the novel. In her short career as a Data Scientist, she had faced dozens of different intrigues and fought them single-handedly. The main character of the novel was similar to herself. Both of them had been abandoned by their parents at a young age, tried to rise on their own, and eventually succeeded.
What they both got, in the end, was loneliness.
She could empathize with the character.
That's why she shed tears in the last scene.
After wiping her tears, Kim Byeol got up from the bed and carefully placed the book among the others.
♫-Blood on my hands, blood on my shoes, blood in the air~♫
She was about to go to bed when her phone started ringing. She made a face when she saw the name of the caller. But she reluctantly picked up the phone.
"Do you have a request at this time of night, Team Leader Kang?"
A thick male voice came through the phone.
[Byeol-ssi, I apologize for the inconvenience. Can we keep the analysis of the project between us? My work life is at stake-]
Kim Byeol didn't think for a second about hanging up the phone. It didn't take a genius to figure out what the issue was. Obviously, there were some results in the data analysis that didn't suit him. Kim Byeol was too lazy to deal with it.
If you are a data scientist, it is impossible not to fall out with your teammates. Team Leader Kang was one of the senior team leaders in the Public Relations Department. He was one of the department manager's favorite people, but there was a big drop in productivity due to a lack of merit.
Analytics revealed everything they had done.
Data doesn't lie.
So there was nothing Team Leader Kang could do.
Unless Kim Byeol was lying.
But Kim Byeol had no intention of doing such a thing. Just because someone didn't do her job properly didn't mean she would do the same.
"It's late."
Kim Byeol thought about the last sentence in the novel as she lay on the bed.
"What did I do to deserve this..."
Calming her heart filled with grief, Kim Byeol slowly closed her eyes.
"I wish I could help."
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Spring had sprung and the garden, bright with the harmony of flowers and insects, was disturbed by the sound of slaps. A young girl of sixteen staggered from the hard slaps on her rope. She had black hair and emerald-green eyes. Her skinny arms, as if she hadn't eaten in a long time, and her disheveled hair made her look quite miserable.
"Stand up straight!"
In front of him stood a woman with glowing skin and a striking beauty. Her hand was raised, her eyes cruelly narrowed, and her face contorted in anger. She brought her hand down hard and gave the skinny girl another slap.
"Didn't I tell you we had an important guest coming today?"
"Y-You did."
The young girl answered shakily. Her green eyes were full of fear. They were wet, but she did not cry, although her cheeks were flushed.
"Didn't I tell you not to leave a single leaf in the backyard? Are you ignoring me?"
"N-No."
The woman angrily picked up the stick from the ground and started hitting the young girl. The stick broke on the first blow. The girl could no longer hold back her tears. Although she tried not to scream, she continued to cry loudly.
The woman threw the stick away. With terrified eyes, she grabbed the girl by the hair and turned her face towards her.
"You bitch... Don't you listen to me because I'm not your real mother?"
"No-there is no such thing..."
"No? If your mom who left you had told you that, you would have listened, right?"
"Y-Yes."
"And your father who hasn't left his room for years?"
"N-No..."
The young girl's answers were enough to drive the woman mad with rage.
"That's it? Are you defying me?"
She slapped her hard.
"You need to be taught a lesson."
But this time there was no sound from the young girl. As the woman brought her slaps and punches down on the young girl, she was blind to everything. That is why she did not notice the change in the young girl.
Meanwhile, three children watching from a distance were laughing.
"Big brother, look how mom is beating Byeol. She deserved it!"
"Hahahahaha!"
Two of the girls looked a lot like the woman. They both looked to be in their mid-teens. They were twins. The one they called the older brother was a tall, handsome young man with red hair. He looked at the scene expressionlessly and then looked away.
The woman beat the young girl for more than ten minutes. Then she paused because her hands hurt. Before leaving, she spat on the young girl.
"Don't make any more mistakes! Or you will end up like your mother!"
The young girl lay dead on the floor. If it weren't for her slightly rising and falling chest, people might have thought she was dead. Her cheeks were swollen, her eye was black and blue, and her body was bruised.
After making sure she was gone, he slowly sat up.
Whatever she had said, Kim Byeol was trying to figure out where he was now. The last thing he remembered was closing his eyes sadly after finishing the Celestial Demon Chronicles. When he opened his eyes again, he was being beaten mercilessly by a woman he didn't know.
Moreover, it was impossible to resist her attacks. That's why he hadn't made the foolish move of protecting himself. Or rather, he couldn't.
'Where am I?'
The wounds on her body were hurting her a lot. But a second later she felt a headache that left the pain behind. She grabbed her head and collapsed to the ground screaming. After a while, the pain abruptly subsided and she realized that too much information was entering her brain.
"Byeol... a member of the Anyang Sun Clan..."
Kim Byeol felt like she was in cold water as painful memories that didn't belong to her flooded her brain. Was she really in someone else's body? What had happened to her own body? Had she died in her sleep?
"Wait a second... Anyang Sun Clan... Zhongyuan..."
These terms were all too familiar.
"The Ming Sect!"
She felt dizzy as she made the connection. Her eyes glazed over for a moment. It took her a few minutes to collect herself.
"Have I been reincarnated into a novel? Into a martial arts world... A land where death roams..."
Even though Kim Byeol was not a very innocent person, the thought of death frightened her. If she was reincarnated in the novel, nothing would ever be the same again.
The Ming Sect, also known as the Demon Sect.
It was one of the three greatest powers in the martial arts world. It was a place where power was paramount and the rules of the jungle prevailed. It was a mighty organization born from the union of hundreds of power-obsessed clans.
It was the greatest enemy of the Murim Alliance and the Silent Night Clan.
Kim Byeol was someone who had finished a novel. She was also interested in martial arts, but she didn't think she could survive in a world like this. So she stood up, thinking it was all a dream. She started walking towards the place that had been in her memories.