Late at night, the rain in Tokyo continued to fall.
"Ken, thanks for your hard work today."
"No, Yomi-nee, same to you."
Holding a black umbrella, Kenmyo Isayama waved goodbye to the receding black Audi A8. He only turned back into his house once the taillights had vanished from view.
"Goodnight, Yomi-nee."
Since the mission had ended with the successful execution of a curse user on the "kill-on-sight" list, Yomi had to return to the Sorcerers Association to report.
"Shitty Sorcerers Association," Kenmyo cursed under his breath.
Once the door was shut, completely isolating him from the outside world, he breathed a sigh of relief. But he wasn't done yet. Yomi's earlier visit had served as a reminder: he needed to check the house before he could truly relax.
The basement seal was fine; his sister was "healthy." There was no one on the upper three floors besides himself. After exorcising four low-level spirits that had accidentally wandered in, he called it a night.
"All clear."
Exhaustion hit him like a tidal wave. Rubbing his aching shoulders, he went to the kitchen, opened the fridge, and took a long, deep gulp of chilled barley tea.
"Finally feel alive again."
"Now, let's see what this special item is."
He hadn't been able to check it earlier because of Yomi and the other Association staff. Now that he was alone, he had no such concerns.
"I didn't expect to get gear in this world, and a type I've never seen before at that."
With a sigh of anticipation, Kenmyo opened his system inventory and clicked "Extract."
A blood-stained, filthy Teru Teru Bozu appeared in his hand. It was small—just big enough to fit in his palm—and felt cold to the touch, carrying an indescribable sense of dread. Its dirty head bore two black eyes filled with deep-seated resentment and a bright red mouth stretched wide into a grin. Kenmyo felt as if it might spring to life at any second.
However, no matter how sinister it looked, it had been notarized by the system. It was impossible for it to harm him, which was why he felt safe handling it. But when he checked the item's attributes, his eyes widened in shock.
"What on earth is this?"
[???] (Missing information, unable to view name)
Origin: All Souls Temple
Quality: Unknown
Type: Key-type Teleportation Item
Effect: Using this as a medium allows the user to enter All Souls Temple. (Note: All Souls Temple is a LV. ?? High-Risk Area. Danger level: Extreme.)
Tip 1: Can be entered up to three times per day. You descend as a "Thought Body"; death within the [All Souls Temple] domain does not affect your physical body.
Tip 2: Slaying units within All Souls Temple yields a massive amount of points.
Tip 3: ??? (Missing)
Tip 4: ??? (Missing)
Description: A thousand-year-old ancient temple. Its prosperity and incense were reduced to ashes. The monks who died by decapitation fell into madness as vengeful spirits; their hatred remains as burning hot today as the day they died. This former place of Buddhist retreat has transformed into a demonic realm.
"Why did Buddha not hear our prayers until the moment we died?"
The blood-red text at the bottom was messy and distorted, each character seemingly saturated with boundless resentment and the fear of death.
This time, the system thoughtfully shoved a memory fragment directly into Kenmyo's mind. He saw a ghostly temple in the middle of a torrential downpour. Countless objects wrapped in white cloth—blood-red and containing severed heads—hung from the eaves, swaying in the wind.
"All Souls Temple?"
The moment Kenmyo mentally read the name on the temple's archway, his hands and feet went cold. The lights in the living room began to flicker violently. In his ears, he heard the immediate, chilling sound of miserable wails and the bone-scraping noise of meat being hacked apart.
[WARNING!!!]
[WARNING: "???" detected attempting to locate Host. Locking on...]
Several warning icons flashed across the system panel.
[Lock-on complete.]
[Executing forced termination of "???".]
[Execution complete.]
"Damn it, there was something 'dirty' trying to get in."
Even though the system had reacted and blocked the intrusion, Kenmyo still coated his entire body in psionic energy. Only then did the suffocating feeling of being "watched" by an unknown horror disappear.
Panting and shaken, he glanced at the doll in his hand. It was still grinning at him. Despite the system's guarantee, this thing felt like a hot potato.
All Souls Temple... This place was so cursed that even mentioning it was a taboo? The situation just now was clearly a terrifying entity trying to use Kenmyo's location as a coordinate to invade reality, only to be intercepted by the system.
Furthermore, the warning phrase was a first for him:
[Note: All Souls Temple is a LV. ?? High-Risk Area. Danger level: Extreme.]
The words were so red they looked like they were dripping with fresh blood. It didn't feel safe at all. However, Tip 2 was too tempting to ignore.
In his recent actions, he had accumulated:
$32,000 + 8,900 + 1,300 + 3,000$ (Low-level spirits total) $+ 24,000$ (First D-Rank settlement) $= 69,200$ points.
This was his entire net worth. He was still about $30,800$ points short of the $100,000$ needed for the second D-Rank simulation. (As for the $1,000,000$ required for C-Rank, that wasn't even worth thinking about yet.)
Basically, if he killed three more Grade 1 spirits, he could start the next simulation.
Maybe... I should try it.
With the system providing a safety net, nothing permanent should happen. He had almost died just now, but he was fine.
Kenmyo was a man of action. Looking at the prompt:
[Do you wish to enter the "All Souls Temple" plane?]
He pressed "Yes."
He wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but Kenmyo felt the grin on the Teru Teru Bozu widen, as if mocking his lack of self-awareness.
A roar filled his ears, and his vision went black. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a dimension isolated from the world.
The first sensation was cold—a damp, biting chill. The rain was massive, and the standing water on the ground already reached his ankles. He was standing in a pitch-black forest. In the distance, on a mountain, he could faintly see a magnificent temple covered in a ghostly aura.
[WARNING: You have entered the outskirts of the High-Risk Area "All Souls Temple"!]
[WARNING: You have entered the outskirts of the High-Risk Area "All Souls Temple"!]
[WARNING: You have entered the outskirts of the High-Risk Area "All Souls Temple"!]
The warnings appeared in a terrifying, jagged crimson font.
Kenmyo whipped his head around. Behind him, he heard the sound of something wading through the water.