Inside the "All Souls Hall," the main sanctuary of the All Souls Temple, an elderly monk sat cross-legged before a magnificent Buddha statue. The old man, his eyes and ears drooping, wore a faded, ashen monastic robe. If it weren't for the irregular thud-thud of the wooden fish mallet in his hand, he would have seemed like a long-dead corpse.
Benevolence and mercy were nowhere to be found on this old man's face. Beneath his skin, which was as withered as old tree bark, things twisted and writhed incessantly like a mass of earthworms—a sight that would make anyone's skin crawl.
The smoke rising from the three long incense sticks in the burner before him was not the typical bluish hue, but a pale, blood-red. The air was thick with the faint, cloying stench of rot.
A closer look at the entity seated upon the lotus pedestal revealed a massive golden dharma body. Its left and right hands held the mudras for "Sealing Demons," but the kindness in its eyes had vanished, replaced by a deep, concentrated hatred. Blood-red tears seemed ready to fall from its sockets. This was no Buddha; it was a sinister, perverse demon that looked ready to devour everything in existence.
Suddenly, the ground shuddered violently. The ash from the burning incense dropped into the burner, and the sound of the wooden fish stopped.
The old man spoke slowly.
"Fuyo, go and investigate what has happened at the foot of the mountain."
"Yes, Uncle Yuji."
"Why have you not left?"
The old man looked up, glancing at the young monk standing at the temple gates. The youth wore a cyan robe and was smiling with narrowed eyes.
"Uncle Yuji... there is one thing I do not understand."
The monk called Fuyo retracted his smile. "The Abbot... has he truly attained Nirvana?"
"That is not for you to ask. Begone."
"Yes."
Once silence returned to the All Souls Hall, Yuji closed his eyes again. For a moment, the old man actually trembled, as if remembering some terrifying existence.
"Nine hundred years... why struggle for the sake of a single day and night?"
He shook his head and slowly resumed striking the wooden fish. "Senior brother is muddled."
Kenmyo Isayama had no idea that the gates of the All Souls Temple were currently wide open, and a monk of the "Fu" generation was descending the mountain to "bring him warmth."
"Hahaha! Die, you bastards!"
Kenmyo was currently very busy.
If he hadn't seen the [Points +31,000] notification from the first volley of artillery, he might have retained some sanity. To get that many points, he must have blown one or more mini-bosses to smithereens.
Now, he was completely manic. Kenmyo prowled the outskirts of the village, clutching a burning gas tank, and chucked it directly into the settlement.
"BOOM!"
Kenmyo provided his own sound effects as he threw, basking in the sight of the roaring flames and the vibrating earth. Seeing the vengeful spirits being tossed like ragdolls by the explosions and watching his points tally skyrocket, Kenmyo had only one thought:
"Incredible."
This was far more exhilarating than the firecrackers he'd played with as a kid. He felt so good that every hair on his body seemed to relax. Ideally, he should have stayed at a safe distance and used his psionic arms to hurl the tanks, but he didn't care about that anymore. He had already over-delivered on his mission; every extra kill was pure profit.
His motivation was at an all-time high.
Vengeful spirits trying to rush him? "Molotov Cocktails" for everyone.
Smash!
That was the sound of a glass bottle shattering against a spirit's skull. The 800°C flash-fire roasted their bodies, and the fuel-soaked wraiths continued to burn until they were "killed" once more.
The woods were now filled with screaming, running torches of his own making. If it weren't for the relentless rain, Kenmyo's mix of Molotovs and gas tanks would have started a forest fire long ago.
He also discovered that blowing up those eerie masses of flesh gave him a massive amount of points. They looked intimidating, but they were essentially "free real estate" for points. They contained a huge amount of cursed energy, though he had no idea where it was being extracted from.
To Kenmyo, this village had transformed from a den of demons into an all-you-can-eat point buffet. How many points do I want? I'll just blast them out!
He glanced at the pop-up window showing the constant stream of point increases. His heart pounded. The days spent wrecking his hands modifying these gas tanks were worth it.
"A person?"
As a laughing Kenmyo prepared to head to the next location on his map—Molotov in one hand, gas tank in the other—he found his path blocked. A figure stood there, face hidden by a conical straw hat.
What struck Kenmyo as strange was that this entity was different from every other spirit he'd seen. It had a perfect, physical body of flesh and blood, creating the illusion of a human being.
It can't be a person! Excluding the sinister temple, Kenmyo had mapped this place with his drone. It was an island surrounded by an endless, impenetrable mist where the drone almost lost signal. No other humans could possibly exist here.
Wait, those are monastic robes?!
Kenmyo realized the blind spot. Though the style was slightly different from what he remembered, the black cloth and surplice marked him as a Zen monk.
His wild, liberated heart suddenly tightened. The smile froze on his face, replaced by an immediate sense of crisis. He had been having fun playing "Bomberman," but he had harbored a lingering fear that being this flashy would draw the attention of the All Souls Temple.
He had decided earlier that the profit was worth the "risk," especially since he could just die to reset. Now, it seemed the "Admin" had caught him "cheating."
He knew that if the spirits swarmed him, he couldn't win—let alone against an actual entity from the temple.
[Warning: You have encountered a high-risk unit of All Souls Temple: Precept Monk. Alignment: Lawful Evil.] [World Exploration +2%]
Kenmyo let out a short laugh at the crimson warning text. He immediately threw the burning gas tank in his hand at the monk. He felt a bit like a cornered bomber surrounded by the police.
"No one in this world can judge me!"
In the middle of the point-blank explosion, Kenmyo drew a small knife and cleanly slit his own throat.
"Screw you! You bald motherfucker!"
Darkness claimed him. When he opened his eyes again, he was back in his familiar living room.
"Hah, All Souls Temple..."
Kenmyo looked at the dirty Teru Teru Bozu doll in his hand. He placed it in a wooden box and sealed it with psionic chains. "Next time, I'm definitely killing you all."
[Warhammer Simulator is now open!]
Kenmyo focused on the balance in the simulator. The points had reached 123,560.
[Would you like to start a D-Rank Simulation?]
Looking at the giant wheel before him, Kenmyo clicked "Yes" without a moment's hesitation.