Chapter 46
CHAPTER 46
Madness 100 (1)
[Effect: Intoxication Corrosion]
[Effect: Perception Distortion]
[Effect: Banishment]
[Madness Level: 100 (MAX)]
[Critical Threshold Reached]
[This is the level of an Absolute Ruler.]
[Target has completely departed from the system's sphere of control.]
Yet...
Nothing happened.
[Warning: Target exists outside the system's influence.]
[Unable to apply effects.]
Outside the system's control?
Caught off guard, Delreira activated the city's authority.
The very power of this City of Madness, designed by Bitrain through the Dionysus artifact.
"...What?"
She swallowed hard.
Grinding her teeth, she unleashed every authority the world possessed.
[World Law Activated]
[Madness Infliction]
[Mental Contamination]
[Ego Collapse Initiated]
Damn it!
None of it reached Ju-Heon.
Ju-Heon tilted his head with a savage grin.
[Failed.]
[Failed.]
[Reason: Madness Level 100. Target is already classified as contamination.]
"What?"
"Come on."
"Try harder."
He genuinely sounded curious.
Only then did Delreira realize the truth.
The city's authorities had been designed by Bitrain to corrupt sane citizens and drag them into madness.
But Ju-Heon...
...had never been sane to begin with.
Those powers simply didn't work on someone like him.
No—
There had never been any reason to use those authorities against someone like him.
The system had never been built with a monster like this in mind.
"You said Cynthia was nothing more than a tenant farmer while you were the true lord of this world!"
"Well then..."
"Try killing me."
Delreira's hand trembled.
Bitrain's artifact facilities... aren't obeying me?!
Only then did she finally understand...
...why the Divine Artifacts had wanted this man eliminated.
At the same time, she shouted,
['Forced Banishment' cannot be used.]
"What?"
"Banish!"
"Get out of my territory right now!"
Why?!
Screaming, Delreira slashed her hand through the air.
[Banishment Artifact (Onibaba's Doorplate) Activated]
[Reason: According to this city's design...]
[Valid banishment targets: Madness Level 0–99]
The artifact came from a folk tale.
Hung upon a village entrance, it expelled anything that didn't belong.
It was especially effective against ghosts, monsters...
...and outsiders.
At last, the artifact's power wrapped itself around Ju-Heon's feet.
But the artifacts composing the city itself declared—
"This mad bastard..."
Delreira's gaze slowly began to shake.
Banishment assumes the existence of a target.
Something with coordinates.
Something recognizable.
Something registered by the system.
Only then can it be expelled.
But Seo Ju-Heon, having reached Madness 100, no longer satisfied any of those conditions.
He had already stepped beyond the system's own standards.
"If this city's system could've dealt with me..."
"...it would've done so long ago."
A being that no longer existed.
Or perhaps...
...a being that shouldn't exist.
How could you banish...
...something that wasn't there to begin with?
Ju-Heon approached with a chilling grin.
Delreira desperately unleashed every system authority she had.
Her voice cracked.
"You son of a...!"
"Intoxication!"
"Madness!"
"Oblivion!"
"Damn it!"
"Take all of it!"
"Go completely insane already!"
Ju-Heon tilted his head.
"I already told you."
He smiled calmly.
The Dionysus worldline's greatest debuffs crashed over him like a hurricane.
A violet mist enveloped his entire body.
It melted minds.
It devoured memories.
Against an ordinary Majesty...
Their ego would've shattered instantly.
They would've already been crawling across the ground.
Instead...
Ju-Heon casually inhaled the mist as though enjoying a cigarette.
['Intoxication' has been absorbed into the target's 'Madness.']
['Oblivion' collides with the target's mind and dissipates.]
The artifact facilities began collapsing.
Ju-Heon smiled.
"See?"
"Looks impressive on the outside..."
"But it's rotten inside."
"Nice smell."
"Smells like alcohol."
"But that's the problem."
"I'm already drunk."
"There's no room left for me to get any drunker."
Then he placed a hand on one of Delreira's artifact structures.
At that instant—
Stepping over shattered pieces of the facility, Ju-Heon walked right up to her.
Delreira could no longer speak.
She merely trembled in terror.
[Hand of Redefinition Activated.]
[Redefinition:]
[Delreira's private property → Illegal waste that trespassed into my world and is subject to disposal.]
"So all of this was built using this world's resources?"
"You stole someone else's property..."
"...and this is the cheap junk you made?"
"Looks like you're due for a hefty fine."
Just then—
A voice echoed from the sky.
It was the Rulebook.
[The 'Madness' of the Dionysus worldline resonates with the 187487th Majesty's 'Massacre' disposition.]
[A temporary authority has been granted.]
[Berserk]
['Destroyer' has been engraved into the narrative of the 187487th Majesty.]
[Nameless Laborer's Crowbar (Grade C)]
[Lumberjack's Used Chainsaw (Grade B)]
So the Rulebook really can't break its own rules...
...but it still knows how to get things done.
Soon, Ju-Heon's Hand of Redefinition began radiating a blazing black aura.
This went far beyond merely altering an artifact's properties.
Ju-Heon's madness spread throughout the entire City of Dionysus.
It forcibly summoned every forgotten artifact buried away in warehouses...
...and abandoned construction sites.
Whoosh! BOOM!
Pitch-black objects shot down from the sky like missiles, embedding themselves at Ju-Heon's feet.
Ordinarily...
He wouldn't have spared these junk artifacts a second glance.
But the moment Ju-Heon grabbed them...
The blessing of Madness Level 100 spread through them like a raging wildfire.
[Authority Activated: Berserk Mode]
[For a limited time in this world, you may drive artifacts into a berserk state.]
[Artifact Evolution Complete.]
[Crowbar That Tears Apart Causality & Spatial-Cutting Chainsaw]
Ju-Heon casually rested the crowbar, now erupting with black demonic energy, on his shoulder and looked at Delreira.
Through the artifact's power, his vision changed.
Every paradise facility Delreira had built appeared before his eyes as vivid red demolition markers.
Ju-Heon took a step forward.
"So you've been putting up illegal extensions without the landowner's permission?"
Crash!
[A Grade C artifact has surpassed its limits under the Madness buff!]
['Demeter's Agricultural Authority' has been dismantled.]
"My land! My buildings!"
Delreira screamed.
Ju-Heon didn't stop.
This time he raised the roaring chainsaw.
The flowers Delreira had just brought into bloom touched the spinning blade—
Instead of living plants...
...they were sliced apart like scrap metal.
[Persephone's artifact has lost its power.]
Ju-Heon smirked.
In the next instant, he appeared right in front of Delreira as though teleporting.
The Demeter artifact...
"Alright."
"This construction site belongs to me now."
"Anyone without a hard hat gets kicked out."
"W-Wait...!"
"First..."
"Give me my artifact back."
At last, Ju-Heon's hand reached for Delreira's throat.
That was where Persephone's artifact was hanging.
The moment he confirmed it, his eyes curved into a smile.
"You can settle all that overdue rent..."
"...with your pride."
Smack!
If Delreira had anything she considered her pride...
It was the Demeter artifact.
Ju-Heon's hand reached for both artifacts.
Delreira convulsively grabbed the necklace and pressed it against her chest.
"No! Not this!"
Ju-Heon tore the necklace away.
Two nearly identical rings hung from it.
One was Persephone's artifact.
The other—
"...!"
Ju-Heon's hand touched Delreira's heart.
Something unbelievable happened.
His fingers felt something.
Frowning, he instinctively pulled his hand back—
[Plunder Ability Activated.]
"...?!"
Why is this activating here?
He didn't even have time to be surprised.
Ju-Heon's hand pierced straight through Delreira's chest.
"Urgh!"
She gagged violently.
Yet...
No blood flowed.
Nothing emerged.
Ju-HeOn stared at his own hand in confusion.
He was holding something strangely familiar.
Thrust!
"Kuh!"
His hand passed completely through Delreira's body and emerged behind her back.
It was...
A Majesty's Heart.
A beautiful ornament resembling a gemstone.
The very same object the Divine Artifacts had once extracted from Yu Jae-ha's body.
The moment someone became a Majesty...
...their heart transformed into an artifact.
Yu Jae-ha's heart had merely been modified by Majesty Yu Jae-ha himself.
But that wasn't what shocked Ju-Heon.
It was simply—
"Give it back!"
Delreira desperately activated her power.
Jae-ha died after his heart was pulled out...
"Demeter artifact!"
"Bind that intruder!"
Well...
In Jae-ha's case, they had extracted his real heart rather than his Majesty Heart.
Ju-Heon glanced at Delreira.
She merely staggered backward in panic.
Delreira shouted again.
The artifact remained silent.
Why?!
"W-What is this?"
"Give me back my heart!"
The Demeter artifact did not respond.
She hurriedly tried activating her other artifacts.
None of them worked.
"I..."
"I can't use my artifacts?"
Shock overwhelmed Delreira.
Even if she wanted to use her Majesty authority...
...without her artifacts, she couldn't use any of her abilities.
Seeing her expression, Ju-Heon grinned.
"So you can't use artifacts anymore?"
Bitrain had personally chosen her for this position.
In exchange for creating the plagues desired by the Rulebook and the Twelve Executors...
"They promised..."
"...they'd make me one of the Twelve Executors...!"
"Oh."
"So because I stole this..."
"...you've become an ordinary person who can't use artifacts anymore?"
"...?!"
"A Majesty who can't use artifacts..."
"That's basically a death sentence."
Then Ju-Heon's eyes turned cold.
"The Twelve Executors?"
Delreira froze.
The people...
...who had taken his daughter.
At last, Ju-Heon grabbed Delreira by the hair.
"If you're going to steal..."
"...don't do it unless you're better at it than I am."
Terrified, Delreira reached out.
"...Give it back."
"My heart!"
"No."
"You still owe me rent."
"...What?"
Ju-Heon flashed a broad grin.
"I'll deduct it from your security deposit."