Chapter 96

When I regained consciousness and opened my eyes, I saw a familiar ceiling and system notifications I hadn’t yet reviewed.

“[The Dwelling Proclamation has reached Level 30.]”

“[You have acquired 3 skill points.]”

The notification regarding the skill point acquisition appeared, followed by another:

“[The number of citizens has reached 100,000.]”

“[The increase in the citizen population has unlocked the ‘Power of the Star.’]”

The newly unlocked feature was tied to the growing citizen population.

Checking the citizen information revealed it to be a type of enhancement system. By investing money, I could strengthen the citizens.

Each enhancement added a star, increasing their overall stats—a system that seemed quite useful.

Naturally, the category of “citizens” included the retainers, meaning I could now enhance them as well.

“Thanks to the Crown, the enhancement effects will be doubled.”

I decided to focus on enhancing the retainers first before considering the other citizens.

“How much time has passed?”

The last thing I remembered was alternating between fainting from pain and waking up again, only to be plunged back into suffering.

The countless cycles of consciousness and unconsciousness made it difficult to gauge the passage of time.

“Has it been about a day?”

I got out of bed and drew the curtains, revealing the sun high in the sky.

Since it had been midnight when I leveled up after killing the progenitor, at least several hours had passed.

“That was close.”

The sudden expansion of the domain brought a surge of new people into the system.

However, I had been in too much pain to manually grant citizenship to the newcomers.

“Good thing I automated citizenship allocation.”

I had temporarily enabled an automated system to process the influx of survivors pouring in from Ulsan to Homeplus. This decision also benefited those arriving from Busan.

Without it, the newly arrived people would have been unable to move until I regained consciousness.

The longer I remained unconscious, the greater the suffering they would have endured.

“It’s a relief, but… it’s also more work.”

I’d need to carefully inspect the new arrivals to ensure none of them were vampires in disguise.

“Still, I almost didn’t make it.”

The pain from leveling up five times in one go was overwhelming.

The agony of leveling up had been intensifying with each progression, and jumping from Level 27 to 32 brought an entirely new level of torment.

“Absolute Dweller’s Eye.”

As soon as I stabilized and regained full awareness, I activated the skill to check the retainers’ locations.

The operation was still ongoing.

Thankfully, there were hardly any vampires left, and no battles were taking place.

The retainers were entirely focused on rescuing survivors.

However, I couldn’t sense the connection with three of them.

“…Did three of them die?”

Kim Ji-tae, Shin Ah-young, and Hong Gyeok-taek were gone.

I hadn’t expected to complete the operation without casualties, but seeing the losses firsthand left a bitter taste in my mouth.

“...”

I offered a moment of silent tribute to honor their souls, then used the Ring of Communication to assess the situation.

I reached out to Seo Ye-jin, who was seated cross-legged at the Homeplus command post, busily controlling her rodents.

“[Ye-jin.]”

“Oh, Oppa?”

She opened her eyes, looking around.

“[Can you brief me on the current situation?]”

Nodding, Seo Ye-jin began to speak.

“Yeah. Just like you ordered, we’ve been prioritizing rescuing survivors for the past two days. Luckily, after you killed the vampire progenitor, the berserk state of the lower-ranked vampires disappeared except for the weakest ones…”

“[Wait a moment. Two days? Are you saying I’ve been unconscious for two days?]”

“Yes.”

Her eyes were filled with concern.

“It’s because of that, isn’t it? How are you feeling? Are you okay?”

“[…I’m fine now.]”

“Thank goodness.”

She let out a sigh of relief before asking, “Where are you right now?”

“[At home. I’ll come over soon.]”

“Got it.”

Using the Absolute Dweller’s Door, I teleported to the Homeplus command post to inspect the overall situation. There wasn’t much for me to intervene in.

The weakest vampires, even in their berserk state, were so feeble that the retainers were easily dealing with them.

The real problem lay hidden among the survivors.

“Keek!”

Lower and mid-tier vampires, indistinguishable from normal humans at a glance, had infiltrated by mingling with the survivors.

The foolish ones who obtained citizenship revealed their identities instantly and were subdued by Jang Sung-jun’s telekinesis before being confined in the basement.

The vampires weren’t executed outright because they had gained citizenship.

Killing a citizen would incur massive penalties as a “murderer,” so confinement was the only option.

“[Execute them.]”

One by one, I revoked their citizenship and hunted them down, eliminating all the vampires.

After clearing out all the vampires from the basement, I asked Seo Ye-jin:

“The survivors don’t seem very cooperative. When did this start?”

“Hmm. I think it began after the vampires’ berserk state ended.”

When the berserk vampires were threatening their lives, the survivors had come to Homeplus seeking safety at all costs.

But now that the progenitor was dead and the berserk state had ended, they saw no reason to follow our directives anymore.

Instead, many had grown suspicious of us.

“Let’s leave it be for now.”@@novelbin@@

“The survivors?”

“If they don’t want to cooperate, we’ll leave them alone.”

“But…”

“Why? Is there a problem?”

Seo Ye-jin sighed softly.

“The monsters from the surrounding areas are starting to gather in Ulsan.”

“Monsters?”

“Yes. They must have sensed the progenitor’s death.”

With the domain’s ruler gone, other creatures were moving in to claim the vacant territory.

“Hmm.”

The people in Ulsan likely had no understanding of the threat posed by these monsters.

Living within the safety of the vampires’ walls, they had no idea they were merely livestock.

“Let’s withdraw for now.”

“Are you sure that’s okay?”

“Dragging them along against their will would only breed resentment. It’s better to let them come to us when they’re ready.”

Although some would inevitably fall victim to the monsters during that time, it was a better option than fostering unnecessary conflict.

“Summon Retainers.”

After recalling all retainers scattered across Ulsan, I addressed them.

“Thank you for your hard work. This concludes the operation.”

Returning home after wrapping up the situation in Ulsan, I took stock of the current state of affairs.

“The domain has expanded significantly.”

Even at Level 27, it had already stretched close to the sea. Now, at Level 32, it had expanded to include part of the ocean.

Using the Absolute Dweller’s Eye, I could see the seabed clearly. Oddly, there seemed to be more plastic waste than marine life.

“I can’t even gauge how vast it is.”

Surveying only the edges of the domain made it impossible to grasp its full extent.

“Maybe this will work.”

Switching to construction mode, I observed the domain from a high vantage point. This allowed me to estimate its scale.

“It’s nearly merged with the annex domain.”

The two overlapping domains near Busan Station, which had previously intersected only slightly, now resembled a Venn diagram with more than half their areas merged.

Since the overlap covered most of Busan’s major districts, it effectively meant the entire city was now part of my domain.

“This overlapping part must have eased the pain considerably,” I thought.

Even so, the sheer agony had been unbearable.

“If it hadn’t been for the overlap...”

The pain might have been enough to send me into shock and kill me.

“I really need to find a way to manage this.”

Surveying the expanded domain left me with a bitter taste.

“So, only 100,000 people survived in this vast area?”

Of the 230,000 survivors, 30,000 had been rescued from Ulsan, meaning only 100,000 were left in Busan.

“Too many people died.”

With Busan’s original population around 3 million, this meant a survival rate of just 7%.

In just a few months since monsters appeared, 93% of the population had perished.

“The new survivors are mostly clustered around water sources.”

The Nakdong River, Suyeong River, and Oncheoncheon Stream were key locations.

Those who had managed to survive over the past few months had gathered near these rivers.

“But the situation here doesn’t look great either.”

While proximity to water solved the problem of drinking water, food remained an issue.

A quick inspection revealed they had been surviving by hunting monsters.

They had been using creatures like the Sky Marlin, which came from the sea, as food.

However, with the recent expansion of my domain, the surrounding monsters had been eradicated.

“I’ve accidentally wiped out their food source.”

Some areas near the Nakdong River still bordered monster zones, so hunting was technically possible. But for those granted citizenship, hunting monsters yielded no usable resources as the corpses disappeared.

“Good thing the trading system exists.”

Many survivors had been using the trading system to buy food with the money earned from hunting monsters.

“I should build some shops and facilities nearby, maybe assign a few hunters...”

There didn’t seem to be a need to forcibly merge these groups with the ones in Seomyeon.

They had already established their own hierarchies and rules, and forcing integration would likely lead to friction.

A few basic forms of support would suffice to help them survive on their own.

“Setting up an instant dungeon nearby should do the trick.”

I didn’t intend to take responsibility for everyone.

“But I need to make them see the benefits of obtaining citizenship.”

I was nearing the limit of how many people I could grant citizenship to.

“At Level 32, I can have up to 320,000 citizens.”

Of those, I had already accepted over 230,000.

“When I was at lower levels, the number of citizens I could accept grew significantly with every five levels.”

From hundreds to thousands to tens of thousands.

But now, the limit had plateaued at 10,000 per level.

“There will come a time when I can’t grant citizenship anymore.”

When that happened, I would need to be more selective about who received it.

Those without citizenship would be forced to live outside my domain.

“Hmm. But...”

There was one strange thing I had noticed.

“Why are there so many Awakened here?”

Far downstream of the Nakdong River, far from where I was.

Like Ulsan, this area seemed to have a relatively high proportion of Awakened individuals.

“Even if most of them have low-level abilities, the number of Awakened here is unexpectedly high.”

Was it just coincidence that there were fewer Awakened in Seomyeon?

“Maybe the high number of non-Awakened survivors in Seomyeon was because of me. Or perhaps...”

Several hypotheses came to mind.

“Maybe my presence suppresses the number of Awakened.”

If the amount of energy available for Awakening in a given area was finite, I might have absorbed it all myself.

“...My powers are absurd, after all.”

Citizens granted my citizenship were vastly stronger than ordinary people on average.

Without being Awakened, they couldn’t gain anything from hunting monsters.

But those with citizenship gained experience points from monster hunts and grew stronger.

For citizens under Level 15, even exercising at a gym could raise their level.

It was only natural that my citizens had higher average levels.

“In a way, every citizen I accept is like a low-level Awakened individual.”

The sheer magnitude of my power became clear to me once again.

“It’s overwhelming.”

I suddenly recalled the words of the progenitor.

It had spoken of me as if I were an existence that didn’t belong here.

I opened my hand and let my power manifest.

Fwoosh.

Black energy surged like flames.

“What exactly is this?”

The progenitor had clearly known more than I did.

“It wasn’t a human turned vampire.”

I was sure of it.

The system had determined it wasn’t an entity eligible for citizenship.

Its immense power.

The subtle nuances in our brief exchange.

Everything about it was fundamentally different from other vampires.

“It was a monster.”

Like goblins and orcs, it was a creature from another world that had crossed over here.

“Where do monsters even come from?”

It was an old question.

From the moment goblins appeared on the apartment walking path and I awakened my power, becoming trapped inside my own home, the question had lingered in my mind.

“...Hah. Whatever. Let’s test the new feature.”

The Power of the Star.

The first citizen to receive a star would, of course, be—

“Moon Byeong-ho.”