Chapter 13
Early morning.
Before even the sun properly rose, dull thumping sounds echoed from inside an inn room.
"48… huff…"
"49… huff…"
"50… HUFF…"
Ryo dropped face-first onto the floor.
His arms were trembling.
His breathing was rough.
Sweat soaked An Jin's thin body.
After a few seconds, he forced himself up while gasping.
"This body is complete trash."
"Even normal civilians can do more than fifty push-ups."
Ryo wiped the sweat from his chin and snorted.
"If I wasn't forcefully controlling this body with chakra…"
He looked at his skinny arms with disgust.
"…maybe ten was the limit."
A pause.
"No. Five."
The system became worried again.
"Host, with such a weak body, how are you planning to deal with the Dong and Dugu families?"
"How will you assassinate Dong Ji and the other grandchildren?"
Ryo stood up slowly and stretched his sore shoulders.
"Huff… System…"
A grin appeared on his face.
"…I'm a ninja."
The system suddenly felt something bad was coming.
Ryo continued calmly,
"Ninja assassination means the target dies."
"It doesn't matter whether they die by my hand…"
"…by accident…"
"…or by someone else's hand."
The system froze.
Then quickly realized.
"…Sharingan."
Ryo smirked.
"Looks like your memory hasn't completely rotted yet."
The system immediately protested,
"My memory is perfectly fin—"
"I can control people from the Dong and Dugu families using Genjutsu."
"Especially those close to Yan Pei."
"Then I simply give them proper reasons to kill."
The system became silent for a moment.
Then replied carefully,
"Host… although I don't know WHAT kind of 'proper reason' you'll give…"
"…I already know it definitely won't be proper."
Ryo laughed.
"Correct."
The system hesitated slightly before speaking again.
"Actually… I also wanted to ask another—"
"Yeah yeah, I know what you're going to ask."
Ryo waved his hand dismissively.
"You know?"
"I can easily control the entire Dong family directly."
"Yes."
"I can make them kill each other tomorrow if I want."
The system quietly listened.
"But…"
A dangerous smile slowly formed on Ryo's face.
"…I suddenly had the idea to make things more interesting."
The system instantly felt danger.
Mental danger.
Political danger.
World peace danger.
"I want to see how far my scheme can go without breaking."
"How long people can dance before realizing someone else is playing the music."
His smile widened.
"You can say…"
"…I'm doing this for fun."
The system became silent.
Very silent.
Then finally replied:
"…I have nothing to say."
Morning passed.
Then noon came and went.
And by afternoon—
rumors started spreading throughout the Imperial City.
At first, the rumors were small.
Quiet whispers between common people.
"Did you hear? Dugu Moli accepts beautiful young women as bribes."
"In exchange, he gives military positions."
Then one mouth became ten.
Ten became one hundred.
One hundred became ten thousand.
And like all rumors—
it slowly evolved into something horrifying.
By evening, the rumor had transformed into:
"Dugu Moli is a beast!"
"He accepts girls only eight or nine years old!"
"He does unspeakable things to them!"
"In exchange, he gives military positions and fake merits!"
"The prettier and younger the girl, the better the reward!"
At a roadside tea stall, several men were gossiping passionately.
One passerby whispered dramatically,
"My uncle's cousin's neighbor's friend's neighbor worked in Dugu Manor."
Everyone immediately leaned closer.
"When Dugu Moli was around twelve, he secretly brought little girls into his room at night."
"The next morning…"
The man lowered his voice.
"…those girls were never seen again."
The listeners gasped.
"Back then, the rebellion war limited his chances to hunt girls…"
"That's why he became such an angry man later."
Another person quickly added,
"A few days ago, I saw Dugu Moli in civilian clothes at the market."
"Nobody recognized him, but I had seen him before in official robes."
"So I kept watching."
The man slapped the table.
"I even saw him helping a beautiful five-year-old girl who fell on the street!"
The surrounding people sighed emotionally.
"I even thouth what a kind man he is."
Then the man's face darkened.
"But NOW I understand!"
Everyone froze.
"He was searching for his next prey!"
The crowd exploded instantly.
"What a beast!"
"Disgusting!"
At that moment, a cautious-looking man asked nervously,
"Brothers… where are you hearing these stories from?"
"What if these are fake rumors?"
"Your whole families could be in danger!"
The atmosphere became awkward for a moment.
Then—
a skinny servant-looking man with crooked teeth suddenly spoke confidently.
"Don't worry, brothers!"
Everyone looked at him.
"Although I, Whang, am not educated…"
He proudly puffed his chest.
"…I know these rumors are true!"
"How?"
"I heard it from my cousin's friend!"
The crowd instantly trusted him more.
Because in rumor logic—
"cousin's friend" was basically imperial evidence.
The skinny man continued dramatically,
"He heard it directly from a recently promoted military general's younger brother while drunk!"
Everyone became serious.
"The drunk man said—"
The servant imitated a drunken voice:
'What great achievement did my brother even accomplish?!'
'He's only slightly stronger than a civilian!'
'All he did was send Dugu Moli ten young girls and one hundred gold coins!'
'The Dugu family controls military positions anyway!'
'Giving him promotion was easy!'
The crowd's eyes widened.
The servant continued excitedly:
'If it was just money, then I could also get promoted!'
'But I only have gold!'
'I don't have enough young girls!'
'That bastard Dugu Moli didn't even look at my money!'
'He should've at least given my family face!'"
The moment those words came out—
everyone's minds connected the dots.
Recently, only one military person had gotten promoted.
Dong Zu.
From the Dong family.
And his younger brother—
Dong Ji—
was famous throughout the city for being a useless playboy.
Instantly—
the case was solved in everyone's hearts.
"Dong Ji himself confirmed it while drunk!"
"Then the rumors must be true!"
"Dugu Moli is truly a beast!"
Similar scenes happened all over the Imperial City.
Different streets.
Different tea shops.
Different people.
But always the same rumor.
And always—
someone appeared with "evidence."
In just one day—
Dong Ji became Dugu Moli's second most hated person.
And Dugu Moli became Dong Ji's second most hated person.
The first most hated person…
was naturally the bastard using their names to spread rumors.
Inside the inn room—
the system stared blankly at everything happening.
Then slowly turned toward Ryo.
"Congratulations, Host."
Ryo calmly drank tea.
"Thank you."
"You perfectly used Shadow Clone Jutsu and Transformation Jutsu to create a city-wide rumor tide."
"I know."
The system twitched slightly.
"…Host."
"What now?"
"After this…"
"…Dong Ji definitely won't leave Dong Manor anymore."
Ryo smiled calmly.
Then slowly placed the teacup down.
"That's fine."
His Sharingan spun slowly.
"If the prey won't leave the cage…"
A dangerous smile appeared on his face.
"…then the hunter simply enters the cage."
"Tonight will be a bloody night."
Chapter End