The sensation of entering the Demon Realm Gate was not a simple transition of space.
For Yoo Joonghyuk, an existence who had reached the Fourth Level of Transcendence and held the shares of multiple Giant Stories, it felt like being shoved through a keyhole while possessing the volume of a mountain.
In the void between realms, the Rejective Force manifested as a physical weight—a grinding, metaphysical pressure that sought to strip him of his "Status."
To the Gate, Yoo Joonghyuk was a foreign anomaly, a variable from a different logic that threatened to break the narrative of Arunheim.
'You... will not... suppress me,' Joonghyuk roared internally.
He felt the [Giant Story: Torch That Swallowed the Myth] flare up, its embers clashing against the violet mana of the Gate.
It was a battle of "Probability."
The Gate demanded he take a role within its script; Joonghyuk demanded to remain the Supreme King.
The result was a brutal compromise. His stories were crushed, folded, and sealed behind a wall of systemic "Lag." His transcendence was buried under layers of "Constraint."
When the crushing pressure finally subsided, it was replaced by the stinging scent of ammonia and damp stone.
Yoo Joonghyuk's eyes snapped open.
He didn't jump to his feet. He lay still, analyzing his environment with cold, surgical precision.
The ceiling was low, covered in a thick, gray-green mold that seemed to pulse with a faint, sickly life. The air was heavy with the smell of stagnant water and old wood. He was lying on a pallet of straw that felt more like a collection of needles than a bed.
He tried to sit up.
A wave of dizziness, the "Rejective Force" taking its toll, washed over him.
His muscles felt like lead.
His skin felt... sensitive.
He looked down.
The black coat, the reinforced armor, the spatial belt—all gone.
In their place was a single, sack-like tunic made of coarse, unwashed burlap.
It was sleeveless, revealing his muscular arms, but the fabric was so rough it felt like it was woven from sandpaper. He was essentially naked beneath the itchy garment.
"Kim Dokja," Joonghyuk muttered, his voice a raspy growl. "If you are watching this, I will kill you. I will kill you even if you have a hundred lives left."
He instinctively reached for the hilt of the [Black Demon Sword].
His hand grasped empty air.
He tried to summon his status window.
[SYSTEM_SYNC::#$RECALIBRATING...]
[The 'Star Stream' is struggling to interpret your current 'Role'.]
[The 'World Will' has assigned you a temporary identity.]
===
[Status Window]
Name: Yoo Joonghyuk
Role: [Imperial Palace Custodian – F-Rank (Trash Tier)]
Current Location: Lorenzio Palace – Servant's Block C
Rejective Force Level: 99% (All stats suppressed)
Strength: 2 (+1)
Stamina: 2 (+1)
Speed: 2 (+1)
Magic Power: 0.1 (+0.1)
[Skills & Stories]
Active Skills: [LOCKED]
Passive Skills: [Sage's Eye - Lv.1 (Restricted)], [Weapon Enhancement - Lv.1]
Stories: [1% Output - Passive Buff Only]
[Current Equipment]
[Rusted Iron Bucket]: A bucket that leaks if filled past the halfway mark.
[Slippery Wooden Mop]: A mop made of poor-quality wool. It tends to spread dirt rather than remove it.
===
Joonghyuk stared at the screen for a full minute.
The silence in the room was absolute, save for the sound of a cockroach scuttling across the moldy floor.
The Supreme King, the man who had faced the Outer Gods, Myth Grade Constellations, the man who had stood at the end of the world, was now an F-rank janitor. The absurdity was so profound it felt like a mental attack from an Outer Deity.
The door to his quarters slammed open, hitting the stone wall with a resounding crack.
A man in a polished leather cuirass stepped in.
He carried a short sword at his hip and a look of immense self-importance on his face.
This was a D-rank palace guard—a lackey belonging to the knight Draven's unit.
"Oi! You! Unit 04-B!" the guard barked, pointing a gloved finger at Joonghyuk. "Why are you still on your pallet? The sun is rising, and the Prince's stables don't clean themselves!"
Joonghyuk slowly rose to his feet.
Even in a burlap tunic, even with his stats reduced to the level of a sickly child, the aura he emitted was that of a predator.
His eyes, the [Sage's Eye] flickering with a faint gold light, fixed on the guard's throat.
The guard flinched.
A cold sweat broke out on his neck.
For a moment, he felt as if his soul was being weighed on a scale and found wanting. He stepped back, his hand instinctively going to his sword.
"W-What are you looking at, peasant? Do your job!"
Joonghyuk didn't speak.
He didn't need to.
He visualized the [Splitting the Sky Sword].
He gathered the 1% output of his Giant Stories into his right arm.
Even if his strength was 2, the concept of his technique should be enough to decapitate this insect.
He reached for the "weapon" leaning against the wall—the [Slippery Wooden Mop].
Joonghyuk moved.
It was a blur of motion, a shadow of the speed he once possessed.
He swung the mop in a perfect arc, the tip of the wet, gray wool aiming for the guard's temple.
"Splitting the Sky—!"
SLAP.
The mop hit the guard's face with a wet, squelching sound.
Because the mop was old and poorly maintained, a glob of gray, soapy water flew into the guard's open mouth.
The "attack" carried no physical weight; it was essentially like being hit by a heavy, wet rag.
[System Alert!]
[Your 'Strength' is too low to activate 'Splitting the Sky Sword'.]
[The target has suffered 0 damage.]
[The target is 'Slightly Damp' and 'Highly Confused'.]
The guard stood frozen, a piece of gray lint stuck to his eyebrow. He blinked, tasting the bitter, lye-heavy soap on his tongue.
"You..." the guard stuttered, his face turning a deep crimson. "You just... you mopped me?"
Joonghyuk looked at the mop in his hand.
The wooden handle was slightly bent.
The wool was dripping.
He felt a vein throb in his forehead.
"The mop slipped," Joonghyuk said, his voice cold enough to freeze the soap on the guard's face.
The guard wanted to scream.
He wanted to draw his sword and execute this insolent servant.
But he couldn't move.
Joonghyuk's "Killing Aura"—a remnant of his status—was so thick it felt like physical chains.
The guard's lizard brain was screaming at him to run.
"J-Just... the stables! Now!" the guard yelled, his voice cracking. He turned and practically ran down the hallway, tripping over his own cape in his haste to get away from the "Crazy Janitor."
The stables of Duke Lorenzio's palace were a disaster.
Fifty horses, all high-bred and heavily fed, lived in a space that hadn't seen a proper cleaning in a week.
The floor was a mosaic of manure, rotted hay, and mud.
The smell was a physical barrier.
Joonghyuk stood at the entrance, holding his rusted bucket.
[You will face further restrictions if your responsibilities are not fulfilled!]
'To think I am doing this,' he thought.
He looked at the manure.
His [Sage's Eye] activated.
In the Star Stream, he used this eye to see the attributes of gods and the weaknesses of nebulas.
Now, the skill adapted to his "Role."
[Skill: Sage's Eye is analyzing the 'Filth Density'.]
[Algorithm Detected: Manure Pathing.]
[Dust Trajectory identified.]
The world shifted.
To Joonghyuk's eyes, the stable floor was no longer just dirt.
It was a tactical map.
He saw the "Nodes of Filth" and the "Lines of Efficient Sweeping."
"I'm gonna destroy this world," Joonghyuk muttered, his grip tightening on the mop.
He began.
He moved like a martial artist performing a kata.
Every thrust of the mop was a strike; every sweep of the bucket was a parry.
Swish.
Splash.
Scrub.
He used everything he had on the mop.
The poor-quality wool began to glow with a faint, white light, its fibers becoming as rigid as wire. He wasn't just wiping the floor; he was exorcising the grime.
Hour after hour passed.
Joonghyuk's burlap tunic was drenched in sweat and stable water.
His hands, though calloused from centuries of swordplay, began to blister from the friction of the wooden handle.
But he didn't stop.
He couldn't.
Every time he cleared a square meter of the floor to [Perfect Cleanliness], a small message appeared.
[Your 'Janitor' Acting Rate has increased by 0.01%.]
[Your 'Strength' has increased by 0.01.]
It was a grueling, humiliating grind.
But Joonghyuk was a Regressor.
He was the master of the grind.
He had spent months in his previous regression doing nothing but swinging a sword at a tree in Murim.
Cleaning a stable was merely a different form of meditation.(At least that's what he thought to calm himself down ;3)
As he worked, his mind wandered to the bigger picture.
This "Arunheim" was a reconstructed memory of the devil's birth.
If Joonghyuk wanted to regain his power, he had to "Clean" this world—meaning he had to remove the stains Baal had left on the narrative.
By noon, the horses were staring at him in silence.
Usually, they were skittish around servants, but they sensed the staggering "Status" hidden within this man in burlap. They stood perfectly still as he cleaned under their hooves, sensing that if they moved, this man might actually try to "mop" them into oblivion.
Finally, the last pile of manure was bucketed. The last tile was scrubbed until the stone's original gray luster returned.
[System Notification!]
[You have achieved 'Perfect Cleanliness' in the Imperial Stables!]
[The 'Star Will' is impressed by your obsessive attention to detail.]
[Hidden Achievement Unlocked: 'The One Who Sweeps the Path for Kings'.]
[Rewards:]
Strength +2
Stamina +2
Magic Power +0.5
Item Upgrade: [Slippery Wooden Mop] has evolved into [The Janitor's Sturdy Polearm].
Joonghyuk felt a surge of warmth in his limbs. The leaden weight of the Rejective Force lifted slightly. He could feel his heart beating with more vigor.
He looked at his mop. The wood had hardened into something resembling black iron, and the wool had been replaced by a dense, magical fiber that didn't slip. It felt... balanced. It felt like a spear.
"Is this my sword for this world?" Joonghyuk looked at the tool with a mix of respect and deep, burning hatred.
When he caught himself feeling respect he threw the mop on the floor.
'Tsk, acting as Beyonder didn't affect me that much...'
He walked out of the stables, his head held high.
The D-rank guard from earlier was waiting outside, ready to mock him.
But when the guard saw Joonghyuk—covered in filth, yet radiating a status that seemed to make the very air vibrate—the words died in his throat.
"I have finished," Joonghyuk said, leaning the "polearm" against his shoulder. "Tell your commander that if he wishes for the palace to be clean, he should stay out of my way."
He walked past the trembling guard, heading toward the main palace.
He could smell the "Lotus Flower" perfume from the merchant district.
The Supreme King was back. And he was going to make this world spotless.(;3)