Chapter 12

Was it about ten years ago? Back when I was in high school, several dozen ordinary people entered a Gate with government approval.

China, I think.

A Gate was the kind of place where even Hunters could end up dead the moment they let their guard down, yet they were sending ordinary people inside? It really was the Miracle Continent.

On the day of the expedition ceremony when this insane stunt took place, their identities were revealed during an interview with the overseas press.

The Chinese Martial Arts Alliance.

In other words, they were modern-day Murim martial artists. Made up entirely of non-awakened people, they stood before hundreds of cameras with their robes fluttering and solemnly declared:

Today, Zhonghua’s¹ thousand-year martial lineage will be reborn in all its glory.

It certainly was glorious. Less than half a day later, their faces were plastered across the front pages of news outlets everywhere.

Chinese Martial Arts Alliance: Twenty-Five Members Massacred in an F-Rank Gate. More Than Half Confirmed Dead from Goblin Poison Needles…

I didn’t know how impressive a thousand-year martial lineage was supposed to be, but the incident humiliated China, and the Chinese Martial Arts Alliance was left with nothing but its signboard.

They got completely wrecked.

Some of the continent’s most renowned martial artists were killed by goblin poison needles, while a tai chi master got beaten senseless by a mixed martial arts fighter.

That was reality. I had always thought the scenes in novels and movies were fiction dressed up by the media and wrapped in a veil of mystery.

But…

Now, I wasn’t so sure. The movements Hyuk Mujin had shown me were real.

As I learned martial arts myself, my doubts gradually hardened into certainty. There was nothing weak or floppy about the martial arts here, unlike the ones in reality.

The martial arts of this world were systematic and incorporated countless movements. Real-world martial arts and boxing couldn’t even compare.

How is this possible? Is it simply because this is a game?

Ssshh. Hooouu.

As I breathed, I sensed the energy outside my body and drew it in.

Compared to the ten years of internal energy rotating through my acupoints, it was nothing but a speck of dust—small and weak. But I was in no position to complain about even that.

One circuit. Two…

I continued circulating my qi according to the formula of the Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique. It came naturally, as if I had been practicing it since childhood.

Gyeonjeong, Amun, Bongan, Ip-dong…

Names of acupoints I had never heard of in all my twenty-seven years surfaced and vanished in my mind. Hundreds of them had been engraved into my memory like that. Just how far did the System’s capabilities extend?

Now that I think about it, it’s downright bizarre.

The human brain wasn’t a computer. Yet the System had entered the information into my mind as if it were copying and pasting a file. The same was true of the other martial arts.

Was something like this really possible just because this was a game?

No. Focus on circulating qi for now.

I steadied my breathing and guided my internal energy once more. Only after circulating all ten years of internal energy through twelve complete circuits according to the formula of the Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique did I open my eyes.

Ding.

System

• You have completed Circulating Qi.

• Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique Mastery has increased slightly.

• A small amount of turbid qi has been expelled.

“Whew.”

The Third Stage of the Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique was within reach. I didn’t know whether it was because I had started from the very bottom, but my progress felt fairly fast.

Or it could be thanks to the Item.

I looked at the ring on my right middle finger.

It was the Item I had received as a Reward for completing the Unity of Self and Object achievement.

System

Item Window

Clear-Heart Pill

Type: Ring

Grade: None

Restriction: None

Description: An extremely hard ring made from an unidentified material. It calms the wearer’s mind and aids concentration.

The Clear-Heart Pill.² It looked different from the one I knew, but its effects were similar. Ever since I put it on, it had taken me less time to settle into circulating qi, and the Mastery I gained had increased.

It’s good, but…

I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling. I could chalk Logout up to some technical wizardry by engineers whose work I couldn’t begin to understand. But the martial arts formulas and this ring—the Clear-Heart Pill—made me uncomfortable in a way I couldn’t quite explain.

Was I supposed to call it the feeling of something being forcibly injected into me?

They might help me survive, but that didn’t make it a pleasant experience. This game was a piece of shit in more ways than one.

“What the hell is Seong Jinho doing? Some goshiwon³ manager he is.”

If he’d gotten up, he should have woken me so we could at least have a bowl of hangover soup. And yet, the fact that nothing had changed even now meant…

No. That’s not it.

At the very least, I was still alive in the real world. That was why I could still exist in this game as a player.

I was alive in reality and in the game. And I would make it out alive, no matter what. I had too much to live for and too many burdens on my shoulders to die a pointless death here.

I can’t die here.

I clenched my teeth and sat cross-legged. Perhaps it was the Clear-Heart Pill’s effect, but my mind gradually settled and my breathing steadied.

As the internal energy in my dantian began to stir, I started yet another session of circulating qi.

It was my second day in the training hall.

I devoted myself to training without rest. I practiced the Spear Technique and Manoeuvre Technique like a madman, and whenever I completely exhausted my internal energy, I immediately began circulating qi.

Ding.

System

• The realm of Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique has risen to the Third Stage.

• Your internal energy has become purer, allowing you to circulate qi more efficiently.

The Third Stage of the Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique. My progress had been slower than with the other two, but it wasn’t bad.

No, I was trying to convince myself it wasn’t bad.

This is the only way I can hold myself together.

At least training in martial arts let me drive away the dark thoughts. That was something to be grateful for.

Swish. Ssshk.

I performed the forms of the Jin Family’s Spear Technique one after another. Ever since I realized its connection to the Jin Family’s Manoeuvre Technique, my attacks had grown sharper and more precise, sweeping through the empty space before me.

In that empty space, I pictured someone.

Hyuk Mujin.

The first genuine martial artist I had met in this game. A Level 20 powerhouse who had toyed with me like a child.

Could I beat that bastard as I am now?

The instant the question crossed my mind—

Ding.

System

• A new function, Training Mode, has been activated.

• You can summon illusions of opponents you have fought. However, opponents whose Level differs from the user’s by ten or more cannot be summoned.

• Currently summonable opponents: Lv. 20 Hyuk Mujin, Lv. 10 Heavenly Axe

“Huh?”

Training Mode? I could summon illusions of opponents I had fought before?

After a brief hesitation, I decided to test the new function.

“Summon Hyuk Mujin.”

System

• Summoning Lv. 20 Hyuk Mujin.

The System notification had barely appeared when a transparent figure sprang into existence. He wore the navy martial uniform of the Jin Family of Taiyuan and had Hyuk Mujin’s distinctive caterpillar eyebrows. Standing there with his eyes closed, the figure looked exactly like him.

“Holy shit, it’s real.”

I cautiously approached and touched Hyuk Mujin’s body. Perhaps because he was an illusion, my hand passed straight through him.

Good. That passes the safety test.

System

• You can partially alter the summoned target’s abilities.

“Start him at about half of Hyuk Mujin’s strength.”

System

• Entering the data for Lv. 20 Hyuk Mujin. The illusion can use 50% of the original’s abilities.

At the same time, Hyuk Mujin’s illusion opened his eyes. Maybe it had copied his personality as well as his abilities, because he stared at me with the same insolent look.

System

• Would you like to begin training?

“Of course!”

Ding.

The System notification was the starting signal. I charged like lightning and thrust my spear. Even though I was fighting an illusion, I poured out my internal energy without holding back.

First form.

It began with a thrust as I advanced, followed by a twist of the spear shaft. If the enemy failed to evade that first attack, the fight was over.

Ssshwip—

But Hyuk Mujin slipped away like a loach. The next movement immediately became pointless.

Let’s see if you can dodge this too.

I continued unleashing the Spear Technique. The wind screamed as it was torn apart, but Hyuk Mujin dodged every attack.

For an instant, it seemed a sneer crossed his opaque face.

How can you fight so stupidly? A martial artist ought to use martial arts.

Those were the words he had thrown at me while toying with me last time. He was only an illusion I had created, but…

Damn, that pisses me off.

If you’re so confident, stop dodging and come at me.

Hyuk Mujin picked up on my thought and rushed at me in a smooth glide. But this was a fight between a spear and a fist. If I let him land that attack, it would mean I had spent the last seven years digging holes for nothing.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

Whoom—

I swung the spear shaft. If he had been real rather than an illusion, it would have landed with a solid thwack. Even if he dodged it, he would fail to close the distance.

Let’s see how far you can dodge.

I launched into the second form. Faced with the torrent of attacks, Hyuk Mujin didn’t dare approach and retreated step by step.

Combat had a flow. I had seized that flow, and Hyuk Mujin was being swept along by it. As I watched him roll across the ground with an exhausted expression, one thought came to mind.

He’s weak.

I could see his movements. The Hyuk Mujin projected here was a fist fighter. By watching his feet, I could tell how he would move and predict what he would do next.

His fists couldn’t reach me.

Ssshk-swish-swish!

In a single instant, I thrust three times in succession. It was an attack Jin Taekyung the F-rank Hunter could never have performed.

But Jin Taekyung the Murim martial artist could do it by drawing on his internal energy.

“Kraaagh!”

Hyuk Mujin seemed to scream as the spear pierced his chest.

Without hesitation, I drove it deeper and twisted. The spearhead crushed his breastbone and split his heart. Hyuk Mujin collapsed, his form slowly fading away.

“Ah. This is way too easy.”

The fight was over in less than five seconds.

I had held the advantage the entire time, and then it had ended anticlimactically.

Was half strength too weak?

I fell into thought while recovering the internal energy I had depleted by circulating qi.

Hyuk Mujin was Level 20 and a martial artist who had trained in martial arts for at least several years. There was no way he could be this weak.

All right. Again.

I stood with the spear in my hand and closed my eyes, picturing a new Hyuk Mujin.

One hundred eighty centimeters⁴ tall. Lean muscles and insolent eyes. I gave him the movements I had seen back then.

When I opened my eyes, an illusion stood before me exactly as I had imagined.

But I wasn’t finished yet. Hyuk Mujin needed to be stronger.

Your physical abilities are better than mine.

After I fed in a few more conditions, Hyuk Mujin’s illusion smiled pleasantly. He had become much faster and gained stamina that would never run out.

“Yeah. Now you’re worth fighting.”

Those words were the starting signal.

As Hyuk Mujin charged at me like a streak of light, I thrust my spear.

Ssshk-swish!

Vroooom. Boom!

The spearhead tore through the air. The air burst with the droning of a swarm of bees, whipping up a gust of wind.

It was the ultimate final form of the Jin Family’s Spear Technique.

Sky-Piercing Strike.

“Kheugh…”

Hyuk Mujin’s illusion looked down at the gaping hole in his chest. Disbelief filled his eyes. Then his knees buckled, and the illusion scattered.

“This isn’t right.”

As I heard the message announcing that my Mastery of the Jin Family’s Spear Technique had increased, I scratched my head.

Why am I still winning?

Had the System made a mistake, or…

Did I just get stronger?

I brushed the thought away as soon as it came to me. That couldn’t be it. I wasn’t some peerless genius. I had only learned a couple of martial arts.

This isn’t going to be much use at this rate.

The whole point was to simulate what would happen if I fought someone strong. What good was it if I kept winning?

If I at least knew which martial arts Hyuk Mujin had learned, I could draw out their power. But wait.

“There’s an easier way.”

The Jin Family’s Manoeuvre Technique and the Jin Family’s Spear Technique.

What if I gave both of them to the Level 20 Hyuk Mujin?

Seeing them used against me might even let me identify their strengths and weaknesses from an outside perspective.

Yeah. That would be better.

“You think so too, right?”

Hyuk Mujin’s illusion had reappeared at some point. It grinned and nodded.

“Then let’s fight again.”

I raised my spear diagonally and stepped forward with my left foot. Like my reflection in a mirror, the illusion assumed the exact same stance.

“You’ll regret this.”

“Regret, my ass.”

Now I was even talking to an illusion. If anyone saw me, there would be no denying I was a lunatic.

“Crazy bastard.”

…It was my own imagination, but it still pissed me off.

“You’re dead.”

Without hesitation, I pointed my spear at him.

Same weapon. Same martial arts.

This looked like it was going to be an interesting fight.

“Interesting? You really are a lunatic.”

Yeah. Fair point.

If I could find this fun in a situation like mine, I had to be pretty damn crazy too.