The Jin Family’s Spear Technique consisted of seven forms. The last of them, Sky-Piercing Strike, smashed into the steel dummy.
Boom!
With a deafening crash, the dummy’s chest caved in and it slammed into the wall. As I drew back my spear, Jin Mukyung’s voice reached my ears.
“The Jin Family’s Spear Technique is passable.”
“Uh, yes.”
“The Jin Family’s Manoeuvre Technique is about the same.”
Wait. Had I ever told him what martial arts I had learned?
As I searched my memory, Jin Mukyung let out a quiet laugh.
“Do you know why I entered Heaven’s Gate Temple?”
“Um. Because you couldn’t stand the sight of me?”
“…That’s not entirely wrong.”
He muttered under his breath and nodded, then suddenly caught himself.
“Ahem. There was a more important reason than that.”
“What was it?”
“There were no martial arts left for me to learn in our family.”
“What?”
“I needed something new. As luck would have it, Heaven’s Gate Temple offered me admission, and I had no reason to refuse.”
“Then what about the Jin Family’s Spear Technique?”
“I just told you. There was nothing left for me to learn.”
“No, but you’re a swordsman.”
“So?”
“Huh?”
“Don’t you eat side dishes with your rice?”
“That’s different.”
“It’s the same to me.”
It’s different to me.
I’ve learned to use several different weapons, too, but…
My situation was completely different from Jin Mukyung’s. That had not been martial arts. It had been a desperate struggle to survive my battles with monsters.
Once I became accustomed to the spear, I had not had the time to look elsewhere.
Focusing on just one thing was already difficult enough.
“You look like you don’t understand. It’ll be faster if I show you.”
Shing.
Jin Mukyung drew his sword and stood before the steel dummy.
He flexed his hands for a moment to warm up, then murmured, “Let’s try it like this.”
His legs crossed in a blur. A flash followed, slamming into the steel dummy’s chest.
Swoooosh! Boom!
I was speechless. The form was slightly different, but the movements were familiar. There was no way I could fail to recognize them.
“This is…”
“Sky-Piercing Strike. The final form of the Jin Family’s Spear Technique. Though in this case, I suppose I should call it the Jin Sword Technique.”
For a moment, I could not speak. Then I remembered something I had briefly forgotten.
Jin Mukyung was a genius. An ordinary person might struggle just to finish a bowl of plain rice, but Jin Mukyung could digest an eight-dish spread without trouble.
Genius. Genius. I’d only ever heard the word before.
By adding and removing just a few simple movements, he had transformed the Jin Family’s Spear Technique into a sword technique.
A genius of martial arts. The rumors had not been exaggerated in the slightest.
This bastard… He’s the real deal.
The System helped its user grow quickly. It did not turn them into a genius. But Jin Mukyung had been born one.
The move he had just shown me was probably no more than the tip of the iceberg. The thought sent a chill down my spine.
“Are you listening to me?”
His cold voice snapped me back to my senses.
“Ah, yes.”
“Your hyung1 went to the trouble of giving you a demonstration, and you dare let your mind wander?”
Flick!
“Gah.”
My vision flashed. Jin Mukyung watched me suffer with satisfaction before speaking again.
“I’ll explain it one more time, so concentrate. Understand?”
“Gnh. Yes, sir.”
“Anyway, martial arts are…”
“…”
“Uh, martial arts are… Ah, damn it.”
Jin Mukyung’s face flushed red as he shouted.
“You made me forget!”
Whack!
You fucking bastard…
In the end, Jin Mukyung chose conversation as his method.
A physical conversation.
“You don’t understand when things are explained in words. It’ll be faster for you to experience them with your body.”
“W-Wait a moment.”
“There’s no ‘wait a moment’ in real combat. Would you say that to someone who came to kill you? ‘I’m nervous, so I need to take a piss first.’ Do you think he’d tell you to go take a shit while you’re at it?”
“We’re sparring right now!”
“Huh? Informal speech again. You’re dead.”
Jin Mukyung tightened his grip on his wooden sword and charged at me like a leopard.
I threw myself aside without waiting to see what happened.
Boom!
Leaving the bone-rattling crash behind me, I snatched a wooden practice spear from the rack. An ominous voice followed close behind.
“From now on, I’ll teach you a lesson.”
Swoooosh!
The sound of air tearing was anything but ordinary. I turned and swung my spear at the same time, but I was already too late. The faintly upturned corner of Jin Mukyung’s mouth was right in front of me.
“First.”
Thud!
His fist shot up from below and struck my lower jaw. My feet left the ground against my will.
Through my wavering vision, Jin Mukyung’s voice continued.
“When fighting someone more skilled than yourself, be cautious.”
The next moment, Jin Mukyung’s palm struck my chest. With a bang like a bursting balloon, I flew backward and slid all the way to the wall.
“Cough.”
My organs did not spill out along with a mouthful of blood. When I lifted my head, I saw Jin Mukyung slowly walking toward me.
“You scared little brat. Did you really think your hyung1 would use internal energy against his younger brother?”
I answered gruffly.
“Then throw away the wooden sword.”
“I can’t. It feels better with this.”
That was the confidence of the strong. Even so, he was not careless enough to discard his weapon.
This is going to be difficult.
Fortunately, Jin Mukyung was easy to provoke.
Especially when it came to me.
“Did you chicken out?”
“What?”
The smile vanished from Jin Mukyung’s face. I was afraid of what he might do to me later, but that was a problem for later. Right now, I wanted to beat the bastard in front of me somehow.
“I asked if you chickened out.”
“I don’t really know what that means… but it’s really pissing me off.”
The instant he finished speaking, Jin Mukyung rushed at me. His movements were noticeably rougher than before. I knocked aside the wooden sword descending toward my shoulder with the shaft of my spear.
Krrrk.
Did they coat this wooden sword with glue?
I needed to open up some distance, but the sword would not come away. It coiled around my spear shaft like a snake and thrust toward me.
“What the hell is this?”
“What else? The Jin Family’s Spear Technique. No, the Jin Sword Technique.”
The Jin Sword Technique? This?
“It’s completely different from what you showed me earlier!”
“Ah. I mixed in a few other sword techniques.”
“That’s cheating!”
“Second. Never forget that while you were drinking yourself stupid with women, I was training in blood and sweat.”
At the same time, the wooden sword slammed into my side.
Thud!
Never mind the pain; a deep fury surged through me.
What? Drinking with women?
While everyone else was holding hands with their girlfriends and going on Christmas dates, I was having a group date with monsters in a Gate, you fucking bastard!
Whack-whack-whack!
The wooden sword pounded my thigh and forearm in quick succession, but I felt nothing. My anger had overwhelmed the pain.
I gritted my teeth and sent my spear flying in every direction.
Sshh-shh-shhk! Clang!
Under the sharp assault, Jin Mukyung began to give ground little by little. Combat was all about momentum. My instincts, honed through countless real battles, whispered to me.
Now!
I brought my spear down with all my strength toward the crown of his head.
Boom!
The crash was loud enough to leave my ears ringing. But the attack had not landed properly.
Jin Mukyung raised his sword and blocked the spear with ease. He snorted.
“Too obvious.”
“Yeah. If it’s too obvious, it’s no fun.”
With a triumphant grin, I drove my fist toward his abdomen.
It’s a feint, you bastard!
The provocation and the attack before it had all been for this moment.
At this distance, martial arts did not matter. One punch to the solar plexus, and not even a Peak master’s grandfather would stand a chance.
It’s over.
My fist, carrying all the resentment I had built up, slammed into Jin Mukyung’s solar plexus.
Clang!
…Clang?
What the hell was that?
My confusion lasted only a moment before a scream burst out.
From my mouth.
“Argh! My hand!”
It hurt! And it hurt like hell!
Through my pain-blurred vision, I saw Jin Mukyung bashfully lift his shirt. A bulging leather vest appeared beneath his martial arts uniform.
What is that?
A bulletproof vest? No. But it looked like it could stop bullets. Every pocket in the leather vest had been crammed full of iron ingots.
“Third…”
Jin Mukyung pulled a dented iron ingot from a pocket near his solar plexus. My fistprint was clearly visible.
“Fight only after discerning your opponent’s intentions.”
“Why the hell are you wearing that?”
“Fourth. Never neglect physical conditioning, even in everyday life.”
“Damn it!”
Martial arts? Forms? To hell with all that. I cast off the awkward guise of a martial artist and returned to being a Hunter with seven years of experience.
My hand was already injured, so properly using the Jin Family’s Spear Technique would be difficult. Besides, Jin Mukyung knew every martial art I had learned.
I’ll show you what a real fight looks like.
With all my strength, I kicked Jin Mukyung in the shin as he grinned triumphantly. It was a decisive technique known as a soccer kick, or simply a shin-kick.
I had never seen anyone stay fine after taking one of these.
Clang!
Add one more to the list.
“You fucking—”
“You idiot.”
Jin Mukyung looked down at me as I collapsed, clutching my foot. His expression seemed to say that I was the most pathetic person alive.
“Fifth… Never mind. I’m getting tired of talking.”
He pulled a flat metal plate from beneath his pant leg and strode toward me. I tried to limp to my feet, but he kicked my ankle out from under me and sent me back down.
Damn it.
It was over.
If I used Inventory, I might have a chance to turn things around, but I did not want to do something so blatantly suspicious right in front of him. I lowered my head with a sigh.
“Let’s stop.”
“You want to stop?”
I lifted my head at his hard voice. Jin Mukyung’s face had gone cold.
“After only this much?”
The man who had been grinning as he gleefully beat me only moments ago was nowhere to be seen.
His emotionless gaze made my skin prickle. My Adam’s apple bobbed.
Gulp.
Almost simultaneously with the sound of me swallowing, the wooden sword slammed into my right shoulder.
My arm buckled with a thud, throwing me off balance.
“Guh. What the hell are you doing…?”
Jin Mukyung ignored me and swung the wooden sword again. The Jin Mukyung standing before me now seemed unable to hear the voice of the defeated.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
He struck my left arm, then both legs. Only then did his hand stop.
“You just had all four limbs cut off. By a vicious Peak master of the dark path2 who is several times stronger than you.”
“…”
“If he were even nastier, he’d have other methods.”
Tap-tap-tap.
The instant Jin Mukyung’s hand blurred, my entire body went rigid and my tongue curled back. The System immediately alerted me to the abnormal conditions.
Beep!
System
The Paralysis Acupoint has been subdued. You will be paralyzed for two hours!
The Mute Acupoint has been subdued. You will be unable to make a sound for two hours!
I could not move so much as a hair or make a single sound.
A breathing corpse. In my current state, even a child could kill me.
Jin Mukyung. You insane bastard!
The curses could only circle inside my head, unable to escape my lips. All I could do was glare at him. Jin Mukyung calmly met my furious gaze.
“Tendon-Splitting and Bone-Twisting is a cruel technique. Within an hour at most, your qi and blood will twist and every bone in your body will be crushed. Even if you miraculously survive, you’ll either go insane or spend the rest of your life crippled.”
“…”
“Do you think you could endure that pain? You’d probably forget who you are within fifteen minutes.”
My stomach churned. Not because of his explanation of Tendon-Splitting and Bone-Twisting.
It was Jin Mukyung’s eyes. There was no emotion in them. Those black eyes were unfamiliar and frightening.
Could Jin Mukyung really be about to kill me?
No. That was impossible. I was Jin Taekyung. A direct descendant of the Jin Family of Taiyuan, and Jin Mukyung’s only younger brother.
But what he did next went far beyond anything I had expected.
“Don’t worry. I’ll send you off without pain.”
Something cold touched my throat as he spoke in a low voice. It was the metal plate Jin Mukyung had pulled out earlier. Its thin, sharp edge slowly dug into my flesh.
I’m going to die? Like this?
I had survived dozens of brushes with death. In Gates, and in Murim. I had struggled all this time to survive somehow…
And now I was about to die without even being able to blink.
To that bastard who was supposed to be my biological older brother, even though we did not share a single drop of blood!
What the fuck kind of situation is this?
My body rigid, I could only stare at the ceiling as the voice of the Reaper reached my ears.
“Die.”
Slice.
The strength drained from my entire body. I felt hot blood trickling down my neck.
Jin Taekyung. Aged twenty-seven. Gone to sleep in Murim.
I slowly closed my eyes.
“…”
No, wait. Something was wrong.
My acupoints were sealed, but I just closed my eyes?
At that moment—
Ding.
System
The Paralysis Acupoint has been released. The paralysis has ended!
The Mute Acupoint has been released. You can speak freely!
“Get up.”
“…”
At Jin Mukyung’s voice, I slowly opened my eyes. All five of my senses were sharp and clear, proving that I was alive.
How?
I hurriedly felt the back of my neck. The cut stung, and blood came away on my fingers, but there were only a few drops of it. Everything else had been an illusion brought on by the fear and tension of death.
“Remember.”
His cold voice continued—the same voice that had pronounced my death only seconds earlier.
“You died once today.”
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