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.

Gates were places where even Hunters became corpses if they let their attention wander, and 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 solemnly declared to hundreds of cameras, their robes fluttering:

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

It certainly was glorious. Their faces had been plastered across the front pages of all kinds of news outlets in less than half a day.

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.

It got completely wrecked.

Some of the most renowned martial artists on the continent were killed by goblin poison needles, and a tai chi master gets beaten senseless by a mixed martial arts fighter.

That was reality. I had thought the scenes from novels and movies were fiction dressed up in media spectacle and 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 turned into certainty. There was nothing weak or floppy about the martial arts here, unlike 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 be picky 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 or seen 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 functions go?

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

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

Was a phenomenon like this possible? Simply because this was a game?

No. For now, focus only on circulating qi.

I steadied my breathing again and guided my internal energy. Only after circulating the 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. Maybe it was because I had started from the very bottom, but the pace 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: A very hard ring made of a material that cannot be identified. It calms the wearer’s mind and helps with concentration.

The Clear-Heart Pill. It looked different from the one I knew, but its effect was 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 still felt uneasy. I could chalk Logout up to the technical territory of engineering nerds beyond my understanding. But the martial arts formulas and this ring, the Clear-Heart Pill, were unsettling in a way I couldn’t quite explain.

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

All of it helped me survive, but it certainly wasn’t pleasant. This game was a piece of shit in so many ways.

“What the hell is this Seong Jinho guy doing? Some goshiwon manager¹ 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 get out alive, no matter what. I had too much to live for, and my burden was too heavy, to die a pointless death like this.

I can’t die here.

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

As the internal energy in my dantian began to move, 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 threw myself into the Spear Technique and Manoeuvre Technique like a madman, and whenever I completely depleted 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 your qi more efficiently.

The Third Stage of the Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique. It had progressed more slowly than the other two, but it wasn’t bad. No, I was trying to think of it that way.

I had to think of it that way if I was going to hold on.

At least while I was training in martial arts, I could shake off my dark thoughts. For that, I was grateful.

Swish. Ssshk.

I performed the forms of the Jin Family’s Spear Technique in order. Ever since I realized how it connected with the Jin Family’s Manoeuvre Technique, my attacks had grown more precise and sharper, sweeping through the empty space before me.

I was picturing someone in that empty space.

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 question had just crossed my mind when—

Ding.

System

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

• You can summon illusions of opponents you have fought so far. However, opponents whose Level differs from yours 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 so far? After a moment’s hesitation, I decided to test the new function.

“Summon Hyuk Mujin.”

System

• Summoning Lv. 20 Hyuk Mujin.

The instant the System notification appeared, a transparent figure abruptly 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, he looked exactly like Hyuk Mujin.

“Holy shit, it’s real.”

I approached cautiously and reached out to touch him. Maybe it was because he was an illusion, but my hand passed straight through his body.

Good. That passes the safety test.

System

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

“For now, make him about half as strong as Hyuk Mujin.”

System

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

At the same moment, Hyuk Mujin’s illusion opened his eyes. Maybe his personality had been copied along with his abilities, because he gave me the same insolent look.

System

• Would you like to begin training?

“Of course!”

Ding.

The System notification was the starting signal. I charged in like lightning and thrust my spear. Even though I was fighting an illusion, I poured out my internal energy without holding anything 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 the first attack, the fight ended there.

Ssshwip—

But Hyuk Mujin slipped away like a loach. In that instant, the next movement became pointless.

Let’s see if you can dodge this, too.

I continued unleashing the Spear Technique. The sound of wind splitting filled the air, 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 nothing more than an illusion I had created, but…

God, that’s pissing 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’d wasted the last seven years.

“Not so fast!”

Whoom—

I swung the spear shaft. If he had been real instead of an illusion, it would have made a solid thwack. Even if he had dodged it, he would have failed to close the distance.

Let’s see how far you can dodge.

The second form began. Faced with the torrent of attacks, Hyuk Mujin didn’t even dare approach. He retreated step by step.

Combat had a flow. I had caught that flow, and Hyuk Mujin had been swept along by it. Looking at Hyuk Mujin rolling across the ground with an exhausted expression, I thought,

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 F-rank Hunter Jin Taekyung couldn’t perform. But Jin Taekyung the Murim martial artist, drawing on internal energy, could.

“Kraaagh!”

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

Without hesitation, I shoved the spear deeper and twisted it. The spearhead crushed through his breastbone and split his heart. The fallen Hyuk Mujin slowly faded away.

“Ah. This is way too easy.”

The fight had already been decided in less than five seconds.

I had even held the upper hand throughout the entire battle, only for it to end anticlimactically.

Was half just too weak?

I sank into thought as I circulated my qi to recover the internal energy I had depleted.

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 up with the spear in my hand and closed my eyes, imagining a new Hyuk Mujin.

A height of 180 centimeters. Lean muscles and insolent eyes. I fed in the movements I had seen back then. When I opened my eyes, an illusion exactly as I had imagined stood before me.

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

Your physical abilities are superior to 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 this is 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 drone of a swarm of bees, stirring up a gust of wind. It was the 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 filling his eyes. Then his knees buckled, and the illusion scattered.

“This isn’t right.”

I scratched my head roughly as I heard the message that my Mastery of the Jin Family’s Spear Technique had increased.

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.

At this rate, it isn’t much use.

This was supposed to be a simulation to test what would happen if I faced a powerful opponent. What was the point 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 Spear Technique. What if I grafted those two onto the Level 20 Hyuk Mujin?

I might even be able to identify their strengths and weaknesses from a third-party perspective.

Yeah. That would be better.

“You think so too, right?”

At some point, Hyuk Mujin’s illusion had reappeared. He grinned and nodded.

“Then let’s fight again.”

I raised the spear diagonally and took one step forward with my left foot. Like a mirror, the illusion assumed the 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 convincing them I wasn’t completely insane.

“Crazy bastard.”

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

“You’re dead.”

Without hesitation, I pointed my spear at him.

The same weapon. The same martial arts. This looked like it would be an interesting fight.

“Interesting? You really are a lunatic.”

Yeah. I suppose so.

Finding this fun in a situation like this meant I was pretty damn crazy, too.