The Talent to Keep Moving Forward
It happened not long after Seonwoo became the disciple of Cheonma Seong Seo-rin.
His body, collapsed face-down on the ground, trembled violently.
Even from the side, it was enough to make someone's breath catch. He had been pushed to the very brink.
But he had not yet fully reached his limit.
The master who had been watching over him—Cheonma Seong Seo-rin—said it with utter indifference.
"Gghhhhhh..."
Letting out a sound thicker, deeper, and more desperate than a scream, Seonwoo somehow forced his body up on both arms.
His form was a wreck. Still, squeezing out every last shred of strength left in him, he completed one final push-up.
To the disciple who had only then truly reached his limit—
Seong Seorin told him to go one step farther.
Limits.
Those who speak lightly of them often talk as if crossing beyond them were nothing at all.
But a limit was, by its very nature, not something meant to be crossed.
If it were meant to be crossed so easily, there would have been no need for a word that marked the boundary of what ability and responsibility could bear.
And yet Seong Seorin, who understood that truth better than anyone, still told her disciple to go beyond his limit.
Thud!
Without even the breath left to cry out, Seonwoo obeyed his master's command and forced out that one movement beyond his limit—then collapsed completely.
It was not good form. It was not even proper exercise anymore.
But he had unquestionably stepped beyond the boundary.
Seong Seorin smiled faintly.
"Good. Well done, my disciple."
As always, she praised him with a satisfied smile.
"Let us rest for a while."
Then, as she spoke of rest, soft footsteps padded over to her side.
Unni.
A cat with thick, snow-white fur—Baekseol—approached.
What is it, Baekseol?
Seong Seorin answered with jeoneum, the Murim art of sending one's voice only to the intended recipient so that Seonwoo could not hear.
It's been over a year, and he still doesn't look like he's changed much.
Yeon-shin-geuk-gi-gong.
The tempering art of Cheonma Shingong, the discipline that forged the body, conquered the self, and pushed one past one's limits.
It had been over a year since Seonwoo had inherited that art and begun training in it.
Over that time, his body—having crossed beyond its limits again and again—was undeniably becoming that of an excellent martial artist.
And yet—
In some ways, it almost feels like he's gotten worse.
Baekseol's eyes as she watched Seonwoo were lukewarm.
By the standards of ordinary people, Seonwoo's growth was dazzling.
But he was no ordinary person. He was the disciple of the Heavenly Demon herself.
And for someone who received the Heavenly Demon’s praise as casually as eating a meal, it all felt pathetically meager.
More than anything, there was something about Kim Seonwoo himself that made it seem so.
As far as Baekseol knew, Yeon-shin-geuk-gi-gong was indeed a martial art that only became more difficult the farther one advanced.
Yeon-shin-gi.
The internal energy born from Yeon-shin-geuk-gi-gong—the force that tempered the body, pushed it past its limits, and supported it so it would not collapse.
The more one trained, the stronger that force became. And the stronger it became, the harder it was to reach one's limit.
Which meant that to reach that limit again, one needed even harsher training and even greater pain. Naturally, it could only become harder and harder.
Even taking all that into account—
If he's someone the Heavenly Demon keeps praising, shouldn't he be able to do at least this without it looking so hard?
He suffered just reaching his limit.
And each time he went beyond it, he poured in everything he had and collapsed like a man fighting for his life.
Watching someone who seemed not even up to the standard of ordinary people, Baekseol couldn't help but question it.
And the Heavenly Demon answered her with a smile full of certainty.
That is precisely why that child is the one with the talent to reach the ultimate truth of this Do-jin-gong.
...What?
As you have seen, that child has grown afraid even of reaching his limit.
The more Seonwoo trained in Yeon-shin-geuk-gi-gong, the more even reaching his limit shredded his willpower to rags.
He struggles because he cannot bear the pain.
It had become so obvious that he was afraid even before beginning the training.
But, Seol-ah.
Yes.
Even so, is he not moving forward without rest?
...!
Though he fears it that much, though it burdens him that much, he does not run away.
He never stops.
Even so, he keeps moving forward.
Even so... he moves forward.
Yes. That is his true gift—one so radiant it cannot even be compared to something as trivial as genius.
There is nothing special about moving forward because you can.
But moving forward even when it is unbearably hard, even when you are terrified—that is something truly special.
That talent will carry him onward.
As Baekseol listened to the Heavenly Demon, Seonwoo reflected once more in her blue eyes.
But unlike before, there was something flickering there now.
Something unmistakably special.
That conversation had been the moment Kim Seonwoo became special to Baekseol.
Craaash!
When the impact that felt like bones shattering struck his unprepared body for the first time, Seonwoo nearly screamed with his mouth hanging open, having even forgotten to breathe.
If he could have, he would have dropped to his knees on the spot.
Then he would have collapsed and writhed in disgrace.
And in that instant, a thought flashed through his mind.
Lee Maeng-ho was a character he didn't know.
If Beomho Development had a dangerous executive character with a Signature Skill like this, there was no way Seonwoo wouldn't know about him.
How could he possibly not know an enemy executive who could hammer shock into anything he touched?
Because he didn't know Lee Maeng-ho, he had failed to prepare. And the blow he took as a result was devastating enough that even a single hit could have meant defeat.
"Seonwoo!"
But Seonwoo could not lose.
He could not fall.
The cry of his grandmother behind him, calling his name in terror, made sure of that.
If he fell, she would grieve.
She would worry.
And the tragedy he never wanted to see repeated would return once more.
So—
"I'm okay."
He couldn't collapse here.
"I'm really okay. So please, don't worry."
He would not fall.
He did not want to fall.
Ssss—
The breath maintained by that desperate will finally gave birth to a single strand of energy.
Yeon-shin-gi.
Following the formula of Yeon-shin-geuk-gi-gong that Seonwoo had comprehended, his continued breathing responded to his will at last and stirred into life.
And that single newborn strand of energy supported the body that should have been shattered by the impact.
According to Seonwoo's will, it held him up so he could move.
This was impossible through the ordinary mental methods of Murim.
No matter how divine a cultivation art might be, none could take energy newly drawn in through breathing and instantly turn it into internal energy ready for immediate use.
But Yeon-shin-geuk-gi-gong could.
Because its way of using energy was different from the start.
It did not prioritize storing internal energy.
It used it to support the body.
It supported a body pushing beyond its limits.
And then it used that body, having gone beyond its limit, to evolve—to become firmer, more flexible, stronger, tougher.
Craaash!
With the power of Yeon-shin-geuk-gi-gong, Seonwoo did not fall.
Craaash!
He remained standing and faced that absurd tragedy head-on.
It hurt enough that he wanted to scream at any moment, but his will to move forward did not change.
If you wish to move forward.
If that will does not break.
Then Yeon-shin-geuk-gi-gong will support you.
Ssss—
"How the hell are you still standing?"
"Because I have to."
Just as his master had once declared, the energy of Yeon-shin-geuk-gi-gong made it possible for his body to obey his will.
You have acquired EX: True Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
And as Cheonma Shingong settled into the body that had crossed beyond its limit through Yeon-shin-geuk-gi-gong, it evolved.
Ding.
F: Physical (30) has increased to E: Physical (31).
Seonwoo let out a long, deep breath.
It was only a difference of one stat point, but it was a rise in rank.
From F to E.
Proof that he had finally crossed beyond the limits of an ordinary person and entered the minimum threshold at which a person could operate as a hunter.
Creak—!
I can do this.
For the first time, Seonwoo clenched his fist tight.
And within it, martial power settled.
"What the fuck are you babbling about, you bastard?!"
Unable to understand the change in Seonwoo—frightened by it, even—Lee Maeng-ho exploded in rage and lunged.
He couldn't admit the fear he felt, so he surrendered himself to anger and charged like a beast.
And to that charging beast, Seonwoo took a step.
Instead of evading, he moved forward.
But unlike before, it was not a step meant to dodge or slip past an attack.
Craaash!
It was a step taken to strike the opponent.
The heavy boom that erupted was not Lee Maeng-ho's Impact.
It was the force generated by the special step Seonwoo had taken.
This was Jin-gak.
A single step imbued with the principles of martial arts.
Every movement that followed from Seonwoo's body also gave shape to those same principles.
He drew the enormous force created through Jin-gak fully into his body.
Beginning at the ankle, the power rose in a spiral and reached the naturally twisting waist, where it intensified once.
By the time it reached the shoulder, it intensified a second time.
Whoosh—!
And at the fist, fired forward like the final shot of a bullet, it swelled a third time—greater than ever.
The fist carrying that explosive force rang an alarm through the head of Lee Maeng-ho, who had already been swallowed by instinct.
Thoom!
Along with a heart-dropping surge of terror.
What the hell?!
But Lee Maeng-ho ignored it.
No fucking way. Me? Lee Maeng-ho? Scared of a pathetic loser like that?
Does it even make sense for a D-grade to lose to an F-grade?
Thinking that, he drove his fist forward, intending this time to blow Seonwoo's head off entirely now that the boy was charging him head-on.
CRAAAAASH!!
And with a deafening explosion incomparable to anything before, Lee Maeng-ho was sent hurtling away like a shell, smashing into the distance hard enough to gouge out a crater.
By Seonwoo's fist.
Hoooooo—
That was what happened.
The fist Lee Maeng-ho's instincts had warned him about was a force completed through the forms of martial arts.
The martial power that had become possible after Seonwoo's body crossed its limit once and Cheonma Shingong took root within him.
The amplification and explosion of force created by a martial artist who could command the flow of power according to his will.
On Earth, now connected to Murim, this was called Balgyeong.
"W-what... what the hell is this...?"
Jeong Byeong-gu, a mere lackey who lacked even the eye to recognize Balgyeong, stood there utterly blank-minded.
Crack.
"Urk."
Knocking out Jeong Byeong-gu, who had gone beyond losing his fighting spirit and simply had his soul leave his body, took no effort at all.
The other lackey was still conscious, but with his ribs shattered, putting him out was just as easy.
And after crushing all three of them, Seonwoo could feel the sharp, pricking stares of his grandmother and his little sister Eunseo drilling into his back.
So Seonwoo said,
"I reawakened."
"Reawakened? Really?"
"Yes. Really. It happened suddenly yesterday."
That was the answer he gave those stares.
Reawakening.
A rare case in which an awakened individual awakened a second time.
Among the players of Goddess Saga, it had been bluntly called a power-up event.
Because once someone reawakened, they usually became incomparably stronger than before.
The same understanding existed in this now-real world as well.
And so, exactly as he had planned in advance, Seonwoo used the word reawakening to explain his changed self.
Of course, that alone could not fully explain the current situation or everything that had changed about him.
He would need more time and more conversation for that.
But not now.
Right now, he had to deal with the aftermath.
Yes.
The truly important thing—the thing that had to come first now—was cleaning up the aftermath of this episode.
And Seonwoo...
Hmm.
There was something he had already been thinking about—not just as a veteran player of Goddess Saga, but as a veteran of this world as well.