Galaxy Martial Temple - Reincarnation (1)
As I stepped out of the library, the sun had already dipped far below the horizon. Checking the clock tower, I saw it was just past five in the afternoon. For summer, the sun should still have been blazing high, yet here it was already setting. Did that mean this place followed the climate of early spring or late autumn? No wonder it hadn’t felt hot at all. I had never given the weather much thought before, so discovering this small detail felt strangely refreshing. Or perhaps my assumption that the Tower even had seasons was nothing more than my own preconception. Was each floor its own planet? Or was it more like the flat-Earth theory—a dimension containing only a limited, specific space? From what I knew, the interiors of gates were surrounded by walls of fog, as though blocked by an invisible barrier you could never cross. Maybe the 10th floor operated on a similar principle, only on an incomparably massive scale.
Community information claimed the 10th floor contained numerous cities separated by vast distances. Monsters roamed outside the city limits. Near the cities you might encounter horned rabbits or goblins, but the farther you traveled, the more you would run into the high-level monsters typical of the floor’s latter half. Travel between cities was possible, yet the setup felt exactly like partitioned servers. The cities near this one seemed populated almost exclusively by climbers invited from Korea. People from other countries were concentrated in far more distant cities, making it far more likely to encounter foreigners on the 20th or 30th floors than here. It appeared that as you climbed higher and the population thinned, the “servers” merged, gathering climbers from multiple nations into single cities.
“I was thinking of earning a few shop points outside the city, but that can wait until tomorrow.”
My night vision was nothing special, and I had zero interest in getting ambushed again—another hole through the heart or a split skull held no appeal. I consulted the guide booklet and chose a decent inn that wasn’t too cheap. One night cost 600 credits, roughly sixty thousand won. The place also sold simple meals, so I bought two packaged sandwiches and headed up to my room.
The room was clean, a compact three-pyeong studio with an attached bathroom and a reasonably comfortable bed. I kicked off my combat boots and clothes before collapsing onto the mattress.
“Aigoo, this feels good.”
My body had been freshly created upon reaching the 10th floor, so physical fatigue was almost nonexistent. Yet I still felt strangely tired. The mental exhaustion must have been heavier than I realized. I considered closing my eyes for a short nap, but instead I stored one sandwich in my inventory and returned to my main body.
Time stopped for the avatar on the 10th floor as my eyes opened in my main body. I took the sandwich out of my inventory and ate while checking the second slot of Multidimensional Avatar.
WARNING!
This dimension is spatiotemporally connected to the first slot. Spending time here will cause time to flow for the avatar in the first slot as well. Create an avatar in this dimension?
Selecting Earth for the second slot would make time flow for the first-slot avatar as well. But I had already secured a room and locked the door, so a short absence wouldn’t matter. Even if something went wrong, it was only an avatar. I could simply create another one. After finishing the sandwich, I chose Earth.
“This sandwich is pretty good.”
My consciousness shifted to the second avatar.
When I opened my eyes, I stood at the familiar entrance of Dongseoul Terminal—the exact same place I had visited during every vacation and where I had first received the Tower’s invitation. I pulled out my smartphone and checked the time. It was nearly one in the afternoon. I had spent roughly seven hours in the Tower, yet less than three hours had passed in reality.
Looking at my ability window, I saw that time was frozen for my main body while flowing rapidly for the avatar on the 10th floor. The higher I climbed, the greater the time discrepancy would become. Still, with my safety secured, would I ever be able to experience something this fascinating after leaving the Tower? Well, it wasn’t as if I would lose the ability by exiting, so it wouldn’t be impossible. But the Old Librarian had told me to visit him once I reached the upper floors. Having received his kindness, wasn’t it only right to live up to his expectations?
“All of that is just an excuse. When have I ever lived worrying about other people’s opinions?”
That’s right. I had always lived exactly as I pleased. I couldn’t stand leaving my curiosity unsatisfied, and there were far too many things I wanted to know. Because of that, I had often been called a weirdo. Right now, I was simply curious about the Tower—what lay above it, what its very existence meant. My conversation with the Old Librarian had not resolved those questions. If anything, it had only deepened my curiosity.
What exactly was magic? I wanted to learn martial arts as well. I wanted to immerse myself in the mysteries of these worlds. If I had never experienced any of this, perhaps I could have returned to a peaceful, monotonous daily life. But after tasting it? The Tower might as well be trying to throw me into hell.
I was excited beyond words. Returning to familiar surroundings made the mysteries that had approached me feel vividly real. I would erase Earth from the second slot and set off for a new dimension. I could always come home later.
Of course, before that—
[I finished my military service and will be staying at my college friend’s house while doing an internship in Seoul. I’ll be busy for a while, so contact might be difficult.]
I should at least send a message to my parents. Better than suddenly disappearing. As I moved to dismiss the avatar, my phone rang. It was my mother.
“Hello.”
“Son, you’re discharged? But an internship all of a sudden?”
“Ah, a college friend asked if I wanted to try an internship, so I applied half-jokingly before discharge and actually got accepted.”
My mother answered in a worried tone.
“Still, you just got out and you’re jumping straight into work? You should rest a little.”
“I need to build my specs if I want a decent job later, so it’s a good thing. I couldn’t abandon my friend and run off alone.”
“What kind of company is it?”
“It’s affiliated with the university. Not a major conglomerate, but a solid mid-sized firm.”
It was convenient that I had attended a prestigious university; lies like these went down smoothly.
“I see. Are you coming home before the internship starts?”
“No, how can I when home is in Jeju? It starts tomorrow anyway. It was originally supposed to begin yesterday, but they gave me an exception because I was discharged today. The seniors say I’ll have to arrive early and leave late, so it’ll be busy.”
My mother told me to take care of myself and hung up. I laughed, thinking it was only a few months—what hardship was there in that? Looking up at the sky, I saw clear blue and the fierce heat of a summer day.
“Well, a few months isn’t exactly a lie.”
It might feel like years to me, but in Earth’s time it would probably only be a few months. Gazing at the tower shimmering like heat haze in the sky, I dismissed the avatar.
Back in my main body, I deleted Earth from the second slot without hesitation. Then I began considering which dimension to create the next avatar in.
“Huh? The number of dimensions increased?”
All the dimension names were simply numbers, but the list had grown. It was probably thanks to the new connections formed by learning Magic Bullet and Spirit Magic. Or perhaps it was the bond I had formed with the Old Librarian. Though I only saw names, I could instinctively sense what sort of connection had linked me to each one.
“Martial arts or magic?”
Spirit Magic required talent and would take a long time, so I would leave that for later. The decision didn’t take long.
“If mastering magic takes a thousand years, then to climb the Tower I need to move my body, right?”
To a dimension where I could learn martial arts. Since I had already learned Blue Wood Swordsmanship, I would go to the dimension most closely tied to it. I assigned dimension #33669—the one with the deepest connection to Blue Wood Swordsmanship—to the second slot.
Before creating the avatar, however, I pondered the new ability unlocked when Multidimensional Avatar reached level 10: Reincarnation.
“Reincarnation, huh. Come to think of it, they did say the younger you start martial arts, the better. But it can’t mean actual reincarnation… right?”
No way. It was probably just creating birth records in that dimension. No matter how much it resembled a martial-arts novel set in medieval China, an avatar with zero connections would face severe restrictions. My guess was that when the avatar was created, people nearby would receive implanted memories that I had always lived in the same village. That level of power would actually qualify as supernatural, wouldn’t it? There was no way it meant being reborn as a literal baby. That wouldn’t even be an avatar anymore.
“You only know after trying it.”
Honestly I was anxious, but my curiosity was stronger. I selected Reincarnation.
2nd Slot — Galaxy Murim
“Mother! Stay with us! Mother! Mother!”
“Defibrillator, now!”
“Charging to two hundred joules! Clear! Again!”
The obstetricians moved with frantic urgency around the operating table. But in the end, the woman upon it drew her final breath. The doctors stood frozen, letting out deep, helpless sighs.
“…And the baby?”
“He’s safe. He cried himself to sleep from exhaustion.”
At the nurse’s answer the doctors breathed sighs of relief. They had fought to save the mother, but at least the child had survived. That was something.
“Don’t blame yourselves. It was a pregnancy where both mother and child were at risk of dying. The baby surviving is already a miracle. We did everything we could.”
At the chief surgeon’s words, the assistant professor who had served as his aide asked in a still-worried voice.
“But isn’t this a direct-line child of the Cheon Clan? And I heard the baby’s grandfather is a candidate for minor family head…”
“We recommended termination multiple times for the mother’s safety. She herself knew continuing the pregnancy would kill her, yet she stubbornly insisted. We have full medical records, so there won’t be any issues. On the contrary, the baby surviving is a miracle of miracles. No matter how powerful the Cheon Clan may be, they cannot blame us.”
As the chief surgeon spoke, he recalled the mother’s condition from the earliest stages of hospitalization until now. At first she had been deteriorating rapidly, but then, as if by a miracle, she had stabilized just enough to maintain minimal health. They had begun to hope—only for her to die on the operating table after all.
Table deaths never became easier no matter how many times you witnessed them. Still, the chief surgeon had done his duty to the end.
“Who is the guardian for the mother and child?”
The nurse answered, “According to the records, the baby’s father is deceased. The current legal guardian is the grandfather, Cheon Gyeong-ho.”
“…I see. Contact Mister Cheon Gyeong-ho, and arrange for the mother to be transferred to the funeral home. Does she have any other family?”
“No natal family on record. She is registered as a daughter-in-law under the Cheon Clan.”
“The funeral will be lonely.”
The chief surgeon suddenly missed the cigarettes he had quit long ago. Dozens of centuries had passed since humanity reached the stars. An era in which martial artists rode spaceships to pioneer new worlds. Yet mere humans remained powerless before death.
I cried from the terrible cold. I kept shouting “Fuck, it’s so damn cold!” but a baby’s mouth and tongue could not form such strong, precise words. Only after a warm blanket wrapped around me could I finally stop cursing. Once the warmth arrived, I couldn’t even think of returning to my main body; the overwhelming drowsiness claimed me completely.
When I regained consciousness, I finally understood the situation.
I had truly reincarnated.
Tower, you insane bastard! If the ability is called Reincarnation, why the hell does it actually reincarnate me?!
A newborn’s eyesight was poor immediately after birth, making it extremely difficult to see my surroundings. Swaddled tightly, I couldn’t move my limbs freely. Actually, even without the blanket I would have lacked the strength. A baby’s body was utterly powerless.
I recalled the Multidimensional Avatar ability and tried to activate it.
Usage is impossible while inside this avatar’s body.
With that message, I returned to my main body.
“If it’s impossible while I’m inside the avatar, that means I can use it from outside, right?”
When I activated Multidimensional Avatar, an image of myself as a baby appeared before me like a video feed. In third-person view the surroundings were perfectly clear. I looked at the environment and froze in shock.
“Huh? This isn’t a martial-arts world?”
The place I was in was a hospital—and a very modern-looking one at that.
(To be continued in the next chapter)