Chapter 1: Dropped into the Martial World with an Instant Death Ability
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 1: Dropped into the Martial World with an Instant Death Ability
I was on my way to take the CSAT.
The bus, crossing an overpass, smashed through the guardrail and plummeted twenty meters toward the asphalt below.
Is this for real?
The moment he realized he was going to die, Yeon So-wol felt more bewildered than scared.
He was a student aiming for Seoul National University. To achieve that goal, he’d given up gaming, ditched his phone, and even stopped eating tteokbokki—because a full stomach would just make him sleepy.
Everything had been for this one day. For the CSAT.
And I’m going to die like this?
The heavy bus nosedived toward the black asphalt, his body lifting from the seat. It all felt so surreal that fear couldn't even take root.
What a crazy world.
A crazy world makes sensible people look like fools. A student should study—isn't that just common sense? But instead of rewarding someone who had lived by that common sense, the world was dealing him this final punishment.
If he’d known this would happen, he would have just goofed off instead of studying. That would have been a much better deal.
It’s so unfair. There’s nothing I can do.
The world was screwing him over for no reason, and he was powerless to stop it. He felt pathetically insignificant. This was the ultimate humiliation the world could inflict on a person.
The bus fell.
Through the front windshield, the black asphalt rushed closer.
CRUNCH!
Like a pitch-black mouth, the road ground away the front of the bus. Metal crumpled, seats tore loose and went flying, and glass shattered like powdered sugar. People danced through the air.
The black pavement was now right in front of his nose.
SHRRRRRRIP!
Then, something impossible happened.
A sound like a thousand layers of thin silk, stretched taut and ripped through the center by a blade, screamed in his ears.
What is this?
Before Yeon So-wol’s eyes, the world tore apart.
The entire universe seemed to have become a mere sheet of paper. The black asphalt that had been grinding the bus to pieces was now tattered on both sides, and even the people around him fluttered like fallen leaves.
Time. Space. Events. Information.
Everything that composed the universe unraveled around Yeon So-wol, scattering into fine threads. A rift in the world was opening before his eyes.
What the hell? An isekai gate?
Yeon So-wol recalled the anime and novels he’d enjoyed back in middle school. Getting hit by a truck often led to another world. Was this the bus crash version?
The absurdity of it all struck him anew.
This is fucking ridiculous…
He had lived his whole life by common sense, only to find that the world itself had none.
How is this fair?
Filled with disillusionment and sorrow, Yeon So-wol fell precisely into the rift. He plunged into the great wave created by the intersecting threads that had unraveled from the world’s cross-section.
Fuck… my life.
Plunge—!
He was in a darkness more transparent than ice. It was neither the world of the living nor the realm of the dead. With no sense of direction—front, back, left, or right—he couldn't even tell if he was falling or floating.
Uggghhh!
Inside that void, Yeon So-wol was subjected to excruciating pain.
Was this not reincarnation, but a one-way ticket to hell?
Is this what it felt like to be dropped into a sea of hydrochloric acid? The word "hell" came to mind unbidden. It was a pain he had never even imagined—the sensation of his entire body and mind being dismantled, piece by piece.
What… in the world… did I do to deserve this…!
Even in the agony that threatened to make him pass out, Yeon So-wol gritted his teeth and forced himself to endure. He embraced the pain out of sheer indignation.
Fine, I’ll die, but not until I’ve seen how this all plays out.
His life had been thrown away powerlessly, but he would keep his eyes wide open. It was the only act of defiance he could show this godforsaken world.
SH-SH-SH-SH-SH-SH-SHRED!
The sound of tearing continued. It was a sound that sent shivers down his spine, like the world’s skin being peeled away, yet it held a strange sense of pleasure.
SHRRRRRRRRIP!
Then, with the sound of a thick curtain being ripped—
WHOOSH—!
A blue sky suddenly unfolded.
“Ugh!”
The burning, tearing pain vanished completely. In its place, a dizzying sense of falling enveloped him. His heart plummeted. A fierce wind mercilessly battered his ears.
With no time to rejoice in his release from pain, Yeon So-wol flailed and screamed.
“Aaaaaahhhhh!”
What? So I’m just going to fall to my death after all?
Zzzzzzip—
At that moment, a strange sensation caught at his fingertips. It felt as if he had grasped a thin, taut string. Instinctively, Yeon So-wol clenched his fist around it.
A white crack appeared in the sky.
Like a single thread being pulled from a cotton shirt, a long strand of the sky was drawn out into Yeon So-wol’s grasp.
“Huk!”
The more threads of the sky he snatched, the more his fall slowed. The wind that had been painfully lashing his body disappeared. Yeon So-wol desperately grabbed at the loose threads in the air.
RIP! R-RIP!
His descent grew slower and slower. A glimmer of hope sparked in his chest.
Maybe… can I live?
Just as he passed through the clouds and the ground began to come into sharp focus—
「 It is the Heavenly Killing Star. 」
「 The Heavenly Killing Star. 」
「 The Heavenly Killing Star has appeared. 」
“?!”
Damp voices suddenly whispered in his ear.
“What now?”
There was nothing but wind in the empty air, yet the voices were unmistakable.
「 A starlight falling from a torn sky. 」
「 A fate from a Foreign Realm, not belonging to the Nine Heavens. 」
「 One who by chance overlapped with the rift between heaven and earth. 」
「 Either terrible fortune or terrible misfortune. 」
「 Having passed through the torn principles, everything it touches shall meet its end. 」
「 It is the Heavenly Killing Star. 」
The voices swarmed him. Yeon So-wol felt cold hands and damp breath on his forearms and the back of his neck, though he still couldn't see a thing.
Ghosts? Now there are ghosts, too?
Just like when he’d suffered sleep paralysis while studying late at night, he suddenly couldn't move a single finger. Instead, the damp voices grew louder and clearer.
「 Now is the time. While it is still straddling the worlds of the living and the dead! 」
「 If we consume the Heavenly Killing Star, we may escape the shackles of the Nine Heavens! 」
「 I wonder what the Heavenly Killing Star tastes like? 」
「 That power! Give me that power! 」
Slither—
The hair on his body stood on end. Cold, fishy things began to burrow into Yeon So-wol’s nostrils, ear canals, and mouth. He tried to struggle, but his body wouldn't move.
He was terrified.
Scared.
Scaredscaredscaredscare—
Unbearable terror and indignant rage finally tore through his throat and burst out.
“Aaaargh! Die! Die, you fucking ghosts!”
Snap!
Yeon So-wol felt the sensation of several of the fishy threads wriggling inside him breaking.
Whoosh!
Instantly, his body felt lighter.
“Huh?”
A fresh breeze brushed against his cheek.
「 The Ghost Kings… have they been extinguished? 」
「 They’ve vanished completely. 」
「 It is the Heavenly Killing Star. 」
「 The Heavenly Killing Star. 」
「 A body steeped in the rift between heaven and earth. 」
「 Nothing that it touches can survive. 」
The terrified voices swirled around his ears before scattering into nothingness.
“Ugh!”
Before he had time to wonder, a sharp headache pierced his mind. Unfamiliar memories burrowed into his head. Most were distorted beyond recognition, like a corrupted video file, but the parts where the memories overlapped emerged with clarity.
Language. The common sense of this world.
This language? These memories? Where am I? Ancient China? The Jianghu? Martial arts? …Was this really a reincarnation into another world?
They were the memories of the ghosts that had burrowed into his body before being extinguished. But Yeon So-wol had no time to think deeply. The ground, which had drawn much closer, now filled his vision.
“Aaaaaahhhhh!”
He reflexively snatched at the threads of the sky. As his flailing hands grabbed, the threads ripped and followed, and his falling speed rapidly decreased.
Then, impact.
THUD!
Yeon So-wol landed on his back on the dirt ground.
“Keuk!”
Stars exploded in front of his eyes. The impact felt like it would force his organs out of his throat.
“Ugh… cough! Blegh!”
He rolled on the ground before getting to his knees and dry-heaving. The tips of a pair of black shoes entered his vision.
“……?”
Lifting his head, he saw a skeletal, emaciated old man. With no beard and no hair—just skin stretched over a skull—the withered man was looking down at Yeon So-wol with a dumbfounded expression.
For a moment, Yeon So-wol was about to feel a great sense of relief at having survived, but then…
“…Sir Demon Slayer. That child has nothing to do with this… As a great senior of the Jianghu, could you not show some mercy?”
He shut his mouth when he saw another old man pinned beneath the first one’s foot. It was an Old Monk with a smooth-shaven head, white eyebrows, and a white beard. Had one seen him on the street, one might have glanced back at his transcendent appearance.
But now, his white beard and eyebrows were caked with dirt. More importantly, his neck was being stepped on by the skeletal old man.
The skeletal old man, the Demon Slayer, gave a simple reply.
“What nonsense.”
CRACK!
Beneath his foot, the Old Monk’s head twisted like a rag doll’s. When the Demon Slayer lifted his foot, the monk’s head lolled limply to the side.
Yeon So-wol sucked in a breath.
“Finally. Shaolin’s Great Restoration Pill is in my hands.”
The Demon Slayer grinned grotesquely as he rummaged through the Old Monk’s robes and pulled out a wooden box. He opened it, closed it, and caressed it with ecstasy. After basking in the afterglow for a while, he turned back to Yeon So-wol as if a thought had just occurred to him.
“Now then. What is this?”
His pupils, abnormally large for a human, gleamed.
* * *
Ironically, it was only now that Yeon So-wol had a chance to calmly assess his situation. At least he wasn't falling anymore.
He tried to make sense of it all. First: where was he?
Yeon So-wol lowered his gaze and scanned his surroundings. A skeletal old man in a black robe. At his feet, an Old Monk in yellow robes, dead with a broken neck. Judging by their clothes and the casual brutality of the murder, this definitely wasn't Earth.
Is this really another world…?
The ghosts’ memories flashing in his head confirmed it.
But Heavenly Killing Star? What was that?
The ghosts’ damp voices still seemed to linger clammily in his ears.
“For a person to fall from the sky. What a strange sight. A truly bizarre event.”
The skeletal old man strode over and grabbed Yeon So-wol’s wrist, pulling him up. His grip was like an iron shackle.
“I’ve never seen such attire in my life. The hair cut short… sniff, sniff. What is this scent? Is it from the clothes? It’s subtle and pure. A fragrance I’ve never smelled before. Indeed, a person from the celestial realm has fallen to earth. I’ve seen all sorts of strange things while roaming the Jianghu, but this is the most bizarre of them all. Let’s see…”
The Demon Slayer’s fingers dug into Yeon So-wol’s pulse point.
“Keuk!”
Yeon So-wol shuddered. A terrible pain shot up from his wrist, as if his muscles and ligaments were being scraped by cold pincers.
“Hmm? Hah…” The Demon Slayer’s brow furrowed. “Why is his energy so muddled? This is a celestial being?”
As if in disbelief, he shoved his energy in more forcefully. A startling wave of energy swept through Yeon So-wol’s entire body.
“—!!”
The pain was so intense he couldn't even scream. Yeon So-wol could only tremble with his mouth agape.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
He couldn't stop the curses from rising. How many times had he almost died in such a short span? This was some seriously unfair bullshit.
The agonizing time passed, and finally, the Demon Slayer withdrew his energy. Contempt filled his eyes.
“Even a beggar who eats spoiled rice wouldn’t have such turbid and blocked Qi and Blood. How can a man who fell from the sky have such a filthy constitution?”
A gaze like one would give to trash swept over Yeon So-wol from head to toe.
“You’re the slop that even the celestial realm threw out. What to do with this? Should I take it back to the sect as a curiosity? Or just kill it? It seems a waste of effort to even carry it.”
The Demon Slayer’s abnormally large, black pupils gleamed. Yeon So-wol’s shoulders trembled. His body, where the old man’s energy had swept through, was cold and aching.
But more terrible than the pain was the thought: I’m going to die in the end?
No. Wait a minute.
He’d plummeted in a bus. Fallen from the sky again. Somehow fought off ghosts. He’d come all this way only to die?
This can’t be right!
Suddenly, time seemed to slow down. For the first time, Yeon So-wol saw his life flash before his eyes. The bus hitting the guardrail. Space tearing like taut silk. The endless fall. The ghosts. Every moment until now flashed by vividly.
And within that, Yeon So-wol suddenly focused on one fact.
…Heavenly Killing Star!
What the ghosts had said.
「 The Ghost Kings… have they been extinguished? 」
「 Having passed through the torn principles, everything it touches shall meet its end. 」
「 A body steeped in the rift between heaven and earth. 」
「 Nothing that it touches can survive. 」
The words that had seemed like nonsense before now came back to life with vivid meaning. They said you get a special ability when you’re reincarnated into another world. Yeon So-wol had always thought that was just a convenient plot device, but today he realized it wasn't.
Dimensions. Crossing one yourself was no ordinary matter.
In wuxia novels, people get lucky breaks just by falling off a cliff. If I fell through an entire dimension, I should damn well get something out of it.
It seemed that "something" was the Heavenly Killing Star. The power to harbor the rift of a dimension—to kill anything he touched.
The moment he realized it, Yeon So-wol felt a strange sensation. It was a feeling that the entire world was made of threads. A feeling that, just as he had grabbed the threads of the sky earlier, he could sever those threads just by touching them.
The instant he felt it, Yeon So-wol moved instinctively. He flipped his hand over and, with all his might, gripped the skeletal hand that was still holding his wrist.
He wished with all his heart.
“Die.”
And stop screwing me over.
Tick—!
With the feeling of something invisible snapping—
Spin—
The Demon Slayer’s large pupils slid sideways, swam a lap inside his eyeballs, and turned toward the sky. The bony hand gripping his wrist went limp. The emaciated body suddenly collapsed as if it were a heavy water bag, slumping to the ground.
Thump.
As the Demon Slayer lay on the ground with his limbs splayed out, a warm, pungent fluid trickled from his crotch.