Chapter 40
Chapter 40
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: Club Duties and Sudden Insight
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Oi, no tracksuits. Come back properly dressed.”
“Huh? No way, mister, tracksuits are super trendy these days...”
“Next.”
“Hey, mister! You're being way too picky!”
“...Picky?”
“Ah, no, I mean, sorry. No need to get so serious...”
Just like always, I was managing the crowd. Whenever someone complained or caused a scene, I’d put the pressure on or chase them off. Drunks who were wasted on booze got loaded into taxis under contract with the club.
While I was hard at work, Chang-sik approached me.
Dressed in black pants, a white long-sleeved dress shirt, and a slightly tight black vest for flair, the guy worked as a waiter at Stargate.
“Man, Jaeyeon hyung, aren’t you being a bit too sharp today? The kids can’t even stand tall.”
I gulped down the fruit drink Chang-sik handed me and returned the cup. He lit a cigarette beside me and asked in a low voice.
“Hey, what’s that on your neck? It definitely wasn’t there yesterday.”
Right now, a massive scar ran across half my neck. It was unavoidable.
No matter how much I opened the Chakra of Recovery and borrowed the power of the songpyeon buff, a wound this fatal couldn’t heal without a trace.
“Training.”
“No way... what kind of training leaves a scar like that? Holding out bare-handed under a guillotine or something?”
I got an incredulous reaction in return, but I couldn’t exactly tell him the truth. I couldn’t announce that I’d nearly had my throat slit by a sword master from another world, right?
“I’ve always thought you had this dangerously intense vibe, but... hyung, you’re not tangled up with some crime syndicate or anything, are you?”
I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh at Chang-sik’s words.
“Where on Earth are there any real crime organizations? They’re all just corporate lackeys or kids playing pretend.”
“Ooh, kids playing pretend. Ooh... that’s cool, hyung.”
Maybe it was the waiter gig, but Chang-sik, who harbored some romantic notion of the underworld, brushed off my words and pondered.
‘Logging in short-term is gonna be tough...’
I was standing and working fine, but I hadn’t fully recovered from my injuries. I’d lost too much blood, and the attack had damaged my windpipe—every breath still brought pain.
But the biggest problem was.
The songpyeon buff had ended.
‘This is insane. For real.’
The buff ran on duration, not calendar days, so time spent in reality drained it too. Meaning my recovery had plummeted.
I’d switched to a tanker class as a stopgap, boosting my vitality, but without recovery stats, my condition wasn’t improving quickly.
“Um, hello.”
As I was getting ready to clock out, a customer approached. Forelocks swept back, hair tied high, a stylish hoodie draping her slender figure—an impressive beauty.
The woman who’d sparked my chakra training. Club DJ Scarlett.
“What’s up?”
“Um, I’m really sorry about before! I was so rude, wasn’t I?”
Unlike her usual vibrant image, she was extremely deferential, and I realized she’d misunderstood something.
‘No way she can tell my Cheonmun is open.’
It was such an abnormal situation, and above all, I was certain she couldn’t read transcendent realms.
Transcendence wasn’t some casual concept. Sure, on the 34th Earth, with the Three Gods and Game Masters around, its meaning had faded—but on most planets, a transcendent was the planet’s ruler, a god among mortals.
What she’d probably sensed was the highest level of chakra ‘she could detect.’
“No need to grovel. You’re misunderstanding—I’m not some elder.”
“Elder... you’re not?”
‘So that’s what she thought.’
Yeah, otherwise there’d be no reason to bow and scrape like this. Exposing a willingly secluded elder’s identity was an unspoken taboo.
“Nope.”
“Then how old are you? Oh! I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Kim Hye-young, great-granddaughter of Elder Kim Hee-jeong of Cheonan.”
“Han Jaeyeon. Twenty-three, and my grandpa’s an immigrant.”
“Ugh. Did I mess up again? B-but that doesn’t make sense. Twenty-three with no elders... how...?”
I shook my head at her flustered expression and said.
“Whatever. Anyway, if you’re done, I’ll head out first. Gotta go to my next gig.”
“Ah, uh, yes. But... at least take this!”
With that, she held out a bottle a bit larger than her palm.
“It’s ‘Peaceful Night’ from the Drunkard series. I’m sorry in every way. I just wanted to get friendly...”
“Sure. Let’s call our issue settled with this.”
I casually pocketed the bottle and waved. Scarlett watched me go with a haunted look.
‘What the hell did she read my realm as to act this subservient? Even after clearing the misunderstanding, this much?’
Still, I didn’t want to exploit the misunderstanding. It was basically fraud, and more importantly, I didn’t want to reveal my abilities to the outside world yet.
“More importantly, Khan Slasher’s the problem.”
At the convenience store counter, I tapped Cheddar’s belly.
The character was diligently picking up songpyeon.
“No chance for songpyeon snacks... right?”
Now that the songpyeon buff was gone, taking a fatal hit like before would mean death. Sure, I had recovery-specialized chakra... but sword ki fundamentally disrupted healing.
A skin graze was fine, but severed arteries or bones? No surviving that.
“Ardenia. Contact Gate. Open.”
I focused my mind and opened the gate. I felt a vast world unfold within me.
Sensing the inventory inside. Withdrawing an item.
“Summon. Bean Songpyeon.”
Pop!
A plate of songpyeon appeared in my hand. I devoured seventeen in an instant.
[Consumed Bean Songpyeon (Common)! Recovery and mana recovery +50 points for 4 hours!]
At least I renewed the common buff. Minor, but better than nothing.
“Ha. If I could just open Giant Gate, I could scrape together a rare songpyeon somehow.”
Musing regretfully, I suddenly.
Touched the scar on my neck.
“Huh?”
Something felt off.
“Wait... didn’t I open a body gate when my neck was sliced?”
Things had been too hectic to notice then, but looking back, it didn’t make sense.
How could a mere first-layer cultivator open a body gate? Training was one thing; manifesting spirit arts should’ve been impossible.
“Ardenia. Giant Gate. Open.”
I checked immediately.
“Summon. Five-Colored Songpyeon.”
Pop!
A plate of songpyeon appeared. I stared at it for a moment.
“No... why now?”
Just recently, I couldn’t even summon high-grade gear, and now rare summons? Growth was good, but there had to be a reason, right?
Munch munch.
Puzzled but worried it might vanish, I chewed through the rare songpyeon.
[Consumed Five-Colored Songpyeon (Rare)! Recovery and mana recovery +200 points for 4 hours! Special resource recovery x3!]
Ruuuumble...
It felt like an explosion inside my body. The paltry common buff shattered, replaced by the rare songpyeon’s power surging through me.
With recovery now over 300 points from the buff, it was full-on regeneration territory. Even a severed finger would regrow in about twenty hours!
Dizziness from blood loss cleared in thirty minutes, and the neck pain vanished completely.
Sword ki’s interference kept the scar from fully disappearing, but at least it wasn’t angry red anymore—now the flesh-toned hue of an old scar.
“Whoa... no joke.”
50 points. 100. 200. Each rank doubled the songpyeon’s effect—but it wasn’t a simple double. Higher stats scaled exponentially in impact.
Starting with rare songpyeon, extra buffs kicked in.
“Special resource recovery x3.”
Special resources varied by class.
For stamina-based warriors like me, it was stamina; for mages, mental power; for spirit users, spirit power.
Percentage-based, so not the tier-jump of recovery or mana recovery—but a new buff was welcome.
With this, downtime from stamina drain would shrink.
“Alright, crisis averted for now. But I need to know why...”
I stepped out of the convenience store and looked around.
Time was 4 a.m. Not a soul on the streets.
“Perfect... I can nap a bit.”
Back at the counter, I steadied my breathing. Standing straight, I entered meditation.
Thud!
I visualized the [Layers] in my mind. Different from entering Ardenia.
Accessing Ardenia was stepping into a real world; this shaped my mind and spirit arts.
Sinking deep into meditation.
I was suddenly on the first layer.
“First... no changes.”
The first layer held only the body. I’d learned attributes from So-hyang and weapons from others, but hadn’t fully formed gates for them.
‘Too many elements dilute capacity. Gotta pick carefully over time.’
I focused, clarifying my perception of the Immeasurable Nine Layers.
But no changes there either.
“What the hell. Still at the first-layer entrance?”
I’d hoped for growth, but no such luck.
“Then how’d I open Giant Gate?”
Like a first-class mage casting third-class spells. Chakra grading had more leeway than magic, but that was for those with a completed first layer. I was stuck at the beginner’s threshold.
A novice leaping grades like this? Abnormal.
“...Hold on.”
Around then.
I spotted a single pillar of light piercing a massive go board visible outside the window.
“That.”
One intersection in the upper-right corner glowed.
No need to explain where.
“Red Thorn Goblin Fortress.”
The castle I’d claimed in the siege.
Ruuuumble---
The moment I saw it.
I knew it was [connected] to me.
“My god.”
If Hyeonki Palmun drilled into the inner world by selecting an element, Immeasurable Nine Layers turned the self into an antenna to commune with the outer world.
I could train Hyeonki Palmun, but Immeasurable Nine Layers was doomed to stagnation.
Too low to notice even demon assaults or curses.
Inspiration converging to zero, utterly mad.
Impossible to channel no matter what. Not a matter of effort—like a wingless animal trying to fly.
But right now...
My fortress was linking to me, lending its power.
“How is this possible...”
Amazed, but still faint. I’d taken only one castle, at a lowly intersection—no fire point or anything.
“Maybe.”
But what if I kept devouring castles?
Eating higher-level zone intersections, fire points one by one, until claiming the board’s center, the Heaven’s Origin?
“Maybe...”