A Fateful Encounter on the Snowfield (9): Day Two in the North Sea Ice Palace, Madness with a Wooden Sword
I was deep in serious thought on the second day of cohabiting with that man.
“Hmph, hmph.”
That guy… no matter how I looked at it, he wasn’t normal at all.
In my eyes, he was clearly a madman.
Let me list everything he’d done since day one…
Day One
“Do you have a sword or any kind of stick?”
“Kyak?!” (What kind of nonsense is this patient spouting?)
He had collapsed like a person starved for days and only regained consciousness after I fed him a few fish.
Then suddenly he started demanding a sword.
“Do you not have any? Fine, then… I’ll go fetch some.”
“Kyak?!” (Where?)
Before I could even ask, he had already climbed to his feet, shoved my fish aside, and left the cave with that spear-like body of his.
What the… is this some new kind of suicide method?
No, I really thought he was going to die.
Walking around in the freezing North Sea Ice Palace with that kind of body condition?
I had only saved him so he wouldn’t freeze to death, so I followed after him…
Thud.
Thud.
He vanished somewhere without leaving even a single footprint in the snow.
…Is he even a patient?
Just a moment ago he was barely breathing while moaning, and now he was gone without a trace.
This isn’t a pirate cartoon world where eating meat makes you recover…
I stared blankly in the direction he had disappeared for a long time, but nothing came back.
Well… whatever. Let him handle it himself.
I lost interest and returned to the cave to unfold my martial arts scrolls. After about two hours…
“He’s back.”
That guy returned.
“Kyak?”
I looked at his hands.
What he was holding…
Wood?
Wood. Not just a stick—plenty of wood.
I had no idea where he had even gotten it from.
Gathering wood in the snow-covered North Sea Ice Palace was already unbelievable, but I couldn’t understand why he had brought it back.
He sat down without a care and…
Scrap.
Scrap.
Then he started carving the wood with his hands.
What kind of madman is this?
I quietly watched his movements.
At first I thought he was trying to make something.
But as the shape started taking form…
No way?
Scrap.
Scrap.
A while later…
“Hmm… this should be usable.”
He nodded with satisfaction and walked outside carrying the carved piece.
“Kyak?”
After a moment I rubbed my eyes in disbelief.
He was swinging the wooden piece like a sword.
Whoosh!
Huff!
Whip-whip!
Is he serious?
I had thought it was just a joke at first.
But…
Ten minutes.
Thirty minutes.
One hour.
And now, on day two, he was still swinging the sword nonstop.
That crazy guy…
The sound of the sword slicing through the air was driving me insane with neuroses.
How can I spend all the time I’m supposed to eat fish, then swing the sword the rest of the time?
Truly.
In the martial arts world they say it’s harder to find normal people, but I’d never seen a madman like this.
He definitely won’t have any children if he keeps swinging a sword like that…
Hmm. That’s right.
I forced myself to come to that conclusion and picked up my Ice Soul Divine Palm martial arts scroll again.
Raise your core qi, gather it in your dantian, and circulate it according to the heart method.
When the qi reaches your palms, direct it with your will and expel it outward. The internal energy cuts through the air.
When qi and will combine, true qi explosion is achieved.
Um…
What the hell does this even mean?
The only thing I understood was this much:
Collect inner energy.
Send it with your hands.
Use your will to control direction and power.
Internal energy explodes.
The problem was that I had no clue how to do any of the middle steps.
While I was wracking my brain trying to understand the sentence alone…
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
I suddenly thought of the madman swinging his sword outside.
Um… still a North Sea Ice Palace person.
Maybe he can explain this?
I picked up the martial arts scroll and slowly walked over to him.
“Hup!”
He stopped swinging.
“Hmm? You?”
“Kyak.”
I offered the scroll and pointed at the part I didn’t understand with my foot.
“So… you don’t understand this part?”
“Kyak.”
“If you do, let me hear you cry.”
“Kyak.”
“Hmm. I see.”
He took the scroll, looked at it for a moment, and spoke.
“Fortunately, I’ve also learned this qi technique, so I’ll explain it.”
Oh.
Nice.
I followed him eagerly toward the cave.
“First, simply put, the core qi isn’t just pulling strength from your dantian.”
“You first circulate it quietly until it wakes up, then flow it through every qi meridian in your body according to the heart method and send it to your dantian.”
…
Eh?
I blinked.
No way.
The language was clearly Korean, yet it sounded like alien talk.
“When the qi gathers in your palms, you don’t immediately strike. You use your will to grasp the flow and direct it where you want before the internal energy finally takes form.”
“How is that? Does it make sense?”
His expression was full of certainty.
Even a beginner should understand something like this.
But…
“Kyak.”
“…”
“Kyak? (What?)”
I understood absolutely nothing.
Just what kind of gibberish is that…
Speak in a way that even normal people can understand!!!
“No… I explained it so clearly a beginner martial artist should understand…”
It’s weird to expect human intelligence from a beast!!
Knock.
“It hurts.”
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
I kept poking the arm of the guy who explained it so poorly.
“S-stop. It hurts.”
“Kyak.”
“I’ll think of a simpler way to explain it. Just hold on a little longer.”
He finally surrendered and promised to explain it more simply.
I should have done that from the beginning.
I stroked his arm where I had poked it and left the cave.
Hah… has it been a month already?
I looked out at the endless snowfield.
Somehow I survive… but nothing has actually succeeded yet.
Ultimately, what I wanted to achieve after becoming a penguin was a movement technique inspired by tobogganing and the ability to create Freeze Beams.
And I had found the seed of that.
But beyond that, nothing.
Um… it would be nice if just one puzzle piece clicked into place.
No matter how much I thought, no answer came.
Finally I just lay down on the ground.
What should I do…
Walking on a penguin’s short legs was impossible.
My inner energy heart method had nothing new to read either.
I just kept circulating in the same way.
Do I need more dopamine…
One new realization I had learned here:
I was a much more serious dopamine addict than I thought.
And this place…
Was incredibly boring.
Shorts! Broadcast!
The thought crossed my mind as I realized I could actually make a living here.
At that moment…
“Achoo!”
Piwoong!
“?”
Right as I sneezed, the Freeze Beam I had longed for shot out of my mouth.
What… what kind of bug is this?
Shortly after
Hey! That worked before!!! Why is it only emitting cold air this time!!!!
I had kept trying after realizing something must have clicked when the beam came out with the sneeze, but…
It still doesn’t work!!!!
This time it only emitted cold air.
What’s the problem? The method was exactly the same!!!!
I kept my mouth open and circulated my inner energy for a long time, but no beam shot out like before.
“Kak…”
What exactly is different?
I had done exactly the same thing as before.
Opened my mouth, gathered cold energy, and expelled it forward—yet the result was completely different.
Before, something had definitely gone out, but now it was just cold air.
So it really was just luck?
After a month of searching, a skill that only came out with one sneeze was too absurd.
At that moment…
“Are you trying to reproduce something right now?”
I turned my head at the voice from behind.
The guy was holding a wooden sword and staring at me.
I avoided his gaze out of embarrassment.
“Kyak.”
“It seems you’re trying to reproduce the phenomenon from earlier.”
He looked at me for a moment and spoke.
“But you have one misconception.”
Misconception?
“Repeating the same action doesn’t produce the same result.”
He slowly raised the wooden sword in his hand.
“Swinging a sword is the same. Most beginners only copy the arm movement. But a real sword doesn’t start from the arms.”
He swung the wooden sword once.
Whoosh.
Cold wind split the air.
“First the will appears, then the qi follows the will, and finally the body and sword follow. That’s it.”
I stared blankly at him.
What the hell are you saying?
I understood the language, but I still couldn’t interpret it.
But strangely, this time it sounded a little different.
Same movements, different results?
I recalled the moment the Freeze Beam had appeared earlier.
“Kak…”
I slowly opened my mouth again, but this time I didn’t force it.
I simply started slowly circulating the inner energy around my neck.
Then, faintly but undeniably, something was felt.
This…
It was like a signpost telling me where to send the power I possessed.
I followed the flow and focused on my mouth.
And then…
Piiwoo uuuung
Finally, with my will, the beam was fired.
I stopped my inner energy and looked at him.
“W-what… that’s… scary…”
He reacted strangely again.
What are you saying? You were the one who told me!