Chapter 1
Chapter 1
A Murim Fan in a Certain Group Chat
[Hocheonan: (roughly an entrance emoticon)]
[Pungrim Inn: Hoha.]
[Soyo Gangho: Hoha.]
[Samru Warrior: After wandering swordsman comes Byeon Gyeonghu.]
[Hocheonan: Mountains are mountains and water is water. Mountain is mountain, water is water.]
[Hocheonan: Starting the moment I arrive?]
[Samru Warrior: Gang Yeongmyeong of Naksumun.]
[Hocheonan: The soft overcomes the strong. Yuneungjegang.]
Proper martial arts games are extremely rare.
So rare that even now, a game released over ten years ago called [Murim Cheonha] was still treated as the newest martial arts game on martial arts forums and communities.
It was such a masterpiece that it could stand proudly among the countless open-world games popular back then, so realistically speaking, it might have been both the beginning and the end of martial arts games.
The martial arts genre itself was dying, after all, meaning no highly polished and fun martial arts game would probably ever appear again.
Even I, using the nickname Hocheonan in this group chat, never imagined I’d still be playing this game ten years later.
Sure, I acknowledged it as a masterpiece that even won GOTY, but I never expected no other martial arts game good enough to replace it would appear for over a decade.
Honestly, the fact this group chat even existed was proof the game was ancient.
Who even joins game group chats nowadays?
That trend died ages ago.
Maybe we were just fondling the balls of a dead child, but since [Murim Cheonha] was the only game that properly captured the martial arts genre, what else could we do?
[QipaoEgaTeo: Go Mirim of Yeongyeongmun.]
[Hocheonan: There’s a character like that?]
[QipaoEgaTeo: Ah.]
[QipaoEgaTeo: Must be from a mod lol sry.]
[Pungrim Inn: Ah seriously, why does nobody ever assume Hocheonan wouldn’t know~.]
[Samru Warrior: I trained him like crazy all this time, no way he’d get it wrong.]
[Samru Warrior: (roughly a proud emoticon)]
[Reincarnation Truck has entered the Murim Cheonha Official Group Chat.]
[Pungrim Inn: (shocked eyes emoticon)]
[WhyAmITheOnlyOneWithoutGames: A newbie… came?]
[Reincarnation Truck: (waving bear emoticons)]
[YeonhwaPantyThief: Murim Cheonha isn’t dead yet!]
[Reincarnation Truck: hi hi just beat the ending. newbie here]
[PassingJangsam: Ah are we finally raiding again? Are we? Maybe not?]
While the group chat fossils swarmed around the newbie, I turned my gaze toward my computer screen for a moment.
After setting up roughly one month’s worth of automated actions, I returned to the chat to find things even more heated.
[Reincarnation Truck: But.]
[Reincarnation Truck: Earlier, every now and then.]
[Reincarnation Truck: What kind of quiz were you guys doing.]
[YeonhwaPantyThief: If you look at the character window, there’s something called Enlightenment.]
[Reincarnation Truck: Ah yeah, that part confused me a little.]
[Reincarnation Truck: It felt like the characters in the game achieved enlightenment or something, but it kept showing empty.]
[Pungrim Inn: Yep.]
[Pungrim Inn: Unlike normal martial arts stories, enlightenment and martial principles are separated.]
[Pungrim Inn: In martial arts novels, even slightly understanding martial arts gets described as “gaining a small enlightenment,” but in [Murim Cheonha]]
[Pungrim Inn: That gets expressed as “learning the principles of martial arts.”]
[Pungrim Inn: Each character only has one true Enlightenment.]
[Samru Warrior: More accurately, while playing the game, characters acquire various [Principles] through many routes.]
[Samru Warrior: And if they obtain the Principle corresponding to their Enlightenment.]
[Samru Warrior: You get messages like “unity with heaven and earth” and huge flashy effects appear everywhere.]
[Samru Warrior: Once Enlightenment is achieved, you gain traits, huge stat boosts, martial art mastery increases, and limit realms break through.]
[Reincarnation Truck: Wait lol if each character only has one Enlightenment, does that mean you have to keep waiting until you randomly hit it?]
[Samru Warrior: That’s the standard method, but the probability’s ridiculous, so there’s a workaround.]
[Samru Warrior: If you type the [Principle] into the in-game chat function, the character hears it and achieves [Enlightenment].]
[Samru Warrior: It’s basically a hidden piece.]
[Samru Warrior: One chat message instantly powers up a character and raises their limit realm, so obviously everyone wants to use it.]
[Samru Warrior: Murim idiots too lazy to search databases would ask in the KakaoTalk room.]
[Samru Warrior: While answering, it somehow evolved into a quiz game.]
[Hocheonan: By the time you reach Honcheon difficulty, it becomes basically mandatory knowledge.]
[Hocheonan: Since it’s a direct character spec upgrade method.]
[WhyAmITheOnlyOneWithoutGames: TMI) Hocheonan owns the divine artifact that lets you see character Enlightenment keywords.]
[Reincarnation Truck: Oh, there’s an item like that?]
[Hocheonan: The acquisition method’s spoiler territory, but anyway it’s an endgame item.]
[WhyAmITheOnlyOneWithoutGames: TMI) The achievement for obtaining Hocheonan has only been cleared by 0.001% of players on the platform.]
[Hwangcheondangnip: Come to think of it.]
[Hwangcheondangnip: Wasn’t Hocheonan the first one who organized and distributed the martial principles database?]
[Hocheonan: Ah, that’s ancient history…]
[Hocheonan: (bear emoticon asking for more praise)]
[YeonhwaPantyThief: lolol asking people to praise his life achievement more lolol]
[Reincarnation Truck: Oh, so Hocheonan-nim is some Murim Cheonha super expert?]
[WhyAmITheOnlyOneWithoutGames: Dunno~]
[Samru Warrior: Dunno if he’s an expert, but he’s definitely a Murim nerd lololol]
[QipaoEgaTeo: fr lol]
[YeonhwaPantyThief: fr lol]
[Hocheonan: ?]
[Hocheonan: Original founding members number 12?]
To expose the founding members’ embarrassing black history to the newbie, I rummaged through my computer for old screenshots.
Still, having a newbie join really livened things up.
Had this chat room even been this active once this year?
Looks like everyone got excited thinking about raiding again after so long.
[Reincarnation Truck: Hmm, I see.]
[Reincarnation Truck: Then Hocheonan wins.]
[Samru Warrior: ?]
[Reincarnation Truck: I wanted to enjoy it too, but I don’t have time.]
[Reincarnation Truck: Still, Earth’s convenient for working.]
[Reincarnation Truck: Easy to gather information too.]
[Soyo Gangho: (question mark emoticon)]
[Reincarnation Truck: cya then]
[Reincarnation Truck has left the Murim Cheonha Official Group Chat.]
I blinked repeatedly, but the message on my phone remained unchanged.
“Seriously. What kind of ridiculous lunatic was that?”
[Samru Warrior: no but that’s creepy as hell;; what was that;;;;]
[Pungrim Inn: Hobungi, be careful.]
[Pungrim Inn: Didn’t the news cover people gathering info from open chatrooms and stalking others?]
[Soyo Gangho: Might ram you with a truck while walking outside, careful lol;]
After silently watching the panicked group chat messages for a moment, I stood up and pulled back the curtains.
I lived on the third floor of an officetel.
Though because of the structure that lifted the building on pillars to secure parking space below, the actual height was effectively the fourth floor.
Leaning against the balcony bars while surveying the area below, I figured even if a truck somehow came charging in, I probably wouldn’t get hit.
‘Still, just in case, maybe I should stay careful for a while.’
Thinking that, I typed into the group chat thanking everyone for worrying about me and saying I’d be cautious for some time.
Then suddenly—
A shadow fell over me.
Turning my head, I saw—
A truck falling from the sky.
“You’ve gotta be—”
No, seriously, what did I ever do to deserve having a reincarnation truck delivered to me!?
That was my final thought before consciousness faded away.