Adaptation in the Murim World (Part 1)
Jeok So-ye remembered her childhood.
Before she had even formed a proper self, she had already realized that her father did not exist at all.
“Um… why am I the only one who doesn’t have a father?”
No matter whom she asked—kids her age or adults—the answer was always the same. They would turn pale, scurry away, or pretend she wasn’t there.
So she went straight to her mother.
“Mom, where is my father?”
Jeok Hwa-ryeon looked awkward at first. Then she closed her eyes, thought for a long moment, and finally answered.
“Your father is Namgung Cheon. A master of the Jungpa and someone known as the Heavenly Dragon Demon Ghost.”
“Namgung Cheon…!! I’ve heard that name! But… how did a Jungpa master and my mom fall in love?”
Jeok Hwa-ryeon blushed and smiled.
“That’s right… isn’t it romantic? A love story between the enemy Jungpa and the Blood Demon Archdemon~”
Watching her mother twist her body in delight, Jeok So-ye realized she still had a lot to learn about romance.
‘What does romantic even mean…?’
Even if she didn’t understand yet, she knew her father had been real.
“Your father ran away. He ran so far that even the 12th Blood Demon, Jeok Hwa-ryeon, could never reach him.”
“He ran away? Why?”
Jeok So-ye didn’t understand. She had been created out of love—he couldn’t just leave.
A Jungpa master with the power and confidence to date a Blood Demon Archdemon should have been on another level entirely.
“That’s why your mother gathered every artifact the Blood Sect had lost and came here to change the world… so she could find your father. Never, ever tell anyone this story.”
Jeok Hwa-ryeon’s eyes burned with fury and resentment as she spoke.
Jeok So-ye felt an instinctive chill. If her mother ever caught her father, he would suffer so much.
Time passed. Jeok Hwa-ryeon gathered every last artifact and tore open a gate to find Namgung Cheon.
The first time she saw him, he was nothing like she expected.
She had imagined muscles bulging, overwhelming pressure. Instead, she found a strikingly handsome man with almost no inner energy left in his body.
A small disappointment bloomed, but the love-filled gaze in Jeok Hwa-ryeon’s eyes left no doubt: this was truly her father.
“Since we found your father, let’s go to the Murim world and finish the Blood Sect. You must stay safe and guard the house well.”
Jeok Hwa-ryeon patted her daughter’s head and said she had something important to do in the Murim. Then she opened the gate and stepped through.
Jeok So-ye quietly followed her mother’s orders… until she noticed one very annoying person.
‘Who is that guy?’
At first glance, he looked like some kind of monster. Big nose, split eyes, skin covered in warts.
Even so, he was insulting Namgung Cheon without mercy.
Jeok So-ye’s blood boiled. This was the first time she had felt genuine rage in her entire life.
‘Is this… what family is supposed to feel like?’
She slowly drew her heavy sword from its sheath and pulled the hilt up high.
The moment she was about to cut his head off, she locked eyes with the man now known as Kim Min-su.
‘He was… hiding his presence and inner energy even from a kid like me?’
No one had noticed him at all. It was the kind of stealth that even ordinary people couldn’t detect right in front of them.
Jeok So-ye was stunned, but she remembered he had been a master once. That made sense.
Kim Min-su kept staring at her.
‘He must be telling me… to hold back a little.’
She instantly pulled the chair out from under Yoo Jun-ho.
“W-what?!”
Yoo Jun-ho’s face smashed against the floor when Jeok So-ye stomped on his solar plexus.
“Cough! Ack!”
Only then did Jeok So-ye feel her anger finally melt away.
‘That felt so good…’
She turned and followed Kim Min-su out the door.
***
‘That was too close.’
If she had been even a little less careful, the department head would have had his head on a platter in the briefing room.
Was it really that bad?
No way. A father who ordered his own daughter to kill someone?
Still, the delicious satisfaction she felt when she crushed Yoo Jun-ho’s face was worth every second.
“So Jeok Hwa-ryeon went to the Murim world?”
“Yes. She said she had something important to do and left.”
Something important.
It probably had something to do with the Blood Sect and the Murim.
“Then… let’s go home first?”
We arrived at our tiny studio apartment with my daughter in tow.
No TV, just a blanket and a pile of clothes. A pathetic one-room place.
Jeok So-ye looked around and frowned.
“A Blood Demon Archdemon’s husband living in a place like this… so Mother was right. This world is completely different from the Murim.”
She rolled up her sleeves and started cleaning right away.
“Wait, why are you cleaning?”
“I learned it from Mother. Cleanliness comes first no matter where you are. I’ll do it.”
Jeok So-ye swept and wiped with such focus that it was hard to tell if she was joking or serious.
‘She’s using inner energy to mop the floor?’
Just to make the floor even shinier, she used martial arts as well.
“Phew~”
In less than ten minutes, the dusty room looked brand new. The floor shone like glass, and not a speck of dust remained.
“Now I can finally relax.”
“Since So-ye cleaned, I’ll cook. You can sit comfortably.”
I pulled out a pot, filled it with water, and set it on the gas stove.
When I opened the valve, flames shot up.
“Sammajinwha…”
“No, it’s just a gas stove. One of the techniques, I guess.”
The water began to boil. I added the noodles and soup mix, then the pre-cut frozen green onions.
‘Since this is her first time eating ramen, classic style.’
I almost added an egg, but remembered it was her first time and held back.
I carried the perfectly cooked ramen to the table and set a bowl and chopsticks in front of her.
“Eat up.”
Jeok So-ye stared at the ramen for a moment, then carefully lifted a strand with her chopsticks and moved it to her bowl.
Slurp.
She slurped up the noodles like a tiny hamster.
‘So cute.’
Her cheeks looked extra puffy and adorable.
“This taste… I’ve eaten every kind of mountain and sea delicacy following Mother, but this is the first time I’ve experienced such intense flavor…!”
Jeok So-ye’s rapid-fire speech made it clear just how delicious it was.
“You like it? I thought so.”
I picked up my own chopsticks to try a bite…
Crack!
A crack the size of a person appeared beside me.
“There she is!”
Jeok Hwa-ryeon poked her head out of the crack and laughed.
“What is this delicious smell?”
“Come eat too, Hwa-ryeon.”
I handed her my chopsticks right away.
“The smell is wonderful.”
Jeok Hwa-ryeon didn’t hesitate and started slurping the noodles down.
“Mmm… what is this? It’s like concentrated broth with a little kick. Addictive.”
“Right?”
The two of us slurped the noodles together. I watched them with a warm smile.
‘Why didn’t I think of cooking before?’
Ever since I came to this other world, I hadn’t even thought about cooking. I was barely surviving back then anyway.
“So… why did you disappear?”
I explained everything while thinking this was the part she had come for.
How I had gone through three reincarnations—including the very first time I opened my eyes in another world.
“So… that god sent me to another world because I had just become interesting? It wasn’t because I was annoying?”
“Absolutely not. I wanted to stay by your side forever.”
Jeok Hwa-ryeon listened in silence, then opened her arms.
“Come here. How much pain have you been in?”
She pulled me into a hug.
The moment I felt her arms, my chest tightened so much I could barely breathe.
The resentment I had hidden behind a door, the negative and sad feelings I had ignored—now they finally poured out like water.
“Thank you. For not giving up and coming to find me.”
“Of course. I went through an entire dimension for you.”
Every hardship I had endured felt like it was finally being repaid.
Jeok Hwa-ryeon released me, pointed at the studio, and smiled.
“But we can’t stay here, right?”
Was this studio really that bad?
Jeok Hwa-ryeon and Jeok So-ye had lived in a palace-like mansion before, so this place looked tiny in comparison.
“We’ll have to go to a hotel… it’s going to cost a fortune.”
“Money? Wait.”
Jeok Hwa-ryeon created a crack big enough for a person to slip through and pulled out a heavy sack.
“Here.”
Inside the sack I caught with both hands was an uncountable amount of gold and silver treasures.
“Insane…”
Jeok Hwa-ryeon suddenly looked incredibly cool and beautiful.
“Ah… what a cool woman.”
***
“Here it is.”
Department Head Ju Tae-jin had arrived at the site of the Ujangsan Gate incident.
“Department head! Ouch!”
Yoo Na-ra, who had been following him, slammed straight into his back and clutched her nose.
“Eek! That hurts!”
“Look at that… you really thought that was possible?”
“Yes…?”
Yoo Na-ra leaned closer to Ju Tae-jin and gasped.
“……!!”
What she saw was a horn knight so completely flattened it looked like it had been flattened pancake-style.
“Impossible. A horn knight with top-tier physical defense…”
“Exactly. The horn knight known as the Warrior Slaughterer… reduced to a puddle of flesh. All in one hit.”
The Warrior Slaughterer.
High defense and superb swordsmanship—those were the two things that let them slaughter warriors and pierce through rear lines like mages and archers to disable them.
Horn knights were a disaster and the ultimate nightmare for A-rank hunters.
Ju Tae-jin took out a cigarette and lit it with a lighter.
“Get the testimony from the people who measured the gate that day.”
“Yes, sir! Right away!”
Yoo Na-ra immediately picked up the phone and started dialing.
While she worked, Ju Tae-jin walked deeper into the storm-like scene.
‘This horn knight… its heart was completely pierced.’
Ju Tae-jin crouched down and stared at the body of the horn knight with its heart torn open.
There was something here.
At least an S-rank hunter had come and gone.
‘The only S-rank hunter in South Korea is in America right now, so this has to be an unregistered one.’
Just as he stood up, a voice shouted from far away.
“What are you doing?! This area is private property! Entry is strictly prohibited!!”
Ju Tae-jin showed his badge to the running man—Yoo Jun-ho.
“Special Hunter Crime Department, Ju Tae-jin. Please cooperate.”