Chapter 2
Translator: True Detective
I Created Martial Arts (2)
Early in the morning, bathed in the sunlight pouring through the window, I raised my body from the bed.
"What in the world was that...?"
The studio apartment was quiet, save for the rustling of the bedcovers. The occasional noise was nothing more than the sound of cars from beyond the window and the humming of home appliances.
Quiet, and peaceful. It was the everyday life it had always been.
However, unfortunately, my mind, having just woken up, was neither quiet nor peaceful.
'To think there would actually be such a place on Mount Geumjeong.'
I rubbed my groggy eyes and headed to the bathroom. The moment I grabbed the bathroom doorknob as usual and was about to open it, a foul, bloody stench wafted through the crack of the door.
'Damn it, I thought it would be somewhat fine since I left them in water mixed with detergent.'
Saliva gulped down my throat. If the stench leaking through the door crack was this bad, just how awful would the smell inside be? Anxious, I hesitated to easily open the door.
However, unfortunately, I absolutely had to wash up today. Not even half a month had passed since classes started, and of all days, today was a day with an early morning major class.
I have to endure it. I have to bear it. With those thoughts, I gritted my teeth and opened the door.
"Ugh...!"
It seemed the smell had gotten worse than yesterday. No, was I just numb to it yesterday because I was also covered in blood? Regardless, having smelled the terrible stench, my nose shrieked.
Perhaps it was even worse because it was a tiny bathroom attached to a studio apartment. Since I had left blood-soaked clothes and a wooden sword neglected in a narrow space, the smell was bound to be severe.
'I won't be able to use that anymore, will I?'
With my face scrunched up from the stench, I looked at the wooden sword leaning against the corner of the wall. The wooden sword, which had been usable even if worn out just until yesterday, was in a state of being steeped in blood.
It wasn't just my favored wooden sword that was like that. The washbasin placed right in front of the wooden sword, filled to the brim with water, was in an even worse state.
'Clothes are expensive these days, why did it have to be my clothes...'
I couldn't do the laundry right away, so I had filled the basin with half water and half detergent and put the clothes in, but unfortunately, the monster's blood seemed to have triumphed over the scent of modern science.
If one were to drain the blood from meat supplied in bulk at a barbecue restaurant and gather it in one place, wouldn't it smell roughly similar to this?
Enduring my nausea at the terrible stench of the bathroom that naturally brought forth such thoughts, I reached out my hand.
'I can't throw this out outside.'
It was a smell so terrible that it made me think even someone with a disabled sense of smell would scrunch up their face and ask what the fuck this smell was.
Truly, someone without a sense of smell wouldn't be able to smell it, but the stench of blood was so awful that it warranted such a comparison.
If I threw this outside in a normal way, what would happen?
'What would happen? The police would come right away.'
I let out a sigh and drew up my Inner Qi. The inner energy surging from my Dantian raced through my acupoints and pooled in the Laogong acupoint at the center of my palm.
Dividing the gathered inner energy into two streams of True Qi, I made them collide and rub against each other to create heat. Like rubbing a branch against a wooden board to start a fire, the intertwined True Qi blazed within the acupoints.
'Just burning it with fire is the most certain method.'
The True Qi, having reached a sufficiently high temperature, poured out of my body through the Laogong acupoint. Naturally, the clothes I was holding in my hand were directly exposed to the hot Inner Qi and burst into blazing flames.
True Fire of Samadhi. An art where a martial artist sparks a flame using their Inner Qi.
Honestly, it might have been useful in the old days when people carried around fire starters or went through the hassle of starting fires manually, but it's practically useless in today's world where anyone can easily buy a lighter at a convenience store.
If I were to find a good point over a lighter, it would be that the firepower could be increased as much as one wanted depending on the amount of Inner Qi poured in?
However, not only were there not many situations where one had to raise the firepower to that extent, but the True Fire of Samadhi was closer to a life-assisting skill to begin with.
'Well, if I ever got stranded on a deserted island, it would be more useful than a lighter.'
As long as I wasn't unable to perform Energy Circulation, it didn't have a set number of uses like a lighter.
I let out a soft chuckle and neatly burned away the wooden sword as well.
'Now, then, I should throw this in the trash can, right?'
There was the term 'lye water', so I also thought about spraying it with water from the showerhead and washing it down the drain, but if by any chance the drain got clogged, a pretty troublesome situation would unfold.
It would be hard to make up an excuse to the landlady, and besides, wouldn't calling a contractor cost money?
'It's not great to gamble when my budget is already tight.'
With a bitter smile, I withdrew the True Fire of Samadhi and drew out True Qi from my Dantian once again.
—Vooom!
However, this time, instead of the True Qi racing through every corner of my body, it extended outward.
'As expected, Void Grasping is truly convenient.'
If the True Fire of Samadhi was an art of sparking fire with Inner Qi, Void Grasping was an art of moving objects out of reach with Inner Qi.
Just as the name implies grabbing an object in the empty air, to give an example using a familiar superpower, it could be said to be similar to a kind of psychokinesis.
'Does this roughly finish the cleanup?'
The blood-soaked clothes and wooden sword were all burned with the True Fire of Samadhi, and the ashes were also thrown into the trash can using Void Grasping.
The smell still lingered, but at least the source of the smell was cleanly removed.
If I bought some air fresheners and deodorants on my way back from class and sprayed them, it would probably be somewhat resolved.
'Time is... quite plentiful.'
Fortunately, I won't be late for the lecture.
Checking the clock visible outside the bathroom door and letting out a sigh of relief, I washed my body as quickly as possible.
Normally, I would have brushed my teeth and washed my face thoroughly, and washed my hair while just adequately rinsing my body with water, but...
'Because I was also heavily covered in blood yesterday.'
Thinking that my body might smell like blood, it took quite a long time to meticulously wash my body with soap compared to usual.
'I need to find a suitable sword to use again, too.'
Whether it's a wooden sword like the one I've been using, or a proper unsharpened metal sword, it doesn't matter. Since I can no longer use the wooden sword I've used until now, I have to get some sort of new sword.
'Should I ask the kendo club senior later if they have any unused wooden swords or unsharpened swords?'
It wouldn't be bad to visit the club room for the first time in a while after my major class ends.
Changing my clothes and packing my bag with those thoughts, I left the house.
Perhaps thanks to moving quickly, I fortunately wasn't late for the lecture. To the point where I had time to catch my breath before the professor came in, sitting in my usual seat.
However, that didn't mean I could focus on the lecture. It was enough to overshadow all the bustling I had done early in the morning.
'In the end, what was that yesterday?'
The professor was giving a passionate lecture at the front, but my mind was entirely filled with memories of yesterday.
A forked path I had never seen even once despite traversing Mount Geumjeong dozens, perhaps hundreds of times. All the anomalous phenomena I experienced there, and the unidentified monsters that lunged at me, aiming for my life.
Not a single one of them could be called normal.
'A situation where the sun suddenly drops in an instant to become night, or bizarre creatures that are neither bears nor tigers pour out from all directions and constantly attack, could not possibly be ordinary.'
Even thinking about it now gave me goosebumps. It wasn't just the goosebumps from experiencing something bizarre. I really could have died. It was fear stemming from that 'what if' possibility.
I was safe because I was a master of the Peak Realm who learned martial arts and effortlessly drew out Sword Qi. But there's no way everyone learned martial arts like I did.
Rather, it was a situation where it was doubtful if there was anyone else in this world besides me who had learned martial arts.
'If an ordinary person had entered that forked path yesterday...'
In all likelihood, their body would have been torn apart by the attack of the creature that first ambushed me.
'I read the approaching presence with my Qi Sense and cut it down with Sword Qi, but an ordinary person wouldn't even realize what was approaching.'
Simply encountering a wild beast in the mountains. It wasn't an issue that could be brushed off like that.
This was not normal. It was an anomalous phenomenon beyond common sense.
Looking across the whole world, or even just the whole country, would such an anomalous phenomenon only exist on Mount Geumjeong in Busan?
'That can't be possible.'
There is definitely something more. Bizarre incidents and accidents that I don't know about are surely constantly occurring somewhere in the world even now.
The possibility that stories dismissed as urban legends or ghost stories are the vivid accounts of survivors who barely escaped with their lives cannot be ignored.
Perhaps tales of monsters and ghosts passed down from olden times, and various myths and legends around the world, might actually be histories that truly happened.
The problem was that no one knew about it.
'Even I am only just suspecting it now after surviving the anomalous phenomenon.'
If supernatural forces and spirits beyond general common sense truly exist, and if they are truly running rampant in the world and causing various damages.
Why on earth hasn't there been any news about it until now? No, at the very least, why has it been dismissed as merely imaginary stories?
Doubt based on experience and reasoning based on knowledge. The conclusion came out surprisingly simply.
'It's not like this is some urban fantasy movie.'
There is a high probability that there is a secretive organization attempting to control information, cover up incidents, and maintain social order.
'It's classic, but that's the most likely.'
Covering up incidents and accidents where people could die or get severely injured with plausible excuses, and furthermore, establishing countermeasures so that society doesn't collapse due to anomalous phenomena.
This was not a problem at a level where a single individual or an ordinary group could step up.
'It's only possible if at least the governments of each country or international organizations act with one mind and one purpose.'
Of course, there was still no concrete information at all.
It could really be that the Forked Path of Mount Geumjeong is the only anomalous phenomenon in the entire world, and a secret society working in the shadows to maintain social order might not exist.
It's just that the probability of that is lower than my assumption.
'...Phew, what's the point of me worrying about that.'
In an instant, the tension left my body.
Seeing how quiet it has been until now, they must surely be taking care of it well, so what does an orphaned college student attending an early morning major class have to worry about?
Besides, thinking about what I experienced on Mount Geumjeong yesterday, even if such a secret society existed, controlling the anomalous phenomena didn't seem to be going entirely smoothly.
If the control over anomalous phenomena was perfect, I wouldn't have encountered one on Mount Geumjeong yesterday.
'Rather, what I should be worrying about is the anomalous phenomenon itself.'
It's a relief that I was safe in the end, but truth be told, I was in a situation where I really almost died yesterday.
If I hadn't been a skilled master of the Peak Realm. If I hadn't been able to draw out Sword Qi from my sword. If I had been a normal person who never learned martial arts.
Crucially, if the level of the monsters that appeared in the anomalous phenomenon had surpassed my capabilities as a Peak Realm master.
I wouldn't have been able to return from the forked path and would have become a meal for the monsters.
'I survived because it was a rootless forked path anomalous phenomenon, but what if I met a named one like the Jangsan Tiger or the Slit-Mouthed Woman?'
Even assuming I could somehow overcome those, there'd be no answer if I encountered a being that belonged in legends or myths as an anomalous phenomenon.
A thousand-year-old Nine-Tailed Fox or a corrupted dragon that failed to ascend?
Even in modern martial arts novels where power scaling has skyrocketed crazily, these beings are counted as the ultimate spiritual beasts and often appear absurdly strong.
It means they could kill a mere Peak Realm master like me like a bug.
'I don't know if monsters of that caliber truly exist, but now that anomalous phenomena like the forked path have appeared, the possibility that such mythical beings absolutely do not exist has virtually disappeared.'
Ultimately, now that I learned a truth I shouldn't have known, I had to become stronger just to survive from here on out.
Or I'd have to visit a temple or a church and pray that Gods and Buddhas exist.
If I had to choose, the former was my preference, so thinking that I should focus more on martial arts training in the future, I left the lecture, which had ended before I knew it, and moved my steps.
'I just need to take care of myself.'
I was going to train hard in martial arts even without anomalous phenomena anyway, and my life hasn't drastically changed just because an anomalous phenomenon appeared.
Yes, come to think of it, nothing in my daily life has changed.
Having to get a new sword, and having to find more part-time jobs to afford living expenses, remained the same.
'...Life is miserable, truly.'
If this were a hunter novel, I could've gotten rich by selling the corpses of the monsters I hunted at the forked path yesterday.
'Still, I cut down all the monsters that were in the forked path before coming out. Even if someone accidentally wanders in, they won't be in danger.'
Letting out a sigh, I took comfort by gilding my own actions.
Isn't this the chivalry that martial arts novels emphasize day in and day out? That there must be at least one person whose life was saved thanks to me.
Because thinking that way, at least I felt no regrets.