Chapter 7
Translator: True Detective
I Became a Martial God (4)
Normally, I didn't dream often. When I went to sleep, it was usually a kind of lucid dream state where I swam inside my mindscape; there were few instances where a dream I didn't intend completely unfolded.
However, looking around now, a scenery completely different from my mindscape has unfolded. It is an ordinary train station that can be commonly found anywhere.
'The peculiar thing is that I cannot feel the presence of anyone else but me in the station.'
The empty train station was different from its usual state, which would be packed with people. I felt a bizarre sense of disconnect and a chill, as if common sense had been broken.
'Then again, I suppose that's natural.'
This isn't an ordinary station. It's merely a dream of standing in a station.
'It's just that it's the anomalous phenomenon called Monkey Dream.'
The moment I thought that, the train pulled in. It was the train mentioned in the announcement a little while ago, and simultaneously the train that marks the direct beginning of the Monkey Dream.
—Hsssss!
〈The doors are opening.〉
With a sound of air deflating, like when a rice cooker finishes cooking rice, the tightly closed doors opened. Before boarding the train, the interior I glanced at through the window was much more ordinary than I thought.
'The interior looks similar to the KTX I rode before.'
Of course, it was strictly only the interior of the train that was ordinary. Boarding the train and looking around the seats, there were plenty of people with anxious expressions, every single one of them looking terrified.
'Are these people truly those swept up in the anomalous phenomenon, or are they just illusion-like entities created because this is a dream.'
In the information about the Monkey Dream I researched on the internet, it didn't say who the passengers riding the train were. It just said that the passengers died one by one, and that one's own turn gradually approached, and that was all.
If they are just puppet-like entities consumed for a sort of countdown, it doesn't matter if I ignore them, but if they are victims caught in the third count of the Monkey Dream, the story changes.
'Because there's no reason to purposely leave someone to die a cruel death.'
Whether it was a rule of the anomalous phenomenon or a coincidence, the seat exactly third from the back was empty. As I quietly walked to the empty seat and sat down, an announcement played as if it had been waiting.
〈The train is departing.〉
The sound of the doors closing was heard, and the train gradually began to move forward. Since there was quite a bit of time left before the anomalous phenomenon started in earnest, I let out a short breath and checked my current condition.
'There's no problem operating True Qi, and I can reinforce my body properly too. Sword Qi... no, I'm bare-handed, so is it Hand Qi? Anyway, this is perfectly fine too.'
Fortunately, even though it was an anomalous phenomenon occurring in a dream, it didn't seem my martial arts were restricted.
'Should I sharpen my senses a bit before the anomalous phenomenon begins?'
Realizing that my martial prowess hadn't changed, I raised my senses to the limit so I could respond to any danger at any time.
My vision takes in and analyzes all visible elements at a glance, and my sense of smell catches even the faintest scents to find abnormalities.
My sense of touch is to the point where I can immediately distinguish objects grabbed in my hand or touching my body, and my hearing is on edge to the extent that I can hear a person's breathing loudly.
It was that moment.
"I don't want to die, I don't want to die. Today is the third time, it hasn't even been long since I had the second dream...!"
From the seat behind my back, exactly two cars back, I heard someone muttering. By position, it was the location that would be killed first if the anomalous phenomenon started, and someone was trembling in fear there.
'Could it be that everyone riding the train is real?'
Looking at the progression order of the ghost story, it's not an entirely impossible story.
If they didn't drag in this many people all at once, but rather dragged them in slowly over time...
'As the people who came in first die, the turns of the people who came in later naturally approach.'
Keeping that fact in mind, I quickly looked around. The area was full of people with expressions of resignation and expressions trembling with the fear of death.
'These people aren't all fakes created for the progression of the ghost story—'
It was the moment I swallowed my saliva, tense from the scale of damage being much larger than I thought.
—Thud!
From the very rear of the train car, around the door connecting to the back car, the sound of someone's rough footsteps echoed.
〈Next is slicing sashimi, slicing sashimi.〉
At the same time, the dry announcement spoke in an excited, heightened voice.
"N-no...!"
Seven presences that crossed over from the back car. The scent of blood that wafted in through the crack of the door those presences opened to cross over.
'The monkeys have appeared.'
The moment I finished assessing the situation, I kicked off my seat and stood up. In fact, it was practically at the level of violently leaping up from the seat.
The moment my body floated in the air, I curled and spun my body as if doing a somersault. As my body flipped, my legs, which had been facing the floor, aimed toward the ceiling of the train.
And, bang!
"Huh?!"
With a loud noise, I used the ceiling as a foothold and leapt toward the monkeys. The moment the bastards, flustered by the unexpected commotion, looked my way, the head of one bastard was already crushed by my fist.
"Where do you think you're throwing a tantrum?"
As I muttered those words, the hand of the monkey whose head was crushed dropped a sashimi knife. With its head blown off, naturally, the hand gripping the knife lost its strength.
I swiftly snatched that sashimi knife and coated it in Sword Qi. Now that I have a weapon in my hands, there is nothing to fear anymore. I don't know their exact martial prowess yet, but I also figured out the fact that they definitely die if a proper attack lands.
'There are many people. I have to kill all the monkeys before they try anything funny.'
The space is narrow, and the people to protect are mixed with the bastards to kill. Since the bastards were anomalies outside the human way of thinking, they might show sudden, unexpected behaviors I cannot anticipate at all.
Phew. Letting out a long breath, I drew up Inner Qi from my Dantian. With the power of the inner energy that began to race violently through all the acupoints in my body, my entire body rapidly accelerated.
'Seeker's Swordsmanship, Swift Sword Stance.'
The martial art handling the swordsmanship part of the exclusive martial arts I created. A swordsmanship created to realize the sword principles of Swift, Domineering, Piercing, Illusory, Soft, and Heavy often discussed in martial arts novels.
I choose the fastest attack and combo I can execute right now. Since the length of the sword is short, it doesn't easily mesh with existing forms, but I can cope with that much through improvisation.
'Whipping Swim, Dancing Swing.'
It swings, dancing like a swimming whip. As the name imbued in the form suggests, the mindscape responds, and the True Qi containing that mindscape turns into Sword Qi, increasing the precision of the movement.
A whip is the first thing created by humans to surpass the speed of sound. It is a weapon that leaves even sound behind, making the empty air scream belatedly.
Therefore, there is nothing more fitting for the mindscape of a swift sword than this. The trajectory of the sword bends sharply, draws a curve, accelerates, and then soars as if bouncing off.
"Kieeeek!" "Kkiak!" "Ukkiiik!"
In the blink of an eye, slashes rushing in from various angles gruesomely butcher the bodies of the monkeys. Scattering flesh and blood, the monkeys that instantly died collapse on the floor.
"Yeah, well. You definitely sliced sashimi, alright."
I threw a sneer while looking at the speaker where the announcement was flowing out. Monkey sashimi made from monkeys that used to slice humans into sashimi. It didn't look very appetizing.
〈.......〉 "Not saying anything? Why, didn't you know you guys would die?"
I tossed mocking words with a fishy smile and twirled the sashimi knife in my hand. Stepping through the splashing blood pooled at my feet, I slowly headed toward the back car.
'The Monkey Dream is an anomalous phenomenon that progresses by killing people from the back to the front. In other words, dangerous entities like the monkeys appear from the back.'
The fact that the monkeys crossed over from the back car to this car ultimately meant that the people in the back car were all dead.
Conversely, from the car I am in onward, there are still people riding who are alive and haven't died yet.
'If I have to move in either direction, it would be better to go to the back car, kill all the monkeys that might remain, and then start.'
I adjusted my grip on the spinning sashimi knife and crossed over to the back car.
"Next is gouging out, gouging out." "U-ukkiiik...!"
Based on the contents of the ghost story, I recite the line the announcement should have said after slicing sashimi.
As expected, the monkeys that were swarming in the back car tremble in fear and retreat as if faltering.
"Karmic retribution, righting wrongs."
—Boom!
In an instant, my body shot forward, detonating a roar from the floor of the train.
—Stab!
Starting with the bastards facing me at the very front, they died one after another.
"U-ukkiiiiiik!" "Ukkiaaak!" "Kieeeeeek!"
The train, which should have been full of human screams, began to be filled with the screams of monkeys.
Just how many monkeys did I kill like that?
—Drip, droop.
From the tip of the sashimi knife, which had turned completely red soaked in blood, monkey blood formed drops and fell.
"Is the cleanup roughly done?"
Usually, in ghost stories or horror games, it's an unwritten rule that making noise puts you in danger.
So, thinking of using that, I purposely muttered to myself a bit, but no answer returned.
"Tch, it was blander than I thought."
The martial prowess of the monkeys was much weaker than I thought. Let alone the anomalies I cut down on Mount Geumjeong, their level was inferior even to the anomalies I took down at Yeongshin Elementary School.
If I were to force a ranking by strength, would it be Mount Geumjeong Forked Path, Yeongshin Elementary School, and then Monkey Dream?
'Well, if it's easy, that's a good thing for me.'
Now I just have to catch and wreck the bastard who's driving the train and making announcements.
Since there are no more monkeys to attack the people either, I walked with a leisurely pace toward the very front car where the driver's seat would be.
And, the moment I finally faced the monkey trembling in fear in the driver's seat.
"The last is mincing, mincing." 〈The last is mincing, mincing.〉
I approached while reciting the line that always appeared as the finale in the Monkey Dream ghost story.
Perhaps the announcement system had been left on, because my voice rode the announcement and echoed throughout the train.
"Kieeeeeek! Ukkiiik! Ukkiaaaaak!" 〈Kieeeeeek! Ukkiiik! Ukkiaaaaak!〉
Even the screams let out by the final monkey of the Monkey Dream train, which had toyed with and killed countless humans up until now.
"Kiiiiik......" 〈Kiiiiik......〉
As the final monkey of the Monkey Dream met its death by my hand like that.
"...Is it safely resolved?"
I opened my eyes in bed.
Various departments exist within the Mystic Management Bureau.
There are departments found in general companies or organizations like Planning, HR, and Accounting, but conversely, there are also departments rarely found in general companies or organizations, like the Response Department.
The Support Department, which was currently in an uproar after hearing the news of a Monkey Dream survivor in real-time, was also such a special department of the Mystic Management Bureau.
"After the Mount Geumjeong Forked Path and Yeongshin Elementary School, is this the third one?"
A middle-aged man with a large diagonal scar across his face opened his mouth with a bitter expression.
The insignia of the Response Department, embossed in gold on the shoulder of his armor, revealed the fact that he was the Head of the Response Department of the Mystic Management Bureau.
"The incidents that have occurred over the past month are hotter than the work we cleared out all of last year. Our Support Department side has also gotten busy helping the Research Department."
A young man wearing a white coat like a doctor added to the Response Department Head's words. A golden name tag pinned to his white coat also sparkled.
Since the golden name tag was a sort of position color that could only be used by department head-level personnel, it naturally revealed that the position of the man wearing the coat was the Head of the Support Department.
"Um... why am I here...?"
Finally, a woman with brittle purple hair falling to her waist stammered and expressed her question.
Outwardly, she looked like a faint-hearted and gloomy girl, but a golden name tag was also attached to the black robe she wore.
"Since the Research Department will have work to do whatever the conclusion is, it is more efficient to accompany us from the very beginning. Or so the HR Head said." "Ugh, I'm bad at meeting people..."
Response Department, Support Department, Research Department. Just the number of department heads gathered in one place was three, and including the HR Head who arranged this meeting, it was an affair that moved a whopping four department heads.
It meant that even the Bureau judged they could no longer sit still.
The three department heads sat in front of a single long table and looked at the shabbily dressed man sitting opposite them.
"Former agent affiliated with the Response Department, Yoo Shinhyuk. I heard that after returning alive from your third Monkey Dream, you claimed the complete neutralization of the Monkey Dream."
The first person to open his mouth was the Response Department Head. As the summoned agent was formerly affiliated with the Response Department, he was the first to start the conversation.
"Yes, that's correct." "Tell us what happened in your third Monkey Dream, the experiences you went through, and the basis for your claim of neutralization."
Yoo Shinhyuk nodded, answering with a tense expression. The Response Department Head, who expressed affirmation, demanded a detailed explanation.
A demand where simply rummaging through memories to explain was everything. Following the Response Department Head's instructions, he sequentially laid out what had happened while dreaming the third Monkey Dream.
"About that—"
The beginning of the story had no special content.
Yoo Shinhyuk opened his eyes sitting in a train seat like in the second Monkey Dream, and fell into a panic, thinking his turn had truly come now.
In the midst of that, someone boarded the train. Just as he had done when he first dreamed the Monkey Dream, and just as he had seen when he dreamed the second Monkey Dream, a new victim entered the train.
However, Yoo Shinhyuk, who was already swallowed by the fear of death, glanced at the new victim and quickly lost interest. Since he was scheduled to die soon anyway, he couldn't afford to pay attention to other people.
Not long after the new victim sat down, the train departed. Just as the first and second times, the monkeys appeared as the announcement declared his final moments.
The moment the abnormality began was then.
「Where do you think you're throwing a tantrum?」
The man who had boarded the train as a new victim lunged at a monkey with a loud roar and crushed its head.
Subsequently, the moment he snatched the knife from the dead monkey's hand and swung it, the monkeys that had crossed over to the train car all died in the blink of an eye.
"His appearance was a young man who looked to be in his early 20s, but the level of martial prowess he showed vastly exceeded the level of general anomalies."
From then on, the anomalous phenomenon began to be helplessly dismantled at the hands of a human.
After the man entered the back car where the monkeys were presumed to be gathered, the sound of flesh and blood scattering along with the screams of monkeys was endlessly heard from there.
He even killed all the monkeys in the back car and advanced to the front car without sustaining any injuries. Crossing over to the front car as if taking a stroll, he even killed the entity presumed to be driving the train and conducting the announcements.
"The sounds of that process all came out through the announcement, and it was truly terrifying in a different sense."
Ending with the cry of a monkey that sounded like death throes, he woke up from the Monkey Dream. Having testified as such, Yoo Shinhyuk shuddered as if getting goosebumps just thinking about it now.
"Perhaps, the protagonist of the recent noisy neutralizations of the Mount Geumjeong Forked Path and Yeongshin Elementary School is also that person. I couldn't help but think that if a Martial God existed, it would be a person like that."
There was no way there could be two people capable of doing such things. He said that if the Bureau could just contact and recruit him, they could expect groundbreaking progress.
The Response Department Head, who silently watched Yoo Shinhyuk as he carefully laid out his opinion, asked in a low voice.
"Do you know any information to specify his identity?" "...I know his face and voice." "That's knowing quite a lot."
The Response Department Head let out a chuckle with a pleased expression. And that day, a single document sent up to the HR Department was approved.
"Congratulations on your reinstatement. The HR Department's work is not as difficult as the Response Department's and there is no dangerous work, so if you adjust slowly, you will get used to it quickly." "...Thank you."
The content of the document was the reinstatement of the retired agent Yoo Shinhyuk and his transfer to the HR Department.