Chapter 9
Translator: True Detective
Cults of the Ghouls (1)
Study room part-time jobs are very popular.
For one, it's physically easy, there aren't many issues to worry about, and for the most part, you can do your own studying during work hours.
Usually, they only hire for a short period of two to three hours around opening or closing times, but if you look carefully, there are rarely places where you can work long hours like a convenience store part-time job.
My preference for the study room part-time job is in a similar vein. Because I can earn money while doing my university studies. For me, who usually lacks time due to training in martial arts, the study room job is truly a honey pot.
'It's definitely relaxed today.'
However, it is currently the first month of the semester. Let alone exams, there are barely any assignments. Studying just enough to review what was learned in lectures and take a peek at the upcoming progress is sufficient.
Naturally, with less to study, I had time to spare. Normally, I would have focused on studying with just my Qi Sense slightly spread out, but now that the studying I intended to do was finished, I didn't really have anything to do.
'Since it's the beginning of the semester, there aren't many people in the study room either.'
Even though it was a fairly large study room, the inside was quite uncrowded today. Counting how many people were there, it was only seven in total, men and women combined.
'Should I practice my Cultivation Method too?'
When you say martial arts, intense movements like swinging a sword and moving the body easily come to mind first, but surprisingly, the core of martial arts lies in the mind, not the body.
Fist Techniques, Swordsmanship, Footwork, Movement Skills, etc. Martial arts determined by actions are ultimately nothing more than vessels to express and contain a person's mind.
'Then, what is the Cultivation Method?'
I closed my right eye. As I closed one eye, half of my vision went pitch black for a moment, but soon a new scenery reflected with a bright light.
In the newly reflected scenery, a high blue sky and a prairie with a gentle breeze stretched endlessly. Me, standing between the sky and the earth. It is a mindscape based on the Three Realms of Heaven, Earth, and Human.
The vision of my open left eye looks at reality, and my closed right eye looks at the mindscape. Looking at two different worlds, I agonized.
'The Cultivation Method is the method of constructing the mindscape. It is a study of refining and polishing one's mind to forge it into a single, clear, and upright will.'
I must not forget that fact. It was the moment I inhaled while repeating that inwardly.
—Rumble...!
Colorless and formless True Qi rose from my body standing in the mindscape. Having no color or form, the change couldn't be distinguished with the naked eye, but feeling it with my mind, I knew there was a change there.
After all, it is a martial art I created. It is the oral chant I squeezed out by shaping the dreams and passion I harbored when I first formed a Dantian in the 6th grade of elementary school.
The memory was still vivid even now. Since it was my very own first martial art, I said I couldn't give it a clumsy name, and named it by flipping through a dictionary in the school library for days on end.
'First Self Mental Art.'
It means the study of cherishing my beginning, that is, my original intention. I remember giving it that name as a warning against characters in martial arts novels who lost their original intentions and turned traitor or fell into inner demons as a result.
'Since its very origin had the purpose of preventing Qi Deviation, it is an exceptionally pure and stable cultivation method.'
At first, it was merely pure and stable, but now, after years of repeated improvements, even the speed of Energy Circulation and Breathing has become somewhat faster.
'If I constantly devote myself without forgetting the passion and joy of that time, I can advance endlessly.'
I finished the Qi Circulation while inwardly repeating the core oral chant of the First Self Mental Art. I could just continue repeating the Qi Circulation like this, but I had one more cultivation method besides the First Self Mental Art.
'Body Forming Movement Art.'
If the First Self Mental Art is a cultivation method intended for the accumulation of Inner Qi and laying the foundation of the martial veins, the Body Forming Movement Art is conversely a cultivation method intended to utilize what has been accumulated.
Just like the name implies, a study of moving while forming the body, its main role is to mold the muscles, bones, and meridians into an ideal shape.
Actually, I hadn't originally thought of it, but it was a martial art I made by copying a protagonist in a martial arts novel who had a terminal illness because his Upper Dantian was wide open, and used martial arts to reconstruct his body.
'I suffered quite a bit making it, but still, I managed to create something similar to Body Metamorphosis.'
Of course, compared to true Body Metamorphosis, it is absurdly incomplete. I haven't experienced Body Metamorphosis myself, but there are things I intuitively realized while cultivating it.
Nevertheless, the Body Forming Movement Art is a quite excellent martial art. Because my current body, which is tall and has sturdy muscles, is a physical body tempered by the efficacy of the Body Forming Movement Art.
'In a direction different from physical reinforcement, True Qi invigorates the muscles, and firmly holds and compresses the growing muscles. True Qi seeping into the bones aids growth and increases physical stature.'
Timing-wise, it was a martial art I created around middle school, when my body was growing heavily due to secondary sexual characteristics. As I was rapidly growing in time with puberty, I hurriedly cultivated it after hearing that exercising when young yields better results.
Thanks to that, my current body's bone density and muscle density were in a state that vastly exceeded the level of an ordinary person. Even if I fought in a pure external martial arts bout without Inner Qi, I was confident I could easily win a martial arts tournament championship.
'As expected, progress is slow, perhaps because I have already achieved Great Mastery in the Body Forming Movement Art.'
Among the units classifying martial arts achievements, there is something called Stars.
It usually feels like it's divided into 10% increments from 1 to 10. Achieving 10 Stars is considered grasping 100% of the martial art, and is referred to as Great Mastery.
Going a little further from there, the realm of surpassing the limits of the martial art with one's own interpretation and pioneering new martial studies is considered the Ultimate Mastery of 12 Stars.
'Since all of mine are martial arts I created myself, technically speaking, there is no realm that could be called Great Mastery or Ultimate Mastery.'
Martial arts that can be divided into Stars are only those that have already been completed and left behind as secret manuals.
Because fully acquiring a martial art left behind by a predecessor is called Great Mastery, and furthermore, developing it by adding one's own interpretations and views is naturally called Ultimate Mastery.
Therefore, since my martial arts are all ones I directly created myself, until I take my hands off them, they will endlessly develop, constantly pushing back the point designated as Great Mastery.
'Is the Body Forming Movement Art the only exception?'
However, the Body Forming Movement Art is a study that invigorates the growth of the physical body and promotes the biological development of human bodily organs, including the muscles, bones, meridians, and internal organs.
Unlike martial arts like the First Self Mental Art and Seeker's Swordsmanship, which have room to develop indefinitely, there is a clear limit beyond which it can no longer excel.
'The achievement increased explosively around my growth spurt right after its creation, then gradually began to taper off around high school, and has been practically stagnant since last year.'
I could vaguely guess the reason. It was probably because my physical body had reached the limit to which it could be trained as a biological organism.
'It will be difficult to raise my achievement beyond this unless I truly undergo Body Metamorphosis.'
I let out a light breath with those thoughts. At the same time, I opened my closed right eye and ended the Qi Circulation.
It was because time had flown by before I knew it, and the time to tidy up the study room and close the day shift was gradually approaching.
'If you make the slightest mistake while practicing a Cultivation Method, time just flies by. To avoid such situations, I've made it a habit since the past to always keep one eye open and look at reality when practicing cultivation outside, but it has no effect at all.'
Part of it is having to concentrate the mind fully, but practicing a Cultivation Method feels like the very sense of perceiving time becomes dulled.
Should I say it's like the feeling of spacing out and suddenly coming to your senses to find that time has flown by?
It's not like I'm actually spacing out, but it just means it feels similarly close to that.
"Hello. Nothing much happened during the day, right?" "Yes. Since it's the beginning of the semester, there aren't really any people. It seems like you wouldn't even be noticed if you just slept during the night shift."
Around the time the study room cleanup was almost finished, the night shift worker arrived right on time.
'Since it's a place that operates 24 hours. I work from day to afternoon, and this person works from evening to dawn.'
Did she say the study room owner lady guards the seat herself in the morning? Recalling the story I heard when I started the part-time job last year, the cleanup also finished quickly.
"Good work on the day shift. See you tomorrow." "Yes, have a good night shift."
Since we had exchanged greetings at every shift change for about a year since last year, I parted ways with the night shift worker, with whom I had become somewhat acquainted, after a light greeting.
Should I eat a hamburger on the way? The day after returning home with such thoughts.
"...What did you say?" "A male worker in his 20s who worked the night shift at Kkachi Study Room yesterday has gone missing."
Along with the shockingly unbelievable news.
"A large amount of blood confirmed to be his was spilled on the floor of the study room. Do you happen to have any idea about this?"
The police came to my house.
The Mystic Management Bureau is an international organization. It is an international secret society that started in the UK and is currently headquartered in the US.
Although there are no branches in some countries including China and Russia, at least in most countries, Bureau branches have been established and are operating.
Korea is the same. The Korean branch of the Mystic Management Bureau has also always done its best to manage mysteries occurring in Korea since its establishment.
Because the source of all mysteries, such as anomalous phenomena and anomalies, is ultimately mystery.
"Did some kind of Demon King appear in Busan?"
The problem is that mysteries attract each other. Like the relationship between mass and gravity, a strong mystery calls in that many and powerful mysteries around it.
Complete neutralization of the Mount Geumjeong Forked Path. Complete neutralization of Yeongshin Elementary School. Virtual eradication of the Monkey Dream.
The Mystic Management Bureau has not yet found the person who achieved these three accomplishments, but they had at least one certainty.
"To think that mysteries are gathering in this land."
HR Head of the Bureau, Kang Yuna, tapped the three documents spread out on the desk one by one with her index finger and retraced her memory.
The Bureau manages mysteries by assigning them grades. They judge various factors such as stability, danger level, martial prowess level, and survival difficulty to divide their importance and priority.
And, according to the Bureau's standards, the grades of the three mysteries Kim Sihyeon recently conquered were as follows.
'Mount Geumjeong Forked Path, City Disaster Class.'
In the event of a management failure, there is a possibility that the entire area where the anomalous phenomenon is located could be annihilated with natural disaster-level damage.
'Yeongshin Elementary School, Regional Chaos Class.'
It doesn't reach the City Disaster Class, but after completely locking down the area where the management failure occurred, depending on the case, they might have to consider total incineration abandoning civilian rescue.
'Monkey Dream, National Chaos Class.'
It is not enough to threaten the survival of a nation, but it can cause severe chaos on a national level.
Due to the characteristic of operating through human dreams, the Monkey Dream received the National Chaos Class because, despite the internal entities' relatively weak martial prowess, the possession of equipment is impossible.
'Even Yeongshin Elementary School, which had the lowest grade among them, was Regional Chaos Class.'
The Bureau's grading system is made by connecting two concepts. The front indicates the range the mystery can affect, and the back indicates its degree.
In that sense, Kim Sihyeon's accomplishments were truly incredible. It was practically on the level of having saved the city of Busan once and single-handedly preventing a national chaos in advance.
Of course, the person involved didn't know that fact at all, and the Bureau didn't know the fact that the man who did it was Kim Sihyeon yet, but...
'He is a figure with mystery outside the standard.'
She was thinking they absolutely had to recruit him, or at the very least establish an amicable cooperative relationship.
'The French mage with the Cults of the Ghouls, Marcel Lacrima.'
The Bureau, having obtained news that he recently entered Korea, was convinced that the sudden mass disappearance of young adults that had begun occurring in Busan was his doing.
Not only did the timing of the incidents overlap exactly, but above all, the Cults of the Ghouls places a higher magical value on corpses obtained by killing young and healthy humans.
'The Cults of the Ghouls is a forbidden book that, by eating corpses, plunders the mystery contained in those corpses, mutates the mage into a ghoul, and furthermore enables the use of various magic.'
The Bureau concluded that the reason Marcel, who possessed such a Cults of the Ghouls, suddenly entered Korea was due to the influence of being drawn to a powerful mystery.
Given the nature of a mage and grimoire struggling to obtain more mystery, it was highly probable that he came looking for the unidentified man who appeared in Busan, using the property of mysteries attracting each other.
'We must contact that man before Marcel Lacrima no matter what.'
Because if by any chance he cooperates with Marcel, or covets his power and plunders the Cults of the Ghouls to start using it, an uncontrollable situation will unfold.
'I'll have to pay Agent Park Shinhyuk a generous bonus and ask him to speed up.'
Following Park Shinhyuk's reinstatement to the HR Department, Kang Yuna ordered him to check and report the resident registration cards of men in their 20s residing in Busan one by one.
Since he said he knew his face and voice, even though it was an ignorant method, they could definitely figure out his identity.
'There is a possibility of mistakenly identifying someone who only looks similar, but that can be resolved by visiting directly and hearing his voice.'
The Mystic Management Bureau is an international organization that can receive extralegal authority and cooperation from the governments of countries worldwide. Inquiring into resident registration cards, which would normally be impossible, could be carried out without much difficulty.
'From here on out, it is a fight against time.'
Who contacts the man with that powerful mystery operating in Busan first.
'...I should think of various appeasement strategies. I hope it can be solved with money and honor if possible.'
As the HR Head, Kang Yuna began preparing appeasement strategies to recruit the new talent no matter what.