Chapter 1: Mu...rim?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 1: Mu...rim?
An unfamiliar alleyway.
"Ugh..."
Did I drink last night? No, I didn't. What the hell was going on?
I blinked blankly. The sky was needlessly blue.
"...What is that smell?"
I pushed myself up, assaulted by a piercing stench. I looked around for the source of the odor, only to realize the truth a moment later.
Wait, is this smell coming from my own body?
It was actually impressive. I didn't know a human body could even produce a scent like this.
Without a hint of exaggeration, it smelled like food waste that had been fermenting in a slop bucket for a month.
Did I crawl into a dumpster after drinking last night...?
Suddenly anxious, I began to sift through my memories.
Name: Lee Seo-jun. Age: twenty-four.
What was yesterday’s date? I thought hard, then came to a realization.
Since when did I ever bother memorizing the date?
I gave up on that train of thought and stood up. Surprisingly, my body felt light. This definitely wasn't the condition of someone who had been drinking the night before.
"What the...?"
Looking down, I realized my clothes were strange. I had no memory of ever spending money on such baggy, fluttering garments.
They were so thoroughly caked in filth that they looked like rags no one would wear, even if they were given away for free.
My brain was slowly starting to register that something was wrong. More accurately, I was finally accepting a fact I had been sensing for a while.
"For real...?"
I walked blankly toward the corner of the alley.
First, I needed to grasp the situation. Whether I’d fallen into a novel or another world, I had to figure out what was going on.
As I rounded the corner, I heard strange voices.
"Ah, this little wench is quite feisty."
"Stay still before I carve a hole in your damn stomach!"
"Kyaaaah...!"
I turned my stiff neck. To my absolute misfortune, a crime scene was unfolding right there in plain sight. Even more unfortunate was the fact that I made direct eye contact with the criminals.
"What? Get lost, kid."
"Ah, yessir."
I quickly bowed my head and backed away. It seemed the criminals were merciful enough to let a pitiful civilian go instead of mugging me.
Walking quickly away from the corner, I clutched my pounding heart.
What the fuck? Why are they carrying a sword that big?
The blade was wider than a grown man’s forearm.
Furthermore, the criminals' attire was clearly not from the modern era, but from several centuries ago. They looked exactly like the kind of thugs you’d see in a Murim novel.
Unless I had been kidnapped and dumped on a historical drama set, this situation made no sense.
Whether it was a novel or another world, had I really been transmigrated? If so, the setting was likely a Murim world.
Just in case, I tried to recall the novels I’d read, but I’d consumed over a hundred Murim stories. I couldn't pin it down to just one.
Wait. Is this just a vivid dream?
As I was racking my brain, a scream pierced my ears.
— Kyaaaah! Help me! Please!
I, who had been distancing myself from the corner, came to a dead halt. That blood-curdling scream caught my feet and wouldn't let go.
"God damn it."
How was I supposed to beat guys with swords? It was madness. Throwing my life away to save someone I didn't even know?
I wasn't even sure I could save her. Most likely, I’d just be adding one more corpse to the pile.
No matter how I thought about it, the logical thing to do was to keep walking, but...
"H-Hey... Stop!"
I squared my shoulders and shouted. Before I knew it, my body had moved back to the corner, and naturally, I made eye contact with my criminal friends once again.
Yeah, Hero Himmel would have done this.
What a shitty dream.
"This brat. We let him go, and he comes back on his own."
"I think he’s got a screw loose."
The two men let out hollow laughs. Meanwhile, as if grabbing at a lifeline, the woman—whose clothes were half-torn—crawled over and grabbed my pant leg.
"Y-Young Hero...! Please, save me... Aack!"
Thwack!
Struck square in the face by my knee, the woman lost consciousness. The men stared at me with bewildered expressions.
I stood tall. Now that I was convinced this was a dream, my trembling body finally calmed down.
Falling into the Murim out of nowhere? That was too much of a fever dream. And even if it wasn't a dream, it wasn't like I had many lingering attachments to life anyway.
Seeing my confident posture, one of the men furrowed his brows.
"Who the hell are you, really?"
"L-Listen, friends. You shouldn't trust women blindly. One wrong move and you’ll get a knife in your back."
There was no guarantee that this woman wasn't in league with these guys. I had no attachments to life, but I wasn't suicidal either.
Though I guess jumping in front of guys with swords already makes me look suicidal.
Anyway, I felt a bit bad about kneeing her, but if I apologized after saving her, it would all work out. I couldn't help it if I looked like a madman right now.
Have you ever seen someone get stabbed in the back with your own eyes? I had. It meant I was far too anxious to just leave that woman behind my back.
"Hah, this guy is just a total lunatic, isn't he?"
The man holding the massive sword stomped toward me. I tried to steady my ragged breathing and took a stance.
Naturally, I didn't know any martial arts; it was just a boxing stance I’d seen somewhere.
"I’ve seen all sorts of weirdos."
The man swung his blade. I could see it clearly. That blade falling from above would split my torso in half.
Because the whole scene appeared in slow motion, I moved my body with an odd sense of detachment.
Slash!
"Huh...?"
However, my body couldn't move nearly as fast as I thought. My stomach was sliced wide open, and my intestines began to spill out.
"Uh, uuh..."
Should I be grateful that my body, which should have been split in two, was still technically attached?
The ground rushed up to meet my face, and my body convulsed from the searing pain.
"Uuugh..."
It hurts. That singular thought filled my head.
Then, in an instant, my consciousness went dark.
*
"...What a shitty dream."
An unfamiliar ceiling. As expected, it was all a dream, right? Yeah, falling into the Murim out of the blue was ridiculous.
I chuckled and tried to sit up.
"Guaaaah...!!"
It hurt like a total bitch. Overwhelmed by the sensation of my stomach tearing open, I rolled around the floor like a madman.
"Sigh... What kind of idiot are you?"
"Ugh... W-What?"
"Don't do anything stupid and just stay down. If your wound opens up, you’re really going to die this time."
I lifted my gaze through my flickering, pain-filled vision and saw a small figure. A kid who looked about twelve or thirteen was looking down at me.
"Haa... Haa... I thought I was dead..."
I roughly wiped away the drool leaking from my mouth and scanned the kid.
"...Hey kid, who are you?"
"What? You don't even know how to be grateful." The kid lightly poked my side with his toe.
"Agh...!"
I writhed. Even though the kid hadn't touched the wound directly, the pain alone was enough to make my mind go blank.
"You...!"
"What, what!"
"Ugh..."
I groaned and straightened my body. My eyes met the pitch-black night sky through the gaping holes in the ceiling.
The sky?
Only then did I look around to see that the place was nothing short of a ruin. Lying inside a structure that looked like it would collapse if poked made my skin crawl.
"...Where is this?"
"My house."
"And where is your house?"
"Near where you collapsed."
The brat clicked his tongue. "Think logically. How far do you think I could have carried you? I thought I was going to die from the weight just getting you here."
"Aha. I guess you’re pretty strong then. It couldn't have been easy for a kid to drag a grown man."
"What?" Pfft! The brat let out a snicker, then began to mock me in earnest. "A grown man? Do you even have hair on your junk yet? What are you talking about when you don't even look that much older than me?"
"What? You poor thing... So young and already blind..."
I casually checked my own body. I wasn't checking for hair on my junk, but I looked down at my hands to see what the hell the kid was talking about.
"What the."
They were small. And short.
They weren't quite the hands of a young child, but there was a clear difference in size from the hands I’d grown used to since becoming an adult.
"...This is ridiculous."
My body had regressed, but my brain remained the same! This really was some bullshit.
"Sigh, I don't know anymore."
Life. I guess it’ll work itself out.
*
It did not work itself out.
About ten days later, I stretched my stiff body.
The wound hadn't completely closed, but it had recovered enough to be considered almost healed. It was an abnormal speed.
In the first place, I didn't even know how it had healed.
The skin was one thing, but what happened to the intestines that had spilled out? Could you even live after just stuffing those back in? Usually, you’d die from an infection.
A mountain of unresolved questions remained. I sighed as I pondered.
"Haa... I don't know. The fact that I got younger makes even less sense."
Chun-bong replied to my lament. "That again? Aren't you sick of it?"
"No, I’m telling you, I really did get younger!"
"That’s a lot of effort for a load of crap."
"Quiet, Chun-bong."
"..."
How could a person’s name be Chun-bong? When I looked at the kid who was technically my savior, his face turned beet red with anger.
"...I should have just left you there," Chun-bong sighed and grumbled. "Anyway, don't do anything stupid and just lie down quietly. That wound really wasn't something that should heal in ten days."
"But it’s healed."
"I know. It’s strange."
Leaving behind Chun-bong, who was staring intently at my body, I fell deep into thought.
Strange, huh...
Through ten days of conversation with Chun-bong, I had become certain. This wasn't a dream. It was a grim reality, and it was the Murim.
But for the Murim, it’s a bit...
This happened three days ago. I was bored and poking Chun-bong’s side with my toe when he suddenly shouted:
'Hey, stop! It’s almost twelve o’clock! Let’s get some sleep!'
It wasn't quite as shocking as hearing a Mount Hua disciple casting a fireball or anything, but still.
Twelve o’clock? Was he crazy? If this were a Murim world written by a sane person, they wouldn't use the expression "twelve o'clock" instead of terms like "Zishi" or "midnight."
I don't remember reading a Murim novel like that...
Then was this not a novel? Did I just fall into some weird Pseudo-Murim?
As I was agonizing over it, Chun-bong tapped me on the shoulder.
"Hey, Lee Seo-jun."
"What."
"What do you mean 'what'? Now that you’re up, you have to earn your keep."
Chun-bong beckoned with a finger from the half-collapsed doorway. "Follow me. I’ll show you... how to survive in the back alleys."
"By the way, are you really a boy? No matter how I look at it, you don't seem like one."
"...You little bastard." Chun-bong quickly backed away and covered his body. I furrowed my brows.
"Hey, I’m not going to do anything weird!"
"Suspicious."
"Fine, whatever, let’s go. Let’s see how well you can beg for a living."
*
"Come to think of it, was there anything else where I collapsed?" I asked as I blew on a steaming dumpling.
"Nothing."
"Really? That’s unsettling."
What happened to that woman? I offered a small prayer for her soul and took another bite of the dumpling.
"But seriously, are there no meat dumplings?"
"...You’re acting like a spoiled brat."
"This tastes like nothing."
It was called a dumpling, but it had no filling. It was just a lump of steamed dough.
"Hah! If that’s the case, you steal them next time. I’ll keep watch."
"Should I?"
"What do you mean 'should I'! Just shut up and eat!"
I got smacked. For a kid, his hands were heavy. Was this the famous heavy hand of a Murim local?
"Man, I wish a martial arts manual would just fall from the sky. If I meet those guys again, I really need to beat them up."
As I grumbled and stuffed the rest of the dumpling into my mouth, Chun-bong stared intently at my face.
"Wut. Whut iz it."
"Want me to teach you martial arts?"
"Cough, hack...!"
Hack, wheeze! I spat the dumpling stuck in my throat onto the ground. I grabbed Chun-bong’s cheeks as he looked at the wasted food regretfully and asked:
"Really!?"
"It’s nothing big. Just the Three Talents Sword Art."
It didn't matter how a back-alley kid knew martial arts. What mattered now was the timing.
"Thank you, Master!"
"Bullshit."