Chapter 5
Chapter 5
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Full Body Scan and Chest Bandages
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1.
Even as a martial artist of the Murim, there are moments when you inevitably become aware of yourself as a woman.
Initialized body.
Lofty realm.
The discomfort felt while training to bridge the gap between them.
It was the jiggling breasts.
‘I regret making these breasts. I’ll regret it forever.’
Breasts she had hand-customized herself based on the simplistic notion that a woman’s breasts should be moderately large.
They would have been great if they weren’t attached to her own body.
The feminine breasts that had become hers were nothing more than burdensome fat lumps weighing down her shoulders and tiring her out easily.
They blocked the view of her instep even in proper posture.
They disrupted her sense of balance.
They were mere obstacles interfering with her training.
‘I need to buy more bandages.’
Twenty years spent in the barbaric Murim.
She had overcome her adversities by tightly binding her breasts with cloth.
Of course, on modern Earth, better alternatives existed than crudely torn cloth rags.
‘Pharmacy. They definitely sold compression bandages there.’
Her second outing destination was decided.
2.
After exchanging numbers with Jua Young.
Hae Eung-eung asked a barrage of questions.
Her own excuse: being ignorant of worldly affairs due to closed-door training.
Not sure if it worked.
But Jua Young answered as diligently as she could.
The reason there were so few people on the streets.
It wasn’t solely due to gates or monsters.
‘Earth in 2050 was rampant with game addiction.’
Not playing games to rest from the fatigue of reality.
But emerging into reality to rest from the fatigue of games.
The positions of reality and games had reversed.
People sought to spend every possible moment in the virtual world.
Life’s value.
Cultural trends.
Society’s overall perception now viewed those who devoted their lives to games as normal people, not nerds or gaming shut-ins.
In that societal trend, an unexpected booming business existed.
Of all things, it was pharmacies.
“Painkillers, please.”
“Boss, how much longer do we have to wait?”
“Argh, damn it. Drowning never gets easier no matter how many times I die from it.”
“Think it’s worse than burning? Even at 10% immersion, my skin swelled up bright red. And burn cream? Ridiculously expensive.”
“What are you talking about? Have you ever woken up choking because you died suffocating underwater? I can’t even sleep at night without bronchial dilators.”
Brainwave-based virtual reality games that deceived all five senses.
The pain of death was no exception.
The body itself wasn’t injured, but the pain recognized by the brain existed, and its effects carried over to the flesh.
Thanks to that, pharmacies’ regular customers were no longer flu patients, the immune-compromised, or the elderly with frequent minor ailments.
They were gamers suffering death aftereffects.
Noobs who died at the drop of a hat.
The so-called virtual world civilians.
“Hey, look over there.”
“Whoa, scared me. An awakener?”
“Injured while fighting a monster?”
Hae Eung-eung’s outfit drew eyes immediately.
The gathering gazes were filled with sympathy.
“They must get hurt a lot doing such harsh work.”
“Poor thing.”
“No matter how many times you die in the virtual world, it’s nothing compared to the pain of those risking their real lives.”
“100% immersion reality game level.”
“I don’t know how they even played these shit games before proper virtual worlds.”
People enduring death aftereffects were pitying someone who had come to buy bandages for binding their chest.
The sincerity visible on their faces made the situation all the more bizarre.
Someone with a prickly personality might have felt uncomfortable.
But Hae Eung-eung calmly pulled a number ticket and waited her turn.
Such gazes.
Such pity.
They were not unfamiliar to her.
The Murim had plenty of civilians who admired martial artists while pitying them.
“Customer 117.”
Hae Eung-eung stood at the counter holding her ticket.
“Did you get a separate diagnosis certificate?”
“...”
“Then what did you come to buy?”
Hae Eung-eung held out her notebook with pre-written text.
“Ah~ buying compression bandages. Excuse me, but could you tell me the usage site? The law changed recently, so we have to record in the system to prevent items bought at pharmacies from being misused for unintended purposes.”
The pharmacy clerk was a woman with a ponytail.
White doctor’s coat.
Thick-rimmed glasses.
Kind expression.
No matter how she looked at her, there was no sign of malice in the question.
If the law required it, there was no helping it.
Hae Eung-eung obediently revealed the purpose of the compression bandages.
[To bind my breasts]
The pharmacist asked back with a smiling face.
“Aha. You mean bandages to re-bind a wound from a surgical incision that’s reopened?”
[No. To bind them so my breasts don’t get in the way.]
The pharmacist’s smile stiffened noticeably.
“Why?”
[Sports bras have too low a control rate for keeping breasts from jiggling.]
An expression far too blunt and crude for a woman to use.
An answer that made one doubt their eyes.
The pharmacist glanced at the other customers, then leaned in close and whispered in a low voice.
“Um... customer? For that purpose, wouldn’t a sports bra be more helpful?”
[Compression bandages, please.]
“Really? It’s okay to enter it in the system just like that?”
Hae Eung-eung tapped her notebook with her finger, looking displeased.
A protest demanding the bandages without further chatter. The pharmacist tilted her head as if wondering if this was right, then handed them over.
3.
The sudden reason Hae Eung-eung bought the bandages.
Multiple factors had intertwined.
‘First, breasts jiggling on their own interfere with performing martial arts.’
Like the first reason, realistic.
The next was quite realistic too.
Murim’s inferior clothing materials made bras perform poorly.
If a bra couldn’t provide more than 50% jiggle control.
The breast ligaments wouldn’t withstand a martial artist’s intense movements, snapping and causing permanent sagging.
Sagging breasts only caused more discomfort and ruined the body’s shape, making it unsightly.
Hae Eung-eung prioritized her identity as a martial artist over woman.
But that didn’t mean she had reason to voluntarily ruin her own body.
‘It was advice I was glad to have infiltrated the Haenam Sect for.’
The tip handed down orally among the sect’s female disciples had been useful for 20 years.
Thanks to it, Hae Eung-eung never neglected binding her chest while living as a martial artist.
The blessings had helped too.
The elasticity enhancement from Perverted Physics hadn’t only benefited her meridians.
It boosted her breast ligaments’ durability, preventing the misfortune of sagging breasts.
‘Better control than using regular cloth as bandages.’
Hop. Hop.
Hae Eung-eung hopped in place, feeling the jiggling of her breasts.
By a martial artist’s precise body diagnostic ability, the jiggle control of the chest binding she’d tied herself approached 80%.
‘Still not quite as good as the special bandages made from imperial silkworm silk.’
Cloth made from silkworm silk became scale armor for armor.
Made into ropes, it could bind even peak experts.
With special processing on the threads before weaving, it could become hidden weapons.
The uses varied by application.
But its utility was always top-class.
Even as chest bandages, its value was immense.
‘Still, this should be enough for the bandages used before entering the capsule.’
The final reason she bound her breasts.
Realistic as well.
But also the most superficial.
In the virtual world, even slightly smaller breasts might reduce the hassle of binding a bit.
Such a shallow scheme had led her to buy bandages before the body scan.
Please measure even one cup size smaller.
With devout prayer, Hae Eung-eung closed her eyes.
4.
Reality Return Support Package.
The perks purchased upon returning from the Murim to reality included a basic virtual reality capsule.
She had been quite shocked to learn even the basic model cost ten million won.
‘But a low price would make me even more anxious.’
A cheap brainwave-based game? No thanks.
What if the capsule malfunctioned and damaged her brain?
She’d already spent 20 years in the Murim from a single faulty PC game.
If the VR capsule broke while playing... she didn’t even want to imagine how many years she’d spend in another dimension next.
‘It’s just escapism anyway.’
Gates.
Monsters.
Awakeners.
Magstones.
She had gone out specifically for things that seemed helpful for inner power cultivation, but now she’d given them all up.
After experiencing how pathetic the members of Myeongho Guild—one of the guilds dominating the gates—were.
She quickly realized how foolish the idea of cooperating with them was.
‘Entering gates, hunting monsters, becoming an awakener—all come with preconditions.’
Guild.
Association.
Government.
You had to affiliate with one and work for the organization.
In Murim terms, the equivalents were:
Sect.
Murim Alliance.
Imperial Brocade Guard.
Affiliation brought benefits.
But it didn’t guarantee personal safety or freedom.
Especially for a stunning beauty new recruit; it would only invite danger.
‘Handsome men and beautiful women are easy targets for power crimes.’
If she didn’t encounter a family-like organization like the Haenam Sect.
Sexual harassment and verbal abuse were basic.
Jealousy from same-sex peers or juniors.
Threats from opposite sex or superiors.
All sorts of filthy schemes, slanders, and frame-ups were inevitable.
‘Better to play it smart than suffer in an organization.’
Mid-October next month.
The association was hosting an event for civilians.
Gate tours.
According to Jua Young, anyone with money could participate.
The perfect chance to measure gate interior natural qi density.
And inner power accumulation speed compared to the Murim.
Nine Yin Vein Blockage Blockage.
This top-tier vein blockage syndrome required 3 jiazi (180 years) of inner power to cure.
With her current 5 years of cultivation, she needed another 175 years’ worth.
On the Murim standard of average 1% natural qi density: normally 175 years.
Using 10x efficiency accumulation from the Supreme Ascension Heart Method: 17.5 years.
‘If the gate interior’s natural qi density matches even 1%, there’s hope.’
Average lifespan for Nine Yin Vein Blockage Blockage sufferers: 30 years.
Time remaining until then.
The insurance of the Soyang Carp Inner Core.
Plus Murim knowledge on Nine Yin Vein Blockage Blockage.
Even at 1%, she could make it work somehow.
But if the gate interior’s density fell short of 1%.
Accumulation would be meaningless.
No matter how diligently she gathered inner power.
She couldn’t escape death in the end.
Better to enjoy one more day.
‘In the end, what I’m doing now is no different from accepting death. Not sure if this capsule is a coffin or not.’
She began using the virtual reality capsule for somewhat bittersweet reasons.
From that makeshift coffin came an alarm that the scan was complete.
Vast cosmic space.
In the center, she found herself standing at attention.
In front of her was a full-body mirror for checking character status.
“...”
As expected, no voice emerged.
Mute Syndrome was a mental language disorder.
The virtual world was no exception.
Voice.
The next thing that drew her attention.
Was, of course, her breasts.
Hae Eung-eung lifted her basic t-shirt to inspect her bare chest.
Measured the cup size with her hands.
Shook up and down to gauge weight.
Lightly jumped to assess jiggle level.
‘Weight’s the same, but size is smaller.’
No interference from breasts in sword swing trajectory.
The so-called combat-compressed breasts.
The chest bandages hadn’t been for nothing.