Chapter 238
Chapter 238: Abyss of Memory (1)
Dong Bong-soo sat in the darkness. He had not lit a candle, and was simply observing his inner self in silence. He was carefully going through the things that had happened, the things he had done, and the things he would do after coming to this place. And yet he had not switched off his awareness of the outside.
Outside was noisy.
Though the sun had not yet risen, the sound of hammers had begun. The shouts of burly men raising pillars in the construction area to the west followed, and the sound of pulling ropes and the dull thud of driving in wedges layered on top of each other.
From the direction of the training grounds, Ho-ae's drilling shout rang out.
One, two! The sound of swords clashing. The sound of someone falling and getting back up. Between all of it, the sound of footsteps going to and fro across various parts of the barracks area never ceased.
The voices of the survivors who had been pushed out from the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect were mixed in here and there. 'I heard the Guild Master here might be a Cultivation Seeker…… No, apparently so-and-so said…… that he might be an Immortal……'
Baseless rumors were circulating, but that was actually fine. Beneficial misunderstandings stack layer upon layer and become truth, and when that non-truth truth grows stale, that is precisely what becomes 'religion.' Naturally, for the current Dong Bong-soo, 'faith' was equivalent to power.
From another direction, cart wheels scraped noisily across the stone floor as they passed. It would be the cart hauling rice. With more people, it was only natural that the amount to feed them would increase as well.
A few children ran somewhere through the barracks area, shouting. Over that, the sound of a whetstone grinding covered it thinly.
Scrape, Scrape
Hero Gate was fully awake in every part except for this room where Dong Bong-soo sat. And through all that commotion continuing for quite a while, Dong Bong-soo did not shift his posture even once.
Amid that clamor, a set of more urgent footsteps converged in one direction. The presence of two following close behind, centered around Dong Mu-toe's stride. That rapidly grew distant toward the main gate.
A short while later, the door opened.
"Dong Mu-toe the Trigram Leader went off somewhere in a hurry with Trigram Leader Myo and Trigram Leader Eom, saying something about formations…… Did you give them an errand?"
It was Jeon Ra-hwa. Seemingly accustomed to the room with not a single point of light, she entered without hesitation and set a tray down on the table. The low sound of a bowl meeting wood.
"They went east, apparently. Trigram Leader Myo looked annoyed, but Trigram Leader Eom actually seemed excited."
"……"
"They didn't say when they'd be back."
When Dong Bong-soo did not reply, Jeon Ra-hwa perched on the edge of the tray's side.
"It's food."
"I have eyes too."
"What good are eyes if you don't even look."
Huh, a light scoff escaped.
"I'll eat later."
"That's a lie."
"……"
"I'll leave it anyway, so eat it cold when it's cold. And if you leave any I'll eat it."
Soon Jeon Ra-hwa stirred and stood up.
"I'll go. Ho-ae seems to have people in her grip again. That kid, is it that she fully switched careers from the brief time she played instructor before…… She's been shouting gruffly since morning."
"That's her normal voice."
"You've gone and ruined the kid. Kids should be kids."
"She's becoming heroic. In this damned Martial World, even kids have to become Chivalrous Warriors, experts. It's normal for even kids not to be able to be kids."
"Well, that's true. There's not a speck of romance in this world. At least you're…… never mind. See you later then."
Soon the door closed.
The footsteps traveled down the corridor growing distant, and dissolved into the outside commotion.
The room was quiet again.
Without changing his posture, Dong Bong-soo organized what he had just heard. Dong Mu-toe, Myo Jin-heo, Eom Bi-ryeong. The three had gone east. To confirm the presence Dong Mu-toe had sensed last night.
Three Formation Tower Trigram Leaders would make reconnaissance easy. It seemed they were planning to spread formations around the vicinity of Gangdo as well, and that was not bad either.
More than that.
The battle at Rainbow Lake a few days ago.
The events that occurred then were all improvised, and the 'encounter with that bastard' was entirely coincidental as well. That Dong Bong-soo had come face to face with 'that bastard' was nothing but a pure variable.
It was not fine because it was coincidence—it was more problematic because it was coincidence.
If it had been intentional, he could at least have prepared, but the fact that he could encounter such a person by chance meant he could encounter a martial artist of that level again at any time.
'If there is not one but many entities of that bastard's kind, and they rush at the same time.'
It might be difficult to handle. Perhaps his life might even be in danger.
Clearly a variable, and if a variable can be controlled—
'It must be controlled as much as possible.'
Regarding all the unexpected variables presumed to have descended from the Upper Realm. Regarding those things that must certainly exist somewhere in this Murim.
It seemed the time had come to get a grasp of what could be grasped in advance.
And as a result of his all-night contemplation, he had found one method.
'Kim Rae-won's memories.'
Information scattered throughout the time he had walked in this Murim. Those memories existed as fragmented pieces embedded here and there, only irregularly dissolving into Dong Bong-soo's mind.
'If I could properly sweep all the way to the bottom……'
Perhaps he could acquire at once the many things Kim Rae-won had experienced and the information contained therein.
Dong Bong-soo's eyes closed.
Meditation.
Meditation is a more scientific method of inner observation than one might think. If one were to categorize it in this world's terms, it is an area closer to internal energy cultivation methods or Immortal Arts. Since no one in this world regards internal energy cultivation methods or Immortal Arts as nonexistent, meditation was the most specialized method for settling the surface of consciousness and descending to the deeper layers.
The original Dong Bong-soo, the one who had existed on Earth and by now no longer existed—he had once dived all the way to the bottom of his own consciousness and come back up. It had been very difficult, and it was something that, had it gone wrong, he might never have awakened from—but he had done it.
Could he not reach Kim Rae-won's memories in the same manner?
A defragmented collection of data.
He had originally considered it largely unnecessary, but now was the time to carry out that deferred task.
"Huuuuu"
With a deep breath, all of Dong Bong-soo's conscious flow slowed.
The hammer sounds from outside, the drilling shouts, the cart sounds—they began to grow distant one by one.
Consciousness settles inward.
Swims inward.
And.
Sinks.
Into the sea of Kim Rae-won's memories, endlessly.
***
He went deep.
Every sound coming from outside grew thin as if a thread were being pulled, and finally disappeared. The sound of cart wheels, the sound of the whetstone, the voices of children. One by one, one by one. The last thing that remained was his own breathing, and at some point even that was submerged.
The outline of his body blurred. The sensation of his knees touching the floor disappeared first, then the tips of his fingers were gone. Shoulders, elbows…… smell, touch, taste, hearing—and finally, after even the weight of his skull and the flow of thought disappeared, what remained was only the subconscious.
And so all sensation of being Dong Bong-soo was completely let go, and only consciousness floated.
The outside world does not exist. Not Hero Gate, not Gangdo, not this Murim. In a darkness deeper than the darkness inside the room, only Dong Bong-soo's consciousness had its eyes open.
A black void.
In the middle of infinitely spreading darkness, a single dot floated. It was neither light nor darkness. Only the fact that something was there was conveyed through sensation. It was similar to looking at a star, but closer than a star; similar to looking at a firefly, but colder than a firefly.
The dot did not move.
Dong Bong-soo stared at it. And gazing alone was sufficient.
The dot responds. Something like a tremor came first. An invisible vibration spread through the darkness and reached Dong Bong-soo's consciousness. Similar to when the Murim Online system first awakened, yet a wave of a different texture.
Dong-
It was not a sound. It was not heard through ears—it was something that had tapped the surface of consciousness. Unlike the mechanical notification sound of Murim Online, it was a resonance like the beating of a drum. It was the tone he had heard when loading Kim Rae-won's play data before. The unique interactive sound of the What is Hero system.
Text floated up over the darkness.
[Player Data Archive—Prior User: Kim Rae-won]
[Access Authority: Successor (Restricted)]
'Archive.'
It was a menu he had never seen before. When loading Kim Rae-won's play data, memories, language, and geographic information had all poured in at once—he had never accessed an organized storage like this.
'Have I reached a deeper layer of the system through meditation?'
Dong Bong-soo read the text.
[Archive Status]Surface Layer
—Language·Identity·Relationships ··· Damage Rate 12%Middle Layer
—Combat Records·Movement Routes ··· Damage Rate 47%Deep Layer
—Personal Memories·Emotions·Basis for Judgments ··· Damage Rate 81%
A three-layer structure. The deeper it goes from surface to deep, the higher the damage rate climbs. It meant that Kim Rae-won's language and common sense remained almost entirely intact, but eight out of ten of his personal memories and emotions were shattered.
[Warning: Data Integrity Not Guaranteed]
Restorable Unit: Fragment — Continuous Playback Unavailable—Index Damaged
Interesting.
To think that the system and the deep contemplation of meditation could produce such synergy.
But now was not the time to be absorbed in this. Deep contemplation was not a safe method. One wrong step and he might drown in this, in the 'sea of Kim Rae-won's memories.'
He simply stored only the words 'Continuous Playback Unavailable' in his mind.
Most likely it meant he could not review everything from beginning to end.
That was fine. It would be enough to fit together the remaining pieces as much as possible.
81%.
Almost nothing remains at the bottom.
Start from the top with what can be used.
'Sufficient.'
Dong Bong-soo pressed his consciousness toward the dot.
The dot responded. This time it was not a tremor but an expansion. From below upward, or from inside outward. He could not be certain whether it could be called a direction, but the sensation that something was opening was unmistakable.
Light spread out.
Like a panorama. It was not that the darkness lifted—rather, images rose as if layered over the darkness. At first it was blurry. Only outlines took shape, like ink blurred in water, and then color gradually welled up and form became clear.
Sound followed.
The sound of wind. The sound of grass rustling. The sound of insects. It was as if a whole world were being born within the darkness.
Dong Bong-soo was not standing inside it. He was watching from outside. Like an audience member in a theater. But there was one difference from a theater.
The sensations from beyond the screen were seeping into the audience's seat.
***
A forest.
A boy in a school uniform had collapsed. A navy blazer, white dress shirt, a school emblem on the left chest. A high school student. His lips were blue, and the hand braced against a moss-covered stone was trembling.
The inside of his ribcage turned cold.
Something damp brushed his palm. The texture of moss. Cold and soggy. It was not Dong Bong-soo's. What the boy named Kim Rae-won must have felt in that moment had crossed time and poured in. There was no way to filter it. He had no choice but to experience it as it flowed in.
Dong Bong-soo…… no, the boy Kim Rae-won stood up.