My Investment in Myself
Investing in myself. That was the move.
I was screwed.
No matter how I looked at it, I was screwed.
There were two reasons.
While I was preparing to go down the mountain, I realized my strength had grown far more than I’d expected.
That was a good thing.
The slightly unsettling part was that the stronger I became, the stronger I kept getting.
Just yesterday, I’d tried to split firewood with an axe and ended up cleaving the log stand right along with it.
That was no ordinary feat.
To keep myself under control, I’d no choice but to stay on the mountain a little longer.
Honestly, that part wasn’t so bad.
The real reason I could call this situation screwed was something else entirely.
“Oh man, I’m seriously too cute.”
I was just too cute.
The stronger I got, the more I liked my beautiful-girl self.
Wasn’t that the best?
A beautiful girl.
Cute, pretty, and adorable.
I had a duty to spread beautiful girls throughout the Central Plains as quickly as possible and make everyone happy, but I held myself back with all my might.
If I set foot in the martial world like this, the whole Central Plains would absolutely lose its mind.
Wouldn’t that start a war or something?
“I’ve lost it,” I muttered.
Ka-whack!
I slammed my drowsy, sleep-drunk head into the ground and tried to force myself back to my senses.
It had been a week since I’d thrown a person off a cliff.
Day by day, the symptoms of my becoming-a-beautiful-girl disease had only worsened.
This wasn’t some TS syndrome.
This was a curse.
The stronger my body became, the more my mind was polluted in direct proportion.
1. To survive in this insane martial world, I needed strength.
2. If I stopped training, I would get stronger.
3. The stronger I became, the more this beautiful-girl body gnawed at my mind.
4. In the end, “me” would disappear, and a beautiful girl would remain.
What a deranged cycle.
At this rate, I’d be swallowed whole by the curse.
“Ugh….”
Had I hit my head too hard?
Rubbing my aching skull, I pushed myself up from the bedding.
I almost wished bandits would come charging up the mountain in droves.
Being holed up alone in the mountains was enough to rot my brain.
“…This is ridiculous.”
If I kept my mind anchored, I was still fine.
I stretched, then stepped out of the cabin.
The clear sky, so at odds with my tangled thoughts, greeted me.
As I drew in the breath of the great outdoors, it felt as though the pollution in my mind was being washed clean, just a little.
“Phew… calm down.”
Dragging my feet, I walked toward the rock where I usually practiced those endlessly healthy calisthenics-like movements.
Once again, I stood at a crossroads.
I still wasn’t strong enough.
I couldn’t be satisfied just because I’d handled a bunch of greenwood thugs.
I needed to be at least strong enough to protect myself against the second-class experts of the martial world.
At that level, even if I wandered the alleys rummaging through old books, I’d still be able to handle whatever came my way.
From all my years drifting through the martial world, I knew that above second-class, people got hard to run into under normal circumstances.
It’s not like I was planning some grand tour of illustrious sects.
Wanting any more power than that was just greed.
But could my mind endure until I’d built up that much strength?
Equivalent exchange.
There was no such thing as power gained for free.
If I wanted to accumulate in a short time the strength others took decades of martial training to build, I’d have to pay the price.
In martial novels, the protagonists always got some painful but badass penalty, like their arm being consumed by demonic energy.
So why did I get a curse that slowly made me lose my mind?
Even if I wanted to complain, the one I’d have to complain to was my delusional chuunibyou self from middle school.
In the end, there was nothing I could do but blame myself.
“…What’s the use of regretting what’s already happened?”
Three months since I’d become TS.
And then the last week.
After several experiments, I’d reached a conclusion.
The movements recorded in Wolhameiingyeong weren’t only meant to transform me.
If I became a beautiful girl and performed them in reverse order, they kept my mind from being polluted.
But if I stopped performing those movements, my mind wouldn’t be polluted—instead, my body would steadily gain more and more power and inner energy.
I didn’t even know where the limit was.
Would my strength stop growing once my mind was completely polluted and I’d fully become a beautiful girl?
Maybe I could already take on a first-class expert?
I had no way of knowing.
I’d lived as an ordinary person and tried my best not to get involved with martial artists, so I simply didn’t have enough information about strength.
“Life. Fuck.”
I sat on the rock and stared up at the sky.
It was disgustingly clear.
Looking at that wide-open blue expanse made me feel just a little better.
“Whatever. I’m not doing it today.”
I brushed off my butt and stood up.
Mind pollution was scary, but right now, strength mattered more.
Let’s let my body run wild like this for just one week.
It wasn’t like getting stronger was wrong.
It definitely wasn’t because I was lazy.
**
Bang—
“Wow.”
I couldn’t help but gasp, still frozen in the exact pose of having punched forward.
As the cloud of dust settled, I saw a rock with a massive hole punched straight through it, right alongside my fist mark.
For another week, I’d wallowed around in intense sloth while building my strength.
To test the results of all that, I’d just thrown a straight punch at the rock I always sat on, and the outcome was astonishing.
“I… might actually be strong?”
I didn’t know anything about inner energy or forms.
When I punched, there’d been this strange feeling of something slipping out, followed by a sudden weakness in my body.
Was that what martial arts felt like?
I didn’t know the cause, and I didn’t know the process, so there wasn’t much else to understand.
Anyway, I’m ridiculously strong now.
The moment I thought that, a thrilling shiver ran through me.
This was my power?
I’d smashed a rock to dust with a single punch!
A fierce rush of elation I’d never felt in thirty years surged through my veins and took over my entire body.
Survival? Safety?
Those rational words melted away in an instant.
I’m the strongest.
I descend upon the world.
I can do anything.
Right now I had to tell the world about my incredible greatness and cuteness!
“At last… the time has come.”
I spoke solemnly and spun around, hurrying back toward the cabin.
Before I knew it, the corners of my mouth were climbing on their own, and a hum kept slipping from my lips.
I felt strangely, absurdly good.
So this mountain life was over.
Goodbye to this miserable existence where even washing was difficult and my only food was wild greens and beast meat.
Once I went down to the city, I wanted a bowl of jajangmyeon cooked with actual artisan skill, not just meat roasted over a campfire.
“And sweet tanghulu too!”
After a meal, you couldn’t forget a dessert loaded with fructose.
When you’re beautiful, sugar is a staple food.
My mouth was already watering.
“Ah….”
As I daydreamed about my comfortable city life, my eyes caught on the sleeves hanging loose and annoying at my wrists.
They were old, worn, and shabby.
The hand that had been packing for the journey slowly came to a halt.
Hey, seriously.
The day I finally emerged into the martial world as the strongest, peak-level beautiful girl had arrived, and I couldn’t leave my first impression as some ragged mess.
What would people think if they saw me?
They’d think I was a beggar girl.
My cuteness would be tarnished.
“That is simply unacceptable, I say!”
I’d have to revise my plan to leave today.
First, I needed proper clothes.
But how?
The answer was simple.
Steal some good clothes and wear them.
This was the martial world, after all.
There was no reason to feel guilty.
Power was justice.
The one who gets robbed is the one at fault.
There wasn’t a single logical flaw in my thought process.
I folded my arms and began scouting for a place where I could get my hands on some fine clothes.
Let’s think.
Where in these mountains could there be good clothing?
This was Mount Hua.
Which meant there was only one place: a famous orthodox sect, one of the great and powerful forces of the martial world, a pillar of the Martial Alliance that everyone recognized.
Mount Hua Sect was the only place that might possess the splendid clothes I deserved.
The plan was simple, and the execution was fast.
Once I’d decided, I ran up the mountain without looking back and soon arrived at the main hall of Mount Hua Sect.
“Oho.”
It was my first time seeing it in person.
Truly magnificent.
There weren’t many towering buildings, but perched atop this harsh, rocky mountain, it was enough to house hundreds of people.
Looking at the imposing main gate and the walls adorned with classical decorations, admiration for human greatness spilled out of me.
Uh… if I get caught hopping the wall, I’m probably dead no matter how politely I try to die, huh?
Overwhelmed by the grandeur, I snapped fully awake.
Stealing from the main hall of Mount Hua Sect?
On reflection, that wasn’t normal thinking.
Only then did I realize that, ever since I smashed that rock, every action I’d taken had been under the control of my beautiful-girl body.
No wonder I’d felt so HIGH.
I’d nearly started my life in the martial world by making an enemy of a major sect and choosing hardcore difficulty before I’d even begun.
“This damn beautiful-girl curse.”
Wait. Was it even a beautiful-girl curse?
The more I let my body dominate me, the simpler my thoughts seemed to become.
At this point, calling it Ddyuddyai’s Curse wouldn’t be wrong, would it?
Fine, from today on, I’d call it Ddyuddyai’s Curse.
I’d sworn so hard not to let my guard down like this.
And yet here I was, drunk on power and letting my mind go slack.
This whole day was clearly my future self’s way of helping me stay alive.
A failure without any damage was a fine vaccine.
I should carve that into my heart.
I stood at the front gate of Mount Hua Sect, unable to go forward or turn back, wavering in place.
Should I just leave?
Or should I grit my teeth and ask them for a single set of clothes?
If it was Mount Hua Sect, the sword-wielding types couldn’t all be such bad people.
When I first settled here three years ago, some of the disciples had visited and spoken with me.
They’d been a bit high-handed, sure, but after hearing my situation, they’d guided me to a decent open stretch of land.
If that was the kind of sect they were, wouldn’t they help me if I explained things properly?
Besides, it wasn’t right to reject a request from a peak-level beautiful girl like me!
For the sake of peace in the martial world, one outfit should be fine!
But reason barely held my body together.
Get a grip, Song Daehyun.
Remember this.
This is the martial world.
Nothing is scarier than kindness given without payment.
It all becomes debt.
Especially those sword-bashing bastards; they never forget even the smallest favor and will one day expect compensation.
Their mouths may speak of grand principles, but their heads are more sensitive to profit and loss than anyone else’s. That’s what martial artists with swords are like.
“All right, forget it.”
After thinking it over, I turned around.
No need to get tangled up in this.
Especially not with a major sect from the Nine Great Sects.
Kiieek—
Just as I turned and took one step down the stairs, I heard the front gate open.
So even an illustrious sect like this still had hinges that creaked at the main gate, huh?
Feeling a strange sense of kinship, I turned my head.
A woman had just stepped out, then stopped and stared at me.
“Ah… hello?”
“My, my.”
When I offered an awkward greeting, she widened her already large eyes even further and strode straight toward me.
“Who are you?”
The woman came close enough that our faces were almost touching.
A rich plum blossom fragrance drifted from her body and tickled my nose.
Whoa.
People from Mount Hua really did smell like plum blossoms.
I twitched my nose at the fragrant scent and answered cautiously.
“Uh, I’m not here for anything. I just wanted to ask if I could get a set of clothes.”
“Ah. You came to beg for alms?”
Did she think I was a beggar?
Well, I did kind of look like one.
But the clothes offered to a super-cute peak-level beautiful girl like me should count as a charitable offering for the greater good, not some pathetic handout.
Annoyed, I looked up—but the expression on the woman’s face wasn’t the cold look of someone dealing with an irritating beggar.
She smiled brightly, like a flower in full bloom, and gently set her hand on my head.
“Don’t do this. Come inside.”
She was trying to bewitch me!
I shot her a wary sideways glance as she softly patted my head.
I couldn’t quite shake her off.
For some reason, my eyes were already starting to droop.
She still hadn’t lost her smile as she murmured kindly, “Do you perhaps like sweets?”
My reason screamed in agony.
A wicked demon!
She’s perfected the art of luring people in!
“Yes!”
But my mouth didn’t listen to reason.
There was no way I could refuse this.
I was starving for sugar.
For a beautiful woman, sugar intake was essential.
It couldn’t be helped.
A true great person knew how to accept kindness generously as well.
I took the woman’s hand and trotted after her into the heart of Mount Hua Sect.