Smartphone
“Sojo?”
“…The ‘yeon’ part is my name. And I don’t like being called by it. I’d much rather be called Wiji.”
“Wiji…? Kya… Kyaak. Fine, Wiji Yeon.”
“Kueng.”
“Are you going to keep using that tone?”
“Then what should I do?”
“Learn the tone I use. Come on, say ‘I am Wiji Yeon.’”
“Kuuhng…”
After I had humored her a little, she started calling me by a made-up name and threw the whole room into chaos.
I felt like scolding the servant who ignored me, but her careful consideration for helping me adapt to this era gave me no choice but to swallow my frustration.
Of course, I understood.
To the people of this time, I was simply a small girl. As a girl, I had no choice but to accept such treatment.
The Heavenly Demon Wiji Yeon had died in a distant past.
Respect might not sit well with me, but I still needed to treat Na-yeon with the deference due my superior.
Since I had been reborn, I had to adapt to the age of this body.
Even if my speech gradually changed, I couldn’t afford to act like a child my age. It would draw unwanted attention and earn me scolding.
The weak body I had now, unrefined and untempered, needed protection until it grew.
I couldn’t rely solely on the tricks of the Natural Realm. Powers outside the norm would burden this fragile frame.
Only when I fully regained my strength could I roam this world as I pleased.
How annoying that I had been born as a girl’s body.
Without realizing it, I sighed deeply.
“Haaah.”
“Why are you sighing?”
“Nothing.”
The girl who introduced herself as ‘Kim Na-yeon’ was now sitting beside my bed, peeling fruit.
On the small table beside her sat plenty of the pastries I liked. The ones called ‘snacks.’ She must have bought them with her own money.
It was truly strange that a martial artist like me lived in such luxury in this era. There was no place like the Peach Blossom Spring.
I kept bringing the fruit she handed me and the peeled fruit to my mouth while fiddling with the ‘smartphone.’
Over the past few days I had learned a lot.
“In this era, are martial artists called ‘hunters’?”
“Yeah. I’m a C-rank, and my brother is an A-rank hunter. That blue-haired guy we saw a few days ago.”
I nodded.
The blue-haired youth who had entered my hospital room with Na-yeon.
In this era, C-rank hunters were the lowest, and A-rank were considered peak experts.
Through the ‘smartphone’ she handed me, I could gather various information.
Learning how to use it had been quite difficult, but once I knew how to read text messages, it became a huge help.
Every time I searched for something new, I would ask Na-yeon and steadily build knowledge to adapt to this new world.
“Do people only live inside cities?”
“The outside world beyond the city barriers is very dangerous. Monsters that burst out of gates roam around. Well, it doesn’t mean people don’t live there, but…”
I immediately searched using the smartphone.
Gates.
A kind of pocket dimension.
They appear randomly and inside, the laws are twisted.
Closing them requires removing the ‘boss monster’ inside.
If they aren’t cleared within a certain time, powerful monsters burst out and threaten the people’s lives.
Everyone thought this era was an endless paradise, but I realized it wasn’t.
“So those who hunt them are called hunters! And the institution that nurtures those hunters is the ‘Hunter Academy’ in the city center. My sister graduated as the top student there?”
Na-yeon puffed out her chest with pride.
A Hunter Academy… She had said it was like a ‘murim hall’ that taught martial arts to young later-stage experts.
But the top student?
“Hmm… From what I see, Na-yeon doesn’t seem like such a strong hunter.”
“Hey! W-what do you mean…? Of course the rank is low, but!”
Na-yeon’s expression turned gloomy.
It seemed I had touched a sore spot.
“Only F-rank and E-rank who know physical reinforcement are mostly assigned as porters during gate raids… Combat units start from D-rank and above. B-rank hunters are main forces even in large hunter guilds.”
A-rank hunters are only dozens per city, a bit more in Seoul.
S-rank are said to be one per each of Korea’s five major cities.
It was like the guild structure was also similar to the ‘sect’ system in the murim world.
Then was the guild master called a ‘jangmunin’?
The blue-haired youth who was Na-yeon’s oppa, ‘Kim Do-yoon,’ was an A-rank hunter.
If higher than A-rank, perhaps S-rank were considered peak experts.
According to Na-yeon, in ‘Korea’—that is, the country I belonged to—there were five S-rank hunters.
In the murim world, there had only been a dozen peak experts, so five in one country was more than I thought.
“Hmm, so are there no hunters above S-rank?”
“Yeah? Heh heh, S-rank is the highest rank for hunters.”
This was surprising.
The first stage of peak, the ‘Harmony Realm,’ was merely the beginning of the Spirit Realm.
If I accepted her words at face value, there would be no one who had reached the ‘Natural Realm’—which was the qualification to become a transcendent—after passing the Profound Realm at the end of humanity.
“I want to meet an S-rank hunter.”
“There’s one in Seoul. A man named ‘Lee Myeong-won,’ the master of the ‘Jeokpung Guild.’ Isn’t it the strongest guild in the nation… or even the world?”
“Wiji can entrust myself to that man?”
“Why? Because your sister doesn’t suit you?”
“N-no, it’s not that…”
“Then let’s live together. What? You said you’d raise me, and now you’re changing your mind?”
“Ah, I understand. Okay, stop already!”
I pushed away the clinging Na-yeon who started rubbing her cheeks and broke into a sweat.
She was really shameless.
Now that she wasn’t threatening me like a stranger, she treated me like her own child.
“And the place we are now is the medical center of the ‘Sungnim Guild.’ It’s borrowed for a short time, so we’ll have to vacate it soon.”
“Sungnim…!”
My eyes widened.
It was a familiar name, though the echo was different.
Sungnim.
The north star and zenith of the right path.
In the past, the place that had blocked the final step of the Heavenly Demon Wiji Yeon’s sect entry.
The old master of Sungnim Temple, ‘Mujong Dasa,’ who had reached the Harmony Realm and beyond, came to mind.
Not as grand as me, but certainly a monstrous old man.
No, Sungnim?
While nodding my head, recalling faint memories of my past life, I asked in surprise.
“Sungnim means the Sungnim Temple, right?”
“Sungnim Temple? Kihih, it’s like a temple name. It’s just because my sister’s name is ‘Han So-rim’… Huh? Right.”
Na-yeon snatched the smartphone from my hand, operated it skillfully, and held out a map.
“……!”
[Sungnimsa]
There it was.
Mt. Sung, Sungnim Temple.
The familiar characters and the shape of the land.
“AHAHAHA!”
KUGUGUGU!
I laughed loudly.
The aura in the air even expressed my joy as I wished.
“U-uu! An earthquake suddenly?!”
Unfazed by the frightened Na-yeon clinging to me with a trembling body, I continued laughing.
After laughing for a while, when my mood had calmed somewhat.
“Na-yeon noona, how about we travel to a place called ‘China’ together later?”
“Hiiik, what kind of earthquake was that? It passed quickly…? …Ah, what did Wiji say? Travel?”
Still holding me tightly, Na-yeon opened her sleepy eyes and looked up after confirming the vibration had stopped.
Her head tilting cutely to understand my words, which was oddly endearing for her size.
“Travel isn’t recommended these days because the times are dangerous. Hmm… well, okay. Once you grow a bit more, I’ll take you! With the guild growing, I could even go as a support assignment.”
I calmed my stormy emotions.
‘Wiji Yeon the girl’ would live here.
But it might be okay to leave the pleasure of touring the places where ‘Heavenly Demon Wiji Yeon’ once roamed as a fleeting joy.
“…Are there other sects? What about a place called ‘Cheonma Shin-gyo’ on ‘Ten Thousand Great Mountains’?”
“Yeah? I don’t think there’s such a place.”
“Kueng…”
Sungnim exists, but Cheonma Shin-gyo doesn’t.
This didn’t sit well with me.
***
After several more days of recovery, my condition had returned to normal.
The time had come to vacate this place.
At first, even moving my body had been awkward, but now I could walk around quite well.
During that time, I had almost completely adapted to this era.
“Wow, this wonderful smartphone really is amazing.”
The smartphone allowed me to know the world even while sitting on the bed.
Information wikis, search sites, SNS—anything was fine.
And the video playback site ‘YouTube’ was the best.
“Hehe, Na-yeon noona, watch this video. It’s so funny.”
“Haa, I wasn’t showing you the smartphone. …I’ll have to break one later.”
While manipulating the smartphone in the car, I swung my short legs.
While hospitalized, Na-yeon’s smartphone had become mine.
A car.
A kind of carriage with automatically rotating wheels—a means of transportation.
Having learned the world through YouTube, I now knew basic common sense.
The skyscrapers of the city passing outside the window were worth seeing, but YouTube showed them in far greater detail.
As I played with the smartphone, the car quickly reached its destination.
Screech.
After the car stopped and I got out, the scene before my eyes was…
“…What is this?”
“What? Our brother and sister office.”
“It’s shabby.”
“Hey, Wiji! …O-of course, compared to big guilds like Sungnim noona’s…”
Na-yeon let out a shrill exclamation, but soon her expression showed understanding.
It was only natural.
My eyes had risen quite high already.
If the first building I had seen in this world was Na-yeon’s office, I would have been shocked by the superb architectural skill.
But I had already learned a lot through YouTube.
This wasn’t shocking at all.
Na-yeon’s office was simply a shabby building on the outskirts of the city.
“Come on in. There are people who want to get close to Wiji.”
“Eh?”
Before I could even question the sudden remark, she winked and led me inside the building.
“Da-yeon! Noona’s here!”
When I entered the office room, Na-yeon called someone.
Da-yeon? Was she Na-yeon’s family?
I hadn’t heard that Do-yoon had other family besides Na-yeon.
Peek.
From inside a slightly inner room in the office, a head with white hair popped out.
A girl with hair as long as mine.
Her sparkling eyes looked this way.
Soon she confirmed my appearance and her eyes widened.
“……!”
Swish.
And she disappeared back into the room.
“Ah, Da-yeon~! This is your friend, your friend!”
Watching Na-yeon run toward the back with her rear in view, I muttered in a daze.
“…What?”
Did I have a child at home?
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