Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Episode 1
What would happen if you lived a fierce, passionate life, died, and then were reincarnated into a new one?
Answer.
You become a sloth.
That was me. In my previous life, I lived to reach the end of the martial path and become the strongest Martial God.
Why?
Because my heart! My heart! Uh! My soul! They were telling me to!
So that's how I lived.
The result.
I actually became the strongest under heaven and earned the title Martial God, but... I failed to ascend.
I thought I would become a Martial Immortal.
Who could have known I would fail like that?
In the end, I died... I failed to ascend, but perhaps the attempt itself had some lingering effect, because I was reborn with all my memories intact.
And now I'm living lazily like a sloth.
Right after I reincarnated, when I was still a baby, I was fired up to become a Martial God again just like in my previous life. That enthusiasm didn't last long.
Because the world is different, martial arts training didn't work properly.
So I couldn't help but lose motivation.
I had trained in martial arts my entire previous life, but here, training in martial arts had no effect.
The way I felt back then was....
Of course, it's not completely impossible. To be precise, external arts can be trained to a limited extent, but internal energy is impossible no matter what I try.
I figured out around age three that the laws were different because the world was different.
It was on TV.
When the Dimensional Tower appeared, I saw them explaining all about other dimensions and alternate dimensions, and that's how I knew.
Ever since I was a baby, I'd practiced breathing cultivation, determined to fulfill my dream of becoming a Martial God again... only to keep wondering, Why isn't this working?
Once I learned the truth, it was inevitable that I became pretty listless.
Still, I don't have any particular complaints.
Because I'm living well even now.
My old habits hadn't gone anywhere. And since external arts did work to a limited extent, I was good at almost anything I could brute-force with my body, so life was going pretty smoothly.
Even so....
This is wrong. This is just wrong.
Isn't this screwing me over way too hard?
[You have awakened.]
[From now on, you are a Necromancer.]
System, my good sir! What is the meaning of this!
I, the Martial God of my previous life, am supposed to become a mere corpse sorcerer?!
Does this make any sense?!
* * *
"This time it'll be different—Ghlurk!?"
Had it been three years since I opened this martial arts dojo?
I couldn't understand why this guy did the same thing every time, year after year.
He stepped straight forward, his hips rotating just as predictably.
Even the punch extending from his shoulder came straight in along an obvious line....
His stance was good, and there was plenty of power behind the punch. But what good was that when his attack was this easy to read?
All I had to do was tilt my head slightly and let the punch sail past.
Whoosh.
The fist grazed my cheek.
At that exact moment, with the hand I had raised, I softly struck the arm connected to the fist that had just grazed my cheek, pushing it away.
Using a defensive motion found in arts like tai chi and karate, I knocked his arm aside.
Then my other hand struck his side.
The explanation was long, but the exchange happened in an instant.
That was what made him let out whatever that "Ghlurk!?" was—somewhere between a scream and a bizarre yelp.
"Kang-chan, I keep telling you not to come in that obviously. How many times do I have to tell you you're telegraphing your punches? Still don't get it? Then take a few more hits. You can keep getting hit until you learn."
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
I casually clipped him on the chin to wreck his balance, then worked his abdomen a few more times. I didn't forget to lecture him while I was at it.
It was all advice for his own good.
Executing Ma Su with tears in your eyes. Hm, do kids these days even know that story? A lot of them don't read Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
With the feeling of throwing away a yogurt lid without licking it, I kept pounding him.
Maybe because he was an active hunter, he had some satisfying heft when I hit him.
"Ghk! Ack! S-stop! Stop, Coach! Time out!"
"Don't just say it—put up your guard. Or make some distance and run. Come on, you're a hunter. What are you doing?"
The person getting pummeled by me was an active hunter named Park Kang-chan.
He'd been learning practical combat at my martial arts dojo for three years.
He'd actually improved a lot.
Compared to his awkward punching stance three years ago, it was a huge improvement.
But this habit of telegraphing his punches—making the attack so obvious it was practically like calling his opponent beforehand to announce it—just refused to go away.
I hit him a few more times all over and then stopped.
If I kept hitting him like this, he'd learn to stop telegraphing his punches eventually.
"You need to fix this. I'm telling you, you could die in the tower because of this later."
I'd heard the enemies got tougher the higher you climbed the tower.
Some of them were intelligent, and some supposedly used formidable martial arts.
Against enemies like that, poor hand-to-hand skills could get you killed.
No, not just "could." I'd heard plenty of hunters had actually died that way.
"Agh... I know, I know... but it's not easy, Coach."
Park Kang-chan lay sprawled on the floor, letting out a long, pained groan.
He'd just been pummeled, so bruises were forming dark blue all over his body and he was groaning.
But before my eyes, I could see the bruises slowly fading away.
He was a high-level hunter, but watching him fight, I had no idea how he'd survived on the upper floors this long.
"Haa... Coach, how are you this strong? I'm a high ranker too...."
"It's because I'm a genius."
It wasn't really because I was a genius, though. It was because I was a reincarnator.
That's right.
I remember my previous life.
In my previous life, I was even a person who reached the pinnacle of martial arts and was called the strongest under heaven or the Martial God.
And of course, in my previous life, I was also called a genius.
So in this life too, saying "because I'm a genius" is correct, right?
Hmm. This is quite a metaphysical contemplation. Am I a genius in this life, or not?
"Hoo. To be an awakened and get pummeled by an ordinary person, seriously...."
"They say compared to the power you can use in the tower, only a tiny fraction of your strength remains."
That's what they say.
Inside the tower, you can use power that topples mountains and destroys the world.
But in reality, there's a restriction that lets you use only a very, very small amount of that power?
That was why Park Kang-chan, a high ranker, was getting pummeled by me out here in the real world.
Of course, he was definitely stronger than non-awakened professional athletes and fighters who trained for a living.
Top-tier physical-type awakened were said to retain abilities beyond ordinary humans even in reality.
But he's still in a state worse than me, who hasn't awakened.
His healing was certainly impressive... but in raw strength and reflexes, he still had a long way to go before he could challenge me.
That was thanks to my external-arts training.
I was lucky external arts had carried over to this body at least to a limited extent. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten strong enough to toy with an active hunter like this.
I would have won anyway.
Even if my physical specs were worse, I hadn't lost my martial techniques.
"Still, I'm far stronger than ordinary people. But what kind of person are you, Coach...? You're a monster, a monster. You're really a monster. Someone like you, Coach Mu-seon, should be the one climbing the tower."
Park Kang-chan called my name.
Lee Mu-seon.
That's my name in this life.
The orphanage director gave it to me.
Could the director have been a reincarnator too? Did they know about my previous life and give me a name that fit this perfectly?
"What can I do if I haven't awakened? Here. Today's lesson ends with this."
I extended my hand to Park Kang-chan, who was still lying down.
He grabbed my hand tightly and pulled himself up.
"Good work."
A beautiful woman approached Park Kang-chan and handed him a towel and a water bottle. Shin A-rim, his manager. I'd seen her often enough that we knew each other by sight.
"Your next schedule is a party, so you need to wash up quickly."
"That party, they actually decided to go through with it?"
"Yes. It's the boss's order."
"Haa... I really hate this. No, they know today's my workout day, so why are they telling me to attend some party?"
Park Kang-chan grumbled like that as he stood up, then headed to the shower room.
Even if you were awakened....
Apparently, working life was still hard.
* * *
After Park Kang-chan left, the other members came in one by one and I taught their lessons. My dojo focused on practical training; fighting wasn't the only thing I taught.
I taught swordsmanship and spearmanship too.
From the things I'd learned here and there in my previous life, I taught whatever could be used without internal energy. It was quite popular.
Park Kang-chan's promotion in particular brought in enough business that money wasn't a problem.
Mm-hm. Park Kang-chan was a real moneymaker. Who knew a connection from three years ago would turn into such a healthy retirement fund? I got lucky.
Thinking that, I sent off the last member.
Then I ordered dinner for delivery through an app.
I cleaned the inside of the dojo and tidied up for a little while, and soon the food arrived.
Tonight, fried chicken and beer!
I opened the door to my bedroom tucked into one corner of the dojo and stepped inside.
A small studio space with household items like a bed and a refrigerator.
I turned on the TV, sat down, and took a long swig of the draft beer that had been delivered.
"Ahhh!"
The cold, pleasantly bitter beer and carbonation hit my throat. Then I grabbed a piece of chicken and bit into it.
Crunch!
The crisp fried skin and meat of the drumstick, fried in golden olive oil, crunched between my teeth and filled my mouth with flavor.
This is it!
Honestly, there was one thing that made this life far more livable than my last.
The food was delicious.
When I ate dishes loaded with MSG, painstakingly developed by people with master's degrees and PhDs alongside those awakened into production-type Chef classes, the whole world felt right.
Sitting there like that made all the desperate martial-arts training I'd done in my previous life feel downright pointless.
Maybe this was the kind of enlightenment Wonhyo had when he drank water from a skull.
Or maybe I've just fallen.
Former Martial God corrupted by fried chicken and beer!
There. That's a web-novel title ready to go.
-This is a video of a newly awakened climber I found recently. This is already the 6th trial, right? As you all know, just clearing the dreaded 5th trial is impressive in itself.
On the TV, a broadcast from Ttenggeul Glasses, one of the GodTube channels I often watch, was playing. A video I had stopped watching before.
-Ah! A Gnollberd spawned on the 6th trial. Ah, this is bad! Gnollberds are strong.
Gnollberd, huh.
Their official designation was apparently 'Halberd-Wielding Gnoll.' Since they were gnolls that showed up carrying halberds, people called them Gnollberds.
People knew them as the Tutorial Tower's harbingers of despair. They supposedly appeared at random on the 6th or 7th trial.
But honestly, what was so despairing about that? Tch. Back in my day, I built up my toughness by getting beaten with staffs and rods in the One Hundred Eight Arhat Formation.
Getting beaten black and blue by bald monks while training an indestructible body—that was the real thing.
Hmph! Kids these days are just....
"You should pull your foot out there! Tch. That one's done for!"
I chuckled at the TV for a while. Just as I reached for the remote to switch to something else—
[You have awakened as a 'Necromancer'.]
[From now on, you can climb the Dimensional Tower.]
"Hm?"
Chicken and beer. And even a GodTube video.
A status window suddenly appeared in front of me while I was enjoying my chicken, beer, and GodTube.
Awakened... finally! I had barely finished thinking it when—
Then I tilted my head.
"What the hell. Why am I a Necromancer!?"
I'm someone who was a Martial God in my previous life? And I teach martial arts in this life too?
But I became a Necromancer?
Why?
[Proceeding with the tutorial process.]
A burst of light engulfed me, and I was transported somewhere else.