Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Episode 9
A whole tangle of events lay behind how I came to open a martial arts dojo.
My parents died in an accident right after I was born.
I was left at an orphanage and grew up there.
I'd been an orphan in my previous life too, so for a while I sank into gloom at the thought that I'd ended up an orphan in this life as well.
But I soon pulled myself together and threw myself into training in martial arts.
It was when I was a snot-nosed little kid that I learned I couldn't actually learn martial arts.
Still, it wasn't as if I didn't make an effort to train in martial arts in my own way.
I found out that external arts could be trained, within limits.
Even so... how should I put it? That old determination to 'reach the ultimate truth of martial arts' had completely burned out.
So I just grew up steadily, doing a bit of external-arts training here and there.
After that?
I left the orphanage and became independent. I lived doing physical work until I met Park Kang-chan.
Back then, Park Kang-chan was a clueless guy with a few screws loose.
After getting beaten by me a few times, he volunteered to become my disciple.
And so I ended up opening a martial arts dojo... You could say Park Kang-chan basically designed my future for me.
Since Park Kang-chan was a famous awakened in Korea, several other awakened he knew also began coming and going from my dojo.
At the time, six awakened attended my dojo, along with twelve ordinary people.
Tuition was fairly expensive, so even with that many students I earned enough to live comfortably.
My dojo taught practical combat rather than the usual martial-arts-school fare, so it was well regarded among awakened people.
And as for Yoo Hye-yeon...
She's a woman who lives with a serious air about everything.
In terms of skill, she's number one at my martial arts dojo.
In other words, she's stronger than Park Kang-chan when it comes to martial arts.
However, that doesn't mean she's a superior awakened.
An awakened's strength varies wildly depending on their class, after all.
Actually, that's why my martial arts dojo isn't bursting at the seams.
Martial arts—what's the point of learning that crap? Unique classes are king.
That's the prevailing attitude.
I don't think that attitude is wrong, either.
In the martial world of my previous life, being born with a Heaven-Bestowed Martial Body was like being born with a silver spoon in your mouth. If you were mediocre, trying to learn a peerless divine art was a good way to enter qi deviation and die young.
The starting point is different from the get-go, so what's the point.
Come to think of it.
I was born with a spoon of my own, I suppose.
Call it the reincarnation silver spoon.
If it weren't for my memories of my previous life, could I have been the first to fully clear the tutorial?
"I apologize for dropping by unannounced this late at night. I wanted to offer my congratulations first, and also ask what you think of our company..."
Unlike Park Kang-chan, who was dressed up in a suit, Yoo Hye-yeon was in workout clothes, as if she'd rushed over from exercising.
"No need to apologize. Hye-yeon, come in."
I'm not the type to talk down to someone just because they're a student.
In my previous life, I might have said, "Disciple, you're here? Go brew me a cup of tea."
But I was a perfectly respectable modern Earthling now, wasn't I?
"Kang-chan. You were here too?"
"Of course, of course. As Master's top disciple, I naturally got here first. You got here pretty fast yourself, Miss Hye-yeon."
"Master is someone who should come to the company I belong to. Kang-chan, butt out."
"Hey now. Are you disrespecting our Ungnyeok?"
Hmm. My two disciples were growling at each other.
Well, it can't be helped. Yoo Hye-yeon is Yuseong Group's ace.
You could say it's the same as Park Kang-chan being Ungnyeok Group's ace.
"Now, now. Both of you, that's enough..."
Just as I was about to stop the two of them, I heard the sound of someone running up the stairs through the open door.
My martial arts school was on the third floor of a building without an elevator, so anyone coming up had to use the stairs.
But who is it now? Another awakened student?
As I was thinking that—
Someone suddenly came in.
Then, upon seeing me, they bowed their head.
It was a man in his forties in a neat suit.
"Nice to meet you. Are you Director Lee Mu-seon?"
"I am, but who are you?"
"I'm from the Dimensional Tower Administration."
A government official this time?
* * *
[I heard a crazy newbie appeared in our country?] (3)
[F-X-k! A Korean did iiiiiit!] (1)
[Is our country the strongest now?] (4)
[lolololol if you decided not to emigrate, upvote] (12)
[But honestly, the super newbie is gonna emigrate soon too] (2457)
[The tutorial reward upgrade is seriously OP] (5)
[DAMMIT! Why wasn't there a reward upgrade when I went into the tutorial!!] (54)
The Dimensional Tower Community's Korea tab was peaceful as ever.
Well, it was on fire because of me.
Then again, this place was always on fire.
The Dimensional Tower Community board is a service provided by the Dimensional Tower, and while you can access it on a computer, you can also view it through the system window.
In other words, awakened can use it anywhere, and non-awakened can access it via phone or PC.
Perhaps because the Dimensional Tower's system directly provides it, this [Dimensional Tower Community] is used so heavily that it crushes other kinds of communities.
And right now, I, Lee Mu-seon, was the hottest topic in Korea.
Well.
Because the first clear isn't just good for me—it brings enormous benefits to Korea as well.
Anyway, the post about me emigrating had turned into a full-on flame war. Replies were piling up.
Quite the harvest.
"I never thought it would turn into this in a single day..."
I awakened late last night, and all hell broke loose.
After Park Kang-chan and Yoo Hye-yeon arrived.
The Dimensional Tower Administration came rushing over, and so did the Awakened Association. Then even people calling themselves agents from other major corporations barged in, and I told them all to get lost.
I told them to come back with proper terms.
After that, I got some sleep. When I woke up, I messaged my students that the dojo would be closed for the day and grabbed a quick breakfast.
Now then. What am I going to do from here?
I'm planning to enter the tower.
Apparently, ordinary awakened enter the Dimensional Tower about once a month.
Mana supposedly recovered in about a week. The real reason most people waited longer was that fighting for your life inside the Tower was exhausting.
I'm an exception since I cleared the tutorial.
Because the tutorial doesn't consume mana.
Anyway, in the case of hunters, they say you revive even if you die, but everything else feels real.
It's true that you revive if you actually die, but if you come out of the tower with an arm or leg cut off, you have to get that treated yourself.
In other words, it's painful, and you can end up crippled.
There are even hunters who say that if you're going to be crippled, it's better to just die and revive to regenerate your limbs.
Plenty of people even developed PTSD from experiences like that and gave up on climbing the Dimensional Tower altogether.
So the standard rule is to enter the Dimensional Tower about once a month.
However, awakened who call themselves climbers go in as soon as their mana recovers.
Well, those are basically battle maniacs who don't fear getting hurt.
Actually, I'm one of them too.
So, since I've had breakfast, shall we go right in?
"Enter Dimensional Tower."
The moment I spoke, I felt my body lift. A heartbeat later, I found myself standing in an empty white space.
[You have entered the Dimensional Tower.]
[The awakened Lee Mu-seon is currently in the Dimensional Tower Lobby.]
[Would you like to enter Floor 1 of the Dimensional Tower?]
The Dimensional Tower Lobby.
So it's like an entrance. It refers to this empty space, a sort of waiting area.
Apparently, it was the Dimensional Tower's way of giving you space to prepare.
Especially for setting up a broadcast.
First, I need to fiddle with the system a bit before going in.
From Floor 1 onward, you can choose whether or not to broadcast.
I had no intention of skipping the broadcast, though. Broadcasting made far more DP.
And there are broadcast-related achievements and rewards too.
So not doing it would be a loss.
However, I don't intend to show my entire system like I did during the tutorial.
I adjusted the settings so none of my system messages would be shown... Good. Setup complete.
-Corpse-Spirit Martial Sovereign is here!
-The Corpse-Spirit Demon Sovereign is heeeere!
-Huh? Already at this hour? It hasn't even been a day since you cleared the tutorial?
-That's our Sensei! I knew you'd be a climber!
Everyone must have set notifications, because people started pouring in almost immediately.
It was 11 a.m.
And it was a weekday.
So what the hell are these people doing, coming in to watch a broadcast?
"Nice to see you all. You're coming in awfully fast for a morning, huh?"
-I set notifications! I'm slacking off at work and the Corpse-Spirit bro popped right up!
-I'm a job seeker lol
-I'm secretly watching from school lololol
-It's night here. Morning over there?
I spotted a few foreigners too.
But how did they mess with the translation system?
Normally, the tower's system translates foreign languages to sound native, doesn't it?
Is that guy doing it on purpose?
While I was thinking that, the viewer count skyrocketed.
When I finished the tutorial, the viewer count had topped out at 8,000. Now, less than a minute after I started the stream, 9,000 people were already watching.
I guess this many people had set alarms while I was sleeping.
"All right, no need to drag this out. Let's start climbing the Dimensional Tower. First, I'll bring out the undead."
My shadow spread wide.
Thud.
A hand emerged from the shadow. Then it grabbed the ground and crawled out just like that.
Three undead were emerging from my Undead Subdimension.
Anyway.
Before entering Floor 1, it was standard practice to apply buffs and the like here, right?
This is a perfect state for experimenting with building internal energy in the undead.
Ssssss.
I poured half of my Necromantic Mana into one of the undead.
I circulated that Necromantic Mana through one full macrocosmic orbit using the Corpse-Spirit Heavenly Jiangshi Whole-Body Art, then stored it in the undead's dantian.
One year's worth of Corpse-Spirit Heavenly Jiangshi Whole-Body Art internal energy.
Settled.
If this remains in the undead even after clearing Floor 1... I'll be able to have undead with internal energy.
-What did he just do?
-Is he infusing Necromantic Mana? Doing it without a skill is inefficient.
-He killed a troll. Floor 1 is nothing for him. Brrrr.
-Martial Sovereign, let's see you crush it!
"All right, I'm going in. Now... what will I roll?"
[Would you like to enter Floor 1 of the Dimensional Tower?]
[Your will to enter Floor 1 of the Dimensional Tower has been confirmed.]
[May luck be with you.]
At the same time, some kind of roulette appeared in front of me and began spinning round and round.
The Dimensional Tower's strange obsession with luck was well known.
Even entry itself was random.
The spinning wheel stopped on something that looked like a fortress.
-Whoa, insane. It's only Floor 1 and he rolled a defense battle;;;
-A siege defense? Siege defense shows up on Floor 1?
-That's insane;;; This is screwed;;
While the viewers reeled in shock, a flash of light carried me to a place I'd never seen before.