Management Records Bureau (3): The Third Record of the Management Records Bureau
Baekgeomdae smiled faintly, a soft, knowing curve at the corner of his lips.
The most important virtue prized by the recorders of the Management Records Bureau was, surprisingly, not strength.
Of course, martial artists with high cultivation realms could face anomalies head-on and defeat them in combat. Take the Murim Alliance leader, for instance. If he had been caught in the Manghon Villa incident, he would not have entered the villa. He would have crushed the entire formation itself, shattered the array, and walked out calmly.
Even more realistically, the villa would never have approached the leader at all. Such anomalies were too weak to threaten him, and the creations of Gwigok-ja were far too perceptive.
The Murim Alliance’s method for dealing with anomalies was simple: overwhelm them with accumulated martial power. But this kind of overt strength was precisely what the Management Records Bureau found difficult to handle.
The rulebook’s core virtue was reproducibility. It had to produce the same outcome—survival—under identical procedures, no matter who carried it out. That was why exceptional personal talents could not be formally incorporated into the rulebook.
Thus, judgment was crucial for the recorders who investigated anomalies. Baekgeomdae himself preferred to call it “instinct,” but the man before him had passed with flying colors.
First, he had survived the Manghon Villa. That alone earned him extra points.
The Management Records Bureau had taken measures to prevent information leakage about anomalies by allowing the rulebook to be discovered only through the Murim Alliance’s public martial arts manuals. But that very security had caused even Murim Alliance veterans to perish without ever finding the rulebook.
This man had found the rulebook, followed its instructions to the letter, and even defeated an anomaly variant that was not listed in the rulebook itself. His judgment in the heat of a life-or-death situation had been more than adequately verified.
At the same time, “instinct” was not merely adaptability to the moment. Baekgeomdae had described the recorder’s talent as instinct, but that encompassed deduction and intuition as well.
That was why the narrator had brought him here, scattering clues along the way. Could he truly connect the dots and reach the correct conclusion?
And now, the man had proven his own ability.
The moment the word “reclassification” was heard, the narrator had asked in surprise, “Is this a promotion to heavenly class?” When the denial came, he had fallen into deep thought.
Looking at the gradually hardening expression that had formed after much deliberation, it was clear he had reached the conclusion the narrator had intended.
“Excellent!”
While a terrifying image of a heavenly-class anomaly still flickered in his mind, Baekgeomdae suddenly clapped his hands.
“What do you mean?”
“Your attitude, I mean. You just demonstrated that you have the qualifications to become a member of the Management Records Bureau.”
The narrator’s hand instinctively rose to his cheek. It was already tense enough; hearing something completely incomprehensible…
“Exactly as you thought.”
Baekgeomdae said it flatly, as if casually discussing the weather. The simple affirmation had frozen the narrator’s brain.
“Heavenly-class anomalies do not affect the entire world we know.”
The smile had vanished from his face. He spoke in a very serious voice.
“That is why heavenly-class anomalies are extremely rare. If there had been many, this world would have collapsed long ago… I know of only about two.”
Two things powerful enough to shake the very foundations of the Murim world.
The impulse to know what they were and where they existed clashed with the rational judgment that they were still dangerous.
In horror novels, characters who knew too much and went mad were common. In martial arts novels, it would be like obtaining martial prowess far beyond one’s level and falling into the demonic path.
According to Baekgeomdae, estimating the influence of a heavenly-class anomaly required at least peak-level cultivation. Two stages above the narrator’s current realm.
It would be better to avoid delving deeper into truths that only peak experts could comprehend and falling into the demonic path.
Seeing the narrator’s expression, Baekgeomdae said, “As expected, I can read people well,” and continued.
“Courage also passes.”
“Courage?”
He shrugged as if it were nothing.
“Ah, ordinary first-class survivors usually go insane after hearing such stories. Suppressing an anomaly without injuring it is no easy task.”
The narrator was speechless for a long moment.
So there really were people who had gone insane after a debriefing from the Management Records Bureau.
“Should I really tell this to a Baekgeomdae unit member!?”
“Eh, didn’t I tell you earlier that I respected you for your effort in climbing the ranks?”
The gaze directed at Baekgeomdae turned sharp. The old man stroked his beard and waved his hand.
“Don’t look at me like that. There was something I believed in.”
“What could you possibly believe in about a Baekgeomdae unit member?”
“This guy once played a prank and got into serious trouble. I believed in your attitude.”
Another question surged up. What about his attitude?
“Isn’t it enough that I just answered normally and followed you here?”
“That ‘normal question-and-answer’ you just mentioned.”
It had a certain rhythm, as if he had been doing group projects on Earth, and the sentence had been completed in a fairly tidy form.
But there were also literary scholars who had passed the civil service exams in this world, and there were plenty of scholars handling administrative work in the Murim Alliance. His literary skill was not that outstanding.
“Do you think those who have experienced anomalies could possibly say such things?”
“Eh?”
Baekgeomdae slowly explained. Normally, they were brought over in a state far from their right mind, and many could not speak properly because they had developed mental illnesses.
“There are also cases where they go completely mad. Even if they seem normal on the surface, once they start recording details about the anomaly, their eyes roll back or they swing a sword wildly.”
“That far?”
The narrator’s unconscious question. Baekgeomdae slowly nodded.
“That far.”
The heavy nod carried the solemnity of a physician. The narrator finally understood why Baekgeomdae, who rarely left the Murim Alliance, was affiliated with the Management Records Bureau.
In other words, this man was a special asset capable of physically subduing a mad martial artist and forcing medicine down his throat.
“Ah, of course, once one reaches the peak realm, such outbursts become rare. When one reaches the realm of perfect harmony, it becomes difficult not to know that anomalies exist. But what about those who have not yet entered that realm of experts?”
“It would be a mental illness at best, and demonic path at worst….”
He shook his head at the terrifying dilemma. If most of the people Baekgeomdae had seen were like that, it was understandable that he had been deeply impressed by the narrator’s attitude.
But…
Why?
The statement that outbursts were rare at the peak realm also meant that, rarely, even peak experts went mad.
Even peak experts could go mad upon facing an anomaly, so why had the narrator been able to avoid going mad?
“Ah, that is not wrong.”
Baekgeomdae’s words pulled the narrator out of his self-doubt.
“It is not wrong?”
Was there a more terrifying word than “demonic path” for a martial artist? Since recording from a dead person was impossible, it could not be about death.
“There are rare cases where the anomaly attaches to you.”
Wait… no way.
The narrator recalled Baekgeomdae saying he would explain about the anomaly and about himself.
“About me?”
“You really are quick-witted!”
The narrator blinked in a daze. The anomaly was attached to his back right now.
No. The probability was even higher that it was not his back.
He had defeated that thing—it had been a shadow….
He glanced back and checked the shadow clinging to the ground at his feet.
Baekgeomdae laughed heartily.
“Ah, it was not the kind of anomaly that openly follows someone.”
“Then what?”
“There are those who latch onto a person and harass them like that, but you didn’t give it any chance to attach. You crushed it instead.”
“Yes.”
“You crushed the heart of the anomaly.”
“Yes.”
“You shattered the core where the anomaly’s essence was concentrated with your own hands and absorbed its blood.”
“Eh?”
Was that not supposed to be impossible?
Seeing the narrator’s bewildered expression, Baekgeomdae shrugged once.
“There were several layers of coincidence. Have you heard of the Eight Trigrams Furnace?”
“Isn’t that the original of Manghon Villa created by Gwigok-ja? It appears in the Journey to the West.”
Baekgeomdae exclaimed in admiration and flipped a page in the notebook where he had written the names of the three realms. “Then the explanation will be easy,” he said and drew a picture.
The diagram engraved with the Eight Trigrams was, of course, meant to represent the Eight Trigrams Furnace.
“The Eight Trigrams Furnace was originally called the Dragon’s Furnace, a tool used by immortals to melt the essence of nature for their pills. Of course, if it melts something, there should be a result.”
A shadow rose in the narrator’s mind. It was completely different from the anomalies recorded in the rulebook. Was that the final product created by the Manghon Villa Dragon’s Furnace?
“Precisely, it is an elixir. It melts a person’s qi and spirit and reshapes it into the form of a human.”
Human pill? This was too different even from the genre. In martial arts novels, such stories only appeared when dealing with the atrocities of blood cults. He asked reflexively.
“Why in the form of a human?”
“Only Gwigok-ja would know, but the human form is the most noble, so it must be suitable for eating. Just as people treasure doll dolls or child dolls.”
Gwigok-ja had created a human-shaped pill using a person as material with his strange delusions. Originally, he had planned to eat the finished product himself.
…But now, the narrator was wearing the essence blood of that human pill.