Waking Up in Shaolin's Repentance Cave
I used to have a junior awakener I was fond of. His stats were embarrassingly mid-tier A-rank no matter where you put him. Despite being pathetically weak, the guy acted like some intellectual just because he graduated from a prestigious university's mechanical engineering department. Even though I proudly graduated from a four-year college myself (a bottom-tier local one), he constantly showed off scientific knowledge that wasn't even basic awakener common sense right in front of me, which seriously got on my nerves.
"Hyung-nim, why do you shout 'Gravity times 100' or 'Gravity minus 100' every time you fight monsters?"
I answered with a casual air.
"A weak little A-ranker like you wouldn't understand, but it's a classic cliché for a great hero's victory."
"What I don't get is, you also shout 'Gravity minus 100' when you're carrying people away under the pretext of evacuating them. Does that minus 100G apply to them too?"
"Of course it does," I said firmly.
"Then I'm even more confused. At minus 10G, intraocular and intracranial pressure rises dramatically. The pressure can rupture retinal blood vessels, leading to permanent blindness with high probability. Excessive blood flow to the head and brain tissue can burst or rupture cerebral microvessels, causing fatal brain hemorrhages. That can lead to immediate death. So how do ordinary people withstand not minus 10G, but minus 100G?"
"Uh...???"
"And that's not all. The blood that should return to the heart gets forced backward by the gravitational pull, flooding the heart and lungs and putting severe pressure on the organs. What about the bones? Since gravity acts toward the head, the spine—especially the cervical and thoracic vertebrae—can't handle the load and could dislocate or suffer serious damage. Hyung-nim, you do understand the concept of gravity, right? I just can't wrap my head around it. Isn't your awakening ability something other than gravity? I'm curious if you even know what your own power actually is and are just shouting 'ten thousand times gravity' with your mouth. Could you explain it so even an A-rank underling like me can understand?"
I felt that my junior needed a kind and warm explanation. Fine! I'd personally enlighten him.
"Shut up, you son of a bitch."
In this fleeting moment as I desperately dodged the monk's club strikes, memories of that rude junior flashed through my mind. Why was I suddenly remembering the past while performing evasive maneuvers at Mach 10 speed (probably)?
"Too slow!!"
My brain sent the warning, but my body wouldn't listen. Movements like a damn slug—something I'd never felt even once since awakening. I barely avoided the monk's club, but this wasn't my body. It felt like I'd gone back to those pathetic days before I was an S-rank hero, when nothing worked no matter what I did.
They weren't about to miss that momentary opening.
Thwack! Thud! Crack!
"Kwaaaaagh!"
From who knows where, a bunch of crazy martial arts cosplayers rushed in from all directions and started beating the crap out of me. Unintelligible Chinese curses played like background music. This was a one-sided ass-kicking. Against the great hero, no less!
"Hey! Stop! Time out! My bones! I think you broke something, you bastards! Ow! Ow!! Teachers, please!!"
"What is this wicked woman babbling? She's chanting some incomprehensible spell!"
My desperate cries were nothing but noise to them. In the end, I got pummeled to a pulp and collapsed on the ground like a limp dog.
That's when it happened. A rough hand grabbed me by the back of my hair. A middle-aged man with a long, hideous scar across his face dragged me up. His eyes were filled with killing intent.
Swoosh.
The blue blade in his hand pressed against my throat. A chilling cold pierced my skin.
'...For real?'
These psychos actually intended to kill me.
'Wait a second. You said you'd send me to the past! Why the hell did you drop me in the middle of a hell full of lunatics! You scientist bastards, when I get back, you're dead meat!'
The horrible pain shooting through my entire body screamed that this wasn't a dream—it was a brutal reality. Just before the blade sank into my neck—
"Hold on."
A clear voice rang out from somewhere. It was definitely some unfamiliar Chinese-like language, but strangely, I understood it as clearly as my mother tongue.
'...No way?'
Had my hidden awakening ability manifested in this crisis? An automatic translation passive?
'...As if that exists.'
I strained my swollen eyes—which could barely open—and looked toward the source of the voice. There stood an old man who looked like he'd stepped out of a painting. Snow-white hair and eyebrows like they'd been frosted over, a magnificent white beard. An aura that seemed to transcend the mortal world. People called this kind of appearance xianfeng daogu.
Finally, I'd met the only sane person in this den of madmen! A spark of hope that I might survive surged up.
"What teaching does the Mysterious Real Person wish to impart?"
The scarred man gripping my hair asked the old master in a polite tone completely different from before. At those words, the xianfeng daogu old master opened his half-closed eyes and looked at me.
The moment our eyes met, I desperately worked my facial muscles to survive. I acted as pitifully as possible, as unjustly as possible, with wide, deer-like eyes that looked ready to spill tears at any moment. I had to stimulate their sympathy!
Finally, the old master spoke in a compassionate voice.
"Though the Blood Hand Witch is a heinous villain, she also has deep karmic ties to the Murim world, so taking her life would not be right. It is proper to show mercy."
Wow... how could someone be so merciful? Moved by his soul-stirring benevolent voice, I almost saw a brilliant halo of light shining behind him.
'A halo! Yes, a halo! This person is an angel!'
The Mysterious Real Person, who had been a 'normal person' just moments ago, was instantly promoted to 'Archangel' in my mind.
But before I could even wipe away my tears of emotion, the monk who'd first beaten me shouted angrily.
"Real Person! What are you saying! You're telling us to spare that wicked creature? We should flay her skin and display her in the marketplace, and even that wouldn't be enough!"
...This bastard wasn't just a monk. He was a bald psycho murderer.
Then my archangel, the Mysterious Real Person, spoke with a compassionate smile.
"Calm yourself, Great Master Sobang. How could we of the Orthodox faction behave like that abominable demon? Wouldn't the eyes of the world watching us be frightening? It is the duty of the Orthodox faction to destroy the witch's danjeon and sever her meridians, then have her repent her sins in the Repentance Cave."
......What?
What the hell was this crazy old man babbling about? Destroy her danjeon and sever her meridians? That's the stuff from murim novels, right? The thing that turns people into cripples!
My icon of hope, the archangel, had instantly devolved into a kindly insane psycho old man.
The scarred man nodded and said,
"As expected, we should follow the profound intentions of the Mysterious Real Person. What do you think, Great Master?"
The bald murderer pondered for a moment before shouting with satisfaction.
"Good! If that's the Real Person's will, then so be it! However, this Blood Hand Witch must be imprisoned in our Shaolin Temple's Repentance Cave!"
"Let it be so."
The Mysterious Real Person nodded readily.
'Wait! What about my opinion? Doesn't my opinion matter even a little? Not even as much as a mosquito's wing?!'
My internal screams never made it out of my mouth. Regardless of my wishes, my life and death were already in their hands.
"I'll do it! I'll personally shatter the witch's danjeon!"
The scarred man who'd released my hair raised his hand excitedly like an elementary school student. The hundreds of martial artists around him seemed to smile warmly at the sight. No, that wasn't a warm smile. It was the kind of smile pleasure killers make when they have their prey in front of them.
"Hehe, it seems you bear quite a grudge against the Blood Hand Witch. Very well, proceed."
The kindly insane psycho old man, the Mysterious Real Person, responded with a generous laugh.
Meanwhile, I caught sight of the bald murderer smacking his lips with a disappointed expression.
And then.
Crunch!
The scarred man slammed his raised hand straight into the spot below my solar plexus. In that instant, I experienced it. The 'pain of a destroyed danjeon' that I'd read about hundreds, thousands of times in murim novels.
There wasn't the tremendous sense of loss described in the novels. After all, it was an imaginary organ. Instead, it hurt. And it hurt like hell!
"......!"
Not even a scream came out. Only a faint wheezing sound escaped my throat, and my body curled up like a giant shrimp on its own. The pain was so intense that neither sound nor movement was permitted.
As I convulsed on the floor, the bald murderer's excited voice rang out above my head.
"Fellow Murim warriors! Now it is time to sever the meridians throughout her four limbs and hundred bones! I shall personally cut this villain's meridians and establish the justice of our thousand-year Shaolin Temple and the Orthodox Murim!"
Justice my ass. You're just a psycho having the time of your life.
A cold hand grabbed my convulsing ankle. Slice. The horrific sensation of something sharp severing my Achilles tendon.
"Kyaaaaaaaagh!"
In the end, I couldn't hold back the scream that tore from my hoarse throat. The immense pain made it feel like the blood vessels in my eyes had burst, and I shed tears of blood. Drool poured from my mouth.
As if my suffering brought him joy, the bald torture enthusiast shouted in a satisfied voice.
"Having severed one meridian, I shall now cut the remaining eleven."
The moment those words left his mouth, the lunatics surrounding us burst into enthusiastic cheers.
"Waaaaaaaah—!"
The massive roar seemed to tear through my eardrums and pierce into my brain.
'You crazy bastards, stop...!'
I begged desperately in my mind. And I poured out one final curse toward the masterminds behind all this.
'Just you wait... you scientist bastards...'
That was it. I couldn't endure any longer and passed out with a pathetic groan.
I, as humanity's hero, possessed the steel-like spirit befitting my status. There was just one tiny flaw. A flaw so minor it was practically nonexistent. My mentality was extremely thin—like glass just a hair's breadth thick.
That minor weakness tripped me up at critical moments, and this time too, the great hero's glass mentality shattered completely under the mental and physical torment. Mortifyingly, I'd passed out right in front of those murderers.
How much time had passed? When I opened my eyes again, what greeted me was pitch-black darkness. Perfect darkness where I couldn't see even an inch ahead. And right after, pain like my entire body was being torn apart washed over me like a wave. The body beaten by a mob, the broken arm, the shattered danjeon, the severed meridians. I'd devoted myself so much for humanity—why did I have to end up like this?
In the end, sorrow welled up. A groaning sound leaked out, soon turning into childish sobs.
'Wait. Shaolin's Repentance Cave?'
The Repentance Cave I'd read about in murim novels was a place like this. Damp moss-covered stone walls, a single ray of moonlight barely seeping through a crack in the ceiling, a damp bundle of straw in the corner, and heavy iron bars that carried the weight of years. A solitary cave prison optimized for reflecting on one's sins alone.
There wasn't a single speck of moonlight, making it hard to secure my vision, so I couldn't tell what was around me or what the structure was like. But had I really been thrown into the Repentance Cave from those murim stories?
This was a real murim world? It didn't feel real. Then was the multiverse theory actually true? I didn't know if it was Einstein or Newton who said it, but I wanted to ask. Why had my consciousness been sent not to the past, but to this weird virtual reality game-like place?!
My sobs grew louder from the confusion and sorrow.
Right then—
"What bastard is making so much noise?!"
"Ugh, it's so damn loud I could die!"
Though it was too dark to see, complaints erupted from various spots inside the cave. Among them, one phrase particularly stabbed into my ears.
"Some wench gets thrown in here and starts bawling like it's bad luck!"
...What? Wench?
Calling me—a beacon of hope for humanity and a lady-killer—a wench?! Fine, I'd cry even louder out of spite. I'd wail at the top of my lungs!
But at that exact moment, a spine-chilling realization crawled up my back.
'...This might not be a single-occupancy solitary cell system.'
The thought that it might be a large communal space where they crammed dangerous criminals together instead of separate cells divided by iron bars. The fear that those vicious demons like the ones who'd beaten me earlier might gang up and beat me again just for being noisy.
That fear made me swallow the sob that had been about to burst out. In the end, I set aside my hero's pride and began to sob quietly and pathetically.
In the silence that filled all directions, only my pitiful whimpers—having abandoned a hero's dignity—echoed softly through the cave.
But right then—
Huuu... Huuuk...
From somewhere came a spine-chilling ghostly wail, like a woman weeping with deep resentment.
'...!'
Goosebumps instantly erupted across my back. I reflexively stopped sobbing and pricked up my ears. Then the surroundings fell back into complete silence.
'...Did I hear wrong?'
My brain must've gotten messed up from all the beatings. I felt relieved and started sobbing quietly again.
Huu... Huuuk...
Damn it! There it was again! This time it was closer, as clear as if someone was crying right next to my ear!
"Hik!"
I jumped in fright and whipped my head left and right like crazy, trying to find the source of the sound. But all I could see was pitch-black darkness.
I'd sob, then freeze, then sob again and look around in panic—repeating this several times. One of the demons watching my pathetic display spat out,
"Has that wench gone crazy? Why is she acting like that all by herself?"
The moment I heard those words, an ominous premonition flashed through me like lightning. For one final confirmation, I held my breath, made the sound, stopped, made it again, and stopped.
Huuuup... (silence)
...Hwaaaang... (silence)
That's right. That woman's sorrowful weeping... was coming from my own mouth!
'Why? Why is a woman's voice coming from my throat?!'
My trembling hand instinctively moved to where it needed to go. Carefully—very carefully—I felt around my crotch. The exact spot where humanity's hope and my precious other half should have been.
And.
"......It's gone."
What should have been there... wasn't.
My mind went completely blank. All thought stopped. And a moment later, a scream that shook the entire Repentance Cave burst out.
"My dick!! Where the hell did my dick go?!!"