Chapter 2: Of Course
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 2: Of Course
I wanted to fly straight to America and participate in the World's Greatest Martial Arts Tournament, but that was impossible.
To contend with the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult Leader, I first had to acquire the "qualifications" he spoke of.
That was, to be recognized for my skill at the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult branches spread across each country.
“Hey, you lot.”
So, I sought out the National Assembly building, which had been blockaded by Heavenly Demon Divine Cult terrorists.
After all, it was where the most Heavenly Demon Divine Cult members were gathered at the moment.
I asked the wary Martial Arts Practitioners, as politely as I could manage:
“I want to participate in the World's Greatest Martial Arts Tournament, but who do I need to get verified by?”
“What lunatic…”
“Get lost!”
Only after cutting down about twenty Heavenly Demon Divine Cult members who immediately started cursing and attacking me, did I finally find someone I could talk to.
“Who the hell are you?”
Shin Kang-heon, the Flame Flower Saber.
I was quite surprised by the fact that he, famous as Korea's Greatest Swordsman, was affiliated with the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
This guy. He was my age, wasn't he.
Before I took the Constitution Test, whenever the promising teenage Rising Stars of Korea were mentioned, his name was always brought up alongside mine.
But one of us underwent an illegal procedure and became a Vagrant wandering the Underworld, while the other became the mastermind behind terrorism against the entire world.
Isn't this a dead-end life for both of us, to the point where you can't even say who's better off?
“Tsk. No wonder the country's gone to hell…”
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
“I came because I want to participate in the World's Greatest Martial Arts Tournament. Can I get verified by you?”
“He's a guy who only says what he wants to say.”
Naturally, Shin Kang-heon didn't recognize me.
He looked incredibly tired and worn out, but after hearing my business, he muttered, “It's the Cult Leader's command, so I have no choice.”
“Will it be a Betting Duel? Or a Life-and-Death Duel?”
“I only know how to do Life-and-Death Duels.”
“Haha! Interesting. That's more comfortable for me too, so let's make it a Life-and-Death Duel. Time and place?”
“If possible, right now.”
“Well, you're a straightforward fellow. Just wait a moment.”
Shin Kang-heon whispered something to a subordinate nearby, giving an order.
The subordinate looked displeased, but eventually nodded and stepped back.
“Alright, let's begin.”
Drawing our weapons simultaneously, we clashed fiercely from the very start.
With each clash of sword and saber, I felt as if every dying cell in my body was coming back to life.
I even regretted not having fought this guy sooner.
“Hahahahaha...!”
“Is he crazy? What's so good that he's laughing his ass off with a face like he's about to die?”
“And why are you grinning like an idiot?”
I can confidently say, it was the best fight of my life.
We were only able to reach a conclusion after over five hundred exchanges.
I pierced a hole through Shin Kang-heon's chest, and in return, I was deeply cut in the side, to the point where my intestines threatened to spill out.
“……”
“……”
Mutual Destruction.
Honestly, it was closer to my defeat.
Shin Kang-heon had looked incredibly exhausted even before fighting me, and it seemed he couldn't even display half of his original skill.
I, on the other hand, fought as if burning away my already limited lifespan.
They say there's no tomb without an excuse, but with a bitter taste in my mouth, I asked Shin Kang-heon:
“Do you think the outcome is unfair?”
“Not at all. It was a magnificent fight, befitting my end.”
Fortunately, Shin Kang-heon didn't seem particularly dissatisfied.
Shin Kang-heon, smiling broadly with a look of satisfaction, wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand and asked:
“...But why was a Martial Artist like you a Vagrant?”
“H-Heal the Branch Leader!”
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult members, belatedly realizing the situation, rushed forward but stopped dead at Shin Kang-heon's Lion's Roar.
“Are you trying to insult me?! A Life-and-Death Duel isn't over until one side falls!”
His voice was so booming it was hard to believe he was a man on the verge of death.
After making his subordinates freeze, he looked back at me.
“My apologies for the commotion. Would you answer my previous question?”
Even with a hole through his chest, Shin Kang-heon stood ramrod straight.
Even if Martial Arts Practitioners are known for their tenacity, this was a wondrous sight that couldn't be explained by that alone.
Out of respect for my opponent, I answered honestly.
“In the past, I received a constitution unsuitability ruling. With lingering regret, I underwent a Dantian procedure, and as you can see, I became a Vagrant wandering the Underworld.”
“Ha…”
The meaning in his sighing expression was not mockery, but pity.
“What a waste. It would have been good if you'd joined our Cult earlier. Then, even those with unsuitable constitutions could have found a way to learn martial arts.”
This was the first I'd heard of it.
If I had known this ten years ago, I would have clung to his pants, begging to know how to join the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, but now, it was all useless information.
I merely shrugged, as if to say, “Is that so?”
“Why didn't you put more effort into your missionary work back then?”
“Pffft...! You're a really interesting guy. If we'd known each other when we were young, we might have become friends. What's your name?”
Asking for the name and alias of the opponent who defeated him.
It was an old custom among Martial Arts Practitioners.
I hesitated for a moment, then answered.
“Ki Mu-hyeok. Ki Mu-hyeok, the Lone Noble.”
“...Ki Mu-hyeok? You don't mean that Ki Mu-hyeok?”
He remembered.
Seeing Shin Kang-heon's eyes widen, I nodded.
Even as blood streamed from his mouth, he pulled up the corners of his lips, grinning broadly.
“You, you were the guy who was rated higher than me when we were kids! I wondered what happened when the rumors suddenly stopped...”
Thud.
As if the strength suddenly left his body, Shin Kang-heon knelt on the ground.
He barely managed to prop himself up with his saber, avoiding a complete collapse.
He spoke in a voice that was steadily fading.
“Haha... If only we could have a drink…”
“Let's do it when we meet in the afterlife.”
My own physical condition was no different.
My intestines threatened to spill out from the side I was clutching with my hand.
An irreparable wound.
I could feel my remaining lifespan being chipped away in real-time.
Amidst all this, a sudden question popped into my head.
“...Let me ask one question too. How strong is the World's Greatest?”
Shin Kang-heon, still kneeling, looked up at the sky and laughed.
“So much so that comparing him to someone like me is laughable. You probably couldn't beat the Cult Leader even if you were reborn a few times.”
“You pathetic bastard. That's why you lost to a mere Vagrant like me.”
“Heh heh. Perhaps…”
With those last words, Shin Kang-heon leaned against his saber and closed his eyes.
I staggered, looking around at the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult members surrounding us.
“If any of you want revenge, come at me. It'd be easier than swimming on dry land.”
They only exchanged glances; none dared to attack.
It seemed they intended to grant me the most inglorious end for a Martial Arts Practitioner: death by natural causes, as revenge for Shin Kang-heon.
I'm tired.
My eyes were slowly closing.
When my side was cut, my Artificial Dantian was torn as well, causing my qi to dissipate uselessly.
I was barely holding on thanks to the energies flowing through my acupoints, but I was already as good as dead.
Yes. Twenty years, I lasted a long time.
I pressed the torn, rubber-ball-like thing that kept trying to spill out of my side back in with my palm.
Most Artificial Dantians would expire and need replacement in less than ten years, but this one had lasted a remarkable twenty years.
That quack, he was skilled.
He might be dead now, but I'd already carried out the revenge he'd asked for a few years ago, so he probably wouldn't have any complaints if we met in the afterlife.
I stood blankly for a moment, recalling each memory that flashed before my eyes like a revolving lantern.
“Get out of the way!”
An old man with a face full of age spots pushed through the crowd and walked quickly towards me.
The moment I saw his face, I recognized him.
“...Man Bak-ja?”
A figure who was once a renowned martial arts scholar and a Spellcaster.
The very culprit who claimed that prolonged use of an Artificial Dantian could form a real Dantian, leading me to undergo the illegal procedure.
And then he suddenly vanished, only to be branded a swindler of the century, wasn't he?
“How, how could…”
Man Bak-ja walked towards me with a half-dazed expression.
Powerless to move, I could only stare silently.
“...Did you truly achieve a state equal to Shin Kang-heon with an Artificial Dantian?”
“That guy wasn't at his best. You'd know if you saw it, wouldn't you?”
“But you're a Vagrant who learned crude Underworld martial arts, and an one-eyed man whose body isn't even whole, aren't you?”
This old man is really getting on my nerves.
I considered swinging my sword with my last remaining strength, but decided against it.
Meanwhile, Man Bak-ja stopped the bleeding from my wound and administered first aid.
Of course, that wouldn't stop my death.
It would only buy me a little time.
“It'll hurt a bit, so bear with it.”
Suddenly, Man Bak-ja removed his palm from my side and yanked out the Artificial Dantian.
The excruciating pain, like an organ being ripped out, made me drop even my sword.
“Gah...! You crazy old man!”
I was dying from the pain, but Man Bak-ja meticulously examined my torn Artificial Dantian, then suddenly started laughing like a madman.
“Hahaha! Uhahahahahaha—!”
I barely managed to reach out and grasp the sword I'd dropped on the ground again.
Meanwhile, Man Bak-ja, who had laughed so hard he was tearing up, turned to me and said:
“You truly knew nothing at all.”
“You crazy old man. I'm going to kill you and then…”
“This Artificial Dantian's lifespan expired long ago. It's just rubber, its spell exhausted.”
“...What?”
“You've formed a real Dantian inside your body!”
I was so astonished that I forgot even the terrible pain, freezing in place.
“I'm... not unsuitable...?”
“You were unsuitable at first, yes. But not anymore. You are... the first Martial Arts Practitioner to overcome your constitution and create a Dantian!”
Something, whether joy or ecstasy, streamed from Man Bak-ja's eyes.
I'm the one who really wants to cry, you damn old man...
The very thing I'd yearned for so much as a child had come true like this, and I only realized it right before I died?
Still, a faint chuckle escaped me at the thought that I had accomplished something before I died.
“Proving this was my lifelong wish. That's why I even joined the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult... And finally, my theory has been proven correct! Now I have no regrets, no regrets at all.”
Man Bak-ja was still crying.
His voice was filled with sorrow and remorse.
“This was something no one had achieved in the past twenty years. After joining the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, I conducted all sorts of experiments with the Cult's martial arts and funds, but failed every single time. I even resolved to go back in time myself to do it. How could it happen like this, in an instant, hahahaha...!”
Man Bak-ja, who had been crying, laughing, and ranting to himself in a fit of emotion, raised his head and looked at me.
My life was now like a candle flame in the wind, almost extinguished.
I could barely even see his face.
“You.”
Amidst my dulled senses, only his voice rang out clearly.
“If you could go back to the past, what would you want to do most?”
...What?
In this world, there exist unbelievable mystical spells and Monstrous Beings.
And until he vanished one day, Man Bak-ja was a globally renowned martial arts scholar and one of the foremost Spellcasters.
Even as I dismissed his words as nonsense, I quietly allowed myself to imagine.
If I could go back to the past...
“...Of course.”
I made the most fervent wish that came to mind in that moment.
“I want to eat a meal with my parents.”
Perhaps it was an entirely unexpected answer, but Man Bak-ja remained silent for a long time.
“...A wonderful answer. Then, one more question.”
“Can't I just die already?”
“Even if you go back to the past, will you still learn martial arts?”
At that moment, countless past memories flashed before me like a panorama.
The excitement of first holding a wooden sword after pestering my father.
The days I enjoyed exercising so much that I couldn't sleep properly due to muscle pain.
The moment I underwent the illegal procedure in despair after losing my parents.
The sensation of killing someone for the first time as a Vagrant.
The moments I faced the corpses of those I called comrades, and the days I cursed my helpless self and threw away my sword.
Looking back, there were far more painful days than happy ones.
But even so.
“...Yeah. I will.”
I would become a Martial Arts Practitioner again.
But if I had a second chance, I wouldn't live this life the same way.
I would walk the Orthodox Path, so I could be proud before my parents.
I would return alive, not alone, but with comrades.
And I would become stronger than anyone else in the world.
“You have fulfilled my lifelong wish, so this time, I shall grant yours.”
Man Bak-ja's low chuckle seemed to echo from afar.
...What did he say?
“I shall offer my lifelong accumulated spells, my fervent wish, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's treasures, and my very life, to send you to the past with a heaven-defying spell.”
At that moment, a fiery, scorching energy enveloped my body.
My vision, completely blacked out, soon transformed into the cosmos.
I floated alone in a universe filled with countless stars.
“If, by any chance, you meet me there.”
Only Man Bak-ja's voice hummed faintly from a very distant place.
“Tell him not to do anything useless, and to take good care of his family.”
Feeling my consciousness grow increasingly hazy, I closed my eyes.
“And perhaps, within your body…”
Man Bak-ja seemed to be saying something, but his fading voice no longer reached me.
And a moment later.
Slowly opening my eyes, the surrounding scenery had changed as if by magic.
“...Ah.”
I saw a space that was both incredibly unfamiliar and yet very familiar.
A messy room, with snack bags and instant ramen cups scattered carelessly like trash.
I quickly turned my body, searching for a mirror.
Inside it wasn't a middle-aged man with stubble, but a fresh-faced youngster with soft downy hair.
There were no scars on my body, and naturally, my left eye was perfectly fine.
“...It's real.”
I had returned to the past.
Checking the date, it seemed to be when I was nineteen, not long after receiving the constitution unsuitability ruling from the detailed examination.