Spreading the Seeds
Originally, he had no particular desire to concern himself with any affairs until after his vacation.
Yet the moment he stepped into the vice-leader’s office to speak with him and came face to face with Park Seryong, an inexplicable impulse surged through him as he recalled Dok Junseong, who had been smoothly handling every task on his own.
Right then and there, he produced a compiled manual of Wonryeok Mudo written in Korean, a box containing a portion of Awakening Incense seeds along with a Korean instruction booklet detailing their cultivation method and effects, and handed them over.
The items seemed to pop out of thin air, and Park Seryong accepted them with visible surprise.
“I gave it some thought last night.”
It had been an exceptionally long “night,” and in truth he had not pondered it seriously at all, but Han Yujin opened the conversation that way.
Naturally, this was about what Park Seryong had said just before Yujin left for the Gangho Murim world—about wanting to become his subordinate.
“The truth is, I do need someone who can help me more proactively and reliably.”
“Th-that would mean…”
Park Seryong unconsciously stuttered. Apart from the suddenness of the situation, something about the other man’s aura felt fundamentally different.
It was difficult to pinpoint, but he now radiated a dignity that had been almost imperceptible before.
No…
Dignity was close but not quite right.
It was not the sort of authority born from composure and solemnity. Rather, it was a strange atmosphere that simply made one feel they ought to show respect without any clear reason.
Especially when their eyes met.
Whether aware of Park Seryong’s thoughts or not, Han Yujin continued.
“I plan to distribute these. Could you handle the rollout as my representative? Consulting with Oh Tae-min, the administrator at the Ability Management Bureau, should make things smoother.”
Park Seryong, who seemed to be considering it, asked, “May I inquire about the purpose of the distribution? It doesn’t appear to be purely for money.”
“Mm.”
It was a sharp, essential question, so Han Yujin found himself nodding.
“You’ve already guessed the nature of my awakening ability, correct? To utilize it more effectively… I need to influence as many people as possible. Therefore, it’s better to create positive, lasting influence.”
It was probably difficult to understand right away. Even Han Yujin himself still possessed an incomplete understanding of the energy called Karma; how could he offer a clear explanation to someone who did not even know such a thing existed?
Yet instead of voicing doubt or suspicion, Park Seryong simply accepted it and replied that he understood.
“It would also be good to earn a lot of money, provided it does not interfere with the main objective. I need Mana Stones.”
“Is that also connected to your awakening ability?”
“Yes. I believe this is enough for you to understand the general idea. If you carry this out successfully…”
He paused for a moment, considering, then continued.
“I will teach you knowledge I have not yet decided to distribute. With it, you should be able to overwhelm an ordinary S-class hunter.”
“Like you, Teacher?”
After speaking, Park Seryong showed a trace of embarrassment at the title, but Han Yujin simply nodded without any particular reaction.
“You will be able to wield the same level of power you saw in that illusion without difficulty.”
This was clearly an opportunity. The risk was not particularly high, either.
Having reached his conclusion, Park Seryong answered with utmost seriousness.
“Leave it to me. I will produce results as quickly as possible.”
Upper-tier Jin Young-geun talent… He’s a bit old, but he’s already an S-class hunter familiar with spirit energy, so reaching the Dharma Soul stage shouldn’t be a problem.
That was Han Yujin’s assessment of Park Seryong. Upper-tier Jin Young-geun meant even better talent than Dok Junseong, who had been mid-tier.
Achieving Perfect Foundation Establishment might be difficult, but that too could change depending on how much assistance he provided later.
Because this was reality. Every time he used his awakening ability, he grew rapidly and reaped abundant harvests; the situation was bound to differ from the Gangho Murim world, where growth had been almost completely stagnant.
Once he stepped outside the Great Rift, he picked up his smartphone for what felt like the first time in ages and found himself sinking into unexpected sentiment.
If something like this had existed in the Murim world, I could have taken so many photos and videos.
Fortunately, the enhanced memory that came with the Dharma Soul stage allowed him to recall those memories with vivid clarity.
There were an enormous number of accumulated messages on his smartphone. Simply reading and handling them all took quite a while. If he had not awakened his ability, he would have spent his life never contacting many of these people; blocking them one by one was a task in itself.
Among them, the message that caught his eye was from “family.”
To be precise, it was from the younger uncle of that relative’s house where he had endured a lifetime of scorn. It even included news about his so-called father.
“Heh heh…”
He laughed like an old man out of habit, then quickly shook his head to clear his mind. And, as was perfectly natural, he deleted the message and blocked the sender.
The content itself had been extremely cautious, leaving no room for criticism, but considering the timing, the intention was blatantly obvious. There was no value in meeting the man just to humiliate him in person.
If he had any conscience, he wouldn’t have contacted me like this.
Feeling slightly down, he quickly called Park Heewon—the friend who had given him tremendous help by telling him about the existence of xianxia novels.
Several hours later.
The guy he met at a nicely decorated Korean beef specialty restaurant still looked slightly dazed even after they sat down and finished ordering.
“It feels like the whole damn world is pulling a hidden-camera prank on me.”
Only after all the side dishes had arrived did he seem to regain his senses.
“What hidden-camera prank?”
“My friend suddenly becoming S-class. If this isn’t a prank, what is it?”
“Why are you acting so surprised? I already told you over the phone.”
“This is the first time I’m seeing it in person since it was revealed. Also, I kind of missed my chance to ask earlier.”
As he spoke, the guy’s gaze turned toward Mu-yong, who was sitting boldly on one side of the table.
“What the hell is that? Some new species of rabbit?”
“I call her a rabbit-weasel.”
“Never heard of that animal. Weren’t you the type who never kept pets?”
“I adopted her recently.”
As he answered, Han Yujin placed several side dishes onto a small plate for Mu-yong. Watching her munch away, Park Heewon asked again.
“Are pets even allowed in a place like this?”
“No idea.”
“…No idea?”
“If no one complains, it’s fine.”
Since it was a high-end Korean beef restaurant, they were in a private room, so there was little need to worry about other people’s gazes. In truth, it was thanks to Monghwan Yusim that he was obscuring the attention of unrelated parties.
Unaware of that fact, Park Heewon still looked like he had plenty to say, but he soon shook his head and began eating the side dishes himself.
“Mm, this is good. It’s nice having a successful friend. Last time it was just kimchi stew, for fuck’s sake.”
“Was it bad enough to swear over?”
“That was an exclamation. An exclamation.”
While they filled their stomachs lightly, the meat arrived. As expected of a luxury restaurant, the server tried to grill everything for them, but Han Yujin told him it was fine and sent him away. He simply did not want their conversation interrupted.
Sizzle…!
Mu-yong could not take her eyes off the sound of the meat grilling. Park Heewon, who had been glancing at her occasionally, said,
“She’s cute, but what if she suddenly runs into the hot part?”
“She’s smart, so she won’t. Even if she did, it’d be fine.”
“Fine?”
“Even though she looks like that, she can hold her own against an A-class hunter.”
“…What are you talking about?”
“She’s no ordinary animal.”
As he spoke, Han Yujin lifted an uncut piece of meat with tongs and conveyed his will through the Tongmyeong Eosu-gyeol.
A streak of golden light shot from Mu-yong’s mouth, slicing the meat cleanly before vanishing into thin air as though it had never existed.
Seeing Park Heewon’s dumbfounded expression, Han Yujin felt as if he had returned almost completely to his university days and burst into laughter.
“Wh-what…? What did I just see?”
“Just think ‘huh, guess that’s a thing’ and move on.”
“How am I supposed to just move on from that!”
To the excited young man, he roughly explained that he had picked her up from something like a Great Rift. As for whether such an act was legally possible, he glossed over it somehow.
The conversation naturally shifted to the Great Rift.
Why he had gone there immediately after awakening, what he had done there, how dangerous it was—Park Heewon seemed to have many questions, and Han Yujin answered them without holding back, spinning a good tale.
During that time they ordered meat two more times and drank more than half of two expensive bottles of liquor.
Mu-yeong-geun…
No matter how many times he checked, his friend’s spiritual root talent was essentially nonexistent.
Even if he gave him Awakening Incense, the guy would need to steadily inhale its scent while training diligently for several years, and even then the chance that his non-existent spiritual root would improve to a superior one was only one in ten.
The Awakening Incense and its scent are merely items for wide-scale distribution.
For a close friend, he might be able to find a better method. If giving him the incense now interfered with that better method, it would leave a rather unpleasant feeling in his heart.
“She’s drinking it all! She’s drinking everything!”
Park Heewon, now tipsy, cackled as he watched Mu-yong continuously licking the alcohol from the plate.
“She’s so small—won’t she get sick? Oh, right, you said she can hold her own against an A-class hunter? Does that even make sense?”
“It’s true. Anyway, what other novels do you read besides xianxia?”
“Besides xianxia? I read everything.”
“Any particularly interesting genres?”
“Are you bored during your break? You’re an S-class hunter, man. Just get a girlfriend.”
He seemed to think Han Yujin wanted web novel recommendations because he was bored. The guy chuckled, thought for a moment, then said,
“Fantasy is so common there’s no need to recommend any, but have you ever read sci-fi?”
“Not really.”
“There’s one xianxia I’m reading these days that mixes in sci-fi elements. It’s pretty fun.”
“Xianxia and sci-fi? Do those even go together?”
“Depends on how you set it up. Of course it’s very different from ordinary xianxia.”
He then told him the title of the novel and gave a rough summary of its content. Even Han Yujin, who had little interest in the plot, found certain parts slightly intriguing.
Enough to make him think it might be worth trying as the next world he visited.
If it’s sci-fi, maybe there will be something in the scientific and technological fields that’s good for harvesting Karma…?
Of course, that might not necessarily be the case.
Technology could only be useful when supported by social structures, people’s education and knowledge levels, resource and fuel supply infrastructure, and cultural and institutional foundations.
In short, suddenly handing steam engine technology to the ancient era would not trigger an industrial revolution.
Still, he expected to reap at least one harvest, so it was only natural to feel anticipation. Especially if it was sci-fi mixed with xianxia elements.
As their casual talk continued and they ordered more meat and alcohol, Park Heewon eventually became almost completely drunk. At some point he flopped onto the table and let out a heavy sigh.
“What’s wrong?”
“I broke up with my girlfriend in the end…”
“Mm…”
As far as Han Yujin knew, she was the girlfriend his friend had been dating since middle school. The problems had never seemed to resolve no matter how many times they met, so it had come to this.
No wonder he was drinking so much.
He poured more liquor into his friend’s glass and offered comfort.
“You’ll meet a better woman. This hyung will make sure of it.”
“…What, are you going to introduce me to someone? Can you even get a hunter girlfriend?”
The way he lifted his head as if he had not just been deeply depressed a moment ago nearly made Han Yujin laugh despite himself.
“I’ll give you a spiritual root later, so become a hunter yourself and date whoever you want.”
“…The yin-yang five elements heavenly spiritual root?”
“Crazy bastard.”
In the end, he swore and laughed.
Since Park Heewon was not the only friend he needed to catch up with, he scheduled meetings over the course of several days.
He met five high school friends and treated them to a big meal, then met two middle school friends and splurged for the first time in his life at a cocktail bar.
As a side note, all the money spent had actually come from a loan he took out at the bank before meeting Park Heewon. Being an S-class hunter made it ridiculously easy; the bank staff had practically begged to lend him more.
After meeting every friend he could call close at least once.
The next person he visited was Lee Won-hee.
The child who had once lived with her grandmother in a shantytown had already moved into a rental apartment in Seoul thanks to Park Seryong’s swift handling of the matter.
“Hello, Sponsor.”
“You’ve already reset to ‘Sponsor’? I told you to call me Uncle.”
“…Yes, Uncle. What brings you here so suddenly?”
“I should greet your grandmother too.”
As he spoke, he stepped inside, briefly checked the condition of the rental housing, and exchanged greetings with Lee Won-hee’s grandmother. Her face showed the toll of long hardship.
He easily obtained permission, then took the young Lee Won-hee’s hand and left the building.
“Where are we going?”
“Shopping. The transfer procedures should be mostly finished by now, so you’ll be starting at a new school soon, right?”
“…Yes.”
“You still don’t want to go to a hunter-specialized school, correct?”
“…Yes.”
“Then let’s go shopping. Whether it’s clothes, a bag, or school supplies, buying everything new should help lift your mood, don’t you think?”
Lee Won-hee stared at him quietly for a moment, then silently nodded.
A few seconds later, in a small, creeping voice, she said,
“Thank you…”
“Don’t worry about repaying me later. It’s all pocket change.”
“…Pardon?”
Without the slightest awkwardness, Han Yujin patted the girl’s head and headed toward the nearby department store.
Throughout the entire walk, Lee Won-hee’s dark eyes kept stealing glances at him.
As if she had noticed that the faint wariness she had felt during their first meeting had completely vanished.