WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Ceaseless
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Martial Arts Survival Guide ◈
Chapter 11: Is This Real?
──────
“...Ngh...”
The tears he had tried so hard to hold back streamed down his face. Baek Hyun sobbed as he watched the particles of light scatter. Tears weren’t the only thing pouring out. His martial artist’s body could even suppress drunkenness, yet it couldn’t stop his heavy tears or thick snot.
Because he didn’t want it to. Just as he could get drunk if he wanted, he wasn’t stopping because he didn’t want to stop. He wanted to cry, so Baek Hyun cried his heart out. Holding back his tears until Ju Han-o ascended to immortality had been the best he could manage.
Gone.
Master was really gone.
Honestly, he hadn’t felt much about his birth parents’ deaths. People could call him an unfilial child or whatever they wanted, but he couldn’t help it. He had only been five when they died. After that, he had gone to an orphanage, and his relatives, however distant, were scum he never wanted to deal with again. Apart from Min-sik, who had grown up alongside him in the orphanage, Baek Hyun had no one in the world to rely on. And Min-sik was a friend, not a parent figure.
During their twenty years in the Peach Blossom Realm, his master, Ju Han-o, had shown Baek Hyun what it meant to have a parent. He couldn’t help crying.
“...Hic.”
After crying for a long time, Baek Hyun’s tears suddenly stopped. He didn’t know how long he had cried. It felt like several hours at least. He scrubbed his face, soaked with tears and snot, with both hands. His face wasn’t the only thing that was wet. His top was drenched, too. Baek Hyun stripped off his clothes and stood up. Then he bowed his head once more toward the place where Ju Han-o had been.
“...How long are you going to keep watching?”
Baek Hyun spoke as he raised his head. His voice was a little hoarse, but no trace of his tears remained on his face. With that final bout of crying as though the world had ended, he had let his master go in his heart. After all, his master hadn’t died some tragic death. He had ascended to immortality to pursue his own wishes, so it wasn’t really something to sob over.
‘I know that, but the tears still come. It’s so strange.’
Thinking how strange the human heart was, Baek Hyun turned his head. Space rippled slightly, and Yeo-hwi peeked out.
“I wasn’t spying.”
“You were spying.”
“No. I was merely waiting a moment out of consideration for your feelings.”
“So you were spying after all.”
“Strictly speaking, yes, but isn’t ‘spying’ a rather unpleasant way to put it?”
Yeo-hwi gave a wry smile as she spoke. Apparently, she wanted to save face. Baek Hyun sniffed back his runny nose and sank to the floor.
“I don’t mind if you watched. It’s not like I was doing anything embarrassing.”
“Is that so?”
“It was something worth crying over, and I wanted to cry. So I did.”
Baek Hyun scratched his head as he spoke. Yeo-hwi regarded him with a curious look, then slowly nodded.
“...I see.”
“Did Master get there all right?”
“...Yes. The Martial God Demon arrived safely in the Immortal Realm just a moment ago. That is all I can tell you.”
“That’s fine. I’m sure Master will do well there, too. So... why are you here?”
“I believe you already have some idea.”
Baek Hyun chuckled at Yeo-hwi’s words. Of course he did.
“Still, you’re being nicer than when I first came here. I thought I’d be sent back just as suddenly as I was brought here.”
“At the time, the circumstances did not allow me to seek your consent beforehand. The Martial God Demon was the one who asked me to bring you to the Peach Blossom Realm, and your consent was not part of the conditions.”
Yeo-hwi approached Baek Hyun as she spoke.
“Also, there are a few things I must tell you.”
“Where’s this coming from?”
“You may not know this, but the Martial God Demon recently made several deals with me. In return for doing me a few small favors, he asked me to make things easier for you.”
Baek Hyun’s eyes widened. Ju Han-o had never mentioned anything like that.
“What do you mean? I never heard anything about this...”
“That is why I said, ‘You may not know this.’ I imagine it was his own way of looking after you.”
That brought a few things to mind. Sometimes, while Baek Hyun sparred with Sara, with the past versions of Ju Han-o his master projected, or with figures from the past, Ju Han-o would leave the mansion. He also went out at times when Baek Hyun practiced the Heaven-Shattering Divine Transformation Art alone. Whenever Baek Hyun asked where he was going, Ju Han-o would say there was nothing much to watch, so he might as well take a walk. Looking back, he had probably been going out to fulfill Yeo-hwi’s requests rather than simply taking a stroll.
“...What do you mean by making things easier for me?”
“Our agreement was that I would tell you how your world has changed while you were here in the Peach Blossom Realm.”
Baek Hyun’s eyes wavered slightly.
“...I expected as much.”
He had spent twenty years in the Peach Blossom Realm. After all that time, he had never expected that no time at all would have passed in his own world.
“How much time has passed?”
“Five years.”
“That’s still less than I expected. I was worried the full twenty years might’ve passed.”
Baek Hyun murmured with a faint smile.
“So, what are these ‘changes’? Who became president of my country, which idols are popular, what major disasters happened, that sort of thing?”
“Are you interested in such things?”
Yeo-hwi tilted her head as she asked. Baek Hyun gave a silly laugh and shook his head.
“I’m joking. Just joking.”
“I know. If that were truly what you wanted to hear about, the Martial God Demon would be furious, even in the Immortal Realm.”
Yeo-hwi chuckled. She stood before Baek Hyun and quietly cleared her throat.
“Your world has undergone a great change.”
“...Was there a world war? Or did aliens invade?”
“If I had to choose, the latter would be closer. Though strictly speaking, they aren’t aliens.”
As she murmured, Yeo-hwi raised a hand and reached toward Baek Hyun. Watching her hand approach his forehead, he reflexively caught her wrist.
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to pass the information to you in a simple way. Wouldn’t that be better than explaining everything aloud?”
“...Ahem.”
Baek Hyun released her hand. A moment later, Yeo-hwi touched his forehead. The information she wished to share flowed into his mind.
“...Good God.”
Baek Hyun’s eyes trembled as he took it in.
He felt grateful to Ju Han-o, who had left for the Immortal Realm. If he had returned to the modern world without learning this first, he would have been badly shaken.
The Abyss.
Four years earlier in his own world, those “enormous holes” had suddenly appeared all over the globe. At the same time, “knowledge” about the Abyss had been planted in everyone’s minds as though it belonged there.
On the last day of every month, “monsters” emerged from the Abyss openings around the world. There were no exceptions. It was impossible to predict what monsters would appear.
And anyone who wished could enter the Abyss.
The Abyss refused no one. Entering it didn’t mean there was no way back out, either. However, once someone entered, their survival depended entirely on them.
The inside of the Abyss was a kind of other world. Earth’s laws did not apply there. Humans might be the masters of Earth, but they were not the masters of the Abyss. There, humans were nothing but prey, forced to survive against countless predators.
If that had been all, humans would have had no reason to enter the Abyss. Even without monsters emerging from mysterious holes on the last day of every month, the world was already a harsh place where making a living was difficult.
But the Abyss offered a chance to those who risked their lives and threw themselves into its depths.
More precisely, it wasn’t the Abyss that offered that chance.
There were thirteen Monarchs who ruled the world of the Abyss. They were the ones who offered a chance to the humans who entered. The humans they chose received a portion of their powers and used that strength to survive in the Abyss. As they lived there, they developed the powers and strength they had gained. They were even hunting the monsters that emerged from the Abyss, taking the military’s place.
“Is this real?”
Baek Hyun couldn’t help asking. No matter how he thought about it, it made no sense. The world had been getting along just fine. Why had something called the Abyss suddenly appeared, with monsters pouring out of it? And thirteen Monarchs who ruled the Abyss? Baek Hyun looked at Yeo-hwi with eyes full of doubt. But she only tilted her head at his question.
“Do I have any reason to lie to you?”
“No.”
“Then why do you doubt me?”
Put that way, he had nothing to say. Baek Hyun closed his mouth and sank into thought. As Yeo-hwi said, she had no reason to lie to him. That meant this absurd information was true.
‘The Abyss? Monarchs? Monsters?’
Come to think of it, wasn’t the Peach Blossom Realm itself just as absurd? Before coming here, twenty years ago, Baek Hyun had been living in an exam-prep neighborhood, going from one part-time job to another while studying for the civil service exam. He had never imagined that he had been born an Innate Martial Genius, or that he would one day learn a peerless martial art called the Heaven-Shattering Divine Transformation Art. Besides, Yeo-hwi, the little girl standing right in front of him, wasn’t human. She was an imugi.
“...Well, I see.”
Thinking of it that way, he could accept the unbelievable things that had happened to his world. He still felt a little uneasy, but he was glad to have learned about them in advance.
“This concludes my agreement with the Martial God Demon.”
“Then am I going back now?”
“Yes.”
“Wait, can’t I say goodbye before I go?”
“To whom?”
“Who else would I have to say goodbye to in the Peach Blossom Realm?”
Yeo-hwi blinked. A moment later, she smiled faintly and nodded.
“Do as you wish.”
“Thank you.”
As soon as he heard her answer, Baek Hyun used his lightness technique and left the mansion. Then he stopped and looked back. Gazing at the mansion where he had lived with Ju Han-o for twenty years... he felt a complicated mix of emotions. Come to think of it, this was the first place he had ever lived for so long.
“I had a good life here.”
With that murmur, Baek Hyun turned away.
It was his first visit to the mansion where Snowfire Phoenix Yu Un-ryeo and Sara lived.
‘Is it morning? Night?’
Or was it afternoon? Dawn? With no sense of time in this place, he had no idea what hour it was, but he didn’t worry much about it. Showing up without warning like this was rude to begin with. Baek Hyun stopped before the mansion’s front gate and knocked. He did have some manners, so he didn’t simply jump over the wall as Sara had done.
A short while later, the gate opened. But no one stood on the other side.
[Come in.]
Instead, he heard Yu Un-ryeo’s voice transmission. Following the presences he could sense, Baek Hyun entered the mansion.
Then he had no choice but to stop.
He didn’t know whether it was breakfast, lunch, or dinner, but Yu Un-ryeo and Sara were eating. It didn’t look like the first and last drinking session he and Ju Han-o had shared before parting. Apparently, meals were an everyday thing for them. The sight made him feel a little resentful toward his master, who had left for the Immortal Realm.
‘You could’ve fed me a little sooner.’
“What brings you here?”
Yu Un-ryeo tilted her head as she asked. Sara also looked at Baek Hyun, blinking in surprise. Baek Hyun bowed his head to Yu Un-ryeo.
“Master has ascended to immortality.”
“...Ah.”
Yu Un-ryeo let out a quiet exclamation. She set down her chopsticks, then nodded with a gentle smile.
“...I see. The Martial God Demon has ascended... His lingering wish has finally been fulfilled. That must mean, Baek Hyun, that you have reached a level he found satisfying.”
“Somehow, it turned out that way.”
“Wonderful. But it must be a little sad for you. You’ve had to let your master go...”
“I cried a bit, but I’m all right.”
After answering, Baek Hyun turned to Sara. Having understood the situation from their exchange, she looked terribly confused. Her mouth hung open, and her shoulders trembled slightly.
“Th-then, are you leaving the Peach Blossom Realm now?”
“Yeah.”
“W-wait. This soon? Today? We were talking just a little while ago!”
“I didn’t know I’d be leaving this soon, either.”
“Why didn’t you say anything earlier?”
“Because earlier, I didn’t know this would happen today.”
Sara’s eyes trembled at Baek Hyun’s answer.
“Th-this is too sudden! At least give me time to prepare myself...”
“What do you need to prepare yourself for?”
“I just do!”
“Sorry, but I don’t think I can give you time for that. So work hard at your training, and give your master a good send-off, too.”
“Y-you... You...”
Unable to get her words out, Sara opened and closed her mouth. Tears welled up in her eyes.
Why is she crying? Baek Hyun wondered as he spoke.
“Later, if you haven’t changed your mind and you really do come to my world... Well...”
He wanted to give her his home address, at least, but that probably wouldn’t be much use. His address was only that of his gosiwon, and Baek Hyun had no intention of continuing to live there.
“...Right. Go to Gangnam Station in South Korea, stop someone on the street, give them my name, and ask if they know me.”
“Your name...?”
“Yeah.”
“...I don’t know what Gangnam Station is, but how would some random person know your name?”
“They probably will. I don’t know when you’ll get out, but by then, chances are there won’t be anyone in my country who doesn’t know my name.”
Baek Hyun grinned as he spoke.
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
