WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Ceaseless
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Martial Arts Survival Guide ◈
Chapter 15: I Didn't Do It
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The “status window” was an ability available to everyone who entered the Abyss. It showed how capable someone was in the simplest way possible: a number called a “level.” But not everyone had a level.
Only people who had signed contracts with the monarchs of the Abyss could have one.
The human body was weak. Weapons could change that, but bringing modern weapons into the Abyss was impossible.
People could survive in the Abyss with their weak bodies thanks to the contracts they signed with its monarchs at the end of the tutorial. But those contracts weren’t all equal. Among the countless people with contracts, only a chosen few received divine powers from their monarchs. Of those, the handful who truly earned their monarch’s recognition were appointed as “apostles” and granted an audience.
At present, only four people in the entire world had been appointed as apostles, while three were undergoing trials to earn the position. One of those candidates was from the small country of South Korea.
Park Jun-hwan.
A powerful hunter, Park Jun-hwan was Martial Spirit’s apostle candidate. When people named Korea’s most famous hunters, they usually chose Seo Min-sik, Jeong Su-a, and Park Jun-hwan. But while Seo Min-sik and Jeong Su-a were people others could aspire to be like, Park Jun-hwan wasn’t.
He was simply too far out of reach.
“Martial Spirit, huh.”
Baek Hyun trudged through the crowded streets of Pandemonium. He had a personal interest in Park Jun-hwan. More precisely, he was interested in Martial Spirit, the monarch Park Jun-hwan had a contract with.
At the end of the tutorial, Martial Spirit had sent a message saying that he considered Baek Hyun’s existence dangerous. He had also sent Baek Hyun a direct message asking who he was. His voice had been that of a man, deep and almost empty of emotion, making him difficult to read. Still, if he considered Baek Hyun dangerous, he was probably wary of him.
But that wariness wasn’t what had caught Baek Hyun’s interest. Before coming to the Abyss Entry Office, Baek Hyun had already looked up the publicly available information on his phone. These days, spending a little time on a phone was enough to find most information. Especially for someone as famous as Park Jun-hwan, YouTube was overflowing with videos.
Baek Hyun had watched a few of them. Recording videos inside the Abyss was impossible, but there were plenty showing Park Jun-hwan defeating monsters in the real world.
‘That was martial arts.’
The techniques Park Jun-hwan had used to defeat those monsters were unmistakably martial arts. Of course Baek Hyun was interested. But Park Jun-hwan wasn’t someone he could easily meet just because he wanted to. Park Jun-hwan spent more time in the Abyss than in the real world. And Baek Hyun couldn’t go looking for Park Jun-hwan in the Abyss when he had no idea where the hunter was holed up.
‘I’ll meet Park Jun-hwan eventually.’
Since Martial Spirit was wary of Baek Hyun, he would take action in some way. He might even use Park Jun-hwan to make contact.
Quietly hoping that would happen, Baek Hyun entered Korea’s Hunter Registration Office.
“Welcome.”
The registration office was fairly quiet. Plenty of people entered the Abyss, but relatively few were newcomers registering as hunters. Baek Hyun approached the counter where the employee who had given him that halfhearted greeting sat.
“I’d like to register as a hunter.”
“Yes, I figured as much. You registered at the entry office outside, right?”
“Of course.”
“Could you give me your name and date of birth?”
The employee picked up a pen. Baek Hyun answered each question as it came. They weren’t much different from the questions the nosy employee at the entry office had asked.
“Which monarch did you sign a contract with?”
“I didn’t sign one.”
The employee’s pen stopped. Slowly raising their head, the employee stared at Baek Hyun.
“...Then why are you here?”
“To register as a hunter.”
“You just said you couldn’t even get a contract with a monarch. And you want to register as a hunter? Are you messing with me?”
“No, I’m not. There’s no law saying you can’t register as a hunter without a contract.”
“...Ha. That’s true, but... Look, Mr. Baek Hyun. Is there something wrong with your head? Or are you trying to get yourself killed?”
“No.”
“Then why register as a hunter? Why? If you couldn’t get a contract, just leave the Abyss and find something else to do. There are plenty of jobs these days.”
“Could you just register me?”
“If you haven’t signed a contract, you won’t have any divine powers... No, that’s not even the problem. How are you going to kill monsters without a level? And do you think being a hunter is all about making good money? Do you know how much hunters have to pay in taxes every year? Why register when you won’t even be able to earn money killing monsters?”
The employee snapped at him. It wasn’t that this particular employee was unusually rude. This was a normal reaction, and in their own way, the employee was worried about Baek Hyun.
Contracts with the monarchs were what allowed people to survive inside the Abyss and fight monsters with their weak human bodies. A “level” was a benefit closely tied to the growth bonus the monarchs granted the humans contracted to them. Hunters proved their abilities to their monarchs by killing monsters, and their levels rose as a reward. As their levels increased, their bodies gained strength beyond human limits.
For hunters, level was a measure of strength. Naturally, hunters who received divine powers upon completing the tutorial could raise their levels quickly and easily. Even those without divine powers could sometimes earn them by desperately raising their levels and catching their monarch’s attention.
But if someone had failed to sign a contract at all, they couldn’t receive the growth bonus that levels provided.
“Please leave.”
The employee picked up the unfinished paperwork with both hands, intending to tear it up right in front of Baek Hyun. His brow creased slightly.
“Oh, come on.”
The employee’s body stopped.
It literally “stopped.” Eyes wide, the employee stared at Baek Hyun, unable to understand what had happened.
“Just fill it out. Plenty of monarchs wanted a contract. I was the one who turned them down. I came to register because I’m confident I can manage without levels or divine powers.”
“Uh... ah...”
“Hurry up.”
The employee’s hands moved stiffly. Their mind couldn’t make sense of it, but they were already so overwhelmed by the pressure Baek Hyun gave off that they couldn’t disobey. Without another word, the employee filled out his paperwork.
“What about my wallet?”
“Y-yes.”
The employee hesitantly reached beneath the counter and took out an ink-black bracelet.
“D-do you know how to use it?”
“I do. I looked it up on the way here.”
Baek Hyun answered with a grin. The bracelet was larger than his wrist, but once he put it on, it shrank to fit. This bracelet was the “wallet” he could use both in the Abyss and in the real world. Killing monsters in the Abyss added “coins” to his “inventory.” In the real world, he could check those coins through the bracelet and exchange them for money at an exchange office.
“That’s everything, right?”
“Yes...”
The employee answered in a trembling voice. Baek Hyun smiled at them, then left the registration office. He had expected to be treated this way, but actually experiencing it made him let out a short laugh. He hadn’t signed a contract with a monarch. He had no level. He had brought it on himself, but to everyone else, a hunter without a contract or a level was just a worthless loser who hadn’t shown any promise in the tutorial.
‘So what?’
He didn’t regret turning down the contracts at all. Swinging his bracelet-clad wrist, Baek Hyun walked down the street and checked his status window.
Name: Baek Hyun.
That was all. If he had signed a contract with a monarch, there would have been more entries beneath his name. Since he hadn’t, his name sat there alone.
[Welcome to the shop.]
[You can use your coins to purchase items.]
[You have no coins. You cannot purchase items.]
He opened the shop too, but without any money, he couldn’t buy anything.
“Nothing to buy anyway.”
Muttering to himself, Baek Hyun closed the shop window.
Pandemonium was vast. As the first destination for people entering the Abyss from all over the world, it had to be. It also had various convenient facilities to serve such a large area.
“Your first time?”
People were lined up in front of the warp gate. Baek Hyun quietly joined them and waited his turn. Thankfully, Pandemonium’s warp gates were free to use.
“Yes.”
“Ah, thought so. Just wondering, did you get a divine power?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Right... If you had, you wouldn’t be standing here. But where’s your weapon? They must’ve given you one in the tutorial.”
“I didn’t get one.”
The person who had spoken to Baek Hyun was a foreigner with a large nose. Baek Hyun couldn’t manage even a simple conversation in English, but everyone inside Pandemonium used the “same language,” so talking wasn’t a problem.
“So, if you get a divine power, do you go somewhere else?”
“The monsters near the western gate are the weakest. That means they don’t give many coins, and you don’t level up very fast.”
“I guess this isn’t your first time?”
“I’m level five.”
The big-nosed foreigner puffed out their chest.
“I have a contract with Dragon Star Lord. Who did you sign with?”
“I didn’t.”
“...”
The foreigner blinked at Baek Hyun’s answer. It was much the same reaction as the employee at the registration office.
“Then what are you doing here?”
“Everyone asks the same thing.”
After that, the foreigner didn’t speak to Baek Hyun again, only glancing at him with pity a few times. Baek Hyun was more comfortable with that than with someone meddling in his business. Soon, his turn came.
Running there with his lightness arts might actually have been faster than waiting in line, but Baek Hyun wanted to try using a “warp gate.” Once he did, though, there wasn’t much to it. He walked through a wide-open gap in space, and that was that. Standing at the western gate, Baek Hyun clicked his tongue. Tsk.
He hadn’t chosen the western gate to hunt weak monsters like the ones the big-nosed foreigner had mentioned. Baek Hyun recalled the rough map of the Abyss he had looked at before coming here.
West of Pandemonium. If he kept heading in that direction, he could get close to Pure Saint’s territory. Pure Saint was the one who had gone as far as sending him a message asking him to visit. So Baek Hyun planned to head there first.
‘I have no idea how far it is, though.’
The Abyss was enormous. But its size wasn’t the only problem. Four years had passed since the Abyss appeared and humans began entering it, yet they still hadn’t discovered all of it. The only monarchs whose territories had been identified were Pure Saint, Blood Lion, Dragon Star Lord, and Arbiter of Nightmares, who had apostles, along with Martial Spirit, Iron Maid, Witch End, and High Lord, who had apostle candidates.
Baek Hyun passed through the open gate.
Many hunters were in sight. Giant earthworms. It was a lazy name, but just as it suggested, the monsters were earthworms the size of a person’s forearm. Watching the hunters swing their weapons at them, a thought suddenly struck him.
‘This is just like... a beginner hunting area.’
He wasn’t entirely wrong. No matter how many monsters people killed around Pandemonium, more kept appearing. Those monsters were “created” by the Abyss.
“Monsters are beings beyond the monarchs’ control.”
Those were the words of Pure Saint’s apostle, Drave.
“Monsters are born from the Abyss. Their emergence into the outside world is also a phenomenon the monarchs cannot control.”
“This is a trial set before humanity. And the monarchs... my great Pure Saint is a god whose existence is certain.”
“Do not doubt their existence or their intentions. They are absolute goodness, beings who act for humanity’s sake. They ask nothing of us. They give us strength and help us overcome our trials. What could we call them, if not gods?”
That made him want to meet them all the more.
He had been told that completing the Heaven-Shattering Divine Transformation Art would allow him to become a god. He didn’t know whether Pure Saint and the other monarchs of the Abyss were truly gods, as Drave claimed. But they were certainly beings comparable to gods, at the very least.
A forest came into view in the distance.
It lay beyond the habitat of the giant earthworms, which kept appearing no matter how many were killed. In truth, that forest was where the “real” Abyss began.
Baek Hyun’s toes lifted.
Then he kicked off the ground. Booom! That single kick shook the earth as though an earthquake had struck. By the time the hunters busily killing giant earthworms turned toward the gate in alarm, Baek Hyun had already passed them and was running far ahead.
Normally, hunters entering the Abyss for the first time stayed in Pandemonium for at least a month.
There was a lot to prepare. They had to get used to hunting monsters and raise their levels. Most importantly, they needed equipment. Since they couldn’t bring weapons from the real world, they had to obtain them inside the Abyss.
Baek Hyun didn’t need any of that. He didn’t need to get used to hunting, and without a level, he had nothing to raise. He didn’t need to buy a weapon either.
He had no level, no contract with a monarch, no divine powers, and no weapon.
But he had the martial arts he had learned from the Martial God Demon, Ju Han-o.
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