WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Ceaseless
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◈ Martial Arts Survival Guide ◈
Chapter 16: I Told You It Wasn't, Didn't I?
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The first time someone entered the Abyss, they had to travel to its location and see it for themselves.
After that, there was no need to go all the way there. Having to make that trip every time would have been a huge bother. Seoul to Hwacheon was only two or three hours by bus, so that wasn’t too bad, but what about some poor hunter living in Busan? And that was just Korea. In a country as vast as China, the journey alone could take days.
The bracelets used as “wallets” weren’t just for exchanging coins for money. They were also used to keep track of hunters. Made with materials and magical technology from the Abyss, the bracelets allowed the Abyss Administration Bureau to monitor when each hunter entered or left the Abyss, anywhere in the world. That was about all the Bureau could track, but it was enough for its purposes.
“How much have I collected?”
Baek Hyun opened his inventory. Quite a lot of coins had piled up inside. He had killed every monster that attacked him since he entered the forest. The items weren’t worth much, so he hadn’t even bothered picking them up, but the sheer number of monsters he had killed had earned him a considerable pile of coins.
‘It’s not actually worth much money.’
Just as the employee at the entry station had said, the reality was that most hunters couldn’t even earn 500,000 won a month.
There was no helping it. There were far too many hunters, and more than half of them were small fry without any powers. Humanity needed hunters strong enough to kill the monsters that crawled out of the Abyss’s openings on the last day of each month, not hunters who simply rushed into the Abyss without thinking.
The forest Baek Hyun was in was, after all, near Pandemonium. It was a hunting ground for level 10 hunters. No matter how many monsters he hunted here, he wouldn’t earn many coins.
Baek Hyun quickly accepted that fact. He had killed monsters in the forest to test himself and have some fun, but the monsters here were too weak, and the money was poor. There was no reason to stay. Baek Hyun raised his head and looked into the distance.
“Please visit the Sanctuary.”
Remembering those words, Baek Hyun prepared to leave the Abyss. He couldn’t simply leave whenever he felt like it. To leave the Abyss, he had to reach a place where leaving was possible: a “gate.” Gates were usually found in residential areas like Pandemonium, but there were gates in forests like this one, too.
When exploring an unknown area, finding a gate had to come first. There was no telling what might happen, so securing a route back to reality was only natural. This forest had been surveyed long ago, and its gates had already been located. Baek Hyun had also checked where the forest’s gate was.
Most hunters used maps to find gates. Maps could be bought with coins at shops, so hunters rarely got lost looking for a gate in an area that had already been surveyed. But Baek Hyun didn’t need a map.
Qi sense (氣感).
Baek Hyun felt the forest’s qi. The Abyss was so rich in qi that it hardly fell short of the Peach Blossom Realm, and this forest, thick with plants and trees, was especially rich in natural qi. Baek Hyun walked along, breathing in the overflowing qi.
There was a place where the flow of qi had been artificially twisted. Baek Hyun could detect it from far away with his qi sense. That was where the gate stood. With his qi sense, Baek Hyun could easily do what hunters contracted to High Lord or Witch End did with detection magic.
As he passed through the gate, he briefly felt weightless. Soon, his feet touched the ground. He was back on the other side of the glass wall, where he had stood just before entering the Abyss.
“That’s amazing.”
Baek Hyun looked down at the bracelet on his wrist. From now on, he wouldn’t have to come here. He could enter the Abyss simply by picturing it in his mind. Turning his head, he glanced at the Abyss beyond the glass wall.
‘What a strange place.’
It was another world, just like the Peach Blossom Realm, but it felt completely different. Who would have thought something like that would be waiting in the world he returned to after twenty years? Thinking that, Baek Hyun reached into his pocket. The phone he hadn’t been able to take into the Abyss was sitting quietly in his pocket now that he was back in reality.
“...Uh...”
When he took out his phone and checked it, he found dozens of missed calls.
They were from Seo Min-sik. Pleased, Baek Hyun called him back. The phone rang just once before Seo Min-sik picked up.
[What the fuck are you doing?]
The swearing started at once.
[You wake up after five years, and what the hell? I heard you jumped out of a hospital window. Why didn’t you die?]
“Was I supposed to die, then?”
[Who said you should’ve died? I’m asking why you didn’t die! That’s what I’m asking!]
“I jumped because I knew I wouldn’t die. More importantly, it’s been five years, and you can’t even say you’re glad to...”
[Cut the crap. Hey, where are you right now? Where the hell are you that you won’t even answer your... It’s obvious. You’re in the Abyss, aren’t you? Where else would you be?]
“...Yeah, that’s right. I’m at the Abyss.”
[I know, you bastard. I’m waiting, so hurry down.]
“Where are you waiting?”
[Where do you think? In front of the entry station! Get down here!]
Seo Min-sik shouted, then hung up. Baek Hyun blinked at the ended call on his screen. The guy was surprisingly sharp.
When he left the entry station, he saw a large crowd gathered and murmuring among themselves. Most were people who had entered the Abyss for the first time today. Among them was the one in horn-rimmed glasses who had spoken to Baek Hyun on the bus earlier. Horn-rims was holding up a phone and eagerly filming something, eyes filled with admiration. And Horn-rims wasn’t the only one filming.
Beyond the wall of people stood a blue Lamborghini Aventador.
Surely not.
Baek Hyun stared at the supercar, a rare sight even in Gangnam, then called Seo Min-sik.
“Is that you?”
[You’re here? What are you doing? Get in.]
“You crazy bastard. Are you that desperate for attention?”
[Attention, my ass. Your big bro got pretty damn awesome while you were flat on your back. Just get over here and climb in. I’ll let you hear what a Lamborghini sounds like.]
Seo Min-sik snickered. Baek Hyun let out a deep sigh and ended the call. Then he approached the people blocking his way.
“Uh... Huh?”
“Wh-what?”
The people in front of him cried out in confusion. An unknown force pushed them aside, and Baek Hyun strolled through the gap. As he made his way through the crowd and approached the car, its dark-tinted window rolled down. Seo Min-sik poked his head out, wearing sunglasses.
“You’re here?”
“Aren’t you embarrassed?”
“I lost the ability to feel embarrassed ages ago. How many people in Korea don’t know my face?”
Listening to Seo Min-sik, Baek Hyun opened the passenger door. The car was so low that bending down to climb inside was awkward.
“Isn’t it a bit cramped?”
“That’s part of the experience.”
“What about the people?”
Baek Hyun looked at the crowd surrounding the car as he asked. Seo Min-sik smirked.
“We’ll go over them.”
The engine roared. Green light wrapped around Seo Min-sik as he held the steering wheel. So this was one of Korea’s most famous hunters. Slightly surprised by the strength he sensed from Seo Min-sik, Baek Hyun turned his head. He saw “something” flowing out of Seo Min-sik’s body.
And then.
The Lamborghini flew.
“Was that an elemental spirit?”
Having leaped over the crowd’s heads, the Lamborghini sped down the road. Baek Hyun looked at Seo Min-sik, who was grinning at the wheel, and asked what he wanted to know. Those who contracted with Tempest and received powers could control elemental spirits. Seo Min-sik was one of the most famous hunters contracted to Tempest.
“Yeah. Awesome, right?”
“How’d you know I was here?”
“I asked around. First, I found out you’d activated a new phone. Then I checked with the Bureau just in case, and it turned out you’d registered at the entry station under your name. So I came straight here.”
After answering, Seo Min-sik glanced at Baek Hyun.
“What the hell are you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Fine, let’s say a guy who’s been in a vegetative state for five years suddenly wakes up. You collapsed out of nowhere, too, after all.”
“Thanks for paying my hospital bills.”
“Took you long enough to say it. We’ll talk about that later. I heard from Dr. Lee Hui-ju. Apparently, you’re... pretty damn strange... I mean, healthy.”
“What’s wrong with being healthy?”
“Plenty. Just this morning, you were doing nothing but breathing. Then you suddenly woke up, held a conversation without any trouble, and jumped from the fifteenth floor. You probably don’t know this, but Dr. Lee’s a mage, too. And even Dr. Lee couldn’t properly follow your movements. Does that make sense?”
Baek Hyun didn’t answer right away. He simply looked at Seo Min-sik.
“Fine, let’s accept that much. Let’s just accept it. It makes no sense, but fine. But after jumping from the fifteenth floor... where the hell did you go? If you didn’t fall, where did you go? Dr. Lee said you were running through the sky. When I first heard that, I thought the doctor was on drugs.”
“What’s wrong with running through the sky?”
“I paid your hospital bills for five years.”
“I’m not planning to stiff you.”
“I’m not asking you to pay me back. I’m just saying I did. I earn plenty now, and I’ve saved a lot, so your hospital bills don’t matter. But when you first collapsed, I seriously thought I was fucked. Do you know how many part-time jobs I worked every day because of you?”
Grumbling, Seo Min-sik took off his sunglasses.
“We’re both orphans who lost our parents. We grew up in the same orphanage... Ugh, why am I even bringing up those miserable days? Anyway, I think of you as family. We’re the same age, but I think of you as my brother. So I paid your hospital bills because I didn’t want to leave you to die. I’m not going to die in your place, but if it’s something I can do, I want to help you however I can. So don’t hide any...”
“Can you believe what I’m about to tell you?”
Baek Hyun cut him off with the question.
“Hang on,” Seo Min-sik said.
“Let’s pull over somewhere first.”
There happened to be a rest stop nearby. Seo Min-sik parked there and got out. He went to the smoking area with Baek Hyun, then took out a cigarette and put it between his lips.
“Go on.”
“I’m warning you, don’t interrupt me. And don’t assume I’m bullshitting you.”
“I’ll believe you, so talk. You wouldn’t know since you were flat on your back, but I’ve been through all kinds of exciting stuff. It takes a lot to faze me.”
Seo Min-sik spoke confidently as he lit his cigarette.
But after hearing about the twenty years Baek Hyun had spent away, Seo Min-sik looked as though someone had smacked him several times in the back of the head. His cigarette lay at his feet before he had even taken more than a few puffs. He slowly closed his gaping mouth.
“Hyun.”
“What?”
“Have you gone cra...”
Before Seo Min-sik could finish, Baek Hyun gave him a look that said he had expected this and thrust his palm forward. Internal energy was already gathered in the strike. Baaang! The air burst with a loud report. Hit by Baek Hyun’s palm strike, Seo Min-sik went flying into the air.
“Urgh!”
Baek Hyun hadn’t struck to kill. Based on the power Seo Min-sik had shown earlier, he had roughly judged what his friend could handle. He had put only enough internal energy into the strike for Seo Min-sik to withstand and respond to it. As a result, Seo Min-sik righted himself in the air without much trouble. The green light of an elemental spirit wrapped around his body.
“H-holy shit.”
Floating in the air, Seo Min-sik stared down at Baek Hyun with wide eyes. Baek Hyun looked up at him without much interest and raised his hand. Pooong! A black sphere of force aura appeared above his palm.
“Didn’t I tell you I wasn’t bullshitting?”
“No way... Is this real? It’s not a power?”
“Are you an idiot?”
Grumbling, Baek Hyun lifted one foot and stepped on the air. He walked up through the empty space and stopped beside Seo Min-sik.
“I entered the Abyss for the first time today. How could I have a power this strong?”
Seo Min-sik couldn’t answer. That was absolutely impossible.
“...It’s real.”
Seo Min-sik’s shoulders sagged.
“...So... five years... No, twenty years... No... No. Anyway, you went to a world called the Peach Blossom Realm... and learned martial arts from some old man out of a martial arts novel...”
“Yeah.”
“And you came back after learning everything?”
“I didn’t learn everything.”
“So who did you make a contract with in the Abyss? With abilities like that, holy shit. The monarchs must’ve been lining up to offer you contracts. Who was it? Since it’s martial arts, Martial Spirit? Or Blood Lion?”
“I didn’t.”
With that answer, Baek Hyun descended to the ground.
Seo Min-sik remained standing in the air, staring blankly down at him.
“...What?”
“I said I didn’t.”
“You didn’t? Make a contract?”
“Yeah.”
At Baek Hyun’s answer, Seo Min-sik slowly descended as well.
“...You crazy bastard!”
After a brief silence, Seo Min-sik barely managed to force out those words.
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