WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

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◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈

Chapter 1: Soul-Severing Mountain Villa (1)

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[Congratulations! You have pacified Martial World in Turmoil!]

A message celebrating the game's completion appeared on the monitor. For several seconds, I couldn't grasp what had happened. Then I threw a hand into the air.

I'd beaten it. Finally.

An age of war and chaos, where human virtue had fallen into the dirt while martial artists' realms soared in inverse proportion.

I'd finally finished that wretched game, whose malicious random events reflected its setting so faithfully that I often couldn't even get past the opening area.

‘Is it already two?’

I'd been so engrossed in the game that I hadn't realized it was dawn. I was just about to give my overworked computer and body some rest.

[The Monstrous Strength and Chaos Mode has been unlocked. Even an age of chaos created by humans could not break your will. But can you carry that will into the Chaotic World born of monstrous strength and chaos?]

That was quite the provocative description.

[If you wish to challenge the impossible with the will you have honed, make your choice.]

This...

I couldn't resist.

I skimmed the detailed description. There were penalties carried over from Martial World in Turmoil.

I couldn't freely set the character's talents or origins. In other words, I had to play a character with randomized stats. It had taken a considerable number of rerolls to clear Martial World in Turmoil.

Randomized faction influence and Historical Dilution. Normally, this option weakened the Orthodox Martial World and strengthened the Unorthodox Martial World. Historical Dilution was meant to ensure the imperial court's nonintervention in the martial world, commonly called the separation of government and martial affairs, but...

‘They called it separation of government and martial affairs, but all it did was raise the odds of bad events.’

Active government intervention in the martial world meant lower odds of having my head lopped off by some passing unorthodox master right after starting the game. The moment Historical Dilution was enabled, I had to worry about mad reclusive masters unleashing killing moves.

Still, they were penalties I'd already grown used to on Martial World in Turmoil difficulty. I scrolled down further. Most of the penalties were identical, except for one word that stood out.

Chaotic World.

[Monstrous strength and chaos, demons and specters. A chaos beyond human standards approaches.]

‘Does that mean spiritual beasts will be stronger?’

The game did have spiritual beasts like single-horned fire pythons and hundred-year fire carp. Still, martial artists were always the focus. Spiritual beasts were no more than event monsters that surrendered inner cores or weapons.

Then again, if dragons and phoenixes started appearing while I was fighting hundred-year-old carp and spiders, that would be true chaos.

‘It's late, so I'll just create a character. I'll get some sleep and start playing properly after I wake up.’

The intro, which I'd seen so many times I could practically recite it, began to play.

『The martial arts of the orthodox sects are divine and wondrous.

They infuse meaning into every movement. They discuss true intent beyond the forms of techniques. The common people disparage their martial arts as empty talk, but martial artists who walk the Orthodox Path eventually roam above the clouds.』

『The martial arts of the unorthodox sects are strange and unusual.

They have no time to ponder meaning. In the time it takes to gain enlightenment, their heads could fall ten times over. They refine their forms with greater precision and plot more unpredictable ambushes. More efficiently, more sharply. Their reason, which strays beyond convention, is forged into an uncanny blade.』

Then the intro concluded with text saying that a new hero had appeared in the martial world divided between black and white, and that hero was me... followed by the game's title, Chronicles of Black and White Heroes.

『The martial arts of the Demonic Path are.』

Huh?

『Anomaly.』

That was a new pattern.

I smiled at the clever variation. The next moment, as the new character's profile appeared, I had become a third-rate wandering martial artist.

* * *

Step.

At the sound of footsteps piercing my ears, I drew my sword. Only after three heartbeats did I realize it was the echo of my own footsteps returning to me.

‘Damn it.’

There was nothing but fog all around me. Clouds and mist rising from mountains upon mountains could sometimes blot out even the sunlight.

The problem was...

‘I was stationed at the entrance to a village, not even near a mountain peak.’

I'd scraped by as a third-rate wandering martial artist for several years and endured all sorts of hardships, but this was less harrowing than it was bizarre.

Which made it all the more dangerous. I became certain that something far more subtle and sinister than an ordinary killer had cast its shadow over me.

How had I ended up like this? Once again, I focused my internal energy into my eyes. Having only barely surpassed the third-rate realm, I couldn't see through this thick fog, but it was still better than relying on my naked eye.

The Martial Alliance's shared martial arts covered a surprisingly wide range of fields, including the eye technique.

It was a method that enhanced the senses of the eyes, including dynamic vision. Children of prestigious families would inherit far more efficient and powerful martial arts, but for someone like me, who had started with nothing, even this was a blessing.

My sharpened vision had saved me from more than one blade.

Yet even after enhancing my sight with the eye technique, all I could see were blurry shadows of trees.

There wasn't even a trace of the others who had formed a group with me.

The Martial Alliance's unity was enough to make its name weep. Still, we were a group of wandering martial artists rather than disciples of a proper great sect, so it made sense.

At the same time, something felt off. The Martial Alliance combat unit I belonged to was the White Sword Squad.

The name White Sword sounded grand enough, but it was merely a metaphor for wandering martial artists who had earned no martial reputation with a blade.

A white sword without a single blemish meant a novice who had never truly fought.

People without the talent to enter a notable sect or the skill to become retainers of prestigious families, who bowed their heads to the Martial Alliance in hopes of receiving even a single line of a sword manual.

Their odds of surviving intact were higher than if they relied on the unorthodox sects. Yet even beneath the Martial Alliance's eaves, their status as wandering martial artists didn't change.

Usually, they were assigned the most menial work or made into sword fodder in dangerous places.

That was why wandering martial artists were sensitive to signs of danger. They knew their own weakness, which was why they had crawled into a great faction and wanted to borrow even a little of its prestige.

Even third-rate martial artists could face Second-rate martial artists when united under the name of the Martial Alliance. More than anyone, they knew how insignificant they became when scattered.

For the White Sword Squad members to have scattered in all directions meant...

Either an enemy beyond their ability to face had appeared, leaving escape in different directions as their only path to survival.

Or...

“A formation array?”

This suspicious fog and the suddenly vanished village could both be explained if it was a formation array.

But who would interfere with the encirclement the Martial Alliance had prepared to hunt a demonic practitioner?

‘The Black Lotus Society?’

No. I'd heard that demonic practitioners were troublesome pests even to them. They would welcome the Martial Alliance taking up the sword with open arms.

Then was this sorcery cast by the demonic practitioner being pursued?

‘No, even if it really is a demonic practitioner's last struggle, it's strange. It would be far more reasonable to interfere with the force assigned to kill the demonic practitioner rather than us.’

The White Sword Squad's role in the encirclement was insignificant. A separate force had been assembled for the actual battle.

The wandering martial artists' entire mission was to evacuate the village commoners and keep the residents from wandering about.

It wasn't a task worth disrupting with a sophisticated method like a formation array.

I bit my lip a few times, then looked up at the sky.

The damned fog hid even that. A bitter smile tugged at my mouth.

Why had I ever played a game like that?

After suddenly awakening as a third-rate wandering martial artist, I had struggled desperately to survive.

After grinding away for several years, I had finally set one foot over the threshold of the Second-rate realm. It was an achievement I had earned by desperately memorizing the Martial Alliance's shared martial arts, which I never would have spared a glance at in the game.

Even so, it was infuriating that I had no way to deal with advanced martial arts, divine techniques, or formation arrays like this.

Still, there was nothing I could do. To survive, I had to move.

Common wisdom in martial arts novels said not to move carelessly after becoming trapped in a formation array, but staying in the same place too long was a problem as well.

Whoever had prepared this formation array would be moving to hunt those caught in its trap.

I slowly started walking. Damp fog moistened my nostrils. It felt as though I were forcing myself to breathe underwater.

I recited the verses of my cultivation method. It couldn't banish distracting thoughts in an instant like some lofty Daoist or Buddhist cultivation method, but at least it kept me from being swept away by fear.

Whoosh.

The wind brushed past the nape of my neck. A chill ran over my skin along droplets of sweat that had not yet dried. Goosebumps rose for no reason.

I spun around on instinct, but there were still only trees and bushes around me. Damn it.

Every small natural phenomenon that I normally wouldn't have noticed made me overreact. Was this why people withered away inside formation arrays?

‘...Wait.’

The fog had thinned. Was it because of the wind just now?

I looked around. Was this another trap built into the formation array, or had I luckily found a path where its influence was weakening?

‘I hope it's the latter, but there's no way I'm that lucky.’

If I were truly lucky, I would never have drifted into the Chaotic World of this strange game in the first place.

Beyond the thinning fog, I saw a wide clearing.

A house stood in its center.

There was no wall around it, as though it had no fear of mountain beasts. The building, with red brick walls and blue roof tiles, was far too splendid to stand in the heart of such deep mountains.

The clearing formed a circle around the house. Beyond the tiled-roof house, dense forest and rising clouds and mist were still visible.

It looked so artificial, as though it were openly telling me to enter.

It was an obvious trap.

But even if I tried to leave another way, the forest would only repeat without end.

What should I do...?

‘If this bizarre forest really is a formation array, that tiled-roof house must be the core drawing people in.’

Then there should be traces of other White Sword Squad members nearby. Rather than throw myself alone into that strange house, my odds of survival would be better if at least two of us moved together, watching each other's backs.

Once more, I sent internal energy into my eyes. I searched for signs of people as I looked around. Moving along the boundary between the clearing around the tiled-roof house and the forest, I examined every inch of the area.

And then...

‘Nothing?’

It was strange. Even I had reached the tiled-roof house so easily, yet none of the other wandering martial artists had made it there.

As I swallowed, an ominous thought flashed through my mind.

I turned around.

“Ha... my life.”

The footprints I had left while walking were fading. As if time were flowing backward, the distant prints were gradually disappearing first.

‘No wonder I couldn't find the marks when I tried breaking branches in the forest.’

I rubbed my eyes and was about to stop using the eye technique to prevent any further waste of internal energy.

Then I saw a strange book.

Right before the only entrance to that gloomy villa.

A book hung from a tree directly in front of it. A book hanging from a tree was strange enough, but that wasn't why I found it bizarre.

Its cover was glowing blue.

I swallowed. A glowing book reminded me of a hungry ghost's lantern, making my skin crawl. Was this also a trap?

I sent the internal energy I had been about to withdraw back into the acupoints around my eyes.

At that moment, the blue light grew stronger.

“Huh?”

When I withdrew all my internal energy, the blue light vanished. That wasn't all. Even though I knew the book was there, I couldn't see it.

I activated the eye technique again. The blue light slowly brightened.

‘An arrangement by the Martial Alliance?’

Carefully, I approached the tree. Only after throwing stones around its trunk to confirm there were no traps did I climb it and snatch the book.

When I turned to the first page, a single, highly bureaucratic sentence was written there.

* * *

『You are in Soul-Severing Mountain Villa.』

Footnotes:

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