WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
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◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈
Chapter 6: Anomaly Records Office (2)
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The White-Robed Miracle Physician opened with a remark that greatly piqued my curiosity, then remained silent for quite some time.
“Elder Byeolui, are you perhaps exchanging voice transmissions?”
“Hm? No. It is simply rather difficult to explain properly. Most people come here with some sense of Anomalies.”
“Some sense?”
“Once you reach the Peak realm, you can sense the discord that has seeped into this world. But you are only Second-rate, are you not?”
“I worked hard...!”
My voice rose slightly in irritation. Surely he was not about to impose some absurd requirement like, “I do not deal with anyone below the Peak realm.”
Byeolui nodded.
“Yes, yes. A martial artist’s efforts should naturally be respected. Still, regardless of your efforts, it is frustrating trying to explain it. There is something one feels upon reaching the Peak realm, but it is difficult to put into words.”
“What is this, some talk of cultivating the Dao? ‘The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao’?”
It was a phrase that often appeared in martial arts novels. A Dao that could be named and spoken was not the true Dao.
I never thought it could be used to drive someone mad with, “Ah, you do not understand. It is not yet time for you to hear this.”
Byeolui clapped his hands.
“Oh, that is good! Let us begin with the Dao!”
I had thrown out the phrase in frustration, but he seemed to have found a thread for his explanation in it.
“In this martial world, there are the Orthodox Path and the Unorthodox Path. You know that well, do you not?”
I nodded. It was something Black and White Martial Heroes Chronicle made clear every time I started a new game.
The martial arts of the orthodox sects were divine, while the martial arts of the unorthodox sects were strange.
The “black and white” in Black and White Martial Heroes Chronicle referred to those two groups. Which side was black and which was white depended on the player.
“Yet though it is not known to the public, there is also a third path.”
With a bitter expression, Byeolui added, “Though I would rather not acknowledge it as a path...”
I could anticipate his next words, and the name of that third path.
The final line of the introduction that appeared when I chose Chaotic World.
“The Demonic Path...”
“Ah. You already saw it in the rulebook? Yes. It is a term usually used in Buddhism, but no other term suits it quite as well.”
Byeolui nodded and began speaking of the Martial Alliance and the Black Lotus Society. At least those two organizations were places where people lived.
“Is the Demonic Path different?”
“It is. We conveniently call those who have fallen into the Demonic Path demonic practitioners, but they have gone beyond humanity. We call such things, beings twisted by the influence of the Demonic Path, Anomalies.”
The explanation of Anomalies somehow reminded me of Black and White Martial Heroes Chronicle.
The main characters of Black and White Martial Heroes Chronicle had always been people.
Spirit creatures and strange treasures appeared from time to time, but the characters who appeared as final bosses or decisive allies and determined the direction of the story were martial artists.
More precisely, that was true of the story up to Martial World in Turmoil, before Chaotic World, which had brought me into this martial world. I had never actually played Chaotic World...
‘Since the term Demonic Path appeared so openly in the introduction, the atmosphere must have changed completely from Martial World in Turmoil.’
Those who fought to pacify Martial World in Turmoil all possessed ambitions or a greater cause of their own.
The Martial Alliance Leader of the orthodox sects and the Black Lotus Society Leader of the unorthodox sects both fought for what they wanted. Though their strength surpassed human limits, it was still easy to find traces of humanity in their natures.
Come to think of it, that was probably why Black and White Martial Heroes Chronicle had no such thing as demonic martial arts.
A martial artist could go astray during cultivation and suffer qi deviation.
But there were no wicked demonic martial arts that began with something like, “Gather one hundred young boys and girls, then take their marrow and vital blood...”
As I explored the game, I had wondered why its developers made that choice. These days, were not about a third of martial arts novel protagonists from a Heavenly Demon background?
Yet they had deliberately excluded demonic martial arts from a martial arts game.
The question naturally cleared up whenever I finished the game by sealing the Wudang Sect as an unorthodox martial artist, or by conquering the Black Lotus Society as the Martial Alliance Leader.
It was Black and White Martial Heroes Chronicle.
A chronicle of heroic leaders and martial heroes. Demonic practitioners who had entirely left the bounds of humanity could be neither.
‘Was an element deliberately pushed aside until Martial World in Turmoil now coming to the forefront in Chaotic World?’
As I mulled over Anomalies and the Demonic Path, something strange suddenly occurred to me.
“Ah, but there is something I wanted to ask.”
“What is it?”
“I caught a glimpse of the rulebook draft being written just now. Some involved ordinary objects rather than demonic practitioners. Can objects that are not even human be affected by demonic martial arts?”
Byeolui smiled crookedly. For some reason, the smile felt a little ominous.
It was a look I had often seen in professors’ eyes during university career counseling sessions.
“As expected, you are quick-witted! Do you remember what I said you had devoured?”
“Soul-Severing Mountain Villa. Of course I remember that.”
“Was there not something else after that?”
“An Earth-grade Ding-class Anomaly?”
Even as I answered, I was not certain. I had not seen the term in the rulebook, so I did not know precisely what it meant, but I could at least guess that it referred to an Anomaly’s classification.
The grades were probably Heaven, Earth, and Human, while the classes were categorized by the Heavenly Stems: Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, and so on.
“Then is Jia the higher class, or is Gui the higher class?”
“Jia. Contracts are all written that way too.”
Byeolui pulled open a drawer attached beneath the table and took out paper and a brush. They appeared to be spare supplies, placed there so they could be replaced immediately if any tools were damaged during rulebook drafting.
He wrote the three words Heaven, Earth, and Human in large letters on a blank section of the booklet. My guess had been correct.
“These are Anomaly grades. There is one standard: influence.”
Influence. That was a rather peculiar standard. If a demonic practitioner disguised themself as a prominent figure in society, their influence would go beyond an individual level...
“A more intuitive way to put it is killing power. Even a Human-grade Anomaly is enough to kill a person.”
“...Then does Earth-grade mean it can kill many people at once?”
“It means it can ruin a commandery or a county.”
“This seems like a more rough-and-ready standard than I expected...”
The sense of mystery I had felt upon first seeing the mechanism formation was fading more and more.
“Oh, then you will be even more surprised once you learn how classes are determined.”
“What is it?”
“They are categorized according to their chance of advancing to the next grade. Less than ten percent is Gui, while ninety percent or higher is Jia.”
The moment I heard that, a question surfaced.
“This feels awkward to ask, but... is there some way to assess an Anomaly’s talent?”
Even a martial artist’s aptitude was difficult to discern at a glance. This was a world where someone who had lived as a third-rate martial artist for decades could suddenly attain enlightenment.
That was not just something I had read in martial arts novels. I had experienced it myself.
I had seen with my own eyes a person I thought was an insignificant wandering martial artist like me suddenly attain enlightenment and joyfully dance with a sword.
If it was this difficult to gauge a person’s depths, could they really peer into an Anomaly’s depths?
“Oh, that? The Director of the Records Office just assigns it. We do not really know either.”
“Is that not far too arbitrary?”
Byeolui shrugged.
“What can we do? If the person in charge says they will handle it that way, a lowly worker like me has to accept it.”
“Someone like you is considered a lowly worker, Elder Byeolui?!”
“Other than the Director, every Records Officer is treated the same. In a way, it might be the most equal organization in the Martial Alliance!”
After making the joke, Byeolui naturally changed the subject.
“Now then, this is all I can tell someone who is still an outsider. It is time to speak about you.”
It felt as if something had been left out, but I nodded. There was no point arguing when he said it was confidential.
“If you have seen the rulebook, then you know. Soul-Severing Mountain Villa is a kind of furnace.”
A strange grand formation based on the structure of the Eight Trigrams Furnace from Journey to the West. My expression darkened as soon as I recalled the place.
“The question is what it makes by refining iron in that furnace. The Eight Trigrams Furnace of the Supreme Lord Lao produced the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, did it not?”
“I think I saw what was going to be born.”
I recalled the red shadow. Something that had tried to be born by gathering human Essence, Qi, and Spirit. Was Soul-Severing Mountain Villa ultimately a place created to produce that shadow?
“Oh, come to think of it, I never heard why you raised your True Origin Qi. What Anomaly was there?”
“I found a door deep within the villa. The moment I approached it...”
Byeolui listened to my account of surviving my own shadow, then muttered, “I see. If it had been left alone longer, its classification would have been revised.”
“Revised? To Heaven-grade?”
“Ah, how could that be? Its class might rise from Ding to Bing, at most. Understanding martial arts is a considerable risk factor.”
At Byeolui’s words, sentences flashed through my mind.
The phrase “understanding martial arts” urged me to recall the beginning of this conversation.
His statement that one could sense the discord seeped into the world upon reaching the Peak realm.
Along with the standard used to classify Anomalies, which I had just heard.
‘Grades are set according to influence.’
Human-grade kills a person.
Earth-grade shakes a community.
What about Heaven-grade?
Byeolui stared at me. With a deeper smile than before, he murmured,
“You are quick-witted.”
Footnotes:
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