WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

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◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈

Chapter 8: Anomaly Records Office (4)

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After listening to the White-Robed Miracle Physician's explanation and realizing that I had crushed the elixir the Ghost Valley Master had been creating with these very hands, my first thought was this.

‘If the Ghost Valley Master learns who swallowed his elixir, won't he try to kill me?’

It was a threat to my life that would come later. I had no desire to become the fixation of a madman who refined people's Essence, Qi, and Spirit into elixirs.

My second thought was far more urgent.

‘Aren't you going to cut me down too, saying that I've become an Anomaly after eating a human elixir?’

The Anomaly Records Office, where the White-Robed Miracle Physician had brought me, stood in an especially secluded location.

It was a complicated place to reach. First, one had to enter the Ceremonial Affairs Department, which martial artists who lived by the sword barely cared about. Then, even within that department, one had to enter the Preservation Archive and activate the mechanism formation.

If the White-Robed Miracle Physician decided to say, ‘I regret it, but since you have accepted an Anomaly, you too may fall into the Demonic Path. I won't even pray for your soul,’ before cutting me down, no one would ever notice.

That threat to my life was far more immediate than the first possibility, and my body began to tremble on its own.

“You're quick to catch on, but you're clumsy at hiding what shows on your face. It's amusing to watch, but you've got a lot to learn.”

Byeolui watched me with interest as he spoke calmly.

“Clumsy? I don't know what you mean.”

Having caught the implication in his words, I immediately played dumb. For wandering martial artists attached to the White Sword Squad while enduring the subtle contempt of official Martial Alliance members, this much was basic.

“Well, I did drag you all the way out here and start freely discussing things you probably shouldn't know. I can understand why your imagination has gone somewhere strange. Still, hear a person out before jumping to conclusions.”

Byeolui pointed to the Eight Trigrams written on the bookshelf.

“Earlier, it seemed you knew a little about Journey to the West. Is that right?”

“I know it's a story about a stone monkey traveling west to fetch Buddhist scriptures.”

“Right. That stone monkey entered the Eight Trigrams Furnace and came out with special abilities. You're the same.”

I asked whether the shadow had not been the one in the stone monkey's place, but Byeolui shook his head.

Ordinarily, the shadow should have occupied the stone monkey's role. Yet the one who directly crushed the shadow, nourished their body with its essence blood, and escaped the Eight Trigrams Furnace was me, so every arrangement prepared within the formation array must have converged into my body as well.

Byeolui used a strange term, “Long-Maturation Type,” to describe the shadow's abilities based on my testimony.

“Maturation? Is an Anomaly some kind of soy sauce?”

“The Ghost Valley Master probably never intended to eat the shadow elixir right away. It was too weak for a master of his level to consume.”

My attention caught on the words, “a master of his level.”

Damn it. Was he alive after all?

I had hoped he was some predecessor who had died long ago, leaving Soul-Severing Mountain Villa behind. It was obvious that destroying the villa would tie me to him through a grudge.

“I nearly died to that weak thing.”

“You nearly died. You didn't actually die. If the most a fully completed Anomaly made by the Ghost Valley Master could accomplish was perishing together with a Second-rate martial artist, that would be truly strange.”

It was not difficult to grasp the ecology of the shadow that Byeolui had inferred.

Soul-Severing Mountain Villa was a kind of incubator. It could be called a greenhouse meant to raise the shadow with all its limbs intact before releasing it beyond the villa.

Once outside, the shadow would consume martial artists no stronger than itself and slowly raise its own realm.

This had to be the “maturation” Byeolui spoke of. At the right time, the Ghost Valley Master would appear, and after the shadow had consumed the internal energy of several martial artists and ripened properly, he would swallow it whole.

“In short, the shadow was an Anomaly that existed contrary to the natural order, consuming those who belonged to that order to increase its strength. Yet it was consumed by you, someone who belonged to the natural order. The arrangements of the Eight Trigrams Furnace must have been altered under your influence as well.”

If the original shadow had been an Anomaly that ate people...

“Have I become someone who eats Anomalies?”

“You don't necessarily have to eat them. I brought you all the way here to test that theory. We can't bring an Anomaly out in the middle of the Martial Alliance.”

Saying, “It happens to be arriving now,” Byeolui pointed at the sky. Something like a black pill flew through the orderly moving brushes.

The Black Pill traced a gentle arc and landed in my hand.

For some reason, it seemed to give off a pleasant scent.

“Now, that's one of the Anomalies managed by the Anomaly Records Office. A Human-rank Seed Type. It's already sealed, and it wasn't anything special to begin with, but...”

No, scent was not the right word. Smell suited it better. It had a savory aroma that stirred my appetite.

Without hesitation, I put the pill in my mouth and bit down. He had brought me here to test whether I could eat Anomalies, so it would be best to eat it quickly and find out.

“Hm? What are you doing?”

Honestly, I was curious too. I had squeezed out my True Origin Qi until I had one foot in the River of Three Paths, yet my body felt lighter than before.

If eating that pill could tell me about my changed constitution, I would gladly eat it.

With a crunch, the pill's surface broke apart. Something thick flowed into my mouth.

It was a strange description for an elixir pill, but it reminded me of chocolate filled with hazelnut syrup.

Mm, sweet.

It was soft and easy to swallow. After chewing the pill thoroughly and swallowing it, I looked at Byeolui and nodded as if to say, ‘That enough?’

“Why the hell did you eat th...?!”

Ah, shit.

That wasn't it...!

* * *

Byeolui gasped and forced my mouth open, but there was no way to retrieve something that had already gone down my throat...

There was.

Without warning, he took needles from his right pocket and swiftly inserted them into several unknown acupoints. A powerful urge to vomit rose within me.

“Urk, there's a book right beside me. If I throw up, can I...?”

“Just spit it out first!”

At his urging, I spewed out everything that had risen to my throat.

Something like a black shell had crumbled apart in the green liquid. Byeolui examined both the shell and the green fluid, then grabbed my wrist again.

“You really ate it...”

Having barely wiped my mouth, I asked between ragged breaths.

“What was that, exactly?”

“A gu.”

“Ah.”

That supernatural bug that burrowed into people's brains and controlled their minds?

“You have strangely broad knowledge. It is the kind of gu you're thinking of, but ordinary gu aren't classified as Anomalies.”

“No. How is a bug that eats people's brains not an Anomaly?”

“Then would every tiger that ate a person be an Anomaly? Only when it eats people and nothing else until its nature is completely warped and it becomes a monster does it finally become an Anomaly. That was a Feathered-Human Gu, a bug with good reason to be classified as an Anomaly.”

Byeolui finished examining my pulse through my wrist and sighed.

“It doesn't seem to have left an egg sac in your body. There isn't even a trace of Demonic Qi in the bug corpse you vomited up. Just as you said, it seems you've really become a human who eats Anomalies.”

“If you're done, could you take out the needles? They're really bothering me.”

“I only put a few in your back and head. Tch.”

The thought that the title “Weird Physician” suited him far better than “Miracle Physician” was beginning to take hold. Unlike when he had inserted them, Byeolui removed the needles at a leisurely pace before asking casually.

“What were you thinking when you chewed it up?”

“...It smelled good.”

“Huh. It seems your constitution has really changed quite drastically.”

Byeolui put the removed needles into his left pocket. It seemed he kept the needles separated by whether they had been used.

“I couldn't smell anything from the Feathered-Human Gu.”

It was strange. The appetizing smell of freshly baked bread had definitely lingered beneath my nose.

Still, if it was a gu, that made sense. If a bug that needed to secretly nest inside a person gave off such a distinctive smell, any covert operation would be ruined from the start.

“There's only one thing we can say for certain now.”

I swallowed and asked what it was.

“You've become healthier.”

“What?”

The Weird Physician told me the result of his pulse diagnosis. Compared to when I had first risen from the sickbed at the Martial Alliance, my pulse was slightly but unmistakably more vigorous and powerful.

“Your Essence is already damaged. A small but definite amount of True Origin Qi is leaking out.”

I recalled the taste that had just brushed my tongue.

“...But by eating Anomalies, I can replenish the qi spilling out.”

Byeolui started to nod, then went, “Hm?” and quickly denied it.

“No, I said you don't actually need to eat them.”

“But that isn't certain...”

Byeolui stared at me as if he had seen something very strange.

“Was it tasty?”

It had been a refined sweetness I had never imagined I could taste in this martial world.

“No?”

“I take back what I said about your poor acting. You're very good at being shameless when the need arises!”

With slander more befitting the Weird Physician than the Miracle Physician, he continued.

“Fine, let's overlook the small things. Here's my proposal. Join the Anomaly Records Office and become a Records Officer. You can prolong your own life, and we gain one capable Records Officer. You can also deal with the occasional miscellaneous Anomaly.”

I immediately bowed my head.

How could I refuse when I had been offered a way to avoid certain death?

“I gratefully accept.”

Byeolui nodded. The slight rise at the corner of his mouth suggested this was exactly the answer he had wanted.

“Ah, come to think of it, I haven't asked your name even once. What is it?”

I could answer that without hesitation.

The character in Chronicles of Black and White Heroes had a default name.

“Cheonmyeong.”

After several playthroughs, I had not bothered changing my name when I entered Chaotic World difficulty. When I searched my own pockets after becoming a third-rate wandering martial artist, there was indeed an identity plaque bearing that name.

“Yeok Cheonmyeong.”

Footnotes:

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