WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Dionysus

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◈ Xianxia Cultivation with a Dragon Heart ◈

Chapter 2: Understanding My Abilities

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The stunned, bewildered feeling only subsided after quite some time. Even then, it did not fully fade. Considering what lay before him, that was only natural.

‘Did I die... but not die?’

That was the only way it felt. Beneath the silver words floating before him lay the various gold items he had greedily harvested from the jewelry store.

They were close enough to reach with one hand, and Han Yujin reflexively tried to grab them. But just before his hand touched them, he stopped.

Instinctively, he realized that this “Harvest Selection” was not free.

It seemed he could obtain them by paying something in exchange, and what he had to pay was highly unusual.

Those who awakened superpowers could naturally grasp part of what they were and how they worked. It was like how people instinctively knew how to move their arms and legs.

If someone could neither understand nor control their awakened superpower at all, it would be a true disaster.

In any case, thanks to that instinctive understanding, Han Yujin could comprehend the cost of Harvest Selection simply by thinking it over carefully.

‘Karma.’

Or perhaps it could be called karmic debt. It was an extremely abstract concept, but simply put, it was the total amount of change an existence caused in the universe, as well as a kind of energy that allowed one to forge one’s own fate.

Harvest Selection here used that energy in a very clear manner.

After hesitating for several minutes, Han Yujin finally lowered his outstretched hand. Trading such important energy for mere gold jewelry felt like a loss.

‘I can use it more wisely.’

Rather than getting one fish, he needed to get a fishing rod. That way, he would not only eat his fill for a day, but for the rest of his life.

To do that, he needed to seriously explore the nature of his awakened superpower. He had to know something before he could make a proper plan.

The moment he wished to leave this place for now, he opened his eyes and woke from sleep.

“...”

After lying still for a while, he felt around beside his pillow, turned on his smartphone screen, and checked the time.

He seemed to have slept for around six hours. The ratio of time to his previous experience made no sense at all, yet it strangely felt perfectly normal.

That was probably because he instinctively understood a little about his awakened superpower.

As he increasingly realized that he had truly awakened, his heart raced and he felt lightheaded. But rather than going wild with excitement, he lay still and began studying his ability.

He remained motionless for several hours, focused to his absolute limit.

* * *

Only when hunger made his blood sugar crash and his strength drain away did Han Yujin get up. It was around dawn, when the sky outside his window had begun to brighten faintly.

After wolfing down instant noodles, he sat in his computer chair and reviewed what he had learned so far.

The awakened superpower he had painstakingly investigated was truly special and astonishing.

Like traveling between dimensions in a novel, it allowed him to explore other worlds. Based on what he had personally experienced, even death was not a danger, and by consuming Karma, he could bring the fruits of his explorations back to reality.

Moreover, those other worlds did not seem to be selected at random. They seemed to be chosen according to his wishes.

‘The reason I went to Earth After the Apocalypse... was because I wanted to make money easily and quickly.’

Until just before falling asleep, he had envied a middle school classmate who seemed to be living well as a Hunter. Not because the classmate had a superpower, but because they could make an incredible amount of money with it. Social prestige was simply a bonus.

That ruined world certainly was a place where he could make money easily and quickly. All he had to do was pick up ownerless valuables, such as gold jewelry, scattered everywhere.

However, luck and misfortune were two sides of the same coin, and opportunity always came with danger.

Making money easily and quickly naturally required a proportional price. In this case, that price had been the danger of dying in an instant.

‘Even if there had been no danger, I would still have had to pay with Karma when selecting my harvest.’

In short, nothing in the world was free. Even when something seemed free, a closer look revealed that it never truly was.

In any case.

The next thing he learned concerned time.

No matter how long he spent in another world through his ability, only the time it took to sleep would pass here. However, his lifespan would be reduced by however much time he spent in that other world.

‘They say time is money. Of course it isn’t free.’

He had figured out as much as he needed to for now.

It was time to consider how to use this ability to make his life more prosperous and meaningful.

‘Reporting my awakening immediately feels a little...’

His ability was so unusual that it would be difficult to explain. Besides, he did not want to explain it all in detail. It felt like revealing far too much.

If he could obtain another ability through this awakened power, he could report that one and become a Hunter. That seemed much better.

Han Yujin sat in his chair and thought for a long time. He even turned on his computer and used tools like Notepad.

The more he organized his thoughts, the clearer they became, and options began to emerge.

‘They can be broadly divided into material and nonmaterial things.’

For example.

Powerful science-fiction weapons, tools imbued with fantasy-style magic, or potions that granted superpowers when consumed were material things.

Blueprints that let him make science-fiction weapons himself, training methods for learning magic, or recipes for making potions that contained the power of special ingredients were nonmaterial things.

He would have to check whether he could truly obtain such things, but...

‘It isn’t completely impossible.’

The Hunters’ primary duty, “Rift Clearing,” produced all kinds of special items and knowledge. Most of Han Yujin’s ideas were based on those examples.

Science-fiction-style projectile weapons had actually been discovered before and become a major topic of discussion. Items containing power that could rightly be called magic appeared quite commonly, and knowledge of how to handle or create them was also found from time to time.

Whether they were useful or not was beside the point. What mattered was that they existed.

‘With my ability...’

The more he considered it, the more Han Yujin found himself leaning in one direction.

‘Harvest Selection lets me bring back items, but it costs Karma.’

Knowledge, on the other hand, did not.

What he experienced would itself become knowledge, so the only thing required was as much of his lifespan as the time he spent.

Who knew? He might even learn how to awaken and cultivate superpowers through his own efforts, rather than awakening them by chance.

‘Even an item would be fine if it were efficient enough.’

What if there was a potion that gave him the power to shatter mountains and part seas just by drinking it?

Naturally, he would have to bring it back to reality even if it cost all his Karma. He could simply accumulate Karma again afterward.

It was a kind of investment. If he gained great power, he could cause more changes in the world, which meant that much Karma would return to him.

Thinking about it that way, blindly hoarding Karma also seemed foolish.

‘It might be like leaving money stuffed in a bank account.’

He would need to think more carefully about that.

But now was the time to act. Thoughts had to be grounded in experience. If he just holed up in his room, most of them would amount to idle fantasies.

Though he had only recently woken up and was not tired at all, he lay down on the bed. Closing his eyes, he tried to activate his ability.

It was a little difficult, yet somehow it did not feel difficult either.

At some point.

He fell asleep in an instant, as though someone had pressed a button.

* * *

He was back in that space.

Darkness filled every direction, and a door changing through countless forms stood before him. Fortunately, he was not as dazed as he had been during his first visit.

“Ah, ah, ah.”

He tested his voice and found it fascinating how the sound seemed to be swallowed up and vanish. It was even stranger because it did not bother him at all. It felt very comfortable.

After exploring the mysterious place until he was satisfied, Han Yujin stood before the ever-changing door. Then, as he had planned, he focused on his wish and reached out his hand.

He felt a cold texture, and the familiar resonant hum rang out.

The door’s fixed form looked distinctly fantastical.

It was arched overall, with a metal frame and an interior filled with brilliantly colored crystals. The glossy black metal set at its center seemed to depict a tree growing upside down.

“...”

Despite its extravagant design, the more he looked at it, the more it gave him chills.

As he thought that, silver words floated above it.

- Ikhapa Pangaea of the Demon Followers.

The meaning naturally startled him once he understood it. Demons could not possibly be romantic and cool, like they were often depicted in media.

Instead, there was a very high chance this world would show why demons were demons, how cruel and wicked they were, and how readily their followers committed evil.

‘Did I wish to become strong too easily again...?’

Apparently, he had.

Still, it felt a little wasteful not to enter. As he had experienced before, he possessed an ability that nullified even death. If he refused to enter merely because it felt ominous, he would waste five or six hours of reality for nothing.

He could not be frightened by something like this.

Having made up his mind, Han Yujin forcefully opened the door.

Before he could properly take in the sight beyond it, an invisible force pushed him several steps forward. With a startled, “Whoa, whoa,” he turned around and saw the door close on its own, then vanish like an illusion.

‘Once it opens, there’s no turning back?’

That was probably the case. Since there was no point to this ability without exploration, it should not be a problem.

As he thought that, he looked around.

He stood on a bluish-gray stone-tiled road that cut through a forest beneath a dim sky. The forest felt somewhat quiet and lonely.

Judging by the condition of the road, it seemed to receive regular maintenance. Or perhaps some unknown power kept it from deteriorating with time.

‘What are these clothes?’

The last thing he checked was his own appearance, which was quite unusual. Without a mirror, he could not tell whether his face had changed too, but the clothes he wore were the sort an adventurer might wear in a medieval fantasy game.

He was figuring out the locations and types of pockets in his unfamiliar clothes and testing the feel of his leather boots when it happened.

“What’s this guy doing here?”

Startled by the unfamiliar voice, he looked up and saw a middle-aged man staring at him, though Han Yujin had no idea when or where the man had appeared.

It was a completely unfamiliar language, yet he understood it perfectly, as though he were hearing Korean.

“How did you get in here?”

The middle-aged man had a stern face and reddish-brown eyes that gleamed with interest. His black robe, embroidered with gold thread in several places, looked quite luxurious.

He did not seem to particularly want an answer.

“If you don’t want to say, forget it. I’m not that curious anyway.”

For an instant, Han Yujin saw an illusion of bright red insects writhing in the man’s reddish-brown eyes.

“Do you want power?”

It was a question that felt both dangerous and tempting.

After hesitating briefly, Han Yujin recalled why he had come here and nodded. No matter what kind of power he gained or how he gained it, he believed his ability, which nullified even death, would keep him safe.

The middle-aged man grinned as though satisfied.

“You know the price, I presume?”

“I don’t.”

“You don’t? Then you came here?”

The man laughed in disbelief for a moment, then kindly explained.

“It’s nothing, so don’t worry. You just cut off a small piece of your soul and offer it up, then remain asleep as a source of blood for twenty or thirty years. If you pass the Baptism, both your body and soul will become much stronger, so it will not inconvenience you much.”

“...What?”

Cut off his soul?

Sleep for twenty or thirty years?

His faith in his own safety wavered.

Damage to his soul was concerning enough, but if he slept for twenty or thirty years, that much of his lifespan would be lost.

Han Yujin went pale.

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