WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Dionysus

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◈ Xianxia Cultivation with a Dragon Heart ◈

Chapter 20: A Short Break

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Han Yujin naturally did not try to use his ability again right away.

He was curious whether he could open a Door to an earlier point in the Earth After the Apocalypse world, something like “Earth Just Before the Apocalypse,” but he was not reckless enough to jump back in immediately after what he had just experienced.

When the wave of hair had torn him apart and killed him, he had honestly been terrified. Fortunately, it had happened so quickly that it had not hurt...

'I thought I was going to piss myself.'

Maybe he actually had. Perhaps being split apart had simply kept him from noticing.

In any case, even if he was a cultivator, he was still only at the Entry Stage, while those ghosts had been overwhelmingly powerful. Just thinking of their presence still gave him goosebumps and a lingering chill.

Naturally, he needed a mental break.

As he wondered how to pass the time, he suddenly thought of Park Huiwon, his university friend who had introduced him to xianxia.

- Lunch? Wanna go?

He immediately sent a message. The reply was much like last time.

After making specific plans, he spent some time browsing the internet on his computer, and the hours passed quickly.

This time, they met in front of a restaurant that specialized in braised kimchi. Han Yujin spotted Park Huiwon walking over from a distance and called out to him, but Park Huiwon only looked confused. That made Han Yujin confused as well.

“Uh...? What's with you?”

Only after coming closer did Park Huiwon properly recognize him, looking slightly flustered.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, what's with you?”

“What the hell do you mean, asshole?”

“Did you put on makeup or something? You look really different.”

“Ah.”

Han Yujin did not hold back his laugh.

“I awakened. Turns out awakening buffs your looks too.”

“Bullshit.”

“No, seriously.”

“...Seriously? You? That makes no sense.”

“I'll buy lunch.”

Han Yujin snickered as he headed into the restaurant.

“Hey, you say you awakened, and you're treating me to braised kimchi? You're obviously lying.”

Park Huiwon grumbled as he followed.

They found a suitable table, ordered, and the side dishes began to arrive.

After repeatedly asking whether Han Yujin had really awakened, Park Huiwon finally congratulated him with obvious envy.

“Seriously, congratulations. Wow... I never thought someone around me would awaken. Especially at our age.”

“I did awaken pretty late.”

“How did it happen? What did you do?”

“How I awakened was...”

A thought came to Han Yujin, and he let out a hollow laugh.

“I was lying in bed trying to sleep a while ago. I opened Messenger because I was bored, and I saw a former middle-school classmate doing well after becoming a Hunter.”

“Yeah?”

“And he was even dating my middle-school crush.”

He had actually seen his old crush's Messenger profile first, so it was a slightly altered version of events. Still, the overall story was true.

“So I got jealous, went to sleep, and woke up awakened.”

“Being pathetic is an awakening trigger?”

The look of utter disdain on Park Huiwon's face across the table was simply funny to Han Yujin.

Han Yujin was not particularly ashamed of that kind of patheticness. He believed everyone had that side to them, like the light and shade that inevitably belonged in a portrait.

What mattered was how much of a person it occupied, and whether they could keep it in check depending on the time and place.

“You should learn from me. Who knows? If you're even more pathetic than I am, you might awaken as an S-Rank Hunter.”

At that, Park Huiwon suddenly began to chuckle. Rather than fading, his laughter only grew louder. For some reason, Han Yujin began laughing too.

“Why are you laughing, asshole? Was what I said that funny?”

“No, it just reminded me of how web novels these days are all about shut-in low-status men. If I really become one, will I awaken too? I think I could pull that off.”

“What do you mean, shut-in low-status men are a trend?”

Truly amazing.

After a little more idle chatter, their braised kimchi arrived, and they began eating.

“If you had an ability that took the form of knowledge and could be shared with other people, would you share it?”

Since he had met his friend anyway, Han Yujin casually brought up what had been on his mind.

“So that's what your awakened ability is like?”

“Yeah. It would take a while to explain, but... let's suppose you learned xianxia cultivation methods.”

“Huh?”

Park Huiwon, who had just been about to lift his spoon, looked at him strangely.

“Like you really did?”

“Let's just say that. Knowledge with that much influence.”

“...”

Wearing a rather peculiar expression, Park Huiwon resumed eating and fell silent for a while, appearing to think about it seriously.

“That's fucking important.”

That was what he finally said.

“What about your family... Ah, sorry.”

“No, it's fine.”

“Hmm...”

Knowing Han Yujin's family circumstances, Park Huiwon quickly apologized before returning to his thoughts.

“Is there a reason you have to share it? You wouldn't get anything except money. And once you start working as a Hunter, you can earn as much money as you want anyway.”

“What if sharing it lets me become stronger faster and by a greater amount?”

“Then... there is a reason to share it.”

Han Yujin nodded at the perhaps obvious conclusion. Even so, he asked again.

“Even if it's something like xianxia cultivation methods? I'm telling you, the impact would be insane.”

“If you're worried, regulate it yourself. Isn't it basically the universal rule to control things like that so nobody stronger than you appears?”

“Hmm, I guess so.”

“But even so, if it really is xianxia cultivation methods, it would be worrying. What if it overturns society?”

“That worries me too.”

“Wait...”

Park Huiwon put his spoon down completely.

“Is it really knowledge on that level?”

“I got my ability tested right after awakening. They rated me A-Rank.”

“...”

This time, Park Huiwon was genuinely shocked. Since he knew a great deal about Hunters, he seemed to understand the weight of an A-Rank rating.

“You aren't lying, right?”

“No.”

“Holy shit... Tell me about that knowledge first. I'll review it carefully and make a decision.”

The joke eased the atmosphere that had briefly grown heavy. While Han Yujin gave a hollow laugh, Park Huiwon, still looking serious, spoke again.

“Wouldn't the best option be to release it little by little and see how people react?”

“That would be safer, but...”

The Earth After the Apocalypse world came to Han Yujin's mind as his voice trailed off.

“What if the world ends in ten years?”

“You're joking, right? You're just throwing that out there?”

“Of course, idiot. What am I, Nostradamus?”

“That'd be better. He turned out to be wrong, at least.”

Thinking any further serious discussion would be inappropriate, Han Yujin laughed and brushed it off.

Even just checking his thoughts through a conversation with Park Huiwon felt quite helpful.

“If it really is xianxia stuff, teach me too. I want to live a long life.”

“What if you don't have a Spiritual Root?”

“Then I'll head straight to the Han River and run a reset marathon. Ordinary people aren't worth living as in a xianxia world.”

“You lunatic.”

A reset marathon was gamer slang for repeatedly restarting a game. In other words, he was joking that he would keep reincarnating until he gained a Spiritual Root.

“Big bro'll get you a Spiritual Root someday, once I have the means.”

“Seriously? Then I'll call you big bro for real. But...”

“But?”

“If you're getting me one anyway, don't make it some lousy one. Get me something awesome, like a Yin-Yang Five Elements Heavenly Spiritual Root.”

“That sounds fucking amazing just from the name.”

After that, they continued chatting.

At one point, Han Yujin asked whether Park Huiwon believed ghosts existed. However, all he got was the general answer that, with Rifts and superpowers already in the world, something similar probably existed somewhere.

'Everyone probably thinks the same way.'

No one seriously thought about ghosts. They had accepted the existence of Rifts and superpowers, but ghosts somehow felt like a different matter.

Perhaps they simply wanted to leave them as superstition, since they were such horrifying beings and had never been proven to exist.

“Hey.”

As they were finishing their meal, Park Huiwon spoke.

“As befitting an A-Rank Hunter, upload lots of profile pictures of yourself eating well and living well. That way, I can get jealous and awaken too.”

It was Park Huiwon's own way of congratulating and encouraging him, knowing that once Han Yujin began working as a Hunter in earnest, they would not be able to meet as comfortably and frequently as they did now.

“Sure.”

Han Yujin did not give a long answer. He simply finished his meal.

* * *

After returning home, Han Yujin did not waste time browsing other things online. Instead, he searched for ghosts.

As expected, there was not much to find. Most of it was about movies, and nearly every supposed real experience felt fabricated.

'They've probably never even seen a real ghost, yet they say ignorance is bravery.'

If they saw someone being chopped into pieces like cubed steak by a wave of hair even once, they would never pull that kind of fake nonsense again.

After considering something for a moment, he opened a map connected to a famous portal site.

Then he searched for high schools and began checking the photos of every school that appeared in Seoul. There was no reason beyond the overwhelming impression Wonhui had left on him.

Wonhui could not possibly be called an ordinary ghost. There had to be something unusual about either that school or Wonhui. And for now, the school was the only thing he could easily search for.

'I should have checked the school's name.'

Unfortunately, he had been too busy fleeing under the terrifying pressure of the ghost in the suit to check something like that.

There were so many high schools in Seoul that even Han Yujin, with a cultivator's body and mind, felt slightly tired as he checked them one by one. It was not because he was truly exhausted, but because he was bored.

'Maybe I'd be better off reading spell manuals...'

But less than a day had passed since that dreadful experience, and he did not want to stop this dull search. He would not be satisfied until he identified that high school somehow.

How much time passed like that?

Before he knew it, the sun had set beyond the window, and the room had grown dim. He did not need to worry about his eyesight worsening now that he was a cultivator, but out of habit, he switched on the lights and continued searching.

“Uh...”

Han Yujin suddenly sat up straight and moved closer to the monitor.

'Found it.'

His concern that he might not recognize it had been entirely pointless. The moment he saw it, he knew this was the place.

'Yeongwon High School.'

He followed the link to the official website and looked through it carefully. He learned that Yeongwon really did mean eternity. It felt like an odd name for a high school.

Other than that, however, the website looked perfectly normal. The principal's greeting, educational goals, staff introductions, notices, everything.

It looked like a very ordinary high school.

'Wonhui probably isn't even ten years old yet.'

With that thought, Han Yujin left the website and began looking for information on Yeongwon High School.

Then he found something rather interesting. A post on a small community site claimed that the foundation behind Yeongwon High School was a cult.

Religion and ghosts. The connection was impossible to ignore.

Feeling as though he had found one small piece of the ghost apocalypse puzzle, Han Yujin grew excited. If he could, he wanted to visit the school tomorrow and thoroughly investigate whether anything was strange.

'Some trait of the cult might interact with traits that create and nurture ghosts, producing a ghost as powerful as Wonhui...'

Just as he was considering that possibility, the smartphone beside his keyboard suddenly lit up and began ringing, making Han Yujin jump.

It was fortunate that he was alone. It was quite embarrassing for a cultivator like him to be startled by something so minor.

“Hello?”

The number was unfamiliar, and he assumed it was an advertisement, but he answered anyway. The person on the other end sounded like a very young woman.

“Is this Mr. Han Yujin?”

“Yes, who's calling?”

“Hello. I'm Kang Mina, a case officer with the Special Ability Management Bureau. I meant to contact you sooner... Is now a good time to talk?”

“Ah, yes. Hello. Now is fine.”

She was the assigned case officer whom the Administrative Officer had said would be attached to his case.

Han Yujin suddenly wondered whether he could ask this assigned officer for information about Yeongwon High School.

Footnotes:

“Shut-in low-status men” refers to Korean online slang for stereotypically isolated, unsuccessful men, a common web-novel protagonist type.

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