Chapter 10

After walking for a little over ten minutes, I reached the cliff that sealed off the rear of the Jin Family of Taiyuan. A cavern yawned there, its maw gaping wide. One man stood before it.

“Hmm. You’ve come?”

A solemn tone from a man built like a grizzly. It was Jin Wikyung. I awkwardly bowed my head.

“Hello, elder… brother.”

Jin Wikyung was uncomfortable to deal with. As if suddenly acquiring an NPC family weren’t enough, he took an enormous interest in me.

Just look at him, trying so hard not to show it because other people were watching. Look closer, though, and his eyes were moist.

Is that sentimental streak for real?

Judging by appearances, even a triad boss would have backed down from him. I had no idea why every character in this game was such a circus.

“I could no longer overlook your conduct. In my capacity as Lesser Family Head and acting Family Head, I ordered you into seclusion. Do you have anything to say?”

Of course I do.

But this was a rigged game of go-stop.¹ On the way to the training cave, Wipeng had explained what was happening: there was a power struggle among the leading factions inside the Jin Family of Taiyuan, and Jin Wikyung was acting as my shield.

In other words, this forced seclusion was all for show.

Didn’t you say you needed somewhere to train anyway, Young Master? Bear with it for just three days.

Remembering Wipeng’s last words, I bowed my head and pretended to repent.

“I will gladly pay for my sins.”

The best thing about this performance was how short the lines were. Jin Wikyung delivered his final line with a sorrowful look.

“Lock the criminal in the training cave. The date of his release will be announced later.”

The words were barely out of his mouth before two warriors guarding the entrance came forward and seized me by both arms. The performance was over. Time to make my exit.

I stood at the entrance to the training cave.

—I’ve put everything you’ll need inside. Little brother, don’t overdo it.

With Jin Wikyung’s Sound Transmission in my ears, I took my first step inside.

In a word, the training cave was a cave.

An artificial cave cut into the cliff, to be precise. It was tall, spacious, and damp.

Slosh, slosh.

I followed one of the training cave’s warriors for what felt like forever. Just as I started wondering whether I was wearing leather shoes or wet mops, a colossal iron door appeared.

Whoa…

My mouth fell open the moment I saw it. It filled the passage without a gap—less a door than a wall built to bar all entry.

The warrior guiding me raised his torch and shouted.

“Open the gate!”

Grrrrrrnk—

The enormous iron door slowly opened its maw. It wasn’t some magic incantation like open sesame. An NPC who had been standing by had merely pulled the protruding mechanism that opened and closed it.

Even so, it was an overwhelming sight.

Then the interior came into view.

“Wow.”

This time, even I couldn’t hold back the exclamation that slipped out.

When I first entered the training cave, I had pictured a dank underground cavern, but…

“What is all this?”

A spacious bed with a fur blanket that lifted my mood just looking at it. Instead of a damp, uneven stone floor, a clean gray surface stretched out before me.

Obviously not cement… Limestone, maybe?

Apart from the chill in the air—no, even taking that into account—the conditions were far better than I had imagined.

This is supposed to be punishment?

As I stared around in a daze, someone cleared his throat behind me. I turned to find the warrior who had guided me here.

“Everything you require has been prepared. Then I shall take my leave.”

Grrrrrrnk.

As I watched the iron door slowly close, I suddenly remembered the Sound Transmission I had heard at the entrance.

I’ve put everything you’ll need inside. Little brother, don’t overdo it.

Ah. The heart of an NPC who cared for his younger brother.

This pathetic user is bawling his head off.

It happened all the time in the real world. Powerful people caught in corruption would roll in and out of the prosecutors’ office in wheelchairs, or check themselves into VIP hospital rooms to dodge an investigation.

The details were a little different, but I was in much the same shape now. Deeply moved, I gazed around my VIP suite in the training cave.

“So this is the life of someone born with a golden spoon.”

It wasn’t only the graphics and the artificial intelligence that were realistic. The game even carried a social message: no matter how high you flew or how hard you crawled, a golden spoon still beat everything.

Good grief. What would I have done if I hadn’t gotten this character? My father was the Family Head, my eldest brother was the Lesser Family Head, and my second brother was a martial arts prodigy. No wonder he could hang around the pleasure houses without a care in the world.

Jin Taekyung, you bastard…

Turns out he was a great sage who’d figured out how the world worked at a tender age.

Thrilling at the realism of this god-tier golden-spoon system, I wandered through the training cave, which covered some 3,500 square feet. Eventually, I found the “necessities” the warrior had mentioned.

Food first.

The food had been divided between two jars. I looked inside and found rice balls that smelled strongly of medicinal herbs.

System

Item Window

[Superior Fasting Pill]

Type: Pill Grade: First Rate Restriction: None

Description: A fasting pill made by mindlessly stuffing in every kind of fine medicinal herb. Restores vitality upon consumption. Additional effects may be gained through long-term use.

“Oh, so this is that fasting pill?”

I had seen them in plenty of martial arts novels. They were light, compact, easy to carry, and supposedly packed with all the nutrition you needed. The other jar was stuffed with fasting pills as well.

I should put these in my inventory first.

I gripped the jars with both hands and muttered,

“Acquire Item.”

Anyone who saw me would have toppled over in shock. The two jars that had been sitting there intact had vanished as if they had evaporated.

I looked contentedly at the jars stored in my inventory.

That takes care of the food problem.

The second necessity I found was water. The training cave was still a cave, after all, and a cold underground spring in one corner took care of my drinking water.

Then came the third and final necessity.

“Hmm.”

Several weapons hung side by side on a rack. Naturally, the first thing I picked up was a sturdy-looking wooden spear.

Appraise Item.

Ding.

System

Item Window

[Training Wooden Spear]

Type: Weapon Grade: Third Rate Restriction: None

Description: Made for beginners.

“Oh.”

A wooden training spear made for beginners. Perfect for me as I was now.

One more thing, and it would be complete.

“Open Inventory.”

Grinning, I pulled the martial arts manual labeled [Jin Family’s Spear Technique] out of my inventory.

Ding.

System

Would you like to acquire [Jin Family’s Spear Technique]? (3 / 10)

“Of course that’s a yes.”

I really liked the System.

Sometimes it was downright lovable.

Yesterday, while learning the Jin Family’s Manoeuvre Technique, I had found out for the first time that ding wasn’t the only sound the System made.

And just how much I hated the other one.

Beep!

System

The movement has failed.

Success Count: (2 / 100)

The failure message.

That System window popped up without fail whenever I botched a move and triggered the dreaded beep. I had lost count of how many times I had seen it.

I looked down at the [Training Wooden Spear] in my hands.

I had the wrong idea.

Maybe because it was wood, the spear was light. Thrust, and it thrust. Swing, and it swung—fast.

That was the problem.

It’s so light I can’t control it.

Fine adjustments were hard, so I kept slipping up. No way that damnably picky System was going to let even a tiny mistake slide.

Beep.

System

The movement has failed.

Success Count: (5 / 100)

“Ah, fuck.”

In the end I threw down the [Training Wooden Spear] and pulled the [Sharp Spear] from my inventory. Its length and the thickness of its shaft roughly matched the spear I had used in the real world.

Then why hadn’t I taken it out from the beginning?

“This thing is damn heavy. Seriously.”

Solid steel through and through, so the weight was no joke. By feel alone, the monster weighed close to fifty kilograms.

If I swung something like this for hours, my Stamina wouldn’t hold out.

My current realm was Second Rate. Even with the System’s help, there was no way I could whirl more than half a sack of rice around like a pinwheel.

It’s not as if tiger power is going to surge up out of nowhere.

That was when it hit me.

“…Huh?”

What had I just said?

Tiger power?

“I’ve got that, don’t I?”

This was a game. There was a System, there were stats, and there was internal energy.

Ten years’ worth of internal energy I could draw out through my cultivation technique!

Forgetting that, even for a second, was downright embarrassing.

“It’s not like I’ve ever had anything like that to use before…”

As the saying went, only someone who’d eaten meat knew its taste. There was a reason I was an F-Rank Hunter. With not a scrap of mana to my name, I had to make do with my bare body, so even other Hunters treated me like a useless halfwit.

Still, that solves one problem.

“Heh.”

I laughed, incredulous, and picked up the spear. Then, slowly and carefully, I began drawing up my internal energy.

In my head, the formula of the Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique—imprinted by the System—rewound at high speed, guiding the energy along its set path.

Tingle.

The response was immediate.

The ten years’ worth of internal energy coiled in my dantian spread through my whole body. I felt that energy—something I could sense only because this was a game, and because I was a martial artist of Murim—extend into every limb and bone.

This is…

Power overflowed through my entire body. The jump in physical ability and senses delivered that same rush of ecstasy all over again to someone who’d spent his life as an F-Rank Hunter.

To think I could change this much.

Gripping the spear, I performed the Jin Family’s Spear Technique. The fifty-kilogram iron spear no longer felt heavy. It followed the path I wanted, thrusting and slicing through empty air.

At last—

Ding.

System

Success Count: (6 / 100)

The notification I had been waiting for began to ring.

Jin Wikyung spoke, worry written across his face.

“He’s doing well, isn’t he?”

“I’m sure he is. Assuming he has any sense of shame.”

“His body still hasn’t fully recovered… He’ll be all right, won’t he?”

“Anyone listening to you would think the Third Young Master was at death’s door. Injuries like his would heal with a dab of spit.”

“No. You only say that because you don’t know how frail my youngest brother has been since childhood.”

Wipeng stared at him, incredulous.

“The elixirs and tonics that have gone into the Third Young Master’s mouth would fill an entire room. Have you already forgotten last year’s hundred-year snow ginseng theft?”

“Ahem. That was…”

“The Hall Master of the Medicine King Hall was so furious he went wild about cutting open the Third Young Master’s stomach. To be honest, even as I held him back, I found myself thinking that cutting him open would still count as self-defense.”

Jin Wikyung glanced aside. The matter had ultimately been settled by paying compensation out of Jin Wikyung’s personal fortune, but the Hall Master’s fury at the time had been immense.

“After gulping down an elixir like that, he’ll probably never have so much as a minor ailment for the rest of his life.”

“It still wasn’t enough. Can’t you tell just by looking? My heart aches whenever I see my youngest brother. He’s nothing but bones with a few scraps of flesh stuck to them. Every morning he’s so frail and listless he has no strength at all.”

“No strength?”

For a moment, Wipeng recalled a rumor he had once heard. Among the courtesans of Taiyuan’s red-light district, Jin Taekyung was apparently known as the Night King.

Just how much are we talking about?

It seemed the medicine had worked exceptionally well in at least one respect. Without realizing it, Wipeng raised his forearm and tried to imagine the size.

“What are you doing?”

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

Jin Wikyung sighed as he looked at the mountain of documents piled before him.

“My youngest brother aside, there’s no end to the matters demanding my attention inside and outside the family. In particular… the fact that they have made contact doesn’t sit well with me.”

“You mean the Mount Heng Sword Sect.”

The name Mount Heng Sword Sect carried no small weight.

It had grown at a terrifying pace since an undefeated wandering martial artist first hung up its signboard several decades ago. By now it was powerful enough to threaten the standing of the Jin Family of Taiyuan.

“What do they intend?”

“I’ve sent my men out to investigate.”

Jin Wikyung toyed with the letter from the Mount Heng Sword Sect.

Why?

For what purpose were they coming?

Question followed question, but they all led him to a single conclusion.

“Notify every branch throughout Shanxi. Whatever the Mount Heng Sword Sect’s purpose may be, tell them to make every preparation.”

This was Murim.

Only those who were prepared could survive to see tomorrow.