Chapter 7

I’m dreaming.

How do I know? Well…

Because I’m watching myself?

I mean that literally. I’m watching myself—or, more precisely, Jin Taekyung in the game, not the real-world me.

“Huff, huff.”

Jin Taekyung gasped for breath. His clothes were torn, and his face and body were bruised and swollen all over.

Meanwhile…

That bastard’s perfectly fine.

Hyuk Mujin was full of energy. He even had enough breathing room to sneer at his opponent.

“You’re better than I expected, but…you can’t fight that crudely. A martial artist ought to use martial arts.”

God, what an annoying bastard. I wanted to run over and smack him in the back of the head, but maybe because it was a dream, I couldn’t move or make a sound.

Watching it like this just pisses me off even more.

That was right. This dream was showing me my earlier fight with Hyuk Mujin from a third-person perspective.

“You fucking sooon of a bitch!”

Jin Taekyung charged at him with a furious scream, but it was pointless. I knew because I’d been there.

By then, I was already exhausted.

My arms and legs were heavy, my breathing ragged. My movements had grown wider, leaving plenty of openings.

Sure enough, Hyuk Mujin easily dodged the punch, then kicked Taekyung’s leg out from under him.

His movements were smooth and nimble, flowing like water. The entire fight had been a series of moments like that.

Bastard really can fight.

I had to admit it. Hyuk Mujin was stronger than me. He used his internal energy efficiently and neutralized me every time with martial arts I didn’t recognize.

In a word, he was a true martial artist of Murim.

It was a shock.

I’d gotten cocky after taking down the Heavenly Axe. I’d vaguely assumed I was already strong enough to hold my own. Add my seven years of combat experience as a Hunter and the power of the System, and I’d thought logging out was only a matter of time.

That was exactly the kind of thought that gets you killed.

The Heavenly Axe and those bandits had been nothing more than tutorial monsters.

I’d been celebrating after killing a Level 1 rabbit in a beginner hunting ground. A seven-year Hunter? My thinking had been so shallow it made a joke of all that experience.

I have to learn martial arts.

This wasn’t just a game. My life was on the line.

I had to do whatever it took to survive. Level up, learn martial arts—whatever it was, I was ready to learn it and struggle with everything I had.

I was ready to become a martial artist of Murim instead of an F-rank Hunter.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Let go! I won’t let go!

“Graaagh!”

Jin Taekyung kept getting knocked down, only to rise again. No—that was me.

I did land one good hit at the very end.

Smack!

Yeah. That’s how you do it. The way I have for the past seven years. The way I always have.

But what Level is Hyuk Mujin?

At that moment, as if answering my question, a System window rose above Hyuk Mujin’s head.

System

Lv. 20 Hyuk Mujin

…Should I just shut up and level up first?

System

• Sleep mode has ended.

I opened my eyes to the System’s voice. For a split second, I imagined waking up in my room at the goshiwon, but it was a pointless hope.

“Are you awake, Young Master?”

I looked around at the man dressed in white. A strange smell hung in the neat, clean room.

Where am I?

As if he had read my mind, the man answered.

“This is Medicine King Hall. You regained consciousness half a shichen after you fainted.”

So this was a clinic, and this NPC was a physician.

Half a shichen… Was I unconscious for an hour?

That bastard Hyuk Mujin had really laid into me.

“You’ll be in considerable pain from the bruising. Please lie still for a while.”

With that, the physician left the room. Once his footsteps had faded, I quietly muttered,

“Open Status Window.”

Ding.

System

Status Window

Lv. 11 Jin Taekyung

Occupation: Second Rate Martial Artist

Fame: 10

Titles: Scion of a Prestigious Family / Shame of the Family (Title effects active)

Strength: 40 Stamina: 40

Agility: 50 Intelligence: 10

Charm: 10 Internal Energy: 10 years

Unassigned Points: 10

• Distribute your unassigned points.

The ten points I’d earned from defeating the Heavenly Axe were still there. I’d held off on distributing them in case something unexpected happened, but I hadn’t expected to end up fighting Hyuk Mujin.

I hadn’t expected to get beaten to a pulp, either.

After thinking for a moment, I put all ten points into Stamina.

The sight of myself exhausted and gasping during the fight with Hyuk Mujin was still fresh in my mind.

If I’d distributed the points beforehand, would I have stood a chance?

The thought crossed my mind, but I soon shook my head.

The outcome wouldn’t have changed.

It had been a fight between an adult and a child. The gap between Hyuk Mujin and me was that vast.

And as far as I was concerned, that gap had less to do with Levels and stats than with whether or not we knew martial arts.

How could he react like that? Move like that?

Martial arts did exist in the real world too. Boxing, krav maga, jiu-jitsu, and so on—the things people called practical martial arts these days.

But martial arts here were on an entirely different level.

Every movement was both practical and precise. They reminded me of interlocking gears driven by internal energy.

I have to learn martial arts.

What if I’d encountered Hyuk Mujin in the tutorial instead of the Heavenly Axe?

Defeat. Death. The words came naturally to mind.

I had to learn martial arts. I wouldn’t survive without them.

“Fuuuck…”

That was when I let out a long, vicious curse from the bottom of my lungs.

I heard someone outside the door.

“This is the room.”

“Thank you.”

Creak.

The door opened before I could react. And there, standing in the doorway…

“Well, aren’t you a sight.”

A middle-aged man was glaring at me with icy eyes.

“What’s his condition?”

“He has bruises, but nothing too serious.”

“That’s a shame. He should have broken a leg, at least.”

“…”

The middle-aged man looked at me with a threatening glare.

“You reckless little bastard!”

I quietly lowered my eyes. I had never seen this man—or rather, this NPC—before, but for some reason, I felt like I should.

No. I absolutely had to.

System

Lv. ???

Three question marks. Even Qi Sense couldn’t identify his Level.

At least Level 30.

He made Hyuk Mujin look cute. More importantly, judging by the physician’s attitude and the way this man spoke to me, he was no ordinary NPC.

At the very least, he seemed to have enough authority to slap the Third Young Master of the Jin Family of Taiyuan right across the mouth.

If that hits me…

Gulp.

I swallowed involuntarily at the sight of his palm, which was as large as a pot lid.

Level aside, the man looked dangerous in every way.

He stood nearly two meters tall, his entire body sheathed in muscles like a bulletproof vest. His cold gaze was enough to freeze a person solid.

I found myself wondering who this middle-aged man was. He looked like murder was both his hobby and his specialty.

But his face looks strangely familiar.

Where had I seen this man before? I thought hard, then realized.

Jin Taekyung?

The middle-aged man looked like Jin Taekyung. No—it would be more accurate to say Jin Taekyung looked like him.

His incomprehensibly high Level. The way he spoke while trampling all over the Third Young Master of the Jin Family of Taiyuan. And finally, his face.

There could only be one answer. He was Jin Taekyung’s…

“Father?”

The word slipped out before I could stop it, and the middle-aged man’s eyes bulged.

“F-Father?”

Even his fist began to tremble. Anyone watching would have thought I’d insulted his mother. Keeping a wary eye on his fist, I said,

“Please, just calm down for a moment…”

“Calm down? You dare say that to me? You’re still playing games at a time like this!”

“I’m very sorry if I got it wrong. I spoke out of turn.”

“Shut your mouth.”

He silenced me with a chilly glare, then turned to the physician, who was still waiting nearby.

“Thank you for showing me here. You may leave now.”

I sent the physician a desperate SOS with my eyes, but he immediately turned away.

What the fuck… A doctor is abandoning his patient?

Bang.

The door slamming shut sounded like the gates of hell opening.

Alone together in the room, the man raised his pot-lid-sized palm and began walking toward me.

“There’s a limit to how much of a wastrel you can be! How long are you going to keep living like this?”

Before I knew it, I had jumped to my feet and was slowly backing away.

Bruises? Pain? I couldn’t feel any of that anymore. Maybe I was about to end up in a body that would never feel pain again.

“Give me just ten minutes. No, a quarter hour. I can explain everything properly. What are you angry about? Huh? Is it because I called you Father? Are you actually my mother?”

“You little brat!”

His booming voice made my body lock up. I felt my back touch the wall.

System

• You have fallen into Confusion. You cannot move for 3 seconds!

What the actual fuck…

I’m finished.

My twenty-seven years of life flashed before my eyes. With a little exaggeration, I even remembered the fierce race to reach the egg back when I was still a sperm. That had been rough.

Mom, Dad, Hayeon…

It was just as I thought of my family and slowly closed my eyes.

“Whenever you get a chance, all you do is chase women!”

Pat, pat.

“You’re always in and out of gambling dens!”

Fiddle, fiddle.

“This is why the family looks down on you!”

Rub, rub.

…What the hell was this guy doing?

His mouth kept pouring out angry scoldings, but his hands were gently feeling me all over. A chill ran down my spine.

No way…

Ding.

System

• You have been overcome by Fear. You cannot move for 5 seconds!

“You’re a disgrace to the family. A disgrace!”

I certainly was feeling overwhelming shame. I was being sexually harassed by an AI—and one that looked like a middle-aged man, at that.

Mom…

It took me a moment to realize that I had completely misunderstood.

His hands moved quickly, but they moved like those of a physician examining a patient.

He lifted my eyelids, checked my pulse, and carefully examined the bruised areas. Every time his hands passed over me, the pain faded and my body felt refreshed, as if I were getting a massage.

You little bastard! Keep acting like this and—huh? Huh!—you’ll get what’s coming to you. Do you understand?

“…”

At last, he stopped moving his hands and whispered in a small voice,

“Thank goodness it’s not as bad as I expected. Why did you have to fight him? You never even train in martial arts.”

I answered with complete sincerity. One question, loaded with all kinds of meaning.

“Who are you?”

The next moment, his stern, solemn, serious expression transformed into that of a wounded fawn.

“Why are you speaking formally all of a sudden? When I called you a disgrace to the family, I only said it for other people to hear… Did it hurt your feelings?”

“Huh?”

“Your big brother is sad. You know how dearly I raised you. When you were little, I changed your dirty diapers every day, carried you around whenever you cried, and soothed you to sleep.”

“Huh? You’re my brother?”

Silence fell.

He was my brother, not my father?

I was shocked that this old man was my brother.

“Oh dear, our youngest must have hurt his head. Physician! Physician!”

As I watched his retreating figure, I suddenly felt that a piece of the puzzle had fallen into place.

Now I understand why Jin Taekyung grew up such a mess.

A shining example of what happens when parenting goes wrong.