Chapter 113. Another Metamorphosis
***
Generally, time flows similarly everywhere.
About a week had passed in the Weapon Record Pavilion where Dong Bong-su was.
'Kekeke...…'
Dong Bong-su grumbled endlessly while looking down at Sosam's body, which had been his body for quite a long time.
Already 105,239 times.
Some unknown will—yes, a will. But not my will—kept separating him from Sosam's body.
When he endured the pain of being torn apart and swam through the void back into Sosam's body, that will would once again drag him out.
[Critical ERROR occurred! Critical ERROR occurred! Critical ERROR occurred! The item currently equipped by the player is an illegal item without a serial number! The player must immediately unequip the item ..... do ….... bzzz! bzzzz! Forced log out …... ]
That will was the New Murim Online system.
The system forcibly logged him out of Sosam's body.
Continuously, without rest.
Then Dong Bong-su would log in again into Sosam's body.
Once again, pain like his soul was being torn apart would assault him.
At the same time, that strange yet refreshing sensation would also seep into his entire body.
Soon, the system would again drag his soul out of Sosam's body.
After that, it would try to send him to the real 'Murim Online' server beyond the dimension.
But the system had no such authority.
Even so, it kept trying to do it.
Because of that, even in the state of a soul, the pain did not stop.
It was just a different kind from when he was logged in.
Not a tearing sensation, but a ... vicious pain like his soul was being crumpled and crushed.
Log in, log out, log in again, log out again....
Is this what they call Avici Hell?
[T/L: Avici Hell (In Buddhism, it is the lowest level of the Naraka or "hell" realm, with the most suffering, into which the dead who have committed grave misdeeds may be reborn.)]
A succession of log in and log out.
Repeating pain.
If it were not Dong Bong-su but an ordinary person, their soul would have been destroyed or extinguished long ago.
Or they would have gone completely insane.
But Dong Bong-su never lost his mind even in such a situation.
It just hurt.....
And he just felt sick of it.
How much more time had passed?
It felt like an eternity had gone by, but perhaps only a few days had passed.
It might have just felt long because it was so painful.
Dong Bong-su was still thinking.
How could this terrible cycle of pain end?
On Sosam's body was equipped a mutated [Novice's Sword] that the system could not tolerate.
This outer dimensional world, the place where he originally lived, was a world beyond the reach of the system's power.
So he could not properly log out.
But he also could not leave this room.
Since the system was constantly trying to send his soul beyond that dimension, even swimming back to his original body was actually not an easy task.
Kekeke...…
He laughed low and returned to Sosam's body again.
It was not that he was trying to do anything.
It was just that this was the only thing he could do right now, so he did it.
He thought that perhaps Weapon Eccentric or Eulji Tae might return to the Weapon Record Pavilion and put an end to this terrible pain, but Dong Bong-su was not someone who would just wait for that.
It was truly only a possibility, but they might not return...….
And in the worst case, his soul might be destroyed by their intervention.
Log in, log out, log in again, log out again…..
Thus, Avici Hell continued.
That is how systems are.
If errors keep occurring, eventually it breaks.
In one way or another.
If it does not, then what?
He briefly asked himself that, but it was meaningless.
Because he would keep doing it until it did.
In any case, in this state, was there anything else he could do?
Log in, log out...…
It repeated endlessly.
Of course, the pain also had no end.
***
Like all online games, in Murim Online, illegal items are not tolerated.
Then how did the [Novice's Sword] become an illegal item?
In fact, the [Novice's Sword] did not become an illegal item just because its shape was changed.
What changed the serial number of the [Novice's Sword] was—
Weapon Eccentric's internal energy.
Unable to melt 'divine metal' by normal methods, Weapon Eccentric used all of his internal energy and hammered for several months to barely melt the [Novice's Sword].
In that process, his internal energy became imbued into the divine metal.
Needless to say, internal energy is a stat that does not exist in the system.
But that stat seeped into the [Novice's Sword] and changed its essence.
An interesting fact was that the New Murim Online system had already been recognizing internal energy.
When the system measured the level of the people here, that is, NPCs, the most important yardstick was the depth of their internal energy.
If internal energy was high, high level.
If low, low level.
Even without fully understanding it, the system vaguely knew that it affected the strength of NPCs.
It was a strange thing, but the numerous errors that occurred in the system caused not only Dong Bong-su but also New Murim Online itself to evolve.
Just like Dong Bong-su had changed after coming here.
.
..
…
….
…..
210,739.
That was the number of times log in and log out had been repeated.
Dong Bong-su had not lost his mind and had been counting them all this time.
He could have kept counting forever.
That was Dong Bong-su, an existence that never gave up as long as he lived.
But.
Now there was no need to count anymore.
Because.
[Click.]
When he logged into Sosam's body for the 210,739th time, the error message finally stopped being heard.
Instead, the familiar sound that occurred when equipping an item rang in his head.
At the same time, the pain that had been tearing at his soul subsided.
At that, Dong Bong-su calmly opened the equipment window as if nothing had happened.
Like a car windshield shattered in a minor collision, the equipment window was damaged and cracked here and there.
He could clearly see with his own eyes that there had been a serious system error.
However, it was also clear that it was not completely broken.
In any case, did it not open?
This body was still a game character, and that body would probably be able to use various auxiliary skills.
Dong Bong-su carefully examined the equipment window.
Soon, he could find what had changed.
Although the equipment window hologram was badly broken and damaged, its essential appearance was not different at all from before.
Except for just one thing.
"There's one more equipment slot."
A voice as indifferent as could be in this dimensional world was lowered in the Weapon Record Pavilion.
It was also a signal clearly announcing that Dong Bong-su had logged back into New Murim Online.
And eyes as emotionless as that voice continued to scan the hologram.
Next to the slot where weapons were equipped, a small and faint item slot had appeared.
And in that slot, [Novice's ??? ] was equipped.
Its shape was the same as the full-body armor made by Weapon Eccentric—which was now safely equipped on Sosam's body.
[Novice's ??? ]
22292
Attribute : Nothingness
Required class : common
Required level : 2
It seemed to have lost all the original abilities that the [Novice's Sword] had, and instead, a new ability ' ????? ' had been granted.
But there was no need to think long about what that ' ????? ' meant.
"A new stat has appeared."
In the status window, a gauge bar that he had never seen before was visible.
Under the strength, agility, and intelligence gauge bars, some other gauge bar had newly appeared.
That must be the ????? stat.
It would be that electric current-like thing that had been flowing through his body.
Although it was displayed as ?????, Dong Bong-su already guessed—no, was certain—what it was.
"Internal energy."
That was right.
As he said, it was a gauge bar indicating the amount of internal energy.
In fact, when Tang Wu had said he was a Bloodless Body and performed the Head-Opening Great Method, he had mistakenly thought that a path for energy to flow had formed in Dong Bong-su's body.
But that was a complete misunderstanding.
To be precise, a Bloodless Body, that is, the character, not only had no meridians but also had no dantian, so it was a constitution that could not cultivate internal energy at all.
In short, it was not the heaven-defying body Tang Wu had thought it was.
Rather, it was the worst body, even less suitable for martial arts than an ordinary person.
He could not learn martial arts at all.
Dong Bong-su already knew that fact well during his mercenary days.
Last time, under the cliff of Seonjung Mountain, he had killed Tang Wu, Tang Hua, and others and obtained many secret manuals.
He had tried to learn the martial arts he obtained then, but before long, he realized that internal energy did not accumulate in his body even a little.
The moment he realized that, Dong Bong-su stopped learning internal energy cultivation methods.
But.
At the end of this damned Avici Hell, internal energy finally appeared in his body.
No, to be more precise, internal energy points appeared.
And a whopping Lv.35 worth of points all at once.
Of course, it was according to the arbitrary interpretation of the New Murim Online system.
Zzzzt -.
When Dong Bong-su's will acted, internal energy flowed through the [Novice's ??? ] and spread wildly throughout his whole body.
[Novice's ??? ] supplied true energy to his entire body that had no acupoints and smoothly fulfilled the role of a dantian.
"Then does this kind of thing work now too."
Pyu-byubyuk -.
Dong Bong-su swung his hand toward the wall.
As if throwing something.
Then, more than ten fine needles that came out of his hand through the inventory gathered like the shape of a butterfly and flew, embedding themselves into the wall.
That was!
Tang Wu's unique ultimate technique, Soul-Chasing Flying Butterfly.
Although the number was far fewer compared to what Tang Wu used, it was clearly Soul-Chasing Flying Butterfly.
"......"
Dong Bong-su's lips indifferently drew a straight line.
His teeth flickered as if about to be revealed.
And.
With that, Dong Bong-su became a complete Bloodless Body.
Dong Bong-su succeeded in evolution once again and took another step forward.
Side Story 3 : The Birth of Another Madman
It is better to kill a baby in its cradle than to plant desires that cannot be fulfilled.
–William Blake, British poet and painter
***
A strange star rose in the sky.
I was conceived.
The whispering began.
[Kill. Kill them all.]
***
Even now, I remember clearly.
The day when a round and cute moon was floating.
I was born.
And died for the first time.
***
With still-unripe hands, I opened the belly of the woman who was my mother and finally came out into the world.
"Kyaaaak!"
"Uaaak!"
"Save me!"
People running around wildly welcomed my birth.
Their screams too.
Aham ~!
Maybe at that time I yawned once again.
Kkareureu ~!
Maybe I was laughing like this.
Or was it both?
Well, anyway, while doing that, I latched onto the breast of the headless woman who was my mother.
It was instinct.
Since what had been supplying nutrients had been cut off, I must have naturally known that I had to take in nourishment in some way to survive.
Thick red liquid mixed into the fishy milk and flowed into my mouth.
Even though so much liquid flooded in that it was hard to breathe through my still-narrow throat, I did not care.
I think that unpleasant sensation I felt back then was quite good.
"Save me!"
The group of mountain bandits holding sharp blades ran around and cut down the people around the carriage where I was born.
I just kept sucking on my mother's milk.
I did not care about anything.
It did not matter to me what happened to them.
How much more time passed?
My stomach was bloated.
When I could no longer drink the liquid mixed with blood and milk, the noisy sounds died down.
Plop.
" ..... "
Thud.
The man who was the last in line collapsed once more on top of the severed head of the woman who was my mother.
His bloodshot eyes looked at me.
He looked wronged, but it was still not important to me.
Kkareureu -.
I looked at him and laughed.
Maybe I just wanted to play.
"Lucky little bastard. His mommy and daddy are all dead, and yet."
The hairy mountain bandit chief finally noticed me and said in an unlucky voice.
"Chief. What should we do?"
One bandit who looked like a weasel said while tickling the sole of my foot with a dirty, blood-soaked hand.
Yesterday, at this part, because I could not hold back wanting to play, I poked his long-slit eyes with my finger.
He ended up split in half.
If that round and cute moon had not risen again, I would have ended my life for sure, right?
So let's endure a little today.
Kkareureu.
Back then, I was a child who still could not distinguish well between when to play and when to endure.
"If it's a skewer, kill it, if it's a hole, take it to the mountain stronghold."
Yesterday—or was it today?—I checked, and it was definitely a hole, uncle.
The sly-looking guy checked my lower body and cut the umbilical cord.
Yeah, I'm a hole.
Kkareureu -.
I smiled widely.
The bandits also laughed.
"Kekeke. He doesn't even know why we're taking him and he's happy."
Their laughter was lewd.
So I laughed again.
Kkareureu -.
Back then, they probably had no idea why I was laughing.
Kkareureu -.
[Kill. Kill them all.]
Even then, of course, the whispering continued.
No one but me could hear it.
***
Ten months passed.
I started calling the hairy one dad.
He grinned nastily and said to me.
"Kekeke. Dad? Dad is good. For now, that's good enough. Um .... then I should give you a name too."
Yeon Yeong-ha.
From that day on, people started calling me that.
…..
….
…
..
.
I became five years old.
It was hard to endure 'its' whispering, but I endured it anyway.
Why?
Hmm .... how should I put it.
At some point, I had become attached to those bandit guys.
Dad, uncles.
I became family with them.
I wanted to believe that.
Anyway, because of those emotional leftovers, I avoided playing with them.
So I never once took 'it' out of the mountain stronghold.
An ordinary person?
Yeah, back then, I think I believed I could become that.
For quite a long time, it seemed like there were no days when the same moon rose two or three times in a row.
The me back then was really naive.
Stupidly so.
…..
….
…
..
.
I became ten years old.
One day, dad called me to his room.
Then he scanned my body lewdly and said.
"Our Yeong-ha. Want to sleep with dad today? Hehehe."
"......."
What had to come, came.
I wished it would not come, but I knew too.
How my family looked at me.
And what they thought.
So ...….
I laughed.
Hehehe.
My laughter was completely different from when I was a baby, but it was probably still quite innocent.
Of course, it was probably cute too.
"Dad, thank you. And I'm sorry."
My words and voice had become natural now.
Dad—no, the hairy one who had become much older than when I first met him—grinned nastily.
Yeah, it was disgusting.
Very, very much.
"No, I should be the one thanking and apologizing. Hehe."
"No. I'm thankful. For becoming my first man. And I'm sorry. Because my first man is dad."
"Hehehe. Since you understand like that, dad is really happy. Come here."
I looked at the hairy one beckoning secretly and smiled gently and cutely.
And.
I released 'it', which had been noisily shouting for ten years, into the world for just a brief moment.
My face, and my eyes ... were reflected in the gaze of the hairy one stained with lust.
They had turned pitch-black.
Very, very pitch-black.
***
That day, the same moon rose twice after a very long time.
I gave my family two chances, but they all...…
Wanted to play with me..... and with it.
[Kill. Kill them all.]
***
The mountain stronghold became quiet, and the stench filled the air.
Splash, splash.
I walked with quick steps across the sea of blood.
In any case, because of that, even the shouting of 'it' became quiet for a while.
Well, it did not seem like it would endure for very long.
After a few more days,
It would probably shout even louder than before, right?
I left the mountain stronghold and looked up at the sky.
The strange star was no longer visible.
"Eh, what? Someone's blocking my way? Want to get beaten?"
A bright, yet transparent-colored star was blocking my path.
The moment I saw it, I wanted to play even more.
"I want to meet you. Let's meet. Let's hang out, let's play."
I stretched my hand high up into the sky, but it did not reach.
To catch that strange star that felt somehow similar to me, I came out into the world.
Several more years passed after that, but I still have not found it.
Someday, I will be able to find it, right?
And.
We can play together, right?
Yeah, yeah, in this vast Central Plains sky, it must be somewhere.
For sure.
My eyes once again became stained black.
My only friend whispers.
[Kill. Kill them all.]
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