episode_0331

[Hocheonan: What.]

[Ho Cheon-an: I guess you don’t know something.]

[Ho Cheon-an: All stagnant water is like that.]

This guy is a transcendent and doesn’t know much about games?

Stagnant people are essentially people like that.

Logic cannot explain the existence of stagnant water.

Are there one or two people in this world who have gone crazy?

There are many people who harbor madness that would be astounding to an ordinary person.

Certainly, memorizing enlightenment was not common, but it was definitely a necessary element to play the game.

I can be considered a very normal person.

However, the reincarnation truck had different thoughts.

[Reincarnation Truck: Let’s go into detail.]

[Reincarnation Truck: First, let’s start with the enlightenment quiz.]

[Reincarnation Truck: The enlightenment keyword is definitely important while playing Wulin World.]

[Reincarnation Truck: If you play the game, you can memorize it well.]

[Reincarnation Truck: But there was only one person who took the enlightenment quiz, and you were the only one who answered it correctly, right?]

What the reincarnation truck said was definitely correct.

In fact, if there was no enlightenment quiz, I would never have memorized so many enlightenments.

However, there were many things left to refute.

[Hocheonan: No.]

[Ho Cheon-an: We all had fun together at first.]

[Reincarnation Truck: I guess so.]

[Reincarnation Truck: The Enlightenment Quiz was a good way to prove one’s skills in a KakaoTalk room full of old people.]

[Reincarnation Truck: But the enlightenment quiz became unpopular and you ended up solving it on your own, right?]

[Reincarnation Truck: You probably know the reason better than me.]

Sure, enlightenment quizzes had a flash for a time, but their popularity died out quickly.

Because it wasn’t easy to be recognized compared to the effort I put into memorizing that realization.

There was a fundamental problem with the enlightenment quiz: the place where the quiz was held was in a group chat room.

Did the person who took the quiz really write down the enlightenment they had memorized, or did they just copy and paste it from an Excel file or through a search in a cafe?

Who can tell that fact?

As a result, unpleasant situations were repeated. It’s like a situation where there is a feeling but no physical evidence. As this situation repeated, the participants in the enlightenment quiz disappeared in an instant, leaving me alone.

In such a situation, it could be said that it was suspicious that I persevered and worked hard to memorize the enlightenment in order to solve the quiz on my own.

But everything has a story.

At a time when enlightenment quizzes were popular in group chat rooms, I was experiencing a period of boredom in the world of martial arts. I guess I was wandering around unable to find any more interesting elements in the game.

For me, the enlightenment quiz was the perfect stimulus.

While playing the game, I felt rewarded every time I used the enlightenment I had memorized through the group chat room, and since I didn’t have to search the enlightenment DB, it was less annoying and there were many elements to feel a sense of accomplishment.

I think it’s too far-fetched to describe enlightenment memorization as ‘not normal.’

[Ho Cheon-an: No matter how much you think about it, it’s ridiculous.]

[Hocheonan: No matter how you think about it, memorizing enlightenment is a part of normal gameplay.]

[Ho Cheon-an: Don’t ignore gamers’ passion. Transcendant.]

[Ho Cheon-an: True gamers, old people do whatever is necessary.]

[Reincarnation Truck: No ㅡㅡ]

[Reincarnation Truck: You asked for a hint.]

[Reincarnation Truck: So, I gave you a hint, but why did you refute it and make such a fuss?]

….When I thought about it, it was like that. Suddenly, he touched my stubborn pride and tried to force me to do something, so I forgot about the situation and got excited.

[Reincarnation Truck: (Lion sighing emoticon)]

[Reincarnation Truck: Yes, if it had been solved this easily, it would have been solved a long time ago.]

I also regained my composure through the reincarnation truck chat.

[Reincarnation Truck: Then I will ask another question.]

[Reincarnation Truck: Why did you come here now?]

Why are you here now?

That was because there was no room to push myself further and I had to find clues about my past.

As I was trying to type that, the reincarnation truck chat kept coming up.

[Reincarnation Truck: Of course there must be a reason.]

[Reincarnation Truck: By the way.]

[Reincarnation Truck: There was a time when you were much more desperate than now, right?]

….A time of great desperation.

For a moment, I remembered the time when I became a Sichuan ronin.

After wandering around the world for a year and experiencing with his own eyes the misery that a person with weak martial skills endured, he barely arrived in Sichuan Province.

And it wasn’t long before it reached the limit of being second-rate.

Two years after that.

I really tried to break through the limit by using every means possible. I went to the doctor, looked for reasons, took elixirs, and inquired about my past…

I did not return to this place, Yeonghwisan Mountain in Cheonghae.

Why did you do that?

At that time, I was really desperate.

The first year of the Murim world was truly a desperate struggle for survival. I suffered from hunger and had to live on the streets without being able to wash myself. It was a daily occurrence for me to be threatened. In order to survive, I had to be very alert, protect myself, and swing my sword.

I had to hypnotize myself to endure the pressure of surviving in that reality.

I am a person who knows everything in this world of martial arts.

Even when I played Wulin World, didn’t I become a master despite facing many penalties?

Falling into the martial arts world is not a disaster, but an opportunity.

An opportunity to practice martial arts the way I want and become the best expert in the world.

It was a time when I gritted my teeth and struggled to pioneer a world of excellence while repeating such self-hypnosis.

…But then, why didn’t I think about coming back to Cheonghae and Yeonghwi Mountain?

For two years, I did everything I could to overcome the walls of the system.

But did I just overlook my past, which was the biggest straw I could grasp at the time?

Even before I met the black cat, I made a request to an intelligence group to find out about my past, but it stopped at that level.

Why was I satisfied with that level of research at a time when I was trying so hard that it broke my heart?

Why didn’t I investigate Yeonghwi Mountain, the most crucial clue to my past?

No matter how much I thought about it, it felt unnatural.

…Suddenly, my thoughts wandered to fragments of my memory.

The childhood memories of this body that became the driving force for finding this space now.

[Ho Cheon-an: Do you know about the fragments of memory that surface in my head?]

[Reincarnation Truck: I don’t know the contents.]

[Reincarnation Truck: Still, I think I know what that fragment of memory is.]

You don’t know exactly what memories are in my head?

[Hocheonan: Then]

[Ho Cheon-an: Are you saying that the reason this memory came to mind was not something you planned?]

[Reincarnation Truck: Yes.]

….In response to the guy’s answer, one word passed through my head.

Inevitability.

Something that must happen.

It was inevitable that I would visit Mt. Yeonghwi. So that guy didn’t do anything.

And it was inevitable that the memories of Hocheonan would be revived after visiting Mt. Yeonghwi.

…Then, it is inevitable that he had a good reason for not returning here to Yeonghwisan during the time when I was struggling to break through to the top level.

It was also inevitable that I came into contact with the world of martial arts.

After playing Wulin World for 10 years, I became a stagnant person.

The reason I worked so hard to memorize enlightenment was not simply because I liked the game called Murimcheon.

Was there some inevitable reason?

A certain assumption occurred to me. It was a really absurd assumption, but…

There was no way to explain the entire situation other than this assumption.

[Hocheonan: I am]

[Ho Cheon-an: So, modern people on Earth □□□]

[Hocheonan: Is this the Hocheonan of the martial arts world?]

I didn’t fall into the world of the martial arts world.

What if I, who was in the world of martial arts, came back from Earth?

Reincarnation Truck sent me an answer to my question.

[Reincarnation Truck: Yes.]

The moment I heard that answer.

A flood of memories came over me.

*** ***

“Mom. Mom!”

“Hehe, what is so urgent about our Cheonan?”

“Look! This thing is squirming!”

“Oh my…”

A woman came into view. Her hands were covered in dirt from tending the garden, and her hair was pulled back for work, but despite this, she had a peaceful smile on her face without a single wrinkle.

mother.

Without realizing it, those words popped into my head.

….This person whose name I do not know is my mother.

Not knowing my mother’s name may have seemed strange to me now, but it was natural to the younger me in my memories.

Because only three people were living in this small space.

My mother was just a mother.

And the mother looked at the handful of dirt on my fern-like hand and the earthworm writhing on it.

“Hehe, Cheonan. This is an earthworm. It’s a creature that softens the soil.”

“Amazing! Just wriggle!”

“Looking at the movement, the earthworm seems very surprised. Won’t you stop letting go now?”

“It’s fascinating…”

My mother looked at me with affectionate eyes, and as a child, I returned the earthworm to the ground with a sullen expression.

“Good job~”

“Hehe.”

Mother brushed the dirt off her hands and gently touched my forehead. The young affection in that touch made me feel heartbroken for a moment.

The memories continued.

“Cheonan! Dad is here!”

“Dad! Dad!”

My father lifted me up. I burst out laughing, and when my father saw that, he repeatedly threw me and let me go.

Was your father a military person?

Even though he was a child, the way he threw me high dozens of times did not look like someone who had learned martial arts.

I looked inside the formation from a high perspective.

The interior looks completely renovated compared to when I entered the camp with my group. A garden where various vegetables and greens grow. A small spring of unknown origin. The altar that I saw upon entering was not visible.

“Well~ I had a good time, so it’s time for a nap.”

“Ugh…I want to play with dad more.”

My father responded to my complaint with a big smile.

“Haha, I’ll play with you again when I wake up.”

“Okay!”

I rushed over and opened a door. There, although it was a little different from what I remembered, I saw an altar that had a similar feel.

I just lay down on the altar. Because it happened every day, I closed my eyes without any resistance.

And then I lost consciousness.

….The memories continued.

When I was roughly the age of an elementary school student, I was a walking troublemaker. While my mother and father were watching, I slipped and fell while climbing the rock wall inside the camp.

“Ahh!”

“Cheonan!”

“Are you okay!”

My parents came running in surprise. I burst into tears. This was because his shin was torn by the rock as he fell and was bleeding profusely.

It was a wound so big that even in a modern hospital, it would require dozens of stitches.

“It’s okay. Cheonan. Mom will help you get better soon.”

My father touched my mother’s shoulder. The hard face contained a different kind of worry than the one looking at my wound.

But my mother spoke firmly.

“It’s okay.”

At those words, my father looked at my mother for a moment, then let out a long sigh and said.

“Do as you wish.”

My mother said, stroking my head.

“Now, Cheonan… If your mom says ‘ho’, you will get better quickly. Ho~”

Surprisingly, the bleeding stopped quickly. It looked like it was bleeding that couldn’t be stopped naturally, but my father brought a clean cloth, wiped the area around my wound, and bandaged it.

As time passed, the wound healed completely.

The wound healed cleanly, but at the age when I was at the peak of my troubles, I just ran around the camp every day, causing trouble.

And then I ended up breaking my finger.

It was a scene that appeared in Pieces of Memories.

After receiving treatment with a splint, I was harshly scolded by my mother and father. After that, I lay down on the altar to take a nap like always, but that day I couldn’t sleep because of my throbbing fingers.

Sigh.

When I heard the door open, I immediately pretended to sleep. I didn’t do anything wrong, but my mother and father always strictly controlled me from taking a nap on this altar.

Ji-rye was scared that she would be scolded again for being surprised by the lid of the pot.

My parents looked at me outside the door for a moment and then closed the door. Sound leaked through the slightly closed door.

On rare occasions, my mother and father were fighting and raising their voices.

“Shouldn’t we leave the possibility open!”

“You know very well how terrible and scary your father is. Leaving room is a dangerous thing.”

“Cheonan is yours and mine. You will most likely become interested in martial arts in the future, so how do you plan to explain what is happening today?”

“Anyway…!”

That was the limit of my memory.

Maybe it was because I kept pretending to sleep without moving, or maybe it was the altar’s supernormal ability, but I really fell asleep.

Did these two people create the mixed blood characteristic in my body?

Clearly, the skill with which my mother tended to the wound on my shin was not just a medical skill. A mother like that and a father who managed Jinbeop. And even a suspicious altar.

It was clear that these two people were taking some kind of action against me.

Time passed by.

Aside from the strange situation of napping at the altar, this was a truly happy family. Even though we were not materially wealthy, the three of us, including myself, sincerely cared for each other and exchanged affection.

One day when such a peaceful daily life continued.

Someone came to visit.

“Father!”

“…It’s been a while.”

The one whom the father calls father.

It was my grandfather’s appearance.