Episode 2
The World Outside
Thwack!
A punch without internal energy struck the old man's face directly, and his face caved in.
Thwack! Thwack!
Splurt!
When the punches hit his abdomen, blood poured from the old man's crushed face and lower body.
Crunch! Crunch!
Blood and marrow stuck thickly to his hands, making a sound like pounding rice cakes with a hammer.
“Huff... huff....”
It wasn't difficult at all.
It wasn't something worth catching his breath over.
Brrrr...
But whether it was a reaction to his first kill, his hands trembled and his breathing grew ragged.
Drip drip...
Beneath the stone bed, the old man's blood, pieces of organs, and brain matter flowed down.
And at that moment...
Rrrrumble...
With the sound of something opening, a side panel at the bottom of the stone bed slid open.
“....”
Inside were clothes that looked aged, but only because they were covered in dust—the fabric itself was perfectly intact.
The old man seemed to have planned this from the beginning.
All these procedures and experiments, and even his own death.
Swish—
Jin Hacheong changed into those clothes and burned his old garments in a torch as he spoke.
“I... will live....”
Leaving the nameless old man there until the end, Jin Hacheong went outside.
Thud, thud! Squelch!
The old man had prepared clothes but not shoes, so Jin Hacheong's feet quickly became caked in dirt.
Moreover, since it had rained recently, when he stepped in small puddles, mud squelched and clung to his feet.
Now that he had gained freedom, he felt at a loss when he thought about where to go.
No matter how much he thought about where to go and what to do, nothing came to mind.
Jin Hacheong had never lived with a defined purpose to begin with.
He was still too young to stand alone in the world.
And the only person who could have set his direction, the old man, had focused solely on making Jin Hacheong strong, so he had given Jin Hacheong no other purpose or words besides telling him to take revenge.
All he had was a vague tale about stealing others' martial arts to become stronger and take revenge on the Demonic Cult.
Perhaps because he kept thinking about it, Jin Hacheong soon decided to move toward a place where he could meet people.
As he walked through the forest to where the main road was visible, his clothes became covered in seeds from plants with hooked branches.
Pluck— pluck— pluck—
Picking them off one by one as he walked the highway, Jin Hacheong suddenly noticed people hiding nearby.
“Wh... what is it...?”
Perhaps because he had so few conversations with the old man, he stuttered slightly at speaking after so long, and people emerged from the bushes.
“The day's business starts early today.”
“Let's shake him down quickly and go back. They say there's a feast starting in the evening.”
“But isn't he too young?”
“What, do you think kids don't have money? These kinds are actually prime pickings!”
The three strange men who walked out wore slightly worn but comfortable clothes, each holding various weapons—from blunt instruments to swords and even chains.
“Boy, hand over eighty percent of the money you have, and I'll let you go on your way.”
To the one speaking to the youthful-looking Jin Hacheong, Jin Hacheong asked.
“Who... are you guys...?”
At the question about their identity, the one who looked most like an underling spoke.
“He seems like someone who doesn't know the ways of the world, eh?”
To that question, the one who appeared to be the second-in-command said.
“No, he just looks like a lunatic, walking around barefoot in mud....”
At the word “lunatic,” the one who seemed to be the leader made a troubled expression and soon asked Jin Hacheong.
“Boy, do you know what heroes of the Green Forest are? That's us.”
“I don't know....”
When he said he didn't know about the Green Forest, the second-in-command said.
“Ah! Look at him stuttering! That bastard really is a lunatic!”
When the second-in-command shouted, the leader smacked the second bandit's head.
Smack!
“Ack!”
“Would a lunatic even carry money! Hey, boy, I'll cut you a deal, so hand over fifty percent and I'll send you off in one piece.”
Cutting the toll from eighty to fifty percent was unprecedented, but unfortunately, Jin Hacheong was penniless.
“By money... you mean...?”
“That's right, boy.”
“I... don't have any....”
“If we search you and find something, you'll get hurt badly, boy.”
“I'm telling the truth....”
“You, youngest, go search him.”
At Jin Hacheong's words, the bandit underling stepped forward.
Rustle, rustle.
After rummaging through his clothes for a while, the underling spoke as if troubled.
“This bastard really is penniless?”
“Really?”
“Yes. This is the first time I've seen someone in the Green Forest with nothing but the clothes on his back.”
At the underling's words, the leader made a troubled expression.
“We can't even sell a lunatic as a slave... this is troublesome....”
“Our credibility will drop if we sell defective goods.”
While the bandits were worrying, Jin Hacheong looked at them.
“Tch! I thought we'd start early today, but we only caught something weird... Boy, I'll let you go today. Next time, carry some money and expensive things with you.”
At the leader's words, everyone seemed to agree.
But at that moment, a voice came from the bushes on the side of the Green Forest bandits.
“Has something interesting happened?”
“This situation seems rather interesting.”
“Ah, Left Deputy! Right Deputy! We were briefly treating a customer.”
The two middle-aged men called Left Deputy and Right Deputy appeared, each carrying a large axe.
“But from what I hear, he seems completely useless.”
“Yes. He doesn't have a single thing worth money.”
At the words that he was worthless, Left Deputy approached Jin Hacheong with his axe.
“If you don't have money, you have to give us something else. I'll just take one arm and one leg.”
“Then I'll take the legs.”
At the two middle-aged men's words about cutting off Jin Hacheong's limbs without warning, the one who had seemed to be the leader among the three spoke in bewilderment.
“Both of you! That one has a problem in his head, and he's just a child! Please let him go just this once....”
Swish...
As the leader pleaded, Left Deputy pressed his axe against the leader's neck and said.
“Then will you amuse me with your neck?”
“Ah... no....”
“Right?”
“Yes....”
Drip drip...
Judging by the flowing blood, the axe blade seemed to have cut in quite deeply.
At that sight, Jin Hacheong looked at Left Deputy and asked.
“Are you guys... strong...?”
At Jin Hacheong's words, his slight stutter now gone, Left Deputy laughed.
“Hahaha! They said you were crazy, and you really are! That's right! I'm strong enough to chop a guy like you into pieces in an instant!”
“I think he's really lost his mind like they said? I don't particularly want to see a lunatic's blood.”
At Left Deputy's confident words and Right Deputy's reluctant appearance, Jin Hacheong nodded.
“Then I'll take it.”
At the words “I'll take it,” Left Deputy laughed and said.
“What would you take from this body....”
At that moment, Jin Hacheong charged at Left Deputy.
An ordinary run—neither footwork nor movement technique.
At the sight, qi coalesced on Left Deputy's axe blade.
“Left Deputy!”
Infusing a sword with qi was a feat impossible for anyone short of a first-rate master.
And Jin Hacheong approaching such a Left Deputy was like a moth literally diving into a flame.
In the end, it was the moment the straight and powerful axe was about to strike Jin Hacheong's crownpoint.
Clang! Crunch!
The axe shattered, flying into the sky as if bursting apart.
He had shattered a qi-infused axe with his crownpoint.
“Uh...?”
“What the....”
Both Left Deputy, who had brought the axe down, and Right Deputy, who watched from the side, made blank expressions as if failing to understand the situation, and Jin Hacheong rushed at Left Deputy and said.
“You're not strong.”
He tried to strike Left Deputy's solar plexus, but Left Deputy blocked it with the handle of his axe.
Boom!
Having flown a distance of at least three jang, Left Deputy looked at the broken axe handle and vomited blood.
“Kuegh! Kuegh!”
Whether his qi and blood were severely tangled or his internal organs were damaged, Left Deputy, vomiting blood, could not easily rise.
“What the...?!”
“That guy... kuh! He's not... ugh... normal!”
At Left Deputy's words, Right Deputy infused his axe with qi.
The axe twisted in a strange direction and aimed precisely at Jin Hacheong's waist.
Clang!
It was a sound like metal clashing.
“Uh...?”
It was a sound hard to believe came from a human body meeting an axe.
Clasp!
Jin Hacheong, having caught Right Deputy's axe, gripped it tightly.
Grind!
Cracks began to form on the qi-infused axe.
Crack!
And the axe blade shattered, meeting the same end as Left Deputy's axe.
Seeing Left Deputy, who already looked too weak to move, and his own completely shattered axe blade, Right Deputy hoisted Left Deputy onto his shoulder and fled the scene.
“Where do you think you're going!”
Jin Hacheong tried to chase the fleeing two, but he had never learned movement techniques or footwork.
Therefore, he couldn't catch Right Deputy, a first-rate martial artist, even though Right Deputy was carrying someone.
When the two fled and the situation ended, the three Green Forest bandits watched blankly.
“Um....”
“P... please just spare our lives!”
“We beg you!”
“Please!”
When the three spoke while bowing simultaneously, Jin Hacheong shook his head.
“I don't just kill anyone... I just need a little travel money....”
At the mention of needing travel money, the three Green Forest bandits took out pouches from their chests and gathered them.
“This is all we have right now!”
Clink, clink...
Checking the pouches at the sound of metal clinking, there wasn't much.
It was roughly enough for about a month's food expenses and lodging at an inn.
But Jin Hacheong, who didn't know the market prices or how long this amount would last, saw several iron coins and one silver coin.
“Is this a lot?”
“W... we're sorry!”
The question of whether this was a lot was purely asking how much this money was worth in terms of market prices, but the bandits took it as asking if this was insufficient.
“No... I'll use this money well. Thank you, really. Do you... know... where there are many people...?”
“If you follow this road straight ahead, a fairly large city will appear!”
Jin Hacheong gathered the money into the cleanest-looking of the three pouches and now knew the way.
And he let the Green Forest bandits go, as there was no longer any need to hold them.
* * *
Walking along the road as the bandits had said, Jin Hacheong arrived at a city only late at night.
“Halt! The hour has passed, you can no longer enter!”
At the guards' words in front of the city gate, Jin Hacheong looked at the massive gate and spoke.
“Then when can I... enter?”
“You cannot enter until the Jinshi hour (7 to 9 in the morning).”
“Jinshi? Is it when the sun rises?”
“That's right!”
Since it was spring, the Jinshi hour would roughly be when the sun rose.
At those words, Jin Hacheong went into the forest beside the gate.
“Where are you going! Don't even think about climbing over the gate! You'll go straight to prison.”
Perhaps because martial artists sometimes had the ability to climb over or leap over such gate walls, Jin Hacheong spoke to the warning guard.
“I can't climb over it... and I don't want to go to prison either....”
The old man's procedure had given Jin Hacheong a strong body, but the old man had been an outsider to martial arts.
Or perhaps he hadn't taught martial arts because he believed what he could obtain would be insufficient.
Therefore, Jin Hacheong, who hadn't mastered martial arts themselves, possessed a strong body but couldn't cross the gate wall.
Of course, there were ways like climbing up, but if he did such a thing, he would be caught by the city guards immediately.
Feeling slightly grateful to the guard who had warned him in advance, Jin Hacheong entered the forest and gathered various leaves and branches.
He made a frame on the ground with branches and covered it with leaves.
This completed a temporary bed that would prevent his clothes from being soiled by the wet, muddy ground thanks to the recent rain.
“What is he doing?”
This perfect bed had a slight problem.