SIGH.
Merun's fingers hovered over the scouter's sensor. "No results for Hungry Pain... right, Rui hasn't even invented that yet. I'm getting ahead of the timeline."
For now maybe focus on the foundational technique, the one that inspired Hungry Pain.
"Let's try... MIND SWITCH."
A single result blinked into existence. Merun grinned and tapped the file, the blue light of the scouter reflecting in his tired eyes.
[MIND SWITCH]
[MARTIAL APPRENTICE]
[DIFFICULTY: GRADE 3 / EFFECTIVENESS: MID-GRADE]
[TECHNIQUE CATEGORY: COGNITIVE ASSOCIATION (TYPE V-VIII)]
[TEACHER AVAILABLE: Y]
[TECHNIQUE DETAILS] A foundational mental conditioning art within the Kandrian Empire. The Mind Switch is essentially a martial application of Association Therapy. Its primary purpose is to condition the brain to trigger specific neurological phenomena or mental states in response to a physical trigger, such as a specific stance or movement. By creating a permanent neural link between an action and a state of mind, the user gains control over involuntary subconscious processes.
Standard Usage: Inducing a calm, rational state of mind during high-stress combat to prevent fear or panic from causing sub-optimal reactions.
"Jackpot," Merun whispered, leaning back against the wooden wall of the hut. "Maybe I can even use this to program trigger deep anger to fuel my Divine Arsenal... why don't other Martial Artists do this?"
Now all he had to do was... somehow use this to trigger autophagy right?
He stared at the scouter lens, his mind racing through the implications. He knew the potential of Hungry Pain. It was one of Rui's most impactful techniques—a technique that recycled the body's own cellular waste and turns it into a huge surplus of stamina and nutrition.
If he remembered correctly, Saiyans have extremely high metabolism, allowing them to eat 30-40 times more than a normal human, as they use up so much energy from constant battles. It wouldn't just be an advantage; it would be a biological cheat code. It would turn his constant caloric drain into a self-sustaining loop.
If he could harness that wasted energy... he could be like... wolverine.
He leaned back, tapping his chin. He didn't really truly understand how Rui did it, and he didn't have a background on science or anything so he'd have to consult with people I guess.
But there was a problem. A big one.
Rui was supposed to sell that technique to the Kandrian Martial Union for about thirty-one trillion credits. He was supposed to use it to elevate his friends—Kane, Nel, and the others—to create the strongest generation of Squires in Kandrian history. If Merun just "gave" it to the Beggar Sect now, he'd be stripping Rui of his greatest contribution and potentially butterfly-effecting the entire Kandrian Empire into a different future.
"I can't just leak it," Merun muttered to himself. "I have to recreate it in secret..."
But as he tried to recall again, the specific hypnotic triggers Rui used to link pain to starvation, he felt a cold shiver of dread. The edges of the memory were frayed. The details of the novel—the specific data points he had once known by heart—were starting to blur, like ink running in the rain.
"Dammit... the reincarnation is taxing my brain. I'm losing the 'wiki' in my head!"
He needed a way to lock his memories down before they evaporated entirely.
He tapped the search bar again, his fingers flying across the interface with renewed urgency.
"MIND PALACE."
[MIND PALACE]
[MARTIAL APPRENTICE]
[DIFFICULTY: GRADE 2 / EFFECTIVENESS: UTILITY-PEAK]
[TECHNIQUE CATEGORY: COGNITIVE STORAGE (TYPE V)]
[TEACHER AVAILABLE: Y]
[TECHNIQUE DETAILS] An Apprentice-level mental technique designed for perfect data retention. While standard memory relies on flawed subconscious associations, the Mind Palace operates through Conscious Association. The user constructs a detailed mental environment—a familiar building, a room, or even a city—and systematically "places" information in specific locations within that construct.
By navigating this imaginary space, the practitioner can retrieve complex data with 100% accuracy, bypassing the natural decay of human memory.
Merun let out a long breath, the tension in his shoulders finally dropping. "Perfect. This is the hard drive I need."
With the Mind Palace, he could take everything he remembered from the Martial Unity novel—every secret technique, every future betrayal, every hidden treasure—and lock it inside a mental vault where the "reincarnation fog" couldn't touch it.
Once his memory was stabilized, he could then work on the Mind Switch and the secret development of Hungry Pain without worrying about forgetting a crucial step in the neural remapping.
"First, I build the vault," Merun said, his eyes glowing with a renewed spark of motivation. "Then, I borrow the technique!"
He closed the database and shut his eyes, beginning the grueling process of visualizing a room. Not just any room. He started visualizing the living room of his old apartment back on Earth. His monitor, his TV, the stack of novels on the coffee table... his cat.
"Alright," he whispered into the quiet hut. "Let's see how many rooms I can build before Iro gets back."
———
Merun stood in the center of the silent mental recreation of his old apartment, the hum of an imaginary refrigerator the only sound. He sighed, rubbing his temples.
"I have... greatly overestimated my mind," he muttered.
Everything outside the four walls of this unit was a void. Every time he tried to visualize the street outside or the hallway, the image flickered and vanished the moment his mental gaze shifted. Rui, the protagonist of the novel, had a literal fucking city in his mind! Merun had lived in the age of information; he'd like to think his modern mind could handle at least a neighborhood. Was it the years of dopamine-frying YouTube Shorts and TikToks rotting his brain and shortening his attention span?
"Damn brainrot," he cursed.
Still, the unit served its purpose. On the coffee table sat his old smartphone. He picked it up, and though it didn't "work" like a real phone, it acted as the folder for his most precious data: a complete, digitized memory of Martial Unity.
This was his archive of the future.
He walked around the small space, his eyes landing on framed photos on the shelf. A stinging sensation hit his chest. The faces in the pictures were blurred, obscured by the fog of reincarnation. He tried to reach for his old name, his own face in a mirror, but they were gone—sacrificed to the transition between worlds. He had long since accepted this new life, but the void where his identity used to be still ached.
He looked down as a familiar weight brushed against his leg.
"Mimi..."
He scooped up his cat, baby-carrying her in his arms. She was just as soft and cute as he remembered. He buried his face in her fur, the imagined scent of home filling his senses. "Hopefully someone new adopted you, little Mimi. I'm sorry I couldn't make it back."
"I'm sorry."
He held her in a tight hug, letting himself cry for a few minutes.
In the "True World," he was a terrifying Saiyan warrior, but here, in the quiet sanctuary of his Mind Palace, he was just a guy who missed his cat.
Eventually, he gently set her down on the table. He couldn't stay in the past forever.
With one last look at the room, he bid her farewell and walked toward the front door.
As he stepped through the threshold, the scenery shifted instantly.
Outside the apartment unit, the "world" of his mind began to expand into the familiar dirt paths and thatched roofs of his hometown Owari. This was the boundary. Inside the apartment was the vault of his old life and the secrets of the novel; outside that small room was where every single new memory of Gaia would be stored.
He opened his eyes back in the physical world. The hut was still quiet, the scent of sea salt drifting through the window. Merun sat up, his expression hardening. The "vault" was established. Now, it was time to fill the village.
He walked outside into the clearing, the sun hitting his face. "Iro!" he called out, seeing her return from her tasks. "Change of plans. I don't need a week. I'm starting the Sanchin drills now. Can you call on a teacher? I'll try to do the basics."
Iro paused, looking at him with a mix of surprise and concern. The baggy-eyed "creature" from earlier was gone, replaced by a man with a gaze as sharp as a high-frequency blade.
He emitted an aura of pure focus and a hint of danger.
"You look... different," she noted, walking toward him. "Ready to stop being a brawler?"
Merun took the foundational stance, his heels digging into the soil. "Ready to become a Martial Artist. Let's get to work."