Sparring Hammer Eccentric truly appeared in the Martial World as if dropped from the sky.
Holding one peculiarly shaped hammer of two meters, he went around to various sects requesting sparring matches. At first, all martial artists laughed, saying some madman had emerged into the Martial World.
However,
It didn't take long to realize that this madman wasn't just an ordinary lunatic.
Consecutive victories in consecutive battles.
Consecutive defeats in consecutive battles.
Sparring Hammer Eccentric won every time he fought.
The masters of the sects he faced kept losing.
The masters of the sects he challenged continued to lose. Although these were sparring matches rather than fights to the death, each sect suffered severe humiliation. To be defeated without being able to display any real strength by a newcomer who had just appeared was no different from having the sect's reputation trampled into the ground.
Yet they couldn't criticize him either.
Because criticizing an opponent for losing in an official sparring match was a shabby action. Moreover, his martial arts didn't contain any deceit. His energy was said to be so upright that everyone felt their minds snap awake from his hammering, with such righteous energy contained within.
What was strange was that even the smallest Orthodox Faction martial arts were known, but the hammer technique he learned and used was too unfamiliar. As if it had dropped from the sky.
Additionally, Orthodox Faction people didn't use hammers as weapons. No, no martial artist used hammers as weapons. There was no Orthodox, Hall of Gathering Evil, or Demonic distinction in such conventional wisdom. No one wanted to use such an unsophisticated and inefficient weapon.
Its destructive power was far inferior to iron clubs and it was very difficult to wield freely. Nevertheless, Bukgung Gi skillfully swung his hammer and knocked out sect leaders of small and medium sects one by one.
Gansu, Jiangxi, Jiangsu....
Bukgung Gi traversed east, west, south, and north without discrimination, defeating masters.
When that peculiar sparring warrior defeated his hundredth small or medium sect, the great sects and Five Great Families of the Central Plains began to grow tense.
If they were to lose to that fellow when he came to find them, there would be no greater humiliation.
Trembling with anxiety, unable to sit comfortably.
Then one day, as the great sects' worries deepened.
Sparring Hammer Eccentric Bukgung Gi suddenly vanished without a trace.
There were no signs. Just as when he appeared, he disappeared from the Martial World without any trace.
According to one theory, one of the Twenty Great Masters under Heaven sought him out and defeated him.
According to another rumor, a martial organization from a great sect collectively attacked and killed him....
Various rumors circulated at the time, but in the end, nothing was revealed.
Thus he was forgotten.
Now, ten years later, he suddenly appeared at the Murim Alliance. Not only was the surname Bukgung not very common, but among them, if there was a master with such movements....
Most likely, that Bukgung Gi was that Bukgung Gi.
"Then that... the person named Dong Guang-chuan earlier, could he be that person's disciple?"
Hwa Seon-hyang said.
At that, Hwa Ye-ji immediately shook her head.
"No, he wouldn't be. Bukgung Gi said..."
'To think he was doing something like mercenary work with that talent. What a pity, such a pity.'
'This fellow lived in the rough and smelly North, so he knows nothing of manners. Please understand, beautiful young lady.'
"He said that."
"Mercenary? A wanderer hired and used by the military for money when needed? That's right, isn't it?"
"Yes, that must be it. It seems the person named Dong Guang-chuan is someone who lived as a wanderer in the North."
At Hwa Ye-ji's words, this time Hwa Seon-hyang shook her head and puffed out her cheeks before deflating them and said,
"Huh? But does that make sense? I clearly saw it earlier too. That Willow Leaf Drift was really really natural. Maybe it might have been even better than mine. But there's no way a mere wanderer could do that."
At Hwa Seon-hyang's words, Hwa Ye-ji recalled that situation again.
Right, that was it. What that fellow deployed then was clearly,
"Willow Leaf Drift... definitely Willow Leaf Drift. Even though he would have seen it only once... it was orthodox Willow Leaf Drift."
"Oh come on, can that even be called seeing it once? He just flew up and briefly crossed paths with Young Miss?"
Right, something hard to even call seeing it once—just improvisation.
That's why it made even less sense.
"Right. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't. And only with External Energy Arts too."
"What? Only with External Energy Arts? What do you mean, Young Miss?"
"Sparring Hammer Eccentric..."
'I'm not looking down on you, but with only External Energy Arts that are barely usable, you won't be a match for those fellows over there.'
"He said that."
"How could... I can't believe it."
Hard to believe. There were no other words to represent their feelings.
However, what Dong Guang-chuan deployed was definitely Willow Leaf Drift's gait.
They had never seen, heard, or imagined executing a gait to that degree without Internal Energy Arts. Especially with just a brief glimpse of stealing a look.
That's why it was even more nonsensical.
"He probably learned properly from Uncle Bukgung... no wait, let's call him Great Hero. He must have learned properly from Great Hero Bukgung. Otherwise such a thing wouldn't be possible."
"I wonder. Can that be called learning?"
"Well, that's true though. Hehe—. There's no one like that even in Mount Hua Sect."
Though Hwa Seon-hyang giggled lightly as if pleased, the content was anything but simple. Even in the great Mount Hua Sect, there wasn't a single person who could do that.
Dong Guang-chuan was someone who accomplished it.
An unidentified mercenary from the North.
Interest arose.
As much as that person over there.
Jong Ji-hang entered Hwa Ye-ji's eyes once more.
Though she knew nothing about that person except his name, the mere fact that he came out from the Inner Court with a famous and important figure like Namgung Hye was enough to guess several things. That he was an important guest of the Murim Alliance. Perhaps he might be a guest of Hyeoncheon Jinin, the Murim Alliance Leader.
It meant he wasn't a nameless wanderer as she had initially thought.
Jong Ji-hang and Dong Guang-chuan.
Two unknown figures were planting great ripples and fantasies in the heart of her who was just emerging into the Martial World.
"Young Miss. We came down at a good time, right?"
"That's right. We came down at a good time."
"While I'm at it, maybe I should catch a man and return to Mount Hua. Hehe—."
Where Hwa Seon-hyang was looking with pursed lips, there were Dong Bong-soo and Soldier Eccentric.
On the other hand, Hwa Ye-ji was alternately looking at Jong Ji-hang and Dong Bong-soo. Not even knowing whether it was possible to weigh them or not.
***
Thud, thud.
Before Soldier Eccentric came down, Dong Bong-soo was already crossing Central Great Road and walking toward the opposite side where Jibin Pavilion was. Soldier Eccentric flew down behind such a Dong Bong-soo.
Several Martial World Protection Corps members who were spread throughout the Murim Alliance watching for suspicious people looked at him strangely as he fell from the roof. However, they didn't particularly approach or show any special movement. Because they saw the identification plaques on Dong Bong-soo and Soldier Eccentric's chests.
Among the many people who entered this place, figures wearing Murim Alliance plaques could be counted on one hand, and they were all guests specially invited by the Murim Alliance.
Dong Bong-soo habitually scanned the surroundings and checked all the Martial World Protection Corps' positions.
Such small things were important to him. In fact, they were important to all who lived in jungles like the Martial World, but not many people actually did it. Because one couldn't know whether it was important or not until an incident occurred.
Then Soldier Eccentric came up beside Dong Bong-soo and said,
"How do you know where I'm going and go ahead alone like that?"
"Isn't it that building over there?"
Dong Bong-soo resumed his momentarily paused steps and indicated with a head gesture the building at the far corner in the back opposite.
A structure attached to the most secluded spot of the tall wall that bordered the Inner Court and Outer Court.
So small it was embarrassing to even call it a building. If Dong Bong-soo hadn't mentioned it, it was small enough to be considered a subsidiary building of the protruding hall beside it.
Halt.
Soldier Eccentric momentarily stopped.
But soon he attached himself beside Dong Bong-soo again and said,
"...You're really a ghost-like fellow. How did you know?"
"I saw you looking at it closely."
"I looked there? Closely at that? When, where?"
"Just before, on the roof."
"..."
Soldier Eccentric was dumbfounded.
He definitely would have glanced at it.
Since he had climbed onto the roof to go there anyway, he would have to check the location, wouldn't he? But he absolutely didn't look at it that carefully. He just glanced once, and rather, what he examined closely wasn't that building but this fellow walking beside him.
Yet the fellow saw that and guessed, no, was certain of the next destination and moved.
'...Is this guy really human?'
Now it was frightening.
A fellow who was somehow mystical and gave goosebumps.
That was the Dong Bong-soo that Soldier Eccentric saw. Exactly the ideal human image he had been seeking and pursuing. Too... too much so.
Whether Soldier Eccentric thought that or not, Dong Bong-soo just kept moving his steps forward.
Soldier Eccentric shook his head vigorously, then looked at Dong Bong-soo's back before following again and said,
"You, tell me honestly. Who's your master?"
Dong Bong-soo continued walking and asked back,
"Why do you ask that?"
"No, isn't that right? No matter how I think about it, a fellow like you couldn't have just dropped from the sky. Of course, you don't seem to have properly learned martial arts, but in every other way, it's unreasonable to see you as just a mercenary. You must have definitely learned from some renowned master. The sword made of Divine Metal must also have been inherited from that person."
Halt.
Dong Bong-soo stopped walking.
Dropped from the sky. In some ways, it was correct. He had been playing a game, logged out, and then was in this body.
Not having properly learned martial arts was also correct. Though he had reached the level of reading various secret manuals and mimicking movements, he had never formally learned them.
It was also true that he had shown too much to be dismissed as a mere mercenary. Much of what he displayed to Soldier Eccentric and Eul Ji-tae had been deliberate performance—though it was not far from his true self.
Lastly, Divine Metal—that was the lump of metal from melting the [Novice's Sword].
Something like a gift the New Murim Online system gave him.
'If you put it that way, my master would be the system.'
What should the system be called in this world's terms?
Literally translated it would be system or institution, but he didn't really think that meaning fit.
Then Dong Bong-soo turned his head and looked around.
The noisily chattering spectators and Chinese-style halls, the high sky, and the madmen.
They were all accessories belonging to this place called New Murim Online.
Right, the system was this world.
Dong Bong-soo turned his head back to the front and moved forward while saying,
"The world. My master is the world. Unless something special happens, my master will probably remain so forever."