Dong Bongsu sat in the darkness.
He had not lit a candle; he was simply contemplating his inner self in silence.
He was meticulously reviewing the things that had happened, the things he had done, and the things he would do since coming here.
Even so, he did not turn off his awareness of the outside.
It was noisy outside.
The sun had not yet risen, but the sound of hammers had already begun.
From the western construction area, the shouts of strong men raising pillars followed, overlapped by the sound of ropes being pulled and the dull thud of wedges being driven in.
From the training ground, Hoae's commands burst forth.
One, two!
The clash of swords.
The sound of someone falling and getting back up.
In between, the ceaseless footsteps of people moving about the barracks area could be heard.
The voices of the defeated soldiers who had fled from Hocheon were also mixed in here and there.
They said the Sect Leader here might be a Cultivator… no, someone else said… he could even be an Immortal…
Baseless rumors were circulating, but that was actually a good thing.
Beneficial misunderstandings pile up layer by layer to become truth, and when that truth-that-is-not-truth becomes old and established, it becomes a 'religion'.
Naturally, for the current Dong Bongsu, 'faith' was power.
From another direction, the wheels of a cart scraped loudly across the stone floor.
It was likely a cart carrying rice.
As the number of people increased, it was only natural that the amount of food needed would also increase.
A few children ran around somewhere in the barracks area, shouting.
Over it all, the fine sound of a whetstone being sharpened was laid.
Scrape-.
Scrape-.
The entire Hero's Sect was awake, except for the room where Dong Bongsu sat.
And while all that commotion continued for quite a while, Dong Bongsu did not change his posture one bit.
Amidst the commotion, more urgent footsteps gathered in one direction.
The presence of two people following Dongmun Mutoe's steps.
They moved quickly toward the main gate and faded into the distance.
A short while later, the door opened.
"Trigram Master Dongmun took Trigram Master Myo and Trigram Master Yan and went somewhere in a hurry, talking about Formation Dao or something… Did you order them to do anything?"
It was Jeon Rahwa.
As if familiar with the pitch-black room, she entered without hesitation and placed a tray on the table.
The low sound of dishes clinking.
"They said it was to the east. Trigram Master Myo looked annoyed, but Trigram Master Yan seemed rather excited."
"..."
"They didn't say when they'd be back."
When Dong Bongsu didn't reply, Jeon Rahwa sat on the edge of the tray.
"It's food."
"I have eyes too."
"What's the use if you don't even look?"
Hmph, she let out a light snort.
"I'll eat later."
"Liar."
"..."
"I'm going to leave it anyway, so if it gets cold, just eat it cold. If you leave any, I'll eat it."
Soon, Jeon Rahwa stirred and stood up.
"I'm going. Looks like Hoae is holding onto some people again. I wonder if he changed his job to that after being an instructor for a bit last time… He's been shouting his head off since morning."
"That's just his normal voice."
"You've spoiled the kid. A kid should be a kid."
"He's becoming a hero. In this damn Jianghu, even a kid has to become a wandering hero, a master. It's normal for a kid not to be a kid."
"Well, you're right. It's a world without a speck of romance. At least you… No, never mind. See you later then."
The door soon closed.
Her footsteps receded down the corridor and melted into the clamor outside.
The room became quiet again.
Without changing his posture, Dong Bongsu sorted through what he had just heard.
Dongmun Mutoe, Myo Jinheo, Yan Bilyeong.
The three of them had gone east.
To check on the presence that Dongmun Mutoe had sensed last night.
Three Trigram Masters of the Formation Tower should be more than enough for reconnaissance.
It seemed they also planned to set up a formation near the River Capital, which wasn't a bad thing either.
More importantly.
The battle at Colorful Lake a few days ago.
All the events that happened then were accidental, and the 'encounter with that bastard' was entirely a coincidence.
Dong Bongsu's confrontation with 'that bastard' was purely a variable.
The problem wasn't that it was a coincidence, but rather because it was a coincidence.
If he had come intentionally, he could have prepared, but to encounter such a person by chance meant that he could run into a martial artist of that level again at any time.
'What if there isn't just one being like him, but many, and they all attack at once?'
It could be difficult to handle.
His life might even be in danger.
It was clearly a variable, and if a variable could be controlled—.
'It must be controlled as much as possible.'
Regarding all unexpected variables, presumed to have come down from the Upper Realm.
Regarding those things that surely exist somewhere in this Murim.
It seemed the time had come to grasp whatever he could in advance.
And after a night of contemplation, he had found a way.
'Kim Rae-won's memories.'
The information scattered throughout the time he had walked in this Murim.
Those memories were fragmented, embedded here and there like pieces, and were dissolving into Dong Bongsu's brain irregularly.
'If I can properly dredge the very bottom of it…'
Perhaps he could acquire the many things he had experienced and the information he had gathered all at once.
Dong Bongsu's eyes closed.
Meditation.
Meditation is a more scientific method of inner reflection than one might think.
If one were to classify it in the language of this place, it would be an area closer to an Internal Energy Cultivation Art or Immortal Arts.
Just as no one here considers Internal Energy Cultivation Arts or Immortal Arts to be nonexistent, meditation was the most specialized method for calming the surface of consciousness and descending into its depths.
The former Dong Bongsu, the original one who existed on Earth but no longer does, had once dived to the very bottom of his own consciousness and come back up.
It was incredibly difficult, and a task so hard that if he had made a mistake, he might not have woken up again, but he had done it.
Couldn't he reach Kim Rae-won's memories in the same way?
Defragmenting the fragmented data.
He had originally considered it unnecessary, but now was the time to perform that postponed task.
"Huuuuu-."
With a deep breath, all of Dong Bongsu's conscious flow slowed down.
The sound of hammers from outside, the commands, the sound of carts—they all began to recede one by one.
Consciousness sinks inward.
Swims inward.
And.
Sinks.
Endlessly, into the sea of Kim Rae-won's memories.
● ● ●
He went down deep.
All the sounds coming from the outside thinned out as if pulling a thread, and eventually disappeared.
The sound of cartwheels, the sound of the whetstone, the voices of children.
One by one.
The last thing that remained was his own breathing, and at some point, even that was submerged.
The outline of his body blurred.
The sensation of his knees touching the floor disappeared first, then the tips of his fingers.
Shoulders, elbows… smell, touch, taste, hearing, and finally, even the weight of his skull and the flow of his thoughts vanished, leaving only the unconscious.
Thus, his senses as Dong Bongsu completely departed, and only his consciousness remained afloat.
The outside world did not exist.
Not the Hero's Sect, not the River Capital, not this Murim.
In a darkness deeper than the darkness of the room, only Dong Bongsu's consciousness had its eyes open.
A black void.
In the middle of the infinitely unfolding darkness, a single point floated.
It was neither light nor darkness.
Only the fact that something was there was transmitted through his senses.
It was similar to seeing a star, but it was closer than a star; it was similar to seeing a firefly, but it was colder than a firefly.
The point did not move.
Dong Bongsu stared at it.
And just looking was enough.
The point reacted.
Something like a tremor came first.
An invisible vibration spread through the darkness and reached Dong Bongsu's consciousness.
It was similar to when the Murim Online system first awakened, but it was a different kind of wave.
Thump-.
It wasn't a sound.
It hadn't been heard with his ears but had tapped on the surface of his consciousness.
Unlike the mechanical notification sounds of Murim Online, it was a resonance like the beating of a drum.
It was the sound he had heard when loading Kim Rae-won's play data before.
The unique interaction sound of the What is Hero system.
Text floated up in the darkness.
[Player Data Archive — Previous User: Kim Rae-won]
[Access Authority: Successor (Limited)]
'Archive.'
It was a menu he had never seen before.
When he loaded Kim Rae-won's play data, memories, language, and geographical information had all poured in at once, but he had never accessed such an organized repository.
'Did I reach a deeper layer of the system through meditation?'
Dong Bongsu read the text.
[Archive Status]
Surface Layer — Language · Identity · Relationships ··· Damage Rate 12%
Middle Layer — Combat Records · Travel Routes ··· Damage Rate 47%
Deep Layer — Personal Memories · Emotions · Basis for Judgment ··· Damage Rate 81%
A three-layer structure.
The damage rate increases from the surface to the deep layer.
This meant that Kim Rae-won's language and common sense remained almost intact, but eight out of ten of his personal memories and emotions were broken.
[Warning: Data Integrity Not Guaranteed]
Restorable Unit: Fragment. Continuous Playback Impossible — Index Damaged
It was interesting.
That the system and the contemplation of the abyss of meditation could have such a synergy.
But now was not the time to be engrossed in this.
Contemplating the abyss was not a safe method.
He could accidentally fall into this 'sea of memories' of Kim Rae-won and drown.
He just kept the words 'Continuous Playback Impossible' in his head.
It probably meant he couldn't look through everything from beginning to end.
It didn't matter.
It should be enough to piece together the remaining fragments as best he could.
81%.
Almost nothing remained at the bottom.
He would have to use what he could from the top down.
'It's enough.'
Dong Bongsu pushed his consciousness toward the point.
The point responded.
This time, it wasn't a tremor but an expansion.
From bottom to top, or from inside to outside.
He wasn't sure if it could be called a direction, but the sensation of something opening was clear.
Light spread out.
Like a panorama.
It wasn't that the darkness was clearing, but an image was rising as if layered on top of the darkness.
At first, it was blurry.
Like ink spread on water, only the outlines were visible, but gradually, color filled in and the form became clear.
Sound followed.
The sound of wind.
The sound of rustling grass.
The sound of insects.
It was as if a world was being born in the darkness.
Dong Bongsu was not standing inside it.
He was watching from the outside.
Like a spectator in a theater.
But there was one difference from a theater.
The sensations from beyond the screen were seeping into the audience's seats.
.....
....
...
...
A forest.
A boy in a school uniform was collapsed.
A navy blazer, a white shirt, and a school emblem on the left chest.
He was a high school student.
His lips were blue, and the hand he had placed on a mossy rock was trembling.
A chill spread inside his ribcage.
Something damp brushed against his palm.
The texture of moss.
Cold and sodden.
It was not Dong Bongsu's.
It was what the boy named Kim Rae-won must have felt at that moment, flowing across time.
There was no way to filter it.
He could only experience it as it flowed in.
Dong Bongsu… no, the boy Kim Rae-won, stood up.