CERTIFICATE OF COMMENDATION
Chae Hyeon-jin
For your exceptional dedication and spirit of service, significantly contributing to the rescue of lives at the gate site, you are hereby commended.
I was summoned to the Hunter Agency to receive the award certificate.
Along with a reward of five million won.
Some might think five million won is paltry for saving over ten lives.
Yet, I was delighted by the unexpected windfall, money I hadn’t even considered.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
Once it became known that I was a young student, famous conglomerates sent a ten-million-won scholarship, and a civic organization sent another ten million won as an encouragement fund.
Thus, the total sum I acquired this time amounted to twenty-five million won.
What should I do with this?
What could I do to earn a reputation for having done well?
“Hunter-nim, could you please share your thoughts on this incident?”
“Do you have any secrets to maintaining your appearance?”
“Do you plan to become an SNS influencer?”
It seemed they were more interested in my appearance and social media presence than in the lives I had saved.
Evading the barrage of microphones thrust toward me by the reporters, I swiftly made my escape.
I had already received heartfelt thanks from the survivors and seen the Firefighter Middle-aged man (TL Note: ‘Ajjae,’ a Korean term referring to a familiar older man, often implying a working-class or common background) in good health, so I felt perfectly satisfied.
‘It feels incredibly good to have done something so worthwhile.’
And it wasn’t just a feeling.
After all, I had saved over ten lives that would have otherwise perished without me.
‘Many things have happened.’
On my way home, during the idle travel time, I opened my status window.
─────────────
■[Basic Information]
· Name : Chae Hyeon-jin
· Race : Human
· Gender : Female
· Age : 18
· Occupation : None
· Combat Power : 720
─────────────
■[Detailed Stats]
· Life Force : 11/11
· Ki : 16/16
· Spirit Power : 11/11
· Mana : 17/17
· Internal Energy : 11/11
· Strength : 38
· Perception : 43
· Cognition : 17
· Willpower : 19
◎[Free Distribution Points : 27]
─────────────
■[Talents]
·Martial God’s Talent
·Myriad Paths Converge
·Martial God’s Physique
─────────────
■[Skills]
·Heavenly Wheel Throw 3-Star
·Basic Swordsmanship 2-Star
·Dragon Claw Fist 1-Star
·Azure Dragon Heart Sutra
·Slide
·Woman’s Voice
·Martial Arts Net
Ascending to the 11th floor of the Tower, I had truly grown immensely.
My combat power, which started at 25, was already 720.
Did that mean I had become thirty times stronger than when I first entered the first floor of the Tower?
While combat power doesn’t tell the whole story, such a monumental change made it undeniably clear that I had become an entirely different person.
However, a single blemish on my perfect and beautiful status window kept catching my eye.
·Woman’s Voice
This wretched skill, which I had drawn during a skill gacha in the Tower.
I was already a woman, so where on earth was I supposed to use such a skill?
Yet, the thought of leaving a skill I had never used simply lying dormant filled me with an unbearable frustration.
I was determined to make use of this skill.
Pulling out my phone, I searched for nearby public phone locations, then walked a considerable distance to reach one.
Following the skill’s activation condition, after clearing my throat three times, I called Young-soo.
–Hello.
His voice echoed from beyond the receiver.
“Young-soo, do you remember? When we were in kindergarten, we promised to get married when we grew up. Well, we’ve become adults this year, haven’t we?”
–Huh? Who is this?
“I’ll come find you soon. I’ve become much prettier, so look forward to it.”
Click.
Speaking for too long would only reveal the flaws in my script.
I created a non-existent childhood friend for him and then hung up.
I hoped this would bring him at least a day of excitement and joy.
Of course, it was all nonsense, a mere prank call.
I hoped he would truly flail about, thoroughly hooked.
“Good. With this, there are no useless skills left in my skill window.”
Having resolved one blemish, my mood brightened once more.
To reach this level of growth, I had received so much heartwarming support from many people.
Now, it felt like it was time to give a little back.
[ㅇㅇ) I’m a Newbie, check out this throwing martial art I developed in the Tower]
:Up until now, I’ve always thrown things from a stationary position, using only weight transfer and the rotational force from my shoulder-arm-wrist.
But is throwing from a stationary position truly the best way?
Is merely rotating my arm from the shoulder truly the best?
Doubting this, I tried throwing while running and rotating my body, and it was incredibly powerful.
If anyone hasn’t tried it, give it a go.
This is incredible.
To actually use Martial Arts Net for serious discussions on martial arts.
Seeing this, even the Martial God in the heavens would surely look upon it with satisfaction.
Of course, the heavens I speak of here are not the afterlife, but the divine realm.
└This isn’t self-torture, what is this nonsense?
└You can control direction while spinning your body? Lololol.
└Isn’t throwing from a stationary position a well-established basic principle, because gaining a little running momentum isn’t worth sacrificing stability?
└Seriously, the foundation of all martial arts is solid lower body support.
These ignorant fools spoke of things they knew nothing about.
I added a clue to the post.
└This technique isn’t for Newbies.
└It’s for experts with at least some Internal Energy.
Then people grew angry.
└You said ‘I’m a Newbie’ in the title, you b*tch LOL.
└’I’m a Newbie’ means: ‘I’m a total veteran.’
└The ‘hit-and-run Newbie’ is already a veteran? How many days has it been since they started?
└Ah, that’s because it’s the Martial God’s Talent.
└If they’d entered a sect normally without talent, wouldn’t they still be sweeping the courtyard?
└Do you think sweeping the courtyard is a joke?? It hasn’t even been a month, at this point, they wouldn’t even be accepted as a family member, let alone allowed into the main hall.
└That’s probably because your donations weren’t enough?
└They were a beggar ㅠㅠ
Well, those who understand will understand on their own.
I can’t force concepts down anyone’s throat until they grasp them.
This is merely a tip I’m sharing because I’m in a good mood.
I’m not looking for disciples.
‘Perhaps it’s common knowledge among masters.’
Judging by the reactions, it certainly didn’t seem to be common knowledge.
****
In Kingsland, the largest continent of Middleland, at the Guardians’ Fortress on humanity’s northernmost frontier.
General Commander Crisella had been in a foul mood lately.
Her boomerang Newbie, with whom she had even imagined grandchildren, had abandoned her yo-yo and her whip to play with a mentally unstable dragon villain.
A truly deranged villain who constantly prattled on about wanting to become a dragon, wondering if humans could become dragons, and so forth.
What exactly was the Demon God doing?
Why wasn’t he blocking such a madman?
He should bar him from accessing the gallery!
“Hmph….”
The General Commander’s bad mood caused the entire fortress to be shrouded in a chilling atmosphere.
Everyone was treading carefully, fearing that one wrong step might land them an endless circuit around the training grounds.
In reality, Crisella wasn’t quite that tyrannical.
However, in the bleak northern lands where unauthorized desertion could lead to immediate execution, it was unwise to displease a superior.
Her adjutant, who had long served by Crisella’s side, was especially watchful.
‘It seems her romance didn’t go well.’
The rosy aura had vanished, leaving behind only dull, gray gloom.
Crisella, staring blankly at the Martial Arts Net, suddenly grabbed her boomerang and went outside.
‘Run and throw while spinning your body?’
As Hyeon-jin had stated, it wasn’t for beginners.
She had said it was for experts with at least some Internal Energy, but that was entirely incorrect.
If one couldn’t acquire Internal Energy within a year of obtaining a Heart Sutra, they were considered a truly slow-witted dullard and absolutely forbidden from living the life of a martial artist.
And even after twenty years of training, if one hadn’t surpassed the level of an elite, they were still seen as a beginner.
Therefore, to say ‘an expert with Internal Energy’ was an odd phrase.
Having Internal Energy was the minimum requirement for a martial artist, and ‘expert’ was a term for a martial artist who was somewhat skilled.
‘This is preposterous, utterly illogical.’
For ranged weapons, especially throwing types, a solid lower body foundation was the beginning and the end; it was everything.
Who wouldn’t know that throwing while running was more powerful?
But that only applied to competitions where throwing far was the sole objective.
In real combat, precision was overwhelmingly more critical.
So, throwing while running was illogical.
That alone was illogical, but to throw while spinning your body?
If the opponent hadn’t been a Newbie with the Martial God’s Talent, she would have dismissed it as utter nonsense.
But the opponent was a Newbie with the Martial God’s Talent.
Could there truly be something to it if someone with the Martial God’s Talent said so?
So, Crisella stopped merely imagining and went out to the training grounds to try it in practice.
And she tried it herself.
“This is it!”
There’s a story that if an elephant is chained from a young age, it won’t think to break the chain even when it grows into an adult capable of easily doing so.
This often happens in the martial arts world as well.
Martial arts learned when one’s Internal Energy or physique was still weak become too deeply ingrained in the body.
Even after becoming a master who could tear steel with their hands and shatter rocks with their legs, they couldn’t break free from the forms and common sense they had learned.
Hyeon-jin’s ability to create Heavenly Wheel Throw, in addition to her Martial God’s Talent, was greatly influenced by her unique state of not having properly learned any existing martial arts.
However, a beginner of that level would normally never be able to control their posture skillfully.
They would probably try, realize it was a theory almost impossible to implement, and give up.
That’s why this concept was possible only for Hyeon-jin, the Newbie with the Martial God’s Talent.
And Crisella, the Gale of the Ten Greats of the Continent, inherited it.
“Beyond forms lies formlessness, beyond fixed patterns lies patternlessness….”
This was a common refrain among masters.
If you have perfectly mastered a form, forget that form.
But for those who had yet to break through that realm, it sounded like grasping at clouds.
‘What? If I forget the techniques I’ve studied so hard, how am I supposed to fight?’
Then, those who had already broken through that realm could only answer thus:
“Well.”
Everything you have cultivated and learned is already within you.
You merely need to draw it out and use it, so you will do well on your own.
Then, those who had not broken through that realm would again be left wondering:
‘What does that even mean? How is one supposed to do it? What exactly am I supposed to do?’
“Do not cling to fixed patterns. Move in the most suitable way. The answer is already within you.”
Crisella attained enlightenment.
“You haven’t abandoned your throwing weapons, Newbie!”
And also gained a fleeting hope.
