I pushed through the heavy soundproof door of the Association President's office.
A massive air purifier roared as it spun, but it couldn't completely erase the stale cigarette smell and stench of exhaustion that filled the room.
Association President Park Jin-cheol was buried in the sofa, wearing a wrinkled shirt that looked like it hadn't been changed in days.
Bloodshot eyes. A scraggly beard.
It was the same terrible state he'd been in during the early days of the Gate Shock, when he'd commanded the front lines for three days and nights without sleep.
I plopped down on the sofa across from him.
"Old Man. You're still alive, I see."
"Judging by that smart mouth, looks like you got plenty of rest."
The Association President replied in a raspy voice, pushing a thick file folder across the table toward me.
Spoils recovered from the Crimson Lotus Guild.
It was the analysis results of a strange ancient text discovered in a dungeon presumed to have an ecosystem from a Martial Arts Fantasy worldview.
"Our research team and linguists stayed up all night translating it. Bottom line—the characters in that book were pictographs very similar to ancient Chinese, meaning Hanja. The grammar and stroke forms were subtly different, but there was no major difficulty in inferring and interpreting the meaning."
I opened the file.
Next to scanned images of the original ancient text were densely packed Korean translations and annotations.
Sections where the paper had decayed or been stained with blood beyond decipherability were left as black blanks.
"What's the content? A history book? Or a magic spellbook?"
"Closer to physical training methods than magic."
The Association President downed the cold coffee on the table in one gulp.
"Tae-ho. Ever read any martial arts novels?"
"What kind of nonsense is this all of a sudden?"
"It's not nonsense. That ancient text is clearly a Martial Arts Manual."
My fingers stopped mid-flip through the documents.
"Mana... no, borrowing their expression—breathing techniques for gathering qi in the dantian and circulating it throughout the body. Footwork for planting your feet and shifting your weight. And the trajectories and forms for wielding a sword infused with energy are described in great detail. Although so much was damaged that we could only grasp about 30% of the full content, one thing is certain—it's a technique designed to destroy and kill."
The Association President tapped the table with his finger.
"One of the researchers tried to follow the translated footwork. I slapped him across the face to stop him. You know that concept from martial arts novels—qi deviation? If you clumsily imitate how to handle energy, your blood vessels could twist or your heart could burst."
"Wise decision."
"This proves your hypothesis completely."
The Association President leaned back deeply and let out a long sigh.
"A Martial Arts World where martial arts and Internal Energy truly exist is real beyond the Gates. A manual used by martial artists from that world crossed over to our side. Not just monsters, but their knowledge and civilization too."
We thought it was just a disaster spewing monsters, but this meant there was a civilization similar to humanity on the other side—one that cultivated martial arts and passed down manuals.
"Would be nice if the Fantasy World side dropped some solid intel like these manuals or grimoires. That Unmeasurable Rank Gate that opened in Osaka seems to be from that category... but I don't know if those Japanese bastards will share information, closed off as they are."
The Association President muttered while pressing his brow.
Grand international affairs and civilizations from other dimensions.
But none of that was my immediate concern.
I closed the file and sprang up from my seat.
"Old Man. Send me the translated text file to my email."
"What are you planning to use it for? Kid, I clearly warned you. Don't try following it even out of curiosity. If you clumsily imitate martial arts with that monstrous mana reservoir of yours, our entire Association headquarters could blow up."
"Yes, yes. Got it. I'll just look. My business here is done, right?"
I answered half-heartedly while putting on my jacket.
The Association President's wrinkled face as he closed his eyes to ease his fatigue looked particularly pitiful.
"How long has it been since you went home, Old Man? Your wife's going to lock you out."
"I don't know either, kid. I'm busy as hell, so stop with the useless talk and get going."
The Association President waved his hand, shooing me away.
With his rough dismissal at my back, I left the Association President's office.
* * * * *
My room in the penthouse.
I sat in the chair at my desk, staring intently at the monitor.
The PDF file of the translated Martial Arts Manual sent from the Association.
'This is really a technique humans can use?'
Reading it as text alone seemed absurd.
But I couldn't suppress the itch in my body.
I stood up from my seat.
I walked out to the open space in the middle of the room and took a light breath.
I'd told the Association President I'd just look, but I couldn't resist without verifying its utility with my own eyes.
Of course, the explosive mana filling my entire body was thoroughly sealed so it wouldn't move.
I intended to implement the manual's forms using only pure physical movement.
I stepped my right foot half a step forward.
I bent my knee, dropping my center of gravity low and long.
Simultaneously, I twisted my waist counterclockwise and extended my right arm—holding an imaginary sword—diagonally upward.
The force starting from my toes traveled up through my calves and thighs, passed through the rotational power of my pelvis, and was smoothly transmitted through my shoulder, elbow, and fingertips in a seamless process.
"Huh."
My eyes widened.
The movement I'd expected to be awkward was incredibly natural.
A perfect transmission of power designed to calculate the use of the human skeleton and muscles to their limits—producing the most lethal destructive force with the least effort.
My interest was piqued.
Next movement.
Using my left foot as an axis, I rotated my body half a turn to cut down an enemy behind me.
The moment I gained momentum and rotated my body—
—Snap.
The flow broke.
The footwork and eye positioning that should have followed were lost, leaving my body awkwardly frozen in midair.
I tried to force my way to the movement written in the next section, but like a missing stepping stone in the middle, my muscles screamed and stiffened.
"Phew..."
I released the posture and stood straight.
Light beads of sweat formed on my forehead.
Despite being pure physical activity without using any mana, just two movements had consumed tremendous stamina.
"One thing's certain—it's not worthless nonsense. The intact parts are so smooth it's chilling."
Suddenly, a terrible impulse rose up my esophagus.
What would happen if I channeled my overwhelming mana into this perfect killing trajectory?
If I held a high-density mana sword and executed this footwork—
The forest of buildings in Gangnam District might get sliced clean through.
I clenched my fist.
I had to restrain myself.
If I poured explosive energy into an incomplete trajectory with broken sections, the uncontrolled mana could backflow and tear all my blood vessels apart.
Besides, my body was a deformed full-body core without a dantian.
"Calm down. Not if you don't want to blow up the penthouse."
But my curiosity about pure physical movement didn't fade.
Was this forced movement only possible because of my S-Rank body, or was it an ergonomic design that ordinary people could follow through training?
I needed a test subject.
I opened the door and crossed the living room.
—Bam.
Without knocking, I threw open Ha-eun's door.
She was lying on her bed with a snack bag on her stomach, giggling at a variety show on her smartphone.
"Hey. You busy?"
"No? Why."
Ha-eun answered indifferently, her eyes fixed on the screen.
"Then get up and try what I show you."
I approached the bedside and demonstrated the first stance of the martial art I'd done in my room.
Lowering my center of gravity, twisting my waist, and thrusting the sword forward.
Ha-eun glanced at me over her smartphone and snorted.
"What are you doing? Dancing? Is this one of those idol dance challenges these days? Ah, this is hilarious, seriously."
She sat up and opened her smartphone camera app, shoving it toward me.
"Hold on. I need to record this and post it online. An S-Rank Hunter's cute idol dance. The views will explode."
She was messing around.
I lightly flicked my finger.
—Whoosh!
"Wh-what?!"
The smartphone in Ha-eun's hand was caught by an invisible grip of mana and shot into the air.
The phone stuck flat against the room's ceiling.
"My phone!! Hey! If it falls, the screen will shatter!"
"Stop whining and get down here and copy that movement. If you can't do it exactly, I'm leaving your phone up there forever."
At my cold threat, Ha-eun pouted and reluctantly got off the bed.
"Ugh, so annoying, seriously. What do I do?"
"Right foot half a step forward. Bend your knee. Twist your waist."
She grumbled as she moved her body according to my instructions.
But the sight was disastrous.
Her center of gravity was scattered all over, and when she twisted her waist, her ankle collapsed and she wobbled.
Her shoulders were tensed up, making the trajectory of her extended arm stiff as a branch.
"No, twist your pelvis more clockwise. Eyes on your fingertips."
"Ah, why are you like this! I feel like my bones are breaking!"
When I tried to correct her posture by pressing down on her pelvis, Ha-eun screamed in horror.
"Does this even make sense for human joint structure?! Aack! I got a cramp in my inner thigh! Kang Tae-ho, are you crazy?!"
She finally couldn't hold out and collapsed on the floor.
I looked down at her clutching her thigh and groaning.
Experiment concluded. The results were clear.
"That's enough. You can stop."
I gently lowered the smartphone stuck to the ceiling and placed it on her stomach.
"What the hell, seriously. You twist someone's joints and then toss their phone back and that's it? What even is this!"
Ha-eun shouted indignantly, but I ignored her complaints and turned to leave the room.
"You don't need to know. Rest."
Behind the closing door, her aggrieved curses flew at me, but I let them wash over me.
I crossed the living room and returned to my room, sinking deep into my chair.
I propped my chin and organized the results of the experiment.
'Impossible for ordinary people.'
Ha-eun's body was stiff, but more fundamentally, the movements in this manual barely exceeded the normal range of motion for an average human body.
Extreme physical techniques that could only be executed by those who had rigorously trained their muscles and joints from childhood, even restructuring their bones to suit martial arts.
I could follow the movements without difficulty thanks to the transcendent physical durability the System granted me upon Awakening.
I absently picked up a ballpoint pen from the desk.
I spun the pen between my fingers and curled up the corner of my mouth.
Killing trajectories that transcended human limits.
If I poured my mana over these perfect physical laws and combined them with imagination—
For instance, if I concentrated energy at the pen tip and scattered dozens of slashes through the air—
"What kind of result would come from adding mana circulation to those movements?"
I condensed a tiny amount of blue mana—no bigger than a speck of dust—at the pen tip.
Then, mimicking the sword trajectory I'd seen in the manual, I lightly stabbed toward the notebook on my desk.
—Fwaaash
In an instant, mana flowed from the pen tip as blue light, distorting the air and briefly sketching the shape of a flower with five petals before vanishing.
An old martial arts fantasy romance flashed through my mind.
"Will real plum blossoms bloom?"
I chuckled and tossed the pen onto the desk.
Even amid the headache-inducing secrets of the world, finding a toy to evolve my martial prowess made for a not-so-bad Sunday evening.
