Could it be that he still hadn't logged out?
The thought crossed his mind briefly, but it vanished far more quickly than it had appeared.
This excruciating pain coursing through his entire body?
It was a vividness he could never have felt inside the game. If such sensations could have been implemented in-game... Dong Bong-su would never have logged out in the first place. He'd probably still be hunting even now.
He strained his eyes harder to make out the hologram text. As he did, his swollen eyelids tore open and blood trickled down. However, only the pain increased—his vision didn't improve at all.
'Then.'
If his eyesight wouldn't cooperate, he just needed to increase the light.
Dong Bong-su turned his gaze toward the window where moonlight streamed in. A brilliantly bright full moon appeared and illuminated his eyes, and the contents of the translucent hologram window put a definitive punctuation mark on this surreal situation.
[The device has malfunctioned and logout has failed. Would you like to attempt disconnection again? Yes or No]
A device error?
Dong Bong-su was puzzled. Were these utterly realistic scenes, this intensely stimulating smell, and all these sensations that constricted his entire body with a tingling numbness—were they all coming from a machine malfunction?
He couldn't understand it.
He'd have to check for himself.
Without much hesitation, Dong Bong-su raised his hand and inserted it into the hologram.
Beep.
He saw the 'No' button distort as the operator's dry, emotionless voice was etched into his mind.
Woom woom woom.
―You have selected 'No.' Then we will return you to Murim Online. One, two, three...
Crackling mechanical noise struck inside Dong Bong-su's head. Simultaneously, he felt as if his brain was being torn apart as he gradually lost consciousness.
The emotionless voice of the Murim Online operator echoing through his fading consciousness.
―Then we wish you a pleasant time with Murim Online...
***
Machil had been in a rather foul mood these past few days—two weeks, to be precise. In vulgar terms, you could say he was going crazy and jumping mad.
He was already busy enough with his work as a weapon servant, and now he had to take on this annoying task as well—he had no choice but to feel this way. Even now, he was heading to the stable carrying rice gruel for Sosam's breakfast.
"Ah, in this huge Danri Family, am I the only one who can clean up that bastard's shit? Why do I always have to do these goddamn shitty jobs?"
Two weeks ago, on the day he went with Sosam to collect weapons from the armory, Sosam had made a mistake and suffered a major injury.
If the work was done, he should have just gone home nicely, but instead he wandered the entertainment district in the evening and met with disaster.
According to what he'd heard from one of the onlookers at the time, Sosam had suddenly blocked the path of Paeng Do-ryang. Paeng Do-ryang was the bodyguard of Danri Hui, the second daughter of the Danri Family head. Danri Hui was such a tomboy that even the family head Danri Cheon-u found her difficult to control. To block the path of such a girl's bodyguard—it was remarkable that Sosam was even alive now.
When Sosam was being beaten by Paeng Do-ryang, Machil had been at Bongyang Inn, thoroughly enjoying the flesh of that courtesan girl. After releasing his pent-up lust and returning to the family estate with a satisfied heart, he discovered Sosam collapsed and covered in blood, and carried him back to the estate on his back.
When he first brought him to the stable, Machil thought Sosam was dead. Machil panicked for a moment and left him abandoned in the stable before leaving.
But the next day, when he went to the stable, Sosam was awake.
That's when Machil thought: This guy is really disgustingly tenacious. To return to his right mind in just one day after being in that condition.
But that had actually worked out badly for him.
"It would have been much better if that bastard Horse Dung Sam had just died. Fuck."
Because Sosam was clinging to his wretched life, Machil was wretchedly stuck taking over his work until he fully recovered.
Finding a new groom would only take a few days. On the other hand, looking at Sosam's current condition, it seemed it would take at least another month before he recovered.
The bigger problem was that the incident had turned Sosam into an idiot. Not only could he not speak, but his memory seemed impaired as well. When he occasionally woke up and Machil tried to talk to him, Sosam seemed not to recognize him at all and said nothing. Thinking there might be something wrong with his tongue, Machil checked, but there was nothing wrong with his tongue.
Perhaps he'd developed aphasia from the shock of the incident. This might mean that even when Sosam fully recovered, he'd be useless.
"Damn it! That this great Machil has to clean up after some mere idiot bastard."
Today as well, all of Sosam's work fell to Machil. Not only that, but the family had dumped the task of treating Sosam on him as well.
The work of a groom is arduous. Machil knew this fact better than anyone. Because until Sosam came here over ten years ago, he had been the groom.
Walking the horses, cleaning up horse dung, cleaning the stable—these were nothing. The hardest work was occasionally serving as a horse attendant accompanying members of the Danri Family on their outings.
A horse attendant was, in common parlance, a 'human step stool.' In other words, when members of the Danri Family mounted their horses, he would prostrate himself beneath them to serve as a footstool. This was truly a bothersome and irritating job. If he happened to get assigned to a decent person from the family, it was fine, but if he had to go out as horse attendant for a human piece of trash like Danri Hui...
He could lose his head that day.
He hadn't yet had to go out as a horse attendant, but who knew when he might be called to serve as one? Therefore, even if he hated it, Machil had to diligently attend to Sosam until he recovered.
While Machil grumbled for various reasons, he arrived at the stable at the eastern end of the estate. Before opening the stable door and entering, this thought suddenly occurred to him:
'Should I just kill that bastard?'
Nobody in the estate would care whether someone like Sosam died or not anyway. If a new groom was quickly recruited, it would be far more beneficial for Machil. Wouldn't that be the best way to escape his current hardship?
Machil's hawkish eyes glared at the stable door, flickered red, then quickly calmed.
"Never mind, never mind."
Killing someone was easy as pie.
He'd even trampled a beggar brat to death before when the kid kept clinging to his ankles while begging, so what.
It was just that the risk of killing Sosam was too great. If he made a wrong move and got caught by any martial artist from the estate, he could lose his own head.
"You're lucky. Our Horse Dung Sam, you fucking bastard."
In the end, he decided to endure about a month's worth of inconvenience.
Killing someone like Sosam was easier than breaking an ant's waist, so it was something he could do anytime later, wasn't it?
Creaaak.
Entering the stable, Sosam was sleeping as usual. He lay comfortably resting with his chest tightly wrapped in dirty twisted rope. Seeing this, Machil's temper flared again. Someone was suffering because of him right now, yet that bastard was lying there sleeping so peacefully.
"Ugh. This stupid bastard! Wouldn't it have been better if you'd just died back then? Why are you uselessly alive making people's lives so bothersome? Ugh!"
Machil placed the bowl of rice gruel on Sosam's chest as if throwing it. The bowl shook and hot gruel spilled out. The dirty twisted rope wrapped around Sosam's chest became even dirtier.
Whether or not this happened, Machil thought he'd done his duty and left the stable just like that.
Even though the hot gruel must have soaked through the twisted rope and burned his wound area, Sosam didn't wake up until Machil left.
Had he fallen into such a deep sleep that he couldn't easily feel pain?
No.
Sosam—no, Dong Bong-su—was already awake. As soon as Machil left, he quietly raised his upper body.
"That guy seems to keep delaying my recovery time."
The dirty twisted rope was touching his wounds, causing them to fester.
It was a symptom of bacterial infection. This way, the wounds wouldn't heal quickly. So when he untied the twisted rope, Machil would come and wrap the twisted rope around his chest again. So Dong Bong-su would tie the twisted rope around his chest in time for Machil's visits, then untie it after he left.
This wasn't the only thing—in many ways, Machil was a human who wasn't helpful to Dong Bong-su. Even now, he'd caused hot gruel to spill on wounds that hadn't fully healed yet, which would make the wounds take a bit more time to heal.
"Is it two weeks now?"
It had already been two weeks since Dong Bong-su woke up in this place. During that time, he'd gathered information about this place. He couldn't fully understand Chinese yet, and since his only source of information was Machil, he couldn't know everything precisely.
The first piece of information he'd gathered was that he'd become a different person, and that person's name was Sosam or Horse Dung Sam. He didn't learn this by understanding Chinese, but realized it from Machil calling him that many times.
Second, he realized that although the people here used Chinese and Chinese characters, this place wasn't China.
Martial arts.
Techniques that had only been possible in imagination, in movies, in novels.
Over the past two weeks, Dong Bong-su had witnessed martial arts vividly alive and breathing in this world.
Every morning, he would wake to the resounding sounds of martial artists doing something at the training ground far from the stable. At first, he didn't know what it was, but later, looking through a hole in the door, he was amazed.
He was a man who didn't experience emotional fluctuations over most things. Yet what surprised even such a Dong Bong-su was precisely the martial arts of this world.
People flying through the air, moving so fast they were difficult to follow with the eyes, swords and sabers moving with precision. It was like a live-action version of Murim Online. If so, those techniques must also be martial arts.
Lastly, he hadn't completely 'logged out.' No, more precisely, he had logged out, but certain parts of the game system were still being applied.
Even now, text floated very small in the distance before his eyes.
"Murim Online."
No, Murim.
Real Murim.
Ku.
Ku-ku-kuut.
A world where martial arts actually exist!
He can't escape from there?
For the first time in his life, Dong Bong-su truly, genuinely laughed.
An irrepressible maniacal laugh burst forth endlessly in his head.
Because he was so pleased.
The ultimate hunting ground he'd always dreamed of, perhaps even a battlefield.
Hadn't he suddenly crash-landed in such a place?
Murim.
A world of iron and blood with neither mercy nor tears.
Ku-ku-ku-ku-ku-ha-ha-ha-ha!
Without dreams or hope.
What a truly ecstatic world this was!
For a while, Dong Bong-su laughed like that.
Inside, inside. Without anyone knowing.
And so, without anyone in the Central Plains knowing, an unprecedented demon was being conceived in a shabby stable.