Genius Martial Arts Trainer

Around evening.

Since it seemed there were no more members, I immediately locked the gym doors and headed to the office.

Naturally, it was to lift iron and train in martial arts.

I continued lifting iron while cultivating the Buddha Heart Art.

Today was lower body day.

Naturally, the Iron Shirt training also focused on the lower body.

After finishing my strength training, I struck my thighs with a dumbbell.

Thud! Thud!

A laugh escaped me on its own.

“Hehehehe.”

My body was growing sturdier by the day.

I lost myself and devoted myself to Iron Shirt training for quite some time.

“Hoo.”

Since I had finished the day’s training, I began walking while cultivating the Buddha Heart Art.

It was part of my daily routine.

Whenever I had spare time, I looked around the gate.

There might be a monster I had failed to discover.

After exploring as far as my feet could take me, I returned to the entrance.

It was not because I intended to leave the gate.

Near the entrance. A simple cot had been placed there.

It was the bed I had originally used in the office.

The gym had continued running at a loss every day since the gate crisis.

I had shut down every other gym I had operated, and this was the only one left.

I did not even have a home left.

I ate and slept in the gym office.

And ever since the gate opened here, I had moved the bed inside and slept here instead.

So I could absorb natural energy right up until the moment I fell asleep.

And also so I could react first if a monster appeared.

The moment I lay down on the bed, an exclamation escaped me.

“Wow. The view is nice.”

As I lay there with the starlit night sky spread over me like a blanket, memories of the past began to bloom one after another.

Memories with my Mu-generation Senior Brothers. Muyul, Mukyeong, and Mugung.

After all, sleeping outdoors had been part of everyday life when I was active in the martial world.

It had been so difficult back then, but looking back now, they were memories.

The memories I had forced myself to forget began trailing one after another.

I had no choice but to force myself to forget them.

Because I could not return there.

And more than anything, because I had been too busy with my present life.

It was not as though I had been overwhelmed by my present life from the very beginning.

To live in the world of a novel and then wake up again.

How could something like that possibly make sense?

After opening my eyes in this world again, the first thing I did was search for a person named Gagyeong.

Gagyeong.

The author of the novel, Records of the Shaolin Divine Monk, which I had entered.

I had even gone to the publishing company, but I had gained nothing in particular.

Out of frustration, I had even shouted something like this.

'I’m telling you, I went into Records of the Shaolin Divine Monk and came back out!!'

Nearly being dragged to the police station had been an added bonus.

On the off chance, I had tried reading Records of the Shaolin Divine Monk again.

I did not enter the world of the novel again.

Even the events inside the novel were completely different from what I had experienced.

Every single thing was full of unanswered questions.

However, I could no longer keep digging into those mysteries.

After spending several months running around in search of Gagyeong.

Every gym I had been operating was on the verge of closing.

Thanks to going several months without uploading anything, my YouTube channel had also fallen apart.

So I returned to focusing on my livelihood.

After all, I needed to make a living before I could do anything else.

At first, things went well.

COVID restrictions were lifted right around that time, and the number of people visiting gyms began to increase again.

That was also why I did not restart YouTube.

“Tsk. I never expected the gate crisis to begin only a few months later.”

It was ridiculous.

Even though I had focused on making a living, every one of my gyms had gone under.

However, had they not said that fortune and misfortune were unpredictable?

An opportunity came at the end of the crisis.

An opportunity called a gate.

“Once I recover some of my strength, I should be able to work as a hunter. From then on, I’ll start searching for Author Gagyeong again.”

Thanks to Member Kim Jicheol, I had even avoided operating at a loss this month.

As the situation improved, positive thoughts naturally came to mind.

“Life really is impossible to understand. Now that things have turned out this way, isn’t it actually better to have fewer members?”

What if members continued coming to the gym from morning until night?

Then I would have no time to go in and out of the gate.

I would not have any time to lift iron inside the gate either.

That meant it would take that much longer to recover my strength.

A shooting star crossed the night sky before my eyes.

A faint laugh escaped me.

“Should I make a wish that the number of members doesn’t increase?”

***

Early the next morning.

“Huaaaam.”

Choi Kanghyuk woke while stretching and immediately headed toward the yoga mat.

He loosened his body with stretching while simultaneously cultivating the Buddha Heart Art.

After refreshing both his body and acupoints, Choi Kanghyuk left the gate as he was.

It was because of the gym’s operating hours listed on the website.

From 7 in the morning until 10 at night.

Someone might happen to see it online and visit.

And if he remained buried inside the gate, he could not sense anyone’s presence outside.

“No one is going to come anyway, so I might as well change the operating hours listed online while I’m at it.”

Sitting around inside the gym waiting for new members who would never come was also a waste of time.

It seemed better to spend that time cultivating the Buddha Heart Art inside the gate.

Early in the morning.

Choi Kanghyuk trudged toward the gym’s front entrance.

He stopped halfway through opening the door and tilted his head.

“Hmm?”

The area around the entrance was dark.

It was not strange for it to be dark since all the lights were off.

The sun was beginning to rise and a faint amount of sunlight was entering, but that area was cast in shadow.

However, something felt out of place.

It was as though a deeper darkness was wavering within the darkness.

At that very moment. The darkness shook.

Amid the gloomy shadows. A pale white face slowly revealed itself.

“A-A ghost!?”

The ghost whose eyes met his through the glass door hurriedly lowered its head.

Only then did he realize.

It was not a ghost, but a person.

A black coat. Black pants. Black shoes. Even black hair.

It was simply impossible to distinguish her because she had been standing in an unlit area.

Now fully awake, Choi Kanghyuk asked in an uncomfortable tone.

“D-Did you perhaps come to the gym?”

At that, the black head bobbed up and down.

A customer who had come early in the morning.

“Ah! Please come inside first.”

When Choi Kanghyuk hurriedly opened the entrance door, the person who had looked like a ghost timidly stepped inside.

Her outline became somewhat clearer.

She was around 170 centimeters tall.

Her black hair, apparently left uncut for a long time, was quite long and covered even her face.

To put it kindly, she had a large build. To put it less kindly, she was considerably overweight.

'She seems to be a woman?'

It was not simply because of her long hair.

The face he had briefly glimpsed a moment ago had also looked somewhat feminine.

'Did she come here to lose weight?'

It was not a particularly rare case.

However, openly saying that often hurt people’s feelings.

Like the experienced trainer he was, Choi Kanghyuk asked indirectly.

“It’s quite early. What brought you to our gym?”

For some reason, the black-clad person fidgeted at Choi Kanghyuk’s question.

Then she hurriedly pulled out her phone and rapidly typed with her fingers.

Only after finishing did she hold the phone screen out toward Choi Kanghyuk.

A memo app was open on the screen.

- Senior Kim Jicheol introduced me. And I came now because I thought there would be a lot of people during the day.

Choi Kanghyuk pretended not to see the second sentence and asked.

“Member Kim Jicheol introduced you?”

The black-clad person nodded again and hurriedly tapped on her phone screen once more.

- I want to try the energy treatment.

“Ah....... Were you perhaps a hunter?”

Once again, the black-clad person nodded.

She was extremely difficult to communicate with.

Choi Kanghyuk smiled bitterly.

It was not that he found her pathetic.

'It must have been quite difficult for her to work as a hunter.'

Choi Kanghyuk did not know much about hunters.

However, he did know they moved in parties.

Moreover, hunters occasionally appeared on the news or entertainment shows, and many operated their own YouTube channels.

Appearing on television or livestreams was a matter of personal preference, so she could simply refuse, but if she was this timid, would it not have been difficult even to move around in a party?

The fact that she had come to the gym at the crack of dawn to avoid hours with many people said enough.

Choi Kanghyuk felt complicated.

'For some reason, she reminds me of when I first met Xuehua.'

Liu Xuehua.

The wife with whom he had vowed to spend a hundred years.

The life companion with whom he had shared joys and hardships while living as Mujin.

She too had originally given off a similar impression.

A heavyset figure and a timid personality.

Choi Kanghyuk, who had been recalling happy memories, hurriedly pulled himself together.

'It would be rude to compare them like this, both to Xuehua and to this member.'

He dealt with the customer as trainer and member.

“I-I’m sorry, but we do not provide energy treatment separately. If you sign up for PT, we offer the energy treatment as a complimentary service.”

He was not saying it for the sake of business.

Unfortunately, providing only energy treatment would be illegal.

More precisely, massage was close to illegal.

Earning money through massage was legal only at registered massage businesses with massage qualifications.

He was merely slipping through a loophole by claiming, 'I simply loosened the body a little before and after exercise!'

If he conducted business through energy treatment and someone reported him, it would become troublesome in many ways.

Once again, the woman in black typed on her phone and held it out.

- I’ll sign up for PT. Just 10 sessions for now.

At that, Choi Kanghyuk replied with a business smile.

“Understood, Member. Then would you like to begin exercising today, or would you prefer to make the payment only for now?”

***

The PT sessions with the new female member, Choi Yujin, began.

She too seemed to have retired due to injury, as her physical condition was quite poor.

Moreover, there was another problem.

Perhaps she had completely stopped exercising after retirement, but her body had almost no muscle at all.

Worse, if she performed strenuous strength training at her current weight, her joints would be damaged before she could build any muscle.

'I’ll need to include a weight-loss course too. Though there’s no need to say it outright.'

Judging by her timid personality, he suspected that mentioning dieting might hurt her feelings.

After having her perform strength exercises light enough not to strain her joints, Choi Kanghyuk pointed toward the treadmill.

“We’ll finish with about 20 minutes on the treadmill, and then proceed with the energy treatment.”

In truth, Choi Kanghyuk did not particularly like this sort of thing.

PT cost tens of thousands of won per hour.

Yet if he simply made someone do cardio under the pretext of a weight-loss course, how could that be called a lesson?

It was no different from a lazy trainer trying to earn easy money.

That was why he had filled the entire hour with strength training, even if it was light, before making her do cardio.

Also, running at her weight would strain her knees.

Naturally, saying that openly would be rude.

“Set the speed between 4.5 and 5 for a brisk walk, and raising the incline somewhat should make it more effective.”

Choi Yujin once again only nodded and headed toward the treadmill.

“Hmm.”

She had somehow managed not to utter a single word aloud during the entire hour of exercise.

'Could it be that she can’t speak?'

Perhaps she had begun avoiding people because she was unable to speak.

While Choi Kanghyuk continued making various guesses by himself. Choi Yujin silently continued her cardio.

And after the promised 20 minutes had passed, they headed toward the stretching zone.

“First, we’ll proceed with the energy treatment before stretching.”

Following Choi Kanghyuk’s instructions, Choi Yujin lay facedown on the yoga mat.

And when Choi Kanghyuk placed his index finger against the Jianjing acupoint, Choi Yujin flinched.

Choi Kanghyuk pretended not to notice and spoke.

“It will hurt quite a bit at first.”

The inner energy accumulated in his dantian gathered toward his index finger.

When Choi Kanghyuk gently pressed Choi Yujin’s Jianjing acupoint with his index finger, inner energy flowed into her through it.

The moment Choi Kanghyuk’s inner energy began burning away the turbid energy filling her Jianjing acupoint.

Choi Yujin, who had been lying there as still as a corpse, leaped like a live fish.

“Kyaaaaak! Hot!!!”

Choi Yujin’s voice, which had released a refreshingly loud scream, abruptly cut off.

Choi Kanghyuk stared blankly at her.

'Ah. So she can speak.'

An awkward silence flowed for only a brief moment.

“.......”

Choi Yujin’s face turned bright red, as though she had been struck by the Tathagata Divine Palm.

Then, as though nothing had happened, she lay back down on the yoga mat.

After that, she did not move at all.

To the point that anyone watching might have mistaken her for a corpse.