Genius Martial Arts Trainer

It had already been six years since I woke up from the novel Shaolin Divine Monk Chronicles.

It definitely had not been a dream.

If it had been a dream, something like this would have been impossible.

“Inhale. Exhale.”

Sitting cross-legged, I drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out.

All while repeating the principles of the [N O V E L I G H T] Buddhist Heart Method in my mind.

“Inhale.”

I took another deep breath.

I could feel it, however faintly.

Natural energy.

Following the principles of the Buddhist Heart Method, I guided that energy.

That was right.

I could sense energy, and I could guide it through a heart method.

It was proof that it had not been a dream.

Unless I had schizophrenia.

And the possibility that I had schizophrenia was extremely low.

The only problem was that I felt as though I might develop it at this rate.

“Exhale.”

I breathed out and opened my eyes.

The neatly cleaned gym came into view.

Dozens of expensive Smith machines arranged for training different parts of the body.

A spacious free-weight zone equipped with dumbbells and barbells, without Smith machines, where people could build muscle using free weights and their own body weight.

Power racks.

A playground for muscle fanatics who enjoyed lifting heavy weights through exercises such as squats and deadlifts.

It was truly clean.

There was not a speck of dust in sight.

And there were no people either.

“.......”

I silently turned my head and looked out the window.

The weather was brilliantly clear.

That meant it was not the middle of the night or dawn.

Even so, there was no one here.

A sigh escaped me on its own.

“Haa.”

Six years had passed since I opened my eyes in this world again.

So many things had changed.

The gym had been on the verge of going under because of COVID restrictions.

That did not mean the COVID restrictions were still continuing even now.

A few months after I woke up in this world again, the COVID restrictions had been lifted.

And for a few months after that, business had been fairly good.

Until then, I had never even imagined it.

That something worse than COVID would come.

I took out my phone.

When I opened an internet app, various news articles filled the screen.

[B-Rank Gate Appears on the Outskirts of Namyangju.]

[The Appearance of an Unprecedented Rookie Hunter.]

[Exploring the Life of a Hunter: An Interview with A-Rank Hunter Kim Suhwan.]

.......

As expected.

Once again, stories about gates and hunters filled the news section today.

Five years ago.

Around a year after I opened my eyes in this world again.

The world had been overturned.

Gates opened, and monsters poured out.

As though rising to oppose them, people who had awakened special abilities began appearing one after another.

Overseas, they called them heroes or something like that, but here in Korea, they were called hunters.

At first, it had clearly been a matter of survival.

The situation was no different from a war.

It was as though North Korea had invaded, with even every last member of the reserve forces being mobilized.

Back then, it had truly been terrifying.

“Ugh. Being drafted again. Just imagining it is horrible.”

It was fortunate that I had already finished my reserve duty.

One wrong move, and I might have been dragged away as well.

That was how dangerous the early days after the gates appeared had been.

As the situation grew more dangerous, the number of members visiting the gym plummeted.

Honestly, I could not understand it.

“No! If it is dangerous, you should work out even harder!! You need to build up your stamina and strength so you can either fight the monsters or run away from them!”

Was it not normal for your body to itch if you skipped even a single day of exercise?

Fortunately, there were a few gym rats.

No, fitness enthusiasts who shared my way of thinking.

However, they were not much help in keeping the gym running.

“Wow. As expected, there is no place as good as this one, sir.”

“Exactly. The facilities are excellent, and all the Smith machines are the latest models.”

“On top of that, there are barely any people these days.”

“I used to get so annoyed because there was always a wait for the power racks and machines, which ruined my entire routine.”

“But these days, my routine never gets interrupted. Hahahaha.”

Was that praise, or were they mocking me?

It was a moment when I wanted to use the Formless Divine Fist to break their heads instead of their routines.

'Amitabha.'

I rolled the prayer beads around my wrist and calmed my anger.

I was a Buddhist now, after all.

Well, I had left Shaolin after wiping out Shincheon.

Even so, I still cherished my connection to Shaolin in my own way.

Wearing a smile like the Buddha himself, I asked the members who were spouting nonsense.

“Are your workouts going well?”

“Yes. Today’s workout feels amazing.”

“My pump is incredible today, sir.”

“Would it be all right if I took a look at your form?”

The expressions of the members who had been chatting with smiles immediately stiffened.

“Come on. Why are you doing this, sir?”

“Exactly. This place never used to pressure people into personal training.”

“That is why we keep coming here.”

“.......”

Why else?

Because I was about to starve to death.

Sadly, most of our fitness-enthusiast members disliked personal training.

They seemed to think it was a waste of money and that there was nothing for them to learn.

Originally, I had respected their opinions to a certain extent.

'Nothing to learn, my ass. Your form looks like you are determined to destroy your knees and lower back.'

Even when thoughts like that crossed my mind, I did not pressure them into personal training.

Right.

They were still paying members.

Was it not already something to be grateful for that they paid one hundred fifty to two hundred thousand won a month and kept coming?

The problem was this.

Even during such dangerous times, only a tiny number of fitness enthusiasts continued going to the gym.

There were fewer than ten of them altogether.

In other words, I was not even earning two million won a month.

After deducting utilities, maintenance fees, and every other expense, the gym was operating at a serious loss.

After barely surviving for several months with just enough money to feed myself, another moment came when the flow of the world suddenly changed.

The astonishing fact that gates and monster corpses were profitable was discovered.

As expected of South Korea.

True to its nature as a capitalist nation, money poured into the gate and hunter industries, leading to explosive growth.

Of course, I also possessed a special ability.

An ability completely different from those of other hunters.

Martial arts.

However, I could not abandon the gym and switch careers to become a hunter.

It was not because of my overflowing love for the gym.

After all, I could simply earn a fortune as a hunter and open a private training center of my own.

The problem was simple.

I knew martial arts, but I could not use them properly.

“Haa. This damn body.”

My original body.

Choi Kanghyuk’s body was in terrible condition.

Ah.

It looked good from the outside.

“Wow. Your muscles truly are a work of art no matter how many times I see them, sir.”

“Sir, what is your body-fat percentage?”

One member had even secretly approached me and asked something like this.

“Sir. Could you introduce me to the drugs you use?”

Naturally, I was not using drugs.

I had simply maintained my body with desperate effort.

All to restore the body I had ruined while serving in the special forces.

I truly felt restless if I went even a single day without exercising.

Not because I wanted to work out.

Because I was genuinely in pain.

My lower back, my joints, and places like that.

I was supporting joints that had already been ruined with muscle.

The inside of my body was no better.

Only after waking up again in Choi Kanghyuk’s body did I realize it.

Unlike Mujin, who had begun learning martial arts around the age of ten, Choi Kanghyuk’s acupoints were in terrible condition.

Every acupoint was filled with impure energy, and more than a few were already completely blocked.

Of course, if I had abundant inner energy, most of those problems could be solved.

Both the broken body and the blocked acupoints.

And that was where the second problem arose.

Natural energy was far too faint in this world.

It was not merely faint.

It was also impure.

I could not tell whether this world had always been like this or whether it was because the air was polluted.

I had even visited places considered famous mountains.

They were better than central Seoul.

However, the natural energy there was just as faint.

That was also why I practiced the Buddhist Heart Method despite knowing other heart methods.

The Buddhist Heart Method.

The most fundamental heart method of Shaolin, the Taishan and North Star with a thousand years of history.

Its rate of growth was slower than a turtle, but it was the most stable heart method.

My acupoints were already filled with impure energy.

On top of that, the natural energy itself was impure and faint.

If I recklessly practiced a higher-level heart method in such conditions, I would be extremely likely to suffer qi deviation.

One mistake, and every last hair I had barely managed to protect might fall out.

Had a doctor not already warned me during the COVID period?

That all my hair might fall out at this rate.

At the time, I had assumed it was because my stress and exhaustion had reached their limits.

That had been half correct.

After living in the world of Shaolin Divine Monk Chronicles, my perspective changed slightly.

The impure energy filling my body had also played a significant role.

Because I practiced the Buddhist Heart Method every day whenever I had a spare moment, no more impure energy was accumulating.

My condition was not improving, but at least it was not getting worse.

I placed my thick, iron-trained hand on my head.

“Haa. Should I at least be grateful that I saved my hair?”

The gym was going under.

Originally, there had been several branches, but now this was the only one left.

It would have been normal for me to suffer from extreme stress every single day.

Even so, my hair was no longer falling out.

Thanks to practicing the Buddhist Heart Method every day, I was able to maintain a minimum level of composure.

In any case, after the hunter industry became active, a new peace arrived.

I did not know whether it should really be called peace, but things were relatively peaceful.

Korea in particular was considerably more peaceful than other countries.

There were various reasons, including its high population density and the achievements of its excellent hunters, but there was one reason greater than all the others.

“Something is only frightening for the first day or two. Gates burst open whenever they feel like it, so who would even care anymore?”

Should it be called a lack of safety awareness?

Gates had become part of everyday life.

Just as everyone had once lived their lives without much concern even when North Korea issued threats and fired missiles.

Since peace had returned, I expected the number of gym members to increase again.

But that did not happen.

Even if there are hunters, you might still run into monsters if you are unlucky, right?That is why I am trying to practice running regularly.We only need to keep running until the hunters arrive, right?Weight training declined, and running rose.

Young people joined running crews one after another and ran along the Han River.

“If they all run together like that, it feels as though they will all get eaten together instead of escaping from the monsters.”

I was definitely not saying that because only flies were buzzing around my gym.

No.

Did they not say they were practicing running because of monsters?

Then why were male applications always closed while they only accepted female members?

I had planned to join a running crew and quietly advertise my gym.

But every time, male recruitment was closed, so I could never join.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the running-crew trend did not last very long either.

Recently, something else had become popular.

Hunter-and-monster play.

It was a game organized through spontaneous gatherings on social media.

Some of the people who gathered played the monsters, while others played the hunters.

The monsters ran away, and the hunters chased them.

When I first heard the explanation, I felt a strong sense of familiarity.

“That is just cops and robbers with different names!”

I could not understand why a game I had played in elementary school was suddenly popular again.

Nor could I understand why every trend passed the gym by.

“Haa.”

My anger surged again.

I rose and began walking.

After entering the gym office, I approached the Buddhist altar set up in one corner.

Then I pressed my palms together before the small Buddha statue placed on the altar.

“Amitabha.”

I diligently rolled the prayer beads around my wrist.

Form is emptiness.

Emptiness is form.

The flow of the world always comes full circle.

Someday, the day when the gym was once again crowded with members would return.

Of course it would.

At that moment, an unpleasant noise reached my ears.

Crackle.

“???”

I turned my head in confusion and saw a black fissure forming in midair.

It had once been a wondrous sight, but now it was an everyday occurrence.

A gate.

“......Why is that opening here?”

At that exact moment.

Vwoooooom.

With a violent roar, my body was sucked into the gate.