Urban Vagabond: Reload

Pi Seunghwa rolled across the floor, wracked by agony so sharp it stole his breath.

“Ghk! You bastard!”

Whatever inferiority complex he felt toward Kim Muhyuk, he was still one of the young rising stars who had passed the Transcendent Extremity Gate sect leader’s first test.

Pi Seunghwa sprang right back to his feet and charged at Kim Muhyuk.

Any plan he’d had to take a few hits and get him thrown out of the camp lodgings had already been blown away by rage.

I’ll kill him!

He was the young rising star Golden Glory Gate treasured like a jewel.

He’d won awards in sword dance contests all through middle school and high school, and his constitution was an outstanding Grade 2.

It was practically guaranteed that he would hold an important position in Golden Glory Gate one day, and if luck stayed with him, he might even become a candidate for sect leader.

And this loser has a worse constitution than I do!

When Pi Seunghwa had first heard the rumor that Kim Muhyuk had a Grade 4 constitution, he had honestly been thrilled.

That rival who’d always gotten under his skin had dropped far beneath him.

Muhyuk had just claimed he was Grade 2, but Pi Seunghwa believed that was a lie meant to get under his skin.

If constitutions changed that easily, they never would have become the absolute standard by which martial artists were judged.

Whoooom—!

Pi Seunghwa swung with internal energy loaded into his fist. It was a blow strong enough to break bone with ease.

But Kim Muhyuk simply twisted his upper body a little to avoid the punch, then kicked Pi Seunghwa in the shin.

CRACK!

Looking down at Pi Seunghwa as he collapsed with a scream, Muhyuk let out a sigh.

“The Eight Great Sects have fallen that far, and there are still idiots like you who can’t let go of their sense of entitlement.”

“Aaaagh—!”

Pi Seunghwa lurched back up and rushed him again. But no matter how many times he threw himself forward, the result never changed.

A strike to the solar plexus dropped him.

A slap to the face sent him flying.

A kick to the ribs made him clutch his stomach and gasp.

It was so one-sided the word sparring didn’t even apply.

As the commotion grew louder, young rising stars began gathering one by one, murmuring when they saw the scene.

“What happened?”

“I’m not sure. Looks like a fight broke out...”

“Shouldn’t somebody stop them?”

“Who? How?”

Looking down at the thoroughly battered Pi Seunghwa, Kim Muhyuk repeated himself in a cold voice.

“Apologize to them.”

“What the hell are you even telling me to apologize for... you son of a bitch!”

That attitude—like Muhyuk didn’t even consider him worth looking at—only made Pi Seunghwa angrier.

SHIIING.

At last, Pi Seunghwa drew his sword and rushed him with killing intent pouring off him.

The young rising stars flinched at the vicious aura gathering along the edge of the live blade.

“Get someone from the Transcendent Extremity Gate!”

“Kim Muhyuk, that’s enough!”

“We’re fine, so...”

Among the voices telling him to stop were the members of Muhyuk’s study group.

But Kim Muhyuk stared only at Pi Seunghwa as if he couldn’t hear anything else.

Watching the flashy sword technique, probably something he’d learned at Golden Glory Gate, Muhyuk clicked his tongue.

“You’re from a major sect, and you’ve got a Grade 2 constitution. I know you were born with exceptional talent. But...”

That didn’t mean he had any right to casually sneer at other people’s effort.

That was what Kim Muhyuk had meant to say.

“...and yet all you do is strut around playing king of the losers.”

The moment he heard Pi Seunghwa’s words, something entirely different slipped out before he could stop it.

“Then why are you this weak?”

CLAAANG—!

Phantom Dream came down like a thunderbolt and snapped Pi Seunghwa’s sword in half.

A blade that had probably once been praised as a fine sword fell pathetically to the floor, and blood dripped from the torn flesh of Pi Seunghwa’s palm.

“Ghk...!”

His eyes flew wide in shock.

Kim Muhyuk slowly walked toward Pi Seunghwa, who staggered backward in terror.

You going to feed him to me?

Phantom Dream had appeared at his side before he knew it and asked the question. Muhyuk didn’t answer at once.

“You still not going to apologize?”

“I told you, what—what am I even supposed to apologize for...?”

Pi Seunghwa asked, his face gone pale with fear.

He still looked wronged, as if he truly had no idea what he’d done wrong.

An irritated look crossed Kim Muhyuk’s face.

Apologize for insulting them as martial artists.

That was what he meant to say.

But once again, completely different words came out.

“For not knowing your place and trying to provoke me, for polluting my eyes with your crude martial arts, and for swaggering around and souring my mood.”

“...!”

The kind of savage insult he had never heard in his life twisted Pi Seunghwa’s face with humiliation.

He wanted to fire back.

But the moment his eyes met Kim Muhyuk’s at close range, he froze like a frog staring into a snake’s eyes.

Thud.

Pi Seunghwa finally sank to the floor and trembled uncontrollably.

Those clear, transparent eyes fixed on him without even a trace of emotion.

Unable to endure that supremely arrogant gaze, Pi Seunghwa lowered his head.

“Kim Muhyuk! That’s enough!”

“...That’s far enough.”

Bu Yeonha and Kang Hyuntae, unable to watch anymore, approached to pull the two apart.

But the instant they met Kim Muhyuk’s eyes, even they had no choice but to stop.

“I still haven’t gotten my apology.”

“....”

“....”

Kang Hyuntae and Bu Yeonha, both pinnacle experts, found themselves unconsciously drawing their hands closer to their weapons.

Kim Muhyuk was giving off a strange, deeply unsettling air.

The three of them stood in silence, locked in a quiet standoff, and the tension in the dining hall swelled to the breaking point.

Then—

“Are you out of your mind? What the hell are you doing?”

Shin Kangheon came striding in with a yawn, dressed in pajamas like he’d just finished washing up in the lodgings.

“Isn’t that Pi Seunghwa? Why’re you bullying somebody weak? If you want to spar, you should’ve asked me.”

Kim Muhyuk looked at him for a moment, then slowly opened his mouth. His tone had drifted a little closer to the way he used to speak.

“Watching someone with no talent and no grit to overcome it do nothing but look down on other people—it’s pathetic. It’s ridiculous.”

It was an insult no martial artist could easily swallow, but Pi Seunghwa couldn’t say a word back. He still couldn’t even lift his head.

Shin Kangheon clicked his tongue.

“Wow. You’re really running your mouth. So that’s why you beat him like a dog?”

“....”

“Kim Muhyuk?”

At Kim Muhyuk’s uncharacteristic reaction, Shin Kangheon frowned.

Then he noticed Muhyuk’s unfocused eyes and the faint madness shimmering inside them.

“There’s something wrong with you right now.”

“...Me? What’s wrong?”

Kim Muhyuk tilted his head.

As far as he was concerned, he felt perfectly normal.

If anything, his mind felt clearer and sharper than usual.

But Shin Kangheon shook his head.

“All of it. Go inside and get some sleep.”

“Ha...”

Kim Muhyuk felt disappointed. He’d thought Shin Kangheon, of all people, would understand how he felt. Seeing that he didn’t made irritation rise inside him, along with contempt.

“Move. I’m not done talking to Pi Seunghwa.”

“No.”

At that firm answer, Kim Muhyuk placed a hand on his sword hilt and gave a warning.

“Move.”

Shin Kangheon didn’t back down either. Rolling his neck from side to side, he grinned.

“I said no, asshole.”

Then, without either one seeming to move first, both of them lunged at each other—

And both of them stopped at the same instant.

“Freeze.”

It was a low voice, but power ran through it.

In that moment, Kim Muhyuk snapped back to himself as if by magic.

The Transcendent Extremity Gate sect leader was standing between them.

Her sword and saber were each aimed at a different throat—Kim Muhyuk’s and Shin Kangheon’s.

Gulp...

Shin Kangheon swallowed dryly, and Kim Muhyuk stared at her in confusion.

“Kim Muhyuk.”

Neither of them realized it, but it was the first time Sunwoo Jeha had ever called Kim Muhyuk by name.

“...Yes.”

“Come with me.”

Kim Muhyuk sheathed his sword and followed her without resistance.

Only after the two of them had disappeared completely did Pi Seunghwa, still sitting collapsed on the floor and covered in blood, let out a deranged little laugh.

“Heh... Kim Muhyuk. You... you’re finished now...”

But he still couldn’t control the way his body shook with fear.

*****

Contrary to Pi Seunghwa’s hopes, the Transcendent Extremity Gate sect leader had not taken Kim Muhyuk away to punish him.

She probably didn’t even properly remember who Pi Seunghwa was.

What interested her was Kim Muhyuk’s condition right now.

“Why was I...”

Kim Muhyuk looked confused. He was replaying the abnormal way he had behaved only moments ago.

At first, all he had wanted was to make Pi Seunghwa apologize for insulting his friends.

But at some point, it was as if he had turned into someone else entirely.

It was true that he’d been irritated at Pi Seunghwa for getting in his way right before an important test, and it was true that the obvious pettiness behind his actions had angered him.

But I shouldn’t have done that.

At the same time, he had felt a strange sense of release. Maybe that was because he had spoken and acted on thoughts that had been buried somewhere in his unconscious.

If the Transcendent Extremity Gate sect leader hadn’t stepped in at the end and stopped me...

He didn’t want to imagine what would have come after that.

His expression turning complicated, Kim Muhyuk asked Sunwoo Jeha a question.

“...Was it an Inner Demon?”

Sunwoo Jeha shook her head. Even though it was late at night, she took a loud slurp of coffee before answering.

“You’ve heard the saying that all peerless masters are crazy, right?”

“I have.”

Wearing an expression that said surely not, Kim Muhyuk slowly nodded.

All peerless masters are crazy.

It was a famous saying, and it wasn’t only about martial artists.

In any field, people who reached the summit tended to have something abnormal about them. Wasn’t that why they were so often called eccentrics?

But because of the nature of martial artists, if they became mentally unstable, they could turn exceptionally dangerous.

That was why warning devices like the Black Restraint Band existed.

“But I’m only a pinnacle expert. It’s not like I gained some new enlightenment, and nothing’s changed...”

“The timing’s different for everyone. Some people start showing signs when they’re still weak.”

Despite the disbelief on Kim Muhyuk’s face, Sunwoo Jeha went on with certainty.

“It doesn’t suddenly make your martial arts stronger or anything. Your mind just starts to stain. If you live obsessed with martial arts long enough, you all end up that way.”

“Still, twenty is awfully early...”

Muttering almost to herself, Sunwoo Jeha abruptly held out a hand for a handshake.

A strange hint of amusement had crept onto her face.

“Nice to meet you, colleague. Welcome to the world of madmen.”

“...Are you joking?”

“Wasn’t funny?”

Her face immediately went blank again as she withdrew her hand. Kim Muhyuk felt deeply wronged that she was lumping him in with her.

“Anyway, thank you. Could you tell me if there’s any way to treat this madness?”

“There isn’t one. You just live with it. Once you get used to it, it gets a little better.”

She said the only real method, if it could even be called that, was to stop training in martial arts altogether.

“...You’re saying I should cut back on martial training?”

“Nobody manages it. So they just get crazier and crazier. If you explode that madness and fuse it into your martial arts, you can temporarily unleash transcendence-level ultimate techniques, but... it’s too early for you.”

Every word she said was precious instruction. It was obvious at a glance that she was speaking from experience.

Did Master and the Martial Alliance Leader go through this too?

If madness could appear even before someone became a peerless master, then it was entirely possible.

Master almost definitely had, so Muhyuk made up his mind to ask when he got back.

“And.”

Sunwoo Jeha, uncharacteristically, hesitated for a moment before continuing.

“Do you know what the most dangerous kind is among those maniacs obsessed with martial arts?”

“...People like sect leaders?”

“Was that an insult?”

When Sunwoo Jeha knit her brow, Kim Muhyuk straightened up and answered at once.

“It was praise.”

“Not from where I’m standing. Don’t I seem a little strange to you too?”

“....”

Kim Muhyuk said nothing. Fortunately, instead of getting angry, Sunwoo Jeha explained what sort of madman was the most dangerous.

“The ones who think they’re normal. The kind who won’t admit they’re crazy, who are always considerate of the people around them. On top of that, they’re sociable and kind enough to become everybody’s role model...”

The more he listened, the more one person’s face took shape in Kim Muhyuk’s mind.

As if she already knew exactly who he was thinking of, Sunwoo Jeha stared straight into his eyes and said,

“What’s your relationship with Han Shinhu?”