← The Last Disciple of a Fallen Sect# Descending Cheongwun Mountain
On the path down Cheongwun Mountain, Myeongwoo breathed slowly. The unease in his chest remained, but now he could manage it. Emotion was not a weakness. It was a tool.
The box still pressed against his chest with its weight. An incomplete martial arts manual and a diary. Traces of Cheongwunja.
Myeongwoo leaned his body against a rock on the quiet mountain path. It was a place where sunlight barely reached. He checked his surroundings. Nothing moved. Only mountain wind and fallen leaves.
He withdrew his hand from his chest and murmured.
"System."
The air trembled once.
In an instant, transparent cyan-blue letters appeared before his eyes. As if carved into the air itself. Myeongwoo's gaze followed the characters.
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ [SYSTEM INTERFACE v0.7] │
│ User: Seo Myeongwoo │
│ Status: Normal │
└─────────────────────────┘
═════════════════════════
【 BASIC STATUS 】
[Strength (STR)] ■■■■■■■■ 8/20
[Agility (AGI)] ■■■■■■■ 7/20
[Stamina (CON)] ■■■■■■ 6/20
[Intelligence (INT)] ■■■■■■■■■ 9/20
[Willpower (WIL)] ■■■■■■■■■■ 10/20
═════════════════════════
Myeongwoo's eyes scanned each item one by one. Objective numbers. The result of quantifying himself.
'My strength is weak.'
His gaze lingered on the stamina section, which had only six bars filled. It meant his recovery was still incomplete. Three years. He didn't know where or how he'd spent those three years, but his body didn't lie about that time.
A faint smile formed at the corners of Myeongwoo's mouth.
'Three years in this condition is actually decent.'
Willpower 10. That was what sustained Myeongwoo. 10 to 6. That ratio explained his current state precisely. His body was broken, but his will was intact. No—now it was even more solid.
Intelligence 9?
Myeongwoo's expression narrowed. It wasn't a bad number. But it wasn't sufficient either. What had Cheongwunja's intelligence been like? The thought crossed his mind, and Myeongwoo pushed it away.
Comparison was poison. What was needed for survival wasn't comparison but optimization.
He gathered his fingers and thought.
'Agility is low.'
7 meant dullness. It meant slowness. He recalled when he'd evaded the reapers. He'd been lucky. That was all. Next time, luck might not work.
Myeongwoo's eyes returned to willpower. 10/20. This was his greatest asset. Not losing judgment even under pressure. Not stopping calculations even in the whirlwind of emotion.
The diary of Cheongwunja came to mind.
'I hope Myeongwoo isn't too cold.'
Those were his master's words. The master had wanted to make his disciple warm. But Myeongwoo knew. Warmth was death. It was one of the reasons the Cheongwun Sect had been destroyed.
Myeongwoo's hand brushed over the box again. Slowly. Carefully.
─ I must live.
That was the promise.
Myeongwoo called up the system interface again.
"Detailed analysis."
The interface changed. More complex information appeared.
═════════════════════════
【 SKILL ANALYSIS 】
[Martial Arts Basics] ■■■■ 4/10
└─ Cheongwun Sect Basic Swordsmanship (Inexperienced)
└─ Basic Hand-to-Hand Combat (Inexperienced)
[System Interaction] ■■■■■■■■ 8/10
└─ Interface Decryption Ability (Excellent)
└─ Error Detection (Excellent)
[Survival Skills] ■■■■■■■■■ 9/10
└─ Concealment (Excellent)
└─ Evasion (Excellent)
└─ Resource Management (Excellent)
═════════════════════════
Myeongwoo's eyes narrowed.
'Survival skills at 9?'
It was a reflection of the three years he'd survived. It also meant the system had been recording his actions. He didn't know exactly how far its reach extended, but one thing was certain—the system had been watching him.
Martial Arts Basics was 4. Inexperienced.
"If I train the Yunro Eighteen Forms, this should go up."
Myeongwoo murmured. And he wanted deeper information.
"Yunro Eighteen Forms. System scan."
The interface changed again. This time, an error message appeared.
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ [SCAN FAILED] │
│ Target: Incomplete │
│ Information Structure │
│ Progress: 33.3% │
│ Status: Data Corrupted │
└─────────────────────────┘
"As expected."
Myeongwoo let out a laugh. It was incomplete. Of course it was. Cheongwunja hadn't finished it.
But Myeongwoo's eyes changed. Cold. Sharp.
"System. Do you have information on the remaining two forms?"
The interface trembled. It was as if it were contemplating. Then, text appeared.
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ [PROCESSING QUERY...] │
│ [SEARCHING TARGET...] │
│ [RESULT: NOT FOUND] │
│ │
│ Additional Information: │
│ - Data Loss Interval │
│ Exists │
│ - Access Restricted │
└─────────────────────────┘
Myeongwoo's face hardened.
'Access restricted?'
It meant someone had intentionally hidden the information. Or the system itself didn't want to tell him.
Myeongwoo exhaled deeply. It wasn't anger. It was curiosity. Curiosity mixed with calculation.
'Who? Why?'
The reapers came to mind. They had tried to kill him. Or they had tried to take him. It was one or the other. As long as their purpose wasn't clear, he had to form assumptions.
Myeongwoo's hand touched the box. The incomplete martial arts manual. Traces of Cheongwunja.
'Master. What did you know?'
Passages from the diary came to mind. The master's handwriting. The master's worry. The master's love.
The reason Myeongwoo's willpower was 10 was probably because of this.
He commanded the system again.
"Terminate all interfaces. Maintain background monitoring only."
The interface disappeared. The air became clear again.
Myeongwoo stood up. He held the box to his chest. He descended from the rock on the mountain path. The sunlight was cold, and the sky remained overcast.
But Myeongwoo's eyes were directed somewhere.
Toward a promise.
Toward someone.
And that someone was still someone Myeongwoo himself didn't know.
The mountain path ended faster than expected.
As Myeongwoo left the slopes of Cheongun Mountain, he felt the humidity in the air change. As the altitude decreased, the mountain's shadow lifted, and the sunlight pierced his skin more coldly. It wasn't easy descending while cradling the box in his arms. One hand had to maintain balance while the other secured the box.
But the problem lay elsewhere.
'The scent is strange.'
Myeongwoo stopped. Survival Technique (9/10) triggered. A smell mixed in the air—the scent of a carnivore, damp fur, and faintly, the smell of old blood. Calculating the wind direction, it was approximately 150 meters ahead.
Myeongwoo moved slowly. Light footsteps, shallow breathing. He had shut down the system interface, but what his body remembered remained. Three years of absence. He didn't know what his body had learned in that time, but at least his instinct for danger was sharp.
The mountain path suddenly narrowed.
Scrub and brush grew thick on both sides, and the traces of beasts that had passed through were clear. Not hoof marks. Claw marks. Deep and sharp.
The moment Myeongwoo took another step, the world froze.
It hadn't appeared suddenly. It had been there from the beginning. Crouching in the shadows between the scrub, it moved when Myeongwoo came within 50 meters.
A gray wolf.
Its body was larger than a typical wolf. Its shoulder height appeared to exceed 1.5 meters, and the fur on its back gleamed steel-colored. Its eyes weren't black but burned with a red light. Saliva dripping from its mouth scorched the ground.
It wasn't reality.
Myeongwoo felt that even recognizing it was surreal. A sensation of the world's seams tearing open. That beast was no creature he knew.
'Monster.'
The word lodged in Myeongwoo's brain. Where did it come from? From the three-year gap? From the system's shut-down database?
The wolf howled.
The sound wasn't a howl. It sounded mechanical. Like something scraping through the air—a metallic shriek. Sweat beaded on Myeongwoo's forehead. High mental fortitude, excellent survival technique—none of it seemed to matter in this moment.
The beast's leg muscles contracted.
Myeongwoo instinctively rolled to the side. He tore the box from his arms and threw it. The gray wolf flew past. It crossed through where Myeongwoo had been, and the air along its trajectory warped. Actually warped. Not visual distortion but physical deformation.
Myeongwoo rolled and rose. The box was five meters behind. The wolf was already changing direction. Its jaws opened toward Myeongwoo, and inside were dozens of teeth. No, hundreds. Teeth grew layered upon teeth.
'This won't work.'
Myeongwoo took a step then stopped. Distance calculation. Speed calculation. Reaction time calculation.
None of it added up.
His current stats didn't account for combat. Mental Fortitude 10 and Survival Technique 9. Both were abilities for evading, hiding, and enduring—not fighting. He hadn't yet confirmed his physical stats. They were probably terrible.
The wolf charged again.
Myeongwoo raised his hands. Not a defensive stance. A gesture of surrender. No, that wasn't it either. A purely reflexive movement.
In that moment, the box flew.
The box thrown from Myeongwoo's arms crossed the wolf's trajectory. The wolf swallowed the box. The box was crushed between its teeth. Wood scattered into fragments. Myeongwoo's mind was sucked into a void for an instant before returning.
'Master's keepsake—'
But there was no time to think.
The wolf changed direction again, the box still in its jaws. Its eyes still fixed on Myeongwoo. Now it looked like anger rather than hunger. Like the anger of prey being stolen.
Myeongwoo turned and ran.
He didn't calculate. He didn't think. His body moved. He ran up the mountain path. Toward Cheongun Mountain. Back to higher ground. Toward where that beast would be weaker.
Behind him, the wolf's footsteps thundered. Tearing earth, breaking rock as it pursued. Myeongwoo was driven toward a cliff. The left was a precipice, the right was scrub. Ahead, the mountain path grew steeper.
None of it helped.
Myeongwoo's breath cut short. High mental fortitude, excellent survival technique—none of it helped in this moment. They were all abilities for 'escape.' But there was nowhere to escape to.
Then it happened.
'System. Activate.'
It wasn't words from Myeongwoo's mouth. It was a command from his brain. A signal born of desperation.
The world cut out.
The blue interface returned. And at its center, Myeongwoo faced information he was seeing for the first time.
[Emergency Situation Detected]
[Survival Probability: 12%]
[Recommended Action: Evasion Impossible]
[Recommended Action: Surrender Impossible]
[Recommended Action: ...]
The last item was blacked out. Inaccessible.
Myeongwoo's eyes trembled.
The gray wolf prepared its final leap. Its jaws opened wider, and the teeth inside began to rotate. Myeongwoo retreated. One step, then another. To the cliff's edge.
Below his feet was emptiness.
Myeongwoo felt it. And he knew.
'Three years. It took something from me.'