In the game, the Imperial Palace was described like this.
-The Imperial Palace does not move unless the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
-So do not carelessly approach the place where the Sons of Heaven dwell. Do not even be curious, for merely drawing near shall earn their wrath.
-A dragon lying still is the very sign that the world is at peace.
The game, no, the developer, commonly portrayed the Imperial Palace as a power bordering on the absolute.
So people always wondered.
-Just how strong is the Imperial Palace for this insane game to hype it up like this?
And humans are a species that simply has to satisfy its curiosity.
-Let's go see.
Plenty of people broke the rules the developer had set and went to the Forbidden City themselves.
But every one of them met the same end.
-Fuck! Hey, don't go. Do not go, ever.
-Got brutally wrecked the second I got there. I swear, the moment I tried to jump the wall, something I couldn't even see killed me.
-It's just a game, but it gave me chills for real. I saw something like an eye, and then my throat just split open......
And their testimonies were all the same, too.
But are humans a species that gives up easily? Plenty more tried to scale the Forbidden City's walls after that.
But no one ever succeeded. Even now, 10 years later, the Forbidden City remained uncharted territory.
So I always wondered.
I never tried to climb the Forbidden City's walls or anything like that, but I always wondered what on earth lay beyond them.
'What could be in there that the developer talks about the Imperial Palace like that?'
And.
'What on earth is going on in there that they won't so much as show their noses?'
Questions I had carried for 10 years.
Questions I thought would never be answered.
"We have arrived."
And now those questions were being answered.
RRRRUMBLE—!
Right in front of me, a small side door at the back of the Forbidden City was slowly opening.
'So this is the passage the imperials use to come and go in secret.'
The people who had besieged the main gate to catch sight of the imperials, insisting that imperials would never use a back door or secret passage for dignity's sake, would have blown a gasket at this.
Anyway.
Creeeeak—
The red gate, which no one but the imperials had passed through for hundreds of years, slowly swung open.
Whoosh—
A world no one had ever seen finally revealed itself.
Halls that stretched beyond sight, golden roof tiles flashing in the sunlight, red pillars standing in rows like a forest.
'Wow......'
All of it was beautiful enough to draw a gasp. So beautiful that I found myself staring blankly.
Someone might ask.
Was it that beautiful? And if I could recall my past memories, shouldn't I have known what the Forbidden City looked like already?
Fair point.
But let me be clear about one thing.
'I can recall the memories of the old "me," but only up to a point.'
It was exactly what it sounded like.
Right now, when I recalled the past, only 'my' own self came back clearly; everything else was lost as if shrouded in thick fog.
That was why I couldn't help gaping at the Forbidden City like this.
"Your Highness."
If not for Baek-no, I would have stood there staring for a good long while.
"Ah."
I shook my head to clear it and slowly stepped into the Forbidden City.
Step.
It felt unreal.
'To think I could walk into the Forbidden City this easily.'
But the wonder didn't last.
"Kyaaaaaah—!!!"
A sudden scream from someone.
"......Hm?"
My gaze, which had been taking in the Forbidden City, turned naturally toward the sound.
A scene came into view.
"If you were going to scheme, you should have done it without getting caught."
"W-What do you mean, scheming?"
In the middle of a wide plaza.
A man in gold silk had roughly seized a fistful of hair from what looked like a maidservant.
"......?"
What on earth was I looking at?
'Isn't this the Forbidden City?'
And people could carry on like that right out in the open? But the commotion didn't end there.
"The evidence is enough. So save your breath and just die."
The man roughly gripping the maidservant's hair drew the sword from the scabbard at his waist.
SLASH—!
And cut the maidservant's head clean off.
"......"
A murder over in an instant.
My brain froze.
Thump.
Then the head, parted from its owner, dropped emptily to the ground.
Roll, roll, roll—
The moment it began rolling slowly toward my feet, I was reminded once again.
'Ah.'
For a moment, the Forbidden City's beauty had made me forget.
"Let us go, Your Highness."
That this was a world where murders like this happened all the time, more often than people squashed bugs.
Honestly.
It was a world I just couldn't get used to.
***
After that small(?) commotion.
Deep inside the Forbidden City.
The Inner Court.
The Heavenly Dragon Palace.
"His Majesty will summon you soon, so please rest comfortably until then, Your Highness."
Back in the room where I was staying, I slumped to the floor in front of the door the moment I shut it.
"Haah......"
I didn't have the strength to make it to the bed.
My legs had given out.
Because of what I had just witnessed.
"......Will I get used to watching people die someday, too?"
I didn't know.
But as I said before, even if I could, I didn't want to.
Getting used to it.
That would mean living through it until I was sick of it.
But what could I do?
"This is the world I have to live in."
I had thought that, being where the imperial clan lived, it would at least be all right.
But seeing someone die the moment I arrived, I couldn't calm down.
"Whew—"
I slowly took a deep breath. My reflection showed in a mirror across the room, no, a bronze mirror.
Snow-white hair, the mark of the imperial clan. Golden eyes that seemed to hold the sun. And fine, delicate features that could only be called handsome.
"Good-looking guy."
......It was a face that drew those words out of me. The only thing I liked since coming to this world.
"Well, at least I've got the looks. That's something, isn't it?"
Right.
Let's think positive.
SMACK—!
I slapped my own cheek hard to snap out of it. My muddled head cleared.
"This isn't the time. I need to sort out my plans."
And with a slightly clearer head, I thought about it. My plans from here on.
First......
"The first big goal, right now, is curing the Nine Yang Severed Meridians."
For that, I needed two things. To be exact, one item and one martial art.
The item, as I said, was the Fallen Vermilion Bird's inner core.
"But getting it right now is a stretch."
The question wasn't whether I could take down the Fallen Vermilion Bird.
Granted, that was the biggest problem.
If my Authority didn't work on it, getting the core was practically impossible.
But for some reason, my instincts were telling me.
'That it will work.'
So I wasn't worried about whether the Authority would work. What worried me was the risk that came with using it.
'......Losing lifespan. That's a big risk.'
But when the time came, that risk couldn't be helped.
'Use it, and my lifespan shrinks. Don't, and I die a horrible death on the spot.'
So I wasn't worried about the kill. The problem was what came after.
'The Fallen Vermilion Bird's inner core.'
To consume it, I had to build a body that could at least withstand it.
'First-rate at the very least.'
And for that, I absolutely had to learn martial arts. But with Severed Meridians, you couldn't learn just any martial art.
Least of all with the Nine Yang Severed Meridians.
'I need a martial art that can control both the yang qi boiling inside me and the yang qi of the inner core I'll consume later.'
But were martial arts like that common in this world?
They weren't.
'Just one.'
Only one such martial art existed in this world.
A martial art called the strongest guardian art of all the martial arts in the game.
The yang qi of the Nine Yang Severed Meridians.
The yang qi of the inner core.
The finest defensive art there was: it could control both, and it was the best suited to keeping me alive in this cold, heartless world.
'The Black Tortoise Sea-Suppressing Scripture.'
This martial art was the other thing needed to cure the Nine Yang Severed Meridians.
Curing the Nine Yang Severed Meridians aside, it was also a martial art I needed right now.
'Like I said, the Black Tortoise Sea-Suppressing Scripture is called the greatest shield in history.'
Right now, apart from my Authority, I had nothing. I was in a sorry state.
'Learning an offensive art with this body right now is out of the question. I'll have to learn one after I've learned the Black Tortoise Sea-Suppressing Scripture and calmed the yang qi at least a little.'
So I absolutely needed a self-defense art that could protect me in the worst situation.
An art that could control the yang qi and protect my body.
The Black Tortoise Sea-Suppressing Scripture, which could do both, fit the bill perfectly.
But there was one problem.
Namely, where the Black Tortoise Sea-Suppressing Scripture was kept.
'The Imperial Palace vault.'
The reason users could never cure it, even after the method came to light.
It was because the Black Tortoise Sea-Suppressing Scripture was inside the Imperial Palace, uncharted territory.
But now I was inside the Imperial Palace, where that vault was.
So where's the problem, then? You might ask that.
No.
It was still a problem.
Why, you ask?
'I don't know how to get into that vault.'
A vault was, by nature, a place ordinary people couldn't just walk into.
So from here on, there was only one thing I had to do.
'Find a way into the vault.'
The way in had to be somewhere inside this palace. So I had to find it.
Which Mission would get me into the vault.
I prided myself on knowing this world extremely well.
I knew where most of this world's Missions were, too.
But this palace was the exception.
'The Imperial Palace is the one place even I never set foot in, not once in 10 years.'
So there was no way I could know.
That was my dilemma.
How to find it.
But soon enough, my worrying became pointless.
Why, you ask?
[ Sudden Trial Triggered! ]
A Sudden Trial out of nowhere.
[ Prove yourself to the Emperor, the Sovereign Dragon Emperor. ]
-On Success: Vault Key + the Emperor's Interest
-On Failure: Lifetime Ban from the Vault
Because the reward for this unexpected Sudden Trial was the very key that would get me into the vault.