Was it possible that he had not logged out yet?
A sudden question arose, but the thought vanished much faster than it appeared.
This excruciating pain felt throughout his body?
It was a vividness he could never have felt inside the game.
If such sensations were possible to implement within the game...
Dong Bongsu would not have logged out in the first place.
He would probably still be hunting even now.
He strained his eyes further to check the holographic letters.
As he did, the corners of his swollen eyes tore, and blood trickled down.
However, it only added to the pain, and his vision did not improve.
'Then.'
If his eyesight would not suffice, he just needed to increase the amount of light.
Dong Bongsu turned his gaze toward the window where the moonlight was streaming in.
A bright, full moon came into view, illuminating his eyes, and the contents of the translucent hologram window put a decisive end to this unrealistic situation.
> [SYSTEM MESSAGE]
> You have failed to log out due to an abnormal device operation.
> Would you like to attempt to disconnect again?
> [ YES ] [ NO ]
Device error?
Dong Bongsu was perplexed.
This realistic scene and the extremely stimulating smells.
Were all these sensations that gripped his entire body, making it tingle, all coming from a machine error?
He could not understand it.
I should check.
Without much hesitation, Dong Bongsu raised his hand and thrust it into the hologram.
Beep-.
He saw the 'No' button distort, and the operator's dry voice was engraved in his mind.
Whirr, whirr, whirr.
> [SYSTEM MESSAGE]
> You have selected 'No'.
> We will now return you to Murim Online.
However...
The static of machine noise struck Dong Bongsu's mind.
At the same time, he felt as if his brain was being torn apart, and he slowly began to lose consciousness.
The emotionless voice of the Murim Online operator echoed in his fading awareness.
> [SYSTEM MESSAGE]
> Then we wish you an enjoyable time with Murim Online.............
For the past few days, two weeks to be exact, Machil had not been in a good mood.
In vulgar terms, should one say it was enough to drive him mad?
He was busy enough with his work as an armory hand, but now he was saddled with a troublesome task, so it was only natural.
Even now, he was on his way to the stables with So-sam's breakfast, a thin rice gruel.
"In this entire huge Danri Family, am I the only one who has to clean up that bastard's shit? Why do I always have to do this kind of damn fucking job?"
So-sam had made a mistake and suffered a major injury on the day he went with him to the armory to pick up weapons two weeks ago.
If his work was done, he should have just gone home quietly, but he had to wander the busy streets in the evening and meet with misfortune.
According to one of the onlookers at the time, So-sam had suddenly blocked Paeng Doryang's path.
Paeng Doryang was the bodyguard warrior of Danri Hui, the second daughter of the Danri Family Head.
Danri Hui was such a tomboy that even the Family Head, Danri Cheonwoo, had trouble controlling her.
Since he blocked the path of her bodyguard warrior, it was a miracle that So-sam was even still alive.
At the time, So-sam was being beaten by Paeng Doryang, and Machil was at the Soaring Sun Inn, thoroughly savoring the flesh of that wench Aeng-Aeng.
After releasing his pent-up lust, he was returning to the family estate with a satisfied heart when he discovered So-sam lying there, covered in blood.
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He slung him over his shoulder and returned to the family.
When he first brought him to the stables, he thought So-sam was dead.
Machil was momentarily flustered and just left him unattended in the stables.
But when he went to the stables the next day, So-sam had woken up.
At that time, Machil thought.
What a tough bastard.
To come back to his senses in just a day after being in that state.
But that turned out to be a bad thing for him.
"It would've been much better if that bastard Ma-byeon-sam had just died. Shit."
Because So-sam was clinging to his miserable life, he was wretchedly stuck with his work until the guy fully recovered.
It would only take a few days to find a new stablehand.
On the other hand, looking at So-sam's current state, it seemed it would take at least another month for him to fully heal.
The bigger problem was that the incident had turned So-sam into an idiot.
Not only could he not speak, but his memory also seemed to be incomplete.
When he occasionally woke up, and Machil tried to talk to him, he did not seem to recognize him at all and said nothing.
Thinking there might be a problem with his tongue, Machil checked it, but there was nothing wrong with it.
Perhaps he had lost his ability to speak due to the shock of the incident.
It meant that So-sam might be useless even after he recovered.
"Dammit! That I, the great Machil, have to clean up after a mere idiot like that."
Today, too, all of So-sam's duties fell to Machil.
Not only that, but the family had also entrusted him with all of So-sam's treatment.
The work of a stablehand is hard.
Machil knew this fact better than anyone.
Because he was the stablehand until So-sam came here over a decade ago.
Walking the horses, cleaning up horse dung, and cleaning the stables were nothing.
The hardest part was occasionally accompanying the Danri Family members on their outings as a horse attendant.
A horse attendant was, in common terms, a 'human footrest'.
In a word, it meant prostrating oneself to serve as a mounting block when the Danri Family members got on their horses.
This was a really troublesome and annoying job.
It did not matter if you got a decent person from the family members, but if you had to go out as a horse attendant for a human piece of trash like Danri Hui...
On a bad day, your head could fly.
He had not been called to go out as a horse attendant yet, but who knew when he would be called? So, whether he liked it or not, Machil had to diligently care for So-sam until he recovered.
As Machil grumbled for one reason or another, he arrived at the stables located at the eastern end of the family estate.
Before opening the stable door and entering, a thought momentarily crossed his mind.
'Should I just kill that bastard?'
No one in the family would care whether someone like So-sam lived or died anyway.
If a new stablehand was quickly brought in, it would be much more beneficial for Machil.
Would that not be the best way to escape his current hardship?
Machil's dead-fish-like eyes stared at the stable door, flashed red for a moment, and then quickly subsided.
"Forget it, forget it."
Killing a person is easy.
He had once stomped a beggar to death because the damn pest kept grabbing his ankle.
So what?
It was just that the risk of killing So-sam was too high.
If he were unlucky and got caught by any of the family's warriors, his own head could be on the line.
"You're lucky. Our Ma-byeon-sam, you son of a bitch."
In the end, he decided to endure the inconvenience for about a month.
Killing someone like So-sam was easier than snapping an ant's waist, so he could do it anytime later.
Creeak.
When he entered the stables, So-sam was sleeping as usual.
He was lying comfortably, his chest tightly bound with a dirty straw rope.
Seeing that sight, Machil's anger flared up again.
Someone was going through all this trouble because of him, and that bastard was just sleeping so peacefully.
"Ugh. This moron! Would it not have been better if you just died then? Why are you uselessly alive and making things so annoying for people? Ugh!"
Machil threw the bowl of gruel, placing it on So-sam's chest.
The bowl shook, and the hot gruel spilled.
The dirty straw rope wrapped around So-sam's chest became even dirtier.
Regardless, Machil considered his job done and left the stables just like that.
Even though the hot gruel seeped through the straw rope and likely burned his wounds, So-sam did not wake up until Machil left.
Was he so deeply asleep that he could not easily feel pain?
No.
So-sam, no, Dong Bongsu, was already awake.
As soon as Machil left, he quietly sat up.
"My recovery time keeps getting delayed because of that guy."
The dirty straw rope was touching the wound, causing it to get infected.
It was a symptom of a bacterial infection.
At this rate, the wound would not heal quickly.
But if he untied the straw rope, Machil would come and wrap it around his chest again.
So Dong Bongsu would tie the straw rope around his chest just before Machil was due to arrive, and then untie it after he left.
Not only this, but Machil was, in many ways, a person who was of no help to Dong Bongsu.
Even now, he had caused hot gruel to be spilled on his not-yet-healed wound, which would surely delay the healing process a little more.
"Is it two weeks today?"
It had already been two weeks since Dong Bongsu woke up here.
During that time, he had gathered information about this place.
He could not fully understand Chinese yet, and his only source of information was Machil, so he could not know everything accurately.
The first piece of information he grasped was that he had become someone else, and his name was So-sam or Ma-byeon-sam.
He did not figure this out by understanding Chinese, but from the fact that Machil called him that several times.
Second, he realized that although the people here used the Chinese language and characters, this place was not China.
Martial Arts.
A skill that was only possible in imagination, in movies, in novels.
Over the past two weeks, Dong Bongsu had witnessed Martial Arts living and breathing vividly in this world.
Every morning, he would be awakened by the loud shouts of warriors doing something in the Training Ground far from the stables.
At first, he did not know what it was, but he was surprised when he later looked through a crack in the door.
He was a man whose emotions were rarely stirred by anything.
Nevertheless, what surprised even Dong Bongsu was the Martial Arts of this world.
People flying, moving so fast that the eyes could hardly follow, and the disciplined movements of swords and sabers.
It was like a live-action version of Murim Online.
If so, then those skills must also be Martial Arts.
Finally, there was the fact that he had not completely 'Logged Out'.
No, to be more precise, he had logged out, but a certain part of the game system was still in effect.
Even now, very small letters were floating in the distance before his eyes.
"Murim Online."
No, Murim.
The real Murim.
Heh.
Heheheh.
A world where Martial Arts truly exist!
And he could not escape from it?
For the first time in his life, Dong Bongsu laughed sincerely.
An uncontrollable, mad laughter erupted ceaselessly in his mind.
Because he loved it so much.
The best Hunting Ground he had always dreamed of, perhaps even a battlefield.
And he had suddenly crash-landed in such a place.
Murim.
A world of Iron and Blood, without blood or tears.
Hehehehehehahahaha!
Without dreams or hope.
What a blissful world is this?
For a while, Dong Bongsu laughed like that.
Inwardly, so that no one would know.
Thus, while no one in the Central Plains knew, an unprecedented demon was being conceived in a shabby stable.