Chapter 10. Galaxy Martial God - Reincarnation (1)
When I stepped out of the library, the sun had already dipped low.
Checking the clock tower, it was just past 5:00 PM.
By summer standards, the sun should have been blazing at this hour, but seeing it set already—was this place in early spring or late autumn?
No wonder it hadn't felt hot at all.
I hadn't given the climate a second thought, but it felt like I’d discovered something new.
Or perhaps it was just my prejudice that the Tower had to have seasons.
Was each floor of the Tower a planet?
Or was it a dimension consisting only of a specific space, like the Flat Earth theory?
In the case of Gates, they say the interior is surrounded by a wall of fog, as if there’s an invisible barrier, and you can’t pass beyond it.
Perhaps the 10th floor was a space similar to a Gate.
Just a space incomparably larger than any Gate.
According to community information, the 10th floor had countless cities spread far apart.
There were monsters outside the cities; near the city, you’d find things like Horned Rabbits or Goblins, but the further you went, the more you’d encounter monsters seen in the late teens of the Tower floors.
They said you could travel to other cities, but it was as if the servers were partitioned; most of the cities near this one seemed to be populated only by climbers invited from Korea.
Climbers from other countries were in more distant cities, so the chances of meeting a foreigner on the 10th floor were lower than meeting them on the 20th or 30th floors.
It seemed that as you climbed higher, the server integration would kick in, gathering people from various countries into a single city.
"I thought about earning some shop points outside the city, but I'll have to do that tomorrow."
I didn't have night vision, and I had no desire to get ambushed and have a hole punched through my heart or my head split open again.
I checked the guidebook and found lodging that wasn't too cheap.
It was 600 credits (about 60,000 won) per night, and since they sold affordable meals, I bought two portions of sandwiches and headed up to my room.
The room was a clean, 3-pyeong studio with a bathroom and a reasonably comfortable bed.
I kicked off my combat boots, stripped off my clothes, and collapsed onto the bed.
"Ah, this is life."
My body had been newly created when I ascended to the 10th floor, so I felt almost no physical fatigue, yet I was strangely exhausted.
I suppose it was because I was mentally drained.
I debated closing my eyes for a moment, but I put one portion of the sandwich into my inventory and returned to my main body.
* * *
As the time for my 10th-floor clone stopped, I opened my eyes in my main body.
I took the sandwich out of my inventory, ate it, and checked the second slot of the "Multidimensional Avatar."
[Warning!]
[This dimension is temporally connected to the first slot. If you spend time in this dimension, time will also pass for the avatar in the first slot. Would you like to create an avatar in this dimension?]
If I chose Earth for the second slot, time would flow for the clone in the first slot as well.
But since I had secured a room and locked the door, a short while wouldn't matter.
Even if a problem arose, it was just a clone; I could always make another.
After finishing the sandwich, I selected Earth.
"This sandwich is pretty good."
My consciousness shifted to the second clone.
* * *
When I opened my eyes, I was at the entrance of the familiar Dong Seoul Terminal.
It was the exact space I had visited every vacation, and the place from which I had been invited to the Tower.
I pulled my smartphone from my pocket to check the time; it was nearly 1:00 PM.
I had spent about 7 hours in the Tower, but less than 3 hours had passed in reality.
Looking at my ability window, time for my main body was frozen, while time for the 10th-floor clone was moving rapidly.
The higher I climbed the Tower, the greater the discrepancy in time would likely become.
Still, would I be able to have such a miraculous experience once I left the Tower, provided I had secured my safety?
Well, I wouldn't lose my abilities just by leaving the Tower, so it wouldn't be impossible.
But didn't the old librarian tell me to climb to the upper floors and pay him a visit?
If you’ve received a favor, isn't it the duty of a person to live up to those expectations?
"That's all just an excuse. Since when have I ever lived my life worrying about what others think?"
That’s right, I’ve always lived exactly as I pleased.
I was the type who couldn't stand not knowing something, and I was curious about many things.
Because of that, I was often called an eccentric.
Right now, I was just curious about the Tower—what was at the top, and what was the significance of its existence?
My conversation with the old librarian hadn't fully satisfied my curiosity.
If anything, it had only made it grow.
What is magic? I want to try learning martial arts, too.
I want to indulge in the mysteries of this world.
If I had never experienced it from the start, I wouldn't know, but to go back to living a peaceful, monotonous daily life now?
Is the Tower trying to drag me into hell?
I was beyond excited.
Returning to a familiar space made the mystery that had approached me feel real.
Let’s erase the 2nd slot Earth and set off on a journey to a new dimension.
I can always return to my hometown.
Though, before that.
[I’m staying at a college friend’s place after being discharged, and I’ve decided to do an internship in Seoul. I’ll be busy for a while, so I won't be able to stay in touch.]
I should at least send a text to my parents. It’s better than suddenly going missing.
I was about to delete the clone again when the phone rang. It was my mother.
"Hello?"
-Son, were you discharged? But suddenly an internship?
"Ah, a college friend asked me what I thought about an internship, so I applied for fun during my final leave, and I actually got in."
She replied in a worried voice.
-Still, you just got discharged, you should rest a bit.
"If I want to get a job later, I need to build up my specs, so it’s a good thing. I can't just ditch my friend and run, can I?"
-What kind of place is it?
"It's affiliated with the university. It's not a conglomerate, but it's a pretty solid mid-sized company."
It was nice to be able to tell lies like this because I attended a prestigious university.
“…I see. Are you coming home before the internship starts?”
"No, home is in Jeju, how could I? It starts tomorrow. It was supposed to start yesterday, but since I was discharged today, they made an exception for me to start tomorrow. But the seniors say it’s going to be busy, leaving early in the morning and getting off late at night."
My mother said she understood and told me to take care of my health. I laughed and hung up, saying it was only for a few months, so what was there to be tired about?
I looked up at the sky for a moment; it was a clear, scorching summer day.
"Well, 'a few months' isn't a lie."
It might be years for me, but in Earth time, it would probably be a few months.
Watching the heat haze that looked like the Tower in the sky, I erased the clone.
* * *
Returning to my main body, I deleted Earth from the 2nd slot without hesitation.
Then, I pondered which dimension to create my next clone in.
"Huh? The number of dimensions has increased?"
The names of the dimensions were all numbers, but the count of searchable dimensions had grown.
It was likely thanks to the connections formed by the Magic Bullets and Spirit Arts I had newly learned.
Or perhaps it was the connection formed with the old librarian?
Although they were just dimension names, I could intuitively sense what kind of connection had linked each dimension.
"Martial arts or magic."
Spirit Arts required talent and took a long time, so I’d put that off for later.
The deliberation didn't last long.
"Magic takes 1,000 years to master. To climb the Tower, I should move my body, right?"
To a dimension where I could learn martial arts.
Since I had learned the Green Wood Sword, I would go to the dimension most deeply connected to it.
I filled the 2nd slot with dimension #33669, which had the deepest connection to the Green Wood Sword.
Before creating the clone in the 2nd slot, I pondered the "Reincarnation" ability, which I had newly acquired as the "Multidimensional Avatar" reached level 10.
"Reincarnation, huh. Come to think of it, didn't they say martial arts are better learned when you're young? But surely it doesn't mean actual reincarnation, right?"
Nah, no way. It probably just means I get birth records or something in that dimension.
Even if it were a martial arts-style medieval China, wouldn't a clone with no background have restrictions on its actions?
My guess was that when I created a clone, memories would be implanted in the people near where it was created, making them believe I had been living in that village all along.
That much would be worthy of being called a superpower, wouldn't it?
It couldn't possibly mean I'd actually be reincarnated as a baby.
That wouldn't be a clone.
"You have to use it to find out."
Honestly, I was nervous, but I couldn't stand not knowing.
I selected Reincarnation.
[2nd Slot - Galaxy Martial World]
* * *
"Ma'am! Please stay with us! Ma'am! Ma'am!"
"Defibrillator! Hurry!"
"Charging to 200 joules! Shock! Once more!"
The obstetricians in the operating room moved urgently.
But the woman on the operating table eventually drew her last breath.
The doctors let out deep, devastated sighs.
"…What about the baby?"
"The baby is safe. It cried itself to sleep."
At the nurse's reply, the doctors let out sighs of relief.
They had tried to save the mother, but at least they were glad the baby had survived.
"Don't worry. This was a pregnancy where both mother and baby were doomed. It's a miracle the baby survived. We did our best."
At the lead surgeon's words, the assistant professor asked in a still-worried voice.
"But this is a direct descendant of the Cheon Clan. And I heard the baby's grandfather is a candidate for the Clan Head..."
"We advised against the pregnancy several times for the mother's safety. Even though the mother herself knew she would die if she maintained the pregnancy, she insisted on it. We have the medical records, so there won't be any problems. In fact, the baby surviving like this is a miracle of miracles, so even someone as high-ranking as the Cheon Clan can't blame us."
As the lead surgeon said this, he recalled the time from the very early stages of pregnancy when the mother was admitted until now.
In the beginning, the mother, who had been rapidly weakening, suddenly began to maintain a minimal physical state as if she had encountered a miracle.
Because of that, they had held onto hope, but in the end, the mother died on the operating table.
No matter how many times you experience a table death, you never get used to it.
Nevertheless, the lead surgeon tried to fulfill his duty.
"Where are the guardians for the mother and the baby?"
The nurse answered the lead surgeon’s question.
"According to the records, the baby’s father is deceased, and the current legal guardian is the grandfather, Mr. Cheon Gyeong-ho."
"…I see. Then contact Mr. Cheon Gyeong-ho, and connect the mother to the funeral home. What about the mother’s family?"
"The records show no paternal family, and according to the family registry, she is under the Cheon Family Clan as a daughter-in-law."
"It will be a lonely funeral."
The lead surgeon found himself missing the cigarettes he had quit long ago.
It had been many centuries since humanity expanded into space.
An era where martial artists rode starships to colonize the stars.
Yet, mere humans were still far from overcoming death.
* * *
I cried from the extreme cold.
I wailed, constantly repeating "Fucking freezing!" in my mind, but an infant’s vocal structure could not articulate such strong, precise words.
Only after a warm swaddle wrapped around my body could I finally stop the cursing.
Suddenly warm, I couldn't even think about returning to my original body, and I had no choice but to surrender my consciousness to the pouring sleep.
When I came to my senses, I was finally able to grasp the situation.
I had truly been reincarnated.
Tower, you crazy bastard! What are you doing, actually reincarnating me when I asked for a reincarnation ability!
A newborn’s vision is poor immediately after birth, making it incredibly difficult to see the surroundings.
Furthermore, wrapped in a swaddle, my limbs were restricted, and I couldn't move.
No, even without the swaddle, I wouldn't have had the strength to move. An infant’s body was helpless.
I recalled the "3D Avatar" ability and tried to use it.
[This cannot be used while inhabiting the avatar's body.]
At that notification, I returned to my original body.
* * *
"If it’s impossible while in the clone, does that mean I can use it when I’m not in the clone?"
When I used the 3D Avatar ability, an image of myself in the infant’s body appeared before me like a projection.
In the 3D Avatar state, I could see my surroundings clearly.
I was shocked by the environment.
"Huh? This isn't a martial arts world?"
The place I was in was a hospital, and a very modern-looking one at that.
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