Chapter 20. Galaxy Martial God Hall - The Amusement Park Kidnapping Incident (3)
The amusement park was fun.
Given that they used overwhelming technology—incorporating all sorts of holographic devices—solely to extract dopamine, there was no way it wouldn't be fun.
Between the holographic stages that made it feel like I had stepped into an actual animation, and the characters that seemed to move with life rather than being mere costumed actors, the adventure made even me—a person with the body of a child but the brain of an adult—feel excited.
As it was a modern era, realistic virtual reality games existed, but no matter how much you deceived the senses with electronic signals, it could never compare to moving your actual body.
In fact, realistic virtual reality technology that could even deceive true senses was considered to have been perfected in the 35th century, about 1,500 years ago.
However, due to various incidents and accidents that led to legal restrictions, modern popularized virtual reality technology had fallen behind reality.
I had been curious about what kind of incidents those were, so I looked them up; certainly, cases like mass shock-death incidents at high schools or children jumping from high-rise buildings because they couldn't distinguish between reality and virtual reality were enough to warrant legal restrictions on virtual reality.
Of course, they say that if you go to the territory of the unorthodox sects, who don't care about international law, you can experience truly realistic virtual reality.
The problem was the high risk of becoming addicted to electronic drugs while searching for such realistic virtual reality.
"Oh my, I'm tired."
Playing with such excitement had left me a bit exhausted.
Since most people learned cultivation methods as part of their compulsory education, a significant number of the rides were designed to utilize physical stamina.
There were rides where you could just sit still and enjoy the thrill, but most of those had height restrictions.
Not that things like carousels were my cup of tea.
As a result, I chose rides that could be enjoyed regardless of height or age, and most of those required moving your body.
As I sat on a bench under a giant mouse statue to rest, Siu said, "I will go buy some ion drinks for a moment. Please wait here."
"Okay, I'll be resting here."
I sat on the bench and drew internal energy from my Dantian to recover my stamina.
While it was better to perform breathing exercises to absorb surrounding Qi and fill the Dantian in a place that was safe and devoid of people, there was no issue with simply using stored internal energy to recover stamina.
After all, martial arts existed to draw out internal energy and fight; it couldn't possibly be dangerous to draw out internal energy from my Dantian just because there were a few people around.
If it were dangerous, I wouldn't have been able to use internal energy to fight in the first place.
As I sat resting, a cute baby approached me.
It was a baby who would likely grow up to be a great beauty.
Isn't it dangerous for someone that pretty to be walking around alone? What if she gets kidnapped?
As I was thinking that, the baby spoke to me.
"Hey, by any chance, did you learn the Azure Wood Art too?"
The baby asked me, glancing around with anxious eyes.
"…I did. But how did you know that, little one?"
"Little one! You're a little one yourself!"
In my words, the baby girl flared up.
Ah, right. I was a little one too.
Since Siu didn't treat me like a baby, I often forgot the fact that I was at an age where it was natural to be called a baby rather than a child.
Though, that was probably because I didn't act like a baby.
"That's true, I'm a little one too. So, how did you know I learned the Azure Wood Art?"
"Because you were leaking your Qi aura so openly."
Ah, I suppose it was because I used internal energy to recover.
I must have been clumsy in concealing my internal energy, causing the Qi aura to leak out of my body.
But to feel that in this crowd? What kind of kid is this?
"Are you lost?"
At my question, the baby girl flinched.
"I'm not… lost."
Not lost, my foot. Anyone could see she was a lost kid by the way she was acting so anxious.
"The lost child center is about 300 meters that way, but…"
I couldn't exactly tell a baby who looked about three years old to go there alone.
"I'll go to the lost child center with you, so just sit here and wait a moment. I have a companion with me."
"Huh? O-okay…"
The little one sat next to me, looking hesitant.
The bench was high enough to reach her chin, but she must have learned martial arts, as she hopped onto the bench without any trouble.
"Do you know your parents' names and phone numbers?"
"I know my parents' names! …But what's a phone number?"
"Do you know what a phone is?"
At my question, the little one shook her head.
Ah, I guess a three-year-old wouldn't know what a phone is.
Then again, the phones of this era weren't in the form of 21st-century smartphones, so even if she saw her parents using one, she might not know what it was.
Most electronic devices were embedded in the form of holographic IoT, and even in the case of smartphones, they were often set so that no one but the owner could see the screen for security reasons.
"The thing on your wrist is a phone."
A small band-type bracelet was strapped to the little one's wrist.
"It's the same model as mine."
I showed her the band-type smartphone strapped to my wrist.
For reference, Siu had forbidden all internet services on the smartphone except for calls and text messages.
It was so that I, a three-year-old, wouldn't access strange sites, meaning I had to use the internet in a place where I could be seen (the living room).
I was dissatisfied with it, but as a realistic approach to parenting, it was wise.
A normal three-year-old wouldn't have the knowledge or experience to discern what was wrong, after all.
Well, in truth, a normal three-year-old would just watch children's animations on a smartphone anyway, not go internet surfing or shopping.
Still, he said he would unlock internet services when I entered elementary school, so I only had to wait about three or four more years.
"Now, press this part on your bracelet briefly."
When I pressed the button on my band, the little one followed suit and was suddenly surprised.
"A screen popped up in front of your eyes, right?"
The brooch attached to her chest, which was a set with the band, must have displayed a holographic screen visible only to the owner.
I disabled the 'invisible to others' mode and showed her my screen.
"See this receiver icon here? Press this. No, with the hand wearing the bracelet."
The band was a controller for interacting with the holographic screen with your hand.
"If you pressed it, a contact list appeared, right? What does it say there?"
"Mom… Dad."
"Press the person you want to call from there. No, press it with the hand while wearing the bracelet."
"I pressed it. Oh! It's making a weird sound!"
The little one was startled by the ringing sound that suddenly started.
Of course, I couldn't hear it.
"Oh! Mom? Where are you? Where are you talking from?"
The little one kept looking around, wondering if the call had connected.
I said to the little one, "Tell them you're at the bench under the Marley Mouse statue in Zone G."
No need to go through the trouble of taking her to the lost child center.
The little one repeated exactly what I said and told me her parents were coming here.
"Thank you! A phone, what a fascinating object!"
"Well, is there anything that isn't fascinating at our age? But did you hang up the call?"
"Huh? Hang up the call?"
"…No, never mind. Since you're lost, it's better to keep the call going."
At my words, the little one flared up.
"I-I'm not lost!"
"Sure, sure. Of course."
When I brushed it off, the little one pouted, then smiled to herself in a slightly unpleasant way and said, "Right, I'm an adult, so I should be generous."
"An adult?"
When I looked at her with a 'You?' expression, the little one pouted again.
She was a kid whose emotions were clearly visible on her face.
Come to think of it, she spoke quite logically for a three-year-old.
Usually, a three-year-old wouldn't be able to use difficult words like 'generous,' right? Or was I wrong?
I didn't know, as I'd never been around a three-year-old before.
I did have a younger sibling whose physical and intellectual level was like a gorilla, but even if that kid, who looked like a triceratops with face powder, had low intelligence, he was a high schooler, so he would still use his brain more than a three-year-old, right?
…Or would he?
"By the way, you said you felt my Qi aura earlier? There are so many people here, how did you read my Qi aura?"
I had learned while practicing martial arts that everyone lived while emitting Qi aura, whether they knew it or not.
Even though it was a weekday, this was an amusement park, so there were countless people walking around, and there were even martial artists working part-time, making the Qi aura feel chaotic.
At my question, the little one spoke as if it were nothing.
"The properties of internal energy change depending on the person and the martial art. You just have to distinguish them."
The little one gathered internal energy in her hand and emitted a Qi aura.
"I learned the Azure Wood Art like you, so I emit this clear energy. Look, that martial artist performing acrobatics learned a Daoist martial art, so it's calm; that person learned a Buddhist martial art, so it's heavy; and that woman learned the Cold Ice Qi Technique, so it's chilly."
The little one, who had been chattering away like that, realized something and said, "Ah, you probably don't understand even if I say it like this. Hmm, how should I explain…"
"No, I understand. That person feels like they have a hot and active Qi aura, so did they learn the Heat-Sun Qi Technique?"
As the little one pointed them out one by one and explained the properties of the flowing Qi aura, I could roughly tell.
It was still difficult to feel the Qi aura because there were too many people, but if I focused on them one by one, I could distinguish them.
At my words, the little one looked at me with surprised eyes.
"No, how…! Your visible bones and muscles are clearly mediocre, if not downright untalented…!?"
Hey, you rude little kid! You have no shortage of things to say to your benefactor!
Even if it was true! Even if Siu, who was teaching me, sighed in secret!
Do I have to hear that from a rude kid I'm meeting for the first time?
As I narrowed my brows, she realized her rudeness and apologized.
"I-I'm sorry. I was just so surprised."
"It's just that my sensitivity to Qi is keen; it's true that I lack talent."
"No, even so, looking at you, it seems you are building a very solid foundation for your age. Bones and muscles are merely a talent that allows one to reach a certain level quickly; they aren't what's important. Rather, those who rely only on innate talent and ignore the foundation stagnate at a certain realm, but those who build a solid foundation even without good bones and muscles do not stagnate."
The little kid, who had been making excuses, suddenly looked at me closely and exclaimed in admiration.
"But who is your master? You seem young and still building your foundation, but the level of your foundation feels like you're building a fortress. You could have moved on to the next stage long ago, yet it looks like you're still solidifying the basics."
"…How can you tell that just by looking? Are you some kind of master who has undergone Reincarnation?"
I asked, dumbfounded, and the kid looked flustered.
"Hehe! W-well, that's true. How would I know? It's just a hunch, a hunch."
The way they were acting so strangely flustered felt off.
Could they have been reincarnated like me?
No matter how I thought about it, this wasn't the behavior or speech of a three-year-old.
The flustered kid tried to change the subject to gloss over what they had just said.
"Seeing as you've mastered the Azure Wood Art, we must be from the same family. What's your name? My name is Cheon So…!"
"Ugh!"
Suddenly, two men wearing hoodies, cute headbands, and character masks—as if they were just enjoying the amusement park—appeared and gagged the kid with a handkerchief.
There must have been a sedative on the handkerchief, because sleepiness washed over me.
When I fell asleep and woke up again, I was in a dark, boiler-room-like place.
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