Internal Monologue Of Hwang Ryeok, Third Rate Peak Martial Artist Of The Iron Blood SectApproximately Eight Minutes Before Everything Went WrongAnd Five Minutes After It Had Already Started Going Wrong
I am Hwang Ryeok of the Iron Blood Sect.
I have broken one hundred and seven stones with my bare fists.
I have defeated forty three martial artists in formal challenge.
My master says I have the hardest fists in the southern territories.
My master has broken one thousand stones and defeated three hundred martial artists so this is a genuine assessment not empty praise.
I was meditating near the Heaven Rift in the eastern mountains.
The Heaven Rift has been there for two years.
We are supposed to guard it.
I was meditating.
The Heaven Rift opened.
I was closest.
I went through.
This is a different world.
The qi is thick and strange and moves wrong.
Everything smells different.
There are very tall structures everywhere.
There are metal boxes moving on flat stone roads.
There are small glowing rectangles that people carry.
I do not understand any of this.
The appropriate response to not understanding something is to break it until you understand it.
I have broken eleven things.
The metal boxes make very loud noises when you break them.
The structures do not break easily.
The flat stone road breaks but the pieces are heavy.
Several people have run away.
This is the traditional response to a martial artist of my caliber.
The traditional response is validating.
Several beings in colored armor arrived.
They are hitting me with energy that is not qi.
It is strange energy.
It hurts slightly.
I am third rate peak.
Slightly hurting is not a problem.
There is a man walking through the people in colored armor.
He is not in colored armor.
He is wearing a blue uniform.
He is carrying a bag.
He has no qi.
He has two small dark things on his shoulders.
He is looking at the road.
He looks annoyed.
He stopped.
He is crouching down.
He is looking at the pieces of road I broke.
He has a notebook.
He is writing in the notebook.
He is writing in the notebook about the road I broke.
In forty three formal challenges nobody has written in a notebook about the road.
Something is wrong.
He looked up.
He is looking at me.
He looks personally offended by what I have done to the road.
Not afraid.
Not impressed.
Personally offended.
I have broken one hundred and seven stones.
This man is personally offended about the road.
WHAT IS HAPPENING.
The Tuesday morning alert came at seven fifty two AM.
Han-Ho was on the northern section of the route.
He read the alert.
Made a note.
Blue Gate. Northern Mapo. Entity from martial world — third rate peak based on qi signature in alert description. Eleven structures damaged. Road damage. Responding.
He filed a preliminary report.
Started walking north.
Min-Seo was already calling.
"Han-Ho."
"I see the alert."
"A-Rank response. They are struggling. The entity's qi reinforcement is deflecting mana-based attacks."
"Third rate peak," said Han-Ho. "Should be manageable for A-Rank."
"It is not manageable for A-Rank when A-Rank cannot penetrate the qi defense," said Min-Seo. "The attacks are landing but not the right way. Like hitting something with the wrong tool."
"Where are the S-Ranks."
"Yoo Chae-Won is ten minutes out. Oh Kyung-Soo is five. The others are further."
"I am two minutes out," said Han-Ho.
"Han-Ho—"
"I am two minutes out Min-Seo."
Min-Seo exhaled.
"The old man," said Min-Seo.
"Is at the Seocho apartment training," said Han-Ho. "I will not pull him from training for a third rate peak."
"It might require—"
"It won't," said Han-Ho. "Two minutes."
He arrived in two minutes.
The damage was significant.
Eleven broken things. Mostly cars. One structure wall. The pavement in a twenty meter radius had been comprehensively destroyed.
Hwang Ryeok of the Iron Blood Sect was standing in the center of it looking aggressive and slightly confused because the colored armor beings kept hitting him and it kept hurting slightly and he kept not understanding why he was not winning in the traditional way.
Three A-Rank Hunters were in formation.
Hitting him.
Getting the deflection.
Regrouping.
Hitting him again.
It was not working.
But it was also not getting worse.
A holding pattern.
Han-Ho walked through the formation.
One of the A-Rank Hunters grabbed his arm.
"Sir this is an active—"
"I have a route," said Han-Ho.
The Hunter looked at him.
Looked at Moru.
Let go of the arm.
Han-Ho walked to the edge of the damage zone.
Crouched down.
Looked at the broken pavement.
Made a note.
Hwang Ryeok looked at him.
Han-Ho looked at the pavement.
At the broken sections.
At the residue from the Gate that had been spreading since Hwang Ryeok came through and had now mixed with the dust and debris from the eleven broken things and created a contamination situation that was going to be significantly more work than a standard Gate residue cleanup.
"The residue has mixed with the debris," said Han-Ho to Moru.
"Yes," said Moru.
"That is going to take longer to separate."
"Yes Master."
"The pavement sections are also broken which means the residue has penetrated the substrate."
"Yes."
"This is a significant cleanup," said Han-Ho.
"Yes," said Moru.
Han-Ho stood up.
Looked at Hwang Ryeok.
Hwang Ryeok looked back.
"You came through a Gate," said Han-Ho.
"A HEAVEN RIFT—"
"Same thing on this side," said Han-Ho. "You left residue. The residue has mixed with the debris from the eleven things you broke."
Hwang Ryeok looked at the debris.
Looked at the residue.
Looked back at Han-Ho.
"I am Hwang Ryeok of the Iron Blood Sect," said Hwang Ryeok. "I have broken one hundred and—"
"And seven stones yes," said Han-Ho. "The alert had your sect file attached. Third rate peak. Iron Blood Sect. Eastern territories." He looked at his notebook. "The Iron Blood Sect uses a qi hardening technique that reinforces the external body. That is why the A-Rank attacks are deflecting. The technique converts incoming force into additional qi reinforcement."
Hwang Ryeok stared at him.
"You know my technique," said Hwang Ryeok.
"Ms. Yoon's file on the martial world has a section on major sect techniques," said Han-Ho. "The Iron Blood Sect's external hardening technique is documented."
"Ms. Yoon has a file on my sect."
"Ms. Yoon has a file on everything," said Han-Ho. "Step back please. You are standing on the worst of the residue mixing zone."
Hwang Ryeok did not step back.
This was different from the Blood Ogre Lord who had stepped back when asked. Hwang Ryeok was a person not a beast. He had pride. He had training. He had one hundred and seven broken stones.
He was not going to step back because a man in a cleaning uniform asked him to.
"I WILL NOT—" Hwang Ryeok started.
"Han-Ho," said Oh Kyung-Soo, arriving at the perimeter.
"Oh Kyung-Soo," said Han-Ho, without turning around. "The technique is qi hardening external. Incoming force converts to reinforcement. Mana-based attacks will not penetrate."
"I know," said Oh Kyung-Soo, looking at Hwang Ryeok. "I have seen this technique before. In historical records."
Hwang Ryeok looked at Oh Kyung-Soo.
An S-Rank Hunter with thirty years of experience who had seen the technique in historical records.
Hwang Ryeok was third rate peak.
Oh Kyung-Soo was S-Rank.
The math was not comfortable for Hwang Ryeok.
But the qi hardening technique meant—
"He cannot be defeated through direct force," said Han-Ho to Oh Kyung-Soo. "The technique has a weakness. Sustained pressure that is not force-based. Something that does not add to the reinforcement cycle."
Oh Kyung-Soo looked at Han-Ho.
"You are describing your skill," said Oh Kyung-Soo.
"Yes," said Han-Ho.
He pressed his hand flat against the ground near Hwang Ryeok's feet.
The glow started.
Warm. Golden. Stain Removal reading the residue mixing zone and beginning the cleanup.
Hwang Ryeok felt it immediately.
Not pain.
Not force.
Something completely different.
The qi hardening technique converted force. It reinforced against impacts. It was specifically calibrated for the kind of energy that martial arts produced.
It was not calibrated for cleaning.
The technique had never encountered cleaning before.
It did not know what to do with cleaning.
The external qi reinforcement that had been deflecting A-Rank attacks for twenty minutes began to feel the cleaning at its edges.
Not dissolving. Not attacking.
Just cleaning.
The way you clean something that has accumulated something that was never supposed to be there.
"What," said Hwang Ryeok.
"Almost done with the first section," said Han-Ho.
"What are you—"
"The residue mixed with your external qi reinforcement when you broke the pavement," said Han-Ho. "The contamination debris has bonded with the outer layer of your technique. I am cleaning it."
"You are cleaning my TECHNIQUE—"
"I am cleaning the contamination in your technique," said Han-Ho. "The technique itself is fine. It is very well made actually. The hardening is very even. Good consistency."
Hwang Ryeok looked at his hands.
His external qi reinforcement which had protected him for fifteen years of martial arts training and had converted one hundred and seven stone-breaking strikes into additional qi was being assessed for evenness of hardening by a man in a janitor uniform.
"The contamination is affecting the technique's efficiency," said Han-Ho. "Gate residue bonded with qi reinforcement reduces conversion effectiveness by approximately fifteen percent. That is why the A-Rank attacks were hurting slightly. They were not penetrating but the contamination was creating micro-gaps in the reinforcement layer."
Hwang Ryeok looked at the A-Rank Hunters.
Who had been hitting him with full energy attacks.
And had been hurting him slightly.
Because of contamination micro-gaps.
Not because their attacks were penetrating his technique.
Because his technique had contamination in it.
"The micro-gaps," said Hwang Ryeok slowly.
"Yes," said Han-Ho. "They are cleaned now. The technique should be at full efficiency again."
Hwang Ryeok felt his external qi reinforcement.
It was at full efficiency.
The micro-gaps were gone.
The cleaning had been done.
He looked at the man crouched on the road who had just cleaned his martial arts technique like it was a dirty surface.
Hwang Ryeok had broken one hundred and seven stones.
He had never had his martial arts technique cleaned before.
He did not know how to feel about this.
"You need to go back through the Gate," said Han-Ho. "It is still open. Step back three meters and it should be visible."
Hwang Ryeok stepped back three meters.
The Gate was visible.
He looked at it.
Looked at Han-Ho.
"The road," said Han-Ho. "When you go back through. Tell whoever sent you to guard the Heaven Rift to do it from further away. The Gate opening drew you through because you were too close. The Dragon Vein clearing is making the connection points more active. Things near them get drawn through if they are in physical contact with the qi disturbance zone."
Hwang Ryeok looked at the Gate.
Looked at Han-Ho.
"You know about the Dragon Vein clearing," said Hwang Ryeok.
"I am doing it," said Han-Ho.
A very long pause.
"You," said Hwang Ryeok. "Are clearing the Dragon Vein blockage."
"Yes," said Han-Ho.
"The blockage that the Unmoving Mountain has been trying to clear for eight thousand years."
"Yes," said Han-Ho.
Hwang Ryeok looked at Han-Ho for a very long time.
With the specific expression of a third rate peak martial artist who has just been told something that his entire martial world understanding does not have a category for.
"You are an F-Rank," said Hwang Ryeok.
"Yes," said Han-Ho.
"In your world's classification."
"Yes."
"And you are clearing the blockage."
"Yes."
"With Stain Removal."
"Yes."
Hwang Ryeok looked at the Gate.
"I am going back through," said Hwang Ryeok.
"Good," said Han-Ho. "Watch the residue zone on your side. The clearing is making the Dragon Veins more active. Anything that accumulates near a Heaven Rift will be drawn through if it is not cleaned regularly."
"Are you offering to clean the Dragon Veins on our side."
"I am offering to file a report about it," said Han-Ho. "The physical cleanup on your side would require access through the Gate. The old man is here. He can coordinate."
"The Unmoving Mountain is here," said Hwang Ryeok.
"He is at my apartment," said Han-Ho. "Seocho district. He trains there on weekdays."
Hwang Ryeok looked at the Gate.
Looked at the Mapo district pavement.
Looked at Han-Ho.
"The Unmoving Mountain trains at your apartment," said Hwang Ryeok.
"Secondary location," said Han-Ho. "His primary location is the center of my floor."
Hwang Ryeok went through the Gate.
Oh Kyung-Soo waited until the Gate closed.
Then he looked at Han-Ho.
"You cleaned his technique," said Oh Kyung-Soo.
"The contamination in his technique," said Han-Ho. "The technique itself is very good. Very even hardening. Whoever taught him was thorough."
Oh Kyung-Soo looked at the clean pavement where Hwang Ryeok had been standing.
At the residue Han-Ho had addressed before Hwang Ryeok even arrived.
At the spot where the Gate had been.
"Han-Ho," said Oh Kyung-Soo.
"Yes."
"The micro-gaps in the technique."
"Yes."
"If they had not been cleaned."
"The A-Rank attacks would have continued to hurt slightly," said Han-Ho. "Accumulation over time. Eventually the micro-gaps would have become macro-gaps. The technique would have degraded."
"How long would that take."
"Depends on exposure," said Han-Ho. "In this world's ambient mana level. Maybe three weeks before the degradation became significant."
Oh Kyung-Soo sat with this.
"You cleaned his technique," said Oh Kyung-Soo. "And by doing so made him stronger."
"I cleaned the contamination," said Han-Ho. "The technique was already there."
"Yes," said Oh Kyung-Soo. "But cleaner."
Han-Ho made a note.
The A-Rank Hunters were looking at each other with the expressions of people who had been hitting something for twenty minutes and had just watched a janitor resolve the situation by cleaning contamination micro-gaps in the target's martial arts technique.
"The road," said one of the A-Rank Hunters.
Han-Ho looked at the road.
At the eleven broken things.
At the comprehensively destroyed pavement.
At the residue-debris mixing zone.
"I know," said Han-Ho.
He got to work.