Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 152

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 152. Galaxy Martial God Hall – School Trip (6)

The man posing as a janitor froze when a student walked into the gym during what should have been deep sleeping hours.
Surely the work he’d been doing hadn’t been exposed?
The man, whose body was partially cybernetic, struggled to calm his racing heart.
He’d never have guessed that even at Cheonmu Elementary School, a Martial Arts specialty academy, some lunatic would actually come exercise during a school trip of all times.
He’d been working in the gym precisely because it seemed like the last place anyone would look—the darkest corner beneath the lamp, so to speak—and he hadn’t anticipated a student showing up.
The man quickly hid what he’d been doing beneath the gym floor and placed the treadmill over it.
For a moment he’d considered dealing with the student waiting outside to enter the gym, but thinking about it rationally, even if the student had seen his work, there was no way they’d understand what they were looking at.
All he’d been doing was touching electrical wiring, after all.
It wasn’t strange for a janitor to clean the area around electrical wiring to prevent dust buildup. Probably.
Reassuring himself with these thoughts, the man gathered his cleaning supplies and stepped outside, flashing a smile at the student.
“Finished cleaning. Enjoy your workout.”
“Ah, thank you for your hard work.”
The student gave a small bow in greeting and entered the gym.
The man muttered to himself as he watched the student’s back, irritated that he’d been made anxious since dawn.

* * *

I tracked the janitor with a Sorcerer’s eyes after entering the gym.
“Hmm, nothing unusual?”
Magic using the Astral Body had almost no distance limitations, but magic that extended my Inner Energy outward couldn’t be projected nearly as far.
It was due to the nature of Inner Energy that had been refined to never leave the body’s boundaries.
The janitor turned without hesitation and left; I began jogging on the treadmill with its dusty footprints, moving lightly to activate my body while my mind wandered into thought.

* * *

After finishing my morning workout, I went to the public sauna drenched in sweat and was warming myself up when the Vice Principal’s familiar voice broadcast the wake-up call over the speakers.
“Eight o’clock.”
After a leisurely final shower, I emerged to find everyone with disheveled hair yawning as they made their way to breakfast.
I joined the procession to the restaurant, filled a plate with the morning meal, and was eating when Cheon So-yeon, Cheon Ga-ryeong, and Cheon Gu-young came over and took seats at my table.
“Why are you eating alone?”
I swallowed my food and answered Cheon Ga-ryeong’s question.
“Did morning exercises and got hungry, so I came straight here.”
“Why are you even exercising on a school trip?”
“Yeah, I’m not sure why I’ve ended up like this either.”
I chatted with the three of them while eating breakfast.
Or rather, Cheon Gu-young mostly just nodded and threw in interjections like “Yeah” or “Mm,” so it felt more like I was conversing with Cheon So-yeon and Cheon Ga-ryeong.
“Is today’s schedule skiing lessons?”
“They said anyone who knows how to ski or snowboard can use the ski resort freely. And if skiing’s not your thing, you can snowsled instead. Might as well learn while we’re here.”
Cheon Ga-ryeong spoke with the ease of someone who’d been to the ski resort several times over winter break, saying she’d spend her free time doing as she pleased.
“Might as well pick up skiing while we’re at it.”
Come to think of it, this was my first time ever visiting a ski resort.
Being from Jeju, it was hard to see snow, and my mother hated the cold so much that even when I was stationed in Gangwon Province, she wouldn’t visit in winter. So I’d never been to a ski resort.
Though Gangwon winters were certainly brutally cold.
“What about you, So-yeon?”
This was Cheon So-yeon’s first time at a ski resort too.
“Ah, I’m going to spend the free time relaxing.”
At Cheon So-yeon’s words, Cheon Ga-ryeong spoke as if surprised.
“That’s unexpected. You’re always glued to Ji-woo.”
I found her comment absurd and protested.
“That’s not true.”
“It is too. Besides, being that attached to someone is pretty annoying to watch.”
“You’re one to talk, always hanging around Gong-hu.”
“That’s different! I’m just looking after him!”
As Cheon Ga-ryeong and I bickered through breakfast, we finished eating before we knew it and divided into groups to head to the ski resort.
The skiing lessons were divided by skill level into advanced, intermediate, beginner, and absolute beginner classes, and since I didn’t even know how to attach ski boots, I ended up in the absolute beginner class.

* * *

Cheon So-yeon, having chosen free time, set out alone with a snow sled no larger than her own torso.
Her fellow group member Cheon Ga-ryeong had climbed to the advanced course with Cheon Gong-hu, while Cheon Gu-young, like Ji-woo, was taking the beginner class.
Part of her wanted to learn skiing alongside Ji-woo and Cheon Gu-young, but the fact that she couldn’t pinpoint yesterday’s malice troubled her.
And from time to time, she felt gazes that didn’t carry malice—gazes of a different kind altogether.
Cheon So-yeon touched the scarf in her pocket to confirm it, then headed toward the ski resort outskirts.
The scarf was made of cloth, but when water-soaked and infused with inner energy, it hardened into a rigid weapon suitable for assassination.
Proper use required reaching the First Class realm, but Cheon So-yeon had attained that level around age three, so wielding it posed no particular difficulty.
Her current realm stood at the Peak stage, just before the Great Peak.
Even that, she held back deliberately—her body hadn’t fully matured yet, and she refrained from forcing herself to the next stage, though she could cross that threshold whenever she wished.
No matter how blessed she was with the Heavenly Martial Body, channeling such immense power through a child’s frame would prove harmful in the long term.
It risked exhausting her body from an early age and inducing chronic imbalance in her spirit vessel.
Through experience from her past life, she could shatter the Great Peak right now and forcibly ascend to the Transformation Realm—but that would be squandering the gift of the Heavenly Martial Body for the sake of immediate power.
And observing the world from a lower realm revealed countless insights she had never grasped in her former life.
These moments would become crucial nourishment for her growth.
Unable to shake off the malice emanating from an unknown source, Cheon So-yeon exhaled a sigh as she wandered.
“At this rate, I won’t be able to identify it properly.”
It seemed her adversary was watching or plotting against her using some advanced device she was unfamiliar with.
Twelve years had passed since her reincarnation, yet Cheon So-yeon still hadn’t fully shed her old-world thinking, and she wrestled with indecision.
If advanced technology was involved, the one she knew best equipped to handle it was Ji-woo.
But she couldn’t decide whether asking him for help was the right choice.
Like the other students, Ji-woo was only twelve years old.
She couldn’t ask a child she was meant to protect for assistance.
No—it was all just excuses.
Cheon So-yeon didn’t want Ji-woo to get hurt because of her.
“When you can’t solve something alone, ask for help from those around you….”
She recalled words Ji-woo had spoken.
While she couldn’t identify the nature or location of the malice, she could pinpoint the identity and location of the occasional gazes.
They must be covert guards or observers placed on her by the family.
If she couldn’t face the malice alone, accepting their aid would be wise.
Having made that determination, Cheon So-yeon suddenly became aware of how much she had changed.
Her former self would never have trusted anyone, would never have thought to rely on others.
Recognizing that truth, she smiled as she walked through the snowy field.

* * *

“Aaaah!”
I flailed my arms against my sliding skis before tumbling to the ground.
Cheon Bu-hyeon, who was in the beginner class with me, watched me fall and asked.
“…I mean, how are your athletic instincts so bad, yet you can use martial arts?”
“Of course you master it through repeated training first, then you use it. Who’s good at something from the start?”
I became familiar with every sword swing, every footstep through countless repetitions.
Without the patient corrections of my teacher Siu, I’d probably be floundering around Third Class by now, hacking away with clumsy technique.
At my words, Cheon Bu-hyeon turned to look at Cheon Gu-young, who’d already grown adept at skiing despite having started class only recently.
Lying in the snow, I watched and cursed.
“Damn these lucky talent hoarders.”
What took me ten, a hundred attempts, Cheon Gu-young and Cheon Bu-hyeon nailed in one or two tries.
Though I had to admit, I knew how to fall better than either of them.
These guys barely fell at all.
“Seriously though, aren’t your athletic instincts unusually bad? There’s only three of us in the beginner class—at this rate you’ll be the one left behind.”
The skiing instruction mainly focused on kids like me or Cheon Bu-hyeon who’d never skied before, or those wanting to improve further.
So most classes were structured around the advanced and intermediate groups, and kids who didn’t want to learn even after coming on this school trip were free to ski as they pleased.
There had to be plenty of kids like me with poor athletic instincts who’d never skied, but they’d all gone to the sledding area instead.
Whether they didn’t want to learn or just didn’t want to compete with the naturally gifted kids, I couldn’t say.
I pushed myself up and brushed the snow from my ski suit.
“Well, being left alone can’t be helped. But by the time the trip ends, shouldn’t I at least reach beginner level? That’s a win.”
Cheon Bu-hyeon snickered at my words.
“You’re optimistic. Actually, I even wondered if you were deceiving the other kids like they whispered behind your back.”
“Deceiving?”
“I thought maybe you were incredibly talented but pretending to be weak to deceive everyone. I figured you were deliberately goading weaker opponents into challenging you at the Ranking Tournament to maintain your position.”
“This kid’s sharp, isn’t he?”
The first part wasn’t true, but the second was.
At my response, Cheon Bu-hyeon laughed with genuine delight.
“Aha! So you were just posturing. Now I know it — you’re a worker of a completely different caliber. Wasn’t it something about how one step for others is ten, twenty steps for you?”
That was what I’d told the Duty Teacher this morning. Had he been awake to hear it?
When I’d slipped out alone earlier, he must have caught sight of me going.
“While others advance one step, you advance thirty, forty steps with your own stride. That gap compounds, doesn’t it? I genuinely respect that. Even that irritable teacher on duty recognized you for exactly that reason.”
“Well, respect and all that.”
My body was young, but my mind was that of an adult. Naturally, my self-discipline had to be different.
Or was it more accurate to call it habit?
After over a decade of training under Siu, I’d become this way. If I’d been alone, I never would’ve grown so diligent.
The skiing lesson continued, and by lunchtime, Cheon Gu-young and Cheon Bu-hyeon had both jumped straight to the intermediate class.
I had to stay in the beginner class in the afternoon to keep learning, but the Assistant Teacher who’d been instructing me seemed fed up with my lack of progress—by afternoon, he’d put me on self-study.
I mean, it’s strange to get good in a single day; abandoning me because I can’t just makes him a terrible instructor!
Worthless as a teacher, really!
Of course, I understood it as a person.
I’d clearly grasped the theory, but the actual embodiment came at a snail’s pace, so his frustration and boredom were inevitable.
“Unplanned free time, then.”
I tried to get accustomed to skiing by skiing more.
After several hours on skis, I’d gotten quite good at finding my center of gravity and gliding across the snow.
The problem was just turning and speed control—I couldn’t quite manage those.
Even if my athletic sense was lacking, I still had fairly extraordinary physical abilities.
The hardware was fine; the software was just underdeveloped?
In combat, it was always the opposite, so this felt oddly novel.
Teacher Kim Do-hwa was always nagging me to develop my athletic abilities more, saying my combat sense was sharp.
After skiing for a while, I suddenly looked around and realized nothing but snowy fields surrounded me.
“Where am I?”

(To be continued in the next episode)

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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