The Martial God Becomes a Necromancer and Conquers the Tower - Chapter 20
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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 20
Episode 20
We decided to talk over brunch at a nearby café.
Park Gang-chan’s face was fairly well-known, so I caught the café patrons and staff glancing at him repeatedly.
“As you know, teacher, Hunters can only use a fraction of the abilities they gain from the Tower.”
“I’m aware.”
It was true enough.
Hunters could use the Magical Power and skills they obtained from the Dimensional Tower in the real world.
Just a pittance of them.
Currently, the top Ranker of the Dimensional Tower was climbing toward Floor 50, and among them stood ten particularly outstanding powerhouses.
They were called by the rather juvenile title of the Platinum Ten Stars.
And while they were certainly superhuman—stronger than ordinary people—they were hardly invincible.
Take Titan Man, for example, one of the Rankers and America’s representative Hunter: he couldn’t be harmed by rifle rounds, or so the reports claimed.
Bullets won’t work? Sounds insane, right?
But he couldn’t withstand, say, an anti-material sniper rifle or a medium machine gun.
You could kill him with a suicide drone, for instance.
Which was probably why civilization still held together.
If Hunters could unleash the full hundred percent of their Tower abilities in the real world, the global political landscape would have been upended long ago.
Who could stop an absolute superhuman if he decided to become a dictator?
Anyway.
Titan Man was undoubtedly superhuman, but Hunters below his tier were still formidable by civilian standards—not the sort you could take on barehanded.
Park Gang-chan was no exception.
He was one of Korea’s representative Rankers, and from what I understood, he was currently climbing Floor 51 with his team.
His job class was something bizarre called the Manifestation of the Wild—a dealer and tank who fought barehanded.
That’s why he trained at my martial arts dojo, though truthfully his progress had stalled after reaching a certain level.
Watching him throw nothing but telephone punches day in and day out…… sigh.
Regardless, as a close-combat warrior of considerable power, Park Gang-chan was definitely stronger than the average person.
Solidly and consistently trained as a professional fighter—at least two or three times stronger, no question.
His stamina, strength, endurance: superior across the board.
Though not to Titan Man’s level of stopping bullets.
Still, few ordinary people could best him.
The gap was simply too wide.
A few years back, this monster used to swagger around picking fights and acting like a thug.
Then he met me and received some rigorous correction.
Well, it’s fortunate he reformed.
“But you thrashed me like that anyway, and it was all because of martial arts, wasn’t it? Knowledge you had before this awakening?”
“Hmm…… it’s hardly a piercing deduction. You’re right, Gang-chan. I did know martial arts beforehand.”
“I thought so…… honestly, it was obvious. If that weren’t the case, I don’t see how I could’ve lost.”
“Well, there might be someone among ordinary people who could beat you anyway. You fight so predictably.”
Granted, my Physical Martial Art training gave me higher body specs than Park Gang-chan’s, but this man fought with nothing but brute force—no technique.
He’s improved under my tutelage, but back then his punches were clumsy and poorly aimed.
Though he did have a certain wild instinct to him.
For what it was worth.
He’d have been crippled if he’d fought a judo expert.
“You’re at it again. I don’t fall short anywhere!”
“That’s just your opinion. So is that why you came so early in the morning? To ask me about that?”
This was something he could’ve asked during the next lesson.
“Couldn’t this wait until the next session?”
Park Gang-chan hesitated briefly at my words.
Then he set down the fork he was holding.
His expression turned strangely resolute.
That look.
It was the same expression he wore before entering the Tower.
What was this? Was he about to cause trouble again?
Scrape.
Park Gang-chan pushed his chair back and rose from the table.
And then.
Thump!
He dropped to his knees on the café floor.
Before pressing his torso down and striking his forehead against the ground.
“Master! Please take me as your disciple! A formal disciple!”
……What?
Hey, you crazy bastard!
This is a café! A brunch café!
What the hell are you doing!
Inside, I was screaming, but on the outside I managed to hold my expression perfectly neutral.
A martial god from my past life shouldn’t be shaken by something like this.
Right.
But regardless of my inner shock, people all around us were already staring.
Whispers rippled through the café.
“What is that?”
“Isn’t that Hunter Park Gang-chan?”
“But why is he lying flat on the floor?”
“Is this a shoot? A hidden camera?”
Even the staff member froze mid-step, still holding her tray, staring at us.
God, really.
This dark bastard was going to humiliate me……
“Gang-chan. Get up for now, please.”
“Lower your voice, Master! I, Park Gang-chan, truly wish to become your disciple!”
This son of a bitch, really.
Why was his voice so loud?
Does the Manifestation of the Wild have the lung capacity of a beast too?
“Hmm.”
I deliberately opened my mouth slowly and with weight.
The milk was already spilled.
Might as well commit to the bit.
“In the martial world, the bond between master and student is not formed lightly. There is a saying: Non-Teaching to Non-Worthy.”
“Non-Teaching to Non-Worthy?”
“It means one does not teach to those whose character is lacking. Martial skill is a blade, you see. A blade is not something you simply place in anyone’s hands.”
Of course, what I teach is merely External Martial Art without inner cultivation, so it’s not quite that grand……but I can’t say that aloud.
Though one might still die to a bullet, I could certainly make him superhuman by ordinary standards.
Filthy painful, difficult, and brutal as it would be.
As I thought this, I decided I might as well see the act through completely.
So I composed my expression into something solemn.
In truth, it wasn’t difficult at all.
In my past life, I wore this face almost constantly.
Park Gang-chan’s eyes gleamed even brighter at my words.
“I’m good at character! I became a real person thanks to you! I really did!”
“That’s merely your assertion.”
“It’s the truth, I’m telling you!”
Well.
He wasn’t wrong.
Compared to the Park Gang-chan who used to be a punk, he’d certainly become a better person.
Apart from his constant telephone punches, his core wasn’t rotten at all.
Even his thuggish days were less about tormenting others and more about liking fights and showing off.
Yet as this was supposed to be a master-disciple relationship in the martial world, accepting him too easily would look improper.
Hmm.
But if I refused him now, the bastard really wouldn’t get up off this café floor.
“All right. Gang-chan.”
I switched to a casual tone of speech.
Park Gang-chan’s face immediately brightened.
“Do you truly wish to become a disciple so badly?”
“Yes! Master!”
“But I must make one thing clear: whether I take you as a Direct Successor Disciple is still undecided.”
“What?”
“For now, you are a Lay Disciple. I will teach you, observe your capability, and only then decide whether to make you a Direct Successor Disciple. Do you understand?”
A Direct Successor Disciple.
In other words, a true successor who would inherit the school’s robe and bowl——the formal heir disciple.
Even in the martial world of my past life, one did not take Direct Successor Disciples lightly.
A Lay Disciple, by contrast, learns martial arts but does not receive the school’s inner secrets——an outer circle disciple.
Well, it’s not like I’m passing down anything grand to Park Gang-chan anyway.
But if I’m going to commit to this concept, I might as well do it right.
“Thank you, Master! Then this disciple shall perform the Nine Bows Ritual…….”
“Enough.”
I raised my hand to stop Park Gang-chan from pressing his forehead to the ground again.
“The Nine Bows Ritual, really? That’s some made-up nonsense from wuxia novels. Not proper etiquette at all.”
“Really? It’s incorrect?”
“Yeah. Who bows nine times? That’s just something authors dreamed up to make it look cool. In the real martial world, we don’t do that.”
“Then…… how many times should I bow?”
“You don’t need to bow at all, kid. Just get up. Everyone’s watching.”
“Oh.”
Park Gang-chan glanced around then.
Only now did he seem to realize that every eye in the café was fixed on us.
“……I apologize, Master.”
“Master, you said?”
“I apologize, Master……!”
Park Gang-chan rose uncertainly.
A fully grown man sprawled on the floor, then scrambling up without knowing what to do with himself.
Who would believe this was Korea’s highest-ranked Ranker?
And so.
I found myself accepting Park Gang-chan as a Lay Disciple in the middle of a café, under the gaze of everyone around us.
In my past life, I did take on disciples once.
But never in such an embarrassing manner.
Never.
* * *
Just because I’d accepted Park Gang-chan as a disciple didn’t mean I could immediately transmit martial arts to him.
In this world, martial transmission amounted to little more than passing along External Martial Art, and even that only in limited form, so considerable preparation was required.
Though by my own standards, none of it was particularly impressive.
To be frank, among the External Martial Arts I’d accumulated in my previous life, there were Divine Art Absolute Learning-grade techniques that could turn humans into supermen.
Adamantine Indestructibility alone was nothing—there were plenty of martial arts that could regenerate even severed limbs.
But such techniques were impossible to practice.
Those Divine Art Absolute Learning-grade External Martial Arts were External Martial Arts only in name; without simultaneous cultivation of inner energy, they were useless.
Which meant.
The only External Martial Arts I could actually practice in this life were those mixed with pharmaceuticals.
So preparation was necessary.
I needed to make medicine.
I was planning to convert DP to cash when…
I changed my mind to just mine in the Dimensional Tower instead.
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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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