SWNOVELXO Chapter 209
Small waves wag their tails as they crash against the stone wall.
Every time the waves break, tiny droplets sparkling in the sunlight leap up, adding saltiness to the shore.
The comforting shadow of Master Baek Bong-gon draped over him as he sat in the pavilion, admiring the scenery that had remained unchanged for 365 days, and would stay that way into the future.
“Excuse me.”
At that heavy voice, he slowly turned his head.
“Would you like a glass of Sikhye?”
Chun Kyu-jin handed over a bottle of cold Sikhye, droplets forming on its surface.
“Well then, would you like to play a game of Go with me?”
“Sure.”
Master Baek Bong-gon pulled the Go board from a corner.
He brushed aside the cobwebs hanging sparsely from the column with his hand.
“When exactly was this exam added?”
With that, Chun Kyu-jin placed a black stone in the position of the star point, and the game began.
After a cough, Master Baek gripped a white stone, frowning.
“In fact, there’s no exam after this. Just an old man trying to have fun.”
The gaze of the two men shifted from the Go board to the countryside house.
Children were wildly running around on the wooden porch.
Manifesting aura externally.
Ignoring all the steps, Master Baek jumped straight to the final exam, and Na-me seemed to succeed as if to show off.
“Well then, what about the exam…?”
“I’ll have to think about it before this game ends.”
Thus, Master Baek found himself in a tricky position because of the audacious little kid.
Chun Kyu-jin, with a smile, thought up his next move.
“I heard you retired long ago, but I never expected to find you here. You’ve changed so much that I didn’t even recognize you at first.”
“Likewise. It’s been 30 years, hasn’t it? You’ve aged quite a bit too. How’s it going? Have you dulled a little in the face of the tide of time?”
“Maybe so.”
“Ha ha, that’s what aging is all about! You could join this old folks’ group without issue.”
Another long silence followed, and as they reached a point of life-and-death concern, Professor Chun opened his mouth again.
“Back then and now, why on earth do you give these exams?”
Like making them memorize the Analects or holding a pistol squat for an hour.
His question was filled with sincerity.
Master Baek Bong-gon was still a type of person that was hard to understand.
Thud-
Master Baek confidently placed his stone down.
“When trying to attack the opponent, proceed slowly. Protect your stones where the opponent is strong. When crossing the border, go in slowly. Did you see? Even this simple game of Go can embody profound life philosophy.”
Seeing Professor Chun deep in thought, he quickly waved it off.
“Don’t think about it so complicatedly. Just like Go is a small world, the ‘self’ is another world. Ultimately, understanding oneself fully is best achieved by ‘the Analects’ and ‘the Master of the Bow’.”
“So all these processes were ultimately about properly handling aura?”
“That’s one way to look at it. In Western medicine, they call this ‘neurotransmitter pseudo-interlocking’, right? It’s not really a new theory.”
Aura is the manifestation of will.
A phrase Master Baek always emphasized.
When brainwaves pass through the Aura Heart, it converts mana into aura.
And the generated aura influences according to the user’s needs.
“Even if the brainwaves are precisely the same, if the Aura Heart differs, completely different effects will appear. So who can teach this? There isn’t a single person in this world who can teach it. With 8 billion people, there are 8 billion Aura Hearts, hence 8 billion methods. Realizing ‘I’ is a very tricky task.”
“That’s complicated.”
“Indeed. That’s why that kid is so special.”
It’s simply not enough to call it a shining talent.
No Na-me could only be viewed as a perfectly born human from the start.
“Have you ever played table tennis?”
“Uh, sometimes in the past.”
“When rushing towards the net to catch the ball, most of the time it either flies high or gets caught on the net. Do you know why?”
“Why is that?”
“Because in that moment, you forget that you are moving forward. Athletes know how to hit it well, but ordinary people are unaware that the speed of their body adds to the speed of the racket.”
What he spoke of was akin to the objectification of the subject, the transcendent self. It aligned with Immanuel Kant’s theories.
Seeing Professor Chun’s expression as he finally grasped enlightenment, Master Baek’s face brightened.
“Are you starting to get a hint? But that’s not always a good thing. Confucius said, ‘What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others.’ Treat others as you wish to be treated. Understanding yourself lays the root for altruism.”
“That’s a good thing, right?”
“Exactly… good. But a certain degree of selfishness is necessary in cherishing oneself. This is just my personal, unverified guess, but have you thought about what kind of being would come close to the ultimate concept of objectivity?”
“I can’t quite imagine that.”
“Paradoxically, this also leads to losing the self. Understanding oneself so well that the body feels like a separate entity.”
“So what does that mean?”
“Honestly, I’m just thinking about this because I have nothing to do on this island, so take it lightly. You know the game that the kids like recently?”
A momentary ominous light flickered in Professor Chun’s eyes.
“Think about it; doesn’t reality feel like your body is a character in a game you control? Indifferent to death, fearless of the future, and hesitating not in sacrifice for others, becoming something human but not quite human!”
The old man tossed the white stone anywhere into the empty space.
“Think about it.”
The game ended with Professor Chun’s win by resignation.
Master Baek resigned without a fight.
“Wow, you really play terribly. Tsk!”
“Thank you…”
*
Master Baek Bong-gon took a moment to prepare for the next exam, giving Ah-rin and Minwoo an unexpected free time.
And it was clear that this was a perfect lie.
A look of confusion clearly showed in his eyes.
I seized the opportunity to ask if I could use the capsule in his room.
Whether he realized I’d caught on, or was just feeling impressed at me for passing the exam, he easily agreed to my proposal.
“Wow, a capsule! A capsule!”
“Didn’t you contact me with this last time?”
“At that time, it was dark and I couldn’t see anything!”
Master Baek Bong-gon was using a product line similar to the medical capsules used by Yuna’s mother, no, he was using something even better.
With one hand shouting for heaven and earth, secretly enjoying the modern high-tech wonders, a person couldn’t be more contradictory.
Yeah, people need to live.
“What’s this?”
Baek Ho-chan pointed to a frame he discovered while turning on the light.
[Certificate of Intangible Cultural Heritage Holder]
[Name: Baek Bong-gon]
[Date of Birth: 1966. 08. 25]
[You have made significant contributions to the preservation and promotion of traditional crafts handed down from our ancestors, greatly contributing to the development of traditional culture in the Republic of Korea. Therefore, we present you with this certificate.]
[Mage Workshop Baek Bong-gon]
“Eh? Mage Workshop? Our grandpa is a human cultural asset?”
“What is a mage workshop, Uncle?”
“Hmm… It’s not exact, but it’s a wand of Korean tradition? That is, a Light Transmutation Circle Inscriber?”
“What’s a wand?”
“This is a wand, Ah-rin.”
I pulled ‘IWC Reminiscence’ out of my pocket and showed it.
“Oh! H-hey, can I touch it just once?”
Ah-rin’s eyes sparkled as if she were waving a tail that didn’t even exist.
By the way, a mage workshop.
In this era, actually seeing traditional magical products was nearly impossible.
Most of the few that existed were luxury goods or decorations, and their actual use was very limited or completely non-existent.
Thinking back, I noticed his right arm had unusually more muscle than the others.
No wonder the proficiency in surrounding aura seemed extraordinary; who knew he was hiding such talent?
“But there’s only one capsule, so who gets to use it first?”
“I don’t need it. You kids can decide.”
“Minwoo oppa, do you want to go first? Aah, but I want to use it too, what should I do?”
Baek Minwoo looked like he didn’t care much.
In contrast, while she didn’t want to be the first to use it because of being nervous, fallen ah-rin was rolling around on the floor unable to bear waiting.
“Na-me… was it?”
Baek Minwoo came over, nudging my shoulder.
“Yeah.”
“I’ve heard a lot about you from Ah-rin. I mean all the time. If it’s Na-me, she could do it all at once, if it’s Na-me, she memorized it all at once, if it’s Na-me… But is that really true?”
“Ah, well, yeah.”
“…”
“…”
An awkward silence loomed.
I mean, what’s gonna happen when someone like me, who has no social skills, has a conversation with someone else with no social skills?
Still wanting to act responsibly like a man, Minwoo pointed at my hairband and spoke.
“Where did Na-me get that hair tie?”
“I bought it in front of my house at Daiso.”
“Then why are you still doing twin tails? You even tie it so low.”
“So is it bad? Or are you looking to pick a fight?”
“No! You look pretty!”
“Ah, pretty? Thanks?”
I could almost hear a thump from my heartbeat.
In Korea, there was oddly a culture that looked down on twin tails, which is why, after middle school, you rarely see it except during sports days or Halloween.
I re-tied my hair tight again, explaining the profound reasoning behind my hairstyle that had loosened a bit.
“Look closely.”
I bent down, lowering my upper body.
My hair danced in the air before settling back into place.
Next, I swayed it side to side, then spun around once.
“Do you get it now?”
“No?”
“Every movement makes my hair shake differently. This is a sort of clue to objectify my movements.”
In hectic battles, I can’t really tell where and how much I’m moving.
For example, if my body gets thrown far back due to tremendous elasticity, I need to know how fast I’m flying to prepare accordingly.
Since gravity is always constant, the angle my hair makes is proportional to my horizontal speed.
Such trivial clues always make survival much easier.
“Are you a total weirdo?”
“You can’t understand unless you’ve tried it yourself. Minwoo oppa would know once he tries twin tails.”
“No, I don’t want to go that far…”
“No! I’ll use the capsule first! Sorry, Minwoo oppa!”
Wiping off the sweat with a towel, Ah-rin lay down on the soft capsule seat.
“Wow! So refreshing!”
The door slowly closed, and the interface screen operated by Ah-rin was projected above with a hologram.
[Connecting to Void Space.]
[User Name: Na-me is too cute! Welcome.]
In that instant, Ah-rin’s nickname overlapped with that of a malicious viewer in our room, ‘NoName must be protected, okay?’, causing me to jump.
That’s right; Ah-rin used such a nickname too.
I’ll have to tell her to change it later.
“Are you going to play LoL?”
“Ah, is Ah-rin playing LoL?”
“It’s the only thing I know how to play!”
“Really! I’m good at Yuumi!”
With a brave start in LoL,
as she logged into her account and hit the start game button,
she was transported not to the battlefield, but to a white site screen.
[Hello, Legacy of Legends.]
“The game start button isn’t clickable!”
[Days of suspension due to the Game Industry Promotion Act: 10 days]
Where there should be a blood-soaked battlefield, all that greeted us was a pitiful apology.
“Then if it’s okay, how about trying Wagal, Ah-rin?”
Yes, surely she liked that game too.
Wagal was an all-ages game as long as it wasn’t Nightmare, so there’s no burden.
[Hello, World of Arseria.]
[Days of suspension due to the Game Industry Promotion Act: 1 month]
Two nations that once thrived in the Korean online gaming market fell within a single moment.
It was a tearful Tao Yuan pact.