Plam came closer. He looked to be of the same age as Sungmin and looked similar to Sungmin in stature. His eyes looked just like the stars on the sky.
"Lee Sungmin."
Plam muttered. He was bare handed. He didn't have any smell like Scarlet, or wasn't blind like Bejun. He could use his left hand and talk unlike Sogo.
"How long has it been?"
Plam asked. Sungmin was curious what penalties Plam got, but he didn't ask that right away. Sungmin answered as he looked at Plam's face.
"About… 3 months?"
He wrote down how long it was since he came here every night. It was perfectly 90 days since he had arrived.
"3 months!"
Plam acted frivolously.
"You stayed here for 3 months. You're amazing"
"…You stayed for a year?"
Sungmin asked dumbfoundedly. Plam widened his eyes.
"You know me?"
Plam asked.
"I heard it from Sogo."
'Ahah, that mute girl. Then you must know my name?"
There was no reason to introduce myself. Plam laughed. He came closer to Sungmin.
"You should have come and talked to me. There's only people older than me here. I needed a friend."
Friend. He thought of Wijihoyun and erased the image that came up.
"But you use martial arts?"
Plam asked. Sungmin nodded with a surprised face. To be honest, he didn't really like the meeting with Plam. Plam… could copy techniques or magic just by looking at them.
Everyone would feel the same way. Techniques were martial artists fortune, and it was same for magicians. But Plam took all of that away just by looking once.
"…Yes."
"I can tell."
Plam laughed. He twirled his hair with his fingers.
"Sogo must have told you. That I can copy a technique just by looking."
Sungmin didn't answer. But his face was filled with caution. He had met Wijihoyun, and he knew very well by living with her for a while. What kind of people geniuses were.
They were different. Their thoughts exceeded their age. They were proud and self righteous.
"Let's see… hmm…"
Plam lifted his hands. He didn't have a spear, but his figure looked like he was holding a spear. Plam looked at Sungmin's face and laughed.
He moved. He performed the ran, na, zhe, and then performed the High Heavens. Not the whole thing, of course. Sungmin could only do up to the 3rd step.
Still, Sungmin was horrified at Plam. He could do anything that he saw. It was like Sogo said.
"It's a good technique."
Plam put his hands down and muttered. Like he was rating the technique.
"How is it?"
Plam turned towards Sungmin. HIs eyes were shining. What was he asking for. Sungmin knew what Plam wanted.
Plam wanted Sungmin to be horrified and surprised.
"…It's great."
Sungmin hesitate and muttered. Plam smiled widely at that.
"I do it better than you, right?"
To that, Sungmin's chest turned cold. Evil intentions… he didn't know. It could be his personality. But it was always like that. A frog would die because of a kid's innocent rock throwing. Sungmin was the frog..
"Everyone is like that. It's strange. Sogo and Bejun, they probably practiced it more than me, but if I do it, I do it better."
Plam laughed and said. He knew now. Why Sogo didn't want Sungmin to meet Plam. Why Bejun said it wasn't good for him.
To a normal person, Sogo and Bejun would be considered geniuses. Sungmin thought they were geniuses as well.
But how would a true genius see them.
And what about a normal person seeing a true genius.
'It's this feeling.'
It was a different feeling than with Wijihoyun. She said that she was a genius, but she never tired to brag about her geniusness. Sungmin never tried to compare him to Wijihoyun. The High Heavens that he was using was made by Wijihoyun, and the basics that he had learned was all from her.
Instead of being a comparison, Wijihoyun was more of a teacher to him and a goal.
But not Plam. This cruel young kid knew of his talent. He knew how other people felt about his talents.
Sungmin understood very well. Why Sogo said not to fall into despair.
A true genius makes people fall into despair just by meeting them.
"What penalties did you get?"
Plam asked. He probably felt that Sungmin's silence wasn't very fun.
"I have 4 penalties. You're curious, right?"
"No, I'm not."
Sungmin said coldly. He was curious to be truthful. What did Plam have to suffer. Sogo had 3 penalties, while Scarlet had 2. Bejun probably had 2 as well.
Sogo started off with 2. Was it the same with Plam. a new penalty came every half a year, then it makes sense that Plam would have 4 penalties.
"Lies. You're curious."
Plam laughed.
"I'll tell you. This mountain. A stronger penalty makes Mush more happy. Therefore, suffering makes your reward better."
I don't need it. Plam muttered and added.
"Your spear technique is a great one. But the one who has to wield it, you, isn't very great.
He knew. He had heard it before. You don't have any talent. To a real genius….Sungmin was probably nothing.
"So. how's this. You should just give up and leave the mountain. Well, with your talent, you could go to a city and live easily. Don't try to use something that doesn't even fit you…"
"Leave."
Sungmin's hands that was holding the spear tightened. Plam widened his eyes.
"I'm not done yet."
"Leave."
"Why are you saying that? It's for your own good. Why. I'm trying to help you. Your wasting time."
"It's my time."
Sungmin spit out.
I wanted to kill him. It was a long time since he had felt this violent. But he couldn't actually kill him. Mush would block him, and even without Mush, there was no way that he would win against Plam.
He was a genius.
"Come on."
Plam muttered. In his face, there was no smile anymore. Plam stepped back a few times and looked at Sungmin's face.
"It's for you. Why do you hate me?"
"I never said I wanted you to say stuff like that to me."
"So I can't say something without your permissions?"
"Like you said to me, I have permission to say stuff to you"
Plam couldn't say anything to that. Plam's shoulder shook. As he was about to say something.
Phee.
It was as if there was a wind. Sogo arrived in between Plam and Sungmin. Her cold face was looking at Plam. Sungmin was surprised at her arrival, but Plam didn't seem like it. Plam felt her coming unlike Sungmin.
"I thought you would have kept listening while hiding."
Plam mocked. Sogo shook her head. To that, Plam opened his mouth. But he didn't say anything. Sogo put her hand and blocked his face.
"You take care of him too well. I'm jealous."
Plam muttered and turned around. In a few steps, he turned back around towards Sungmin.
"I'll see you later."
Sungmin didn't say anything. Plam walked away quickly. Seeing that Plam left, Sogo turned around. She pulled out her branch and wrote down.
[You held it in.]
"I had to. I'm not leaving this mountain just yet."
Sungmin turned around. HIs steps felt a bit heavier than usual. It wasn't just the weight, but Sungmin's mind felt heavy.
"…Thank you for coming."
He didn't hear a reply. She couldn't say anything. Sungmin lifted his spear. He swung with just his outside strenght.
His chest was stuffy. There was something stuck in his mind. Don't despair. That's what she said. 10 years later. He thought of the promise. The 13 years he lived and died in his previous life. The shameful death. And now.
When he looked up, the sun was already going down. Sogo wasn't there, but there was a deer that was in her place. His energy supply was depleted. HIs body was filled with sweat and his muscles were dying.
'It's not enough.'
Talent.
How much work would a regular person have to put in to follow a genius. 10 times, 100 times to follow that. That much might not even be enough.
Talent. Talent.
He didn't have talent. Wijihoyun said that, and Plam confirmed it. He didn't need anything. Sungmin knew that. He was going to rely on something else because he didn't have talent. He got the martial skeleton and the Genuine Heavens and the potion and everything other to make up for his lack of talent.
Talent.
That was heavy. That made him despair. No, the real horror was this. When he would meet Wijihoyun in 10 years.
That I wouldn't be strong enough.
That she would be disappointed.
He was afraid of that.
"Mush."
Sungmin opened his mouth. He held his shivering hands. His despair turned into fear. This life that he had gotten again… would end uselessly.
"Mush…!"
The call turned into a cry. He was crying. After he came back, it was the first time that he was crying.
[Human.]
A voice came.
[Why have you called a God.]
A haze appeared in front of him.