After Gi-wan's mother left the room, Yu-min's happy face turned into a serious one.
'I don't like to pretend to be someone else but I have no choice this time.' He sighed. 'Who would have thought that I would get transported into a new world with a new body like this?' he mumbled to himself while seeing his reflection in the mirror.
As soon as Yu-min recalled some memories that he received recently, he finally understood what was going on and where he was right now.
Upon his death, Kang Yu-min was somehow transported into this new world that wasn't Earth that he knew but a different planet in another dimension.
In this world, martial energy is everything to the people living here. Without it, no one can reach to the heights and make a name for themselves. This energy is everywhere in the nature. Every item, weapon and even one's own body is made up of martial energy.
Everyone here cultivate their martial energy to the point that they become stronger physically and mentally.
Such people are called 'Martial Cultivators'.
Martial Energy decides your fate as well as your potential to grow in the martial world.
The more martial energy you possess, the more you get respected among the cultivators around the world. Only the strongest gets recognised while the weakest gets humiliated in their daily life.
There are two types of cultivators in the world.
One is a Martial Artist and the other is a Spirit Master. 80% of the world population consists of martial artists and the rest of them are spirit masters. Therefore, spirit masters are rare to be found and they are way more powerful than martial artists in terms of their cultivation.
Martial artists are individuals who cultivate their martial energy to the next level and become stronger every time they make a breakthrough. Whenever their cultivation level rises, their strength increases by tenfold times and with martial arts techniques, one can perform extraordinary moves that are imbued with martial energy and can even do wonders in their daily life.
However, there's a phase comes in martial cultivation which changes the life course of certain people.
That stage is called the spiritual realm.
This is the second stage of evolution which takes place in every cultivator's time period after they become a martial artist – the awakening of their martial spirit.
Martial Spirit is an innate ability that only a few talented people possesses. Those who didn't awaken any abilities are considered non-martial spirit users/martial artists and those who awaken it are called 'Spirit Masters'.
Martial spirits are divided into three categories:
Elemental Spirit which consists of natural elements like fire, ice, wind, etc.
Beast Spirit, where different kinds of animals and insects can be your martial spirit.
And lastly, there's 'Tool Spirit'. Any tools that can be considered as a weapon or an item to use are called tool spirits. Even plants are considered as tools in a sense.
Those who awaken such type of martial spirits within them are called as 'Spirit Masters' and the martial energy they have accumulated so far gets converted into spirit energy which helps nurturing the martial spirit they possess.
As for non-spirit users, who doesn't awaken any martial spirit, they chose a normal path of cultivation to become stronger. Although martial artists doesn't have any martial spirit in their possession, they are still strong enough without it.
Since spirit masters are a rarity and seen as natural born geniuses, they immediately get scouted by the major cultivation schools that teaches martial spirit users as well as non-spirit users on how to utilise their ability to the fullest while growing their strength even further by cultivation techniques they possess.
In short, everything depends on an individual's innate talent and what type of martial spirit they possess.
As he was processing everything that has happened to him along with some portion of memories that were transferred to him, a blue window screen appeared out of thin air which startled him.
[Initializing Spirit System...]
[Modifying the constitution for the compatibility...]
[Transferring Martial Spirit...]
[Martial Spirit successfully transferred]
"What the hell is this? A holographic screen?" he asked to himself in a daze.
[System Reboot Confirmed]
[Status Window Opening...]
Name: Moon Gi-wan. (Current)
Kang Yu-min (Alias/Former)
Age: 16
Cultivation: None
Martial Energy: 10/100
Spirit Energy: 0/100
Martial Spirit –
TimeKeeper : UnAwakened
???: UnAwakened
Overall Stats -
Physique: Lvl. 1
Strength: Lvl. 1
Agility: Lvl. 1
Spirit Power: Lvl. 1
Mental Fortitude: Lvl. 2
"Does everyone possess this screen or something?" Yu-min wasn't sure what this screen meant and how such an advanced technology was available in this world where everything was operated on martial energy and nothing else.
After reading the contents in the screen, he was amused to see that the screen was similar to a status window of a game character that he played in his world.
Since it was his profile, he get to know many things about himself that he didn't know about.
First of all, it showed two names in his status which was surprising to him since no one knew about it and the other thing that baffled him was the martial spirits.
'Why there are two martial spirits in my status? I thought awakening even a single martial spirit is rare and extremely difficult. But here, I have two martial spirits in my possession. Is there some sort of an error here!?' he wondered while tilting his head sideways.
"Ugh! Whatever! First things first, I should visit the city and see how things are managed there. These memories are still fuzzy in my head. So, I have to find out more about this world by myself."
Upon saying those words to himself, he took a shower and changed his attire before leaving the house to enter the city.
As soon as Yu-min left the house, he was welcomed with trees and mountains all around.
"It seems like this Gi-wan's house is located in the middle of the forest. What a pain! Atleast, I know the way out thanks to the memories or else I would've gotten lost on my first day here." he shook his head and started walking instinctively.
In a matter of minutes, he was outside the forest and could see the city entrance from afar. The city was brimming with crowd and small buildings. Surprisingly, it had no walls to protect the surroundings of the city.
'If there's no fortress build around the city, how does they protect their place from external attacks?' he thought to himself with curiosity in his gaze.
At that time, he didn't think much about it and rushed through the entrance of the city.
As soon as he entered, he could see the streets were filled with shops and people. Moreover, the shopkeepers were selling strange things to people that was unknown to Yu-min.
"Pikoo for only 2 martials each. Come on, everyone. It's the cheapest and best quality Pikoo. We only have a dozen left. Come and buy it before it gets sold out. Don't miss the chance. Come on! Come on!" An old man was shouting at the people who was passing through his shop while he held a strange fruit in his hand that looked more like a guava in Yu-min's world.
Yu-min became curious and walked towards him.
Upon seeing a customer heading his way, the street vendor spoke to him politely. "dear customer, are you interested in buying this 'Pikoo'? We have the best quality here and with a cheap price just for you. How about it? Should I pack some for you?"
"Old man, what is this 'Pikoo' anyway? Can you tell me about it?" Yu-min asked.
"Young boy, stop joking around. You don't even know the 'Pikoo' fruit. How is that possible? Every local here knows-" The shopkeeper suddenly turned silent before finishing his sentence. "Wait a minute, are you an outsider?"
"Well… I sort of am." Yu-min replied with a smile.
Kang Yu-min thought it might best to disguise as an outsider so that people won't suspect him if he asks questions about the something that the locals already know.
"Oh, that might explain a lot."
'Today is my lucky day. Since this young boy is an outsider, he must be loaded. I must charge extra money for the Pikoo from him. Hehe!' The old man grinned inwardly.
"So, can I know what this Pikoo is?" Yu-min asked him again.
"Oh, this! It's a precious fruit that can only be found around here. Come closer." He gestered him to extend his ears to him.
After Yu-min did what he instructed to do, the old man whispered into his ears. "This fruit is a rare item that can increase your martial energy by tenfold times and even extend your life. Normally, I wouldn't give such important info to any outsider. But since you look like a nice person, I shared it with you for free. So… do you want to buy it?"
"How much does it cost again? I think I didn't heard the price properly."
"Ten martials for each pikoo. Fixed Price. No bargain!" The street vendor replied.
"Ten martials?"
"What? Is it too cheap for you?"
"No, that's not it. It's just…" Yu-min was in a dilemma again. He didn't even know what martials were and how does they look like. He had zero knowledge about the currency used in this city.
Without thinking much, he started checking his pockets and found a strange paper in his hand which has a unique design of an emblem that was unknown to him.
'Is this the currency they use to exchange goods?' Yu-min thought to himself.
"Brother, what are you looking at the martial note for? Tell me, how much Pikoos do you want? Should I pack it all?"
Yu-min realised what he was holding was the currency of this country. Before wasting any more time, he started checking his pockets again and he could only found one more paper that was of the same design. "Here! How much can I get with this much money?" he asked.
"Only two martials? Turns out you're dirt poor." He scoffed. "Such a waste of time. You will only get one Pikoo with this much prize. Take it or scram."
"One Pikoo for two martials?" Yu-min narrowed his gaze and looked at the street vendor with a suspicious look. "Old man, don't tell me… you tried to scam me right now?"
After hearing his words, the old man let out a cough in nervousness. "So what? I have to make a living too. Young boy, do you want the Pikoo or not? Stop wasting my time."
"Hmph! Here you go! Give me the best one or you'll regret it later." Yu-min gazed at him with an intimidating look.
The old man felt threatened and willingly gave him the best one.
Afterwards, Yu-min left the shop while holding the Pikoo in his hand and strolling the streets for a while.