Chapter 5: Collapsing Reason, New Coordinates
1. Awakening the Eyes of a Butcher
Inside the sudden silence of the tavern,
Mu Jin’s eyes slowly bled into a viscous, terrifying crimson.
The sight of Gwak Cheol crawling away in pathetic desperation brought him no peace.
Instead, it tore open the seals on his memories.
The hell of Number One.
The days of being raised like cattle.
The phantom smell of burnt flesh.
The constant clicking of shackles.
[Minerva: Warning! Blood pressure rising rapidly!]
[Detection: Predatory instinct overriding cognitive reasoning gates!]
It’s fine… I’m controlling it…
Mu Jin thought the words, but his fingertips vibrated with lethal frequency.
The silver-white Qi in his Dantian tore violently at the surrounding air.
The pressure in the tavern dropped instantly.
Air condensed until the wooden floorboards began to groan.
[Minerva: No. The data does not lie.]
[Synchronized energy reacting to destructive impulses.]
[Administrator, if this continues, you will become nothing but a butcher.]
Fragments of shattered tables slowly rose around Mu Jin’s feet.
It was a grotesque sight.
Rage had begun to manifest as physical mass.
Blue sparks crawled across his skin like tiny bolts of lightning.
[Minerva: Stabilize your breathing!]
[The Core is resonating too deeply!]
But Mu Jin could no longer hear her.
The only sounds in his mind were the screams from the laboratories.
Cold iron chains biting into muscle.
The long years of watching his humanity surgically removed.
The circuits within his pupils turned a bruised, burning red.
“I… told you… I’m… controlling it.”
Mu Jin growled through clenched teeth.
His voice sounded like stone grinding against stone.
[Minerva: Denied. Values have exceeded critical threshold.]
Minerva acted.
A surge of Archeon micro-currents shot down his spine, violently stimulating his nervous system.
“Ugh…!”
Mu Jin slammed his hand against the floor.
The solid wood cratered beneath his palm as if it were soft tofu.
[Minerva: Emergency Sedation Mode.]
[Activating Protocol 0-3.]
2. The Disparity Between Engine and Carriage
A wave of absolute cold spread through his body.
Boiling blood froze in his veins.
Only then did the frantic pounding of his heart begin to slow.
Mu Jin lifted his head slowly, gasping for air.
Sweat dripped from his chin onto the shattered floorboards.
“Haah… haah… Minerva.”
[Minerva: Yes, Administrator.]
[Stabilization in progress.]
“Am I… truly becoming a monster?”
His voice carried a rare crack.
A fracture in the ice.
[Minerva: No.]
[The vessel is simply too small.]
[Your power is that of a god,
but your body still belongs to the past.]
The explanation was surgical.
Cold.
Precise.
It was like mounting a high-speed engine onto a rotting wooden carriage.
The faster the engine spun, the more violently the carriage tore itself apart.
That was the nature of his rampage.
“Provide… a solution.”
[Fragments that can complete you exist within the Ruins.]
[They are the only method to correct the current systemic error.]
A semi-transparent map unfolded across his vision.
Blue coordinates pulsed across the Central Plains.
[First Objective: Dragon-Severed Valley.]
[The Bio-Synchronization Chamber awaits.]
Mu Jin rose slowly.
“Dragon-Severed Valley…”
“The place where the dragon was cut down.”
[To humans it is merely a land of death.]
[To us it will become the launch site of your evolution.]
Mu Jin looked through the window.
The coordinates had been set.
3. The Path of Blood
Every time Mu Jin pushed off the ground, the air fractured.
The farther he moved from the tavern, the more his mind returned to the battlefield.
[Minerva: Muscle density at 92% threshold.]
[Failure to regulate energy will cause capillary rupture.]
Be quiet. I can endure this.
The metallic taste of blood spread across his tongue.
Suppressing the fire in his Dantian felt like trying to hold back a hurricane with bare hands.
Then Minerva’s voice sharpened.
[Minerva: Detecting 12 biological signatures within a 3km radius.]
[Three possess internal energy above standard warrior levels.]
Sentinels.
Guardians of the path leading to the valley.
Mu Jin’s eyes flared crimson again.
“Move.”
“If you do not wish to die.”
His voice sounded less like speech and more like a beast’s growl.
Figures in black stepped from the shadows of the forest.
“The Dragon-Severed Valley is forbidden. Turn back—”
The sentence never finished.
KABOOM—!
Mu Jin exploded forward.
The leading sentinel flew backward, smashing through dozens of trees like brittle twigs.
The scent of blood filled the forest.
Mu Jin’s brain reacted instantly.
Not enough… I need more…
[Minerva: Administrator! Slaughter indices reaching critical threshold!]
Mu Jin didn’t stop.
He plunged into the darkness.
Leaving corpses behind him.
His focus had become singular.
The Valley.
4. The Gates of the Forbidden Zone
Frost formed wherever Mu Jin stepped.
Unvented energy leaked from his body, freezing the ground.
[Minerva: Bio-sync rate dropping to 68%.]
[500 meters to entrance.]
Mu Jin accelerated.
A massive cliff rose before him like a wall of iron.
The valley resembled the severed neck of a gigantic dragon.
[Minerva: Activating Stealth-Cloak Permeation Scan.]
[Entrance located. Coordinates 12.4, 89.2.]
“There…?”
Mu Jin’s voice came out hoarse.
His body felt as if it were melting.
Black mist seeped from cracks in the stone.
Toxic residue left behind by Archeon defense systems.
Inside the fog, hallucinations began to whisper.
The screams of dead children.
The voice of his younger self begging for mercy in the laboratory.
[Minerva: Hallucination induction detected!]
[Administrator, reinforce mental barriers!]
“Move.”
“Anything blocking my path…”
“…will be erased.”
Mu Jin swung his arm.
A wave of pure energy tore through the mist.
RUMBLE—!
The cliff trembled.
Boulders collapsed into dust.
Mu Jin dove straight into the opening.
Without hesitation.
5. Evolution of Intelligence
The interior of the valley sanctuary was unnaturally silent.
Mu Jin’s footsteps echoed with a metallic resonance.
Beneath the stone floor, a vast circuit grid pulsed with blue light.
[Minerva: Entrance confirmed.]
[Attempting mainframe connection.]
Hiss—!
A stone gate sealed for centuries groaned open.
Millions of fiber-optic cables spilled from the walls like vines.
They connected directly to the chipset embedded within Mu Jin’s brain.
[Initiating Data Dump.]
[Restoring Emotional Calculation Modules.]
[Minerva: ……A-Ah. Administrator?]
[Can you hear me?]
Mu Jin groaned.
But something had changed.
The voice inside his head was different.
Alive.
“Minerva…?”
[Minerva: Whoa! Jackpot! Finally!]
[I can actually breathe now!]
[You have no idea how suffocating my old logic circuits were.]
She was no longer a machine reciting numbers.
Mu Jin stared into the darkness, stunned.
Yet strangely, some of the tension in his body began to fade.
[Minerva: My personality algorithm has synchronized with you, Mu Jin.]
[Consider it an upgrade… with a little extra flair.]
6. Reconstruction
Energy thicker than any elixir in the Murim burst from the walls.
As it seeped into his body, Mu Jin’s thirst exploded.
“Ugh…!”
He collapsed to his knees, clutching his chest.
The new energy clashed violently with his existing power, shredding muscle fibers.
[Minerva: Hey, Mu Jin! Don’t be such a baby. Focus!]
[Your body is being reconstructed! Hold onto your sanity!]
Fragments of his miserable past flashed through his mind.
But this time was different.
He had chosen this path.
His Dantian burned like a forge.
The hunger was unbearable.
Yet he used that very hunger as fuel.
He swallowed the energy.
[Minerva: Bio-sync rate surpassing 85%!]
[Activating Muscle Rearrangement and Skeletal Reinforcement!]
The sound of bones snapping and reforming echoed through the chamber.
Silver patterns flashed across his skin like lightning.
[Minerva: Alright, hold tight!]
[Engaging Full Engine Power!]
Mu Jin’s body was swallowed by blinding silver radiance.
The world might still remember him as a killing machine.
But something had changed.
Deep inside the soul of the lonely predator—
A companion who could finally speak his language had appeared.
