Prologue: Martial Arts Was an Error
For thousands of years, the Murim had lived inside a lie.
Generations of warriors circulated their Qi,
pierced open their meridians,
and accumulated world-shaking internal power.
They believed that if they reached the peak of martial arts,
they would transcend humanity
and become gods.
But everything they believed in…
was wrong.
The techniques they revered were nothing more than broken imitations.
Incomplete fragments of something far greater.
After the Great War of Antiquity,
the Remnants of Stars fell from the heavens.
Deep within the impact craters
lay the shattered remains of the Archeon Civilization.
A high-density combat calculation system.
A biological reconstruction engine.
An ancient grid designed to evolve entire species
into ultimate weapons.
Primitive humans discovered those relics.
But their minds were too small to understand them.
They could only imitate what they saw.
Like apes playing with lightning.
The Martial Arts that came to dominate the world
were nothing more than distorted echoes
of that imitation.
The Qi they stored in their bodies?
Energy leaking from a broken battery.
The techniques they devoted their lives to?
Corrupted commands from a damaged system.
It was an age built upon magnificent errors.
But now, after a thousand years of silence,
one biological vessel has achieved
full synchronization with the source.
[Initializing Archeon Combat Logic.]
[Administrator Code: 001 — Mu Jin]
[Bio-Synchronization Rate: 99.98%]
[▶ Restoring Lost Ancient Meridian Maps]
[▶ Reconfiguring Neural Circuits — Optimization Level 5]
[▶ Combat Protocol “Judgment” Loading…]
The realms the Murim worshipped as Divine
were not even a tutorial
in the eyes of the Archeon System.
Mu Jin understood that
the moment he opened his eyes.
The so-called masters of this world
were merely savages swinging broken machines.
They fought with errors.
While he possessed the source code.
Real martial arts.
The true reconstruction of the world.
It begins now.
Chapter 1
Death Sentence and Initialization
Part 1 — Disposal
“It is a failure. Dispose of it.”
The voice was cold enough to cut through the stagnant air of the dungeon.
Behind thick iron bars stood an old man in spotless white robes.
He waved a hand with casual indifference.
To him, the boy bleeding on the stone floor was not a human.
He was a broken tool.
A discarded piece of equipment that had failed to produce results.
The boy had no name.
Inside this dark prison run by the Murim Alliance,
he was known only as Number One.
His body was a map of agony.
Dark blue veins bulged beneath his skin, swollen and ready to burst, twisting like venomous serpents.
This was the price of the Thousand-Hole Project.
A forbidden experiment meant to create the ultimate warrior
by force-feeding orphaned children rare elixirs
and unstable internal energy.
Number One was the last survivor.
Dozens of children had already been carried out wrapped in straw mats, their bodies twisted beyond recognition by the violent backlash of energy.
“Aaaaagh—! Cough…!”
A scream tore through the neighboring cell.
Then came a wet, explosive sound.
Another dantian had ruptured.
Another child had become a red mist.
Number One could not even scream.
His throat felt as if molten metal had been poured down it.
Every nerve in his body fired at once.
Pain flooded his consciousness like a storm.
“Throw him into the Abyss of No Return,” the old man said, already turning away.
“Even if he is a corpse, the Blood Demon Spirit will devour it.”
“At least then he’ll repay the elixirs he wasted.”
Murim Alliance warriors stepped forward.
They grabbed Number One’s broken limbs
and dragged him across the rough stone floor
like a sack of grain.
His consciousness flickered like a dying candle.
Through blurred vision, he saw their faces.
Cold.
Arrogant.
Disgusted.
They looked at him as if his life were nothing more than failed data.
Through the haze of agony, a single thought formed.
If…
If I ever open my eyes again…
He did not pray for salvation.
He prayed for a blade.
I will tear out your throats first.
Every single one of you.
2
Archeon System Initialization
The Abyss of No Return rose like a black fang against the storm-torn sky.
Without hesitation, the warriors hurled Number One’s body over the edge.
The wind screamed past his ears.
Cold darkness rushed up from below.
Death was no longer an idea.
It was a physical weight crushing his chest.
And then—
Hum—
The world froze.
Raindrops hung motionless in the air like suspended crystals.
The howling wind vanished.
Time itself stopped.
[Condition Met: Physical destruction rate 98.7%]
[Preservation Protocol — Archeon Initializing]
A brilliant blue holographic interface ignited within his fading vision.
A woman's voice spoke directly inside his mind.
Elegant.
Perfectly mechanical.
[Greetings, Administrator.]
[I am Minerva, Archeon Support Intelligence.]
“Who…?”
The word barely left his cracked lips.
[Current Status: Administrator body approaching total collapse.]
[Critical Errors Detected]
• Twisted Meridians
• Destroyed Dantian
• Systemic Organ Failure
[Solution]
Immediate absorption and reconfiguration of surrounding energy sources.
[Scanning environment…]
Detected:
• Killing Intent
• Turbid Qi
• Natural Mana
[Converting all external energy into Core Input.]
At that moment, the abyss reacted.
The black fog filling the pit — the accumulated hatred and death of centuries — began to spiral.
A massive vortex formed.
And Number One stood at its center.
The energy did not merely enter his body.
It invaded it.
CRACK—!
Broken ribs snapped back into place.
Torn muscles rewove themselves with threads of silver light.
The ruined meridians did not heal.
They were replaced.
Silver-white circuits formed within his body.
Arcanite pathways pulsing with a power no human martial artist could comprehend.
[Synchronization Rate: 60%]
[Physical Reconstruction Complete]
[Living Weapon Mode: Activated]
THOOM—!
The figure that landed at the bottom of the abyss was not a corpse.
Mu Jin slowly rose to his feet.
His silver eyes burned in the darkness.
He looked upward.
Far above, at the edge of the cliff, heat signatures flickered.
Red targeting marks appeared across his vision.
Locking onto the men who had thrown him away.
[Mission Proposal]
Survival.
Annihilation.
[Administrator…
Shall we erase the vermin above?]
“Dispose of me… was it?”
Mu Jin spat blood onto the ground.
A cold smile spread across his face.
Predatory.
Merciless.
“I suppose I should start with some waste management.”
3. Qi and the Void of Hunger
As Mu Jin took his first step, the energy surging through his body was explosive.
It was fundamentally different from the murky, forced internal power that had once been injected into him, the same power that had torn his Dantian apart.
The malice of the vengeful spirits filling the Ghost Valley, along with the raw energy of the earth itself, flowed into the Archeon Core. There, it was filtered and transformed into a translucent silver-white power.
Mu Jin instinctively reached down and grabbed a massive boulder of Blue Steel Stone nearby.
The rock—said to be harder than tempered steel—crumbled like wet tofu in his grip, scattering into fine dust.
“Is this… truly my power?”
A flicker of awe appeared in Mu Jin’s eyes as he looked down at his own palms.
But at that very moment, just as the overwhelming surge of power coursed through him—
A strange, stabbing sensation pierced the pit of his stomach.
Growl—!
[Notification: Energy source charge: 120%. Status: Perfect.]
[However, a synchronization error with the biological vessel has been detected.]
Minerva’s indifferent voice echoed inside his mind.
[To put it simply, you are experiencing ‘Extreme Hunger.’]
“What? I’m overflowing with energy, and yet I’m hungry?”
[Administrator, Archeon energy and biological nutrients are separate matters.]
[The Core is fully charged, but your stomach is desperately demanding carbohydrates and proteins.]
[If this condition persists, the brain may switch to ‘Forced Predation Mode’ for survival.]
Mu Jin was just about to let out a hollow laugh at the absurdity of it all when it happened.
The darkness beneath his feet began to swirl thickly, and a foul, sticky energy erupted from the ground.
4. The Master of Ghost Valley: The Blood Demon Spirit
Rumble—!
A sticky dark-red fog burst from the ground like a fountain.
It was a monster formed from the condensed resentment of thousands of corpses thrown into this valley over countless years.
[Warning: High-density malice aggregate approaching.]
[Identification Code: Blood Demon Spirit. Apex predator of this region.]
What blocked Mu Jin’s path was a grotesque mass of flesh, a hideous body stitched together from dozens of corpses.
The creature lashed out with a tentacle made of rotting limbs, striking at the intruder who dared to steal the turbid energy of its territory.
BOOM—!
The monster’s arm smashed into the ground where Mu Jin had been standing.
But Mu Jin was already in the air.
Across his retinas, complex geometric calculation circuits flashed rapidly.
[Switching to Combat Mode. Target Locked.]
[Weakness Analysis: Malice Core located 32cm inside the center of the chest.]
Mu Jin accelerated violently, kicking off the air itself.
A long silver-white afterimage trailed behind him.
“I’m already annoyed enough because I’m hungry. Don’t get in my way with that rotting stench.”
Swish—!
Dozens of tentacles shot toward him, trying to bind his body.
But Mu Jin slipped between them like a thin sheet of paper sliding through cracks.
In an instant he reached the monster’s chest.
Silver particles of Arcana condensed around Mu Jin’s fist.
CRACK—!
The moment his fist struck, the Archeon absorption circuit reversed the monster’s energy and began pulling it out.
“GRAAAAAAA—!!!”
This was not merely a physical attack.
The Blood Demon Spirit thrashed wildly, releasing a primal scream as the very foundation of its existence was torn apart.
[Absorbing massive amounts of bio-energy! Efficiency increased by 520%!]
[Administrator, extract the Core directly.]
Mu Jin thrust his arm deeper into the mass of flesh and seized the grotesquely pulsing purple core within.
Crunch—!
The moment the core was ripped free, the mountain of corpses collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
The shattered core dissolved into violet smoke and seeped into Mu Jin’s pores.
[Energy charge complete. Synchronization rate increased by 5%.]
His energy was filled.
But the screams from his stomach only grew more feral in response.
Mu Jin groaned and clutched his abdomen.
“Minerva… hunger levels have surpassed eighty percent. Get me something to eat. Now.”
[There are some very fresh ‘provisions’ waiting at the edge of the cliff above.]
Mu Jin slowly lifted his head.
Far above, at the top of the towering cliff, the heat signatures of the men who had thrown him away were marked as red dots in his vision.
“Provisions, you say…?”
Mu Jin spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva.
A cold, predatory smile spread across his face.
The silver light in his eyes had already changed.
It was the gaze of a hunter.
ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ
"All martial arts of this world are just errors."
The Archeon system is finally online. In the next chapter, Mu Jin will show those who called him a 'failure' what it truly means to be a Predator.
Don't miss out on the upcoming slaughter—[Add to Library] now!
Also, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Comment below and let me know what you think about Minerva. Your Reviews and 5-Star Ratings are the greatest fuel for my writing.
Stay tuned!
