Chapter 73: The Death Gleaner (2)

Chapter 73: The Death Gleaner (2)

Hunger. What was hunger? It had been a week since I had started fasting. The first and the second days were the most painful. After three days, it felt less painful. My organs and my mind slowed down, and my life faded a little. If I were to compare it to a river, its flow weakened and it dried up like it did during a drought.

Was hunger about enduring until the river of pain, thought, and life dried up and disappeared? Was this the kind of training that the Heavenly Demon wanted me to do?

“... No, it isn’t like this,” I muttered quietly. I uncrossed my legs. “Sitting here doing nothing is a waste of time.”

I drew my sword, and, picturing the sword paths of the Demonic Heaven Arts, I blindly guided my sword.

—What are you doing? the Guardian asked.

“I’m exercising."

It was winter, so my breaths were icy. Because I had been drinking melted snow for seven days, my breaths were like snowflakes.

“I was wrong. I was so, so stupid... The hunger that the Heavenly Demon is talking about isn’t just about a lack of food, so fasting in the lotus position is definitely not the answer.”

It had been a week since I last moved, so I was quickly out of breath. My limbs trembled, and my lungs screamed for more air.

“Hunger is about not being able to eat even when you want to."

My sword dance was crude, but it still made me sweat. It was different from the time I had been sitting in silence. I felt more alive. The amount I sweated fed the river of my life.

“I’ve been thinking about a hungry farmer for the past week.”

What was hunger?

“No farmer wouldn’t go out to work because they’re hungry. It doesn’t matter if he’s hungry or hasn’t eaten, he has to work, but he still doesn’t have anything to eat.”

I thought that was what hunger was.

“He swings his hoe to plow the ground, but the weather is bad this year. It’s going to be a bad harvest. No matter what he does, the ground yields nothing. Not a single thing.” I swung my sword. “There’s nothing he can do...”

And I closed my eyes and thought of the parched, barren ground.

“... That is why he’s hungry.”

A farmer slammed his hoe into the barren land.

The ground cracked like crumbly old cookies.

“It’s already been over half a year since it last rained.”

The reservoir was empty, and the village well was also dry. There wasn’t a single drop of water on his farm. At noon, an old man came out and silently sat at the village entrance. Not a trace of water could be found in his wrinkled face either.

“It's a drought.”

The sun was hot. Some villagers had already abandoned their farms. Since they had given up their work, they had fewer reasons to not abandon their homes. Many villagers had taken their children and headed to the sea.

“But this farmer hasn’t given up.”

—Why?

“He doesn’t think it’s going to be any different at the sea because he doesn’t know how to fish. People have to make a living on what they can steal, but he only learned how to steal from the land, just like his father, his father’s father, and so on...”

The farmer went out to his farm day after day. He wouldn’t get anything, but still, he worked the farm. In the evening, he climbed up the mountain behind the village and peeled relatively edible tree bark.

“But there isn’t much of the bark left now.”

The other villagers had peeled most of it off. After coming down the mountain, he looked back at the trees on the mountain. They were completely naked and white. It looked like a birch forest from a distance.

Hunger turned the world white.

“It’s been over a week since he’d eaten even tree bark.”

The farmer struck the barren ground with his hoe, and I swung my sword.

“.. But he can’t eat the bark he collected.”

He had a family.

—So what’s he going to do? the Guardian asked as my sword swung in time with the hoe.

“He heads to the village well first.”

He managed to scrape up a bucket of water from the puddle at the bottom of the well.

“Using that water, he boils the bark and adds small leaves and such... He has to do it.”

—Starving yourself for over a week must’ve made you go crazy... Wait, you were crazy way before this... What kinda karma did I get in my last life to saddle me with this idiot... the Guardian lamented. I’m getting traumatized because of you. Damn, how am I supposed to teach you my martial arts? I feel like you’ll be fucked if I teach you the way I taught Gramps Marcus. What should I do with you...

I was really hungry. I wanted to eat a choco pie[1] When I bit into it, the chocolate shell would melt on my tongue, and then the chewy white marshmallows inside would bounce between my teeth. I want to slurp on some warm milk and eat a choco pie. Just one. What was hunger? I, Kim Gong-Ja, would say that hunger was a choco pie—a delicious and healthy choco pie.

—...Hey, are you paying attention? the Guardian asked.

“Yeah? I’m contemplating martial arts.”

—Don’t bullshit me. You look like you’re thinking about something stupid.

Why did this guy know me so well? Was he stalking me? Technically, the Guardian was a ghost who always followed me around. He was a ghost stalker! Not a pleasant thought.

I snorted at my unpleasant ghost stalker. “I’m serious. Dead serious. Do you have trust issues?”

—Then tell me, what part of martial arts were you contemplating?

The gorilla-sized stalker was nitpicking, just like a real stalker would. The ghost gorilla stalker should find his eternal peace sooner rather than later.

“I thought I should stop and get out of the cave for the time being,” I solemnly told him.

—Stop? Why? Are you going to show the Heavenly Demon your true power?

“Nah.” I waved my hand. “I’m barely at the start of understanding the Demonic Heaven Arts. Even if I kill myself and go back to the Heavenly Demon, the best reaction I’ll get will be ‘I see some potential in you.’”

—Huh? Isn’t that okay? You’ll get her approval.

“What do you mean, ‘okay’? It isn’t okay at all.” I walked out of the cave. “Do you know how hurt I was when the Heavenly Demon looked down on me for never really starving? I hold grudges for a very long time. Approval can’t heal my broken heart.”

—You make me feel uncomfortable...

“I want her to be shocked. What I want is, ‘You’re so talented that words can’t describe it! I didn’t realize how lucky I was to have you as my student. I must have been out of my mind. I’m sorry.’”

Just imagining it made me feel good. The moment would be as sweet as a choco pie.

“How is it? Wouldn’t that be nice? I know you think the same, Mr. Sword Emperor.” I nudged the Guardian.

—You’re one hell of a headcase...

I came down the snow mountain and headed to the snowfield.

“I felt something earlier while practicing the Demonic Heaven Arts. Compared to people of this generation, I’ve never really starved. When I imagined a farmer boiling tree bark, I couldn’t imagine it in detail. What kind of bark is it exactly? How should I boil the bark? I hadn’t tried it. The clearer my imagination is, the more of the arts’ power I can use. That’s why I’m still not good with the arts even though I have the Demonic Heaven Arts as my Skill. My imagination is crude. Which is why...”

I stopped in the snowfield.

“...I’m going to fill my imagination.”

What are you going to do? Are you really going to boil some bark?

“No, there’s a much better way.” I grinned. “Monster Legion Reincarnation.”

The moonlight shone down and dyed the snowfield silver. Suddenly, clouds covered the moon, casting stark shadows across the snow. One bite after another, the shadows gnawed the moonlight from the snow like a swarm of voracious insects.

[Activating the Skill Monster Legion Reincarnation.]

The clouds left after a moment, but the shadows did not disappear. Even with the return of the moon’s silver light, the snowfield remained stubbornly dark. The shadows refused to divulge their devoured light.

“Master.” Preta, one of the shadows, knelt before me. The snow crunched softly beneath her knee. Behind her stood thousands of skeletons.

I nodded. “Preta, I have a job for you all.”

“I am at your service.”

“This is a perishing world where most of the humans have become ghosts and their bodies wander. In some ways, it’s similar to the Aegim Empire that you once destroyed.”

Preta bowed a little lower.

“My order is simple. Scatter and bring me the starving corpses.”

“Starving corpses...?”

I looked at the dim, endless expanse of snow. “Yeah. There must be villages here too, so find the corpses that died from starvation. Since they can move, they’ll resist, but there are over four thousand of you. Use your numbers to subdue them.”

Preta cautiously asked, “How many corpses shall I bring...?”

“112 corpses,” I answered.

They had the trauma of starvation. I was going to learn all about their hunger. By the time I was done, I would be closer to the Heavenly Demon.

1. Korean moon pie. image. ☜