I am cooked.
I can't remember much of the Poomsae routine my friend did back then. It was around twenty or so.
I can only remember five.
Can I put some random bullshit here?
I took some time and imagined these five postures I could vaguely remember.
I waited for its hardcover version to appear on my hands. That's the only way to tell I succeeded in revising a technique.
I blinked a few times and found nothing.
I am cooked.
What did I forget?
"The paragraphs in-between..!"
The first two techniques I made included a three-liner about its functions.
That part should have been necessary in the creation of techniques.
And so, I tried my best to yap.
Under my shocked look, I saw a very thin book appear atop my hands.
Its cover was dark violet.
I looked at it and then the golden orb. Thus, its transformation began.
It turned into a three-hundred page long thick book.
"Oh no."
My first thought was Kiana's mental capabilities. I know she isn't the brightest child… but could she understand this technique?
"[Tian Xing Guan Great Movement]..."
The technique never fails to spit out long-winded names.
If translated to English, it means "Heavenly Official Great Movement", with the word "Official" (Xing Guan) subtly pointing to "Stars".
I chose not to skim it and decided to try another technique.
"If five Poomsae postures create this, will decreasing them simplify things?"
Some techniques require an absurd level of Comprehension. Memorizing things isn't enough. I have to apply them practically. The speed of how I understand and apply things is linked to comprehension.
I haven't worried much about it since I was able to pass the [Toushen Manual]'s requirements.
Now that I am teaching these to others, I should consider it.
With that idea, I managed to create four other "leg techniques".
Bad news: Three of them aren't simplified at all.
The three techniques, [Qixing Drifting Clouds], [Jiaoxing Soaring the Sky], and [Leijiu Movement] are around three hundred pages thick each.
It's similar to a filter at this point. The golden orb does not recognize the matter of 'simplifying' a technique. It must have been randomly revising these techniques based on factors I haven't studied yet.
Fortunately, the fourth technique was quite "simple", being a hundred-page long in total.
She should be able to learn it, right?
…Right?
I did not worry anymore. I left the golden orb's space. What came with me was the knowledge worth a thousand-pages' long books.
All at once.
"Kuh..!"
I coughed up blood. It stained my perfectly clean white jacket. What came next was a series of tinnitus, blurry vision, and…
Fuck.
I welcomed my first-ever collapse.
*****
"He's not that strong…"
Translation: He's weak.
That was Kiana's thoughts when she saw Shi Tian cough up blood for no reason. They made quite the commotion inside the breakfast place.
She was strong enough to piggy-back him to a medium-sized hotel. A kind local pointed it out to her. Perhaps it was the feeling of pity or something else.
Who wouldn't feel pitiful for a fourteen-year-old girl carrying someone like her younger brother.
"Ha…"
Kiana's upbringing did not allow her to leave him alone. At least not now. Even if his so-called 'sectarian techniques' are unreliable, she has to wait until he wakes up.
"He can cause honkai to appear. He might be sick…"
Without anything else to do, she studied him closely.
Shi Tian's appearance does not stand out from the crowd. In this world with different hair colors, his pitch black hair felt very normal. His face contained some baby fat, pointing to his tender age. His looks are quite above average, though, as his face lacked any form of blemish.
"Which sect is irresponsible enough to send him out..?"
Unknowingly, Kiana felt sympathy from him. She thought of her own situation. Her father left her for unexplained reasons. The last thing she can remember is Siegfried's arm being severed. By the time she snapped out, he was gone.
The gun-kata she learned from her old man barely sufficed when it came to her encounters with the 'zombies'.
She had it better compared to Shi Tian who was outright homeless, is weak, and has nothing to rely on.
The more she thought of it, the more she placed herself in his position.
It was just like her's, but worse.
"He's like me…"
*****
The world is spinning.
It is tough to open my eyes. Something heavy's weighing it down. It is similar to how I feel whenever there's a high fever.
It sucks.
It took some time to fully open my eyes. I am greeted by an unfamiliar ceiling…
…ceiling?
I tried to move my arms. It felt normal. My entire head felt very heavy, however.
The five leg techniques… no, I should call them Light Techniques (i.e., footwork).
I am able to perfectly recall all five of them from the get-go. There are foreign terms that are unfamiliar for me, such as Twenty-Eight Mansion, Zhou Tian, and the likes. I knew what they meant after cross-checking in my memory.
Wait.
...
It seems like... I can perfectly recall every single detail of the technique.
I am not clueless about them. All that was left was to practice it in person.
It is undeniably extremely broken, borderline cheating.
The concepts it fed to me are extremely overwhelming as well. The [Tianxing Guang Great Movement] allowed free movement amongst the stars. That was a movement art that should span light years!
The great prospects in the future made me excited. It took some time to calm down.
"As long as I pass through this difficult stage."
Two years later, it would be the third eruption in Nagazora. It will kickstart the main story. Another two years and it will be the start of the game story.
Finally, in late 2017, five years from now, it will mark as the final battle against Kevin; thereby signalling Kiana's successful embrace to the Cocoon.
Time is short. I need to make new plans to survive in the following six years. Giving Kiana, and preferably the others, my techniques will surely throw the plot upside-down.
'That's exactly what I want.'
All the tragedies in this story…
I won't be surnamed Shi (Time) if I let them happen for the second time.
It's pun intended.
…
I have the capital to become a major character. Without the golden orb, there's still my memories.
Was it self-righteousness? Arrogance? Perhaps I am looking for my purpose in this world?
Maybe.
I looked down at my chest and touched the place above my heart.
"I can't feel any pain anymore."
I used to have a chronic heart disease. It's passed onto family line, my dad's to be exact.
I can't feel my heart's constricted beating thrice a day. I did not need to drink my pills.
I can only see two reasons why.
First was me being miraculously healed.
Second was that I already died and was sent over to a brand new body.
My chaotic thoughts continued until Kiana came back.