Urban Vagabond: Reload

Kim Muhyuk looked like he had completely had control of his body stolen by Phantom Dream.

But in truth, it was closer to him giving it up on purpose.

I need to make it believe it has fully taken my body. Only then can I go as deep as possible into its inside without getting found out.

How could he make Phantom Dream into his sword?

All the way here, Kim Muhyuk had thought about it countless times.

If he used the demon-subduing force he’d gotten from the Namcheon Sword, he might have been able to subdue it easily.

But he had already used all of that demon-subduing force to save Gu Hyeonwoo.

Of course, Kim Muhyuk didn’t regret the choice he’d made to save Gu Hyeonwoo.

Even if I subdue it with an ability that isn’t mine anyway, it won’t truly acknowledge me.

Subduing Phantom Dream with demon-subduing force might be safe, but it wasn’t the best method.

Unless he planned to keep it sealed forever, what Kim Muhyuk wanted was to make Phantom Dream acknowledge him as its master.

So even if it was risky, Kim Muhyuk chose a surer method.

“So this is... Phantom Dream’s inner world.”

Kim Muhyuk muttered as he walked through darkness where he couldn’t see an inch ahead.

Hahahahahaha! This body is seriously the best—!

From far away in the sky, Phantom Dream’s shouting voice drifted faintly down.

In contrast, where Kim Muhyuk stood was a deep abyss where nothing could be seen at all.

He couldn’t even guess what might be ahead, but following instinct, Kim Muhyuk silently kept moving.

To Phantom Dream, I’m the perfect host. No matter who wins, it won’t let me die easily.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t worried about what was happening outside.

His stamina and internal energy were almost at rock bottom.

Even if Phantom Dream was in hand, he couldn’t be sure he could face the Tamra Alliance’s two guardians.

What happened to Gu Hyeonwoo? Kim Bokja and Shin Kangheon are okay, right? If the enemy’s a big organization like the Tamra Alliance, the outside might be even more dangerous...

As he pushed through the abyss alone, all kinds of thoughts and anxieties crept up on him.

But Kim Muhyuk forced himself not to think as much as possible, and kept walking in silence.

For now, focus on what I can do.

To solve the problems outside, finding Phantom Dream in here came first.

Kim Muhyuk recalled what Na Ilcheon had told him when he learned how to hold a sacred weapon at AZURE SKY SWORD GATE.

—First, become familiar with it. Second, understand the spirit. If you can do just those two things, you’ll be able to hold the sword properly.

Even if it wasn’t the Namcheon Sword but Phantom Dream, that method shouldn’t be too different.

The reason Kim Muhyuk was walking through the abyss like this was to grasp Phantom Dream’s essence.

How long did he walk, and walk, and walk?

You! How dare you come in here—do you know where this is!

At Phantom Dream’s angry-sounding voice, Kim Muhyuk lifted his head and looked up into the sky.

Above the abyss’s sky.

A single eye, like a red moon, was staring down at him.

Kim Muhyuk looked at the eye and grinned.

“Finally noticed? If you’re getting mad, I must’ve made it pretty deep in.”

...You’ll regret daring to come here!

Ssssssh.

In that instant, red fog began to wriggle and churn, then started forming into human shapes.

And shockingly, every single one of them was a face Kim Muhyuk knew.

“You guys...”

The regrets he’d had to endure in his past life as The Lone Ghost were all there.

“It’s all your fault! You said we’d live and come back together...!”

“Captain, why did you abandon me? Why is it always you who survives?”

“You said you’d get revenge! You said you’d kill them all!”

Comrades he’d lost on the battlefield.

People he’d shared joy, anger, sorrow, and laughter with—only for them to leave his side in the end.

Phantom Dream found the wounds he’d hidden in the deepest part of his heart and tore them open again.

“If you hadn’t messed up back then, I would’ve lived!”

There had been times a comrade died because of his wrong choice.

“I only did it for my family... just to survive....”

Some of the people he’d cut down thinking they were villains had been nothing more than different victims.

“This month’s a little tight.... Should I pick up another side job?”

“It’s fine. We can just cut back on pointless spending.”

He had known how much sacrifice and compromise sat behind his parents’ smiles, and still pretended not to.

On top of that, the Kim Muhyuk of his past life had made countless mistakes.

“It’s because of you!”

“It’s because of you!”

“It’s because of you—!”

The people who approached reached out and grabbed Kim Muhyuk.

They clung to his arms and legs and forced him to stop.

Soon, his face was buried under those hands, hidden from view.

“Why only you! Why only you! Why are you always the only one still alive!”

Voices filled with resentment and hatred echoed from every direction.

A normal person would have been crushed by guilt, gone insane, or shut their eyes and turned away.

Kyakyakya! I told you you’d regret it!

Phantom Dream thought Kim Muhyuk wouldn’t be any different.

He was a human with deeper regret and deeper wounds than anyone Phantom Dream had ever seen, so it was sure he’d drop to his knees even faster.

Now you’re completely mine... w-what? What is this?

Something was strange.

Even though he was being held by all those hands, Kim Muhyuk’s expression was unbelievably calm.

He didn’t squeeze his eyes shut in guilt, and he didn’t scream while denying what he’d done in the past, either.

“Everyone...”

Instead, he looked straight at the past ties clinging to him and spoke to them.

“It’s been a while.”

As if he’d missed them, staring at them one by one.

“I wanted to see you clearly again at least once.”

Some were covered in blood, and some had severe missing limbs.

Most of them were the last image he remembered.

Kim Muhyuk hadn’t forgotten any of them.

There had never been a time he didn’t face his mistakes and regrets head-on.

Psssss....

The memories Phantom Dream had summoned began to turn to smoke and scatter.

With his ability no longer working, Phantom Dream panicked and shouted.

What are you? You’re weird! Normally people see that stuff and go insane!

Kim Muhyuk resumed walking, staring up at the eye floating in the sky. That gaze was savage enough to feel like it would devour him.

“Because I’ve already gone insane a few times.”

Those were the faces he’d seen every night in nightmares at one time.

Kim Muhyuk had expected what Phantom Dream would show him, so he didn’t fall for it as easily as others.

“...Thanks for making me remember them one by one. I’ll pay this debt back right now!”

Kim Muhyuk, striding forward like he was furious, suddenly broke into a run.

Don’t come! I said don’t come!

Phantom Dream once again dug through Kim Muhyuk’s memories and showed him illusions.

Past wraiths appearing from all directions, reaching out their hands.

Kim Muhyuk grit his teeth, tore their hands off him, and ran.

“Once was enough. Don’t cling to me like this, you pathetic bastards!”

Unlike the rough words he spat out like he was back in his wandering days, Kim Muhyuk’s eyes were bloodshot red.

Because he wasn’t some iron man who didn’t feel sadness.

But Kim Muhyuk had something those other people bewitched by Phantom Dream didn’t.

WOOOONG—

The Five Elements Divine Art moved on its own and protected its master’s mind from Phantom Dream’s cursed aura.

And the talisman Kim Bokja had stuck inside his clothes, saying it would help him overcome his Inner Demon, kept his heart from wavering.

—Our son will go to the World’s Strongest Sparring Tournament later and win! Muhyuk, right?

—If you get injured, it all turns to nothing. Train carefully, and then carefully again.

The voices of the parents he’d met again like a miracle led him not to the past, but to the present.

“It was never a fight you could win in the first place.”

Kim Muhyuk bared his teeth and grinned.

Not far away, someone stood holding a sword atop a hill made of corpses.

A boy with horns on both temples and eyes crimson red screamed.

I’ll kill you—!

KRA-KRA-KRA-KRA!

Watching the red fog surge like a wave, Kim Muhyuk was sure. That brat was Phantom Dream’s essence—its spirit.

WHUMP!

Kicking off the ground, he sprinted at full speed. At the same time, he brought his hand to his waist.

This abyss was Phantom Dream’s inner world, and also a place that was Kim Muhyuk’s mental world.

Phantom Dream wasn’t the only one who could imagine something and call it forth.

SHIIING.

Before he knew it, Kim Muhyuk was holding the Namcheon Sword, the sacred weapon of AZURE SKY SWORD GATE.

“Digging up other people’s memories and ripping open their wounds was fun, wasn’t it?”

In Kim Muhyuk’s eyes as he climbed the hill in one breath, he saw the boy trembling in fear.

A cursed sword forged into a blood-drinking sacred weapon by villains’ greed.

If it had been held by a proper master from the beginning, maybe it would’ve turned out completely different.

“So from now on, I’ll keep you with me for life and educate you.”

Kraaagh! Get away! Get away from me!

The moment Kim Muhyuk lunged and swung his sword, the boy swung his own sword too, resisting with everything he had.

KRAAANG—!

In that instant, a shockwave spread out like it could shake the whole world.

The boy staggered back like he was in pain.

With anxious eyes and a wavering sword strike barely aimed at Kim Muhyuk, he muttered,

Why aren’t you afraid? Why aren’t you scared? You were supposed to go insane like the others...!

It was unfortunate, but the Phantom Dream of now was in a completely different league compared to the Namcheon Sword.

As a sword, the years it had lived were fewer, and the experience it had fighting powerful enemies alongside a master was laughably lacking.

For now, it was closer to a cursed sword that couldn’t control its power than a sacred weapon.

But since it’s never had a proper master, its room to grow is limitless.

If it grew together with him, who was still no more than one of the young rising stars, one day it might even become a sacred weapon that surpassed even that Namcheon Sword—or even Richard Han’s divine sword.

KRAAANG! KRAAANG KRAAANG!

Kim Muhyuk swung his sword like he was disciplining a child who had done wrong with a switch. Each time sword met sword, Phantom Dream screamed.

Stop! Stop! Stop it!

Staggering back, the boy shouted as if he’d realized something.

I get it! You—you’re the same kind as me! You weren’t human!

Phantom Dream seemed to think Kim Muhyuk was an anomaly.

It might not be completely wrong.

Kim Muhyuk was a regressor.

A human who had already lived one life, experienced death, and regressed back into the past couldn’t possibly be the same as an ordinary human.

“Yeah. I’m not an ordinary human. If I say it the way Shin Kangheon would...”

SHWEEEAAAK!

Kim Muhyuk lunged again, lifting his eyes viciously as he stared straight into the boy’s eyes.

“I’m a guy who’s crazy about the sword.”

KRAAANG! KRAAANG! KRRRANG!

Kim Muhyuk swung his sword like he was going to snap Phantom Dream in half—clashing, and clashing again, and clashing again.

He knew pressing down with force wasn’t the best way to claim a sacred weapon.

But before they had a real conversation, he needed to break its spirit as much as possible.

Of course, venting his anger about what had happened in his past life was a bonus.

Aaaaagh! I surrender! I surrender, okay!

At last, the boy who declared surrender scattered like smoke, leaving only the sword, stabbed deep into the ground.

Kim Muhyuk walked up, gripped Phantom Dream’s hilt tight, and said,

“If you pull that crap again... I really will snap you next time.”

At the low threat, Phantom Dream’s sword body trembled, then fell quiet.

In the next moment, Kim Muhyuk awoke from the hazy dream and returned to reality.