Chapter 4 - Suicide Training (*)

Crick-

A single rope fully supported my weight, I felt its tension and the weight on my neck.

If I do this wrong, I'll end up breaking my neck.

So I had to endure this through force.

It was only after my clavicle muscles were able to withstand my body weight, that it became more comfortable.

For me, with a body of immortal, this was not suicide, but real training.

Some insane training that is.

At least I wasn't dying.

But after 5 minutes passed, my limit began to approach slowly.

Did the tutor mention how many minutes was the record?

8 minutes? So I guess it's time to stop?

This is different from diving into the water. I had to be conscious about the noose tightening my neck muscles.

When I raised my hand and tried to pull the rope that tightened my neck, the tutor hit the back of my hand with a stick he had brought earlier.

"What are you doing."

At the same time, his eyes are twinkling, as if they are looking at something really rare.

I've never seen his eyes like this.

It's the eyes of a child sitting in the toy section of the mart.

It hurts, but really, why aren't you releasing me?

"You can still keep going."

The tutor said.

Yeah, I'll be honest with you, I could probably go a bit longer.

But how much time had passed?

I would have known from the beginning if I kept track, but I didn't really care.

Still, at least 5 minutes should have passed.

My breaths began to shorten and the noose around my neck began to dig into my skin.

Well I was the crazy one who said I was going to do such training in the first place.

As I started to struggle, the teacher says.

"It's harder if you struggle, just knock yourself out."

Hearing that made me even more upset.

So I endured and endured.

Compression of my carotid artery began to reduce oxygen supply to my brain.

The sky turns yellow and spins and the world spins around.

The transformer's body is not invincible.

At that moment I felt a loss of consciousness, my body, affected by gravity, thumped and fell to the floor.

"Cough! Cough!"

I coughed heavily and took in repeated breaths, placing my hands and knees on the floor, waiting for my body to settle down.

It didn't even take 3 seconds. The strong body quickly returned to its original condition.

"Wow, I almost died."

"You won't die."

Watching my tutor respond to my words, I honestly wanted to hit him.

I know that immortals don't die, but it's still really mean.

"12 minutes..."

The teacher, who was checking the time on the stopwatch, stares at me.

Yeah, I can't hide my secret forever.

The closer I get to my limit, the more others will see the physical characteristics of Transformers.

It's time to think of excuses now.

"Let's rest for today, lets eat."

The tutor said.

"Even with this hellish training you give me food."

"It's inefficient to train while starving after all, you have to regain your stamina."

What's wrong with his eyes?

I'm looking into the eyes of an eight-year-old child who has just discovered an assembly robot that he wants to disassemble.

It was difficult to say that I felt normal after the training.

So what was for dinner? The tutor made a hot pot alongside grass or mushrooms obtained from the mountains.

And how did it taste?

To be honest, this was probably the worst part of the day by far.

The rice cooked in an iron pot had a burnt smell, and the unknown meat had a pungent smell.

I thought that people who lived in nature naturally all learned how to cook.

Yup, looks like I have to learn how to cook from mom when I get back home.

But before that, I would have to interrogate my dad.

After eating, I washed myself and my clothes by the stream.

Man I'm tired, guess it's time to sleep now.

Upon entering the poorly built hut, I noticed there were no lighting fixtures.

So as the sun began to set, it quickly became dark.

"You don't have any lights?"

"When there's a light, bugs come in, and not having lights doesn't make it impossible to sleep."

A mosquito passed by my ear.

Suddenly, he stretched out his hand, squeezed it with one hand, and killed it. After that, he laid himself down on his cot.

Taking that as a sign to sleep, I laid myself down on my cot.

I couldn't say that training was comfortable today, but it wasn't to the point where I couldn't stand it.

"It's a senses-killing training. Your sensitive immortal senses makes you feel discomforts several times more unpleasant than other people."

So this some kind of training?

Well, I've already mastered killing the senses.

I closed my eyes feeling tired, and forced myself to numb my sense of touch.

And I fall asleep quite soundly.

Mosquitoes and various insects tormented me, but I was not a immortal for nothing.

A small wound from an insect bite would disappear as soon as it appeared.

Still, that didn't mean the insect bites felt good.

There's no way anyone would be happy with staying with insects that bite all night long.

If possible, I want to get rid of mosquitoes from the world.

So the bites were painful, but not to the point of dying.

The next morning.

"Lets eat breakfast."

This has to be the worst cooking I have ever seen.

Breakfast is grilled meat from an unknown animal.

Next to it is grilled fish.

Guess I really have to learn cooking.

Next time I come, I'll cook something better than this for sure.

"You seem to be eating well."

"Immortals consume a lot of energy."

The teacher often talked about the theoretical aspects of a immortal's body.

He opened his mouth at mealtimes or breaks and answered any questions without hesitation.

"Your limbs are shields. Give an arm to an opponent who is aiming for incapacitate you in a single blow."

If they aim at your head, you sacrifice your arm, and if they aim your legs, you also sacrifice your arm.

Having been trained as an immortal, I now understand why the training was necessary.

There are three ways to suppress an immortal.

1. Shock with a major wound.

2. Getting stunned by compression of the carotid artery, etc.

3. Cutting off a leg and makin them unable to move

"So you have to be more careful against knives than guns, and beware of land mines and claymores."

A shotgun is more dangerous to a immortal than a sniper.

Of course, if a sniper shoots your head, any immortal will lose consciousness and fall.

Talking with a tutor with shitty food, I felt as if I was standing in the middle of the Korean War long ago.

"Always be careful."

The teacher said again.

Yeah of course.

Beware of landmines buried in front of Gangnam Station.

Or how about the claymores that will explode suddenly while passing through alleys at night.

No, what kind of era are you worried about explosives in your everyday life?

The past war was simple.

The government's coalition 'Old Force'.

'Excuracy' , a global company.

And the psychic group 'Psionic'.

It was a battle between the above three groups and the monsters.

In past broadcasts, reporters always say that we overwhelm the enemy over and over again.

In fact, there have also been several appearances of these monsters, often referred to as the Invaders.

If they're showing the enemy on TV, it means we really have nothing to fear yeah?

So, this tutor's teaching seems to be a mix of outdated ideas and recent developments.

Now most important fights aren't against Invaders, it's against conventional weapons.

"Next up is cliff diving."

After breakfast, suicide training continued.

Even though it was only two days, I quickly learned how to defend my body through three training sessions.

How to prevent experiencing shock from running through blades.

How to survive being stunned from strangulation.

In cliff diving training, it was more of how to reorient my body after experiencing a fall injuiry.

The two days passed in a flash.

"Get out of here."

I bowed to the simple farewell and turned around.

I hiked down the mountain and headed home.

Since it's the middle of nowhere, only two buses come a day.

It took 2 hours to get to Seoul.

As I headed home, I turned on my smartphone, and called my dad.

"Oh, son."

I couldn't shout out loud because I was on the bus.

"Dad, are you sure you sent me to the right place?"

"Why? What happened?"

I can't tell you everything about training, so I kept it simple.

"He made me jump off a cliff."

Of course, I had a lot of complaints.

"It's okay son, you are a immortal."

That's a strange answer, aren't you supposed to be my parent?

"You don't die easily, so you can treat your body a little roughly. Only then you will know the limits of your body."

I only knew how strong my body was by rolling it rough, I never really reached my limits.

The collaboration of immortality and transformation powers gave me one conclusion.

That my body is terribly strong.

"For now, go home and rest."

"What test am I taking?"

"We'll talk about that later."

A woman's voice was heard over the phone saying, 'Senior, help me.'

And the phone call is over.

Well this was to be expected.

When it was unreasonable or impossible for my dad to answer, he just ran away.

The teaching method of immortals is only a little bit peculiar.

I wasn't going to die, so he didn't need to worry about his son.

Still, the training was a test of my body's endurance that I had never experienced before.

Thanks to the tutor, I learned a little more about how to treat my body.

It would have also been nice to have learned a little bit of the Immortal's fighting method.

“I want to eat pork belly.”

I wanted to eat well-roasted pork belly with a piece of kimchi.

When I called my dad, I forgot to say.

Damn, why can't the tutor cook?

The rattle and vibration of the bus, the cold wind from the air conditioner pouring over your head, and the sun shining outside.

This combined was a good environment to sleep in.

I fell asleep as the bus headed home.

When I got home, I was going to wash up and play on my PL4, eat a delicious dinner my mother made, and sleep for about 12 hours in my room without a single mosquito.

The perfect relaxation plan.

When I entered the house

"Son, didn't you say you're going there to study?"

Come to think of it, even though I washed my clothes, I had a pretty rough two days.

Blood, grass, and dirt are difficult things to clean neatly.

Also my skin didn't look bad at all.

The immortal body keeps its skin neutral, neither oily nor dry, at any time.

So I just looked like I had fun rather than experiencing a date with death himself.

"You smell like grass, did you roll around in the mountains?"

But again, why can't I just answer her honestly?

Oh wait, I can't.

I just can't say, "I came back immortal training" because my dad asked me to keep it a secret.

I'm glad I didn't have a single bruise on my body thanks to the immortal body.

If it weren't for that, I would see my mom and dad quarrel about getting a divorce.

I was just too precious.

“I studied in the mountains.”

In the light of my conscience, I told a half-truth.

Technically it was a study in finding out more about my body.

But when I say this, I feel like a narcissist.

"Well I hope you learned anything that is worth using."

I sure did.

So, I now want to show off a combo of showering, playing games, eating good food, and sleeping.

But my mom doesn't move.

"Mom?"

"Will you take a shower?"

"Yeah?"

I know my body doesn't smell that good either.

"Wash in the evening."

The sun is still high.

"Yes?"

So I have no choice but to ask.

"Let's go somewhere with mom."

"Can't I wash up and then go?"

I want to wash right now and take a break.

"No, I don't think it's necessary."

Yeah? What do you mean?

After that, the mother without a word brought her suitcase and said,

"I already told your dad. Shouldn't you still be studying for college?"

"I know how to study..."

"I know a teacher, and she's right next door."

What? What is this ominous feeling?

"You'll be studying over there for the next 2 days, sleep included"

This doesn't sound like studying.

But I was moved by my mom's pressure.

My new study location was at a 8-story office building.

As I got off the car and looked at the building, I thought that the walls were unusually very thick.

It looked like it could weather an huge explosion.

"If a person has a good brain, they also need to build a strong body for them to survive."

My mom said as I entered the building.

But mom, I just came back from training by committing suicide...

I answered inwardly.

As I got into the elevator, my mother said.

"I'll come pick you up in two days."

"Aren't you going to introduce yourself?"

Aren't you meeting the teacher?

"It's okay."

What.

At that moment, the elevator door closed and the elevator went down on its own.

What kind of deep shit have I gotten into this time.