Chapter 120
Returning to the Guest Quarters after seizing the title of Top Ranker at the Martial Arts Competition, Baek-Cheong felt restless, unable to quench her thirst.
As soon as she entered her abode, she threw herself onto the bed.
Her body was sluggish and exhausted from roaming the New Spring Exchange Gathering for the past few days.
“Today was quite fruitful too.”
Having claimed the Top Ranker position along with a hefty reward, she couldn’t be more satisfied.
The corners of her mouth naturally curled up as she recalled sweeping the main tournament with a few Ice Dragon Shatters and ascending to the pinnacle of the Stone Platform.
However, the Martial Arts Competition left one thing to be desired.
It wasn’t boring, as the exchange of flashy Techniques/Spells made for a good spectacle, and showing off her skills was quite fun.
The problem was that there were so many eyes on the Stone Platform that she couldn’t even dream of browsing the forum.
It was a place where she couldn’t act as a troublemaker in the slightest.
No matter how entertaining the Martial Arts Competition was, it couldn’t relieve her gradually accumulating Desire to Stir Trouble.
“My body is tired, though.”
Baek-Cheong blinked her eyes while sprawled on the bed.
She felt like she would fall asleep the moment she closed her eyes.
Even so, a small corner of her heart kept itching.
The Desire to Stir Trouble she had firmly suppressed crept up, pushing past her exhaustion.
‘Ah, let’s just log in for a bit and come right back out.’
Ultimately, she pushed aside her overwhelming drowsiness and moved her Divine Sense.
To be exact, she had failed to overcome her Desire to Stir Trouble.
She closed her eyes and connected familiarly to the Nameless Forum.
Because she hadn’t been able to check it for days while watching the New Spring Exchange Gathering, it was full of piled-up posts.
Baek-Cheong moved her Divine Sense and scrolled down the Chat Board.
But as she scrolled quickly with her Divine Sense, she soon tilted her head.
“Dao Friend (401.2): Did someone really come down from the Upper Realm?”
“Dao Friend (77.9): I heard a Nameless Body from the Upper Realm sneaked into the Lower Realm.”
“Dao Friend (112.6): They even had a Fixed Name attached?”
Every post she scrolled past was boiling over with the same topic.
There was a rumor that someone from the Upper Realm had sneaked into the Lower Realm.
“What Upper Realm?”
If it were just a baseless rumor, the Nameless Forum wouldn’t be in such an uproar.
The fact that the one who sneaked into the Lower Realm was a Nameless Body Cultivator who even possessed a Fixed Name in the Upper Realm was what fueled the fire.
Baek-Cheong briefly stopped moving her Divine Sense.
She was well aware of what a Fixed Name was.
The authority to proudly display a name instead of the commonplace Dao Friend and Interface Number.
In the Lower Realm Nameless Forum, the only entity that carried a Fixed Name was the Nameless Pavilion in the Marketplace.
She had heard it was an authority enjoyed only by Cultivators of the Upper Realm, so it wasn’t something a mere Dao Friend of the Lower Realm could covet.
She had once secretly coveted it herself, but since even ascension was a distant dream, she had long since given up on the idea.
Moreover, she had heard that crossing between realms was inherently a remote possibility.
But for a Fixed Name Cultivator from the Upper Realm to shoulder such restrictions and sneak into the Lower Realm - it was only natural for the Dao Friends to be in an uproar.
“Something interesting happened.”
It was an event that occurred during the few days she had been away from the Nameless Forum.
Having belatedly discovered this juicy bait, Baek-Cheong couldn’t overcome her curiosity and immediately wrote a post.
“Dao Friend (913.14): Did they really come down from the Upper Realm?”
[But how did you guys know that?]
Replies were quickly attached to her question.
[Dao Friend (341.8): The Fixed Name Cultivator stupidly left a post.]
To think a Cultivator from the Upper Realm had left a post themself - her already itching hands grew even itchier.
She fully mobilized her Divine Sense and frantically searched through the piled-up posts.
It didn’t take long to find the post that was on all the Dao Friends' lips.
“Na-Man-Do-Ryeo-Eop-Ji: I feel lonely.”
[If you don’t have a Dao Companion, you should just go die.]
[Merit 0 / Karma 1]
In the spot where the common Dao Friend and Interface Number should have been stamped, an unfamiliar Fixed Name was proudly written.
It was a Fixed Name that was somehow strangely unique, completely different from the Nameless Pavilion that had revealed itself in the Marketplace.
“This kind of thing is an Upper Realm Cultivator…?”
Since they were an Upper Realm Cultivator, they were nine times out of ten a Great Cultivator at the Soul Formation stage or higher, making it utterly absurd.
The post was densely covered with replies from Dao Friends.
[Dao Friend (11.23): Dao Friend… why do you have a Fixed Name?]
[Dao Friend (88.4): What am I looking at right now?]
[Dao Friend (2.1): I pressed Karma so they can’t delete the post.]
└Dao Friend (301.9): Can Fixed Name Cultivators delete posts too?
└Dao Friend (2.1): Yeah.
└Dao Friend (301.9): But how do you know that, Dao Friend…?
At a rough guess, the replies easily exceeded several thousand.
It was a rare sight to see this many replies attached to a single post.
It meant the entire Nameless Forum was incredibly excited.
Baek-Cheong frantically scrolled down the replies and quickly grasped the situation.
“Ah, this.”
It was a mistake that commonly occurred when one frequented various forum boards.
The case of forgetting oneself and using the tone and habits from one’s usual haunts in the completely wrong place.
The Fixed Name Cultivator from the Upper Realm had left a post in the Lower Realm Nameless Forum out of habit, forgetting about their Fixed Name, and thus had their identity exposed.
It was a common sight in the communities of her past life, so Baek-Cheong instantly pictured what had happened.
However, what caught her eye was something else.
The fact that a Nameless Body Cultivator had come down to the Lower Realm from the Upper Realm.
And something she had never seen in any post before.
[Merit 0 / Karma 1]
It was the Merit and Karma stamped right onto the post.
She wasn’t ignorant of Merit and Karma.
In terms of her past life, it was a function no different from upvotes and downvotes.
Originally, Merit and Karma were functions that had existed in the Nameless Forum from the very beginning.
When she first set foot in the Nameless Forum, Baek-Cheong also pressed them out of curiosity.
But no matter how much she pressed, they hadn’t budged.
Since then, she had considered them useless functions and had never paid them any attention.
And rightly so, for since she started frequenting the Nameless Forum, she had never once seen a post where the numbers for Merit or Karma had changed.
Yet, on the Upper Realm Cultivator’s post, a single Karma was clearly stamped.
“These could actually be pressed?”
Unable to overcome her curiosity, Baek-Cheong asked what she wondered most.
“Dao Friend (913.14): What do you have to do to be able to gain Merit and Karma?”
[Urgent.]
Just then, a kind Dao Friend left a reply.
[Dao Friend (2.1): You just need a Dao Mark.]
It was a kind answer, but to her, it sounded incredibly perplexing.
She had heard plenty about Formation Glyphs and realms, but it was her first time hearing the term Dao Mark.
‘What’s a Dao Mark?’
Baek-Cheong tilted her head, then suddenly grew curious.
She wondered if she also possessed something called a Dao Mark.
The only way to find out right now was to try pressing it herself.
She felt reluctant to test it on her own post.
So she returned to the Upper Realm Cultivator’s post she had seen earlier.
And she pressed Karma firmly.
[Merit 0 / Karma 2]
“Huh?”
The number indicating Karma had clearly gone up from one to two.
She didn’t even have time to doubt her own eyes.
“Na-Man-Do-Ryeo-Eop-Ji: Kuaaack!”
[What did I do wrong to get two Karmas!]
The Fixed Name Cultivator from the Upper Realm revealed their presence by posting a new thread as if having a fit.
The Dao Friend who had been holding their breath until now had practically screamed over a single Karma.
Dao Friends swarmed toward the Fixed Name Cultivator who had suddenly shown themself.
[Dao Friend (11.23): Some Great Powers must have been angered.]
[Dao Friend (88.4): That’s what you get for coming down to the Lower Realm.]
[Dao Friend (301.9): Take care; I won’t see you off.]
The Dao Friends left a string of replies as if pitying the Fixed Name Cultivator.
Her lips twitched at the talk of Great Powers being angered.
Because the Great Powers the Dao Friends feared was merely she, sprawled out in her Abode, having pressed Karma just once.
“Pfft, idiots.”
A laugh escaped Baek-Cheong at the Dao Friends' fuss.
However, as she watched the Dao Friends all acting so ominously, a strange thought reared its head.
She wondered if this thing called Karma had some sort of effect outside the Nameless Forum as well.
If a Cultivator who came down from the Upper Realm was that terrified over two Karmas - that is.
Piqued by curiosity, she firmly pressed Karma on the new post the Fixed Name Cultivator had uploaded as well.
But this time, no matter how much she pressed, the Karma wouldn’t register.
‘Huh, why isn’t it working?’
If it were the upvotes or downvotes of her past life, she would have been able to press them on other posts as much as she wanted.
But it seemed the Karma in the Nameless Forum could not be pressed again once it had been used.
As she reached this line of thought, the things she wanted to ask tumbled over each other.
What a Dao Mark was, and why she possessed such a thing.
What kind of power did Merit and Karma hold even outside the Nameless Forum?
But in the end, she kept her mouth shut.
With the atmosphere so ominous, no good would come from needlessly stepping forward.
Not to mention, she had no reason to blab that she was the culprit who had pressed the Karma.
“I should just quietly blend in.”
Baek-Cheong decided to stealthily step back and observe the situation.
The Dao Friends were still making a huge fuss surrounding the Fixed Name Cultivator.
Mixed with wariness and mockery toward the Cultivator who had come down from the Upper Realm, the Nameless Forum showed no signs of quieting down.
Taking in the ominous Nameless Forum, she chewed over the word Karma.
A function that had been practically useless until now had suddenly undergone a change because of her.
She didn’t know what a Dao Mark was, but it seemed she at least had one.
And enough to make even a Fixed Name Cultivator from the Upper Realm scream over two Karmas.
Merit and Karma didn’t seem like ordinary upvotes and downvotes.
“I should be careful, just in case.”
Normally, she would have been incredibly excited, calling it fresh bait.
But this time, she couldn’t easily put her mind at ease.
They told them to be careful, saying they wouldn’t see them off.
The words the Dao Friends had chanted in unison kept lingering in her mind.
The talk about Great Powers didn’t sound like mere nonsense either.
“Did I just poke a sleeping bear?”
There was no way of knowing what would actually befall the Fixed Name Cultivator.
Forgetting even to act as a Troublemaker, Baek-Cheong merely observed the chaotic Nameless Forum with caution.