Nano Machine Chapter 4: Who Told You to Memorize the Book? (B)

Ten Thousand Mountains was the birthplace of the Ma faction.

There were many clans within the Ma faction that were powerhouses and die-hard followers of the founding philosophy, but there were six main clans that acted as the pillars of the faction.

The Hyeon Ma, Geom Ma, Buk Ma, Dok Ma, Do Ma and Eum Ma clans were the six that had produced a candidate to sit on the Grand Master's throne over the past generations.

Through political arrangements, the Grand Master married and produced his offspring through grand geishas from each of the six clans. But, until each of his children reach a certain age, they are brought up in the clan of their mother's upbringing.

Every ten years, the six candidates from each of the clan then receive the chance to enter Ma Fighting Academy to vie for their place on top by receiving training to master their martial arts.

Ma Fighting Academy is, in general, a training facility opened to produce the best fighters from each succeeding generation. Typically, every five years Ma Fighting Academy begins a competition to train all low, mid, and high-level masters for service, but every ten years this competition is collaborated with the Grand Prince candidacy competition into one big event.

Ma Fighting Academy takes all the top masters within the Ma faction as instructors to train the new cadets to reach their highest potential.

That is the officially stated purpose of Ma Fighting Academy.

There is a period during the academy's dual training program when the competition turns really fierce.

It is when the Grand Prince candidates enter the academy.

Over time, people began to call this intense period in the Ma Fighting Academy the "Battle for the Princeship."

The reason being that from the moment the six candidates enter the training ground, they all go head to head as they fight and scramble to build the foundation for their prospective fighting force within the academy.

Cadets from other clans (besides the six Ma pillars) also take part in Ma Fighting Academy training, so it is an opportune time for the Grand prince candidates to recruit loyal fighters even outside of their own clans into their personal squad.

Those who successfully make it to the top in this fierce battle will get to sit on the Grand Prince's throne.

~~~~~

-Swoosh, swoosh.-

After coming out of the bath, Cheon Yeo Woon dried himself as he stood in front of his own reflection.

For most of his life he'd had to stay inside his home to steer clear of the endless assassination attempts that were made on him. All he could afford to do in lieu of getting proper training was to do some basic physical conditioning like push-ups and pull-ups.

But, looking at himself in the reflection of his body, his muscles looked noticeably developed and well-balanced as though he had gone through years of training.

"Nano machine, how is this possible?"

[Your body has been restructured, my lord.]

"Re-what?"

[Although it is scientifically impossible to create something out of nothing, it isn't difficult to restructure pre-existing muscle fibers, tendons, and ligaments for greater capacity.]

"You're really good at using unintelligible words that I can't understand."

Although Cheon Yeo Woon simply wasn't given the opportunity to train in martial arts, one thing he did do diligently was to study it in an academic way.

However, the sophisticated and foreign vocabulary that the nano machine was using transcended anything he could learn through basic contemporary studies.

After getting spruced up, he headed out of the bathroom towards the library in his house.

"It's really awkward to keep calling you nano machine, because I'm just not used to pronouncing such long words. Is there another name I can call you by?"

[My lord can assign any nickname to me and call me by it, if that's what you want.]

"…..I can't come up with anything in particular on the spot, so maybe I can just call you 'Nano'?'"

Come to think of it, it was the perfect nickname.

"Na-No" was broken up into the two characters, "Na," which means "to talk" and "No," which means "to work." The nano machine's basic role inside of him was basically to talk and work, so it was quite a suitable nickname.

[I will register myself under the name "Nano."]

"You're not going to even thank me for coming up with this cool name?

He expected gratitude after lopping the whole second half of her name off?

But, the impersonal nano machine didn't have the capacity to understand the humor behind his statement, so accordingly she spit out an impersonal, mechanic response, "Thank you."

"… Right."

Cheon Yeo Woon was slowly getting used to the fact that the nano machine, now 'Nano,' was a machine that lacked the ability to feel emotions of happiness, anger, love, or pleasure.

He turned his attention to his plan, though there weren't many books in his private library.

Most of his book collection comprised a compendium on basic academic subjects, of which none even touched upon the subject of martial arts.

The only few books that had any relevance were that of acupuncture points (Hyeol Do) and breathing techniques using one's physiognomy (Samjae Shimbeop) to strengthen one's inner power. But the information in these books were all just basic knowledge that all novice fighters within the country possessed.

The book on breathing techniques was written by a famed philosopher and was perhaps one of the most basic books on the subject. It was possible to reach the level of inner power that Samjae Shimbeop taught even after a few years of practicing what is a much more elementary level skill called "Yi Shimbeop" instead.

Since Samjae Shimbeop was written for the strengthening of the mind and soul more than the body, with that alone it was impossible to even reach the level of a low-level master.

"Darned bastards."

This too was a small trickery that the Grand Master's wives played on him.

Since Cheon Yeo Woon had the right to become a Grand Prince candidate despite his birth from the much-detested servant girl, he was all the more a thorn in their sides.

Although he was of ignoble birth, since he still was an offspring of the Grand Master they were restricted from any blatant attacks on him. All that was left for them was wait for the Ma Fighting Academy to commence so they could lay their hands on him during the event.

But there was no way that those six women were going to wait a whole ten years to get rid of him.

They conspired and made a deceitful plan to get Cheon Yeo Woon's dying mother to swear that his son would never receive proper training before he entered the academy.

That's why even at the age of fifteen, besides Samjae Shimbeop, there was nothing else Cheon Yeo Woon had somewhat mastered.

Even that book was secretly placed in his library through the benevolence of the Grand Master. He did so because without proper training in basic breathing techniques, Yeo Woon's whole skeletal-muscular system would have been too stiff for him to properly train in martial arts—even if he did hypothetically make it to Ma Fighting Academy. Since the six women, who always had spies freely walk in and out his house, knew that such a book wouldn't do him much good without supplementing it with other training, they didn't make much of it.

"Now, shall we get started?"

Cheon Yeo Woon picked out the book from his shelf that dealt with acupuncture points.

"What do I do next?"

[You have to simply open up the book in front of you and flip through it from the first page to the last.]

"Just skim through the book? That's it?"

[Yes. You can start now.]

It felt like the servant was now giving orders to the master, but, with a sour grin on his face, he did as Nano instructed.

It only took a few minutes to flip through the book since he was just skimming through it.

Although he wasn't aware of it, his eyes rapidly sought each word on the flipping pages.

"I think I'm done."

[Scan has completed on book entitled "Hyeol Do." Preparing for transfer to user's brain. Do you allow permission?]

"Scan? Oh! You mean you copied the information, right?"

[That is correct. So, do you allow permission?]

"Go ahead."

As soon as he gave the green light, he began to experience the same feeling he got earlier when the nano machine's instruction manual was transferred into his brain.

*- Zoom, zoom, zoom! -*

After he felt a small electro-static-like sensation in his head, as though a video was being engrained in his memory, information began to flood into his brain like a waterfall.

He grabbed the edge of his library desk as he fell slightly forward from the dizziness.

Although it wasn't anything like the first time, he still felt a little light-headed.

[The scanned information has been successfully transferred.]

"Ha ah… Ha ah…"

[You will feel better soon.]

"Aww, you're concerned for me, aren't you?"

[I'm just telling you the truth.]

It wasn't possible for a machine like Nano to feel any sympathy. But, like Nano said, compared to the first time the dizziness went away a lot sooner this time around.

"Is it done now?"

[Just like you did with the instruction manual, make an attempt to think about relevant subject matters concerning acupuncture.]

In that moment, Cheon Yeo Woon was able to retrieve information about acupuncture points that he had never even read about.

"Acupuncture points play an important role as junctures in the meridian and acupressure system of the human body. It is also often called "hyeol." "Jeom hyeol" and "geuk hyeol" are the two primary acupuncture points. Because of jeom hyeol's potential to temporarily paralyze the body even when a mere finger is used to apply pressure, it is sometimes referred to as ma hyeol… What? This can't be! Haha?"

It was unbelievable. The entire book was engrained into his memory without a minute of studying. Not only did he memorize the information, he was almost able to fully comprehend the content material as well.

[Some of the inaccurate information found in the book were modified and transferred accordingly.]

"Error? The book had wrong information?"

[There was an error in the section regarding the exact location of acupuncture points, so I fixed the information according to the up-to-date information saved in my program's database.]

The nano machine made in the distant future had millions of information saved in her database.

The book on acupuncture points that Cheon Yeo Woon used to test the nano machine's scan/transfer capability was written during a time when the human body hadn't even been fully dissected and studied. Therefore, the nano machine automatically used the most up-to-date information from the future to modify its content.

"What a scam! This is unreal."

More than the nano machine correcting the erroneous information, Cheon Yeo Woon was amazed by how easy it was for him to get information into his head.

During his time, it was customary for someone to endlessly study and memorize things in order to learn something new, but with such technology there was no point in suffering through that whole grueling process.

"All I need to do is have information wholesale transferred into me!"

After tasting the real capabilities of the nano machine, Cheon Yeo Woon couldn't stop smiling. Although his library was practically empty right now, it would be a different story once he was in Ma Fighting Academy.

He was aware that in the academy's expansive library, there was a whole compendium of books starting from the Ma faction's entire collection on martial arts including relevant books that were stolen from the Jeong and Sa factions.

It meant that although he would initially have to face a lot of opposition from the other clans, once he got his hands on the books in the library he would be able to memorize and acquire the information necessary for him to get ahead of the pack.

"Let's survive until then! I'll set this as my first goal!"

In reality, he really didn't have a chance at beating the competition in the war of succession just yet.

There was a world of difference between Cheon Yeo Woon, who was just about to get started in the training, and the other candidates who, from the time they were at their mother's breast, had their bodies drained of waste matter to optimize their body condition and who had been diligently training themselves with all kinds of mastery skills.

But, to become stronger, faster, and better was really the only true way to accomplish their goals

Cheon Yeo Woon had no idea, however, that data transfer was far from being the only unbelievable capability that the nano machine inside of him possessed.