Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
[1]
The in-game Maeng Hyodon was a character very difficult to use.
At the time when Ju Su-hyeok became a 2nd year, Maeng Hyodon appeared as he was rescued a year later than now.
Because of the malnutrition and the chronic recovery item poisoning symptoms overlapping, the physical state of his body was pretty much ruined.
Thanks to the backing of Ju Su-hyeok’s full support, he somewhat recovered, but the restriction on the recovery item usage was even more strict than now, and he had to do a harsh training while saving his body from harm.
‘Because of this, he couldn’t be ordered to attack Enemies of SSR rank or higher rarity, and in the story, even if he was in the forced to attack mode, he would only do one hit and then had to withdraw to the backlines. And then there was a Gwangrim which was an ability that made for him easy to get hurt…’
The situation was much worse than now, when he was just recommended to restrain from recovery item usage.
As he was rescued later than now, he proportionally piled up experience in the Fight Club, so his level was high, but that was all.
‘As he couldn’t do more than one hit, you had to pile up experience points when facing against low rarity Enemies, and he had to hone his skills without a proper teacher, so promotion wasn’t easy.’
In the end, even though Maeng Hyodon was a new character[2], with a dramatic story background and excellent hitting rate and attack power, because of the difficulty of the operation and fostering, he became a target of avoidance even among the little bit of core users left.
The aftereffects of Maeng Hyodon’s background showed up even now during the start of the 2nd round.
“Ah, damn!”
“Hyodon moved back again!” [3]
“Rather than getting just one hit there, you should have burrowed in!”
Besides the class children, Song Daeseok also stood up from his seat, clenching his fist and shouting like that.
The match between the two people, which was worthy of boiling even the blood of Song Daeseok, who was still indifferent towards the class children, continued.
Maeng Hyodon was expected, but it was a battle of high standard that was difficult to imagine when sparring with Bread Shuttle.
‘Ascetic Tak had to thoroughly study Maeng Hyodon’s weaknesses and train Bang Yunseop to aim for them.’
Maeng Hyodon’s first weakness.
Without a teacher, Maeng Hyodon’s attacks were very simple.
During the first team play, there weren’t many traces of it thanks to him following Hwang Jiho and Han Yi, wielding Taehokwon and using attack techniques he noticed from time to time to assimilate them as his own, but…
It wasn’t effective during a 1 on 1 fight.
‘And the biggest weakness…’
His second weakness.
He was saving his body.
Maeng Hyodon’s recovery item usage was limited.
At first glance, Maeng Hyodon attacks boldly, but he moves on a conviction that ‘I can avoid the attack from this side’.
On the other hand, if he feels ‘it’s difficult to avoid’, Maeng Hyodon won’t be able to easily step out.
The current, fierce attacks of Bang Yunseop, who accurately understood Maeng Hyodon’s attack pattern, were exactly the attack types that were difficult to avoid.
‘But it heavily relies on Bang Yunseop’s aptitude. Opportunity will come.’
Like now.
Thanks to Bang Yunseop taking a clumsy step and swinging a nunchaku, a gap formed.
Maeng Hyodon didn’t miss it and threw a kick, but…
Swish—!
Because Bang Yunseop moved the nunchaku, the kick flew past him.
“Did Uisin’s Bread Shuttle always had such good batting eye? It didn’t seem like this before.”
“He seems to be slower than Hyodon, how did he avoid it?”
“It doesn’t seem like he saw the movement and predicted the kick coming to make it fly past him. Before he processed that Hyodon’s kick is flying towards him, he already assumed that the kick was coming and moved.”
It was as Han Yi’s sharp analysis said.
As Bang Yunseop’s combat sense couldn’t keep up with Maeng Hyodon’s attacks, rather than avoiding them with it, he avoided and blocked because he mechanically moved in a learned way.
It was an obvious trace of ascetic Tak studying Maeng Hyodon’s movements through the records left after the school combat classes and video records published by the Association, and cramming this knowledge into Bang Yunseop in a short period of time.
‘Even so, during the first round he couldn’t apply this knowledge properly, so he ended up narrowly losing, but… if ascetic Tak taught not Bang Yunseop but one of the Eungwang School mid ranks guys, Maeng Hyodon would have lost in the first round.’
After Maeng Hyodon’s next attacks were read, as if he was getting impatient, the mistakes started to increase little by little.
He partially blocked the nunchaku Bang Yunseop swung towards him with a protector he was wearing and tried to speed up his attacks, but he only ended up being hit on the skin exposed under the protector.
When Maeng Hyodon’s face squinted as if the damage he received to his left arm was serious.
Bang Yunseop didn’t miss the gap and kicked Maeng Hyodon’s abdomen with a foot.
Bang!
“… Uuk.”
Maeng Hyodon faltered.
That gap also wasn’t missed, and Bang Yunseop blew a hit towards the solar plexus with nunchaku.
Puk— Kuung!
Maeng Hyodon, who was short and had a tiny build compared to Bang Yunseop, fell down on the stage.
When Bang Yunseop swung his nunchaku, aiming for the head of Maeng Hyodon, who had collapsed.
“That’s it! Halt the fight!”
Paaa—!
Because Jegal Jaegeol’s kotodama activated, Bang Yunseop was restrained for a very short moment.
At that moment, Maeng Hyodon came to his senses and made a backflip and stood up as if bouncing to make distance, but Jegal Jaegeol declared:
“I judged that if the additional hit was taken at that moment, student Maeng Hyodon would receive enough damage to become incapable of fighting. Therefore, the victor of the second round is… Student Bang Yunseop!”
Whoaaaaaaa— !
“How did it happen?! Bread Shuttle!”
“Ascetic Tak is awesome….”
“Is it truly the last day of Bread Shuttle? I enjoyed touring the bakeries that guy visited.”
“Me too. He only chooses the best ones, you know? I saw all Bread Shuttle’s points in Mun Saeron’s best food places article. That’s a pity.”
Our class children all kept their mouths shut, but around I heard words praising Bang Yunseop.
‘That was dangerous.’
If Jegal Jaegeol’s signal was late and Maeng Hyodon was beaten up enough to become incapable of fighting, I might have impulsively ordered that bastard Bang Yunseop to buy a truck of barley bread[4] from Jeju Island[5].
“After ten minutes, we will resume for the last round.”
At Jegal Jaegeol’s words, a holographic clock used for count-down floated up.
Thanks to the Newspaper Club staff, the stage was hastily maintained and before the last round the Bang Club started a performance of ‘Last Round With Frost’.
Bang Yunseop used a recovery item while talking with delighted Tak Geosan, but Maeng Hyodon on the other side was different.
Even when Maeng Hyodon said something, Ham Geun-hyeong only shook his head.
‘He is aware of the state of Maeng Hyodon’s body, so he is acting like this, huh?’
Teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim was very lenient about disciples’ actions, but for current Maeng Hyodon, using recovery items was no different from drinking poison.
“Why isn’t he using a recovery item?” [6]
“Was the damage he took smaller than we thought?”
“Ridiculous. That little prick that moved so energetically before couldn’t stand up a moment ago, and didn’t you see him falter after he stood up?”
It was like Song Daeseok said.
Even though Maeng Hyodon showed very little traces of it, he took extreme damage.
Maeng Hyodon was staring at Bang Yunseop standing beyond the stage with an angry face.
‘Even if he loses because of the ability gap, I would rather not see him losing because he is tied by his weakness like this.’
So I made preparations beforehand.
“The entrance is noisy…”
“Uh, someone is coming towards the stage.” [7]
The ones to appear at the side of the staff seats were the Student Council members.
And standing in front of them.
“It’s senior Yu Sanghui-nim!”
Our school’s best healer, Healing Frenzy Yu Sang-hui.
***
“I accepted Uisin’s request. He said that they plan to prepare recovery items, but if possible, he hoped that I could heal the competitors. I planned to come much earlier, but we were drowned in Student Council work, so I ended up late.”
“Shoving Sang-hui around like this! That 1st year is so sassy! Don’t heal them and just use recovery items… My apologies.”
When Ham Geun-hyeong and Yu Sang-hui glared at him with grave faces at the same time, Tao Wonu closed his mouth.
“If this is only this much, I think I can heal it even without using Gwangrim. Please wait.”
Paat!
The superpower wave, which flowed from Yu Sang-hui’s hand, wrapped around Maeng Hyodon’s body and then his pain and chills stopped.
Seeing he was healed in the instant, Maeng Hyodon was in awe, and then hurriedly bowed his head.
“Thank you…!”
“My junior was hurt, so it’s only natural I heal him. If you want to express gratitude, you should say thank you to Uisin. Because I just accepted his request.”
After Yu Sang-hui smiled softly, she walked away, saying that she will also examine Bang Yunseop’s side.
As Maeng Hyodon, who expressed his thanks to Yu Sang-hui again, looked towards the audience seats, he saw the class vice president, Jo Uisin, smiling suspiciously.
‘Give smashing and then medicine? What the hell are you thinking…!?’
He had many things to say, but right now he had to get rid of useless thoughts.
Maeng Hyodon caught his breath and looked back at the movements Bang Yunseop showed during the 1st and 2nd round, while thinking about countermeasures.
***
“I can’t figure it out, eh?”
“What?”
“Did you want Maeng Hyodon to lose?”
After Yu Sang-hui safely healed Maeng Hyodon under the guidance of the Newspaper Club’s staff, Hwang Jiho suddenly spoke up.
“You didn’t actively block Tak Geosan’s offers, you know. But you made such a strong response to Min Geurin’s case.”
Hwang Jiho’s question was reasonable.
After I figured out that Tak Geosan’s identity wasn’t that of a pseudo ascetic, I didn’t give any advice and left it unattended.
“Rather, you made this event like this so Maeng Hyodon would find it hard to withdraw, right? So why did you call Yu Sang-hui? What are your thoughts?”
“It’s as you’re thinking. I want Maeng Hyodon to become teacher Tak Geosan-nim’s disciple. However, I don’t want him to lose like this.”
Hwang Jiho was still looking at me with eyes saying he couldn’t understand me, but he didn’t say anything more than that.
“Last round will start in 3, 2, 1… start!”
After Jegal Jaegeol’s countdown finished, the two people’s standoff resumed.
This time, their appearance was clearly different from the 1st and 2nd round.
‘Maeng Hyodon has many weaknesses. But…’
He had a genius and persistence worthy of biting into his every weakness, chewing on it and swallowing it all.
I didn’t hear the sound about him being a balance breaking freak character to the last moment without reason.
While Maeng Hyodon hesitated during the 1st and 2nd round, he adjusted to Bang Yunseop’s movements to have time to move.
Tak Geosan was looking at the stage with an anxious face.
‘Ascetic Tak would guess what will happen if you show Maeng Hyodon a gap.’
When Bang Yunseop’s attacks slowed down a bit, a superpower wave exploded out of Maeng Hyodon’s body.
It was a Gwangrim’s activation.
“I think Hyodon used a Gwangrim! Is that right?”
“Is that so? Awesome. Looking at the superpower wave’s output power, it seems to be an extremely powerful Gwangrim!”
“The two bastards didn’t use Gwangrims at all before, what are you doing right now?”
“Because even during sparring, you usually don’t use Gwangrims very often if you can. And an otherworld crack can suddenly occur…”
Maeng Hyodon probably didn’t use Gwangrim for the reasons Sawol Seeum explained, answering the sound which seemed to be Song Daeseok’s mumbling.
If possible, you shouldn’t use it, but he probably thought ‘I have to use it’ after seeing Bang Yunseop’s skills.
But if you aim for the complete victory, it would be better if you used it the moment the 2nd round started.
Paaat!
Behind Maeng Hyodon, the superpower wave formed into a shape of an enormous fist.
The fist pointed in the direction of the place where Bang Yunseop was standing.
Bang Yunseop was surprised and took a defense posture, because he thought that the fist was coming, but…
Paaa….
A superpower wave poured out from the fist and covered the stage, and then it disappeared.
The audience and Bang Yunseop were confused, but the people who knew the nature of Maeng Hyodon’s Gwangrim all just stared at the stage with eyes brimming with interest.
‘Maeng Hyodon’s Gwangrim safely activated. It’s the first time it actually activated.’
Maeng Hyodon’s Gwangrim ‘Fighter’s Pull’[8].
While the Gwangrim was active, the fighter’s own stats would rise and the opponents were tied to the location recognized as the battlefield. It was both an attack and capture type.
The opponents Maeng Hyodon designated as fighting targets couldn’t leave the ‘battlefield’ designated by Maeng Hyodon, unless he collapsed or the Gwangrim was lifted.
Maeng Hyodon could designate multiple targets as Gwangrim’s opponents, and he could also adjust the range of the ‘battlefield’.
‘Maeng Hyodon didn’t particularly like that Gwangrim.’
Because ‘Fighter’s Pull’ was useful to survive in the Fight Club but wasn’t helpful in escaping.
However, when he held opponents until his last moments to make a way out for his benefactor, Ju Su-hyeok, and fulfill his loyalty, he mumbled that for the first time he likes his Gwangrim and accepted his end.
“Eat this!”
While the Gwangrim was active, Maeng Hyodon’s fist flew towards Bang Yunseop.
Both speed and force of that punch increased tremendously.
It was impossible for the current Bang Yunseop to take it head on and let it brush past him.
As if he also guessed that, he jumped back in fright.
Clang-clang-clang!
After Maeng Hyodon’s fist, filled with superpower wave, connected with the stage, the floor where Bang Yunseop previously stood, crumbled like tofu.
Bang Yunseop, who saw the cracks spread everywhere and the stage turn into powder.
His face was full of fear, but he yelled to bluff.
“It’s a miss, idiot… Uh? Uh!”
Bang Yunseop yelled like this while trying to jump back to increase the distance, but he stiffened and couldn’t move.
‘He was caught in the Fighter’s Pull!’
It seemed that he tried to leave the ‘battlefield’ designated by Maeng Hyodon and was caught.
I guess he predicted that if he shows off a big punch, Bang Yunseop would try to flee back, so he set up the battlefield to be smaller than the octagonal stage and guided him to be caught in its boundaries.
‘He is a stone head, but his fighter mindset is different…!’
As expected, it was worthy of my Playable Character, a fighting genius Maeng Hyodon.
Bang Yunseop couldn’t comprehend the situation like before and was bewildered. He tried to move his body to a different location, to evade, but it was already too late.
Maeng Hyodon’s fist connected with his nose.
Bang!
“Keuk!”
A satisfying sound came out from Bang Yunseop’s face which met with a fist.
He was bleeding from both of his nostrils, but even so, as if Maeng Hyodon controlled his strength, it seemed that the nose wasn’t broken.
When Maeng Hyodon clenched his fist again and Bang Yunseop was about to dodge.
“Stop!”
Jegal Jaegeol’s kotodama tied Maeng Hyodon for a moment.
After Maeng Hyodon withdrew his fist, Jegal Jaegeol declared.
“The winner of the last round is… Maeng Hyodon!”
Whoaaaaaa—!
The phrase written on the holographic signboard changed, and the gym was in uproar.
After Maeng Hyodon took a deep breath and raised the fist that Bang Yunseop tried to evade high into the sky, the cheers grew louder.
[Maeng Hyodon 2 : 1 Bang Yunseop]
[Maeng Hyodon wins!]
The final score came up on the signboard, and the audience sent an applause to the two fighters.
However, Bang Yunseop, who stretched out on the stage, couldn’t stand up for a while.
*~*~*
[1] No title — ‘Connection with god (5)’ =-=
[2] new character — ‘new’ here could also mean ‘god’.
[3] “Hyodon moved back again!” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence
[4] barley bread — it doesn’t have to be, but most of the recipes I saw are a type of steamed bread from barley flour with nuts and fruits.
[5] Jeju Island — To put it into perspective, it would take at least about five hours BY TRAIN from Seoul to get to the closest PORT. Then he would need to somehow get on the island. Please remember that Bang Yunseop has to *run* for bread.
[6] “Why isn’t he using a recovery item?” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence
[7] “Uh, someone is coming towards the stage.” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence
[8] Fighter’s Pull — ‘Pull’ refers to attraction force in physics. Attraction would be the best translation, but *cough cough*…. I don’t want to cause misunderstandings.
Translator’s note: Master Small Stone won! *clap clap* Cheers for Master Small Stone!
Did you see a mistake? 🐞
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