#047.
The organization Baek-Ui, which would put an end to the Apocalypse.
Contrary to its grand goal, there was no inauguration ceremony or official announcement.
They simply shared a light meal and casual conversation with those who would belong there, the talents who would grow into strong individuals in the future.
There was no in-depth discussion either.
Because with the exception of Jeong Dohwan, everyone was still closer to ordinary people than Awakened.
To make them accept everything about the Apocalypse.
‘It is still too early.’
That was my judgment.
Unless they possessed hearts of steel like Chairman Gang, it was a harsh reality for them to bear.
Therefore, if they adapted a bit more to the trials and portents to come, if they completed their mental fortification to some extent, then it wouldn’t be too late to share the information then.
What was needed right now wasn’t to instill fear.
It was to prepare for the accelerating Apocalypse and to build enough strength to annihilate Black Moon lurking behind the scenes.
*
On the square ring.
“Huu—”
Han Yeongung exhaled the breath he had been holding.
He seemed quite nervous.
“Nervous?”
“….”
He couldn’t answer my question.
Well, the situation had changed a lot compared to last time.
He must be sensing it.
My transformed flesh and that power, gained through two full-body reinforcements.
There was no helping it; he had awakened a powerful trait called a King’s Aptitude.
Fist King.
A powerful trait counted on one hand among all fist-using traits, capable of reaching the Ten Lords.
If there was one characteristic shared by those who possessed this King’s trait.
‘They can gauge an opponent’s strength through their momentum.’
What should I call it?
Should I say it is a kind of sixth sense?
Originally, it is a kind of ability that can only be awakened after long training, but these guys are born with it at the moment of their trait awakening.
That is why they could survive the Apocalypse with a high probability.
Since they can know to some extent the level gap between their opponent and themselves, it inevitably helps in survival in various ways.
That ability must be active now, making him realize the difference in level.
“Not coming?”
“….”
“Then I’ll go to you.”
Instead of the guy who couldn’t bring himself to enter.
Pat—
I rushed out.
I had only stomped my foot once, but the distance closed in an instant.
Toward the guy whose pupils had dilated in shock, I extended my fist.
Sswik.
He leaned his waist back and dodged the punch.
A surprisingly flexible movement.
Someone might marvel at that reflex, but.
“Tch!”
To me, it was nothing but a clown’s act.
I clicked my tongue lightly and changed the direction of my extending fist downward.
“Hup!”
I stopped my fist barely 1cm from the face of the guy who let out a startled, deflated sound.
Thud!
Surprised, he collapsed right there.
“Thirty seconds to think. Recite what you did wrong just now.”
As I said that, I couldn’t help but smile.
‘Thirty seconds to think. Tell me what you did wrong.’
Time to think.
That was the teaching method Han Yeongung had used on me in the past.
After exchanging a few blows, if there was something unsatisfactory, he would stop the sparring and take time to think.
If I couldn’t produce a proper answer there.
‘I’d get beaten all day.’
I got thrashed mercilessly.
The only way to escape that indiscriminate violence was to give the answer.
Grasp the problem he was thinking of, and even the solution to fix it.
Of course, it was far from easy.
That is why for the first few years, I got beaten to a truly severe degree.
But after 1 year, then 2, and then 5 years passed, the indiscriminate violence disappeared.
Because I had grown into a warrior capable of fighting from an equal position to some extent.
‘If it weren’t for his teachings, could I have survived that hell?’
I dare say no.
It was the pre-regression Han Yeongung who had raised my level when I was nothing more than a mere Strengthener.
And now I was returning the teachings he had bestowed upon me back then.
“Hmm….”
Hero, who had been agonizing over the question.
“…Was I too slow in dodging?”
“….”
“When the fist came, with my reflexes, swish….”
Thwack!
I delivered a refreshing flick to the head of the guy spewing nonsense.
“Ack!”
He clutched his head and groaned in pain.
“Swish? What do you mean swish, is that even a sentence? Dodge quickly? Why not just say you quickly dodged and countered to take them down?”
An utterly unproductive answer.
Well, what could I expect from a guy who had just awakened the Fist King trait, no matter how impressive it is.
“You’re too loud.”
So I gave him the answer.
“Say you dodged by leaning your upper body back. Then, what about the next attack?”
“One that allows for a sufficient counter…?”
“You could counterattack, sure. But it would be a meaningless counterattack with no proper power behind it.”
No matter how excellent one’s motor nerves, it is impossible to exert proper force while leaning the upper body backward.
“Don’t focus only on dodging. Picture in your head the actions after dodging, the counterattack, everything.”
Battle is not a simple clash of bodies but a high-level psychological war.
An intellectual battle where the direction of victory changes depending on what picture you draw.
Dodging is not merely avoiding the opponent’s attack blindly; you must predict the next move, and the move after that.
Of course, it would be unreasonable to expect such deep combat from a beginner who had just awakened his trait.
That is why I only demand one thing.
“What you need for that preliminary preparation is minimal movement.”
Minimal movement.
But there’s no way he’ll understand just by hearing it.
To match Han Yeongung’s level.
“Come in.”
Practical experience was needed.
At my beckoning gesture, he either got slightly angry or took a serious stance.
And then.
Tat!
He approached quickly, putting strength into his stepping foot.
Shh-ik!
A fist that traced a minimal trajectory surged in.
A fierce onslaught to seize the initiative.
‘Nice!’
Compared to defense, this was certainly different.
Not to mention ordinary people, it was a strong attack enough to subdue most Awakened.
But.
Sswik.
I deflected it simply by lightly turning my body.
“Hap!”
Without giving up, he followed up with continuous attacks.
A right hook after the straight.
Without even time to check the incoming attack, I stepped back slightly and deflected it by a hair’s breadth.
It wasn’t just once or twice.
I deflected his persistent attacks by the slimmest of margins.
“…Damn it.”
Until the attacking guy tired himself out.
“Did you feel the difference?”
“…Yeah. Definitely.”
“The reason I told you to use minimal movement. Do you know why?”
“It’s easy to follow up with the next move.”
Correct.
“Keep talking.”
But to see if he truly understood, a bit more explanation was necessary.
“The movements became concise, making it easy to follow up with the next move. How should I put it. It’s like reading the next move and responding to it?”
As expected of the Fist King.
His combat sense is extraordinary.
“Yes. Evasion isn’t simply the act of avoiding an attack. It’s something that requires its own design to follow up with the next move. But what about you just now? You were so focused on simply dodging that there was no design whatsoever for following up with your next move.”
“…That certainly was the case.”
“Always keep it in your head. How to dodge so you can easily follow up with the next move. If it becomes a habit, you’ll be able to grasp the sense of minimal movement.”
Those words didn’t apply to Yeongung alone.
“William, you’re the same.”
It applied to William as well, who mainly used close-range attacks.
“I’ll definitely keep it in mind.”
The guy who seemed to have realized something from the sparring moments ago readily answered with his brows furrowed.
“Don’t just keep it in mind; you two spar against each other.”
After promoting a spar between Yeongung and William, I stepped down from the ring.
“Here I come!”
“Anytime.”
Soon, a brutal spar akin to actual combat began.
Unlike my spar where the level gap was significant, their match was fierce.
Sword and fist, and since they were traits that inherited the same King’s Aptitude, they were evenly matched.
‘Pathetic.’
Though the two fought with the seriousness of a life-or-death battle, in my eyes it was nothing but child’s play.
They had only just awakened their traits.
No matter that it was a King’s Aptitude; for now, it was nothing more than children’s antics.
But that wouldn’t last long either.
‘If I impart the experience of the past 20 years of surviving through hell.’
The King’s Aptitude isn’t called that for nothing.
Like a sponge absorbing water, they would quickly absorb all that experience and grow rapidly.
Seong Yeil and Jeong Dohwan were no different.
Though I couldn’t expect direct growth in combat power through sparring, they were growing quickly through the methods I taught them.
Especially.
‘Jeong Dohwan’s growth exceeded imagination.’
The most remarkable growth was shown by Jeong Dohwan.
Of course, one might think it was because he Awakened first, but looking at his growth rate, it wasn’t at a level explainable simply by having Awakened earlier.
It was because his power was.
‘Soul.’
It was the soul obtained by killing people.
Especially the souls of Awakened served as a powerful driving force for his growth, and he had eliminated every Awakened he encountered recently to absorb their souls.
‘It might not be long before he can create an exclusive weapon.’
It was only speculation, but before long, he would be able to create his own exclusive weapon.
‘As for Seong Yeil….’
Well, there was no need to think about it.
Because the method to raise her combat power in one go was already in my head.
Squeak.
While watching the two greenhorns spar, the door opened.
“You’ve come.”
There was only one person who would visit this secret hideout.
“So this is youth.”
Chairman Gang, who had been watching the spar as he walked, stood beside me.
“The documents you requested.”
He handed over quite a thick stack of papers.
Rustle.
I received the documents and quickly flipped through them, reading the contents.
“All the people I asked you to look into… they’re dead.”
“….”
He had already confirmed it through the documents.
Those whose identities I had asked to be investigated, they had all been processed as dead.
“Cause of death: homicide. But they said they hadn’t caught a single clue about the perpetrator yet.”
If even Chairman Gang, who is deeply connected to the top brass of the prosecution, didn’t know, it was virtually the same as saying there was no information about the culprit whatsoever.
“….”
At those words, I couldn’t say anything.
‘Oracles, prophecies, premonitions, precognitive dreams.’
Those who would awaken abilities related to foresight that I remembered, they were all dead.
Dozens of them scattered across the world.
‘Cause of death: murder. The estimated time of death varies slightly, but none exceed 1-2 days.’
Killing dozens of people scattered across the world simultaneously?
For that to be possible, one trait had to accompany it.
‘Portal.’
A trait that allows one to cross space and go anywhere.
‘This confirms it.’
Not long ago, the information I had obtained through the soul of a Black Moon executive.
The orange-haired bastard who had possessed the power of Noon—he had been one of the executives in charge of a branch in England.
And befitting such a position, he had known various pieces of information, but they were things one could not believe even after hearing them.
That is why I couldn’t believe it until I confirmed it with my own two eyes.
But that doubt had turned into certainty through this data.
‘Sin-in. That bastard can absorb traits!’
Trait Absorption.
An eerie trait that even I, who had survived until the very end of the Apocalypse, had never heard of.
Unbelievably, there was no doubt that Sin-in, the leader of Black Moon, was a monster born with this absolute trait.