Chapter 188
“What?”
The moment of lamenting their lot together early in the morning turned into a moment of conspiracy.
But naturally, it started with doubt.
“We’re catching Seojun-nim?”
“How?”
“Just appealing to his conscience…”
“Would appealing to Seojun-nim even work?”
Even at Rumi’s ruthless remark that their teammate had no conscience, they nodded.
The past few days had been more than enough time to know Seojun.
Seojun.
Had no conscience.
Quite a lot.
He just seemed that way.
Of course, Seojun had justification.
Making his teammates stronger was good for everyone. So they followed.
But for some reason, they felt it. Not just them.
Lee Dongsoo, Taewoo, even the director and the gym members all felt it.
Seojun simply enjoyed tormenting others like this.
It had justification and was helpful, but the person involved found it hard and agonizing.
Physically, not mentally.
No matter how bitter the medicine that’s good for the body, it’s hard to look favorably on someone who keeps shoving that bitter medicine down your throat, isn’t it?
“If he were the type to be swayed by that, we’d have gotten some rest by now. We’re exercising more than usual broadcast hours… Is it right that we can’t even get a proper one-hour break?”
Rumi continued.
“It does make sense. He lets us rest little by little. The problem is he only lets us rest right before we die.”
“So I’m proposing this.”
Ha Yoonho once again felt the responsibility as the team leader who won Seojun at the auction, and spoke.
“Let’s catch Seojun-nim.”
“How?”
“Hmm…”
Sigh.
The teammates let out a sigh.
As if there was a way.
“So we’re doing this as today’s broadcast content, right?”
Alpaca thought for a moment and said.
“Oh. Inside the game?”
“Wouldn’t that be the way, Rumi-nim?”
“How about setting a trap and making a bet?”
At Baramgeom’s words, Ha Yoonho clapped his hands.
“Oh. Shall we go that way?”
As each person threw out an idea, the meeting gradually progressed.
It seemed like a method was emerging.
But.
“Hmm, but even if we luck out and lure Seojun-nim, how do we beat him?”
The fundamental problem remained.
So Baramgeom asked, and Ha Yoonho replied,
“We just do a good 1v4 raid.”
“Does raiding work, Yoonho?”
“Or we somehow make Seojun-nim play a trash character.”
“Eric and Kael weren’t trash characters, apparently?”
“Kael is not a trash character.”
“I’m sorry, Baramgeom-nim. I sincerely apologize.”
“Yes, Rumi-nim. I accept your apology.”
“Ah! Then how about a bet that’s outright impossible?”
“You saw the Id Trial.”
They were shot down one after another by Rumi.
“Hmm. This is… with a game…”
No answer?
Is it to be expected?
A strange existence who could even lightly beat pros was their ace.
“Then can we stop Seojun-nim in real life?”
Ha Yoonho murmured, and from behind him came a gruff voice.
“I don’t really recommend that.”
It was the director of this gym. He was also the owner of the attached fitness center.
“Hello. You’re here?”
““Hello.””
Everyone greeted the director.
They’d only known him for a few days, but they had spent many hours together over those days, and thanks to that psychological closeness, they’d become friendly quickly.
Because of that, they weren’t particularly worried even though they’d been caught having this strange meeting.
The enemy of my enemy is a comrade.
“But Director. What did you mean by that? That you don’t recommend it?”
“Challenging him in real life. That. I don’t really recommend it.”
“Why?”
“Hmm, I’ll have to tell you the story of when ‘that bastard’ first came to our gym.”
“Oh!”
“Seojun-nim’s past?”
“Is this where his skills came from?”
The director shook his head vigorously.
“No.”
“Then?”
“It was a few years ago. A handsome high schooler walked into my gym.”
“Oh. High school Seojun-nim!”
The director closed his eyes, hands behind his back, as if reminiscing.
“Evening sparring training had ended, the sun had set, and I was alone in the gym tidying up. As always. I have a habit of personally cleaning the place where I fought.”
The ring left in this building was the only stage for the retired fighter.
So even when the members who finished training went out for dinner, he cleaned up.
Also because it felt tactless to join such gatherings.
“The high schooler who approached me then—I quickly recognized whose son he was. I’m somewhat acquainted with his dad. They looked alike, those two.”
“I see.”
“So I greeted him warmly. Nice to meet you. So you’re Seojun. I greeted him like that, and that bastard immediately said.”
“What did he say?”
Everyone was now listening with interest.
“He went, ‘Please teach me modern martial arts.’”
“?”
Instantly, question marks appeared on everyone’s faces.
Then they laughed.
“No, modern martial arts?”
“Hahaha. Seojun-nim was intense even back then.”
“Is he a concept-obsessed guy even in real life?”
Amidst that, Rumi thought seriously.
‘Martial arts. There’s definitely a connection. So he was taught at some dojo? From a much younger age? That’s why he called it modern martial arts?’
“I laughed too, like you guys, at first. Then I told him, if you want to learn, register first. Do you know what he said then?”
“Hmm, I feel like if it’s Seojun-nim, he would have provoked even at that point…”
The director was surprised by Ha Yoonho’s words.
“How did you know? Exact. That bastard smirked, put on some scattered gloves that weren’t put away, and climbed onto the ring.”
“You couldn’t stand that, right?”
“Right. How could I have stood it? Until then, I had been personally disciplining the members. For sports people like us, talking with the body is easier, and also, if you don’t keep suppressing them, they subtly rebel.”
So thinking it would be fun, he went up to rough up his friend’s son a bit, but.
“That day, I fell into deep skepticism about whether I really had to leave this world.”
“Why?”
“I got hit without a chance to do anything. No, I got wrecked. By a high school punk. As things got increasingly strange, I abandoned the idea of going easy and fought seriously, but everything was blocked.”
Ah.
A sigh came from somewhere.
“….”
“….”
“Is that why you just watch from afar now?”
“Seojun-nim was in the wrong there.”
“Yeah.”
But the director shook his head.
“No. That day, after that bastard blocked all my techniques without even learning them, said ‘I learned a lot,’ and left, I did have a bit of a hard time thinking I’d gotten old.”
“But…?”
“The next day, that bastard came again and started beating up our guys the same way, and I realized, Ah, I can keep going for a few more years.”
“….”
“….”
“….”
The poverty-stricken teammates looked at the director in disbelief, but he burst into a booming laugh.
“When that bastard started coaching our guys, then did 1v1s and told five guys to come at him at once, I was dumbfounded, and our guys lost? This high school punk showed movements that even in my prime I don’t think I could have shown.”
“Ah.”
“So it won’t work in real life either. Five burly adult men came at him and he didn’t take a single hit. Hmm…”
The director’s gaze went to Rumi’s and Ha Yoonho’s limbs.
Skeletons.
No better expression fit.
Or anchovies?
Anyway, for those two skeletons, an average office worker, and a pot-bellied 30-year-old to beat him.
“Even with weapons, it’s no use.”
The director asserted.
“If you’re going to rebel, I won’t stop you. If you need tools, I’ll even get them for you. But you’ll lose. You saw him burst the punching bag last time. That’s not something just anyone—no, not something a human can do.”
No matter how worn out it was.
“I see.”
“If it’s no go in-game and in real life… through broadcast?”
Baramgeom once again threw out an idea, but.
“Viewer count bet? Didn’t you see Seojun-nim easily surpass Ha Yoonho on the first day? Unless you want to see a 1st-place destruction battle across all hero trials on today’s broadcast, drop that thought.”
“Must we endure for the sake of the world’s league users…? We have to keep doing this for a few more days?”
At Rumi’s rebuttal, they stared up at the ceiling in despair.
The director offered consolation at their pitiful state.
“Haha. But if you keep at it, your skills will definitely improve. That bastard’s eye for observation is definitely spot-on. There’s nothing scarier in this world than a guy who’s good and knows his stuff well.”
Therefore.
‘Can’t turn him into an enemy.’
They didn’t see the sinister smile forming behind the director as he offered warm consolation.
* * *
“Wow, I really didn’t know he was that kind of person.”
“I’m truly disappointed. Truly.”
“Whoa! He turned his eyes!”
“Director!”
In squatting—no, horse stance—positions, they glared resentfully at the director.
“What. Why.”
He avoided their gazes and shamelessly walked out.
“I thought at least you were on our side…”
“There’s no one to trust.”
“Ha! I thought he was a good person!”
At Rumi’s words, Ha Yoonho nodded.
“Not a loyal sportsman… That figure is exactly.”
A treacherous sycophant, wasn’t it?
Their legs were trembling.
Not because it was hard.
It hadn’t even been 10 minutes since they started exercising.
This was their whole body trembling from a sense of betrayal.
Because of the director right now, sitting behind Seojun in front of them and massaging his shoulders!
“No, weren’t you two on bad terms?”
“Didn’t you shout at each other when Seojun-nim burst the punching bag?”
“They say politicians yell and fight in front, but backstage they call each other ‘seonbae’ and ‘hubae’ like brothers.”
“We’ve been played!”
They recalled the situation a moment ago. The moment Seojun arrived, the director coolly greeted him with a ‘you’re here?’ then immediately grinned and reported their deeds.
“Hahaha! Yeah, Seojun. Go easy on the punching bag, too. Teach them properly. And as for thinking about just entering a match once… Ouch. Okay, okay. At least take good care of the kids. You can keep beating them.”
This was the result.
The content of the request was weird, but it was clearly a request. The price for selling them out.
“To sell us out under ‘please take care of them’…”
“The outside of the blanket is truly… I want to go back.”
The fact that the director was someone trying to curry favor to drag Seojun into the world of martial arts at every opportunity—that was their oversight, not knowing as they hadn’t been coming to the gym for long.
Finally, Seojun’s mouth opened.
For reference, they were voluntarily doing the horse stance.
“Well, I’ll take it as you still have a lot of energy to spare.”
* * *
“I’m dying.”
“Still, today was a bit more bearable.”
“Definitely, compared to doing physical training all day, just getting hit like today seems better, maybe.”
“How can you say that next to Seojun-nim!”
Lunchtime.
They came to a nearby place to eat gukbap, and the teammates talked as if they’d revealed some huge secret.
“….”
“….”
They stealthily watched Seojun’s reaction.
The past three days, they had only done repetitive basic exercises.
The problem was that it was insanely hard.
In contrast, today mostly consisted of Seojun directly teaching through sparring, so it was less hard than before. There were more breaks, too.
Of course, beaten a lot during sparring, they thought it was payback for plotting rebellion.
‘I’d planned to do this from the start.’
The last three days were just posture correction.
The goal wasn’t stamina increase.
If it had been, he wouldn’t have pushed them to the point of exhaustion.
It was because he was cramming the corrections due to lack of time. Not because he wanted to drive them into the ground.
Footwork, preparatory movements, stride length—he ingrained the basics. Through correction and repetitive actions.
Then what he had to do was spar to let them use those basics in practice, and that’s what he did today.
In other words, nothing really changed, and they didn’t need to tiptoe around, but.
‘I’ll just stay quiet.’
There was no need to tell them.
He wasn’t a teacher.
So as Seojun stayed silent after hearing their conversation, Rumi hastily changed the subject.
“Seojun-nim?”
“Yes?”
“But by any chance, Seojun-nim, when you first picked up a sword, were you good right away?”
After hearing the director’s first encounter story, Rumi was now thinking Seojun must have attended a swordsmanship dojo before high school.
So her hasty subject change contained this content.
It was an interesting topic. Everyone except Seojun perked up their ears.
“Hmm…”
Seojun smiled comfortably and reminisced.
The very first time he grabbed a sword across all his memories.
The very first sword he held back then was—