Episode 325
Seo-jun had been flabbergasted ever since the meeting began.
Because Baek Do-yul had appeared.
For one thing, he had thought there was no way a Korean would show up. It was a foreign broadcast, after all. Though if it was Baek Do-yul, he could accept it.
Just like Seo-jun, ordinary people overseas would probably know him as well.
There would be synergy from them being fellow Koreans, so as long as the person had name recognition, this was the better option.
Right. It was possible for him to appear.
But from Seo-jun’s perspective, it was inevitably a little bewildering to have someone who seemed to follow him around while constantly viewing him as a rival appear as a cast member.
Still, Seo-jun took comfort in the fact that it was not the Divine Sword.
Baek Do-yul had also been flustered ever since the meeting began.
Because Seo-jun had surrendered an advantage right from the start.
Why, when he wasn’t even a survival expert?
And when Baek Do-yul tried to change his mind, Seo-jun had hit him with, “Chicken?”
That was a double blow.
As for the telescope, he could accept that. But the longsword had never even been mentioned!
That made three blows.
He had known Seo-jun wasn’t in his right mind, but now that he realized they would actually be a team, there was no answer.
One person’s face came to mind.
A rough, manly face that would certainly make him afraid if they met in person, yet for some reason looked pitiful.
‘Yon…….’
So this was what it felt like.
Bear and Ryan were likewise flustered.
‘A longsword? Is that really what we think it is?’
‘Seems like it.’
After meeting each other’s gazes, the two exchanged opinions without a word.
Then they nodded and came to the same conclusion.
‘He’s serious.’
They already knew that Seo-jun was the sort of person who would do something like that, so they added no further comments.
If someone you thought was normal suddenly did something unexpected, you would be bewildered. But if you had never expected anything from them in the first place, there was no such thing as betrayal.
They had been viewers who watched every single history book released so far, and this one was no different.
True to their status as survival professionals, they remained calm.
Finally, Producer Oliver, who had looked into Seo-jun in detail, realized something.
‘Seo-jun-nim has made unexpected moves during the meetings so far, but something unpredictable came out right from the start. I shouldn’t even try to predict him. I must keep that in mind.’
A person like him was not someone one should try to understand or predict in the first place.
His opponent was a gamer who had risen to the highest position even in a field containing the greatest talents in the world.
He wasn’t merely in the top 0.1 percent of his field.
He possessed one-in-seven-billion talent.
There was no way such a person’s thought process could be normal.
To say someone was normal was, in other words, to say they were ordinary.
Just give up on thinking!
Putting that aside.
‘How am I supposed to clean this up?’
* * *
Fortunately, the Seo-jun Oliver saw today was not an especially eccentric person.
He cleaned up the situation himself.
“Yes. Bear-nim and Ryan-nim can take machetes. I don’t mind. It’s just that a longsword is genuinely more comfortable for me. I’d just like it if the longsword were very sturdy.”
“Of course. We’ll prepare a sturdy one for you. An extremely sturdy one.”
Though not too heavy.
The equipment was decided without incident.
Baek Do-yul still looked as though he hadn’t fully accepted something, but having heard whatever it was he had heard earlier, he was doing his best to hide it and pretend nothing was wrong.
Oliver thought he would have to check the cameras to find out why, while Seo-jun nodded in satisfaction.
“Now, the advantages don’t actually end there, you know?”
“Oh, is that so?”
“Yes. The streamer team will be able to reach the island a day earlier. Bear and Ryan will be filming with cameras mounted on their heads, whereas you’ll have a cameraman, so you won’t have to worry about filming.”
Entering the spot a day earlier was obviously a good thing.
And even Seo-jun thought not having to worry about filming was definitely an advantage.
‘I don’t like it.’
Seo-jun was confident he could win even if they started under the same conditions.
It wasn’t because he was worried people might say he had won only because of the advantages.
He was simply confident that he could win.
But.
‘I can’t stand unnecessary trouble.’
He felt that he absolutely had to accept the camera advantage.
The other advantage was reaching the island a day earlier.
When he glanced to the side, he saw Baek Do-yul pretending to be completely unaffected no matter what happened, while remaining constantly alert to the possibility that Seo-jun might cause another incident.
And Seo-jun thought about it.
‘He could become a tremendous burden on a deserted island.’
If so, wouldn’t the two advantages sufficiently cancel each other out?
“All right.”
“You don’t have much to say about this one, do you?”
Ryan asked with a grin and wide-open eyes.
He was a madman with clear eyes. The top of his head was clear, too.
“Yes.”
“All right. Fortunately, we’ll still have grounds to receive an advantage when we move on to the game. Hahaha!”
That was true as well.
“All right. Please keep this much in mind for now. Next, I’ll explain the schedule for the safety training……”
After listening to the explanation that continued for thirty minutes, the discussion moved on to the game.
* * *
After the meeting ended, Seo-jun called Baek Do-yul aside.
Baek Do-yul readily accepted and invited Seo-jun to his lobby.
Baek Do-yul’s lobby was simply a large room with nothing particularly unusual about it……
There was. A lot, in fact.
To begin with, a banner bearing words such as “Defeat Shinhyeon” hung on the wall, with a picture of the moment Baek Do-yul had won displayed above it.
And then.
Seo-jun was kicked out the moment he entered.
It was really fast.
There was no need to discuss why he hadn’t noticed before sending the invitation. Humans were simply like that.
However.
‘Was there one in there for me, too?’
Seo-jun had a habit of quickly taking stock of any space he entered for the first time.
That habit, which had always been helpful, worked against him in moments like this.
Baek Do-yul’s reaction speed had also been fast, but Seo-jun’s speed at taking in his surroundings had been even faster.
[Baek Do-yul: Seo-jun-nim, haha. Please invite me.]
Let’s pretend he hadn’t noticed.
Some things simply had to be let slide.
Without saying anything in particular, Seo-jun invited Baek Do-yul to his lobby.
“……”
“……”
“……”
“……”
“You saw it, right?”
So he was the one who spoke first in the end.
“Yes.”
“……”
Then why had he said anything?
“Let’s move on.”
“Thank you…… So why did you ask to see me separately?”
There were plenty of things he wanted to say.
Why had Baek Do-yul appeared on such a dangerous program, despite being so thorough?
Had he followed Seo-jun after learning that Seo-jun would be appearing?
Was there something he wanted to say?
‘And why did he make that room like that…… Ah, let’s skip this one.’
And so on.
Of course, all those things were secondary.
What mattered most to Seo-jun at present was the fact that Baek Do-yul was his teammate.
And Seo-jun had one thing he wanted from his teammates.
“I was going to suggest that we work out together.”
To obey orders appropriately and follow them for the time being, even if they seemed strange by one’s own standards.
What was necessary for that was establishing discipline.
Yes, that was it.
He had long since abandoned the barbaric notion that one should simply beat someone up, like in the romantic days of the martial world.
So he would establish discipline.
“Oh! Sounds good! Let’s do it!”
The next day, Baek Do-yul found himself standing in front of that famous gym.
“Oh? Look over there! That’s Baek Do-yul.”
“That gentleman has moved on to Baek Do-yul now……”
“Hey, hey, keep your voice down. The master of the gym can hear you from anywhere.”
“True. If we say something useless and our prey gets away……”
Two sturdily built men, sweating profusely as they stood and worked their triceps, chatted in moderate voices.
Their words were not drowned out by the sound of the machines and reached Baek Do-yul’s ears.
The master of the gym?
‘Are they talking about Jin Seo-jun? No, that can’t be. I heard the owner of this building also runs the gym. It can’t be Jin Seo-jun.’
Baek Do-yul soon lost interest.
No matter where he went, people making one comment or another had become such an ordinary occurrence that if he paid attention to every single one, he would be unable to live any kind of life.
“You’re here?”
Seo-jun, dressed in the clothes provided by the gym, welcomed Baek Do-yul.
An early-morning workout with a rival they would be cooperating with for a little while.
Excited, Baek Do-yul thought to himself.
‘It’s a contest.’
He had come to assess Seo-jun, though he would not say it outright.
He wanted to determine what he could beat Seo-jun at immediately, identify his weaknesses, and gauge the extent of the difference between them, if any existed.
‘Though there’s almost no chance I’ll lose.’
Seo-jun’s technique might be outstanding, but Baek Do-yul had been working out for over ten years. He had long since surpassed the level of an ordinary person.
“Let’s start right away. I’ll go change.”
Afterward, when Baek Do-yul came out of the changing room, he saw Seo-jun warming up on a treadmill.
‘Starting with the treadmill? Good.’
He was confident in strength training, but he was equally confident in his stamina.
No matter what one did, stamina was necessary to rise high, and he was a man who had reached the very top through effort.
“Stretch first, then warm up a little, Professional Baek Do-yul.”
“Yes.”
Judging that it would be best to establish the upper hand in advance, Baek Do-yul stretched, stepped onto the machine, walked slowly for a moment, and gradually increased his speed.
Seo-jun increased his speed as well.
The silent battle of wills between two men had begun.
‘Haha.’
Thirteen kilometers per hour.
It was not extremely fast, but it was a speed that would be difficult for an ordinary person to maintain for more than a few minutes.
Because it was running.
When Baek Do-yul ran normally, he would alternate between running fast, walking briefly to rest, and running again.
But now that a battle of pride had begun, he ran at full speed from the start.
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
Having done this every day, Baek Do-yul began running without much difficulty and spoke to Seo-jun.
“Do you work out here every day?”
“No. I only come here occasionally, whenever I feel like it.”
“When you say whenever you feel like it?”
“You know, when I’m just bored.”
“Ah……”
Did exercising relieve boredom?
It absolutely did not.
He couldn’t understand it, but decided that it was possible and pressed for more information.
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
And after two minutes had passed—
“Now, let’s properly warm up.”
Seo-jun increased his speed.
From the same thirteen kilometers per hour to twenty.
Baek Do-yul snorted inwardly and did not adjust his speed.
To win the real battle of wills, he had to maintain that state continuously. If he ran a little, got tired, and backed down, then Seo-jun would be the one who became the wise man and the winner, without even having the nerve to put on a show of bravado.
It was childish thinking, but that was how the world of men worked.
They needlessly kept an eye on each other, showed off their pride, and the loser would whimper and retreat.
Friends engaged in fiery competition.
And then.
Ten minutes passed.
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
‘Huh? What?’
Another five minutes passed.
“Huh? Huh?”
His opponent had not faltered in the slightest, while Baek Do-yul’s breathing had already grown extremely ragged.
Seo-jun gave him a brief once-over and said,
“I’m getting tired, so I’ll stop here.”
Even though he looked nothing of the sort.
In any case, was this a victory?
“Then our bodies are warmed up a little, so let’s go straight to the Stairway to Heaven next. Unless……”
“Yes.”
“Are you tired?”
At that moment, Baek Do-yul instinctively realized.
Something had gone terribly wrong.