Chapter 64: The Life of a High-Ranker (2)
Yi-An logged off Elder Lord. He had departed from the game’s world, but he still had lingering feelings. Even the corners of his eyes were moist.
“It’s nothing,” muttered Yi-An.
He clenched his fist as he assessed his body. His grip overflowed with strength, and he had firm muscles all over his body and especially strong legs. Yi-An’s love mode was locked in the game, but his actual body was that of a real man who didn’t have physical defects.
However, he was gripped with anxiety due to Elder Lord’s high level of realism. Did he suffer from a limp dick? He was too tired to tell.
Nevertheless, Yi-An needed to quickly assure himself that his nether region was functioning just fine, so he went out into the living room and turned on the television. He continued to change the channel until he settled on a live stream of a runway show featuring the lingerie brand Crystal Secret. Beautiful women dressed in newly released lingerie walked back and forth on the runway.
“...”
‘Wow.’
Yi-An was indeed a man. He was a real man who didn’t need to worry about his bullet; he should be worried about his missile instead.
Right when Yi-An let out a sigh of relief, the door to his sister’s room opened. Yi-An flinched as he made eye contact with Yi-Yoo, who exited her room looking like she was still half asleep.
“...?” Yi-Yoo looked at the television.
Displayed on the television screen was a woman in lingerie, who winked at the end of the runway and showed off her slender back while twirling elegantly. Then, when she walked in behind the stage, another woman confidently walked out in a different set of lingerie with an innovative design.
“...” Yi-Yoo looked at Yi-An.
Yi-An tried to make an excuse for himself. “Ah, this is...”
“...” Yi-Yoo smiled without warmth. “I understand, oppa.”
“No...”
“I have to get some more sleep. Ah, I’m so sleepy, sleepy,” muttered Yi-Yoo soullessly as she returned to her room and closed the door.
Yi-An stood there dumbfounded. “It’s not what you think...”
***
Yi-An was meeting up with his mentor for the first time in a long time. This mentor of his wasn’t Lenox or Hoyt but the human Jung Yi-An’s mentor—Baek Han-Ho.
They were currently at one of the chain cafés in the area where Baek Han-Ho lived. The café had a nice interior and friendly staff. Yi-An, who had been inspecting the café, shifted his attention to Baek Han-Ho, whose business seemed to be faring well. The things Baek Han-Ho wore and carried grew more expensive each time they met.
As if he was showing off his wealth, Baek Han-Ho tapped on his huge newly released tablet.
“Huh, this guy is pretty good at Go,” said Baek Han-Ho.
He was playing Go on his new tablet. Although the situation had initially been in his favor, it had now changed as the opponent’s stones nibbled away at his territory from various places. The territories he had planned to secure on the Go board were now surrounded.
“You were too greedy,” said Yi-An.
“Huh, this little shit. Ah, whatever,” muttered Baek Han-Ho.
He furrowed his eyebrows and turned off the screen of his tablet. Yi-An looked at Baek Han-Ho critically. If Baek Han-Ho just quit playing the game like this, there wouldn’t be a clear outcome, and the opponent would waste time waiting for him and then automatically win.
“This guy, he should play properly. He’s just infiltrating like a coward.”
“...”
‘Who was the real coward?’ wondered Yi-An inwardly.
It seemed that Yi-An’s thoughts were showing on his face, as Baek Han-Ho asked, “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Yi-An changed the subject, “...How is the gym doing?”
“As you know, taking care of your health is trending these days. Rather than settling on traditional martial arts, I teach a variety of sports at my gym. I apply scientific methods to body-building.”
Baek Han-Ho ran a gym. He didn’t teach the art of murder, which was a skill both he and Yi-An had. Instead, the gym taught basic self-defense skills, cross-fit, and martial arts.
“Come by sometime. I want to teach more students,” suggested Baek Han-Ho.
“I’m busy,” replied Yi-An.
“I heard you don’t even show up at your own café these days.”
Yi-An grinned. “I’ve been busy with other matters.”
“Ohhh. By other matters, do you mean Elder Lord?” asked Baek Han-Ho.
“Yes.”
“Bet you aren’t much in Elder Lord. If I say so myself, I’m...”
Yi-An interrupted him, “What do you mean? Even if I say so myself, I’m completely...”
Their eyes met.
“Hahaha.”
“Haha.”
“You’ve grown up a lot, Yi-An.”
“I’ve always been taller than you.”
“You need a good scolding.”
“Do you even have the energy to? At your age?” teased Yi-An.
“You little...”
Their eyes met again, and they grinned at the same time. Then they rose from their seats. The two men left the café and headed to Baek Han-Ho’s gym.
The name of the gym was Baek Han-Ho Gym, and the gym occupied two floors of the building it was located in. When the two men entered the gym, the members inside greeted Baek Han-Ho but flinched at the sight of his fierce gaze.
Meanwhile, Yi-An noticed that the gym had modern facilities and a wide interior. There was a variety of free-weight equipment and sandbags, and at the center of the gym was a lit sparring ring.
Yi-An smiled. “A sparring ring?”
“Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do to make a living. Let’s do it in the ring,” said Baek Han-Ho.
“Whew, you’ve become a true athlete,” remarked Yi-An.
As Yi-An and Baek Han-Ho headed to the ring, the gym members appeared to be interested in what was going to happen next. Although Baek Han-Ho was now a middle-aged man, there wasn’t anyone at the gym who could defeat him. Even former athletes who had trained professionally were unable to defeat him. To them, Baek Han-Ho was like a mysterious martial arts expert from a wuxia novel, so it piqued their interest to see him bring an unfamiliar man to the sparring ring.
The two men seemed to know each other well. The man Baek Han-Ho brought in had a slender physique, but not much else stood out about him. His calm demeanor and face made him seem weak though.
“Master Baek, here...” One of the gym members brought gloves and headgear to Baek Han-Ho.
Baek Han-Ho shook his head and refused, “No.”
“Huh?”
‘Is he planning to fight with his bare hands?’ wondered the gym member inwardly.
Yi-An and Baek Han-Ho took off their shoes, but they didn’t change their attire. Yi-An was still dressed in his jeans and t-shirt, and Baek Han-Ho still wore his modernized hanbok. [1]. He didn’t even take off his wristwatch. Whatever they wore was considered their most natural attire as they were masters of the art of murder, who fought to kill rather than subdue. Because their techniques were meant for real-life situations, they were indifferent to their attire, weight class, and equipment. The gym members who were unaware of this could not understand why the two men climbed into the ring without any preparations.
“Are they fighting with bare hands?”
“Are they strangers who got into an argument on the streets?”
“Is this a brawl?”
The members excitedly whispered among themselves as they observed the two men’s fierce gazes. After all, people often enjoyed watching others fight more than anything else in the world. The gym stirred with excitement for the brawl that was about to take place, but once the brawl began, they were disappointed.
Neither Yi-An nor Han-Ho budged or took the initiative to strike. What they did was called method sparring. With method sparring, opponents didn’t make physical contact with each other. Yi-An and Han-Ho refused to make contact as they exchanged the slightest movements.
Yet, even those movements were bizarre. They put both their hands forward and guarded against each other’s movements, but each time one was about to reach the other person, they both retreated. It was a strange battle where the viewer couldn’t discern who was winning or losing.
“Why isn’t Master Baek grabbing him?” asked a gym member.
Baek Han-Ho’s jiu-jitsu style relied on counter-utilizing his opponent’s strength to destroy their joints. However, each time Baek Han-Ho tried to grab the hem of Yi-An’s clothing, Yi-An fended him off with his hands, and Baek Han-Ho would then quickly retreat.
The gym members didn’t understand that this was an exchange of extreme combat techniques that could break the opponent’s finger in an instant. Their offensive and defensive techniques were not comprehensible to a wide audience because they diverged from mainstream mixed martial arts techniques. Yi-An and Baek-Ho had already exchanged attacks on their vital points several times. If this had been an actual fight, both fighters would have suffered debilitating injuries.
Yi-An grinned. If this fight had been real, his eyeballs and testicles would have burst, his fingers would have been dislocated three times, and his throat and chest would have suffered multiple hits.
On the other hand, Baek Han-Ho would have had his ear ripped apart, and he would have suffered a kick to his side. Yi-An seemed to have struck Baek Han-Ho’s testicles, but it was iffy. If this had been an actual fight, Yi-An would have stolen a takedown from him and immediately destroyed his leg joints.
Yi-An stepped forward. The two approached one another and repeated another chain of incomprehensible movements. Then, they retreated at the same time.
It was Yi-An’s loss again.
“Don’t provoke me,” said Baek Han-Ho with a smile.
Yi-An shook his head back and forth. ‘Was he still no match for Baek Han-Ho?’
Suddenly, Yi-An pretended to throw something.
“Ha!” Baek Han-Ho dodged by lowering his head.
However, Yi-An immediately followed with a kick. His toes stopped abruptly in front of Baek Han-Ho’s chin, and Baek Han-Ho felt the wind from the force of the kick blow through the hairs of his body.
“...Did you throw something?” asked Baek Han-Ho.
The art of murder assumed all situations. Even if Yi-An had thrown something, it was still valid. It would be Baek Han-Ho’s fault for not having anticipated it in advance.
Nevertheless, Yi-An didn’t have anything he could have thrown. He did have a wristwatch, but to take that off, he would have had to at least pretend to pull something off of his body.
Yi-An grinned. “I threw my respect for you.”
“...”
It had been a bluff.
With veins protruding on his forehead, Baek Han-Ho grabbed Yi-An’s foot and toppled him over.
“Ah, I surrender!” yelled Yi-An.
“Where did you learn this trick?!” scolded Baek Han-Ho.
“Wait! My ligament is about to tear! Timeout, time!”
Locking down an opponent’s legs was categorized as the most dangerous technique. There were many instances of legs breaking during practice.
Yi-An repeatedly tapped on Baek Han-Ho while begging him to stop.
“This bastard...” muttered Baek Han-Ho as he let go of Yi-An’s leg and lightly struck Yi-An’s head.
Thus, their spar ended. They calculated the hits with their special method and concluded that Baek Han-Ho was the winner.
“You are still far off,” stated Baek Han-Ho.
“Hmph.”
“They said you shouldn’t even step on your mentor’s shadow,” said Baek Han-Ho.
As the two stepped down from the ring, a member of the audience asked Baek Han-Ho, “Master Baek, what was that just now?”
Baek Han-Ho and Yi-An looked at each other and shrugged.
“We are just fooling around, so don’t mind us,” said Baek Han-Ho.
“Who is the guy you fought with? Do you know him?” asked a gym member.
“Let’s say... he’s my disciple.”
“Disciple?”
The members tilted their heads curiously. Baek Han-Ho had never called anyone his disciple before. Even when the gym members jokingly called him ‘Master,’ he would flatly reject them and say, ‘I’m the gym owner, and you are just a gym member.’ [2]
“He used to be cute, but he’s a cocky little shit now.” Baek Han-Ho wanted to say Yi-An became cocky after learning how to use guns, but he swallowed that thought.
Then, a member of the audience cracked his knuckles. He was overflowing with a competitive spirit. He had learned martial arts since he was a child and had even been a professional athlete at one point, but he just practiced it as a hobby now. Even at present, he received many offers to fight underground because of his giant stature. This man had come to genuinely admire Baek Han-Ho, as none of the logic he had learned up to this point applied to him. Age, weight class, and technique—everything about Baek Han-Ho seemed inferior to him. No one believed that a giant like him wouldn’t be able to hold a candle to the middle-aged Baek Han-Ho.
Then what about that guy who looked around the member’s age?
“Master Baek,” the man called out.
“What?”
“If your disciple is okay with it, could I please spar with him?”
Baek Han-Ho looked at him and then at Yi-An. “Hmm.”
Then he grinned and asked Yi-An, “How about it?”
“Umm...” hesitated Yi-An.
“Just follow the regular boxing rules. Give it your best shot,” urged Baek Han-Ho.
“Ah... Wait...” muttered Yi-An
The opponent bowed and yelled, “Thank you!”
Right after that, he grabbed his equipment and climbed into the ring.
Yi-An shook his head as he looked at his opponent’s huge stature.
Even though Yi-An was strong, it was difficult to overcome a drastic weight difference, especially in a full-contact combat sport with rules. Moreover, his opponent wasn’t a regular gym member and had the stance of someone who had professionally trained to strike their opponent.
“Even from a glance, he looks like a heavyweight...” said Yi-An while walking over to the ring with heavy footsteps.
The gym members helped him put on headgear and gloves before he got into the sparring ring. Yi-An bounced his body against the rope and looked at his gloved fists. He hadn’t used this type of equipment in quite a while. He could get severely injured today if he wasn’t careful.
His opponent spoke up, “I know we are in a different weight class, so I will go easy on you. Don’t worry.”
Yi-An’s lips twitched.
Although he didn’t seem that way, he was a man with great pride and competitive spirit. His opponent just told him that he would go easy on him—easy. He didn’t say this to just anyone but to him, Jung Yi-An.
“Thank you,” replied Yi-An with a solemn voice.
Baek Han-Ho, who had been watching Yi-An, said to the gym member next to him, “Hey, Chul-Won.”
“Yes, Master Baek.”
“Wet a towel with cold water, and bring it to me.”
“Huh? Yes...” Chul-Won tilted his head questioningly. ‘Why a towel?’
He didn’t understand, but he did whatever Baek Han-Ho told him to do. When he returned with the wet towel, Chul-Won finally understood why the towel was necessary.
“What?!” Chul-Won exclaimed while watching what was happening in the sparring ring.
Master Baek’s disciple was beating his opponent, who looked like a heavyweight champion, to a pulp. He was crazy fast, and he dodged all of his opponent’s punches while landing every one of his. The disciple was able to execute techniques that only seemed possible when heard about through word of mouth.
Despite his opponent’s resistance, the disciple cornered his much larger opponent and landed punches on his stomach and face. His movements were so precise that they appeared as if they had been drawn and planned.
Whenever the opponent showed an opening, Yi-An landed a direct hit.
“Ugh!” the opponent groaned.
Currently, he was crouched over as he tried to block the barrage of punches. He tried to strike back with an uppercut, but Yi-An swiftly dodged it and threw a hook at his chin.
The opponent got a concussion and fainted. The fight didn’t even last a full round.
“...”
Baek Han-Ho gestured at the gym member who had brought the wet towel. The man now understood why Baek Han-Ho had asked him to do such a thing. He stepped into the ring, woke up the collapsed opponent, and wiped his swollen face with the towel.
“Hmm...” Baek Han-Ho looked at Yi-An as he caressed his chin.
He had encouraged Yi-An to spar with this man for a reason.
“Too fast...” muttered Baek Han-Ho to himself.
He had realized it when he had method sparred with Yi-An. Yi-An was too fast.
When Yi-An had pretended to throw something and then delivered a kick near the end of their spar, Baek Han-Ho had anticipated that move. He had planned to grab Yi-An’s leg and then apply a joint lock, but Yi-An had been so fast that he couldn’t react in time.
Baek Han-Ho’s heart had thumped with excitement at that moment when Yi-An’s foot stopped right in front of his nose. He hadn’t experienced this sensation since he had reached the peak of his abilities, as his opponents no longer posed a challenge.
The spar that had just taken place proved that Yi-An had improved his agility. Baek Han-Ho had expected Yi-An to struggle a bit because of the weight difference between him and his opponent, but Yi-An’s spatial acumen and speed were beyond his expectations. If a person was able to dodge all attacks while landing a hit each time regardless of how much larger their opponent was, then the fight was like one between an adult and a child.
“This guy...” murmured Baek Han-Ho with a shrug.
1. Hanbok is traditional Korean clothing. ?
2. This is a parody of a line from a famous K-drama called “Romance.” The original line is: “I’m a teacher, and you are a student.” ?
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