Chapter 77
Antony was angry.
Of course, Choi Yeonseung beat him during mock practice and performed even better during the dungeon practice. But that was just a coincidence! He recognized Choi Yeonseung’s skills, but Choi Yeonseung was still worse than him! Besides, even?if?Choi Yeonseung was slightly stronger than Antony, Antony was the Icarus clan’s ace hunter. He should be respected as a colleague.
“Choi Yeonseung! we’re from the same clan, and I’m the 1st team’s ace. Aren’t you going too far?!”
“Ah. Sorry. I’m sorry I hurt you.”
“Good. In the future, be careful with your words.”
Antony then paused. Wait...
If someone heard this, they would think he was nitpicking because he was angry!
“It isn’t that I’m hurt...!”
“In any case, Antony. I want to do this the old way.”
“What?”
“I want to do this the old way. No matter how efficient it is when the Icarus clan members act separately, there have to be a few hunters who will follow my method.”
“So you want to find a hunter willing to give up their free time on a holiday to work with you even if they’re not sure whether they’ll be raiding with you or not? Choi Yeonseung. Where would you be able to find such hunters in the clan?” Antony asked, sounding dumbfounded.
Hunters were basically selfish. Who would be stupid enough to give up their time and practice for such vague reasons?
“... Then why are you here?”
“Gasp?!”
Antony only realized it when Choi Yeonseung pointed it out. Was that it?!
“I-I just... I wanted to help you out of great generosity...”
“Yes. Maybe other hunters can do the same.”
Speechless, Antony altered what he just said.
“That’s just me. The others will never...”
“Choi Yeonseung, you came?”
“......”
There was a bang as the door to the training ground opened. A slender Latina beauty walked inside. It was Elisabeth Gutierrez.
“I heard the news and came to help. Now, thank?me quickly,” Elisabeth told Choi Yeonseung and clapped her hands. Choi Yeonseung pushed her during the dungeon raid, but she had seniority in the UHC. She wasn’t ranked 19th for nothing.
“Uh? Why is that over there?”
Elisabeth called Antony ‘that’! She was obviously a good person since she didn’t call him ‘that bastard.’
“He’s here to help me.”
“What?! Really?!”
Elisabeth was surprised. Antony of all people? Really?
“He’s lying, isn’t he?”
“What nonsense are you saying?!” Antony shouted angrily. He came here to help in good faith only to hear such insults from Elisabeth!
“Be careful, Choi Yeonseung. I don’t participate in the UHC, but Gutierrez does. Think carefully about what that means.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Bah. How do I know you aren’t playing tricks to keep Choi Yeonseung in check? UHC players are dark-hearted, aren’t they? I wouldn’t be surprised if Gutierrez did something like that.”
“... Do you mean I’ll provide detrimental help to Choi Yeonseung so he can’t get stronger?”
Antony ignored her and didn’t answer.
Elisabeth responded immediately.
“... You bastard! I’ll beat you up!”
“Bah. You’re only angry because I hit the nail on the head.”
“Come at me! I’m going to split your head apart!”
Elisabeth was angry enough to pull out her weapon.
“I don’t mind if you do that, but why don’t you take your fight outside? You’re disturbing me.” Choi Yeonseung frowned.
“I’m here to help. What’s wrong with your attitude? I’m here to teach you how to deal with that Maximilian bastard.”
“Bah. Gutierrez is a close-range damage dealer anyway. I’m better suited to teach you. I can show you Maximilian’s fighting style.”
“T-This jerk... I’ve won against Maximilian before. You’ve never fought him!”
Choi Yeonseung waved his hand as the two of them continued to bicker. “I don’t care about what you can offer. I plan to train alone before the match. Thank you for coming to help, but please leave me alone.”
“What is that doing here, then?” Elisabeth asked while pointing at Antony.
“I just let him be since he said he’d watch from the sidelines.”
“When did I...!”
Flustered, Antony tried to shut up Choi Yeonseung but was too late. Elisabeth burst out laughing.
“Pfft...! You wanted to help but were rejected?”
“S-Shut up! You were rejected as well!”
“Why are you still here even after getting rejected? Just leave already!”
“You go!”
Choi Yeonseung tuned out the ugly conversation between Elisabeth and Antony, turning it into background noises, and focused. He could win against Maximillian even if he fought with his eyes closed and with only an arm and a leg. A battle between a mortal and a constellation would have obvious results in the first place.
However, Choi Yeonseung didn’t let his guard down at all. It wasn’t because his power was greatly limited in the Otherworld. Choi Yeonseung wouldn’t have let his guard down even if he wasn’t restricted. He did his best in every fight! Nevertheless, he didn’t require Antony or Elisabeth’s help. After all, Choi Yeonseung was making an enemy for himself.
“?”
“? ?”
The two bickering people turned their heads. An intense energy was coming from Choi Yeonseung released intense energy like a dungeon monster would. The difference was that his was much sharper and more refined!
Gulp.
Staring at Choi Yeonseung, Elisabeth involuntarily gulped. She felt an eerie blade-like feeling even though he wasn’t doing anything except standing with his eyes closed. It felt like she would be cut the moment she reached out her hand!
“Um... what are you doing?”
“I’m imagining it.”
He couldn’t always find monsters to fight while wandering the Abyss. In actuality, he had spent more time training alone. At first, Choi Yeonseung simply linked movements while punching, but his training gradually changed. Why didn’t he do this move one second faster? No, what if he made it a bit heavier? If he made it stronger...
He was only executing the Origin of the Celestial Divine Arts’ simplest movements, but honing it for over 10,000 years made them more sophisticated and deeper. Origin of the Celestial Divine Arts had now become an S-rank skill! Even if another person learned the Origin of the Celestial Divine Arts, it wouldn’t be as powerful as Choi Yeonseung’s.
The next step in his training was to create a virtual enemy. It began with the energy that Choi Yeonseung had been exuding condensing into one point. His arms and legs left afterimages as he moved them!
The two hunters couldn’t take their eyes off the sight of Origin of the Celestial Fist and Origin of the Celestial Kick. It was powerful, but there was also beauty in Choi Yeonseung’s training. Beauty that came from extremely trained movements!
Unlike Antony, Elisabeth was a close-range damage dealer, so she could see how high Choi Yeonseung’s level of training was. She wouldn’t even be able to undergo his training with her fighting skills!
[You have succeeded in materializing and showing your imagination to the people around you rather than simply imagining it!]
[Your power as a constellation has grown.]
[You have realized the principle of mental training. The A-rank skill ‘Mental Training’ has been acquired.]
This training wasn’t very difficult when he was just imagining it, but it required a different level of effort to create and show something that otherwise didn’t exist for others.
“Is... Is that illusion magic?”
“Isn’t that too realistic to be illusion magic?”
The two hunters saw a demon with wings, horns, and a flaming whip. It looked like a monster straight out of the Abyss.
‘Is it an A-grade monster?’
‘A-grade isn’t something we can kill yet...’
Neither of them was prepared to fight an A-grade monster.
A dull sound soon reverberated. The demon had hit Choi Yeonseung, causing him to turn around. They thought they misheard a moment, but Choi Yeonseung’s clothes were torn.
“? ? ”
“Choi Yeonseung! What are you doing?! Why are your clothes torn?”
Choi Yeonseung didn’t answer. When the demon tried whipping him, he let the attack flow and bounce off him.
This wasn’t ordinary illusion magic. It had a terrifying sense of realism that could hurt those who participated!
How many hours passed? Choi Yeonseung finally stopped and took a deep breath. The demon in front of him disappeared as well. His top had been completely ragged, but his body was fine. Despite the terrible attacks, he simply let them flow and bounce off him, keeping him unscathed.
“Oh my god, this type of training... Gutierrez. Why are you so quiet?”
Speechless, Elisabeth approached with a bewitched expression and nudged Choi Yeonseung’s upper body.
“... What are you doing?”
“I-Isn’t this amazing?”
***
The day of the match quickly arrived.
“Did you have a proper breakfast?” Aine had been asking Choi Yeonseung multiple questions seemingly out of worry. “You can’t skip meals just because you can’t digest them. Even if you go to the Otherworld, your current condition will be maintained.”
“I ate.”
“What did you eat? Greasy things aren’t good. If you feel uncomfortable, it is better to drink vegetable juice. Right. You like Korean food but something like porridge isn’t bad. It can be topped with kimchi or something.”
“Just because I’m Korean doesn’t mean I like kimchi porridge.”
“So you don’t like kimchi porridge?”
“... I do.”
Aine looked at Choi Yeonseung as if he was pathetic. If he liked it, then why did he have to argue?
“You’ll have bodyguards, so when you go inside the stadium, ignore the boos.”
“I don’t need guards.”
“I know. Bodyguards are assigned to hunters to protect the general public, not the hunters themselves. Hunters can’t just come out and beat them.”
“......”
Aine spoke like she had experienced it many times already. Choi Yeonseung soon came to a realization.
“Ah...!
How many hunters were there who couldn’t control their temper and ran amok?
“The bodyguards will stop you, so don’t worry and go inside.”
Once the cars of Aine’s gang—Aine’s company came to a halt one after another and opened the door, loud shouts erupted. A stadium with tens of thousands of people! Their uproar made Choi Yeonseung feel how popular the UHC was.
‘This is great.’
Choi Yeonseung realized the popularity of this sport. In the past, hunters used to be warriors that fought against the threat of monsters...
‘Of course, some were popular back then, but...’
It felt like the job of a hunter had changed from a warrior to a celebrity. However, there was something that Choi Yeonseung didn’t know yet. It was that what he was tasting right now was just a fraction of the popularity! The SSL League was watched by more people than the UHC. Its raid broadcasts had a life-threatening fierceness...
Numerous hunter-related content was at the top of the rankings. Sports, music, entertainment, and everything else that used to exist in the past had hunters.
-Get lost! Fraud!
-Why are they still letting this guy fight? He used the C-grade League as a shortcut to rank up!
-Do you think that stepping foot into the B-grade League is everything? A dirty scammer like you should just get out of the league!
-Boooo.
Normal hunters wouldn’t be able to bear the boos coming from thousands of people at once. However, Choi Yeonseung didn’t care. He had been cursed by tens of thousands of demons!
‘He’s calm.’
Choi Yeonseung ignored the people, which made them even angrier.
-Y-Y-You’ll pay for that soon enough!
-Fight on, Choi Yeonseung!
-Crush that Maximilian bastard!
-That elf bastard is really annoying!
“?”
Surprisingly, some people were cheering for Choi Yeonseung.
... They seemed to really hate Maximilian!
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