The One Who Refused to Fall

Crackle—

"Yeah. Let's fight."

"Puhah."

Jeong Byeong-gu.

Dragging his companion backward, the low-level Beomho Development employee and thug burst out laughing at Sunwoo's words.

It was so absurd he couldn't hold it in.

Kim Seonwoo.

Jeong Byeong-gu knew very well who the bastard was.

There were what people commonly called the three primary stats, the standard measures that represented a hunter's level.

Physical.

Mana.

Skill.

You could break them down endlessly if you wanted, but those were the three broad categories people generally used.

Those were the three primary stats Kim Seonwoo had been measured at when he graduated.

Physical, F-rank.

He hadn't managed to cross the wall of the "ordinary human."

Mana, F-rank.

He possessed mana, but since he couldn't use it, he had no way to rise to the next grade.

Skill, E-rank.

That, at least, had been E-rank, which was the only reason he'd been allowed to receive a diploma.

The problem was that even if his skill was E-rank, his body was still that of an ordinary person, so he couldn't properly make use of it in the first place.

Which meant, in truth, skill should've been graded F-rank too.

But by that point, if the Academy produced a washout, it would reflect badly on them. So they had decided, Fine, let's just give him an E, and that was how Sunwoo had managed to graduate.

And now, not even a full year had passed since then.

The fact that someone had enough pull to leak classified information out of Seoul Hunter Academy was only the second issue.

"Ha. This fearless little shit."

Wooooooong...

The first issue—and the only one that mattered right now—was that Maengho hyung was standing directly in front of the idiot spouting nonsense.

Lee Maeng-ho.

The very embodiment of merciless violence.

Even among the executives, he was the fist that rampaged on the front lines.

A D-rank awakened, on a completely different level from bottom-feeders like Jeong Byeong-gu.

People didn't divide awakened ranks for no reason.

Ranks were divided because, quite literally, the level was different.

And this was a gap of two whole tiers.

If mana supported it, the body of a D-rank hunter could tear apart wild beasts barehanded.

That was why Jeong Byeong-gu had been certain that bastard—who looked like he was using some strange skill—would be smashed to pieces in a single blow from Maengho hyung's tiger-like punch.

But then—

Thud!

"...Huh?"

Lee Maeng-ho, whose fist had definitely seemed to connect with Sunwoo, staggered instead.

Jeong Byeong-gu's jaw dropped, his face going blank with stupidity.

A body reset through Restart.

All five senses felt dim, as if they had receded into the distance, and his body refused to move as he wished, like he was trapped in a nightmare.

Whoosh!

It was an awful condition in which to stand before the fist of an enemy absurdly stronger than him.

One month.

No—even a week.

Hell, even just three days.

If he'd had that much time, the situation would have been completely different.

It's fine.

But Sunwoo did not complain.

He didn't even regret it.

Even in this situation.

Rather, because it was this sort of situation, it was one the protagonist had to overcome.

And to do that, the three hundred years he had spent moving forward remained engraved whole in his soul.

Sss—

He took a deep breath along the pattern etched into him.

The breathing of Yeon-shin-geuk-gi-gong, whose every line and principle he had fully comprehended, awakened his body.

Sss—

And so, those thread-thin senses were honed.

Hup!

In that stretched-out instant, he could see Lee Maeng-ho baring his teeth as he threw his punch.

It was a swing worthy of a beast.

If he took it head-on with this body, which was only at the level of an ordinary human, his bones would shatter and blood would spray from his mouth—no exaggeration.

This was the speed and power of a D-rank physical-type awakened. It was, literally, a different dimension.

Sss—

But that was all it was.

Nothing but the speed and strength of a beast.

There was no depth to it.

Which meant even this body could deal with it.

Slip—

No.

Rather, he would strike first.

He stepped forward, almost dragging the foot.

At the same time, he reached out.

Before Lee Maeng-ho's punch had even fully extended, Sunwoo's hand touched it first.

What?

Lee Maeng-ho thought for a moment that this was some kind of joke, but with his punch already more than halfway thrown, there was no taking it back.

Is this bastard insane?

Not that there was any need to take it back in the first place.

An ordinary human was reaching out to meet him?

He'd crush the bones in that hand instantly.

Thinking that, Lee Maeng-ho clenched his fist even tighter.

But—

Slip—

His fist met Sunwoo's hand before it had fully extended, before its force had reached its peak.

The power that should have exploded at its intended point of impact was caught short, intercepted by Sunwoo's hand that had arrived first like a reef jutting up from below.

Thrown off control, it veered away.

His muscles, tensing in reflex at the unexpected situation, slammed on the brakes.

The force swept into that tension collided with the force that had been about to burst forth, and for a split second his body stiffened.

Then Sunwoo drew his upper body back at an angle, so the extended arm naturally retreated with it.

Whoosh!

The force that had slipped beyond his control shot off in the wrong direction and dragged Lee Maeng-ho's body with it.

...What?

Lee Maeng-ho couldn't believe his own arm as it sprang away like it belonged to someone else.

The instant it touched the hand of that pathetically insignificant kid, it had stopped feeling like his own—his arm had simply snapped away on its own.

Boom!

Acting on instinct, he planted one foot and tightened his grip on the fist that had been flung wide. Then he swung again.

The bones and muscles of his arm took strain from the sudden stop and reversal, but a D-rank body could ignore that easily enough.

Whooom!

But Sunwoo seemed to have predicted even that follow-up attack after the abrupt halt.

He was already leaning his upper body back, and the fist cut through empty air by a hair's breadth.

Before it could be pulled back, Sunwoo took a step backward and slipped completely out of range.

"You little...!"

Lee Maeng-ho's face twisted hideously.

He had just made a fool of himself—his arm flung aside, his punch whiffing uselessly—and rage surged through him.

"You wanna die, you son of a bitch?!"

Boom!

He charged again.

It was like a bloodthirsty beast that had torn apart people before and knew the taste of blood.

He didn't calculate. He didn't think ahead. He just surrendered to emotion and swung violence around.

Until now, that had always been enough for Lee Maeng-ho.

A body he was born with. Strength he was born with.

And then awakening on top of that.

People called physical types commonplace, but if that was enough to overwhelm your opponents, what more did you need?

He had always been able to smash apart anyone who pissed him off.

Whooom!

And yet the fist that had reduced every irritating bastard to pulp couldn't land.

At times Sunwoo seemed to drift away like a balloon pushed along by the wind raised by the punch itself.

Slip—

Thud!

And whenever it finally seemed to connect, his arm once again slipped beyond his control and sprang away on its own.

What the hell is this?!

Just looking at their builds, the fight shouldn't even exist.

They said he couldn't use mana, and sure enough, the meager mana Lee Maeng-ho sensed from him showed no sign of moving.

And yet—

"What the hell are you, you son of a bitch?!"

Whooom!

He couldn't hit him.

It wasn't that Sunwoo was moving especially fast, and it wasn't that he was knocking the attacks aside with brute force.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

But Lee Maeng-ho couldn't catch him.

He couldn't understand what kind of damned skill effect this was supposed to be.

He looked, for all the world, like a beast being toyed with by prey wavering just out of reach.

Lee Maeng-ho couldn't know that the flailing of a mere beast could never touch Sunwoo's path.

"Aaaaargh!"

Crash!

So instead, Lee Maeng-ho was driven nearly to self-destruction by the frustration piling up with nowhere to go.

No matter that his body had reached D-rank, a level said to surpass the innate limits of humanity—

he wasn't rationing his stamina, and he was even wringing out his mana recklessly.

He couldn't keep that up for long.

Compared to that, Sunwoo was minimizing even his movements.

At this rate, the overwhelmingly stronger Lee Maeng-ho would be the first to collapse.

It should have happened that way.

But then—

...He stopped.

So abruptly it almost sounded as if the air itself had gone rigid around him.

A memory flashed through his mind—words from the terrifying boss, no, the CEO, cold enough to douse even his beastlike instincts in icy water.

The fact that he remembered that day now was, without question, a stroke of luck for Lee Maeng-ho.

And the opposite of that luck ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was a fresh layer of misfortune and unfairness for Sunwoo's family.

"Ha. Right. So you've got some ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠slippery little eel-bastard kind of skill, huh?"

In an instant, the bastard regained his composure.

Then, boom, he rushed in again. At first glance it looked no different from before.

"Let's see you block this."

KWAAAANG!

"Sunwoo!"

No.

This time it was different.

A thunderous blast erupted, and Lee Maeng-ho's power had clearly penetrated Sunwoo.

Grandmother, who had been watching with clenched fists so tight her nails dug into her palms without her noticing, cried out as if screaming and pulled up her mana.

Fwoosh!

She thrust out her hand, and a ball of flame formed.

Fireball.

One of the most basic spells.

If it landed, it exploded and burned its target, delivering an effect beyond what its rank should have allowed.

Ordinarily, it was a spell that should never be cast at a human being without just cause.

If someone were injured by it, the punishment would be even harsher.

But Grandmother was about to throw it without hesitation.

She would have—

if Sunwoo had not still been standing there, unmoved.

"I'm okay."

"Sunwoo!"

"I'm really okay. So please... don't worry."

Sunwoo spoke in a calm, unwavering voice.

The broad, straight back that had not curled or caved in gave those words even more weight, helping Grandmother regain her reason.

The impact had sounded like a traffic collision.

And yet Sunwoo had not been blown away, nor had his voice changed at all.

That bizarre sight was what finally made Grandmother disperse the Fireball.

In her heart, she wanted to throw it anyway.

But—

"Please trust your grandson just this once."

With Sunwoo saying that and refusing to retreat, she couldn't bring herself to cast it.

An E-rank mage didn't have the precision to control the blast radius that finely.

"Bullshit, you son of a bitch!"

And once more, Lee Maeng-ho's fist drove into the Sunwoo who had refused to crumble and stood in front of his family.

KWAAANG!

No.

It wasn't the fist, which had slid aside again, that penetrated him.

It was Impact.

You bastard!

Impact.

The strange energy wrapped around Lee Maeng-ho's fist.

That was the skill he had acquired when he awakened.

Its effect was exactly what its name implied: it inflicted impact on whatever it touched.

Normally, shock was something created through a strike.

But with the power of his skill, Lee Maeng-ho could hammer that shock into a target by simply touching them.

And at his current level, the amount of shock he delivered was equivalent to being beaten full-force with a steel pipe.

An ordinary human would have their bones broken in a single hit.

Which meant it was fatal to Sunwoo too, whose body was still at the level of an "ordinary human."

KWAAAANG!

"Try and block this, you son of a bitch!"

Sunwoo was dodging half of them.

But the other half were grazing him.

Just like before, Lee Maeng-ho's arm was being strangely deflected, but that didn't matter.

As long as he touched him, he could wreck that cursed bastard's body.

KWAAANG!

Crk-crk—

And Lee Maeng-ho could feel it clearly with his own senses at this close range.

KWAAANG!

Krrk—!

Every time the impact pierced through, sounds that should never come from a human body were ringing out from inside Sunwoo.

Lee Maeng-ho shuddered in pleasure at the sensation of breaking a person.

This was what he liked.

He loved breaking people.

He had been given a good skill, but instead of becoming a hunter, he had joined Beomho Development for that very reason.

And today, he'd been handed a truly perfect chance.

After I kill this bastard...

His gleaming eyes flicked, for a moment, past Grandmother and landed on Eunseo's tear-streaked face behind her.

Just imagining that face thoroughly smashed apart—

Smack!

"...!"

Stars burst before his eyes.

The shock stole his vision for an instant, severing his thoughts cleanly.

While he had been distracted, Sunwoo had moved like a ghost, and his hand had whipped across Lee Maeng-ho's eye.

"Don't look at her like that."

"You little bastard!!"

There wasn't much pain.

But it was more than enough to make his rage explode.

And if that hand had actually driven into his eye with full force—

A fear he couldn't deny brushed past him.

KWAAANG!

KWAAANG!

KWAAANG!

Lee Maeng-ho did not hold back the rage now mixed with fear.

He poured it all, through Impact, straight into Sunwoo's body—the body that had closed in to strike his eye.

He came at him without restraint, intending to destroy Sunwoo completely.

Kkrrk—!

It seemed as though no one could stop Lee Maeng-ho anymore.

But—

What is this?

KWAAANG!

Krrrk—!

Why?

KWAAANG!

Kkak—!

"..."

Before long, Lee Maeng-ho stopped of his own accord.

Even though Sunwoo was still standing.

...Yes.

Sunwoo, who should have been lying in a heap long ago, his whole body shattered and ruined beyond repair, was standing there completely intact.

And that Sunwoo, standing there like that, was what finally made Lee Maeng-ho feel something beyond anger.

Fear.

Thump!

Thump!

What the hell is that?

"You... how are you still standing?"

He couldn't hold it in anymore. The question slipped out of him.

Sunwoo—

Sss—

—drew a deep breath and answered.

"Because I have to."