Chapter 71
Chapter 71
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: Reminiscence
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The dark red club in my hand writhed like it was alive and breathing. The battle lust and fervor pouring out from hundreds of Azure Dragon Squad members scorched the training grounds with heat.
"Waaaaah!"
The first to charge was a hot-blooded young squad member. He hoisted his wooden sword high above his head, swinging it down with every ounce of strength he had. His eyes blazed with the tiger-like ambition to test the vice squad leader. Foolish.
Instead of tracking the path of his wooden sword, I looked into his eyes. I watched the faint twitch in his shoulder muscles. And in the next instant, I saw exactly where his head would land.
I lightly swung the bat formed of Demonic Energy.
Thunk-!
A dull yet clear sound echoed across the training grounds. The squad member, struck on the side of the head by my bat, didn't even scream as he slammed into the ground. Just hard enough not to kill him. Just enough to knock him out. I hit him with perfect control.
There were hundreds of opponents. Numbers alone put me at a disadvantage. But that was it.
I didn't bother attacking first. I simply felled them one by one as they entered my territory. When a burly giant charged swinging a heavy mace, I uppercut his jaw, sending him spinning three times in the air before he crashed down. I hooked the legs of two guys coming at me together, then lightly dropped my bat onto their stacked backs. With a thud, those two went quiet too.
Only after a dozen or so lay unconscious, sprawled across the ground, did the momentum of the furiously charging squad members finally break. They stopped daring to approach me recklessly, instead circling at a distance, waiting for an opening.
They'd realized I wasn't taking the initiative.
But what were they going to do about it? Shoot arrows or something?
That was the moment it happened.
Whoosh-!
A dagger sliced through the air with a sharp whistle, flying straight at my face. Someone had hurled it in a panic. I just tilted my head slightly to dodge. The dagger embedded itself in the ground behind me.
But that was just the beginning.
"Throw 'em!"
At the shout, the guys keeping their distance all lobbed their weapons at once. Spears, swords, blades—even the round training stones. Dozens of projectiles rained down from every direction like a storm.
It didn't matter if they came from blind spots. This entire space was within my qi sense from the start—my domain.
Ryōiki Tenkai.
I slipped through the barrage with light steps. It felt just like being the protagonist in one of those bullet hell games from my childhood. A step to the left, half a step right. A slight bend at the waist, or a quick hop into the air. For anything on a tricky trajectory, I casually swatted it away with my club.
Ting! Clang! Ka-clang!
The real problem came next. The weapons I dodged or deflected flew straight toward the guys on the opposite side. Of course they did—they were surrounding me in a circle.
"Gahk!"
"Ugh! My leg!"
Since I hadn't attacked them directly, there was no holding back to be "fair." A spear I'd dodged pierced one squad member's shoulder. A sword I'd batted away buried deep into another's thigh. In an instant, the training grounds turned into a scene from hell.
That'll do.
I'd planned to handle them with just physical enhancement alone, but oh well.
I planted myself firmly in the middle of the onslaught and stamped the ground hard with my right foot, infusing it with intense suggestion.
Quaking Foot.
Rooooar-!
There was no physical shockwave. But the invisible mental pulse spreading from beneath my foot engulfed the entire training grounds.
"Ugh…!"
"Guh…!"
In that moment, all hundreds of Azure Dragon Squad members groaned in unison and collapsed to the ground. As if an enormous invisible hand were crushing their shoulders. They were plastered to the dirt, unable to so much as twitch.
"Wh-what the…!"
"My body's got no strength… My internal energy…!"
They struggled to get up, but their bodies wouldn't obey. Even trying to draw up qi from their dantians, it scattered like mist. The sensation was all too familiar to them.
Internal Energy Scattering Poison.
Of course, it wasn't the real poison. It merely vividly recalled the agony and helplessness of the poison in the minds of these men, who had undergone basic training against it. Their own brains, their own bodies, were blocking them from gathering qi.
"……We surrender."
A desperate declaration of defeat rang out.
"Me too… I surrender."
"Vice Squad Leader… we've lost."
Soon, voices admitting defeat echoed from all over the training grounds. I gazed down at them silently for a moment, then snapped my fingers lightly to release the suggestion.
"Hah—! Hah—!"
As the crushing pressure vanished, the squad members gasped for breath in unison.
"Thank you for the lesson!"
"Thanks, Vice Squad Leader!"
I turned away from the scattered thanks and headed back to where Bang Soso, Haeun, and the rabbit waited. The Demonic Energy club in my hand had already dissipated like smoke.
As I approached, Bang Soso's eyes sparkled, and she ran up to me.
"Senior Brother! That was so cool just now! They all flew through the air! They all went down!"
Haeun, standing beside her, tried to hide her flushed face with a cough and a mumble.
"Not… bad, I guess."
Cleaning up after the mess I'd made was the physicians' job. They strode into the training grounds like it was routine, checking on the sprawled Azure Dragon Squad members here and there.
"This one's arm is dislocated."
"Here, looks like cracked ribs."
"This guy's just out cold. Leave him."
As I watched, I spread my qi sense thin once more. This time, the suggestion focused purely on "recovery." My mental energy sprinkled across the training grounds like rain, and the squad members' pained groans eased into steadier breaths. Bones aligned under the physicians' hands, wounds treated with herbs—they all healed visibly faster.
That's when the Senior Physician, standing beside me with arms crossed and watching the grounds, tossed out a comment.
"You hurting anywhere?"
I turned to him, wondering if I'd misheard.
"Pardon? I'm not injured."
The Senior Physician silently tapped his own head with a finger. His gruff expression didn't change, but a faint glint of mischief hid in his eyes.
"Your head, I mean."
Hm. A joke, huh. This old man had a cheeky side.
"……I think I'm fine."
He just smirked at my reply and turned his gaze back to the training grounds without another word.
Calling my head weird, eh? Truth be told, if we're talking chuunibyou, I've been deep in it since I was seven. Well, from an outsider's view, me beating them down and then healing them probably looks pretty bizarre.
Come to think of it, it had been ages since anyone called my head messed up. Before I fell into this world—this murim world. Back in the modern era. When I was just a little kid.
They said I'd had something like mania since then, though it was milder these days. I'd spout random nonsense out of nowhere or zone out like I was in another world. Eventually, one of Mom's friends couldn't take it anymore and suggested taking me to a hospital. That's how I ended up in a mental ward for the first time in my life.
The doctor was a woman. I don't remember her face anymore, but she seemed kind. Instead of stiff questions, she asked about what I liked, drew pictures with me, cracked silly jokes.
After a few more visits, somehow I'd been labeled a severe case and stuck in the closed ward. But it wasn't bad. That sterile place ringed by blank white walls felt like a cozy sanctuary to me.
Mostly thanks to that doctor. She'd sneak in comics or handheld game consoles, saying, "This is against the rules, but just for you." Stuff my parents never allowed at home. I'd lose myself in the worlds inside those little boxes, and those memories stayed pretty fond.
I lived in that ward for quite a while. Around when I turned fifteen, maybe.
One day during a session, she smiled at me softly like always and asked,
"Mu-yeong, do you like Teacher?"
Something in my head snapped.
I recalled something another patient in the ward had said once. How psych patients fall easily for doctors who understand them—some kind of transference effect.
I took her question as a test, or some sly manipulation.
So instead of answering, I swung my fist.
"Don't talk bullshit."
Thwack-!
A soft, squishy impact. Her scream as her glasses shattered. The crunch of her nasal bone transmitted vividly through my knuckles. I still haven't forgotten that feel.
……Of course, looking back now, her "like" probably meant platonic fondness or a bond, not romantic love. Thinking that way, I feel just a tiny, tiny bit sorry.
"……My lord. Vice Squad Leader."
A stranger's voice pulled me from the depths of reminiscence.
I slowly opened my eyes. A man stood before me now. Deep green uniform with a Spirit Beast Black Tortoise embroidered on his chest. A Black Tortoise Squad member. He clasped his hands in a respectful fist salute and said,
"The Lord Leader summons the Vice Squad Leader."