Life-or-Death Duel and a Dogfight
"Among humanity's traditional pastimes are attempted murder at inns, destruction of inn property, and — since murder and property damage at inns are matters of common sense — refusing damages and criminal penalties."
"Fight! Fight!!!!!"
"Put him down!!!"
"Ki-hyahak!!! There's a fight!!!"
A peaceful inn.
A fight had broken out.
—Kwadangtang!!!
"Guhk!!!!! You son of a bitch!!!"
"How's that taste, you goddamn bastard!!!"
Two men were going at each other fist and nail. Both looked thoroughly, gloriously drunk. Vulgar curses flew back and forth without pause.
—Puh-eok!
—Puh-eok!
One man tackled the other to the floor, scrambled into a mount, and started raining down blows like a man possessed. The man underneath was not taking it lying down — he kept his guard up and, whenever a gap opened, punched back hard, hunting for a reversal.
They were both blackout drunk, barely conscious of the world, and yet both of them were still using the fundamentals of combat with surprising competence. Everyone here had learned martial arts since childhood; the body remembered what the mind had forgotten.
"Heh heh heh! Hit him with a wrestling move already!!"
"That's the mount!!! Go for the temple!!!"
"You dense bastard! What are you saving the ground-and-pound for!!!"
The rest of the customers were watching with pure delight, free advice pouring out of every mouth. There had to be a good twenty of them. Dinner had been abandoned mid-bite the moment the fight started; the whole room had flipped into spectator mode.
Then the man on the bottom landed a vicious uppercut, and the whole balance of the fight snapped the other way. Using the rebound, he heaved himself up, rolled into a reverse mount, and planted himself astride his opponent.
"Whoa!!!!! He flipped him!!!"
"Heh heh heh!!! That core strength is something else!!!"
The crowd roared. And among them, of course, was Gong Ryun.
"Hahaha!! Nice one!!! Fight!!!"
He had fully melted into the room, hollering with the rest of them. Watching a dogfight was just too much fun. Gong Ryun was loving it.
Truth be told, he had gone out that morning to take a mole-catching job, only to get turned away and sent home.
Come on — don't you know people don't work weekends? You showed up at the crack of dawn yesterday and worked straight through till sunset without a break! Go home and rest already!
Gong Ryun, who had fully expected every day to be a workday, had thus found himself with an unplanned full day off. He had been taking it easy, eating a leisurely meal — and right then, something entertaining had conveniently exploded in front of him.
—Puh-eok!!!
—Puh-eok!!!
"Man, Mr. Hamilton hits hard!!! I put my money on Hamilton!! If he loses, I'm covering the food!!!"
"You damn Oscar!!! Is that all a full-time employee of Yellow Dragon Construction can manage!!!!! Get out of that mount right now!!!!!"
Looking around, Gong Ryun recognized a fair few of the faces — and not a single person was trying to break it up. This wasn't even a real fight. Neither of them was using internal energy. This was just a "scuffle." A little fight-play born of liquor and excitement. Nobody was going to get seriously hurt. Perfectly wholesome inn culture, really.
From the chatter beside him, he gathered that the two men weren't professional fighters like mercenaries at all — just ordinary people. Miners, most likely. This planet lived and died on the mining industry.
The "scuffle" reached its conclusion soon enough.
—Puh-uh-uh-eok!!!
Hamilton, still on top, drove a ferocious headbutt straight into the man beneath him.
"Kehek."
Oscar, pinned underneath, finally blacked out.
"Waaaaaaaah!!!!!"
"It's over!!!!!!!"
"Victory for Hamilton of the White Snow Mining Team!!!!!!"
"Yeeeeeeeah!!!!!!! That was sick!!!"
"You damn Oscar worm!!!!!! How the hell did you fail to get out of the mount!!!!!"
"Heh heh heh!!! Oscar got divorced because his hips are weak!!!!!"
"No way!!!!!!!"
The customers went wild. And then…
"Still, that was a little bland."
"Right? Over in two flips. Come on."
"Eh. In my day we went until somebody's skull cracked."
The thrill drained out of the audience almost as fast as it had arrived, and the commentary began. They weren't wrong. It had been a little bland. Ordinary people's fights usually were — and these two had been mismatched enough that it ended far too cleanly.
In the end the customers smacked their lips, disappointed, and slipped back into meal mode. The inn settled once more into the ordinary clatter of conversation. A waiter calmly righted the fallen chairs and tables. Unconscious Oscar was hauled out under the arms of his friends.
Just another ordinary day in the age of galactic murim.
"I heard the Divine Physician's son botched a medical procedure."
"Apparently tourists have been pouring onto this planet lately."
"Tourism? In a dump like this? What is there to see?"
Fragments of talk drifted around the room. Gong Ryun had almost finished his meal.
And then—
—Deolkeong!
The inn door banged open, and a man burst in shouting.
"There's a fight at the inn next doorrrrrrr!!!"
A ripple of excitement ran through the customers. They had just been feeling shortchanged by that bland little scuffle.
"Heh heh heh! We already had a scuffle here! Ended bland as water!"
"No!! Not that kind of scuffle!!!"
"…! Don't tell me?"
"It's a life-or-death duel!!! Two mercenaries are going at it!!!!! And both of them are named!!!!!"
"What!!!!!!"
The whole inn erupted.
"A mercenary life-or-death duel!!!!!"
"Named fighters going head-to-head — we have to see this!!!!!"
"Grab your stuff!!! We're moving to the building next door!!!!!"
"Yeeeah!!!!!!"
"This is awesomeeeee!!!!!!"
People surged to their feet without a second thought. This was a completely different class of event from the last time — that samurai life-or-death duel that had leveled an entire inn. Those two had been far too strong. Just standing nearby could get you killed.
But unorthodox mercenaries? Their firepower would never reach building-destroying levels. You could watch from right beside them and live to tell the tale. Perfect spectator content. Peak live entertainment.
Gong Ryun settled his bill in a hurry and headed for the building next door.
It was an enormous inn. Built solid, too — thick walls, thick pillars. The structure ran from the first floor to the third in a hollow square, the center of the ground floor left completely open so that the inner terraces of the second and third floors looked down on the middle of the first. At the very center of that open floor, two armed men were staring each other down as if they meant to eat each other alive. Those would be the fighters. The tables and chairs had already been cleared from the middle of the first floor. They had prepared a stage.
People kept filing in and claiming seats on the second and third floors — the good viewing galleries. It looked for all the world like a coliseum, the crowd watching a life-or-death duel on the sand of the first floor.
They picked the perfect spot for this.
Gong Ryun approved. The rumor hadn't fully saturated the town yet; there were still a few empty seats. He claimed a good spot on the first floor at once and ordered a low-proof drink and some light snacks. The first floor was a little dangerous for ordinary civilians or the elderly — stray attacks could splash out — but for a mercenary like Gong Ryun it was no problem at all. If anything, it was a prime seat for 4D viewing up close.
"Waiter! Three plates of dumplings over here!"
"Waiter! You got lager instead of ale?"
"Third floor — the most expensive white wine you've got!"
Before long the inn was packed and roaring. The rumor had spread fast. New people kept streaming through the entrance.
"Guests! Please use the app! The waiters are swamped right now — it's faster that way!!"
"Of all the times for the kiosk to break down!!!"
Waiters and cooks dashed every which way. The innkeeper's face was glowing. He was practically vibrating at the thought of the money. From the establishment's point of view, an unexpected windfall had just dropped into their lap.
A life-or-death duel at an inn was, in any case, an unstoppable event. Far wiser for the business to stop half-heartedly trying to prevent it and just rake in the profits while it lasted.
Life-or-death duels at inns were a venerable tradition stretching all the way back to the days of Terra. Every murim narrative began at an inn, and a life-or-death duel at an inn was an indispensable element of murim storytelling — a truth proven across thousands of years of human history. Inns and life-or-death duels were an inseparable pair; the papers and theories exploring the connection between those two concepts were required reading for any historian worth the name.
An inn life-or-death duel was the shared romantic dream of every martial artist in the galaxy. And everyone who lived in this galaxy was a martial artist. It was a cultural compact no one could break.
Thus the inn life-or-death duel ranked among the noble traditional cultural heritages that defined humanity itself — a fact officially acknowledged even by the Martial God, father of humanity and reorganizer of all martial arts.
Trying to stop one was about as sensible as trying to stop someone from taking a shit in the bathroom.
And any damage the inn took during a life-or-death duel was fully covered by insurance. Destroyed structure, ruined interiors, and even the business losses incurred during the repair period — all of it applied. From national policies dedicated to life-or-death duels to any number of reliable private products, inns usually carried the full suite, so damage was always minimized.
That alone was proof of how deep a cultural meaning the inn life-or-death duel held for people.
Of course, a fight between true masters — like that samurai duel last time that had erased an entire building — would still leave some scars. But this one was just a couple of two-bit mercenaries. Named or not, the damage unorthodox mercenary scrapheap types could deal was nothing to lose sleep over.
"Drinks first!"
A waiter set down a cold lager and sprinted off to the next table. Gong Ryun took a long pull and watched the people still pouring through the entrance.
And there, in the crowd, he spotted a familiar iron bald head.
"Hey! Un-rang!!!"
Un-rang, still squeezing his way in through the door, spotted Gong Ryun.
"Ohhh!!! Gong Ryun!!! How did you already snag a seat this good!!!"
"I happened to be eating next door!!!"
Un-rang came over in high spirits. Gong Ryun waved him into the empty chair beside him — luckily it was a two-person table.
"Man!!! Our luck is ridiculous today!!!"
"You better appreciate it!"
"What are friends for!"
"Ain't that the truth!! Haha!"
The two of them fell into easy conversation. A fine show, cold drinks, and a friend to share them with.
It really was a perfect day off.