Chapter 93: Effort, Effort, Effoooooort (1)
Chapter 93: Effort, Effort, Effoooooort (1)
“Senior, how did you get so strong?”
It was a rare day off, and as I was lounging around on the living room sofa, my disciple approached me with a question.
“Effort and experience.”
Why was Han A-bin asking something so obvious? It’s not like I got strong through booze, cigarettes, and digging holes.
…Wait, did I? Now that I think about it, I feel like I spent every day doing exactly that in the old days.
The soldiers used to love it when I’d switch to a drill and tear up the ground for them.
As I was lost in serious thought about my past—
‘That’s not what I’m asking!’
A sharp voice suddenly pierced my brain.
It was followed by a brief, stinging pain, like a needle pricking my skin.
Ah, dammit. That scared the crap out of me.
“I told you not to use that if you can’t control it!”
“But I turned it down as low as it goes…”
“Turn it down more. You can’t use it on other people like this. Until you can control it, consider yourself powerless.”
“Yes…”
When I cut her off firmly, Han A-bin’s shoulders slumped, and she began to fidget with her fingers.
It looked like I was being overly harsh, but it couldn’t be helped.
What kind of telepathy has an output strong enough to pierce my mental defenses and cause direct physical pain?
I only ended up startled because it was me; a normal person might have fainted or had their mind go blank.
In a way, it was an overwhelming output that could potentially be used as an offensive technique.
“You still can’t use it any other way? Like inflicting direct mental damage or manipulating minds?”
“It doesn’t work.”
“Who did you test it on?”
“I tried a few times to make you take out the beer can recycling, Senior…”
You were doing stuff like that? I didn’t feel a thing.
I grabbed Un-ho, who was rolling around nearby, and tossed him toward Han A-bin.
“Catch.”
“Poyooooo? I’m flying through the—”
“Huh? Yes?”
Fortunately, Un-ho flew past Han A-bin’s hands and slammed into The Wall.
“Gwak? This isn’t a dream…?”
He let out a scream and slid down to the floor.
He can’t even stick the landing.
“Mr. Un-ho… are you okay?”
Han A-bin, the only person in this house who actually worried about Un-ho, looked down at the white ball of fur with concern.
“Please… put potato chips and cider on my grave…”
“Shut it.”
Since Un-ho was spouting nonsense despite Han A-bin’s concern, I stood up from the sofa with a generous heart and stepped on him.
“I wake up and you’re turning a ferret into a pancake! I protest this violen—ugyagagagak!”
“Try it on this idiot and see if it works.”
Amidst Un-ho’s cheerful screams, Han A-bin rolled her eyes as if contemplating for a moment, then finally closed them and began to concentrate.
“Stop hurting… stop hurting…”
Is this a folk remedy or Mental Magic?
“Poyo? I think it’s actually hurting less…”
Crunch.
“Aaaagh, my back! It was just my imagination! Save the ferret!”
Hmm. Still nothing, then. I’d tested it a few times since we were in Hokkaido, but it seemed impossible for her to use it for offensive purposes.
“Do you feel any sensation of connecting with something?”
I asked a few more questions just in case.
“No.”
It seemed she didn’t have even the slightest aptitude for it.
“Nothing we can do about it. Just think of it as having gained a means of communication.”
I was going to throw myself back onto the sofa and enjoy my freedom.
“Ugh… it’s kind of disappointing.”
Since my disciple started grumbling, I sank into the plush, deep sofa I’d extorted from The Society and offered some advice.
“Disappointing? Do you know how rare telepathy with that kind of output is? If it can pierce my mental defenses, you can assume practically no one in the world can block it, save for a few. You’re receiving command training anyway, so think of it as a useful skill.”
“I guess so…”
At my answer, Han A-bin threw herself onto a nearby sofa with a sulky voice. It seemed she wanted to follow my lead, surrender to the fluffiness, and compose her mind.
True, if a newly acquired power only had auxiliary effects, it would be a bit disappointing. However, there was one thing that bothered me. Was it truly incapable of offensive functions?
Telepathy with that much output but no secondary effects? That was a blatant waste of resources.
Stories tend to have a strangely rational side. If a great power is given, a way to use it is usually provided as well. If so, what was this power meant for?
If it originated from Happiness Drop, it should at least come with Mental Domination and emotional manipulation as standard.
The fact that it didn’t even have those suggested that it wasn’t a lack of other effects, but rather an inability to use them. If I recall, even Happiness Drop acquired Mental Domination later on…
“Master! Don’t just play with A-bin, look at my techniques too!”
With that sudden shout, my vision began to rotate rapidly.
What just happened?
Within my spinning field of vision:
The ceiling with its glowing lights, a white rag crumpled in the corner, the winged mascot Lin staring at me from between the doors, and Baek Si-hyun smiling while holding the sofa I had been lying on.
It seemed she had thrown me along with the sofa just to call me.
As I drifted through the air for a moment, countless sentences began to flow through my head.
You’re grabbing and throwing your Master while he’s lying down? Do you think I’m a joke?
Does it look like I’m playing with Han A-bin right now? Want me to wipe that smile off your face?
Should I wake you up like this every morning? Let’s see how long you keep smiling.
Calm down. If I spat those words out, I’d be no better than trash.
As their senior, I should embrace them with a generous heart.
Having decided on my approach, I shifted my body slightly to perform a breakfall.
I summoned The Hammer in mid-air, using its weight to shift my center of gravity. Using that momentum, I spun and landed gracefully in the center of the living room. As The Hammer arrived a moment later and settled on my shoulder, I spoke.
“So you want to train that badly? Get down to the basement. You damn disciples.”
I’ll make sure you’re thoroughly disciplined.
* * *
“Now, now. Si-hyun. Didn’t A-bin tell you not to come this way?”
Right now, I was caught between Baek Si-hyun and Han A-bin, facing a pincer attack. It was a classic combination: Baek Si-hyun swinging her weapon rapidly to pin me down while Han A-bin sniped me from the rear.
It wasn’t a bad method. As long as the accuracy was good, there was no risk of hitting an ally, and it was the most basic form of a coordinated attack. If there was one slight problem…
Whoosh.
I felt the bow limbs flex and the string hum. An arrow sliced through the air toward me.
Simultaneously, Baek Si-hyun swung her hammer at me with all her might.
Their timing was good, and Baek Si-hyun’s method of gathering power wasn’t bad either.
She used the recoil from our hammers clashing to twist her torso, then released that tension to deliver a full-power strike. It was a passing grade, more or less.
Han A-bin’s sniping was also clearly aimed at my vitals with the intent to do damage, and the angle was such that it wouldn’t hit Baek Si-hyun no matter how I moved.
Good line of fire, good timing, no technical issues.
If there was one problem, however…
“So, you think this is enough to pin me down?”
In an instant, I stepped back and swung my hammer behind my back. My shoulder joint flexed to the limit. My upper right torso twisted grotesquely, and at the moment the strain reached its peak, I unleashed the recoil.
Stepping forward with my left foot toward the approaching hammer, my own hammer launched from behind my back.
Skreeeeee.
Perhaps as a side effect of the sharp arc, the hammerhead let out a roar as it scraped against the floor mats. The Hammer, which had been hugging the ground, rose sharply just before Baek Si-hyun’s hammer could reach my head and collided with hers.
Clang—!
A clear, resonant metallic ring echoed.
It was the result of two people clashing weapons with power generated by twisting their bodies in a short span of time.
However, the results were vastly different.
Baek Si-hyun had struck downward from above, while my hammer had surged upward from a low stance.
Normally, Baek Si-hyun’s weapon should have won out.
“Kyaak?!”
Instead, Baek Si-hyun, who had struck with a standard posture, was sent flying into the air, while I remained on the ground and spun my body.
A 180-degree turn using my left foot as an axis. Immediately followed by a right-leg kick.
Thud.
With the sound of impact against flesh, I confirmed that the kicked Baek Si-hyun was airborne. I immediately concentrated power into my left leg and lunged toward my other disciple on the opposite side.
“Eh? Uh?”
Han A-bin gaped at me with a startled expression.
Right, you probably can’t understand it.
How I could launch an enemy into the air from that posture and then immediately jump toward you. Let’s save that for the post-battle entertainment.
Boom.
My outstretched fist struck Han A-bin.
The energy surging from my body was fully transferred to her upper torso. It looked like she was about to be blown backward, but—
“It often leads to trouble if you let an enemy fly away. Remember that.”
I grabbed Han A-bin by the collar with my extended fist, forcibly stopping her momentum.
With a new fixed axis, her backward flight stopped, and her legs swung upward into the air.
All that was left was a vertical drop, driving her down headfirst.
Wham.
A sound that should never be heard on soft mats erupted as Han A-bin’s head was driven down.
Thinking it was over, I let go. Deprived of support, Han A-bin lay sprawled on the mat, her body stiff.
I hadn’t used my own strength but simply driven her down with pure gravity, so her neck should be fine. Her solar plexus, which I’d punched, probably hurt more.
“Master! Not yet! It’s not over…”
“Oh, it’s over.”
Baek Si-hyun, who had been blown away a while ago, finally came charging back, so I punched her in the solar plexus and knocked her out.
Becoming a Wild Boar the moment your partner goes down… Baek Si-hyun still has a long way to go.
“The plan itself wasn’t bad. It was a textbook combination.”
Yumil and Chong So-rim used to challenge me like this. The results weren’t bad then, either.
“The problem is that Baek Si-hyun lacks the technique to actually pin me down. And you placed the sniper directly behind her just to avoid the line of fire.”
In a situation where the melee Hero—who is supposed to pin The Enemy—fails to do their job, exposing the sniper’s position means I can just take out the sniper first.
The tactic worked for Yumil because she had the skill to actually hold me, but Baek Si-hyun is nowhere near that level. And Chong So-rim’s sniping is still far superior.
“Are you trying to save face by thinking you can pin me down despite the skill gap? Don’t even think about it. Si-hyun, the Mutants you have to face are O-Rank. Whether it looks pathetic or not, if all else fails, you have to drop your weapon and cling to them with your whole body to stop them…”
Line of fire? That’s something to worry about after you’ve brought them down. Besides, if you’re a sniper, you should be able to avoid your ally’s line of fire on your own…
But why is it so quiet? Usually, these two would be raising their hands to ask questions.
With that thought, I looked down.
…I saw my two disciples fainted and foaming at the mouth.
Did I go too far?
* * *
“Master, that was too much.”
“I think so too…”
When the disciples finally woke up and I repeated the lecture I’d given earlier, they finally voiced their complaints.
It seemed I had unconsciously taken out my stress on them.
“I’m sorry.”
To think I couldn’t even control my strength. This is bad. More importantly…
“You two usually rest well on your days off. What possessed you to make such a fuss about training today?”
Because I train them so intensely during the week, they usually guard their days off religiously. They’re the type to ask if it’s training the moment I even call them on a holiday.
“We heard the Thunder God almost died! We could have been caught up in that too, and we’re too weak!”
“I… I feel the same. Big things keep happening, and I felt like I couldn’t just stay as I am…”
Hmm. That was the result of my meddling, though.
Should I have waited about a week after returning home to do it? Even so, I believe the result would have been the same once we stepped into Hokkaido.
The disciples simply felt it in their bones. That something was about to change.
Even so.
“You should rest when it’s time to rest, you idiots!”
When I roared that, Baek Si-hyun stopped smiling and lowered her head.
I’m not done yet, you punks.
“Baek Si-hyun, you learned Lightning Magic. Did you even use it properly in that fight?”
“My concentration was lacking to use it in actual combat… I might burn my hands…”
“Fix that first! What kind of sparring is it if you can’t even control that? You’ll burn your hands? Do you not trust your partner’s recovery ability?”
Still. There was more.
“Han A-bin, you didn’t use your telepathy once, did you? Earlier, if you could have coordinated with Baek Si-hyun to move positions the moment you fired your arrow, it wouldn’t have led to an immediate defeat.”
“But you told me not to use it…”
“Of course I did, but did you even try to use it offensively? Did you try to create an opening by blasting me with it? Do you not think about how to use your powers?”
Rooooar.
I felt like I could breathe fire at this point. These morons have talent but can’t use it properly.
“We’ve done this kind of sparring countless times. Do you think repeating the same sparring over and over will make you stronger? Do you think being a Hero is a joke?”
How can people who can’t even use the power they have expect to get stronger through mindless training?
“So, consider this your rest. Go lie on your beds and rethink your powers. You used them to death in Hokkaido. Now, what you need is visualization.”
I talked big, but honestly, I don’t really know either.
Magic? What even is that? I know from knowledge that it’s related to visualization, but I can’t use magic myself.
So, this is the only way I can create an opportunity for them.
“So, dismissed. You idiots.”
I left the two disciples behind and headed for the elevator alone.
I knew my words were harsh and my shouting made little sense. But I had to make them rest like this.
Because we know better than anyone what lies at the end of an endless sprint.