Investigation
Yeah, you’re the one I’m talking about!
Ask politely: “Did you call for me?”
Ignore it (10): ……
Snap back (15): What, are you still wet behind the ears or something…
An old set of choices flickered up in front of me for the first time in a while.
I don’t want to pick any of them.
As always, there wasn’t a single option I liked.
But I didn’t get a say in the matter.
The die, as usual, trampled all over my will and started rolling.
Dee-dee-ru-ru.
[16]
Snap back (15): What, are you still wet behind the ears or something…
Damn.
At moments like this, the number always came up absurdly well.
“What are you standing there for? Move, already!”
The man shouted again.
And then, with no regard for my intentions, my mouth moved before I could stop it.
“What, are you still wet behind the ears or something….”
“W-what!? What did you just say?”
Another choice appeared.
It had been quiet for a while, and now they were popping up one after another like some kind of year-end tax settlement.
[What, what? What did you just say?]
[Give him a talking-to: Didn’t you hear me? Want me to say it again?]
[Throw a punch (10): Throw a punch]
Neither option was sane. Naturally, I had no desire to pick either of them.
Dee-dee-ru-ru.
Of course, the die rolled with gusto again.
[7]
Give him a talking-to: Didn’t you hear me? Want me to say it again?
And once again, my mouth moved on its own, completely outside my control.
“Didn’t you hear me? Want me to say it again?”
“Y-you bastard? Do you even know who I am?”
Apparently he hadn’t expected me to pick a fight out of nowhere, because the inexperienced man couldn’t hide his fluster.
“A rookie martial artist.”
Only now did my own mouth start moving the way I wanted it to.
So now you’re telling me to take the wheel and figure it out myself after I’ve already done my part?
What an unbelievably considerate system.
I felt like crying. For several reasons.
“Rookie? Martial artist? Are you joking? I’m a fighter of the Murim Alliance! Do you even know what the Murim Alliance is?”
He seemed less angry about the word “rookie” than about my not bothering to mention the “Murim Alliance” part.
What an odd one.
“Of course I do.”
The Murim Alliance.
The center of the martial world and an organization wielding absolute power.
Thanks to the time I’d spent with them in the game, I knew their real strength and internal workings better than most.
“If you know that, then—!”
The rookie man strode toward me and shouted.
“Kneel and apologize right now! I’m generous enough to let you off with that!”
Apologize?
I could, if I had to.
Honestly, it wasn’t my intention, but I’d been the one to start the fight.
The problem was the method.
“Kneel?”
I frowned slightly.
“Exactly! If you tuck your tail between your legs and bow your head, I’ll let this go at that!”
It was obvious he’d found a chance to grab me by the scruff and press me down in one go.
“Isn’t there another way?”
No matter how much I was willing to give up, bowing my head was still something I hated.
If it was another kind of apology, I could do it as many times as he liked.
“What! How can it count as an apology if you decide the terms however you please?”
But the man didn’t seem about to back down.
“Hah, you really don’t know how to talk.”
“Same to you! You’re the one who can’t carry on a conversation! I don’t know how you managed to butter up Miss Seolrin, but—”
He thumped his chest and shouted.
“Remember this: I, Dokgo Un of the Dokgo Clan, am not someone to be taken lightly!”
“…Dokgo Un?”
That familiar name suddenly leapt out of the man’s mouth.
Dokgo Un?
“That’s right! Consider it an honor to have learned my name!”
He proudly announced himself, chin high.
“You’re Dokgo Un?”
“That’s right! Seems even a guy like you knows my name!”
That?
The way he strutted and puffed himself up was completely different from the Dokgo Un I knew.
Who would’ve thought I’d meet Dokgo Un like this.
Dokgo Un.
A key ally in Cheongyeoljeon.
The only son of Dokgo Cheon, leader of the Murim Alliance, and a cornerstone of the Murim Alliance route.
Meeting him in a place like this, in a way like this, was a development I’d never once imagined.
But was he always this damn obnoxious?
No matter how I looked at it, something was off.
The Dokgo Un from the game had always been calm and mature.
He never lost respect or consideration for anyone; he had the bearing of a true hero.
But the man standing in front of me now?
He not only latched onto every tiny slight—my personal opinion—
he ground his teeth and tried to crush people’s spirit, and every time he opened his mouth, arrogance poured out of it.
The face is similar, but the behavior…
Black hair, black eyes, intelligent features.
Outwardly, he was almost identical to the character from the game.
But his personality was so different it made the name Dokgo Un feel like a joke.
“Where are you looking? Apologize, already!”
That same arrogant, childish voice followed.
The gulf was so wide I couldn’t possibly believe this was the same person.
I spoke slowly.
“Are you really Dokgo Un? Or are you just pretending to be him?”
“There’s only one Dokgo Un in this world! And that’s me, the eldest son of the current Murim Alliance Leader, Dokgo Cheon!”
Dokgo Un frowned slightly, then straightened his chest and declared it loudly, as if his status as the alliance leader’s eldest son were the most natural thing in the world.
Even if he had the guts of a bear, he couldn’t possibly impersonate someone with that much swagger so openly.
Then that would mean this kid really was the real Dokgo Un.
…If he’s the Dokgo Un I know, he’d never say something like that.
I was confused.
The Dokgo Un from the game loathed flaunting his background.
“What meaning is there in honor that one has not earned through one’s own strength?”
That was what he’d said when I first met him in Cheongyeoljeon.
It had left such a strong impression that I still remembered it.
And the Dokgo Un in front of me now?
He dragged out his clan every chance he got, strutted around like a peacock, and had not a single shred of humility in him.
What the hell happened to him in the past year?
The point I’d transmigrated to was one year before the main story of Cheongyeoljeon began.
What on earth had happened to this young Dokgo Un in that time to twist his personality like this?
Did somebody beat some sense into him?
It was one thing for a puppy to not know how frightening a tiger was, but for a brat this reckless to grow up, it would’ve taken the shock of overwhelming violence.
Was there even anyone who could give Dokgo Un a lecture like that?
“You’re not apologizing? You’re shameless on top of everything else!”
Dokgo Un’s shout stabbed my ears again.
My head throbbed.
Come to think of it, I’d never liked cocky kids who lived off their own grandiose image.
“No idea. Maybe one good punch would fix him.”
Annoyance welled up, and I muttered it under my breath.
At the same time, I casually curled my hand into a fist and watched Dokgo Un’s reaction out of the corner of my eye.
“I’ll accept your apology if you give it now! This is your final warning!”
Dokgo Un was still barking at me like a mad dog.
“Apologize? Fine, I’ll apologize.”
“Good! At last you’ve come to your sen—”
He nodded with a satisfied look on his face.
But words are tricky things; you had to hear them to the end.
“But before that.”
“…?”
“I’m going to beat you down first, and then I’ll say I’m sorry.”
“…What?”
Dokgo Un’s face went blank.
For a heartbeat he looked utterly bewildered, then asked me again.
“W-what did you just say?”
“I said I’d beat you down first, then apologize.”
“Pff—bwahahahaha!”
As soon as the words were out, Dokgo Un doubled over, clutching his stomach with one hand and bursting into laughter.
“Me? You?”
He pointed back and forth between us, laughing so hard he could barely breathe.
“What, you scared?”
“Pff, bwahahaha! You? Me? Hahahahahaha!”
I was serious, and Dokgo Un was laughing like a maniac.
“If you’re trying to make me laugh myself to death, then congratulations, you’ve succeeded! In all my life, I’ve never heard anything this funny—”
“How long have you even been alive?”
Even my sarcasm couldn’t stop him from laughing.
“Ha! You think I wouldn’t know about you? The fool of the Hebei Paeng Clan, Paeng Yeohun!”
“I’m honored that the eldest son of the Murim Alliance even knows my name.”
“Who in the Central Plains wouldn’t know your name?”
Clang.
Dokgo Un drew the sword at his waist, sheath and all.
“If you’d apologized, I might’ve let this go quietly, but your insolent attitude is unbearable! I’ll teach you proper manners myself.”
“You call that proper manners? I’m the one who can’t stand you.”
I shot back without a hint of backing down.
“I’ll make sure I only beat you enough not to kill you! You’ve been cut off from the Hebei Paeng Clan for a long time, so there won’t be any fallout!”
“Yeah, sure. Since I won’t have any fallout, let’s make sure you don’t either.”
“Ha! Exactly! Even if I were to lose to you, there’d be no fallout!”
“Good. It’s a promise.”
“The moment I lose to you, I’d no longer be able to call myself a martial artist anyway!”
Dokgo Un wasn’t bluffing.
To lose to the disgraced Paeng Yeohun who’d been cast out by the Hebei Paeng Clan meant more than a simple defeat.
If the rumor got out, he’d never be able to hold his head up as a martial artist again.
In other words, Dokgo Un had no intention of letting this fight leave this place either.
He lifted his sword with easy confidence and declared, “I’ll let you have the first move!”
“You’re giving me the first move?”
There was a reason people said the one who struck first had the advantage.
So yielding the initiative was a privilege of the strong.
It was also proof that he was so sure of himself he didn’t think a little extra leeway would make any difference.
“That’s right! Come at me with everything you’ve got!”
Dokgo Un thumped his chest and grinned like a conqueror.
“Hah.”
For me, whose techniques were all front-loaded into the opening strike, he was handing me the first attack on a silver platter.
It was like having a pumpkin roll in straight from the sky.
“Don’t regret it.”
I clenched my fist without hesitation.
If it meant winning, I could throw away my pride as many times as necessary.
“You worry about yourself!”
Dokgo Un had already let his stance slacken, and he had no intention of gathering his inner power.
He must have figured that spending force on a cripple whose dantian had been destroyed would be a waste.
Good. Keep underestimating me.
The more careless he got, the more the odds leaned my way.
So I’d put everything into this one opening strike.
There wouldn’t be a second chance.
“Come on!”
“Don’t need to tell me twice!”
I threw my fist out with everything I had.
The trajectory was obvious, the speed not particularly impressive.
Dokgo Un could only watch lazily as it came.
That’s your mistake.
Heavenly Luck Fist activated!
Inner power stored in the middle dantian flowed into the fist.
The power of the opening strike is maximized.
Blue inner power from the middle dantian wrapped around my fist.
The die rolled.
[16]
Success!
Blue Wolf Mind Method and Heavenly Luck Fist.
A combination that was practically the strongest in existence when it came to the first strike.
The only way to bridge the gap between Dokgo Un and me in an instant.
“M-my inner power? H-how—!”
Dokgo Un, finally seeing my fist soaked in blue light, panicked at last.
But it was already too late.
My fist was far faster than his hand lifting the sword in a rush.
Thud—!
One clean hit, right in the center of his face.
The smirk vanished from Dokgo Un’s expression, and a cold silence spread around us.