Chapter 28
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: BSS Golden Sun Position? (4)
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'Tatakum is strong.'
This wasn't a self-assessment from Tatakum himself but a conclusion drawn from objective information.
He was the one with the highest potential in the tribe, slated to receive the title of Great Warrior in the future.
The reason someone who could have become a Great Warrior without even coming to the academy had enrolled was due to the Great Chieftain's orders.
—Experience the world more. You're still weak.
There were countless arguments against it, but since it was the Great Chieftain's command, Tatakum had entered the academy without complaint.
About a week after enrollment, Tatakum still hadn't experienced the world the Great Chieftain had spoken of.
'I'm the strongest.'
Every person carried a unique aura. In the Tatara Tribe, it was called vitality, and the more intense this vitality, the stronger the individual was deemed to be.
But the first-years Tatakum had seen so far didn't have vitality as intense as he'd imagined. Of course, there were a few astonishingly potent cases among them.
Still, it was a stretch to say that such levels warranted "experience the world."
"Withdraw your words now, Tatakum. I'm merciful to those who beg forgiveness."
So Tatakum decided to show mercy to Kim Geon-ho.
In a guy with not even a hint of surprising vitality, a guy with absolutely nothing that could be felt as vitality.
If he ended up fighting someone like that, the outcome was obvious without even watching, so this much mercy was practically a given.
"I don't know why Professor Ran permitted this duel, but you'll definitely lose and face humiliation."
"You talk way too fucking much. Is that 'cause you're from some shitty tribe, fuck... Pathetic sight, barking your head off 'cause you're scared."
But Kim Geon-ho picked his ear while crudely insulting the group Tatakum belonged to.
A facial expression like "Tatarara or whatever, so what?" combined with blatantly dismissive body language.
Crack!
"...Oppressing the weak is a disgrace to the Tatara Tribe. But that doesn't apply to you."
Witnessing that snapped Tatakum's last thread of reason in an instant.
—Duel begins!
As if he'd been waiting for this very moment, Professor Ran's signal to start the duel rang out.
'I'll make him apologize for sure.'
It was time to sort out the pecking order.
'What the hell am I doing right now?'
Professor Ran sat in the referee's seat after announcing the start of the duel.
'Is this really the right thing to do?'
Though she'd officially permitted the duel, Professor Ran kept questioning if what was unfolding before her eyes was truly correct.
On the surface, the formal duel process itself had no issues.
Formal duels were usually requested due to fights breaking out, with professors overseeing to prevent the worst outcomes, resolve disputes, and such.
Conflicts of opinion, grudges, bets, and the like led to formal duel requests, approved at the professor's discretion.
Tatakum, insulted, and Kim Geon-ho, seeking the fastest way to resolve their conflict. A formal duel between these two.
To an outsider, it might look like, "Why keep repeating the same thing? No problem here, right?"
'Tatakum's fine. The problem is...'
His opponent was none other than Kim Geon-ho.
Kim Geon-ho, who hid his power from everyone while keeping his grades at the bottom; Kim Geon-ho, who subdued a berserker with ease.
A cadet who could introduce unknown variables. And precisely because of that, someone whose dueling style she wanted to observe more.
Professor Ran, who had so strongly opposed formal duels in the academy's first week, now grappled with this disconnect.
Boom!
Whether Professor Ran agonized or not, Tatakum and Kim Geon-ho had already exchanged about three clashes.
At the start, they weren't using any real power, relying purely on raw physical strength.
"Kuh!"
And here, as if it were the most natural thing, Kim Geon-ho was being pushed back by Tatakum.
Over 2 meters tall, with a massive build like five grown men combined. Given the size difference alone, it was no surprise Kim Geon-ho was losing ground.
On top of that, since Kim Geon-ho had insulted his tribe, Tatakum controlled his breathing and went all out, widening the gap even more.
"You insulted our tribe with this pathetic level of skill?!"
Tatakum was driven mad with rage at the fact that the insulter possessed such low-tier ability.
He'd confidently requested a formal duel and hurled insults so boldly that Tatakum assumed he had some hidden trump card.
But no—Kim Geon-ho was just staggering around, barely keeping balance against Tatakum's swings!
"I'll use this chance to make sure you never pull that shit again!"
Tatakum poured on the momentum, relentlessly pressuring Kim Geon-ho.
If any other professor were here instead of Professor Ran, they might have foreseen the one-sided defeat and declared Kim Geon-ho's forfeiture early.
The skill gap was that vast, and no one would see any chance of a comeback for Kim Geon-ho.
'Not yet.'
Even so, Professor Ran kept her eyes fixed on Kim Geon-ho.
If it was the Kim Geon-ho she'd seen, the one she'd replayed in videos hundreds of times, it would be different—it wouldn't be coincidence. She clung to that belief.
But Kim Geon-ho kept betraying that faith, staying on the defensive, and Tatakum, who had no hobby of tormenting the weak, now prepared a big finishing move.
'It's over.'
Boom!
He shattered Kim Geon-ho's barely raised guard with a single straight punch, then infused his follow-up fist with vitality.
The technique that had earned him Great Warrior candidacy, his strongest strike repeated countless times.
"Taram!"
The intense vitality, named after the tribe's guardian deity, gathered in Tatakum's fist and struck Kim Geon-ho's solar plexus.
Or so he thought it did.
"What the fuck, your shitty tribe really is all talk."
Hey, you really thought you could confidently face me with this level of skill?
Kim Geon-ho, who hadn't landed a proper counterattack until now, suddenly sneered as if nothing had happened, opening his mouth for the first time.
And in that instant, Tatakum's world flipped upside down.
"Huh?"
It happened in the blink of an eye.
The world seemed to split in two, the vitality gathered in his fist losing power and scattering as if it had never been.
Facing this unprecedented situation, Tatakum froze, unsure how to react.
Tap.
Kim Geon-ho didn't miss the opening, lightly nudging Tatakum's abdomen with his toe.
Thud.
Tatakum, who had never fallen once amid countless trainings, went ass-over-teakettle from what looked like a feather-light kick.
"Th-this... what..."
Clearly, he'd been the one pressing endlessly, the one delivering the finisher.
Kim Geon-ho hadn't countered properly even once; victory had seemed assured.
For Tatakum, who had believed that, this sudden shift in perspective was impossible to adjust to easily.
"Why... why am I..."
Why am I looking up at you, Kim Geon-ho?
He was too flustered to even get the words out properly.
"What, cat got your tongue? This is why you minority tribe fucks... jeez."
"I-it's a fluke! Getting cocky over a lucky accident?!"
Whoosh.
Instead of following up, Kim Geon-ho leisurely mocked him, and Tatakum sprang back up as if nothing had happened.
Using the recoil like a spring, he charged at Kim Geon-ho again.
What just happened was a fluke, a miracle born of desperate struggle for survival—one that wouldn't happen twice.
Clinging to that conviction, Tatakum pressured Kim Geon-ho even faster and more ferociously than before.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sounds not of human bone but clashing metal emanated from Tatakum's fists.
Proof of endless tempering, a badge of honor in sound form. And here, Tatakum noticed something off.
'Why... aren't Kim Geon-ho's bones breaking?'
For this fiercer assault, he'd even cloaked his body in vitality.
Kim Geon-ho met the attacks fist-to-fist to block, yet his bones didn't break—instead, there was another clang!.
Not just the sound of metal clashing, but steel on steel.
Which meant Kim Geon-ho's body was tempered to the same degree as his own.
"Getting it now? What situation you're in?"
His insult-heated head cooled sharply upon facing cold reality.
Shedding the superficial shell at last to confront the true nature within.
"Hah!"
Unable to accept this reality, Tatakum regulated his breath instead of answering and poured vitality into his fist once more.
This couldn't be, it absolutely couldn't—impossible. A strike to deny what stood before him.
"Taram!"
A desperate straight punch, praying the guardian deity would protect him.
"Your guardian god's not as close as I am right now—who you calling for?"
Spin.
It was mocked and dismantled in exactly the same way as before.
Once again, Tatakum's vision shook, his head whipped around, and he staggered, unable to find balance.
"..."
The Kim Geon-ho before Tatakum's eyes was no longer a wastrel son who needed harsh punishment as a weakling.
"Hey, keep yapping like before. Weren't you gonna do something to me? Come on, keep going."
A hunter who induced carelessness, then thrust the blade deep when the opponent exposed their vitals.
"Why're you just standing there silent? Makes me look like the bully here."
A superior who accurately gauged the power gap and toyed with his foe at will.
'...A bigger world.'
The world he'd spoken of was right in front of him.
"If you don't get up by the time I count to five, I'll drag you up? O...ne... tw..."
And in the form of a wastrel son, no less.