I've Never Seen a Monster Like That
He was strong, alright. In all my life, I had never seen a monster like that.
After that night, a great many things changed.
Seo Jin-woo never woke up in the hospital. Word was his facial bones had been crushed so badly they'd put him under the knife again and again. Park Sang-do was no better. One punch from that giant of a man, and neither of them would ever function as human beings again.
The higher-ups lost their minds. Two officers wiped out overnight. There was shouting about accountability, about who had done it—noise that went on for a while.
But the one who actually cleaned up the scene was Park Do-hyun.
Sorting out a hundred fallen men, keeping the cops' eyes shut, scrubbing every trace. Turning a blood-soaked basement into something that had never happened—no one was better suited to the job than Park Do-hyun. That was the terrifying part of seniority in this world.
And as he handled the aftermath…
Before he knew it, Park Do-hyun was sitting in the seat.
The boss's chair Seo Jin-woo used to occupy.
It wasn't something he had wanted.
The position was empty, someone had to clean up the mess, and somehow he had been shoved into it.
The higher-ups told him to take over for the time being. He was only a temporary fill-in—but when temporary stretches long enough, it becomes the real job.
Park Do-hyun leaned back against the leather chair and stared at the ceiling.
…What a filthy lot in life.
He had lived his whole life in the shadows. Taking other people's orders, cleaning up other people's messes, getting called a mad dog for it. And now they were calling him boss. He had simply sunk deeper into the filth of the underworld.
Just then—
Brrrring—
The phone on the desk started ringing.
When Park Do-hyun saw the screen, a smile crept onto his lips before he could stop it.
Park Do-hyun answered.
"Yeah, Seo-yeon."
"Oppa! It's me!"
Her voice was bright.
The second he heard it, Park Do-hyun felt a little of the tension leave him. She was doing okay. She had gotten out of that hell, and she could still laugh like that.
"Yeah, I know. Your number came up. What's goin' on?"
"Listen, listen—I've got huge news! Daewong—get this—he's going to the UFC!"
"…The UFC?"
"Yeah! The Octagon! The matchmaker's putting him in for his debut personally! Our Daewong is actually going to stand in the Octagon!"
Seo-yeon was more excited than if it had been her own fight. She rattled on without even pausing for breath, as if she were the one making her debut.
Park Do-hyun just listened in silence.
It was the first time he had ever seen her this worked up over someone else's news. She had always been the kind of kid who barely managed to look after herself. Bound by debt, with a shadow still hanging over her even when she smiled. But now she was laughing with nothing weighing her down at all.
All because of that bear.
…Good for her.
"But Oppa. I'm a little worried."
Seo-yeon's voice dropped a notch.
"About what."
"No matter how strong Daewong is, it's the Octagon. Real fighters go at it in there. Now that it's actually happening… what if he gets hurt? So I want to find him a good coach and get him training properly first. Learn technique, learn the rules."
Park Do-hyun couldn't help a short laugh at that.
A coach.
Training.
Technique.
…For that bear?
"Why are you laughing! I'm being serious!"
"Aigoo, sorry. But Seo-yeon."
Park Do-hyun tipped the chair back and looked at the ceiling.
"…Why would that guy need a coach."
"…Huh?"
"Technique, rules… he ain't the type that needs any of that."
He cut her off before she could protest over the line.
That night rose up in his mind again.
The entrance to the underground arena. The night he had stood in that bear's way.
Park Do-hyun was a knife man.
MMA? Standing tall, gloves on, trading clean shots under the rules—he had always considered himself second-rate in that world. But the moment a blade was in his hand, Park Do-hyun was first-rate in this underworld.
Didn't matter if it was a world boxing champion or a gold-medal wrestler.
No matter how strong you were bare-handed, as long as you were human, one knife ended it. Cut the throat, pierce the heart, and even the strongest man on earth was just meat. That was how Park Do-hyun had earned the name Mad Dog—and how he had sent more than a few first-rate fighters to their graves with a single blade.
But that night…
The knife didn't work.
He had slashed the guy's side and not a drop of blood came out. He had thrown sand in his eyes and the man hadn't even blinked.
A blind swing of the blade, and that beast hadn't even looked—just snared his wrist. And then one hit. Just one. Park Do-hyun had gone flying into the wall.
It was the most overwhelming violence Park Do-hyun had ever experienced in his life.
Honestly… that thing hadn't been human.
"…I went at him myself. Knife in hand."
Park Do-hyun spoke quietly.
"…You did, Oppa?"
"Yeah. Didn't work. The blade wouldn't go in. Nothing I tried landed. And then with one hit… I went flying. Like a scrap of paper."
He remembered the feeling of that night and twisted his mouth into a bitter smile.
"You're gonna teach a guy like that MMA? Make him learn the rules? …I feel sorry for whoever's across from him. Doesn't matter who steps into that Octagon—he's just gonna… tear 'em all apart. With a flick of a finger."
The other end of the line went quiet for a moment.
"…Right? Our Daewong's strong, isn't he?"
A strange pride had crept into Seo-yeon's voice. The girl who'd been fretting a second ago was already puffing her chest out again.
Park Do-hyun huffed a laugh.
"Strong as hell. In all my life, I've never seen a monster like that."
"Hehe. Right? Right?"
Seo-yeon chattered on for a good while longer.
How Daewong drooled because he couldn't eat sweets. How the café chair creaked under him because it was too small. How he wrecked every machine at the medical exam. Park Do-hyun sat still and listened to every little scrap of ordinary life.
Then the call ended.
"…I'll call again, Oppa!"
Click.
The line went dead.
Silence settled over the boss's office once more.
Park Do-hyun set the phone down on the desk and sat there for a long time without moving.
That bright voice that had been ringing in his ear a moment ago was gone now.
…She's doing well.
He was glad. Truly.
That she had gotten out of this world and could laugh like that beside a bear of a man. It was the one thing Park Do-hyun had wanted his whole life.
And yet—
Strangely, something hollow sat in a corner of his chest.
Park Do-hyun looked around the empty office. The expensive furniture Seo Jin-woo used to use. The paintings on the walls. The high-end bottles of liquor. All of it belonged to Park Do-hyun now. He was the master of this underground.
And none of it made him happy.
She had walked out into the light.
And he had only sunk deeper into the dark.
"…This is my place."
Park Do-hyun muttered it like he was talking to himself.
A man who dipped his feet in dirty ground could never leave it.
Leaving was for people like her. A man like him—he just stayed behind and guarded this basement she would never come back to.
Park Do-hyun settled deep into the leather chair. And the face of the Mad Dog came back over his own.
"…Alright then. Time to get to work."
He pulled a stack of papers toward him.
But—
His hand stopped mid-reach.
A moment ago he had been talking big to Seo-yeon—no coach needed, he'd tear everyone apart—but…
…It occurred to him, a little late, that that wasn't the whole story.
GRAAAAAAAAH—!!
That figure roaring like a bear, tearing through a hundred men like an animal. Those empty eyes that didn't see people as people. That rampage that, once unleashed, didn't know how to stop.
Park Do-hyun's brow furrowed.
…Hold on.
Down in the basement, nobody cared if you tore someone apart or crushed them. This was a world without laws or rules.
But the Octagon was different.
There were rules there. There was a referee. And more than anything—it was a place where you weren't allowed to kill.
If that guy went the way he had that night inside the cage…
If he just… cut his opponent in half and killed him…
"…Oh, hell."
Park Do-hyun scratched his head.
"…Come to think of it, that's the real problem."
He might not need fighting technique—but how did you stop that runaway power? Or how did you bleed the force out of it so he wouldn't kill a man.
…Maybe that was what the guy actually needed.
And if he accidentally killed someone in the cage, there was no way his head would come out of it intact.
"…Well. Ain't my business."
Park Do-hyun smirked and pulled the papers toward him again.
"They'll figure it out. That sharp little Seo-yeon's right there with him."
In the deepest of deep shadows, Park Do-hyun's day began.
"The schedule's set."
Rachel closed her laptop with a sharp click.
"Han Daewong's debut. Road to UFC. It's the gateway tournament that picks the real talent out of Asia's newcomers. Win it, and… you get a UFC contract on the spot. A straight shot into the Octagon."
Across the café table, Seo-yeon's eyes lit up.
"The Octagon! For real?!"
"Yes. But it's a tournament, so you have to climb it one fight at a time. And…"
Rachel paused for a beat.
"The Round 1 opponent is a bit of a problem."
She pulled out her tablet and brought up a fighter's profile.
On the screen was a heavyweight with a rough, mean face. A close-shaved head, a nose that looked like it had been broken and reset, a tattoo inked into his neck. One glance was enough to tell you this was not a man who had learned fighting the clean way.
"Kim Do-chol. Nickname: Viper."
Rachel tapped the profile with a finger.
"Super heavyweight. Record of twelve wins, two losses. Looking at the numbers alone, nothing special. But…"
Rachel's expression turned complicated.
"His reputation in this business is filthy."
Seo-yeon tilted her head.
"Filthy how?"
"The record looks flashy, but every win is dirty. Decision controversies, borderline illegal play mid-fight, clinches where he's a breath away from eye-gouging. One time he missed weight and still forced the fight through after paying the fine."
Rachel swiped the screen. Clips of Kim Do-chol's fights appeared—driving an opponent into the cage and driving an elbow in while the ref wasn't looking. Trying to throw one more shot into a downed man and getting pulled off. All of it captured cleanly on camera.
"He doesn't care how he wins. Whatever it takes. That's why they call him the Viper. Once he bites, he doesn't let go. He'll chew through you if he has to."
Seo-yeon's face tightened a little.
"…And his first fight is against a guy like that?"
"Yes. Bad luck. Of all people, Round 1."
Even as she said it, Rachel felt strangely calm on the inside.
Normally a matchmaker would worry about throwing a dirty fighter at a debuting prospect in Round 1. Meet a dirty player in your first fight and a newcomer was all too likely to lose their composure.
But—
What rose in Rachel's mind was the scene from the medical center.
A grip dynamometer bent like soft candy. Numbers that laughed at the machines' limits. And that footage of him scattering a hundred men like scraps of paper.
…Viper? Poison or whatever.
Rachel almost laughed to herself.
Would Kim Do-chol's dirty tricks even work in front of that monster? Elbows, eye pokes—would any of it even reach him?
What Rachel was actually worried about was the opposite.
…Is Do-chol going to walk out of this okay?
A match where you ended up fretting over the other guy. In ten years as a matchmaker, it was a first.
But she didn't say that out loud. Neither Seo-yeon nor the massive man quietly drinking his coffee beside her seemed to have fully grasped the gap yet.
"Anyway."
Rachel tidied the tablet as she spoke.
"Your opponent is a nasty piece of work. Don't let your guard down. The fight is in three weeks. Prepare well until then."
Rachel looked at Han Daewong.
That giant, drinking a bitter Americano in silence with those gentle eyes.
She could already see him standing in the Octagon. And she could already see what kind of fate was waiting for Kim Do-chol across from him.