Chapter 18
Chapter 18
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: 4. Changes (4)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
After sending Kim Hyun-seong on his way.
Jeong Du-cheol closed the gym door and sat down on the bare floor, tilting back a glass of liquor without any snacks.
Gulp.
He downed it in one go.
He had already emptied a bottle, but far from getting drunk, he didn't even feel the slightest buzz.
“……Du-cheol. You're really the worst.”
Just moments ago.
He had felt ashamed of himself.
To salvage his pride, he had pushed Kim Hyun-seong to the brink, but laughably enough, part of him had hoped the kid wouldn't collapse. If he really did go down, there'd be no 100 million won. In the clash between reason and emotion, watching Kim Hyun-seong endure to the end stirred up incredibly complicated feelings.
Anger and relief.
Contradictory emotions.
Kim Hyun-seong had held out through his own grit, but if Jeong Du-cheol had truly meant to take him down, the kid wouldn't have lasted.
‘I was fooling myself. I figured as long as Kim Hyun-seong cleared the bar I set, I'd have some justification for selling out, even if it was just for the money. Truth is, I intended to accept the deal from the start.’
Of course.
He was surprised by Kim Hyun-seong's resolve.
He had ramped up the intensity even more because of it, but that didn't change the fact that the 100 million won had swayed him. Proof of that grabbed his eyes on his phone screen. Kim Hyun-seong had said he'd send the money by tomorrow, but not even an hour had passed before the deposit hit his account.
[Depositor: Go Chang-beom 100,000,000 won]
100 million won.
His eyes twitched.
People think UFC champions rake in a fortune.
Reality is different.
Due to the nature of mixed martial arts, where fighters can only compete once or twice a year depending on their condition, after covering all the expenses to prepare for a title shot, there's not much left. Champions have it better, at least. Those below them get ridiculous fight purses, and the structure of most organizations has led some fighters to formally protest.
If he had defended the title a few more times.
Jeong Du-cheol wouldn't be this broke.
Just as he was paying off debts and starting to make decent money, the drug scandal hit, sending him plummeting. So the 100 million meant something special. It was enough to give his wife—who tallied the household budget every day and suffered because of him—a few years of comfort.
He knocked back shot after shot.
Teaching Kim Hyun-seong.
It was wrong.
People would savage him if they knew, but maybe this was actually a blessing in disguise.
‘Without this 100 million, I would've taken the broker's offer.’
A few days ago.
A broker from a new fight promotion had made a special proposal.
Fight under the banner of former UFC champion, but to showcase peak performance, they insisted on drug use. He agonized over it. With fight money in the tens of millions, and his body already tainted, why not use again?
The first time is the hardest.
The second is just circumstances.
He regretted it so much, yet day by day, he crumbled.
That's probably why he snapped so hard at Kim Hyun-seong's drug comment.
In his previous life, he took the broker's deal.
Fought in the new promotion, got caught doping again, and his career ended for good. Discovering Kim Moo-yeol came after. Knowing Jeong Du-cheol's life, Kim Hyun-seong made the offer without hesitation.
He was the type who'd do anything for money.
After chugging liquor for a while, Jeong Du-cheol sent a text to the broker.
[Consider that offer never happened.]
With money in hand.
No reason to take the broker's deal.
100 million was enough.
“……This is my last slip-up in life. After this, no more selling out for cash.”
Wrap this up right.
Then teach the juniors ahead.
Ones who won't follow his path, who can be truly loved by people—real talents.
* * *
Kim Hyun-seong's home was in an uproar.
His grandmother, who had been waiting for her grandson and resetting the table, made a face like the sky was falling when she saw him.
“Oh no, my baby. What in the world happened?!”
Kim Hyun-seong's face.
It was a total mess.
His whole face was swollen up, and there were bloodstains all over his clothes.
He had anticipated her reaction and planned to stop at a sauna first, but one look in the mirror made him give up. No hiding this. He headed straight home, and as his grandmother checked his condition, she yelled in fury.
“Who did this? Which bastard did this to my boy? Just tell me. This granny will give 'em hell.”
“I'm fine, Grandma.”
“Fine my foot! Look at you!”
His grandmother wouldn't calm down.
Watching her scream her head off for ages, Kim Hyun-seong felt a lump in his throat for some reason.
‘……Grandma.’
As a kid, he thought she was so harsh.
Never wasteful with food or clothes, always tightening the belt—that was daily life, so he resented her plenty as a child. But when he ended up in a vegetative state, she spared no expense. Admitted him to an expensive Seoul hospital, broke fixed deposits for treatment—whatever it took. The home they'd built up crumbled in an instant because of him alone.
It hurt his heart.
This loving grandma had suffered because of him.
As his eyes welled up with surging emotion, she took it the wrong way.
“A grown boy crying? Why?!”
In the end.
He passed it off as a light scuffle at school.
Grandma threatened to go confront them, but after over an hour of convincing, he finally calmed her rage. His younger brother Kim Hyun-jin was at academy until late evening. Kim Hyun-seong started eating first with Grandma, then spoke cautiously to her gaze.
“Grandma. You have a housing lottery account, right?”
“Of course. 100,000 won a month for over ten years now.”
“Myeongjin Construction's doing an apartment lottery soon. Put in for it. You never know. Might win.”
Grandma's eyes went wide.
Housing lottery account.
A bank friend told her about it over a decade ago, but she'd never thought of using it. To her, it was just like a fixed deposit. For the grandkids' college tuition when they enrolled—she planned to cash it then.
Grandma said.
“……I heard even if you win, it's a hassle.”
“That's just ignorant talk. Loans are easy these days. Sell this villa, and the balance is no issue. Worst case, sell the rights to someone else.”
Complicated stuff.
Grandma looked shocked.
“When did my grandson become a real estate whiz?”
“Whiz? Nah.”
Kim Hyun-seong laughed.
This life.
He wasn't just after revenge.
He wanted his one and only grandma to live in abundance until her last breath.
He could've just handed her 100 million like with Jeong Du-cheol, but unconditional cash would've raised suspicions. The lottery was a perfect excuse. Once she entered under her name, Go Chang-beom would ensure she won.
Kim Hyun-seong said.
“Enter the lottery. Please don't forget.”
He scooped some soup.
Under her warm gaze, he swallowed his surging emotions with the soup.
* * *
The next day.
After school, Kim Hyun-seong headed straight to the gym.
Jeong Du-cheol kept his word and ran the training, preparing a conditioning program for the beginner.
“Fighting or sports—anything physical needs stamina as the foundation. If you're gassing out after a few punches, nothing I teach matters. Kim Hyun-seong. If you're that desperate, gut it out from now. Fall behind, and I stop teaching.”
Jeong Du-cheol's words.
The gates of hell swung open.
He had lowered the bar to Kim Hyun-seong's level, but the program was pro-level. From light jump rope to footwork, treadmill, dumbbells—every kind of drill to push him. Even on day one, he could've slacked, but Jeong Du-cheol was firm.
“Two hours a day. Just endure two hours.”
Two hours that felt endless hell.
Kim Hyun-seong was decent at sports.
That's why they called him all-rounder at school—always top in PE practicals. But even he started tasting blood in his mouth right away. His head spun. Pushed harder than the brawl with Park Min-cheol's gang, his eyes burned with venom.
He had to do it.
Shin Young-min.
Years of MMA training made him nothing to the guy, and if he couldn't handle this conditioning, no chance against him. Plus, Shin Young-min wasn't the endgame. To go beyond Cheonil to Gangnam, this first step mattered hugely.
Prep to get strong.
No matter Go Chang-beom or Kim Young-cheol's backing, without power, it meant zilch.
Fueled by spite.
Like refusing to quit while taking hits from Jeong Du-cheol, he poured sweat like rain without a single complaint. Jeong Du-cheol made Kim Moo-yeol. There had to be reason in his methods. Stumbling, he forced his body to comply.
Far in the future.
Jeong Du-cheol might pay for teaching him.
If word spread he trained someone committing worse than school violence, he'd face backlash like the drug scandal. But he didn't care. Jeong Du-cheol would've doped again without him, and he'd compensated with 100 million.
That was it.
Take what he could.
Kim Hyun-seong had little humanity left for this life to worry about others.
* * *
First training.
Jeong Du-cheol eyed Kim Hyun-seong with surprise.
‘He lasted the full two hours?’
He'd talked tough, but figured collapse before one.
But.
Kim Hyun-seong endured.
Panting hard, even puking his guts in the bathroom, he returned pale and demanded more. Clearly, he had urgent reasons to get strong. It stirred Jeong Du-cheol deeply.
‘Definite talent. That mental fortitude—he could succeed as a pro.’
Tempting.
If he'd come as a regular student.
He'd seriously envision a pro career for him.
But this was a transaction, so no half-baked meddling.
‘I give exactly what I got paid. In school, no one your age will touch you.’
Path as a coach.
He dreamed of a new future.
That's why he opened the gym, drawing on recent pro experience for programs. Unlike cookie-cutter coaches, he incorporated everything—even one-sided experiences.
Drug-using fighters.
Ways to crush even those dopers.
Steeped in the mud, he'd get dirty but pioneer new ground.
In his previous life.
Three years later, Jeong Du-cheol met Kim Moo-yeol.
Taught him to get strong clean, full of regrets. Kim Moo-yeol became UFC champ honorably. He told media: Meeting Jeong Du-cheol was luck; he got strong without cheats.
Same now.
The training that made Kim Moo-yeol.
‘One year. I'll raise you to your goal in one.’
Three years early, applied to a mere high schooler, Kim Hyun-seong.