Fate's Prank (11)
I stared at Lee Ji-jun, who stood facing me.
"Choi Yongki. We meet again? Nice to see you."
He grinned with disarming innocence.
Lee Ji-jun.
From the first time I saw him, there had been something oddly familiar about his face.
I had never met Lee Ji-jun in my previous life.
Where had I seen him before?
Then a memory of him flashed through my mind.
Ah. No way.
His English name was Ian.
He was twenty-three years old.
At the point I had reincarnated, he was the same age as me.
Lee Ji-jun would later make a name for himself by reaching S-class in his late twenties.
Considering that it usually took more than fifty years of training to reach S-class, that meant Lee Ji-jun was a man born with heaven-sent talent.
For a hunter who seemed destined for nothing but a glittering rise, there had still been a period of hardship.
A few years later, Lee Ji-jun would clash with the Korean Hunters Association and naturalize in Russia.
There, he would be treated exceptionally well and eventually earn the title of SS-class hunter.
A realm even Go Ju-hun had never reached.
SS-class hunters were so rare even in Korea that losing Lee Ji-jun would have been a national loss.
If someone had managed to persuade him and keep him here, what would have happened?
It would’ve been one more asset to strengthen the country.
In truth, in the hunter world, never mind S-class—A-class hunters weren’t exactly common either.
Even B-class was enough to count as a pretty capable fighter in this line of work.
That alone already put them in the top ten percent.
Right now, there was still no SS-class hunter in South Korea.
That level of power existed only in hunter superpowers like the United States and China.
Anyway.
His projected rank had been downgraded to B, but there was no doubt that Lee Ji-jun would grow to A-class in terms of combat ability.
How was I supposed to beat this monster right now?
Na Sang-min launched the second test.
"Rock-paper-scissors. Get ready."
Like the chair-stealing game, the rules for the second test were simple and clear.
The winner of rock-paper-scissors got to decide the format of the game.
The difference from the first round was this:
Not only skill, but also...
luck mattered.
Na Sang-min shouted the signal.
"Rock-paper-scissors!"
My hand was a fist. His was scissors.
Good. I’ve got the initiative.
Lee Ji-jun shrugged and muttered, "Hmm. Lost."
Na Sang-min frowned, clearly displeased, but quickly returned to his role as judge.
"Hunter Choi Yongki. Choose the game."
What should I pick?
Unless I used a hero skill, there was no way I could beat Lee Ji-jun with my own ability.
While I was still agonizing over it, Lee Ji-jun spoke up.
"Let’s not make this some kind of fistfight. That’s way too barbaric."
He shuddered dramatically.
"I’ve got a weak body, so I’d be at a disadvantage."
A liar always knew another liar.
Bluffing.
I didn’t know what Lee Ji-jun’s ability was.
He might have been pretending to be honest, but...
for all I knew, he could be the type who loved fighting, unlike how he looked.
He might even be confident in a contest of fists and bones.
I looked around.
In the corner of the underground bunker on the seventh basement level, a soft light spilled out.
That’ll do.
There was a machine in that spot that looked completely out of place.
"I’ve decided."
I walked slowly toward the corner.
The bunker had been built for wartime emergencies, but for now it seemed to be used as a rest area for staff.
A giant beam projector had been installed on one wall, and next to it stood a vending machine selling snacks and drinks.
This is the one.
I raised a hand.
"Anyone got a coin?"
Na Sang-min pursed his lips and jerked his chin at one of the Dio Guild agents.
I took the coin from the agent and slipped it into the vending machine.
When I pressed the button, a can dropped with a clatter.
I bent down and picked up the cola can.
"We’re going to crush these against each other. The one who can’t deform theirs any further loses."
It was a game from a comic book.
In the American publisher Atlic Comics, heroes were gathered together to form a team called Revenge.
Since heroes with completely different personalities had been forced into one team, things were pretty rocky at first.
In particular, two of those heroes had a severe conflict.
When two transcendent beings fought, they were bound to do serious damage to each other, so the two of them came up with a different rule.
What came out of that was the so-called...
"Can-crushing."
Na Sang-min nodded.
"Okay. I get it. Both of you, step forward."
Lee Ji-jun and I stood facing each other.
"Choi Yongki goes first!"
I gripped the can in my hand.
With a loud crunch, the cola inside sprayed across my face.
The can crumpled lengthwise.
Ignoring it, I handed it to Lee Ji-jun.
"Here."
Lee Ji-jun held out his palm.
I placed the half-crushed can on it.
He clicked his tongue, feigning disappointment.
"What is this? Child’s play? With this, we can’t have a proper conversation with our bodies."
As expected, he wanted a purely physical showdown.
"You planning to go up against me without touching me at all?"
He sounded disappointed, but then the smile returned to his face.
"Even so, you still can’t beat me. I’ve come up with an incredible trick."
Lee Ji-jun boasted, then kneaded the can with both hands.
As if he were molding clay.
Half the can was crushed in one-sidedly.
"This is more fun than I expected."
He whistled and carefully refined the can with his fingers.
The ordinary cola can quickly transformed into a razor-sharp knife with a handle.
He then dragged it across his own palm.
The wound split open, and a vivid line of blood rose up.
"I can freely alter the properties of blood. Like this, for example."
The can fragment suddenly began to smoke and boil.
"Pretty cool, right?"
Hydrochloric acid.
Or, to put it simply—
"Acid, huh."
"Bingo. You know your stuff."
So he could turn blood into acid.
He’d probably be able to turn it into any number of other substances too.
Lee Ji-jun folded the acid-soaked can into a sphere.
It was about the size of a baseball.
He balanced it in his hand and held it out to me.
"Go ahead. If you’re confident."
Lee Ji-jun smiled, baring teeth as white as silver.
Looking closer, the boiling blood was protecting his palm.
If that touched a normal person...
"What? Scared?"
Without hesitation, I took the can fragment.
Chiiik.
The strong acid melted and burned the skin in my palm.
The foul smell of meat grilling hit my nose.
"Hyung!"
Bang Su-hwan, who had been watching, shouted and rushed toward me.
I raised my other hand to stop him.
The match had begun.
No one could stop it.
No one could interfere.
Whether the acid had gone all the way to the bone or not, my palm was numb, like it had been shocked by electricity.
But I didn’t even blink.
"Oh? Not even screaming?"
Lee Ji-jun looked at me with interest.
"This is fun. Come on, then. Show me more."
The world of hunters was a strange thing.
The higher the rank, and the better one controlled mana, the wider the gap became.
So, just like Lee Ji-jun, I had to make full use of my own strengths.
If there was one thing getting in the way...
Na Sang-min, standing beside us, stared at me intently.
He was straining to figure out my ability.
No chance.
This time too, I wouldn’t use more than one hero skill.
I’ll hide the rest completely.
I pulled the can out of my flesh, peeling it free from the skin it had melted and stuck to.
"Thanks. Because of you, I’ve figured out a way to beat you too."
"Go ahead and imitate me. You and I are on completely different levels from the start."
He wasn’t wrong.
The gap between our projected ranks was as wide as the sky and the earth.
The outcome was obvious.
So then—
showtime.
Ding.
Judgment of the Superhuman activated.
I gripped the can with both hands.
Crack! Crunch!
Overwhelming force crushed the delicate can.
The light, soft silver metal hardened into something as dense as a small bead.
Lee Ji-jun’s pupils shook.
"Wow. Even a worm can roll, huh? So you’re specialized in power-type stuff or something?"
Once more.
"Now, catch."
Like a pitcher winding up for a throw, I drew the hand holding the can bead behind my head.
"If you can catch it."
I hurled it at Lee Ji-jun at full power, unleashing Judgment of the Superhuman.
"Tch!"
Lee Ji-jun reached toward the can fragment cutting through the air.
It was an animal-like movement, but he had overlooked one thing.
Judgment of the Superhuman produced enough power to overwhelm even an S-class hunter.
No matter how much of a genius he was...
Thud.
He couldn’t block it.
"Ghk!"
The can fragment pierced through Lee Ji-jun’s palm and slammed into the wall.
He clutched his hand.
A hole had been punched clean through the center of his palm.
Thick blood kept pouring out, enough to form a small puddle.
For a while, Lee Ji-jun just stared at his bleeding hand.
Probably because it was a serious injury, the fierce momentum that had been blazing in him dulled a little.
"...Haha. That hurts."
He muttered in a flat voice, then moved over and picked up the can fragment from the floor.
"This is what that was, right?"
"...?"
"The can-crushing scene from the movie Revenge. The one where two heroes argue over how to deal with the villain they’ve taken hostage."
That was right.
One of them wanted to torture the villain to extract information.
The other wanted to let him go peacefully and then follow him.
"I’m on the torture side. Because of that bastard, an entire city was wiped out. Countless innocent civilians—kids included—were all killed!"
For the first time, Lee Ji-jun let his emotions show.
It was only a hunch, but...
maybe it was connected to the reason he had been demoted.
"Damn it. I got worked up."
I still didn’t like Lee Ji-jun.
I couldn’t stand the arrogance in the way he looked down on others or the sneering tone of his voice.
But his attitude toward evil men was a lot like mine.
A man who lived by his own sense of justice and conviction.
He matched the hero I admired, Jin Shark.
"Which side are you on, Choi Yongki? Guys like that should be sent to hell after you rip out every last nail, claw, and eyeball, right?"
Lee Ji-jun tossed the can fragment to the floor.
Then he lifted one foot.
Bang! Bang!! Bang!!!
He stomped the fragment flat.
"There."
He picked up the can fragment from the shattered floor.
The can bead had become lopsided and flattened.
Lee Ji-jun threw it to me.
"That’s as far as I go. Do better than that, and I’ll admit it."
The force of a kick was stronger than a punch.
That was because the thick muscles of the thighs were more developed than the muscles of the upper body.
I looked down at the can fragment he had finally presented.
To make it smaller than this, I would have to...
I put the can fragment into my mouth.
"Huh?"
"What, what the hell?"
"That lunatic."
The hunters watching us gasped in shock.
I concentrated Judgment of the Superhuman into my teeth and bit down.
Crunch. Crunch-crunch!
My face burned as if it might burst, and blue veins bulged along my neck.
Blood leaked from between my lips, but I didn’t stop.
My gaze stayed locked on Lee Ji-jun.
"...Heh, heh."
Lee Ji-jun was sweating now, and he gave a dry laugh.
"You’re nastier than I am."
I spat the can fragment out.
Like gum that had been chewed and then spat out, it was covered in tooth marks.
And on the bloodstained metal, one of my molars was stuck there too.
"Whoa. That’s badass."
Lee Ji-jun staggered back a step, looking rattled.
"...I lost. I lost."
Na Sang-min, who had been judging, let out a long sigh.
Then he grabbed my hand and raised it high.
"Choi Yongki. Victory!"
Bang Su-hwan shouted and thrust both arms into the air.
Lee Ji-jun dropped his head with a bitter smile.
I walked up to him as he turned away and whispered into his ear.
"I agree."
Lee Ji-jun tilted his head. "About what?"
"Guys like that should have both balls ripped clean off."
Only then did Lee Ji-jun understand what I meant, and one corner of his mouth lifted.
Blood still smeared my lips, but I grinned back at him.
"Choi Yongki. Let’s be friends too. You gonna do it?"
"Friends sound good."
The two of us, who had been trying to kill each other just moments ago, shook hands.