Chapter 36: Midterm Exam (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 36: Midterm Exam (6)
I’m not what you’d call a good-natured person. No, to be frank, my personality is closer to being bad.
Fistfights were a daily affair for me as a kid. I fought often, and once a fight started, I saw it through to the end.
Thanks to that, I even earned the cute nickname “scrapper.”
To those I considered my people, I was endlessly generous.
But if you weren’t one of mine?
I saw no reason to be kind.
Was it the military that finally beat that black-and-white logic out of me? It was around then that I learned to suppress my anger and pretend to be a good person.
After all, I had no one I could call my own there.
And the Old Man already knew this side of me.
It was a day when my training just wasn't coming together.
My body didn't feel sluggish, nor was my head heavy, but for some reason, everything felt off.
My spear thrusts didn't extend as I wanted them to, and my center of balance was unsteady.
Eventually, I started smashing the training dummies just to clear my head.
I swung my spear wildly, as if to erase my thoughts, to shake off my emotions.
It wasn't just one or two.
By the time I had destroyed about two hundred in a row, the ruined training ground fell silent.
Broken pieces of wood drifted through the air before slowly settling on the ground.
Shattered figures lay scattered all around me. My fingertips trembled with heat.
I let out a sigh and gripped my spear tighter.
This wasn't enough.
Mines are strong. The executive-level ones… they’re just monsters in human form.
At this rate, could I really stand before the main characters and lead them?
Can I protect them?
I asked myself again and again.
“It’s not so hard to understand.”
I must have been lost in thought for hours.
A low voice came from behind me.
I slowly turned my head.
It was the Old Man.
“Ah… you’re here?”
I tried to force a calm expression, but such an act was meaningless in front of him.
He knew me too well. He could already see right through to the emotions tangled within my eyes.
“…There is no need to completely suppress the fire within you.”
He closed his eyes.
“Whatever it may be, that too is a part of you.”
I quietly mulled over his words.
No need to suppress it, huh…
I sat down, closed my eyes, and looked inward.
Deep inside me, where incomplete emotions were knotted together.
A constantly simmering rage, born from my own inadequacies.
And a sense of powerlessness, tinged with a strange exhaustion.
Caught between the two, I had always whipped myself onward, pressing them down.
Anger is a useless emotion. Impatience and instability are weaknesses.
That’s what I believed.
So, rather than mastering myself, I focused on suppressing my feelings.
But was that really true?
If, as the Old Man said, there was no need to restrain them—
Wouldn't it be better to just accept them?
I took a deep breath.
And in that moment, I faced the emotions that governed me as they were.
Hot, cold, overwhelming, empty.
But contrary to my expectations, the emotions didn't try to control me.
I slowly began to tune them.
Not suppressing, not denying. Just letting them flow.
Keeping them from mixing, but not letting them wash away completely.
I was not a beast running wild, nor was I a Buddha enduring all things.
I had emotions.
But I would not be swayed by them.
I opened my eyes.
My entire body was drenched in sweat.
Looking around, I saw that three days had passed. The Old Man was standing behind me.
He, who had also had his eyes closed, said…
“…You’ve worked hard.”
He left me with those short words and turned his back.
Then, as he was leaving through the door, he added.
“And, congratulations.”
Without getting up, I checked the window that had appeared before my eyes.
[You have acquired 『Mirror-Still Water (明鏡止水)』.]
This was the reason I came to be called a Ghost.
*
The moment the countdown ended, Yohan moved. He drew the sword from his hip and pointed it at me.
He postured as if he were the one and only true Hero.
“Should’ve been more careful.”
The corners of his lips curled up lazily.
With the cheers and roars of the crowd at his back, he looked down on me.
After mastering Mirror-Still Water, I had lived my life having forgotten what emotional turmoil felt like.
Whether they were negative or positive, I was never swayed by any emotion.
“It happens sometimes, you know,” he continued, lightly swinging his sword.
“People dying by accident during a spar.”
So, I should have been completely numb to such a low-grade provocation.
And yet.
What is this?
I was momentarily confused.
One of the emotions that had been perfectly tuned within me was trying to burst out.
Power flooded my fingertips before I even realized it.
The back of my neck felt cold. What was this feeling?
I instinctively looked inward.
…Me.
And then, I finally understood.
Could it be?
Am I… angry?
It had been so long that I hadn't even recognized it.
Like thick sludge rising from the bottom of a settled mud pit.
Slowly, but surely, it was consuming me.
Was it after I received the Fragment? Or after I had that dream?
I’d felt that my emotional control hadn't been what it used to be lately, but this was the first time it had boiled up so intensely.
Just then, Yohan lowered his sword and said, “Do you have any idea whose property you’re touching?”
My eyes narrowed.
Ah.
Is this it?
That single sentence had stirred something within me.
I thought of Cheon Yeo-wool as one of my people. She was a character I had created, and I treated her with the affection she deserved.
And now Yohan was laying a hand on one of my people. Treating her like a tool, trying to take her away from me.
So, naturally—I was angry.
It was a perfectly logical reaction, but it was a process that had been absent from my recent life.
My mind felt calmer for it. This, too, was my emotion, and I would accept it.
A subtle smile touched my lips.
In that instant, Yohan swung his sword back and unleashed his mana. His enhanced body accelerated in a flash.
My vision expanded.
The manifestation of All-Encompassing Perception.
His line of attack was obvious. Straight ahead, of course. He was a Hero, after all.
I gave my spear a light twist in my grip.
Clang!
I met his attack by placing my spear precisely in its path.
Neither of us gave an inch.
A contest of strength, unfolding in an instant.
The blade of his sword and the head of my spear were locked, each pushing against the other.
Yohan explosively poured his mana into his sword, pushing forward with all his might.
This much, then.
I had already taken a fair measure of his strength.
Yohan’s brow twitched. His leisurely expression slowly became tinged with bewilderment.
I could feel the faint tremor from his hands travel down to my fingertips.
Yohan’s sword wavered.
In that moment, his eyes narrowed—he twisted his sword hard and took a step back.
The second he realized he was being overpowered, he created distance.
And that was his mistake.
I used the recoil from his twist to spin my body, plucked the spear from my waist, and immediately threw it.
Swoooosh!
A sharp sound tore through the air.
Faced with a spear aimed squarely at his head, he let out a choked cry and deflected it with his sword.
For a split second, a smile returned to his lips.
With my spear gone, he might have thought he’d seized the advantage.
But it was an opening. I had no intention of dragging this fight out.
The very instant he parried the spear, I threw my entire body forward, closing the distance. I slid the smartwatch from my wrist, wrapping it around my knuckles like a makeshift weapon.
Thwack!
And those knuckles landed squarely in his side.
“Urk!”
Yohan’s mouth opened, but he couldn't even manage a groan.
A cloud of dust rose above his head.
I had no intention of stopping.
Once more, I struck the same spot, hard.
Crack!
This time, it went deep.
The sensation of his bones breaking traveled up my hand.
Yohan’s body twisted violently.
He swung his sword reflexively, but his eyes were unfocused, his movements already feeble.
There was no power behind it at all.
I simply tilted my head back slightly to dodge the blade.
And then—my knuckled fist. This time, it smashed into his face.
Crunch!
Yohan’s head snapped back with a spray of blood.
His body went airborne for a moment.
And then—
Thud!
—he was thrown violently to the ground. But I was right there with him.
I landed on top of his collapsing form.
Crunch!
And once again, I smashed my fist into his face.
BEEEEEEEEEP!!
The signal indicating the end of the match blared through the arena.
I paused for a moment.
When I looked up, I saw Yohan’s body had already been thrown out of the arena.
His disqualification, my victory.
I see.
I didn't particularly care.
My blood-soaked fist slammed down on Yohan’s face as if to pierce right through it.
BAM!
The impact made his head bounce off the floor.
Along with the blood splattering across the cracked tiles, a few of his teeth clattered away.
I shook out my hand and stood up. The metal watch wrapped around my fingers was smashed beyond recognition.
I roughly unwound the wreckage and tossed it to the ground.
I looked around. The stands were silent.
An awkward stillness.
The crowd just stared at me, unable to say a word.
Then, the announcer stammered.
“…Th-the winner is—Jung Hae-in!”
And in that instant,
Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!!
An explosive roar erupted from the crowd.
I covered my ears slightly.
It was too loud.