Overwhelming Force
Classes resumed at school.
In the meantime, a few YouTubers covering the fight industry had been running rumors about my match with Raoul Bisio.
On the way home from school, I played the video. The YouTuber's voice flowed through the earphones plugged into my ears.
—Raoul Bisio, featherweight champion of Senkai, Japan's largest promotion, mentioned fighter Shin Yugyeom on his social media. Have a listen—
"Whew."
Meanwhile, I tightened my shoelaces and started running.
—...And so, Raoul Bisio clearly believes he can beat Shin Yugyeom with ease, and appears to be eyeing a bout with KFC champion Choi Woo-seung. There were likely back-channel negotiations between the two promotions. In response, Shin Yugyeom has been firing back with provocations of his own...
I was out of breath.
But I couldn't slack off after talking trash to an opponent. He was a national-promotion champion. A completely different breed from the amateurs my Four-Drone strategy had worked on.
—The current KFC featherweight champion, Choi Woo-seung, compared this matchup to a 'bait match.' Still, he said it would be good experience for Shin Yugyeom, and has already entered a training camp—apparently expecting a dominant win from Raoul Bisio. Meanwhile, Ji Hyeon-tae, who has history with Shin Yugyeom, also shared his view: 'Shin Yugyeom is not as easy an opponent as people think. I think he could even beat Raoul Bisio.' His comments stirred up quite a buzz. Fans are split between those who see it as respect for a fighter he might one day face, and those who say he's just stirring the pot in KFC—but the prevailing consensus is that Shin Yugyeom is the underdog.
One hundred meters, two hundred meters—the closer I got to my destination, the more my legs and lungs burned, and my throat tasted of blood.
But fitness grows by pushing past its limits. In the ancient fighting pits, with no round limits or referee interventions, running out of stamina first meant death. So I gritted my teeth and picked up the pace.
Every drop of sweat you save now, you'll pay for in blood in the arena.
Reciting the proverb from my past life, I savored the process of getting stronger.
"Hah, hah—"
Arriving at my destination gasping for air, I opened the door.
Ding-a-ling!
As the doorbell chimed, the members who had been warming the air inside turned their heads and greeted me.
"Oh, Yugyeom's here!"
"Hey, Yugyeom."
"Came straight from school? You're still in your uniform."
"Hello, everyone."
Just as I bowed politely—
"Yugyeom, did you by any chance invite friends to the gym?"
Head coach Baek Jun-gyeong asked.
"No. Why?"
"Look at these punks."
Instead of answering, the coach frowned and looked toward the back. Three tattooed men were occupying the weight zone.
"Namrae-hyung was right. Right before he left, he asked if he could teach them a lesson since they clearly weren't your friends. I asked if you'd been in contact with them, and they said you had and they were waiting for you. But the way they kept grumbling about when you'd show up felt off from the start."
"It's fine. Looks like they have business with me, that's all."
"They're clearly in bad shape. Just refund their day passes and send them home. I'll handle it."
But I shook my head.
"Better yet, get ready to call an ambulance."
"Wh-what? An ambulance?"
"Flies getting drawn to honey is only natural. But..."
This was my first life becoming famous, but in my past life I'd been a renowned champion. So I'd seen more than my share of lunatics coming after my fame and glory. Whether in that romantic, testosterone-soaked era or now, there was only one law for dealing with such men.
"I'm going to instill such overwhelming terror that they never come near me again."
"...!"
As I approached, the one bench-pressing among the three tattooed men in the weight zone clanked the barbell down, sat up, and straightened his back.
"Whoa—"
His irezumi tattoos spilled out from his tank top and shorts, but body-wise, he was solid muscle. Around the early 180s in centimeters like his two companions, but far more intimidating.
"Seeing you in person is something else, man. You look even scrawnier than I expected. I did some kickboxing and jiu-jitsu too, you know? Competed in the same amateur tournaments and even won. So there's no way in hell I'm losing to you. That's why I brought a mouthpiece—came to film sparring content."
"Glad you came."
I nodded. If I couldn't beat a guy like this, facing the Senkai champion would be pointless anyway.
"Put in open-finger gloves, okay?"
"You sure? There's a weight difference."
"Doesn't matter. I'm not here to compete with you."
The muscular tattooed man's face hardened.
"Dropping honorifics, are we?"
"You came here to brawl anyway, didn't you?"
I tossed him the shared gloves I'd grabbed from the counter.
"Let's skip the preamble and start right away. I still need to work out."
All three tattooed men looked like they wanted to spew a torrent of curses, but they couldn't act recklessly in a gym where everyone was on my side. Instead, they spoke to the muscular one.
"Kang Jin. Kill him."
"He doesn't even look like he'd survive one punch. Does he think weight classes are a joke? Maybe I should just beat him down myself. Damn."
"Not you. That punk's done some jiu-jitsu and kickboxing too. He just got lucky—guys at that level are a dime a dozen."
The muscular tattooed man called Kang Jin put on his gear and warmed up.
I had finished my preparations as well. As I put in my mouthpiece and rose, the coach came over.
"Kid. Last chance. If you don't want a serious beating, stop here. Yugyeom is absolutely not 'a dime a dozen' level. I can say that with confidence after nearly twenty years in this business."
"How would I know that?"
Kang Jin said.
"It's fine. I can take him."
"Well, if you insist."
The coach shook his head and stood between us.
"Three rounds of three minutes. Headbutts, soccer kicks, stomps, and knees to a downed opponent are banned. No strikes to the groin or back of the head. If someone taps or gets knocked out, we stop immediately. Ready? Begin."
With everyone in the gym—even the tattooed men—filming us, my opponent extended his tattoo-covered long arms. His fist flew in fast, but I slipped slightly to the side and deflected it.
Whoosh—
The fist grazed past my cheek.
Kicking off my rear foot, I rode in along that fist. Loading my front leg and driving with the rotation of my hips, I extended my lead hand.
Thwack!
A heavy, solid impact rang out.
"Ugh!"
His face snapped forward from the single jab. Watching him groan, I started to throw my rear hand—then stopped. Instead, I lowered my stance right there and dodged the punch he swung on reflex.
Whoosh!
At the same time, I turned my body and pointed at the floor.
"Pick it up."
The man, who had unconsciously closed his eyes and thrown a counter hook, swallowed his pride this time, bent down, and picked up his mouthpiece.
"That's gotta hurt like hell."
The members chimed in one by one.
"Getting hit by Yugyeom's open-finger gloves... yikes."
"He's dead. Dead man."
"Now that he's actually taken a hit, he looks rattled, huh?"
But the man had his pride too. With a face suddenly drained of confidence, he put the mouthpiece back in.
"Damn it."
As the man raised his hands with an even more serious expression and took his fighting stance, the two thugs shouted.
"That's it—fight!"
"Get your head in the game! You gotta kill him!"
When I extended my lead hand, my opponent flinched at the shoulder. Still, undeterred, I tapped the guard he'd raised in front of his face and opened my mouth.
"Shall we begin?"
My question, thrown out as a courtesy, only seemed to provoke him.
"Hah!"
He charged forward and threw his rear hand, and I opened my frame and deflected the punch.
Swish!
In that instant, his weight shifted onto his front leg. Realizing it, I leaned my upper body back, shifted my center of gravity to my rear leg, and kicked away his front leg.
As he staggered and his height dropped in that split second, I threw my rear hand from the angle.
Crack!
His fist came down like a spear, and he spun and leaned against the wall. I jabbed my lead hand into the chin of the man scrambling to raise his guard.
Smack!
He pulled his chin in. The moment he curled up like a pill bug with his back rounded—
I hammered the exposed body.
WHAM!
"Kugh!"
He collapsed on the spot. But he'd learned something too, and grabbed my front leg. He just couldn't apply a jiu-jitsu technique—because I pressed down his head and drove in my rear hand.
Thud!
He fell flat on his back. His nose was bleeding, red spreading all the way to his mouth.
"Haa—"
"Get up."
I said to the fool.
"If you came here intending to kill me, you should fight to the end like a man."
Saying that, I wondered if I'd always been this vicious. Maybe the memories of my past life as a ruthless fighter had seeped in and changed me. If not, I wouldn't have hurt him like this when I could have ended it long ago.
With my original personality, I would have felt revulsion at the person himself, whoever they were.
"Whew, whew."
The man rose with a face swelling up. The confident arrogance had vanished from his eyes, so the coach asked,
"You can stop now. No matter how big you are or how much training you've had, you obviously can't beat a pro. I'm saying this because Yugyeom clearly has no intention of going easy on you, so don't let pride get in the way—answer honestly. If you get hurt like this, no one's taking responsibility."
"I-I let my guard down."
The man added in a nasal voice.
"I can still go."
"Understood. One more knockdown and we're done."
"Yes."
The coach said,
"Begin!"
The instant he did, my opponent feinted as if to throw a kick. I didn't react, and he closed the distance one more step, this time mixing in a fake as if to punch.
That rhythm came in too slowly as well, so I saw through the feint, slipped away from the man trying to close in with his rear hand, pressed down his head, and laid him flat on the mat.
CRASH—
But the man crawled on the floor and stubbornly clung to my front leg, not yet realizing I'd given it to him on purpose.
I draped my upper body over his back, wrapped my arm around his neck, and rolled to the side. The grip on my leg came loose, and as he scrambled to get up, I climbed onto his back, hooked my foot on his braced arm, and pulled his shoulder with my other hand.
"Ngh!"
Just as he was about to topple backward, he bent forward at the waist to resist—and I naturally wrapped both my legs around his arm and extended his head. Once the head went over, his upper body followed. I could have finished it right there, but...
I released the armbar, held only his wrist, and took top position, looking down at him from above. Still gripping the wrist, I faked several downward elbow strikes to his face. Because it was only a feint, the man—who should have had his face shattered in a no-guard position—flailed, shook off my hand, and threw a punch.
Tap.
I snatched the wrist, spun around, and in a position where my hips pinned down his head, used my other arm as a lever to bend the captured arm behind his back. Using the same principle as the omoplata I'd submitted my sister with that morning, I locked in a kimura, creating a situation where I could shatter the joint.
Naturally—
"Uuuugh!"
Tap, tap, tap!
The tap came immediately.
I released the kimura and smiled with satisfaction. Any technique he tried, I ate them all.
"I was thinking of rolling a bit more."
I'd had him clean the mat with ground game because more damage to his face would mean a real ambulance call—but it turned out that had shattered not just his face, but his pride entirely.
"Unbelievable."
The man lay flat on his back, exhausted, muttering at the ceiling. After only a few hits, his nose and eyes were swollen and his lips were split. Was that why?
"Insane."
"Kang Jin just became a toy..."
Even those friends avoided my eyes.
Meanwhile, the gym members weren't particularly surprised.
"If that had been a real match, he'd be a blood puddle."
"A match would be about that much. If this had been a real fight, his joints would be shattered and he'd be a balloon doll."
"Can jiu-jitsu really improve this fast...?"
"Anyway, kids. Take your friend to the hospital, quick."
Ignoring the man sprawled out in humiliation, I said,
"Perfect as a warm-up."
One more piece of content for the channel, too. Killing two birds with one stone.
"...Now I think I'm ready to spar right away."
When I said that to the coach, he shook his head and asked,
"You look pretty worn out."
"It starts now."
Hearing my answer, the coach grumbled.
"My whole body's aching already..."
Even so, he gathered his sparring gear piece by piece. Before the bout with the Senkai featherweight champion, there was no better sparring partner than the coach, a former KFC lightweight ranker.
"Okay! Come at me."
The coach stepped forward.
"Thank you."
I was already prepared, so round one began immediately.
"An active Senkai champion is a far tougher man than me. Give it everything you've got."