#75 That Country is Choi Kang-ho's Country
That Country is Choi Kang-ho's Country
Large guilds, referred to as the BIG3 and the Four Great Clans, put their heart and soul into training disciples.
High-level disciples, painstakingly raised over a long time, soon become a reliable strength for the guild.
Naturally, training methods varied by guild, but among them, the Mercenary Guild's training was notoriously harsh.
The training method of the Iron Fist King, Im Cheol-bae.
It consisted of stubbornly repeating the basics. In a way, it could be seen as inflexible, and there were quite a few assessments claiming it wasn't the modern way.
Naturally, the dropout rate was quite high.
Stubbornly repeating the basics meant that results only appeared after investing a significant amount of time. It took at least 10 years to build solidly grounded basics and a perfected physique.
In today's fast-paced era, not many people could endure such a lengthy period.
Whoosh—!
Dawn broke in the Mercenary Guild's underground training room.
A man entering his late twenties was absorbed in his training again today. His name was Lee Woon-hak.
Codename Forte.
He was an SS-rank Awakener who had endured the Mercenary Guild's harsh training.
The morning began with 1,000 straight punches.
Whoosh—!
Whoosh—!
A disciple takes after their master.
His fist extended correctly and straight into the air. The speed was endlessly slow, but with his entire focus on every single stance, the meticulously crafted straight punches accumulated.
There were no tricks in the process.
Not a single falsehood.
That was the Mercenary Guild's training.
After 1,000 painstaking straight punches came 1,000 front kicks. 1,000 side kicks. And 1,000 roundhouse kicks.
Basics polished and refined to a sickening degree.
By the time the training wrapped up, it would be late afternoon.
Only after his entire body was drenched in sweat did Forte's morning training end.
Im Cheol-bae stood in front of Forte as he walked out of the training room.
'Just doing 1,000 of each drains all my energy.'
Still, 5 years ago, it was 500 reps.
Since he had managed to increase it by 500 reps over 5 years, he would be able to increase it by another 500 reps in another 5 years.
Cheol-bae smirked as he looked at Forte.
"Looks like your morning training is over."
Forte bowed respectfully to him.
"Yes, sir."
His master and the head of the Mercenary Guild he belonged to, Im Cheol-bae.
He was a respectable man with a firm philosophy.
'To become like Master...'
Im Cheol-bae did this routine 5,000 times a day.
He had lived his entire life that way.
The distant past on Earth when he lived as a martial artist, and the 50 years after his Awakening.
The path of martial arts he had built step by step over his entire lifetime.
The 100 million straight punches created by those years and consistency.
Thump!
"Let's go grab some food."
He could see the back of his master, who had turned around with a good-natured smile.
The path of a martial artist was dizzying just to imagine.
However, the sight of the great master's back, who had walked that long path first. That master's figure blew Forte's worries far away.
That magnificent back, like a massive, thick fortress wall, was Forte's lifelong goal.
As they left the building, the city was filled with tension.
The electronic billboards on every building were broadcasting the breaking news.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"......"
Kang-ho stared silently at the smartphone screen. On the smartphone King held out, there was a social media post left by Epsilon.
Epsilon.
He was an Awakener who had been active since the very distant past. However, even Kang-ho didn't know his true identity.
Just what was this guy's identity?
Could he really see the future? Given the circumstances, that seemed certain, but still.
While Kang-ho was lost in various thoughts.
Across the orchard.
He saw Johanna slipping out through the door.
Seol-a excitedly ran over to Johanna.
"......You came back."
After defeating the Corpse Dragon, Kang-ho had treated the King and Queen of Fairytail, the kingdom of the Earth Fairies.
And he had said this to Johanna:
—This is your hometown, so I will respect your choice.
Johanna fluttered over and smiled brightly in front of Kang-ho.
Her body, which had grown to the size of a human, gradually shrank until it returned to the size she usually was in the orchard.
"Huh?"
Johanna smiled radiantly and turned back to look at the view of the orchard.
"......"
Kang-ho then smiled softly.
"Admirable."
Smiling like that, Johanna took out some fruits from the sack she had brought.
They were 'Iron Fruits' that increased a beast's defense, 'Fantasy Fruits' that increased special abilities, and lastly, 'Poten Fruits' that increased potential.
On top of that...
"Oho. You brought something precious."
Seeing them all glowing with a translucent silver light, they were top-grade items that had grown to the stage where they exerted the most outstanding effects.
He had been just about to sort out those fruits to feed Seol-a, but with this, there was no need to go looking for them.
Translucent silver fruits.
They exerted 50 times the effect of normal fruits.
Johanna landed in front of Kang-ho and bowed her head respectfully in greeting.
Kang-ho smiled warmly and patted Johanna's head.
"Don't mention it."
King nodded from the side and thought to himself.
'Freaking cool.'
King secretly pulled out his smartphone. Then, opening a memo pad, he began scribbling something diligently.
[1. What are you doing in a kids' fight? (Super cool. 5.0 out of 5.)]
[2. Your life is still only worth this much. (Super cool. 4.8 points.)]
[3. Prepare for the future. (5.0 out of 5.)]
"......"
Kang-ho peeked at King's smartphone screen, flinched in surprise, and unconsciously backed away step by step.
[4. Don't mention it. (5.0 out of 5.)]
Today, a new famous quote was added to his 'My Hero' memo pad.
He was a guy who strengthened his resolve, repeating to himself, I definitely have to become like that too.
Inside the log cabin.
Seol-a was hovering around Kang-ho like a dog desperate to take a crap.
She pattered around Kang-ho, stealthily gauged his reaction, and then sneaked a peek at the fruits on the table.
Seol-a had been scolded by Kang-ho once not long ago.
It was because she had found a bag of candy he had hidden away and devoured the whole thing.
As punishment, she couldn't eat King's food for two days and only had to eat Kang-ho's health food, which was absolute torture for her.
In fact, Kang-ho hadn't even considered it a punishment, so he felt quite a bit hurt by that.
Soon.
As if having made a big decision, Seol-a grabbed the hem of Kang-ho's pants.
"Gimme."
"Hm?"
"Dat."
Seol-a pointed a finger at the fruits.
"Is't mine?"
Sure enough, seeing her swallowing her saliva audibly at the incredibly fragrant smell, Kang-ho couldn't help but chuckle.
Fruits that increased a beast's stats could only take effect once a year.
He had been saving them to feed her after optimizing her developmental state, but now that her body was quite well-formed, Kang-ho decided not to hold back and feed them to her right away.
"Yeah. It's for our Seol-a."
Seol-a stretched both arms out as if she'd been waiting for this.
Kang-ho sat her on his lap and patted her head.
"You can eat them."
"!"
Seol-a's eyes went wide. Soon, she excitedly devoured the fruits.
Melting softly and disappearing as if absorbed the moment they entered her mouth, the fruits tasted exactly like cotton candy.
As if regretting that she had eaten them all in a flash, Seol-a looked down at her empty palm, stuck out her tongue, and began licking it clean.
Kang-ho simply looked down at her with tender eyes.
Her appearance was human, but her instincts couldn't be any different from those of a White Fang.
Soon.
A brilliant light began to emit from Seol-a's entire body.
The radiance pouring from her body lit the inside of the house completely white.
Distinct star marks formed in Seol-a's eyes.
The stars overlapped two, three times, becoming incredibly clear before changes began to occur across her body.
Poof!
Seol-a turned into a fox.
Crack— Cra-crack—
And her skeleton gradually shifted further. Seol-a's body became a bit more elongated, and her limbs grew longer.
Was that all?
A golden glow lingered over her whole body before vanishing, leaving behind a thrilling sensation as if it had swept over her entirely.
Originally, her defense was DD.
'Just as I thought.'
From her original defense of DD, she skipped three stages—C, CC, B—and jumped straight to BB.
Her special abilities and potential were still ???, but these stats alone were astonishing enough.
Kang-ho tightly hugged the fluffy Seol-a.
Suddenly.
Bang—
The door opened, and Theo appeared.
[Hmm hmm hmm~ Oh, Kang-ho, you're here? Hahaha. Good to see you.]
Seeming quite in a good mood, Theo hummed a tune as he walked over and sat at the table.
It looked like there was a lot of stuff in his large shopping bags again.
First, Theo pulled out a few items of clothing.
[Seol-a, come here.]
Hop!
"......!"
Kang-ho made an incredibly disappointed expression. It was because Seol-a had instantly hopped right over to Theo.
[Heh.]
Looking at Kang-ho with a patronizing smirk, Theo showed off the sweater he was holding.
[Do you know what this is?]
"......What is it."
[It's clothes made from special fibers. It contains Mana Stone materials, so its defense is good, it's durable, and its elasticity is absolutely killer. On top of that, it feels super fluffy, so it's wildly popular among pet monsters these days.]
Hugging Seol-a, Theo's eyes widened.
[You grew already. They say kids grow up the moment you turn your back, huh?]
"......"
[What.]
Seeing Kang-ho's sullen expression, Theo asked.
[You sulking?]
"No?"
[You are sulking! Nya-nya, he's sulking. Bwahahaha!]
Theo laughed heartily.
The guy was clearly in such a good mood because of his recent stellar performances.
Thinking he needed to teach the guy a harsh lesson, Kang-ho clenched his fist.
[Seol-a, let's put this on.]
Poof!
Returning to human form, Seol-a stared at it, then looked down at the brown sweater of Kang-ho's that she was wearing.
Seol-a was wearing Kang-ho's brown sweater that came down to her ankles, along with baggy pants and socks.
Seol-a tilted her head, then put her nose to the new clothes and sniffed sniff, sniff.
"No."
With that, she quickly turned her head away.
"......!"
"Dis."
Seol-a put her nose to her own sweater, sniffed it, and smiled brightly.
"Wike."
A smile spread across Kang-ho's lips.
"Heh."
[What's with that victor's smile?]
"I wasn't smiling?"
"......"
King let out a dry laugh watching the two of them.
And he looked down at his smartphone. He saw the post Epsilon had left.
[Korea. The southern region, near Daegu to be exact. A massive Gate will open there. This Gate is a bit peculiar, perhaps... they might be opening the door and coming of their own 'free will.' They will be beings from the Demon Realm, and there are five of them. They will be incredibly strong.]
Epsilon's social media post was causing massive ripples.
King slowly read through the post.
[It will be in the near future. The beings from that world defy the common sense we know. It's a pity, Korea, but there's nothing to do but prepare as best as you can. An elite few might be able to reduce the damage slightly.]
The text continued.
[The fortunate part? That country is Choi Kang-ho's country. Because an oddly large number of powerhouses are born in his country.]
Thump thump thump
King's heart beat quietly, yet firmly.
'Something huge is definitely going to happen. Epsilon's predictions have never been wrong.'
But...
King looked straight ahead at Kang-ho.
Holding Seol-a in his arms and wearing the smile of a victor—
'My Hero.'
Bruce Lee in his yellow tracksuit, who had been a source of courage in the video rental shop during his unfortunate childhood. Thanks to him, King was able to endure his youth.
And now.
As an adult, King saw his other hero.
Whenever he looked at this man......
'Somehow, I'm not nervous at all.'
King smirked.