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Chapter 16

“...Someone tampered with the duel matchups.”

“What?”

“It seems to be your brother’s work.”

Choi Yu-Seong started to think quickly. Kim Do-Jin was a man of few words, but Yu-Seong knew what it meant.

‘Choi Min-Seok wants me to go against Lee Jin-Wook.’

A chill ran down his spine. Actually, this wasn’t something totally unexpected.

‘Yep, Choi Min-Seok wouldn’t rig something like this just to humiliate me.’

Yu-Seong thought it was too naive to believe that Min-Seok wanted to simply humiliate him because of a grudge he was holding from their last encounter. Min-Seok wasn’t the type of person to just end things at humiliation.

‘After all, he tried to murder me.’

There was no reason not to do the same this time. At the very least, Min-Seok would order Jin-Wook to permanently injure him. Considering how fierce the combat exam was, it was completely possible for Yu-Seong to be injured. Even if someone prepared perfectly, there was still a death or a fatally injured applicant every two to three years.

At that moment, the monitor attached to the ceiling changed color and revealed the matchups.

“Eighth.”

Choi Yu-Seong, Lee Jin-Wook.

Yu-Seong’s lips twitched as he confirmed his turn. A crisis was also an opportunity. Although a duel with Jin-Wook was dangerous, it would also attract a lot of attention. Yu-Seong’s proficiency level for his Star-Factor skill could increase or he could even get the attention of a God as he had before.

‘High risk, high return. Low risk, low return.’

The majority of things in the world were like this. The question was whether someone had the confidence to follow through.

‘I should believe in myself.’

He trusted the time, sweat, and effort he put into this. After all, there wasn’t any way to avoid this. Just as a slight smile was appearing on Yu-Seong’s face, Do-Jin asked.

“So what are you going to do?”

“What?”

“It’ll be easier for you if you just told the Iron Wall all of this.”

Do-Jin’s eyes observed Yu-Seong sharply. He was like a snake observing its prey.

‘Ah, Now I know for sure.’

Obviously, Do-Jin didn\'t come just to help Yu-Seong by telling him the information he had acquired. He had sensed a change in Yu-Seong and had come because he wanted to confirm what happened to Yu-Seong.

It was only natural. After all, Yu-Seong was a member of the Choi family. He was the son of the man Do-Jin wanted to murder—Choi Woo-Jae.

‘They say if you know your enemy and yourself, you can win every battle…’

This meant that if someone had a clear understanding of oneself and their enemy, no battle would be dangerous. There was no way Do-Jin wouldn’t know General Lee Sun-Shin’s famous sayings. Although his confidence was borderline arrogant, he didn’t fight recklessly. If he was one to fight recklessly, then he would never have used Yu-Seong to get to Woo-Jae.

Maybe it was Yu-Seong who lowered his guard. Just because he had beaten Do-Jin before, he underestimated Do-Jin.

‘What should I do?’

Yu-Seong thought he should do something to lower Do-Jin’s guard while also gaining something.

Seeing him hesitating, Do-Jin snorted, “You’ve changed a lot, Choi Yu-Seong.”

“...”

“It’s almost surprising. Did another soul possess your body?”

Yu-Seong almost screamed at Do-Jin’s words.

‘He’s not the main character; he’s psychic!’

It would be fitting if the title of the original novel was ‘The Foreseeing Returner.’

“Stop saying such crazy things. I don’t have time to get riled up from such little things. Do you think that I’m not aware of what he’s doing?”

“...”

“Regardless of whether someone tampered with the matchups or not, I’m not going to do anything about it. I’m Choi Yu-Seong. Isn’t it clear that there is only so much my hyung-nim can do to me, since we’re both a part of the Choi family?”

Do-Jin glared at him like a ferocious viper. Yu-Seong glared right back. Although he was scared of Do-Jin’s glistening eyes that seemed deep enough to be able to swallow him up, he didn’t back off.

“If you’re here to pull some stunts, get out. I don’t like how you’ve been acting recently.”

He firmly ordered Do-Jin to back off. Of course, he could feel his heart pounding with fear. There wasn’t Jin Do-Yoon or Jin Yu-Ri here. What if Do-Yoon lost his mind and decided to kill him?

‘I don’t even want to imagine it.’

He begged inwardly for Do-Jin to not get mad at him. Desperate emotion was visible in his eyes. Silently looking at Yu-Seong, Do-Jin’s expression changed oddly. It was hard to read; he seemed to be both laughing and frowning.

Perhaps Yu-Seong’s wishes came true? Do-Jin stopped glaring daggers at Yu-Seong.

“Interesting. Not bad.” After that, Do-Jin turned around. “Don’t die.”

His last words before leaving were ‘very’ encouraging.

* * *

After leaving Yu-Seong’s waiting room, Do-Jin’s eyes became cold and calculating as he walked down the hallway.

‘He became quite clever.’

Although Do-Jin casually slipped a piece of information, it took less than three minutes for Yu-Seong to rationally come to a conclusion. Even though Yu-Seong pretended to be clueless, it was clear that he knew Min-Seok was going after him. Nevertheless, he didn’t back off.

‘He always had a death wish.’

On the day he promised to become brothers with Do-Jin, he had become very drunk and burst into tears, crying that he wanted to die. Despising the world, he thought that dying would be easier for him. He had also screamed that he hated his family for making him this way.

Was he still like that? No, there were clear differences.

‘Now, he wants to live.’

Yu-Seong was even passionate and energetic now. It was a mysterious phenomenon. Was it possible for a person to change this drastically in a short amount of time? Although it was unbelievable, it sure was interesting.

‘Choi Yu-Seong.’

Originally, Yu-Seong was a trump card that he would later discard as part of his plan. But was it necessary? Do-Jin didn’t care if Yu-Seong wanted to live or not, but if he still resented his family, then the fact that he became more clever wasn’t bad for Do-Jin.

Actually, Yu-Seong’s acting was quite good. Him acting arrogantly without knowing his place was similar to the Yu-Seong that Do-Jin knew of.

‘Even his eyes that wished for my attention were exactly the same as before.’

The loneliness hidden inside Yu-Seong’s eyes when he ordered him to get out was especially similar. That loneliness was evident even though Yu-Seong was being aggressive. After all, when Yu-Seong first met Do-Jin, Yu-Seong yelled at him but couldn’t completely push him away as he penetrated Yu-Seong’s loneliness.

“It wouldn’t be bad to make him my subordinate.”

If Yu-Seong knew what Do-Jin was thinking, he’d be frightened.

* * *

It took a while for Yu-Seong to catch his breath after Do-Jin left the waiting room. Do-Jin saw through him whenever he let his guard down, so playing mind games with him was stressful.

‘Choi Yu-Seong, don’t forget that Kim Do-Jin is the main character—the most dangerous person in this whole world.’

And he was a pitiful villain who would get abandoned by Do-Jin. Based on everything from their relationship in the original novel, he could never beat Do-Jin.

Catching his breath, Yu-Seong watched the duel between the applicants going before him. Fortunately, his battle was eighth in line, which provided him with a lot of extra time.

‘As expected, I would’ve won easily if my matchup wasn’t Lee Jin-Wook.’

He was certain after watching five duels. His ability was so amazing that it was almost a cheat. The saying that Irregulars became powerful as long as they survived wasn’t a lie.

Yu-Seong watched the duels for three hours, but even as he watched the 7th duel taking place, that thought didn’t change. However, there was one player that he took notice of.

‘Was it applicant number 12?’

Considering that applicant number 12 was a psychic type player that could transform the ground into metal shapes, Yu-Seong thought that he could’ve passed the exam if he had used his ability more creatively. Unfortunately, that applicant lacked the creativity and failed.

Yu-Seong’s turn finally came.

‘Let’s go.’

His mindset was more than ready.

The moment he stood up, one side of the waiting room wall opened and displayed various weapons as if he was inside a movie. Striding ahead, he firmly grabbed a weapon that he had decided on using before. Although it was made for practice, the grip wasn’t that bad.

Unconsciously licking his lips with the tip of his tongue, Yu-Seong walked through the automatic door of the waiting room.

* * *

The combat exam site was located at the end of the hallway. Yu-Seong was overwhelmed by the unexpected amount of attention he was receiving as he entered the site that looked similar to the Colosseum in Rome.

‘It’s totally different from watching it on the monitor.’

As always, knowing and experiencing something were two different things. But since he had mentally prepared before arriving, he soon adapted to it. Entering from the opposite side, Jin-Wook seemed no different from him. The two sized each other up quickly.

Standing on the edge of the arena, the instructor, the Iron Wall Park Cheol-Ho, spoke as he crossed his arms.

“Choi Yu-Seong, Lee Jin-Wook. You both seem ready.”

Although small, his voice echoed through the entire Colosseum.

‘This is an S-rank player.’

Yu-Seong felt this when he met Woo-Jae, but it was normal to think that players that are S-rank and above were basically not human.

“Even if this is a practice duel, fight as if your lives are at stake, fight as if you’re in actual combat. Monsters do not have mercy. Any questions?”

“No.”

“No, sir.”

The former was Yu-Seong while the latter was Jin-Wook. Even though Yu-Seong spoke in a small voice, it seemed that Cheol-Ho heard that clearly. As proof, Cheol-Ho twitched one side of his eyebrows and looked at Yu-Seong.

‘What? I can’t talk down to you, but you can talk down to me?’

Regardless of whether Cheol-Ho was an S-rank or an instructor for the exam, Yu-Seong didn’t actually like Cheol-Ho for talking down to him from the start.

‘We’re all grownups here; it’s not like we’re in the army.’

He was the rascal anyway. There was nothing special for him to do what he wanted to do like this.

“Hmm…”

After briefly snorting, Cheol-Ho nodded.

“Begin.”

Waiting for this moment, Jin-Wook made the first move. He had chosen a sword for his weapon. Since it was made for practice, it wasn’t sharp, but it would certainly hurt if it hit Yu-Seong.

Jin-Wook’s deadliest weapon wasn’t a sword. Although he was far away from Yu-Seong, he kicked off from the ground and used the wind currents to close the distance.

‘He’s fast!’

Unconsciously admiring Jin-Wook’s skill, Yu-Seong spun and lifted his weapon, a long spear. The weapon he used most during his training with Do-Yoon was a pole. The pole he mastered was as if to prepare him to be able to use this spear.

‘Block.’?

Yu-Seong’s smooth, familiar movements flowed like water as they blocked and pushed aside Jin-Wook’s sword that crashed down on him. Although Jin-Wook’s strokes were heavier than Yu-Seong’s defense, Yu-Seong used skills to balance them off.

Remaining calm, Jin-Wook landed on the ground and stretched out his hand. A strong wind that could easily throw a man gushed out from his hand. Yu-Seong didn’t try to brace himself against the wind but let himself be pushed away, rotated a full circle, and stretched out his spear.

The sharp wind coming from the other side of the field was caught by the tip of his spear, causing it to vibrate. It would only be possible for Yu-Seong to get rid of this by force if he were a strong physical type player. Yu-Seong loaded mana in the tip of his spear. Although it was hard to channel mana into a weapon, Yu-Seong was able to do it for a short time on a small part of the weapon. The center of the Wind Blade Jin-Wook produced was eventually ripped apart and crashed in all directions into the arena walls.

Boom-!

Dust clouds appeared from explosions resulting from the wind’s impact on the walls.

‘If I were caught in that, my neck would break from the whiplash.’

Recalling the sharpness of the Wind Blade that passed by him, Yu-Seong gulped. On the other hand, Jin-Wook frowned when things didn’t go his way.

Him holding a sword was a decoy from the start. This was to hide the fact that he was a psychic, wind-type player. But without even looking at him, Yu-Seong stretched out his spear and loaded mana on it as if Yu-Seong already knew that he would use the Wind Blade.

‘He’s going to be the villain, Storm.’

If Yu-Seong didn’t know this, it would’ve been quite dangerous. However, despite his anxiety, he smiled and provoked Jin-Wook.

“Min-Seok’s going to be disappointed if this is all you got.”

“...!!”

Heated up, Jin-Wook charged toward Yu-Seong. The Wind Blade required a lot of time. He was charging like this to buy time until he could use it again.

Yu-Seong smiled as he looked at Jin-Wook. Then, a blue flame blazed inside his eyes as he activated Insight. As he concentrated Insight for combat, part of Jin-Wook’s movements appeared like afterimages in front of him. His composure was strengthened while his anxiety was relieved adequately.

Although he was surprised by Jin-Wook’s first strike, there was no reason for him to be surprised the second time. He thrust the spear using its long reach to strike Jin-Wook before he could get close.

‘Grab.’

Jin-Wook spread the wind behind him and easily avoided Yu-Seong’s attack like it was a walk in the park. Although his swordsmanship itself was so poor that it was a joke to even call it swordsmanship, the rest of his senses were certainly refined. It seemed that he also had a lot of skills. He was an Irregular for a reason.

However, Yu-Seong’s Insight was reading even those movements. That was why he twisted his body and continued his next attack without shock slowing him down.

‘Stab.’?

As the tip of his spear bent like a snake, the long spear handle struck Jin-Wook’s shoulders.

Bang-!

A sound, pleasing to Yu-Seong, resonated while Jin-Wook’s body stiffened with pain.

“This attack is going to hurt much more.”

Since it was Jin-Wook that was going to receive this attack, Yu-Seong spoke lightly without conscience and activated the skill.

‘Spark.’

The electricity produced from his spear handle wracked Jin-Wook’s entire body.

“Grrrraaah-!”

His scream echoed throughout the entire duel stadium.