Chapter 53 – Rookie King (5)
“Operation with a buff? Why do you do that in Rookie of the Year?”
After hearing that Ichie had lost, Hunter Seong Ha-yeon appeared in her medical room. As soon as she came in, she was yelled at by a nurse in her medical unit, saying she smelled like cigarettes. She clicked her tongue with a shy expression, and shook her head at the opinions of me and senior Yoo-jung, revealing her absurdity. Senior Yoojung said.
“But, it was obviously strange. Ichie-chan lost in a situation where he couldn’t lose?”
“But, wouldn’t it be manipulation? What are you going to do with manipulation? In the past, when the Rookie of the Year was just created, there were some kids who participated by exaggerating their abilities, but that didn’t go far. I got buffed and boasted as if my ability was almost D-class or higher, but if I got caught later, I couldn’t even dig a bone.”
“Are you going to impose sanctions at the guild level?”
Seong Ha-yeon nodded her head at my question.
“Yes? At that time, there were no mentors, and it was not the atmosphere where guilds were as strongly connected with the academy as they are now. There were benefits to manipulation. Because you can join a famous guild. But now, guilds all connect with the academy as mentors, and even Kim Joo-sung is the diamond guild’s nominee. But why manipulate?”
Seong Ha-yeon did not seem to understand that she did strange manipulations in The Rookie of the Year. Senior Yoojung said.
“Isn’t it because the Rookie of the Year match also becomes a career?”
Seong Ha-yeon shook her head in frustration at Yoo-jeong’s words.
“So that career is a career to eventually join a guild? Why is a guy who is already a nominee manipulated? It’s obvious that the mentor is attached to the side? It’s a place where you can only lose if you inflate your talent. If you have a great career when there is no result, you have no choice but to be criticized.”
Senior Yoojung seemed to understand that. But I couldn’t understand
“Is there any way for the referee to detect such a buff?”
“There is. If it seems strange, the referee can stop the game on its own, and there is also a notification machine that notifies the referee when the surrounding energy changes.”
It was said that the minimum equipment was installed. It also meant that the referee judged that Kim Joo-seong did not make any strange manipulations.
“So the referee didn’t feel anything after watching the match?”
“See? I can’t say anything because I haven’t watched the game in the first place. Rather, shouldn’t you prepare for the game now?”
After hearing that, I remembered that I had to prepare for the game. I said sorry, nodding my head.
“Ah yes.”
“Then go get your gear. What do you care about manipulating someone else’s game? You would have to go all the way to the finals to meet him.”
She pushed me on the back as if telling me to go quickly. Senior Yoojung said.
“I’ll be on either side of Ichi.”
“Ah yes. Please.”
“Let’s go. I have to smoke anyway.”
Storage was provided outside the arena. Seong Ha-yeon and I went out in the direction of the smoking area. As I turned my steps to a place that was screened as a smoking area, I heard a loud greeting along with the sound of a car door closing.
“Yes! Then you worked hard today!”
The person greeting was the mentor of the Diamond Club. Someone nodded through the window. He was the referee for today’s game. Seong Ha-yeon took out her cigarette and she watched closely. Something didn’t seem right about the frown in her eyes. She asked me in a low voice.
“Do you know who is in the car?”
“He is the one who judged today.”
“That person used to be in the Diamond Club and became independent.”
She said nothing more. She put a cigarette in her mouth and thought about it with a serious expression, then shook her head. I heard her click on her tongue.
“Tsk.”
I stood beside her and watched her mentor. My mentor, who was in sales, was slightly surprised when he saw Seong Ha-yeon and me, and walked towards us as if nothing was wrong. A black car arrived in front of the stadium again. The Diamond Club mentor who was walking this way looked back in shock. Men with stern faces rushed down and opened the back door of the car.
Ichie’s uncle got out of the car with his sunglasses on. The Diamond Club mentor wrinkled his face slightly.
“What, what is it?”
Ichie’s uncle looked around urgently, checked me out, waved his hand and smiled. It was always nice to meet someone I knew in an unfamiliar place.
“Suhyun-san!”
Seong Ha-yeon, who was smoking next to me, frowned at her and asked.
“What. Those cubs? Were you a gangster?”
“No. Uncle Ichie.”
Seong Ha-yeon shrugged her shoulders at those words. Did she say her name was Noboru? Ichie’s uncle looked around and asked me. As the crowd gathered, the mentor of the Diamond Club slipped a cigarette in and left.
“Soo Hyun-sang. It’s been a while. Ichie, I heard you were hurt. Where are you?”
Seong Ha-yeon threw her finished cigarette into the ashtray, she said.
“You bring your equipment. I’ll take you there.”
“Ah yes. Please. You can follow this hunter here. I have to go get my equipment now. Ichie says he’s not hurt right now, so don’t worry too much.”
“Ah, thank you. As for that one, what’s your name?”
“This is Seong Ha-yeon. Come over here.”
“Yes. Guys. Let’s go.”
Black shoulders piled up behind her uncle. I was able to get a shield and a spear from the arena equipment storage. A shield made of thick wood and a spear with a heavy pocket. I stroked my weapon and tried to make up my mind. Ichie’s defeat shouldn’t have affected my match. I caught my breath, packed my gear, and walked back to my waiting room.
*********
Just before the start of the match, I was warming up in the simple training ground once again taking up my shield and spear stance. I tried to go to Ichie, but I couldn’t go because Seong Ha-yeon insisted on warming up before the match.
“Mr. Suhyun. Now I have to prepare slowly.”
The door opened and senior Yoojung called me. I wiped my sweaty forehead once and nodded at her. I asked the senior while drinking water.
“What about Ichie?”
“Are you okay. I just came to my senses, and the physical examination showed no major abnormalities. I was about to leave because I had to cheer for Suhyeon, but my uncle was stern and held me back.”
It was imagined. I smiled unconsciously and said.
“I want to go see it after the game.”
“Yes. Let’s go together.”
My opponent this time was an acceleration player. He is the type to engage in close combat by momentarily increasing his speed, and in the first video of the preliminaries, you can see the opponent who cannot respond to his speed being beaten and then surrendering.
My win or loss in this fight depended on how I responded to melee combat that ignored my overwhelming speed and spear’s reach. I squeezed the spear and inhaled. Not long after sitting in the waiting room, my name came up on the monitor. When I got up from my seat, senior Yu-jeong hugged me tightly from behind.
“Senior, I was sweating.”
“Even so, I’m hugging you to cheer up.”
My chest was pressed against my back and it felt good. I touched her finger for a moment and then said.
“I will definitely take first place.”
“Transformation.”
Senior Yoojung said so. I giggled and walked out the hallway. There was nothing like a joke to relax. A brightly lit arena was welcoming me. I rearranged my spear and shield and entered the arena.
Across the street stood a man taking strange steps. His name is ‘ABCDE’ Seo Hyeon-ho. It’s a very simple nickname, but I couldn’t think of how to come up with it, so I said I made it roughly. He regrets it now and expressed his aspirations that he would like to change his name to something like ‘X Nick’ or ‘Volt’ if he took a B grade.
As soon as he saw me, he swung his fist in the air and said. He seemed to be mocking my heavy shield and spear.
“Can you catch me with that? My last opponent was a water cannon shooter, but he couldn’t even catch me and was beaten and then yelled at me.”
I didn’t answer him. It was obvious that he was trying to provoke. It only made me feel worse if I got caught up in my face. In silence I set my shield forward and straightened my spear. Hyeon-ho laughed at me, and the referee fired a blank shot announcing the start of the match.
“‘ABCDE’ Seo Hyun-ho vs. ‘Ada Bomber’ Jung Soo-hyun!”
At the same time as the blank bullets sounded, Seo Hyeon-ho’s body blurred. He quickly turned into a fog and came towards me, pressing down on my spear and punching me in the face.
“Wook!”
I tried to swing the spear in vain, but before I knew it, he was stepping back and stepping again. He asked, waving his hand.
“Hey, can’t you catch me? Uh? Just give up.”
He forced me to give up. I ignored him and stanceed again. I was flustered a moment ago and couldn’t control the timing, but this time I felt like I could measure it. He rotated outwardly around me little by little, then disappeared once again. At the timing when a blurry afterimage appeared, I slashed the shield in my left hand with all my might.
Empty!
The heavy impact of hitting the shield was transmitted to his right arm. My ability wasn’t activated simply by blocking it. If I hit a blow strong enough to shock me with my left hand, the shock was also accumulated on my right arm. Hyeon-ho held his nose and took a step backwards. He looked at me with a bewildered face.
“Can’t you change direction when running?”
Seeing that they only attacked head-on, it was clear that they were not yet at the point where they could freely change direction. Stunned by my question, he closed his mouth tightly and rolled his eyes before quickly backing away.
And once again, the body faded into obscurity.
However, once you get the timing right, and the opponent can’t change direction and has a consistent speed, it’s easy to block.
Empty!
This time, Hyeon-ho’s hand struck the shield. He was bare-handed, without any equipment.
“Fuck!”
Hyeon-ho trembled his hand and took a step back from him. It’s very weak, but the shock was building up in my right arm. I said gently shaking the window.
“I’m sorry.”
“This fucking bastard…”
Hyeon-ho hardened his face and lowered his body. Once again a hazy afterimage arose. I instinctively raised my shield forward, but the shock didn’t come. The moment I raised my head again, a fist flew. The feeling of pinching the bridge of my nose was very unpleasant.
“100 million!”
Hyeon-ho went back and said with a smirk.
“I’m sorry.”
I raised my head again and glared at Hyeon-ho. He rolls his legs, looks at me, then disappears once more. And once he stopped in the middle and appeared, forced his eyes open and staggered, then gritting his teeth and disappearing with an afterimage once again.
No blow came this time. He, appearing right in front of my nose, grabbed his shield and tried to take it away.
“Profit… !”
“Chew… !”
I started pulling the shield. He was pulling the shield with all his might, as if he could win if he took the shield. Like children fighting for a toy, we started fighting over shields in the middle of the arena. Every time he pulled the shield in my left hand, little by little, power flowed into his right arm.
I tried to stab it with a spear, but I couldn’t afford it. It seemed that if I applied even a little strength to my right arm, the shield would be taken away. You couldn’t win without a shield. Hyeon-ho was the one who hit me while pushing the spear he had erected in front of him.
So
I decided to change my mind.
You can’t win if you lose your shield anyway.
So I decided to just give him a shield.
I let go of the window. I saw Hyeon-ho stamping his feet. In this state, it seemed that he would use his acceleration ability to steal the shield. I grabbed the shield with both hands and started running forward with all my might. At the same time, with bad timing, Hyeon-ho used his ability to accelerate backwards.
“Uh? Uh huh?”
With Hyeon-ho’s flustered voice, the world seemed blurry. My running feet floated in the air. I couldn’t hear anything, but the strong wind beat my whole body. We flew together at the speed of bullets. I met Hyeon-ho’s shocked face.
Bang!
We crashed into the wall with the sound of crushing the wall. Hyeon-ho, who was crushed between the wall and the shield, was shaking his limbs like a cockroach. The referee’s voice was heard.
“ABCDE Seo Hyeon-ho! Outfield!”
I barely let out a sigh of relief.
