〈 Chapter 132 〉 Even Gladiators Wouldn’t Roll Like This.
*
Jeong Ahyeon slowly approached me with an extremely bizarre appearance.
She looked like a mannequin whose joints were all messed up, trying its best to keep walking.
[She kind of looks like the nurse from Silent Hill.]
‘Ah, that was a freaking nightmare.’
Thanks for the help, by the way.
Jeong Ahyeon had her head down, so I couldn’t see her face, but the aura emanating from her created a faintly eerie vibe.
Even though it was a short distance, Jeong Ahyeon, struggling to move, finally achieved what she wanted.
She had finally grabbed me by the collar.
“Oh. Congratulations. You’ve finally caught me.”
“Gongja…”
The grip on my collar tightened, and her veins started bulging one after another.
“Don’t you think the name is a little… strange?”
“What’s the problem? The Cheonma is included just as you requested.”
‘Should I have gone with Cheonma Chakjeong instead?’
[Doesn’t Cheonma Heupjeong sound a bit more sophisticated?]
At that moment, Jeong Ahyeon lifted her head and began to look at me straight in the eye.
In her eyes, a swirl of dark emotions was raging, and as a result, her green irises had lost their color and turned into pitch-black darkness.
“Jeong Ahyeon, why do you look so despairing? Did you read an academy novel or something?”
[There’s also a drug dealer puppet, you know.]
“Do you think I would ask if I didn’t know?”
And then Jeong Ahyeon shouted.
“Why is the team name so freaking terrible! You bastard!!!!!!!”
Completely abandoning the concept and rattling me back and forth, she yelled at the top of her lungs.
Jeong Ahyeon seemed unable to contain her anger, her eyes bloodshot and spitting.
“What’s the problem? I included the Cheonma just like you asked.”
“Then, damn who added the riding position to it!!!!”
“Do you prefer ‘Hubae Position’ instead?”
“Shut up!!!!!”
Jeong Ahyeon gritted her teeth and glared at me like she wanted to kill me.
“A riding position!! Are you trying to dishonor my mother!!!”
“Uh?”
[Huh?]
“What do you mean, if it’s not dishonoring my mother, what is it!!!!”
Suddenly, is this turning into a Tarula situation?
“Hey, Jeong Ahyeon. Where the hell do you see a Tarula situation here?”
“What the hell does that mean!!…Ah…….”
Only then did she seem to come to her senses, as her eyes began to regain color.
It looked like she realized how unreasonable it actually was.
Jeong Ahyeon cleared her throat and relaxed her grip on my collar while averting her gaze.
“No. I spoke out of turn. Don’t mind me.”
“Is that so?”
Suddenly, Jeong Ahyeon’s rage evaporated, and the atmosphere between us grew awkward.
Meanwhile, the opposing martial artists watching our petty quarrel began to laugh at our team name.
“How vulgar!! This is all you idiots can come up with!”
“Hahahahaha!! A name that fits well with idiots!!”
They were rolling on the floor, cackling at each other as if it was the funniest thing ever.
“It’s a waste to even bother using our martial arts on you losers!”
“If you’re scared, then bring a strong martial art! Like the Cheonma Giseungwi! Pffft!!”
“Is there no Cheonma Face-to-Face Sitting Position! Hahahahaha!”
They laughed so hard they were holding their stomachs, on the ground doubled over.
I didn’t miss that opening and reached the martial artists right in front of me without a moment’s hesitation, circulating magical power throughout my body.
As soon as I closed the distance, the martial artists looked utterly shocked.
“Wait a minute! You brutish scoundrel!”
“Are you attacking suddenly like a coward?!”
“Who told you to wait?”
The martial artists scorned me for not waiting for them.
However, the preliminary round had already begun.
The sparring ground system had long been activated.
It was purely their fault for not being prepared for a fight.
[A brutish scoundrel? You’re saying something entirely correct, huh?]
‘Who the hell are you siding with?’
I grinned at the martial artists trying to get up.
“You said martial arts, right? Let me show you real martial arts.”
“Wait a moment!”
I quickly drew a weapon I had prepared before the preliminary round and pressed it against one of the martial artists who still couldn’t get into position.
BANG!
“Cough!”
A six-shooter (???!).
The revolver with six chambers rotated and discharged bullets, a highly reliable firearm.
Currently, the Blackhawk revolver was fulfilling its role faithfully in my hand.
Usually, I would have used a shotgun.
I was used to it, and above all, my aim was terrible.
[What are you saying? Everyone’s just terrible.]
‘You rotten girl.’
However, I had seen something in a Western film not long ago that left an impression, so I wanted to try shooting it once.
As mentioned earlier, although I had a serious aim problem, I was close enough to send my opponent to the back of beyond.
Meanwhile, the other martial artist finally got up and tried to throw a punch at me.
Seeing this, Jeong Ahyeon warned me.
“Gongja! Be careful!”
“It’s already too late! Bow down swiftly before the speed of my martial arts!!”
Indeed, as the name of the martial arts suggested, the martial artist was throwing a punch very quickly even in an improper stance.
But.
“Too slow.”
BANG!
“Gaaah!!”
Before the martial artist’s punch fully extended, I quickly pulled out another revolver with my other hand and shot at the martial artist.
This time, because there was a slight distance, I aimed for the heart, but the bullet hit the martial artist’s left thigh instead.
The martial artist collapsed to the ground, clutching his pierced thigh, and said indignantly.
“Weren’t you going to show us martial arts!!!”
“What are you talking about? This is a traditional martial art with a long history.”
I blew the smoke rising from the barrel of the revolver.
“This is the western traditional martial art known as GUN technique.”
“What the hell about that looks like martial arts!”
“Ah, you don’t know?”
I twirled the revolver in my hand, imitating cowboys.
“The basic technique of GUN is called Quick Draw.”
“Don’t compare filthy foreign things to martial arts!”
This bastard?
How dare you disrespect America.
Taste the secret of GUN technique.
Six-shooter (Blood?) rapid-fire (??).
DADADADADA!
I gave the downed martial artist a revolver fanning.
Four out of five shots missed, but the last one miraculously pierced the martial artist’s head.
Thus, the martial artist couldn’t even let out a dying scream and perished.
As the results of the preliminary round were decided, the sparring ground system began to shut down.
Simultaneously, the professor observing this raised his right hand to declare that we had won.
“Winner! Team [Cheonma Giseungwi]!”
I felt a sense of pride for showing off my western martial arts while Jeong Ahyeon looked gloomy with her hands covering her face and muttered.
“That was… Easy.”
“I want to die.”
We were a mix of emotions.
*
Normally, preliminary rounds would take place over several days.
There were many students, and more than anything, they wanted to give a little breathing room considering the students’ conditions.
Therefore, in the academy, it was generally designed for one team to face the preliminary rounds once a day.
However.
“This is freaking exhausting.”
“I agree.”
Whether the professors were intent on making my life miserable, Jeong Ahyeon and I had to complete all our preliminary rounds in a single day.
A few minutes after the duel ended, being called upon once again felt so harsh that it could make a Roman gladiator demand human rights.
At first, it wasn’t too tricky.
With our intense team name throwing the opponent off guard, quick strikes worked out pretty well.
“The name of the team is terrible, but what’s up with these guys? They seem incapable of learning.”
“Honestly, I feel like I’d have broken it too.”
“Does anyone who knows that set a name like that!!!!”
But as the preliminary rounds progressed and the riffraff got filtered out, this method didn’t work as well anymore.
Moreover, we were only up against students of gold rank.
[What did those professors do?]
‘You bastards, I’ll make you all pay later.’
Since we had to save our resources as much as possible, I sealed the Cheonma Repulsor for a while.
Meanwhile, since Jeong Ahyeon wanted to show off her honed techniques, I dutifully yielded all opportunities to her.
“Cheonma Wolf Fang Fist (????)!!!”
I had lost count of how many students had been knocked down by Jeong Ahyeon’s technique at this point.
To the naked eye, it just looked like she was punching her opponent in the solar plexus.
But in reality, it was a bit different.
At precisely the moment she punched, she summoned the head of a wolf to attack her opponent.
It was a summoning method that only happened the instant of impact, but my eyes don’t miss a thing.
“Why bother using the word Cheonma… it’s just ugly.”
“……Shut up.”
Perhaps unable to refute, Jeong Ahyeon just lowered her gaze.
Nevertheless, everything has to come to an end.
As the sun began to set, we finally encountered our last opponent.
The last team we faced was called [Little... Duel!].
It was made up of one muscular student wearing only a red octagonal hat and red triangular underwear and another student wielding a duel disc.
‘That looks super tough.’
[Only those who bring cards to such a place are the ‘real’ ones.]
However, contrary to my worries, the fight ended too blandly.
As Jeong Ahyeon summoned various birds of prey, the student in red underwear fled the sparring ground at breakneck speed.
Meanwhile, the duelist seemed to be at a loss as he was unable to act.
Before I missed the chance, I quickly approached the duelist, activated the magical power tattoo on my right hand at the three o’clock position, and manifested a mace.
Then the duelist urgently shouted.
“Chain! Chain! Haru Ura Ura!”
“That won’t work. This is coming from my hand.”
As I took my last step and calmly spoke to the duelist.
“In other words, it’s a special summon from my hand.”
“That can’t be!”
And then I swung the mace down on the duelist’s head and shouted.
“Jounouchi Fire!!”
“At least call it a Crusher!!”
BOOM!
And with that, our final match in the preliminary round ended.
When I looked at the professors, they seemed shocked, as if they had no idea we’d win all the way through.
I confidently performed a silver return (???) towards the professors.
Since it felt grand enough, I compromised with it being a silver return rather than a golden one, as it was still just the preliminary round.
Among them, one professor with prominent front teeth glared at me, gritting his teeth.
“Those useless bastards!!! They can’t even catch one fool like that!!!”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s not that they are weak.”
Then I turned my back and whispered while heading toward Jeong Ahyeon.
“It was just because I was their opponent. Just that.”
“You bastard!!!!!”
Leaving behind the professor’s scream, Jeong Ahyeon and I started heading back to the dormitory, our backs to the setting sun.
Jeong Ahyeon looked extremely exhausted, but she couldn’t hide her smile knowing we had secured a place in the main tournament.
“Gongja, how do you feel right now?”
“How do I feel, you ask?”
In this current setting with the sunset behind us.
At a time like this, this line fits perfectly.
“Ah, I’m satisfied.”
Anyway, we had qualified for the main tournament right from the first day of the preliminary rounds.
It felt like finishing all my homework on the first day of the vacation.
*
