WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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Chapter 4: Mumu (3)

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Mumu (3)

'Eight whole years I've been a member of the Muyang Bandits, robbing on this mountain...'

Right before his eyes, his beloved weapon, the iron club that had shared every joy and hardship with him for eight years, was being turned into an iron ball. It was an absurd sight.

He had heard there were masters with deep internal energy who could bend iron like taffy, but this felt entirely different.

-Wriggle, wriggle.

What kind of training made the arm muscles split apart that clearly? Half astonished and half bewildered, the bandit stood there dazed until the Fan Master's sharp shout reached his ears.

"Hey! What are you doing!"

Only then did the bandit snap out of it. He reflexively reached for the dagger at his waist. But then,

"Here, take it back." "What?"

-Whoosh! Clang!

"Gah!"

The iron ball Mumu tossed off without a care struck him in the head. The bandit's body spun backward a full turn and a half on the spot, his back bending into a grotesque shape as he toppled face-down.

-Crunch!

The bandit trembled all over, then went still.

"Ah..."

Mumu clapped a hand over his mouth, then stole a glance at his adoptive father, Yu Yeop-kyung. A little angry at the thought that his father might be in danger, he had hurled the club, now an iron ball, at the bandit without thinking.

'This is bad.'

"Father, this is..." "W-Well done!"

Yu Yeop-kyung shouted, beside himself. At that, Mumu felt a quiet wave of relief. He had been fretting that his father might see him use his strength, realize he had been training, and scold him. The truth was, Yu Yeop-kyung had no time to mind any of that. He had been worried about a son who had never once fought in his life, and seeing him put his talents to full use against a bandit, he was hugely relieved.

"F-Fan Master!"

A hairy bandit hurriedly called out to the scar-covered Fan Master. They too seemed badly shaken. And no wonder. With his bare hands the boy had bent an iron club into a ball, then thrown it to send a man spinning nearly two full turns. The feat Mumu had shown was not something an ordinary person could pull off.

'This kid's training runs deep.'

The scar-covered Fan Master's eyes narrowed. It seemed he had met a worthy opponent for the first time in ages. The boy still looked young, but if he could bend iron, he must have devoted himself solely to internal energy training. Still, perhaps because he was young, he showed a clumsy, slow-witted side.

'Proof that he lacks experience.'

Openings everywhere. For example...

"Gang up and beat him down, or just hold him off. I'll grab his old man."

At the Fan Master's order, the bandits curled their lips into nasty grins. This was the Fan Master, all right. The boy looked strong enough, but if they took his family hostage, what could a brat like him do? The younger they were, the more easily they wavered.

"All right, boys, get..."

He was about to say go,

-Crack! Schunk!

But they froze. Mumu had grabbed a young tree beside him, about ten feet tall, and ripped it out, roots and all.

'Huh?'

Then, with his gripping hand, he ran it down the trunk, sweeping off every small branch at once, and the next thing they knew, he hurled it.

-Whoosh!

With that one simple stroke, the tree had become a crude wooden spear, and it came flying like lightning. There was no time to dodge.

-Thud, thud!

"Gyaaah!" "Kuh!"

The tree punched clean through the two bandits standing side by side right in front of him. Skewered on the wood, the two of them let out their dying screams and flailed before their heads dropped.

'This... is insane...'

The hairy bandit was struck speechless. For all that, they were the bandits of the Muyang Bandits, counted among the Seventy-Two Forest Strongholds. Men worthy of being called third-rate martial artists had, in an instant, been turned into skewered meat on a tree and killed.

"H-How could this..." "Damn it!"

The Fan Master was just as rattled. It went beyond all common sense to write the boy off as merely someone with fairly thick internal energy. Facing him head-on would carry great risk, even for himself, who stood close to being an Advanced master.

"Grab the father first!"

The Fan Master and the hairy bandit bolted at the same time. They were a bit closer to Yu Yeop-kyung than to Mumu. Knowing they meant to take him hostage, Yu Yeop-kyung tried to flee as well, but the dagger lodged in his thigh made running impossible. In the blink of an eye, they were about to reach him. And in that very instant,

-Fwaaak!

Something flew right up before his face. That back belonged to none other than his adoptive son, Mumu. As Mumu came to a stop, the ground of the yard gouged open and a wave of dust surged upward.

"M-Mumu!"

Yu Yeop-kyung's face broke into a wide smile.

Footnotes:

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