WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 75: The Variable (4)
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The sight of the sword and saber breaking made everyone think of the same thing.
'Indestructible golden body?'
The indestructible golden body.
It described the ultimate state of a body impervious to swords and sabers, water and fire alike.
Yet the indestructible golden body was a supreme realm that could only be reached when both external energy and internal energy had been pushed to their limits. It was not something that could be achieved simply by training one's muscles.
'How?'
'That can't be possible.'
The two instructors behind the plot, So Bo-ryang and Bae Man-ok, were stunned. Then they suddenly came to their senses and leaped back from Mumu.
Ma Yeon-hwa's eyes gleamed at the sight.
'Conspirators or not, they're academy instructors. He took the swords of masters at that level with his bare body?'
It was astonishing.
Still, they could not let down their guard. Their sword and saber might have broken, but they were Masters. They were powerful enough to turn the situation around at any time.
'If his body is as hard as an indestructible golden body, then the only option is to injure him from within.'
'The Inner Heavy Hand Method or an internal force strike must be the answer.'
Just as Ma Yeon-hwa expected, the two masters quickly found another solution.
They had both reached the same conclusion. Since Mumu's muscles could not be pierced easily, they needed to strike inside his body.
As everyone's attention turned toward them for that brief moment...
'An opening!'
-Swish! Thud!
"Urgh!"
A masked figure grabbed their throat.
Tang So-so's concealed needle had pierced it.
'Y-you cowardly bitch.'
The masked figure's face turned purple from poison in an instant, and their eyes bulged as they glared at her.
Yet Tang So-so was not the only one who had been waiting for this moment.
At nearly the same time, Gu Yang Seo-rin fired a poisoned concealed weapon hidden in her fan, striking a masked figure three jang away in the side of the head.
-Thud!
"Ugh! W-what is this?"
The two girls who had ambushed the masked figures noticed each other and were equally annoyed that they had thought of the same move.
Go Heon-beom, who led the group, could only stare in disbelief as two masked figures had been caught off guard by a pair of brats.
"You attend a prestigious academy of the force of justice, yet..."
-Swish!
Before the words were out, Ma Yeon-hwa's precious sword, White Phoenix, shot toward Go Heon-beom's brow.
Go Heon-beom tilted aside and counterattacked.
-Clang!
As their swords collided, Ma Yeon-hwa scoffed.
"People who used poison and tried to burn academy cadets alive have no right to call anyone cowardly. We're just using what we've learned."
"......"
Go Heon-beom could not refute that.
Still, with Mumu's arrival, the battle that had briefly stalled resumed.
The masked figures launched deadly attacks at Jin-hyeok, Hae Ryang, and the others.
Mumu's expression grew serious as he watched.
'Are they trying to kill Jin-hyeok and the others?'
He had rushed over after hearing Hae Ryang's shout, but he had not fully grasped the situation yet.
Masked figures and instructors were mixed together.
Then, seeing the dead masked figures and the instructors attacking his friends, Mumu gradually understood what was happening.
He looked at the two instructors circling him and asked, "......Are you two masters enemies too?"
"Well, if I said we weren't, would you believe me?"
Bae Man-ok sneered as she searched for an opening.
In a fight to the death, what mattered was creating an opening in the opponent by any means. If words could shake him, that was a method too.
'Find an opening.'
Countless possibilities ran through her mind.
Mumu's muscles had already rendered swords and sabers useless, making him a master she could never take lightly. He looked like he was simply standing there, but she believed he was also calculating countless ways to find an opening against them.
'A battle between masters is ultimately a battle of moves. If I act rashly, he may counterattack instead.'
They did not have much time, though.
At times like this, someone needed to draw his attention.
Bae Man-ok signaled So Bo-ryang with her eyes.
'I understand.'
Reading her intent, So Bo-ryang launched himself at Mumu first.
Masters at their level could use a simplified internal force strike or the Inner Heavy Hand Method to shock the body from within, even without planting their feet in a rooted stance.
As So Bo-ryang rushed in, Mumu reached out his hand.
-Swish!
So Bo-ryang bent backward smoothly to evade it, then slipped directly in front of Mumu and thrust a palm toward his abdomen.
'Inner Heavy Hand Method.'
The life energy gathered in So Bo-ryang's palm began to vibrate.
It tried to pass through Mumu's red-hot muscles and into his body...
-Smack!
Then Mumu grabbed So Bo-ryang's head with one hand.
'What?'
So Bo-ryang's eyes widened.
The life energy had failed to pass through Mumu's muscles.
Anyone struck cleanly by the Inner Heavy Hand Method would struggle to move from the pain in their abdomen.
Mumu lifted So Bo-ryang into the air by the head.
"Ugh?"
Startled, So Bo-ryang kicked at Mumu's neck.
His foot could not reach.
-Clap!
Mumu had caught his ankle.
Holding it, Mumu muttered, "Your ankle is very delicate."
"What?"
"You must have neglected muscle training. If I do this..."
-Crack!
Mumu tightened his grip.
So Bo-ryang's ankle snapped, and the bone tore through his flesh.
"Aaargh!"
Even a Master could not endure the pain of a perfectly healthy bone breaking and bursting through the skin.
Bae Man-ok did not let the opportunity pass.
She slipped behind Mumu, brought both hands together, and struck his back with both palms.
-Boom! Craaash!
It was an internal force strike delivered with both hands.
Her internal force strike, backed by the full Force of ki she could muster, was so powerful that the ground beneath her rooted stance split apart. The instant her palms touched Mumu's back, ripples spread across it.
The waves of life energy spreading from her palms immediately burrowed into Mumu's body.
'Got him!'
She had struck him cleanly.
No matter how incredible his muscles were, an internal force strike backed by the full Force of ki she could muster would tear apart his internal organs and leave him with severe internal injuries.
"Mumu!"
Jin-hyeok, who had been fighting the masked figures, shouted in alarm.
The academy instructors were clearly different from everyone they had faced before. Jin-hyeok had known they could not let their guard down, but it had happened anyway.
Then...
'!?'
Mumu stood there without moving.
Still standing in place, he slowly turned his head.
He looked down at Bae Man-ok as if asking what she was doing, and she spoke in disbelief.
"You... are you unharmed?"
"Was that an internal force strike?"
"What?"
Mumu had been studying Martial Arts diligently lately.
His memory had become so absurdly sharp that he remembered most things after seeing them once, so he knew exactly what an internal force strike was.
It was a method of striking inside the body with life energy rather than on its outer surface.
That was an internal force strike.
'Damn it!'
Bae Man-ok hurriedly tried to leap back.
For some reason, her full-power internal force strike had not worked. She needed to try something else...
-Smack!
Mumu's hand seized her head.
'What?'
She desperately tried to pull away, but when Mumu tightened his grip, a crushing pain tore through her skull and left her unable to move.
"Argh!"
She wanted to struggle, but she could not.
"W-what the hell are you? How can you be fine after taking an internal force strike head-on..."
"Isn't it because you neglect muscle training and rely on such shallow methods?"
'What?'
Bae Man-ok could not believe it.
If muscle training could block an internal force strike, everyone would devote themselves to it.
Was this bastard making fun of her?
At that moment...
"Y-you bastard! Die!"
So Bo-ryang, whose head was caught in Mumu's right hand, pulled a Short Sword from his waist and tried to stab Mumu in the eye.
Since even an internal force strike had failed, he believed the eyes, which could not be trained, were the only answer.
He was right, but...
-Crunch!
Before the Short Sword could touch him, So Bo-ryang's head was crushed.
Brains and blood mixed together, dripping from his smashed skull to the ground.
"Ah... I was in a hurry, so I put too much strength into my hand."
Mumu muttered as though he had made a mistake.
'!!!!'
Bae Man-ok's eyes trembled wildly as she hung in Mumu's left hand.
Who could have imagined that So Bo-ryang, a Master, would die with his head crushed like that without being able to do anything?
What was worse, this bastard had killed someone in such a gruesome way while wearing an innocent expression.
'W-what the hell is this monster?'
Bae Man-ok was not the only one startled.
'What?'
Even in the middle of fighting, everyone looked at So Bo-ryang's crushed head in horror.
"Ugh."
Hae Ryang abruptly turned his head away, his stomach churning.
Seeing everyone grimace, Mumu blinked and asked, "Was I not supposed to kill him?"
Jin-hyeok frantically shook his head and shouted, "No! You can kill them!"
They had tried to poison the academy cadets and burn them all alive.
They had even intended to kill everyone here to silence them. This was not the time to argue over how they died.
Tang So-so shouted in agreement.
"That's right! Mumu, you don't need to hold back!"
At that, Mumu started tightening his grip on Bae Man-ok's head as well.
Terrified, she thrashed and screamed, "H-help me!"
Thinking she might die as brutally as So Bo-ryang, she was overcome with fear.
O Jeong-dan, the instructor who had arrived with them, could not simply watch and rushed at Mumu.
"Stop!"
O Jeong-dan unleashed the ultimate move of his speciality martial arts, the Five Tigers Saber Art.
His savage saber strike, infused with a brilliant white ki sword, surged toward Mumu as though it would split him in half.
Mumu swung Bae Man-ok by the head.
-Swish!
"Aah!"
One of her legs was sliced off.
"You bastard!"
Mumu had used her as a shield.
Gritting his teeth in guilt, O Jeong-dan hurriedly changed the saber's path and tried to cut Mumu's left armpit, the arm holding Bae Man-ok's head.
The armpit was also one of the areas hardest to train.
Yet he had overlooked something.
"Is your right hand just sitting idle?"
-Thud!
"Ghk!"
Mumu drove his fist down into O Jeong-dan's head.
Not only was his skull crushed by the blow to the crown of his head, blood burst from his eyes, nose, and mouth as he collapsed onto the ground.
-Boom!
The ground caved in.
O Jeong-dan twitched for a moment, then stopped moving as his breath left him.
-Crack!
"Ghk!"
Mumu spun the hand holding Bae Man-ok's head like a top.
Her neck twisted, and Bae Man-ok, who had been screaming from her severed leg, died on the spot.
For a moment, silence fell over the area.
'W-what is this?'
Everyone thought the same thing.
This was far removed from the martial arts they knew.
Techniques. Movements. Methods.
Without any of those things, Mumu had killed three Masters through pure strength alone.
It was overwhelming violence in its rawest form.
-Drip.
Cold sweat ran down Go Heon-beom's rigid face.
A tremor spread from Go Heon-beom's toes through their body.
'...Those brats were not the variable.'
The real variable was the monster standing before Go Heon-beom.
Footnotes:
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