Chapter 510 – Chain of Hatred

A martial artist.

An existence that hones their skills and makes self-discipline their profession.

And in modern times, they’re also called fighters.

So, it’s obvious that martial artists are far removed from the word laziness.

They nourish their bodies with the fertilizer of blood and sweat, making it fertile.

The being that blooms the flower of martial arts above that is the martial artist.

Thus, it was completely unfathomable when Cheonma first said to train them.

Essentially, a martial artist must constantly hone themselves every moment.

One can view training as a weapon being forged with the hammer of discipline.

In fact, for a martial artist, training is as vital as breathing.

“Lift it up!”

“I can’t! It’s my limit!”

“No, f*ck! You’ve only done one rep!”

“That’s why it’s my limit.”

But it seemed these guys had forgotten even how to breathe.

Hyeji and Elcia loosely interpreted Cheonma’s words to train the martial artists.

They dragged them to the gym in the guild building to get them to do basic exercises, but…

After a while, they realized how naive that thought was.

“Don’t use your phone while bench pressing!”

“Oh, one hit knockout, so good.”

“I’m going insane.”

The state of the martial artists was serious, even to my eyes.

“Hey, let me join.”

“Shinwoo, please just stay quiet!”

First off, I can definitively say their physical condition was very serious.

When they arrived, they were wearing doboks, so at first, I was uncertain.

But once their clothes changed to gym wear, it became abundantly clear.

These f*ckers were all coated in flab instead of muscle.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say they had shaped fat into a human form.

Sure, I recalled a slight excuse about their activity decreasing due to the cessation of recent subjugation requests.

However, the appearance they were showing utterly shredded that understanding to bits.

“I really want to live like a pig for life!”

“I love it.”

“……damn.”

Despite someone worrying for them, not a single one of them showed an ounce of will to exercise.

Had they just gotten fatter and changed their personalities?

Did they relax instantly because Cheonma wasn’t around?

Or was it always their true nature, who knows?

Honestly, calling them martial artists felt like an utter waste of the term.

Now I could fully understand Cheonma’s insistence on training them to put an end to this laziness.

Cheonma probably felt overwhelmed at the thought of handling them alone.

In essence, Cheonma had just passed on a troublesome task to us.

[Are you just going to sit back and watch?]

‘Not just yet. If Elcia and Hyeji give up, then I’ll step in.’

For now, I was still just observing all of this.

This decision was entirely up to Elcia and Hyeji.

They had expressed confidence that they could finish this without my intervention this time.

But I didn’t think they could have expected the martial artists to be this bad off.

Encouraging this many martial artists to exercise seemed practically impossible for just two of them.

To make matters worse, the situation seemed to be worsening, as if mocking their efforts.

“Send me home!”

“It’s hard. It’s so hard.”

“Oh, you weren’t going to exercise anyway!”

“Just getting here was the toughest part! Now that we’ve made it this far, let’s just call it a day.”

Now these guys were getting cheeky, thinking they could crawl back home.

“This is so f*cking annoying…”

“We just want to go home, f*ck…”

Thanks to this, Hyeji and Elcia began to consider the option of giving up on them.

It was an unfair situation where they had worked so hard but were getting no results.

A scene that outright denied the saying that effort doesn’t betray you.

It truly felt as though everything in the world deemed their efforts worthless.

“Motherf*cker…”

With her hands on her hips, and an axe eye glare, Hyeji appeared.

“Sis!!!”

“Hyeji!!!”

“You guys totally caused a ruckus while I was just gone for a bit?”

Just her mere appearance brightened the faces of Elcia and Hyeji.

They openly showed hope that this could completely reverse the worst-case scenario.

Meanwhile, the lazy martial artists began to tremble at Hyeji’s presence.

“Uh… ugh…!”

“Oh, a natural disaster from Korea!!!”

“She has appeared…!”

Unlike when facing Elcia and Hyeji, they seemed to think they couldn’t just glide by this time.

At that moment, Hyeji looks at the martial artists and speaks.

“I’ll send you home.”

“R-Really?!”

Her unexpected words shattered both our hopes and the martial artists’ worries simultaneously.

As a result, a hint of confusion appeared on our faces.

In contrast, the martial artists began to show signs of relief.

“If anyone hits me even once…”

Of course, if you hear Hyeji’s next words, it certainly doesn’t sound like she’d let them go.

Yet, the martial artists started to show a completely different reaction than before.

It seemed the thought that they might get out of here devoured their fears.

“I-I’m going home!”

“Wow, that’s easier than expected!”

“Just one hit is enough!”

[You should be exercising instead…]

‘……What a remarkable bunch in many ways…’

Even amidst all this, it seemed the option of just quietly exercising was utterly erased from their minds.

I could see once again why Cheonma demanded they train.

At that moment, a martial artist slowly stepped forward in front of Hyeji.

While he was biting his lips, thinking how f*cked he was to face Hyeji.

Still, beneath that twisted face, anticipation was gently seeping out.

The thought of hitting just once seemed to stir up some excitement in him.

“Think of it as avenging your parents and come at me.”

“Uuuhhhhhh!”

And with Hyeji’s words as a signal, the martial artist charged forward with gusto.

No matter how rotten and lazy, a martial artist is still a martial artist, right?

He stepped forward, closing the distance at a speed hard for ordinary eyes to follow.

“I’ll send you to your parents, you demon!”

He concentrated all that speed into a single punch.

It was honest and straightforward, yet quite sharp for a punch.

“Die, growth-disabled piece of sh*t!!!”

To him, this was a great challenge.

To prove that he was still a martial artist.

At the same time, a remarkable challenge of shoving a fang into the king above the heavens.

– Wham!

“How’s it feel to taste the punch that killed your parents?”

Of course, great challenges don’t always lead to great results.

Hyeji didn’t even put much effort into it, yet the martial artist dropped to the ground after just one hit.

His own speed had turned against him.

“Not yet, parents’ enemy!”

However, he didn’t give up and charged at Hyeji again.

His eyes were slightly rolling, half-convinced that Hyeji was indeed the enemy of his parents.

And naturally, Hyeji’s counterattacks continued.

– Wham!

“This pain is nothing!”

One hit.

– Wham!

“I won’t crumble from this!”

Two hits.

– Wham!

“I swore to my deceased parents that I would avenge them!”

Three hits.

– Wham!

“I won’t let my parents die in peace!!!”

How many times did this one-sided counterattack repeat?

– Wham!

“……”

The martial artist, whose face had swollen up, suddenly froze in place.

Just like a machine that had run out of fuel called anger.

As Hyeji beckoned him with a finger, urging him to charge.

“Aren’t you coming at me anymore?”

“Did our parents do something wrong?”

The martial artist showed a shockingly different reaction than before.

“…….No… I said they were my parents’ enemy…”

“That could be true…”

It seemed he had burned through his rage completely and extinguished his filial piety.

Thanks to that, Hyeji was left momentarily speechless, gazing in disbelief.

“Is there anyone else who wants to challenge me?”

Now composed, Hyeji turned her gaze back to the crumpled martial artists.

As if asking if any of them wanted to take revenge for their parents.

The helpless martial artist and each of their families’ vengeance.

“Did our parents really want revenge…?”

“Perhaps we were firmly mistaken…”

“Our parents must have been in the wrong…”

Of course, it’s not like there were any martial artists who’d actually buy into that.

In any case, this had completely sorted the hierarchy.

Hyeji stood at the top of the pyramid, looking down at them, murmuring.

“Then get to exercising, you dog b*stards.”

At that, the gym equipment that had been idle started moving one by one.

Set against the backdrop of the groans of the unwillingly exercising martial artists.

Some might slightly criticize this.

What kind of realization could be derived from such violent acts?

Do you really think forcing them to work out would lead to proper training?

Could this even meet the conditions laid down by Cheonma?

But at the very least, it ensured the condition of imparting a new realization to them.

“If you want revenge, come at me anytime.”

“Revenge is bad!”

“People who are alive ought to live hard!”

“Our parents wouldn’t want us to avenge them either!”

It was only natural since the martial artists could realize through this opportunity.

The virtue of ‘forgiveness’ that cuts the chain of hatred.

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