Questism and Lookism: Am I Suhyeon Kim?

Scene change: Northern border of East Gangbuk — Night

Ryu smiled, crossing his arms casually.

"Do you really think you can beat me, Suhyeon?" he asked calmly, amused... but there was something serious underlying his words. "Come on, you know that we in the North are much stronger than the West and East combined."

The room seemed to darken for a moment.

Suhyeon lowered his head. His bangs fell over his eyes, momentarily hiding his expression.

And then, in the dim light, something glinted: a small smile.

"Little Ryu..." he murmured without looking up. "I see potential in you."

He slowly raised his face. His eyes met Ryu's. Just below his left eye, where the black spike ♤ marked his skin like a dark signature, the reflection of the light flickered like a spark.

"How about joining us?"

It wasn't a bad joke. It was a proposal... loaded with something else. As if, from the beginning, Suhyeon knew that not everything was at stake. Only what was necessary.

"HAHAHAHA!"

Ryu burst out laughing as if he had never laughed like that before. He doubled over, holding his stomach.

"Suhyeon, don't mess with me! This is no time for jokes," he said as he caught his breath, changing his tone. His expression went from genuine joy to firm seriousness.

Suhyeon didn't respond immediately. He just tilted his head and raised his eyebrow, as if calculating something.

"I see... I just wanted to try," he muttered.

He reached into his pocket, took out a cigarette, and lit it calmly. He placed it between his lips, inhaled deeply, and then exhaled, blowing the smoke directly into Ryu's face without any shame.

[System]: You are using the "Cloud" card.

[Summoning Card]

> (Master copy in the cloud)

Allows the user to summon 5 clouds that can be copied and pasted.

*Festival effect: the cloud has been given a personality.

Behind Ryu, something began to materialize. Silently, like a sinister apparition, a man dressed entirely in black emerged from nowhere. He wore a balaclava that covered his face.

[System]: You have pasted "Johan Seong."

[Johan Seong]

Height: 187 cm

Weight: 86 kg

Strength: ?

Speed: ?

Potential: SSS (Transcended)

Intelligence: A

Endurance: ?

Ryu frowned. He sensed something behind him. He turned around reflexively... but it was too late.

In an instant, his body was brutally knocked down. He fell backward onto the ground. The hooded man grabbed him by the head and slammed it against the pavement, immobilizing him with inhuman strength.

Suhyeon crouched down, took one last drag, and exhaled the smoke onto Ryu's defeated face. As he remembered how he got Johan's copy.

Flashback:

"Daniel's gone, it looks like he accepted the deal," Suhyeon said with a smile.

"After all, it wasn't necessary to call me Suhyeon..." Johan said reluctantly as he grabbed his hair.

"No... it was," Suhyeon thought, looking at one of the people he admired.

[System]: You are using 'Copy' on Johan Seong.

End of Flashback.

"Little Ryu... I offered you to join me. Too bad you said no."

"Son of a bitch! What do you think you're doing!?" Ryu shouted furiously, struggling again and again. But nothing worked. He was trapped.

[Syste8m]: You are using the "Cloud" card.

[System]: Copy target: "Ryu Sikyung."

Then, something invisible began to envelop Ryu's body. It couldn't be seen with the naked eye, but it could be felt. As if a hidden copy of himself was beginning to form... beneath his own feet.

[System]: You have copied "Ryu Sikyung."

"It was nice talking to you, sir... but you know, paperwork is calling, and I don't have time to waste," Suhyeon said with a crooked smile, placing his hand on Ryu's face.

[System]: Using skill: "Mana Drain."

"NO, NO, NOOOOO, WAIT!!!"

[Ryu Sikyung]

Height: 184 centimeters.

Weight: 82 kilograms.

Strength: SSR

Speed: SR+

Potential: A (Awakened)

Intelligence: B

Endurance: SSR

At that moment, Ryu's stats began to plummet.

"No... I can't move... What is she... taking away...? My strength! MY STRENGTH!" he thought, but he couldn't even scream it out.

His body lost weight at an alarming rate; his muscles shrank, his skin turned ashen and withered, as if his life was being sucked out of him.

[Ryu Sikyung]

Height: 184 centimeters.

Weight: 33 kilograms.

Strength: N/A

Speed: N/A

Potential: A (Awakened)

Intelligence: N/A

Endurance: N/A

Suhyeon watched him without blinking.

"Well, that's enough," he thought calmly, as if he had just closed a useless application.

"My master, what should I do with this body?" asked Johan Nube, tilting his head.

Suhyeon looked at him without emotion.

"It's weird that you call me 'master' with Johan's face, but whatever... Throw it in the trash. It's no longer useful to us."

He said it without anger. Without pride.

As if Ryu had never been a person.

As Johan Nube dragged the skeletal body away, Suhyeon looked away toward a floating circular holographic screen showing the other fights.

"Wow... so Hyeondong managed to gain some conviction. Incredible. Who would have thought he would beat Seok Kang?"

A slight gleam passed through his eyes, but it disappeared quickly. It was no longer admiration. Just another piece of information.

"On the other hand, Haru had it much easier. Her opponent couldn't wake up. If she had, it might have been a different story..."

"As for Yugyeom and Jihyeon, it was a resounding success. After all, it was two against one. Pretty obvious."

From afar, the sound of something falling echoed. It was Johan Nube throwing the corpse into the dumpster. The metallic echo bounced once, and then there was silence.

Suhyeon didn't even blink.

He just took a drag on his cigarette, exhaling the smoke as if nothing in the world weighed on him.

"And finally, these two... Gukja Yang and Hajun Gu. Interesting..." he muttered in an almost bored voice.

And then, the image changed.

It showed Hajun Gu brutally confronting Jaeha Han.

Change of scene: East Gangbuk Main Base — Courtyard

Jaeha was caught off guard. Unable to react, he took a devastating knee strike from Hajun that sent him crashing into several tables in the courtyard.

"Damn it... I can't lose like this..." thought Jaeha, clutching his broken arm.

"That bastard... he broke my arm... I'm at a disadvantage... damn it..." he coughed up blood, his gaze lowered and furious.

But he didn't give up... not that easily.

"I can't lose... I can't let them take East Gangbuk away from me..."

His body trembled as he got up. And then, his aura changed.

A shiver ran through the air.

[System]: Jaeha Han's potential has awakened.

[Jaeha Han]

Height: 181 centimeters.

Weight: 83 kilograms.

Strength: SSS+

Speed: SSS+

Potential: A (Awakened)

Intelligence: A+

Endurance: SSS

Hajun took several steps back, confused by the sudden pressure.

"What... what is this...?" he muttered.

Jaeha raised his head. His face was stained with blood, but he was smiling. Not arrogantly. He smiled like someone who had remembered who he was... and what he could do with his own hands.

"Did you think you had won? That you could take Gangbuk without paying a price?" His voice was low, like a knife scraping across a stone. The kind that irritates your ears.

He appeared in front of Hajun in the blink of an eye. One blow was enough to knock him down.

A knee to the stomach.

Then an elbow to the jaw, followed by a downward elbow strike that broke his shoulder.

The fight was no longer a fight. It was punishment.

"AHHHHHHHHH!"

Hajun screamed as he flew into a wall. He tried to get up, but Jaeha stepped on his chest.

"Stay down."

With one hand, he lifted Hajun by the neck as if he were a paper doll. He slammed him against the ground so many times that the pavement in the courtyard cracked beneath them.

"Weren't you supposed to be the former number one in West Gangbuk?" Jaeha said. "Then why are you shaking like a lost child?"

He violently ripped off his jacket. Then he broke his nose with a right hook.

Hajun was bleeding from his nose and mouth.

In the distance, Suhyeon watched the scene with an almost unnatural calm. He had put out his cigarette and rested his chin on his hand.

"What a pathetic spectacle..." he muttered. His eyes showed no pride, no compassion, and no genuine interest.

"Am I supposed to be moved by this? Fine. I guess Jaeha finally woke up... but this is all so predictable. Violence, power, and redemption... What an empty formula."

"My master," said Johan Nube, returning after throwing Ryu's body away, "do you want me to interfere?"

"No." Suhyeon did not take his eyes off the hologram. "Let it break. The higher it climbs, the harder it will fall."

His words were calm.

As if the concept of suffering no longer mattered to him... as if all this was nothing more than a boring simulation to him.

"Human feelings are useful... until they're not," he thought, as the black aura in his left eye, just below the pike ♤, throbbed like an open wound that never stopped bleeding, even if you bandaged it.

And on the battlefield, Jaeha Han shouted:

"THIS IS MINE!!! GANGBUK IS MINE!!!"

The ground shook with his roar.

But Suhyeon didn't even blink. However, he remembered all the moments he spent with him by his side.

"Hajun..." he sighed deeply, and a look of concern appeared in his eyes.

"I'll give you a hand. After all, you're one of my wings, Hajun," he thought.

[System]: Using "Bag of Fortune" on Hajun Gu.

[System]: Hajun's conviction is sky high.

"Jaeha Han, do you know why I'm standing up even though I'm on the verge of fainting?" Hajun said with a smile.

"Huh? What are you talking about now? Did you hurt your head?" he exclaimed sarcastically, running toward him at full speed.

"Because I don't like to lose," he replied, still smiling.

[System]: Hajun Gu's potential has awakened.

[Hajun Gu]

Height: 186 centimeters

Weight: 83 kilograms

Strength: SR

Speed: SR

Potential: S (Awakened)

Intelligence: C

Endurance: SSR

"Johan, bring me popcorn and a soda," Suhyeon said.

---

Author's note:

I will be taking a week off. During this time, I will also be reflecting on the story to improve it and bring you higher quality chapters.

Thank you, as always, for your support and patience!

See you soon with renewed energy.