Trapped in a Webnovel as a Good-For-Nothing

“...Someone tampered with the duel matchups.”

“What?”

“It seems to be your brother’s work.”

Yu-Seong started to think quickly. Kim Do-Jin was a man of few words, but Yu-Seong knew exactly what he meant.

‘Choi Min-Seok wants me to go against Lee Jin-Wook.’

A chill ran down his spine. Actually, this wasn’t something totally unexpected.

‘Yep, Choi Min-Seok wouldn’t rig something like this just to humiliate me.’

Yu-Seong thought it was too naive to believe that Min-Seok wanted to simply humiliate him because of a grudge he was holding from their last encounter. Min-Seok wasn’t the type of person to just end things at humiliation.

‘After all, he tried to murder me.’

There was no reason not to do the same this time. At the very least, Min-Seok would order Jin-Wook to permanently cripple him. Considering how fierce the combat exam was, it was completely possible for Yu-Seong to be injured. Even though they prepared perfectly, there was still a death or a fatally injured applicant every two to three years.

At that moment, the monitor attached to the ceiling changed color and revealed the matchups.

“Eighth.”

Choi Yu-Seong, Lee Jin-Wook.

Yu-Seong’s lips twitched as he confirmed his turn. A crisis was also an opportunity. Although a duel with Jin-Wook was dangerous, it would also attract a lot of attention. Yu-Seong’s proficiency level for his Star Factor skill could increase or he could even get the attention of a god as he had before.

‘High risk, high return. Low risk, low return.’

The majority of things in the world were like this. The question was whether someone had the confidence to follow through.

‘I should believe in myself.’

He trusted the time, sweat, and effort he put into this. After all, there wasn’t any way to avoid this. Just as a slight smile was appearing on Yu-Seong’s face, Do-Jin asked.

“So what are you going to do?”

“What?”

“It’ll be easier for you if you just told the Iron Wall all of this.”

Do-Jin’s eyes observed Yu-Seong sharply. He was like a snake observing its prey.

‘Ah. Now I know for sure.’

Obviously, Do-Jin hadn't come just to help Yu-Seong by telling him the information he had acquired. He had sensed a change in Yu-Seong and had come because he wanted to confirm what had happened to Yu-Seong.

It was only natural. After all, Yu-Seong was a member of the Choi family. He was the son of the man Do-Jin wanted to murder—Choi Woo-Jae.

‘They say if you know your enemy and yourself, you can win every battle…’

This meant that if someone had a clear understanding of oneself and their enemy, no battle would be dangerous. There was no way Do-Jin wouldn’t know General Lee Sun-Shin’s famous sayings[1]. Although his confidence was borderline arrogant, he didn’t fight recklessly. If he was one to fight recklessly, then he would never have used Yu-Seong to get to Woo-Jae.

Maybe it was Yu-Seong who had lowered his guard. Just because he had beaten Do-Jin before, he had now ended up underestimating Do-Jin.

‘What should I do?’

Yu-Seong thought that he should do something to lower Do-Jin’s guard while also gaining something.

Seeing him hesitating, Do-Jin snorted, “You’ve changed a lot, Choi Yu-Seong.”

“...”

“It’s almost surprising. Did another soul possess your body?”

Yu-Seong almost screamed at Do-Jin’s words.

‘He’s not the main character, he’s a psychic!’

It would be fitting if the title of the original novel was ‘The Foreseeing Returner.’

“Stop saying such crazy things. I don’t have time to get riled up from such little things. Do you think that I’m not aware of what he’s doing?”

“...”

“Regardless of whether someone tampered with the matchups or not, I’m not going to do anything about it. I’m Choi Yu-Seong. Isn’t it clear that there is only so much my hyung-nim can do to me, since we’re both a part of the Choi family?”

Do-Jin glared at him like a ferocious viper. Yu-Seong glared right back. Although he was scared of Do-Jin’s glistening eyes that seemed deep enough to be able to swallow him up, he didn’t back off.

“If you’re here to pull some stunts, get out. I don’t like how you’ve been acting recently.”

He firmly ordered Do-Jin to back off. Of course, he could feel his heart pounding with fear. There was no Jin Do-Yoon or Jin Yu-Ri here. What if Do-Yoon lost his mind and decided to kill him?

‘I don’t even want to imagine it.’

He begged inwardly for Do-Jin not to get mad at him. Desperate emotion was visible in his eyes. Silently looking at Yu-Seong, Do-Jin’s expression changed oddly. It was hard to read; he seemed to be both laughing and frowning.

Perhaps Yu-Seong’s wishes came true? Do-Jin stopped glaring daggers at Yu-Seong.

“Interesting. Not bad.” After that, Do-Jin turned around. “Don’t die.”

His last words before leaving were very… encouraging.

* * *

After leaving Yu-Seong’s waiting room, Do-Jin’s eyes became cold and calculating as he walked down the hallway.

‘He’s become quite clever.’

Although Do-Jin had just casually slipped a piece of information, it took less than three minutes for Yu-Seong to rationally come to a conclusion. Even though Yu-Seong pretended to be clueless, it was clear that he knew Min-Seok was going after him. Nevertheless, he didn’t back off.

‘He always had a death wish.’

On the day he promised to become brothers with Do-Jin, he had become very drunk and burst into tears, crying that he wanted to die. He despised the world and he thought that dying would be easier for him. He had also screamed that he hated his family for making him this way.

Was he still like that? No, there were clear differences.

‘Now, he wants to live.’

Yu-Seong was even passionate and energetic now. It was a mysterious phenomenon. Was it possible for a person to change this drastically in a short amount of time? Although it was unbelievable, it sure was interesting.

‘Choi Yu-Seong.’

Originally, Yu-Seong was a trump card that he would later discard as part of his plan. But was it necessary? Do-Jin didn’t care if Yu-Seong wanted to live or not, but if he still resented his family, then the fact that he had become more clever wasn’t bad for Do-Jin.

Actually, Yu-Seong’s acting was quite good. Him acting arrogantly without knowing his place was similar to the Yu-Seong that Do-Jin knew of.

‘Even his eyes that wished for my attention were exactly the same as before.’

The loneliness hidden inside Yu-Seong’s eyes when he ordered him to get out was especially similar. That loneliness was evident even though Yu-Seong was being aggressive. After all, when Yu-Seong first met Do-Jin, Yu-Seong yelled at him but couldn’t completely push him away as he penetrated Yu-Seong’s loneliness.

“It wouldn’t be bad to make him my subordinate.”

If Yu-Seong had known what Do-Jin was thinking, he would have been frightened.

* * *

It took a while for Yu-Seong to catch his breath after Do-Jin left the waiting room. Do-Jin saw through him whenever he let his guard down, so playing mind games with him was stressful.

‘Choi Yu-Seong, don’t forget that Kim Do-Jin is the main character—the most dangerous person in this whole world.’

And he was a pitiful villain who would get abandoned by Do-Jin. Based on everything from their relationship in the original novel, he could never beat Do-Jin.

Catching his breath, Yu-Seong watched the duel between the applicants going before him. Fortunately, his battle was eighth in line, which provided him with a lot of extra time.

‘As expected, I would’ve won easily if my matchup wasn’t Lee Jin-Wook.’

He was certain after watching five duels. His ability was so amazing that it was almost a cheat. The saying that Irregulars became powerful as long as they survived wasn’t a lie.

Yu-Seong watched the duels for three hours, but even as he watched the 7th duel taking place, that thought didn’t change. However, there was one player that he took notice of.

‘Was it applicant number 12?’

Considering that applicant number 12 was a psychic type player that could transform the ground into metal shapes, Yu-Seong thought that he could’ve passed the exam if he had used his ability more creatively. Unfortunately, he lacked the creativity, and consequently failed.

Yu-Seong’s turn finally came.

‘Let’s go.’

His mindset was more than ready.

The moment he stood up, one side of the waiting room wall opened and displayed various weapons as if he was inside a movie. Striding ahead, he firmly grabbed a weapon that he had decided on using before. Although it was just made for practice, the grip wasn’t that bad.

Unconsciously licking his lips with the tip of his tongue, Yu-Seong walked through the automatic door of the waiting room.

* * *

The combat exam site was located at the end of the hallway. Yu-Seong was overwhelmed by the unexpected amount of attention he was receiving as he entered the site that looked similar to the Colosseum in Rome.

‘It’s totally different from watching it on the monitor.’

As always, knowing and experiencing something were two different things. But since he had mentally prepared before arriving, he soon adapted to it. Entering from the opposite side, Jin-Wook seemed no different from him. The two sized each other up quickly.

Standing on the edge of the arena, the instructor, Iron Wall Park Cheol-Ho, spoke as he crossed his arms.

“Choi Yu-Seong, Lee Jin-Wook. You both seem ready.”

Although he wasn’t speaking loudly, his voice echoed through the entire Colosseum.

‘This is an S-rank player.’

Yu-Seong had felt it when he had met Woo-Jae. It was not exaggerated to think that players S-rank and above were basically not human.

“Even if this is a practice duel, fight as if your lives are at stake, fight as if you’re in actual combat. Monsters do not have mercy. Any questions?”

“No.”

“No, sir.”

The former was Yu-Seong while the latter was Jin-Wook. Even though Yu-Seong had spoken in a small voice, it seemed that Cheol-Ho had heard it clearly. As proof, one of Cheol-Ho’s eyebrows twitched as he looked at Yu-Seong.

‘What? I can’t talk down to you, but you can talk down to me?’

Regardless of whether Cheol-Ho was an S-rank or an instructor for the exam, Yu-Seong didn’t actually like Cheol-Ho for talking down to him from the start.

‘We’re all grownups here; it’s not like we’re in the army.’

He was the rascal anyway. It was nothing unusual for him to do things the way he liked.

“Hmm…”

After briefly snorting, Cheol-Ho nodded.

“Begin.”

As he had been waiting for this moment, Jin-Wook made the first move. He had chosen a sword as his weapon. Since it was made for practice, it wasn’t sharp, but it would certainly hurt if it hit Yu-Seong.

Jin-Wook’s deadliest weapon wasn’t actually the sword. Although he was far away from Yu-Seong, he kicked off from the ground and used the wind currents to close the distance.

‘He’s fast!’

Unconsciously admiring Jin-Wook’s skill, Yu-Seong spun and lifted his weapon, a long spear.

The weapon he had used most during his training with Do-Yoon was a staff. And mastering the staff meant that, to an extent, he had also mastered the spear.

‘Block.’

Yu-Seong’s smooth, familiar movements flowed like water as they blocked and pushed aside Jin-Wook’s sword that crashed down on him. Although Jin-Wook’s attacks were heavier than Yu-Seong’s defense, Yu-Seong used skills to balance them off.

Remaining calm, Jin-Wook landed on the ground and stretched out his hand. A strong wind that could easily knock a grown man down gushed out from his hand. Yu-Seong didn’t try to brace himself against the wind but let himself be pushed away, rotated a full circle, and thrust out with his spear.

The sharp wind coming from the other side of the field was caught by the tip of his spear, making it wobble. It would be impossible for players to get rid of this if they weren’t a strong Physical type player. Yu-Seong channeled mana into the tip of his spear. Although it was hard to channel one’s mana into a weapon, Yu-Seong was able to do it for a short time on a small part of the weapon. The center of the Wind Blade Jin-Wook produced was eventually ripped apart and crashed in all directions into the arena walls.

Boom-!

The wind blasted the walls and clouds of dust rose in the air.

‘If I were caught in that, my neck would break from the whiplash.’

Recalling the sharpness of the Wind Blade that had just passed by him, Yu-Seong gulped. On the other hand, Jin-Wook frowned when saw that things weren’t going his way.

Him holding a sword had been a decoy from the start. This was to hide the fact that he was a Psychic, wind-type player. But, without even looking at him, Yu-Seong had channeled mana into his spear and thrust it at his attack, as if Yu-Seong had already known that he would use the Wind Blade.

‘He’s going to become Storm, the villain.’

If Yu-Seong hadn’t been aware of this, it would’ve been quite dangerous. However, despite his anxiety, he smiled and provoked Jin-Wook.

“Min-Seok’s going to be disappointed if this is all you got.”

“...!!”

Heated up, Jin-Wook charged toward Yu-Seong. The Wind Blade had a long cooldown time. He was attacking like this to buy time until he could use it again.

Yu-Seong smiled as he looked at Jin-Wook. Then, a blue flame blazed inside his eyes as he activated Insight. As he concentrated Insight for combat, part of Jin-Wook’s movements appeared like afterimages in front of him. His composure was strengthened while his anxiety was relieved adequately.

Although he was surprised by Jin-Wook’s first strike, there was no reason for him to be surprised the second time. He thrust forward, using the spear’s long reach to get to Jin-Wook before the latter could get close.

‘Grab.’

Jin-Wook spread the wind behind him and easily avoided Yu-Seong’s attack like it was a walk in the park. Although his swordsmanship itself was so poor that it was a joke to even call it swordsmanship, the rest of his senses were certainly refined. It seemed that he also had a lot of skills. He was an Irregular for a reason.

However, Yu-Seong’s Insight was reading even those movements. That was why, instead of stopping in surprise, he merely twisted his hips and thrust his spear at Jin-Wook once more, then swiped horizontally.The spear shaft bent like a snake, striking Jin-Wook’s shoulder.

Bang-!

A sound resonated that brought a smile to Yu-Seong’s face, while Jin-Wook’s body stiffened in pain.

“This attack is going to hurt much more.”

Since it was Jin-Wook that was going to receive this attack, Yu-Seong spoke lightly, without his conscience bothering him, as he activated the skill.

‘Spark.’

The electricity produced from his spear handle wracked Jin-Wook’s entire body.

“Grrrraaah-!”

His scream echoed throughout the entire duel stadium.

1. Lee Sun-Shin (Yi Sun-Sin) is arguably one of the most famous generals/admirals in Korean history. However, this quote is from Sun Tzu’s Art of War. ☜