Urban Vagabond: Reload

Episode 38. Is He Really Unable to Do It?

Song Junho was the late-bloom prospect carrying all of Supreme Pole Sword Gate’s expectations on his back.

Born in November, he’d had his constitution test relatively late, and the moment his Level 1 constitution was confirmed, every media outlet started screaming about it.

He got news interviews, all kinds of variety shows, and invitations from major YouTube channels without a break.

All Eight Great Sects approached him with their best offers, and after wavering between Azure Sky Sword Gate and Supreme Pole Sword Gate, he signed with Supreme Pole Sword Gate when the Sect Master personally came and promised to teach him sword arts directly.

Life overturned. Future guaranteed. Candidate for Supreme Pole Sword Gate’s next Sect Master.

In a single day, he went from an ordinary late-bloom prospect to a great-sect golden prospect weighed down with every flattering descriptor imaginable.

Some people scoffed that it was just a bubble that would pop soon, but Song Junho tried not to care.

No need to pay attention to the jealousy of losers.

...There was, however, one thing he couldn’t ignore.

The one flaw even the media pointed out as his only weakness: his height, one hundred sixty-three centimeters.

Thinking of his complex made Song Junho’s eyes harden.

They said I could still grow another ten centimeters even after my growth plates close. Dad said he grew taller in the army, so I definitely can too...

There were fans who said they liked him because he looked cute, but he hated hearing that.

That was why he’d slipped a pair of custom-made insoles into his sneakers again today.

They bumped him up by more than five centimeters without being obvious, and his self-esteem was sky-high.

“Ha, I’ve learned a lot.”

“It was a good experience for me as well.”

It wasn’t quite what Supreme Pole Sword Gate had drilled into him, but even in the first test—weapon disarming—he had overwhelmed his opponent and proved his skill.

Song Junho could feel the gazes around him shifting from doubt to admiration. He happily stepped into the winner’s group and followed after Black-White.

You’re all going to be more and more surprised from here on.

Even when the unfamiliar group approached from the opposite side, he didn’t feel the slightest tension.

If anything, he just wanted the second test to start sooner.

[The second event is “number-tag stripping.” I will now randomly attach number-tags to your backs.]

[Among the martial artists you see across from you, you will fight the one wearing the same number as you and bring back their tag.]

Doesn’t matter what the test is.

Song Junho was confident he wouldn’t lose no matter who he faced.

He’d only been at Supreme Pole Sword Gate for two months, but he was getting personal instruction from the Sect Master.

On top of that, his dantian, swollen with elixirs, was packed with inner power that felt like it was about to overflow.

[However, weapons are not allowed in this event. Poisons and throwing weapons are also prohibited. You must use only your body to take your opponent’s number-tag.]

Once the explanation was over, Black-White showed each applicant their number-tag, then stuck it between their shoulder blades.

“Number 7, huh...”

With the tag stuck on his back, Song Junho looked across at the martial artists opposite him.

He was confident no matter who he fought, but that didn’t mean there weren’t people he’d rather avoid.

The moment he saw Kim Muhyuk, his whole body tensed up before he even realized it.

He’s the one I really don’t want to fight.

It wasn’t because Kim Muhyuk’s eyes scared him, or because he looked strong.

From the moment he’d seen him at the Martial Alliance main gate, what had gotten under his skin was that absurdly tall height.

If we stand next to each other, I’m going to look tiny.

And Kim Muhyuk wasn’t just tall; his proportions were broken on top of it.

Small head, big frame, arms and legs that just went on forever.

He wasn’t quite as massive as Shin Kangheon, but the length of their limbs seemed about the same.

He didn’t even want to imagine how he’d look to other people standing in front of that.

Lucky bastard...

Muttering inwardly, Song Junho tried to circle as far away from Kim Muhyuk as he could to find his opponent.

But as if fate were playing a joke, a few moments later they were standing face-to-face.

“Are you number 7 by any chance?”

“Ah, no way...?”

Both of them, with the same number-tag stuck to their backs, looked at each other with troubled expressions.

Kim Muhyuk was the first to speak, looking distinctly reluctant.

“With limbs that short, you’re going to be at a disadvantage. Are you sure you’re okay with fighting me?”

“You...!”

“You can go ask Black-White to change opponents if you want. For the second event, the bigger the height gap, the more unfair it is.”

He’s opening with that kind of provocation?

“I’ll make you regret what you just said, bastard!”

“I only said it because your body type does seem disadvantaged...”

“I don’t need your pity!”

Thud!

Stamping his foot hard, Song Junho flared his thick eyebrows and shouted,

“The Sect Master said that insulting me is no different from insulting the sect! I’ll defeat you for the honor of Supreme Pole Sword Gate!”

“Supreme Pole Sword Gate? Ah... so you’re Song Junho?”

He looked genuinely surprised, as if he hadn’t known who he was, but in truth, I knew Song Junho better than anyone here.

Supreme Pole Sword King Song Junho. I’ve been wanting to fight him ever since I knew we’d meet at this exam.

I was facing the late-bloom days of the man who would later become Supreme Pole Sword Gate’s top master—and infamous for his rotten attitude.

Maybe because Supreme Pole Sword Gate had pampered him, the future Song Junho was notorious for his arrogance.

He especially couldn’t stand opponents taller than he was; whenever a fight broke out, he’d deliberately break their leg to force them to kneel.

He couldn’t pull that kind of stunt inside the Eight Great Sects, but among mid-tier sects and vagabonds, there were plenty of victims.

One of those victims was someone I knew.

Thinking of a colleague who had limped through missions for a long time, I had no reason to see Song Junho in a favorable light.

Which was part of why I’d pushed his buttons even harder.

“Too late to apologize now that you know who I am!”

Whoooosh—!

When Song Junho drew inner power up from his dantian, qi surged around him and made his martial robes billow.

Level 1 constitution.

A blessed body in which qi naturally accumulated in the dantian even without training any inner arts.

It was the favored child of talent, a rank only given when someone exceeded top-tier numbers in all four metrics: accumulation capacity, accumulation speed, meridians and blood flow, and power output.

“You’ll regret looking down on me!”

“Why are you so worked up?”

With crystalline light flickering in his eyes, Song Junho closed the distance in a single burst and thrust his palm out. I hastily crossed my arms to block.

Boom!

With a sound like a drum exploding, my body lifted and flew.

Pain shot up my forearms, enough to make them go numb, and a deep crease formed between my brows.

“...Didn’t they say this was tag stripping?”

“I’ll knock you out first and strip it off afterward!”

Song Junho used Supreme Pole Sword Gate’s footwork to circle around to my left.

His feet traced a smooth arc as he went for my flank, the palm he was aiming at my side carrying enough power to dent an iron plate.

“Eight Trigram Palm?”

Supreme Pole Sword Gate was a sect famous not only for its sword arts but also for its palm arts.

Its representative techniques were Eight Trigram Palm and Face-Slapping Palm.

Both shared the principle of using softness to overcome hardness—but the way Song Junho was using them now made that reputation feel meaningless. His strikes were nothing but brute force.

Whump!

The air exploded where I’d just been standing. I twisted aside at the last second, and this time a kick whipped toward my face.

“Haap!”

His foot lashed out like a whip and skimmed the tip of my nose. In that instant, I reached out and grabbed his ankle.

But as if he’d expected it, Song Junho spun his body with a sharp twist and used his other leg to slam a kick into my side to keep me in check.

Tat-tat-tat!

After trading a flurry of blows, hands and feet clashing, we both backed off and opened up the distance.

“You’re stronger than I expected.”

“Hmph! Same to you.”

A faint smile hung at the corner of my mouth, and his thick eyebrows twitched.

Without either of us needing to signal it, we charged straight at each other again.

I’m stronger than you!

Song Junho was sure he could beat me.

In the past, he’d have shrunk back at the sight of my size and my eyes, but now that he’d grasped how much more powerful his own “weapon” was, things were different.

Once a person’s martial artist constitution activated in adulthood, it had a huge impact on the body itself.

The best analogy was that the engine’s output changed altogether.

—Forget who you were before. Once you learn Supreme Pole Sword Gate’s secret inner art, two months from now there won’t be a late-bloom prospect your age who can touch you.

The bold promise of his teacher, the Sect Master of Supreme Pole Sword Gate.

At first, he’d only half believed it, but after two months of intensive instruction, Song Junho’s confidence had grown and grown.

I’m strong. I can beat anyone.

A translucent haze rose over his body like heat shimmer. The inner power overflowing inside him was now taking visible form outside his body.

Tat-tat-tat-tat!

His movements, as he unleashed an aggressive barrage, were overflowing with confidence.

Every time his hands or feet collided with mine, he felt himself edging ahead.

“......”

By contrast, my expression pinched slightly with pain. Just keeping up with Song Junho’s speed made it look like I was barely hanging on.

See? I’m faster and stronger than you are.

Watching me, Song Junho felt more and more certain.

One by one, the other martial artists stopped fighting and turned to watch the high-level close-range brawl between us.

Most of the comments were awed exclamations about Song Junho, Supreme Pole Sword Gate’s late-bloom prospect.

“So that’s a Level 1 constitution...”

“The guy who beat Songwol Gate’s Oh Jungmin can’t even move.”

“That’s just talent. I’m so jealous it hurts.”

Once you start converting the qi inside your body into inner power and projecting it outward, you step fully into the realm of superhumans.

Among those, the martial artists who can freely manipulate their qi are what the martial world calls first-rate.

And Song Junho was proving right now that a Level 1 constitution was a talent that could carry someone into that realm faster than anyone else.

[It looks like applicant Song Junho has already awakened his qi-sense domain.]

Side by side with their arms folded, two Black-Whites watched the duel between the late-bloom prospects with keen interest.

The Black-White who had come with Song Junho spoke with open admiration.

[The average martial artist needs over ten years of effort to gain that sense, and he’s done it in just two months... There’s a reason they call him Level 1.]

Qi-sense domain.

When a martial artist spreads qi around them to form a domain of their own, they gain an absolute sense of everything within it.

That was why martial artists with an expanded qi-sense domain could do things like dodge bullets flying in from behind or predict the path of a sword.

It was also the reason Song Junho could maintain the upper hand in his clash with Kim Muhyuk despite the huge difference in physical stats.

[He is on the fast side even for a Level 1 late-bloom prospect. Even with an amplification inner art, most people take six months to a year... Maybe he’s just a type whose qi-sense is exceptionally developed?]

The Black-White who had arrived with me watched Song Junho with interest as well.

The first Black-White turned to that one.

[Black-White 13. Aren’t you worried about the late-bloom prospect you’re in charge of? He seemed like quite the prospect too.]

Black-Whites, sharing the same mask, referred to one another by number. They could see markings invisible to others.

[Not really. I’m not the type to get attached as easily as Black-White 8.]

“......”

When Black-White 8 didn’t respond, Black-White 13 glanced sidelong at them and spoke in a teasing tone.

[I’m kidding. Anyway, you’re talking like the match is already decided, but I’m telling you—my side isn’t so simple.]

Black-White 13 chuckled to themself as they recalled what I’d shown in the first event.

Thud-thud-thud!

On the surface, it really did look like Song Junho was pushing me back one-sidedly.

A Level 1 late-bloom prospect who had trained in Supreme Pole Sword Gate’s inner art and techniques was attacking like a lion with wings, while I, in contrast, looked like I was barely managing to defend—just as Oh Jungmin had against me.

[I told you, he’s a fox the more you watch him...]

Look a bit closer, though, and my expression was completely different from Oh Jungmin’s.

Aside from an occasional furrow of my brows, there wasn’t a hint of distress in my face as I blocked the onslaught.

If anything, it was Song Junho, who had been overwhelming me with sheer inner power, who was clearly starting to tire.

[Could it be...]

Realizing that something was off, Black-White 8 turned to Black-White 13.

[Has applicant Kim Muhyuk also awakened a qi-sense domain?]

Even as they asked, Black-White 8 tilted their head slightly.

Officially, Kim Muhyuk’s constitution was known to be Level 4.

Not bad as talents go—but not the kind of sensitivity to qi that would allow someone to break into the qi-sense domain.

[No, that’s not it.]

Black-White 13 shook their head firmly.

[What he’s using is a sense honed with his body. He’s not responding with qi-sense—he’s responding with his physical reactions.]

[...That sounds even less plausible. You’re telling me a late-bloom prospect his age has physical senses as sharp as a qi-sense domain?]

[Ha ha! Wouldn’t it be possible if he spent every day doing surprise-attack drills with an assassin?]

[Don’t be ridiculous...]

When Black-White 8 shot them a glare as if to say, Is that something you say about a twenty-year-old late-bloom prospect? Black-White 13 shrugged, saying it was just a joke.

[In any case, I’m sure of one thing: what he’s using is not a qi-sense domain. He’s barely even using inner power.]

“......”

[There is one thing I’m curious about, though...]

Watching me intently, Black-White 13 murmured with a meaningful smile.

[Is he really unable to do it? If so, then why...]

By all rights, it should have been impossible. But to Black-White’s eyes, there was nothing in what Song Junho was doing that Kim Muhyuk looked incapable of doing too.

[And am I imagining it, or is there a faint smile flickering at the corner of that kid’s mouth?]