Ch.99The Smell Grew Stronger

“As an educator, I’ll let you have the first move.”

“First move?”

“It means you can attack first.”

He extends his prosthetic arm, positions his fist at waist height, and lowers his stance.

His wavy gray hair ripples with the waves of his special ability.

At that sight, memories of when I was human flash through a corner of my mind.

Yeo Un-jae with short hair when his head was still black.

The man who stood alone before a monster in front of broadcast cameras, trying to prove superhumans could defeat monsters.

This man was the first human to defeat a monster single-handedly.

If Meister represents survival, Yeo Un-jae represents struggle.

“Strange feeling.”

First Meister, now facing a childhood hero.

I’m not exactly excited.

Rather, it’s closer to a monster’s excitement when facing prey.

Knowing how formidable he is makes me anticipate something interesting.

“To think I can see Teacher Yeo Un-jae fighting…”

“Gulp…”

“Stand back further.”

I gestured for the hero and students to retreat to the end of the auditorium.

Yeo Un-jae maintains his initial stance, quietly containing his energy as if inviting me to come at him.

Well then.

Papa-pang! Three surprise punches send shockwaves flying.

Yeo Un-jae swings his non-prosthetic hand in a circular motion to catch the shockwaves.

“Oh.”

I instinctively exclaimed in admiration.

Like cutting a log with a small knife—a remarkable feat.

Technical perfection different from other S-rank heroes’ abilities.

My admiration came naturally at seeing him use his ability cleanly only when necessary.

“W-wow…”

“What was that just now?”

Other superhumans also marveled after seeing Yeo Un-jae’s ability once.

No wonder they’re amazed.

The output of Yeo Un-jae’s ability just now was remarkably low.

So low they might be able to imitate it themselves.

As I expected, shockwaves don’t work on Yeo Un-jae.

He moves his raised prosthetic arm slightly, beckoning me to come at him.

With a raised corner of my mouth, I lower my body even more than Yeo Un-jae and place my dangling fist on the floor.

“Hup!”

Boom! With an explosive sound, my fist lunges toward Yeo Un-jae. Just before contact, he inhales sharply and meets my fist with his palm as his ability resonates.

In an instant, faster than a blink, waves of ability spread intensely, deflecting my punch.

Crack! As my joint twists, Yeo Un-jae bends his arm and strikes my chin with his elbow.

A wave of shock spreads inside my body as his ability quietly strikes my internal organs, spreading shockwaves.

A critical hit that would have knocked out a human instantly. I make eye contact with Yeo Un-jae, whose eyebrow twitches, and drive my fist under his chin.

My hand quickly inserted, Yeo Un-jae blocks my punch and soars high, flying backward.

A light landing. I stare at Yeo Un-jae and lick my lips.

So this is Yeo Un-jae’s ability.

As far as I know, Yeo Un-jae is a superhuman who handles various types of impacts.

Additionally, the taste of ability spreading in my mouth from the chin strike fills in the missing information.

His ability’s range controls all impacts within and around his body, within physical range.

The previous attack amplified internal impact, compressed it into my body, and fired it.

If the shockwaves that hero Wave inflicted on my body were like a rubber mallet used at construction sites, Yeo Un-jae’s are like a sledgehammer for demolition.

“Indeed, your strength is considerable. Your physical durability is… tremendous.”

“What was that just now?”

I flex my half-broken wrist, restoring it.

The heroes and students are astonished to see my wrist joint rapidly regenerating and finding its place, while Yeo Un-jae raises the corner of his mouth.

“It’s technique. When facing humanoid opponents, I can use it without special abilities if the strength difference isn’t too great…”

“Hmm.”

Let me see it then. I casually extend my hand, and Yeo Un-jae twists my wrist without using his ability, using his prosthetic arm.

Given my body’s nature, it doesn’t twist properly, but for a normal human, this alone could break a wrist.

An interesting technique that uses the joint structure of a body that isn’t firmly fixed.

“You’re using my own strength against me.”

“As you saw, brute force alone can be subdued by technique.”

“Indeed.”

Let’s see how far this technique can go.

I slowly walk toward Yeo Un-jae and throw consecutive punches.

He tracks each punch with his eyes, lightly tapping his non-prosthetic palm against them.

Side impact, directing the force.

My attacks barely graze Yeo Un-jae’s hair.

His current physical ability is A-rank level.

Weaker than me, but faster and more precise.

“Woooah! Amazing!”

“Waaah!”

The superhumans cheer. Realizing this approach won’t work, I stop my hand, and Yeo Un-jae takes a deep breath before speaking.

“Phew… This is what we call softness overcoming strength.”

“Softness overcoming strength?”

That sounds strange.

Yeo Un-jae’s attack style didn’t feel soft at all to me.

Precise force and ability-focused strikes.

Attacking joints to deflect my attacks simply exploits the weakness of joint structure.

Bwoong! With a surprise kick, Yeo Un-jae places his palm on my leg and rotates smoothly.

Whoosh! My body, twice his size, is lightly lifted and flies through the air.

I land smoothly with instinctive motor skills after spinning through the air, while Yeo Un-jae rotates his wrist as if in pain.

“Using the same method, this is also possible.”

“What’s this?”

“Didn’t I tell you? Softness overcoming strength.”

“Interesting.”

I want to experience this again.

I kick again, asking him to do it once more, but this time Yeo Un-jae ducks to avoid it.

Wondering why he’s dodging, I kick again, and he backs away, backs away.

Only on the fourth kick does Yeo Un-jae send me flying again.

Whirling through the air in this interesting experience, I twist my body mid-air and land.

“Can’t you do it consecutively?”

“Not with this body…”

“That’s a shame.”

I crack my neck and open my clenched fist.

Indeed, fists feel awkward.

“Then, let’s do this properly.”

I raise my nails and let my instincts guide my movement.

Thud, thud, thud, I charge forward, striking the ground, and attack Yeo Un-jae with both hands.

As my shoes instantly burst open, the tense Yeo Un-jae taps one twisted leg on the floor before rolling his foot in a stance similar to his other two disciples.

Boom! A shockwave spreads outward before being sucked toward Yeo Un-jae, and like a water column rising from something dropped on a water surface, his energy surges in an instant.

“Oh, ohhhhh!”

“Amazing!”

Papapapak! He deflects my attacking hands, then counters when my deflected hands return with force, deflects again, attacks again.

Our exchange fits together like a pre-arranged pattern. As I get more into this game, I step forward with a large hand blade strike, and Yeo Un-jae’s prosthetic arm extends toward my eyes.

I dodge by tilting my head, and with a hiss, his fist launches from his wrist.

I dodge the wire-connected hand blade and knock it down with my fingers.

A rocket punch—truly reminiscent of childhood.

In the brief moment my attention is drawn to the fist, Yeo Un-jae’s palm touches my body.

“Pa!”

Boom! An intense shockwave penetrates my body with his shout.

Pain like my internal organs turning inside out. I grab my stomach and distance myself from Yeo Un-jae.

“That’s cowardly.”

Using a rocket punch to distract before the real attack.

At my words, Yeo Un-jae smiles as if misunderstanding something.

“Combat is fundamentally about finding and persistently attacking an opponent’s weaknesses. Attacking weak points isn’t cowardice—it’s expected.”

“Ptui.”

I spit out blood and organ fragments that rose up my throat, then remove my hand from my stomach as I feel rapid regeneration.

A strike that penetrates physical durability and defense.

Isn’t this less about finding weaknesses and more about anywhere he touches becoming a weakness?

Boom! Yeo Un-jae stomps his foot again and charges at me first this time.

A kick—no, a wire attack hidden behind a large body movement.

As I grab the wire wrapping around my neck, Yeo Un-jae clings to my arm like wrapping around it.

My wrist and elbow joints creak under the joint technique of a superhuman.

“What…?!”

But my joints won’t break that easily.

Creak! I clench my arm muscles and grab Yeo Un-jae’s neck.

An unavoidable attack—his old, damaged body has limits to the impact it can withstand.

Following monster instinct, I spread genuine killing intent and swung Yeo Un-jae with full force.

Whoosh! Cutting through the air, I slam Yeo Un-jae to the ground, sending a strong impact across the surface.

The floor cracks, and just as I feel something off about the impact, Yeo Un-jae’s hand strikes my chin.

Boom! The impact directed at my brain momentarily stuns me, allowing Yeo Un-jae to urgently escape my grasp.

“Phew…”

“Hmm.”

I lick the blood flowing from my nose.

Yeo Un-jae’s shockwave tore through my brain.

A reflexive counterattack clearly meant to kill, just like mine.

Standing beside me and sighing, Yeo Un-jae’s body shows no injuries.

Impact control—did he redirect the ground impact with his ability?

“Let’s stop here. Further sparring would be dangerous.”

“W-wooooah!”

As Yeo Un-jae shows his completely wrecked prosthetic arm, the students who had been watching breathlessly cheer.

“As expected of Yeo Un-jae! Even though he’s retired…!”

“Even an A-rank superhuman is no match!”

“Not a single wound on his body! While the other one is bleeding!”

“Teacher Yeo Un-jae won!”

I twitch my nose amid the loud cheers.

Even masked by the smell of blood, a monster’s sense of smell doesn’t miss its target.

Just now, all of Yeo Un-jae’s abilities were entirely human.

Judging by that alone, Yeo Un-jae is human, but… as expected.

In that moment of crisis, the laboratory smell intensified.

“You’re strong. Very strong. Impressively so.”

Nevertheless, Yeo Un-jae shows no hostility toward me and instead extends his hand with a pleased expression.

The human greeting I learned at the construction site—I shake his hand, and Yeo Un-jae emanates a familiar emotion.

Joy—he’s purely enjoying the battle, just like me.

Just like me…?

Curious, I twist Yeo Un-jae’s wrist, thinking I’d like to smell more of that laboratory scent.

“If you added technique to that strength, could you become even stronger as a human…?”

Crack! As his wrist twists, Yeo Un-jae spins to avoid my attack, and my palm touches his airborne body.

This was clearly how he did it.

Thud, stomping the ground, I imitate Yeo Un-jae’s movements exactly, and regardless of ability, the force drawn up from the ground explodes from my hands.

Boom! Yeo Un-jae flies back, spinning through the air before landing on the ground, and jeers from the heroes and students pour toward me.

“Teacher Yeo Un-jae!”

“Attacking after the sparring ended!”

“You bastard! That’s cowardly!”

“As expected of a villain-origin superhuman…!”

“Do you think anyone will acknowledge you for beating Teacher Yeo Un-jae like that?”

Ignoring the jeers, I look at Yeo Un-jae and fall into thought.

My attack just now wasn’t very powerful.

Though I succeeded in surprising him, the laboratory smell didn’t intensify this time.

Probably because it wasn’t threatening enough.

When Yeo Un-jae did it, it had considerable destructive power—is it because I lack the ability?

Still, it’s fascinating that I can imitate it somewhat similarly.

With mixed feelings of interest and curiosity, I continued imitating Yeo Un-jae in the air.

“T-this is…?”

“Teacher, are you alright?!”

Just then, Yeo Un-jae shook off the A-rank heroes approaching from both sides and strode toward me.

“You just copied my technique! And after experiencing it only once!”

“That’s right.”

Surface thoughts read from excited emotions—a desire to teach me that surpasses anger about the surprise attack after the sparring ended.

Simultaneously, the laboratory smell intensified slightly.

What’s this? Doesn’t the smell intensify when life is in danger?

“That’s not the right posture for that technique. Raise your waist higher. Don’t imitate my build. Adapt it to your body.”

“T-teacher?”

“Like this?”

“Relax in that position and think of your entire body as a channel to draw up the force from stomping your foot. Focus on your waist! Twist it momentarily to pull up the force.”

“Hmm.”

“The direction of force is vertical, horizontal, vertical. It should spiral upward. Apply force only at the beginning and end moments. Now, try again.”

Curious about the intensifying smell, I moved my body as Yeo Un-jae instructed.

Just by extending my fist into the air, a shockwave burst out with a bang.

“Oh.”

“Amazing, amazing! To master it immediately! Even this!”

At the same time, the laboratory smell intensified.

I see, I understand now.

It gets stronger when he’s excited.