Chapter 22 : Effort vs. Two Geniuses
Chapter 22: Effort vs. Two Geniuses
A day had passed.
Seo Gwang-pal still hadn’t come to the factory.
‘Was this going to blow over quietly?’
Seo Gwang-pal had brutally beaten Ma Seon-woong.
A thick, simmering rage had been embedded in his violence.
‘No, he would definitely come.’
War was the foundation of life and death, the path of survival and destruction.
It was a phrase that came from the “Initial Estimations” chapter of The Art of War.
Yes.
To live or to die.
This was a war between me and Seo Gwang-pal.
No, he wouldn’t come alone.
He’d drag the guild members along in a swarm.
This was a war between me and the Dio Guild.
‘Am I afraid?’
I couldn’t say I wasn’t afraid at all.
The Dio Guild was too huge and powerful for an individual to oppose.
But.
‘I had to stand against them.’
Because opposing evil was a destiny a hero was meant to shoulder.
“Hoo! Hoo!”
I got up at dawn and went out to the empty lot to throw punches.
A thousand mana-infused punches.
It was a mission I had already completed, yet I kept training.
Sweat poured like rain, and every muscle in my body screamed.
Right now, I was both strong and weak.
When I used my hero ability, I boasted the strongest power.
But without the ability, I was nothing more than a low-tier hunter.
To beat someone like Seo Gwang-pal—
‘I had to build my capabilities. I had to become stronger.’
Did I have talent as an awakened?
I wasn’t sure.
Talent.
There was only one quality I took pride in.
Whether it rained or snowed.
Even if I was sad or in despair.
I kept going in silence.
It had been the same in my past life, and it would be the same in this one.
If I lived that way—
Someday, maybe I could stand tall entirely on my own, even without the hero ability.
“Hoo! Hoo!”
After work, I trained by running.
I pulled my chin toward my body and swung my arms in an even rhythm.
A full marathon.
It was harder than throwing a thousand mana punches.
Running nonstop for a long time was excruciatingly painful.
My throat tightened, and my calves felt like they were going to tear apart. The soles of my feet grew full of blisters from hitting the ground.
Precisely at times like that, I clenched my teeth and forced myself to endure.
When I ran without a clear purpose, all sorts of thoughts seized me.
‘42 km? Can I even finish this?’
‘Why am I doing this?’
‘……I think I’m going to die.’
No one could help me.
I couldn’t expect help.
Running was a string of lonely battles.
‘……Should I give up?’
The moment the thought surfaced, I collapsed onto one knee as if crumbling.
“Ngk!”
I landed hard on my butt on the riverside of the Han River.
Panting for breath, I checked the crimson letters in the air.
: <10 km 32 m>
A distance far short of the goal.
To obtain <Regeneration>, I had to run farther.
The problem was……
Ttirring.
: <0 km>
‘Damn.’
If I stopped running, it reset back to zero. The mission had failed.
I couldn’t run slowly either.
If I failed to finish within two hours, it would all be wasted.
I checked the timer.
– 1 hour 23 minutes 47 seconds.
It had taken over an hour just to run 10 km.
I had to cover the full course within two hours.
‘I was basically at turtle speed.’
As the thread of hope grew distant, my strength drained away and I sprawled out on my back.
A week had passed.
Mana punches before work.
A marathon after work.
I continued the same routine.
The security guard at the entrance of the Ilsan Hunter Industrial Complex waved at me.
“You’re working hard again today! Youth really is a good thing!”
The security guard I saw every day must have thought I was just exercising diligently.
“Here, have one!”
He threw something at me.
When I caught it, it was an apple.
“Fighting!”
I nodded and thanked him.
Running, I took a bite out of the apple.
Its fresh, sweet flesh spread across my tongue.
‘Let’s go. I’m going to make it.’
Contrary to my solemn resolve—
“Ugh!”
I collapsed once again at the Han River without reaching two hours.
: <15 km 72 m>
‘Was it too much to expect within a week?’
The distance had increased, but I was still far from the target.
“Damn!”
Lying down in Hangang Park, I stared blankly up at the sky.
Raindrops scattered like mist and dampened my face.
I quietly closed my eyes.
‘I must not rush.’
But I couldn’t just take it easy either.
I had to obtain a new ability before the enemies came.
However—
‘……Easy to say.’
Historically, there had always been a two-hour wall in marathons.
No one had ever broken the full course in under two hours.
As if the limits of human capability had already been set.
I wasn’t a professional athlete.
No matter how intensely I trained, surpassing a world record within a few weeks was nearly impossible.
‘Isn’t there some way?’
In the darkness, fragments of my recent daily routine flashed by.
Mana training in the morning.
Normal running at night.
‘What if I combined the two……?’
My eyes snapped open.
The dark clouds drifted by, scattering drizzle.
I was an awakened.
Just as I infused mana into my punches— couldn’t I also use mana while I ran?
The longer I ran, the more my throat burned as if blood were flowing backward.
A sickly sweetness rose in my mouth.
I endured like an idiot, but my body couldn’t keep up with my willpower.
If I infused mana into my breathing while inhaling and exhaling?
If I put a small amount of mana into both feet and kicked off the ground?
I stood up.
I focused my mind and bounced lightly in place.
Then I stepped forward, mindful of the mana.
Indeed, it was far more comfortable than before.
I had been so fixated on obtaining abilities that I’d made the mistake of focusing only on running blindly.
Air slid smoothly down my throat like swallowing something sweet.
My legs moved as if stepping across empty air.
‘My body feels light.’
Just combining running with mana produced such a remarkable effect.
Had I figured this out myself?
‘No. This was……’
It was the system guiding me.
Purchase wasn’t simply buying a hero’s abilities.
It strengthened my own muscles.
Taught me how to use mana efficiently.
Built not only stamina but even mental strength.
Through mission requirements, it naturally taught me all of this.
The sentence I’d seen when I awakened went like this:
– Talent: Purchase.
: You can buy the abilities of those you admired.
The more heroes you purchase.
The more you repeat missions.
‘The closer you become to the hero you admired.’
It was programmed so that by following the path the system opened, I could truly grow stronger.
‘Amazing.’
No one wanted to become a true hero more than I did.
I forgot hunger and sleep and ran all night.
Half a month passed.
: <25 km 11 m>
– 2 hours 7 minutes 23 seconds.
I had succeeded in a half marathon.
Even seeing it with my own eyes, it was hard to believe.
That a human could run this long without stopping.
People often said life was like a marathon.
A cliché, but in that moment, it pierced me to the bone.
My impoverished childhood.
The deaths of my grandmother and sibling.
The past stained by harsh labor.
It had been painful, but if I shattered my limits and pushed forward, someday I could reach what lay beyond them.
For example—
‘This very moment.’
Moving my heavy body was still hard, but somehow it felt light.
My mind was hazy like I was drunk, yet simultaneously refreshed.
A feeling I’d never had before.
A runner’s high.
As the fatigue vanished, my whole body soaked in a drowsy bliss.
All the accumulated stress evaporated in an instant.
How long had I been running?
: <40 km 56 m>
: <41 km 79 m>
: <42 km 12 m>
……
Even the runner’s high that felt eternal finally came to an end.
From here on, I could only sprint like I was half unconscious.
A tall, long stone staircase blocked my path.
The place commonly called the 108 Steps Museum.
Seven years ago.
When an <Apocalyptic Class> monster appeared in the Han River and destroyed the outer facilities, a new museum had been built in that spot.
In the original course, I would have run around without passing the stairs.
But I didn’t stop.
I stepped on the stairs, step after step, increasing my speed.
Climbing, climbing again, climbing endlessly.
When I reached the very top, a massive statue greeted me.
A monument honoring the SS-rank hunter who had slain an <Apocalyptic Class> monster and died a heroic death.
I’d heard the museum preserved records of his achievements.
Ttirring.
: <42 km 195 m>
– 1 hour 59 minutes 58 seconds.
By using mana in my running—
Barely, dangerously—
‘I finally did it!’
– Congratulations! You have obtained <Regeneration>.
With a surge of accomplishment, I turned away from the statue and shouted.
I thrust both hands high into the sky.
“Aaaahhh!!!”
Overlooking the Han River, I swung my mana-filled fists.
Light flashed in the darkness.
One-two.
Straight!
Confidence surged, and adrenaline exploded.
In my previous life, I had lived days no different from being dead.
Now, for the first time, I could feel that I was truly alive.
A man and a woman appeared at Incheon International Airport.
One had short hair, a slender body, and a catlike appearance; the other was a large, bald man.
They were Lee Yu-seol and Seo Gwang-pal of the Dio Guild.
“Yaaawn. I’m tired from the morning. Right, Team Leader Lee?”
Seo Gwang-pal opened his mouth wide and yawned without manners.
Lee Yu-seol didn’t even respond.
If not for the orders of Go Ju-hoon, the representative of the Dio Guild, she wouldn’t have come here alone with Seo Gwang-pal.
“Ah, damn. Who the hell are these twins for all this fuss?”
Seo Gwang-pal clicked his tongue as he grumbled.
They had still not raided the Ilsan Hunter Factory.
This too was because of the representative’s orders.
They were instructed to bring the twins along, just in case.
As a result, the operation had been delayed for two weeks until the twins arrived in the country.
“Team Leader Lee, do you know them? Those twins or whatever.”
As the wait dragged on, Lee Yu-seol entertained Seo Gwang-pal’s chatter just to kill time.
“They’re free hunters. Skilled ones. Their methods are just… their own.”
They were not official members of the Dio Guild.
They operated on contracts depending on the mission.
“The representative seems to trust them quite a bit……”
Smirking, Seo Gwang-pal continued.
“Are they stronger than you, Team Leader?”
Lee Yu-seol was an A-rank hunter. And then there were the twins.
If one were to weigh them against each other, who would come out ahead?
Seo Gwang-pal didn’t actually care.
He just wanted to poke at the pride of the haughty Lee Yu-seol who always looked down on him.
Though that didn’t mean he had no curiosity about the twins.
Rumor had it they possessed innate talent for combat.
Unofficially, one of them committed his first murder at age five, the other at age seven.
They learned how to use knives without being taught, and were especially skilled in killing techniques.
When it came to harming people, they were unmatched.
Not one but two prodigies born with the talent of demons.
Lee Yu-seol snorted.
“Is that even a question? Of course I’d win.”
It wasn’t bluster; she genuinely believed that.
However—
“Unless they both charge me together on purpose, I win. Every time.”
Though it was a conditional victory, the statement carried significant meaning.
Seo Gwang-pal pouted.
‘So it’s only in one-on-one fights, huh.’
Just then, two figures emerged from the arrival gate.
Two men with identical faces and heights.
They wore Hawaiian shirts that differed only in color and pattern.
“Nihao!”
“Konnichiwa!”
The twins raised their hands, greeting Lee Yu-seol with two different salutations.
“Why did you arrive so late?”
Lee Yu-seol greeted them with a cold expression.
Since they were fellow A-rank hunters, she spoke to them with formal respect.
“Oh dear, Team Leader Lee, our apologies.”
“We missed our flight, you see.”
Taking turns like a comedy duo, the twins answered.
Seo Gwang-pal stood in the back, staring blankly at them.
Their builds were ordinary. Nothing particularly noticeable.
Except—
‘Hmm?’
There were stains on their busy-patterned Hawaiian shirts.
He had thought they were just dark red designs.
‘……T-that’s blood?!’
When he stepped closer, a fishy smell pricked his nose.
Seo Gwang-pal recoiled in panic.
The twins continued speaking casually.
“There was something we had to take care of in Tokyo before coming.”
“We cut off a Yakuza boss’s head!”
The twins chuckled as their eyes sparkled.
“Anyway, the fact that CEO Seo contacted us directly—just who is this guy?”
“Yeah. For him to summon us this urgently… let’s finish it quickly. The target is……”
They spoke in perfect unison.
“Where is he?”
“Where is he?”