This was why Lee Hyeon-Su enjoyed hanging out with Kang Jin-Ho so much!

Even though Kang Jin-Ho could be as much fun as watching the paint dry on the wall most of the time, he still knew how to crack genuinely humorous jokes like this.

“Keuh-euh~! As expected of our Assembly Master!” Lee Hyeon-Su chortled. “Your sense of humor is something else, sir! I’m telling you!”

Kang Jin-Ho looked unimpressed as he glanced at Lee Hyeon-Su. “Stop wasting time and do it.”

“...Are you serious, sir?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“Do what exactly, sir?”

“Fight one of them.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, you.”

Lee Hyeon-Su grinned brightly again. “Keuh-euh~! Your sense of humor really is...”

“I said, stop wasting time.”

Lee Hyeon-Su’s eyes powerfully quaked just then. “W-what are you even saying, sir! It’s been almost a decade since I seriously fought someone, you know! I’m as non-combatant as non-combatants can get!”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Objectively speaking, I’m the weakest person in the Assembly, aren’t I! Heck, even the lower-ranked regular Demon Cult members are stronger than me!”

“Yeah, I know that, too.”

“If I slip up somewhere, an ordinary person could beat me up, too!”

“Nope, that’s an exaggeration.”

Well, Kang Jin-Ho was right about Lee Hyeon-Su being a bit too fanciful just then. However, it was still half true, wasn’t it!

“But you still want me to fight them? Even though their shoulders are as wide as the Grand Canyon?”

Kang Jin-Ho couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “Come on. Stop being a crybaby and do it already.”

“I’m not being a crybaby, though...”

“We all know you will win, anyway.”

Lee Hyeon-Su ruefully smacked his lips. He hesitated as if an argument was still stuck in his throat, but eventually groaned deeply in resignation.

“Argh, I really don’t wanna do this, though...”

Obviously, Lee Hyeon-Su was a smart man. And he knew better than anyone who must fight and win to serve as a definite, undeniable proof.

“Haaah... When we get back to our hotel later today, you better treat me with the most expensive meal they have, sir.”

Kang Jin-Ho chuckled again. “Got it.”

“Aaaargh. This is so... not worth it, though.”

Lee Hyeon-Su shook his head in dismay and resignation while trudging forward toward the soldiers.

Willie Reese jumped up in alarm. “H-hold on? Is Mister Lee going to fight?”

Kang Jin-Ho nodded. “Mm.”

“B-but? I thought he was a non-combatant?”

“It’s fine.”

Kang Jin-Ho’s nonchalant reply only made Willie Reese more anxious, however.

“Sir, what if Mister Lee gets seriously hurt? Those soldiers don’t know how to hold back, you know!”

“Looks like you still don’t get it.”

“I’m sorry?”

Kang Jin-Ho replied disinterestedly. “Lee Hyeon-Su is enough to deal with those wannabe idiots. Sure, Lee Hyeon-Su is also a wannabe idiot, but he’s still a better wannabe than them, you see?”

Lee Hyeon-Su unhappily yelled back. “I can hear you, sir! You’re supposed to badmouth someone in the back, you know! Not to his face!”

“Sure, sure. Get to it already.”

“Urgh...” Lee Hyeon-Su groaned loudly, then stopped before the ranks of soldiers. “I don’t care who. Just come out here.”

Unfortunately, he called out to the soldiers while standing askew like a hooligan. Naturally, Major Jimmy Bower’s complexion grew deeply flushed in anger at this sight.

These... These motherf*ckers!

A man could only swallow so much disrespect before he would lose their patience!

Bower roared again. “Barton!”

“Yes, sir!”

“You handle this one! Teach them how unforgiving reality is!”

“Sir!”

The Caucasian soldier named Barton rushed forward, then stood before Lee Hyeon-Su.

“Aigoo~, what’s this? Look at his shoulders! It must be at least twice my size! Assembly Master, I might really get killed at this rate.”

Kang Jin-Ho sighed deeply when Lee Hyeon-Su continued to whine loudly.

Even Wiggins tutted in disapproval. “A grown man acting like a child? How unsightly.”

“He wasn’t like that in the past, though.”

Back in the days of the Yeongnam Group, Lee Hyeon-Su carried himself with unmistakable poise and charisma. His ruthlessness back then could even be described as a serious character flaw, too.

Apparently, the position would “make” a man, or so the old saying went. It seemed that that saying had been negatively over-applied to Lee Hyeon-Su in this case, turning him into an unsightly man-child instead!

“Are weapons allowed?” Lee Hyeon-Su asked.

Bower furrowed his brow. “Do whatever you feel like. We don’t care.”

“Oh? Then let’s go with no weapons.”

“...”

Bower shook his head. He just wanted to get this farce over with. So that he’d no longer have to deal with this insane trio!

“Barton!”

“Yes, major!”

The Caucasian soldiers lowered his stance while glaring at Lee Hyeon-Su.

“Haaah... Seriously.”

Lee Hyeon-Su unhappily shook his head, then stared at the American soldier.

Bower addressed Kang Jin-Ho. “We treat every training duel as an actual combat situation. Please do not blame us in case a loss of life occurs. I repeat, don’t blame us. I’ve already warned you.”

“Sure, I heard you,” Kang Jin-Ho replied disinterestedly.

Bower gritted his teeth again. Just what did these Koreans think they were doing?

Obviously, Bower had perfectly functioning eyes and could see that the gap between Barton and Lee Hyeon-Su was as clear as day. Even if he was being charitable with his estimation, Bower believed at least five Lee Hyeon-Sus were required to barely handle someone on Barton’s caliber.

As a matter of fact, it didn’t even have to be Barton.

Bower could confidently say that every martial artist in Area H27 was stronger than Lee Hyeon-Su. Even the rookies who recently got transferred to this battalion should be strong enough to toy around with Lee Hyeon-Su. With only one hand, no less!

Yet Kang Jin-Ho still chose to send such a man to face Barton?

Could it be...? Is he deliberately sacrificing someone weak, hoping he’d get gravely injured, to make the negotiation more advantageous for his side?

Did Kang Jin-Ho think such a scheme would work here? Major Bower slowly shook his head when his thoughts reached that far.

We’ll simply crush them!

It seemed Bower must crush the pride of these egotistical East Asian men today!

Barton correctly interpreted the hidden meaning in Bower’s glare, then muttered to Lee Hyeon-Su. “My bad, kid, but don’t hold this against me. I have nothing against you, okay?”

“I’m older than you, you brat!”

“Here I come!”

Barton lunged at Lee Hyeon-Su. The American soldier was appreciably larger than his Korean opponent, but his speedily approaching figure was even lower to the floor than Lee Hyeon-Su’s stance.

Whoosh, whoosh!

Barton’s left jab brushed past Lee Hyeon-Su’s cheeks twice. And when he realized his opponent couldn’t even react on time, Barton slammed his right fist into the middle of Lee Hyeon-Su’s face.

Baaaang!

Lee Hyeon-Su couldn’t even respond and let that fist land on his face.

What the hell? Isn’t he too weak to... Mm?

Just as Barton’s thoughts reached that point, his eyes spotted a flesh-colored object suddenly appearing before his face.

What the f*ck?!

The last thought Barton had before blacking out was that the incoming object resembled a human fist.

Boooom! Bang!

Barton flew back and slammed into the wall behind before crashing back to the floor. He writhed ungainly on the floor.

“Ouch! Goddamn it!”

Lee Hyeon-Su swore while spitting several times on the floor. Hints of blood could be seen mixed in his spit.

“Argh! I think my teeth have come loose, sir! This sucks!”

Kang Jin-Ho chuckled. “Stop your nosebleed first, okay?”

“Heol... Nosebleed?!” Lee Hyeon-Su cried out while hurriedly holding his nose. He gingerly moved his nose a little and, much to his relief, confirmed that it wasn’t broken. “Look, sir! I’m bleeding here!”

“Sure. But it wasn’t so bad, now was it?”

“Eiii... This was why I didn’t want to do it.”

Lee Hyeon-Su returned to his original spot while holding his nose, his expression conveying how annoyed he was.

On the other hand, Willie Reese and Jimmy Bower could only blink their eyes in sheer stupefaction and shock at this sight.

W-what just happened? What’s going on here?

The sequence of events had not been impossible to follow. Barton landed a straight punch on Lee Hyeon-Su’s face. And Lee Hyeon-Su immediately counter-punched. That was all.

However, both men knew how absurd this development was.

After all, Barton was a highly trained soldier. His full-blooded punch could even puncture a steel plate. Yet Lee Hyeon-Su... could counter that? Even after getting hit in the middle of his face?!

“S-something is wrong. This can’t be... right...”

Bower was about to say something, only to clamp his mouth shut. Because he realized how unsightly he was behaving right now.

“Yes, you might think something has gone wrong.”

Unfortunately for him, though, Kang Jin-Ho was generous enough to respond.

“But it was you who said your people treated training like an actual fight, didn’t you? And in an actual fight, there are no second chances.”

“...”

Kang Jin-Ho glanced at Willie Reese next. “So? Do you get it now?”

“I... My apologies, sir. But I don’t understand how this could happen.”

Kang Jin-Ho mouthed yet another cigarette, then used his chin to point at Lee Hyeon-Su. Unsurprisingly, Lee Hyeon-Su’s response sounded rather unhappy.

“You want me to explain?! Even though blood is pouring out of my nose, the inside of my mouth is all busted up, and my teeth are about to fall off? I’m talking about my teeth, sir! I know you won’t even pay for my implants, yet you still want me to explain?”

Kang Jin-Ho tutted. “You sound perfectly fine, though?”

“Urgh...!” Lee Hyeon-Su glared at Kang Jin-Ho like a man plotting revenge, then switched the target of his annoyed glare to Willie Reese instead. “Look, Mister Reese. These people will die immediately if you deploy them into an actual fight, okay?”

“Sorry? Why?”

“Because! They are soldiers, not martial artists. These people have zero combat experience, now do they?”

“Y-yes. Of course. We didn’t have a reason to deploy them on missions yet, after all. But our training regime is supposed to be as intense as actual combat situations.”

“Sure, but even such training is nothing but training at the end of the day, okay? It can never rival the real thing. And that’s what got you this result.”

“...I still don’t understand.”

Lee Hyeon-Su groaned. “The modern close quarter combat techniques you talked about were developed under the assumption that the fighter wouldn’t have cultivated qi, right? Or, in your neck of the woods, mana? Do you know what the difference is between those techniques and cultivation?”

“It’s... Isn’t it about if one can use mana or not?”

“Sure. But what makes them different?”

Reese frowned in confusion. “That, uh...?”

Lee Hyeon-Su impatiently responded, as if he didn’t want to wait. “It’s destructive power, okay?”

“Uh...?”

“Martial artists... No, cultivators don’t fight like this. We don’t hang back and keep the opponents at bay by throwing jabs around, then lunge forward after spotting openings. Why? Because you can die from the enemy’s attack casually brushing past you! But your soldiers attack and defend as if they are fighting in a points-based match!”

“...”

“Which makes their attacks easy to read. If I lower my guard and make it look like I’m only interested in protecting my torso, my opponent will obviously go for my face next. Since I know that, I can just focus my qi to my face and defend myself. Sure, your man was stupidly strong, so his punch hurt like hell, but I still managed to withstand it, no? And then, I punched the unguarded opponent, okay?”

Only then did Reese finally figure out what happened.

“B-but!”

Unfortunately, it seemed Major Bower still couldn’t accept this outcome.

“W-what if we used weapons?! If my man used a dagger, you wouldn’t have countered like this!”

“That’s enough inane babbling from you, Major. If this dude held a dagger, my response would have changed, too. This is not the issue of your fighting methods, but something much more fundamental. Do you get it now?”

Lee Hyeon-Su spoke as if he was making a declaration.

“If you don’t get it, let me spell it out for you. Your so-called modern techniques and training methods have only made these folks much, much weaker. You should count your lucky stars that you figured this out before it’s too late. Otherwise, your soldiers would’ve been massacred mercilessly during actual combat situations.”

Bower’s eyes powerfully quaked just then. “Our... Our methods have been wrong? All this time?”

He couldn’t believe it. No, he refused to believe it, never mind acknowledge it!

He might have said he’d accept the result and admit his defeat, but in his current state... No one in his state would be able to declare their defeat.

“I...! I refuse to accept this!”

Kang Jin-Ho stared at the red-faced Jimmy Bower and smirked deeply. He wasn’t surprised in the least by this reaction.

It would’ve been cooler had the American stuck to his promise like a man. However, this “battle” was simply too brief and anti-climatic for a soldier to admit that the duty he had performed all his life was all for nothing. Such a thing would be too cruel, now wouldn’t it?

Unfortunately, the consequences of not accepting this outcome was...

“You better admit defeat, otherwise things will get even worse for you...” Lee Hyeon-Su muttered in pity.

As if to bring that prediction to life, Kang Jin-Ho took a step forward and asked, “Is it difficult to accept the truth?”

Jimmy Bower’s eyes powerfully quaked.

Kang Jin-Ho slowly nodded, the corners of his lips curling up.

“Well, if it’s difficult to accept, let me make it easier for you.”

He turned around while removing the cigarette from his lips. He then leisurely approached the soldiers still standing stiffly in line.

“Fuu-woo...”

Kang Jin-Ho lazily exhaled the cigarette smoke, his eyes studying the stiff faces of the soldiers. And then, he addressed them equally lazily.

“All of you. Come at me at the same time.”

“...”

“So that I can put all of you in your place.”

Anger immediately filled every soldier’s face. Lee Hyeon-Su groaned loudly and shook his head at this sight. Knowing their expressions would soon change into something else, he... He just couldn’t bring himself to witness the carnage about to unfold!

“However...”

Kang Jin-Ho smirked strangely while addressing the soldiers.

“You better be prepared to die when coming at me. I’m not very good at holding myself back, you see?”

He warmed them as clearly as he could. Although, it probably didn’t sound like a warning to these people.