I Thought I Was Bullying a Nobody, But He's a Martial Arts Genius - Chapter 16

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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A Fighting Genius, Yet Still Bullied — Episode 16
The next morning.
Seo Jun walked through the classroom door.
The scattered conversations among clusters of students cut short in an instant.
As Seo Jun shouldered his bag and made his way to his seat, stares bored into him from every corner.
“Hey, Seo Jun.”
Three or four male students approached his desk—the usual crowd who moved through class with easy confidence.
Seo Jun adjusted the strap of his bag.
His gaze was about to drop to the floor in time with their footsteps, but it stopped short. There was none of the sharp mockery that usually flickered in their eyes.
“You went to Axis Korea Rookies yesterday, right? You really won there? That was actually you?”
One of the boys thrust his smartphone screen forward.
Seo Jun’s face, blood smeared across his foam gloves, filled the screen in enormous print.
View count: 120,000. Title: [Axis Korea Rookies, A New Star Emerges!]
Seo Jun nodded impassively.
“Yeah. That’s right.”
A short reply.
In that moment, exclamations burst from the boys’ mouths.
“Wow! This is insane, seriously! I told you it was him!”
“Man, didn’t you see that video where he knocked it out in nine seconds? The pounding in the finals was absolutely incredible!”
“When he smashed that wrestler’s face, I literally screamed out loud. How long have you been training?”
Questions poured down. The commotion drew students around him like iron filings to a magnet.
“What? Seo Jun was on YouTube?”
“No way. This guy placed first at Axis Korea?”
“Seo Jun, you do fighting? You really don’t look the part—this is such a plot twist.”
Even the girls sitting in the back rows, who had been applying tint, lowered their mirrors and peeked their heads out.
Even the girls who had treated him like a ghost now stared at his face.
That was when it happened.
From the back corner of the classroom, a chair scraped harshly against the floor.
Screeeech!
It was Dong Chul and his crew of school bullies.
Because the crowd around Seo Jun’s seat had swelled, students were pressed right up against their desks.
Dong Chul’s brow twisted. He chewed at his lip and slowly turned his gaze out the window.
His eyes flicked toward Seo Jun for just a moment, then scattered into empty air as if fleeing.
His seatmates were no different.
The larger boy drummed his legs nervously, while someone else kept his head down, rubbing at his smartphone screen as if it had wronged him.

* * *
The Alley Behind School was always the same.
Sunlight never reached it well.
The walls were damp, and cigarette butts rolled across the ground.
Dong Chul and four members of his crew stood pressed against the brick wall.
One of them held a smartphone in both hands, playing a video.
A cage filled the screen.
Axis Korea Rookies Finals.
And Seo Jun.
Crack!!
The smartphone speaker shrieked with the impact.
Seo Jun’s knee drove into his opponent’s face.
The man with dumpling-like mangled ears flipped backward.
His body folded once in midair, then crashed against the mat like dead wood.
The hands of the boy holding the phone trembled.
The thumb gripping the phone’s edge shook faintly.
Gulp.
Someone swallowed hard.
The alley fell unnaturally quiet.
“Hey…… Is that really Seo Jun?”
“That guy’s a monster.”
“Damn, that dumpling-ear bastard got destroyed in one shot.”
“If we took a knee like that, we’d just… be done for, right?”
Their voices drained of all strength.
His voice cracked.
Dong Chul couldn’t tear his eyes from the screen.
His mouth stayed shut, but his pupils trembled faintly.
Just a few months ago.
That Seo Jun had been the kind of guy who crouched on an alley floor and took his beating.
The one on the screen now was different.
He looked like someone who could kill anyone with his bare hands.
Dong Chul forced his chin up.
Sinews tightened in his neck.
He was ashamed.
Ashamed of his friends’ frightened faces, ashamed of his own trembling fingertips.
Smack!
Dong Chul slapped the back of the guy’s hand holding the phone.
“Don’t lose your nerve, you bastards.”
He spat the words out like they tasted foul.
He even hawked and spit on the ground.
“He just landed one lucky shot, that’s all. What’s the big deal?”
No one answered.
Dong Chul raised his voice higher.
“Jiu-jitsu, Wrestling — rolling around on his back and some Knee Kick happened to connect. One punch to the jaw and that punk’s done for. What, you think my fists are decorations?”
His bravado was loud.
But his throat was tight.
Anyone listening close would’ve caught it right away.
Dong Chul knew it too.
So he talked louder.
“Hey, turn off the video. What the hell are you watching that for?”
That was when it happened.
Footsteps approaching the alley mouth cut short.
Steady, measured strides.
When the footsteps stopped, the very air inside the alley seemed to pause with them.
Dong Chul turned his head.
A long shadow stretched across the ground, silhouetted against the afternoon sun behind it.
And at the far end of that shadow, Seo Jun stood.
A backpack slung over one shoulder.
Like someone who’d simply been walking and stopped when they heard their name.
Exactly that kind of expression.
Seo Jun turned his head slowly.
He swept his gaze across Dong Chul and his crew in one motion.
He said nothing.
His face showed nothing.
He wasn’t angry.
Yet that stare was far worse.
The old Seo Jun who used to take his beatings in the alley was gone.
Only the one who’d put someone to sleep inside the Cage remained.
…….
Dong Chul’s lips parted halfway.
No words came.
One of the guys beside him took half a step back.
Another hurriedly lowered his phone.
Dong Chul tried to hold his ground.
Tried not to look away.
But he couldn’t.
His gaze broke first.
Seo Jun said nothing the entire time.
He simply looked at them once.
Then turned his head away again.
And walked straight through.
Only the sound of his sneakers treading on asphalt lingered briefly in the alley.
Step.
Step.
Not until the sound of footsteps faded completely did anyone dare speak.
Only after the shadow vanished from the alley entrance.
Whoosh.
The held breaths burst out all at once.
“Gasp…….”
“Damn…….”
“I seriously thought my heart stopped.”
Someone brushed off their legs.
Someone braced their hand against the wall.
Dong Chul couldn’t say a word.
He only clenched his fists.
His palms were slick.
Sweat.
That’s when it hit him.
This alley wasn’t theirs anymore.
Those days of stopping Seo Jun, circling him, sneering at him—they were finished.
Now it was reversed.
Just by him pausing for a moment, turning to look.
They held their breath.

* * *
Seo Jun walked past the alley.
He heard someone swallow hard behind him.
Someone cursed under their breath.
Someone braced their hand against the wall.
But Seo Jun didn’t look back.
Didn’t slow his pace.
It was a familiar route.
Leave the School, step out onto the main street, cross one pedestrian bridge, and the Gym appeared.
It used to be different.
Just passing through that alley would tighten his shoulders.
At the slightest sound of footsteps, his heart would race.
Who would stop him.
Who would kick him from behind.
That’s what he’d think first.
Not anymore.
‘I’m not afraid.’
Seo Jun clenched and unclenched his hand once.
His fingertips were steady.
His heart was quiet.
His eyes had just met Dong Chul’s.
Guys who would have made him hold his breath in the old days.
Now they just looked small.
‘I don’t even want revenge.’
It didn’t feel strange.
It was already over when he’d put Choi Gang Min down.
It was over again when Dong Chul couldn’t even lift his eyes and stepped aside.
Hitting more, stomping more, scaring more—there was no point to it anymore.
Besides, it would still be inside the School.
Too small.
Seo Jun had already seen something bigger.
Inside the Cage.
The lights.
The crowd.
The smell of blood.
And the roar that rose up when people saw him.
Once you’d seen that, becoming the strongest in the School meant nothing.
‘I’m going that way.’
Kang Chul Jin.
Jo Min Sung.
The fighters Seo Jun had met at Axis Korea Rookies were all different.
To truly become strong, he had to climb among them.
The goal of paying back the school bullies was no longer enough—the arena before his eyes had grown too vast.
Seo Jun stopped at the pedestrian crossing.
The light was red.
That was when it happened.
A low, heavy engine sound pulled up beside him.
A Black Sedan.
The glossy bodywork caught the fading sunlight.
The rear door opened.
A woman stepped out.
Mid-thirties, perhaps.
She wore tailored slacks.
A jacket without a single unnecessary line.
Low-heeled shoes.
Even with Sunglasses on, she stood out.
Neat and cold-looking.
A large man followed her out of the car.
One hand held in front, his gaze swept across their surroundings.
He looked like a bodyguard.
The woman removed her Sunglasses.
Her eyes were sharp.
The corners of her mouth turned upward just slightly.
“You’re Seo Jun, aren’t you?”
Seo Jun turned his head.
“Yes.”
The woman held out a Business Card.
Seo Jun took it.
Seo Ha Yoon / Black Leaf Fight Management / Director
“Black Leaf?”
“We’re a fighter development and management team that works with Axis Korea. We handle prospect recruitment, contract negotiation, training environment setup, and competition management.”
Her words were smooth.
But the explanation was brief.
She cut straight to the essentials.
“Congratulations on winning the Featherweight title at Axis Korea Rookies.”
Seo Jun looked at the Business Card again.
“Thank you.”
“I watched the Finals well. Especially that last Knee Kick.”
Seo Ha Yoon’s gaze fixed on Seo Jun’s face.
It was the gaze of someone who saw people.
Not their appearance, but their worth.
“Could you spare a moment to talk?”
“About what?”
“It might be a bit long to discuss on the street.”
Seo Ha Yoon gestured with her chin toward a Cafe across the road.
The interior behind the full glass was quiet.
“It won’t take long.”
Seo Jun didn’t answer right away.
He calculated the remaining distance to the Gym.
He also thought of how long Kang Do Yoon would have to wait.
Then he looked at the woman in front of him again.
Her appearance.
Her tone of voice.
The man standing behind her.
There was no forceful intent to drag him along.
If anything, everything was too orderly.
Which made him all the more curious.
A partner with Axis Korea.
Fighter development.
Management.
It meant he had come all the way to the front of the School to find someone like him.
“I understand.”
Seo Ha Yoon smiled.
“Good.”

* * *
A table by the window of the Cafe.
Two iced coffees were placed first.
Seo Ha Yoon folded her Sunglasses and set them on the table.
“Let me introduce myself again. I’m Seo Ha Yoon, Director of Black Leaf Fight Management.”
Seo Jun listened quietly.
Seo Ha Yoon slid her Business Card lightly across the table with her finger.
“There’s only one reason I came here in person today.”
A brief silence.
Seo Ha Yoon looked directly at Seo Jun.
“Baek Seo Jun.”
And she got straight to the point.
“We want to sign you.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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