I Thought I Was Bullying a Nobody, But He's a Martial Arts Genius - Chapter 30

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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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Fighting Prodigy Unaware: Bullied 030
“Ryu Jin-hyeok and Baek Seo-jun are sparring.”
The news spread quickly.
A gym member who’d been jumping rope stopped.
The one hitting the heavy bag turned his head.
Even the beginners drilling on the mat perked up slightly.
“Really?”
“Striking sparring, supposedly?”
“Ryu Jin-hyeok can do striking too?”
“Of course. You think he’s only good at grappling?”
People crowded around the Octagon.
Tae-su pulled off his gloves and leaned against the cage fence.
A-yeon emerged from the counter with her arms crossed.
Do Yun was rotating his wrists inside the cage.
He’d be acting as referee.
Inside the cage.
Baek Seo-jun and Ryu Jin-hyeok stood facing each other.
Seo-jun had his mouthpiece in.
Jin-hyeok looked bored.
But his glove straps were tied tight.
Low voices murmured among the gym members.
“Baek Seo-jun’s been killing it lately. Three straight first-round KOs in KCR.”
“The way he put down Ma Do-hyeon without a clean hit—that was insane.”
“Still, if your opponent is Ryu Jin-hyeok, that changes everything.”
“Why?”
“Ryu Jin-hyeok came up through the elite training course as a kid. Amateur tournaments, overseas camps, professional team joint training—he did it all.”
“But they’re the same age, right?”
“Same age, but his experience is on a different level. Baek Seo-jun’s been catching up at a crazy pace, but Ryu Jin-hyeok was already way ahead to begin with.”
Another gym member nodded.
“Ryu Jin-hyeok’s the last Rookies Champion. He’s already at a level where going pro right now wouldn’t be strange.”
“Baek Seo-jun’s growth rate is monstrous, but he’s still a ways off from Jin-hyeok.”
“Even just in striking?”
“Even just in striking.”
That comment hung in the air outside the cage.
Seo-jun caught fragments of it.
But his expression didn’t change.
Ryu Jin-hyeok was a mountain.
He’d already felt it once.
His throat tightening.
His breath cutting off.
That sensation of the world going dark.
That Jin-hyeok had felt far away then.
He still felt far away now.
But.
‘With striking.’
Seo-jun gripped his gloves.
He’d fought three matches in KCR.
He’d overcome O Geon-u’s wrestling.
He’d broken through Ma Do-hyeon’s reach.
He’d forced down his Round of 16 opponent and made them tap.
His confidence in striking had solidified.
It wasn’t that he thought he’d win outright.
But still.
Maybe—just maybe—he could land one solid blow.
He held onto that much hope.
Jin-hyeok looked at Seo-jun and asked, “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Looking for where to attack.”
“You think I’m just going to stand there and take it?”
“No.”

Jin-hyeok’s mouth curved upward, just barely.
“Then find it.”
Do Yun stepped between the two of them.
“Rules.”
The gym fell silent.
“Today we do standup striking only. Kicks, punches, knee kicks allowed. Clinch prohibited beyond three seconds. Takedowns prohibited. No transitions to the ground.”
Tae-su’s eyes widened.
“Wow, really just striking?”
Do Yun fixed him with a look.
“Quiet. Watch.”
“Yes.”
Do Yun turned back to the two fighters.
“This is training against Hwang Dae-gun. One objective.”
His gaze shifted to Seo-jun.
“Blind spot capture at close range.”
Seo-jun nodded.
“Understood.”
Jin-hyeok rolled his shoulders loose.
“So I just need to give you what you want, right?”
Do Yun let out a quiet laugh.
“Don’t accommodate him.”
A shift flickered across Jin-hyeok’s eyes.
Do Yun spoke again.
“If you can avoid it, avoid. If you can strike, strike. Just don’t knock him down.”
“That’ll be harder, then.”
“That’s why I called you.”
Jin-hyeok answered with footwork instead.
There was almost no sound.
Seo-jun’s eyes tracked Jin-hyeok’s feet.
Left foot.
Right foot.
His center of gravity was difficult to pin down.
He seemed rooted in place, yet his angles were already shifting.
The gym members held their breath.
“Starting.”
Do Yun stepped back a pace.
Seo-jun lowered his stance.
The distance for facing Hwang Dae-gun.
He had to close in.
He had to clinch.
He had to disappear inside that range.
But Jin-hyeok’s eyes were already fixed on Seo-jun.
Not the eyes of someone waiting for an opening.
The eyes of a predator hunting for the kill.
Do Yun’s hand dropped.
“Fight.”
Jin-hyeok moved.
Seo-jun calculated distance first.
Height.
Reach.
Footwork.
Jin-hyeok had him beaten there.
He’d strike from the outside—that much was obvious.
Lead hand to set range.
Slip to the side.
When Seo-jun entered, counter.
That was the most rational read.
Seo-jun lowered his knees.
‘Inside. I go inside.’
One step.
Half a step.
He closed the distance.
But Jin-hyeok’s movement felt wrong.
He didn’t retreat.
Instead, he walked forward.
His guard dropped to his waist.
His chin wasn’t fully tucked.
His shoulders hung loose.
It violated every textbook principle.
Like the footage of Hwang Dae-gun.
Standing his ground before an opponent, walking through punches like a street brawler who expected the hits.
Seo-jun’s eyes narrowed.
‘Why is he coming in like that?’
Jin-hyeok continued toward him with an expressionless face.
His footfalls weren’t light.
Thud.
Thud.
He was stamping deliberately, heavily.
The distance felt different now.
This wasn’t Jin-hyeok’s usual sharp movement.
A sloppy stance.
A lowered guard.
Forward pressure.
Seo-jun’s face hardened.
‘Then I cut him off first.’
His left hand snapped out.
Crack!
A sharp jab.
The trajectory aimed straight at Jin-hyeok’s nose.
Seo-jun was already planning his follow-up.
If Jin-hyeok slipped his head back, the right hand.
If he ducked inward, a knee kick feint.
If he rolled left, a hook.
But then.
Thwack!
The jab landed clean.
Jin-hyeok’s head turned slightly.
A clean hit.
Seo-jun’s eyes flickered for just a moment.
‘It connected?’
Jin-hyeok hadn’t dodged.
He’d taken it intentionally.
In that single beat.
Seo-jun’s calculations fell apart.
Then Jin-hyeok’s body vanished.
No—the moment the jab landed, he’d already slipped left.
Outside Seo-jun’s field of vision.
To the blind side opposite his guard.
The blind spot.
Whoosh—!
A heavy wind rushed from the left.
Before Seo-jun could even turn his head.
Crack—!
Jin-hyeok’s fist drove into his face.
The impact traveled through his jaw and echoed into the back of his skull.
His vision shuddered.
His feet lost the mat.
Seo-jun’s body was driven backward.
And then.
Thud.
He landed hard on his backside.
Outside the Octagon, the gym members gasped audibly.
“What…?”
“What was that just now?”
“Did he take the hit?”
Seo-jun sat stunned on the mat.
His mouthpiece pressed uncomfortably against his teeth.
Before pain came confusion.
He’d been hit.
He was certain of it.
But somehow he’d fallen.
Jin-hyeok appeared unmoved.
He wiped his nose, dotted by the jab, with the back of his hand.
Then he turned away.
He walked slowly toward the corner.
Like a man who’d finished his work.
Do Yun approached Seo-jun.
His expression was cold.
“Starting the count.”
Seo-jun lifted his head.
Do Yun’s fingers rose, one at a time.
“One.”
The gym members fell silent.
“Two.”
Seo-jun planted his hands on the mat.
His jaw throbbed dully.
“Three.”
He watched Jin-hyeok’s back.
A loose guard.
The forward press despite taking the hit.
And the punch that had emerged from the blind spot.
This wasn’t Ryu Jin-hyeok’s movement.
It was an imitation of Hwang Dae-gun’s.
“Four.”
Seo-jun’s fingers clawed at the mat.
“Five.”
His jaw ached.
The inside of his head rang, as if belatedly.
He staggered upright.
His legs wavered once.
Do Yun stepped directly in front of him.
His face remained cold.
“Get your head straight.”
Seo-jun swallowed hard.
“Yes.”
“You’re only alive because this is standup striking rules.”
Do Yun’s finger pointed to the exact spot where Seo-jun had fallen.
“In a real MMA bout, you’d have caught ground and pound the moment you went down, and it would’ve been over.”
Seo-jun had no answer.
It was the truth.
The instant he landed on his backside.
In a real fight, Jin-hyeok would have covered him.
Punches.
Elbows.
Referee stoppage.
The sequence crystallized instantly in his mind.
Do Yun spoke quietly.
“Landing a hit isn’t the end of it. A brawler keeps coming even after you’ve struck him. The moment your fist connects could be the most dangerous moment of all.”
Just then, Jin-hyeok raised his hand from the corner.
“Coach.”
Do Yun turned his head.
“What.”
Jin-hyeok let out a snort.
“Isn’t the referee being unfair? You’re explaining strategy to only one fighter.”
Low laughter rippled through the gym members.
Tae-su snickered.
“That bastard’s got no filter—always saying something stupid.”
Do Yun cleared his throat.
“Shut up.”
Still, he took a step back.
“Let’s continue.”
Seo-jun raised his guard again.
Jin-hyeok walked slowly out from the corner.
His guard was low again.
His chin exposed.
His footwork lacked its usual sharpness.
Deliberately.
Rough.
Crude.
Yet every movement was calculated.
Jin-hyeok spoke.
“So your next opponent’s a brawler?”
Seo-jun didn’t answer.
Jin-hyeok shrugged off his shoulders.
“Brawler’s a nice word for it.”
He stepped in closer.
“He’s just a street fighter who charges in like a beast with no rules.”
As he spoke, Jin-hyeok’s right hand swept out in a wide arc.
Whoosh—!
Seo-jun slipped back.
The punch cleaved through empty air.
But Jin-hyeok didn’t stop.
He drove his whole body forward.
Shoulders.
Elbows.
Head.
His entire upper body came at him like a weapon.
Seo-jun realized it in that instant.
‘This isn’t how Jin-hyeok fights.’
Ryu Jin-hyeok doesn’t usually fight this way.
He moves with lightness.
Strikes small and sharp.
Changes angle before his opponent reacts.
Clean and cold. Elite.
But not now.
He trades blows.
He drives forward.
He shakes you.
He hits from blind spots.
Hwang Dae-gun’s method.
Jin-hyeok had abandoned his strength.
For Seo-jun’s sake.
He was mimicking that dirty brawling style.
Do Yun held the hand pads and stayed late into the night.
A-yeon analyzed footage until dawn.
Tae-su lent his body.
Jin-hyeok had laid down even his own style, recreating the opponent.
‘I can’t afford to stand here blankly.’
Seo-jun’s glazed eyes sharpened.
The ache in his jaw lingered.
But his mind had cleared.
Ryu Jin-hyeok’s left shoulder shifted.
This time, a wide, sweeping hook.
Baek Seo-jun didn’t retreat.
Half a step inward.
And to the side.
Tap!
His foot struck the mat.
The fist grazed past his ear.
Ryu Jin-hyeok’s eyes shifted slightly.
Baek Seo-jun twisted his body immediately.
A movement to slip out of the line of sight.
Still not perfect.
Ryu Jin-hyeok’s elbow came right after.
Baek Seo-jun blocked with his arm.
Crack!
The impact sang through his forearm.
But he didn’t fall.
The corner of Ryu Jin-hyeok’s mouth rose.
“Now we’re getting somewhere.”
Baek Seo-jun exhaled sharply.
“Let’s go again.”
“Who said we stopped?”
Ryu Jin-hyeok lowered his stance.
This time, messier.
He showed his right hand and drove in with his left shoulder.
Baek Seo-jun didn’t blink.
He didn’t just watch the hands.
The shoulders.
The feet.
The hips.
And the space where escape lay.
He found all of it at once.
Do Yun watched quietly from outside the cage.
Baek Seo-jun’s gaze had changed.
Moments ago, he’d been flustered.
Now he was hanging on.
Against an opponent who wouldn’t stop even when hit.
He was finding the angle to escape before the blow landed.
Ryu Jin-hyeok saw it too.
His mouth curved up in satisfaction.
“Good.”
His gaze sharpened.
“Then let’s do this for real.”
Ryu Jin-hyeok crouched lower.
His guard stayed low.
Instead, his feet exploded.
Boom!
He charged like a beast, raw and brutal.
His right hand came around in a wide arc.
Followed by his left.
And shoulder pressure all in one surge.
Baek Seo-jun’s toes scraped the mat.
He didn’t retreat.
To meet it head-on.
He too rocketed forward.

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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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