I Thought I Was Bullying a Nobody, But He's a Martial Arts Genius - Chapter 40

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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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Unaware of Being a Combat Genius, Bullied in Silence — Episode 040
The distance closed again.
This time, he didn’t wait.
Lee Woo Sung accelerated first.
Tap.
The front foot planted itself, and the lead hand shot forward in the same instant.
Whip.
Seo Jun swatted it away with his lead hand.
Tap.
But the follow-up came immediately.
Jab.
Straight.
Short Left Hook.
Jab again.
Lee Woo Sung’s punches were spare and efficient.
No wide telegraphing.
No excess power behind them.
Just what the technique required.
Which made them fast and penetrating.
Seo Jun’s eyes tracked each arc.
Left hand.
Right hand.
Shoulder.
Wrist.
Chin position.
‘I see it.’
Seo Jun’s hands moved sharply.
Tap.
He parried the jab outward.
The right hand coming at his chin, he slipped it with a slight head movement.
The Left Hook, he pressed down with his guard.
In that gap.
Seo Jun’s right hand drove through the center.
Whoosh.
Lee Woo Sung pushed his upper body back.
By a paper’s thickness.
Seo Jun’s fist raked through empty air.
Lee Woo Sung’s left hand came right back.
Seo Jun blocked with his elbow.
Thud.
The impact sang through his arm.
He didn’t retreat.
Instead, he stepped half a foot forward.
Short body shot.
Thud.
Lee Woo Sung’s elbow dropped to block it.
Click.
Bone met Glove.
[Both fighters raising their tempo!]
[Seo Jun’s Parrying response is sharp! But Lee Woo Sung isn’t taking a single Clean Hit either!]
They collided again before the commentator finished speaking.
Lee Woo Sung thrust his right hand.
Seo Jun pressed it down with his left and rotated his body.
Inside angle.
Counter Left Hand.
Lee Woo Sung tucked his chin and raised his right guard.
Thud.
Off the guard.
Not a clean strike.
Immediately, Lee Woo Sung’s short Uppercut rose up.
Seo Jun bent at the waist.
Whoosh.
A fist grazed beneath his chin.
Seo Jun’s right hand countered.
Lee Woo Sung slipped left, letting it pass.
The fist whistled past his ear.
Both their feet moved in rapid patterns across the Mat.
Tap.
Tap-tap.
One step forward, one step back.
Retreating as if to draw him in, then attacking again.
Guards clashed.
Gloves snapped away.
Elbows blocked the lanes.
Seo Jun kept watching.
Lee Woo Sung’s smallest movements.
His gaze shifting before his shoulders.
His center pulling back before his feet.
He tried to catch these tells and land a Counter.
But Lee Woo Sung gave nothing away easily.
He’d feint as if to strike, then stop.
He’d thrust as if to hold back, then commit.
He extended his hands only at the precise distance where impact was guaranteed.
Seo Jun’s right hand flashed once more.
This time his timing was good.
He slapped the end of Lee Woo Sung’s jab and drove straight through.
The Spectator Seating held its breath.
But Lee Woo Sung pushed with his guard.
Thud.
The fist was diverted to the side.
And in the same moment, Lee Woo Sung’s Left Hook came around.
Seo Jun dropped his chin.
The fist cut through the air above his head.
Seo Jun raised his right hand from below his ribs.
A short Uppercut.
Lee Woo Sung tucked his chin and pressed with his elbow.
Thwack!
Blocked again.
Not a single Clean Hit landed.
Yet there was no moment without danger.
Every punch passed within a palm’s width of the chin.
Every defense a half-beat late meant the fight.
Do Yoon gripped the Cage Fence, unable to look away.
“Insane.”
Tae Soo muttered.
“So right now, neither of them is landing clean, correct?”
Ah Yeon’s fingers froze above the Tablet.
“Right.”
Her voice was equally low.
“There are no Clean Hits.”
Inside the Cage.
Lee Woo Sung made his first large movement.
His right hand swung wide.
A big attack.
Seo Jun read it.
He slipped backward out of range.
Whoosh!
The fist cut through empty air.
Distance opened between them.
Both stopped at once.
In that instant, the Spectator Seating that had held its breath until now erupted.
Rooooaarrr!
The roar shook the Stadium.
People suddenly realized they had been holding their breath.
[My apologies!]
The Broadcast Team’s voice cracked with excitement.
[What an extraordinary exchange unfolded right before our eyes — we nearly forgot to call the match!]
[In just about one minute, both fighters traded dozens of strikes! And remarkably — neither allowed a single Clean Hit!]
[This is the Finals! Both competitors are proving right now, in just one minute, why they earned their place here!]
Seo Jun caught his breath, watching Lee Woo Sung.
Lee Woo Sung kept his guard up.

* * *
The roar shook the Cage.
The crowd hadn’t yet recovered from the exchange that had just unfolded.
“Insane!”
“And that was just Round 1?”
“Why aren’t either of them landing anything!”
Voices crashed over them like waves.
In the midst of it all.
Lee Woo Sung slowly stepped back.
He drew a deep breath.
Exhale.
He let it out sharply through his mouth.
His shoulders dropped once.
His eyes didn’t change.
But his stance was shifting.
Subtly. Incrementally.
Seo Jun saw the transformation.
Lee Woo Sung’s lead foot planted deeper.
His knees lowered.
His hips descended.
As if his entire body were sinking into the Mat.
Team Jujak Corner.
Do Yoon’s face went rigid.
“That bastard…”
Tae Soo turned his head.
“What is it?”
Do Yoon didn’t take his eyes off Lee Woo Sung.
“Now he’s about to really turn it up.”
Tae Soo’s expression hardened.
“You’re saying that wasn’t his full power?”
“No.”
Do Yoon shook his head curtly.
“He was testing him.”
Ah Yeon’s grip tightened on the Tablet.
“Distance. Response. Counter timing.”
“Exactly.”
Do Yoon’s voice dropped low.
“Lee Woo Sung doesn’t just throw punches mindlessly. In that one minute, he studied every nuance — where Seo Jun’s eyes could track, the exact timing of his counters, all of it.”
Tae Soo looked into the Cage.
Seo Jun still had his guard up.
But Lee Woo Sung was different.
Until just now, he’d stood like a Boxer.
Striking lightly.
Slipping.
Striking again — that stance.
Not anymore.
Lower now.
Heavier now.
Do Yoon’s teeth clenched slightly.
“Lee Woo Sung’s strength is boxing.”
He gripped the Cage Fence.
“But you can’t dominate this place with just your fists alone.”
Tae Soo’s eyes widened.
“Then…….”
“Here it comes.”
Do Yoon leaned forward.
His voice cracked out.
“Seo Jun!!”
Seo Jun’s eyes flicked toward the Corner—just for a moment.
Do Yoon shouted.
“Stay focused!”
His voice cut through the roar of the crowd.
“He’s not going full power yet!”
Those words lodged in Seo Jun’s mind.
Not going full power yet.
Seo Jun turned his attention back to Lee Woo Sung.
He’d already sensed it.
Something was off.
The exchanges until now had been suffocating—intense.
The speed was sharp, the distance deep.
But there was a locked door somewhere inside Lee Woo Sung’s body.
And that door was opening now.
Seo Jun’s gaze dropped to Lee Woo Sung’s feet.
‘Lower.’
Different from before.
His center had shifted before his shoulders even dropped.
In the striking exchanges, his head and fists had led the way.
Now his whole body was preparing to push up from below.
Wrestling?
Clinch?
Takedown?
Seo Jun’s hands tightened imperceptibly.
‘It’s not just boxing.’
Lee Woo Sung approached without a sound.
One step.
Weight behind it.
The Mat gave a short groan.
Thud.
Lee Woo Sung walked forward with heavy purpose.
Each step closed the distance.
Seo Jun raised his guard.
Chin tucked, knees lowered.
Lee Woo Sung’s center stayed low.
But his hands were alive.
‘He could still punch.’
Seo Jun measured the timing of his counter.
Then Lee Woo Sung’s front foot came down hard on the Mat.
Boom!
A step so forceful the whole body shuddered with it.
At the same moment, his right hand was drawn back in a wide arc.
Like throwing a baseball.
An Overhand with his entire body behind it.
Seo Jun’s eyes widened sharply.
‘Enormous.’
Not the precise boxing he’d shown moments before.
Not a short Straight, not a clean jab.
The arc was wide.
A raw brawler’s fist—like the kind Hwang Dae Gun threw.
But the weight was different.
The force from Lee Woo Sung’s lower body drove upward, traveling across his shoulders.
The fist pulled back from above.
Whoosh!
Seo Jun instinctively raised both arms.
He covered his face completely.
A direct hit would be dangerous.
That judgment came first.
Bang!
A heavy fist crashed down against his guard.
The impact reverberated through his arms and up to his neck.
Seo Jun’s body swayed sharply backward.
His vision narrowed, trapped behind the guard.
Black gloves.
Forearms.
A narrow gap.
In that instant.
Do Yoon’s voice tore through the air beyond the Cage Fence.
“Idiot!!”
Seo Jun’s heart sank.
“That’s bait!!”
He lowered his guard.
Too late.
Lee Woo Sung had already vanished from his sight.
The upper body that had thrown the Overhand was already disappearing downward.
A stance so low it nearly touched the Mat.
Lee Woo Sung’s head was wedged beneath Seo Jun’s chest.
Both his arms were already wrapped deep around Seo Jun’s thighs.
Perfect penetration.
Perfect timing.
Seo Jun’s feet pressed against the Mat.
But Lee Woo Sung’s shoulders drove through his hips.
“Ugh.”
His center of gravity was lifting.
Seo Jun tried to dig in an Underhook.
His arm was too slow.
He tried to push his hips back.
Lee Woo Sung’s arms hooked both of Seo Jun’s legs.
And lifted.
Crash!
His body suspended in the air.
Seo Jun’s vision blurred.
A Double Leg Takedown.
Textbook perfect.
No—more brutal than any textbook.
Block the sight with a guard.
Raise the body with the impact.
Then burrow into the gap beneath.
A hunter’s trap.
Seo Jun twisted his body a moment too late.
His toes clawed at empty air.
But his caught legs would not come free.
Lee Woo Sung’s legs pushed hard against the Mat.
That force drove straight through to Seo Jun’s body.
Bang!
Seo Jun’s back slammed into the Mat.
Air exploded from his lungs.
“Gasp!”
The Spectator Seating erupted in screams.
[Aaah! Lee Woo Sung! A perfect Double Leg Takedown!]
[The Overhand was a feint! Seo Jun raised his guard, cutting off his vision, and Lee Woo Sung immediately drove low!]
Seo Jun tried to get up at once.
As he’d trained.
Hips back.
One knee planted.
Toward the Cage Fence.
But Lee Woo Sung wouldn’t allow it.
His chest came down.
Dead weight pinned Seo Jun’s upper body.
Head tucked beneath the chin.
Shoulders locked over the chest.
Hips blocking the pelvis.
Both legs wrapped.
Even the faintest resistance was swallowed whole.
Seo Jun tried to draw breath.
It wouldn’t come.
The pressure was too immense.
Tae Soo shouted from the Corner.
“Get up! Seo Jun!”
Ah Yeon’s face hardened.
Do Yoon clenched his teeth.
“Damn it…….”
Lee Woo Sung lay still atop Seo Jun.
He didn’t resort to desperate Pounding.
He pinned him first.
Perfectly.
He pressed each of Seo Jun’s wrists down.
He broke the hips.
He sealed the neck.
He erased every avenue of escape.
Only then did Seo Jun understand.
Lee Woo Sung’s true weight.
It wasn’t just Boxing.
This man was strong from the top as well.
The air inside the Cage settled downward.
Lee Woo Sung looked down at Seo Jun.
His gaze didn’t waver.
He spoke in a low, cold murmur.
“Got you.”
Those words fell upon the Mat.
Seo Jun’s eyes froze, cold as ice.
For the first time.
He had been hunted perfectly.

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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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