CH 393

Kang Jin-Ho stared at the trio before his eyes in stupefaction. “Okay, so…”

How was he supposed to interpret their suggestion? Kang Jin-Ho narrowed his eyes and tilted his head repeatedly.

“You… all think it's better for me to stay out of the kids' affairs?”

“Yes, Mister Jin-Ho.”

“Yes.”

Jo Gyu-Min and Choi Yeon-Ha unhesitantly nodded as if they didn't even need to consider their answer.

“Heol?” Kang Jin-Ho blinked his eyes in shock. What were these people even saying? He started this train rolling, yet they wanted him to step away? “May I ask why?”

Jo Gyu-Min tutted. “It's to maintain the balance of the stats of the participants of this bet. With you joining in, we won't be able to have a fair competition.”

Kang Jin-Ho stared at Jo Gyu-Min in flabbergast. “Are you kidding me?”

“Yes.”

“...”

“Yes, I was cracking a joke at your expense, Mister Jin-Ho. We're doing this for the orphanage kids, so who cares about some stupid bet? The real reason why you must step aside is... Well, let me be blunt, Mister Jin-Ho. You're too extreme and heartless in your method with the children.”

“I'm sorry?”

Park Yu-Min butted in. “...Jin-Ho. The boys are already half-dead.”

Kang Jin-Ho furrowed his brow. “That's because they don't have any backbone.”

“No, no amount of backbone can help them with your exercise regime, Jin-Ho. You keep that up, and the boys will get hospitalized soon!”

“Once they transcend their limits, they…”

Choi Yeon-Ha suddenly butted in next as a refreshing smile spread on her face. “Will you listen to yourself?”

“...?”

“The orphanage kids asked you for help after bullying in school has become too hard to endure. But you're telling them to go through even more near-death hardship now for a chance to make things less hard in the future. How will that sound to these boys?”

Kang Jin-Ho stared at Choi Yeon-Ha in a daze as if someone had hit him with a hammer. He had never thought about this from that angle. “B-but... You can't earn anything without putting in the requisite effort.”

“You might be right, but putting in effort doesn't guarantee you'd get what you want in the end, now does it, Mister Jin-Ho? From what I witnessed, all you've been doing to those poor boys is physical abuse. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“P-physical abuse?” Kang Jin-Ho's jaw nearly dropped to the floor. Even though he was taking it very easy with these kids?!

'Just how low is the threshold of the modern era?'

Questions swirled violently in Kang Jin-Ho's head. Hoping to get much-needed answers, he quickly turned his head and stared at Park Yu-Min.

Park Yu-Min smiled awkwardly. “Of course, Jin-Ho... It's not like we're trying to say you've done something wrong, but... In my opinion, what you did was a bit… Mm…”

He scratched the back of his head.

“That was a bit too much for underage boys.”

Choi Yeon-Ha harrumphed. “Never mind a 'bit too much', that was clearly an overkill! Not even the National Training Center will train its athletes to that extent. Mister Jin-Ho, haven't you considered the possibility of the orphanage kids falling ill from your training regime? You've never trained anyone with that so-called training regime before, have you?”

“Well, I have.”

“And? What results did you get?”

“The results...?”

...They were pretty good, actually.

Back in Zhongyuan, Kang Jin-Ho had trained his personal corps of bodyguards called the Demon Flames and turned them into gangho's greatest, scariest, most bloodthirsty group of murderers. That seemed like a pretty good result, didn't it?

Each member of the Demon Flames was an elite among the elites of the demon cult. As a group, they were strong enough to make the entire gangho shiver in fear.

If only Kang Jin-Ho had been together with his Demon Flames during his final moments, Azure Demon wouldn't have succeeded in assassinating him. Kang Jin-Ho made a grave mistake back then by falling for Azure Demon's treachery and dispatching the Demon Flames on some unknown mission far away.

Despite the obvious success, though...

'...What was the survival rate, again? Around ten percent?'

Out of ten trainees, five would usually perish, while the four would turn into cripples. However, the survivor would become one of the strongest experts to walk the Earth.

'...Of course I'm not that senseless, you fools!'

Obviously, Kang Jin-Ho wouldn't train the orphanage kids in the same way as the Demon Flames! He nerfed the training's difficulty again and again to match the frailty of the boys, but it seemed his nerfing was still not enough, judging from all this opposition.

“Hmm…” Kang Jin-Ho slowly nodded, his expression stiff. He needed to acknowledge that the modern era and Zhongyuan weren't the same and that he still hadn't fully acclimatized to the ways of the modern era just yet. “Very well. I shall lower the difficulty even more.”

“N-no, Mister Jin-Ho!” Jo Gyu-Min firmly shook his head. “It's not about lowering the difficulty. What we need is a much more extreme measure!”

“...What do you mean?”

“It's not like we're dismissing your methods outright, Mister Jin-Ho. Well, truth be told... People might not acknowledge it openly, but they know nothing is better than violence to stop others from underestimating you.”

Choi Yeon-Ha snorted derisively. “What kind of a caveman logic is that? Chief Jo, no one resorts to violence these days.”

“Miss Yeon-Ha, you can speak like that because you haven't experienced something like... Well, let's say you got into a car accident. But then, the driver getting out of the other car is a chisel-haired gangster with tattoos all over his body. That's gonna shut your mouth up very quickly,” Jo Gyu-Min tutted. “People think violence can't solve anything, but they also instinctively understand that violence can sometimes ignore the restrictions placed by the law. That's why you can't underestimate the threat posed by the potential of violence, Miss Yeon-Ha.”

“Hmph…” Choi Yeon-Ha made an unwilling expression but still clamped her mouth shut, unable to completely refute Jo Gyu-Min's assertion.

“...Then, what do you propose, Chief Jo?” Kang Jin-Ho narrowed his eyes and asked.

Jo Gyu-Min smirked. “Mister Jin-Ho, you only need to supervise the... overall proceedings. Let's be all honest here, shall we? A manager who can analyze the situation and adjust things accordingly is an absolute must when it comes to a project like this.”

Why did it sound like Jo Gyu-Min was being purposefully obtuse while relegating Kang Jin-Ho to the background?

Kang Jin-Ho shuddered in anger for a moment or two before groaning loudly.

'I should listen to their advice...'

If he were to exclude his family members, Kang Jin-Ho could safely say the people in this room were his closest confidantes. And they were all telling him to back off in one united voice. That could only mean he should indeed stop and take a step back.

This matter wasn't about satisfying Kang Jin-Ho's ego. And it wasn't about his enjoyment, either. No, this was for the orphanage kids. The goal was to make their lives a little more bearable, and if he was a hindrance to achieving this goal, he should withdraw immediately. Even so...

“...Does that mean I must halt the training?”

“Of course not,” Jo Gyu-Min shook his head. “I've already told you that your opinion is also correct.”

“Huh? Then, will the kids continue with the training?”

“Yes, they definitely will,” Jo Gyu-Min energetically nodded just as a smirk crept up on his lips. “However, I believe leaving this to a professional will be a smarter idea.”

***

Han Jin-Seong groaned while massaging his shoulder. “Urgh, I'm literally dying here…”

“Should I just run away from home, hyung?”

“...Why do you wanna run away when you can just say you don't wanna do this so-called training anymore? What can we do outside of the orphanage, anyway? Nowadays, underaged kids can't even get hired for stuff like delivering pizza!”

“Huh? What do you mean by 'stuff like'? Don't you know how well-paid deliverymen are these days?”

“...That's beside the point.” Han Jin-Seong spat out a loud groan.

He figured he'd get used to the training regime the more he did it, but... Kang Jin-Ho's methods were not something anyone could get used to.

If the kids started growing confident about getting used to the routine, Kang Jin-Ho would suddenly raise the difficulty. His reason? Apparently, there was no point in repeating exercises that were now familiar and 'easy'.

Although Kang Jin-Ho was theoretically correct, his assertion still left the orphanage boys deeply aggrieved and unhappy. They had to deal with a training regime that got progressively harder with each passing day, after all!

'Seriously...! We can't keep doing this!'

At this point, Han Jin-Seong or some other boy should try to talk to Kang Jin-Ho and make him stand down, but...

“...But I can't seem to say anything.”

“You too, Jin-Seong hyung?”

“Yeah. Someone spare our souls…”

For some weird reason, Han Jin-Seong couldn't say anything negative while standing in front of Kang Jin-Ho. Even though he didn't find Kang Jin-Ho that scary or never thought that painful retribution was in store for anyone daring to rebel.

If someone told him the truth, Kang Jin-Ho would definitely try to accommodate the children even if he failed to understand why. However, Han Jin-Seong just couldn't bring himself to talk to Kang Jin-Ho about it.

“...I guess it's because of that.”

“That? What do you mean, hyung?”

“I meant his eyes.”

“Eh? His eyes?”

“Okay, so... How should I explain it...? His eyes are like, 'I know you can do this'. Eyes that say he's never once doubted our success. Something like that?”

“...”

“I've not seen eyes looking at me like that since Sister Yi passed away. Yu-Min hyung probably cares about us more but he... He's worried about us all the time, you know what I mean?”

“Yeah, I do.”

Han Jin-Seong sighed deeply. No one had ever expected him to do something meaningful before, so the idea of betraying that expectation just didn't sit well with him.

'Even then, I've reached my limit...'

Today's training regime hadn't even started yet, but Han Jin-Seong's legs were already trembling precariously.

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Boys would fall asleep like corpses after returning to the orphanage at night, and Park Yu-Min would literally go through a war every morning trying to wake them up.

'Just how long are we supposed to do this?'

Han Jin-Seong resolved himself. This was wrong. He needed to say something today. Things were already this hard for him, so how much worse would it be for the younger boys? If they kept this up, someone might really get hurt!

That was when the gymnasium's door opened, and Kang Jin-Ho walked inside while making a stiff face.

Han Jin-Seong steeled his resolve like a man, clenched his teeth, then stared at Kang Jin-Ho.

'...I can't do it.'

Han Jin-Seong grew tearful, and his head faltered. One look at Kang Jin-Ho's face was enough to stop Han Jin-Seong in his tracks. He just couldn't bring himself to say, 'No, this is wrong, hyung!'

Every single person here knew how hard Kang Jin-Ho was working for their sake.

Unlike Park Yu-Min, Kang Jin-Ho didn't have any relations to them. But he just showed up one day and took over the position of the Big Bro.

Han Jin-Seong knew only too well how hard—and annoying—it was to invest time and effort in kids not even related to him. And that was why he couldn't betray all the attention and affection Kang Jin-Ho had shown them until now.

Whether he knew Han Jin-Seong's mind or not... Kang Jin-Ho grimaced a little and began addressing the boys. “Mm…”

Something seemed a little different about Kang Jin-Ho today. He was hesitating, for some reason, before he sighed loudly.

“It seems I have to convey slightly bad news for you…”

“Sorry?” Han Jin-Seong's head shot up. “Slightly bad news, hyung?”

“Oh, maybe it's good news from your perspective? Or not? I'm not sure, but…”

Nervousness quickly dyed Han Jin-Seong's expression.

Kang Jin-Ho's face could only be described as 'unhappy'. To Han Jin-Seong, that expression seemed to contain Kang Jin-Ho's disappointment with the boys' performance so far.

'N-no, this is bad!'

Han Jin-Seong's mind began racing urgently.

Kang Jin-Ho continued with his announcement. “After discussing the matter of your training with others, we've concluded that my training regime for you guys is too bizarre to be deemed useful.”

“...?”

Did Kang Jin-Ho have to discuss with others to realize that? The feeling of absurdity even managed to overcome Han Jin-Seong's nervousness. Just what was inside Kang Jin-Ho's brain most of the time?

“So, what happened was… Mm, well, for the time being, I'll not be involved in your training.”

The orphanage kids quickly exchanged glances with each other.

'Nice!'

'We're gonna live!'

Although Kang Jin-Ho looked a little disappointed by this development, the boys still inwardly celebrated. Their survival came first before Kang Jin-Ho's feelings, after all! Of course, they would never dare to display their joy on the surface!

“D-does that mean you are not gonna supervise us anymore, Jin-Ho hyung?” Han Jin-Seong nervously asked, wondering if this was the announcement of Kang Jin-Ho giving up on them.

“No, it's not like that, but… I've decided to listen to other people's recommendations and asked an expert to take over from me.”

“An… expert?”

“Yeah. Yu-Min agreed that might be better, too. That means this option is probably the right one. So, uh... I'll entrust your training to the expert from today onward. He should be arriving any second now.”

“Ah...!” Han Jin-Seong tightly clenched his fist.

'Yes! Jin-Ho hyung hasn't given up on us!'

As it turned out, only the 'trainer' was changing. In that case, this was a jackpot. No matter who this mystery expert was, they couldn't possibly be any worse than Kang Jin-Ho, now could they!

'Whew, we might get to breathe a little easier now!'

Kang Jin-Ho suddenly turned his head and stared at the doorway. “Here they come.”

The boys followed Kang Jin-Ho's gaze and watched the door open... only for their bodies to freeze stiff like stone statues.

The 'gent' stepping through the open doorway was kitted out in a black business suit, and his shoulders were at least twice as broad as most people's.

'...A gangster?!'

'An ex-con?'

'A living weapon?!'

Kang Jin-Ho scanned the boys. “Let me introduce your new instructor. This gentleman will take over your training from me. He's the Assembly Master of the Korean Martial Assembly, Mister Bang Jin-Hun.”

...You must be joking, right? Jin-Ho hyung?

Hyung? Hyyyyung?!