CHAPTER 9

The punch from Park Joo-Won sent Noa far away and placed him on his knees. Noa who was staggering to get up was declared the loser by Aoi. Nobody refuted it, not even the arrogant Noa could. It was an overwhelming win for Joo-Won and it made Nei gulp at the sight of Noa, who had beaten the shit out of him falling to his knees.

Kenji, the only silent and reserved person in this unique group suddenly had a wide smile on his face. Nei saw this and instinctively knew what kind of person Kenji was.

'He is like those anime kind of guys that feel aroused when they fight strong guys.'

Nei was right. The smiling Kenji requested a spar with Joo-Won.

The crowd guessed that Park Joo-Won would unconditionally win.....the result was the opposite.

Kenji used his mind-blowing CQC 'basic' moves to overpower Park Joo-Won. Park Joo-Won threw the first blow and tried to launch an offensive barrage of punches. He judged that Kenji wouldn't fall to his surprise punch but he still had confidence that his powerful force would eventually push back Kenji. It was an arrogant assessment.

Kenji served in a special Japanese unit that was very covert and dangerous. Even Aoi didn't dare guess what type of unit it was and she tried not to pry as much as possible. This was why even Kenji's fighting style seemed unfamiliar to her.

Kenji easily deflected Park Joo-Won's heavy punches. To be precise, he parried them. He did it with absurd precision.

Parrying punches was very effective when it actually succeeded. With perfect timing, a parry could redirect an attack, especially when your opponent was coming at you with great momentum. It allowed your opponent to reveal a brief gap and fall into your counter. Yes, it was very effective but this was only when one managed to pull it off. It required perfect timing, especially when your opponent was pulling out at least 42 punches in four seconds just like Park Joo-Won.

Yet, at this moment, Kenji parried all of Park Joo-Won's punches and returned a counterattack every time Joo-Won revealed a gap. He did it with the least body movement. It was too little to call it perfect timing. Kenji did it naturally like it was a normal reaction.

Joo-Won stopped his barrage and took a boxing stance.

He threw a right hook, this time Kenji didn't parry it, he moved his upper body further back a little and narrowly avoided the hook. Kenji brought his body to the ground and performed a low spinning sweep kick. He was getting bored so he planned to end it soon. Unfortunately, the gorilla plus baby-faced Park Joo-Won didn't bulge.

Kenji realized his mistake as he raised his eyes and saw the heavy fist rushing toward him. He tried to put his guard up but it was too late.

'I am going to lose', he had this thought as he felt Joo-Won's fist slamming into the top of his head. Park Joo-Won who had a calm expression throughout the battle let out an absurd sound and his face distorted. It was as a result of seeing Kenji who had a very sinister smile at the moment of his defeat.

Park Joo-Won's punch made direct contact. Yet he backed off hurriedly like he was preparing for something. The doubtful crowd soon realized why.

Kenji, who should have been knocked out with a direct hit to the top of his head was unharmed.

'Did he seriously parry my punch with his head?'

It was after Kenji felt like he was going to lose. He redirected Joo-Won's fist with the side of his head. Kenji was a handsome Japanese man who fortunately didn't have a lot of hair, this allowed him to redirect Joo-Won's attack by moving his head at the right time and in the right way.

Still, the brief contact caused a lot of pain. Kenji was only standing properly due to his ecstatic nature of loving dangerous situations. If it was any other person, there would be a slight lag for a few seconds.

The crowd cheered while Nei was a bit frightened to witness someone like this in reality.

'Manga authors are like gods. They predict all types of personality people may have without actually seeing them.'

While Nei was absorbed in worshipping the people he respected the most, round two of the spar had begun.

This time, Kenji was on the offensive, he actively utilized taijutsu, which meant 'empty-handed combat'.

If this was the murim world, Kenji would be called unorthodox.

It was because he mainly targeted deadly parts of the human body. The temples, nose, eyes, jaw and he even almost prevented Park Joo-Won from seeing his future generations.

Two minutes passed, and nobody gained a major upper hand in the battle. At least that's what the crowd thought.

"Keeeaah!" Park Joo-Won's scream broke the standstill

It was still a little early in the morning and things had been particularly rough today, So Park Joo-Won had decided to ignore his look by he wore flip-flops to the gym.

It was a bad decision.

He trolled himself. The unorthodox Kenji noticed this fact late but he precisely struck Joe Won's toe, he immediately followed with a spinning high kick aimed at Park Joo-Won's temple. Park Joo-Won tried to shake it off but he was struck once again in the side. Kenji used a palm strike and hit Joo-Won's right side of the ribcage.

That was the end. Park Joo-Won who had been barely holding on fell to his knees and admitted his defeat.

"It was fun." Kenji replied while wiping off his blood. Earlier in the spar, Park Joo-Won's twisting elbow strike made Kenji cut his tongue. If he hadn't gritted his teeth and braced for the impact. His tongue might have fallen off. It was a formidable match.

"Wohhhhhhh" The cheers of the crowd were heard. It was stimulating. Furthermore, the current hierarchy was placed at...

Kenji, Park Joo-Won, and Noa. Sure, it might have been different if Noa faced Kenji directly. But Noa himself dismissed the order in which he fought and ended up losing. He would forever remain under Kenji now.

Nei secretly laughed at the arrogant Noa who would have to live at the bottom for more than a year. He laughed, then raised his hands. He was going to spar with Kenji. Everyone in the group was surprised, the one who had lost to the ground wanted to challenge the sky?

Only Kenji smiled. He welcomed the situation. Nei once again had that confident look on his face. It was the look he had when he faced Director Myung and demanded 16 billion like he had no fear.

Nei who was walking towards Kenji suddenly came to a halt. He wasn't the only one. Aoi, Kim Ha-Eun, Sato, Noa, the trainees, etcetera. Everyone in the gym heard it.

"Ahhhhhh!!"

The scream of chaos. A scream that shouldn't- No a scream that didn't belong here was heard. They wanted to deny it, so they all rushed outside to confirm it with their eyes. Yes, they confirmed it, the undeniable truth.

A Safe Haven was under attack.

"What shit is this?" Nei was the first one to break the silence that filled the gym as they watched the abrupt scene of the North Korean Military shooting up the whole place like third-rate gangsters.

'How did they get here in the first place' This was a Safe Haven. More than a dozen or more enemies infiltrated this place armed? It wasn't physically possible.

The Buena Gente (Spanish for 'Good People') Agency had control over the Major Seaport that was in its districts while there was still a struggle among the other agencies for full control over the only International Airport on the island. Was there a traitor among the agencies?

It happened as the group were all trying to figure out the situation in real-time. Nei stared at Kim Ha-Eun who was still dumbfounded.

"What did you do?" Nei asked her as respectfully as possible.

"I have nothi-" she couldn't finish her sentence. It was because Aoi suddenly jumped over her. Bullets were flying throughout the building. The rioting soldiers seemed to have noticed that people were in there. Some trainees were brutally murdered by stray bullets.

"Ah fuck, what type of balls is God giving people these days to do whatever they like."

Nei seriously thought God had put an enormous amount of courage into human beings' testicles for it to reach the point of attacking a 'Safe Haven'

....

Fortunately or Unfortunately, the Safe Haven rule wouldn't be broken today. The disaster that would lead to it being broken and the disaster that would come after. Nothing that happened on this day would be comparable to it. Nei still had a lot of time to curse at the life he was bribed into.

1 YEAR, ONE MONTH, AND 11 DAYS till D-DAY.