Chapter 459: Testing (4)

Yi Myeong-Hwan reflexively raised his head after barely catching on to Kang Jin-Ho's voice. And then... his eyes opened wide in shock.

'What... the hell?'

A familiar sight was waiting for him. First of all, the darkness—the dim light of the office that had been decorated to resemble an interrogation chamber entered Yi Myeong-Hwan's eyes. And it was exactly the same as before when he first stepped inside.

Of course, this sight shouldn't come as a surprise to Yi Myeong-Hwan. Even if Kang Jin-Ho had been torturing him, the torture method wasn't the type to cause blood to splatter around the room. Although Kang Jin-Ho did break a few bones here and there...

Even so, Yi Myeong-Hwan was still shocked and flustered. And that was because the 'angle' of his view had changed. It was... too low.

Compared to when Kang Jin-Ho was holding Yi Myeong-Hwan by his throat, this angle seemed much closer to the floor. Only then did Yi Myeong-Hwan realize he was sitting in his chair, unmoving.

A person wouldn't usually suddenly remember that he had been sitting or standing up. Something like that didn't happen in a more normal setting. However, Yi Myeong-Hwan was still experiencing that abnormality.

Yi Myeong-Hwan absent-mindedly raised his hand and touched his face. And that was when he learned something else.

'...Wait, wasn't my arm broken?'

Indeed, the bones in his arms were shattered into bits, weren't they? Starting from his fingers to his wrists and even his forearms and shoulders... They were definitely broken. Yi Myeong-Hwan could still vividly recall the crippling pain from all the bones breaking, so how...?

'What just happened here...?'

Yi Myeong-Hwan hurriedly raised his other arm to check all the injured body parts, only for a flood of cold sweat to break out on his forehead. He could swear that the bones in his right arm had been broken to bits, and it should've been the same story for his left arm, which was busy touching the other 'injuries.'

His arms, feet and even collarbone should have been broken, courtesy of Kang Jin-Ho's cruel handiwork. The uncertainty of whether or not he could recover from such crippling injuries had made Yi Myeong-Hwan worry so much about his future, but now...!

How was he fine? Uninjured?

'Was it all a... dream?'

No, that couldn't be it.

Yi Myeong-Hwan couldn't have fallen asleep in such a tense situation. Besides, he would have woken up right away from such a vivid nightmare, anyway! Actually, the 'normal' reaction in that situation would've been for his body to wake up first before reaching the torture part of his nightmare!

That was why Yi Myeong-Hwan was sure it couldn't have been a dream. A human couldn't experience a dream where the senses of touch, smell, sight, and... even pain could be so perfectly replicated.

Yi Myeong-Hwan's eyes began trembling in shock and fear. He could see the expressionless Kang Jin-Ho sitting on the other side of the desk.

He... he must be the culprit.

If something that made no logical sense happened, Kang Jin-Ho simply must be behind it. Only he could've made the impossible possible, after all!

“...B-but, how?” Yi Myeong-Hwan dazedly asked.

And Kang Jin-Ho countered with an unperturbed reply. “You passed, Mister Yi Myeong-Hwan.”

“N-no, wait. That's not what I... Just what happened to me?” Yi Myeong-Hwan asked in a shrill voice, but the decibel quickly went lower as he neared the end of his question. Eventually, he became as quiet as a church mouse.

He did end up shouting from how flabbergasted and shocked he was but remembered something important in the middle of his shout. He had remembered who he was talking to.

Kang Jin-Ho quietly smiled while taking out a packet of cigarettes from his inner pocket. “Would you like a smoke?”

“Oh, uh…” Yi Myeong-Hwan briefly hesitated before nodding and accepting the cigarette Kang Jin-Ho offered him. Although he wasn't a smoker, now seemed like a pretty good time to smoke.

Click...

Kang Jin-Ho used his lighter to light the cigarette up for Yi Myeong-Hwan. When the unhealthy smoke slowly entered his lungs, Yi Myeong-Hwan felt light-headed and dizzy. Since he was a martial artist with qi circulating in his system, smoking a cigarette shouldn't have made him feel this way. Which could only mean his body's condition was not... normal.

Despite wearing training clothes designed to absorb sweat, Yi Myeong-Hwan felt his entire body was soaked from top to bottom.

Yi Myeong-Hwan quietly sucked on the cigarette for a while to soothe his frayed nerves and slow his pounding heart down to some degree. He then asked Kang Jin-Ho. "...What exactly happened to me?”

“I see that you wish to talk about something not really important to you.”

“I'm... sorry?”

Kang Jin-Ho smirked and mouthed a fresh cigarette for himself. “Rather than worrying about what happened, wouldn't you agree that knowing your result is far more important? And the important part is that you have passed. You can go home now, Mister Yi Myeong-Hwan. All those applicants who have passed will be contacted separately at a later date.”

Kang Jin-Ho began marking and jotting something down on the documents resting on the desk.

While doing that, he addressed Yi Myeong-Hwan for the last time. “You're free to go.”

“But, uh...” Yi Myeong-Hwan's lips parted before closing again.

He had so many things to ask. And lots of other things to discuss. However, no words wanted to come out of his mouth. Because, he... He was being crushed. Suppressed.

Of course, Kang Jin-Ho hadn't done anything to suppress him. Yi Myeong-Hwan knew that. The only thing Kang Jin-Ho did was smoke leisurely away while minding the contents of the documents. That was it. He couldn't be more disinterested even if he tried.

Even so, Yi Myeong-Hwan was still suppressed by Kang Jin-Ho's presence. That torture Yi Myeong-Hwan went through, an event he couldn't tell if it had been real or just an illusion, had left a too-violent impression of Kang Jin-Ho's presence in his soul and forced him to watch what he said.

...Like a brand that would never be erased!

After witnessing—and experiencing—that unbelievable event, how could anyone dare to oppose Kang Jin-Ho? No one would be stupid enough to do that unless they wanted to experience that hell again!

Yi Myeong-Hwan instinctively understood something. Most likely, from this moment on... If Kang Jin-Ho ordered him to jump into a lake of fire, Yi Myeong-Hwan would do it. After all, that should be a hundred times better than getting on Kang Jin-Ho's nerves! He'd rather choose a fiery death than go against Kang Jin-Ho's wishes.

“Was that... an illusion technique of some kind, sir?” Yi Myeong-Hwan muttered cautiously, only to realize how absurd that question was.

An illusion technique? Stuff like that only appeared in mangas, didn't it?

Of course, Yi Myeong-Hwan understood that martial artists like him must've looked like characters from comic books to so-called normal people. Martial artists with qi and cultivation should sound unrealistic to those living in the mundane world... probably. Even so, martial artists still had their own sense of what was and wasn't possible in reality.

For instance, they knew getting stronger didn't mean they could shoot flames from their palms or walk in the air. And things like illusion techniques? Something like that was well out of the bounds of reality even in the eyes of martial artists.

The concept of a person invading another person's consciousness and dragging them into an artificially-constructed 'reality' just didn't sound realistic. An utter nonsense, in other words!

“Rather than an illusion technique, it's more like a modified mind control technique...” Kang Jin-Ho scratched his head. “Since the concept of it hadn't been passed down, I'm not sure how I can explain it to you so that you can understand it. I also didn't learn it from books, you see.”

“...Oh.”

“Anything else you're curious about?” Kang Jin-Ho casually asked.

“N-no, I don't have any other... questions...” Yi Myeong-Hwan staggered back to his feet.

It felt like he had been entranced by a phantom. And that phantom was still here, obviously annoyed by Yi Myeong-Hwan's continued presence in this office. Who else in this world could have experienced something as absurd as this?

Yi Myeong-Hwan turned around toward the exit, only to falter and hesitate. “Uhm, excuse me...?”

“Yes?” Kang Jin-Ho raised his head away from the documents.

“Uh... How many of us have passed so far?”

“It's been unsurprisingly few. Still, I have a lot of applicants left to interview, so we'll see.”

“I, I see. T-thank you for your time.” Yi Myeong-Hwan bowed deeply before urgently escaping from the room. The first thought that came to his mind after sobering up was to get the hell out of this terrifying place as soon as possible.

After stepping past the doorway, Yi Myeong-Hwan closed the door as silently as possible, and then...

Plop!

The realization of finally escaping from that room suddenly robbed Yi Myeong-Hwan's legs of all strength. He didn't care if other people were watching him or not and went down to his knees, barely managing to prop himself up on the floor. A flood of cold sweat broke loose all over his body and ran down his skin.

'Holy f*ck... They weren't exaggerating, were they?'

In scenes of extreme tension in TV shows, the actors would often be seen soaking in a copious amount of sweat. Yi Myeong-Hwan used to think that was an exaggeration to enhance the drama, but he was wrong about his assumptions. If he squeezed his clothes dry of his sweat right now, the amount should be enough for him to wash his face!

Yi Myeong-Hwan was now fully convinced that the often-touted scientific fact about the human body consisting 70% of water was indeed true. That had to be it, otherwise all this sweat wouldn't have made sense!

Just as Yi Myeong-Hwan began wondering if he could even get out of the building in his current condition, he heard footsteps of people approaching him.

'Eh?'

He raised his head to look and spotted two men walking closer while carrying mops and large buckets. Flustered, Yi Myeong-Hwan hurriedly asked the two men. “W-what is this?”

One of the men tutted in annoyance. “Move aside, will ya? We need to mop the floor.”

“Huh? Say what?”

The man peeked below Yi Myeong-Hwan's butt before a look of surprise formed on his face. He glanced at Yi Myeong-Hwan before looking back at his colleague. “Look, this kid didn't piss himself.”

“Really? Wow, I guess you got some balls, kid.”

“...?” Yi Myeong-Hwan blinked his eyes in confusion. What were they even talking about here? “C-can you explain...?”

“Oh. Sorry about that. It's nothing, really... Half of you guys coming out of the room almost immediately collapse on the floor like you, you see. And most of them are totally out of their rockers, and those with still-intact minds would piss themselves, so... We're here to mop the floor if the situation requires it.”

“...”

“In any case... Don't be too embarrassed to say it, okay? You need a change of undies?”

“N-no, I'm fine.”

“Okay, if you say so. By the way, just what's going on inside this office, dude? Not a single brat wants to tell us what happened, you know? You seem to be relatively fine, so... You don't mind me asking you, do you?”

Yi Myeong-Hwan dazedly looked at the man. This guy wanted an explanation? An explanation on... that torture?

'That's impossible...!'

It wasn't that the martial artists before Yi Myeong-Hwan couldn't explain due to their minds going haywire. Even if they wanted to explain, they probably didn't know how.

Without a doubt, some of the martial artists would've tried to explain. But they must've quickly realized the futility of their attempts. There was no simple way to make those uninvolved understand what happened inside.

After all, they themselves probably had a tough time processing what happened to them, anyway!

“Can I... leave now?” Yi Myeong-Hwan weakly asked.

“Sure. Oh, wait. Take this with you.” One of the men said that while pulling out a dry towel from the bucket before handing it to Yi Myeong-Hwan.

He accepted the towel, hurriedly wiped the sweat off his face, then forced his limp body to stand. Yi Myeong-Hwan barely managed to get back to his feet and scanned his surroundings while stabilizing his unsteady body.

'Where was the exit, again?'

The Martial Assembly HQ, a place he had been frequenting for over a decade, now seemed so foreign. Unfamiliar. Was this place really the same building from his memories?

The man looked at Yi Myeong-Hwan in pity. “Go that way. That's the exit. This is so goddamn weird, isn't it? Everyone's reaction has been pretty much the same, even you. At least you haven't screamed, so that's good. A few of the kids coming out of there had gone totally nuts, you know? We were told they'd be fine in a couple of days, so we had them confined in solitary rooms just in case.”

Yi Myeong-Hwan chuckled hollowly at that info dump.

'Huh. Those who haven't gone mad are the crazy ones...'

The idea of staying sane after experiencing that ordeal seemed too absurd to Yi Myeong-Hwan. He knew he'd never recover from the PTSD caused by today's event. Even to his dying day! So, how could anyone...

'...Wait a minute?'

That was when Yi Myeong-Hwan's eyes powerfully quaked. Yes, he knew he could never escape from the trauma. Never. However, what did that signify?

Yi Myeong-Hwan's quaking eyes shifted toward the firmly-shut doorway behind him. Every single person walking through that door would never, ever oppose Kang Jin-Ho from this moment on, regardless of whether they had passed or not.

If all those who passed went through this 'process' a couple more times... They would morph into brainwashed creatures that gladly killed themselves if Kang Jin-Ho told them to die!

'Could it be that this was a part of his plan, too?'

That was when Yi Myeong-Hwan suddenly became aware of the situation he was in. It was as if... As if his feet were glued to a massive spiderweb. Even though only his feet were stuck for the time being, soon the rest of his body would get gradually more entangled as he struggled to escape from the web.

Once the web had completely ensnared Yi Myeong-Hwan, Kang Jin-Ho would stop watching from somewhere up above and start wrapping his helpless prey in his spider thread. After that, the only thing remaining was to suck the body fluids out while Yi Myeong-Hwan was still alive.

“Oii... You okay there?” One of the cleaners asked.

“S-sorry?” Yi Myeong-Hwan sobered up and stared at the cleaning crew.

“You're still sweating buckets, man. You should've sobered up by now, you know? But your condition seems to be getting worse.”

“...No, I'm fine,” Yi Myeong-Hwan desperately shook his head.

He had to be wrong about this. Kang Jin-Ho wouldn't go that far. Surely not!

However, what could Yi Myeong-Hwan do even if that unlikely scenario really happened? He knew he couldn't oppose Kang Jin-Ho anymore, anyway.

While wiping the cold sweat off his face, Yi Myeong-Hwan forced his unmoving legs to carry him outside the building. He wanted to go home. Right now! That was all he could think about.

The cleaning crew called out to Yi Myeong-Hwan one more time. “Hey, man. Drive safely, okay? We heard that two of you guys drove off the road on their way home and rolled their cars. If you think you can't drive, consider staying here for the night.”

“...No, I'll be fine,” Yi Myeong-Hwan urgently headed to the exit while not paying attention to what they were saying to him.

After exiting the building, Yi Myeong-Hwan's trembling eyes looked back at the imposing structure behind him. He started coming here at a young age, but the building never came across as sinister and creepy to him... until now. It might look the same, but it also felt totally alien. An unexplainable sense of disharmony quickly washed over Yi Myeong-Hwan just then.

He suddenly got the feeling that Kang Jin-Ho must be looking at him from one of the many windows in this building. Yi Myeong-Hwan bit his lip hard, then quickly turned around.

After mustering every ounce of energy in his system, Yi Myeong-Hwan urgently headed to his parked car.