After a long chilling shower and a change of clothes. Do-Yun sprawled over the living sofa and turned the phone he got from Byung-ho on. There was a charger in the box and it had 70% in it. Byung-Ho didn’t have to go so far, but he did so he wouldn't question it.
‘It looks brand new.' Do-Yun placed the case back on the phone. Then changed the default wallpaper to a random picture of Deadpool. Having a phone in his hand after a long while made him smile.
When he finished his food at Granny’s house and came back. Do-Yun ended up scrolling through the internet to rewatch some movies. That is how he ended up sleeping late in the morning.
“Ugh…” The next morning his head rang and his battered body ached. Nonetheless, Do-Yun dragged his feet to the bathroom and stood under the cold water.
Locking the door he zoomed to the bank. Thanks to the empty streets he reached his destination just in time.
“You are the boy that kid talked about yesterday?” The old man at the counter laughed watching him sweat.
The Uncle Baek Byung-ho spoke to, was this man. A white dress shirt and black pants looked good on his well-maintained frame. He was as tall as Do-yun and if not for his greying hair and beard, he would look like a man in his prime.
“Haha, surprised at how good I look are ya? I won a gold medal in Taekwondo for the nation. So, I keep myself moving even at this age. You see the first thing I do in the morning is….” The few people behind him showed wry smiles as he went off.
They stopped counting how many times they had listened to this routine of his. And Do-Yun was his new victim.
“…And then after one more set of the entire exercise chart and stretches I go to sleep.” He had to listen to him for about 20 minutes for this day-long routine to end.
‘He went down the last thing he ate,’ Do-Yun shook his head. At least it was good that this old man had great enthusiasm.
“Hmm, I forgot to ask why you came here?” The old man coughed after he noticed that everyone had left. First time in a while someone listened to him go off, so he went a bit overboard.
“I lost my wallet in the rush, and I don’t think I’ll get it back,” Do-Yun said.
“It is better to think that way. People are still missing only god knows where the lost belongings are,” The old man sighed.
He had not heard from some of the employees under his management. Their families still tried to search for them, or it was the other way around. The situation was messy.
“So, how long will this take?” Do-Yun asked after he did the paperwork.
“That depends on how efficiently the Government handles things. But I’ll be sure to push your delivery further if I can,” The old man didn’t hold high hopes for that.
“Thanks, I’ll make do with withdrawing money for some days.” Do-Yun didn’t mind. He had to come around the area daily anyway.
“No problem. It won’t take long anyway. I believe the world will move forward soon like always,” The old man laughed and handed him the money.
“It sure will.” Do-Yun smiled.
“What an interesting kid,” Old Man Baek laughed watching him leave. That sort of attitude was a rare sight in today's youth.
“It is like I saw a young Gun again.” Picking up the phone the old made a call to his best friend that left Seoul a year ago.
.
.
.
Do-Yun’s lazy steps led him to the gym. He entered while yawning and turned to his right.
“Morning Hyung,” Byung-ho stood behind the counter and greeted him with a smile. But he soon tilted his head when Do-Yun sat a small stack of cash on the glass counter.
“The fee,” He said.
“You met Uncle Baek?” Byung-ho asked and Do-Yun nodded.
“Yes, he did tell me a lot about himself,” A wry smile appeared on Byung-ho's lips when Do-yun chuckled.
“Haha, he is like that. What did he talk about? His daily routine or some stories about his days in the special forces?” Byung-ho had to listen to those on repeat sometimes. It almost happened yesterday too, but he was quick to come back because of the open Gym.
“His daily routine,” When Do-Yun recounted what he heard. He missed a few things about the whole routine, but he remembered most of it.
'That is just like Uncle Baek.' Byung-ho smiled, he set the cash into the drawer and locked it. Then he took out a laminated card from the second drawer to his left and handed it to Do-Yun.
“It is Hyung membership card,” He smiled.
“Were you holding onto it till I paid? Looks like you have some caution in ya after all.” Do-Yun smirked.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“Ah No Hyung! I forgot to print it yesterday!” It had completely slipped his mind as he inquired people for information the entire day.
“I was joking…” Do-Yun sighed. He made a mental note of not making small jokes in front of Byung-ho.
“Haha, I see. Please enjoy the facilities, if Hyung needs anything call me over.” Though his mood changed in a rapid motion.
"I'll do that." Do-Yun thanked him and walked to the rack.
He stretched to warm his body up and slid the weights onto the barbell. To continue the growth in stats he had to push his body to the limits without getting serious injuries. With his back on the bench, he rasied his back in an arch he took a firm hold of the barbell. He pushed the barbell off the rack. Now, the entire weight was now over his chest. His arms were a little shaky when he brought the bar down to touch his lower chest, but he pushed it up with some ease.
‘I don’t think finding a healer would be easy at this stage.' Even if he could ignore the pain and fatigue, injuries weren't on the list. He could adapt but injuries would be a roadblock.
'All I have to do is ignore the injuries.' But, even if Do-Yun couldn’t go too far, he had to be on a consistent rise of difficulty. His previous experience came into play. It allowed him to set the limit where he could exhaust himself without damaging his body to the point of injury.
[The Skill Adaptation (EX) is adapting to the Status Effect Physical Pain (E), Progress 20%...]
“A little damage is always welcome.” He smirked.
Two days later…
When he pushed 400 kilograms over his chest for the 100th time his bones gave a desperate cry, that was his sign to stop. But, Do-Yun exhaled and continued, after a few more reps he heard a pop from his joints as his hands trembled. With the stacked barbell above his chest, he felt the itch on the entire midsection and neck. The Extra Skill Instinct helped him a lot in his pursuit of training.
'If I continue I wouldn't have a chest to train.' Do-Yun hung the barbell on the rack and sat down not minding the burning muscles and the agony of his arms. He reached for the water bottle, but it was empty so he placed it on the floor with a sigh. However, his savior arrived like always.
“Hyung here’s more water,” Byung-ho noticed Do-Yun’s forgetfulness in this part over the past few days. So, he always filled a few bottles in advance and brought them at the end of the set.
“Thanks.” Do-Yun chugged down on the water.
With his spirit restored he went back to his sets after that. Byung-ho sat down on the nearby bench and observed him.
‘Hyung has made some rapid progress, his posture is getting better too.’ Some of his muscles were visible through the sweaty t-shirt that stuck to him. And he would only improve from here
Even if he was reckless, Byung-ho’s attempts to stop Do-yun were always shot down.
‘I know my limit. So don’t worry about cleaning up a dead body.’ he said yesterday with a big smirk.
‘When he first said that I panicked…’ Byung-Ho shook his head.
Ding~!
Byung-Ho took the phone out of his pocket hearing the notification. It was a special ring he had set up for a Metube Channel he enjoyed watching.
‘The stream about the Mysterious Hero is starting!’ He was happy that the notification worked for once.
Byung-ho walked to the counter so he doesn't disturb Do-Yun and opened the app with a smile. The stream of MelonBread started with more viewers than usual. This was a small commentary channel that tackled news related to the Awakened and Gates.
In the community post, he wrote about revealing more information on the Mysterious Hero. So many people tuned in.
“This should be enough for today.” Do-Yun finished the daily quota he had set. 20 sets of weighted squats, bench presses, deadlifts, and overhead presses. He took a quick shower and changed into a new set of clothes.
He planned on heading home and crashing into his bed.
'Should I rewatch some movies or read some comics?' Do-Yun considered his options, and the decision was tough to make.
"I am going ho-" But when Do-Yun passed by the counter, he retraced his steps. The reason was the video Byung-ho got absorbed in.
[...K-News Station tried to gloss over the safety issues. When the reporter on site talked about how severe the incident was they tried to cut things off. You can also see that with the video quality, rather than the camera they used a phone to shoot it. According to her words, the cameraman couldn’t hold onto it because of the destabilized helicopter. She said and I quote ‘If ‘he’ didn’t stop that car, the helicopter would’ve exploded and us along with it. We were lucky that the only casualty was the camera.'] A man with a weird mix of golden and brown hair spoke with unnatural fervor.
[K-News station has said that they recovered the camera, but they couldn’t recover the footage. I would like to talk about the possible conspiracies. But the biggest problem is that we do not know anything about the man who saved so many lives.]
The footage from the day of the Gate break played on a loop with his commentary.
The damage caused by the Warrior was greatly emphasized by the ruins left behind in Seok-Cho. In the end, they could at most see blurs of the actual fight before the Warriors corpse appeared on screen.
Beserker1: What the hell! That building! How did it end up like that?
A_New_Doctor177: The Memorial Hospital was done dirty
A_Random_Troll: That’s the cleanest I’ve seen that place
Myfutonpullsoutbutidont: Stop joking bro this is serious.
Breadsbitch1: Ban him!
A_Random_Troll: I Refuse
ParkJisungisanOKactor: Damn, look at that rubble I’ve been to that store before
A_Random_Troll: Well, that place isn’t gonna be available any longer. Also your username. Lol. Man is not scared.
Spaceballs: Holy shit! Is that a car stuck in the building?!
Ihaveahairyback: Why is he surprised lol?
Justarando: Wait till he sees the truck
Ilickbatteryacidforfun: kekekeke
Spaceballs: There’s a truck stuck in the building?! What’s next a rocket?
INoScopedYourMom: lololololol
The comment section was very lively. Craters and rubble with what used to be buildings appeared with other unusual sights. They were the signs of the battle, and everything that happened was now out for public scrutiny.
[But luckily we have a face now. Miss Yoo Ari who was in that helicopter at the moment had drawn a portrait of the man with her hands. And we are the only channel that has it now.] MelonBread’s proud voice rang in the silent gym.
A pencil sketch appeared on the screen. With a glance, anyone could see that the person who made it had good skills. But the amount of detail on the defined jawline, high nose, and dark eyes elevated it further. It was like they were staring at the real person.
INoScopedYourMom: Woah! Is this for real?
Spaceballs: Yeah took him three hours to get to the point
Ilickbatteryacidforfun: He’s good-looking
A_Random_Troll: Now we at least know that he won’t get charged for property damage
Ilickbatteryacidforfun: Is he an actor?
MysteriousHerosFanNo1: No, if he was, I would know
MysteriousHerosFanNo2: Why are you so sure?
MysteriousHerosFanNo1: Don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to
INoScopedYourMom: That’s sick…
Ilickbatteryacidforfun: In more than one way
MysteriousHerosFanNo2: I need those answers though
Justarando: lololol
The people chatted away in the live comments with unnatural fervor. But Byung-ho gulped his dry saliva. His eyes rose from the screen to the face in front of him.
“H-Hyung…?” His voice got caught up in his throat.
“Yes, that’s me.”
The main hero of the video he watched over a thousand times in the past few days was right in front of him this whole time. Byung-ho never imagined this even in his wildest dreams.