Chapter 229: You’re Just as Crazy as I Am

Even while excitedly chatting away with Richard Han, Kim Muhyuk never let his guard down.

He remained tense the entire time, watching Richard’s every movement.

“Kh......”

And yet, in the blink of an eye, Richard had seized him by the throat.

It was a moment that drove home just how vast the gap between him and the Strongest in the World truly was.

Even so, there was not a trace of intimidation in Kim Muhyuk’s eyes as he stared back at him.

“...No. I already have a master.”

Richard Han frowned at Kim’s refusal, forced out through clenched teeth.

“You’re serious? You’re turning down the chance to learn martial arts from the Strongest in the World? I might have to start calling you an idiot. There are hundreds of thousands of people who’d jump into a fire for the chance to learn from me......”

“Then pick one of them and teach them.”

Kim muttered the words while giving him a crooked look.

A cold smile appeared on Richard Han’s lips.

At the same time, his hand tightened slightly around Kim’s throat.

Crrrk......

The sickening sound of bones slowly being forced out of alignment filled the air.

“If I wanted to, I could kill you right now. It wouldn’t even be hard. All I’d have to do is twist my wrist. About as much effort as knocking back a cocktail.”

Kim knew he was telling the truth.

To Richard Han, that was all Kim amounted to right now.

And yet, even as the corners of his mouth trembled, Kim smiled.

“You won’t.”

“...What?”

Richard Han’s face went blank.

Kim chuckled as he stared back at him.

A feverish madness gleamed in his own eyes now.

“You’d spend the rest of your life wondering how far I might’ve gone if you hadn’t killed me. What kind of Transcendence-Level Ultimate Technique I might’ve created after becoming a peerless master. Whether I might’ve grown strong enough to rival you. And if I did......”

Kim Muhyuk was confident that he understood Richard Han better than anyone else in the world.

“You’d wonder if you’d destroyed with your own hands the rival you needed on your path to the ultimate heights of martial arts. And you’d regret it for the rest of your life.”

“...!”

Coming from a mere young rising star to the Strongest in the World, it was an outrageously arrogant thing to say.

But when Richard Han stared at him in stunned silence, Kim knew he had hit the mark.

“Ha...... Hahahahaha!”

Richard Han suddenly threw his head back and laughed, mouth wide enough to show his throat.

The glasses on the table trembled from the force of it.

Anyone dissatisfied with my rule may come here. If you are qualified, I will accept your challenge.

Kim Muhyuk was the only person alive who knew the future that awaited this man.

“You...... know me far too well, don’t you?”

The emptiness Kim had seen in Richard Han’s eyes even after he became ruler of the world.

As the Heavenly Demon Cult Leader, Richard had not stood atop some dazzling altar or grand stage.

He had stood on the sparring platform of the World’s Strongest Sparring Tournament and issued a challenge to the entire world.

Perhaps what he had truly wanted all along was......

“I figured you’d probably refuse. I just thought I’d ask, in case you surprised me.”

The strength slowly drained from the hand around Kim’s throat.

Richard released him.

Then his eyes suddenly welled with tears, and droplets began spilling down his cheeks.

He tilted his head back toward the ceiling and muttered,

“Why did you have to be born so late? If you’d been born twenty years earlier...... No, even ten years earlier, it would’ve been perfect......”

Joy and disappointment, exhilaration and anger all mingled across his face.

Kim thought to himself,

Lunatic.

The worst lunatic in the world.

A lunatic dangerous enough to destroy it.

Kim handed him a napkin and snapped irritably,

“I’m the one who almost got his neck broken. Why the hell are you the one crying?”

The man had just tried to snap his neck.

Naturally, Kim wasn’t particularly inclined to watch his language.

Richard wiped away his tears with the napkin, then smiled again as he stared at Kim.

“The drinks taste especially good tonight. Maybe the snacks are just that good?”

There was nothing on their table except alcohol.

Nothing at all.

Only the two of them.

Kim rubbed his aching neck and sneered.

“Changing the subject now that you’re losing?”

“Want to try breaking mine, then?”

Richard playfully offered him his neck.

Kim briefly considered taking a swing with Phantom Dream before deciding there was no harm in asking.

“Can I save that for later? I’d rather try when I’m in good condition.”

“Anytime!”

Richard burst into cheerful laughter and nodded.

As though he had already forgotten that he’d been threatening Kim moments earlier, he casually ordered more alcohol.

“Now then. Shall we start drinking for real?”

“I’m done with the sweet stuff. Order something strong.”

“Ha! I knew I liked you!”

Richard ordered several bottles of high-proof whiskey.

When the bar owner asked if they wanted it on the rocks, both men shook their heads.

“Neat!”

“Neat.”

They had been talking and laughing loudly for some time now, yet aside from the bar owner, not a single person so much as glanced in their direction.

It was almost as though the two of them existed in another dimension.

Kim realized that this had to be some kind of martial art Richard was using.

He isn’t even using a qi barrier.

It was a far more profound art operating on an entirely different level.

It did not merely distort sound.

It warped all five senses—and even their very presence.

Richard noticed Kim’s fascination and smiled approvingly.

“The higher martial arts and spellcraft rise, the blurrier the line between them becomes. Just as Transcendence-Level Ultimate Techniques break free of the normal framework of martial arts. ?? (Original source) You’ve probably started sensing it yourself, but this ability is......”

Richard’s quiet voice sounded beside his ear.

Kim immediately raised his internal energy and glared at him.

“Don’t start teaching me without permission.”

The message was unmistakable.

I have no intention of becoming your disciple.

“...I can’t even give you advice?”

“If I can solve the problem myself, giving me the answer outright makes you the worst kind of teacher.”

“I’ve never had a student this smart before. How was I supposed to know?”

Richard scratched his chin awkwardly, then spoke again.

“Hey, friend.”

“...?”

The difference between their ages was enormous.

So was the gulf between their positions in the martial world.

And yet Richard Han called Kim his friend.

He smiled as casually as though he were speaking to a peer like Sunwoo Jeha.

To Richard Han, friendship was not determined by age, status, or martial level.

It was determined by whether someone could meet him eye to eye.

“Whenever you get the chance, leave this country and travel.”

Richard did not offer Kim any more advice about martial arts.

Instead, he told him about the world he had seen on his journey to becoming the Strongest in the World.

“Mysterious anomalies. Horrific monsters. Groups with bizarre ideologies. Reclusive eccentrics who couldn’t care less about sparring tournaments. Once you leave this tiny country, there are all kinds of incredible things out there.”

Richard Han had left Korea as soon as he turned twenty and traveled the world.

Those experiences had shaped him.

And he wanted a talent like Kim Muhyuk to experience as much as possible and hone himself to the absolute limit.

Kim agreed with him on that much.

“I was already planning to go to America soon. If I get the chance, I wanted to watch you compete......”

“Really? Then I’ll make sure I get you a ticket to the finals somehow.”

“Hah. Aren’t you a little too confident?”

Kim already knew Richard would win again anyway.

That did not make the man any less obnoxious.

The two of them continued drinking whiskey like water throughout the night.

They did not exchange a single word about martial arts.

And yet every conversation felt to Kim like the most profound discussion of martial principles.

“I......”

By now, Kim was fairly drunk.

He stared at Richard Han for a long moment before finally speaking.

“I want you to get stronger.”

Even to his own ears, it sounded insane.

He was telling the Strongest in the World—a man who already had no equal—to become even stronger.

Considering Kim’s goal was to stop the Heavenly Demon Cult, he should have been saying the exact opposite.

Yet this was the unavoidable truth of Kim Muhyuk the martial artist.

A grin spread across his face.

“Because I want to beat you at your absolute strongest.”

“...You’re just as crazy as I am.”

Richard Han beamed.

His eyes, vast enough to contain the cosmos, glittered as he nodded like a man making a solemn vow.

“I promise. I won’t settle for where I am now. I’ll keep getting stronger. So you’d better not disappoint me either.”

“Of course.”

They kept drinking long past closing time.

Finally, the two thoroughly drunk men staggered out together.

“That was fun, friend! See you again!”

Richard kept smiling and waving as he headed off in the opposite direction.

Kim watched him recede into the distance before turning away himself.

Why did someone like him become the Heavenly Demon Cult Leader?

Mad though he was, Richard Han was a free spirit.

Looking at the man he was now, it was almost impossible to imagine him becoming the Heavenly Demon Cult Leader in the future.

“Was there...... some reason for it?”

Kim walked a few steps, then glanced back.

Richard Han had already vanished.

With that small question lingering in his mind, Kim headed for the Blue Wolves Office.

He could hardly go home reeking of alcohol from head to toe.

*****

The next day.

“Ugh...... My skull is pounding.”

Kim woke later than usual.

After messaging Bu Yeonha to say he was taking the day off, he immediately sat cross-legged.

He circulated his qi until every trace of alcohol had been expelled from his system, then slowly began loosening up.

His body felt heavy, almost as if he had come down with the flu.

The hangover was not the problem.

His mind and body had been under extreme tension all night.

Hoooooo—

He finished stretching with a long exhale, then took a quick shower in cool water.

Only then did his head finally begin to clear.

“...Feels like I dreamed the whole thing.”

His meeting with Richard Han the previous night already felt unreal.

Every conversation they had shared seemed like a lie.

Only now did embarrassment begin creeping in over all the things he had blurted out without restraint.

Smack! Smack!

Kim slapped himself across the cheeks a few times, then headed downstairs in a tracksuit.

Hummmm!

He could feel Phantom Dream whining pitifully from where he had carelessly tossed it into a corner of the sofa.

Kim pretended not to notice and yawned as he descended the stairs.

Looks like Mom and Dad already left for work. I can sense Jaechun too.

He planned to have a simple breakfast at < cafe Naru >, relax at the office for a while, and head to the swordsmanship academy in the afternoon.

I’ll probably see Richard Han again in America. When I do......

Lost in thought, Kim descended to < cafe Naru > on the first floor.

Then he stopped.

Blinking blankly.

“Hahaha! Mr. Shinhu, you’re hilarious. You look so young, but you’ve had that many unusual experiences?”

“I traveled abroad a lot from the time I was young. Oh, but I have to say—I’ve never had cookies this good anywhere in the world.”

“Oh, come on. They’re nothing special. Aren’t you laying it on a little thick?”

Because sitting there with Kim’s parents, laughing and chatting as though they were old friends, was Richard Han.

Richard turned toward Kim.

The same cheerful smile he had worn yesterday spread across his face.

“Hey, friend! Look at that—we meet again!”

“Jesus Christ......”

It was the first time in Kim Muhyuk’s life that merely seeing someone smile had made him call them insane.