When the world went to hell, there was one man that didn't lose his mind and go into a panic. A man named Giovanni. Giovanni was finishing up his daily training inside his personal dojo when it happened. In the middle of finishing up, the door suddenly broke down as a fearsome creature entered inside. It carried a large broad sword over its shoulder, black spiked armor, and green rotting skin. The creature had one eyeball not attached to its eye socket hanging and one that was perfectly fine. Both pupils stared in Giovanni's direction as a disgusting smile revealed its black teeth filled with holes and maggots that slithered through the holes.
If a normal man came face to face with such a terrifying and unbelievable monster then they would flee at full speed or be spooked solid. However, Giovanni was anything but a normal man. At the age of 16, he became the youngest champion in the history of taekwondo. With an undefeated streak and a handsome face, taekwondo practitioners all over the world began to focus in on the young boy named Giovanni. As his fame grew more and more, so did his strength as he accepted challenges from all over the world. Facing well-known names in taekwondo without hesitation or rest. Being nicknamed, Devastating Little Devil.
Giovanni quickly began to be known as the most talented taekwondo fighter in history until one day, he lost. He arrogantly faced a 9th dan Taekwondo Grandmaster and nearly lost his life at the end of the fight. It wasn't until 5 years later that Giovanni reappeared in the world of fighting. This time, starting as an amateur fighter in the Supreme Fighting Championship. No one knew who he was at the time as his appearance was too different from how it was in his youth. But once he began racking up wins after wins after wins, people began to investigate into the background of this youth who was taking up the SFC league with his unstoppable kicks.
He kept a low-profile, refused interviews, and frequently stole the moves of every opponent he faced. Giving him a negative reputation in the SFC community from both fighters and fans alike. Giovanni never gave an explanation for his actions nor an excuse. It wasn't against the rules, so it wasn't as if anyone could punish him for it. This did paint a big red target on his back for fighters that disliked the type of person he was. Sadly, for them, all this did was give him further exposure, more moves to complement his own, and increase his undefeated streak even more.
Eventually, Giovanni became the most hated and loved man in the history of SFC when he won multiple championship belts and refused to share any of them by making history once again and becoming the first fighter in the world to defend his title with a record of 20-0. Then, Giovanni suddenly disappeared from the SFC after his 20th title defense. Millions of people searched the ends of the earth for news on Giovanni but they couldn't get an answer from anyone. Not the companies that sponsored Giovanni, not his parents living more than comfortably in their multi-million-dollar mansion, or any of his associates and friends that he was seen regularly talking to over his 10-year fighting career in the SFC. Some of his fans even started petitions for the police and FBI to search for Giovanni.
The legendary hall of famer, The Perfect Scumbag, soon became just that. A legend in the SFC community. Just like how he became a legend in the taekwondo community. Only Giovanni himself knew where he should take himself next. And that was the underground. As time went on, Giovanni started to realize that he has reached his limit in the SFC and there was no one left to challenge him and test his skills. Now it was time for him to evolve the Orthodox Taekwondo to the next and perhaps final stage by using it in life-or-death battles! No more rules to restrict him, no more holding back to spare his opponent's future, and now he could finally see if all of this training he's done for most of his life is worth anything at all.
Giovanni nearly lost his life in his first match against a well-known assassin in the Underground Fighting League. He was stabbed with a hidden blade that the ref didn't manage to catch before the match but regardless of suffering the poisoned wound, he ended the match with a victory by hooking his leg around the neck of the assassin and snapping it with a sharp twist. Seeing him end the life of the assassin was enough to send the audience into a wide-spread silence before they erupted in cheers at his brutality and determination.
Most first-time fighters in the UFL don't kill in their first match and most of the time get killed instead! The UFL is merciless to new fighters by sending them up against fighters that have been in the league for quite some time now but not long enough to be identified as veterans. As the newbies have to have some chance of winning or what's the fun of watching it? What audience would want to watch a sheep getting sent up against a wolf? It would just be needless bloodshed without any enjoyment.
As time went on, Giovanni shed gallons of blood, broke several bones, and gained many scars over his body during his time in the UFL. As a tradeoff, his Taekwondo finally started to bloom. It was in his final match with the UFL Champion, that Giovanni managed to evolve his Taekwondo into the Ultimate Taekwondo style that wouldn't lose to anyone after fighting with him for half an hour of non-stop constant fighting. Devil's Bane, Giovanni's opponent, fell after suffering a hurricane kick to the skull after misjudging the distance between him and Giovanni before throwing an elbow strike to his chest.
Giovanni stood over the fallen Devil's Bane to break his neck with his foot but the fatigue and injuries from the long battle overtook him. Before he fell, he was declared the winner and new champion before being taken to emergency treatment room held for UFL fighters along with Devil's Bane.
Since then, he's spent the next 20 years perfecting his new style even more. Now at fifty years old, Giovanni has come face to face with something that caught his interest in the mortal world once more. Something new to test his Ultimate Taekwondo on and possibly improve it even more. The long-forgotten fire that laid dormant inside his heart reignited at the sight of this zombie warrior.
"Has the world become interesting again?" Giovanni turned away from the dented steel pole and faced this intruder.
His opponent stared at him with an interested grin as he walked towards him with heavy steps. The zombie's shoes thumped against the wooden floor of the dojo. Giovanni took in how this undead monster towered over him size despite being a man over 6 inches tall weighing 215 pounds. They stared at one another. No words to communicate, just their spirit to fight flaring off of their bodies.
The Ultimate Taekwondo master stood in his dobok. His feet lightly bounced off the floor of the dojo as he prepared himself for battle. Human and monster made no moves even when they stood right in front of each other. Then that standoff came to end as the zombie brought down his broad sword to cleave Giovanni in half. At the same moment, Giovanni moved right after his opponent.
The sword split the wooden floor in half from the strength of the zombie warrior. However, no blood of Giovanni's was split as he performed the perfect roundhouse kick to the monster's jaw. Its jaw went flying off into the distance, spraying blood, maggots, and other internal juices over the floor of the training room. Giovanni wasn't finished after that first kick. He turned and with his back facing his opponent, utilized a high back kick into the zombie's throat. Striking it with his heel and causing it to stumble backwards and fall to the ground.
Giovanni calmly walked towards the downed monster that seemed to have trouble getting back up and crushed its head in with the ball of his foot. Its brain splattered all over his uniform as he suddenly heard multiple voices in his head.
[Despite not being one of the Awakened Ones, you managed to kill a Boss Monster from one of the Dungeons...]
[How irregular.]
[How confusing.]
[How strange.]
[Someone of your talent has to take part in humanity's survival.]
[It wouldn't be fun if he didn't.]
[Humanity needs strong humans like him if they want to survive.]
[I don't know why you all show such favoritism to this stupid species.]
[It would be beneficial to Them if Humanity got involved in our game.]
[This one shouldn't hear all this! We need to add him to the game even though he isn't an awakened.]
[What ability should we give him? This Zombie Soldier is a monster humanity shouldn't be able to face for a couple years.]
[A growth ability would suit him fine. Just pick one of them at random. This human seems interesting enough to put any ability to good use.]
[Very well.]
______________________________________________
[Name: Giovanni Young]
[Title: Irregular]
[Level: 2]
[Strength: 30]
[Agility: 35]
[Vitality: 30]
[Magic: 0]
[Ability: Drain I (Growth)]
______________________________________________
"Nonsense..." Giovanni shook his head and was about to check up on the rest of his building until he felt something flowing into his body.
He looked down at the corpse of the zombie and realized that the box floating in front of his eyes wasn't a hallucination. As he felt himself getting stronger from the zombie, suddenly a wide and uncontrollable grin appeared on his face. The world has just gotten very interesting! It seems he won't have trouble finding a challenge anymore in a world like this...
The shaking and vibrating of his leg momentarily brought his attention back to reality. He pulled out his phone from his pocket and answered it.
"Where are you?!" Grace yelled. She was breathing heavily with a bunch of sounds in the background.
"The dojo." Giovanni answered with his deep voice and with a calm tone.
"Of course, you would be there at the time like this..." She muttered. "I'll be there in a second with Gracie!" Grace said.
"Hi Grandpa! There's monsters everywhere!" Gracie's cute voice shouted in the background.
So, Giovanni waited inside the dojo for his daughter and granddaughter to come. While waiting, he began to explore this floating box in front of him. Once he pressed on the words, they would give an explanation on what they meant. Like when he pressed on Title, it showed him what a title was and what his title did.
[Title: A reward given for those that accomplish rare or special accomplishments.]
[Irregular: The holder of this title is given 25% more exp when killing beings, 25% more skill exp when performing skills against beings, and gains the same benefits as regular Awakened Ones do in dungeons.]
[Magic: This stat governs your magical power and control. Can only be increased through specific abilities and materials from dungeons and dungeon monsters.]
[Drain I (Growth): This is a growth-type skill that grows more powerful the more it is used. By making physical contact with a living being, the user of this skill can drain the energy of their opponent.]
Before his family came, Giovanni changed clothes so that he wouldn't worry his granddaughter. Being covered in blood wasn't something a child should witness. She was his granddaughter after all. From time to time, whenever she came over to visit he taught her the basics of Ultimate Taekwondo without her mother's knowing. This was because Grace didn't like fighting. Giovanni respected her choice but not without teaching her some of his skills when she was younger so that she could protect herself.
Gracie loved practicing with him even though she regularly complained how painful it was. Giovanni had a soft spot for his grandchild. Instead of encouraging her to continue practicing through the pain like he did with his daughter, he gave her the choice to give up and just watch him practice instead. But she refused. She was strong-willed that child, just like her mother. When he saw that, he began to teach her everything about Ultimate Taekwondo. Officially becoming his first disciple. He drained the Zombie Soldier of everything he could and pocketed the shiny green gem that was residing in its heart as his daughter and granddaughter arrived.
"Grandpa! Grandpa! There are monsters outside! Did you see them!? Have you been watching the news!?" Gracie bounced over to him and gave him a hug while excitedly talking.
"I've seen one. I'm glad to see that you two are safe." He answered as Gracie crawled up on his shoulder and hung around his neck.
"Daniel's with his family. They said they're hiding out in his grandma's bunker. Last time I called, he told me that they were safe. I'm worried about him but I can't go over there with Gracie with the world going to shit."
"What are you planning to do?" Giovanni asked with Gracie playing with his thick mass of hair.
"I'm going to go over there with him. I came to leave Gracie in your hands because I don't know a safer place, she'd be than here with you."
"I'm staying with Grandpa!?" Gracie excitedly asked.
"Just for a while Gracie..." Grace wasn't expecting that happy response from her.
"How are you going to keep yourself safe?" Giovanni asked.
"Have you forgotten?" She turned away from him and then showed off a beautiful transition of kicks starting from a low reverse roundhouse kick to a middle reverse roundhouse kick to a high reverse roundhouse kick. All in a matter of seconds. "I am your daughter." Then she walked out of the dojo, leaving the grandpa and granddaughter duo inside.
'It's good that she's doing well.' Giovanni thought.
"Grandpa! Look what I can do!" Gracie got herself down from his shoulders and jumped in front of him.
Gracie began showing all the moves he's shown her from his Ultimate Taekwondo. She performed them flawlessly and didn't seem like she needed much adjustments from what he saw. As he was about to nod his head and compliment her for doing so well, she suddenly began increasing in speed. This increase in speed wasn't something natural either. A normal human being couldn't move at the speeds that his granddaughter was right now. Even he himself had some trouble keeping up with her movements.
"I becamed an Awakened One and can go really fast now!" She happily told him. The look on her face told him that she expected some surprised or amazed expression from him. Which he did show with a slightly raised eyebrow.
"Did you tell your mom about this?" He asked.
"No way! Mom would just tell me to never use it or something! She doesn't even let me practice our family's martial arts at home!" Gracie complained.
"I see... Don't tell your mother but Grandpa has become something like that too..." He placed a finger over his lips with a sneaky smile. "Watch this." Giovanni held out his hand as a dark red glow formed around it.
Seeing the bright wide eyes and cute open mouth of his shocked granddaughter was more than worth showing her that. It looks like he didn't have to put his plans on hold after all to explore what kind of place this world has become. Those dungeons and dungeon monsters... Why don't he have a nice little bonding trip with Gracie now that she has a way to protect herself and escape?