"It's good to be beaten with the least pain."
Jeong Taeui muttered and steeled himself. When the instructor gave the signal to start, he began to face his opponent. His opponent was someone who had studied martial arts and had real combat experience. Against someone like that, winning was impossible, and even holding on was difficult. The best way was to avoid him.
But in this unavoidable situation, Jeong Taeui could only try to get hit as little as possible. If there was one skill Jeong Taeui did better than others, it was the skill of getting hit less painfully.
This is a survival technique with a bit of a twist, but it is actually very useful even in the military. Jeong Taeui's most basic and common method is to pretend to approach when his opponent throws a punch, then back away immediately after being hit. It sounds funny, but if done correctly, this method is very effective.
However, even so...
"It's not painless, damn it."
If he was hit continuously, of course it would still hurt. Even if he was hit less, it would only lessen the pain a little, not completely eliminate it. Jeong Taeui would mumble, "It hurts like hell" every time he was hit, and occasionally find an opportunity to counterattack with a punch or kick.
However, the man facing Jeong Taeui seemed to be dissatisfied with his feelings, his expression becoming more and more contorted. Occasionally being lightly hit once or twice, his expression became even more ferocious. Looking at that expression, Jeong Taeui thought.
"If I get punched again, I'll definitely have to go to the infirmary."
And sure enough, when the man threw a punch straight at Jeong Taeui's face, he didn't have time to think whether to fall down or not, but was punched directly.
Cough
Jeong Taeui couldn't make a sound. The moment he was hit, he realized that he had only been hit lightly. The punch hurt so much that he felt like his internal organs were about to jump out of his mouth, and he felt a part of him feel relieved, quickly falling down. He wanted to end everything right now, and it really hurt so much that he couldn't stand.
When Jeong Taeui laid down to signal his defeat, the man opposite him seemed even angrier. He couldn't help but feel satisfied that his opponent had fallen so soon. Looking at that face, Jeong Taeui still tried to force a bitter smile.
"You bastard, I've been beaten to this extent, what more do you want?"
The message seemed to get through to the other party, his face grew even angrier, but the coach ordered him to stop. The man gasped in dissatisfaction but still had to back away. Jeong Taeui expected someone to come and help him out, but all he got was cold words telling him to make way for Yuenho.
"Tsk, what a bunch of friends with no affection."
Jeong Taeui muttered and slowly stood up and walked out.
Right after him, Yuenho came in and was beaten up like most of them, but he fought back quite a bit. After a while, he finished his fight and trudged out, by which time it was already past the official working hours. Each person didn't fight for long, but the time the coach spent explaining and the members discussing lasted many times longer, with only 7 or 8 matches that took quite a while. Despite the cursing and mocking of the opponents, by the end of the session everyone was exhausted. Observing and analyzing was tiring, not to mention having to participate in a fight once.
Jeong Taeui was no exception. When the coach announced the end of practice and left the room, he collapsed onto the table. Around him, his teammates started arguing again like they did at lunch in the cafeteria, but Jeong Taeui had no strength or intention to stop them. A moment later, while they were arguing, Tou gulped down some water and approached Jeong Taeui.
"You look tired after being beaten up. Go back to your room and sleep."
"You looked covered in blood from head to toe, but you look fine now."
"Those bastards can make even stone statues stand up and fight!"
Jeong Taeui was silent. Here, keeping silent was the wisest way to protect oneself.
They were arguing louder and louder, just like at noon. It was just that class had just ended, so everyone was tired, otherwise they would have dragged each other out to fight and left a bloody mess on the floor. Jeong Taeui stood up unsteadily. He went around the back of the sparring area, which was filled with curses and insults, and headed towards the door. Yuenho was wiping the blood that was still flowing from his forehead, and when he saw Jeong Taeui, he asked where he was going. Jeong Taeui looked at him with a tired face and answered in an even more tired voice.
"Go get a fine for violating the prohibition on carrying personal weapons in the organization."
"What? I thought it was over once I got called into the teacher's office?"
"It wasn't that easy. Officer Jeong told me to hand-copy ten copies of the United Nations Human Development Organization's Regulations."
"Copy by hand… Want me to help?"
"If the words are different, ten more copies must be made, and the assistant must also make ten copies."
"Um... Then do your best. I'll cheer you on in spirit."
Receiving a sympathetic look from behind, Jeong Taeui waved his hand and left the practice room. He wanted to go back to his room and collapse on his bed, but his uncle not only punished him but also kindly gave him a deadline of three days in the morning to submit his handwritten notes. He had to sacrifice his rest time.
Finding the UN Human Resource Development Organization Rules is not difficult. There is no need to rummage through the shelves of the library, the books related to UNHRDO are kept separately right next to the door.
Jeong Taeui sighed as he pulled out the small notebook-sized book. The size and thickness were exactly the same as the notebook. It wasn't impossible to copy it, but when he opened the book and saw the dense lines of text inside, he couldn't help but sigh again.
Morning three days later. He should be glad that he had time to sleep at least. He would have to use all his free time like lunch and break, but he could still get some sleep. Jeong Taeui fanned the book like a fan and turned to walk towards the checkout counter. But as he turned around, he saw the words taped to the side of the bookshelf. "Do not take it out of here."
"What is this?" Jeong Taeui stopped and muttered in confusion. If he couldn't borrow it from here, where would he find a place to copy it? There was no place to keep such a useless book.
Even though he tried to put the book into the barcode scanner of the self-service lending system, as the text said, the book was not recognized for lending. He thought about taking it outside, but that would be detected by the recognition system at the door and the alarm would sound throughout the floor.
"Hey, books related to the organization cannot be borrowed outside. Those are internal documents. If you want to see them, you have to look them up in the library. Or get permission from the supervisor to borrow them outside."
The man waiting behind Jeong Taeui, seeing him fidgeting for a while, glanced over his shoulder and saw the book. He kindly told Jeong Taeui. "Yeah, thanks," Jeong Taeui said as he gave up his seat and just stood there with the book in his hand.
Internal documents could only be borrowed with the supervisor's permission. His uncle must have known this when he asked him to copy them by hand. This meant he had to stay in the library whenever he had free time to copy the books.
Jeong Taeui sighed, fanned the book, and shook his head as he turned to leave. He had to bring the blank notebook here to copy it. Thinking carefully, while he was copying here, he wouldn't have to face other people, which might help him avoid trouble.
Jeong Taeui brought a pen and notebook, opened the book, and sat in a corner of the library. He wanted to ask someone for help, but remembering his uncle's instructions that if the characters were different, he had to copy ten copies, he couldn't joke.
Copy one, photocopy it, and edit it a bit... Jeong Taeui thought for a moment, but then shook his head. Don't try to cheat, if you get caught you'll get in trouble. His uncle wasn't someone to be fooled.
Jeong Taeui rolled up his sleeves and started copying. He thought about being punished like an elementary school student, but it wouldn't be too severe. He remembered his uncle's instructions to write carefully about the prohibition of carrying personal weapons. Jeong Taeui told himself that it was all because of his own stupidity.
However, after two hours of copying, Jeong Taeui started muttering, "If only he would just die. If only he would just die…"
Jeong Taeui thought he was crazy for saving a stranger's life by snatching a gun that someone else had hidden, even though it was unloaded, and even nearly dying for half a month. He thought he had picked up bad habits from the army.
Jeong Taeui gritted his teeth and continued writing, feeling his wrists and arms ache. He thought about getting some pain relief patches from the infirmary, but thinking back to the sparring session this afternoon, he wasn't sure if there were any left.
But thinking about it, Jeong Taeui and his group were still lucky. Before heading to the library after school, Jeong Taeui stopped by the infirmary to ask for some ointment for the bruise on his side from being hit on the elbow. While waiting for the medical staff to find the medicine, he looked around the infirmary and saw several people lying on the beds, looking like zombies.
"Oh my god, what is this…" Jeong Taeui thought, the bed right next to him was a lump of flesh that was unrecognizable as a human. His limbs were in splints, his body was wrapped in bandages, his skin was covered in dried blood. His face was so badly injured that it was unsightly. He had to check if the person was still breathing by placing his hand under his nose.
"Here, ointment. Oh, don't touch it, don't touch it. He's the unluckiest of all the people who come in here."
The medical staff, Kyoho, handed the ointment to Jeong Taeui when he saw him looking at the patient and shaking his head. Jeong Taeui took the ointment and nodded.
"Um, he looks really badly injured… How could someone get injured like that in a match? Who was his opponent? Was it that guy lying there?"
He pointed to another patient who looked equally miserable and asked. Kyoho shook her head.
"He's not here. With not a scratch on his body, he's probably out somewhere having fun right now."
"What? How could someone who faced someone so badly injured be unharmed..."
Jeong Taeui said in surprise, then suddenly fell silent. A person appeared in his mind. And it seemed that Kyoho also guessed who Jeong Taeui was thinking of, he nodded without saying anything.
"Yes, it is him."
"..."
Suddenly, the miserable sight of the patient became abnormal. With just a little mistake, the person lying there could be himself. Jeong Taeui looked down at the patient with a pale face, opened the ointment bottle. A familiar scent immediately rushed to his nose, making him frown.
"What is this... tiger ointment?!"
"Yeah, never seen it? They sell it all over the place. It's pretty effective, if you go out after training, you should buy some to bring back to your room. Many people on the team keep some in reserve because they get injured so often."
Jeong Taeui looked at the ointment bottle with an annoyed expression. Even though it had been a long time, he still remembered the smell of the medicine from his grandmother's time. He thought the infirmary would have a more specialized medicine. Seeing Jeong Taeui's expression, Kyoho spoke with a serious face.
"Don't underestimate this medicine. Read the instructions. It cures muscle pain, sprains, insect bites, even headaches! It's versatile."
"You have a headache and you use this ointment... Apply it on your head? Or eat it?!"
"The instructions are clear anyway, take a look."
Indeed, the English instructions clearly state that it is effective in treating headaches.
"Damn… Seeing this gives me a headache…"
Jeong Taeui muttered, wondering where to apply the medicine to cure his headache. Meanwhile, the injured people kept coming into the medical room, and Kyoho was busy applying ointment to Jeong Taeui and kicked him out, telling him that with such a light injury, there was no need to come back.
Chased out of the infirmary, Jeong Taeui went straight to the library, confirming that none of the injured were more seriously injured than the person lying on the bed.
"..."
Sitting copying the book, the smell of tiger balm still wafted from the wound on his side. In fact, his arm was also aching and needed to be applied with medicine, but thinking about that strong scent, he could only sigh.
"If only I had run away before you came. Run away with my brother..."
He muttered words of regret. In this situation, there was no shortage of things to regret, and the deepest regret right now was his decision to save the stranger.
You should have stayed away from that madman. You shouldn't have appeared in front of him and avoided all attention. During group training sessions, it's best to blend into the crowd and try to be invisible.
Jeong Taeui sighed, stretched, and put the completed notebook aside.
The library was empty, rarely anyone came, especially on the first day of joint training. The only person who showed up was to get a book and leave immediately. Jeong Taeui punched his shoulder, thinking that he had only finished copying one book, and there were nine more to copy. Sighing, he opened a new notebook and started copying.
"Constitution of the United Nations Human Resources Development Organization, Article 1: Organizational structure..."
A soft voice sounded from behind.
"You've worked hard. Looks like you have nine more books to copy?"
Ziiiik, the pen tip slipped. Looking at the smudged pen marks on the neatly written lines, Jeong Taeui cursed under his breath. Damn it.
He was facing away. This was dangerous. If someone stabbed him in the neck now, he wouldn't be able to avoid it. More importantly, even if that person had come right behind him, he wouldn't have noticed.
For a moment, Jeong Taeui tensed up, but then he slowly relaxed his shoulders. This situation could only be overcome by raising his hands in surrender. If he tried to dodge, he would definitely be stabbed immediately.
Okay, if you want to kill then kill...
Jeong Taeui continued writing next to the wrong pen mark, speaking nonchalantly.
"There aren't many books worth reading here."
Thinking back, he could hardly imagine that this man, with such terrifying rumors, would have an interest in books. Perhaps there was nothing in this library that suited his taste.
"Well, maybe the books in your room are more interesting."
But that said, the man still found a book worth reading, sitting a few steps away from Jeong Taeui.