Flash!
The duel between the two had narrowed down to a psychological warfare. The fast-paced gambling table that could have been a real battlefield became irrelevant, transforming into a game of predicting which cup the dice were in.
Despite the changed dynamics, the competition remained tight.
“It’s on the left.”
“Wrong.”
As five rounds passed, the record between the Unknown and Ho Cheon-an stood at 5 to 5. Ho Cheon-an had caught up by one point, but the expression on his face, looking at the Unknown who had taken his hands off the cup, was far from bright.
It was Ho Cheon-an’s turn to mix the cups.
His mind became a tangled mess.
The Unknown had missed Ho Cheon-an’s techniques twice and had read him three times. Considering that the more you see the game, the more familiar it becomes, and the more you use a technique, the easier it is to be figured out, it seemed that if Ho Cheon-an continued without any changes, his chances of losing were high.
Naturally, Ho Cheon-an’s thoughts deepened in that situation.
“Are you giving up?”
“I’ll do it.”
At the urging of the Unknown, Ho Cheon-an swallowed his sigh and began to move the cup.
What unfolded was a basic cup mixing without any special tricks. It was an act to buy some thinking time.
As he mixed the cups, Ho Cheon-an visualized the outcome of the match in his mind.
‘No matter how I think about it, this moment is the turning point…’
When the Unknown grabbed the cup, there was no way to create a trick. There was no way to read the opponent’s expression, nor could he predict with lightning speed, so after thinking it through, the only option left was to engage in a psychological battle relying on luck.
There was no way to fully entrust the outcome to psychological predictions that couldn’t be guaranteed.
So, at this point, it was necessary to solidify his winning position in some way.
The problem was that he couldn’t think of a method.
‘There’s no technical answer here…’
The special techniques he had created after losing money at the gambling house, after learning and pondering, had already been poured out completely during the previous rounds. He still had some techniques left, but they seemed inferior compared to those used in the last rounds.
Even knowing that, Ho Cheon-an was turning the cup while reviewing and confirming various techniques.
In the end, the aspect where he could gain a clear advantage against the Unknown, who couldn’t read dimensions, physical abilities, expressions, or psychology, was the technique itself.
He continued to rummage through his memory and recalled techniques, but nothing particularly sharp came to mind.
As Ho Cheon-an sank deep in thought, he suddenly realized he had been turning the cup for too long and stopped. It was disappointing to waste a round, but it couldn’t be helped.
‘For the next round, I need to think of something!’
Suppressing his anxiousness and fervently recalling techniques, Ho Cheon-an suddenly noticed that the Unknown was silently staring at the cup.
‘What kind of psychological game is this?’
At that moment, Ho Cheon-an thought it might be a tactic to induce curiosity to prevent him from recalling any techniques, but he shook his head. Giving Ho Cheon-an time to think was not advantageous for the Unknown.
But why was the Unknown troubled over such an obvious game?
It was just a basic mix, and they should clearly know where the dice are.
The Unknown’s contemplation deepened, and Ho Cheon-an and his companions waited for that choice.
“It’s on the left.”
Everyone’s gaze, which had been on the Unknown, now followed the cup. They had no way of knowing Ho Cheon-an’s psychology and thought he must have played a trick. Had that trick worked or not?
Unlike his companions’ hopeful gazes, Ho Cheon-an reacted to the Unknown’s declaration without a word and moved his hand.
“Ah!”
The hand toppled the cup on the right. His successful defense astonished his companions. In the end, Ho Cheon-an, who had been cornered, managed to pull off a comeback!
However, Ho Cheon-an’s mind was more complicated than ever.
His executed basic technique had tricked the Unknown!
Indeed, the sweat I shed did not betray me! I was finally reaping the rewards of countless nights spent gambling with tired eyes, dragging my weary body through the gaming house after losing years of blood and sweat!
‘What a turn of events.’
It could happen. Ho Cheon-an thought with a bitter smile inside. It was a ridiculous delusion, but Ho Cheon-an couldn’t entirely deny it.
After all, he had been so focused on coming up with a technique that would work against the Unknown that he hadn’t paid any attention to what he had actually played.
‘Is this a psychological battle?’
Slowly, Ho Cheon-an turned the cup towards the dice and looked at the Unknown.
Had the Unknown truly fallen for the basics?
To resolve this curiosity, he had to play another round with only the basics.
The problem arose from there.
What if the Unknown had been pretending to fall for the basics?
Then the next round would go to the Unknown without question.
‘Then I’d be left with only three rounds.’
If the scores remained tied, Ho Cheon-an’s opportunities would drop from five to three.
But could he really not check?
There was still a possibility the Unknown had indeed fallen for the basics. The basics are, after all, the standard and the standard has an overwhelming efficiency for those lacking in true technique and experience.
Though the Unknown might have gambled once, it was clear he had been away from the gambling table for a long time…who knows?
Had the Unknown fallen for the basics, or was he merely trying to disrupt Ho Cheon-an’s opportunities?
As Ho Cheon-an pondered, he eventually began to turn the cup.
Swish. Swish.
As everyone was guessing he would use the same method as before, the cup suddenly moved at high speed without any preamble. The swift and dazzling movements swiftly came to a close.
Ho Cheon-an took his hand away from the cup, thinking.
What the Unknown had done now wasn’t much different from what he usually did at the gambling house.
Ho Cheon-an delighted in the ambiguity of whether he had used a technique or not.
Pay a price to see the cards. Ho Cheon-an had always tried to bait them, and although opponents knew they would have to take a loss, they bit the bait. It wasn’t that those gamblers were foolish.
‘To understand me, they likely thought of it as an investment to identify and eliminate variables.’
Even if it meant taking a loss, if they could paint a big picture, they could always turn it around. That was the kind of thought that led them to bear the losses, which could eventually be a wrong choice.
The reason was very simple.
‘They brought it upon themselves.’
In a fierce power struggle, countless victories and defeats can hinge on a small difference. Yet they still tried to understand Ho Cheon-an by incurring losses.
Why did they make such a choice?
It was because they wanted to find a more convenient and easier path.
Rather than engaging in a fierce power struggle with someone who looked formidable like Ho Cheon-an, they wanted to explore weaknesses that could easily topple him instead. They would rather take a step back and advance two steps than to struggle forward.
They craved the sweet bait of an easy victory.
Thus, even with the ‘initiative’ hidden beneath the bait, they swallowed it.
‘No matter how sweet the food, I won’t fall for the bait.’
With such meaning, Ho Cheon-an looked at the Unknown, who calmly opened his mouth.
“Center.”
Ho Cheon-an silently took the cup in the center, which contained the dice. The score, barely turned around, was tied at 6 to 6, but Ho Cheon-an did not waver.
In the previous round, the Unknown could have earned 1 point against Ho Cheon-an, but having gambled that victory as bait, he ultimately failed, so in the end, Ho Cheon-an benefited by 1 point.
‘With this… I have secured psychological initiative.’
Ho Cheon-an was convinced of that and grabbed the cup once more. He still couldn’t recall any sharp techniques, but he had undoubtedly gained the psychological upper hand. Let’s roll with that!
Thinking this, Ho Cheon-an started mixing the cup again.
“It’s on the left.”
“Wrong.”
And he lost.
Ho Cheon-an stared blankly at the Unknown, thinking, why…did I lose?
When Ho Cheon-an’s gambling ended, the Unknown had 7 wins, while Ho Cheon-an had 8.
Snap!
The Unknown unfolded a game closer to martial arts than gambling, or perhaps it was martial arts itself, while Ho Cheon-an raised his focus more than ever on which cup contained the dice and carefully engaged in the contest.
And he was wrong.
Again he was wrong, wrong, wrong.
Ho Cheon-an lost three times in a row, and just like that, the competition ended emptily.
The Unknown, shocked, looked at Ho Cheon-an, who was analyzing the loss, picked up the dice, and spoke.
“Grandchild.”
“…Yes.”
“Do you know why you lost?”
Ho Cheon-an raised his head. The Unknown, feeling the texture of the dice with his fingers, answered.
“You mistook the situation for having the initiative in the middle.”
‘…Mistook?’
“You were at a very disadvantage from the start. You were in a very bad position. Let’s skip over the extreme difference in skill, which doesn’t even need to be mentioned. Now, what about the other aspects of disadvantage? How about your physical state? You’ve been completely exhausted from the morning training. Did you even put a single grain of rice in your mouth after that? Your body is a mess.”
Ho Cheon-an couldn’t help but acknowledge the Unknown’s words.
“Secondly, there was the mental aspect. Even if I lost the bet, I could just torment you if I wanted to, but for you, the impact of losing was significant. And aside from that, I’m a Master, while you’re a Grandchild, so the fundamental disparity was inevitable.”
No way.
Whether such thoughts crossed Ho Cheon-an’s mind or not, the Unknown continued.
“However, those were just trivial points. The real issue was that you put your own desperation on full display by challenging me to a duel. You even went so far as to provoke me to succeed in that challenge. In that situation, what was I to do?”
Ho Cheon-an squinted his eyes shut.
“In that situation, who had the initiative? The gambling table couldn’t be set without my permission. Naturally, I held the initiative, and there was no way it would change. But you mistook it in the middle, thinking you had the initiative, so how could you win?”
Ho Cheon-an had no words to retort.
“Grandchild.”
“Yes.”
“You haven’t advanced at all since you met me.”
With those words, Ho Cheon-an felt a lump in his throat. Although his face was entirely covered by his peculiar clothing and special breathing techniques, he somehow felt as if he had locked eyes with the Unknown.
“You fought and lost to someone named Jeong Cheol. Did only you lose? The lives of your companions were at stake, and you nearly lay on the ground, unable to do anything while watching your companions face death. I witnessed that scene.”
The Unknown’s words struck Ho Cheon-an’s heart.
“I thought you would have understood what it means for the weak to challenge the strong. I thought you would know that I could never protect you forever and would thoroughly prepare for the day you faced Jeong Cheol again.”
Those words lodged themselves in Ho Cheon-an’s heart with enough force to wound him.
“Yet seeing you today, I realize you haven’t changed at all since you faced Jeong Cheol. You still don’t understand what it means for the weak to challenge the strong, and you haven’t fixed your arrogance, believing in your meager skills.”
Among the countless barbs, Ho Cheon-an’s heart was wounded in many places.
“That way, even a hundred years from now, you will put your companions in danger and will never defeat someone like Jeong Cheol.”
Ho Cheon-an’s head drooped. Although he desperately wanted to shout and argue against the stinging pain in his heart, he somehow managed to suppress it. But the frustration was unavoidable.
The fists of Ho Cheon-an, clenched with all his might, trembled.
Seeing that, the Unknown thought:
The growth of the body comes with pain. You must use oxygen, making it hard to breathe, and your muscles must undergo damage and discomfort to be trained.
The same applies to the mind. Going through events, feeling the shock, and letting out the fierce emotions experienced through those processes can hurt the heart and then heal, allowing the mind to grow.
However, just because the process of growing the body involves pain, does that mean you can mindlessly abuse your body and expect it to grow?
The same applies to the mind. That’s why the Unknown had been waiting for Ho Cheon-an’s spirit to fully use that pain as the driving force for growth.
‘The time has finally come.’
Ho Cheon-an, gripping his fist tightly, had a drop of red blood fall.
The Unknown saw that drop of blood falling to the ground as the true beginning of training.
With the signal given, what was there to hesitate about? The Unknown turned around with his hands behind his back.
“Go grab some leftovers and come back right away. The afternoon training will begin.”
“…Yes!”
Ho Cheon-an’s true training was about to begin.
