Chapter 29

When he saw Jeong Taeui, Morer immediately grabbed his collar and screamed.

"My precious child! How are you going to take responsibility for my lovely child!!"

The Colt that Jeong Taeui stole from Morer was confiscated by his uncle and is currently sitting in the storage room and can only be retrieved by leaving this branch.

The uncle seemed to know who owned the Colt, smiled meaningfully and said slowly.

"Send my regards to your roommate."

Jeong Taeui felt sorry for his colleagues to have such a person as their superior.

"Just think that losing a Colt is still a relief…."

"Oh, so that gun is Morer's? Not surprising, it seems Taeil isn't the type to have a lot of stuff."

"Don't cry, don't cry. I'll find you a new one when I get to Hong Kong. I know a very reliable broker. Just a Colt is easy."

Morer's colleagues also added a sentence each. Jeong Taeui looked at Morer, he was still complaining but it was meaningless right now.

"I don't know any brokers... Oh, how about a one-year subscription to a puzzle magazine instead?"

Morer suddenly went crazy and charged at Jeong Taeui. Jeong Taeui slowly backed away from his group of colleagues.

Even though it was an emergency, the fact that he had taken someone else's things and used them and then damaged them was an undeniable fact. Another enemy in the next fifteen days.

The weapons technique class finally started, and Jeong Taeui was called out right after the lesson ended, receiving all sorts of criticism from the teacher. By the time he left, lunch break was already more than halfway

Jeong Taeui walked into the cafeteria tiredly as if it had been a thousand years even though it had only been half a day, but the cafeteria door was tightly closed. Seeing the [Temporarily Unused Due to an Incident] sign hanging on the door, Jeong Taeui felt guilty even though it was not his fault. Under the sign was [The reading room will be used as a cafeteria until repairs are completed], Jeong Taeui quickly left.

When he arrived at the reading room, his colleagues had already finished eating and were chatting to greet Jeong Taeui. Even though there were members from the European branch, the atmosphere was still not much different from this morning, still filled with tension. After the destruction of the cafeteria, it seemed that no one had any intention of causing trouble during lunch.

Entering the reading room, Jeong Taeui immediately checked his surroundings out of reflex. He hoped that he wouldn't encounter any more unwanted faces. Although it was unavoidable when participating in joint training, Jeong Taeui decided to do his best to avoid it.

Fortunately, those unwelcoming faces were not there. Instead, his cheerful colleagues greeted him with cheers.

Descriptive words like "brave boy," "madman," "righteous man" were all present. Of course, there was also "The shameless robber who stole my precious child."

Jeong Taeui could only take two pieces of bread and a carton of milk from the temporary cafeteria, chewing slowly while listening to his colleagues' stories.

For the next fifteen days, the main schedule will be regular lectures in the morning and special lectures or special training in the afternoon. That is, in the afternoon, the real battles will begin.

However, it is not possible to train hundreds of people at the same time.

"So, how do we split up for training?"

When Jeong Taeui asked while chewing on the cake, Ching explained.

"As usual. We will be divided into six teams of fifteen people each and will train together. Of course, half will be our team, half will be European teams, but we will rotate randomly and train with other teams."

Jeong Taeui recalled the lecture on weapons technology he had attended halfway through. He tried to remember each unfamiliar face in the classroom.

"You mean, if by chance - that is, if you're lucky - you might not see a single person for half a month?"

With a faint hope, Jeong Taeui asked, but Ching shook his head. Then, as if understanding the meaning of that question, he looked at Jeong Taeui with a pitiful expression.

"If we're lucky, the chance of meeting each other might be less, but it's just 'less', but we definitely have to participate in some training sessions together."

"That's right. No matter what, everyone has to participate in physical training on the weekend."

A colleague muttered so and suddenly grabbed Jeong Taeui's hand and said.

"During physical training, everyone has to participate and compete for survival, so there will be more opportunities. It's a sure chance to eliminate 'that guy'."

"…Sounds like I'm definitely going to have bad luck that day."

Jeong Taeui felt frustrated and put down the bread he was eating. He tried to swallow the food with milk, but it didn't go down easily. This wasn't good for digestion.

Suddenly, Jeong Taeui let out an 'ah' sound. He stared at the bread in his hand for a while and then asked curiously.

"Wait, weekend? ...What do you mean training on the weekend? You have to rest. Isn't 5pm Friday through Sunday free time?"

When Jeong Taeui asked with a worried look, the colleague sitting next to him asked again as if he didn't understand.

"Didn't you hear that you can't leave the island during joint training?"

"Don't you know? There was no rest for half a month. It was even worse. On weekdays, training was only during official working hours, and on weekends, from Saturday afternoon to Sunday noon, everyone was released into the forest and participated in survival training."

"What is that! Then how can I go for a walk!"

Jeong Taeui suddenly slammed the table and screamed. Milk splashed out and wet the table.

The colleagues looked at Jeong Taeui with confusion, not understanding what was going on.

"What is a walk?"

The colleagues all asked with puzzled looks, but Jeong Taeui couldn't answer, just froze.

Weekend training was something he had never heard of. It turned out that his colleagues thought it was so obvious that no one had mentioned it to him. Even his uncle had not mentioned that there were no days off during the general training period.

"If the weather is nice, that would be great."

He remembered what his uncle had just said while laughing. Before that sentence, Xin Lu also muttered to himself, "Did I misunderstand?".

"Damn... So this is it."

Jeong Taeui suddenly lost all his strength and collapsed onto the table. Even though he only had half a month left to live, he was determined to survive until the end of the week.

"Although I understand the feeling of not wanting to participate in physical training, why are you crying..."

"Yeah. If you're going to die, then the chances of dying are highest at that moment... If you want to eliminate someone, then aiming for that moment is best."

The gloomy words kept hovering over Jeong Taeui's head as he slumped over the table.

Just a moment ago, even in despair, he could still hold on with a glimmer of hope, but now even that hope was gone. All that remained was despair.

Looking at Jeong Taeui with his head down on the table without moving, Tou patted his shoulder as if he understood everything.

"It's okay, it's okay. We're here. Are we going to stand by and watch you die right before our eyes?"

"That's right. If you're in danger, this time I'll snatch the Colt from Morer's hand and shoot you."

Morer shouted not to say such jokes, but everyone tried to comfort him. However, those words did not comfort him, but only made the gloomy outlook ahead clearer.

"Keep your spirits up, Taeil. What if you're already down? The bloody battle begins this afternoon."

"Ah, right. Let's try to relieve this tired body. It's been a while since I've had a chance to punch a live punching bag."

The voices around him suddenly grew louder, as if wanting him to hear. The European branch members sitting far away were talking animatedly, and started shouting.

"Just got beaten up at the beginning and still acting aggressive."

"The Asian branch only teaches verbal fighting? But even that is useless."

Here it goes again. Jeong Taeui, in a sad mood, lay face down on the table, not caring about anything anymore. But the others had already started arguing like dogs. The two groups started shouting, getting closer and closer to each other.

Jeong Taeui raised his head with a sad face. Everyone was standing facing the European branch, shouting and cursing, and the curses from the other side were equally unpleasant. Behind the colleagues who were standing like a wall, Jeong Taeui saw Morer also sitting behind and asked with a tired face.

"So for the next half month, every day will be like today, right?"

"Today is light because it's been a long time. It will get worse."

Morer still looked at Jeong Taeui with a frown but also replied grumblingly. Jeong Taeui muttered sadly.

"Plus, this afternoon we'll start our official confrontation with them."

"Yeah. Today is individual freestyle, boxing, judo, hapkido, kendo, whatever, just pick two of them and follow their rules, the rest is freestyle."

"So what does that mean? If the rules of two different martial arts are allowed to directly confront each other, then there are actually no restrictions. That's not a confrontation, it's just a fight."

"Of course, it's nothing more than a chaotic fight. If it was a strictly regulated fight, how many grudges could have accumulated like that?"

"But anyway, training with other branches is the same, why is there only a problem with the European branch?"

"Well, this is my first time training with the European branch so I can't say, but maybe after getting beaten up a few times I'll understand."

"…..."

Although he had never experienced the chaos between the European and Asian branches, Morer understood the current situation better than Jeong Taeui because he had been involved in other branches. Meanwhile, the argument between his colleagues and the European branch people was escalating. At first, it was just vulgar language, but gradually they got closer and closer, throwing spoons and forks at each other. If they took just a few more steps, they would definitely grab each other by the neck and start a real fight.

Jeong Taeui wanted to sneak out to avoid this fight, even if he was called a traitor, but the exit was blocked and there was no window to escape. Sighing in exhaustion, Jeong Taeui rolled up his sleeves, deciding that if the fight started, he would pretend to join in and quickly sneak out.

However, just as he was about to act, a saving hand suddenly appeared.

"You bastards, you destroyed the entire dining hall and now you want to destroy this place too?! Don't you want to eat anymore?! If you don't want to starve, then get out and fight, you bastards! All the tables and chairs that were destroyed must be paid for, you bastards!"

The waiter in charge of cleaning up the leftovers was hit by the thrown chopsticks, angrily hit the food container and shouted. If it weren't for this intervention, the fight would have turned into a brawl immediately.

They bowed their heads to the person in charge of serving even more than they would to the officer or the branch manager, so they immediately lowered their voices and promised to take revenge in the confrontation this afternoon. Most of those who declared, "Wait, I will beat you to a pulp!" kept their promise. As soon as the starting signal was given, they charged at their designated opponents and fought fiercely, literally "to the death."

Jeong Taeui, who was in last place, saw his colleagues and opponents bleeding and dragging themselves out of the ring, completely overwhelmed by the situation.

"Are they crazy?"

Jeong Taeui rubbed his chin and spoke seriously, and Yuenho, standing right behind, nodded in agreement.

"That's right. Only the stick can cure these lunatics. Beating them up is good for them. Otherwise, what will they learn?"

Jeong Taeui, who once thought Yuenho was a normal person, now realized that he was also affected by his surroundings. He felt regretful, turning his head to see two men fighting brutally. The coach was only watching to make sure they did not break the rules, and stopped the match when someone lost.

The infirmary will be full of wounded today. There aren't enough beds, and even if they were to share one, they would definitely continue to fight. What a waste of medicine.

Jeong Taeui wondered if there was any benefit to holding these joint training sessions, but as the match went on, those thoughts gradually faded away. After each match, the coach pointed out areas for improvement, and he was amazed at the accuracy and detail of the comments. Even when reviewing the video, the coach's words were always accurate.

Even the crazy cheerleaders outside were well aware of each person's strengths and weaknesses, showing that they were also excellent researchers.

Jeong Taeui scratched his neck and muttered.

"Even though they are crazy, from the outside looking in, they are all outstanding people. Those colleagues who were beaten until they were bleeding were actually intelligence officers who were learning and developing their skills in the branch. Many people from other organizations also came here to improve their skills."

"Even though they are so good, why would they bet their lives on such trivial matters?" Jeong Taeui shook his head and sighed.

"Don't sigh. You're not going to die. If things get tough, just faint and let them take you out. But make sure you give them a good beating."

Yuenho grabbed Jeong Taeui's shoulders from behind and said. It seemed like he misunderstood Jeong Taeui's mood. Yuenho thought that Jeong Taeui was sighing because he was worried about his turn coming up. Jeong Taeui looked at his opponent and thought to himself.

"I don't like being beaten either and I'm nervous," he assessed his opponent.

The opponent looked very strong. One look and you could tell he wasn't just a fierce person on the outside, he was also a real powerhouse. Those muscles weren't from the gym, they were from actual combat experience. His gaze and expression were also very calm. In that crowd, this person seemed to be the strongest, or at least one of the two strongest… What bad luck.

When it was Jeong Taeui's turn after the summary and discussion of the coach and teammates, he stood up with an uneasy feeling.

"Victory and return!"

"Smash the opponent!"

"I believe in you."

"Master of tricks!"

The cheers around him did not make Jeong Taeui feel comfortable at all. Although the words "Returning victorious" were the easiest to hear, he was not confident in meeting that expectation. He was not confident in winning, but he was quite confident in his ability to read people. Looking at the opponent in front of him, Jeong Taeui realized that he could not win against him. So, the best way was to...