Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 138

Weapon-Eating Bastard – Episode 138

The rules of the Grand Tournament weren’t thoroughly established yet.

Because of this, there were many ambiguous regulations. In short, they were like this:

-You can use any weapon in the Grand Tournament, whether it’s provided by the tournament or owned personally.

Usually, such international competitions would require standardized weapons for fairness, but the Grand Tournament didn’t have that.

However, in some ways, it was an understandable regulation.

For a warrior, their personal weapon is like an extension of their own body.

Most warriors have their own cherished weapon.

The weight, length, balance, angle, and sharpness of the blade.

No matter how similarly they are made, there will always be a difference of even 1 gram or 1 centimeter.

Warriors who use their weapons like limbs can sense even those minor differences.

Therefore, to show off one’s best martial prowess, it’s best to allow them to use the weapon they’ve always handled.

Of course, for me, who wields Black Qi and Mujin, such differences are meaningless.

I can handle almost any weapon like a cherished one.

“A supplied weapon, you say?”

The Grand Tournament association staff member looked a bit surprised to see me visiting the armory.

“Yes, please. Just any well-balanced sword will do.”

“……Are you aware that personal weapons are allowed?”

“Of course.”

“Haha, it’s just a formality. I can’t believe someone with a Rank 5 Hunter qualification doesn’t have a weapon…….”

Who would abandon their own weapon and want to use a mass-produced, uncharacteristic product from a factory?

Masterpieces are quite rare, so they would at least try to get a decent one.

First, the association staff member handed me a steel sword in relatively good condition.

I received the supplied steel sword and went up to the arena.

My opponent was an 18-year-old Chinese warrior.

He greeted me with the fist-and-palm salute common among Chinese warriors [a traditional Chinese greeting], and I nodded appropriately.

“The youngest of the Eighteen Swords of Yunnan! I am the Iron-Blooded Young Master, Duan Tianyu!”

I can speak quite a bit of Chinese, but his accent was so strong that I could barely understand anything except his name.

I nodded lightly and said,

“I am Kim Cheol-hyeon, a warrior from Korea.”

I said my alias.

The opponent tilted his head, seemingly not understanding Korean. As the match bell rang, I stepped forward.

Clang!

The time it took to defeat the 18-year-old who grandly introduced himself as either the Eighteen or Nineteen Swords of Yunnan was exactly 5 seconds.

I blocked the incoming sword with the back of my blade, closed in, and used wrestling to disarm him while simultaneously knocking him down.

“Uh……?”

Duan Tianyu stared blankly, alternating between the sword taken by his opponent and the opponent’s sword pointed at his neck.

“Kim, Kim Cheol-hyeon wins!”

After the referee belatedly announced the winner, I bowed to the fallen Duan Tianyu and left the arena.

The situation was similar afterward.

Warriors from prestigious families or formal sects might be better, but there were so many participants that I rarely encountered them.

Therefore, even when I tried to give my opponents a bit of a challenge, many of them were so unskilled that they couldn’t even last a minute.

“Hehe! You defeated the youngest. That child is the weakest among us! I am Zhang Yige, the Saber Gentleman of the Four Swords of the Eighteen Swords of Yunnan, one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Yunnan!”

With an unidentified shout, my opponent swung a greatsword as large as himself.

I wasn’t sure why he was wielding a greatsword when he was clearly one of the Eighteen Swords of Yunnan.

‘And Four Heavenly Kings…….’

As expected, I couldn’t understand the sensibilities of the young boys and girls of this era.

However, unlike his ridiculous title, the boy showed a fairly impressive swordsmanship.

‘Oh?’

Clang!

A strike with a decent angle.

For the first time, I took a step and dodged.

“Kuap!”

Bang!

But that was it.

To put it bluntly, he was about the level of Kim Han from Class 5 of the Training Camp.

I easily evaded his greatsword and thrust my sword forward to claim victory.

“Kuh…… Since you’re in Group F, you’ll continue to face the strong ones from the Eighteen Swords of Yunnan…….”

Zhang Yige left with a resentful expression.

After that, I encountered one more guy with a strange title, but it wasn’t difficult to subdue him.

“Kim, Kim Cheol-hyeon wins!”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

Thus, I finished the first day of the preliminaries with an undefeated record.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the audience, people were whispering while looking down at the arena.

“That young man is quite remarkable.”

“Indeed. It seems he’s not affiliated with any group.”

“Kim Cheol-hyeon, a Rank 5 Hunter from Korea in Group F. Find out about him. If he’s not affiliated, it might be good to bring him in.”

Several people sitting in the audience looked at Lee Cheol with shining eyes.

It wasn’t that Lee Cheol showed any particularly impressive feats, but rather that his skill level could be inferred from it.

“He’s not even twenty yet and already Rank 5, which is decent. And if he’s this skilled without being from a prestigious family or sect…… he’ll probably make a name for himself in this preliminary round.”

“Hmm…… But there are also disciples of Chae Ju from the Nine Dragons Stronghold and the promising talents of the Elder Council.”

“They’re on another level. How could a young man like him possibly compete?”

“True, with them around, that young man Kim Cheol-hyeon might not even make it to the main rounds.”

The scout glanced at one side of the arena.

But then it happened.

“Hmph! What do you know, talking about that kid like you understand anything?”

From behind them, a snort and slightly awkward Chinese could be heard.

The men who had been talking turned around with wide eyes.

There was a girl with silky black hair tied up tightly.

Because of the stepped seating, it felt like the girl was looking down on the men. Even if that weren’t the case, her somewhat arrogant eyes that seemed to look down on people were unique.

“To compare him to those Nine Dragons Stronghold rejects… You really have no eye for talent.”

“Wh-Who are you?”

A sword at her waist, and a trained physique that clearly didn’t look ordinary.

Moreover, she was calling the Nine Dragons Stronghold rejects in China.

She didn’t look like an ordinary girl in any way, so the men used polite language for now.

“What would you do if you knew? Anyway, you better open your eyes wide and watch carefully. He’s just not showing his full power right now, do you know how strong he is?”

“Uh…… Yes, yes…….”

The girl arrogantly crossed her arms and looked down at the arena.

“He’ll make it to the main rounds. He’ll probably win everything except for one match, you know?”

“What do you mean by one match?”

“Because he’ll lose to me.”

“……?”

The men had bewildered expressions at the girl’s incomprehensible words.

‘Is she a bit sick in the head?’

‘Her speech is awkward too…….’

‘I think she’s a foreigner?’

‘Wait, could she be…….’

Just as the men were starting to whisper, the girl suddenly stood up.

“Anyway, watch carefully. There’s no way he’ll lose!”

With those words, the girl confidently started walking down towards the arena.

Her eyes were burning like flames.

* * *

After several days of the first preliminary round, a little less than 300 participants were selected for the second preliminary round.

The condition for advancing to the second preliminary round was to maintain a 50 percent win rate in the first preliminary round. However, there were participants who drew, warriors who withdrew for no reason, and those who strangely rushed in without caring about injuries, so the number was drastically reduced.

“Haha, this is quite…… The number has suddenly decreased, which is troublesome.”

The chairman of the Asian Association of the Grand Tournament, who was in charge of overseeing the Asian preliminaries, stroked his chin with interest.

The association members gathered in one place to discuss the direction of the preliminary rounds.

“How should we proceed with the second preliminary round bracket?”

“Hmm…… There are two problems: too many dropouts and a wide range of skill levels.”

There were far fewer participants in the second preliminary round than expected, so there was a concern that the schedule would be disrupted.

In addition, there were dozens of people who advanced without fighting a single match due to byes [automatic advancement], while there were also lucky ones who advanced by winning 5 matches against weaker opponents.

Conversely, among those from prestigious families or sects, there were those who advanced with not just 5 wins, but undefeated records.

If the groups were randomly organized, there was a possibility that an unsuitable warrior would be included among those advancing to the main rounds. Conversely, there was also a possibility that dark horses from each group would be grouped together, causing participants who could have easily made it into the top 15 to be eliminated.

“It seems a bit difficult to hold the second preliminary round as planned because the number has decreased more than expected.”

The chairman summarized the situation.

Then, after a moment of thought, he suddenly raised his head and said,

“Then how about we do this?”

“What do you mean?”

“The third preliminary round was supposed to calculate the win rate and only allow the top 15 to advance to the main rounds, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Let’s just do that now. Since the warriors from all over Asia are mixed together right now…… First, we divide the areas by country of origin, then select the people with the best win rates from there and proceed with the third preliminary round to select the final 15.”

In short, he was suggesting that they divide the preliminary rounds by country now.

And unlike the first preliminary round, where winning just 5 matches was enough to advance to the third round, only those with high win rates would be sent to the final preliminary round.

“Will the association allow it?”

“The North American region is proceeding in this way, so there won’t be any problems. If we do it by region, the participants won’t be dissatisfied, and we can quickly eliminate the weak ones, so isn’t it a good method?”

“That seems like a good method. Then, we’ll group Japan and Korea together since they have few participants, and for Southeast Asia and China, there were many dropouts, so…… like this…….”

Instead of random group assignments, the areas were divided, and soon the brackets for each area were sent to the participants’ emails.

* * *

Meanwhile, a girl was reading a thick hardcover book in her hotel room.

The girl, Lee Seohyun, squeezed her loosened hair as she read, then leaned back against the backrest with an unknown sound, ‘Puhah!’

“Ugh, honestly, I don’t know what it is even after reading it.”

Lee Seohyun flipped the book over with a frustrated expression.

The book, beautifully bound using expensive paper, didn’t look like an ordinary book in any way.

Lee Seohyun stared at the cover of the book for a while before sweeping it clean.

But then it happened.

Woo-!

Lee Seohyun jumped up from her seat as her smartphone suddenly vibrated and grabbed it.

“Finally, the second preliminary round bracket is out!”

However, Lee Seohyun’s pupils trembled as she looked down at her smartphone.

“Wh-What was the unlock button again?”

There was one secret of Lee Seohyun that was not known to the outside world.

She was a bit…… no, quite a tech idiot.

‘F-First, if I press everything one by one, something will come out.’

After fiddling and examining it for a while, Lee Seohyun was able to find the message app after about a minute.

“Hmm hmm, checking messages is easy.”

Her finger hesitated for a moment on the screen, but soon she checked the message and pressed it very carefully.

[WEB] To: Lee Seohyun

[Hello. Lee Seohyun. The World Martial Arts Grand Tournament…….]

[The schedule and bracket for the second preliminary round have been sent to the email you provided, so please check it.]

[For additional inquiries…….]

“Wh-What? E-Email?”

However, Lee Seohyun encountered another great wall.

It felt like she had encountered a daunting cliff.

Did she feel like this when she overcame the fourth stage of mana manipulation during her time at the academy?

Lee Seohyun urgently opened the ‘Smartphone Dictionary’ that her nanny had written for her to use when she needed help.

“Ugh…… S-So unlocking is this…… M-Messages, I did that. H-How do I check e-mail? Uh, what’s an update? Application……? Ah, I, I know this one. So…….”

Lee Seohyun’s expression turned tearful.

After groaning for a while and reading the smartphone usage instructions written by her nanny line by line, Lee Seohyun was able to open the email window after 5 minutes.

“Haa. Do I really have to study this? If I accidentally show this side of me, I’m really…… Ugh.”

Lee Seohyun shuddered and checked her email.

The email contained the changed schedule for the second preliminary round, the area divisions, and the bracket for the next day.

‘Area divisions?’

It meant that the areas were divided by country.

Lee Seohyun belonged to the Korea-Japan area.

‘Oh, wait a minute. Then……?’

Lee Seohyun’s eyes sparkled as she pondered the contents for a moment.

And after quickly flipping through the brackets, she succeeded in finding the one she was aiming for.

“Found it.”

[2nd Preliminary Round, Group C, No. 12]

[Kim Cheol-hyeon VS Lee Seohyun]