.  On the other hand, Jung Haneul was watching the entire sight at a close distance while squatting on the floor. When Dae Lisa intervened in the fight, he stood up and dashed toward her.

  “Noona!” he shouted then tried to go hug her.

  Dae Lisa avoided him with a flinch since he had been rolling on the floor until just now.

  It seemed that Jung Haneul had a crush on her. Regardless of her reaction, he shouted cheerfully, “Wow, noona! I never imagined that you would come to save me. When that all muscles and no-brain bastard flipped all the tables, everything seemed all over. Ah, you see this? I got a bruise on my arm. Geez, it really hurts!”


  With a sad face, Jung Haneul rolled up his sleeves and revealed his bare arms. However, Dae Lisa still reacted apathetically. Observing the look on her face, Jung Haneul quickly turned around.

  “Uh, well, noona, thanks anyway for helping me. I’ll leave then,” said Jung Haneul.

  Dae Lisa responded, “Where are you going?”


  Jung Haneul’s face turned stiff. “Excuse me?” he asked.

  “I’m not here to help you.” Dae Lisa added, showing a lack of concern, “Why would I come all the way here to do that?”


  Jung Haneul’s face changed paler. He finally turned around and tried to flee after her following remark.

  “Sorry, but I must take over your rank,” said Dae Lisa.

  “Noona, how can you do this to me! This can’t happen!!”


  Screaming that way like a tragic hero, Jung Haneul ran away from the spot. I watched him in perplexity. As if Dae Lisa didn’t expect that reaction as well, she also looked bewildered.

  Just like his nickname, the Flying Squirrel, Jung Haneul’s running speed was very fast. Even Ruda wasn’t able to react to him who was getting close to the door. Watching him fleeing in a flash, I shouted to myself, ‘No, we’ll gonna lose him!’


  That was when a gray lining came into my sight. Leaving an afterimage, something like a Frisbee quickly flew over to Jung Haneul and struck him on the back of his head. With a loud thud, Jung Haneul collapsed in the direction where he was running to. At the unexpected situation, we all just flickered our eyes blankly.

  The thing that suddenly hit the back of Jung Haneul’s head was none other than a trashcan lid. When we slowly turned our heads to look behind us, Eun Hyung was smiling there embarrassedly as all attention was on him.

  “Ah, sorry…… I didn’t know that it was a trashcan lid since I just threw something as quickly as possible……”


  Jung Haneul, who already fainted, could, of course, not hear those words.

  While there was a moment of silence, Dae Lisa stared at Eun Hyung with mixed feelings of admiration and confusion. She asked, “Why aren’t you participating in the battle?”


  “Uh, that’s because……” Throwing a glance outside the alley for no reason, Eun Hyung continued speaking, “.…… I want to become a doctor.”


  “Y…… eah……” replied Dae Lisa awkwardly.

  The bar was enveloped by a deafening silence again. Shortly after, Dae Lisa raised her fist high up in the air as if she was trying to get over the awkward atmosphere.

  She shouted brightly, “Anyway, we now got the tickets to join the battle, so are you all ready?”


  Article 40. The Great Birth of the Nationwide Number Zero

  On Saturday, all the ranked fighters gathered at Sung Woon Science High School for the Ranking Battle.

  The huge school gym was big enough to accommodate a hundred qualifiers as well as hundreds of audiences. The tension and heat of the crowds burned up the space like a blast furnace, which resembled the sights seen in a wrestling arena.

  ‘Until last year, we just had the actual tournament roughly at some schools with a big empty lot. It wasn’t a huge event like this……’ Speaking to himself, Kim Pyung Bum bit his lips in nervousness.

  He was one of the high-ranked fighters who took the seventeenth position in the previous Ranking Battle; thus, he could skip the preliminary round and become a qualified contestant with ease. And that was why he didn’t feel like a stranger in this spot surrounded by numbers of kids with threatening looks.

  However, it only applied when he was with his friends.

  Ever since Kim Pyung Bum entered high school, he was always with Suh Doh Gyum, but that Suh Doh Gyum had been attacked by someone and was now in the hospital.

  Well, to be honest, when that thing first happened, Kim Pyung Bum felt a little surprised but also enjoyed weird freedom at the same time. Staying together with Suh Doh Gyum for more than ten hours every day, Kim Pyung Bum got sick and tired of him. Besides, he knew that Suh Doh Gyum would recover soon from the injury.

  However, this was also a story from the time when he didn’t know other kids would get hospitalized after Suh Doh Gyum.

  Gang Han and Woo San, those who usually got along with him, were ambushed one after another. And when Dae Lisa even disappeared without a trace, Kim Pyung Bum wished that it would rather be better to have Suh Doh Gyum beside him.

  Especially, he missed the times when Suh Doh Gyum roared with an angry look and made people around them step back. If that was available, these tough-looking bastards wouldn’t pay attention to him. Thinking that way, Kim Pyung Bum cried in his thoughts.

  Actually, Kim Pyung Bum looked very run-of-the-mill for one of the top-ranked fighters. Being raised under a strict mother who used to think that outfits told who the person was, he always wore the school uniform, both the jacket and tie, neatly.

  Among the rough-looking kids wearing such uniforms customized in their own tastes, Kim Pyung Bum’s ordinary look stood out too much.

  Barely avoiding their fierce glances that seemed to look down and threaten him, Kim Pyung Bum switched his gaze to the corner of the gym. A boy was sitting on the top of mattresses piled up like a staircase.

  In the faint light, his dazzling brown-gray hair and well-defined but subtle facial features came into view. The boy seemed to have relatively a run-of-the-mill physique. He didn’t look threatening at all.

  However, he was surrounded by a number of big dudes who looked like bodyguards or knights protecting him. At some point, they attracted attention like Kim Pyung Bum.

  Narrowing his eyes, Kim Pyung Bum murmured, “They say some dudes are participating in this year’s battle as a group……”


  Those kids were showing off their power without trying to hide it. They seemed to trust that their master would win over the throne after today.

  ‘Well, they can think that way in this situation though……’ mumbled Kim Pyung Bum, looking around the space inside the gym.

  The big guys were, on the other hand, assuming the reasons why some seats for the ranked fighters were vacant.

  “Aside from other people, why is Dae Lisa not here? Did she get surprise attacked?”


  “Maybe she’s frightened and just ran away……”


  “Indeed, she would have thought there’s no chance to win since Gang Han, who’s sixth place higher in rank than her, got attacked too.”


  Whispers kept on.

  “Some dudes are missing other than them, right?”


  “I don’t see the Flying Squirrel.”


  “Yeah, and so is the Orangutan from Sang Duk High School.”


  “Oh, you mean Park Ha Hyun?”


  Amid the meaningless noises, Jung Yohan leaned against the mattress and just touched his phone.

  His downcast eyes and subtle facial features looked very peaceful like an angel statue in the light. However, everyone around him knew that he was feeling very unsatisfied right now.

  One of the dudes carefully asked him, “Park Ha Hyun that bastard…… Should I just go and bring him here?”


  Jung Yohan replied apathetically, “No, maybe he fled away to somewhere since he wasn’t answering the phone all day. Missing one person won’t affect our fight.”


  Nodding swiftly, his henchman swallowed his breath at Jung Yohan’s following words.

  “However, he must pay for not fighting with us as a team.”


  Jung Yohan then touched his phone with a serene look on his face. His henchmen were frightened by the fact that Jung Yohan left the details of the punishment, which Park Ha Hyun would get, unspoken.

  Turning stiff as a stone, they all looked at the gym entrance.

  When it becomes eleven o’clock, the door would get locked up both inside and outside; no one could come in or leave. Now, only five minutes were left until the door closed.

  They desperately hoped that Park Ha Hyun would step in to fight together right now so that he didn’t have to endure the unspecified, terrible punishment.

  As if their prayers were answered, that was when the door flung open with lights pouring inside. Most of the ranked fighters were all here by now, so they turned their heads toward the direction apathetically, thinking that it would be either Park Ha Hyun or just low-ranked fighters who were helpless at the moment.