This World is too Cruel to Men – Chapter 533

“Ugh…”

Wasn’t today supposed to be an on-call day?

So why on earth is she here right now?

What can I even say?

The person I least expected to see was none other than my senior.

That’s why I couldn’t help but feel even more confused.

If my memory serves me right, my senior’s schedule today was to be on standby at the Association headquarters.

For reference, being on standby means preparing for unexpected emergencies—like sudden rifts appearing or formidable villains that ordinary heroes can’t handle—without any specific mission, ready to respond at any moment within the Association’s premises.

It’s like being on alert in the military, I suppose.

Well, that might be a given, but unlike true military readiness, it wasn’t as intense here.

Still, I recalled that we weren’t allowed to leave a designated area until the standby was over.

So why is she here instead of the designated waiting area provided by the Association?

“Senior?”

Curious, I called out to her, and only after hearing my voice did she seem to notice Yoonseo and me.

The speed at which she was sprinting on the treadmill was enough to shock anyone who might have seen it. She turned her head slightly to glance in our direction and hopped off the treadmill.

“What are you doing here?”

She spoke the very question I wanted to ask.

“And what about you, Senior?”

“Me? Of course, I just took a break to train.”

“What about the on-call duty today?”

“Oh, that? I switched with someone else.”

“Ah…”

So it was okay to switch with someone else, huh?

I didn’t know that.

Well, emergencies can arise out of nowhere.

Still, if it were someone else, they would probably rush home the moment they had free time to rest or go out for fun…

But here she is, heading straight to the training ground.

Is that really a senior-like behavior?

Just as I was having that thought, the sight of Yoonseo and me seemed to trigger her training fanaticism.

“Are you two here to train, by any chance?”

She asked, her deep blue eyes sparkling as she did.

“Uh, yeah… kinda?”

I had no choice but to answer that way.

Honestly, considering that we entered the training ground together, it felt a bit odd to say otherwise.

So I answered as-is, and her voice returned with an eager tone.

“Can I watch?”

I turned my head slightly towards Yoonseo, which was why I didn’t immediately respond.

If I were the one leading the situation, it would be different, but here I was, like a guest accepting Yoonseo’s invitation.

So it felt a bit off for me to answer that myself.

We tend to be relatively less sensitive about these things…

However, hero training typically happens privately.

To put it simply, it’s akin to how martial artists in novels don’t just show off their training to outsiders.

From their perspective, that’s only reasonable since if they carelessly spill their secrets and someone figures out their techniques, they could easily get taken down on the street.

And in that context, heroes facing the risk of having their skills exposed is a bigger deal.

Particularly those who rely heavily on talent exhibit that tendency.

How do you think I ended up following Yoonseo around, learning various self-defense techniques?

My senior usually carries a sword during activities and has been training in kendo, so even if her talent was exposed, she could buy time with her skills. But Yoonseo usually fights bare-handed.

Sure, given her exceptional talent, she probably wouldn’t lose her skills easily unless someone had incredibly bad luck… But it’s always wise to prepare for the worst.

Keeping up self-defense training to be ready for any eventualities has long been a kind of unspoken rule among heroes. In other words, it signifies how sensitive everyone is to this aspect.

So when I handed the decision over to Yoonseo, did she catch onto my intent?

“Sure.”

After a moment of contemplation, Yoonseo nodded.

However, she added in a condition that I should spar with her later.

And my senior seemed delighted by Yoonseo’s suggestion.

“Well…”

It made sense since sparring was something my senior enjoyed just as much as training.

She once said sparring allowed her to gauge the effectiveness of her training.

Anyway, now that they’d come to an agreement…

“Then I’ll reserve a sparring room.”

That seemed like my job.

As I said this, their reactions split.

“Go ahead.”

“Will you?”

Yoonseo appeared indifferent, while my senior seemed sprightly, almost mentally rehearsing for the upcoming spar.

Since they had reached an agreement, and considering the limited time we had in the training ground, we couldn’t just loiter around the entrance, so we moved past the lobby, which served also as a gym, and entered the pre-reserved training room.

After setting up the safety mechanisms at the panel located in one corner of the training ground…

“So what do you need me to help with?”

I asked Yoonseo.

.

.

.

“So what do you need me to help with?”

What a question to ask.

It wasn’t an easy question to answer.

Not because it was hard to understand or anything.

Rather, it was tricky.

After all, as I’ve mentioned before, Dogun tends to become overly perceptive in bizarre situations.

So if I answered thoughtlessly…

The secret I was trying to keep could be exposed.

That’s why I hesitated to respond, but did Dogun perceive my hesitation differently?

Did he think my silence stemmed from the question being unclear? Because a similar yet distinctly different question came flying in.

“What if it’s hard to answer? How about changing the question? What do you think you lack?”

What I lack?

Well, there’s an overwhelming number of those, but if I had to name one most urgent and desperate issue…

“Um… destructive power?”

That would be it.

I hadn’t felt it significantly before, but now it was a different story.

With the experience of facing the Another Ones, I had finally realized it fully.

I understood exactly what it meant to have plenty of firepower but insufficient destructive capability.

So when I answered like that, Dogun, unaware of this fact, was understandably puzzled.

“Destructive power?”

“Yeah.”

“Really? I still think you’re sufficient…”

As he said this, Dogun tilted his head, looking bewildered.

To prevent Dogun’s thoughts from spiraling in a peculiar direction, I quickly added an explanation.

“That’s true, but it feels like I lack the ability to break through powerfully all at once.”

“Hmm… I see…”

Honestly, even after saying such things, I was a bit anxious…

Thankfully, this time it seemed Dogun didn’t display his usual heightened awareness in strange scenarios.

After a brief pause as he quietly pondered, he told me to wait a moment and walked toward the panel again.

He started adjusting the settings of the training ground.

Suddenly, thick iron plates that looked like they couldn’t even be scratched by bullets emerged from the walls as they split left and right.

‘No way…’

He can’t possibly expect me to break through that… right?

With that thickness, I’d be surprised if I could leave even a scratch on it, regardless of how hard I tried…