Chapter 285: Monstrous Strength
Guys the Chapter is not done. Please give me like 20 minutes
As the whole group walked over to the basketball court that had the ground topped with gym mats, Ari looked around curiously.
Off to the side, staff members were holding what looked like long, thick ribbons that matched the colors of the tracksuits each group wore.
"Those who are wrestling for their team, please come to this side so the belt can be attached to you all." A staff member called out, and both Ari and Jamie put their heads together, watching the red team like hawks to see who they sent out.
There seemed to be a brief yet passionate conversation between William, Jerome Tyler, and a staff member pointing at the wound on William’s face before Jerome went out.
As William turned to glare at him, Ari waved cheerfully in return.
Who knew what was going on in his messed-up head?
His only hope was that William would conclude that he needed to quit.
Lost in thought. Ari snapped out of it when an elbow poked him.
"He’s not wrestling. It’s good, right?"
"Fantastic."
"That means I can go? I can wrestle?"
"I guess? Have at it."
Now excited, Jamie turned to look at Levi, who was already heading toward the staff member.
"Hey! Levi. I’m wrestling."
"I want to do it."
"So do I?"
"And? That sounds like a personal problem," Levi replied in a sharp tone.
The two of them glared at each other before turning to look at Ari.
"I want to do it. I’m the strongest in the team."
"...He’s not stronger than me."
"I am stronger than him."
Ari: ಠ_ಠ
I really don’t care who’s the strongest or which of you does it, since William isn’t playing.
"What are you looking at me for? Rock, paper, scissors for it."
Jamie and Levi stared at each other before Jamie spoke first.
"Best of 3 rounds?"
"1 round."
"Fine."
"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot."
As Jamie held out the scissors, Levi’s fist stayed the same.
Rock beats scissors.
It was Levi’s win.
As Jamie’s body slumped from depression, the most devastated expression filled his face. With a casual motion, Levi slammed his fist on Jamie’s scissors before continuing to walk forward, where the staff member proceeded to wrap the blue ribbon-like fabric around his waist and right leg.
Although he wanted to burst out laughing at the comical picture, Ari patted Jamie’s back sympathetically.
"Don’t worry. You’ll get the next one, big guy."
Once the wrestlers were suitably wrapped up, they lined up while Areum began her announcement.
"Let’s get started with Ssireum, which is traditional Korean wrestling. As you can all see, the wrestlers have belts around them, and using only the belts, you need to wrestle and make your opponent’s torso touch the ground. There’s no striking, no punches, no kicks, no headlocks, or excessive holds. If you draw blood, the match will stop immediately. It’s best two out of three matches, and to keep things fair, because the blue team won the last time, they will have an extra match this time as well."
How is that keeping things fair?
Aren’t you just punishing us for winning?
Since he knew that it wasn’t the idol making the rules, just the evil production team, Ari just kept his expression neutral while paying attention.
A staff member rolled out the tourney board, and they were trying to encourage tension between teams because the first matchup was the Blue Team vs the Red Team.
In other words, Ariel vs William once again.
As the two of them locked eyes, Ari smiled peacefully before looking at Levi.
"Oi, you know you have to win, right? Otherwise, I’ll disown you."
Levi: ಠ_ಠ
We’re not even related.
More importantly,
"You think I’ll lose?"
"Dunno. Jerome’s one of the gym bros, no?"
Levi turned to give Ari a dirty look before pointing toward the direction of the main building.
"Go get ice for those bruises on your leg. By the time you come back, I’ll have won the whole thing."
At Levi’s words, the entire blue team got excited, while Ari gave him a double thumbs up.
"Woahhhh!"
"The door breaker is confident!"
"It feels good having him on our side!!!"
"As always, you’re very cool. But I’ll stay here to watch the resounding victory. Good luck."
"Hm."
Not saying anything else, Levi stepped forward while Jerome Tyler did the same.
The two boys glared at each other until Idol Areum’s voice broke the silence.
"Ready, Begin."
Dash.
In a simultaneous motion, both Levi and Jerome reached out to grab the belt on each person’s waist, but Levi was slightly faster.
And the moment, he grabbed onto Jerome’s belt-
Like a parent carrying a child by their clothing, Levi used the strap around Jerome Tyler’s waist and began lifting until the other boy’s feet were no longer touching the floor, and then in a smooth motion-
BANG!
Slammed him onto the ground on his back.
The noise was so loud, even with the mats on the ground, that the area became silent.
Jerome immediately stopped moving from the force of the hit, and everyone stared in shock, wondering if they had just witnessed a murder.
Aware of people’s eyes, Levi explained in his usual sharp tone.
"He’s fine."
Is he?
He’s literally not moving right now!
"Trust me, he’s fine."
Ari stared from Levi’s unimpressed face to the still Jerome, wondering if the whole entire day was going to be shut down.
"Uh, Contestant Levi wins the first match. Contestant Jerome, are you okay? Can somebody please go check on him?"
Areum’s concerned voice sounded out, and a staff member wearing a medical shirt ran forward to Jerome, who was lying still on the mat.
After shaking him off a few times, the only response from Jerome was groaning as he tried to recover his breath, as the wind was completely knocked out of him from the force of the hit.
With watery eyes and a pained expression, Jerome stared at Levi before muttering.
"I forfeit."
Gasp.
"Okay, wow. Uhm, it seems that Contestant Levi has won the first round by forfeit. Let’s give him a round of applause."
It was a shocking turn of events that couldn’t be understood.
Areum blinked slowly, trying to reconcile Levi’s relatively leanly muscled frame with the explosive strength that he just displayed.
No matter how she tried to calculate it, it didn’t make sense.
"Then let’s begin the second match. Contestant Levi will be going against Contestant Carlos from the Yellow Team. Please line up. Ready? Begin!"
At Areum’s whistle, Carlos squatted low and tried to aim for the cloth wrapped around Levi’s leg.
While he may not have wrestled before, he was confident in his strength, built from working part-time in a car shop, that he wouldn’t be taken down as easily, but just like with Jamal, the result was the same.
Due to his longer reach, Levi snagged his belt first, and with no sign of struggle on that sharp-looking face, he twisted the belt around his arm to lock it into place and began lifting Carlos as if he were deadlifting him.
"Whoa, mierda!"
Carlos did everything to resist, grabbing onto Levi in return, squirming his body around, and trying to stay on the ground, but inevitably-
BANG!
He was lifted by a single leg and belt and thrown onto his back.
And just like Jerome, Carlos briefly lay still on the ground before groaning and sitting up and staring at Levi in shock.
"Mierda. You-you are crazily strong."
"I know."
"Wow. That’s crazy."
"..."
As the two boys just stared at each other in silence, Areum cut in.
"Round 1 goes to Levi. Contestant Carlos, are you okay to continue?"
"I’m fine. I think I’ve got a plan now."
"Are you sure?" Areum asked after patting her chest for several seconds.
"Yep, I’m good."
For some reason, her heart just couldn’t calm down while watching the match.
The first contestant being slammed so hard he got the wind knocked out of him and had to forfeit was shocking enough as is, but seeing it happen again in quick succession was shocking.
What were they feeding these kids in America?
"Okay, then please begin the match!"
As the whistle blew, Carlos dropped low to the ground and began circling Levi, who just stared at him while spinning in a circle.
"I’ve got you now!"
As Carlos dashed forward, Levi did the same, his arm shooting for the belt wrapped around Carlos’s leg.
And despite his best effort in resisting the sudden grapple,
BANG!
Carlos was immediately tossed to the ground, this time lying still for several minutes before slowly getting up.
It was completely Levi’s win.
After seeing the previous results, naturally, Leo, who had to face Levi to win the championship, quickly forfeited the match.
After all, he had no confidence in doing better than the others.
The award ceremony was quick, and all the contestants stared at Levi with fearful eyes, once again reminded of the reason nobody messed with him in the first place.
After all, it was one thing to see someone rip a door off the hinge, but seeing an adult get picked up with one arm and get slammed so hard the air got knocked out of them was an eye-opening experience.
Since Levi’s temper was short, rather than tempting fate, it was better just to avoid him completely.
"Congratulations, Contestant Levi. You’re quite strong." Areum gave the fierce-looking contestant a tense smile as she pinned the blue ribbon to his chest.
"Thanks."
Not even cracking a smile, Levi simply stepped back once she was done and waited for the announcements to be finished.
Then, following Ari’s lead, Levi pinned the blue ribbon to the long blue fabric that he had used for wrestling and held it out like he was holding a live snake as he walked back to the blue team, some of whom were staring at him with slightly afraid eyes.
The only two people who didn’t were the long-haired blonde boy, who looked like he wanted to try wrestling then, and the green-eyed boy, who seemed very excited as he waved a tennis racket around.
Seeing that nobody was approaching Levi, Ari ran up, threw his arm around his shoulder, and used the tennis racket he still held as a microphone.
"Bravo! Bravo! Congrats on the victory. Give us a speech! What would you like to say, Kiwi head?"
"...Why do you keep calling me that?"
"Next time we go to the grocery store, I’ll get a fruit sticker and show you. For now, speech! Give us a speech!"
Ari held the tennis racket to Levi’s mouth expectantly, and after he rolled his eyes, Levi obligingly spoke into it.
"To Victory?"
"What else?"
Glancing at the tennis racket turned microphone that didn’t seem like it would be going anywhere, Levi sighed before continuing, "To all you can eat meat on the production team’s budget?"
"Exactly! To Levi’s secretly strong muscles and more importantly, TO BEEF! BEEF! BEEF!" Ari began shouting as the rest of the team joined in.
"BEEF BEEF BEEF BEEF!"
As he was dragged into a circle of crazed, jumping boys chanting beef repeatedly, only child, anti-social extraordinaire Levi Temple once again began contemplating his life.
Wasn’t there a more important prize than beef?
Why did beef have to be the cheer that the team used?
And how long was he supposed to continue jumping?
When would he be freed from this forced team bonding?
"Beef team, that’s enough! The next event will be the highly anticipated 100m relay. Let’s get going, boys."
Thankfully, the PD’s voice broke the crazed beef huddle, and with a sigh of relief, Levi separated from the others and brushed his tracksuit off before following behind everyone.
Suddenly, green eyes turned to look back at him before the owner walked backward to whisper to him.
"You know you enjoyed it. Team bonding."
"No."
"I know you did."
"No."
"I know you’re lying, your ears are red."
"...It’s hot."
"Sure. Sure. Good job regardless, and please share what you eat as well as your sleeping routine, so I can be as strong as you are without going to the gym."
"...Go away."
Laughing to himself as Levi avoided eye contact, Ari patted Levi’s arm before moving forward to walk with Jamie and whistling happily.
He was in a pretty good mood, actually.
His team was winning, nobody on his side was hurt, and surprisingly, he was pretty hopeful for the next events.
As long as things continued going this well, wouldn’t his team win it all?