….
Two Months Later.
….
Sixty-one days had passed since Jin-Ho's last dimensional travel, and he hadn't wasted a single one of them.
During that time, he had entered seven gates total, five C-rank and two B-rank. He had tried repeatedly to get into A-rank gates, but the bureaucracy kept blocking him.
His age, seventeen, was restricting his movements quite a bit.
The US government had strict protocols about minors entering high-risk dungeons, even when those minors were clearly capable hunters.
Being in a foreign country made it even harder. American hunter guilds preferred their own citizens or at least legal residents with established track records.
Jin-Ho was neither, technically.
But more than bureaucratic restrictions, what annoyed him most was the constant recruitment attempts.
During every dungeon raid, without fail, he had been approached by agents.
Some represented private guilds looking for promising talent.
Others worked for the US government's hunter management division, scouting for their official teams.
They had watched him clear monsters with efficient brutality, see his tactical awareness and power, and immediately try to lock him into contracts.
Obviously, he had turned them all down.
Right this moment, he was coming out of a C-rank gate, having just turned down yet another recruitment pitch from a particularly persistent agent.
The man walked away muttering something under his breath, something that sounded suspiciously like "ungrateful foreign kid", and "Kids these days think a few flashy kills make them special."
"Hey, don't sweat it." one of his temporary teammates said, a hunter named Marcus who had been raiding with Jin-Ho for the past three gates. "Guy's an asshole. Everyone knows it."
Obviously, Jin-Ho is never one to care about the agents rumbling.
So, he just nodded.
"I still can't believe your English is so good." Marcus continued, clearly trying to change the subject and defuse the tension.
"Especially your accent." another hunter added, a woman named Sarah who specialized in ranged attacks. "You sound almost native. How long have you been in the States?"
Jin-Ho smiled awkwardly. "Guess I just pick things up fast."
The truth was complicated.
In his past life, Jin-Ho knew how to speak English, university-level conversational fluency, nothing extraordinary. Initially, he had thought that was why he could communicate so well.
But after traveling to MCU - where he had spoken a language he had never heard before in his life and understood it perfectly, Jin-Ho realized the truth.
It wasn't just his previous knowledge.
It was the effect of the title.
◤-----------------------◥
「Titles:」
-> [The ☒☒☒ Keeper] (Unclassified)
◣-----------------------◢
Whatever that obscured part in between 'The Keeper' was, one of its effects seemed to be universal language comprehension.
He could speak, read, and understand any language he encountered as if he had been raised with it.
The accent, the idioms, the cultural context, all of it came naturally.
It was convenient.
"Jin-Ho!" A woman's voice called out from the gate's exit staging area. "Over here."
Jin-Ho turned toward the voice and immediately spotted Yoo Jin-Hee, his elder sister, standing beside a sleek black car, clearly waiting for him.
She looked exactly like what she was: a wealthy family's daughter who had come to pick up her troublesome younger brother.
"Hey there." Jin-Ho waved back.
He said his goodbyes to Marcus and Sarah, promised to raid together again, the usual hunter camaraderie, and walked over to where his sister was waiting.
"How was it today?" Jin-Hee asked, though her eyes were already scanning him up and down.
"It was an easy ride." Jin-Ho replied, shrugging.
"You say that every time." she said, her voice carrying a mix of exasperation and relief.
She circled around him, performing a thorough visual inspection for injuries. It was a ritual now, every time he came out of a gate, she checked.
Looking for blood, for torn clothing, for any sign that the 'It was an easy ride' raid had been anything but.
But as she completed her circle, something else registered in her mind.
Something that had been happening gradually over the past two months but suddenly felt stark and undeniable.
Jin-Ho had changed.
Not just in behavior or confidence, but physically.
He had gained weight - muscle mass, clearly visible even through his hunter gear.
His shoulders were broader. His height had shot up; he was already taller than her now, taller than most of his classmates.
The scrawny seventeen-year-old she remembered from just a few months ago
He looked muscular, though not bodybuilder massive, but lean and powerful in the way that combat-focused hunters developed.
"I swear… I miss the days when you were my height."
Her little brother had grown up, a bit too fast. In ways that felt unnatural for someone who was supposed to be a normal high school student.
"Well, sorry about that."
He moved past her and opened the car door, sliding into the passenger seat without ceremony.
Jin-Hee stood there for a moment longer, staring at the space where her brother had been standing.
Two months ago, he had been withdrawn, distant, but still recognizably the kid she had grown up with.
Now he was something else. Still her brother, but… different. More self-sufficient in a way that felt like he didn't need family anymore.
She shook off the uncomfortable thought and got into the driver's seat.
"I am stopping by a cafe first." she announced as she started the car.
"Like this? I am still in my hunter gear. And I am sweaty."
"Sweaty?" She shot him a skeptical look. "You look exactly the same as when you entered the gate. Not even a speck of dust on you."
It was true. Jin-Ho overwhelmed every gate he raided with almost absurd efficiency.
To anyone watching, it looked effortless - monsters cleared before they could even get close.
But that wasn't why he was raiding.
He entered gates to improve his Telekinesis.
Every single raid was a training session.
Each time, he pushed himself to try something new, something more difficult, more complex.
Lifting heavier objects while maintaining awareness.
Manipulating multiple targets at once. Creating barriers under combat pressure. Testing the absolute limits of his control and endurance.
The monsters were just convenient practice dummies.
But could he clear a B-rank gate solo?
No. He wasn't strong enough. His power was potent when used strategically, but it drained him fast.
"Fine." He conceded. "But I am hitting the gym the moment we get home."
Jin-Hee's grip tightened on the steering wheel.
"Again? Seriously?" Her frustration broke through. "Every time you train at the gym, you come out looking more exhausted than when you clear an entire gate. What are you even doing there?"
"Training."
It was true, though.
All the muscle mass he had gained over the past two months, the broader shoulders, the defined arms, the core strength that made him look years older - it was all earned through effort.
Pure, relentless, exhausting effort.
….
The cafe stop was brief and uneventful.
Jin-Hee ordered her usual caramel macchiato and watched her brother nurse a black coffee in silence.
Twenty minutes later, they were back in the car heading home.
True to his word, Jin-Ho went straight to his personal gym the moment they arrived.
His flat had a dedicated training facility, standard for wealthy hunter families. It was equipped with everything: weights, resistance machines, combat dummies, even specialized equipment designed for hunters to practice their abilities in controlled environments.
Jin-Ho had claimed it as his personal space almost immediately after he had started raiding gates.
Jin-Hee followed him, leaning against the doorframe as he began his routine.
He started with stretching.
Nothing unusual there. But then he moved into the real training, and she found herself watching with a mixture of fascination and concern.
He dropped to the floor and began doing pushups. Standard at first, full palms. Then he shifted his weight onto his fingertips.
Fingertip pushups.
Her eyebrows rose. She had seen hunters do incredible physical feats before, but fingertip pushups required not just strength but incredible finger and wrist conditioning. The kind of training that took months to develop safely.
Jin-Ho cranked out twenty without breaking rhythm, his breathing steady, his form perfect.
Is he going to try with just one finger in a few more months? She thought, half-horrified and half-impressed.
She felt a strange sense of pride despite her concern. Most mages, hunters who relied primarily on magical or psychic abilities, completely neglected physical training. They focused on mana control, spell precision, and mental discipline. Their bodies were often their weakest point.
But Jin-Ho was different. He trained like a combat specialist despite being a telekinesis user. He was building himself into something that didn't fit the standard hunter classifications.
After the pushups, he stood and moved into a strange stance.
She had seen this part of his routine before, but she still didn't understand it.
His body shifted into positions that looked... odd.
Not quite karate, taekwondo or any martial art she recognized from watching professionals online.
Jin-Ho moved through a series of forms, fluid but unconventional. There were acrobatic elements, improvised strikes, movements that emphasized environmental awareness and adaptability over rigid technique.
His hands moved in circular patterns. His footwork was agile, almost playful, but clearly practiced.
He is clearly practicing some kind of martial art, Jin-Hee thought. But what style is that?
She didn't know that Jin-Ho was training in Jackie Chan Martial Arts.
A style that didn't technically exist in this world.
It looked weird because it was weird - born from cinema, not the battlefield.
…and lately, Jin-Ho had started to sense the ceiling of it. The way some motions felt impractical against a real opponent. The way the style relied on improvisation more than structured combat logic.
He frowned, exhaling through his nose as he wiped the sweat off his chin.
"Maybe that will change if I level it up one more time…"
And with that thought, his [System] interface blinked into view in front of him.
◤-----------------------◥
「Skills:」
[Talisman Arts] Lv. 1 → 2 (Proficiency 0.9 % → 09 %)
[Telekinesis] Lv. 2 → 3 (Proficiency 55 % → 23 %)
[Jackie Chan Martial Arts] Lv. 4 (Proficiency 80 % → 99 %)
[Super Human Strength] Lv. 0 → 2 (Proficiency 0 % → 10 %)
◣-----------------------◢
Jin-Ho stared at the numbers for a long moment, his expression tightening.
Ninety-nine percent, for a whole month.
No matter how much he trained, how many times he pushed his body beyond fatigue or how creatively he applied the technique, the progress bar refused to move.
It didn't budge, not even by a tenth of a percent.
He tried everything: sparring with real hunters, applying the style inside low-rank gates, even fighting monsters in environments that could test his agility and reflexes.
But it was like the system itself was waiting for something specific, a trigger he hadn't found yet.
"…So that's how it is, huh?" he muttered, sitting on the mat, towel draped over his neck.
He wasn't just training anymore, he was searching for an answer. For the next step that would finally merge cinema movement with real combat instinct.
He clenched his fists, a quiet grin tugging at his lips. "Fine. Let's see what you are hiding…"
And with that, he stood again, ready to push his limits one more time.
But there was another new notification… that appeared after his gate ride a few hours ago.
◤-----------------------◥
[-> Pan'ku Locket:]
| Currently Available Locations: NONE
| To Be Opened:
[[Portal 001]
- Location: Tokyo Bay, Japan
- Site: Courtyard, Castle Complex
- Status: IN-ACTIVE | Will be opened in: 6D, 18H, 33M]
◣-----------------------◢
….
.
[To be continued…]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
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