Bang.
The bullet tore through the tattooed man's head and blew his brain apart. At least, that was how it looked from Kang Woojin's point of view, and in the tattooed man's mind, it seemed no different. The man whose head had been shattered collapsed, and as if he still wasn't satisfied, Woojin fired two more shots into the fallen man's chest.
Kang Woojin's expression did not change.
Even at the instant his teammate went down, the bearded man charged forward without the slightest hesitation.
"Get down!"
The bearded man lunged in. He knocked Kang Woojin's gun away with his left hand. Nothing had gone according to plan from the beginning, so what was happening now was closer to freestyle than the original sequence. The bearded man swung the knife in his right hand in a swift arc, aiming for Woojin's neck.
But the blade cut through nothing but air.
Kang Woojin leaned his body back just enough to avoid it cleanly, then moved his fingers.
He pulled the magazine out of the confiscated gun and caught it in his free hand.
With a sharp, brutal motion, he slammed the magazine into the man's right eye.
The bearded man, the second one to rush Kang Woojin, was subdued just as quickly.
"Aaaagh!!"
At first, he had been full of resolve, convinced he would teach Woojin a lesson.
Now, however, he realized something.
This Korean actor was not ordinary.
Why?
Because the way he had stripped the magazine from the prop gun was far too natural.
'What the hell is this? Why is he handling a gun so naturally? Guns are illegal in Korea.'
But Woojin's one-handed movement had been the kind of smooth, seasoned action you would expect from someone who had handled firearms for decades.
How was that even possible?
The bearded man was beginning to forget that this was supposed to be nothing more than a test. It felt as if he had stepped directly into the world of Beneficial Evil.
In any case, the magazine was now lodged in his eye.
It was not reality, and yet the atmosphere felt disturbingly real. The bearded man was a professional too. He assessed the situation at once. He had lost one eye, but he was not dead. First, he had to remove the magazine. With a knife still in one hand, he reached up with the other and yanked the magazine out of his eye.
At the same time, Kang Woojin moved.
He grabbed the bearded man's right hand, the one holding the knife, with both of his own. The man had already spent most of his strength, and all of his focus had gone to the magazine lodged in his eye.
Then the blade plunged straight into his heart.
"Ugh."
The man whose heart had been pierced gave one last desperate struggle, but the movement was weak and slow. Kang Woojin lightly batted his arm aside. At the same time, he pulled the knife back out of the man's chest. To make sure it was truly over, he stabbed him once more in the chest, and then again near the side of the neck.
The bearded man crumpled to the floor like a slab of meat.
It was judged to be a fatal blow.
Thirty seconds.
That was all the time it had taken to subdue those two large men.
The dozens of martial arts team members gathered around the action school had witnessed that series of exchanges unfold in the blink of an eye, and none of them could close their mouths again.
"What… what the hell was that? That was insane."
"K-Kang Woojin isn't the one getting overwhelmed. Those Hollywood guys are the ones getting wrecked! Doesn't this look like a real fight?"
"…Why is Kang Woojin so good at this? He's insanely fast."
"Hand-to-hand combat, weapon handling, situational judgment. He's ridiculously skilled at close combat. What the hell is going on? Does anyone know anything about Kang Woojin's past? Did he train professionally in close combat or something?"
"Does that even make sense?"
"No. Nothing about what's happening right now makes any sense."
Shock spread through the dozens of martial arts team members. The actors standing among them were no different. That was especially true for the actors who had already worked with Woojin before, like Ha Kangsoo.
'Martial arts… could Woojin have served in special forces during his military service or something?!'
The look on Jo Munchan's face, the man who idolized Woojin, was something to behold.
'Seriously… that's incredible. No, Master! How am I supposed to surpass you at this rate?'
At that moment, Kang Woojin, still holding a knife in one hand, lifted his head. Two opponents remained. One was a cropped-haired man with a solid build, and the other was the biggest of them all, a man built like a bear.
"..."
Kang Woojin's gaze was cold. There was not the slightest trace of tension in the way he looked at them. It was as though he were simply doing something he had always done.
The other two, on the other hand—
"!!!"
"...?"
Their tension spiked even higher. They had never rehearsed things turning out like this. This was the first clash. On top of that, the order of events had already strayed completely from the original plan. Even so, the two teammates who had already gone up against him had approached Kang Woojin like men genuinely trying to fight, as though they had practiced it dozens of times.
Just how realistic had Woojin's portrayal been for those two agitated teammates to move in sync with him like that?
Or had they really lost themselves in it?
Of the two men remaining, the cropped-haired one thought to himself,
'Wait a second. None of this was in the plan.'
His eyes widened, but he still pulled the knife from his waist. He had never even intended to draw it in the first place. The knife should never have come to his turn to begin with. But somehow, things had reached this point.
'Calm down. Just calm down.'
The cropped-haired man gripped the knife in his right hand and let out a deep breath. He had no idea how the situation had turned out like this, but one way or another, he had to move. Standing there frozen in a situation like this would have been humiliating.
"Hoo—"
With a knife in one hand and the other pressed against his chest, he glared at Woojin, who stood facing him without moving. Kang Woojin held the knife with the blade reversed, while the bear-like man, the largest member of the Hollywood stunt team, stared straight through him.
'Does he really think he can treat CQC like something trivial?'
His face was still filled with shock. Even so, he remembered what Ethan Smith, their team leader, had said. Ethan had insisted that Kang Woojin was taking close combat far too lightly.
'No. That's not it. It's not that he's taking this lightly. It's that this is genuinely easy for him.'
At that very moment,
Kang Woojin closed the distance in an instant. His target was the cropped-haired man. It felt as if some savage beast had suddenly pounced.
The cropped-haired man rushed at Woojin too. He had originally meant to stab toward Woojin's face with the knife in his right hand, but in the middle of the motion he suddenly switched the blade to his left hand and angled it toward Woojin's side.
It was an unconventional move.
Woojin reacted anyway.
His foot slammed into the man's leg. It was closer to a shove than a kick, but it was perfectly accurate. The cropped-haired man's stance broke. In the same motion, Woojin trapped the wrist holding the knife beneath his armpit. A heavy punch came flying at him immediately after. The cropped-haired man, whose left arm was wrapped in bandages, threw the punch with his free hand.
Woojin knocked the punch aside with the back of the hand holding the knife.
The instant he put strength into the motion, Woojin's blade swept across the man's neck. Blood splashed across Woojin's face.
Or, more precisely, that was how the scene was being represented.
Kang Woojin seized the newly softened neck with both hands.
Then he twisted.
And broke it.
A sharp crack of bone snapping rang out. Of course, only Kang Woojin could hear that sound. But the cropped-haired man, realizing in that instant that his neck had broken, could only think—
'…What is this?!'
There was nothing left for him to do except drop to his knees and collapse face-first to the ground.
Death felt almost natural.
'How does he know techniques like that?!'
Three down.
Total elapsed time: about one minute.
Looking down at the man whose neck he had just broken, Kang Woojin muttered calmly,
"One minute isn't bad."
It was an improvised performance unfolding on top of the script.
But it still was not over.
One opponent remained.
And he was the largest of them all.
The bear-like man had already clenched his fists and taken a fighting stance. There was unmistakable seriousness on his face now. Based on everything he had seen so far, he had no choice but to admit that Kang Woojin was far beyond ordinary.
Kang Woojin stared at him with cold eyes.
"..."
He quickly took in the man's posture. It didn't take long. He finished the calculation in an instant. The bear-like man had assumed a boxing stance. Kang Woojin still held a knife in one hand, but both of his arms were hanging low, almost like he was standing at attention. There was no visible sign of preparation.
He radiated nothing but confidence.
As though he were saying he could subdue his opponent without needing to prepare at all.
The bear-like man frowned.
'What, is he really just going to hold his ground and do whatever he wants?'
Letting your guard down had never been part of the plan, nor did it fit within his common sense. Even so, the bear-like man felt something impossible to explain in the way Woojin looked at him so indifferently.
That was only natural.
The bear-like man had no way of knowing anything about freedom within the role.
He could not recklessly rush a man who stood there with his arms lowered. And then it hit him.
What is this?
Am I being overwhelmed by someone who hasn't even taken a proper stance?
The distance between them was close.
Then came the heavy sound of footsteps as the bear-like man charged.
His fist, as large as a face, came swinging in. Despite his massive build, the punch came frighteningly fast. He had intended to pull it just before it struck Woojin's face, but that too had already drifted away from the original script.
So what?
That actor changed things too, didn't he?
But even though the attack had not been planned, Kang Woojin reacted instantly. He tilted his head just enough to avoid the punch, and at the same time scooped up the knife that had fallen to the floor. The man's frown deepened.
'…He dodged that that easily?'
The bear-like man's pride was stung by his own hesitation, and he swung again. Woojin, still with his arms hanging low, responded just as fast. He blocked with his right hand while driving the knife in his left into the man's side.
"Ugh!"
The man staggered back a step. Kang Woojin returned to the same loose posture, almost like standing at attention again. But then he stepped toward the man once more.
The bear-like man flinched and threw a heavy punch. Woojin blocked it lightly. Then he shoved his foot into the area near the man's groin. The man groaned and stumbled back several steps. Kang Woojin closed in on him again.
There was not the slightest hesitation in his movements.
The whole exchange was beginning to feel less like a faithful execution of the script and more like a live performance.
'Then why is he dodging everything so easily, like he already knows what's coming?'
The bear-like man couldn't understand it. If they had been moving exactly according to the script, then maybe it would have made sense. But that was not what was happening now. Both he and that Korean actor were improvising in real time.
And yet, not a single one of his attacks had landed.
The bear-like man clenched both fists and forced himself back into a boxing stance. But his heartbeat was growing faster and faster. He was already being overwhelmed by Woojin's aura. Soon, Woojin closed the distance until he was only a few steps away, approaching with terrifying confidence, and the bear-like man instinctively decided that he had to defend himself.
But—
"..."
When Woojin came right up to him, he did not attack.
He simply looked at the panting man before him with complete calm. He kept a posture that seemed almost unguarded, and yet it never truly let its guard down. His eyes were waiting, as though quietly saying,
'Come at me.'
The bear-like man gritted his teeth.
From this point on, defense no longer mattered.
Recovering his pride took priority over everything else.
As a professional, he threw every scrap of fighting knowledge he had into the next move.
He hunched even lower into his boxing stance and charged at Woojin. Because of his enormous frame, he looked almost like a truck barreling forward, but to Kang Woojin, he felt light. Woojin sidestepped quickly. When the man's jab shot toward Woojin's side, Woojin caught the arm behind the punch and used the man's own momentum to yank him forward and throw him off balance.
The bear-like man let out a rough sound and lost his footing, but strangely enough, he did not actually fall.
He turned his head.
'Huh? Where did he go?'
Kang Woojin, who should have been right there, was gone.
Then, in the very next moment,
something hard brushed the back of his head.
The bear-like man froze awkwardly. His face would not move at all. Instinctively, he knew Woojin was behind him now, and he could guess what he was holding.
Whatever had touched the back of his head was almost certainly the muzzle of a gun.
The man muttered under his breath.
"...Damn it."
Behind him, Kang Woojin fired the gun with an expressionless face. The bear-like man collapsed. It must have felt as though the bullet had really gone through his skull. But even as he fell, his thoughts were in chaos.
'Why am I the one going down?'
And more than that, why had his veteran teammates all been subdued?
And by a Korean actor, not even a Hollywood action professional?
Yes.
That was the biggest reason of all.
'Complacency.'
The greatest factor had been underestimating Kang Woojin, the man standing right behind him. Even in real combat, carelessness was dangerous. But the bear-like man and all of his teammates had looked down on Woojin. Lying there on the mat, the bear-like man replayed every close-combat technique Woojin had shown so far.
The situation only became more bewildering.
'Who the hell is this Korean actor?'
Meanwhile, Kang Woojin, looking down at the back of the man curled like a bear, raised his wrist. According to the script, this was the moment when he was supposed to check his watch. It felt ridiculous to act it out so precisely, but regardless, Woojin muttered quietly,
"Two minutes and forty-eight seconds."
It was a line spoken by Jang Yeonwoo in Beneficial Evil.
──────────
When all four foreign stunt team members had fallen to the ground, a deep silence descended over the entire action school.
"..."
"..."
Everyone there, even the dozens of martial arts team members watching from the perimeter, looked as though their souls had left their bodies. About half of them had their mouths hanging open, but no sound came out. Some did not move at all.
They could do nothing but stare at Kang Woojin standing alone in the center.
It was as if he were the only person still moving inside the entire action school.
When he lowered the wrist he had raised, the cold, calculating air around him seemed to scatter. Naturally. He had just poured out everything—Jang Yeonwoo, martial arts, CQC, all of it. In other words, he had returned to being the original Woojin, the one beneath the concept.
'Not bad.'
The very first thing Kang Woojin did was reach out his hand to the foreign stunt team member lying right in front of him, the bear-like giant.
"Are you okay?"
Still lying facedown, the bear-like man slowly turned his head at Woojin's voice. Woojin was standing there with a hand extended, clearly offering to help him up. The intention was obvious.
And the English Woojin had just spoken stood out too.
It was not a casual good job or well done.
It was a genuinely concerned,
'Are you okay?'
When the bear-like man took Woojin's hand, a small, self-mocking laugh escaped him before he could stop it.
'Ha… I can't even deny it.'
He had been completely defeated.
It had only lasted a very short time, but in the end, he was the one lying on the floor.
The man took Woojin's hand and slowly got to his feet. Then he answered him.
"I'm fine."
"That's good."
Then a question was put to Woojin.
"I heard you only skimmed through the CQC sequence."
"Yes."
"Then… how are you able to do CQC? And at a level far beyond even an expert?"
Woojin paused for a moment, still wearing his usual calm expression, before replying.
"A rough look was enough."
"That doesn't make sense. Ah… did you happen to learn it in the military?"
He was asking whether Woojin had learned it during his military service. Kang Woojin decided it was not such a bad thing to let him believe that. In any case, this was hardly the time to start saying he had learned something like hapkido. Besides, the military did teach things like bayonet techniques and shooting.
'It's not a complete lie.'
Of course, Woojin answered in a somewhat vague way.
"It helped to some extent."
The bear-like man's eyes widened slightly in surprise.
"...Hm."
A faint smile spread across his face.
"I didn't know that. I apologize for the misunderstanding, and for the fact that things went differently from the script."
"It's fine."
After giving Woojin a light nod, the man turned away. His other three teammates were getting back to their feet one by one. The bear-like man approached the closest of them and muttered,
"That Korean actor has to be ex-special forces."
The cropped-haired man, who had looked completely deflated until only moments ago, widened his eyes and slowly nodded.
"Yeah. That must be it."
Meanwhile, Ethan Smith, the stunt team's leader, had been standing farther away, staring at his utterly wrecked team members with his mouth hanging open in shock. Then his gaze slowly shifted back to Kang Woojin, and without realizing it, he muttered in English,
"...Do they even need us?"