Season 2: Chapter 236: Talent (3)

Season 2: Chapter 236: Talent (3)

Perfecting the baseball pitch was the condition for activating the special move. Naturally, activating a special move on the first attempt was difficult.

"This is certainly surprising! Tae Ji-Ho!"

"Almond?! How did you do that!?"

— Really LOL

— How did he do that??

— Tae Ji-Ho is flustered LOL

— Fiery baseball LOL

— ??? When I lived in the athlete's village...

"The special move is one thing, but the angle he threw it at was very sharp, wasn’t it?"

"Yes, indeed! He literally pushed the opponent into the dead space area! If this was baseball, Almond would be ejected from the game!"

"And the player hit would no longer be alive!"

— LOL

— Ejecting the player would be better?

— Literally LOL

Almond successfully pushed Tae Ji-Ho away with the baseball.

Then, he dashed and jumped to the opposite rooftop.

Tae Ji-Ho also quickly stood up, raising his guard against Almond.

"They’re finally on the same rooftop! It looks like a real brawl is about to unfold!"

Agile feet moved across the green urethane floor.

Swish, swish!

Tae Ji-Ho approached Almond with the unique footwork of boxing.

"Here comes Tae Ji-Ho!! Is he really the Mount Tai of Pangyo?"

Almond also gradually approached with taekwondo footwork. Naturally, he made the first move since taekwondo had a longer reach.

Whoom!

A light kick flew out first.

"Tae Ji-Ho is weaving! Good job!"

Whoom!

Almond's foot flew over Tae Ji-Ho’s head.

Tae Ji-Ho had dodged with a boxing-specific move called weaving.

"Boxing jets don’t have kicks, but they have evasive capabilities!"

Evasive moves received significant enhancements to surpass normal human speed. It would be problematic if evasive moves were commonly unsuccessful.

'Uh.'

Almond staggered because the opponent dodged much faster than he thought.

'What was that? There was no angle to dodge there.'

Naturally, it threw off his balance when a kick he expected to land or be blocked completely missed. His expected combo got tangled up and Tae Ji-Ho wouldn't miss this opening.

Tat!

Tae Ji-Ho stepped into Almond's stance.

"Is a counter coming?!"

Boom!

Suddenly, a red glove flew in.

Bang!

The double hit was instantaneous.

Bam-bam!

The boxing jet landed its basic five hit combo.

"Direct hit!"

Thud.

Almond crumpled to the ground from the five hit combo.

"Wow! At least it’s not a perfect game this time!?"

Typically, most JetPumped jets did not have the means to attack a downed opponent. Thus, the combo ended after five hits.

[HP: 73%]

Due to the game's mechanics, the basic combo by itself didn’t do much damage.

Almond needed to revise his thinking now.

"This opponent isn't like the last one."

He shouldn't have rushed in thinking the opponent was like Heo Won-Mu. Tae Ji-Ho was definitely better.

Most importantly, Almond still didn't understand the game that well. He had been caught off guard by evasive moves like the one just now.

'If this drags on, it’ll become more disadvantageous.'

As time passed, Almond knew that unfamiliar techniques and differences in knowledge would emerge. He had to quickly finish the match right now.

His opponent possessed evasive skills like weaving, which was significantly faster than actual movements. Tae Ji-Ho could also launch counters. Almond had a chance if he kept just these two things in mind.

If other elements came into play, it would only delay the resolution of the fight.

Thud. Thud.

Almond dusted himself off and looked around.

'A bungee might actually be the best approach.'

The most efficient way to kill an opponent in JetPumped was to make them bungee. In other words, to make them fall to their death. Fortunately, taekwondo had two techniques to push the opponent far away.

One was a special move and the other was a back kick. Both had large movements, which made it easy for the opponent to dodge. Almond didn’t hear it, but the commentators said something similar.

“A back kick or a special taekwondo move might be good to turn around the match.”

“Ah. Why is that?”

“Because weaving in boxing easily dodges taekwondo's foot attacks. Even a late reaction would still successfully dodge an attack and taekwondo carries a high risk if the attack misses because it's mostly kicks.”

Kicks had long range and high damage, but were risky if they missed or got blocked.

On the other hand, boxing had easy dodges with weaving skills and flexible timing to execute fast punch combos.

"That’s fine."

It was okay because Almond was now within range.

"But why did Almond give up the distance so easily?!"

"Even if he kicks from far away, Tae Ji-Ho can simply dodge while weaving... Oh!?"

Tae Ji-Ho threw a decisive punch.

"Die...!"

Thump!

Instead, a counterattack landed on him.

"Huh?"

His mind went blank for a moment.

"Did Tae Ji-Ho just take a hit?! How did that happen at such a close range?"

"It’s his hands! Hand attacks are coming in!"

Almond stopped kicking and started fighting up close with his hands.

Thump!

His hand attacks perfectly countered Tae Ji-Ho’s double jab.

Even if taekwondo's hand attacks had low efficiency, the hits still made a big difference if they all landed as counters like this.

"What, what?!"

Whoosh!

Even as Tae Ji-Ho threw more punches, he couldn’t hit Almond.

Thump!

In the blink of an eye, Tae Ji-Ho's chin shot up. An uppercut had slipped through. This perfectly timed sharp counter gave him no chance to weave.

"Taekwondo is beating boxing with hand attacks!?"

"It's the first time I’ve seen someone overcome a boxer’s weaving with hand attacks!"

— lololol

— No time to weave lololol

— What the heck is this? lolol

— ??? Now who's the boxer?

— What mockery lol

Taekwondo was beating boxing in a fistfight. This indicated an indescribable skill gap between the two players.

"This can't be."

[HP: 62%]

Tae Ji-Ho had lost too much health and eventually made a mistake.

Shh...

"Tae Ji-Ho is retreating?!"

"Is this a mistake?!"

He weaved back.

"Ah. I panicked without realizing."

Tae Ji-Ho recognized his mistake. He had inadvertently increased the distance from the taekwondo jet. Moreover, he had done it by weaving. Now he couldn’t avoid the next attack by weaving anymore.

Almond didn’t miss this opportunity.

Swoosh!

In an instant, he changed stances and launched a kick. It was a simple and perfect spin kick.

Ting!

[Finishing Move]

A clear sound effect rang out as the tip of his foot struck Tae Ji-Ho’s chin.

Thump...

Tae Ji-Ho's body shivered and stiffened.

The commentators rose from their seats and cheered, "Finishing mooooove!!! It got triggered!!!"

In the meantime, Almond’s kick combo struck the opponent at a speed impossible to follow with the eyes.

Thumpthumpthumpthump!

— Wow!

— Wow, a finishing move!

— Against a boxing jet?

"Ahahah...! The mountain is crumbling! No Tae Ji-Ho! It's a landslide!!!"

— A landslide lol

— lololol

— lololol

Bang!

Tae Ji-Ho's body flew back after the final blow of the finishing move.

Swoop.

He disappeared from the edge of the rooftop.

"The angle for a bungee is perfect too!"

"The mountain of Pangyo! Down!!"

[Victory]

Today, Almond quickly defeated his second opponent while playing JetPumped for the first time.

"This is talent, everyone! Look! This is someone playing the game for the first time!? Unbelievable!"

— A landslide... cough!

— Almond tears down mountains! Almond tears down mountains!

— Did you know? There’s actually no mountain in Pangyo! Did you know? There’s actually no mountain in Pangyo! Did you know? There’s actually no mountain in Pangyo!