Nano Machine Chapter 34: Eye for Eye, Tooth for Tooth (B)

No one in the dorm room of Group Seven matched the physical structure that the masked man had.

But, even after confirming that, Cheon Yeo Woon decided in to remain in Group Seven's dorm room for some reason.

-Oh really? Well, it doesn't matter.-

He then proceeded to visit each of the cadets who were lying on their beds and administer jeomhyeol on their pressure points.

After successfully doing this to each cadet, he headed for the leader of Group Seven whose bed was located at the far-right end of the room.

When he finally reached his bed, the group leader suddenly opened his eyes and looked straight at him.

-Ahh!-

Unlike the other cadets who were fast asleep the leader of Group Seven Go Gyeong, who possessed no little inner power, woke up after feeling the presence of someone near him.

"You!?"

*Ta ta tak!*

"Aagghh… Uuuhhhhh…."

But even before he could react, Cheon Yeo Woon swiftly laid his two fingers on his pressure point as he slumped back onto the bed.

Completely thrown off by his victim's sudden awakening Cheon Yeo Woon initially froze in place, but was able to react quickly enough to take care of the situation.

Even if he wakes up later and remembers what happened, it wasn't going to be a problem since Cheon Yeo Woon had a black mask covering his face.

-Whew.-

After letting out a sigh of relief, Cheon Yeo Woon took out the thick, eight-inch needle that he had in his chest pocket. It was one of the needles that Doctor Baek Jeong Myeong had discarded because it apparently was bent in a funny way.

-I know you're not the culprit, but oh well. Don't hate me too much for this.-

*Poo-oook!*

Cheon Yeo Woon began to systematically poke around Group Seven leader Go Gyeong's hamstring, calf, and the ligaments and meridian points of his ankle with the needle.

Although he was unable to feel anything at the time because of his unconscious state, when Go Gyeong wakes up he will soon realize that he's been immobilized for at least a few days.

-Now that Group Seven is done, should I move on to the next room?-

Cheon Yeo Woon didn't have in mind to immobilize not just one, but all of the groups in his group bracket.

It wasn't like he had any sympathy for Cheon Moo Geum who had been ambushed by one of these cadets. He was simply thinking to repay eye for eye, tooth for tooth.

Of course, he was also playing by the underhanded rules set forth by the host of the academy

After contemplating for a second whether he should go into Group Six's room next, he turned directions and headed for Group Five's room.

-Oh wait! This is…-

Unlike Group Seven and Group Eight, which was comprised of only male cadets, there were two female cadets in Group Five of which one was the Grand Prince candidate of Eum Ma clan, Cheon Won Ryeo.

As Cheon Yeo Woon was about to initiate visual scan, he remembered that Cheon Won Ryeo who had been attacked earlier was upstairs in the girl's dorm room. At the same time he realized that he had wasted his energy walking over to her group's room, a thought crossed his mind as his eyes lit up.

-That means… the culprit is in Room Six.-

For anyone to have the ability to deal injury to a Grand Prince candidate like Cheon Moo Geum and Cheon Won Ryeo warranted at least a group leader level cadet from one of the six pillar clans.

Confident that the leader of Group Six was the masked man responsible for ambushing Cheon Moo Geum, Cheon Yeo Woon carefully made his steps towards Group Six's dorm room which was adjacent to Group Five's room.

As before, Nano initiated the scan of Group Six's entire room.

[All sixteen non-users in the room are in deep stage four non-REM sleep]

-Sixteen?-

Cheon Yeo Woon's squinted his eyes in suspicion.

To his knowledge, there were only three female cadets in Group Six whose dorm room was upstairs. That meant there was still one cadet missing.

As Cheon Yeo Woon opened the door and looked around at the sleeping cadets, he noticed that the group leader was missing.

-Huh?-

Thinking it strange, Cheon Yeo Woon first had Nano scan everyone's face, but the result came back negative.

The most likely candidate who ambushed Cheon Moo Geum, the leader of Group Six was nowhere to be found.

Since he had been roaming the dormitory hallways the whole night, Cheon Yeo Woon should have seen him by now.

After considering the whole situation for a moment, he shook his from side to side and then with a look of seriousness in his eyes began to look around at the sleeping cadets.

-….. there's no rule stating that only the group leader is fair game. It's eye for eye, tooth for tooth.-

After putting on a big grin underneath the guise of his mask, he began to go around and apply jeomhyeol to all the cadets in the room.

And this is the behind story of how Cheon Yeo Woon ended up as the leader of Group Eight.

On the day of the test when Cheon Yeo Woon came up on stage as group leader to cast lots, West Grand Lord Yi Hwa Myeong was quite surprised.

He could understand the leader of Group Seven being replaced, but the fact that Cheon Yeo Woon came up on stage meant that someone in the crowd had more or less ambushed and successfully immobilized the Buk Ma clan's Grand Prince candidate, Cheon Moo Geum.

-It seems like they understood the crux of this test, keke. As I thought, this year's program doesn't disappoint.-

His giddiness was only momentary.

Since he had to continue on with the group match-ups, he turned to the group leaders and asked.

"Okay, are you all set?"

At Yi Hwa Myeong's question all the group leaders, including Cheon Yeo Woon, responded with a shout.

"Fighting Ma!!!"

"Hehehe, I'm sure all of you have prepared fair and square for this test, so may the best team win."

-Fair and square?-

At Yi Hwa Myeong's hypocritical statement, all the group leaders put on a cryptic facial expression.

After the group leaders all gave the numbered lot they had drawn to the training instructor who is responsible for writing the match-ups on the stage board, they started to head back to the field. Among them was one who had a hostile look in his eyes, looking about at the other group leaders.

He had sharp, menacing eyes and his hair was slicked back. It was Group Six's leader Cadet Number One Hundred Eight, Ha Il Myeong.

But, his eyes looked very familiar to Cheon Yeo Woon. As Ha Il Myeong turned his back towards Cheon Yeo Woon's direction, Cheon Yeo Woon looked at him and gave Nano a command.

-Nano, scan him.-

When Ha Il Myeong made his way back to his group, there could be seen behind him more than of the cadets in Group Six with pale, sickly faces all struggling to stay on their feet.

It seemed justifiable that he was so angry given that most of the cadets in his group were limping around now moments before the test was about to get started.

As Cheon Yeo Woon looked on at the spectacle, he felt smug at his plan's success.

It was then that Nano's voice rang inside Cheon Yeo Woon's head.

[Based on the visual scan of the non-user's physical frame, he has a one-hundred percent similarity rate with the masked man]

The group leader hadn't shown up at Group Six's dorm room even until the time Cheon Yeo Woon finished going around the whole room debilitating the cadets with an acupuncture needle. But, here he was…

-Aha. I found ya.-

A look of delight crossed Cheon Yeo Woon's face.

On the other hand Group Six's leader Cadet Number One Hundred Eight Ha Il Myeong looked as angry as a raging bull.

Surprisingly, Ha Il Myeong was the only cadet who neither traced his lineage back to one of the six pillar clans nor to any of the elite clans.

Four days ago when he heard the announcement that the groups would be divided into four-group brackets for the second round test, he thought up a plan to coast through it.

-None of the groups would be able to function property during the test once I take out each of their group leaders.-

Since all groups participated in the formation training for twenty-one days with equal intensity, there wasn't going to be much of a difference in how each cadet performs.

They weren't commoners who were just picked up from the streets; every single one of them were raised in warrior clans and were trained from a young age to become future masters. Mistakes would be minimal, if not non-existent.

After determining that the group leaders held the key to the success of their group, he began to devise and carry out a plan to sabotage the other groups' chances at winning.

Most cadets were too afraid to lift their heel against the group leaders who all originated from one of the six pillar clans.

-Keke, Grand Prince candidate or not, I'm going to have to sooner or later beat them all anyway.-

Ha Il Myeong was ballsy enough to target two of the Grand Prince candidates who were in opposing teams.

Seeing that he had the upper-hand over the first Grand Prince candidate, Cheon Won Ryeo, he went in for the kill and was able to successfully deal a substantial injury on her arm.

However, there was one thing he had misjudged.

As Cheon Won Ryeo began to fight back using Eum Ma clan's specialized martial art, of which one move involved the use of sound waves, people in the surrounding area began to hear the noise and approach the scene of the fight.

Sensing that people were coming closer, Ha Il Myeong decided to abort the ambush and set his gaze on another victim— the Grand Prince candidate of Buk Ma clan, Cheon Moo Geum.

After gritting his teeth more firmly than when he ambushed Cheon Won Ryeo, Ha Il Myeong sneeked up on Cheon Moo Geum and his right-hand man, Ja Hyeon, who were training in the woods behind the dormitory and successfully took them both down.

Before he could deal the decisive blow, someone had intervened and forced him to abort again.

After it was all said and done, he had felt as though his mission was complete since he had crippled one of Cheon Moo Geum's legs.

Although he had one more victim in mind— the leader of the last group in his group bracket— he was unable to carry out his attack because of the pain radiating from his right torso.

-I thought I had effectively deflected the hit.-

He was so sure that he had defended the attack with a swift dodge, but that wasn't the case at all.

The inner power that was carried in his opponent's strike had penetrated through and fractured one of his ribs.

There wasn't much he could do about the fracture, but he had to somehow remove the qi that had infiltrated his body. He eventually had to go up on top of the dormitory rooftop and perform rehabilitative meditation for a good two hours.

It was during those two hours that the unfortunate events had unfolded in his dorm room.

-Who's the bastard who did this crap?!-

Although he was ballsy enough to target the Grand Prince candidates, he would've never imagined someone would have the gall to sneak into the dorm room and lay their attack.

In his mind, whoever the culprit was is not just ballsy, but plain crazy.

When he noticed that the cadets were all still asleep around the time when they would usually get up, he began to check up on them and quickly realized that someone had applied jeomhyeol to the sleeping cadets. And it wasn't just a few, but all of them.

It sent chills down Ha Il Myeong's spine.

As he went around neutralizing the jeomhyeol from the cadets who were getting close to waking up from it, he was alarmed by another spectacle. He found out that half of the cadets had meridian points on their thigh, calf and ankles pricked.

-Why did he only target their legs? Oh!!-

After contemplating the situation for a bit it hit him like a ton of bricks— this was an act of revenge.

Consequently, the most likely suspect was someone from Group Eight.

But, when he saw the new leader of that group, Cheon Yeo Woon, coming up on the stage with him it made him wonder.

-Wait, isn't he…-

Although just the night before he had engaged in a brief fight with Cheon Yeo Woon, due to his sudden appearance and the darkness that pervaded the woods that late evening, Ha Il Myeong wasn't able to recognize who his opponent was.

-Isn't that the "misfortunate" seventh gongja of the Ma faction? It can't possibly be him…-