MMORPG: Rebirth of the Mortal Online - Chapter 66

Chapter 66: Influence
The crowd exclaimed in shock. The strongest student, the Teen Karate Champion, was thrown to the ground!

‘How could you allow him to do that?’ The bald-headed master wondered with an ugly frown, but then he had a realization.

‘Markus is simply too inexperienced when fighting against opponents who use mixed martial arts. He was too focused on Adam’s boxing, or was that slap-boxing, causing him to completely forget the real threat—Aikido!’

Markus coughed a little bit of blood, and his vision turned slightly blurry.

‘N-no!’

He quickly threw a kick from his down position and hit Adam in the forearm, pushing him back a step.

Markus quickly flipped back to his feet, then, with a fury-filled gaze, rushed after Adam and started throwing a series of punches.

Adam’s expression didn’t change, and he quickly slapped the punches away, but then he noticed something strange. There wasn’t any strength behind those punches!

‘Gotcha.’ Markus quickly stomped over Adam’s feet, stopping his retreat, and then hook punched him in the waist, causing Adam’s face to contort in pain.

Markus palm-struck Adam’s chest, knocking the wind out of him, then low-kicked him in the thigh and then delivered a powerful chest punch that sent Adam sprawling to the ground.

“Whoo!” Markus stayed in his punching stance, breathing in and out. ‘This is a might of karate!’

The crowd erupted in cheers, expecting the fight to be over.

“Ah…” Alice’s lips curled down in sadness. For a moment, she thought Adam would win.

At that moment, Adam slowly rose back to his feet, his face sweating and his posture looking shaky. Those attacks destroyed his untrained body.

‘Oh, how weak I truly am…’ Adam coughed, feeling frustrated and exhausted. ‘This is strangely making me remember my death…’

At the moment of his death, Adam was clearly in his prime. He had trained for over ten years and had become one of the strongest martial artists in the country.

Yet he died to someone who was clearly weaker than him.

Why?

Was it because he was stabbed and lost a lot of blood? No.

It was because of his state of mind.

Only minutes prior, his whole life was ruined, and he had lost all hope for his life. He was also suffering from the Pod Syndrome as he was inside the game for about two months.

It was an important stage of the war, and he was needed in Mortal Online, so he didn’t bother logging out.

Then he got stabbed and lost a lot of blood.

If his strength was at its peak, he would’ve been able to survive. It was the same with his death in Mortal Online—if he wasn’t poisoned, he would’ve managed to escape.

‘What an unlucky fucker I am…’ Adam chuckled to himself and watched as Markus rushed in with his punch flying in his direction.

‘Image Training…’ Adam took a deep breath, and at that moment, Markus’ figure disappeared.

Instead, in Markus’ place, there was the masked figure who killed him.

He used Image Training to change his opponent into an image of his killer.

‘This is no longer a sparring match, but instead a match for my survival.’

Adam formed a fist. It didn’t look any special, but it looked different from his usual fist.

The masked figure’s punch approached him.

At that moment, Adam used his forearm and pushed the attacker’s arm away, forcing the punch to miss his face by an inch.

Immediately afterwards, the masked figure threw another punch with his left. Adam immediately blocked it with his right arm, and then he pulled his head back and slammed his forehead into the attacker’s face.

The masked figure stumbled backwards with his nose bleeding and his posture looking shaky.

Adam low-kicked the figure’s legs, causing his knees to buckle down. His legs looked bruised and swollen.

At that moment, Adam hooked his arm around the figure’s neck and started choking him. Without him knowing, Markus’ face had turned pale-white while the crowd looked shocked.

None of that seemed to matter.

Adam stopped choking, then started pummeling Markus’ face with his punches. Smack, smack, smack, smack. It was relentless.

After he threw his last punch, he grabbed Markus by his loose shirt and threw him to the ground with a loud thud. It almost sounded like Markus’ back cracked.

He then threw a punch, but Markus quickly rolled to safety. His punch cracked the floor tiles beneath him, where Markus’ face had been just moments prior.

This was Adam fighting when he was going for survival!

Markus quickly stood up; he was sweating and looked fearful, with most of his face bruised and bloodied. He felt like he was fighting a wild animal!

‘T-this is nothing like in the competitions!’ Markus fearfully thought.

His eyes immediately widened in shock as Adam lunged back at him.

“Eek!” Markus screamed, and he crouched down in fear, trying to cover his head with his arms.

Still, Adam’s punch didn’t stop.

However, before it could land on crying Markus, a hand appeared that caught the fist in mid-air.

“That’s enough.” The bald-headed master said as he looked at Adam with a deep look. “You’ve won.”

Adam jumped from the floor and launched a high kick, but the bald-headed master caught it with his other hand and twisted his body, forcing Adam down on the ground.

Adam still didn’t stop and flipped himself back to his feet. He then started throwing punches at full speed.

The bald-headed master parried the punches with ease, effortlessly doing so.

At that moment, the bald-headed master took a step forward and stopped Adam’s advancement by slamming his foot against his knee, causing Adam to stop completely.

“That’s enough!” He shouted with a powerful voice.

It seemed to work as Adam’s eyes regained their focus and his body loosened up.

“Oh…” Adam pulled back his fists slowly, realizing he had gone too far. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to lose my temper like that.”

“That’s fine; that can happen in the midst of a heated fight.” The bald-headed man said.

“I am also sorry.” Adam bowed in Markus’ direction, who was still cowering in fear. ‘It’s not like me to lose control like that. I suppose I’ll need to start doing meditation once again.’

‘Markus had never experienced something like this before.’ The bald-headed master looked at his best student. ‘However, this is a valuable lesson. I don’t teach karate just to use in some petty tournaments. I hope my karate can save their lives one day.’

Adam stepped off the stage, and walked past the crowd, who fearfully stepped aside. They greatly underestimated his abilities. It was clear that he was a powerhouse if he managed to beat Markus.

“If you want to learn karate, the doors are open for you!” The bald-headed master shouted to Adam.

However, he doubted that Adam needed to learn anything from him.

Adam nodded, then joined Alice, who congratulated him with a sweet smile. They then both departed from the dojo.

The bald-headed master looked at Markus and said, “Come on, stand back up.”

“W-what was that?” Markus stood up, still shaking in fear. “I felt like he was trying to kill me!”

“You made the greatest mistake when fighting a life-and-death match.” The bald-headed master said with a frown. “You started to feel fear and doubt your abilities.”

“But there is no way I could’ve defeated him!” Markus cried out.

“You could’ve!” The bald-headed master shouted. “Adam didn’t suddenly become stronger or better!”

“B-but, I couldn’t defend, and his attacks hurt like hell!” Markus touched his face, which hurt from where Adam’s punches landed.

“You don’t think he was hurt from your punches?” The bald-headed master scoffed. “He was hurt!”

“S-still, h-he was far too strong.”

“No, he wasn’t.” The bald-headed man shook his head. “He is definitely strong, but he wasn’t stronger than you, Markus. He used what we call ‘Influence’ and that defeated you.”

“Influence?” Markus frowned and raised his head to look at him.

“The moment his Influence took effect was when he headbutted you.” The bald-headed master said. “After that moment, all his attacks began to land. That’s Influence. It’s mental warfare that can turn the tide of battle in an instant.

“Those attacks weren’t strong or fast. You’ve fought much faster opponents, and yet all those attacks landed. It is hard to fight against Influence. You can only learn to combat it by fighting plenty.

“Since this was your first fight when your life might’ve been in danger, the Influence was very effective.”

“Influence…” Markus contemplated. “Can I learn that?”

“It’s not something that can be really learned.” The master said, “I have trained Karate for thirty years, and I can barely do that. What Adam just did had a very high level of Influence. It takes a lot of dedication and practice to master it.”

‘Influence…’ Markus clenched his hands into fists.