The Echo of Defeat
The world went white. The last sensation Jinwoo felt before losing consciousness was the cold, focused pressure of Ryu Jae-wook's arm, and the realization that his perfection was useless against the unfamiliar.
When he woke, Minjun was gone, and the rooftop was empty save for Jae-wook's thick leather notebook lying where it fell. Jinwoo's neck screamed, but the humiliation was worse. He hadn't been beaten; he had been mapped. Jae-wook hadn't come to injure him, but to gather information and deliver a message.
Jinwoo sat up, his mind racing. His ultimate defense—the instantaneous mimicry of an opponent's move—had failed because Jae-wook's technique was not a single, powerful action but a complex, chained sequence. He couldn't copy the whole sequence fast enough.
He now had two immediate goals:
1. Mimicry of Submission Defense: Find and copy a defense against complex grappling.
2. Mimicry of Strategy: Copy the blueprint for controlling the pace and information of a fight, the way Jae-wook did.
The Blueprint of the Bind
Jinwoo knew where to go. The wrestling team's room, where he had copied Joo Hyuk's Core Stability, was also where they practiced submissions.
He watched the team's BJJ specialist, a smaller but terrifyingly flexible girl named Han Da-Eun. She was drilling escape sequences against a tight rear-naked choke. It wasn't about power; it was about leverage, posture disruption, and small, precise movements that defeated the larger forces holding her.
Jinwoo activated his Mimicry, focusing on the moment Da-Eun disrupted her opponent's grip.
The headache was sharp and geometric—a blueprint of angles and pressure points.
Blueprint 5: The Blueprint of the Bind (Submission Defense)
• Knowledge: The counter-leverage and precise hip/shoulder rotation needed to break out of common grappling locks and chokes.
• Function: An instinctive awareness of his own body's center of gravity and the ability to instantly apply micro-movements to escape a hold.
The Architect's Echo
The escape blueprint was necessary, but Jae-wook's real power was his mind. His speed wasn't physical; it was intellectual.
Jinwoo returned to the rooftop with the notebook Jae-wook had dropped. It wasn't a diary; it was a fighter's journal. Inside were diagrams, flowcharts, and cold-blooded analysis of the top fighters in the school—including Tae-seong. It detailed Minjun's tendency to over-rely on his footwork and Joo Hyuk's limited striking repertoire.
Jinwoo stared at the pages, realizing this was the ultimate blueprint he needed: the architecture of a fight itself.
He activated his Mimicry, focusing on the handwriting, the logic, and the patterns of the strategic notes. This was the most abstract copy yet—not a muscle firing, but a cognitive process.
Blueprint 6: The Architect's Echo (Strategic Mapping)
• Knowledge: The ability to instantly analyze an opponent's movement patterns, catalogue their weaknesses, and predict their next three actions based on their previous sequence.
• Function: An internal processor that maps a fight in real-time, allowing Jinwoo to plan his attacks several moves in advance, neutralizing the element of surprise.
The Grinding Test
Jinwoo spent the next three days integrating the new blueprints. He sparred with Minjun, who quickly realized Jinwoo wasn't just copying his moves anymore; he was predicting them. Jinwoo would feint a step before Minjun initiated his pivot, forcing Minjun into an uncomfortable position. The Architect's Echo was terrifyingly effective.
One evening, Jinwoo was testing his Blueprint of the Bind in an empty wrestling room, drilling choke escapes on a practice dummy.
The door opened. It wasn't Jae-wook, but Tae-seong, his face bruised and grim.
"You're a fast study," Tae-seong grunted, stepping inside. "But you're a fool. You stole my power, and now you've pissed off the Crews. They don't forgive."
"Jae-wook sent you?" Jinwoo asked, calmly rising to his feet.
"Jae-wook ordered me to clean up his mess," Tae-seong corrected, his hands clenching. "He told me to take the King title back, or lose my territory."
Tae-seong looked at Jinwoo, not with hate, but with tired frustration. "He told me your secret, Jinwoo. The mimicry. He even told me how to beat it: Keep you moving, and don't give you a moment to observe or copy."
This was the final test. The King, armed with the knowledge of Jinwoo's weakness, and forced to fight for his own survival.
"I won't let you copy this time," Tae-seong vowed, launching into an all-out, suffocating assault designed to give Jinwoo no time to think. This wasn't a clumsy brawl; it was a sustained, powerful rush of controlled frenzy, orchestrated by Jae-wook's strategy.
Tae-seong had never been this dangerous.