Became an American Retro Novelist - Chapter 223



Only Noblemtl

223.

Just because you’re bigger and stronger than others doesn’t mean you have an easy life.

This was the case with Dwayne Johnson.

He originally lived with his mother’s family in New Zealand before returning to the United States, where he attended elementary school in Charlotte, North Carolina, and then moved to Hamden, Connecticut, where he graduated from Shepherd’s Glen Elementary School and then Hamden Middle School.

Since childhood, his size, which was unusually large compared to others, was an object of awe, but at the same time, it was also an object of avoidance. Dwayne, who felt burdened by both, often got into conflicts with those around him. As is typical of boys of this age, he would often get into fights.

Fighting was easy for him.

After pushing the opponent’s chest with his chin, he was surprised and said, ‘How can this kid be so strong?’ and then he just had to punch him in the face a couple of times and that was it.

Opponent gets a nosebleed and KOs Dwayne, Win.

He turned around with a proud victor’s face and felt a little embarrassed, but ignored it and left the school.

Dwayne walked along, clicking his tongue lightly.

He usually ended his relationships at school only at school.

Although he socialized with black people in the United States because his father was of mixed black descent, he considered himself to be Samoan, drawing on his experiences as a child in New Zealand.

But most of his relatives from back then now lived far away, and his father was often away from home for work, so Dwayne didn’t have many places he could lean on.

So it had to be crooked.

That’s why he spent most of his time alone.

He went into a convenience store, grabbed a pair of big sneakers, and left without paying. He walked down the street, chewing them, and went to his usual gym to work out and left again. By then, the sun had set, and Dwayne, with his hood pulled up, was strolling around, enjoying the sight of people avoiding him in fear of his large size. Then, on his way home, he came across a comic book store.

‘Kung-fury’.

A word that suddenly comes to mind.

Dwayne, who had been standing on the side of the road for a while, soon entered the comic book store with a smirk. Everyone opened their eyes wide at the sight of the large boy as if it were natural, and since that reaction was always familiar, Dwayne didn’t pay much attention and confidently made eye contact with the comic book store owner.

‘Kung-fury: novel’ was not far away.

Dwayne glanced at him and put the book in his bosom. The owner looked at him with suspicion, but he ignored him and left the store. Then he returned to his old apartment, arrogantly thinking that everything in the world went his way.

His father, Rocky Johnson, was a so-called ‘professional wrestler’.

He had been working for the WWF until 1985, but had not achieved much success, and was now working in various indie groups, desperately trying to feed his family. But the light was not shining on his apartment.

Mom also went to work today, so Dwayne opened a can of beans and munched on it while watching professional wrestling on an old television. It was ‘All-Star Wrestling,’ which he always watched.

[Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant face off tonight! I wonder if Bobby Heenan is up to some shady scheme again!]

After eating all the canned beans, I was still hungry so I ate five slices of bread with jam.

Pro wrestling was fun.

Boom-! Boom! Boom!

[Waaaaaaaaaagggghhhh-!!]

Cheering crowds, muscular wrestlers fighting amongst them.

It was a time when many people knew that it was all a rigged show. Nevertheless, professional wrestling was growing in popularity. People were excited to see wrestlers in all sorts of exaggerated costumes come out and fight each other.

They were like real-life superheroes.

Each has a role and a costume that matches their image.

Invaders from the Soviet Union and the Middle East, such as ‘Nikolai Volkov’ and ‘Iron Sheik’. The American hero who stands up to them, ‘Hulk Hogan’. The final boss, ‘Andre the Giant’.

Looking at them, Dwayne Johnson always thought,

‘Why didn’t my father come out of the company instead of being with them?’

Feeling a sense of discomfort that was hard to describe, Dwayne roughly turned off the television and returned to his room.

“······Phuhu.”

Dwayne Johnson, a boy going through a confusing adolescence.

Why won’t this miserable poverty just leave me alone? Can I live like this?

While his mind was becoming complicated with all sorts of imaginations, he got up from his seat and remembered the ‘Kung-fury: novel’ he had bought from the comic book store without paying for it, so he took it out of his bag and started reading it. It was to relieve himself of some of his useless thoughts.

But I got into it much faster than I expected.

‘I was really surprised that those idiots read something like a novel.’

I thought it was definitely possible to do this.

The nerds at school were crazy about kung fu and the black superhero “Star Chaser,” but Dwayne was different.

The character he sympathized with was none other than ‘Kung Fury’.

He felt like himself, an immigrant who worked as a kung fu hero for money.

Dwayne Johnson, a boy who thought of himself as Samoan, but had to live with his identity as a black man in America.

He was deeply engrossed in the story as it continued after Kung-Fury discovered the Star Chaser’s secret and survived his one-time death.

Kung-Fury began to have growing doubts about this so-called ‘superhero’.

Kung-Fury thought about his ability to use different superpowers through his two eyes, such as ‘Odd Eye’, and his ability to use ‘Power Charge’, which gives him great strength, while also taking on countless supervillains.

Not all of them, but some of them had a strangely strong hatred for this ‘superhero’.

As he adapted to American society, Shifu’s kung fu school also prospered, and at the same time, Kung-Fury quickly became known as a representative figure of Asian Americans. However, there were also some who criticized his appearance, saying that it promoted prejudice against Asians.

Kung-Fury thought as he looked at their opinions.

‘Are Korean-style landmarks in Koreatown also a symbol of discrimination?’

If you hang it on your nose, it’s a nose ring, and if you hang it on your ear, it’s an earring.

When a government source came forward and said that he was a well-trained superhero who only used the identity of Kung-Fury to remember his roots, the mood calmed down a bit.

But still, the gossip continued.

Bill Fitch, the government agent in charge of Kung Fury, explained it this way:

[They’re all doing this because they want a seat. It would be right to have at least one person in the Super Hero Management Office who can represent the opinions of Asians, that’s what I’m saying. Don’t worry about it. The negotiations will proceed smoothly. You just have to do your job well.]

Hearing those words, Kung-Fury couldn’t help but tilt his head.

[There are also people who try to use racial discrimination to their own advantage. ······Oh, isn’t this my story? To be exact, it’s about using prejudice.]

‘Joe’, who gave up all his glory and immigrated to America in order to live a quiet life, acquired another identity called ‘Kung-Fury’ in front of the wall of reality, and unintentionally began to learn more about this chaotic society called America.

It felt like opening Pandora’s box.

Superheroes were literally like ‘war heroes’.

A being expendable in dangerous situations, in the name of justice and order.

But some people had doubts about it, and the inner side of each superhero was not normal either. In particular, Star Chaser, who could be said to be the symbol of American superheroes, was desperate to the point of obsession to not let it be known that he was black.

When he had any doubts, the only person Joe could consult was Shifu.

In the ‘Shifu’s Kung Fu Dojo’, which teaches fake oriental martial arts, the only person who learns proper ‘Kung Fu’ is Joe. He diligently learned martial arts with the intention of promoting martial arts to people as ‘Kung-Fury’ and further reviving the Kung Fu Dojo. It was also quite fun.

And Shifu answered Joe’s question, ‘Why don’t you teach people proper kung fu?’

“Nobody cares about the message anymore.”

“message?”

“Yes. Kung Fu is a message. It is for the cultivation of the right mind, spirit, and body. But what people in this day and age want to learn is the Kung Fu they fantasize about in their own world. Kung Fu, that name is funny. Hey, Joe. What do you think the name of the martial art you are learning is?”

“Well. What is it?”

“It’s Yeongchun. It means ‘singing spring.’ It’s a martial art that blooms like spring after harsh training, or in other words, after winter has passed and it reaches its ultimate state. ······Well, if I explain it like that, people will like it. But that’s not true. It’s simply a martial art founded by a woman named Yeongchun, so it’s called Yeongchun.”

‘Youngchun······.’

Dwayne rolled the word around in his mouth.

“People aren’t interested in the message anymore. They’re interested in the messenger. Kung-Fury is that. And superheroes are that. But is the messenger actually speaking up?”

“······Aren’t you the kind of old man who only cares about money?”

“Hahahaha! This is what happens to people like me when they get older!”

Shifu laughed loudly once and then continued speaking.

“I just need the money. But that’s my message. But who is the messenger preaching the message to the world now? It’s Kung-Fury. If his message changes, there’s nothing I can do about it.”

It was as if Joe was telling her not to worry about him and to do whatever she wanted.

Joe thought. Superheroes are messengers. But those messengers are being domesticated to pursue the right order and justice according to the government’s taste, just as war heroes are used for propaganda.

But the world wasn’t made that way.

In fact, people worship money and material things and are eager to hide it. And one of the logics used in the process is to define someone as evil and suppress them.

Joe, a soldier who had fought in a terrible battlefield, knew very well that the pretense of order and justice could be nothing more than a device to oppress someone.

Joe, who had been silent for a while, asked softly.

“Shifu. Can I do that?”

“There is no such thing as becoming or not becoming. Actions are what make us who we are.”

At those words, Kung-Fury made up his mind and stood up.

Taking that conversation as a starting point, Kung-Fury seeks out Star Chaser to resolve the doubts that have been nagging at him all along.

To be precise, he went there at the time of his dispatch to Los Angeles, since the Star Chaser’s residence was practically unknown.

So, Kung-Fury, who had the opportunity to be alone with him, made up his mind and said to Star Chaser, ‘I know you’re black.’

Star Chaser denies it, and Kung-Fury asks persistently.

And naturally, a battle began in the process.

Star Chaser, who is willing to commit murder to hide the fact that he is black.

Before that, Kung-Fury goes through several deaths before reaching the point where he can fight on equal terms with him.

While his opponent had the ability to fly the fastest, Kung-Fury had the ability to come back to life no matter how many times he died and devise a countermeasure.

And in that scene, it aroused deep interest as it explained to the readers the mechanism by which the time reversal ability worked.

Having suffered countless deaths in the Vietnam War, Kung-Fury naturally came to the realization.

Although it is unknown where or how this ability came from, the moment he was revived was ‘right before the incident that led to his death’.

That’s why Kung-Fury chose the location next to the mart when he spoke to Star Chaser.

Star Chaser killed him by dropping him from the sky.

Then he revived and tried to speak, but instead went into the mart and bought a mountaineering hook and came out. “Hello! Kung Fury! It looks like you’re thinking about mountaineering!” Upon hearing that, Kung Fury gave a thumbs up and returned to fight Star Chaser again, attaching the hook to the waist of his suit and also attaching the hook to Star Chaser’s belt.

It wasn’t the best strategy, but somehow I was able to stick together and fight.

As he continued this brutal and intelligent fight, Kung-Fury thought to himself several times.

‘Oh, do I really need to do this?’

He himself is not a person who deserves that.

Even if you were selfish and fooled others to some extent and made a fuss about kung fu, you would still make money.

But for some reason I didn’t want to do that.

As Kung-Fury gradually learned about the American society and fought with this identity as a superhero, he began to feel a deep emotion within himself.

In this American society, I am nothing but a weak person.

But I didn’t want to act like those who shouted against racism and tried to somehow get a foothold. At least I wanted to stand up against the absurdity that was happening right before my eyes.

Actions create themselves.

Because either way, it was annoying.

It was truly ‘Badass’.

While reading the intense description of Kung Fury, who fights with determination even after dying over and over again, Dwayne Johnson felt his heart pounding as if he were watching professional wrestling.

Poor family.

The gaze of society due to one’s large size.

Aren’t you just ‘using’ this misfortune that has been given to you?

Actions create themselves.

I just want to sit there and be just another human being.

“shit.”

Dwayne sighed, closed his book, and stood up.

I guess I’ll have to break the piggy bank.

***

The next day, at 4pm.

Mr. Green, the owner of the Icepick Comic Book Store, yawned as he watched the nerdy boys come into his store. Small, bespectacled boys who never exercised, laughing and wanting to buy comic books, he thought it was just another day of routine.

That is, until a giant guy walks into the comic book store.

‘uh?’

It was the man I remembered. The one I saw yesterday.

He was probably in his early to mid 30s. He was a man with a large build, a beard, and an indeterminate ethnicity. He came up to the counter without saying a word and handed over some crumpled coins and old bills. Something seemed upside down, but Green, gripped by fear, didn’t notice.

“hey.”

“yes yes?”

Surely this place isn’t being used as a drug dealer?

“I······ um.”

Dwayne Johnson (14 years old), who had been hesitating, extended his huge hand like a bear’s paw.

“I want to apologize for what I did.”

“What, what?”

“I stole a copy of ‘Kung-Fury: Novel’ from this comic book store yesterday. I want to correct that and pay up right now. The book says that actions make you. I am reflecting on that.”

“Huh? Uh······.”

“I’m sorry. Really.”

Dwayne apologizes sincerely.

And the owner, who was dumbfounded, shook Green’s hand firmly. Green’s shoulder was slightly dislocated.

And as he turned around feeling relieved, the nerd boys who had been standing next to him with blank expressions turned back to their books.

As he watched them read the newly released comic book issues, Dwayne Johnson felt his inner demons stirring, and the boys, feeling the chill under his gaze, looked on.

“This issue of Kung-Fury is really fun!”

“That’s right! Wow! The cyborg ninja design from the novel turned out really cool!!”

“Wow! This is crazy!”

“······?”

Dwayne, who hadn’t read that far yet, approached them and gave them a quiet warning.

“Spoiler alert.”

But inside, I was so excited that I couldn’t stand it.

A cyborg ninja appears in the sequel to ‘Kung-fury’!