Cheok Jungyeong

Cheok Jungyeong is the Chameleon Troupe's Seat of Red, a physically overwhelming close-range fighter connected through his Gift to the celebrated Goryeo warrior of the same name. He initially treats combat and killing as entertainment, but loyalty to the Troupe, respect for courageous opponents, and repeated cooperation with Kim Hajin and Jin Seyeon gradually give his appetite for battle rules and purposes beyond simple enjoyment. (Chapters 41, 47, 75, 143–146, 212, 365–369)

Biography

The Seat of Red and a fearless sharpshooter

Cheok Jungyeong is first observed killing a police officer with the pressure from a jab, without even making physical contact. He is already the Chameleon Troupe's Seat of Red and measures people primarily by how they fight: he dislikes sharpshooters because they avoid the eye-to-eye contest he considers a true battle, while accepting swordsmen such as Kim Suho and Shin Jonghak as prospective opponents. When the Troupe votes on Kim Hajin's potential, Jungyeong opposes the gun user and even offers to claim the vacant Seat of Black himself, revealing both his confidence and his prejudice against long-range combat. (Chapters 41 and 47)

Their first direct confrontation begins as a theft and hostage standoff during the Clancy Islet crisis. Jungyeong carries Rachel away, secures the White Crystal for the Troupe, and tests Hajin by stopping a lethal punch only centimeters from his face. Hajin neither flinches nor looks away, so Jungyeong spares him and returns praising the younger man's courage. He still loves fighting and killing, but his private rule against harming young children and his respect for fearlessness already place limits around that violence. By Hajin's formal induction, Jungyeong boasts about their encounter, seeks a spar, and enthusiastically follows Boss into the Troupe's renewed operations. (Chapters 74–75 and 143–146)

A bare-handed path in the Tower

Three years later, Jungyeong lives in the sanctuary Hajin rebuilt and destroys sea-monster habitats whenever Hajin points him toward one. Entering the Tower of Wish with Boss, Jain, and Hajin gives him a setting full of constant challenges, but he contributes more than force. He demonstrates inner-core breathing, moving his muscles with each breath and teaching Hajin that breathing involves the whole body and mind. His pride rests on continuity with his Goryeo life, yet the instruction also shows genuine martial knowledge beneath his loud self-promotion. (Chapters 152–154 and 160–165)

The Tower clarifies why he fights without weapons. In his former life he conquered with a sword, but in the present he believes a sword makes the world too light and victory too easy. He therefore refuses the Red Crystal Spear Chae Nayun offers for information and chooses to pursue supremacy with his bare hands. He also refuses her money for the sake of her injured arm, because he wants a future opponent rather than a cripple. Nayun's willingness to kick him while wounded earns a place on his list of strong people, and he invites her to challenge him later rather than exploiting her condition. (Chapter 178)

Jungyeong's impatience repeatedly makes him the Troupe's diversion or shock force, but he accepts coordinated plans when the group needs them. He draws guards away from a mansion, helps destroy control towers, and fights a Grizzly Bear barehanded despite the Tower's restricted starting conditions. His instinct remains to seek the most entertaining target, yet Boss's authority and Hajin's tactics turn that instinct into a team resource. This balance becomes central to his growth: he does not stop wanting solitary duels, but he increasingly trusts companions to decide where his strength matters. (Chapters 165, 169–179, and 181–184)

Secret March and the Tower's upper floors

On the fifth floor, Jungyeong contests a quest-giving crystal stele against Aileen's party because its reward is the special skill Secret March. Aileen's Spirit Speech can halt his charge, establishing that his physical superiority does not make him immune to control, but the contest expands into a battle that even she struggles to contain. The Troupe secures the quest, Jungyeong trains the reward rather than immediately climbing, and Secret March later raises physical statistics that were already exceptionally high through Inheritance. His progress is therefore partly earned within the Tower rather than a simple continuation of his historical strength. (Chapters 193–196 and 212)

Hajin's planning further changes how Jungyeong applies that power. During the Python raid, Jungyeong initially dislikes assigned roles but accepts responsibility for the calamity's venomous tail, claiming that his body is tougher than his level-six armor. The coordinated assault makes the Chameleon Troupe the first party to defeat a calamity. Later, when Hajin is injured by Time Reversal, Jungyeong shows awkward concern and leaves the ascent to avenge Kaita, explaining that a comrade remains a comrade regardless of stupidity. Combat pleasure has begun to coexist with loyalty that obliges him to fight for someone else. (Chapters 212–214)

That loyalty also governs his cooperation with Hajin. By the Demon King's Castle, Jungyeong follows Hajin's requests without challenging them because Energy Blast, Secret March, and his equipment all resulted from that guidance. He helps another party on Hajin's orders, defeats two demonic opponents in succession during the qualification trial, and celebrates the prospect of a fair duel even while suffering a skill's aftereffects. His boast that the ordeal was easy is plainly contradicted by his battered body, marking the widening gap between his limitless confidence and the physical costs his techniques can impose. (Chapters 237 and 245–248)

Troupe loyalty and Orden's war

Before the Orden Campaign, Jungyeong joins the entire Troupe in confronting Vast Expanse to protect Yi Yuri at Hajin's request. Boss does not compel participation; every member volunteers because Hajin has become important to them. Jungyeong breaks Vast Expanse's earth barriers while the others combine their Gifts around him. His later conduct toward Yuri's family reveals an unpolished generosity: after overusing Energy Blast leaves an internal injury he had not noticed, he struggles to thank Yuri and then gives her frightened parents enough gold to live comfortably during her five-year training. (Chapters 257, 259, and 264)

His violence still creates consequences within the group. Boss places him on probation after he kills Djinns who pick a fight, and he eagerly attacks Jin Sahyuk when she attempts to escape the Shadow Barrier. Yet inside Lupiton he refuses another clash with her because the Troupe is allied with the fortress and the location is wrong, even though he recognizes her as strong. He also refrains from interrupting Kim Suho's duel with Tigris because he understands how repulsive an intrusion feels during a worthy fight. These decisions show self-control developing without erasing his desire to compete. (Chapters 275, 288, and 294)

During the palace assault, Jungyeong answers the chance to face Orden by leaving safety and crashing through the throne-room ceiling. His direct punch lands, but Orden immediately seizes him, smashes him into the floor, and throws him out before he can react. The humiliating exchange is an explicit limit on raw physical perfection: even his improved body and fearless charge cannot close a transcendent difference in strength or compensate for entering without a plan. His participation nevertheless places a wanted criminal among the coalition defending humanity and helps establish the Troupe's later pardon. (Chapters 298–299 and 368)

A recreated past and transcendent opponents

Jungyeong accompanies Hajin into the manifested record of Yi Yeonjun's past because the strange capsule experience looks entertaining. Trapped there, he helps Hajin investigate young Yi Byul's life and treats the two low-level men who join them as people under his protection, promising to crush anyone who bothers them. Once other Heroes destroy the world's core, he spends the remaining days searching the mountains for hidden experts rather than waiting passively to leave. The episode joins his simplest desire—repeated fights with strong people—to loyalty toward Hajin and the Troupe's leader. (Chapters 311–315)

Back in the Tower, Jungyeong follows Hajin's direction to conquer the ninth floor. Battles against calamities and legendary warriors such as Lancelot and Lü Bu push him further, while consuming Behemoth's heart gives him violet magic power that he believes has raised him into a transcendent realm. This enhancement is not part of Inheritance: it comes from a consumed monster organ, just as his high-grade equipment comes from Hajin's crafting and provision. The distinction matters because Jungyeong's confidence now rests on several accumulated sources rather than his physical Gift alone. (Chapters 334–335)

He then enters Vassago's Colosseum beside Jin Seyeon. Their nominal purpose is defeating a devil threatening humanity, but Jungyeong also wants the promised contest and treats the arena's escalating ranks with relish. When Jin Seyeon worries about simultaneous demonic invasions, he reminds her that stopping Vassago is itself part of the same defense. Their negotiation ultimately redirects the encounter, and Jungyeong later goes with her to Gaesung instead of seeking Baal. Although he claims indifference toward modern people, seeing demons destroy the former heart of Goryeo draws him there instinctively; he helps deploy the Troupe's Mimyo against an army too large for the pair to defeat alone. (Chapters 339–348 and 355)

Disbanding and a new shadow campaign

After Baal's defeat, Yi Byul disbands the Chameleon Troupe because the revenge for which she formed it has lost its original meaning. Jungyeong has no ready plan and rejects her language of lifelong atonement, believing that saving later lives cannot erase the dead and that a victim seeking vengeance should be allowed to try to kill him. Even so, he joins the harmless Colored Calves social club and immediately embraces Jain's proposal to confront the officials and Heroes responsible for the Kwang-Oh Incident. Chae Joochul and Yoo Jinwoong excite him chiefly as opponents, but the mission gives that excitement a political target. (Chapter 365)

Jungyeong also chooses to invite Jin Seyeon despite knowing she will oppose indiscriminate killing. He values the unexpected situations created by conflicting opinions, and his quickening heartbeat hints that rivalry has become attachment he is unwilling to name. When the expanded coalition plans its campaign, he complains about prohibitions against killing uninformed Heroes but accepts the boundary once Jin Seyeon promises unrestricted fights against the New Evils. He thus remains dangerous and unrepentant, yet voluntarily submits his violence to companions whose judgment he has learned to respect. (Chapters 365 and 368–369)

Evanescence briefly makes him stumble over Hajin's name, but he remains among the few people who ultimately remember the erased man. The renewed Troupe works from the shadows against corrupt leaders, with Jungyeong assigned to overpower defended targets rather than massacre everyone present. By the latest account he is again expected to become a wanted figure, now alongside Jin Seyeon in a group described as thieves and destroyers acting against evil. His development does not turn him into a conventional Hero; it gives his pursuit of strong opponents a durable loyalty and a chosen cause. (Chapters 365–376)

Appearance and personality

Jungyeong is more than 2.2 meters tall, with a gigantic frame and intensely developed muscles that make him resemble a monster or ogre beside ordinary people. His arms can be as thick as another person's thighs, his voice is naturally loud enough to shake a cave, and even his footsteps carry conspicuous weight. He frequently trains topless, while combat makes his muscles and blood vessels swell further. His enormous hands make ordinary smartwatches and equipment awkward to use. (Chapters 74, 143–144, 161–163, and 212)

He is boisterous, proud, impatient, and candid about enjoying violence. What he values most in an opponent is courage: a person who looks directly at danger, attacks despite disadvantage, or persists through pain can win his respect. He also has a fighter's etiquette. He does not attack young children, avoids exploiting Chae Nayun's injury, and resists the urge to enter Suho and Tigris's duel because he hates interruptions himself. These rules do not make him merciful in general, but they distinguish worthy conflict from effortless victimization in his personal code. (Chapters 41, 75, 178, and 294)

Jungyeong's loyalty is less verbal than physical. He obeys Yi Byul as Boss, avenges Kaita, follows Hajin's instructions despite embarrassment, and continues working with Jain and Jin Seyeon after the Troupe's formal dissolution. He can accept limits when they come from people he recognizes, even while complaining about them. Over time, that trust teaches him to preserve alliances, perform assigned roles, and fight for Gaesung or the Kwang-Oh victims rather than choosing only the opponent who promises the most immediate pleasure. (Chapters 170–177, 214, 247, 259, 288, 355, and 365–369)

Gifts and abilities

Jungyeong specializes in extreme physical combat. His Gift supplies the foundation, training and unarmed technique turn his entire body into a weapon, Tower skills add explosive output, and acquired equipment or consumables provide further reinforcement. These sources overlap in battle but are not interchangeable: neither Secret March nor the violet power from Behemoth's heart is an innate effect of Inheritance. (Chapters 146, 161, 193–196, 212, 246–247, 264, and 334)

Inheritance and physical constitution

Jungyeong's Gift is Inheritance, which connects him with his former life as Goryeo's strongest warrior. The connection supplies exceptionally high base physical statistics and preserved martial understanding. In the Tower, every measured variable statistic other than perception exceeds the Directory's readable threshold of eleven even before considering ordinary opponents, while his body is described as tougher than his level-six armor. The Gift's demonstrated result is comprehensive physical superiority—strength, stamina, speed, vitality, and durability—not an unexplained immunity to all forms of damage or control. (Chapters 161 and 212)

His strength can shatter an artifact sword against a magic-coated fist, break stone and earth barriers, destroy the ground with a punch, and physically tear through monsters or constructed realities. His durability lets him ignore attacks that cannot penetrate his armor and endure ordeals that leave him visibly injured but delighted. However, Aileen's Spirit Speech can stop and eventually defeat him, Python's venom remains dangerous enough to require planning, and Orden overwhelms him before he can respond. Internal damage from Energy Blast also proves that toughness does not protect him from every strain generated inside his own body. (Chapters 80, 193–194, 212, 253, 259, 264, 288, and 298–299)

Unarmed combat and bodily control

Although his inherited Goryeo experience includes swordsmanship, Jungyeong deliberately abandons weapons because they make victory feel unworthy. He treats every body part as a lethal weapon, using punches, grabs, throws, kicks, leaps, roars, and direct pressure rather than relying on a signature armament. His movements are not only brute force: inner-core breathing coordinates breath with muscles throughout the body, and he teaches that unity of mind and body is harder than merely claiming unity with a weapon. (Chapters 41, 74–75, 146, 161, 178, and 247)

That choice magnifies both his strengths and his tactical limits. At close range he can smash barriers and Reality Manipulation pathways with raw force, while a single leap can resemble cannon fire. He is less naturally suited to distant or technical battles, which helps explain his disdain for sharpshooters and his dependence on allies to locate targets, provide ranged coverage, or assign him a vulnerable body part. His later willingness to follow raid roles and preserve alliances makes the specialization more effective without changing its close-range nature. (Chapters 41, 146, 173–178, 212, 259, 275, and 288)

Secret March and Energy Blast

Secret March is a level-three special skill awarded by the Tower for defending a quest crystal stele. Jungyeong and the Troupe fight Aileen's party for the reward, after which he pauses his climb to train it. The skill boosts his physical statistics on top of Inheritance, helping produce the unreadably high figures observed before the Python raid. It is an acquired Tower skill rather than a new stage of his Gift, and the corpus does not provide its exact activation formula or duration. (Chapters 193–196 and 212)

Energy Blast is another learned combat skill associated with Hajin's guidance. Jungyeong can drive it into the ground to produce erupting blasts, sweep away puppets, destroy earth barriers, and collapse a pathway made through Reality Manipulation. Its power extends his fists beyond a single point of impact, but repeated or careless use overworks his body. Yi Yuri discovers an internal injury that Jungyeong himself failed to notice, and a later qualification fight leaves him battered by a skill's unexpectedly severe aftereffect. The source demonstrates the technique and its cost without showing its precise acquisition interface. (Chapters 246–247, 259, 264, and 275)

Equipment and consumed enhancements

Hajin supplies Jungyeong with high-level Tower equipment, including armor and gauntlets, and the narration explicitly credits that gear when attacks fail to pierce his protection. Jungyeong still claims his natural body is tougher than his level-six Infighter's Leather Armor, so the equipment reinforces rather than creates his durability. His equipment remains a meaningful part of his Tower-era output even though no single persistent armor set receives a stable canonical name in the corpus. (Chapters 182, 193–194, 204, 212, and 247)

After conquering the ninth floor, Jungyeong has also consumed Behemoth's heart. The heart gives him violet magic power, a power he uses to judge himself capable of facing transcendent devils. This is a permanent-seeming acquired enhancement by the latest demonstration, but the corpus does not define its full mechanics or prove Jungyeong's belief that it makes him unbeatable. It remains distinct from both Inheritance and Secret March. (Chapter 334)

Power progression

Relationships

• Yi Byul: Jungyeong recognizes Byul as Boss and follows her authority even when his instincts push toward an uncontrolled fight. Seeing her lonely childhood strengthens the personal context of that loyalty. After she disbands the Troupe, he joins her Colored Calves club and continues the work she wants made right, though he rejects her own theory of atonement. (Chapters 143–146, 170–177, 259, 291, 312–315, and 365)
• Kim Hajin: Jungyeong moves from despising Hajin's gun to respecting his courage and trusting his decisions. Hajin directs him toward battles, provides equipment and opportunities for skills, and becomes important enough that Jungyeong follows requests without argument. Jungyeong is embarrassed by the obedience but remains one of the few people able to remember Hajin after evanescence. (Chapters 41, 74–75, 143–146, 152–153, 212–214, 245–247, 259, 311–315, 334, 365, and 376)
• Jain: Jain is Jungyeong's long-standing Troupe companion and frequent partner in infiltration, travel, and postwar planning. She can tease or redirect him in ways most people cannot. After disbanding, she recruits him into the Kwang-Oh campaign and recognizes that his wish to invite Jin Seyeon reflects more than simple competitive interest. (Chapters 47, 75, 143–146, 160–184, 257–259, 365, and 369)
• Jin Seyeon: Their relationship begins as mutual suspicion and develops through the Tower, Vassago's Colosseum, and the defense of Gaesung. Jungyeong trusts that Seyeon will not betray him, while she becomes capable of physically silencing and politically restraining him. He invites her into the post-Troupe campaign precisely because her moral objections create a counterweight to his violence. (Chapters 193–194, 212, 234–247, 335, 339–355, and 365–369)
• Aileen: Aileen is a recurring rival whose Spirit Speech can stop Jungyeong's charges and who eventually defeats him in the Tower. He welcomes the contest because she can genuinely challenge him, even when her control demonstrates a decisive counter to his physical Gift. (Chapters 193–194, 212–214, 245–247, and 253–254)
• Chae Nayun: Nayun earns Jungyeong's interest by attacking while injured and refusing to be cowed. He declines her weapon and money, preserves her chance to recover, and invites her to challenge him later. Their connection remains that of prospective opponents rather than ownership of the item she offered. (Chapter 178)
• Kaita and Jin Yohan: Jungyeong treats both men as comrades. He leaves the Tower ascent to avenge Kaita and repeatedly fights beside Yohan as the Troupe's close-range pair. Their shared campaigns turn his personal strength into part of an enduring group identity. (Chapters 143–146, 170–184, 203–214, 223–231, and 365–366)

Items

• Unnamed Tower equipment: Hajin provides Jungyeong with high-level armor and combat equipment that improve protection and performance. The equipment is distinct from his Gift, and the corpus does not establish one stable named set for a separate item article. (Chapters 182, 193–194, 204, 212, and 247)
• Behemoth's heart: Jungyeong consumes the monster's heart and gains violet magic power. The heart is a consumed source of enhancement rather than a weapon he continues to carry. (Chapter 334)