Park Mu-Bong is introduced talking on the phone with Prosecutor Gang. Angry at how the conversation went, Mu-Bong uses his charyeok to destroy the island Gang is on, thus killing him.
Jin Mo-Ri is shown winning a fight, furthering his unbeaten streak to 299 fights. Judge R appears to invite Mo-Ri to participate in the G.O.H. Tournament after Mo-Ri's fight. Mo-Ri ignores Judge R until Judge R displays his strength. Mo-Ri challenges Judge R to a fight, seeking a stronger foe, but is beaten almost immediately.
Han Dae-Wi is introduced as a constantly tired boy that works two jobs to pay for the hospital bills of his terminally ill friend, to his friend's chagrin. It is not until he is pushed to the edge by bullies at his school that Dae-Wi displays his strength and gets invited to the G.O.H. Tournament by Judge Q.
Yu Mi-Ra is introduced and shown to be a clumsy girl that always falls for strong guys. Her current boyfriend Minseo Seo, the strongest boy in school, and her get confronted by a big group of thugs. Miinseo tells Mi-Ra to flee, which she does, so that she can stay safe from them. Upon getting attacked by some of the thugs, Mi-Ra returns to Minseo with their defeated bodies in her arms. She then chastises Minseo for not being able to take out at least twenty of the thugs by himself, then proceeds to defeat them for him. Judge O then appears to offer Mi-Ra the opportunity to participate in the G.O.H. Tournament, which she gladly accepts.
Park Mu-Bong infiltrates the Pentagon to meet with Oba Mashariff.
All the contestants are gathered for the Metropolitan preliminaries and are introduced. Shim Bong-Sa instructs the contestants to inject nanoparticles into their blood to prevent them from harming themselves then instructs the group to fight.
The strong fighters reveal themselves as those that don't panic to their power levels. Yu Mi-Ra and Jin Mo-Ri work together to take out Neungchool Jeon. Right before Moon Gi-Joo calls an end to the preliminaries, Gang Man-Suk enters the arena and is labelled the front-runner due to his superior power level.
Jin Mo-Ri and Gang Man-Suk squabble over Yu Mi-Ra which results in a few broken ribs for Mo-Ri and a broken ankle for Man-Suk. After taking Mi-Ra's sword, Man-Suk has it taken by Mo-Ri, resulting in their fight. At the end of their fight, Man-Suk takes out Mo-Ri with Mi-Ra's help because Mo-Ri had been holding her precious sword in his mouth. Mo-Ri suffered a broken neck in this finishing encounter but managed to stay conscious and get healed by the nurses using nanotechnology. With this, the preliminaries end with Mo-Ri barely making it in because he managed to stay conscious.
Jin Mo-Ri, Yu Mi-Ra, and Han Dae-Wi walk together back home from the preliminaries because they live in the same direction. The purse snatcher from Chapter 4's older brother appears with his biker gang to attack the trio for what they did to his brother. After they beat up the biker gang, one of the bikers throws a lighter which causes a motorcycle to explode. Mo-Ri shields Mi-Ra from the blast but gets slapped by her when he stops her from jumping off a bridge to save her sword that got sent flying in the blast. He returns later to help her look for the sword in the river before Dae-Wi and the biker gang (against their wills) come to help too. Eventually, the sword gets found.
Yu Mi-Ra, Han Dae-Wi, and Jin Mo-Ri all easily move on to the Round of 16 in the Preliminary Finals. In the next fight, Go Gam-Do instantly gets the upper-hand on Gang Man-Suk, forcing him to remove one of his arms from his straight jacket. Once he has one arm free, he begins to dominate Gam-Do using dirty tactics. Judge P reveals that his fighting technique is Northern ITF Taekwondo.
The background of Northern ITF Taekwondo is provided by Judge P. In the middle of pummeling Go Gam-Do, Gang Man-Suk releases him to embarass him. Enraged, Gam-Do channels this rage into one strong energy attack that Man-Suk reflects before continuing his beatdown on Gam-Do.
Gang Man-Suk continues to beat up on Go Gam-Do but Gam-Do refuses to beg for mercy out of his own pride and his desire to fulfill his wish the Judges promised him. After twisting his arm behind his back and breaking it, Man-Suk is attacked by Jin Mo-Ri who had entered the ring, thus forfeiting his tournament. Man-Suk angrily lunges at Mo-Ri only to get launched away.
Jin Mo-Ri is noted to have his power level raise to level 13 when kicking, only for it to fall back to level 6 when not kicking. As the judges apprehend Mo-Ri for breaking the rules, Gang Man-Suk lunges at him in anger. A flashback is then seen of a mysterious person beating on Man-Suk and then another hooded person promising him power; the power he gained from Northern ITF Taekwondo. Back in present time, Mo-Ri meets Man-Suk's attack with a kick and then finishes him off for good with his signature attack, the 3rd Stance Hwechook.
Jin Mo-Ri is taken out of the ring to cheers as the judges discuss whether he is the one they've been searching for. It is revealed that Mo-Ri is a user of Renewal Taekwondo, the perfect counter to Northern ITF Taekwondo, and that he learned it from an old man that has evaded capture.
Ma Mi-Sun is revealed to have a power level of 10 as she easily moves into the Round of 8 while Baek Seung-Chul uses a very unorthodox attacking style to defeat Yoo Sang-Min to move into the Round of 8.
Judge R and Judge Q engage in a fight over Judge Q's earlier reveal that Jin Mo-Ri broke Judge R's arm. After Judge O refused to break up the fight because it was after his work hours, Park Mu-Bong appears to stop the fight himself. It is revealed that he is a member of The Six and the Moon Gi-Joo is an apprentice of The Six.
After learning of Mo-Ri's connection with Renewal Taekwondo, Mu-Bong interrogates Mo-Ri about Jin Tae-Jin. To his shock, Mo-Ri gives an honest and complete answer to every question.
Yu Mi-Ra and Ma Mi-Sun begin their fight in the Round of 8. Ma Mi-Sun takes the early advantage because of her better durability and throws out Mi-Ra's wooden sword. Now sword-less, Mi-Ra takes a sword-less stance and demonstrates her ability to cut using only her hands. Despite not being injured and Mi-Ra being severely hurt, Mi-Sun forfeits because she doesn't want to use the wish the judges promised her on mending her cut body.
Baek Seung-Chul recalls his childhood where he idolized his father who was a detective that caught criminals with a baseball bat. One day, after catching a gang boss and being told the boss was being released from prison for lack of evidence, Seung-Chul's father was murdered. Seung-Chul devoted himself to learning all he could, so he went on to master 9 languages, math, medical science, and philosophy. Then, when realizing the value in physical strength, he mastered his own fighting style and achieved nirvana.
Han Dae-Wi attacks Seung-Chul as soon as their fight starts only to be countered by Seung-Chul's fighting style. After trying again, Seung-Chul counters again and thinks he has won only to realize that not only did his attack not defeat Dae-Wi, but Dae-Wi chose not to attack Seung-Chul because hi back was turned.
Han Dae-Wi continues to get pummeled by Baek Seung-Chul but keeps attempting to land punches. Seung-Chul laments him for thinking he had a chance as he thought he could anticipate everything. However, as he puts his foot down to attack, he slips on Sae-Wi's blood and sweat on the ground. However, to Seung-Chul's surprise, Dae-Wi refuses to attack, instead attempting to help Seung-Chul up since it would be unfaor to attack him while he was falling. This kindness reminds Seung-Chul of his father, which angers him into using his signature, Douze Lance de Combat. Dae-Wi takes the full brunt of this attack but refuses to give up because of his desire to use his wish to help his terminally ill friend, Woo Seung-Tae. Dae-Wi gets up and meets Seung-Chul's Soixante-Douze Lance de Combat with his signature attack, Full Contact Karate: Secret Art of the Four Guardian Gods. He destroys Seung-Chul's attack with The Fist of Black Turtle then uses The Kick of Red Phoenix.
Han Dae-Wi uses The Fist of Black Turtle to destroy Baek Seung-Chul's attack then uses The Kick of Red Phoenix to disrupt Seung-Chul's balance. When Dae-Wi uses The Dance of White Tiger, Seung-Chul uses Renewal Taekwondo to counter the attack but soon gets overwhelmed. Right before using the final component of the attack, Dae-Wi stops because Seung-Chul is unconscious.
Park Mu-Bong manages to get into contact with Jin Tae-Jin. He attempts to threaten Tae-Jin with Mo-Ri but Tae-Jin laughs this off saying Mo-Ri could break every bone in Mu-Bong's body.
The judges are attempting to decide what to do with Mo-Ri because both Go Gam-Do and Gang Man-Suk refused to fight anymore. They ultimately decide that if Mo-Ri can beat a judge with a handicap, he will be allowed to continue fighting. When Mu-Bong decides to have that judge be Judge Q, both Judge Q and Mo-Ri are upset with the decision. Mo-Ri wanted to fight Judge R again but after getting beaten up by Judge Q, decides he wants to fight him now.
