I. The PTJ Verse – Detailed Explanation
The PTJ Verse, also called "Park Tae-jun Universe," is a shared universe composed of several webtoons created or supervised by the PTJ studio.
This world brings together series like Lookism, Viral Hit, Manager Kim, How to Fight, Questism, My Life as a Loser, and others.
All these stories, though seemingly independent on the surface, share the same world, certain characters, and interconnected events.
Main characteristics of the PTJ Verse:
1. **Exaggerated Realism**:
Stories are set in very realistic environments (schools, poor neighborhoods, Korean companies) but with an extremely high level of human power, close to that of battle shōnen.
High school students can beat trained adults, punches can break walls (or more), and some characters survive deadly falls (Daniel Park).
2. **Gang-controlled Society**:
In Lookism, Manager Kim, or Viral Hit, neighborhoods and schools are often controlled by crews, organizations, or clans with their own hierarchy.
These entities fight for power, territory, and respect, creating a parallel society governed by the law of the strongest and their own values.
3. **Secret Hierarchies**:
There are powerful organizations behind the scenes like Workers, Yamazaki, the Four Majors, Dead Mansion, and others.
They influence the underground economy, organized crime, and even social events visible to civilians (like HNH Company or Gapryong Kim's Fist Gang).
4. **Quasi-supernatural Abilities**:
Even though the PTJ Verse hasn't completely tipped into the supernatural (except for Questism and My Life as a Loser).
Some characters have superhuman abilities: extreme reflexes, absolute body memory, advanced regeneration, inhuman striking power, super-soldier-worthy endurance, and others like UI.
5. **Common Themes**:
- Personal evolution through pain.
- Social and physical disparities.
- Fighting against injustice through strength or strategy.
## II. Power Scale in the PTJ Verse
In this verse, the lower levels range from simple street fighters to "wall" level, with speeds ranging from subsonic to transsonic.
Here we find middle schoolers, thugs, adult fighters, and even members of criminal syndicates.
The intermediate levels correspond to "wall" level with supersonic+ speed.
At this stage, most fighters are geniuses in their field: MMA champions, experts trained by Chinese masters, or bodyguards recruited by billionaires.
They possess superhuman abilities, exceptional talent, or unique combat techniques.
Finally, the upper levels reach the power of "small buildings" or more, with speed well beyond supersonic.
These fighters often come from the first generation or pre-generation, and far surpass previous levels.
Some have reached a certain level in "Mastery," crossing human limits.
Others unlock techniques like invisible attacks, extreme body resistance, or tap into their self-hatred to go even further.
Timeline scaling:
- Johan appears with the same clothes and hairstyle as during his fight against Manager Kim, which helps situate events in time.
He's already very powerful in Lookism, with potential superior to Vasco. No member of West Gangbuk is at his level, since they had to call on him.
Characters like Choyun or Daniel (from Gangbuk) reach the "small building" level (if I'm being very generous here).
- Manager Kim's story takes place at the beginning of Viral Hit.
Taehoon Seong appears in chapter 85 with the same outfit as during his first appearance in Viral Hit (around chapter 13), and his brown hair is dyed after becoming friends with Dowon.
- Manager Kim also appears in the third arc of Lookism affiliates.
Goo Kim then wears the same clothes as in his fight against Daniel UI.
Some think these events take place years apart because of differences in Manager Kim's drawing, but this simply comes from the artists' styles.
Currently, we know that the entire plot of Manager Kim happens before the Workers arc (4th affiliate), or more precisely before Samuel Seo's first appearance.
- The action in Juvenile Offender seems to happen after, or in parallel with the last chapters of Viral Hit.
Hobin appears taller, more mature, and already famous.
Power hierarchy in the verse:
- Lower levels go up to street level.
- Intermediate levels cover from "wall" level to "wall+" (sector chief in Gangbuk).
- Upper levels range from "small building" to "small building+" (district chief or major crew leader).
Author's note: Yes, Choyun has the level of a crew leader here (until the Ansan Public arc), but he's still surpassed, even by Vasco after his final training with Bredaka.
Vasco managed to hold his own against Eli and officially beat him, even if the latter technically surrendered.
By the way, Eli compared Vasco's base form to Seokdu's, a king.
- Divine levels extend from "small building+" to "large building" level (Gun level, Shingen, Gapryong, and other top tiers like Kitae Kim).
Speed:
- The slowest characters move faster than the eye can see.
- At intermediate and upper levels, speed reaches Supersonic+, especially thanks to Hobin's feats.
- Divine levels far exceed this speed (their attacks breaking the sound barrier by a large margin).
Power:
- Lower levels peak at the height of human capabilities.
- Intermediate levels range from Vasco's class 5 (before the timeskip) to Vin Jin's class 10 (before the timeskip).
- Upper levels reach class 25.
- Divine levels go well beyond.
This verse is filled with delinquents and martial artists.
Almost all characters know how to fight. Some special abilities include:
- Accelerated development
- Superhuman will
- Fourth wall breaking
- Weapon mastery
- Instinctive reflexes
- Rage power
- Genius intelligence
- Hive mind
- Attack reflection
- Precognition
- Extreme pain tolerance
- Adaptive evolution (Daniel UI)
- Stat amplification
- Durability negation (Jack Kim)
- Fear manipulation, etc.
Characters like Suhyeon Kim from Questism have video game-inspired powers, such as density or probability manipulation, summoning, puppetry, healing, or granting skills.
Author's note: You can complete or correct certain statements here anytime, I'm human... I can make mistakes