Battle Royale (1)
[The first match is the Battle Royale!]
Every player had to open their league campaign with a game called the Battle Royale.
On the surface, it was an appetizer before the main course. In reality, it was anything but.
The system tallied every kill and death earned here to sort the league into its groups.
"Alright, alright, everyone, gather round."
Guild advisor Hwang Juwon called the guild members into a huddle.
"Some of you have been through this before, and some of you obviously haven't... Either way, the moment you spot an opponent, you take them out. Bold and decisive, no exceptions."
There were nine groups.
They were laid out in a row, and the nations were slotted in one by one, in order of past performance.
And what did that mean?
Place ninth or higher, and you would never be drawn into the same group as the top-tier nations.
South Korea, the league's perennial weakest link, had once bent over backwards to avoid crossing the great powers of the Five Emperors.
Since those nations ranked first through fifth, they occupied Groups 1 through 5.
Landing in Groups 6 through 9 was guaranteed fortune!
This year's national team strategy was no different.
This time they had Baek Jinwoo, and the friendly against Japan had proven their strength beyond doubt—so the plan was simply to lock down a spot within the top nine!
"Once you've dealt with someone, leave that spot immediately. Stick around, and before you know it they're misunderstanding each other, squabbling, at each other's throats. Guerrilla warfare, always. Guerrilla."
Coaching the guild members from his own hard-won memories, Hwang Juwon kept drilling them.
"If you run into each other, back off for now. Oh, and one more thing. You remember the alliance agreement, right? Do not attack the Five Great Powers. Don't forget it."
[The Battle Royale is a survival game played across a vast forest!]
[All 920 participating players will be scattered at random across the forest!]
[The deadline: until only 100 players remain alive!]
[Search your surroundings! Items ideal for taking down stronger players are hidden all over!]
Oh.
Baek Jinwoo listened to Hwang Juwon's briefing while watching the system windows bloom into view.
The plan was to make a beeline for high ground the moment it started, right?
Apparently the high ground was where the items clustered.
He had a rough grasp of the rules himself.
This might actually be fun.
He'd heard items played a fairly big role.
Of course, with every nation guarding league intel behind airtight security, what Baek Jinwoo had pieced together in his head was South Korea's information and nothing more.
I'll figure out the rest as I go.
[Now, please register your summons!]
[You get five! The moment all five of your summons are reverse-summoned, you are eliminated!]
At that instant, his vision warped.
A team creation window sprang up alongside it!
As though he'd been waiting for exactly this, Baek Jinwoo slotted in his strongest summons.
Ramba, Hungyo, Pokryongi, Doldori, and the Sky Wyvern.
Mobility mattered, sure—but the real reason for the wyvern was Pokryongi.
"Hwang Jiwoo."
"Yes."
"You know the drill, right? The second it starts, get on the Ice Bird and climb as high as you can."
Even in a game like this, the same rule applied.
If he strayed more than an hour from Hwang Jiwoo, Pokryongi's quest would be scaled down to nothing.
Frankly, Pokryongi's quest mattered more to Baek Jinwoo than winning the league.
"Understood."
Baek Jinwoo intended to fly straight for Hwang Jiwoo the instant the match began.
"Whew."
"Haaah."
Anxiety was plain on every face.
And no wonder.
The team that had fought side by side all this time was about to be scattered to the four winds and dropped into that dreadful forest.
But hey.
It wasn't as if getting wiped out here would knock them out of the World League.
Just an appetizer match to sort the groups!
But then.
[Oh, right! You didn't forget, did you?]
[The player with the most kills will receive a hidden reward!]
[Last league's top killer was Rachel of the United Kingdom!]
What?
A hidden reward?
"There was a thing like that?"
At Baek Jinwoo's question, the guild members nodded.
"That's right."
"It does exist... but it never had anything to do with us."
"First league, second, third... Rachel took it every single time. So honestly, we don't even know what the hidden reward is. I hear it's classified at the highest level even in the UK."
A hidden reward, hm.
Baek Jinwoo smacked his lips.
If something like that was up for grabs, well—that changed everything.
Crick, crack-crack!
He rolled his neck and bent his wrists.
Truthfully, he'd been planning to ease into things before the main event.
But if this was how it was going to be, he'd just have to go all out, wouldn't he?
[All players have completed summon registration!]
[The game will commence in 10 seconds!]
[We wish all players the best of fortune!]
"Okay."
Baek Jinwoo murmured one last thing.
"Everyone—let's all live to see the end of this."
"Yes, sir!"
They answered at the top of their lungs and spent the final ten seconds gathering their resolve.
"Fighting!"
"Let's go, let's go, let's gooo!"
"South Korea! Let's take this thing!"
And then—
Fwabababat!
Amid a cascade of sounds erupting all at once, every last figure vanished.
The right to film the Arena Hall belonged to whichever nation owned the Player Zone in question.
This league was being held in London, so the United Kingdom was handling the entire broadcast.
And how, you might ask, did they film a forest that vast?
The truth was, no cameras were needed.
A broadcast center stood on the outskirts of the Arena Hall, and there the system laid out every player's activities in exhaustive detail.
In picture quality every bit as vivid as watching it with your own eyes, no less.
You could zoom in for an intimate close-up or pull all the way back to take in the entire field.
The broadcast center's screens were captured by state-of-the-art ultra-large cameras, and that footage was then sold to other nations as broadcasting rights!
Which was why the league's defending champion nation raked in staggering sums on the side.
South Korea had bought broadcasting rights as well.
Two of them.
One for the main feed—and the other for Baek Jinwoo's personal feed.
— "And here we go! The Battle Royale is finally underway!"
— "And there's Baek Jinwoo on our screens right now!"
Swish!
Baek Jinwoo appeared in the depths of the forest, his drop point left entirely to chance.
Games conjured inside the Arena Hall were identical to any other dungeon.
Materializing some two meters above the ground, Baek Jinwoo touched down with practiced ease and stretched out a hand.
Vwoooong!
Light coiled around him from his shoulders down his arms!
Baek Jinwoo summoned his summons as naturally as breathing.
Doldori, for his part, melted into invisibility the instant he appeared.
— "The problem is right beside him! Someone's right next to him!"
— "Who is it?"
— "Congo! It's Congo!"
Every player wore their nation's colors with the flag pinned over their chest.
A sea-blue banner slashed with yellow and red—the Democratic Republic of the Congo!
"Hungyo."
Baek Jinwoo didn't hesitate for a heartbeat.
"Finish it on the spot, then catch up."
— ...!
Hungyo nodded and drew his sword.
Anyone who wasn't an allied nation would be cut down without mercy.
That was the South Korean national team's policy!
Three seconds. That was all it took.
Shreeeek!
However you looked at it, a national team member was a ranker chosen to represent their country—yet in a mere three seconds, five summons came apart in fountains of blood.
The Congolese ranker, set to be eliminated the very moment he'd arrived, could only stand there gaping in disbelief.
South Korea — Baek Jinwoo
1 KILL
— "H-he's insane!"
— "That's Baek Jinwoo for you! A performance worthy of Jinugod!"
— "That's Hungyo, isn't it?"
— "It is! The very same broken summon that wrung tears of blood from our rankers in the qualifiers!"
Baek Jinwoo didn't even spare Hungyo's slaughter a glance.
Gripping tight, he took hold of the wyvern's feathers and began to soar into the open sky.
The Ice Bird.
He had to find the Ice Bird, no matter what.
And if Hwang Jiwoo gets eliminated?
Well, in that case.
He'd either carve through everyone in sight and end the match before the hour ran out, or take himself out of the game and go find her.
"Whew."
Even airborne, his heart was pounding.
People might laugh—Baek Jinwoo, who breezed through the highest-tier dungeons and scaled the Tower of Ordeal at his leisure, getting worked up over a mere Battle Royale?
But it's fun, isn't it?
This was his first match under the national team banner, put on display for the entire country!
Baek Jinwoo had no intention of fumbling it into an anticlimax.
Kyarururururu!
The wyvern threw back its head and roared mightily as it climbed.
— "Ah! It's roaring! What is he thinking? Players normally try to hide themselves!"
— "I'd say it's a dare—come at him if you've got the guts!"
— "That audacity is on another level... At this rate I'm half afraid Rachel herself might come flying over!"
For the record, the general public knew nothing of the great powers' agreement.
It was a closely guarded secret in every government.
Not that it would have mattered much if it leaked...
Still, wasn't it better to let things pass quietly than to kick up a storm?
Plenty of people suspected some backroom deal existed, of course, but nothing had ever been officially announced.
Soaring skyward, Baek Jinwoo soon picked out Hwang Jiwoo.
She was so far away she was barely a fleck of blue...
That's the Ice Bird, no doubt about it.
Baek Jinwoo's gaze sharpened.
Farther than I expected.
Which meant he had to move faster.
"Let's go, wyvern!"
Kyarururururu!
The wyvern abandoned its climb and tipped straight into a gliding charge.
Hungyo was already hanging from its talons.
He'd erased a player in three seconds flat, then immediately kicked off the ground and boarded the wyvern as it rocketed skyward!
That, too, was highlight-reel material.
Vweng-vweng-vweng-vweng!
Ramba kept pouring stacks into Hungyo without pause.
Maybe not right this second.
But an hour from now, who on that field could stop Hungyo?
He was certain: absolutely no one.
Ramba was splitting her attention between Doldori and Hungyo, dealing out stacks evenly to each in turn.
Fwarururuk!
Pokryongi, too, kept banking her Blast Dragon Wave, layer upon layer.
True to the plan, Hwang Jiwoo rode the Ice Bird up into the sky.
"Hnnnngh."
She'd practiced, and practiced hard, but hanging that high above the ground still didn't feel natural.
The air up here was dizzyingly high.
She settled the Frost Cat on the Ice Bird's head and set the Lich drifting in the air beside her.
Her two Ice Ghosts (B-rank) were ground-bound summons; calling them up here would only send them plummeting to their deaths.
Where could Master Jinwoo be?
She whipped her head left and right, searching, but he was nowhere in her line of sight.
Oh no.
What was she supposed to do?
They had made a promise.
If it turned out the two of them couldn't find each other, she was to withdraw from the match voluntarily at exactly the fifty-minute mark.
Reverse-summoning all five of her summons counted as a voluntary exit.
I suppose staying airborne is my best bet for now...
She was just on the verge of climbing a little higher—
Shwaaaaak!
—when she spotted two players rising from far below.
Which country are they from?
Squinting, she made out dingy-yellow uniforms wrapped with green sashes.
Anyone could tell at a glance: Brazil!
And the two of them were dressed identically.
Of all the luck!
If the Five Great Powers, led by the Five Emperors, stood at the very summit, there were other nations just beneath them that were nearly their equals.
China, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, Germany, France, Italy, and more.
Among them, Brazil boasted not one but two heavyweights of world-ranker caliber.
World Rank 40, Gabsiva.
World Rank 100, Pires.
And, as luck would have it...
The two men rising toward her right now were Brazil's number one and number two.
What do I do?
Hwang Jiwoo was no world ranker—she hadn't even cracked the domestic rankings yet.
She had no idea whether she could last even a minute against monsters like those.
But.
Hwang Jiwoo wanted to stand her ground.
A good result here?
That hardly mattered.
Only one thing did.
She refused to be a burden to Baek Jinwoo.
If I fall... Master Jinwoo will only get fifty minutes.
Judging by the scowls and the killing intent radiating off the players rising toward her, there would be no room for negotiation.
They'd cut her down fast and fly off somewhere else. That was surely the plan.
In that case, there was nothing for it.
"Ice Bird!"
Hwang Jiwoo shouted.
She was resolved to hold them back somehow, with every ounce of control she had learned.