National Team Selection (1)

Baek Jinwoo's daily life never changed.

Grind the mid-tier weekday dungeons on loop, then train!

If a single thing had changed, it was that the focus had now shifted to Doldori.

Krruk, krruruk……!

Honestly, if you picked Doldori's skills apart, there wasn't much to them.

Approach while cloaked in invisibility, swish! — spin the scythe once around. That was the entire kit.

But.

What happened if you cranked that to the absolute limit?

A few whirls at tremendous speed, and the opponent's summons would be finished off to the last one. He'd get to taste that cathartic sweep where everything in range simply ceased to exist, like a carpet run over by a vacuum cleaner. That was because the Whirlwind skill dealt splash damage — and no explanation could do it justice. You had to see it with your own eyes.

The selection or whatever it's called. Only a week left now.

And that was where Baek Jinwoo's dilemma began.

Ramba, Hungyo, Pokryongi. Was it really right to send them into a player battle? Ordinary players might not know better, but anyone who had climbed high enough in Battle of Summoners would recognize all three. A Wind Fairy (E-rank), a Training Instructor (E-rank), a Fire Dragon Mage (D-rank) — summons that had once seen perfectly respectable use.

Especially. The current world rankers — the Five Emperors — were bound to know for certain.

But so what? What were they going to do about it, even if they knew? Maybe it would have mattered back in the old days, but his form was climbing now. From the moment he'd obtained Doldori in particular, the thought of forcibly hiding their identities had never once crossed his mind. If they got found out, so be it; if not, fine.

I'll just bring them out.

If he truly wanted to keep himself hidden, the right call would have been not entering the national selection at all.

But that's the one thing I can't give up.

There was a reason he had always made a point of fighting the player battles in Battle of Summoners, too.

The rewards are enormous.

The game had tallied rankings every month and showered individual players with lavish rewards — and in roughly seven years, Jinugod had never once let first place slip. That was exactly why he'd come to be called the veteran of veterans: Ilcheon.

The rewards existed in reality as well. The differences from the game were that the ranking period ran a full year — and that the rewards went not only to individual players, but to entire nations! Once the world league ended, the System ranked every country and distributed vast natural resources and items on a sliding scale. Oil, minerals, technology... and where technology was concerned, the list brimmed with marvels that outstripped modern science.

Which meant one thing! The league's results had a colossal impact on national power. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠In fact, Rachel's Britain had advanced so dramatically that even America could no longer afford to ignore it, and Baekcheon's Taiwan had shaken off China's harassment completely.

That was the real reason the whole world went mad for the league.

We can't afford to lose either.

Calculating as Baek Jinwoo might be, he was not a man who sold out his country. He had his own patriotism, after all — he used to cheer himself hoarse every World Cup. South Korea hadn't even made the round of sixteen in the past three years. Eliminated in the qualifiers, every single time! Year after year of bitter defeat, but now things were going to change.

Because I'm here.

Baek Jinwoo clenched his fist. He'd serve his country and collect the rewards. Time to go have it all.

Yoo Jia had handled the selection application and every last scrap of paperwork. All Jinwoo had to do was train. Having fitted Doldori with the appropriate runes, he devoted himself entirely to raising the reaper's level.

And at last — one day before the national team selection. He was on his way to the Player HQ auditorium for competitor registration when—

"Heh heh, Mr. Baek Jinwoo! Over here!"

He ran into the bear of a man, Park Chang-seok.

"It's been a while."

"Have you been keeping well?"

"I've been fine, thanks to you."

Jinwoo held genuine gratitude toward Park Chang-seok. Without the man, he would never have met Yoo Jia, and he could never have grown along such a smooth road as this.

"Hoho, thank you. Taking my recommendation all the way to the national team."

"I heard about that."

Every morning, Yoo Jia came out to the open lot to exercise and filled Jinwoo in on this and that — and the story of Park Chang-seok's bet had been among them.

"I hear you made quite a large wager on my ranking."

"Ah, that... honestly, I must apologize. An old man my age, acting so foolish."

"No, it was a good thing."

"Pardon?"

"It means you trust me that much, doesn't it?"

Of course it did. Trust had to be repaid with trust.

Honestly, Jinwoo had no worries at all. Whoever the opponent might be. He felt no tension, and the thought of losing never even occurred to him.

If I can't take first in South Korea... I might as well tear the Ilcheon label off.

Losing while fielding his current EX-grades? That would be absurd.

"In return, though, please give me a rough explanation."

"An explanation of what, exactly...?"

"The selection. Who the candidates are, how it all works, that sort of thing. This is my first time, so I don't know a thing."

"Ah, of course! Shall we head in? I'll explain on the way!"

With a courteous bow, Park Chang-seok extended his hand and began to guide the way.

Inside the spacious auditorium, a huge crowd was bustling about.

"Oh, looks like there are quite a few applicants?"

"It's less that there are many applicants... and more that everyone came flocking in together."

Applicants, their guild officials, even the HQ staff — all of them had crowded in to complete final registration for the selection. Shouts of encouragement came free of charge!

"Honestly, there can't be that many applicants. There's such a thing as seed slots, you see."

"Seed slots?"

"Yes. Thirty go to the top thirty ranked players, one each to the ten major domestic guilds, and one each to the ten HQ council members. Fifty in total... and usually only about thirty people apply."

"So you whittle those down to ten?"

"That's right."

Fair enough. If every Tom, Dick, and Harry applied, it would become a meaningless waste of manpower and time. They picked mainly from the rankers, but since the occasional gem could always pop up from outside the rankings, the policy scattered seed slots among the council members and guilds as well.

Not bad.

Baek Jinwoo wasn't a ranker yet. That was precisely why he was entering through Councilman Park Chang-seok's seed.

Humming a quiet tune, Jinwoo glanced around. Every pair of eyes in the room was razor-sharp. They must all be sizing each other up as rivals.

He was just about to line up with Park Chang-seok and finish his registration when—

"Well, well. Councilman Park Chang-seok."

Someone sidled over with a slimy smile.

Lim Hee-soo. Park Chang-seok's brow furrowed. That snake-faced bastard.

Why was he coming all the way over here to strike up conversation? Hadn't the provocations ended back then? Lim Hee-soo paid Park Chang-seok's expression no mind whatsoever as he approached.

"Ah, and here's the player who's been hogging the spotlight lately, Baek Jinwoo. A pleasure. I'm Lim Hee-soo, a councilman with the HQ."

Behind Lim Hee-soo's toothy grin stood two players.

The current Rank 9, Oh Ji-myung. The current Rank 10, Park Ho-seop.

Who are these two? Jinwoo tilted his head. The pair were staring at him outright, smacking their lips like lizards eyeing a juicy meal.

They've got faces that beg to be smashed in.

Of course, that was just their faces talking; neither had actually picked a fight, so Jinwoo gave a slight nod in return.

"Yes. I'm Baek Jinwoo."

"Haha, I've heard a great deal about you. Just as handsome in person as on the screen. It seems you're joining this selection for the experience — I sincerely hope it proves helpful, and I'll be rooting for you."

Hm. That was what his mouth said, but his eyes were unmistakably smiling. Blatant mockery. The unspoken jab: what business does a non-ranker have entering the selection? The rankers behind him merely stared, offering no greeting of their own.

Naturally, Jinwoo couldn't have cared less. It wasn't as if he was curious about who they were.

"Yes, I do hope it proves a great help."

Jinwoo refused to rise to their bait. With one more slight bow of his head, he walked on — a send-off that said: seen enough? Then get lost.

"Those guys?"

A short while later, he asked Park Chang-seok, "The ones your ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bet is with?"

"...That's right. Did they make you uncomfortable?"

"No, not really."

Park Chang-seok was a bundle ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of nerves, worried that Jinwoo might end up suffering for no good reason because of him. And the men he was up against were no pushovers, either. Oh Ji-myung and Park Ho-seop — both had been on last year's national team, players with considerable popularity among the public.

"Their faces are pretty punchable, though."

Where Park Chang-seok's thoughts tangled, Jinwoo's stayed simple.

Those two. If a chance to knock them down a peg showed itself, he'd take it. Or not.

"You saw him?"

Lim Hee-soo, having moved off to a corner, said to the two rankers, "In this selection, all you need to do is drop that one guy. You two are obviously getting selected. You're confident, right?"

Player battles came in two formats: the team battle, and the individual battle. Since the System-run world league blended the two in due measure, the national selection also opened with a team battle.

And. The riffraff all got swept away in the team battle.

"Well, dropping that non-ranker whelp is hardly any trouble at all... but actually getting selected might be a bit trickier, no?"

"Hehe, true. Selection is no easy feat. We barely scraped in last year ourselves."

Oh Ji-myung and Park Ho-seop replied with snickers.

"You punks."

Lim Hee-soo touched his thumb to his index finger, tracing a circle.

"Just make it in. Anyone who does will get a nice fat payday this year, too."

Making the national team meant generous funding from the national treasury. And Councilman Lim Hee-soo was more than capable of laundering that neatly into his own pocket money.

"If you put it that way, I suppose we'll just have to work hard."

"Baek Jinwoo. Should we just clear that parasite bastard out during the team battle?"

Ahh. How reassuring those words were. Sure, Baek Jinwoo might soar through the weekday dungeons, but player battles were a different beast entirely. Rankers weren't made through time attacks — they were made through player battles!

"Yes."

Lim Hee-soo smirked. "And make sure to catch a good look at Park Chang-seok's face then. I want to see what kind of expression he'll be wearing."

"That should be fun."

"Understood."

The two rankers were utterly at ease. They had the poise of high rankers, after all. In their minds, there was no way in hell they could lose to a non-ranker!

"Tomorrow, we'll dispose of him swiftly the moment things kick off."

Official registration was complete. The selection would begin tomorrow.

Sluuurp! Sucking down an iced americano, Baek Jinwoo looked up one piece of information after another. He'd gotten the rough outline from Park Chang-seok, but nothing beat checking for himself.

So that's how it runs?

He pulled up videos of last year's and the year before's matches, and one viewing was enough to get the general picture. First came the team battle: all the players dropped into a vast arena to fight out a survival free-for-all. Next came the individual battle — one-on-one, exactly as it sounded. League-style, a total of ten matches were played on a points system, and only the ten highest scorers would be named to the national team!

The title favorites are already all lined up, huh.

From Ranks 1 through 10 to the major guild masters — the community was already ablaze with arguments over who would be selected and who would take first.

And me? Just in case, Baek Jinwoo ran an ego search on his own name.

Baek Jinwoo's eyebrows shot all the way up. The overwhelming majority of it was negative.

Ha. These little bastards.

For a moment he considered hunting down every last one of them and wrecking them all, but...

Eh. He'd just have to show them instead. What was their crime, anyway? Ignorance, if anything.

Going by last year's level, he probably wouldn't even need to bring out Doldori. Honestly, it looked like the whole thing might end with Hungyo alone.