National Team Selection Match (2)
At long last, June 30th had arrived!
The matches were being held at the 'Grand Arena' in Samsung-dong's Player Zone.
A building where the System enabled fair and legitimate duels!
Just like any popular sporting event.
There was a full broadcast crew of casters and color commentators, and countless cameras—from the three major networks all the way down to independent streamers—were rolling.
While the broadcast crew took turns explaining the selection match, citizens across the country gathered one by one in front of their TV screens.
Baek Jinwoo's family was no exception.
"Mom! Mom! Come quick!"
June 30th wasn't a national holiday, but the majority of companies guaranteed their employees the day off anyway.
Everyone knew that if you forced people to work, they'd just sneak off to watch the selection match. So most companies simply chose the smarter option: let everyone rest freely and take the credit for being generous.
Thanks to that, Madam Hwang Myeonghui got the day off and was resting at home.
"Big brother's coming up soon!"
"Is he?"
Hwang Myeonghui settled onto the living room sofa with a tray of ice-cold beer cans.
"Dad, hurry up too!"
"Heh heh, just wait a moment. Almost done frying."
Sizzle, sizzle-sizzle!
Dad had practically become a chicken connoisseur at this point. Having shown off all his practiced skill to fry up a delicious batch, Baek Jincheol took his seat on the sofa as well.
The commentators walked through the players one by one, and the screen filled with a rundown of the household-name players people saw in the media all the time.
And there, among them—
"Wow, look, look! It's big brother!"
"Oh my goodness, it really is him?"
"Heh heh heh. So that boy really did go and enter the selection match after all."
Baek Ajin clapped her hands in delight, while the two parents stared at their son's image with expressions that still couldn't quite believe it.
It was, truly, the pride of the family.
"Ajin-ah."
"Yes, Mom?"
"Can your brother actually win there?"
"Oh, honey, come on!"
It was Baek Jincheol, not Baek Ajin, who answered.
"As proud as I am of our son, how is he supposed to win in a place like that? Do you see who's competing? Those are all incredible people. It's just good experience, that's all."
"That's right, Mom. Oppa's only been awakened for less than half a year. Just standing on that stage is amazing. Come on, come on! Let's toast anyway and cheer him on! For our big brother's bright future! Cheers!"
"Hee hee, you're right! Cheers!"
The family's beer cans clinked together in midair.
Meanwhile, at that very moment.
Outside the Grand Arena, in a temporary waiting room.
The players and their staff had gathered, loosening up as they prepared for the match.
The people rooting for Baek Jinwoo numbered exactly four.
Yoo Jia, Park Chang-seok, Kim Byeong-jin, and Hwang Taeseop.
"The first match is a multiplayer battle."
Yoo Jia stepped close to Baek Jinwoo and whispered.
"Twenty selections means they're cutting half the field here... You need to watch out for the existing cartel."
"The existing cartel?"
"Yes—the players who were selected last year. They have no reason to touch each other."
"Ah, that does make sense."
People are, by nature, strongly inclined to avoid risk.
Nobody wants to poke the wrong person and get eliminated for it, so the strong avoid clashing with each other.
Which means?
They'll go straight for complete newcomers, or the weak.
Like those two nearby—Oh Jimyeong and Park Hoseop—staring at him so openly, licking their lips.
Yes.
Just you wait, you two.
'I'll be dropping you two first, without fail.'
When Baek Jinwoo's gaze briefly met theirs—
Pfft.
The two rankers smirked.
Oh my?
Baek Jinwoo subtly smiled back.
Had it been the Five Emperors, such a look might have been unsettling—but coming from these two, it was simply adorable.
Like a pair of baby chicks chirping away, if anything.
Whether or not she caught the exchange of bravado, Yoo Jia kept talking.
"At the start, don't draw attention to yourself no matter what. You need to play it safe and survive as long as possible. It'll be hard, but it's the best option."
Truthfully, Yoo Jia was starting to get greedy.
Of course she knew there was no way Baek Jinwoo could achieve anything impressive here.
'No matter that he's Jinugod.'
He was a player who hadn't even been growing for a full year yet.
Meanwhile, those opponents were the nation's finest elite, three years in the making, pumped full of money and runes.
'And yet.'
Why was it, though?
Looking into those composed eyes of Baek Jinwoo's made her heart pound and race with excitement. Thump, thump!
It was as if he were saying, Want to stir up trouble again?
"Mr. Baek Jinwoo."
"Yes?"
"If—just if, and only if... you make it to the final selection."
"Why? Planning to give me a cut of the shares?"
"Yes, yes. I can absolutely manage that much, so give it your best."
"Whoa, really?"
Baek Jinwoo held a full seventy percent stake in the current corporation, Yubaek.
At first the figure hadn't meant much to him, but lately it had been hitting home like crazy.
He knew that even one percent of those shares was an enormous sum.
'Is she that desperate?'
It moved him.
That pure heart of hers, cheering him on even at the cost of her own share.
Baek Jinwoo wasn't stingy enough to take even a scrap from someone like that.
"Forget the shares—that was a joke. Don't worry about a thing."
Baek Jinwoo broke into a grin.
"Even if heaven and earth turned upside down, there's no way I'm dropping out at this level."
"...I'm sorry, what?"
"Oh, and one more thing I'm curious about."
"...?"
"What happens if I knock out all forty people here at the same time? A simultaneous slash-slash, before the System can even make a judgment call."
"...?!"
Yoo Jia's expression turned strange.
'This man.'
What on earth was he talking about?
"Ah, I suppose there'd be no need to go that far. Still, if I want to be certain about dropping those two obnoxious players first... Hmm, no, that wouldn't do."
What was this?
Was it a joke, or was he serious?
He has the ability to do it right now... and he's choosing not to?
"Ms. Yoo Jia. And Director Park Chang-seok."
"Yes?"
"...Y-yes, go ahead."
"Is there anyone here who absolutely needs to be eliminated? Or any players with a lousy attitude, or anyone you personally can't stand?"
"Wh-why do you ask?"
At Yoo Jia's question, Baek Jinwoo's smile deepened.
"I hear the national team does intensive training camps together. It just seems like it'd be uncomfortable to bunk with weirdos."
"Uh..."
Park Chang-seok and Yoo Jia exchanged a look.
Their expressions said it all: they had no idea how to respond to such absurd, impossible audacity.
The Grand Arena.
It was, in a sense, a kind of dungeon.
A dungeon granted its field by the System, where players could compete to their hearts' content.
The only differences from ordinary dungeons were that the opponents were players rather than monsters, and that losing all of your summons would automatically eject you from the dungeon.
'A multiplayer battle, huh.'
He hadn't played many of those back in his Battle of Summoners days.
The user base had been small to begin with, after all.
And whenever Jinugod entered a match, everyone else would sit out and quit, complaining there was no fun in it.
"Mr. Jinwoo, fighting!"
"Aja aja! Fighting!"
Encouraged by the cheers of the Yubaek staff, Baek Jinwoo entered the Grand Arena's dungeon.
[Entering the 'Abandoned Forest.']
His vision shifted, and he spotted birds floating in the air around him.
Or rather, birds whose eyes had been replaced with camera lenses.
'Oh.'
They were using summoned creatures capable of filming inside the dungeon, it seemed.
That must be how they broadcast everything live to the outside.
"Ramba, Hungyo, Pokryong, Doldol, and Songgolmae."
The moment he entered, Baek Jinwoo summoned his forces.
In Doldori's case especially, he activated the Assassinate skill the instant he materialized.
It was a brief cloaking skill, but if he kept recasting it without attacking, the invisibility could be maintained indefinitely.
This was Baek Jinwoo's signature style, after all.
Never expose your core summons' information to the enemy!
Even back in his Jinugod days, Rachel and the rest of the Five Emperors had never caught on to Doldori's true identity.
They never dreamed, not even in their wildest imaginations, that the being who had slaughtered their summons was actually a B-rank Whirlwind Slayer.
They probably still don't know, even now.
He never told them to the very end.
And Doldori had been quarantined not long after, so they never got the chance to dig deeper, either.
"Ramba."
—...!
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!
Ramba answered without a word and began swinging her staff.
Her target, naturally, was Hungyo.
—Krirururururu!
Songgolmae, too, piled movement-speed buffs onto Hungyo.
Shing!
Sword in hand, Hungyo received the stack of buffs with his eyes closed in a reverent pose.
'Normally I'd be stacking Doldori's buffs too.'
But he saw no need to bother.
Withholding your full strength was a strategy in its own right.
'This multiplayer battle starts with Hungyo, and it ends with Hungyo.'
Heh.
Smirking, Baek Jinwoo leaned back against a felled log nearby.
Crossing his legs, he settled into a thoroughly comfortable position and began his rest.
'Why would I need to move at all?'
After all.
The ones fated to fall would come looking for him on their own.
Just as Baek Jinwoo had predicted.
Oh Jimyeong and Park Hoseop made contact with each other the moment they entered the field.
The two players locked eyes and traded crooked smiles.
Some might curse them for it.
Teaming up in a survival match—hardly fair competition, is it?
But the international world of today counts even that as skill.
"Where's that brat right now?"
"Hold on. Hmm, this way. Two hundred meters north, seventy meters west. That's pretty close?"
The World League is governed not by any headquarters, but by the System itself.
In other words, judging 'fairness' by human standards means nothing at all.
"Let's go ambush him right now."
"Do we even need to ambush him?"
"True. Maybe we'll go give him a taste of humiliation first, then finish it?"
The two players maintained their brimming confidence.
National ranks nine and ten.
Besides, they'd been selected for last year's national team as well, so no player had the gall to mess with them carelessly.
Even if anyone crossed their path, they would only spin around and flee at top speed.
"Tch."
Oh Jimyeong sneered at those players but didn't bother chasing them.
First priority: Baek Jinwoo.
He had to finish off that freeloading leech first.
Crunch, crunch.
Pushing through the underbrush, they soon arrived at their destination.
And there—
"Huh?"
They saw Baek Jinwoo, hands laced behind his head, smiling with an utterly relaxed expression.
'Well, look at this smug little punk.'
Oh Jimyeong's face flushed with sheer disbelief in an instant.