Ten Seconds Flat
The waiting room inside the arena hall.
"Ugh, huuurk!"
Oh Jimyeong came tumbling out through the door, clutching his stomach and retching.
It hurts.
It hurt so much.
It hurt beyond reason. The thing that had hit him was unmistakably a person, so how could it feel like being run over by a truck?
"A-are you all right, sir?"
"Ranker!"
HQ staff came rushing over, but Oh Jimyeong grimaced and raised a hand to wave them off.
Damn it. This is humiliating.
If a summon had hit him, he could have protested on the spot. Filed it as unsportsmanlike conduct from a Player.
But he'd been hit by a person, which made it awkward to say anything. His pride was already fragile enough as it was.
"Haaah... I'm fine, so just go."
Wiping his mouth on the hem of his shirt, Oh Jimyeong thought back to Baek Jinwoo from moments ago.
A monster.
He admitted it. Baek Jinwoo was a monster. The summons the man carried were monsters, and Baek Jinwoo himself was no joke either.
So that's where all that composure came from.
He'd been beaten so overwhelmingly that instead of processing the process, he'd simply accepted the result.
And then—
"Huuuurk!"
Barely a minute after his own exit, Park Hoseop came flying out the same door, vomiting just as violently.
You got hit too, huh.
This was insane. Having himself eliminated in seconds was shocking enough, but Park Hoseop had been flattened in under ten?
The two rankers' eyes met.
Senior, that bastard isn't human. Haa... it's hard to even breathe.
Tell me about it. Looks like we picked the wrong person to mess with.
Then something surfaced in Oh Jimyeong's memory.
"These days the media's been pumping you up, so I guess you're feeling full of yourself. But keep strutting around with your back that straight, and you might never make the national team as long as you live."
The words he'd groveled with to that monster.
And at the same moment, realization struck.
We're screwed.
Of course. The Players who'd never make the selection weren't Baek Jinwoo. It was the two of them.
Because next year's trials would feature team battles again, and every single time, Baek Jinwoo's mace would come crashing down on their heads.
There was only one way out. Retire, or swallow their pride and apologize, come what may.
Oh Jimyeong did not want to ruin his entire career as a ranker over a single mistake.
And at that very moment—
"Hey, you bastards!"
Assemblywoman Im Huiseu's shout rang out from inside the waiting room. Her face was mottled red and purple, fury written across every inch of it.
"After everything I've done for you two! Not only do you get knocked out of the team battle, but of all people, you lose to him?"
Of all people, she says.
Oh Jimyeong's jaw tightened with a grinding sound.
What kind of nonsense was that? She was the one who'd told them to take him down first. Of course they'd run into him head-on.
"Honestly, I could tell from the moment you started coasting on your rankings and skipping training. Tch!"
Im Huiseu was livid.
The fact that her trusted rankers had lost was one thing. But losing the bet with Park Changseok—that was what truly wounded her pride.
"Hey, watch your mouth."
"What?"
"When you think about it, isn't this your fault, Assemblywoman?"
"What did you just call me, you brat?"
"Brat?"
Oh Jimyeong, still wiping vomit from his lips, glared at her.
"You think just because we grovel and call you 'Assemblywoman,' we're pushovers?"
"Wh-what...?!"
Im Huiseu clutched the back of her neck as if her blood pressure had spiked.
Whether she liked it or not, Oh Jimyeong had things to say.
"If we'd known Baek Jinwoo was that strong, we never would've followed you in the first place. Isn't that right, Hoseop?"
"That's right, senior. Because of him, our careers are wrecked. What are we supposed to do next year? We'll have to keep facing him in every trial from now on."
Mediocre people, when confronted with a problem, always believe the cause lies with someone other than themselves.
Oh Jimyeong and Park Hoseop laid the entire disaster at Im Huiseu's feet.
Not entirely wrong, but still. The message was the same: it's not my fault, it's yours.
"Assemblywoman. I think you owe us compensation for damages."
"You insane bastards!"
"Whether we're insane or simply reasonable... I suppose you'll find out soon enough. You're far too clever to have gotten where you are, so I'm sure you understand exactly what we mean. See you around. Let's go, Hoseop."
"Yes, senior."
Thud. Thud.
Oh Jimyeong and Park Hoseop walked out of the arena hall.
"W-wait a moment!"
Im Huiseu panicked.
What was that supposed to mean? Compensation for damages, and "see you around"?
Are those bastards threatening me right now?
One hundred percent. "See you around" meant watch your back in dark alleys.
The truth was, when rankers moved with that kind of deliberate intent, there was nothing she could do. Sure, they'd been beaten by Baek Jinwoo, but they were still among the strongest fingers on South Korea's hand.
If they decided to start exercising force the way street gangs did, it was over.
Damn it all.
Im Huiseu could feel it in her bones—something was spiraling badly out of control.
Having overwhelmingly taken down the two rankers, Baek Jinwoo saw no reason to move.
Honestly, me running around would throw the whole balance off.
He had no intention of wandering about and knocking out innocent applicants for nothing. He simply kept stacking Ramba's buffs.
Though honestly, there was nothing left to stack.
Hungyo in his current state? Even if every remaining Player on the field ganged up on him as one team, it wouldn't matter. A single sweep of Hungyo's footwork would slaughter them all with room to spare.
Active Players: 22/40
Baek Jinwoo glanced at the player counter floating in the upper corner of his vision.
Two left.
Two more eliminations and the team battle would end. Then it would move on to the individual league.
I wonder who's still standing?
He was humming a tune, lounging in the shade of a tree, when—
Rustle.
A Player emerged from the brush. A woman with rather sharp features.
Never seen her before, so she must be outside the top ten.
Her eyes were brimming with killing intent, suggesting she'd already eliminated quite a few Players to get here.
"..."
"..."
The two of them stared at each other in silence.
Why.
Baek Jinwoo simply sat where he was. He had no intention of attacking first. The choice was hers.
With only two eliminations left before everyone remaining passed together, would she fight or cooperate? If she proposed cooperation, he'd accept. But if she attacked—
That was her gamble to take.
"Grrrrr..."
"Grrrk!"
The wolves appearing behind her took hostile stances. She'd given the attack order, then.
Not a particularly smart woman, it seemed.
She must have judged that I look like easy prey.
He could see why she'd think that. All his other summons were stored away, with only Hungyo and Ramba out in the open.
But.
That's her problem, not mine.
Baek Jinwoo was not the kind of man to let an attack on his person slide.
Hungyo, catching Baek Jinwoo's gaze, began to draw the blade he'd sheathed—
"I'm sorry about this."
The woman spoke first.
Well, well. At least she had manners.
"Rules are rules. I'm going to eliminate you. Player, please aim for next year. There's no need to feel unlucky—luck is a skill too."
She flicked her fingers.
The wolves that appeared to be her summons lunged forward.
But—
"No, I'd say I'm the sorry one here."
Baek Jinwoo smiled faintly.
And in the same instant—
Shhhk!
All five wolves' throats were severed simultaneously.
Baek Jinwoo would only learn much later that this woman had been ranked fifth in the nation.
"Actually, I'm the one who's sorry. If we'd just brushed past each other and gone our separate ways, you might have made the cut. No matter how you slice it, though, you had to run into me."
"Wh-what...!"
The woman stared at Baek Jinwoo in open horror.
"But hey, what was it someone said? Luck is a skill too."
That part was true. Battle of Summoners was, at its core, a gacha-driven luckfest.
"Th-that's impossible..."
"Good luck out there."
The Player vanished.
And then—
Active Players: 20/40
The team battle has ended.
Somewhere else, one more had been caught. With the count at twenty, the first match came to a close.
"..."
"..."
The commentary booth and the audience alike sat in dead silence.
Because the screen happened to be focused on South Korea's Rank 5, Oh Seonyoung.
"Wh-what just happened?"
"I didn't see it either. There was just a flash of light and... it was over."
"Let me pull up the slow-motion replay."
It was a scene shocking enough to make professional commentators stammer.
The highlight footage looked similar to the earlier match. No—it was even faster.
A sword strike so fast it was invisible even with the playback slowed down!
"That Training Instructor summon just... cut through Orang's wolves with a single stroke!"
Orang (Five Wolves). The nickname of Oh Seonyoung, Rank 5 and vice guild master of Arirang, one of the Big Three.
She'd earned the name for always commanding five wolf summons at her side.
"S-so after Ranks 9 and 10, now Rank 5 has been eliminated too?"
"By the rules, yes."
"Baek Jinwoo. This is absolutely overwhelming. It's terrifying, honestly. At this level... even our Rank 1 wouldn't stand a chance. Where has a monster like this been hiding all this time?!"
"This is a blessing for South Korea! At this rate, we might actually have a shot at the World League!"
The commentators were singing his praises.
And it wasn't just the commentators. The entire nation was in an uproar.
Articles were pouring out in real time, and every community board was flooded with talk of Baek Jinwoo. Clips of Hungyo's performance were already circulating far and wide.
Discussion about the Training Instructor was surfacing one thread at a time.
Talk of the Wind Fairy surfaced as well.
The curiosity was understandable, but honestly, none of that was the real point.
What mattered most to the public was a single, electrifying fact: South Korea had produced a talent capable of shaking the world.
Baek Jinwoo's family was just as stunned.
"Sweetheart."
"Y-yeah..."
Baek Ajin had stopped mid-bite on her chicken, staring blankly at the screen.
"So... what you're telling me is... our Jinwoo just beat every single one of those Players who've been flying high across the nation?"
"Yeah, Mom... I think so. Our brother might actually be insane."
"Watch your mouth when talking about your brother!"
"Mom, I mean it in the best possible way..."
Baek Ajin and Hwang Myeonghui marveled at the screen.
Jinwoo, that boy...
Baek Jincheol shot to his feet.
He really is going to become a world-class Player.
Fists clenched tight, he murmured with a face full of burning passion.
"Dad, what are you doing?"
Baek Ajin asked.
"I'm going to fry some chicken."
"Huh? Chicken, all of a sudden...?"
"It's a celebration, isn't it? Gotta share with the whole neighborhood. Golden bell, golden bell! Wahahaha!"
In that moment, if only for that moment, the Baek household was happier than any family in the world.