Korea-Japan Friendship Match (6)
Everyone was floored.
"Wh-what the hell is he doing?"
"Captain Shusuke, isn't that guy out of his mind?"
He was laying hands on a Japanese ranker — a national team player, a living national treasure at that? This was as good as a declaration of war.
"Hey, uh……."
"H-hyung?"
"……Jinwoo."
The disciples and Yoo Jia alike turned to Baek Jinwoo with expressions that plainly said they had no idea what to do.
How exactly was anyone supposed to stop this?
One look at his face, and they could only shake their heads.
"Hyung, aren't we all going to be in serious trouble if this keeps up?"
That Ki Jaehyeok — who had come within a hair's breadth of dying earlier — was the one saying it said everything.
But.
"What."
Baek Jinwoo glanced sidelong at the shrieking Ryo, then swept his gaze across the Japanese rankers.
"You got a problem with that?"
From where Shusuke stood, it was an outrageous thing to hear. Uh, yeah, obviously! The man was torturing a Japanese ranker alive right in front of them — what response did he expect?!
"He's the one who tried to strike a player directly with his summons first."
He had learned it beyond all doubt during the recent War on Crime.
Anyone who lays a hand on my people will not be spared.
Whoever they were — the whole world, or even the Five Emperors — it made no difference.
Baek Jinwoo was already strong. If a man who owned five EX-grade summons was going to spend his life bowing his head anyway, he might as well quit being a player altogether.
Aigoo, you poor Japanese bastards.
Why did it have to be Hyung you crossed…….
They wiped out an entire gang for touching him the wrong way — has that story not made the rounds yet?
Oh, it had made the rounds. They'd simply written it off as an incident from some backward country, not worth a second thought.
"……."
Meanwhile, Shusuke's lips were trembling.
What is that thing?
It was unfolding right before his eyes, yet he couldn't make sense of it. His brain simply refused to accept it.
Ryo's five summons were cleanly force-unsummoned in under five seconds.
It had been so fast he hadn't even seen it properly. Some scythe-wielding death god had flickered into view and vanished just as quickly.
And what if that scythe had been aimed at me? Could he have stopped it?
This was a question on a different plane entirely from summon tiers. If the player couldn't even register the incoming attack, how was he supposed to control his summons in response?
But that made no sense. He was World Rank 30. That man, by contrast, didn't even appear on the Korean rankings. There were certain common-sense gaps that no amount of lucky breaks or money could bridge.
So what conclusion had Shusuke reached?
Ryo got worked up.
There was no other answer. He had fallen hook, line, and sinker for that Ki Jaehyeok fellow's provocation, and that was how he'd eaten that cowardly sneak attack.
Then why hadn't I perceived the attack?
Probably just the shock. In fairness, Ryo's insane stunt had left everyone's heads spinning.
"That's enough."
Shusuke raised a hand.
"Show some restraint."
He meant: stop torturing Ryo, who was still shrieking at the top of his lungs.
Truthfully, his stomach had lurched. Just how much pain did it take for a human throat to produce a sound like that?
But Baek Jinwoo ignored the request. Only when the full minute had run its course did he stroll over to Oh Seon-young.
"Oh Seon-young."
"Yes, Master."
"Lend me three of your summons. Any three will do."
"……Pardon?"
Oh Seon-young's mouth fell open — because she understood at once what he meant.
He had told her earlier.
"I have a special gift for you, Oh Seon-young."
"……A gift, you say?"
"You'll see soon enough."
He had promised her a gift. This was it.
He intended to defeat the two remaining Japanese rankers using Oh Seon-young's own summons. He meant to show her something: that her summons, too, could be extraordinary in the right hands — that they could put out more than enough power.
But.
"Will that really be all right? Your opponents are national representatives of a major power."
Oh Seon-young's wolves were low-tier. So what if the Fenrir was A-rank? Was it any match for Baek Jinwoo's Hungyo? Absolutely not.
"I'd have to field them anyway. My Hungyo's running with his runes stripped right now."
The Versatile Runes he normally used were in Lund's possession at the moment — Clang, clang! — in the middle of being reborn as Trinity Runes.
"I've already used Ramba and Doldori, so as long as the three wolves see action, I'm not breaking the contract."
Yubaek and Japan had signed their tournament contract with 100 billion won riding on it. Its terms stipulated that each side field exactly five summons, which meant Ramba and Doldori had to be put to use.
But still — you don't need an ox cleaver to butcher a chicken.
It wasn't as if Sugoi of the Five Emperors had come in person. Against the likes of Shusuke, there was no call for Hungyo. Three wolves would be plenty.
"U-understood."
Oh Seon-young handed her summons over to Baek Jinwoo. Could she really win with just these? The doubt gnawed at her, but she could not defy her master's orders.
The sight left Shusuke aghast.
Right now. Was the man saying he would sit out the fight himself and battle using someone else's summons in place of his own?
This was humiliation beyond mere contempt.
"……The audacity."
"Oh, stuff the audacity. It's tiresome. You've made your point — now hurry up and attack. A contract's a contract, so let's wrap this up quick and send you home to your own country."
Whoosh!
Baek Jinwoo deployed the Fenrir (A-rank), the Shadow Wolf (B-rank), and the Blood Wolf (B-rank). Behind them, Ramba kept pouring stacks into Doldori.
"Watch closely," Baek Jinwoo said to Oh Seon-young. "Watch how the wolves are used against them."
Gulp. Oh Seon-young swallowed dryly.
Could it really be true? Could her Fenrir truly rise to the occasion against those mighty Japanese national representatives?
"I am Makoto."
The first opponent was Makoto — Japan's Rank 7 player.
"Let's see whether your skill lives up to that confidence!"
"Makoto!"
Shusuke snapped.
"Do not underestimate him! Take him seriously! And do not get worked up like Ryo did!"
Makoto started at the words — too late, he realized his slip.
Moments ago, Ryo had been beaten through sheer carelessness, and he had very nearly committed the exact same blunder. Nothing in an actual match was more idiotic than losing your cool.
"……."
Watching the pair put on a live show of firing themselves up and calming back down, Baek Jinwoo lazily sent in the wolves.
Sure, then. Don't underestimate me — go on, take me seriously. Since when has a newborn ever beaten a grown man just by keeping its excitement in check?
Grrrrr—woof!
The charging Fenrir flung its jaws wide — then abruptly cut in a new direction.
"Huh?"
Makoto narrowed his eyes.
Where do you think you're going!
Trying to slip in behind me? Like I'd just let that happen…….
CRUNCH!
"Huh?"
Makoto, mid-counter, instead heard the snap of wolf jaws on flesh. The Fenrir had changed direction a second time!
Unbelievable — a body feint?
And so clean a movement it defied description. To think he was witnessing here, of all places, the technique that even in Japan only Lord Hikaru could wield at will!
And it wasn't just the one. All three wolves moved in dazzling concert, then clamped down on the limbs of the summons that had frozen stiff.
Crunch, crunch-crunch!
There was no fencing — no feint, no probe. The wolves' fangs bored unerringly into their opponents' vitals.
"Wh-what the—!"
Something was different. There was something strange about their movements.
"Kill them!"
Makoto's summons hadn't exactly been sitting idle either. Even while being savaged, they endured and fought back —
Is this even possible?
— dodging those attacks by a paper-thin margin, only to bite down once more. The movements they executed were so exquisite, so flawless, that anyone watching would have screamed bug.
Crunch, crunch-crunch!
The rampaging wolves were for all the world like hyenas — darting every which way, snapping necks, tearing out organs.
Ramba? Doldori? Neither had stirred so much as an inch from where they stood. Three summons were running roughshod over a Japanese ranker's five!
This…….
If there was one person in this place more aghast than any other, it was Oh Seon-young.
My summons……?
Whenever she suffered a defeat, she had always consoled herself that her summons' specs came up short. Now, watching this, the truth stood plain: what had been lacking was never the summons' specs — it was the player's skill.
Hong Ari, Ki Jaehyeok, Kang Jiho — not one of them could close their hanging jaws. They could only watch the wolves' sublime choreography with blank, unfocused eyes.
"Uh……. Uhh……."
Makoto was panicking. No matter how his summons moved, it was no use. He tried controlling them, tried issuing orders — there was nothing he could do.
The fundamentals he had been taught? Not one of them worked in front of Baek Jinwoo. From Baek Jinwoo's standpoint, they were nothing but raw textbook basics with zero application — trivial to dismantle, and just as easy to turn against their user.
It was like a professional 9-dan Go master humoring a mere first-kyu student who hadn't even earned amateur standing.
"H-how is this……. This doesn't— this……."
Makoto, babbling in disbelief, turned to Shusuke. Shusuke brought a hand to his forehead, the picture of resignation.
Yes. What had to be admitted had to be admitted.
The man is strong.
He was beginning to see why Yoshida Hikaru had told them to receive that man with the most scrupulous respect.
Jinugod, was it?
Different. It felt as though they weren't even the same species. If we were players, then that man was — how to put it —
A god, plain and simple?
If he had been the one standing there, could he have flattened Makoto with wolves the same way? The answer was no. He had no such confidence.
How could anyone produce that kind of output through summons that weren't even their own?
And besides. That man wasn't even using his own abilities. The 'Training Instructor' he'd seen in the videos wasn't taking part in the battle either. And the scythe-wielding death god? It had yet to show itself.
This was — defeat. A perfect, total defeat.
Shusuke stared at Baek Jinwoo's face with eyes that refused to believe.
A genius. Talent quite literally sent down from heaven!
He had always thought Yoshida Hikaru was the genius. But the real genius had been someone else all along.
So why had heaven dropped that genius on a peninsula instead of an island?
CRUNCH!
In the end, the Fenrir tearing out the last summon's throat brought the whole affair to a close. Makoto's protective barrier dropped.
Thud! He sank to the ground, utterly hollowed out.
"This……. can't be. This……."
He kept muttering the same words over and over — the shock had clearly been immense.
And then.
This time, Baek Jinwoo's gaze found Shusuke. Yubaek's final opponent.
"Shall we start right away, then?"
Grrrr.
The Fenrir loosed a cry at Shusuke this time.
"……."
Shusuke, who had been lost in thought with his eyes closed, eased them open. A great many emotions swam in that gaze — emptiness and shock, yes, but also, unmistakably, a fierce killing edge.
In a straight fight on tiers alone, I might lose.
But? If he threw in every card he held — not just raw tiers?
He might even win.
Swish.
The truth was, he had one in his pocket as well.
◈ Temporarily amplifies a summon's movement speed tenfold.
The Bargain Maggot's scroll — worth a staggering 100 billion won or more. Hikaru had pressed it into his hands with a single warning: never use it unless his life hung in the balance.
But. If he lost here? It would amount to losing his life all the same.
For Japan's shining Rank 3 to crumble in this arena would be a disgrace worse than death!
In the end, Shusuke drew out the scroll and leveled a glare at Baek Jinwoo.
"What."
Baek Jinwoo smirked.
"You planning to tear that? Not the smartest choice, I'd say."
If Shusuke intended to play dirty with a scroll like that, Baek Jinwoo had no intention of sitting back either. An invisible Doldori was already stationed at Shusuke's side.
The moment that scroll tore? Doldori, carrying over four hours' worth of stacked buffs, would break into a dance of pure frenzy.
"Go ahead, then. Tear it — if you dare."
Arms crossed, Baek Jinwoo curled the corner of his mouth into an easy grin.