Promotion Is a Serious Matter
Our fight was never elegant or cool.
It was closer to a desperate, tangled brawl rolling around in the mud—a mercenary’s scrap where you aimed for the back of the head rather than any chivalrous one-on-one duel.
“Ugh! Just die already!”
“Shield! Raise your damn shield!”
Deaths crossed paths again and again. I myself died three times, snatching enemy gear to keep fighting until I finally had to dig into the spare equipment. The O-Wang Company was just as desperate.
“This… this has to be a lie.”
The exchange ratio smiled on the other side. Every time one of their members hit the dirt, nearly one and a half of ours went down with them. But the longer the fight dragged on, the more the advantage swung our way. The foundation was an overwhelming difference in supplies.
O-Wang Company, never expecting a battle this brutal, ran out of consumables first. We still had potions, arrows, and shields to spare. On top of that, we returned to the field carrying only carefully calculated loads so the enemy could never loot anything worthwhile from our corpses.
Around six in the evening, Wang-ko finally had to spit blood and declare surrender.
“Enough! We lost. Just give the gear back. We’re pulling out.”
A man with real pride in his skill simply could not stand watching the formation collapse into a one-sided slaughter any longer.
“…We won.”
Only then did we finally let out a long, deep breath. It had been brutal. Unlike previous Purge Days, we had fought nonstop for nearly a full hour without a single break. Body and mind were both completely spent.
Rena-ttang: The result of the great battle is finally in! Shockingly, the V-Live Company and Akatsuki alliance has defeated O-Wang Company! I’ll announce the kill-score rankings right away. Current first place is Hitsume with 25 kills! Second is Apple-mong with 23. Third is Endu with 20.
While we had been locked in a meat grinder, the others had apparently been farming kills with relative ease. That was how they racked up those numbers.
I’m exhausted, but this isn’t the time to rest yet.
To complete the three-peat we couldn’t stop here. I started encouraging the worn-out staff and preparing for the next fight—when a low voice cut through.
“Seo-a. You were right. This is probably the last chance we’ll ever have to beat O-Wang Company, isn’t it?”
“…”
“So we figured we’d try for the ‘championship’ ourselves. You’ve already won twice. How about you let us have this one?”
“We promised, didn’t we? First place goes to us.”
“Yeah. We did. But you said it yourself.”
The sharp tip of the netherite sword Oh Yeong-jun was holding swung toward me.
“Stop being Rena World’s little troublemaker and start living up to the name of a real villain.”
“…”
Ah. So that’s how you’re playing it?
Apparently I had woken the black flame dragon sleeping deep inside Oh Yeong-jun’s heart. The fact that he could spit out a line that cringe with a straight face was almost impressive.
“You sure about this? The numbers are pretty lopsided.”
“Thanks for the concern, but we’re fine. You actually gave me a great idea. I found some helpers of my own.”
The instant the words left his mouth, members of Bad Potato Company stepped out from behind him. Not the whole company—just Dorai, Coco-nyang, Ppogeum, and Chohee-chohee—but four was enough to flip the numbers.
He used the scraps as bait to pull them in? Not a bad idea. But…
Unlike our exhausted crew, the fresh Bad Potato members were a real threat. And from the looks of things, the potions we had handed over for cooperation had been shared with them as well.
By any measure it was a desperate crisis. I answered calmly.
“You really sure about this? The numbers are pretty lopsided.”
“Huh? Why are you saying the exact same thing again out of nowhere—”
Oh Yeong-jun never finished the sentence. The moment I loosed an arrow into the sky as a signal, the people I had arranged for earlier came pouring out.
Five staff members of Lethal Company, led by Elsa and Seol Pyo-woo.
Now the numbers gap had swung even further in our favor.
“I’ve been telling you this whole time. The numbers are pretty lopsided—are you sure you’re okay?”
“…”
I could see the pure shock he couldn’t hide. He clearly never saw this coming. There’s always someone flying above the one who’s running.
“Th-this pays off our company loan—one million Rena per person, five million total, right?”
That was the power of capital!
I surrounded the flustered Oh Yeong-jun with my company staff and shouted.
“Take this bastard down!”
“Waaaaaah!”
Villain, my ass.
Rena-ttang: And now, the awards ceremony for the glorious victors of Purge Day! First, taking third place with a total of 37 kills—Subnitti! Truly incredible. A few words, please?
Rena-ttang: Ahaha! Twenty-four-hour whipping? What a fun metaphor. Seo-a seems like a stricter boss than I expected.
“Tsk.”
She must have felt my piercing stare from below the stage, because Subnitti finally shut up.
Rena-ttang: Next, second place! A total of 39 kills—an absolutely incredible record and performance. It’s V-Live Company’s adorable youngest, Mayo! Congratulations!
Rena-ttang: Ahem. The wording’s a little… off, but I’m sure no one will misunderstand, right? Rena World always aims for bright, wholesome streams. Now only the grand first-place announcement remains!
Thump-thump-thump—!
Was this the special treatment for first place? The surrounding streamers started making instrument sounds with their mouths, hyping the atmosphere. I turned and locked eyes with several of them.
First, the big-corp streamer Wang-ko. He was staring at me with his lips pushed out in a full pout. The pure, transparent resentment was almost endearing. Yeah—I actually liked this honest side of him.
Sure, sure. From now on we’re just going to turtle up and defend. Three-peat is free real estate.
Next was Oh Yeong-jun. The second our eyes met he looked ready to crawl under a rock. He had even betrayed us for the win, only to get completely shut down—and on top of that he still hadn’t gotten back any of the gear he dropped while dying.
Let him suffer a little longer.
Ever since the first Purge Day it had become an unwritten rule to return gear for ten thousand Rena per piece, so I never planned to keep it forever. Still, just handing it back would be too nice—so I’d use the stream as an excuse and make him do a sexy dance first. Once that clip got permanently archived in the community, he’d never dare aim for the back of my head again.
And Bad Potato… their eyes are basically dead.
They had finally gotten a chance to catch some scraps from Akatsuki, only for even that to fall through. They looked completely wilted. Self-inflicted wounds, so I had nothing to say.
Grinning ear to ear, on the other hand, were the Lethal Company members. Of course they were—they had just had five million Rena of debt wiped clean. Whew. That was almost the combined prize money for first, second, and third place. Still, when you weighed it against the glory of a three-peat, it was pocket change. Once Purge Day disappeared and was replaced by the Arena, that title would belong to our company alone forever.
And Partner Company and Tofu Company…
They just looked ordinary. Except for one thing that stood out. Somehow, at some point, Blueby had naturally become a full member of Partner Company and was standing right there with them.
Ugh. That freeloading little witch. She really did have a supernatural talent for finding the best seats. How the hell did she already know Partner Company would later get absorbed into Park Bong-sik’s Mu-yang Group and plant herself there…
Rena-ttang: The glorious first place! The one who recorded a total of 40 kills and claimed victory in the first, second, and third Purge Days—leader of V-Live Company! The one who stood against Wang-ko and Oh Yeong-jun and seized victory with her own hands—Seo-a! Everyone, please give her a round of applause!
Clap-clap-clap—!
Thunderous applause poured down as if everyone had been waiting for this exact moment. That was when it finally hit me.
Ah. We really did it.
Three total championships.
I took in the faces of my comrades and slowly climbed onto the stage.
Rena-ttang: This is a little random, but what does the title in front of your name mean? I already changed it for you, but I’m curious.
Birthday promotion really is a serious matter.
Somewhere in the distance I thought I heard a phantom voice screaming that I was truly shameless.