The Whisper of the Giant God
Hong Park collapsed, and it was as if NG Jaguars had been a lie all along—the entire team crumbled in an instant.
Under the command of the legendary tactician known as the Mountain King, Kim Jong-pil, Mir Guild moved with flawless coordination. A storm swept across the canyon.
Before anyone could even process what was happening—huh? Wait, what??—towers were falling one after another. The mounting pressure forced the already desperate NG Jaguars into even more extreme decisions.
And as always, extreme choices either become strokes of genius… or total disasters.
NG Jaguars Nexus destroyed! Mir Guild takes Set 1!!
It was utter annihilation.
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After the loss, Hong Park stormed into the waiting room and kicked a locker, pointing an accusing finger at the woman following him.
“You call that playing properly?! You should’ve helped me back there!”
“It was one step. Just one step short. You couldn’t even hold out for that?!”
“There were two of them! Two! While you were leisurely clearing jungle, I was marking both of them by myself!”
“Let’s be accurate. You got absolutely pummeled by that kid, tried to play safe, and still ended up getting washed.”
“Washed? You’ve got some nerve—!”
“Hey, hey, hey! What are you two doing? Someone stop them!”
“Uh…”
When you thought about it, it was only one loss. And it was just a set loss at that.
None of the people gathered here were rookies, and they had all tasted defeat before. Yet they were clearly far more agitated than necessary.
Every expert and every community had predicted their victory. The fans’ expectations had pierced the heavens, and their excessive confidence had turned into outright mockery of the opponent. That feverish atmosphere had somehow made victory feel like a given.
This was karma. They had become a laughingstock.
The man who had pulled the two apart began speaking in a calm, persuasive tone.
“Let’s not be too sensitive about this. It’s only one set. And we nearly had that set, too. We all just made mistakes. Let’s stop blaming each other.”
At that moment, a woman’s voice came from behind them.
“I’m not so sure. Isn’t that a bit too complacent?”
“……!”
“……!”
When they turned, Lee So-yul was standing there.
The guild representative in the locker room? Why?
No matter how high her position, there were lines that shouldn’t be crossed. Entering the locker room—especially during a match, in the hunters’ private domain—was extremely inappropriate.
Perhaps that was why the man who had been trying to mediate, the other team members, and even the two who had been arguing all froze. They simply stood there with their mouths opening and closing, unable to comprehend the situation.
Even the secretary, who normally never stepped forward, seemed to realize this had crossed a line. She quickly moved to stand in front of Lee So-yul.
“I believe you all need to step it up.”
“Representative, you can’t be here like this.”
“Secretary Choi, don’t interrupt me.”
“Representative…! You really can’t do this.”
“Hey! Are you seriously touching me right now? Let go! Secretary Choi!”
She was dragged out by the secretary’s hand. Once the storm had passed, no one in the locker room dared speak easily.
Victory covers up all problems.
Defeat, on the other hand, exposes every single one.
The complacency that had made victory seem inevitable.
The two people who had immediately started blaming each other after the loss.
The teammates who had simply watched it all happen instead of intervening.
And the representative who didn’t even seem to know that barging into the locker room mid-match was rude.
NG Jaguars was clearly spiraling out of control.
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2SET NG Jaguars Lose
2 : 0
After losing the second set as well, the community exploded into a sea of flames.
To summarize Set 2, it had been the Mountain King’s magic show.
He boldly subbed out Park Jeong-seok, whose mentality had shattered in Set 1. The replacement lacked in both offense and defense but was rock-solid in mentality and initiation.
It was the Mountain King’s confidence that in a 5 vs 5 teamfight, they would never lose.
The result was so different from expectations that NG Jaguars fans clutched the backs of their necks in despair, while the Yongbungs hammered their keyboards with triumphant glee.
NG Jaguars had laid bare the limits of their operation and teamwork for the entire world to see.
A heavy silence fell over the locker room as the team finally realized the gravity of the situation.
Even playing as conservatively as possible, they were on the verge of a 3-0 shutout against a team that was, at best, a promotion candidate from League 2.
Win or lose, they were screwed either way.
That was exactly why they had to win. Only by becoming victorious idiots could they preserve even a shred of pride.
Hong Park’s eyes were bloodshot as he roared.
“Listen to me! Shut up and push mid! Got it?!”
Meanwhile, in Mir Guild’s locker room.
“Captain, please make sure no one comes to mid.”
While Hong Park had begged for support, Park Su-bin was asking for the exact opposite—no one should even come near.
Although he had improved a lot, Park Su-bin had still rarely voiced his own opinions so strongly. The moment he raised his voice, everyone’s eyes widened and focused on him.
Even the Mountain King looked at him with interest.
“Reason? They will definitely focus mid with everything they have. The plan was to set a trap in mid and surround their formation. If you want to scrap that, you need a convincing reason.”
“Well…”
Park Su-bin scratched his head as if it was hard to explain, then reluctantly gave his answer.
“I can hear something.”
“……?”
“……??”
Hear what? What the hell did he suddenly start hearing?
Everyone looked puzzled by the absurd answer.
Which meant they missed the faint smile that had appeared on the Mountain King’s face.
“Alright. We’re changing the plan.”
“……?!”
Something new was beginning to unfold.
* * *
Round 3.
A completely different kind of bloodbath was taking place in the mid lane compared to before.
Fire danced, wind sang, water sparkled, and the earth clapped with fervor. The magic that had inherited Hong Park’s last shred of pride erupted violently, bathing the entire mid lane in brilliant multicolored light.
Hong Park swung his wand and muttered under his breath.
“Damn it! Damn it! I refuse to accept this! Me—losing to a mongrel?! I went to the Magic Tower, for god’s sake!”
He had awakened under strict parental supervision, followed the elite course all the way to the Magic Tower. He was nothing like that mongrel who had simply gotten lucky and awakened without putting in any effort at all!
“It’s unfair. It’s unfair for a mongrel like you to have that kind of power—!!”
Hong Park’s bloodshot eyes turned pure white. Intense magical light burst forth as magic circles formed behind him.
And at that moment, the spells that had been bombarding the ground began to twist grotesquely.
Straight lines became curves. Fire transformed into lava. Sparks of flame burst from wind and water, followed by explosive thunderbolts.
This was the pinnacle of change.
He was proving with his own body why he had earned his title as a hunter.
Unfortunately, his desperate cries never reached Park Su-bin.
“Hmm…”
Objectively and subjectively, Hong Park was the strongest opponent Park Su-bin had faced since his debut.
The dense, systematic mana manipulation born from structured education, and the novel changes that arose from within that solid foundation—every concept was fascinating and fun to Park Su-bin, who had only ever fought relying on pure talent.
Perhaps that was why Park Su-bin was thoroughly enjoying this fight.
But then—
What is that voice?
Toward the end of Set 2, he had suddenly felt a strange sensation.
He couldn’t quite describe it, but something ticklish had stirred deep inside his mind. Park Su-bin realized it was a whisper, and it began to bother him.
What is it trying to tell me?
It wasn’t trying to make him angry. It was just making him curious by speaking in a way he couldn’t quite understand. He felt a little sorry for the raging Hong Park, but even in the middle of their battle, Park Su-bin’s attention was mostly on that voice.
Just then, the set effect of Karakum ended. Thinking it was finally his turn, Hong Park let out a furious roar and unleashed his magic.
But at that moment—
“Huh…??”
Park Su-bin froze.
It was only a brief opening. But in a high-level bloodbath like this, even a moment was never just a moment.
KWAAAAANG—!!
A barrage of four-attribute magic slammed down toward Park Su-bin.
“Die! Die! Just die already!!”
Flame Buster and Magma Fist scorched the ground.
Water Cannon and Aqua Ring held the target in place.
Curse of Wind and Hurricane shredded the surroundings.
Earth Quake and Earth Shape sealed off all escape routes.
Blood burst from Hong Park’s nose. The reckless spellcasting had caused his mana to go haywire.
He had squeezed out every last drop of power from the very bottom.
The mid lane was being incinerated. The destructive offensive was so overwhelming that the field’s restoration speed couldn’t keep up with the rate of collapse.
This was impossible to block. Even if the Mountain King came, he wouldn’t be able to stop it.
Swinging his wand furiously, Hong Park prayed for Park Su-bin’s death to appear on the screen…
Ten seconds passed.
Twenty seconds passed.
A whole minute passed.
Only dust continued to pile up. There was no news at all.
That was when a sense of déjà vu hit him alongside the confusion.
Chills—!
His body reacted before his mind could. Hong Park rolled across the ground.
KWAAAAANG—!!
A translucent arm smashed the exact spot he had been standing a second earlier.
“……Weren’t you only able to attack through item effects?”
Don’t tell me you’ve been fooling me this whole time?
As if mocking his doubt, a voice rang out from within the dust.
“I wasn’t sure if it would work… but it actually does.”
“……!!”
“Looks like I could do this all along.”
It had been completely spontaneous.
More precisely, after listening closely to that ‘whisper,’ he had gotten a feeling and simply tried it.
Park Su-bin didn’t know it yet, but this was exactly what Lee Shin had meant when he said Park Su-bin had great synergy with the Karakum set.
Every set effect of Karakum resembled Park Su-bin’s ‘future’ form. It was like a compass. Not just stat boosts, but clues for his growth.
Of course, that was from Park Su-bin’s perspective. To Hong Park, who was hearing this, it was utterly absurd.
“You understood the concept of the ability just by using the item effect?”
“Seems that way.”
“Bullshit!!”
Someone could spend their entire life studying and never obtain this power, yet this bastard was learning it from an item?
It was unfair. He could not accept it.
Blood exploded from Hong Park’s nose once again as the air filled with magic.
But when Park Su-bin lightly clenched his hand in the air—
All the magic filling the space vanished.
No—they had been devoured.
“Sorry. I’m just that much better.”
KWAAAAANG—!!
‘Park Su-bin’ has slain ‘Hong Chang-hyun’.
* * *
31st Round
📍 Mir Guild (3) : NG Jaguars Guild (0)
🎁 Mir Guild Victory (+3 points)
⏱ Total Match Time: 2 hours 11 minutes 11 seconds
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