Chapter 107

Hwang Jiwoo steeled herself.

“Atreve-se a subir ao céu?”

“Vamos fazer isso rápido e vamos lá!”

The Brazilian players shouted something or other, but she ignored them.

Without an interpreter bird nearby, communication was impossible anyway, and she didn’t need to understand their words to know they were hostile.

FWOOOSH!

The bird they rode had just spewed flames from its beak.

SCREEEEECH!

The Ice Bird didn’t take it lying down.

It twisted its body into a spiral to dodge their flames, and simultaneously— SHHHHHK! It beat its frost-laden wings wide.

Frozen Field!

An area-of-effect spell that slowed the movement speed of every summon in its line of sight to a crawl.

CRACK, CR-CRACK!

The air began freezing solid.

The downside of this skill was that it affected her own summons too!

But Hwang Jiwoo was fine.

Every one of her summons had an ice attribute, and she had the Frost Cat, whose cold resistance had been pushed to the absolute limit.

Jinwoo told me.

That this combination was a broken combo every veteran player already knew about.

It just wasn’t popular because of its low damage output. But he’d said she was different.

And he was right.

The Brazilian players looked panicked, completely at a loss for what to do.

SCREEEE!

The Ice Bird soared high into the sky.

The enemies tried to follow, but the reduced movement speed opened the gap between them.

Swoosh!

Hwang Jiwoo calmly extended her hand.

This wasn’t enough.

Hadn’t she drilled this combo countless times during training?

“Lich!”

Hummmmm!

The Lich floating in midair emitted an eerie glow from its eyes.

At the same time—

WHIIIIIIIIRL!

A blizzard began to rage.

A supreme-grade ice-attribute area-of-effect spell that consumed half her MP to reduce the enemy’s attack speed and deal sustained damage!

The Blizzard had begun.

England’s main screen locked onto South Korea’s Hwang Jiwoo and Brazil’s Gavsiba and Piris.

An aerial battle splashed across the full camera feed was impossible to ignore.

— They’re already fighting!

— And it’s not a ground battle—it’s an aerial one!

— Who is that?

— Hold on! Let me zoom in!

At the Caster’s instruction, a staff member at the filming center smoothly zoomed in.

What emerged was a battle between an Ice Bird (A-rank) and Assault Wyverns (B-rank)!

— Assault Wyverns—that’s Brazil! Brazil’s always been strong in aerial combat, right?

— Indeed. And those are Brazil’s rank 1 and 2! Lucky timing! Running into each other right from the start!

— It’s because they control the skies. No matter how vast the forest, it’s easy to spot each other in the air!

— By the way, what is that bird?

— An Ice Bird! It’s an A-rank summon, quite famous among gamers! The orthodox approach is to pair it with a B-rank Lich, and it looks like they’re running it exactly by the book!

As expected of England’s commentators.

Their knowledge of summons was extensive.

— Then who’s the player piloting that Ice Bird?

Zooooom!

The camera zoomed in further, revealing an East Asian woman mounted atop the Ice Bird.

— Jiwoo Hwang! She’s on South Korea’s national team! Oh, but… hold on.

At the same time, a note of bewilderment crept into the commentator’s voice.

— This woman is unranked?

— Unranked? Meaning she’s not on the world ranking?

— No, it’s not just that… she’s not even on South Korea’s ranking.

— A-Are you serious? And she’s showing that level of control?

It wasn’t anything spectacularly flashy.

But she was utilizing her skills at precisely the right moments, defending and holding her ground while preventing the Brazilian players from landing a single proper attack.

A ranker who couldn’t even crack her own country’s ranking, going toe-to-toe with world rankers who were considered titans.

At that very moment!

Since the main screen was focused on Hwang Jiwoo, South Korea erupted as well.

“Th-There! Look!”

Hwang Jiwoo’s dad shot to his feet, jabbing his finger at the screen.

Foam formed at the corners of his mouth.

“Those Brazilian bastards are attacking our daughter!”

“Honey, calm down.”

“AAAAH! What if our baby girl DIES?!”

“Dying in there doesn’t mean she actually dies. Good grief, people are watching, you’re embarrassing us…”

Hwang Jiwoo’s parents were also in Yubaek City.

She was a guild member, so of course they were.

South Korea’s broadcast crew was screaming themselves hoarse.

— Hwang Jiwoo dodges the Assault Wyvern’s breath attack again! And she immediately counters!

— Yes, but her damage is way too low.

— Their movement speed and attack speed are reduced, sure, but at this rate, she’ll eventually go down. Hwang Jiwoo has no choice but to climb higher! The moment she descends, she’ll fall right into the Brazilian players’ trap!

— Hurry! Baek Jinwoo needs to get there faster!

Two screens showed Hwang Jiwoo and Baek Jinwoo respectively.

Jiwoo holding the line. Jinwoo closing the distance.

SHWAAAAAAK!

Baek Jinwoo was gripping the Skypierce Wyvern’s horn, hurtling forward at tremendous speed.

But.

Before long, he too entered the Frozen Field’s effective range.

— No, no, this is bad!

— If this happens, Baek Jinwoo slows down too!

— The Frozen Field’s range is THAT long?!

The Ice Bird’s field of vision was vast.

CRACK, CR-CRACK!

Baek Jinwoo felt the surrounding air crystallizing around him—and smiled.

Hwang Jiwoo.

You’re doing well.

If she were the type to fall to measly wyverns like those, he never would have taken her as a disciple in the first place.

“Stormy.”

Nod.

Stormy lowered her head and gripped her staff tight.

“Hit ’em with Shift.”

— …!

She transformed the Dragon Burst that had been accumulated through Chain, then unleashed it through Shift.

How?

Like this!

Flames erupted from Stormy’s dragon-headed staff, and a long, blazing corridor materialized ahead of Baek Jinwoo.

Stormy’s firepower to neutralize the Frozen Field.

If the air freezes?

Just heat it back up!

SHWAAAAAAAAAK!

Thanks to that, Baek Jinwoo’s speed didn’t drop one bit.

— WHOA! What IS that?!

— I’ve never seen that before either! What kind of skill is that? Is it Stormy’s technique?

— Baek Jinwoo is approaching completely unaffected by the Frozen Field! At this speed, there’s a chance! It’s ENOUGH!

The commentators were losing it.

Naturally, the crowd went wild right along with them.

“WOW!”

“NIIIIICE!”

“JinuGod! JinuGod! JinuGod!”

Every single person watched the screen with one heart and one mind.

Their opponents were Brazilian rankers.

World ranking 40th and 100th, no less.

South Korea had never even scratched the bottom of the world rankings, and under normal circumstances, these were players they’d be scrambling to run from, let alone fight.

And yet?

Hwang Jiwoo was holding.

Baek Jinwoo was sprinting to take them down.

This… is SKY, led by Baek Jinwoo?

This is really our national team’s level?

Jinwoo’s one thing, but Jiwoo’s insane too. I take back all the shit I talked about picking a non-ranker. She’s holding THAT off?

Even if they lose at this point, it’s a damn good fight. They fought well!

The crowd was moved by Hwang Jiwoo’s sheer tenacity, holding on to the bitter end.

They marveled at Baek Jinwoo’s daring, unveiling new skills as he charged to rescue his struggling teammate.

Something electric surged from deep in their chests, raising goosebumps across their entire bodies.

And finally.

“Porra!”

“O que é aquilo?”

The Brazilian players gaped in alarm at Baek Jinwoo closing in at breakneck speed!

“Jinwoo!”

Meanwhile, the color rushed back into Hwang Jiwoo’s face.

Baek Jinwoo assessed the enemy’s full combat strength with a single glance.

An Assault Wyvern stacked to the teeth with damage?

On top of that, their remaining four summons were all support summons.

Buffers constantly replenishing the Assault Wyvern’s speed and MP.

They came out thinking about nothing but aerial combat.

No wonder Hwang Jiwoo looked like a sitting duck to them.

“Jiwoo. Good job holding out.”

Taking them out in midair? Child’s play.

TAP!

Drill Sarge, who’d been dangling from the talons, leaped toward Gavsiba with perfect timing.

Sssshhhh……

Rolly, too, had already slipped behind Piris under invisibility.

And simultaneously—

SCHLICK!

Drill Sarge’s blade cleaved the Skypierce Wyvern’s neck clean in two.

WHIRL-WHIRL-WHIRL!

Rolly’s scythe, appearing from thin air, spun a dozen times or more.

At blistering speed!

SPLORCH!

The wyverns and the summons mounted on them sprayed blood everywhere.

That was it!

With Ramba’s graduation stacks fully loaded, the combined damage of the two dealers was far too much for the wyverns’ HP to withstand in midair.

[South Korea, Baek Jinwoo — 2 kills!]

[South Korea, Baek Jinwoo — 3 kills!]

Drill Sarge plummeted after finishing them off.

Baek Jinwoo maneuvered the wyvern to catch him effortlessly.

At the same time, he signaled to Hwang Jiwoo.

Get down here!

Baek Jinwoo had just made a blazing debut on the world stage.

— Wow……

— Wh… what just happened?

— South Korea’s national team just… how many seconds did it take to finish off two titans?

— Couldn’t have been more than three?

— Even accounting for the reduced movement and attack speed… this is absolutely insane, isn’t it?

The world erupted.

Everyone watching the aerial battle highlight couldn’t pick their jaws off the floor.

The slow-motion replay kept broadcasting on loop—Drill Sarge dangling from the talons, launching at the perfect moment, slicing through the wyvern’s neck.

Everyone was also buzzing with question marks about the reaper that had appeared from nowhere.

Brazil’s people were hit hardest of all.

A woman covering her mouth with both hands.

A young man clutching his hair, face crumbling.

A grandmother in tears.

A grandfather wailing.

They had every reason.

Their nation’s rank 1 and 2—their hope—had been cut down in a single stroke.

And if it had been Rachel, fine, nobody would say a word.

But this was some ranker from a weak country they’d never even heard of.

No—they said he wasn’t even a ranker?

— The main screen has changed!

— Rachel! Rachel is on the move!

But in a survival game spanning 92 nations, they couldn’t keep showing that one scene forever.

The screen switched in an instant, and England’s professional commentators transitioned to the next topic smooth as water.

Hwang Jiwoo, having landed safely on the ground, greeted him with an excited voice.

Her eyes practically screaming, Did I do well? Tell me I did well!

But Baek Jinwoo was in a hurry.

The hidden compensation.

He didn’t want to give up the reward for being first in kills.

That meant he needed to start moving fast.

“First, make contact with Stormy.”

“Yes!”

Hwang Jiwoo tapped the back of Stormy’s hand.

With that, the Sudden Quest timer reset to one hour.

“Kills. You’re still at zero, right?”

“Yep, those guys were the first ones I ran into after the start.”

“Then from now on, funnel all the kills to me.”

“Of course.”

“We’re heading back up.”

Come to think of it, seizing the skies wasn’t a bad call at all.

They’d said items were more likely to spawn at higher elevations…

Secure air superiority first, then sweep every high point.

If they found items?

Take them.

If they spotted enemies?

Eliminate them.

Glance.

Baek Jinwoo checked the upper right corner.

[Remaining Players: 850]

Seventy had already been eliminated.

And Baek Jinwoo had only accounted for three of them.

Time was running out.

“Let’s go. Now!”

The Ice Bird and the Skypierce Wyvern took to the skies once more.