Chapter 110

A wave of intense vertigo hit him, causing his surroundings to twist and his vision to wobble violently from side to side.

The moment Baek Jinwoo materialized back in the Arena, a deafening chorus of voices slammed into him—

“GUILD MASTERRR!”

“Jinwoo-nim!”

“WAAAAAAAH! HYUNGNIM!”

“BWAHAHAHA! Well done!”

His teammates were completely losing their minds with excitement.

Unable to contain the raw ecstasy flooding their systems, they lunged forward as one cohesive unit and hoisted him into the air.

Champion of the Battle Royale!

This staggering, unprecedented triumph had just been achieved for the absolute first time—and it was registered under the banner of South Korea.

“WAAAAAAAH!”

“LONG LIVE BAEK JINWOO!”

“LONG LIVE THE GUILD MASTER!”

The weight of this moment was monumental.

This victory would be carved deep into historical records and discussed by future generations for the rest of time, cementing itself as an immortal milestone for South Korea.

“Ah……”

Hong Ari subconsciously pressed her hands together over her chest.

Even though she had witnessed the entire spectacle with her own eyes and been right there on the field, the reality of it still felt surreal.

Incredible.

Our Master……

He wasn’t just capable of standing on equal footing with Rachel; he possessed the raw power to completely overwhelm her.

Up in the air, Baek Jinwoo looked utterly bewildered by the sudden celebration.

After being tossed up and down a few times—

Whoosh!

He executed a clean midair twist and dropped safely to the arena floor outside their huddle.

“Hey, hey, hey, hold on, get a grip. Everyone, calm down!”

Baek Jinwoo motioned for them to back off.

“People watching would think we just took home the entire championship trophy. Stop throwing such a massive scene.”

With those words, he instantly punctured the celebratory bubble.

The Battle Royale was merely an introductory team showcase.

It didn’t provide a single point toward the actual tournament scoreboard.

“Let’s see the numbers. How many opponents did each of you manage to eliminate?”

Swish.

Baek Jinwoo’s sharp, piercing stare swept over the group, plunging the ecstatic atmosphere into an icy silence within a fraction of a second.

Oh, give us a break.

Can’t we just savor the victory for one single moment?

Does he really have to interrogate us about performance metrics right this second?

Conveniently, a massive Scoreboard remained suspended in the air on one side of the Arena.

“Hong Ari, 5 eliminations. Ki Jaehyeok, 5 eliminations. Kang Geonho, 2 eliminations. Oh Seonyeong, 2 eliminations. Jiho… you only managed 1?”

“……”

The entire group went completely mute.

When placed right next to Baek Jinwoo’s jaw-dropping 50 eliminations, their individual contributions looked incredibly pitiful.

“I can give Song Yeonhui a pass, but the Ilwol Hyungnims walked away with a clean zero? Haven’t you two been under my direct tutelage for over six months now?”

“Haha, well, you see, the circumstances were……”

“We crossed paths with some absolute monsters right at the start…… We got obliterated before we could even mount a proper defense.”

Hwang Juwon rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

“……Monsters?”

What monsters?

The actual powerhouse countries—the global top five—hadn’t even crossed paths with South Korea. What kind of formidable foes could they possibly be talking about?

Ultimately, Baek Jinwoo delivered a harsh dose of reality.

“Don’t get complacent just because you became my pupils.”

The Five Emperors had practically begged on their knees for this exact training opportunity and were turned away. These individuals had only received it out of pure luck because they happened to represent South Korea on the international stage.

Furthermore, it wasn’t as if Baek Jinwoo had slacked off on their instruction.

He and Drill Sarge had devised hyper-detailed, personalized strategies, and he was absolutely certain it was the highest caliber of mentorship available on Earth.

“If your performance slips, your spots on the national roster for next year aren’t guaranteed. Don’t operate under the assumption that being a member of SKY is a permanent luxury.”

“U-Understood.”

He wasn’t blind to their emotional state.

Eruptions of pride and profound accomplishment were undoubtedly bursting like magma inside their hearts.

However.

The time wasn’t right.

The true celebration belonged at the very end of the tournament, only after they had secured the ultimate crown of “champions.” Waiting until then wouldn’t hurt anyone.

Right now, the priority was identifying their shortcomings and fortifying their capabilities, even if only by a fraction.

That was the most beneficial path forward for them.

Just as the team was successfully suppressing their high spirits under Baek Jinwoo’s stern lecture—

“Huh?”

“H-Hyungnim, look over there.”

Ki Jaehyeok gestured with his finger toward the distance.

A fair-haired woman was making her way directly toward their position.

“……Rachel?”

Baek Jinwoo instantly activated his linguistic companion creature.

As Rachel neared with an unyielding, serious expression on her face, low conversations broke out across the entire venue.

It’s Rachel.

What business does Rachel have with the South Korean squad?

……Is she furious about how things turned out?

Honestly, who could blame her? Rumor has it that a specific summon named Drill Sarge completely sabotaged her entire strategy……

The competitors lingering in the Arena had spent the intermission period frantically reviewing the stream commentary on their mobile devices.

Had they not done so, they would have remained completely oblivious to the chaos that unfolded during the Battle Royale.

“Baek Jinwoo.”

Step.

Rachel came to a halt right in front of him. A faint, almost imperceptible smirk touched the corner of her mouth as she reached out with her right hand.

An offer to shake hands.

“That summon of yours, Drill Sarge…… He truly was an anomaly, wasn’t he? I found myself completely helpless against him.”

“Is that so?”

Baek Jinwoo tilted his head slightly.

He remained entirely in the dark regarding what kind of havoc Drill Sarge had actually caused.

So, Drill Sarge had crossed paths with Rachel.

Judging by the tension in the air, that appeared to be exactly what went down.

“Our Drill Sarge is indeed a force to be reckoned with, yes.”

Swish!

Baek Jinwoo extended his arm forward and firmly gripped her hand.

Rachel’s smile widened slightly.

“When we meet in the championship round, I won’t be defeated so effortlessly.”

The championship round!

Rachel had explicitly brought up the final match.

The sheer gravity of that statement sent shockwaves through the room.

Good grief!

She genuinely believes South Korea is going to push all the way to the final stage, bypassing the five dominant global powers?

Then again, considering those incredible JinuGod videos circulating online, maybe that hypothesis isn’t so far-fetched.

He did just seize the crown in the Battle Royale, after all.

Murmurs rippled through the venue.

The competitors kept whispering back and forth.

Without a doubt, this brief interaction would spread through the global player networks like wildfire in a matter of minutes.

Following his short dialogue with Rachel, Baek Jinwoo retreated to a quiet spot in the corner and sat down.

An alert had been blinking persistently at the edge of his vision for some time, demanding his attention.

[A secret reward has been delivered.]

[Do you wish to open it?]

A secret reward.

The exclusive prize that only Rachel had managed to claim in the past—and three times over, no less!

What kind of item could it possibly be?

Baek Jinwoo focused his consciousness directly on the notification.

And then—

Flash!

[Player ‘Baek Jinwoo’ has received 5 ultimate summoning scrolls!]

W-What……?

Are you kidding me……!

A single victory in this event yields five ultimate summoning scrolls?

The absolute pinnacle of summoning items—the ones boasting a mere 1% probability of summoning an S-rank entity—had just been dropped directly into his inventory.

A total of five.

Hold on, if the rewards are structured this way……

Does that mean Rachel had accumulated fifteen ultimate summoning scrolls over her career?

Granted, that was purely a guess.

The prize pool for the Battle Royale could very well fluctuate with each passing year.

He would need to find an opportunity to ask Rachel for confirmation on that detail at a later date.

Regardless, these are staying with me.

He already possessed seven ultimate summoning scrolls in his personal collection.

What if he amassed a truly massive stockpile?

He was fully prepared to break them all open in a single massive session.

Even so, I’d probably require at least a hundred…… to practically guarantee pulling a minimum of one S-rank creature, right? If fortune smiles on me, perhaps even two.

Amassing a hundred such scrolls was a monumental task on its own, but……

“Hah.”

If a mere side event like the Battle Royale offered compensation of this caliber, what kind of treasure awaited the victors of the actual league championship?

The anticipation was almost agonizing.

With incentives like these on the line, settling for a spot in the semifinals was completely out of the question.

A faint grin tugged at the edge of Baek Jinwoo’s mouth, though a freezing, calculated sharpness remained locked within his gaze.

He still couldn’t accurately measure the true depth of Rachel’s power, but……

I am taking the crown. No matter what stands in my way.

Rachel’s uncontested reign ended with the previous year.

Now that I have entered the arena……

That era was officially over.

Rachel was perfectly suited to occupy the runner-up position from now on.

[The group distribution phase will now commence!]

The official tournament stages designed to filter out the top 16 nations were finally preparing to begin in earnest.

A total of nine groups.

Across roughly one week of intense group phase face-offs, the pair of teams securing the highest tallies in each bracket would move onward to the Round of 16, and……

Out of the eighteen countries that managed to qualify, the two teams possessing the lowest overall scores would face immediate disqualification.

[Shhhhhk!]

The titles of various nations alongside numerical data began rolling down the digital Scoreboard.

South Korea, having secured the second-highest total score for eliminations during the Battle Royale, found themselves assigned to Group 2.

[Group 2 Standings]

[South Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, Tanzania, Spain, Canada, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Malawi, Belgium]

Group 2 comprised ten different countries in total.

Based strictly on the data from the Battle Royale performance, South Korea stood as the dominant force in the bracket, with Indonesia and the Philippines trailing behind them.

“This is an incredibly favorable draw for us, isn’t it?”

Hong Ari’s face lit up with optimism.

The tournament structure remained identical to prior iterations.

A sequential elimination format.

Ten representatives from each country would step up to battle one after the other, with the ordering of the combatants decided completely by chance.

A triumphant match yielded three points, whereas a loss resulted in a deduction of one point.

Should a confrontation persist past the thirty-minute mark without resolution, it would conclude as a stalemate, yielding zero points for either side.

“The absolute ideal setup would be Hyungnim drawing the opening slot and just completely wiping out their entire roster single-handedly.”

Ki Jaehyeok remarked, prompting a knowing smirk from Baek Jinwoo.

“That would certainly be convenient, but the system randomizes the order.”

“True.”

“Regardless.”

Baek Jinwoo leaned in.

“You all understand that securing a spot in the Round of 16 is a absolute certainty. There is zero probability of me suffering a defeat.”

It could easily be interpreted as supreme arrogance, but it was an undeniable reality.

No matter what position he drew in the lineup?

The exact instant Baek Jinwoo stepped onto the battlefield, a complete solo-wipe of the opposing side was a foregone conclusion.

From the perspective of the national squad, they had the luxury of complete peace of mind.

“Very well.”

Baek Jinwoo signaled for his guild comrades to cluster around him.

“Advancing past this group is an absolute given, so don’t even waste energy worrying about it. Every single concept and technique you have absorbed during our training sessions—I expect to see you execute them flawlessly out there.”

He didn’t care about showing it to the global audience. They needed to prove it to him.

The guild members listened intently, their muscles tightening with stress.

He had driven this point home in the past, and he was reinforcing it now.

The guild master was not running a charitable organization.

He would sever ties with any one of them without a second thought if their growth stagnated or failed to meet his standards.

It’s true that SKY only boasts ten members at this current moment, but the moment the roster expands, our positions on the national team could easily be stripped away.

Just look at Song Yeonhui and Hwang Jiwoo. The guild master will happily substitute unranked individuals into the national lineup without a single shred of hesitation, provided they demonstrate the necessary capability.

The fundamental reason Baek Jinwoo possessed the authority to make such radical choices came down to a singular reality.

His personal combat prowess was simply too cataclysmic.

Under this specific tournament blueprint, a single transcendent combatant could single-handedly elevate an entire nation’s standing and dictate the results.

Baek Jinwoo reflected silently.

The core purpose behind his efforts to elevate their strength.

This tournament was never his ultimate destination.

The impending arrival of the Chaos Dragon through future world progressions, along with the chaotic geopolitical crises that would follow—he wanted to build a shield capable of safeguarding his cherished ones from any conceivable danger.

To achieve that objective…

He was required to forge an elite inner circle of players capable of sweeping international titles with ease, even in his total absence.

When all was said and done, they needed to achieve a tier of mastery that allowed them to stand against the Five Emperors and emerge victorious.

If they couldn’t reach that level, the hours he spent instructing them were entirely wasted.

“I am an individual who places an incredibly high premium on his own time.”

“Therefore, whether each of you warrants the valuable hours I allocate toward your development…… demonstrate it clearly during this tournament.”

Gulp.

It was an undeniably detached perspective, perhaps, but every single representative of the national squad swallowed hard under the pressure.

“WAAAAAAAH!”

“BWAHAHAHA!”

The streets of South Korea had completely transformed into a massive, nationwide carnival.

Citizens clad in vibrant crimson attire flooded the public squares, dancing and raising drinks in celebration.

Colossal public monitors broadcasted compiled highlight packages of Baek Jinwoo’s exploits directly alongside the ongoing tournament coverage.

— Hong Ari! Having drawn the opening slot for the match, Hong Ari effortlessly eliminates Venezuela’s eighth combatant and maintains her flawless, unbroken momentum!

— This is a breathtaking display! The individual who commands the A-rank Phoenix with greater finesse than anyone else on the planet—that is none other than our own Hong Ari!

— Her mechanical execution and tactical awareness are on an entirely different level compared to last year. Could this be the direct result of Baek Jinwoo’s guidance?!

Their opening match of the tournament phase pitted them against Venezuela.

A country with a smaller summoning population that had historically been viewed as a direct peer to South Korea’s level.

South Korea’s vanguard for the match was Hong Ari.

Determined by the randomized system, naturally.

Taking the field as the very first combatant, Hong Ari displayed a level of mechanical precision that bore absolutely no resemblance to her past performances.

Had Baek Jinwoo’s strict ultimatum to demonstrate her worth struck a deep chord within her?

She unleashed an entirely elevated tier of combat against the Venezuelan representatives, tearing through their ranks with zero leniency.

— AAAH! The opposing team’s counter-offensives fail to land a single clean hit! The Phoenix completely reduces yet another enemy summon to ashes!

— The Phoenix possesses that signature resurrection attribute, meaning even if it falls in battle, it will reconstitute itself after a set duration, correct?

— However, Venezuela has failed to force that resurrection mechanic to trigger even a SINGLE time! They are entirely devoid of defensive answers!

While Baek Jinwoo had served as the definitive center of attention during the Battle Royale, Hong Ari solidified herself as the standout star of this opening tournament round.

Citizens gathering in the streets talked endlessly about her performance, shouting praises for the radically upgraded capabilities of their national representatives.

And then—

— Completely wiped!

— A total solo-wipe!

— Hong Ari Completes The solo-wipe!

— An incredible milestone that we have historically only witnessed from powerhouse nations like England, Japan, and America—regardless of Venezuela’s standing, OUR South Korea has just accomplished it!

The very first clean team sweep in South Korea’s history!

That monumental honor belonged exclusively to the vice guild master of SKY, Hong Ari.