Chapter 158

Rustle, rustle!

The evaluation officials dispersed into the thick foliage.

Vice guild leader Hong Ari and strategy advisor Hwang Juwon were kept off the list of potential marks.

For obvious reasons.

Their job was to remain stationed at the crests to conduct the assessments.

Ari made her way toward the primary summit, while Juwon ascended Gitdaebong.

With that.

The tactical psychological warfare commenced among every squad scattered across the mountain.

Team 5.

Their captain, Lee Jongchan, held the 30th spot in the domestic rankings.

“Let’s bypass the summit capture for now.”

“What’s the plan instead?”

A fellow squad member questioned him, and he replied without a moment’s hesitation.

“I’ve been monitoring the path Hwang Jiwoo has taken since the whistle blew.”

“…You aren’t suggesting—?”

“Exactly. We are heading straight to ambush an official.”

“You want to target Hwang Jiwoo? The lowest-tier competitor on the national roster, the one who didn’t even have a rank before?”

“It’s a matter of speed. What happens if we squander our energy squabbling over a mountain crest while every other official gets defeated by the remaining squads? We’ll be left standing around with nothing to show for it and get cut.”

He had observed the World League matches firsthand.

Granted, her display back then was commendable.

However, when stacked up against true heavyweights like Baek Jinwoo, Hong Ari, Ki Jaehyeok, Kang Jiho, and the rest of that echelon…

Her shortcomings were plain to see.

“But isn’t that gamble a bit too steep?”

A different squad member voiced their concerns.

“Examiner Hong Ari made the conditions clear. Once a creature is forced back from a dismissal, it’s permanently locked out for the rest of the trial.”

It was a severe restriction.

Total permitted creature inventory: fifteen.

Simultaneous active deployments: five.

If a single one suffered a forced dismissal?

You were barred from calling it back out for the duration of the camp.

“To successfully bring down an evaluation official, we’ll have to commit our absolute best assets… and if we fail, they’re gone for good. That’s virtually equivalent to failing the test right then and there.”

“……”

Lee Jongchan went quiet for a brief spell, then gave a firm shake of his head.

“Too steep a gamble? We signed up for this program precisely to take risks. To put it bluntly—if the five of us combined can’t overcome a single creature deployed by Hwang Jiwoo, what right do we have to even dream of making the national roster?”

“That makes sense logically, but still.”

“…You’re the captain, Jongchan. We will follow your lead.”

“Agreed. You’re holding the 30th rank nationwide, so we’ll place our bets on your judgment.”

As the rest of the group fell into agreement, the skeptical member had no choice but to acquiesce.

The captain was unyielding. The only path forward was cooperation.

Whether he picked up on that lingering hesitation or not, Lee Jongchan let out a confident smirk.

“Don’t stress over it. Stick close to me. I’ll guarantee we bring her down.”

“Hah.”

Deep within the wilderness.

Hwang Jiwoo had picked out a strategic position and materialized her Lich.

Krrk……

A freezing vapor emanated from beneath the shrouded skull, bleak and biting.

Observing the creature, Jiwoo’s face clouded with apprehension.

In truth, she was riddled with nerves.

Am I genuinely capable of holding off a full squad of prospects by myself?

Her highest-tier combat asset was the Ice Bird.

Though she practiced her manipulation skills every single day, Jiwoo’s arsenal only reached peak efficacy when all five of her primary creatures operated in perfect harmony.

Relying on a solitary B-rank Lich left her feeling exposed. It was something she had never attempted.

But regardless.

When senior colleagues issued directives, you executed them.

There was no room for negotiation.

Particularly in Jiwoo’s position—through endless mock battles and precision training blocks, she had failed to secure a single victory against any of them.

They were all terrifyingly capable individuals, and Song Yeonhui especially, who sat closest to her position on the ladder… that woman was an absolute prodigy.

“Mmnh.”

A self-deprecating smile touched her lips.

Spotting a convenient boulder nearby, Jiwoo cleared off the surface with a couple of quick slaps.

The evaluation period was slated to persist for an entire week, meaning she would be logged into this location for quite some time.

Affiliates of the SKY guild were well-versed in this brand of field endurance.

Regulated breathing drills were the most efficient method to pass the hours.

Taking up a cross-legged posture atop the boulder, Jiwoo pulled in a deep breath and released it steadily.

“Ssss… hoo—”

Drawing from the environment’s vitality, as always!

As the crisp mountain air flooded her chest, her thoughts stabilized.

The residual anxiety dissipated. Just as the ambient wilderness murmurs began to register in her awareness—

Krrk.

The Lich’s icy aura intensified sharply.

Hm?

That signaled its detection protocol. Someone was closing in.

This early in the game?

Knit-browed, she returned to a standing posture.

Rustle, swish!

Five combatants were forcing their way through the thickets ahead.

Team 5.

Jiwoo let out a quiet breath.

Naturally.

They are treating me as the path of least resistance. It figures.

She couldn’t entirely suppress a pang of resentment.

Nevertheless, Ari Unni had explicitly commanded her to engage with absolute seriousness.

Squeeze.

Jiwoo tightened her grip into a firm fist.

Concurrently, she conditioned her mindset to adjust.

Treat this exact scenario as if I am trapped in an isolated encounter back at the World League.

“Spotlight on the target!”

Lee Jongchan bellowed.

Hssssss!

His squad’s vanguard forces fanned out across the terrain within a fraction of a second.

We need a rapid resolution.

Jongchan was no novice when it came to high-level competitive circuits.

He had already discerned the nature of the entity Jiwoo had fielded through the foliage and quickly briefed his unit.

“The target is a Lich! It utilizes ice-based offensive parameters, so consolidate your spacing—do not spread out!”

The signature capability of a Lich was Blizzard.

A wide-area destruction spell that could decimate their entire formation if they left themselves exposed.

Clustering tightly around defensive bulwarks, barrier users, or entities capable of generating thermal counters was the optimal tactical approach.

I’ll handle the vanguard pressure against Jiwoo myself.

KIIIIAAAAAAAH!

Nightmare Drake. B-rank.

Lee Jongchan’s primary combat entity lunged into a sprint.

THUDUDUDUD!

The massive reptilian beast surged ahead, its heavy impacts vibrating through the entire hillside.

His squadmates operated with seamless synergy, forming a perimeter around the Lich.

“Unload your maximum output capabilities immediately!”

“Understood!”

“Let’s end this!”

A ravenous intensity flashed in the eyes of every squad member.

A solitary Lich stood before them.

They had harbored reservations initially, but she truly was relying on just one single entity.

How could this be so effortless?

Victory is well within our grasp.

Are we moving on to the next phase just like that?

And at that very moment.

The Lich executed its counter-maneuver first.

Jiwoo’s fingers adjusted with microscopic control.

The Lich’s ocular cavities erupted in crimson fire, and dozens of crystalline ice projectiles formed instantaneously in the atmosphere.

FWIP-FWIP-FWIP-FWIP!

They dispersed outward in a chaotic pattern.

“INTERCEPT THEM!”

“DEFENSIVE MARKS, TO THE FRONT!”

However.

These were far from standard projectile arrays.

CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!

The millisecond they made contact with an opposing entity, it froze solid instantly.

Nightmare!

The Nightmare Drake attempted to disrupt the Lich’s psychological matrix—

Krrk?

The Lich remained entirely unaffected.

The ultimate offensive abilities of the entire opposing squad were concentrated on the central target, yet—

It hovered effortlessly through the airspace, evading every oncoming strike.

What?

Jiwoo focused her gaze.

They possess this little refinement?

The trajectories were completely transparent. Painfully, predictably straightforward.

Akin to a novice throwing basic direct strikes along a single vector.

It bore zero resemblance to the complex patterns the senior national roster members subjected her to.

CRACK!

Simultaneously while evading, the Lich maintained its barrage of ice projectiles.

Blizzard?

There was absolutely no requirement to exhaust that volume of resource points.

The projectile arrays were extraordinarily sharp.

High-durability vanguard entities were locked in place by the frost, rendered completely immobile.

Offensive specialists lacking defensive reinforcement were forced back into dismissal parameters the instant they sustained a hit.

“…Unbelievable.”

“What sort of capability is this?”

The combatants of Team 5 looked as though their senses were failing them.

They had initiated the engagement with twenty-five active assets.

And at this juncture?

A mere five remained.

All five belonged to the vanguard class.

Frozen vanguard units, seconds away from complete dismissal.

“Utilizing nothing more than a solitary B-rank Lich……”

“How is this possible……”

Their expressions were frozen in disbelief.

What exactly had just transpired?

CRACK! CRACK-CRACK!

Even as they witnessed the Lich generating an even larger cluster of frost projectiles overhead, they were entirely unable to process the reality of the situation.

“Ah……”

Lee Jongchan was hit hardest by the reality.

This marked the conclusion. The engagement was decided.

The twenty-five assets they had deployed represented the absolute core of Team 5’s strength, and with all of them neutralized… any hope of securing the summit was gone.

Bringing out alternative reserves would amount to nothing short of self-destruction.

My calculations were entirely faulty.

The contemporary national lineup was comprised of absolute anomalies.

The brutal confrontations witnessed during the World League—

Those spectacles were only achievable because that particular platform was reserved strictly for anomalies.

And Baek Jinwoo maintains a position far above even that echelon. An entity existing entirely outside conventional metrics.

He clamped his eyelids shut.

The threshold maintained by the SKY guild was staggeringly high. So profoundly intimidating that any lingering ambition to enter their ranks dissolved on the spot.

“Do you intend to persist with this engagement?”

Seated gracefully on her chosen boulder, Jiwoo inquired with a mild tone.

Persist? Under these conditions?

Should they manifest additional forces, that storm of ice projectiles would inevitably descend once more. That reality was absolute.

“W-we are executing a tactical retreat for the time being.”

Lee Jongchan could feel the critical glares of his squadmates piercing through him like blades as perspiration ran down his profile.

Team 5 was far from the only group experiencing setbacks, however.

There were numerous units active, and an equal number committing critical errors.

Consider Team 10 as a prime example.

FWOOOOSH!

Song Yeonhui’s Fire Puppet tore through their ranks in a spectacular exhibition of pyrotechnics, reducing every single one of Team 10’s assets to cinders.

Not a single combatant possessed the reaction time to monitor the construct’s trajectories as she manipulated it at velocities that blurred past human vision.

“Appreciate the exercise.”

No individual possessed the courage to challenge Yeonhui after she had reduced their entire force to dust and delivered a courteous sign-off.

The situation surrounding Team 7 presented an even more dramatic scenario.

For reasons unknown, they had chosen to engage Ahn Gijeong—who occupied the 87th position in global standings.

A true colossus.

CRACK!

He didn’t even bother materializing his personal signature forces, the toxic vipers.

A basic D-rank asset.

He had animated a commonplace battlefield skeleton construct to deploy against them, and not a single opposing force managed to land a scratch on its structure.

Runes played a role, certainly.

Yet it came down to a staggering disparity in technical manipulation. Completely and utterly unapproachable.

Through these harsh interactions, the prospective recruits were discovering, instance by instance, the true magnitude of the chasm separating them from full SKY guild personnel.

By experiencing total neutralization.

The moment the summit acquisition operation went live.

The captain of Team 1, Jeong Siwoo, delivered his assessment dispassionately.

“Do not look in the direction of the evaluation officials.”

A rational deduction.

It was always advantageous to analyze the core intent of the assessors.

Why had Hong Ari deliberately restricted each official to utilizing a lone entity restricted to B-rank or lower?

“If our capability level equates to standard regional sports enthusiasts, the officials represent elite international competitors from the top professional leagues. They implemented those boundaries specifically to make an example out of any squad foolish enough to engage them without recognizing their own limitations.”

Initiate a confrontation?

You would merely serve as an entertainment exercise.

“What is our alternative vector then?”

Han Yuna inquired.

“We execute a direct sprint toward the peak.”

Siwoo’s projection carried absolute conviction.

“We accelerate right from the baseline, seize the high ground immediately, and establish a perimeter. A purely defensive operational model.”

“That represents our highest-probability pathway to success?”

Kang Daehyuk asked for confirmation.

“Precisely. In the initial phase, the majority of squads will be operating in a state of disarray.”

Siwoo shifted his eyewear slightly before continuing.

“A portion will attempt to exploit what they perceive as a weaker official. Others will withhold their forces in hopes of outlasting the chaos. Some will lack any cohesive strategy and dissolve into internal bickering. Eliminate those variables, and the volume of competitive units we must directly manage becomes negligible. Furthermore, we have two distinct summits available.”

“The logic holds up.”

Seo Iyun concurred with a nod.

“Alright.”

Kang Daehyuk slammed his closed hand into his open palm with a resonant impact.

“Regardless of the tactical choice, we pledged to adhere to the captain’s directives without debate. I won’t press for further details. Let’s move.”

“Absolutely, senior colleagues! MOVE OUT!”

Accompanying Kim Daebok’s aggressive exclamation, Team 1 initiated a high-speed advance straight toward the primary peak.

They breached the perimeter of the summit where Hong Ari was conducting her field observations in a stunningly brief window of time.

Securing the position first, they established an unyielding defensive bottleneck across every primary access path leading up the mountain.

Astonishingly.

The scenario materialized in exact alignment with Siwoo’s projections.

“Incredible, is this actually happening?”

“Why is there zero pressure on our position? Is every other squad occupied elsewhere?”

Following thirty minutes of maintaining the sector, not a single adversarial unit had contested their perimeter.

Eventually, Team 2 made an appearance, prompting Siwoo to step out to meet them.

“Redirect your advance toward Gitdaebong. The sector is currently completely uncontested. There is zero tactical value in a confrontation between us at this juncture, correct?”

“Can you verify that intelligence?”

“Completely. Can you hear the engagements taking place in the lower valleys? Over there, and along that ridge line as well. The other units are exhausting themselves trying to neutralize officials. Conversely, there is absolute silence radiating from Gitdaebong.”

“…Understood.”

Following a brief exchange, Team 2 altered their course.

They possessed the capability to test their fortunes, but Siwoo maintained the 11th position nationwide.

They had no desire to invite that conflict.

Daehyuk couldn’t suppress his curiosity.

“Is Gitdaebong genuinely unoccupied?”

“Naturally it isn’t.”

Siwoo let out a slight laugh.

“The official explicitly stated we were authorized to utilize any available methodology, did she not? I merely secured us additional operational space.”

“…You absolute menace.”

Holding the 11th rank domestically, they had anticipated him to operate with strict traditional sportsmanship. Clearly, that was an assumption.

Nonetheless.

The ultimate metrics were the only numbers that counted.

An additional twenty minutes slipped by.

Team 3, finally recognizing the temporal constraint, launched a desperate offensive toward the primary summit.

Intent on breaking Team 1’s defensive lock.

However—

“At this stage, our sole objective is to deny entry. Execute maximum suppression.”

Fortunately, Team 1 possessed the offensive capability necessary to validate their position.

They completely dominated the approaching forces, neutralizing oncoming trajectories with minimal friction.

Ten remaining minutes ticked away.

PHWEEET!

The sharp sound of Hong Ari’s signal device cut through the mountain air.

“Team 1, criteria met. Evaluation concluded.”

An operational exercise originally scheduled to consume an entire week.

Team 1 bypassed the duration entirely via record-setting efficiency, a stunning demonstration of logistical and combat execution that verified their elite status beyond any shadow of a doubt.

This collaborative assessment had been completely carried by the brilliant strategic execution of Jeong Siwoo.