43. National Team Selection Match (5)
The team battle was over, so now it was time for the singles.
Unlike the world league, which runs a full league season and then wraps up with a team tournament starting from the Round of 16, the domestic scene was just a straight league format.
There were ten matches in total. A win gave you 3 points, a draw 1 point, and a loss -1 point.
Usually, if a match wasn’t decided within ten minutes, it ended in a draw.
They selected the top ten players in order of highest score.
And—
This time, Baek Jinwoo used a different strategy.
He put HunGyo in the spotlight as the main frontline, stalling while building up Lamba’s stacks on invisible Gale Slayer.
Then?
Once enough stacks were built, the Gale Slayer would slash through the enemy multiple times in an instant.
And do you know what that looked like?
It looked as if HunGyo was using the Gale Slayer’s skill.
-Aah! No upset here! Player Baek Jinwoo takes yet another victory!
-And you didn’t see it just now either, right?
-Yes, I kind of saw something faintly… but I have no idea what it was exactly! Could it be, like the caster suspects, a hidden skill of the summon called Training Instructor?
-Whatever it is, it’s insane!
The Gale Slayer had two skills.
[Owned Skills]
Assassinate: Becomes invisible for a short time. The first attack deals 100% critical damage.
Gale: Spins the Reaper’s Scythe once, dealing area damage.
Assassinate, and Gale.
And here was what made the Gale Slayer broken. The Gale Slayer’s basic attack was “Gale”.
Meaning the skill cooldown was zero—it was passive.
In other words?
If it kept landing basic attacks, splash damage kept going off endlessly.
And with Lamba’s stacks piling on top of that… what do you think happened?
“Just deleted.”
The moment the Gale Slayer’s invisibility dropped, it fired off basic attacks at light speed, and the sudden burst deleted every single summon the opponent had.
‘I still don’t even have proper runes yet.’
Even so, the damage was more than enough to casually send Korea’s rankers packing.
-Baek Jinwoo’s play is clean but aggressive, isn’t it?
-He hasn’t gone over a minute even once. Five matches so far, all wins—he’s tied for first alongside the current rank 1, Kang Geonho.
-And now! The bracket matched him against Kang Geonho!
-That’s right—this is going to be exciting! A showdown between the two top championship candidates!
A match against Kang Geonho, the rank 1.
When Baek Jinwoo arrived at the waiting room, he glanced at him.
First time seeing him in person. Kang Geonho was the vice guild master of Baekho Guild.
Early thirties.
[Please prepare for a player match.]
“Looking forward to it.”
Kang Geonho greeted him first, and Baek Jinwoo didn’t refuse the courtesy.
“Yes. Same here.”
Like the saying goes—manners make the person.
If the other side kept it polite, Baek Jinwoo kept it polite too.
They stepped onto the square marble tiles and summoned their creatures.
Of course, the Gale Slayer was summoned already invisible.
[Are you ready?]
[Y/N]
When both sides pressed Y, the wide protective barrier in the middle disappeared. After that, you fought—once you dismissed all five of the opponent’s summons, it was over.
Baek Jinwoo scanned Kang Geonho’s lineup.
Two White Earth Dragons, a Horn Fairy, a horned eagle, and a Grand Nature Mage.
Rankers usually had wide pools of summons, so you never knew what they’d bring each match. Sometimes they adapted to the opponent, sometimes they even changed their “door”.
He built a solid comp. It was decent.
The Horn Fairy boosted the attribute damage of the tank White Earth Dragons, and the horned eagle even applied an attack buff.
On top of that, the Grand Nature Mage, serving as the healer, provided sustain.
He didn’t know what runes they had, but just looking at the composition, it was balanced.
If Baek Jinwoo didn’t have an EX-grade summon, this might’ve been difficult at this stage.
But, well.
He had EX-grade summons now.
Four of them.
“Yes.”
No need to check anything else.
He pressed Y immediately.
[3]
[2]
[1]
[Starting player match!]
Whirrrrrrrrr!
The moment it started, Lamba began feeding stacks into the Gale Slayer.
Wooooong!
The Explosive Dragon began charging Explosive Dragon Wave.
Slash!
HunGyo surged forward, raised his sword, and drew it down diagonally. A single-minded resolve to block everything alone—whoever came at him.
The Wind Falcon applied a movement speed buff to HunGyo.
Kugugugugu…!
The opponent didn’t just sit there.
The two White Earth Dragons drilled through the marble floor and descended underground.
At the same time, the Horn Fairy and horned eagle buffs went up.
“HunGyo, same plan.”
Protect the backline and hold out for one minute.
To do that—
Swoosh!
HunGyo lifted his sword high into the air, and a pure white energy covered the blade.
Sword aura.
The reason White Earth Dragons were strong in player matches was that they could strike the backline first from underground.
But HunGyo carried memories of the Battle of Summoners.
He’d accumulated countless experiences together with God Ji-nu there.
White Earth Dragons?
If they attacked from underground, you ended it there.
—Hup!
HunGyo let out a short breath and slammed the raised sword down.
The sword aura split in two and plunged like spears.
Kwa-ga-ga-ga-ga!
The aura stabbed with chilling precision straight into the vital points of the two White Earth Dragons underground.
—Kieeeeek!
—Kieeeeeeeek!
Unable to endure the pain, they sprang up through the floor. The moment they surfaced, they shook off dirt and thrashed wildly.
“W-what…?”
Kang Geonho stiffened as he watched.
Directly hitting White Earth Dragons while they were underground? He’d never seen a summon that ridiculous.
‘So that’s it. That summon…’
It really was incredible.
How shocked he’d been when he first watched the team battle footage.
A single summon overwhelming rank-top-ten players like Oh Sunyoung, O Ji-myeong, and Park Ho-seop!
After seeing that, he’d never once thought he would win.
But still.
He wanted to do his best.
Not because of pride as rank 1—but simply sincerity as a player.
“Grand Nature Mage!”
Fwoooong!!
A summon that looked like a primitive forest druid swung its staff, and a cool breeze swept out.
A skill called Forest’s Healing—a wide-area heal.
One of its traits was that larger summons received a bonus healing effect.
—Kieeek!
—Kiaaaaaaah!
The two White Earth Dragons, already recovered, roared in rage toward HunGyo—
But HunGyo simply stood there calmly, sword in hand.
No need to charge in first. He only needed to endure exactly one minute.
Thanks to having a world-class endgame rune, in just one minute the Gale Slayer’s stacks piled up to an absurd level.
And—
‘There’s no time.’
Kang Geonho knew that too.
Before the match even started, a manager from Baekho Guild had quickly shown him Baek Jinwoo’s match records.
‘That weird attack is coming soon. I have to finish it before then… But how?’
There was no way.
Just looking at HunGyo standing there with his sword raised made his breath catch in his throat.
An iron fortress.
The opponent radiated a solidity that felt like it would never be pierced by any attack.
But even so, he couldn’t just freeze up!
“Charge!”
KWA-GA-GA-GA-GA!
At Kang Geonho’s gritted-teeth command, the two White Earth Dragons charged HunGyo at the same time.
But—
Ta-at!
With light footwork, HunGyo sprang into the air and ran along the White Earth Dragon’s hide.
—Kieeeeeek!
The two White Earth Dragons twisted and scraped against each other, trying to catch HunGyo—
Tadadad!
But even with their massive bodies, they were nowhere near fast enough to keep up with HunGyo’s movement-speed-buffed footwork.
And—
One minute elapsed.
Baek Jinwoo flicked his eyes toward the Gale Slayer, still invisible.
—Krrrk…!
The Gale Slayer had already moved to the center of the field!
As the Reaper’s eerie lips curled upward—
Whirlik!
The scythe spun once.
Whirliiiik!
Twice, three times, four times.
It took about one second.
But in that single second, Kang Geonho’s summons’ HP was shredded chunk by chunk.
It was so fast it felt pointless—almost ridiculous.
-Just now! Just now—what was that?!
-Didn’t you see something black?!
The commentators tried, but they couldn’t see any more detail.
After slaughtering everything, the Gale Slayer slipped back into stealth while still invisible.
Even if you did see something, it would only be a brief glimpse of a black mass holding a scythe.
[All summons of Player ‘Kang Geonho’ have been forcibly dismissed.]
[Player match has ended.]
A clean, overwhelming victory for Baek Jinwoo!
Even against the domestic rank 1, there was no twist this time.
At that moment.
Yoo Jia’s expression was nothing short of ecstatic.
It was like the face of Mourinho—Manchester United’s manager—after pulling off a comeback win.
‘As expected, God Ji-nu. I don’t even need to doubt anymore. Mr. Jinwoo is the legendary God Ji-nu!’
If it wasn’t him, who else could put on a performance like that?
Instantly deleting three rankers in the team battle!
And in singles, he kept racking up clean win streaks against anyone and everyone.
He even forced Korea’s rank 1, Kang Geonho, to kneel beneath him.
Does that even make sense?
Yoo Jia still couldn’t believe it.
No matter how much of a monster God Ji-nu was, he hadn’t even been playing that long—how could he already show that level of power?!
Beside her, Kim Byungjin, Hwang Taeseop, and Park Changseok were too busy hugging each other and jumping up and down every time Baek Jinwoo won.
Especially Park Changseok.
He was grinning so wide his teeth showed.
How could he not?
Not only had Baek Jinwoo crushed and stomped on Im Heesoo, who always looked down on him—
It wasn’t just “top 10” level anymore. It looked like he was going to take an outright overwhelming championship.
And… the only one who could control someone like that was Yoobaek.
“Yoo Jia! No—now you’re the CEO! CEO Yoo!”
Still bouncing with excitement, Park Changseok wiped sweat and walked up to Yoo Jia.
“Listening to you and pulling Baek Jinwoo into Yoobaek… I think that was the best decision of my life.”
“Hehe. Your eye for talent really was right, Assemblyman.”
“I told you. I might not be good at everything, but I’m dead accurate at judging people. Hahahaha!”
“Now all that’s left is for you to rise higher and higher as a politician. Mr. Jinwoo entered under your banner—people will recognize it.”
If that happened, it was a win-win.
Yoobaek would keep supporting Park Changseok.
And Park Changseok, with the increased power of his headquarters, would support Yoobaek in return.
From start to finish, everything was going exactly the way Yoo Jia had envisioned.
-Player Baek Jinwoo! He’s completely gone berserk! Seven straight wins! At this rate, he’s going to go ten-for-ten, a total blowout!
-Of course. He one-minute’d Kang Geonho—the “War God”—what more is there to say?
Even while all that was happening, Baek Jinwoo kept winning.
-He takes the eighth match too! Same method as before!
-There’s just no counterplay! Baek Jinwoo—Baek Jinwoo is our hope!
“H… hahaha…”
Yoo Jia let out a hollow laugh.
‘Mr. Jinwoo.’
Just how much more are you planning to shock us—and in what ways?
Ninth match, and then the final tenth match.
Baek Jinwoo didn’t waver.
Same method. Same ending.
Overwhelmingly.
As if to say, This is all you amount to, he didn’t even bother changing the framework.
-Ten wins out of ten! Player Baek Jinwoo! He’s writing a legend at last!
-With this, Baek Jinwoo is the champion! Selected for the national team! And he’ll even be the captain!
-Hahaha—at this weight class… maybe we can actually look forward to this year’s world league! For now, next year’s ranker slot is basically guaranteed!
Listening to the commentators’ excited voices, Yoo Jia closed her eyes.
‘Found it.’
She could feel it instinctively.
Just like her grandfather had—she’d finally found the company she would build with her entire life.
Yoobaek.
Supporting Baek Jinwoo was patriotism—and the fastest path to success.
‘More than anything, it was fun.’
After yet another clean victory, Yoo Jia watched Baek Jinwoo walk out with a calm expression, and she smiled softly.
Then she made a vow.
Just as she had until now—she would continue to support him with everything she had.
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