131. S-Grade Summon (1)
The champion nation.
And the nation that produced the world ranker in first place.
Now the entire world had its eyes on South Korea.
“Ha, Rachel...... I can’t believe that unbelievable monster finally had her first place taken away.”
At first, many people could not believe it even after seeing it with their own eyes.
Look at the UK’s lineup!
Was that really a lineup that could lose to just anyone?
If it had at least been the United States or Japan, that would have been one thing.
“Korea...... They’re number one? Where even is that?”
“Everyone keeps going on about God Ji-nu, God Ji-nu, but what even is that? I’ve never heard of it before.”
“I looked at their lineup from the league, and they didn’t even have a single world ranker on it.”
“Huh.... The UK really..”
But humans are creatures of adaptation.
If they had not known South Korea, tucked away in the corner of the East, then they could learn now.
If they had not known Baek Jinwoo, then they could hammer his name into their heads now.
“So anyway, Baek Jinwoo is the strongest on Earth now, right?”
“Of course he is. Look at the video. Even if Rachel lost in the mental game, she still completely threw in the towel. I still can’t forget that final expression on her face.”
“Come on, even so. Rachel has three S-grade summons, you know? If they fought properly again without the mind games, wouldn’t Rachel win?”
“Right, and if you look at how God Ji-nu had the Training Instructor out there fighting for him....... It’s true it kind of feels like he won by force. And honestly, if they just hadn’t accepted the duel in the first place, it was obvious the UK would’ve won.”
“No, you people! A loss is a loss, so why are you talking so much?”
There were two camps.
The camp that said Rachel would win if they fought properly!
Most of them were British.
Then there was the camp that said Baek Jinwoo was obviously stronger since he won despite being in a lower weight class!
Most of them were Korean.
Whenever the two groups met online, they fought for quite a while.
But when it came to sheer firepower, South Korea had the upper hand, because countless people around the world sided with Korea.
That was simply human nature.
Quite a lot of countries felt more resentment or jealousy than expected toward the UK, which had seized and controlled the league for no less than three years.
“The British, those bastards are just born arrogant, seriously.”
“If you lose, that’s the end of it. What’s with all the excuses?”
“It’s posted right there on the board. Baek Jinwoo is number one. At least make a reasonable argument.”
“Did somebody hold a knife to their throat and force them to accept the duel?”
“Honestly, I think Baek Jinwoo would win even if they fought again. Just look at the scene where he dodged that Archmage at the end...... He completely overwhelms her physically.”
And so, both in reality and in people’s minds, South Korea was slowly establishing itself as a hegemonic power.
* * *
After the ranking announcement ceremony ended, Yoobaek City returned to everyday life.
Even if Baek Jinwoo had become world rank one, nothing really changed.
It was the same as always.
He cleared the weekday dungeons, trained his body and breathing techniques, and trained the guild members.
There was plenty to do.
He had to climb the Tower of Trials again, his schedule had grown even more packed, and 「Yoobaek」 had, if anything, become busier.
There were also issues involving nuclear power plants and technical coordination, the problem of selecting new recruits, the issue with the Red Rose blood alliance, and he also needed to make time for Daeseong.
Among all of those, Baek Jinwoo considered the S-grade summon his top priority.
“Dugudugudugu!”
“Big brother! Are you drawing it right away?!”
“Wooooow!”
He had already explained the MVP reward to the guild members.
He had no intention of hiding it.
They were the people who had fought alongside him, and now they were family.
They all deserved to know.
Swish.
Baek Jinwoo pulled a scroll out of his inventory.
[100% Summoning Scroll]
[Grade: S-grade]
[You can randomly draw an S-grade summon.]
[However, in order to draw one, you need 10 Ultimate Summoning Scrolls.]
He gripped the 100% Summoning Scroll in his left hand and all 10 Ultimate Summoning Scrolls in his right at once.
“Wow.”
“How much would that even be worth?”
“…Just one of those Ultimate Summoning Scrolls would already be priceless.”
It was impossible to assign them a value.
Because nobody would ever try to sell one.
Who would sell a summoning scroll that, with a 1% chance, could not only completely transform their life, but even secure their safety?
—All right, all right, everyone! Did you bring the water?
Flap.
Lamba flew through the sky, urging the guild members on.
—Wash your hands thoroughly! And pray with reverent hearts! Okay? Our Jinwoo has incredibly bad luck, so we need the wishes of as many people as possible!
Hey, Lamba.
This is a 100% Summoning Scroll, so we don’t really need to do that.....
“Of course! If it’s for big brother to draw a good summon, I can do that all day!”
“Damn right!”
“Holy water! Don’t we have holy water?”
“What about alcohol instead of water? Maybe the goddess of luck likes alcohol?”
Well, look at that.
The guild members only escalated it further.
Gi Jaehyuk and Kang Jihoe, those two in particular, seemed especially excited.
Well.
This time, the results really had been good enough to get excited over.
“All right, all right, then here we go right away!”
Baek Jinwoo shouted, pumping himself up.
An S-grade summon!
Even in Battle of Summoners, it was a grade he had only ever possessed once in ten whole years.
It was just that that one S-grade had been the Ruination Dragon, the strongest among dragonkind.
‘Honestly, I wish the Ruination Dragon would come out right now......’
If that happened, the Chaos Demon Dragon that would appear later would be a joke.
The reason Baek Jinwoo had once set the great record of 47 seconds in the past was all thanks to the Ruination Dragon.
Dragon God!
When dragons see another dragon of a higher rank than themselves, they freeze up and cannot do a thing.
All right.
Shall we begin?
Riiip!
Baek Jinwoo tore the scroll open with gusto.
[Player ‘Baek Jinwoo’ uses the 100% Summoning Scroll (S-grade)!]
[A sacrifice is required!]
[Will you turn in 10 ‘Ultimate Summoning Scrolls’?]
[Y / N]
‘Yes.’
The moment he nodded, the Ultimate Summoning Scrolls in his right hand melted away.
A miracle that turned ten 1% chances into 100%!
Kugagagagaga!
Even though it was daytime, the sky suddenly darkened.
“Wh-what is that?!”
“Holy shit.”
“Is it really appearing?”
“That effect is insane.”
Lightning crashed down with booming thunder above the torn summoning scroll floating in midair.
‘Lightning.’
The lightning animation was similar to when he had summoned an EX-grade summon.
Was that what made it S-grade?
“As expected!”
“What will come out?!”
“Pleaaaaase!”
What appeared together with the guild members’ cheers was......
Kyaaaaaaaaah!
An unbelievably cool lightning bird wrapped in a storm of thunder!
Thunderbird!
“Ooooooh.”
“Wooooow........”
Everyone gazed upward in admiration at the bird, which showed off its majestic bearing.
‘A Thunderbird, huh.’
Baek Jinwoo closed his eyes.
To be honest, he did not really know what kind of summon that was.
Other than the fact that it was obviously a lightning-attribute summon just from looking at it, he knew nothing.
[Summon: Thunderbird]
[Species: Divine Beast]
[Grade: S-grade]
[Level: 1]
[Stats Held]
-Strength: 1, Intelligence: 1, Stamina: 1, Agility: 1
-HP: 1,000, MP: 0
-Critical Hit Rate: 20%
-Critical Hit Damage: 20%
[Skills Held]
-Thunder Storm: Summons lightning and thunder across a wide area.
-Lightning Machine Gun: Produces and fires thousands of lightning bolts into the sky.
-Peal of Thunder: When Thunderbird flaps its wings and cries out, a massive thunderclap sends a huge shockwave at nearby enemies and stuns them.
-Mark: When struck by Thunderbird’s gaze, the target takes additional lightning-attribute damage.
-Storm Ascension: Thunderbird becomes invincible for 10 seconds as it melts into the Thunder Storm.
‘This is insane.’
Judging by the visible skills alone, it was incredible.
It was a perfect all-purpose summon, with a stun skill, an invincible evasion skill, a self damage buff, and both wide-area and single-target damage.
And that was at level 1.
That meant it was still a summon whose latent abilities had not even been unlocked yet.
“...This is crazy, isn’t it?”
When Baek Jinwoo let out a genuine admiring remark, the guild members came crowding over all at once.
“Really?”
“Show us too!”
“Please share the info with us, big brother!”
Baek Jinwoo showed them.
“.......”
“.......”
Everyone went speechless.
Because it was far better than they had imagined!
Didn’t those skills feel like they had already far surpassed A-grade by a huge margin?
Just imagine training with that thing.
The thought alone was already thrilling.
At this rate, it felt like that one existence alone could land them in the world top 10 in the next league.
Gulp.
Everyone swallowed hard.
Even someone who had never felt possessive before would start wanting it after seeing that.
Because they were players.
“.....This won’t do.”
In the end, Kang Jihoe muttered.
“I’m going to draw one too.”
“Huh?”
“What?”
When the guild members asked in surprise,
“You know what we got! Three Ultimate Summoning Scrolls! And I got one more while climbing the Tower of Trials, remember? That makes four in total! I’m just going to open them!”
“Hey, hey!”
Hong Ari hurriedly tried to stop him.
Had he lost his mind?
He was really going to trust a 1% chance and open four of them?
Those insanely expensive scrolls?
Sure, it would be nice if it worked out. But with very high probability, he would just be throwing an enormous amount of money into thin air.
“Big brother said it! Without challenges, there’s no growth and no achievement!”
“Hey, you lunatic! That’s not what he meant when he said that!”
“...But, you know.”
That was when Hwang Juwon stroked his chin with a serious expression.
“It does make some sense. The nine of us each got three, right...... So that’s twenty-seven in total. If we all open ours together, wouldn’t at least one of us get lucky?”
“What are you even saying?!”
Hong Ari shouted in frustration, but Hwang Juwon paid her no mind.
“If it’s a 27% chance, isn’t it worth trying?”
“No way, mister.”
Hong Ari, who had once been an engineering student, frowned.
“Hm?”
“You’re not seriously thinking that because there are twenty-seven 1% scrolls, that means it’s 27%, are you?”
“Huh? It’s not?”
Hwang Juwon blinked.
“Ugh.”
Hong Ari made a strangled sound.
Seriously, this was why players got mocked for being ignorant!
Phew.
Let’s calculate it.
If you assume you tear one summoning scroll, the probability of not drawing it is 99%.
Then what?
The probability of failing twenty-seven times in a row is 0.99^27.
You have to subtract that from the total probability.
In other words, 1 - 0.99^27.
If you calculate it roughly, it comes out to about 23.77%.
“It’s about 24%! And besides, whether it’s 27% or 24%, it’s still a low number either way, and you’re saying we should tear them all open?”
“.....Life’s a gamble anyway, isn’t it? Heh heh.”
“And what if you fail? Do you even have a plan? What if another thing like a 100% Summoning Scroll shows up later? You’ll beat your chest and regret it. By then, you won’t even have the ten sacrifices needed for it.”
While the guild members were all arguing over whether this was right or wrong,
“Hmm.”
Baek Jinwoo was thinking to himself.
Was it really right to use this Thunderbird?
Long experience had taught him one thing.
The higher the grade, the harder it was to raise, and if you could not raise it properly, it was actually worse than not raising it at all.
Of course, Thunderbird’s skills were flashy and good.
But then what?
Were they as good as Explosive Dragon Sorcerer’s Devour?
The answer was absolutely not.
If every S-grade were automatically overpowered, Baek Jinwoo never would have been able to defeat Rachel.
After all, she had three S-grade summons.
‘Then what?’
Should he give this to one of the guild members?
That did not feel quite right either.
No matter how he thought about it, it felt like he himself would make it stronger than any of them could.
‘For now, should I just wait and see?’
Who knew?
Once its latent abilities were unlocked, maybe it would turn into a broken summon like an EX-grade one.
Baek Jinwoo’s thoughts came to an abrupt end, however, because of a message from someone.
Ding!
A text message arrived on his phone.
[Rachel: Baek Jinwoo.]
[Rachel: Can you talk for a moment?]
Huh?
Rachel?
What is this about?
No comments yet. Be the first to leave a review!