"It's not over until it's over."
The one in the white robe was a high-level mage who had caused chaos in the waiting room by turning a giant statue into a fireball.
He was someone who used the name Escrow, which Seowoon was very familiar with.
Escrow—the first mage and the inventor of magic. Seowoon, who had stepped onto the path of a mage, couldn't possibly not know the name that was embedded in countless spells.
Another one was an archer who fired strange arrows—an opponent hard to guarantee closing the distance with.
But the most irritating of them all was the man with long silver hair fluttering behind him.
More than the fact that he was a king of a nation, what bothered Seowoon most was that the other two subtly remained wary of the silver-haired man.
"Then you must be Jin Seowoon,"
At the mage's words, Seowoon nodded calmly.
"Yes. I am Jin Seowoon. Seems like the three of you were summoned from the same world."
No one answered.
'Tch. These bastards are planning to gang up on me, huh?'
"You defeated Namsagwang, so please don't call us cowards."
As the mage raised his staff and the archer drew his bow, Seowoon felt despair.
Even one-on-one, he couldn't be sure of victory against any of them. But a three-on-one? No chance.
'I'll take at least one of them with me!'
No matter how much he complained, nothing would change.
With that in mind, Seowoon looked around, trying to decide whom to attack first.
'That mage… He's got the highest magic output…'
While scanning the three, Seowoon's gaze landed on the one who called himself king.
That man, who had worn a constantly bored expression, twitched the corner of his mouth as he watched the mage focus on casting.
'It's not a prearranged alliance!'
The moment that thought struck him, Seowoon's figure blurred and dashed toward the mage.
"Escrow-class: Blade Storm!"
He closed the distance in a terrifying flash—but that was as far as he got.
A storm of blades surged in from all sides, instantly shredding his clothes to tatters.
[Ding! Your Cloak of Stealth has been damaged and lost its effect.]
The problem wasn't the cloak being ruined.
The real issue was the dozens of stab wounds that now bled all over his body.
But Seowoon had already steeled himself. Gritting his teeth, he channeled his inner power.
-Thunk!
Just as he tried to break through the blade storm, an arrow pierced the back of his thigh.
"Kgh!"
A groan escaped his lips.
Still, Seowoon pressed forward, leg muscles tensed.
He didn't even flinch at the storm of blades trying to push him back.
Just as his blurred figure began to move through the storm again, the mage extended his staff once more.
"Escrow-class: Holding!"
The ground before him began to ripple violently.
Like waves crashing in, the trembling earth surged to swallow Seowoon.
'Now!'
In that moment, he unleashed silent movement technique at full power.
He focused all his inner energy on executing the technique, even at the cost of protection from the blade storm.
His wounds grew larger, blood dyed him red—but he didn't care. He kept going.
The surrounding storm turned crimson with blood.
But only for a moment—Seowoon's figure soared up before the mage.
Covered in blood, his eyes gleamed fiercely as he threw a punch, his killing intent making the mage hesitate.
-Whooosh!
With that sound, a silver rapier pierced through Seowoon's back and tore a massive hole in the mage's chest.
The destructive power was unbelievable for such a slender weapon.
Like he'd been stabbed by a massive pillar, the mage collapsed with a gaping hole in his torso, disbelief written clearly in his eyes.
"I look forward to killing you myself on the battlefield."
At the man's words, the mage parted his lips, but couldn't say a word before life left him.
"Senrurk!!! You coward..."
The archer's eyes burned with contempt as he shouted the man's name.
But the silver-haired man simply shrugged.
"I never said I'd be cooperating with you in the first place."
"The saying that berserkers know no honor wasn't wrong after all!"
King Senrurk of Krsen, more famously known by his battlefield nickname "the Berserker of War," didn't particularly dislike the moniker.
"In a battlefield where it's kill or be killed, you can feed honor to the dogs for all I care."
Just as he was about to charge toward the archer, his expression hardened.
"Kgh!"
Sensing the presence of an enemy behind him—one he was sure he had skewered and killed—was far from pleasant.
-BOOM!!
As he turned around and tried to thrust his rapier, the man was instead blown forward by a deafening impact and rolled across the ground.
The armor that had taken the blow was deeply dented and cracked all over, yet the man who had been struck rolled to his feet.
Even with blood trickling from his lips, the man couldn't recklessly rush at Seoun.
That's because he was surrounded—Seoun in front, and the archer behind.
"I definitely skewered and killed you…"
"Cough! That's… just what you thought."
With that, Seoun snapped the arrow lodged in his thigh and pulled it out, his face contorting in pain.
Blood gushed out as soon as the arrow was removed.
He tried to stop the bleeding by pressing on pressure points, but the blood showed no sign of stopping.
'Come to think of it, I've never actually done pressure point bleeding control before.'
There was a bigger gap than he'd thought between knowing it in theory and doing it while blood is spurting out.
His head reeled and he felt like he could faint any moment, but Seoun barely managed to keep his eyes open and stay conscious.
The temptation to close his eyes and just rest was relentless.
At that moment, he pulled a scroll out of his subspace, and the long-haired man lunged at him with his rapier.
Despite the distance, a sharp energy shot out from the tip of the rapier, flying toward Seoun.
'Crushing Break!'
-BOOM!
Even though Seoun blocked the attack with a martial punch, his shoulder dislocated with an awful sound.
Yet, holding the scroll in his other hand, he bit down on it and tore it open, glaring fiercely at the man.
The man tried to press the attack, but had to deal with three arrows flying at him from behind.
"Damn it! Jurokana! Was this your plan?!"
"You're the one who broke the alliance first."
Jurokana, firing arrows like a person possessed, and the berserker, fending off the curving arrows with just a single rapier—were locked in a furious battle.
Meanwhile, Seoun tore open his last intermediate healing scroll.
The two scrolls slowed the bleeding somewhat, but didn't fix his dislocated shoulder or the stab wounds across his body.
Still pale, Seoun glared at the long-haired man and lunged at him.
The man spun and thrust his rapier toward the oncoming Seoun like a beam of light.
"I won't fall for it twice!"
Two arrows pierced the berserker's back, breaking through his armor, but his eyes stayed locked on Seoun.
-FWOOOOOM!
The rapier pierced through Seoun with a sound no thrusting technique should ever make.
But the man's expression wasn't pleased.
'There's no feeling…'
In that instant, eight Seouns appeared around him in a circle.
All eight reached out to punch him at once.
"Damn it."
The man skewered four of the Seouns at incredible speed, but none of them were the real one.
-CRACK!
With a dull sound, the head of the rapidly moving long-haired man shattered.
Seoun collapsed to the ground, staring at the blood and brain matter on his fist.
"Haa… haa…"
Watching the fading afterimages, Jurokana nocked another arrow and said:
"I honor your valiant effort."
"Haa… haa… What good… is honor… when it doesn't feed you?"
-THWACK!
And with that, an arrow pierced Seoun's head, knocking him forward.
[Ding ding ding! The Cloyd Survival has ended.]
[Ta-da-da-da-daaa! Congratulations on making it to the final two!
You've earned qualification for the next game.
You received the second-highest reward in this game.]
Just as he thought the world had gone dark and his head stung, Seoun opened his eyes to see his own corpse with an arrow through its head.
"Damn it!"
Floating in the air like a soul, staring down at his body, was not a pleasant experience.
[Ding! You have received 120 reward coins. Bonus kill points! You earned 20 extra coins.]
"Coins?"
Summoning item list...
[Martial Arts Manuals:]
Black Star Cavalry (10 coins)
Inner Harmonization Heart Technique (30 coins)
Fist of No Mercy (30 coins)
Heavenly Strength Divine General (100 coins)
Demonic Flame Hand (90 coins)
Nine Yin Poison Palm (110 coins)
Silent Phantom Step (130 coins)
[Magic Tomes:]
Wind Ball (5 coins)
Carmen's Eye (50 coins)
[Accessories:]
Ring of Strength (20 coins)
Pocket Dimension Ring (30 coins)
Ascro's Necklace (1 coin)
Dual Spelling (20 coins)
Bracelet of Oath (20 coins)
Kaiser's Ring (60 coins)
Driminzer's Ring (60 coins)
Gailen's Ring (60 coins)
Toka's Ring (60 coins)
Cameron's Necklace (3 coins)
[Miscellaneous:]
Azure Cloud Ring (50 coins)
Beginner Circle Stone (15 coins)
Advanced Orihalcon Breastplate (65 coins)
Cloak of Invisibility (100 coins)
Longsword (1 coin)
Magic Power Stone (2 coins)
Healing Scroll (5 coins)
Intermediate Healing Scroll (8 coins)
Shield Scroll (3 coins)
Magic Explosion Scroll (5 coins)
Awakening Potion (10 coins)
Kria's Boots (13 coins)
Refined Troll Blood (2 coins)
Burikail's Wine (1 coin)
Burikail's Ham (1 coin)
"Wow… I really picked up a lot of stuff, huh."
Seeing the list written out like that, he realized he had gathered a considerable number of items.
"I get that you can buy items with the reward coins… but why is everything so expensive?"
Looking at the prices, Seoun felt a rush of frustration and irritation rise in his chest.
He had struggled to make it all the way to 2nd place out of 100 players.
In the final fight, his body was torn apart, and he even took an arrow to the head.
And yet, the reward was only 120 coins — while the item prices were absurdly high.
Especially the named rings, which had been such a huge help to him — each one cost nearly half of what he had.
"If I buy just two rings, that's it! And that movement skill… I couldn't even get it if it weren't for the kill reward!"
As Seoun grumbled, a sound echoed as if someone had been listening.
[Ding! A draw ticket has been granted to the final five survivors.]
"Huh? A draw ticket?"
As he spoke, a roulette wheel appeared showing all the items he had acquired.
[You may spin the wheel twice.]
"Oh… jackpot…"
If he could just land on two of the named rings, it'd be as good as doubling his reward.
"If I can just get a named ring and Silent Phantom Step… I'll come out ahead of the coin reward."
Seoun, as if possessed, spun the wheel with all his might.
[Whirr… Ding! You've obtained Ascro's Necklace. Congratulations.]
"NOOO!!!"
Out of all the items, he landed on the necklace worth just 1 coin.
"Just my luck…"
Self-deprecating, Seoun stared bitterly at the wheel and shut his eyes tightly before spinning it again.
Unable to bring himself to look, he listened to the spinning sound — then it happened again.
[Whirr… Ding! You've obtained Silent Phantom Step. Congratulations.]
"YESSSSS!!!"
Seoun screamed from deep within his gut, shocked at the volume of his own voice for the first time.
After running around in excitement, he finally forced himself to calm down.
"Phew."
He carefully looked over the list and started choosing his items with care.
[You have selected: Fist of No Mercy, Pocket Dimension Ring, Azure Cloud Ring, Burikail's Wine, Refined Troll Blood, Ring of Strength, Cameron's Necklace. A total of 136 coins have been used. Remaining coins will be carried over. Would you like to finalize your item selection?]
O / X
The moment Seoun hit O without hesitation, his vision was filled with a brilliant light so blinding he couldn't see an inch ahead.
[Thank you for your efforts. Best of luck in the next game. You can retrieve your items from the pocket dimension.]
At that moment, he suddenly found himself staring at a familiar cityscape — and gasped in shock.
"What the—?! Did I just come back?!"
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