“Dimension Arena, enter.”
WHOOSH!
The moment Shin-hyeok confirmed that he had awakened, he immediately entered the Dimension Arena.
There, he saw countless people who were either tense or bewildered.
“A waiting room. I came here often enough to get sick of it.”
The game’s waiting room.
The place simply called the waiting room was where participants were gathered before entering a game.
Once all participants had assembled, the game would begin shortly afterward.
“The Placement Exam is always a 100-player battle royale.”
The Dimension Arena had many game modes, but the Placement Exam was always a 100-player battle royale.
Of course, the other participants knew that as well, so it was not particularly important information.
Still, there was no problem.
But soon, cries of despair rang through the waiting room.
“Ah, damn it! It’s Lee Ju-ho!”
“What? Why does Lee Ju-ho have to be in my waiting room......?”
“I’m screwed. I’m completely screwed......”
“......Lee Ju-ho is here?”
It was because they had confirmed that Lee Ju-ho, the eldest son of the Oseong Guild Master, was in the waiting room.
Seeing the atmosphere in the waiting room turn as though a natural disaster had struck, Shin-hyeok let out a laugh.
“As expected. Even this is the same.”
In the past, Shin-hyeok had been assigned to the same waiting room as Ju-ho.
And unlike Shin-hyeok, who had lingered near the bottom of the rankings, Ju-ho had actively teamed up with other Players, taken first place, and been placed in Silver 4.
Unlike the others, Shin-hyeok was not surprised to hear that Ju-ho was here.
But one thing had changed from the past.
“Lee Ju-ho is coming this way?”
“What? Why all of a sudden?”
Ju-ho was walking directly toward where Shin-hyeok stood.
Approaching with a group of followers at his side, Ju-ho looked at Shin-hyeok.
“You did something amusing.”
“What do you mean?”
“......What do I mean? The place that should have been plastered with stories about me is covered with the insignificant name of someone like you?”
“Ah, you mean that?”
Choi Cheol-ho had kept his promise.
Thanks to that, stories about Shin-hyeok had been everywhere for the entirety of December 31: television, news broadcasts, and newspapers.
The Rebellion of the Student Called Useless Jack-of-All-Trades.
A Pearl in Muddy Water.
The coverage had been plastered everywhere under a variety of headlines, so Oseong Group, which had been responding only halfheartedly, had been completely pushed aside.
Looking at Ju-ho, who was pointing out that exact fact, Shin-hyeok shrugged.
“It’s only natural. What’s wrong with it?”
“Natural......? Someone whose expected tier had been Bronze for all three years of high school...... A Useless Jack-of-All-Trades like you is greater than me?”
“Yeah.”
“......Tch! Fine, let’s see. But can you really do that? My friends and I will be entering the same game as you.”
“We’ll see.”
Despite Ju-ho’s threat that he would interfere through teaming, Shin-hyeok did not even blink.
Ju-ho stared at Shin-hyeok in disbelief for a moment.
“So that’s how it is?”
“......?”
“Whoever kills this bastard in the game will receive one billion won in cash outside, or an item or elixir of equivalent value!”
“Hah.”
At Ju-ho’s shout, delivered with a broad grin, every Player gathered in the waiting room flinched.
One billion won.
A sum ordinary people could not accumulate in an entire lifetime.
A sum even most wealthy people could not spend easily.
At the promise that they would receive that money for killing Shin-hyeok alone, the Players’ gazes changed.
“Who is that?”
“That’s him, isn’t it? The Useless Jack-of-All-Trades from Shinhwa High School.”
“Ah, I heard he handles a lot of things, but cannot do any of them properly.”
“Come to think of it, articles about him were everywhere yesterday......”
“So even if he’s the son they cast aside, he’s still from Shinhwa Group?”
“To hell with the Placement Exam. I’m only going after him.”
“Me too. If I just get him, my life will turn around!”
Since they had prepared to become Players, there were hardly any students who did not know of Shin-hyeok.
And because they knew how weak he was, the Players’ eyes gleamed.
Watching their reaction, Ju-ho grinned.
“Good luck taking your Placement Exam while hyenas chase you down, Useless Jack-of-All-Trades.”
Shin-hyeok watched Ju-ho and the group around him stroll away, waving their hands dismissively.
Then he let out a faint laugh.
“This is interesting.”
Ninety-nine Players had now set their sights on him, yet Shin-hyeok did not care.
“What was the reward for the most kills in the Placement Exam again?”
Because he intended to make even this a stepping stone on the path ahead.
But he did not think for long.
[The game will now begin!]
“It’s starting.”
The Placement Exam, a 100-player battle royale, had begun.
***
WHOOSH!
With the sensation of being teleported, Shin-hyeok found himself somewhere else.
“Inside a house. Is this a starting point?”
The 100-player battle royale took place on a massive island.
Items could be looted from the houses and buildings scattered throughout it, and participants could either use those items or find an exit and take them back to reality.
As such, the 100-player battle royale was originally a place where one avoided combat as much as possible, looted as many items as they could, and searched for an exit.
But now, it was the Placement Exam.
Rather than people thinking of what they could bring back to reality, the place was full of people prepared to pour in everything they had brought from reality.
As if being thrown into such a place alone was not enough, Shin-hyeok also had to deal with hyenas after the bounty on his head.
The entire world was his enemy in the most literal sense.
“One bandage, one Recovery Potion, and a bow? Not bad.”
Yet Shin-hyeok, the person at the center of that horrifying situation, was remarkably calm.
After calmly looting the items inside the house, Shin-hyeok immediately examined his surroundings.
RUSTLE—
‘One on the left.’
At the sound, Shin-hyeok immediately drew the bowstring and released it.
TWANG— THUNK!
“Urk!”
[Choi Shin-hyeok -> Kim Geon]
That was the end of it.
Shin-hyeok approached the Player who had fallen with a final gasp and deftly looted their belongings.
“A Recovery Potion and a sword. I already have a sword, so I do not need this.”
Items brought from reality returned to reality even if their owner died, so the only items he could take were those looted within the game.
Of course, there were games where even items brought from reality could be stolen.
But the 100-player battle royale was not one of them.
After finishing his looting, Shin-hyeok casually tossed the unnecessary sword onto the ground and sprang away.
“A bow is good for the beginning.”
With ninety-nine enemies, the only method Shin-hyeok could choose was to eliminate them one by one.
Since the bow was best suited for that, Shin-hyeok took the standard-issue bow and melted into the forest.
***
Four Players were walking through a secluded forest.
Without even taking basic precautions to conceal themselves, they hurried toward a specific spot in the woods.
The reason was simple.
“Are you sure that bastard is here?”
“I told you he is. I checked Choi Shin-hyeok’s location with a Location Tracker.”
“But we are splitting it equally, right?”
“Of course. Even if the four of us divide it, that’s two hundred and fifty million each! We’re going to be rich now!”
A Location Tracker.
It was a consumable item that occasionally appeared and could reveal a specific Player’s location.
It could sell for a fairly high price if taken back to reality, but they had been blinded by the one-billion-won reward.
Then—
“I see something over there!”
“Be quiet and move!”
Having found something concealed somewhere in the forest, they immediately became excited.
They were noisy, but their movements were extremely swift.
That was only natural, since they too had spent years making bone-deep efforts to become Players.
The moment they quickly went into cover and surrounded the hidden object—
“Get it!”
The Player who had found the Location Tracker and led the group shouted.
At their cry, the other three Players charged at the object and swung their weapons.
SHNK!
“I got it!”
As the leader smiled broadly at their companion’s delight over the heavy feel of cutting into something—
TWANG— THUNK!
[Choi Shin-hyeok -> Lee Do-hyeon]
An arrow flew into the leader’s head.
“......Do-hyeon!”
“W-where did that come from?”
“We caught this bastard! Even if you kill us, nothing will change!”
Caught off guard by the sudden ambush, they shouted in confusion.
But that did not change anything.
“......Wait, look at the kill log. It’s Choi Shin-hyeok! Choi Shin-hyeok shot us!”
“Th-then what is this?”
“Damn it, it’s a Dummy!”
The one who had ambushed them was none other than Shin-hyeok, the target they had been pursuing.
A Dummy.
Like the Location Tracker, it was an item that could only be acquired at rare odds.
Its effect was simple.
It created a dummy doll identical to its user.
The thing they had killed was that dummy doll.
And once their ambush had failed and they had instead been ambushed, their fates were sealed.
TWANG-TWANG-TWANG— THUNK-THUNK-THUNK!
[Choi Shin-hyeok -> Baek Geon-woo]
[Choi Shin-hyeok -> Moon Gyeong-sik]
[Choi Shin-hyeok -> Han Hyeong-seok]
Three arrows pierced three heads.
It was perfect archery without the slightest margin of error.
The Status Window reacted to that as well.
[Skill: Archery [C] acquired.]
“C...... Not bad.”
Archery [C].
In terms of tiers, it was an Archery Skill effective at around Silver Tier.
But considering that even a paring knife could become a deadly weapon depending on whether it was held by a housewife or a swordsman, it had to be evaluated at least one grade higher.
That was especially true now that he had acquired the Skill and bonuses to his Archery had begun to apply.
After examining the new Skill and finishing the looting of the dead Players, Shin-hyeok hid himself in the forest once again.
***
ZZZZZ—
The magnetic field was shrinking.
As the magnetic field surrounding the entire island contracted, surviving Players had to move inward to avoid it.
Shin-hyeok could not escape that either.
RIP— RIP—
Since he could not deal with everyone through ambushes alone, Shin-hyeok had no choice but to fight, and he had suffered one or two wounds.
‘My physical stats being so low is a real problem.’
His body could not keep up with the thoughts in his head.
After thinking that and bandaging his wounds before drinking a Recovery Potion,
Shin-hyeok prepared to avoid the magnetic field and considered the battle ahead.
“Real combat will begin soon.”
Shin-hyeok had assassinated or ambushed more than thirty Players by himself.
He was tired because of it, but since he had obtained all the items they had looted, that was only a secondary problem.
But from now on, the real battles would begin.
It meant he would no longer be able to deal with enemies as easily through ambushes or by finishing off weakened opponents.
Even so, Shin-hyeok’s expression was completely calm.
“Well, it does not matter. I only need to increase the number of people on my side.”
It might have seemed as though Shin-hyeok had gone mad, searching for allies where there was no one.
But to Shin-hyeok’s eyes, it was not an empty place.
“Rise.”
There were corpses.
The corpses of those Shin-hyeok had killed until now.
And at his command, Mana flowed into them, and they rose again as Skeletons.
[Skill: Necromancy [C] acquired.]
Necromancy, the art of commanding the dead.
The moment it was engraved in Shin-hyeok’s Skill Window,
exactly thirty-two Skeletons began moving toward the center of the island with Shin-hyeok.
It was time to see the Placement Exam through to the end.