- Wonder what the next Under Arena will be.
The excitement surrounding Dojin’s streams showed no sign of dying down.
Along with his unique Class, Necromancer—the impression he had left by challenging an Under Arena no one else dared log into and then clearing it for all to see had simply been too powerful.
- Under Arenas are better because monsters actually show up lol.
- Are other Players still not going into Under Arenas?
- No way hahaha. If you fail, your Level drops and you take a loss. Would you go?
- If you fail the clear…… hahaha, you know what happens, right?
- Speaking of which, the System says the preliminaries are starting soon. Anyone hear about it?
As though pushing back against the current trend, a new topic had gradually begun spreading through the chat.
Perhaps Players conscious of the unfavorable public opinion were deliberately helping spread the subject themselves.
“Are you really planning to participate?”
Rahi, who had also been watching the chat, spoke to Dojin.
“That isn’t something you can enter just because you want to. The preliminaries filter out all the mediocre Players. Just looking at the average Level of the Players who’ve participated so far…….”
Rahi stopped there for a moment.
As if her head hurt, she pressed her fingers firmly against the space between her brows.
“You need to be at least B-Grade just to log into the preliminary Arena. And there are only six months left.”
With that, Rahi stared sharply at Dojin.
The meaning in her gaze was obvious.
Could he really become a B-Grade Player in only six months?
“You have five minutes to convince me that what you’re saying isn’t nonsense.”
Anyone else might have shrunk under Rahi’s stare.
Dojin did not budge.
“Well. I’m D-Grade already.”
“……Haa…….”
Rahi pressed her brow again, feeling as though she had begun sighing far more often since recruiting that man.
But what Dojin said was true.
A Player who had Awakened less than a week ago had already reached D-Grade in one leap.
Was becoming B-Grade within half a year truly impossible?
“You’re serious?”
“I’m always serious, Ms. Rahi.”
The World Cup and Olympics of Players.
An annual hunting competition for High-Grade Players.
A survival game in which the Player who remained standing until the very end became the champion and claimed all the rewards.
“Hunter Cup.”
Dojin grinned.
As always, it was a relaxed, confident smile.
“You have to strike while the iron’s hot. I’m gaining momentum right now. What would it look like if I avoided a major event like this?”
“Haa…….”
Rahi sighed yet again.
It was not as though she did not understand that.
Even so, she had a reason to oppose him.
“But right now, Mr. Dojin, your reputation isn’t good merely because you have a unique Class. It’s also because you log into Under Arenas. You understand what that means, right?”
Could the public return to ordinary entertainment after experiencing such an intense rush once already?
If a Player who had been winning battle after battle and putting on spectacular shows suddenly produced even slightly mediocre results, how would the public treat him?
Most of the fickle viewers watching his streams would turn away.
“If you keep clearing Under Arenas like this, you might meet the qualification requirements by the time the Hunter Cup main event begins.”
Rahi added with another sigh.
“Barely, that is.”
The Hunter Cup was a System event in which Players from all over the world could participate simultaneously.
The reason that was possible was simple.
During the Hunter Cup, every Arena in the world transformed into a Hunter Cup venue.
And every Arena issued the exact same Quest.
What did that mean?
It meant that nearly every top-tier Player from across the world would participate in the Hunter Cup.
All of them aiming for the enormous rewards granted to the champion.
“You know this, don’t you? Right now, Mr. Dojin, you’re Test Guild’s only Guild member.”
That meant Dojin’s reputation and achievements were directly tied to Test Guild’s prestige.
If Dojin made a disgrace of himself, the newly founded Test Guild would inevitably be splashed with the same mud.
“On the other hand, if I perform well, some of that prestige will rub off on Test Guild too.”
“…….”
No matter how many warnings Rahi gave him, Dojin’s calm and confident expression did not change.
“……Are you confident?”
“Isn’t it high risk, high return?”
Dojin closed the chat window.
The viewers were already fiercely debating the Hunter Cup that would begin six months from now.
There was no way he could miss that stage.
Especially when such tempting prey would be stepping onto it as well.
“From now on, I’ll focus on preparing for the preliminaries.”
“……Through Under Arenas?”
Rahi’s face tightened slightly.
Dojin looked exactly as he always did.
“Of course. But, Ms. Rahi…….”
Dojin suddenly began speaking to her about something completely unrelated to what they had been discussing.
“There’s a Player I’d like to recommend…… Would you hear me out?”
***
Players Awakened at a wide variety of ages.
Most were between their early twenties and late thirties, but occasionally, there were cases where someone Awakened in their teens.
The Player Dojin was currently on his way to pick up was one such case.
- I know it happens more often than people think. The rookies who placed second and third in the Arena where you debuted were kids like that too.
Once someone became a Player, they could earn Mana Stones and Gold from Arenas.
Because of that, most families spared no support in helping an Awakened child receive Player training.
“But Awakening early isn’t always a blessing.”
- ……That sounds ominous somehow.
Dojin agreed with Rahi’s voice coming through his earpiece.
For a minor who Awakened as a Player while living under a problematic guardian—
‘They’re nothing more than a money-making tool to the adults around them.’
Dojin passed through one familiar-looking scene after another.
He had never lived in this particular neighborhood, but hillside slums tended to look alike wherever one went.
Eventually, Dojin stopped walking.
He had arrived at the address he had investigated before visiting the neighborhood.
A rusty, shabby gate that had not been maintained in the slightest.
“…….”
He pressed the bell, but there was no sound.
It seemed to have been broken for a long time.
Instead, what he heard was—
“You fucking brat! I told you to bring me booze!!!”
CRASH!
THUD!
“……!”
The noises were vivid enough that he could practically picture the scene taking place beyond the gate.
At the same time, faint noises came one after another from nearby houses.
CLICK!
CLUNK!
RATTLE!
Doors closing.
Curtains being drawn.
Sounds of people turning away.
Sounds Dojin knew all too well.
This situation had probably repeated itself many times before.
“…….”
For a moment, Dojin searched his memories from before the regression.
- Well, what kind of parents do you think a problem child like me came from?
- Mom ran off with another man, and Dad was an alcoholic…… If I had to name one good thing about the world ending, I guess it’s that I don’t have to see my parents’ faces anymore~
At that moment, a noise erupted from behind the gate.
BANG! PATTER!
“You little bastard! Get back here……!”
CLANK!
The old gate flew open violently.
And what appeared was—
“Ah!”
Short-cropped hair.
A thin frame.
A face bruised as though she had been beaten, with a split across her forehead.
The girl was so small that she hardly looked seventeen.
She came rushing frantically out through the gate……and crashed straight into Dojin before tumbling backward.
“…….”
No.
Before she could hit the ground, Dojin caught her.
Of course, thanks to that, the expensive suit Dojin had worn instead of his usual clothes became stained with the girl’s blood.
“You damn brat, I’ve got you now. Today I’ll…… Huh?”
A man stumbled out of the house and stopped short.
Filthy clothes caked in grime.
Unkempt hair and beard.
The sharp stench of alcohol despite it being broad daylight.
And finally—a bloodstained club gripped in one hand.
Dojin recognized him immediately.
The piece of trash before him was the father of the girl in his arms.
Her only blood relative and guardian.
The father of the comrade Dojin had come here to retrieve.
‘Better to handle this cleanly.’
Dojin unleashed killing intent toward the trash in front of him.
The killing intent of a man who had crossed countless battlefields before his regression was not something an ordinary person could withstand.
Least of all a drunken wreck.
“Ghk……! U-Ugh……!”
Perhaps overwhelmed by the sudden pressure, the man could not endure even a minute before collapsing with foam bubbling from his mouth.
“Grrk…….”
“Uh……?”
Apparently stunned by the completely unexpected situation, the girl could only make confused noises as she alternated between staring at her father twitching on the ground and the unfamiliar man before her.
Under her bewildered gaze, Dojin spoke calmly.
“Oh dear. Does he suffer from epilepsy or something? If there’s no medicine in the house, should I call a hospital for you?”
Without even waiting for the girl’s answer, he took out his smartphone and began making a call.
He had told her he was contacting a hospital.
But the person he actually called was not from a hospital.
“Yes, Ms. Rahi. I need an ambulance. Yes. After that, just proceed exactly as we discussed.”
In truth, before coming to this house, Dojin had already made arrangements with Rahi.
Under the pretext of treatment, he had asked her to have the girl’s father admitted long-term to a distant care hospital.
Everything proceeded swiftly after that.
“…….”
The girl also received treatment for her injuries.
With a bandage over her split forehead, she stared blankly at the back of the ambulance disappearing into the distance.
“Hello, student.”
“……!”
Dojin greeted her as gently as he could.
Even that alone made the girl flinch as though she had been struck.
“…….”
Watching her, Dojin gave a bitter smile.
If only I’d been able to come even one day sooner.
“Instead of standing around here…… would it be okay if we went somewhere else and talked?”
It felt awkward, but Dojin made every effort to speak as gently as possible.
Before his regression, she had been the strongest Mage in the world.
But right now, she was nothing more than a battered, pitiful girl.
Dojin had come to make his old comrade—
Seo Haewon—his companion once again.