“You seem to have quite a bit of experience. I’ve never seen your face around here before……?”
At last, Hong Jingu spoke.
Considering how completely unfazed the man remained even as his companions were taken down one after another, along with the faint mana he could sense from him……
‘My senses really are getting sharper. I can even sense the mana of a Player outside an Arena during the Tutorial Season.’
It was extremely faint, but if Dojin could sense mana from him at all, then he was unlikely to be F-Grade.
At minimum, he was probably D-Grade.
Player Grades ranged from F to S.
F-Grade referred to Players from Lv.1~10, E-Grade to Lv.11~30, and D-Grade to Lv.31~50.
In other words, Player Hong Jingu was either around the same Level as Dojin, who was currently Lv.32, or there was a Level gap of at least twenty between them.
‘Even if he were C-Grade, it wouldn’t feel particularly impressive.’
The Tutorial Season had not ended yet, so Players still could not freely use mana and Skills in reality.
But Dojin was exceptionally sensitive to mana, allowing him to vaguely perceive the mana of a Player standing right in front of him even in reality.
“Why are you probing me like that? From the looks of it, you’ve already figured it out too.”
Dojin deliberately raised one corner of his mouth.
Watching Dojin’s expression, which looked like mockery no matter how one viewed it, Hong Jingu’s eyes—until now curved in an amiable smile—turned slightly vicious.
“……You want to have a go? Some brat whose face isn’t even known?”
The exchange between Dojin and Hong Jingu was not something a person unfamiliar with Players from the underworld would understand.
Especially not someone who had only Awakened as a Player three days ago.
But Dojin was well acquainted with this side of things too.
Once the Main Scenario began, social order had completely collapsed, exposing every dark and ugly side of Players to the world.
More importantly, he had heard plenty about it from Haewon, who had actually been forced into a Player Guild run by criminals.
‘Players with criminal backgrounds are already using Arenas for their crimes.’
It was exactly as it sounded.
Criminals accustomed to theft, fraud, murder, and the like had little interest in gathering more Mana Stones and Gold through streaming.
No.
There was something else that interested them far more.
‘A place where no one can discover their crimes.’
Criminals who made a living harming other people or their property did not change their nature after Awakening as Players.
If anything, they became even more cunning.
To them, using a Player’s power for violence and murder was practically the purpose of their lives.
And because streaming itself depended entirely on the Player’s will, an Arena with no broadcast became a space belonging solely to the Players inside it.
A perfect blind spot where none of society’s laws or surveillance could reach.
“…….”
Naturally, this was kept secret from the public.
Only Players with criminal backgrounds used Arenas this way—as crime scenes.
Whether they exploited a Quest’s time limit to store contraband or drugs, or ignored the targets generated by the Arena and fought among themselves instead.
Since Players could neither die nor suffer irreversible injuries inside an Arena, such uses grew increasingly bold and blatant.
In other words, what Dojin was doing by provoking Hong Jingu right now was……?
“You want us to log into an Arena right away?”
“There’s one nearby, isn’t there? A small one people rarely visit.”
It was effectively a proposal to settle things with strength.
Whoever lost the fight as a Player would back down without another word.
“……Ha!”
Hong Jingu frowned.
Dojin’s face did seem vaguely familiar.
But if Hong Jingu could not immediately place him, that meant he was not someone famous in the underworld.
‘And a nobody like that dares challenge me?’
Dojin’s earlier assessment of Hong Jingu’s Grade had been correct.
Hong Jingu was a top-tier D-Grade Earth-Attribute Mage Player.
He was not confident in close combat, but his fighting style—hunting monsters by recklessly summoning compressed stone walls made from enormous masses of rock—was reasonably well known.
‘I’m wearing the armor I bought last time underneath my clothes too. I can log into an Arena whenever I want.’
After finishing his calculations, Hong Jingu willingly accepted Dojin’s provocation.
“I like how fiery you are, young man. Then shall we go right now?”
And so Dojin and Hong Jingu began walking side by side toward a nearby Arena.
Naturally, all the thugs Dojin had beaten senseless left Haewon’s house as well.
Once everyone was gone, Haewon timidly poked her head out of her room, unsure what to do.
***
“Nice that it’s close.”
It was exactly as Dojin had said.
He had claimed there was an Arena near the hillside slum where Haewon lived, and it really was nearby.
They reached it after barely five minutes of walking.
“Other Players don’t come here often. It’s not even that low in Grade, but the rewards are terrible.”
Since Players were currently focused almost entirely on acquiring Mana Stones and Gold, popular Arenas were generally those with good Mana Stone or Gold rewards.
Occasionally, an Arena would offer an expensive Item as a Quest reward, but such Arenas were rare.
Because of that, Arenas whose rewards were not profitable—such as those that primarily rewarded EXP—were almost never visited by Players.
“So abandoned Arenas get used like this.”
“Yeah. Correct.”
But the voice answering Dojin did not belong to Hong Jingu.
Dojin’s gaze shifted.
“Finally here.”
After Hong Jingu’s oily voice came several others, answering with smug laughter.
“We came running the moment you called, hyung!”
“Heh. Is that the bastard who dared cause trouble in our territory?”
“Some pale little rich boy’s forgotten what fear is~.”
“…….”
Dojin showed no particular reaction.
He merely observed the change before him.
“So you called your subordinates…….”
“You’re not about to start whining about fighting fair, are you? Everyone’s just doing their best according to their own ability, right?”
Hong Jingu quietly moved away from Dojin’s side.
Then he immediately joined his group.
“Well, you look curious, so why don’t I give you a quick introduction?”
Hong Jingu took a small ring from his pocket and slipped it onto his finger.
It was a thin ring set with a tiny piece of jade.
‘So the ring is his Item, not a staff.’
Hong Jingu moved the hand wearing the ring and pointed toward his companions.
“One D-Grade Tank, one top-tier E-Grade Assassin, and one D-Grade Hunter.”
Then Hong Jingu grinned at Dojin, almost as though looking down on him.
“Are you going to quietly back off, or are you going to keep being stubborn to the end?”
“Pfft.”
But Dojin’s response shattered the triumphant mood of the thugs.
With just that single laugh.
“I’ll log in first. Follow if you want.”
Dojin turned his back on them and began walking toward the Arena entrance.
Hong Jingu and the others stared after him in bewilderment.
Then Dojin’s voice flew back and drove the final nail in.
“You pathetic bastards.”
“……!”
At this point, they could no longer back down.
No.
After hearing mockery like that, there was no way they could simply turn around and leave.
If they did, and if word of today’s events happened to spread, they would be branded cowards throughout the underworld.
“……Hey! Stop right there!!!”
The instant Dojin’s foot reached the entrance, a curtain of light rippled across the Arena gateway, which until then had looked like nothing more than a dark corridor without a door.
The mana at the entrance had reacted.
Arena D-Grade Login
Participant – Player Lee Dojin
“…….”
He had planned to log only into Under Arenas from now on.
Yet unexpectedly, he had ended up entering another ordinary Arena.
“I’ll have to go to an Under Arena this afternoon.”
Still, fortunately, this Arena was D-Grade, so he could log in.
‘If it had been E-Grade or F-Grade, I wouldn’t have been able to enter now that I’m already D-Grade.’
The scenery inside this Arena was once again that of an enormous stadium.
But there was one difference from the Arenas he had entered previously.
The ground was not flat.
It sloped steeply.
Almost as though he were standing on a rough mountainside.
“……This is different.”
Dojin looked around with interest, then decided to use one Skill.
It was a Skill he needed to test sooner or later anyway.
“……Oh, nice.”
Immediately afterward—
“……You arrogant bastard!”
Hong Jingu and his three lackeys logged in one after another.
Unlike Dojin, who had entered still wearing his suit, all four of them were now fully armed.
“What? Took you that long to pile on all your gear?”
“Shut the hell up!!!”
<Quest – Falling Rock Destruction>
Grade: D-Grade
Login Limit: 30 People / Lv.50 or Below
Clear Condition: Destroy 300 falling rocks within 30 minutes (First 3 Players)
Reward: 30g of Mysterious Powder (Garlic Scent)
RUMBLE! RRRRUMBLE!!!
The instant the Quest window disappeared, a thunderous noise erupted from above the sloping ground.