Chapter 4
“Dimension Arena, enter.”
Whoosh!
The moment he confirmed his awakening, Shin-hyuk immediately entered the Dimension Arena.
There, he could see countless people either tense with nervousness or dazed.
“The waiting room. I’ve been here so many times it’s tiresome.”
The game start waiting room.
Shortened to just “waiting room,” it was a place where participants were gathered before entering the game.
After all participants had assembled, the game would begin shortly—that was the system.
“The placement exam is always a 100-player battle royale.”
There were many types of games in the Dimension Arena, but the placement exam was always a 100-player battle royale.
Of course, since the other participants knew this as well, it wasn’t particularly important information, but still, there was no issue.
However, soon a wail of lamentation echoed through the waiting room.
“Ah, damn it! It’s Lee Ju-ho!”
“What? Why of all people is Lee Ju-ho in my waiting room…”
“It’s over. It’s over…”
“…Lee Ju-ho is here?”
It was because the presence of Lee Ju-ho, the eldest son of the Ohsung Guild Master, had been confirmed in the waiting room.
As a mood like a natural disaster swept through the waiting room, Shin-hyuk let out a laugh.
“As expected. Even this is the same.”
In the past, Shin-hyuk had also been assigned to the same waiting room as Ju-ho.
And unlike Shin-hyuk, who lingered in the lower ranks, Ju-ho achieved 1st place through active teaming with other players and was placed in Silver 4.
So, unlike the others, Shin-hyuk wasn’t surprised by the news of Ju-ho’s presence.
But there was something different from the past.
“Lee Ju-ho is coming this way?”
“What? Why all of a sudden?”
It was because Ju-ho was walking precisely toward where Shin-hyuk was standing.
Ju-ho approached with his group of followers and looked at Shin-hyuk.
“You pulled a funny stunt.”
“What are you talking about?”
“…What am I talking about? You put your worthless name where my story should have been plastered?”
“Ah, you mean that?”
Choi Chul-ho had kept his promise.
Thanks to that, throughout December 31st, Shin-hyuk’s story appeared everywhere—on TV, in the news, in newspapers, everywhere.
A rebellion by a student called the Incompetent Trash Picker.
A pearl in the mud.
With various headlines plastered everywhere, the Ohsung Group side, which had been responding moderately, was pushed back without being able to say a word.
Looking at Ju-ho, who was pointing out that fact, Shin-hyuk shrugged.
“It’s only natural, so what?”
“Natural…? A guy whose predicted tier was Bronze throughout all three years of high school… Are you saying that an Incompetent Trash Picker like you is greater than me?”
“Yeah.”
“…Keuk! Fine, let’s see. But can you really do it? Me and my friends will be in the same game as you, you know?”
“We’ll see.”
Even at Ju-ho’s threat—that he would interfere through teaming—Shin-hyuk didn’t even bat an eye.
Ju-ho, who had been staring at Shin-hyuk with disbelief, then—
“Is that so?”
“…?”
“I’ll give 1 billion won in cash, or items or elixirs of equivalent value, to whoever kills this bastard in the game!”
“Huh.”
At Ju-ho’s shout, his lips curling into a smirk, all the players gathered in the waiting room flinched.
1 billion won.
Money that ordinary people couldn’t accumulate even in a lifetime.
Money that even most wealthy people couldn’t easily spend.
At the words that he would give such money just for catching Shin-hyuk, the players’ gazes changed.
“Who is that guy?”
“That’s him. That Incompetent Trash Picker from Shinhwa High School.”
“Ah, the one who handles a lot but can’t do anything properly, right?”
“Come to think of it, yesterday there were articles about him all day…”
“Even if he’s a disowned son, I guess he’s still Shinhwa Group, huh?”
“Great, forget the placement exam—I’m just going to catch him.”
“Me too. If I catch him, it’s a life reversal!”
Since they were all preparing to become players, there were almost no students who didn’t know of Shin-hyuk’s existence.
And knowing how weak Shin-hyuk was, the players’ eyes gleamed.
Watching the players’ reactions, Ju-ho snickered.
“Good luck taking the placement exam while being chased by hyenas. Incompetent Trash Picker?”
Watching Ju-ho and his group disappear, waving their hands dismissively, Shin-hyuk let out a chuckle.
“Fun.”
He had become the target of 99 players, but Shin-hyuk didn’t care.
“What was the reward for the most kills in the placement exam again?”
Because he intended to use even this as fuel for the path he would walk.
But his thoughts didn’t last long.
—
[The game will now begin!]
—
“It’s starting.”
The placement exam, a 100-player battle royale, had now begun.
—
* * *
Whoosh!
With a sensation like being teleported, Shin-hyuk had been moved somewhere.
“Inside a house. A starting point.”
The 100-player battle royale took place on a massive island.
Items could be farmed from houses and buildings scattered throughout, and those farmed items could be used or taken back to reality by finding an exit.
Normally, in a 100-player battle royale, the goal was to avoid combat and farm as many items as possible while searching for an exit.
But this was the placement exam.
Rather than thinking about what to take back to reality, there were plenty of people ready to pour out everything they’d brought from reality as well.
Not only was he thrown into such a place alone, but he also had to deal with hyenas eyeing the bounty hanging around his neck.
Literally, the entire world was his enemy.
“Bandages, a recovery potion, and a bow? Not bad.”
But for someone in such a dire situation, Shin-hyuk was quite calm.
After calmly farming the items inside the house, Shin-hyuk immediately surveyed his surroundings.
Rustle—
‘One on the left.’
At the sound, Shin-hyuk immediately drew the bowstring and released.
Ping— Thwack!
“Guh!”
—
[Choi Shin-hyuk -> Kim Geon]
—
That was it.
Approaching the player who had fallen with a death rattle, Shin-hyuk farmed the fallen player’s items with natural movements.
“Recovery potions and a sword. I already have a sword, so I don’t need this.”
Items brought from reality would return to reality even upon death, so only farmed items could be taken.
Of course, there were games where even items brought from reality could be taken, but at least the 100-player battle royale wasn’t one of them.
After finishing his farming and tossing the unnecessary sword on the ground, Shin-hyuk lightly kicked off.
“A bow is good to start with.”
With 99 enemies, the method Shin-hyuk could choose was to steadily take them out one by one.
Since a bow was best for that, Shin-hyuk slipped into the forest with his supply-grade bow.
—
* * *
Four players were walking through a sparsely populated forest.
They were rapidly moving toward a specific part of the forest without even basic concealment.
The reason was simple.
“He’s definitely here, right?”
“Yes. I checked Shin-hyuk’s location with the location tracker.”
“But we’re really splitting it N-ways, right?”
“Yeah. Even divided among us four, it’s 250 million each! We’re rich now!”
Location tracker.
A consumable item that occasionally appeared, allowing one to track a specific player’s location.
It was an item that could be sold for quite a high price if taken to reality, but right now they were blinded by the 1 billion won.
Just then.
“I see something over there!”
“Stay quiet and move!”
Spotting something concealed somewhere in the forest, they immediately grew excited.
Despite their commotion, their movements were extremely quick.
It was only natural, as they had also put in years of bone-grinding effort to become players.
At the moment they quickly surrounded and concealed themselves around something—
“Attack!”
The player who had found the location tracker and was the leader of the group shouted.
At his cry, the other three players also charged toward something and swung their weapons.
Swish!
“I got him!”
As the leader player grinned at his comrade’s joy over the solid feeling of the hit—
Ping— Thwack!
—
[Choi Shin-hyuk -> Lee Do-hyun]
—
An arrow flew into the leader player’s head.
“…Do-hyun!”
“Wh-where did that come from?”
“We caught this one! Killing us won’t change anything!”
Caught off guard by the sudden ambush, they shouted in panic.
But that didn’t change anything.
“…Wait, look at the kill log. It’s Shin-hyuk! Shin-hyuk shot us!”
“Th-then this one?”
“Damn it, it’s a decoy!”
The one who had ambushed them was none other than Shin-hyuk—their very target.
Decoy.
Like the location tracker, an item that could be obtained with a rare probability.
Its effect was simple.
It created a decoy doll identical to the user.
What they had dealt with was exactly that decoy doll.
And from the moment they failed the ambush and were instead ambushed themselves, their fate was sealed.
Ping, ping— Thwack, thwack!
—
[Choi Shin-hyuk -> Baek Geon-woo]
[Choi Shin-hyuk -> Moon Kyung-sik]
[Choi Shin-hyuk -> Han Hyung-seok]
—
Three arrows pierced three heads.
Flawless archery without a single millimeter of error.
The status window responded accordingly.
—
[Skill: Archery [C] acquired.]
—
“C… Not bad.”
Archery [C].
Meaning it was archery that would be effective at around the Silver tier level.
But considering that even a kitchen knife can become a deadly weapon depending on whether a housewife or a swordsman wields it, it should be rated at least one tier higher.
Especially since stat corrections for archery had begun to apply after acquiring the skill.
After examining the new skill and finishing farming the corpses of the dead, Shin-hyuk hid himself in the forest once more.
—
* * *
Zzzzz—
The barrier was shrinking.
As the barrier that had surrounded the entire island shrank, the surviving players had to move inward to avoid it.
Shin-hyuk couldn’t escape this either.
Zing— Zing—
Unable to handle everything solely through ambushes, Shin-hyuk had inevitably sustained a few wounds in battle.
‘Having such low physical stats is a real pain.’
A situation where his body couldn’t keep up with his mind.
After wrapping his wounds with bandages and drinking a recovery potion while thinking such scattered thoughts—
“Soon the real battles will begin.”
While preparing to avoid the barrier, Shin-hyuk recalled the battle situation ahead.
Having assassinated or ambushed nearly 30 players alone, Shin-hyuk was exhausted.
But since he had obtained all the items they had farmed, that was a secondary issue.
However, from now on, the battles would truly begin.
Meaning he could no longer easily eliminate enemies through ambushes or take out weakened opponents.
Despite this, Shin-hyuk’s expression was utterly calm.
“Well, it doesn’t matter. I’ll just make more allies.”
Finding allies in an empty place might make it seem like Shin-hyuk had gone mad, but Shin-hyuk’s eyes saw something other than emptiness.
“Arise.”
The corpses.
There were the corpses of all those Shin-hyuk had killed so far.
And with Shin-hyuk’s single word, mana flowed into them as they were resurrected as skeletons.
—
[Skill: Necromancy [C] acquired.]
—
Necromancy—the art of commanding the dead.
The moment it was engraved in Shin-hyuk’s skill window.
Exactly 32 skeletons advanced with Shin-hyuk toward the center of the island.
It was time to see the end of the placement exam.
