Chapter 218: Knockout Tournament (5)
Bang!
Thick smoke rises above the arena like the sky lit up by fireworks during the Spring Festival.
Sophia, an A-Class Hunter from America, suddenly launched an attack.
As an Awakened who had been hiding her innate abilities, she had not brought summoning magic stones into the arena, meaning her main skills were sealed.
Fire, explosions, and the searing heat inflicting pain on people.
Sophia had some talent with fire-related magic besides her summoning skills, and she had learned many related abilities over time.
Whoosh!
Among them was a technique whose power significantly increased depending on the amount of mana poured into it.
It was a rare situation where she could produce destruction roughly appropriate to her level just with auxiliary magic.
Ugh!
Crash!
A huge sound echoed across the arena again.
As the A-Class Awakened conjured up unfamiliar spells, the audience erupted in applause as if they had been waiting for this moment.
But for some reason, the face of the mage launching the attack gradually twisted, as if she was about to burst into tears.
Hik, ugh, ugh…!
To put it bluntly, Sophia was currently consumed by extreme fear.
While one S-Class Hunter merely stood still, not even attempting to chase her, this composed demeanor struck Sophia as a far more terrifying scene.
Damn it! No way! Even if the healer from China is competent, can she really resurrect those who have been killed by that Asian sociopath?!
Tremble, tremble.
The fingertips of the mage pouring out spells trembled violently.
How could she not be scared?
During the past Demirich attack incident.
Sophia recalled a particular illusion when she saw the blond man chasing after her.
He had merely stopped to catch his breath due to a lack of stamina, but she twisted this into the image of a monstrous S-Class easily overpowering her, leaving her, the weakling, slightly amused.
H-How could he… How could an A-Class Awakened become a mere toy…?
Thus, when reporting to Brooklyn, she trembled with pity.
Returning to the present, the mysterious Oriental man who had toyed with her in the past reappeared before her eyes.
And unlike other S-Class Hunters, he was standing comfortably in place, silent, as if inviting her to waste two minutes before returning for a reward.
What a gentle show of leniency.
But Sophia could not just stand by.
Ugh…!
This was mockery.
Kim Gi-ryeo was standing there without attacking, simply ‘allowing’ her to show off her skills, giving her a look that said, “Go ahead, show me what you’ve got.”
If she fell for that and truly did nothing, wouldn’t that monster express disappointment physically out of sheer boredom?
Sure enough.
About 15 seconds into the match, Kim Gi-ryeo tilted his head and began to visibly express his emotions.
His gaze was filled with deep questioning.
And to Sophia, this felt like a pressure saying, “Why aren’t you doing anything? Are you just going to slack off?”
You want to see me flounder like last time, don’t you? You want to enjoy the sight of your opponent struggling…!
As the smell of smoke filled the arena, oddly enough, the attacker’s face grew damp.
Whoosh!
Then came the explosive [Fireball].
A spectacle of new-age miracles unfolded before them that could not be imitated.
But as the smoky inferno cleared, she gasped loudly.
Huh!
Beyond the smoke stood the shadow of a man, and the moment his opaque white form vanished…
….
The figure of a hunter emerged, not a smudge of soot on him.
The man in a suit tilted his head again at Sophia’s actions.
Suddenly using all his magic power. What is this? Is this some Earth fighting strategy?
[Divine Tree Sapling].
Originally, he was the grade falsifier who would have suffered a fracture even from a mere poke from Sophia, but the protective effect he had acquired through his previous life knowledge had an incredibly terrifying defensive capability.
Sophia desperately clung on, fully aware it wouldn’t work.
To her, Kim Gi-ryeo was truly a peculiar individual capable of any unexpected actions.
As the American hunter struggled, desperate to reach for the S-Class pendant, the audience erupted in thunderous cheers at this exciting situation.
Huh?
But…
This flailing wouldn’t last long. Before long, the match came to an end.
Amidst reckless assaults, the clock ticked down to about 1 minute and 30 seconds.
The scoreboard was set for the audience, not the Awakened, so a certain alien glanced at his analog wristwatch without realizing it.
──I concede!
Immediately after.
A sorrowful cry of a mammal flowed from the opposite side.
“I concede… I’m conceding… Where’s the referee! I messed up, so please come and mediate!”
At the same time, Sophia crumpled down, throwing her dignity away.
When the strong person who had silently endured for roughly 1 minute and 30 seconds suddenly moved one arm as if to cast a spell, it unwittingly conveyed a rather different nuance.
No…
The match was a complete disaster from start to finish.
A few minutes later.
As Sophia’s concession was acknowledged and the hunter from South Korea recorded an official victory, Gi-ryeo, with a pale face, watched the summoner being carried away on a stretcher by medical staff and thought,
Understanding Earthlings has always been difficult, but this was on another level…
Why did I win…?
Calculating, it seemed that just one more minute would have surely crushed the necklace.
But the unexpected concession was quite shocking.
Plus, that wasn’t the only troubling aspect.
Is this just how Americans are by nature? To truly understand, do I need to find a corpse of an American later?
The audience was quiet as if ice water had been poured over them.
They all must have paid a high price to see the magic of a top-class mage, yet thinking about it, this match was merely a display of an S-Class getting beat up, so how boring and monotonous it must have been for the spectators.
Hmm.
The grade falsifier from Korea lowered his gaze with such judgments.
It must have really been dull…
Perhaps the voices of the audience heard throughout the match were curses.
Since he had no abilities related to the Chinese language, Gi-ryeo felt an unsettling worry about the words they spat out, which he could not understand.
I’m really sorry…
But now that the match was over, what could he do?
He returned the match pendant he had been tightly gripping to the organizers.
And while walking down the stairs leisurely, he thought,
They’ll surely blame me for ruining the event, so perhaps I should keep a low profile online for about a week.
Of course, this alien with a slight electronic device addiction couldn’t hold back from web surfing anyway.
His worries never turned into reality.
*
Squeak.
Saturday morning, 11 AM.
A man in his 30s with an ordinary appearance stretched lightly and laid back on his living room sofa.
He was an office worker and developer at a small to mid-sized company in Icheon.
Until this point, he had shown no interest in international events from China whatsoever.
Whether the Awakened fought among themselves or not.
He was just an ordinary person busy making a living day by day.
Ugh. Olympics and this… Why is it that the things I never followed in my life are causing such a ruckus on days like this…?
Now that the weekend had come, he thought about ordering some chicken. But it seemed today would be tough for delivery due to overwhelming orders.
The office worker sighed in fatigue and stood up.
He then turned on the kettle to whip up some instant noodles for a quick meal.
Bubble, bubble, bubble… Click!
While waiting for the water to boil, his hand instinctively lifted his mobile phone.
As usual, he leaned on the table and browsed the Y-Tube app.
This video streaming platform had a section dedicated to content limited to 60 seconds.
Just swiping his thumb up was an effective way to kill time right away.
Bang!
Hahaha.
Hehe!
But then.
Within 15 seconds, a short video entered his view.
Crash!
Unlike humorous content, this one began with a heavy explosion.
The man instinctively froze his moving hand.
What he saw was…
A mass of heat, not special effects from movies, causing a loud explosion as if blasting powder and metal against the ground.
Boom! Ka-pang. Band-aid…
What was flowing now wasn’t some movie’s sound effects but the real sounds generated by skills.
In the video, a chubby foreigner bore a desperate expression while attacking someone.
Ugh, ugh…!
Yet, no matter how fierce the attack seemed, the figure across simply remained cold and silent.
The hand calmly grasping the end of a silver necklace.
The camera, which had been capturing the veins and bones sticking out in a bluish tint on the back of the hand, slowly raised its angle.
Eventually, the screen filled with the eyes of a certain individual.
With dry almond-colored eyelids opening slowly to reveal striking three hundred eyes, the video ended.
….
As the video automatically returned to its first scene.
A certain office worker found himself unconsciously checking the comment section nearby.
[Comment] [5531] [☆][12K]
[Is that a person or a monster? Haha!]
[0:13 What is this? It’s like fireworks are going off right in front of me, yet why aren’t they blinking?]
[Impressive!]
[What a refreshing way to approach it.]
[At this point, it’s more impressive that the opponent didn’t concede when they saw that S-Class’s face…*]
Indeed.
The unexpected victory of a certain hunter was triggering fierce reactions back in someone’s hometown in real time.
.
.
.
Superhuman.
Just the notion that such beings exist feels alien, but now that they wield magic while fighting, isn’t anyone likely to be intrigued?
[Oh?? That IHT thing? I thought it was fake news, but it’s real??]
One day.
With the announcement of the international tournament being confirmed, various communities around the world erupted into chaos for a while.
The recent Olympic Games had been a mess due to that mana phenomenon, and the world’s expectations had suddenly shifted towards this new event.
Though the exact cause was unclear, it seemed athletes had a higher likelihood of awakening compared to others.
In fields like pole vaulting, 100m sprinting, and handball.
Several medalists in diverse categories lost their qualification to compete due to having awakened.
—————————
Hunters’ Associations: This is Korea’s archery national team.
└ What the heck, give it back!
└ Don’t take it away!!!
—————————
Of course, the beloved sports of some countries were no exception.
It seemed that since magic was a newly born concept, it accompanied various transitional issues throughout society.
[If that’s the case, couldn’t they just gather the Awakened and hold their own Olympics?]
[That sounds like a good idea.]
[But then, does excluding Awakened without exception make any sense? Honestly, these athletes have dedicated their youth to their dreams…ㅠㅠ]
[Guys… there’s a difference in grades among Awakened. But it seems the matches are going pretty well anyway.]
[Well, that makes sense…]
[OMG. ;]
Recently, discussions about the participation of the Awakened in sports had unfolded.
[China’s international tournament held amidst controversies… ]
In such times, a real event using magic emerged, and how do you think the reactions were?
Even intellectuals who maintained a negative stance were subtly drawn in by curiosity and switched to the TV channels.
And what soon filled the viewers’ living rooms was the beginning of the historic Awakened Tournament, featuring the first broadcast of the Eun-ho Battle (B-rank match).
An opening performance by an ice elemental mage.
Avoiding trivial debates about the seating quality worth 6 million won, to get to the point, China’s event was quite a success.
The brilliance of magic certainly captivated humanity.
Wow… After only watching the mundane Hunter activities shot with phone cameras, seeing such well-captured displays of ability is impressive.
Moreover, the fighting arena was once used as a sedative for the public mood, as it had an exciting aspect that stimulated the peripheral nerves.
The strange pleasure that violence brings.
After successfully conducting the Eun-ho battle on Friday, China’s IHT was now left only with what could be called the highlight of the event, the Hwangryong Tournament.
And Saturday had arrived.
