TGMBS 04

Chapter 04

New Battlefield (4)

[You have defeated participant ‘825.’]

[Victory!]

‘Phew, this one was pretty tough too.’

I let out a long sigh while looking at the opponent scattering into dust.

Until now, I had traveled through countless battlefields and carried out all kinds of requests.

Assassination of key figures, infiltration and disruption, hostage rescue, escort and protection, intelligence gathering, reconnaissance, supply seizure—all of it.

The types, methods, and difficulty levels were all different.

So I naturally had no choice but to learn a variety of skills.

Dagger techniques, urban combat, countering high-ground snipers, close-quarters combat, psychology, and so on.

To survive, I had to be able to respond to any variable, so I learned and studied whatever I could.

But……

‘It wasn’t easy.’

Even for someone like me, I was feeling fatigue dealing with the participants I’d been matched with recently.

The ordinary-person-level opponents I’d met during the first few days were nowhere to be seen, and now every opponent I met was a skilled fighter with at least 1,000 matches.

You could say the level of matched opponents had risen dramatically.

This phenomenon had gotten worse lately, so as soon as I got out of the capsule, I asked my senior.

“Didn’t you say the amateur league uses random matching as a rule? Looking at things lately, the level of these guys is no joke.”

But instead of answering, my senior just held out his hand.

“What’s with that hand?”

“What do you mean? If you want information from an information broker, you have to pay.”

My senior said with a sly grin.

I looked down at that hand with cold eyes.

“How much?”

“Hmm, let’s see. Customer, you’ll need to pay about 100 million won?”

“What? 100 million?”

I let out a hollow laugh in disbelief and reached for the scabbard at my waist.

Sseureureung—

The blade slid out with a chilling sound.

My senior reflexively waved both arms and stepped back.

“Whoa— Hey, this is a crime! Criminal Act Article 284 special intimidation, Article 350 attempted extortion, Article 324 coercion! You fit all of these!”

“Your life is only worth 100 million won…… That actually makes me feel a little hurt.”

“Hey man, do you want to rot eating prison food for life?”

“The law is far and the fist is close. If you don’t open your mouth within three counts, I’ll really make a hole in you.”

As I took a step forward, my senior squeezed his eyes shut.

“I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you, okay!”

My senior grumbled and complained for a while, then after a moment, he released some premium information.

The condition for obtaining a pro license is at least 100 matches and a win rate over 70%.

Because of that, in other amateur leagues, there are occasionally undefeated promotions.

Literally, obtaining a pro license without a single loss across 100 matches.

“If you promote undefeated like that, you get offers for upper numbering matches right from your entry into the pro league.”

“Upper numbering? What’s that?”

At my question, my senior clicked his tongue.

“The pro league isn’t something where you can swing a blade whenever you want. It’s held exactly once a week, and the number of matches per day is fixed at ten. So within those ten, there are tiers.”

“Ah, so they’re arranged in order of card draw?”

My senior nodded.

Then he folded his fingers and continued explaining.

“Matches 1 through 5 are lower numbering, 6 through 8 are upper numbering. And 9 is the co-main event, with the long-awaited 10 being the main event. That’s how it’s divided into four tiers.”

“Ooh.”

“From the co-main event onward, the warriors participating are called contenders. If you perform well there, you earn the right to compete in a World League promotion match. Now do you get why undefeated promotion is important?”

Obtaining a pro license undefeated meant you didn’t have to go through matches 1 through 5, the lower cards.

Hearing that, the corners of my mouth twitched involuntarily.

“They’ll pay more money too, right?”

“Need I say more. The higher the numbering, the different the number of balls deposited?”

My senior drew a circle with his fingers in front of my eyes.

Before I knew it, I was grinning from ear to ear.

My senior spoke again.

“But you know, there’s never been a single undefeated promotion in the Japanese amateur league until now. That’s why your matchups look like that these days. Everyone’s desperate to break your impressive record. It’s a kind of record hunting.”

“Hmm. So what you’re saying is, I’ve become a golden goblin?”

Now that I knew the inside story, I buried myself deep in the sofa.

Now I could roughly picture how things worked.

Random matching was correct, but it seemed strong players were flocking only to the time slot I connected at.

According to my senior, named participants were deliberately pressing the match button to coincide with my connection timing.

Meanwhile, ordinary participants sensitive about managing their win rates were avoiding me by changing their connection times altogether.

‘No wonder the difficulty suddenly spiked.’

I’d been a bit intimidated, wondering if the wall to pro was always this high, but after learning it was artificial reverse-matching, I actually felt relieved.

It wasn’t that my skill was lacking—I was just being ganged up on.

That aside.

‘Undefeated promotion…….’

My current record was 91 matches.

If I won just nine more, I could obtain a pro license.

‘Hunters, huh? Well, who’s hunting whom will be revealed soon enough.’

I figured I’d better steel myself.

* * *

Tokyo, Chiyoda Ward, Ichigaya.

Palace Side Building, 7th floor.

Kajiwara Yusuke, the head of the Mainichi Shimbun’s International e-Content Department, called together the editorial desk and reporters as soon as he arrived at work.

The reason was one.

Because the birth of the first undefeated promoter in the Japanese amateur league was approaching.

“So it’s come to this after all.”

“Who on earth could it be? No matter how much we dig, there’s no information.”

The day before, the real-time viewer count for No. 2,749’s match had finally surpassed ten thousand.

Not only the people who had been watching the amateur league, but general viewers, SNS users, and overseas community users had all flocked in.

Kajiwara Yusuke smiled contentedly and tapped a photo of the ‘demon’ swinging a sword.

“The identity can be revealed slowly. What matters is the fact that the entire nation is now focused on this single phrase: ‘undefeated promotion.’ It’s a huge scoop.”

Undefeated promotion carries meaning beyond simply obtaining a pro license without a loss.

In the history of Nova Arena, only about 50 people had achieved this record.

Without exception, they went through the World League to the Master League, and some of them even reached the Super League.

Because of this background, Japan—which didn’t have a large number of high-tier warriors—couldn’t help but harbor quiet expectations.

Kajiwara asked the other young reporters.

“So? Do you think the demon can promote undefeated?”

“Hmm…… Honestly, I’m skeptical. Every community is in an uproar, and all kinds of named players have entered sniper mode. Even the famous ‘Ninja’ is running sniper matching in the same time slot, saying he’ll break the demon’s undefeated streak.”

“Oh, is that so?”

Ninja.

Participant No. 3, and a veteran among veterans who had been active in the amateur league since Nova Arena’s early days.

Win rate of 69%, with a record surpassing a whopping 10,000 matches.

He was a strong player evaluated as having no equal in the current Japanese amateur league.

Kajiwara nodded in satisfaction.

“The demon and the Ninja…… The framing is interesting.”

His 20 years of reporter instinct told him.

This would definitely resonate with the public. And very strongly at that.

Honestly, from his position, it didn’t matter which of them won.

If the demon won, he could emphasize the title of the first undefeated promoter in the Japanese amateur league.

If the Ninja won, he could create the narrative of the strongest warrior who defeated the named player ‘demon’ and rose to the pro league.

Kajiwara tapped the table with his index finger—tick, tick—and jerked his chin.

“Focus heavily on this. If necessary, a series is fine too.”

“Understood.”

The meeting ended with that conversation.

The reporters gathered their notebooks and poured out of the meeting room, and Kajiwara, left alone, quietly savored the scent of a scoop he hadn’t encountered in a long time.

And this atmosphere was spreading quickly not only through the Mainichi Shimbun but also through other major newspapers and broadcasting stations.

《Only 5 wins left until undefeated promotion…… How far will the ‘demon’ phenomenon go?》

《Japan’s amateur league strongest ‘Ninja’ steps up to stop the demon》

《Unknown participant 2,749, we are witnessing the birth of a future high-tier warrior》

《Ninja vs Demon, the biggest match in amateur league history foretold》

《Economic impact of undefeated promotion expectations? “Ad inquiries flooding in”》

《Overseas communities also paying attention… ‘Who is the demon?’》

《Can the Ninja break the demon’s winning streak? Live streaming reservations surging》

The front pages of Japan’s major daily newspapers were plastered with the two characters ‘demon.’

Editorial departments competed for clicks by changing headlines in real time, and online portal traffic drew an explosive vertical curve from dawn.

The aftermath immediately showed in the Japanese amateur league.

Starting at 2 PM, the number of matches dropped sharply.

Meanwhile, the named participants of the Japanese amateur league began targeting this time slot.

Amid this abnormal flow, the demon’s matches each turned into blood-soaked battles that made palms sweat, and those desperate, magnificent fights were enough to enthrall the viewers.

The demon knocked down the opponents blocking his path one by one, advancing toward the summit of a legendary undefeated promotion.

And.

In Go Taemin’s final match before pro league promotion——

[Searching for a matching opponent……]

[Match complete!]

[Participant No. 3 has entered.]

[Record: 11,812 matches, 8,266 wins, 3,546 losses (Win rate 69.98%)]

The two were set to face each other.

* * *

[Match type: 1v1 individual battle]

[Match category: Japan amateur league match]

[Victory condition: Kill the opposing participant]

[Map: Altar of the Fallen Revelation (small)]

[Current viewers: 104,936]

[Match: 2,749 vs 3]

[Match begins in 3 seconds.]

Ancient ruins shrouded in darkness.

The collapsed stone walls here and there told that this place had been ruins for a long time.

“…….”

Far away, inside a white portal, a participant stared at me.

Black cloth covering the entire body.

The face was completely hidden by a mask, and a curved sword slightly revealed at the waist gleamed coldly in the moonlight.

Participant No. 3, Ninja.

The one called the strongest in the amateur league was looking straight at me.

[Match begins in 2 seconds.]

If I take that guy down, I’ll finally shed this tiresome amateur label.

And not by crawling up from the bottom like some dirt-spoon course, but by grabbing a direct VIP ticket to the upper numbering where stacks of cash pour in from the moment of debut.

And honestly, I was looking at this situation very positively.

The heavier the value of the name ‘Ninja,’ the more my own value would skyrocket when I stepped on it to rise.

[Match begins in 1 second.]

Sseureureung—

I slowly drew my sword.

A custom-made sword, black from the hilt to the tip of the blade.

Because of that, even its form was faint in the darkness.

From a distance, it would look like only the white demon-shaped mask was floating in the air.

‘The strongest in the amateur league…….’

I raised the corners of my mouth beneath the mask.

‘Let’s see what you’ve got.’

[Match start!]

Pababat!

The white curtain of light confining our bodies lifted, and we simultaneously kicked off the ground.

And in an instant we closed the distance, swinging our swords with the resolve to finish each other in a single strike.

Chaeeeeng!

Along with a metallic sound that tore through the eardrums, sparks flew.

“…….”

My grip tingled.

Pushed back three or four steps, I narrowed my eyes.

The Ninja’s pupils I met in the darkness were cold like a machine, without a trace of wavering.

‘His record wasn’t just for show.’

The opponent was a monster on a different level from the participants I’d met before.