"Delusional fool!"
Watching Jack square off against their entire group alone, X and Viktor both curled their lips in unadulterated contempt.
Sure, Jack had unlocked the D-rank Wreck Reaper profession. Big whoop?
X and Viktor were D-rank pros too—Conjurer and Berserker, respectively.
And the grunts behind them? They might not have hit D-rank, but most were solid E-rank with actual field combat experience under their belts.
If they all piled on Jack at once, what chance did he stand of holding them off?
What X and Viktor conveniently chose to ignore was that just yesterday, Jack had been nothing but a total deadweight in their eyes.
Yet barely a day later, ganging up on him already felt like the most obvious, reasonable call in the world to them.
"I'll end him!"
Viktor roared, slamming his fist to his chest to trigger his skill: Frenzy.
> [Frenzy: Locks onto a single target. User enters a short semi-conscious rage state, all base stats doubled. Will only attack the locked target for the duration.]
Viktor hated Jack with every fiber of his being, fully convinced Jack had stolen the life that was rightfully his.
This whole Wasteland expedition had been a total wash for him. On top of coming away with zero decent loot, he’d had to watch that useless Jack steal the spotlight over and over again.
Rage boiled so hot in his veins that every muscle bulged, thick blue veins popping under his skin. He hefted his twin iron hammers and swung them full force straight for Jack’s skull.
Jack let out a cold, dry laugh, activating his own skill: Shadow Step.
> [Shadow Step: User can freely teleport within a 10-meter radius for 1 minute.
Note: Launching an attack immediately cancels the teleportation state.
Cooldown: 1 hour.]
The second Shadow Step kicked in, Jack vanished like a wisp of smoke.
Viktor’s hammers crashed through thin air, the impact sending up a cloud of dust. Before he could even register where Jack had gone, Jack had materialized right behind him, Blood Talons raised for a brutal downward slash.
But in that exact split second, X snapped into action, triggering his signature skill: Object Transposition.
> [Object Transposition: Swaps the caster’s position with a target of lower level.
Note: Only works on targets within the caster’s line of sight.
Cooldown: 24 hours.]
With the skill activated, X and Jack swapped places in the blink of an eye.
Jack glanced down at his body, now forcibly moved across the clearing, and frowned. There was nothing he could do about it—his level was still lower than X’s right now. Against that skill, he had zero way to resist.
"Thanks for the save, X!"
Viktor was still reeling from his near-death scare, gasping for air as he shot X a look of genuine gratitude.
"Don’t thank me. I just didn’t want to have to take Jack on alone," X said, his voice flat and unreadable.
If the claws aimed at Viktor’s back had belonged to anyone else, X would’ve happily stood by and watched him get torn to shreds. But this was Jack. Between Viktor and Jack, X hated Jack way more.
"Let’s finish this!"
Viktor hefted his hammers again, snarling at Jack. Shadow Step was on cooldown now—he was dying to see what trick Jack would pull to dodge this time.
Jack’s jaw tightened, fists clenching at his sides. He was already weighing whether to burn Cursed Blade to turn the tide. Without that trump card, he was still just a regular D-rank pro. Going up against both X and Viktor at the same time… he’d be fighting an uphill battle.
Just as he was still running the numbers, a deep, commanding voice boomed from the edge of the clearing.
"All of you, stand down!"
The whole crowd froze mid-movement. They turned to look at the speaker, and all the tension in their shoulders immediately melted away.
Anyone who could order
Frostveil City’s most arrogant young prodigies to stop fighting in that tone was clearly nobody to mess with.
The man striding toward them wore a crisp golden military uniform, his face sharp and chiseled, a long spear slung over his back. This was Craig, captain of Lord Lawrence’s personal guard—and one of the city lord’s most trusted lieutenants.
If Lawrence didn’t handle a matter in person, Craig stepped in as his proxy. When the city lord was absent, Craig’s word carried the full weight of his authority.
No matter how much X and Viktor hated Jack, neither of them was stupid enough to defy an A-rank pro acting on the city lord’s orders.
Seeing everyone lower their weapons, Craig nodded in satisfaction and spoke slowly.
"You’re all the finest young talent
Frostveil City has to offer. Why are you turning your blades on each other?"
"Mr. Craig!"
X, confident in his family’s clout, stepped forward to address him first.
"The Gale Ape is dead, but none of us landed the killing blow. I want to know—how is the city lord’s decree reward going to be distributed now?"
Craig glanced at X, his tone still even.
"The decree stated clearly that the winner is decided by the total quantity and value of monsters hunted. Did you not read it? The city lord has his own methods of tallying your kills. Wait a few more moments, and I will announce the first-place winner."
At that, the crowd immediately erupted into quiet panic. Everyone started scrambling to mentally add up how many monsters they’d killed, and what ranks those kills were.
A faint, triumphant grin flickered across X’s face. By his own count, he’d hunted more monsters than anyone else. With the Gale Ape kill off the table, his hold on first place was even more solid.
Not far away, Viktor was running his own calculations. He hadn’t taken down the most monsters, but a lot of his kills were high-value, high-rank beasts. That meant the final winner was still anyone’s game.
In an instant, the two rivals who’d been on the verge of a temporary truce were glaring at each other again, hostility and suspicion crackling between them.
Standing next to Saria, Jack started tallying his own kills too. He’d taken down plenty of
Ironhide Behemoths, but Saria had landed the opening blows on most of them and let him finish the job. He had no clue if the city lord’s system would count those as his.
But there was one kill no one could argue with—the Gale Ape’s own offspring, the Gale Ape Cub. A D-rank monster, and worth a small fortune in points.
Beyond the top three of Jack, X, and Viktor, the rest of the crowd was buzzing with nervous excitement. Realistically, the prize was almost guaranteed to go to one of the D-rank pros. But X and the others had wasted so much time fruitlessly trying to take down the Gale Ape that lower-rank pros had gotten a ton of extra time to grind. Maybe, just maybe, one of them would pull off a surprise dark horse win.
As much as everyone secretly hoped they’d take first, there was one thing every single person in the crowd silently agreed on: Everyone had a shot at first… except Jack.
From what they’d seen, Jack had landed one ambush kill on a bottom-tier monster back in the Bramble Thicket, and no one had heard of him taking down anything else after that. In their minds, even if he’d somehow lucked into a D-rank profession, he could never shake his useless, cowardly core. Cowardice and incompetence were carved into a man’s bones—your profession rank couldn’t fix that.
"Mr. Craig, isn’t it time to announce the winner?" X stared at Craig, trying to pick up any hint from his expression.
Craig’s face stayed perfectly impassive. He nodded, pulling a sheet of official parchment from inside his coat.
At the sight of that paper, every heart in the crowd started hammering. This was their shot at changing their entire fate. No one wanted to miss out.
"The first-place winner of this trial is…"
Craig scanned the parchment, pausing for a long, drawn-out beat before he spoke slowly.
"Jack!"