Chapter 4
“Dimension Arena, entry.”
Whoosh!
The moment he confirmed his awakening, Shinhyuk immediately entered the Dimension Arena.
Inside, he saw countless people—some visibly tense, others frozen stiff in anxiety.
“So this is the waiting room. I came here so many times it got boring.”
The game start waiting room.
Simply called “the lobby,” it was a place where participants gathered before the game began.
Once everyone had assembled, the system would soon initiate the match.
“For the placement exam, it’s always a 100-man battle royale.”
The Dimension Arena offered many different types of games, but the placement exam was always held as a 100-person battle royale.
Of course, this was common knowledge among the participants, so it wasn’t especially important information—but still, it didn’t hurt to know.
However, before long, cries of despair echoed throughout the lobby.
“Damn it! It’s Lee Juho!”
“What? Why does Lee Juho have to be in my lobby…?”
“This is over. We’re screwed….”
“…Lee Juho is here?”
The reason was simple.
It had been confirmed that Lee Juho—the eldest son of the chairman of the Osung Guild—was in the same waiting room.
The atmosphere instantly turned grim, as if a natural disaster had just struck.
Watching this, Shinhyuk let out a small laugh.
“Just as expected. Even this is the same.”
In the past, Shinhyuk had also been placed in the same lobby as Juho.
And while Shinhyuk had ended up lingering near the bottom rankings, Juho had actively formed alliances, secured first place, and been placed at Silver Tier 4.
Because of that, unlike the others, Shinhyuk wasn’t surprised at all by the news.
But there was one thing different from the past.
“Lee Juho is coming this way?”
“What? Why all of a sudden?”
Juho was walking directly toward Shinhyuk.
Surrounded by his followers, Juho approached and looked straight at him.
“You pulled something interesting.”
“What are you talking about?”
“…‘What am I talking about?’ You plastered your worthless name all over the media where mine was supposed to be.”
“Oh, that.”
Chairman Choi Cheolho had kept his promise.
Thanks to that, for the entire day on December 31st, Shinhyuk’s name had been everywhere—on TV, in newspapers, across the internet.
“Rebellion of the worthless jack-of-all-trades.”
“A hidden pearl in the mud.”
Stories like those had dominated the headlines, completely overshadowing Osung Group’s publicity efforts.
Seeing Juho bring that up, Shinhyuk simply shrugged.
“What’s the problem? It was only natural.”
“Natural…? A guy who was predicted to be Bronze for three straight years? A useless jack-of-all-trades like you thinks he’s better than me?”
“Yep.”
“…Tch! Fine. We’ll see about that. But do you really think you can back it up? When me and my friends are going to be in the same game as you?”
“We’ll find out soon enough.”
Even when Juho openly threatened him with coordinated teaming, Shinhyuk didn’t so much as blink.
Seeing that calm attitude, Juho looked taken aback for a moment.
“Is that so?”
“…?”
“Then listen up!”
Juho suddenly raised his voice.
“To anyone in this lobby—whoever kills this bastard in the game will receive 1 billion won in cash! Or items and elixirs of equivalent value!”
“…Hah.”
At Juho’s declaration, the entire waiting room stirred.
One billion won.
A sum most people could never dream of earning in their lifetimes.
Even the wealthy rarely spent that kind of money casually.
And now, Juho was offering it just for killing one person.
Naturally, the gazes of the other players changed.
“Who’s that guy?”
“Isn’t he that one from Shinwha High? The so-called worthless jack-of-all-trades?”
“Oh right, the guy who can do a lot of things but isn’t actually good at any of them?”
“Now that you mention it, the news was all about him yesterday….”
“Figures. Even if he’s a black sheep, he’s still from Shinwha Group.”
“Nice. Forget the placement exam—let’s just hunt him down.”
“Agreed. If we kill him, it’s an instant life reversal!”
Most of the players recognized Shinhyuk.
And they all knew just how weak he was supposed to be.
Seeing their reactions, Juho grinned.
“Good luck taking the placement exam while being chased by a pack of hyenas, worthless jack-of-all-trades.”
With that, Juho waved mockingly and walked away with his group.
Watching them leave, Shinhyuk simply smirked.
“Interesting.”
Even though he had just been targeted by 99 players, Shinhyuk didn’t seem bothered in the slightest.
“What was the reward for most kills in the placement exam again?”
Because he intended to turn even this situation into an advantage.
His thoughts didn’t last long.
[The game will now begin!]
“Time to start.”
The 100-man battle royale placement exam had officially begun.
Whoosh!
With a sensation like teleportation, Shinhyuk found himself moved to a new location.
“Inside a house. A starting point.”
The 100-man battle royale took place on a massive island.
Scattered throughout were houses and buildings where items could be looted.
Players could gather equipment and either use it in battle or find an escape point to bring items back to reality.
Under normal circumstances, the goal was to avoid fighting and focus on gathering as much as possible before escaping.
But this wasn’t a normal game.
This was the placement exam.
Most players weren’t thinking about taking items back—they were fully prepared to pour everything they had into fighting.
And Shinhyuk, on top of that, had a bounty on his head.
The entire world was effectively his enemy.
“Bandages, a healing potion, and a bow? Not bad.”
Yet despite such a horrifying situation, Shinhyuk remained perfectly calm.
After looting the house, he immediately surveyed his surroundings.
Crunch—
‘One to the left.’
Hearing a faint noise, Shinhyuk instantly drew the bowstring and released.
Thwip—thud!
“Urk!”
[Choi Shinhyuk → Kim Geon]
That was the end of it.
Walking over to the fallen player, Shinhyuk casually looted his items.
“A healing potion and a sword. Don’t need the sword.”
Items brought in from reality returned to reality upon death—only items found inside the game could be taken.
After finishing his looting, Shinhyuk lightly kicked off the ground.
“The bow is a good start.”
With 99 enemies to deal with, his strategy was simple: eliminate them one by one.
And for that, a bow was perfect.
Deep in a quiet forest, four players moved quickly.
They weren’t bothering with stealth.
“Are you sure he’s here?”
“Yeah. I used a location tracker on Choi Shinhyuk.”
“But we’re really splitting the reward, right?”
“Of course! Even divided four ways, that’s 250 million each!”
A location tracker.
A rare consumable item that revealed a specific player’s position.
Normally worth a fortune, but right now, all they cared about was the 1-billion-won bounty.
“There! I see something!”
“Quiet and move in!”
Spotting something hidden in the trees, they rushed forward.
“Charge!”
They attacked together—
Slash!
“Got him!”
But in that very moment—
Thwip—thud!
[Choi Shinhyuk → Lee Dohyun]
An arrow pierced the leader’s head.
“D-Dohyun!”
“Where did that come from?!”
“Wait… check the kill log! It’s Choi Shinhyuk!”
“Then what did we kill…?”
“Damn it! It was a dummy!”
A decoy doll.
Another rare item that created a perfect replica.
And now that they had fallen for it, their fate was sealed.
Thwip—thwip—thwip!
[Choi Shinhyuk → Baek Geonwoo]
[Choi Shinhyuk → Moon Kyungsik]
[Choi Shinhyuk → Han Hyungseok]
Three perfect headshots.
[Skill acquired: Archery – Rank C]
“C-rank… not bad.”
A skill level roughly equivalent to Silver tier proficiency.
Satisfied, Shinhyuk melted back into the forest.
The safe zone began shrinking.
Shinhyuk had already assassinated or ambushed over 30 players.
He was injured, exhausted—but still calm.
“Time for real fighting to begin.”
Then he smiled.
“Well, if I need more allies, I’ll just make them.”
Looking at the corpses around him, Shinhyuk spoke quietly.
“Rise.”
Mana flowed into the dead bodies.
One by one, skeletons rose.
[Skill acquired: Necromancy – Rank C]
Thirty-two skeletons now stood at his command.
And with them, Shinhyuk marched toward the center of the island.
It was time to end the placement exam.
