Perfect World [EN]: Chapter 180

182

“Who are you going to send out?”

“Our Gods Knights will send out Lapine. She’s not on our Gladiator Corps list yet, but she seems perfect for a rookie gladiator.”

Jacob, who had been quietly listening from behind, looked dumbfounded. If she wasn’t on the Gladiator Corps list, it meant she wasn’t even in the second string. In his opinion, Zelsomina’s skills were such that at least a starter should come out to have a decent match.

“Are you kidding me right now? Zelsomina is not someone who can be matched up against a gladiator who hasn’t even made it onto the Area League team’s gladiator list. Do you think we’re blind to have come all the way here?”

“No, it’s okay. Lapine has only been in gladiator matches for a year, but her skills are outstanding.”

Jacob stared at him blankly. Setting aside the issue of excluding her from the team’s power rankings, she was just a fledgling with only a year of gladiator match experience? It was absurd to pit such a kid against Zelsomina.

“That kid is absolutely out of the question. It would be better for Chaplin Whisper to step up.”

“Well, if that’s what you want, let’s have Chaplin Whisper step up.”

Without a second thought, Beomseok immediately accepted Jacob’s suggestion. The gladiator who would come out from Chaplin Whisper was Rebecca. She was the legendary gladiator Amelie’s favorite disciple and a master of unorthodox swordsmanship who had once cornered Beomseok in a one-on-one duel. It was difficult to recognize her bending sword strikes at once. No matter how skilled Zelsomina was, she would never be able to lead the match for long without knowing anything about it.

Vincent looked at Rebecca with meaningful eyes and said,

“It looks like Chaplin Whisper will have to step up. Who will compete?”

“Yes, I’ll go.”

Niz looked at her with a surprised expression.

“Aren’t you a team official?”

“Yes, that’s right. I’m currently the head of the Chaplin Whisper team.”

“Th-then, you’re going out?”

“Yes, I’m also a gladiator for the team.”

Niz swallowed hard and asked again.

“I’m just asking in case, but sorry, what are your skills like?”

“Well, I’m confident enough to say they’re outstanding.”

Her confident words brought some relief. Beomseok, who possessed outstanding swordsmanship skills as a team official, was standing right next to her, so he thought that maybe she was the same.

“Oh, really? How long have you been doing this? You’re a modified human, so I’d imagine it’s been quite a while?”

“Hmm, well, I first started in the amateur league the year before last. My professional career has been just last year.”

Niz and Jacob stared at her blankly, as if they had lost their words. Just looking at her experience, it was worse than Lapine, who was going to step up before. He even thought that maybe she had become a professional gladiator by pressuring the coach with her position as team leader.

However, since he couldn’t say it outright, he waved his hand and encouraged the match to proceed. If she was miserably defeated, they could use it as an excuse to put forward the gladiator they had brought.

“Sigh~ I understand. We don’t have much time, so hurry up and finish your preparations and start the test.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Rebecca, who went to the locker room to put on her suit, stood in front of everyone again. Zelsomina was dumbfounded by the current situation, but she decided to do her best since it was a test. In order to receive the salary she wanted, she had to end this match early and show a good fight against the gladiators sent out by Sky Jackals and Menex Odins. Otherwise, no professional team would give her, a rookie with no gladiator match experience, a salary of 10 million krang [a fictional currency].

At that moment, Beomseok stepped forward and lined them up. Since they were both wearing training suits, a referee was needed to determine the winner.

“Well, I’ll be the referee. Is that okay?”

Niz and Jacob immediately nodded. They could trust Beomseok if he was the referee.

He was a promising player that any World League team would covet, even though he wasn’t widely known because he was wandering around the Area League. His swordsmanship was like the reincarnation of a god, and his potential for growth was reaching its peak. If he hadn’t said that he would never transfer to another team, they would have spent tens of millions of gold to recruit him to their team. In fact, the reason they came to the rookie draft today was because of the vague hope that a gladiator with similar skills to Beomseok might appear.

“We have no complaints if it’s you. Go ahead.”

Beomseok, who had received permission, said to Rebecca and Zelsomina.

“Well, both of you, draw your swords.”

Soon, they both drew their swords and prepared for battle. At this, he quickly stepped back and strongly lowered the hand he was holding in a diagonal direction.

“Match start!”

Clang!

A clear sword cry spread in all directions. First, they locked swords to measure each other’s strength. However, there was no way that Zelsomina, who had just obtained a modified body, could match the strength of Rebecca, who had trained extremely for a long time. She immediately created distance and circled around her as if to keep her in check.

‘Her strength is not ordinary. I’ll have to be careful.’

In that instant, Rebecca took a step forward and extended her sword towards her face. It wasn’t a particularly fast or sharp movement, so Zelsomina lightly deflected the sword to slightly twist its trajectory. However, unexpectedly, the direction of the sword tip did not change at all and flew straight at her. Surprised, she quickly raised her sword, but was mercilessly struck on the side of her helmet.

Bang!

“Invalid. Continue the match!”

At Beomseok’s judgment, Niz and Jacob wore sullen expressions. It was a bit ambiguous, but they thought it was a blow that could be judged as a direct hit.

“It seems like Beomseok is giving her a break because she’s his junior.”

“That’s right. Well, if she had been hit directly by such an ordinary move, it could have had a negative impact on Zelsomina.”

Beomseok, who overheard this conversation nearby, smiled lightly. Although he wasn’t sure, he could sense from their tone that they were doubting Zelsomina’s skills. That meant they hadn’t yet grasped Rebecca’s bending sword [a unique swordsmanship style]. Zelsomina’s evaluation was bound to drop sharply. Right now, Rebecca’s swordsmanship looked nothing but ordinary.

‘Huhu. Rebecca’s unorthodox swordsmanship was so great that I had a lot of trouble with it at first. I almost lost. By the way, Zelsomina, this kid is amazing. Even though it was close to a direct hit, she reacted this far to the sudden bending sword. I didn’t see her wrong after all.’

In the meantime, Zelsomina was caught up in Rebecca’s offensive and was swinging her sword around frantically. Her whole body was covered in fine scratches, and each movement had become impromptu and reflexive rather than flowing naturally. In other words, she was not able to properly display her swordsmanship and was being pushed back unilaterally.

However, Rebecca was looking at her with admiring eyes. Even though she wasn’t going all out, Zelsomina was the first opponent after Beomseok to react this much while encountering her swordsmanship for the first time.

‘Amazing! As expected of the gladiator targeted by Director Vincent and Beomseok. I have to recruit her no matter what. Then, it would be better to decide the match quickly.’

Rebecca, who had grasped her talent, thought that she should end it soon. The current plan was to shatter Zelsomina miserably in front of Niz and Jacob to instill disappointment. There was no point in dragging out the match any further.

Soon, she put a lot of strength into the hand holding the hilt and swung a strong blow.

Clang. Thwack!

Zelsomina, who was hit directly on the forehead, was pushed back by the strong force and ended up falling on her butt. She tried to raise her sword to block it, but it was a heavy blow with a lot of weight, so she couldn’t push it away in time. Sensing her defeat, she couldn’t lift her head and waited for Beomseok’s judgment.

“Direct hit. Match over!”

Jacob and Niz nodded, seemingly without any complaints about this judgment. They had seen the sword tip embedded in her forehead, so there was no reason to make any other noise. In fact, Beomseok had been too lenient so far.

They looked at Zelsomina with disappointed eyes. Except for the last blow, the sword strikes were the epitome of ordinary, but her whole body was full of scratches. They began to suspect that the highlight scenes they had seen in the gladiator introduction sequence were due to the beauty of editing.

“Do you want to try again? Or will you end it here?”

Niz asked the question casually, but Zelsomina reacted immediately. She was too upset to give up like this.

“Yes, I’ll try again! My defeat just now was a mistake!”

Niz wore a bitter smile on his face. There was no way that he, a trade manager for a World League team, couldn’t distinguish between a mistake and a difference in skill. In his eyes, there was a significant difference in skill between Zelsomina and Rebecca.

Still, you never know. He decided to give her one more chance.

“Rebecca, can you fight one more match?”

Rebecca shook her head. She thought that Zelsomina might notice her unorthodox swordsmanship in the next match. If that happened, the match would be prolonged, which could greatly disrupt the strategy of deceiving Niz and Jacob.

“Well, I don’t think there’s any need to see more. If you really want to, let Lapine fight. She’s not included in the Gods Knights’ Gladiator Corps yet, but she’s planned to be from next season, so she must have some skill.”

Niz quietly turned his gaze to Beomseok.

“What do you think? Will you do it?”

“Yes, let’s do that. After all, you can’t gauge Zelsomina’s skills with just one match, and gladiators all have their strengths.”

“Then, I’ll leave it to you.”

Beomseok nodded and immediately approached Lapine. Then, he patted her on the shoulder and whispered in her ear so that no one could hear.

“It’s okay to exhaust your stamina to the extreme, just end it in one go. Got it?”

In other words, he was telling her to use her trait, ‘Berserker of Fighting Spirit’. This trait normally increases all physical abilities by +10, but when activated, it has a fraudulent option that increases strength and balance by +30 for 10 minutes instead of decreasing all mental strength by -10. Well, there was a big disadvantage of losing half of her stamina after 10 minutes, but this match shouldn’t be dragged out that long anyway.

“Yes, Master. Leave it to me.”

Lapine soon put on her helmet and drew her great sword. Then, she stood in front of Zelsomina, who had already finished preparing for the match, and sent her a faint smile. There was no way that someone who had just finished her body modification surgery could block her blow, which had maximized her strength and balance with the Berserker of Fighting Spirit [a special ability].

She positioned her sword at the top and waited for Beomseok’s match start signal.

“Match start!”

At the same time, Lapine’s sword emitted an eerie sound as it was drawn downwards. Zelsomina, who had no time to avoid it due to its fierce and fast momentum, hurriedly raised her sword to block it, but she was pushed back as it was and faced a moment of desperation. Inevitably, she knelt down to add a cushioning effect and quickly grabbed the sword surface with her right arm to barely block it.

However, it was almost impossible to avoid the next blow in this position. Lapine immediately gave her a horizontal slash to the waist and rolled roughly on the floor to a certain extent.

“Direct hit! Match over!”

At this sight, Niz and Jacob closed their eyes tightly. The opponent seemed to have quite a bit of strength, but they were disappointed that she had fallen so pathetically in one blow. They thought her swordsmanship skills were at the World League level, but she had been unilaterally defeated by Area League gladiators who were no different from complete beginners, so they had no choice but to evaluate her differently.

“Sigh~ It seems like we saw it wrong. I thought her swordsmanship skills were great, but when I actually saw it, it was nothing.”

“Well, it would be difficult to evaluate her skills based on highlight editing videos alone. It seems like we wasted all our negotiation coupons in a useless place. It looks like we made a big mistake.”

However, unlike them, Beomseok’s eyes, which were looking at Zelsomina, were burning with greed. He was impressed by the fact that she had blocked the blow of Lapine, who boasted the world’s strongest power, with only momentary senses in a state of knowing nothing. Of course, she had given up her waist in vain afterwards, but he had no way to deal with it in that position either.

He hurriedly sent Lapine in and walked towards Niz and Jacob.

“Well, I think that’s enough. Let’s go to the negotiation table now.”

Jacob, who didn’t even respond to his words, looked at Zelsomina and said.

“Do you still want a salary of 10 million krang?”

She was embarrassed, but she nodded with difficulty. She absolutely needed 10 million krang right now.

“Yes.”

Jacob, who let out a long sigh, met eyes with Niz. If they took such a kid to their team for 10 million krang, their necks would be on the line. It was a pity that they had wasted their negotiation coupons on her, but he thought it was time to back down now.

“Niz, I have no intention of going to the negotiation table. What about you?”

“I have the same thought. It seems like it would be better to end this rookie draft here.”

Jacob, who nodded, approached Zelsomina and said in an indifferent tone.

“It seems like you’re not a person who fits in with our Menex Odins team. Maybe we’ll see you again if there’s a chance in the future.”

Immediately, Jacob and Niz left the place without any pity. There were countless outstanding gladiators in the world who wanted to join their team. They were not free enough to hold recruitment negotiations with gladiators who had poor skills and were obsessed with money.

============================ Work Afterword ============================

The lunar eclipse is amazing. The sense of depth is clearly revealed like a sphere, and if you look closely, you can even see it moving.

Then, everyone, have a meaningful day. I’ll see you again tomorrow.