CH 409

The former Russian soccer player Victor, as well as the other representatives, who were pondering over how to control the ball, were all left speechless when they heard Minhyuk’s words.

‘Did he just say that it was easy?’

‘How is this thing easy?’

Just making the ball move was a difficult task in itself. In fact, the damage needed to move the ball was set by Joy Co. Ltd., by calculating the average damage output of all the representatives.

However, could the ball be moved like a normal ball? Of course not.

The reason why rankers were called rankers was because their gaming skills far surpassed that of the ordinary population. One common example of this was the FPS-game Battle Lord. The game would start on one island where 100 players would pick up weapons scattered all over the place and use it to fight against their opponents. Professional players could garner 10 kills, 20 kills, or even more than 30 kills by themselves, in an environment where they had the same HP, same speed, and same weapons. Everything that they had was equal, but at the same time they were all different. Their control skills made them a cut above the rest.

The rankers needed to utilize their skills to manage and control the movement and trajectory of the ball. However, Minhyuk was showing them that his skills were beyond theirs. To move the ball and let it fly like that, he had to have at least a 1.5x higher attack than everyone present here. And…

‘What the hell was that lightning? The ball flew swiftly after receiving a tremendous force from the lightning that struck it after receiving a hit from his sword.’

Victor came to a conclusion of his own, ‘It must be his active and buff skill.’

Just like Minhyuk’s Ellie’s Swordsmanship, plenty of players had various buff skills ranging from artifact buff skills, to battle buff skills, and plenty more. These kinds of buff skills, however, were subjected to a cooldown. And Victor was convinced that the bloody lightning that appeared after Minhyuk used his sword was an active skill.

‘Over-buffed and over-skilled! How can you strut proudly with a power that anybody can have?!’

In the end, buff skills and active skills were restricted. Especially skills that could increase the player’s attack power by 1.5x. Skills like that usually had a duration of only ten minutes. In the end, all of the representatives came to the same conclusion.

‘What a moron.’

‘He shouldn’t have acted so conceitedly. These five minutes were the time to get the feel for the ball, not to act so high and mighty.’

‘He already exposed one of his powers. A buff that greatly increases the attack power and an active skill that triggers lightning strikes. I will remember that.’

‘It seems like the Food God is a stupid fool, contrary to the rumors that I have been hearing.’

That was right. None of them wanted to show off their buff and active skills before the game started. And that was not all. Root was shooting arrows in the air as if he was trying to get the feel of his bow, while Ali did not even bother to touch the ball.

Alex, the world’s official number one mage, thought, ‘The Koreans have gone crazy!’ and smiled deeply. He never expected that they would let Ali play. The Penalty Shoot-Out game did not have many rules. Alex wanted to take advantage of this game to PK Ali, who was infinitely weaker than him, and sought to do so the moment the game started.

On the other hand, a man stood among the other representatives from the France Team and stared at Minhyuk.

‘Food God…!’

The man glaring at Minhyuk was none other than Calauhel, the leader of Blackstone and the head of one of the richest and noble families in the world, the Rothschilde Family.

Calauhel had undergone several earth-shattering changes after being brutally PKed by Minhyuk in the Demon World’s Tower. He decided to stop hiding his existence and let the world know about who he was. He was Calauhel of the Rothschilde Family, one of the Summit Five, and was also one of France’s representative players. He had a power that could rival an entire kingdom by himself. And, he came here to hunt Minhyuk.

Just like that, the balls that appeared in front of the players disappeared into thin air.

[The game will now begin!]

[The Penalty Shoot-Out game is divided into two halves. Both halves had a duration of forty minutes. Representative teams with similar scores vying for the gold, silver, and bronze medals will play in an overtime match.]

[The first event of the Athenae: World War!!! The game with the most rankers!!! The Penalty Shoot-Out has started!!!]

Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

With the commentators’ words as the signal, the players all dashed forward to welcome the hundreds of balls that started to fall down from the skies.

***

The representative players swiftly dashed forward as hundreds of balls fell down! These were the strongest players that hid their power during the five minute preparation time!

America’s Alexander, the Ghost of the Battlefield, ran among these players. He was not recognized as one of the Summit Five since he was working unofficially. However, the truth was his power and talent was comparable to the Summit Five.

Hundreds of greatswords appeared and surrounded the Ghost of the Battlefield, Alexander, which flew straight towards the hundreds of falling balls.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!

[Ghost of the Battlefield Alexander’s ‘Greatsword Battleground’ has appeared in front of us! From what I heard, each greatsword has a 600% increase in attack!]

[Alexander is already a great dealer. And if he has an additional 600% increase in attack, then he will be able to move however he wants!]

The moment Alexander’s sword made contact with the balls they flew straight towards the goalposts.

Baaaaaaang!

Flash—

[Goaaaaaaaaaal!]

Flaaaaaaash—

[And another goaaaaal! Alexander has scored goals one after the other! He made a total of eight goals in one go!]

[America’s Alexander will definitely play a key role moving forward in this game!]

[However, unlike the hundreds of greatswords that Alexander had let out to hit those balls, the number of points that he had scored is a bit pitiful.]

[Even though he has the ability to send out hundreds of greatswords, taking control of the ball itself is a very difficult feat. As you can see, most of the balls that his sword had hit flew wildly and did not even get anywhere near the goal posts.]

However, Alexander was not the only one garnering attention. There was also the French Team’s Calauhel. Calauhel opened his fan, a disaster artifact that could create storms. He had been able to strengthen Gorac’s Disaster Artifact once again. Because of that, he had reached a level where he could freely control the storm’s power.

Shwaaaaaaaaaaa—

Flutter—

Strong winds started to blow in the stadium. Everyone knew that the ball would only fly if the attack reached a certain damage. However, he was able to make the balls fly under the constant onslaught of damage from the force of the wind.

[Several balls flew up in the sky!]

[They look like balloons that flew up from the force of the wind!]

Calauhel pointed his fan towards the goal posts. As if following his orders, the wind blew strongly and made the balls fly straight towards the posts one after the other.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom—

[Calauhel scores 14 straight goals!]

[France is also making great progress!]

[There’s also Japan’s Kentaro! He’s surprisingly quick-footed! Heok! Kentaro’s way of scoring goals is very surprising! He’s using the red dot! He’s hitting the red dot to move the ball!]

[My goodness! So, it was really possible!]

[It seems like Kentaro has a skill that allows him to accurately hit the ‘vital point’.]

[Currently, America has 21 goals, France has 19 goals, Japan has 14 goals, and China has 12 goals! Even though the players looked flustered when they first made contact with the ball, they’re all scoring goals in their own ways!]

And amidst them…

Thuuuuuud—

Crackle, crackle, crackle—

A powerful and loud explosion caught the attention of all of the players present. This was because this was a very familiar sound. And over there, they saw Minhyuk skillfully hitting the ball with his sword and scoring goals.

[Korea has scored four goals!]

[That’s the fifth goal! They have scored five goals in a row!]

[Player Minhyuk has been scoring one goal after another.]

[Korea is currently 30th, but it’s really amazing to see Player Minhyuk scoring most of their goals!]

‘His skill is going to end soon anyway!’

‘Once that skill ends, he won’t be a big deal anymore!’

That was what everyone believed. Meanwhile, Ali and Root were both getting ready. Root was holding his breath and waiting for something, while Ali was preparing something too. Then, at that moment…

[It’s the golden ball! The golden ball has made its first appearance!!!]

[Just a few minutes after the game has started, the greatest variable of the event, the golden ball, has appeared!]

A bright golden light flashed brightly the moment the golden ball appeared! Every player present had their eyes trained on the golden ball that started to fall down from the sky. Just one goal with this ball and they would be able score ten points! All of them started to run for the falling goal.

“Run!”

“As long as we make a goal with that golden ball then we’ll be able to turn the tides in our favor!”

Hundreds of players ran towards the ball. And by chance, the one closest to the golden ball was Calauhel. Then…

Baaaaaaaaaang—

The golden ball slammed down into the ground loudly. It was so loud that it was comparable to a bomb explosion. Just with the sound alone, anyone could tell that the ball was extremely heavy and would be very hard to control. But, at that moment…

Baaaaaaaang—

The golden ball moved on its own. It was only natural. After all, they had announced that the golden ball had a will of its own. The golden ball, which had flown up on its own, slammed into the players running forward to try and make a goal with it.

Baaaaaaang—

“Keheeeeok!”

“Keuaaaaack!”

Some of the representative players flew back, just like bowling pins being hit by the bowling ball. Just like that, the golden ball flew wildly in the field. But once the golden ball flew back to the position where it had originally fallen from, Calauhel immediately used his one-shot kill skill.

[Maestro’s Lethal Blow]

[A strong force will extend 15 meters from the tip of your sword and accurately stab the opponent’s vital point, incurring an additional 1500% damage.]

Thuuuuuuuuump—

A strong force extended from the tip of Callauhel’s sword and accurately aimed for the ball. The skill had a 100% chance of stabbing the vital point which would allow Calauhel to stab the golden ball’s ‘red dot’ accurately. The attack would then add a strong spin to the ball and make it enter the goal post. Nothing was lacking, the strength, the power, everything was perfect. Then, the force and the golden ball collided.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaang—

And just like expected, the golden ball flew fiercely towards the goal post.

[Aaaaaaaaaaah! The golden fall is flying towards the goal!]

[Looking at the speed of the ball, it looks like it will land safely into the goal post before the shield appears!]

[Will France turn the tables of this game just like that?!]

But suddenly…

Shwaaaaaaa—

One man held his breath as he sharply drew the strings of his bow while watching the course of the golden ball. And when the man released the strings…

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Piiiiiing—

An arrow made of light flew fiercely, grazing the golden ball flying towards the goal post. That was right, the arrow just brushed against the ball.

There was one loophole that the Korean team wanted to take advantage of. This Penalty Shoot-Out game was different from soccer. No one owned the goal post and whoever touched the ball last would be recognized as the one that made the goal.

Yes, the arrow made of light just lightly grazed the golden ball, it did not even change the course of the ball. However, it successfully changed the ‘last hitter’.

Thuuuuuump—

The goal post shook wildly as the score of one country rose significantly.

[1st Place. Korea. 21 points.]

“…!”

“…!”

“…!”

“…!”

All of the screen showed the figure of a smiling man holding his bow. Knowing that all of the cameras were focused on him, the man raised his left wrist and flaunted the ‘Korean Flag’ drawn on it. This action made the flames burning in the hearts of all the Korean people watching burn brightly. All of them called out the name of this man loudly.

“Root!!!”

“Root!!!”

“Root! Root! Root! Root! Root!”

The audience cheered loudly, and at the center of it all was Korea’s Master Archer, Root.