Lee Sudok slowly swept his gaze across the classroom.

“If anyone needs [4 People] or [Deathmatch] explained, raise your hand now.”

.......

The students only glanced sideways at each other.

The rules were intuitive enough.

Four people fought, the first one to go down placed fourth, the next one third, and the last one standing took first.

Then PvP points were awarded according to final placement.

Even after giving them some time, no one stepped forward, so Lee Sudok casually tipped his chin.

“Next is this week’s key rule, [Anonymous]. You will enter the match with your name, score, appearance....... everything concealed. Naturally, no replay will be left behind either.”

Your outward appearance was replaced with a silhouette, and even your body shape looked different.

Your voice would be distorted too.

“However, it is still possible to infer someone’s identity through the weapon or skills they use. For some people, that will be a disadvantageous rule.”

Especially if they had a rare class or highly distinctive style.

For example, Song Cheonhye was a rare lightning-attribute mage, and Park Nari was a druid who always carried Beomi and Chaemi around.

“You may also use that to your advantage and throw up a smokescreen with skills you do not normally use. Conversely, you might choose to openly reveal strength you have kept hidden until now.”

As he said that, Lee Sudok subtly glanced my way.

It felt like he was telling me to go wild and enjoy myself this time.

Not that he’d be able to watch the replay anyway.

“Before we move to the arena, I’ll take questions one last time.”

Soon several students raised their hands, and Lee Sudok began calling on them one by one.

As questions and answers passed back and forth, I checked the notification message that had just arrived.

[Sub Quest: Week 1 Placement Test] (In Progress....)

▷Objective: Complete 3 matches (-/3)

▷Reward: Scaled based on completion rate

Back in first year’s placement test, I’d just half-assed the middle.

I’d won once, then forfeited everything after that.

At the time, I had only just started the reincarnation quest, so most of my skills and traits had been reset, and there had been a huge problem with exposing all my cards too early.

The quest reward had also been fixed, so there was no need to push beyond the target threshold.

But things are very different now.

I had built up more than enough strength to handle the aftermath, and if you exceeded the target in a Challenge Quest, the reward could be enhanced even further.

[Would you like to use the ‘Challenge Book’?]

[Accept/Decline]

So I selected Accept without the slightest hesitation.

[Sub Quest: Week 1 Placement Test] (In Progress....)

▷Skills/Traits Disabled: Amplification, Distortion, Retrocovery

▷Objective 1: Place 1st in matches (-/3 times)

▷Objective 2: Defeat enemies (-/3 people)

▷Reward: Scaled based on completion rate

Because of the [Anonymous] rule, I could use Amplification as much as I wanted without much risk of being identified.

Looks like the Challenge version blocked it out of caution against me using it to raise ranks through Octopus Arms chains.

Distortion and Retrocovery were probably disabled for similar reasons.

And in that state, I had to place first in every match, of course, while also personally taking down at least one person in each match.

Or I could sweep two or three in a single match.

Of course, from my point of view, these weren’t especially difficult goals.

And I had no intention of stopping at three kills.

[Fixed Pin] should come out as the reward.

If I exceeded the target, maybe I could even get two.

So I made up my mind.

I’m beating every last one of them down.

All nine people I’d meet across the three matches.

*****

Cha Hyeonju’s insides were boiling.

Because on the very first day of the new semester, she had run into that bastard.

That infuriating bastard who made her angry just by looking at him.

Kim Ho......!

To make matters worse, the two of them had been assigned to the same class this year.

For a moment, Cha Hyeonju felt her mind go blank.

I have to look at that face every day?

Meaning she’d have to take an endurance test every single morning.

Whether she could actually hold out without exploding was questionable.

And just as expected, Kim Ho had started that endurance test the moment he saw her.

By greeting her brightly.

“Hi, Hyeonju?”

As if everything that had happened between them meant absolutely nothing to him.

It was the complete opposite of her, who had spent all this time grinding her teeth and waiting for a rematch.

To top it off, Kim Ho had been fooling around while wedged between two girls.

There wasn’t even a speck of seriousness to be found in him.

Grinding her teeth, Cha Hyeonju thought,

Let’s see how long you can keep smiling like that.

As a result of putting in blood-soaked effort over winter break, she had achieved results impressive enough to surprise even herself.

This should be more than enough to break Kim Ho’s arrogance.

All that’s left is meeting him in PvP.

But for that to happen, she needed to bring her score close to his.

She had finished first-year PvP just shy of 900 points.

With the soft reset, that should have put her at 400.

Kim Ho would be at 600, so to narrow the gap, she needed a strong performance in this placement test.

First place in all three matches.

For the strengthened her, that should not be a difficult goal.

Soon the entire second-year class moved to the arena for the placement test.

Cha Hyeonju waited near the stage, and when her turn came, she stepped onto the magic circle.

Her field of vision shifted drastically, revealing the Circular Arena.

At the same time, three human-shaped shadows appeared.

One was red, one green, one blue, and Cha Hyeonju herself was white.

The scoreboard showed something similar.

[WHITE 100%]

vs 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

[RED 100%]

vs

[GREEN 100%]

vs

[BLUE 100%]

The system clearly meant to preserve anonymity while still making minimum differentiation possible.

Positions could swap constantly in a chaotic melee, after all.

The other participants also seemed to have grasped the situation, because they drew their weapons and prepared for battle.

Red had a hammer and shield, Green had a longsword, and Blue had a staff.

Heavy-armored warrior, martial fighter, mage.

For an archer like her, they were manageable opponents.

And at a glance, they all looked weak.

Which means they’re beneath me.

Based on that information, Cha Hyeonju formed her strategy, and then the countdown began.

[3]

[2]

[1]

[Start!]

SKREEEEEE—

Cha Hyeonju immediately unleashed a storm of arrows.

Red across from her barely managed to defend by raising his shield, then shouted in surprise,

“These arrows—Cha Hyeonju?!”

“Last year’s prospect?”

“Of all times, from the placement test itself.”

Blue and Green both showed signs of surprise too.

Of course, Cha Hyeonju had never intended to conceal her identity in the first place.

And what if they know?

SKREEEEEE—

A hail of arrows rained down evenly on all her enemies.

[RED 97%]

[BLUE 100%]

[GREEN 96%]

The three of them blocked and dodged with difficulty as they spoke among themselves.

“How about we take that one down first?”

“And then fight among ourselves after?”

“Sounds good.”

An impromptu alliance was formed on the spot.

Naturally, that too was within Cha Hyeonju’s expectations.

Three nobodies together are still just nobodies.

She was confident she could win even in a one-against-three.

She had no disadvantage in class compatibility, and her skill was superior as well.

Soon, the trio of nobodies seemed to form a crude formation.

Red charged with his shield up front, Green followed with his longsword, and Blue compressed a mass of air before throwing it at her.

[Air Burst]

“Hmph.”

Cha Hyeonju snorted and took a backstep.

The distance between her and the warriors closed for a moment, then widened again, which only meant her movement skill was that excellent.

Naturally, the compressed air landed somewhere completely off target.

BANG!

Still taking backsteps, Cha Hyeonju drew her bowstring.

Another cluster of mana arrows rushed toward the trio.

SKREEEEEE—

[RED 92%]

[BLUE 100%]

[GREEN 93%]

Red let out a heavy sound through his teeth, and Green asked him,

“Wouldn’t it be better to change tactics?”

“......Let’s keep trying a little longer.”

Watching the warriors charge stubbornly ahead, Cha Hyeonju sneered.

Try for a hundred years, then.

She was a genuine prospect.

She had carefully selected movement skills and traits, plus rank to back them up.

A gap in specs like this was not something that could be overcome with grit alone.

Sure enough, no matter how desperately the warriors ran, catching her seemed far out of reach.

Meanwhile, Cha Hyeonju leisurely maintained her distance and poured attacks on them one-sidedly.

SKREEEEEE—!

[RED 86%]

[RED 83%]

[GREEN 81%]

[GREEN 79%]

At this rate, she would be able to take them all down before long.

See? Even all three together are still nothing.

And if she had to name the most useless one among them, it was unquestionably Blue.

The guy had done nothing but spam air-burst nonsense this whole time.

But then Cha Hyeonju had no choice but to widen her eyes.

Where did he go?

The person who had been lingering at the edge of her vision until just now had vanished.

Then, a freezing presence shot in from behind her—

BOOM!

Two explosions went off, coating Cha Hyeonju’s entire body in cold.

Her limbs went numb, and she could neither use her movement skill nor draw her bowstring.

“Tch.”

Cha Hyeonju clicked her tongue and cast [Purification].

A skill that removed debuffs at a certain probability.

WHOOM—!

Her body was engulfed in a burst of light.

......The ice was still there.

What? Why didn’t it come off?

Did she just fail the probability roll?

But if that were the case, why had the success effect appeared?

Pushing that confusion aside, Cha Hyeonju used the debuff-removal skill attached to one of her accessories.

WHOOM—!

......And yet the freeze still did not lift in the slightest.

No! What the hell is this?!

Was the rank unexpectedly high or something?

Even so, if you used debuff removal twice, shouldn’t something have changed?

But she had no time to wonder.

Even now, Red and Green were closing in on her.

As a last resort, Cha Hyeonju activated the skill imbued into her quiver.

WHOOM—!

But regrettably, the freeze remained intact, and she could no longer hold back her curse.

“Fuck!!!”

If I used it three times, then at least my legs should have loosened up!

Why! The! Hell! Is every single one of them getting ignored!!!

Cha Hyeonju cursed the freeze covering her arms and legs, cursed the debuff-removal skills that were failing to earn their keep, and finally cursed that bastard Blue who had done something this evil.

Then she limped backward, but there was no way she could escape her enemies.

In the end, Green reached her first and drew his longsword diagonally across her.

SLASH!

[WHITE 100%]

[WHITE 87%]

Because it was a direct hit landed while she was completely defenseless, her health dropped sharply in an instant.

But the enemies’ attacks had only just begun.

Red’s hammer slammed down onto the top of Cha Hyeonju’s head.

BANG!

[WHITE 75%]

And finally, an [Air Burst] flying in from behind smashed into her back.

BOOM!

As her consciousness dimmed, Cha Hyeonju thought,

I lost to scrubs like these......!

And just why the hell had that freeze not come off?

She couldn’t understand it to the very end.

After sending Cha Hyeonju off, I quickly cleaned up the remaining trash.

BOOM!

“Kurgh.”

Red dropped to his knees with a short groan.

He had a heavy-armored knight class and a shield too, but there was no way he could withstand taking [Spiral Explosion] head-on.

It had defense-ignoring properties attached.

Apparently he had been judged combat-incapacitated, because he was ejected immediately.

Soon, the scoreboard displayed the match results.

[BLUE 1st]

[RED 2nd]

[GREEN 3rd]

[WHITE 4th]

I thought of Cha Hyeonju.

She’s the type that ruins things by following her temper.

If she’d approached the fight a little more carefully, she might even have realized that Blue was me.

But whether she couldn’t be bothered with mind games or just looked down on the other participants too much, she had charged into a one-against-three and kept her guard down until she failed to respond to the decisive move.

After taking the rear with ★Blink★, I hit her with [Diamond Freeze], then chained [Ice Hundred Shot] and [Chain Explosion].

Because the freeze had the ‘cannot be dispelled for 20 seconds’ effect applied to it, all three of her debuff-removal skills had been completely ignored.

The result was that someone with enough skill to take second had wound up in fourth.

Hopefully she learned something from this.

Leaving that thought behind, I stepped onto the teleportation portal.

The moment I entered the arena, colorful shadows came into view.

[BLUE 100%]

vs

[ORANGE 100%]

vs

[PURPLE 100%]

vs

[BLACK 100%]

I gave their weapons a quick look, and they were all close-range types.

They didn’t look like anyone I knew, either.

That made the conditions pretty much ideal for using [Pulverize Zone].

Since it’s come to this, I might as well take it for a test run.

[3]

[2]

[1]

[Start!]

The moment the match began, I moved to the very center of the Circular Arena.

Then I deliberately slammed my staff hard against the floor.

THUD!

A blue circle spread outward from beneath my feet.

With everyone’s attention focused on me, I declared in a solemn voice,

“From this moment on, I declare this place a sanctuary. No one shall be allowed to enter within it.”