Victor sighed and crossed his arms.
"Look, I already have a team forming. It'd be unfair to leave them hanging just because someone with a rich background suddenly wants me."
The whispers grew louder.
"He actually said no!"
"Is this guy insane?"
Evelyn's expression darkened.
No one—no one—turned her down.
She clenched her fist while responding with a tone of irritation.
"Do you know who I am?"
Victor responded with a tired expression. "Yeah. Evelyn Lancaster. Everyone here has been kissing the ground you walk on since this screening started."
Evelyn's eye twitched.
"And yet, you're still refusing?"
For a second—just a second—Evelyn looked genuinely offended.
Then, her expression shifted into a smirk.
"Fine. If you don't want to be on my team, I forbid anyone else from joining yours."
Victor stared at her. "…Are you serious?"
Evelyn snapped her fingers before turning to the remaining candidates.
"Anyone who joins Victor's team will be my enemy. And I don't forget my enemies."
Instantly, every remaining Mage, Summoner, and Berserker backed away from Victor.
Even the Berserker who had initially planned to join them immediately left.
"Wow, really? You guys are that scared of her?"
No one dared to answer.
Selene, who had been standing beside him licking her lollipop, chuckled.
"Damn, you're really good at making enemies."
Rylan, the Healer, stepped up beside him and crossed his arms.
"Whatever. I'm not going anywhere. She can glare all she wants."
Victor gave him a grateful nod.
At this point, the team only had three members—Victor, Selene, and Rylan.
And the timer was running out.
Only one minute remained.
The announcer's voice echoed through the arena.
"Final thirty seconds!"
Victor exhaled. "Well, this sucks."
Selene grinned. "Hey, if we lose, at least we lose with style."
The final seconds ticked away—
When suddenly— the second Necromancer—the gothic silver-haired girl—spoke up.
She had been watching everything with a bored expression, lazily tapping her fingers against her skeletal staff.
Then she pointed directly at Victor.
The entire venue froze again.
Victor turned his head sharply.
The second Necromancer had just made her choice.
Gasps filled the air.
Evelyn whirled around.
The Necromancer girl smirked.
"What? You didn't claim me. I can pick whoever I want."
Victor, still processing what just happened, pointed at himself.
"Yes, you. You interest me."
The countdown hit zero.
The team formations were now locked.
Victor Revenant (Warrior)
Selene Blackwood (Assassin)
Megan Toshaka (Necromancer)
Evelyn's hands clenched into fists.
Her face turned red, and she stomped toward the Necromancer girl.
"Do you have ANY idea what you've just done?"
The Necromancer tilted her head with an amused expression.
"Yeah. I picked the most interesting team."
Evelyn gritted her teeth.
She hated this. She hated not getting what she wanted.
But the rules were the rules.
She couldn't change the selections now.
Evelyn took a deep breath before forcing herself to smile.
"Fine. Have it your way. Just don't come crying to me and pleading when I pass judgement upon you."
The Necromancer girl simply smirked.
The announcer stepped forward while clearing his throat.
"Now that teams are finalized, we move onto the team test."
Victor still couldn't believe what just happened.
Somehow, despite everything, his team had a Necromancer.
Sure, they were still lacking a Mage and a Berserker, but at this point he wasn't thinking about that.
The arena rumbled beneath their feet, and the entire venue began to shift.
The testing facility warped, transforming into a massive, rundown castle, floating atop the head of a colossal stone statue buried in a ruined landscape.
Thunder roared in the distance, and a storm of unstable lightning crackled across the sky, illuminating the eerie surroundings. The wind was erratic—one moment calm and the next, a hurricane-level gust threatened to send anything unprepared flying.
Spatial distortions flickered randomly across the area, warping sections of the terrain—one wrong step, and someone could find themselves teleported to an entirely different location.
As if that wasn't enough—
A massive black wave swam across the environment, targeting mana signatures specifically. It swarmed toward any awakened individual, making sustained mana use dangerous.
The castle itself happened to be very high above. A massive fortress sitting atop the head of a gigantic statue.
The statue was a godly figure, carved in a pose of judgment. It's enormous arms were crossed over its chest while its legs were buried deep into the broken terrain below.
To reach the castle, teams first had to climb the statue's massive body—an ascent riddled with obstacles, unstable pathways, and mechanical guardians.
And at the very top—lay a magical sword that radiated with an overwhelming aura.
It glowed with a pulsating blue energy and happened to be the relic that was causing all the environmental chaos.
The objective was simple:
Reach the top floor of the castle.
The climb alone was a difficult challenge and this was where teamwork came in.
The statue itself was crawling with humanoid battle bots—each armed with attack lasers, retractable arm blades, and explosive countermeasures.
Teams could gain points by defeating these enemies, but the ultimate reward went to whoever retrieved the magical sword first.
The announcer smirked.
Victor exhaled as his team was teleported into the starting area, just below the statue's colossal legs.
Selene licked her lollipop.
"Okay, that thing is… way bigger than I thought."
"Yeah. How the hell are we supposed to climb that?"
The Necromancer girl—Megan Toshaka—simply smirked.
Victor took a deep breath and focused.
They weren't the only ones in the game.
Around eight other teams had spawned at different points near the base of the statue, each preparing their own strategies to begin the ascent.
Victor's team had one huge disadvantage.
They only had four members.
Meanwhile, Evelyn's stacked team had seven and was already scaling the lower portions of the statue, using teamwork to ascend quickly.
Victor glanced at Selene.
"You're the fastest. Can you scout ahead?"
Selene arrived at the statue's thigh first.
She leapt off a protruding stone surface, flipping midair and landing lightly on the massive ledge of the statue's waist.
All of a sudden, a loud mechanical whirring sound rang out.
A pair of glowing red eyes flickered open from within the cracks of the statue's surface.
The battle bots had been activated and they weren't just simple humanoid robots with spears.
Each bot emerged from hidden compartments within the statue's surface with their metallic limbs clicking into place.
One bot's arm morphed into a plasma blade.
Another raised its wrist, revealing a high-velocity laser cannon.
A third bot's chest cavity opened up, exposing a miniature energy core that pulsed with a build-up of unstable power—ready to self-destruct if needed.
Selene clicked her tongue. "Oh, you guys are fancy."
The laser cannon bot fired first.
A searing red beam cut through the air, aimed directly at her chest.
Selene instantly leapt forward and twisted her body in mid air, narrowly avoiding the blast.
She landed on the shoulder of another bot and immediately plunged her dagger into its neck joint.