Writer Lee Hyuksoo had known it himself.

The opening line is weak.

It was true that the story of this Continental War: World Championship had come out extremely well.

But as a writer, his instincts were telling him exactly what Ayaka had said—that The Demon King. If everyone stands together, we can overcome him was not enough to send a thrill through people.

But still—

What am I supposed to do when there’s no time?

He too had studied the opening line endlessly, thinking over ways to make it striking.

But he had never reached a conclusion, and in the end it had gone so far that Ayaka had started trying every method she could think of.

As a writer, he also wanted the teaser to come out with a better, more powerful story.

The problem was simply that the circumstances had not supported it.

More than anything, Ayaka had entrusted the line to Hyunsoo—someone who was not even a professional, just an ordinary person.

In the end, as far as the industry was concerned, Hyunsoo was no more than a ranker in a game.

That grated on him.

He could accept the narration.

But he believed a line like that was not something that came easily, and so he had shut his eyes and listened with complete concentration.

And then that voice came.

Clear.

Bright and pure.

Strong and weighty.

The moment it rang out, goosebumps ran across Lee Hyuksoo’s entire body.

What is this...?

Even when he had first heard I wanted to live, he had been impressed.

Back then he had thought it was a line born by chance.

Not anymore.

That same shiver reached CEO Lee Sejin, who did not know much about teasers.

It reached Team Lead Park Mingyu, who was sitting there with them.

It even reached Ayaka, whose voice had sunk low as her confidence wavered.

For a moment, everyone fell silent.

The one who broke that silence was Hyunsoo.

“Ayaka?”

“Ah, yes!”

Ayaka snapped back to herself in a hurry.

She covered the part of the phone where his voice would carry, then looked around the conference room.

“Anyone object?”

“......”

“......”

“......”

Everyone merely wore faint smiles.

Even Hyuksoo, who had been arguing with Ayaka until just moments ago, gave a slow nod.

“We’ll use that line exactly as is, with that tone of voice. Please come by once to record it.”

“Oh, really? Thank you.”

Soon the call ended.

The moment it did, everyone in the room let out the breaths they had been holding.

“It turned out well.”

“It’s good.”

“Wow......”

Including Lee Sejin, every member of the team was impressed.

Then, just as quickly, they all fell quiet.

Because they were watching writer Lee Hyuksoo, who had handled the main scenario.

No matter what, he was someone who had risen high in his field.

Saying someone else’s is better than yours in front of a person like that would have been rude, and they were observing basic courtesy.

But then something unexpected happened.

Lee Hyuksoo’s face brightened.

“It’s excellent...!”

Lee Hyuksoo was a professional in the truest sense.

He was not the sort of person who would call something bad when it was good.

And especially once those words—It’s excellent—came out of the mouth of professional writer Lee Hyuksoo, it was over.

Hyuksoo turned to Ayaka.

“Did you send him the scenario?”

“Yes, I did.”

“It’s the perfect opening line for this scenario. Remarkable. And that line in particular...”

Lee Hyuksoo was a writer.

He did more research than most ordinary people ever would.

“It’s one of Admiral Yi Sun-sin’s famous sayings.”

“What?”

“......?”

The sayings of Admiral Yi Sun-sin most familiar to the public were Do not let the enemy know of my death and Your servant still has twelve ships left...

“This saying is excellent too, but it isn’t widely known. To read the scenario and apply that line to it...”

Ayaka had said the teaser needed to give users hope—that one day, they too could reach that place.

“It fits too perfectly. It matches the video like a glove.”

Ayaka smiled faintly as well.

Sejin looked pleased, as though they had stumbled onto an unexpected jackpot.

“Then after we record user Hyunsoo’s voice, we’ll release it in two days.”

And then, two days later, when the clock struck twelve—

[The main teaser for Continental War: World Championship is being released.]

The main teaser for Continental War: World Championship was unveiled to the entire world.

*****

The teaser began.

A snow-covered mountain range.

A man covered in wounds was walking alone, clutching his right arm.

A cloak with a hammer and an anvil crossed on the back draped over his shoulders.

Twin Dragon Sword hung at his back.

Each lonely, solitary step he took sank deep into the snow.

Then, exhausted, the man dropped to one knee and collapsed.

At last he lifted his bowed head, revealing his face, and the narration rang out.

[Even when the earth freezes solid, when the time comes, the shoots still rise.]

The screen shifted again, and the real teaser began.

Against a black background, the narration explained the present setting.

[Continental Year 236. The Demon King began his invasion of the human world.]

[Every kingdom and empire joined forces to build defensive lines.]

[Six hours after the battle began, the first line of defense started to collapse, and over the next three days dozens more defensive lines crumbled.]

[Multiple kingdoms vanished into history, and those who lived here, striving to protect Ares, fought desperately to stop the Demon King somehow.]

[But in only ten days, most of the defensive lines had fallen, and humanity became certain that the end was approaching.]

A series of images flashed by.

People crying as they ate their final meal.

A mother wailing as she sent her child to the battlefield.

A kingdom engulfed in flames.

Hundreds of thousands of humans lying dead, fires rising everywhere.

Despairing nobles.

Kings fleeing in terror.

The black background returned, and the narration spread once more.

[Asgan Continental Year 236. In the end, every kingdom fell.]

[Yet one king still refused to give up, and came to establish the final defensive line.]

[Sword King Barad. Centered around him, humanity’s last defensive line prepared for its final battle against the Demon King at Alomd Fortress.]

Sword King Barad.

He looked out over the last soldiers who remained.

Bella stood beside him.

“There’s still been no word from Hyunsoo?”

“When the defensive line collapsed, the nation of Hyun collapsed with it. That day, all his retainers joined forces, and the best they could do was get His Highness Hyunsoo to safety. Since that day, he has vanished.”

Sword King Barad looked at Bella with a bitter expression.

Amid the millions of troops, there were many who had once been citizens of the nation of Hyun.

Luxiu, Borne, Pirate King Akao, and others.

Once again, sorrow filled Barad’s eyes as he looked across those soldiers.

[The final defensive line was filled with young soldiers. Those who had never even completed their training were making choking sounds as they prepared for the end.]

[And then the Demon King finally began to reveal himself.]

[The Demon King led more than five hundred thousand demons and monsters.]

[The advance of the monsters and demons, shrieking savagely, stained the entire world with despair.]

“Hiiiiiik!”

“We’re going to die!”

“I want to live, I want to live, I want to live!!!”

[Everyone was so terrified they could not even gather their senses.]

[And at that moment.]

[The voice of Sword King Barad pierced cleanly through the clamor of the demons and monsters.]

“Form ranks.”

[A young soldier, frozen in fear and having dropped his weapon, hurriedly seized the fallen sword again.]

“Form ranks.”

[The soldiers who remained to the end clenched their weapons and aligned themselves at regular intervals, suppressing their terror by sheer force.]

[Beginning with Barad, the cry of form ranks grew louder and stronger, both to cast off fear and to declare that humanity still stood. It spread even to the Demon King, the demons, and the monsters.]

[Form ranks.]

[At those words, millions of troops stood in perfect order. At their head, Barad raised high into the sky a sword that scattered overwhelming frost.]

RUMBLE—!

“To the very end!”

“WAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!”

With Barad charging first, the millions of soldiers began their advance.

BOOM!

KRAAASH!

THUD, THUD-THUD, THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!

Humanity was swept away by the raining breaths of the monsters and explosions filled with demonic energy.

And yet, stepping over the dead and then over them again, the young soldiers fiercely cut down demons and monsters.

At the same time—

From all across the field, the greatest NPCs humanity had left soared high into the sky, cutting down wyverns or unleashing massive magic that swept away the monsters.

Then all sound was cut off, and the narration rang out once more for the viewers.

[The allied forces led by Sword King Barad held for one week. Victory had begun to seem possible.]

[But to the Demon King, they were no more than toys.]

[Behold, he declared. I will send another million-strong legion and mock you once again.]

The screen changed.

From the sight of the fierce battlefield to a scene where countless human troops had already been slaughtered.

Bella, once beautiful, was shown barely clinging to life, arrows lodged all throughout her body as she gasped for breath.

In contrast, beneath the endless additional million monsters and legionaries pouring down from the sky, Barad stood drenched in blood, looking toward Bella with a broken sword in hand.

All around them, the surviving elite troops of the nation of Hyun had also collapsed, blood-soaked and staring in hollow despair.

Even so, Barad looked on as the Demon King approached him and the monsters and demons surged forward.

[The Sword King Barad could not give up. He knew that if they failed to stand, the monsters, the demons, and the Demon King would kill them all.]

Looking at those who had fought beside him, Sword King Barad muttered,

“Form ranks......”

That voice was too faint.

His throat was clogged, and the words never reached the troops.

“Form ranks......”

Some heard him.

But they only flinched and could not answer.

“Cough!”

In the end, Barad spat blood and collapsed.

[Barad could no longer raise his voice.]

[Boiling blood, fear, and terror consumed him.]

With empty eyes, Barad looked at the enemies now right before him.

He stood at the very front of the battlefield, and he and the millions of fallen human soldiers had nothing left except to be swept away.

In Barad’s pupils, the million-strong legion of monsters and demons charging like mad was reflected.

Then a powerful narration thundered through the scene.

[At that moment, one voice rang out with force.]

“Form ranks.”

FWOOOOOSH—!

At Barad’s side, blazing fire erupted, and a single man appeared.

The strongest outsider.

Valhalla.

Appearing amid the flames, he strode forward, pointing Babylon—the sword that annihilated demons—toward the great archdemon.

At the same time—

“Form ranks.”

Another pillar of fire rose to Barad’s left, and Asura Kabel appeared, leading an endless legion from Hell.

And then—

FWOOOOOOOSH—!

Space opened behind Barad.

Outsiders—

in other words, the ones called the high-rankers who dominated the world—

began to appear.

Alexander of America, transformed into the shape of a tiger.

Musashi, arriving with tens of thousands of ninjas, arms folded and wearing his characteristic arrogant smile.

“KIIIEEEEEK!”

Poison King Liu, clutching a poisoned spear and having summoned the Legendary monster Hydra.

Beside him, Resil, mounted atop a gigantic dragon and appearing together with Furnace Sword.

BOOOOM—!

Bark drove a shield into the ground and stared at the enemy with savage eyes.

Among the thousands of high-rankers from all over the world who had revealed themselves—

FWOOOOOSH—

Hundreds of Turtle Ships arrived, and Barad and his retainers cried out when they saw the one standing at the very front.

“Hyunsoo.”

“Your Highness Hyunsoo.”

“Lord Hyunsoo!!!!”

Hyunsoo stepped forward before the oncoming enemy, and from one of the hundreds of Turtle Ships, the healing power of Pope Karsel and Saintess Aria descended in beams of light.

KWAHHHHHNG—!

Hyunsoo looked over the fallen soldiers and the dying knights.

At the very front stood Hyunsoo.

Around him were thousands of high-rankers.

And behind them, the troops were beginning to rise once more.

FWOOOOOOOSH—

KIIIEEEEEEEEEE—!

Standing at the head of the strongest rankers in the world, who were continuing to appear without end behind him, he spoke in a strong voice.

“Form ranks.”

“Form ranks!”

[One voice brought thousands of rankers into line.]

“Form ranks.”

“Form ranks!!”

[Normally, they hated one another. Despised one another. Resented one another.]

“Form ranks.”

“Form ranks!!”

[But today, bearing the same purpose, they aligned themselves as one.]

With arrogant expressions, they leveled their weapons toward the approaching enemy.

And Hyunsoo—

BOOOOOOOM—!

He shot forward as a streak of light, and thousands of rankers followed in his wake.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM—!

GRIP!

Hyunsoo clenched Babylon, the sword that annihilated evil, as he descended from the sky.

The endless attacks of the Demon King, the monsters, and the demons all rushed toward Hyunsoo, but the world’s high-rankers following behind him shattered them, nullified them, and opened the road ahead.

“Go! You must do it!!!!”

“Kill him!”

“We’ll hold the rear!”

Hyunsoo’s unwavering figure soared toward the Demon King.

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”

Clutching Babylon with all his strength, he leaped high—

and the teaser ended on the image of him bringing the blade down toward the neck of the giant, horned Demon King.

[The teaser for Continental War: World Championship has ended.]

The video ended.