Of the 53 players who participated in the pet marathon, 52 of them (except for Grid) were pet specialists.

Since their classes were in the monster tamer series, their understanding of pets and their ability to collect information was unmatched.

It was no wonder that they studied the memphis and came up with a strategy against it.

‘Even if it’s called the best demonic beast of hell...’

‘In the end, a memphis is just a cat monster.’

‘A cat monster has many weaknesses!’

They made confident expressions and started summoning more pets after the wyverns.

Surprisingly, the pets they summoned weren’t strong like wyverns. Rather, they were insect-like monsters such as giant glow worms, gold cockroaches, and light butterflies.

They had weak combat ability and low intelligence, so they generally weren’t used.

“What?”

“Aren’t they going to try their best?”

In order to win the pet marathon, the pet’s combat ability, agility, and endurance were the key.

They had to reach the destination first while keeping other pets in check.

Then why did they summon weak insect type monsters?

The viewers were confused by the unexpected situation.

On the other hand, the experts immediately understood the players’ intentions.

『 The players are well aware of the weaknesses of cat monsters. 』

『 For viewers who are unfamiliar with it, there is one thing that the summoned pets have in common. They produce light by themselves. 』

『 And cats are creatures sensitive to light. In particular, they have the habit of chasing light when they see it moving. 』

『 In that sense, the giant glow worms, gold cockroaches, and light butterflies will act as counters to the memphis. 』

Giant glow worms, gold cockroaches, and light butterflies.

These three monsters had the ability to emit their own light.

The worm-like 2 meter long giant glow worm emitted a gentle light from its tail, the gold cockroach flashed an intense gold, while the wings of the light butterfly emitted light.

They were all beautiful lights used to dazzle their target.

Noe’s mouth twitched as he saw them.

“Nyong. Nyong nyong.”

His pupils became bigger.

He made a strange sound and lay flat on the floor, his chubby butt up in the air. He shook his butt to the left and right as the glowing light from the monsters caught his eyes.

He looked like a cat trying to hunt a mouse.

“What are you doing?”

Grid was perplexed by Noe’s strange behavior and urgently checked his status.

Status: Committed

(I must catch these shiny things! Nyang! I was born into this world to hunt them! Nyang nyang!)

"This is...”

The only weakness Grid knew was Noe’s tail. He had made a tail guard to thoroughly prepare for this.

But he was hit by an unexpected weakness.

The moment Grid made an absurd expression.

『 Then the match will start! 』

The referee shouted! A magic bead exploded.

The explosion was the signal as the wyverns at the starting line immediately unfolded their wings.

The other players approached Grid as they looked at the wyverns flying away.

“How about it Grid?”

“Aren’t we different from the last National Competition?”

Last year’s National Competition was very different from this year’s.

Simply put, this year was much more professional.

The common denominator with last year’s participants was that they had wyverns. However, this year the participants were pet professionals.

Unlike last year’s contestants, they had the ability to fight back against Noe.

"...”

The players comforted the silent Grid.

"Well, you don’t have to be ashamed. We’re the best in our field.”

“Yes Grid. Don’t bear bad feelings towards us. In the first place, you couldn’t beat us in this event. No one will criticize you.”

"...”

Grid was silent to the end.

“Nyong nyong. Nyong.”

He just quietly watched as Noe sneaked up in order to chase the lights.

The players shrugged.

“Don’t even think about resisting. Can’t you only have three pets without a skill, and you can only summon two pets at a time?”

“On the other hand, we can summon up to five pets simultaneously. Even if you summon a wyvern-class pet, we can summon a new pet and neutralize it.”

"Haha, you probably want to hold a sword and fight directly, but how can you? This is the pet marathon stage. You can’t move directly. Just watch silently.”

“Five at a time...”

Grid finally opened his mouth.

Then he smiled meaningfully.

“Isn’t it strange? If you can summon five pets, why are you only summoning two?”

As if it was a tacit rule, none of the players summoned another pet apart from the wyvern and one to keep Noe in check.

Grid looked at the players preparing to pursue the drakes that disappeared beyond the horizon.

“If you summon several pets at a time, isn’t it harder to control? It is similar to how your control weakens when your wyvern gets further away.”

"...”

The players were inwardly embarrassed.

It was because Grid spoke as if he had just realized something that was common sense to everyone else.

"Well, I guess you learned that by yourself...”

The players decided to ignore Grid and move quickly.

Noe had been neutralized by now.

They no longer perceived Grid as an enemy and were planning to focus on victory.

At that moment.

"Kyong!”

Noe, who had ran towards the giant glow worm, screamed in pain.

He was hurt due to the invisible thread spread like a fortress around the glow worm’s body.

The players saw Noe and smiled with satisfaction.

'That's it. Grid is now completely contained.’

‘From now on, the game will truly begin!’

The players were happy about blocking the only variable.

But they didn’t know one thing.

The fact that Grid had a hidden hand!

“Come out, Randy.”

Jeurereuk.

Grid gave a command and black liquid poured out of Grid’s pet inventory.

‘Slime?’

The players were confused by Grid’s new pet.

“What can you do with a slime?”

“This is too shabby for a last hurrah.”

Grid wasn’t an expert in the field of pets.

He might’ve luckily obtained a memphis through a raid or quest, but it would be very difficult to tame the new pet afterwards.

Thus, he brought out this slime.

The players smiled like it was cute.

“Turn into me.”

Grid gave a bizarre command to the black liquid. Then the liquid wriggled and did something surprising.

It transformed into Grid!

“It wasn’t a slime, but a doppelganger?”

“I’ve never heard of a black doppelganger.”

The players were impressed.

A doppelganger could be used in many ways, but they were hard to tame because they were A-grade. It was difficult unless the person was a high quality pet trainer.

Grid’s doppelganger seemed different from usual doppelgangers, so they felt wary.

"He has talent at scaring people.”

“He truly deserves to be called God Grid. He’s very versatile.”

The players clapped. They were curious, but didn’t feel a large amount of tension.

It was because doppelgangers didn’t have high combat skills. A doppelganger dominated into a pet had very weak abilities.

It could only copy 10% of its master’s stats.

It was clear that Grid’s doppelganger was a named monster, but it couldn’t copy more than 15% of his stats.

‘This isn’t worth watching.’

The insect monsters they summoned could easily handle the doppelganger.

Randy gave despair to the confident players.

“Pagma’s Swordsmanship.”

"...What?!”

The doppelganger could copy skills? It was also a legendary rated skill?

The players finally realized the seriousness of the situation and urgently tried to summon new pets.

“Wave.”

Kwa kwa kwa kwang!

Waves of energy spread out, hitting the dozens of giant glow worms, gold cockroaches, and light butterflies...

“The level of those hastily obtained as a countermeasure for Noe wouldn’t be high.”

Grid declared as he watched the dozens of ash pillars rising towards the sky.

“I’m sorry, but I’m going to take the gold medal.”

Grid had been aware from a long time ago.

He had to be careful of his words in order to not lost his prestige as master of Overgeared and lord of Reidan. That’s why he didn’t speak lightly.

That’s right.

Since the press conference at the beginning of the National Competition, Grid was already convinced that he would win the pet marathon when he declared that ‘South Korea would win at least five gold medals.’

“Catch them, Noe.”

“Nyang!”

Noe regained his spirit and energetically moved.

His speed completely exceeded the speed of the wyverns as he followed their path.

“Shit! Stop him!”

The players summoned all their battle pets at once and tried to stop Noe.

For this moment, they were allied.

Grid spoke in a calm voice.

“I’ll leave it to you, Randy.”

"Believe in me.”

Clink!

Randy had copied Pagma’s appearance and defeated Grid 82 times.

Once he reached level 240, the ‘Copy’ skill was strengthened and the strongest doppelganger slowly regained the power of the past. Now he faced the dozens of pets alone.

It was enough to thrill the world.

Grid’s legend was written down.