Ranker’s Return

Hyeonu was inwardly in a hurry. No, it was truly urgent. He had heard that the other guilds were challenging to conquer Cruise Mountain one after another.

‘I can’t let them take the spotlight here.’

[6th Main Scenario Ending—Cruise Mountain Conqueror]

Hyeonu started streaming right away without any waiting time. It was an expression of his desire to not let the finale of the scenario be taken by other guilds. “Hello everyone. I’m pleased to see you. Today is the ending point of the main scenario. I will smash the monument at the top of Cruise Mountain.”

-4, 5, 6—he has stood alone in three consecutive main scenarios.

-Do you see Alley Leader sharing his things? He might share in reality, but he isn’t cute in Arena.

-‘Your main scenario is mine, my main scenario is also mine.’

“Everyone admits that this is a table of food that I’ll eat, right? I don’t have to be dishonest since I will eat it all.”

-I admit it.

-Eat it yourself.

-Who said what? Act alone...

Hyeonu invested a much shorter amount of time than usual in the opening; it took less than 10 minutes. It was really short considering that it usually took 20 to 30 minutes.

-It’s fast today.

-By the way, where is Tang-E?

-Let’s start with Guest Tang-E.

-Guest? Isn’t he the host?

-I know that the host of this stream is Tang-E.

‘These guys?!’

Hyeonu tried to hold back his anger. There was no time for him to get pulled along with the audience. “I won’t attract any aggro today. It is because my mother always told me ‘don’t quarrel at the table’. I’m a filial son, so I will listen to my mother.”

-Yes, the mama’s boy.

-That table is really different. It is a big deal if it is overturned.

Hyeonu silently climbed the mountain while ignoring the teasing of the viewers. He didn’t show any special reaction, so the viewers stopped teasing and focused on the stream.

-What will happen in the future?

-He will climb the mountain.

-Then?

-He has to climb the mountain?

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ. It is a bond that can’t be broken. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Just like the audience said, Hyeonu was climbing up the mountain. However, Cruise Mountain was quite peculiar, and it didn’t look like he was climbing a mountain.

-This is a mountain, right?

-Is a mountain normally so flat?

-The mountain is like a staircase.

‘It feels like there is something nasty?’

Hyeonu glanced at the chat window and felt something was strange. He hadn’t known it when he saw Cruise Mountain from a distance, but he felt it when he was climbing it. There were too many hills. Yet when he went up further, a plains area appeared. Then at the end of the plains, there was a hill again. The two things repeated endlessly like a Moebius strip.

“Is it my mistake? Why are there so many hills and plains?”

-Yes, you’re not mistaken.

-It is real.

-It will show up soon?

-Ah, it came. It came. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

The viewers laughed. They were looking forward to what they could see.

‘This...’

In an Arena community survey, the worst field wasn’t an extreme zone such as a volcano or an iceberg but an open field with nowhere to hide. Hills and plains—these two fields had one peculiarity. It was a monster wave. Monsters constantly appeared in them.

During battles, other monsters would be attracted by the sound and smell of blood and then join in the fight. It was an infinite repetition of this pattern. There was no place to escape, and there was nowhere to hide. Either the monsters in the surroundings would die or the players would be logged out—the result was always one of these two.

Most resulted in the latter.

“Ah, seriously... This is frustrating. I liked that the mountain wasn’t too high...”

Hyeonu wanted to deny the sight in front of him. There were three monsters approaching him. By the time these ones were killed, new monsters would appear.

“Still, what can I do? I thought the main scenario was bland, but it gave me such a dark thing at the end. It’s very good. This is called being hit in the back of the head.”

Hyeonu smiled and pulled out the Mysterious Sky Sword.

“Tang-E, you can see that there is nowhere to hide, so there is no need to hide today. Can you see that over there? The top? We just need to go there.”

Hyeonu’s left hand pointed at the top of Cruise Mountain in the distance. To be precise, he was pointing was at the place where a dark blue pillar could be seen.

“I understand, Master dude. Believe in Tang-E. I will carry you.”

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Tang-E is the carry ㅋㅋㅋ

-Where did he learn that? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ.

-Someone must’ve taught it to him ㅋㅋㅋ

“Hey, who taught you such strange words? Who did it? I will grab them and punch a hole in their head...” Hyeonu focused on the strange word that Tang-E had learned, instead of the serious expression on Tang-E’s face.

Carry...

Tang-E would be the carry.

‘What damn jerk?! It is fine if you learn such a thing, but teaching it to Tang-E...’

Tang-E smiled and replied like he knew nothing, “That man taught me. The frivolous man. Master dude’s friend.” 

‘Kwon Yeongchan, that jerk...’ Hyeonu gritted his teeth.

There were many things he wanted to say to Tang-E, but he could only say short words due to the monsters approaching him.

“Don’t use it.” Hyeonu left only this sentence as he ran toward the monsters.

*** 

As everyone knew well, monsters appeared constantly. If an ogre died, a troll would appear. Then if the troll died, a one-eyed giant would appear. If the giant died, there would be a giant monkey in its place. They appeared repeatedly. However, the situation wasn’t as urgent as it seemed. In fact, it was rather relaxed.

‘The experience is good, and my proficiency is rising.’

Hyeonu’s magic power was virtually unlimited. This was due to the built-in effect of Hyeonu’s gauntlets, Memories of a Murderer. It restored physical strength and magic power by an amount that was equivalent to 5% of the damage inflicted on the enemy. The higher the level of the monsters, the higher the health. Of course, even if it was 5%, the value of the monster’s health was greater than the amount of magic power held by Hyeonu.

In addition, there was no cooldown time for the Mysterious Sky Demonic Art, of which the effects were changed due to the Book of Random Luck Enhancement. Hyeonu could use Mysterious Sky Range endlessly as long as his magic power supported it, and his control over it was strong. In short, this was a chasing hunt. It was a very thankful situation where the monsters flocked to him on their own.

-What is this? It looks like a person?

-Why is a person here?

-Is it a different guild?

-Who? How many guilds have come here?

‘Who came?’ 

Hyeonu checked the chat window even with a giant tiger’s paws in front of him.

‘Oh, really?’

A series of people were quietly approaching Hyeonu. His senses that were sharpened by Mysterious Sky allowed him to feel it. It was just that Hyeonu didn’t see them with his own eyes, so he couldn’t confirm their identity. The tiger attacked in a timely manner and created an opportunity for Hyeonu to observe them naturally. So he avoided the tiger’s paws and turned to the side.

‘Huh?’ Hyeonu saw them for the first time.

It wasn’t one of the large guilds that Hyeonu had recruited. They didn’t even have the emblem of a famous large guild.

‘How did they get here?’

Hyeonu couldn’t understand it, but he needed to urgently deal with the tiger in front of him, so he took his attention away from them.

*** 

“Tony, how long do we have to wait?” A woman in a pure white robe asked her leader, Tony. No, he was urged. “We’ve already waited for over an hour. Can’t we go now? We don’t have much time.”

It was Rania who spoke. They had been observing Hyeonu’s battle for an hour while hiding, but they had no time left. They weren’t the only ones here.

‘In particular, New World...’

If a bit more time passed, a large guild might appear to interfere with them.

“We have to go when we are certain. Don’t you know what happened last time? He is a monster. In addition, the money we took for this job is a big amount. If we fail, we can only suck our hands for the next few months. Is that still okay?” The man called Tony replied calmly to Rania’s words. 

“He has already been fighting for an hour. Even a magician would run out of magic power in this situation. He hasn’t drank any potions, so it seems that he has run out of potions,” Rania stated.

In fact, Hyeonu had not drunk potions. They had overlooked one thing. During this one hour, Hyeonu hadn’t slowed down his hunting speed. No, he hadn’t even been hit once. The complex emotions in their minds covered their eyes.

‘Rania’s words aren’t wrong.’

Still, there was nothing wrong with prudence. The money they’d spent to get near here was close to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most of the money was in the hands of the Venom Guild. It was a condition to guide them to this place and Cruise Mountain. Nevertheless, it was well worth the money. They knew the exact way thanks to their connections with other large guilds and arrived comfortably.

‘By the way, why didn’t the Venom Guild take the commission? They must’ve received it before us.’

The Venom Guild ranked first compared to Tony’s Team Shadow. Others might not know it, but Tony knew the Venom Guild was above Five Stars’ Team Hell. In fact, they were the best in the industry.

‘Well, thanks to that, we got the chance to make money.’ 

Tony scoffed at the Venom Guild’s stupid choice.

“Let’s go now. Are you ready?”

Rania nodded at Tony’s words. They had used many boosters, including buffs.

“Let’s have a hot party tonight.”

It would be a party stained with Alley Leader’s blood.

*** 

“Karen, have you really given up? You aren’t going to take this money?” Rose, the priest of the Venom Guild, asked Karen, the master of the Venom Guild. Her expression was playful.

“Rose, don’t mess around. Why are you asking again when you know it all? Why don’t you look at him? It is over when we get involved. It is bad luck.” Karen frowned.

Alley Leader was a man who should never be touched. Someone who shouldn’t be mentioned or associated with—that was Alley Leader.

Crimson, the big man who saw the two people talk, scoffed, “Did you want to go? Are you an M? You should’ve said so earlier.”

Unable to refute Crimson’s teasing or Karen’s irritation, Rose got busy making excuses. 

“No, I was just kidding. Of course, I know. It is still vivid in my memories. Look, I have goosebumps just thinking about it again,” Rose said and held out her right arm.

Indeed, her right arm was full of goosebumps. She looked into space and spoke in a voice full of energy, “We can hunt to a certain extent. We can kill the black-maned lions. However, we are a party, and he is alone.” 

“It’s fine, we’ve received hundreds of thousands of dollars and can hold on until they show up. In a few hours, we’ll know that this is the smart choice.” Karen patted Rose’s shoulder.

‘Team Shadow will hit Alley Leader in the back?’

It was a ridiculous notion. Could they really kill Alley Leader just because he had no magic power? Excessive greed was bound to bring disaster.

“You need to know yourself,” Karen said with her mouth twisting strangely.

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