Ranker’s Return

“It isn’t possible! No!! I am going to leave!!! Let me go!” Johnny exclaimed while struggling. It was a violent statement showing his determination not to remain in Phinis any longer.

However, there was no way an administrator NPC could beat Hyeonu in terms of strength.

“Where are you going to run to? I will tell His Majesty. I’ll take care of you and then send you back. Please endure it for just one year. Your salary? I’ll give you bread. Don’t you want to eat? I’ll make a street that is only full of restaurants. In addition, this is a secret... I will sell food from the East Continent in Phinis. East, Con, ti, nent.”

Johnny’s eyes widened. ‘Food from the East Continent?’

What was the East Continent? It was a fantasy continent that could only be heard about from the academy library or bards wandering the continent.

“Does it really exist?” Johnny asked with a disbelieving expression.

Hyeonu pulled out a plate from his inventory. The plate contained steaming hot food.

“This is food from the East Continent. It has a unique flavor. Give it a try,” Hyeonu said.

He placed the plate down on the table. Then he pulled out chopsticks from his inventory and inserted it into the food. Johnny had a disbelieving expression as he grabbed the food with the chopsticks.

“Wow! Isn’t this a really new taste?” This was Johnny’s impression after putting the food in his mouth. It was a new taste; it was different from the traditional dishes of the West Continent.

“Are you saying there will be stores in Phinis selling these foods?” Johnny asked.

“It won’t be just one or two places. How about making an entire street like this? How about it?” Hyeonu offered.

Johnny bowed to Hyeonu. “I hope to get along with you in the future, My Lord.”

*** 

Kale smiled at the fragrant scent as he opened the door and entered. It was his favorite coffee aroma.

‘It smells good, but...’

Of course, Kale didn’t drink it; he just enjoyed the scent. He preferred cafe latte to Americano and then cafe mocha over cafe latte.

“Take it easy. You should enjoy Arena. You know that you can’t just sit at the desk, right? You aren’t busy these days, so you should enjoy it.” Kale approached the employees and said words of encouragement and cheers before heading to his seat.

These days, work had been going smoothly, and they didn’t need to work overtime. Well, except for Kale of course. He was too busy. It was because his boss was enjoying Arena. Kale’s monitor had a post-it note with these words: Alley Leader called you. Please call him back.

He took the post-it note off and sat in his chair.

‘Is there anything left to call about?’

However, he didn’t make a call and just thought about why Hyeonu would call. Then he recalled one thing that was related to Hyeonu.

‘Match manipulation?’

The match manipulation matter had already left their hands. It was good to have the South Korean prosecutor handle it.

‘Then Crescent Moon?’

Crescent Moon was in the process of coordinating the contracts. Later, they would gather in South Korea for a press conference or in a hotel to quietly sign the contracts.

‘So what is left?’

These were the two big things. Most of the rest was related to money. A typical streamer would care, but Alley Leader didn’t care too much.

‘He doesn’t seem obsessed with money in the first place...’

Unlike others, Alley Leader didn’t buy a house or a car. He just spent a huge sum of money in an unknown place. Kale’s cautious guess was that Alley Leader had paid off a debt. Otherwise, money wouldn’t disappear without any tangible results.

‘Did I do something useless?’

Kale’s worries of a few minutes had no results. Eventually, he just picked up his smartphone and dialed Hyeonu’s number.

-Hello? A voice rang out over the smartphone. However, it was a different reaction from the usual. It was like...

‘Does he not know it’s my call?’ Kale cocked his head.

“It’s me, Kale. Why did you call? What is going on?”

-I just called to let you know something.

“Is it urgent? Wait a minute. Let me find some paper so I can take notes.”

Kale pulled out a fountain pen from his chest pocket and swung it wildly in the air like he was writing something. An employee saw it and quickly ran over to Kale, handing him a notebook.

-No, there is no need for you to write it down. I’ve already sent it by email.

“Huh? Email? Can you wait a minute?”

Kale moved his mouse faster than ever and tapped on the keyboard. His mailbox contained dozens of new messages, and he looked for the one with the name ‘Gang Hyeonu’. 

-Did you find it?

“Wait a moment... Yes, I found it.”

Kale found the name amidst the list of many senders and clicked on the email he’d received.

-Then I’ll say it. As you can see...

He opened the email as Hyeonu’s voice filled the background. The mail contained shocking content.

‘Um... What does it say? He got a territory...’

“Wait, wait a minute! What is this?! Is this true? OMG!!!” Kale screamed when he saw it. He couldn’t contain his excitement.

“You got a territory? How did you do it alone?!” Kale’s loud voice rang through the office. 

The other employees heard it and started to mutter.

“Wow, he got a territory alone? It is really amazing.”

“I’m glad he signed with our company. It would’ve been terrible if he went to Adidas.”

“They are already in a terrible state. Their stock price has fallen considerably these days...”

Most of the chatter consisted of expressions of admiration for Hyeonu, but some of it was about Adidas. Adidas Management was on its way to being the worst, and there was only one reason for that. It was because Alley Leader was in Nike, their rival company. For this reason, its value had decreased.

Of course, Adidas had also made mistakes, such as letting Kowloon get taken by Nike. Nonetheless, Adidas was in the midst of recruiting new star streamers, and their performance was quite good. It was just that Adidas was being pressured by Nike, so they remained in second place.

Meanwhile, Kale quickly checked the contents of the mail. He was more focused than ever. It wasn’t long, so he read it quickly. “Yes, I’ve read it all. I want to say congratulations.”

-Thank you.

“But I still don’t know why you called me.”

Kale really couldn’t understand it. Why call him? The email would’ve fully explained everything.

-I have a request for Nike, so I contacted you. It might be a pretty tough request.

“I will be the judge of that, so please tell me first.”

-Nike’s staff are required. They must be pretty capable. The more people there are, the better.

There came more words Kale couldn’t understand. Hyeonu needed Nike’s staff...? “You need our help? What’s going on?”

-I need those who will take charge of the inner workings of the territory. The overall direction will be decided by myself, but there isn’t enough manpower to actually manage and supervise the work.

“Are there so few NPCs? It is said that many players are playing as administrators these days...”

-Not really. I’ve checked, and there are fewer than five people in this large territory.

‘Oh, my god!!! It’s the worst.’

There was no detailed information about territories, but there was some general information which was shared by players working as administrators. If Phinis was the size that Hyeonu described, then there should be at least 30 administrators. This was if the territory only had veteran NPC administrators. If he thought about players, then there would be at least 50.

“That’s the worst. No wonder you need our help.”

-Can’t I trust them if they are talents from Nike? It doesn’t matter if they are not as capable as NPC administrators.

There was a reason for the superior abilities of NPC administrators. It was because they received effective skill corrections such as reducing consumption costs or decreasing the construction period. Moreover, the skills were at a minimum of C-rank proficiency, not F-rank or E-rank. They naturally had to be superior to players who had F-ranked skills.

“Hmm... Okay. I’ll get approval for this at all costs. Well, I don’t think it will be very difficult.”

*** 

After the call with Kale, Hyeonu resumed what he was doing. He sat in front of a large monitor and tapped on the keyboard. Hyeonu was currently writing an article that would be distributed to communities around the world. For this reason, he took a screenshot of the title ‘First Lord.’

[Hello, I am Alley Leader. Certification]

[-Hello? I am Alley Leader. I am going to start with the certification because I know people won’t believe me.]

Hyeonu certified himself as Alley Leader before he started the contents. He posted a photo of himself with his status window.

[Status Window]

[Level: 243

Class: True Knight of Keon

Title: Lebron’s Disciple, Warrior Acknowledged by Khan, First Lord.]

It was a very brief status window, but it was more definite than anything else. Of course, there were still those who wouldn’t believe it. Hyeonu also understood this.

‘Therefore, I will add this.’

[If you still don’t believe me, you can go to Alley Leader’s channel on A-World. This will also be posted on there.] 

He even put that up. No one could disbelieve the article anymore.

[There is a reason I’m posting this today. I obtained something very fun and amazing. As you can see in the status window above, there is the title of ‘First Lord.’ 

I got a territory. A territory! This means I can stay in the first division of the league next season. I’ll release it on my next stream. I’ll leave a teaser video on my channel. If you’re curious, please watch the video. If you are even more curious, look forward to my stream.]

Hyeonu didn’t write a long post. It wasn’t because it looked nasty. Rather, it was just that if too much content was written, then the response to his streaming would be less popular. Either way, the most important thing was the live stream.

‘I will copy this and put it through the translator.’

There were no language barriers during streams, but a typical community site naturally had language barriers. Therefore, Hyeonu needed a translator.

‘I just need a rough conversation.’

Translating the post into foreign languages was just for convenience. It was preparation for when there was no translator.

‘Okay, it’s done.’

The translation into numerous languages was instantaneous. It was done with a single push of the button, and the result emerged. Now he just needed to copy and paste it to every community.

‘I have to wait for the stream tomorrow.

“I’m looking forward to it.” 

How many people would there be? Hyeonu anticipated it.

6th Anniversary Event Link (Submission Final Date: 15th November)