Ranker’s Return

Dwayne was distracted. He didn’t know what he was doing right now. He just let his body move. At this moment, Dwayne started to think.

‘Where is this?’

It was the training hall.

‘What am I doing now?’

He was in PvP.

‘That’s right. I’m fighting now.’

Moreover, it was in front of tens of thousands of people. Thinking of this, Dwayne pulled himself together again. It was only at this moment that he could finally accept the situation around him. A man was wielding a sword and shield in front of him, and Dwayne was moving his body.

‘Avoid it!’ Dwayne lowered his head instinctively.

So Park Hanjong’s sword passed through just above Dwayne’s head. Dwayne struck off hard against the ground and reflexively pushed his shoulder forward. This move was engraved in his body due to numerous confrontations he’d had with Hyeonu. Dwayne’s shoulder struck Park Hanjong’s abdomen, crushing the armor that covered it and causing the latter’s upper body to bend.

‘Attack.’ Dwayne stretched out his fists toward Park Hanjong. Park Hanjong managed to raise his shield and block Dwayne’s fist that was aiming at his face. However, this was just the initial attack. Dwayne attacked unceasingly with his entire body as if taking revenge for Yuri’s loss.

If his fist was blocked, he used his elbows. If his elbows were blocked, he used his knees. If his knees were blocked, he kicked. His attacks continued like a Moebius strip. Park Hanjong was a player known as the best ranker in South Korea, and he was holding out very well despite Dwayne’s offensive. Nevertheless, even the best tanker could never win by defending alone.

“Dwayne is terrifyingly driven. It’s like watching the movies he has starred in.”

“What type of magic did Alley Leader use to make Dwayne a completely different person?”

The American broadcasters showing the Korean Arena League sighed and admired Dwayne. What was going on? Hollywood’s best action actor star had become a pro gamer in a distant exotic land. At this moment, Dwayne was on the verge of achieving one win. Moreover, it was against a pretty famous player in a foreign land.

“Something has happened! Dwayne’s fist has pierced Park Hanjong’s chest! This is the end of the game. The winner of the second game is Dwayne Evans!”

“Park Hanjong and Dwayne have become the main characters of the event.”

“Something incredible has happened. Dwayne Evans beat Park Hanjong, the ace of Ellen Waze.”

The Korean broadcasters, including Jang Junhyung, were also shouting, especially because of the person who was Park Hanjong’s opponent.

“Park Hanjong can’t raise his head. He feels a sense of responsibility for not leading the team,” Jung Yunho commented.

It was just as Jung Yunho said. Park Hanjong couldn’t raise his head after leaving the cube. He continued to walk while staring only at the ground. His shoulders were drooped as he let out a sigh.

“Park Hanjong!” More than 5,000 spectators shouted Park Hanjong’s name at this moment.

He lost, but he’d fought hard. The results weren’t good, but no one doubted his skills and personality. Hearing the cheers of the crowd, Park Hanjong raised his head and then bowed to them before moving to where the Ellen Waze players were.

***

It was deja vu. The crowd gathered at Arena Stadium clapped and called the name of one person. This time, the name was different.

“Dwayne!!! Dwayne Evans!!!” They cried out Dwayne’s name, not Park Hanjong’s. After losing the ghostly fighting power he’d shown in the second game, Dwayne lost the third game in vain. No one blamed Dwayne, who emerged from the cube with an awkward expression. Instead, they called his name and cheered.

“Well done, Dwayne,” Hyeonu welcomed Dwayne, who returned with a record of one win and one loss. It was a victory that Hyeonu hadn’t expected.

“Congratulations on the first win of your debut!” All of Crescent Moon’s other players ran to Dwayne.

In Lee Hoon’s hand, there was a cake with a burning candle. It was the first victory cake. He took it to Dwayne, but it wasn’t just a celebration for him. It was a celebration for all of them. They blew out the candle while shouting a funny slogan: “Congratulations on the first victory of the folding screens!”

After a brief celebration, the players gathered with forks and plates. The cake box was opened, so it was natural to eat it.

“Hoon, why are you carrying a fork? Go and fight the game,” Sunny said to Lee Hoon.

“That’s right. You have to go out now. What are you doing?” Mason added in awkward Korean.

This was the same Mason who had already placed a cake slice on his plate and was using a fork to eat. Lee Hoon let out a deep sigh, and both his hands trembled. Hyeonu drove a wedge into Lee Hoon, “Will Hoon be in charge of Crescent Moon’s first disqualification? Then we can have another cake.”

Upon hearing Hyeonu’s words, Lee Hoon turned to go to the stage. He spat out some words before disappearing: “I will come back out before this cake disappears.”

***

“Hey, seems you really came back before we ate it all,” Mason said in an admiring tone when Lee Hoon returned.

It was definitely admiration on the surface. However, the admiration turned into sarcasm when combined with Mason’s strangely smiling face.

“I’m sorry I lost. I didn’t expect that to happen...” Lee Hoon looked like he would cry at any moment.

“It’s fine to lose. However, Hoon, you can’t act like that. Train with me for an hour starting from tomorrow. You have to win at least once.” Hyeonu laughed while handing Lee Hoon a plate of cake.

As Hyeonu said, Lee Hoon had lost. It was a pretty fast defeat too. This didn’t mean he was bad. Lee Hoon had consistently overwhelmed his opponent. He had shown excellent skills in the beginning. After gaining experience from his combat with Hyeonu, Lee Hoon’s skills evolved further.

His problem was impatience. In the match, he felt nervous even though he was winning. It was because he had gotten anxious after seeing Dwayne win once. Excluding Hyeonu, Lee Hoon had thought it would certainly be him who would get the first victory.

Then Dwayne took that glory, and the burden of defeat increased. In the end, Lee Hoon made a mistake while trying to finish the match urgently. He didn’t consider his opponent’s counterattack and ended up getting defeated.

“Stop thinking about the past. Think only about the raid.” Hyeonu rubbed Lee Hoon’s shoulder and moved toward the stage.

“Yes... Hyung,” Lee Hoon barely replied after feeling Hyeonu’s strong touch.

***

“Gang Hyeonu, what are the limits of this player? He is overwhelming Ellen Waze!”

“His current PvP style is like when he was teaching Player Yuri. This is the classic greatsword style. There is also pure energy that comes out when necessary. It’s perfection itself!”

The commentators had already given up on commenting. Now they were just busy praising Hyeonu. The combat that Hyeonu showed was fantastic, and they couldn’t help being surprised at the sight of the greatsword that was being used like it was part of Hyeonu’s own body. Just then, Hyeonu’s greatsword struck the shoulder of the Ellen Waze player, Jung Daehoon. It was with the wide face of the sword, not the tip.

“The greatsword has struck Jung Daehoon’s shoulder. It wasn’t a cut. It smashed him!”

Jung Daehoon swayed as the greatsword hit his shoulder, breaking it. The game ended there. Jung Daehoon’s right shoulder was broken. He was right-handed, so he couldn’t continue fighting any longer.

“With this, Alley Leader has achieved three consecutive victories. Crescent Moon has won PvP with four wins and three losses,” commentator Jang Junhyung announced the results.

Then he explained the next schedule, “PvP and siege between the eight teams are all over. In a moment, there will be a raid time attack for the four teams that played the first two matches.”

Raid time attack—it was commonly known as a raid. It compared who could kill the boss monsters in a shorter time. If the siege and PvP showed off skills in human combat, the raid was an event that showed their ability to kill monsters.

“The first raid target is a large monster, the snow mountain cyclops.”

Once Jang Junhyung finished speaking, a huge one-eyed monster appeared on the screen. Its height was close to 20 meters. The monster didn’t have a perfect muscular body, but this didn’t mean it was fat. Its entire skin was blue, and it held a giant ice club in one hand.

“Since raids originally take a long time, the league will proceed with a significant reduction in health. It is set to 30% of the snow mountain cyclops’ actual health,” Jang Junhyung explained the basics for audience members and viewers who didn’t know the rules.

Unlike actual raids, monsters in the league had less health than those in the game due to time restraints. The audience was watching from the stadium, not at home, so it was impossible to increase the gaming time.

“In particular, any team will be disqualified if their time goes over two hours.”

Therefore, there was a disqualification system just in case any team couldn’t kill the boss monster within the time limit. After all, they couldn’t give the teams an indefinite period of time.

***

The atmosphere of Ellen Waze’s waiting room was gloomy after losing four games. It had sunk completely. Of course, it couldn’t be good. They lost last week, and they lost today too. Rather, it would be strange if they felt good. Nevertheless, it didn’t mean that this mood could be maintained.

As the team’s leader, Park Hanjong felt the need to set the tone. Park Hanjong stood up and talked to the Ellen Waze members: “It’s fine to lose. We can win next time. Let’s just do well with the raid first.”

“Yes, we’ve prepared hard for two weeks.” There was a man who accepted Park Hanjong’s words—his close friend, Jung Daehoon.

Jung Daehoon played a role that Park Hanjong didn’t. He raised the atmosphere like a bard in a virtual reality game.

“Let’s eat something delicious when we go back to the dormitory today. In order to do that, we have to kill the raid monster. Isn’t the late-night snack that we eat after a boss raid a sweet treat?”

Chicken... Jung Daehoon’s words changed the expression of the players. This was an opportunity—an opportunity to eat chicken. The players had a lot of money, which was from their paychecks and what they’d earned from streaming. However, they couldn’t eat chicken often.

Their dormitory had rules. If they ordered food because they had money, it wouldn’t be good for the health of the players. The dormitory management was very strict. Thus, it was only possible with the help of the captain, Park Hanjong. Otherwise, they had to sneak out and buy it secretly. There was no player who could stand doing such an annoying thing.

In addition, Park Hanjong didn’t allow delivery unless it was requested by Jung Daehoon. It was because his hobby was cooking, and he liked to let the team players eat his food. The problem was that the taste wasn’t very good.

“We’re going second, so we will prepare more by watching the practice video yesterday,” another player spoke up with a motivated voice. He now wanted to do the raid more than ever.