Ranker’s Return

The conference room was dark. The lights were all off, and only the screen was shining white. Over 10 men and women were sitting in this conference room.

“Then tell me what you think. How can Alley Leader protect his territory?” Kale said while pointing at the white screen. On it, the words ‘Etono Defense’ were written in black.

A man raised his hand and presented his opinion: “The first thing we need to know is the degree of force that Alley Leader possesses. There is no need to worry if Alley Leader can beat an earl-grade demon.”

In the video Hyeonu sent them, it was said that earl-grade demons were very rare. This meant that the possibility of having the territory taken away was much lower if Hyeonu had a force above that of an earl.

“However, the demon king of iron blood has been deprived of his territory, and his power is now reduced. He will try to recover Etono by all means. We can’t be too complacent,” a blonde beauty refuted the man’s words.

There were 72 cities and a total of 7 demon kings in the demon world. On average, 10 cities belonged to one demon king. In other words, the demon king’s force had decreased by one-tenth after losing Etono. There was no guarantee that only earl-grade demons would come for Hyeonu.

“That makes sense. It can be said that his force has reduced rapidly. The demon king of iron blood might send demons of a level higher than the earl grade to Etono,” Kale agreed with the woman’s comments. The possibility was present, and it wasn’t a low one.

Another employee raised his hand and suggested, “Then how about giving it to another demon king? It will be under the command of a demon on the same side as the demon king of iron blood.” 

Kale tilted his head and wondered, “The same side? Not the opposite side?”

He remarked inwardly, ‘Isn’t it a common idea to join with the opposing side?’

The staff member who put forward the opinion expanded on his idea: “As you said, a city is rare. This means it is highly valued. However, it is definitely less valuable compared with an alliance between demon kings.”

Kale noticed what the employee was trying to say. It wasn’t known what factions there were among the seven demon kings. Nevertheless, there would surely be relationships with conflicts. The use of force was normal in the demon world, so it might be even worse. In such a situation, what if your territory was absorbed by an allied demon king? It was possible to protest it, but breaking the alliance would ultimately be impossible.

Looking at it as a whole, the alliance had 20 cities. Yet when dividing it, it was a ratio of 11 and 9. One side had the advantage. Since the other side had already lost in the struggle for power, they had no choice but to put up with it.

“However, that is too much of a gamble. We still don’t know enough about the relationship between the demon kings. I’ll reserve this opinion for later,” Kale stated. He kept the man’s opinion in mind because it wasn’t ridiculous at all. It was just a pretty uneasy strategy to choose now due to a lack of information about demon kings.

“I will take opinions from others. There is still a lot of time left in this meeting,” Kale said with a smile. The other employees in the conference room started to actively express their opinions. They knew exactly what Kale’s smile meant—the meeting wouldn’t end until a satisfactory result was reached.

***

The next morning, Hyeonu looked at a banana that only had the peel remaining and pressed his lips together. He felt very hungry because he had been receiving personal training since earlier in the morning. Nevertheless, he wasn’t going to eat anything else as he had already eaten a chicken breast salad and a banana.

After placing the banana peel in the trash can, Hyeonu opened the door of the Cube and entered it. He was going to connect to Arena. Just then, Hyeonu’s smartphone started shaking, but his phone had been thrown onto his thick blanket. No matter how hard it rang, the ringtone didn’t enter Hyeonu’s ears.

The thick blanket covered all the noise. The vibration of the smartphone quickly stopped. After a while, the phone’s LCD screen lit up. A message from someone appeared on the screen.

-It is Kale. I have emailed the options to you. If there is anything you like, you can use it. If you don’t like them, please contact us again.

It was a message from Kale. He had chosen some ideas that felt pretty good after a few hours of discussion. Then he sent them to Hyeonu’s email. Normally, Kale would wait for Hyeonu to confirm it and give him an answer, but the situation was currently very urgent. He wanted Hyeonu to check the email quickly, so he got in touch like this.

However, Hyeonu had already accessed Arena and couldn’t see his message.

***

Hyeonu appeared in Etono and ran straight to the Colosseum. The most important thing for him right now was the restoration of the Colosseum. At the very least, the location of the room where Viscount Ergal had been located had to be cleared. This was the place where the magic power stone was probably located.

‘This way, I can use Magic Power Absorption.’

Hyeonu’s ultimate purpose for doing all of this was to absorb magic power. He had an opportunity to be strong easily. Not many people would ignore such an opportunity, even more so if it wasn’t illegal. Nonetheless, other players couldn’t gain a lot of magic power like Hyeonu even if they used Magic Power Absorption. Magic Power Absorption had the highest level of difficulty. The provided compensation was really great, so it was designed to be very difficult to get. Hyeonu’s successful result was abnormal.

Once Hyeonu arrived at the repair site of the Colosseum, his eyes widened at the sight in front of him.

“What? This is...?” Hyeonu immediately had a dumbfounded expression. The construction was proceeding strangely. The Colosseum that should’ve been restored to its original state was half-destroyed. It was too absurd. They were destroying good buildings rather than repairing buildings...

Hyeonu approached a demon that was shouting at other demons. The demon wore a yellow hat and looked like he was in charge of the construction site. Hyeonu stuck his face in front of the person in charge and roared, “What is going on?”

“Viscount, you came?!” The demon in the yellow hat was startled by Hyeonu’s sudden appearance and bowed. Still, he didn’t stutter or look afraid.

“I’ll ask again. Why are you breaking the Colosseum?”

Despite being faced with Hyeonu’s growl, the demon calmly reported the construction situation: “There was a problem that wasn’t visible in the Colosseum. There are cracks all over the place due to a strong impact... If we leave it like this, it is expected to collapse in a few days, and the damaged parts would have to be repaired again.” 

‘There was a problem that couldn’t be seen?’ Hyeonu’s expression changed rapidly. His mind regained its calmness in an instant. There was no reason to be agitated now that he knew the destruction was part of the recovery work. He just had something to say. “Instead, the internal structure should be the same as before. That room as well. Do you understand?”

This was something that couldn’t be changed. Anything else could be changed, but Viscount Ergal’s room must not be changed. That shouldn’t happen. Hyeonu patted the demon’s shoulder several times while making the request.

“Yes, I understand. Viscount Argon.” The demon nodded several times at Hyeonu’s words.

Just then, a dusty breeze rose on the other side of the Colosseum. Hyeonu saw it and frowned. ‘What? I suddenly feel very uneasy...’

He was anxious and felt an ominous pressure like when his mother picked up his report card that had bad grades.

“Finish the construction no matter what,” Hyeonu said and decided to leave his position without overcoming his uneasiness. He patted the demon’s shoulder even as he immediately began to make his exit. Kicking off from the ground, Hyeonu jumped into the air and disappeared as he crossed through the sky like a flying bird.

Shortly after Hyeonu left the construction site, a muscular giant that was nearly three meters tall appeared. The giant released pressure in rough waves while examining the construction site with a mysterious light flashing in his eyes. Then he turned his head like he didn’t see what he was looking for. Just like how Hyeonu had done a moment ago, the giant approached the demon in the yellow hat and asked about Hyeonu’s whereabouts: “Where is Viscount Argon?”

The giant’s pressure didn’t weaken at all. Rather, he was releasing even more pressure in accordance with his mood. Nevertheless, the demon in the yellow hat wasn’t intimidated at all and answered the giant’s question: “He just left because he had business to do.”

“Which way did he go?”

“He went north,” the man in the yellow hat lied naturally without changing his expression. Hyeonu had headed west, not north. Nevertheless, the giant didn’t know this and ran north.

***

‘Well done.’ In fact, Hyeonu hadn’t run away. He was watching the construction site from a moderately distant place. Although he’d fled due to a sense of anxiety, he stopped and hid in the end.

‘That isn’t a viscount. He is at least an earl...’

Even from a distance, the giant’s pressure was bloodthirsty enough to make Hyeonu’s hairs stand up. The giant absolutely wasn’t a viscount.

‘First... should I run away?’

Although the giant in front of him was a problem, the bigger problem was that the giant wouldn’t be the end of this. Killing the giant wouldn’t solve the problem. There would always be risk factors unless the underlying problem was solved.

‘In any case, they won’t be able to get the territory without the ring.’

If Hyeonu abandoned Etono and escaped, it didn’t mean he would be stripped of his territory. The lordship was just a name. The really important thing was the ring. If he failed to absorb the magic power, then it was no different from increasing his workload, even though he had obtained a territory. It wouldn’t increase his power. All that would increase was the size of the area in which he needed to defeat more enemies.

‘I have to leave Etono until the construction of the Colosseum is over.’

Hyeonu was thinking about returning once the Colosseum was completed to use Magic Power Absorption. After that, the loss of the territory wouldn’t be a huge damage. The loss of gold was a pity, but it was a cheap price if he could raise his magic power stat by more than 100.

‘Be good until then, Etono.’

Hyeonu stared at the Colosseum that contained the magic power stone for a moment before moving.