Ranker’s Return

“Leon Meyer also seemed to know you... Do you know him?” Hyeonu asked cautiously after seeing John Blake’s reaction.

“I know him. I know him well. It was around 30 years ago. That black lizard came to me... He came to me and said some nonsense, so I half killed him.”

“Isn’t that a good ending?” Hyeonu cocked his head. It would’ve been a happy ending if it ended like that.

‘No, he beat up Leon Meyer for speaking nonsense. Would that be the end?’

He couldn’t guess why John Blake would show such a response.

‘Is there more to the story?’

It seemed so. Otherwise, it would be impossible to have such a fierce reaction to hearing Leon Meyer’s name.

“His parents came and stirred up some trouble. It was a little dangerous then.”

“So that’s what happened...” Hyeonu didn’t show any particular reaction as he didn’t want to get involved in trouble.

“They’re all just memories… memories of my youth.” There was a lot of pressure flowing from John Blake as he said so. It didn’t feel much different from just before the fight against Rubolle.

“Sign first...”

At Hyeonu’s request, John Blake pulled the pen that was hanging from one side of the paper and signed his name.

[Demon kings’ signature 1/2]

A message window appeared in front of Hyeonu informing him of the progress of the quest.

“Where is Baler? I need him to sign as well...” Hyeonu said. He had to find Baler to get his signature. After that, he had to find Leon Meyer and proceed with the quest.

‘I want to finish this before the next match...’

Tomorrow was already Wednesday, which was when the Week 6 match of the Winter League would be held. He wanted to get this job done before the match. Of course, the match wouldn’t be affected just because things weren’t completely finished here, but he just couldn’t stop himself from feeling uneasy.

‘I want to play the match freely.’

Hyeonu was smacking his lips together when John Blake began opening his mouth with a sour expression.

“He is behind you. Tsk... You are too dull,” John Blake said with a flick of his finger. Then Hyeonu turned his head in the direction John Blake’s finger was pointing at.

“Eh?!”

It was really just as John Blake said; the two-meter-tall Baler was standing behind Hyeonu.

“Why did you reveal it? How boring...” Baler laughed and took away the paper that Hyeonu was holding. “I just have to sign here?”

Then he wrote his name on the piece of paper. Hyeonu was baffled by how fast the action was.

[Demon kings’ signature 2/2]

“Now, create the magic circle quickly and call the adventurers to Etono. We will prepare as much as we can during that time.”

“What preparations do you mean?” Hyeonu questioned it. 

Baler frowned and then conveyed the demon kings’ words to Hyeonu: “There are currently very few people in the demon world who know your plan—five demon kings and their subordinates. The rest? The demon world is being invaded by the middle world. They might think that. No, I intend to make it happen.”

John Blake took over the explanation from Baler and said, “Etono will start emptying when you go back to the demon world. In two days, Etono will be a ghost city where no one lives. Then the adventurers will come and move with Etono as their base.”

“It is just that we can’t control everything. At best, we can prevent the movement of the nobles. First of all, I intend to send the lowest-grade demons and demonic creatures all the way to the intermediate-grade ones over to Etono, but they won’t be small in number. So we need as many adventurers as possible,” Baler stated. As he did so, his expression remained the same. There was no change at all. He didn’t seem to care about the sacrifice of the demons and demonic creatures.

‘Is it a complete defense?’ Hyeonu was lost in thought after hearing the explanation. The situation was much more interesting than he had expected.

‘It worked out well.’

It was safe to say things were working out the way he wanted.

“I understand. I will call as many adventurers as possible to Etono. Just trust me,” Hyeonu replied in a confident voice.

Baler smiled with satisfaction when he saw this. “Then I’ll trust you to take care of it.”

After Baler disappeared, Hyeonu approached John Blake. “Duke.”

“Why are you calling me?”

“Do you want to see Master?”

“Master? Do you mean Lebron?”

“Yes, I will bring him here. Please look forward to it.” Hyeonu’s eyes flashed.

***

“Here you are. There are the signatures of two demon kings.”

[Demon kings’ signature 2/2, pass the signatures to Leon Meyer 1/1]

Hyeonu handed the white paper to Leon Meyer.

“This speed is ridiculously fast...” Leon Meyer received the piece of paper from Hyeonu with a look of wonder.

Not even a day had passed since Hyeonu received the piece of paper from him, yet Hyeonu had already come back with the signatures.

‘With the evidence, I have no choice but to believe it...’

The paper he had given to Hyeonu wasn’t an ordinary piece of paper. It was a special kind of paper that absorbed the magic power of the person who signed it.

‘If the magic power is this strong...’

It really was a demon king. They were the only ones who could exude enough magic power to instill fear in a dragon.

“Okay, wait a minute. I will go to the elders,” Leon Meyer said and then disappeared. Nevertheless, Hyeonu didn’t care about him. He was busy looking at the messages in front of him.

[Demon Kings’ Promise has been cleared.]

[Experience has been acquired.]

[You have leveled up.]

[All health and magic power have been restored.]

[You have leveled up.]

[All health and magic power have been restored.]

‘I am now level 315 with this.’

The experience given for an SSS+ quest was very large. It filled Hyeonu's endless experience bar twice and then an additional one-third.

‘Why isn’t he coming?’

It had been nearly 30 minutes since Leon Meyer disappeared, and he still hadn’t returned. Hyeonu started to feel uneasy. He didn’t have much time to waste.

‘30 minutes is enough time to do many things...’

Eventually, Hyeonu used a last resort. He crouched on the ground and started scratching at it with his fingers. Surrounded by black-red pure energy, his fingers dug into the ground of the cave like it was tofu.

-I will go to Phinis first. Please find me there.

Hyeonu left a message for Leon Meyer on the ground and went back to Phinis.

“Return to Phinis.”

***

Upon returning to Phinis, Hyeonu headed straight to the comprehensive auction house in the city. He opened his inventory shortly before arriving at the auction house to see what gold he had.

[-Current gold: 1,723,819 gold.] 

‘This should be enough.’

Hyeonu currently had approximately 1.7 million gold—1.3 million gold from betting in the Colosseum and 400,000 gold from various hunts. He was going to take this gold and start spending it.

‘I have to buy all the magic power recovery potions in the market.’

All the gold in his budget would be turned into magic power recovery potions. Then he was going to sell it all but only in Phinis. Moreover, it would be at a huge premium.

‘I have to gain at least 50%.’

There was no such thing as profiteering in such a situation. In a few days, the price was going to rise no matter what happened.

‘Fighting in the demon world will be tough, and there will be restrictions on movement.’

It was difficult to fight in the demon world. Stats were restricted for all the players except for a very small number of people. Killing one monster took the effort to kill two. This naturally increased the cost of magic power.

‘Then they will look for potions.’

Yet this alone wouldn’t make it rise as much as Hyeonu expected. The price would just rise a bit. However, the magic circle that allowed movement between the demon world and the middle world required a lot of magic power. In the demon world, the magic power stone could be used or the demon king could inject their own magic power. In the middle world, the dragons injected magic power.

Few players could fulfil the requirement. Perhaps a few dozen or hundreds of people would have to gather simultaneously. If there were restrictions on movement, the prices would naturally rise. There was a limit to the number of people that could be brought over at one time.

‘Price, climb to your heart’s content!’

There was a deep smile on Hyeonu’s face.

***

‘Aren’t there a lot of people here?’

Hyeonu arrived at the comprehensive auction house to see many people inside. They were all buying what they needed from the screens that were situated all over the place. Taking up a firm position in a corner, Hyeonu searched in the search box for ‘magic power potions’.

[Lowest-Grade Magic Power Recovery Potion]

[Low-Grade Magic Power Recovery Potion]

[Betheno’s Special Magical Power Recovery Potion]

[Intermediate Magic Power Recovery Potion]

[Miyu’s Fantastic Magic Power Recovery Potion]

[Advanced Magic Power Recovery Potion]

[High-Grade Magic Power Recovery Potion]

Numerous types of magic power potions appeared. There were common types of potions as well as those made by named NPCs and players. Hyeonu was aiming for the magic power potions that were rated intermediate and higher. The amount of recovery for those below the intermediate level wasn’t that large. Additionally, it was even less efficient considering that Hyeonu’s target audience was rankers.

‘I have to buy this and that.’

In particular, he took the recovery potions created by named NPCs and players because they were more effective than other types of magic power potions. It took Hyeonu less than 10 minutes to consume all of his 1.7 million gold. He bought everything he saw. As a result, the number of potions purchased by Hyeonu alone was close to 20,000. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that there were no more magic power potions above intermediate level available.

‘Once I log out today, I will have to call Junggu hyung.’

Hyeonu didn’t intend to invest only his money in this work. Good things had to be shared. The higher the market share, the greater the benefits.

‘The shopping is done... I have to wait for Leon Meyer now.’

After shopping, Hyeonu left the auction house. Hyeonu had just left the auction house when he saw two NPCs passing by while talking to each other.

‘Johnny and Jerry?’

Johnny was the administrator of Phinis, and Jerry was the master of the Goldberg Commerce Group. It wasn’t a strange sight for the two people to be together. The problem was that something came to Hyeonu’s mind when he saw this scene.

‘The Goldberg Commerce Group is recognized by the empire. If so...’

Jerry was the owner of Goldberg, and he should have a lot of money.

“Johnny! Jerry!” Hyeonu called out the names of the two people and ran to them.

“My lord?”

“Earl?”

The two people were stunned at Hyeonu’s sudden appearance. Hyeonu approached and immediately asked about the latest situation: “How is the Goldberg Commerce Group?” 

Jerry was flustered, but he tried to hide it with a smile. “It is good. We are seeing an increase in profit from the tourists and locals in Phinis. The volume of transactions itself has increased dramatically.”

In fact, Phinis wasn’t a big customer for the Goldberg Commerce Group. However, since investing in Phinis, more people throughout the empire had been looking for the Goldberg Commerce Group. They were nobles who followed the emperor and Duke Lebron.

Hyeonu heard Jerry’s answer and asked in a soft voice, “Really? I have good information. Do you want to make an investment?” 

Hearing Hyeonu’s unexpected words, Jerry couldn’t hide his flustered expression and uttered, “Huh?”