Ranker’s Return

-No. Yes, it looks easy, but...

-I don’t think it will be easy when we do it.

-Of course, when we do it, one person will die from the roots’ attacks while our cheeks will be slapped by the branches.

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I died in that way.

The viewers laughed despondently at Hyeonu’s words. They didn’t even think of making fun of him. They just thought that the standards were different like how the worlds of children and adults were different.

“There are no items, but it isn’t a big deal. The experience is pretty good. No, it’s very good. It is a really good hunting ground as long as there are two fire-attribute damage dealers.”

The furious tree elementals didn’t drop any items, leaving behind only simple material items and gold. However, the tree branches that the furious tree elementals dropped were one of the materials needed to make a rare-rated staff. The price wasn’t bad, but for Hyeonu, the gold didn’t mean much. Just then, he felt someone’s movement from the trees.

‘Players?’

Hyeonu’s head naturally turned to the place where there was movement, and several players entered his sights.

‘12 people? Are there two parties?’

Hyeonu watched without taking any action. He kept his mouth tightly shut and just stood still while staring at the approaching people.

‘Who are they? They don’t seem like rankers...’

There were many people enjoying Arena, just as there were rankers. If there were hundreds of millions of players, even those ranked within the hundreds of thousands would be qualified to be called rankers. In other words, there were many rankers in Arena. Hyeonu had memorized the faces of quite a few of them—at least a few thousand, in fact. None of them had these faces though. Their real identities were revealed in an unexpected place.

The viewers noticed their faces and started chatting.

-They are those kids—Rupiah.

-Ah, Rupiah who control Shalun Mountain?

-With Shalun Mountain under their control, they raised their levels quickly.

-The bad guys were originally a bit ahead.

-Then our Alley Leader isn’t a demon king...

-ㅋㅋㅋ That’s right.

Hyeonu read the chat window and frowned when he read about the identities of the people who had just appeared.

‘It’s these guys?’

His preconceptions became stronger than ever. They were already remembered as scum and trash in Hyeonu’s mind.

‘I don’t like it.’

The players didn’t know Hyeonu’s heart and approached him: “Hello, Alley Leader?”

Hyeonu was grateful that he was wearing a mask at this moment. Otherwise, he would’ve revealed his expression—which was like he was eating poop—in front of so many people.

“Yes, hello. Did something happen? Do I have to leave here? Like the other players?” Hyeonu’s mouth was already full of knives. No, he showed off his swiftness in verbal attacks.

“Ah... That...” The man who was speaking had no mask, and his bewildered expression was seen by the more than 10 million viewers watching Hyeonu’s stream.

-Oh, it has become twisted.

-Thinking about what they have done...

-Go further, further!!!

With over 10 million viewers, it wasn’t strange that there were people among them who had been driven out by Rupiah.

“Why can’t you speak properly? Why did you approach me? If you have anything to say, please speak up. Don’t you see that I’m streaming right now?” Hyeonu maintained his harsh attitude. He was so prickly that he couldn’t be any worse.

“No, we just wanted to exchange greetings...” It was hard for the man to speak.

Hyeonu continued to attack the man with his words: “Speaking to me... You never did this to others, right?”

The man could no longer speak.

Hyeonu approached such a man and stated, “I said it when I started the stream today, but I don’t think you heard it. So let me tell you. Give up control of Shalun Mountain starting from today. What qualifications do you have to stay in control? The monopoly period has passed. You’re not even the first guild that discovered it, right?”

Hearing Hyeonu’s logical words, the man didn’t dare to speak. He shut his mouth tightly and quietly lowered his head.

“If you are controlling it because you are more powerful than others, I recommend that you quit immediately. Maybe I’ll kick you all out in reverse?” Hyeonu patted the man’s shoulder and passed through the players.

-This is refreshing, refreshing.

-It feels like an old knot in my mind is untied.

Naturally, the viewers who had been bullied by them felt happy about this.

***

After the brief encounter with the Rupiah Guild, Hyeonu continued to enter the inner part of Shalun Mountain. He wandered around as much as possible, and the number of battles increased. Although Hyeonu said it was to show a lot of battles to viewers, he was actually looking for where Chen Long and the Cheonryong Group might be.

“Now the scenery has changed, so I must definitely be away from the entrance of Shalun Mountain,” Hyeonu commented while looking at the changed surroundings.

The densely packed trees had disappeared, and now only giant trees could be seen occasionally.

-I reached here too.

-Now the lightning birds will appear from here on.

-What was the name?

-Thunderus—it is the thunderus.

-That’s it.

The name of the lightning elemental was the thunderus. This golden bird was the reason for Shalun Mountain’s notoriety. It boasted an extremely high hunting difficulty.

“Thunderus? Are they that tricky?”

-First of all, if your weapon isn’t wrapped in pure energy, the thunderus will turn into an electric shock state.

-Once the battle begins, they won’t come down from the air for a minute...

-You will die if you don’t kill them at once.

Based on the experiences of those who hunted the thunderus, Hyeonu noticed exactly what their concerns were.

‘There is no way to hit them.’

Tankers could only block one or two attacks with a shield. Even if the thunderus attacked only three or four times in a minute, the players’ skills and magic power would be reduced. If the thunderus wasn’t killed in the subsequent ground battle, the process would have to be repeated.

“Then I will go try it once. It is better to watch it once than to listen about it a hundred times.”

Hyeonu pulled out the Mysterious Sky Sword and fired the black red pure energy into the air. Upon flying up, the pure energy created a bomb-like explosion and disappeared.

Golden birds beat their wings and rose from the tall trees. They were flying around in surprise and looking for the culprit of the explosion. Then their eyes turned to Hyeonu.

“I pulled the aggro. Now I will observe the patterns one by one,” Hyeonu explained while seeing the group of thunderus fly toward him. His tone was very calm. It was unbelievable that he was on the verge of being attacked by monsters.

-Ah, the real person who wants attention is here.

-He is the only one who treats mobs like this.

-How strong is he to hunt like this?

-It is the first time I’ve seen this way of hunting.

The viewers were shocked to see Hyeonu speaking and acting so casually. It didn’t make sense for someone to be so indifferent when seeing a group of thunderus like this. The rush of the thunderus was a frightening sight. They flew around with wings that were over 10 meters long and gave a sharp scream. Just the appearance of the birds themselves was a terrible sight.

The thunderus flew all over Hyeonu’s head, shadowing the spot where he stood. They circled in the air before abruptly rising higher and then started to flap their wings downward. Dozens of golden feathers shot from their wings toward the ground.

It was spectacular. More than 10 thunderus fired their feathers at the same time.

-Oh, it’s spectacular.

-It is cool, cool.

-How can you stop that?

-So get hit and log out. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

None of the viewers watching it were worried about Hyeonu. Everyone was busy admiring the brilliant effects.

‘I have to deflect it.’

It was impossible to avoid the flood of feathers filling his vision. The remaining options were to block, deflect, or get rid of the feathers with a stronger attack. Hyeonu’s choice was to deflect it. It was the most difficult of the three options but also the most spectacular.

‘It will be brilliant if I show it to viewers.’

There was little reason for such a choice. It was simply the fanciest thing that would make a visual feast. Having made that decision, Hyeonu immediately pulled out the Mysterious Sky Sword and caught the golden feathers in its red flames.

-What?

-Why isn’t it exploding?

-Don’t the feathers explode when they hit?

-Isn’t each one a grenade? It exploded when I just cut it from the side.

The explosion that the viewers expected didn’t happen. Instead, the golden feathers stuck to the Mysterious Sky Sword like it was a magnet. The Mysterious Sky Sword moved and gradually became golden along with Hyeonu’s magic power. Finally, Hyeonu collected all the feathers of the thunderus and waved the Mysterious Sky Sword forward.

Pure energy reminiscent of Tang-E’s wish bead flew away. The golden light collided with the trees in front of Hyeonu and exploded magnificently. Golden powder and wooden debris scattered everywhere.

“Ah, it’s a waste. If this wasn’t a strategy video, I would’ve caught them all at once.”

Hyeonu smacked his lips together with regret. The viewers who saw it scoffed at Hyeonu.

-We’re not fools. You just need to kill it and find the thunderus again.

-Aren’t the thunderus over there?

-Right, there are a lot of thunderus. Those aren’t land that was struck by lightning.

They confirmed that Hyeonu’s actions were stupid. Alley Leader was the only one who could deflect the thunderus’ feather attack without any damage, but the judgment he made afterward was wrong. It wasn’t too late for the thunderus to show their pattern in the next battle.

‘I didn’t know that.’

Hyeonu saw the chat window and realized his actions just now were obviously a mistake. Then… he swung the Mysterious Sky Sword at the thunderus flying leisurely through the air. The tip of the Mysterious Sky Sword soon curved, and dozens of black red pure energy were fired out accordingly.

Rain fell from the sky, but it wasn’t the usual clear, transparent rain. This was red blood.

Kung kung kung kung!

The thunderus, that had blackened the ground, fell down one by one. Their bodies were cut into pieces like cooked chicken.

“I made a mistake. I failed to control my magic power well. I’ll show you the right attack strategy in the next battle. It is from one to ten. I’ll show you details so that anyone can kill it.”

This attack was a mistake—his mistake.