Ranker’s Return

Hyeonu’s surprise announcement had caused several groups of people to become busy. The busiest of them were the miners of the large guilds. They quickly predicted the future situation and delivered various instructions.

“Contact Master. No, before that, go to the auction house. Buy potions. Sweep up all the potions of intermediate level and above!”

“Recruit more production class players. Continue the scouting as well. Gather more materials for repair!”

Their goal was only materials. Repairing items and potions were required to fight wars, so these two things must be present to make this war possible. The leaders of the big guilds watched Hyeonu’s stream as soon as they received the information. Simultaneously, they verified the facts with the NPC nobles they were acquainted with.

“Earl Dulla, I heard a strange rumor and came to see you.” Lucan, a miner of a big guild, visited Earl Dulla. This was an NPC whom Lucan had completed the favorability work for under the orders of the guild master.

“How do you know about this? Has the news already spread to adventurers?” Earl Dulla looked like he couldn’t understand the situation. It had only been a week ago that he heard the emperor talk about the invasion of the demon world. He hadn’t told anyone about it because an agreement had yet to be reached among the nobles. Despite that, an adventurer came to him and seemed to already know about it.

“An adventurer called Gang Hyeonu revealed it. He said he would wage a war on the demon world under the orders of His Majesty,” Lucan conveyed Hyeonu’s words to Earl Dulla.

‘Gang Hyeonu? Did Marquis Gang Hyeonu do that?’ A deep crease formed between Earl Dulla’s brows. It was unexpected that the marquis had actually received an order like that! Earl Dulla’s mind started spinning rapidly. What were the emperor’s intentions? Furthermore, how could he possibly go against the emperor’s desires?

“Then why don’t you and the other guild adventurers participate in the demon world invasion? If you dedicate yourself to the empire... it won’t take long for you to be rewarded for it.” Earl Dulla’s choice was to follow the emperor’s orders.

It wasn’t important to consider the opinions of other nobles. The more important thing was to know what the emperor was thinking right now.

“If we are given such an opportunity, we will naturally fight hard, Earl Dulla.” Lucan bowed his head.

‘This reaction shows it isn’t a lie... I’ll bet the guild’s life or death on it,’ he decided. Content like the main scenario was an opportunity because of the massive quests.

At the same time, it was a crisis. It was a chance to grab people’s attention and climb up a bit further, but it was also a high-speed train that would sink to the ground if it got buried by other guilds. Even so, the rewards that could be obtained were so sweet that no one could throw away the opportunity of a main scenario. Now, staying still meant regressing.

***

[Players recruited 178/???]

[Players recruited 246/???]

[Players recruited 372/???]

‘It is constantly going up.’

Hyeonu smiled when he saw the quest messages that constantly popped up in front of him. The viewers saw Hyeonu’s expression and started to chat.

-Why is he smiling all of a sudden?

-This isn’t a smiling situation, right?

-Is he thinking about that person?

-Did he smile just imagining her face?

The viewers casually threw out mean messages. There was no great malice though. They just wanted to make fun of Hyeonu. Hyeonu knew this and responded with a smile, “I can’t stop smiling when I think about you watching my stream. I don’t think my clown smile will go down.”

He raised his hands and pointed at his face. His mouth was really curved up toward the sky like a clown.

-Don’t lie.

-How can a person lie like that without changing his expression?

-If you have a conscience, then you should at least apply saliva to your mouth.

-Is that a bare face or a mask? I don’t know.

The viewers were disgusted by Hyeonu’s response. In fact, they felt like they had taken a beating. There was no fun and no bewilderment.

“How is it a lie? All I care about is you. What would I be without all of you? I would just be someone who plays a game.” Hyeonu poured out cheesy comments one after another. Today, he was so into it that it was impossible to make fun of him any longer. He let viewers know that the wrong chat messages might receive this in return.

-Stop for today.

-I’m going to die of anger.

-It is greasy like butter...

-Opening my curled up fingers...

Hyeonu’s expression brightened when he saw the viewers’ reactions. Now there would be no one making fun of him.

‘Time to call Tang-E...’

In fact, he didn’t prepare any content to show on today’s stream. It was all about presenting things related to the main scenario.

‘This alone is enough already...’

Therefore, it was now time to call Tang-E and chat.

“Now, let’s spend some time with Tang-E. We can eat meat and watch Tang-E’s tricks together.”

***

“I want to thank everyone who watched Alley Leader’s streaming today. I will end it here. See you next time!”

Alley Leader’s stream ended. It went smoothly without any particular peculiarities.

‘In the end, it is over 1,000.’

Just before the end of stream, the number of players who would participate in the demon world invasion surpassed 1,000. 

‘There are 1,000 worker ants under me.’

He was happy just imagining it. Was this how it felt to have slaves? It was a happy thing to receive benefits even if he stayed still.

“Puhuhuhu,” a strange laugh flowed from Hyeonu’s lips.

‘Master dude is crazy.’ Tang-E didn’t have a good expression as he looked at Hyeonu. It seemed like he was looking at a madman. This was understandable because Hyeonu was trying to hold back the laughter that was coming out. He grabbed at his mouth and in turn covered his face with both hands.

The problem was that this didn’t stop the laughter flowing through his lips. Thus, he created a more grotesque look for himself.

“No matter what the problem is, it is clear you must be firm.” Tang-E walked up to Hyeonu and banged their heads together. A loud sound broke out like the sound of a walnut cracking.

“Ack!! Why did you hit me?” Hyeonu frowned at the sudden pain. Then he turned his head toward Tang-E, the cause of the pain.

“Wake up, wake up. I don’t know what’s going on, but if you stay like this, there will be trouble. Master dude,” Tang-E said while looking at Hyeonu with cold eyes. Hyeonu listened to Tang-E’s words and felt his mind return. His boiling blood finally cooled down.

‘Tang-E is right. It isn’t the time to be excited.’

The war hadn’t even started yet; it was only in the preparation stage.

It wouldn’t be too late to rejoice when there was a heavy result in both hands.

‘I need to be more fully prepared.’

The preparations were endless, but it was all so he could get even a slightly bigger reward. Hyeonu started to reflect on them one by one.

‘Everything I’ve prepared...’

There was nothing left to do. He didn’t change any items or gain any new skills. He didn’t even prepare any potions.

‘I already have enough potions.’

Hyeonu didn’t think he should prepare them because he didn’t use them often in the first place. After thinking about it, there was nothing left to prepare.

‘All I can do is...’

The only thing that remained was leveling up or increasing his proficiency—improving his character itself.

‘I have to fight with the demons anyway...’

He thought it would be okay to start the fight first. Killing one demon now meant one less demon to kill later.

“Tang-E, let’s hunt. It is a very difficult and hard hunt,” Hyeonu spoke to Tang-E with a slightly stiff expression.

“Understood, Master dude.” Tang-E nodded when he saw Hyeonu returning to his usual self.

***

Hyeonu’s hunting spot was very different from that of the other players.

The majority of players in the demon world hadn’t left Etono as they had no information for what was beyond it. Another reason was that the demons and demonic creatures were too strong. With such powerful opponents, it was very risky to move around a dangerous place without any information. They’d be risking their lives.

However, Hyeonu was different. He knew more information about the demon world than any other player. Additionally, he was strong enough to easily deal with the demons and demonic creatures.

‘Killing those guys isn’t the goal.’

Hyeonu’s real goal was something else. It was possible to hunt the lowest or low-grade demons and demonic creatures anywhere. Thus, Hyeonu’s aim was the boss monsters—at least the advanced demonic creatures or demon nobles. He aimed for them.

‘There were 33...’

This was the upgrade condition for upgrading Rainbow of Desires, the ring that Hyeonu had.

[Stage 3 opening condition: Kill boss monsters above level 400 0/33.]

Hyeonu had looked for the fastest way to bring about change to his character, and it was the Rainbow of Desires that caught his eyes.

‘I don’t need to kill all 33. It will be filled naturally during the war.’

Even if there was an invasion of the demon world, the high-ranking demons like an earl or marquis wouldn’t appear at the beginning. The law of the game was for strong monsters to appear sequentially. It didn’t make sense for a strong guy to come out from the beginning.

‘I know where one boss monster is.’

Hyeonu had already set a goal to catch. Boss monsters were rare. They weren’t stones rolling around on the road. The hard part was finding them. They were also quite difficult to find in the demon world, compared to the middle world which had a large number of them. It was because not just anyone could become a noble in the demon world.

‘I can find them from Earl Kalea.’

Earl Kalea was the owner of a city quite far from Etono. That city was at the end of the territory that Baler recognized. Still, that didn’t matter at all. For Hyeonu, Earl Kalea—no, his city was a fishing ground, and the master’s position was nothing more than bait.

‘Once it is occupied, they will keep coming.’

It was a good fishing spot where the fish would be replenished as soon as they were caught. Cities were very important to demons and couldn’t be left empty for even a second. It was because the city was a measure of the size of the forces.

‘I will move to Penn.’

Earl Kalea’s city was located between Penn, which belonged to Viscount Garcia, and Quere, John Blake’s former city. It didn’t matter where Hyeonu went, but he was more drawn to Penn than Quere.

[The Penn Return Stone has been used.]

[Moving to Penn.]

[Current number of uses remaining: 5/6]

[Remaining time to charge it once is 5 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds.]

‘Start with the earl...’

This was a tidy start.