Ranker’s Return

[Heart of Iron and Blood]

[The bracelet of Damanos, demon king of iron and blood. It is made of a rare metal in the demon world. It has been used for a long time and contains his magic power.

Rating: Epic

Restrictions: 1,600 strength, 2,800 physique, and 2,700 magic power.

Effect: All stats + 300, 20% additional damage for dark attribute attacks. ‘Iron and Blood Magic Power’ is now available.

Iron and Blood Magic Power: The power of magic power is increased by 30%.]

“Ahh... The effects are great.” Hyeonu whistled at the fantastic item effects. It was worthy of being an item dropped by a demon king. Nothing about it was lacking. It increased stats and had a few other effects.

‘I can finally take this off.’

Hyeonu took off the black bracelet he was wearing on one arm. It was Dark Elemental’s Scream, a unique item that he’d gotten in the past.

‘I’m going to sell this.’

Dark Elemental’s Scream didn’t have harsh conditions and had a good effect, so he could get a fairly high price from it. Hyeonu put Dark Elemental’s Scream into the inventory and placed the Heart of Iron and Blood straight onto his now bare wrist.

‘I really picked up a pumpkin.’

Damanos’ drops were a pumpkin that had been growing on a vine. Hyeonu was very lucky. There were all types of experience and items, and everything had been generously given to Hyeonu. Hyeonu smiled happily and continued looking at the item information.

[???????]

[An unidentified stone that Damanos has been carrying around since he was born.

Rating: ???

Restrictions: ???

Effect: ???]

‘Huh?’ Hyeonu cocked his head for the first time. He looked at the item information in front of him and couldn’t help shaking his head from left to right. No meaning could be found in the information window that was filled with question marks.

‘That’s it.’

Hyeonu threw the stone into his inventory. There was no reason to keep staring at this. He had to wait for the usage to come out later.

‘I am the only one who feels bad...’

Hyeonu took several deep breaths and confirmed the information of the red book.

[Guardian’s Breath]

[A skill book that records the magic power operation of the guardians of the ancient empire, Luos.

Rating: Epic

Restrictions: Guardian of the Luos Empire.

Effect: The skill ‘Guardian’s Breath’ is created.]

‘This is it.’

The moment Hyeonu saw the item information, he noticed that this was the ancient empire’s secret technique that the emperor had learned. There was no skill description; there was just a conviction that it would be excellent since the demon kings were wary of it. Hyeonu opened the red book without hesitation.

[A skill has been created.]

[Guardian’s Breath]

[Magic power control learned by the guardians of the empire. Only a few people can learn it.

Type: Continuous

Rating: Epic

Skill Proficiency: F

All stats will increase by 15% in battles with all species except for humans. Damage done to all species other than humans will increase by 15%. Reduce the stats of all species except humans by 15%.]

“Groan... I’m getting intoxicated with the demon kings.” As soon as he read the skill description, Hyeonu felt it. In short, this skill was the best of the rewards he’d earned today. It was at this moment that he finally realized the meaning of the emperor’s words.

‘This skill book is limited to guardians only.’

Then Hyeonu realized another fact at the same time.

‘This is why Rondal’s rewards were worse than expected...’

The emperor might’ve reduced the rewards of Rondal if this skill book was originally one of Rondal’s rewards... That was why the condition of use was to be a guardian of the Luos Empire.

‘It was what I should’ve gotten originally...’

“Sigh...” Hyeonu let out a small sigh. Nevertheless, he couldn’t pursue the emperor over this. That was just crazy.

‘I got it anyway.’

Hyeonu rationalized that things eventually flowed as they should, so that was good enough. It wasn’t because he didn’t have the courage to pursue this matter with the emperor.

“It is a good day,” Hyeonu muttered as he looked at the dark blue sky.

***

Hyeonu was waiting for someone at the hotel. The person’s name was Ellis. Ellis was one of Nike’s current video directors and Hyeonu’s dedicated video director. There was one reason why Hyeonu was looking for him. Hyeonu had something he had to ask Ellis urgently.

“Ellis, it has been a long time.” Hyeonu reached out a hand to Ellis, who looked a bit tired.

“It has really been a while, Mister Gang,” Ellis replied. Unlike his tired appearance, Ellis shook Hyeonu’s hand firmly. Ellis had been editing footage of Hyeonu’s Arena Week throughout the night. Hyeonu’s appearance at the class-change event had mobilized Ellis’ enthusiasm. The moment he saw it, Ellis realized the choice he made in the past was excellent.

Hyeonu was the total package. It didn’t matter whether he was a swordsman, magician, or fighter. He was nothing but the best. In virtual reality, Hyeonu was a god.

“Haven’t you slept?” Hyeonu asked when he saw the dark circles under Ellis’ eyes. “You look tired. Are you okay?”

At Hyeonu’s words, Ellis turned his head slightly and looked at his reflection on his smartphone. There were three dark areas on his white face—his eyebrows, dark circles, and beard. Ellis pressed firmly on the dark circles under his eyes. “No, I’m fine. My eyebags were a bit dark to begin with. I enjoyed watching yesterday’s event. You played a magician perfectly, and it was really inspiring.” 

Ellis had a really impressed expression. Seeing that, Hyeonu felt a bit burdened.

‘It wasn’t that satisfactory...’

In fact, Hyeonu wasn’t very satisfied with the class-change event. There were stats restrictions and skills, so it was no different from a child’s prank compared to the characters that were actually used in Arena. His movement of magic power had been slow and stiff. He was a grown-up, but he had felt like a three-year-old child.

“Then I’m glad.” Hyeonu sat on a chair and sipped his coffee. They had a relaxed conversation before Hyeonu revealed why he came to meet with Ellis today.

“Do you have a lot of work these days?” Hyeonu asked.

Ellis shook his head. In recent years, his job was to edit Hyeonu’s video. The timing of Hyeonu’s streams had changed after the Winter League, but he had more rest days than working days when he was participating in the Winter League.

“No, it’s fine,” Ellis answered. The reason he looked tired now was that he’d spent hours concentrating on editing Hyeonu’s video. He hadn’t even taken a minute’s worth of break while doing so.

Hyeonu asked, “Can I ask you to edit one video? Nothing big is needed. You just need to edit the perspective or insert background music for easy viewing.”

He was going to request for his battle with the demon king to be edited.

“What video do you want me to do?”

“This is it, Ellis.”

Hyeonu opened the laptop he had prepared in advance and played the pre-cut video. Ellis quickly focused his eyes on the laptop. The sound that was flowing out wasn’t unusual, but he was silent until after the video. He just gulped as he felt the effects of watching the video sink into his entire body.

“This is part of the main scenario I’m going through in Arena. I think a lot of people have already seen it... Still, isn’t it different when it is a video from Alley Leader? In addition... I can’t let them benefit from me,” Hyeonu said.

The moment he logged out of Arena, he heard from his teammates and Kale that millions of people had seen the battle. Originally, he hadn’t intended to release the video of the fight against the demon kings. However, he couldn’t hide it when other people already knew about it, so he didn’t bother trying.

“Background music and perspective changes... I think that is enough. Adding anything else is a minus. It will halve the fun of the video itself.” Ellis watched the video again while pressing on the keyboard of the laptop.

Hyeonu had given two videos in total. One video was from Hyeonu’s point of view, and the other looked at the battlefield from a third-person perspective.

‘It is better to put the background music in the parts that don’t have combat,’ Ellis thought.

In his opinion, the battle video was perfect as it was. Compared with the battle videos that had been released so far, none were more exciting than Hyeonu’s video of the battle.

‘I had better put in background music every time the NPCs show up,’ Ellis noted inwardly.

In particular, he was going to focus most on the emperor. Honestly, he felt sorry for Hyeonu, but the main character of this video wasn’t Hyeonu. Hyeonu’s battle was the side dish. The main character was the emperor. With his overwhelming force that pressured the demon kings from his very first appearance and his eyes wherein boredom and playfulness coexisted… an atmosphere in which the emperor reigned as the absolute bloomed naturally. Frankly, Hyeonu wasn’t visible. Only the emperor was seen. 

“I’ll finish the editing tonight. I don’t have to do much, so I think it will take one or two hours,” Ellis said.

Hyeonu nodded. “Thank you, Ellis.”

***

Hyeonu wrapped up his meeting with Ellis and returned to his hotel room to sleep. There weren’t many people there who were sleeping like Hyeonu. Many of the hotel rooms were lit up like a nightless city and the people in them couldn’t sleep. In one of the hotel’s spacious rooms, two men were talking while looking at the huge monitor.

“What is the result?”

“Compared to the data we have now, Alley Leader’s stats are overwhelming when compared with anyone else.”

“What are the chances of Alley Leader’s skills being blocked when he is facing our players?”

“To be honest... I think it is near impossible to block them without receiving damage. The only way is to disperse as much as possible, gather around the priests and magicians, and use skills to resist. However, that isn’t easy either. The speed of his pure energy blades is too fast. If we move at an ordinary movement speed, we are likely to be killed by the pure energy blades.”

When the man heard the bad response to his question, he bit his lip while remaining silent. There was no solution. Doing the siege against such a monster was like trying to break through a dragon’s lair or demon king’s palace.

“Crescent Moon is the last match of the siege?”

“Yes, they are eighth in the order.”

“Then we will gather all the power analysts tomorrow to prepare a solution. The other teams won’t be in different situations. If you can seek cooperation, seek it.”

“I understand.”

There was no solution, but the siege was taking place on the third day. They still had time.

“Tomorrow is PvP... What are Luke’s chances of winning against Alley Leader?” The name ‘Luke’ popped out of the man’s mouth.

Luke was the new player who had been recruited into Manchester. The two men who were currently having a conversation were the power analyst and coach of Manchester.

“Originally, I expected Luke to win by a slight margin. But after watching this video today, I think his chances are 50-50. His combat senses are on a level of talent that has surpassed the highs and lows of stats.”

The monitor screen was showing Hyeonu in a melee battle against Galiya.