Ranker’s Return

“What is this...?” Sergei couldn’t shut his mouth at the natural disaster that had just engulfed Zenith’s defenses. The wall was literally blown away with one magical blow. It was an unexpected situation. The magic of Alley Leader’s pet was insanely stronger than what was known publicly.

‘It wasn’t burned; it was smashed...’ Sergei thought.

Zenith’s walls weren’t simply made of stone; they had numerous magic circles carved on them by the magicians of the magic tower. They were special walls that weren’t only physically hard but also had high resistance to magic damage. Yet one of these walls had just disappeared without a trace.

“Send some soldiers to block the parts of the walls that have been destroyed. There is no need for them to go outside. Just block the way so the attacks can’t pass through,” Sergei commanded the NPCs to deal with the situation quickly. The good news was that there were no fatalities.

‘I’m glad it is just the wall that was breached...’ Sergei thought.

“Moreover, we aren’t alone.” Sergei wasn’t greatly discouraged by what happened. In any case, it was clear that such magic would appear in every match.

Right then, the players from the New York Warriors and Crescent Moon rushed toward the wall. Behind them were the NPC soldiers from each team.

“Five priests will be used for us while the other five will focus on healing the soldiers. In addition, you guys should never come down. Just keep them in check. There is no need to use a lot of magic. Got it?” Sergei said.

His magician colleague replied, “Yes. We aren’t Karelin. We know. We just have to drag out the time. We won’t go down.”

Sergei looked relieved upon hearing that and jumped down from the wall. Three more players of melee classes jumped down with Sergei. With the help of the priests and magicians, the four of them planned to prevent the New York Warriors and Crescent Moon from advancing as much as possible.

Just then, a voice rang out behind the magician and priest players: “Ta-da!”

“Who...?” Two people instinctively turned toward where the sound came from. There, a man dressed in dark red was floating in the air along with a purple bear.

“Absolutely no such thing will happen.” Hyeonu smiled and shrugged at the two people. Then he ran at lightning speed over to the two flustered people and grabbed them by the waist. While still holding onto them, Hyeonu ran to the end of the wall and leaped high into the sky.

‘I’ll drop them here!’ He released his grip once he was at the peak of his jump.

The magician and priest in Hyeonu’s arms started to descend. Nothing could stop their fall.

‘What?’ Sergei turned his head at the sudden vibrations from the ground. Sergei’s eyes widened so much they looked like lanterns.

“Why are they here?” he wondered. The people lying there shouldn’t be there. The team’s magician and priest lay on the ground with expressions of intense pain. Judging from their pale complexion, the pain was really severe. Although the pain was limited, it didn’t mean they felt no pain at all.

“Are you okay?” Sergei asked while beckoning to the NPC priests around him. The NPC priests used healing magic on the wounded magician and priest. The magician became a bit sober thanks to the healing magic and raised his right hand to point at the wall where they had been.

Sergei’s head followed the magician’s hand.

‘Alley Leader!’

There was a man flying overhead. He waved gently as if to say he had noticed Sergei’s gaze.

“Sigh. It can’t be helped. I’ll hold on here for as long as I can. Help me when you’ve recovered enough to cast magic,” Sergei said, making a brief request to the two people. Then he pulled out his sword and ran back to the battlefield.

***

“Ah, what is going on here? Player Gang Hyeonu is just watching from above the wall.” The host laughed at Hyeonu’s absurd behavior.

“In fact, no one can blame Player Gang Hyeonu even if he stays like this.”

“He has removed the magicians and priests from the walls and thrown them into the danger zones. This alone has allowed them to finish the battle much earlier.”

The two commentators explained Hyeonu’s behavior. No, it was more of an endorsement than an explanation. Their explanation wasn’t far-fetched either. In fact, it was right. The series of actions Hyeonu displayed were very important to the match. Moreover, it was unique gameplay that no one else could show. He had pulled the unreachable magicians and priests into the middle of the battlefield.

“However, if Player Gang Hyeonu personally participates in the battlefield, the battle can end much faster. I’m a bit skeptical about why he didn’t make that choice.”

This was the problem—Hyeonu just watched the battlefield. It wasn’t easy for those who didn’t know Hyeonu’s intentions to see it as a good thing.

“I think Player Gang Hyeonu is intentionally not taking part in combat. Crescent Moon will be defending last. There is no need for them to put in a lot of effort in the beginning matches. The longer the matches go for, the more exhausted the players will be. That will make it easier for Crescent Moon to stop the offense later,” one commentator correctly stated Hyeonu’s intentions.

Listening to these words, the other commentator nodded as it made sense that was why Hyeonu was doing this.

The second commentator said, “It is very likely. I will add something on top of that. Player Gang Hyeonu is confident that he can fend them off. This match is already the same as last year’s Arena Week. Everyone’s goal is to defend for as long as they can. If player Gang Hyeonu defends successfully in this situation, they will unconditionally take first place in the siege. It is confirmed.”

If a team succeeded in defending in the siege, it meant they would be in first place. This was because no team had ever succeeded in defending.

“Ah, player Sergei has been defeated by the joint attack of Reina and Lee Hoon. He couldn’t escape from Player Reina’s skills.”

“Player Reina’s ice-based skills are evolving every day.”

Reina had bound Sergei’s feet while Lee Hoon dealt a decisive blow with his shield. Sergei fell, and the battle quickly came to an end. It was normal that a house without pillars wouldn’t be able to hold on. The situation was no different on Karelin’s side. Yet in a moment of crisis, Karelin’s bold judgment shone through.

“The surviving players of Zenith, including Karelin, have quickly fled to the inner castle. The players of JT Telecom look bewildered as they are being blocked by the flood of NPC soldiers.”

Karelin avoided combat. There were two conditions for being defeated in a siege—the death of all the defenders or occupation of the inner office. Karelin had felt it when JT Telecom and PSG appeared at the gate he was blocking.

The opponents had divided and aimed for the gates in the east, west, south, and north at the same time. There was no Alley Leader on his side, so Karelin knew that Sergei would die more quickly than him. Thus, Karelin made a decision to run away to the inner office at an appropriate time.

He had to hold on for a few more minutes. These minutes might be the key to determining Zenith’s ranking.

Karelin’s choice meant that Zenith’s defeat took longer than expected. In fact, he delayed the defeat by a total of 10 minutes.

“Zenith fought hard, but they couldn’t prevent their defeat. The siege has ended with Karelin’s death,” the host declared Zenith’s defeat. Moments later, Zenith’s exact defense record was revealed.

“Zenith’s record is out—19 minutes and 39 seconds. It is a record that is slightly higher than last year’s average,” the host revealed Zenith’s record in a slightly surprised voice.

It was normal for the defense records to be shortened because the levels of the players increased over time. The more the level of the players increased, the more powerful their skills and the higher their character specifications would become. It was the difference between a high school student fighting 1 against 7 and a martial artist fighting 1 against 7.

“Zenith can breathe a sigh of relief with this. I don’t know what record will come out in the next match, but it won’t be easy to get a longer record than Zenith’s.”

It was as the host said. Zenith was already in a festive mood. In particular, Sergei was praising Karelin’s judgment.

“We will start the next match after a 30 minutes break. The defender for the second match is Red Bull America.”

Hyeonu’s choice in the order selection meant that the next defender was Mascherano’s Red Bull America. As they walked to the waiting room, Mason asked what he had been curious about throughout the siege, “By the way Hyung, why has the color changed?”

Obviously, the magic spirit had been black-red not long ago. Yet today, it suddenly turned purple.

“Huh? What did?” Hyeonu didn’t know what Mason was talking about. It was weirder if he understood the question that was asked out of the blue.

“The magic spirit, the magic spirit. Tang-E’s copy.”

“Ah, the magic spirit. Yes. What about it?”

“Why did the color change? It wasn’t purple originally.”

“Naturally, it’s because my attribute has changed.”

Mason stopped walking and asked again, “Your attribute has changed?”

Hyeonu’s answer was unexpected. Mason thought the magic spirit’s appearance had changed due to the skill’s proficiency increasing in ranking. He never imagined it would be related to Hyeonu’s attribute.

“Don’t you know? Most of the colors of the skills are according to their attributes,” Hyeonu explained.

“No... I know that. I just never thought you would change your attribute now,” Mason replied.

Of course, it wasn’t strange to change attributes. Aside from when the player had a connection between their class and attribute like Reina and Mascherano did, most players were free to change their attribute. However, Hyeonu wasn’t supposed to change it.

“You have two attributes, yet you changed them?” Mason asked.

He knew that Hyeonu had two attributes—dark and fire. It was a very rare case for a player to possess two attributes. Most players usually only had one. So, it didn’t make sense for Hyeonu to have given up his two attributes for a single attribute.

“Well... it couldn’t be helped since it was changed forcibly. Still, I like this better—my current attribute,” Hyeonu replied with a smile. The lone chaos attribute was better than the two attributes of darkness and fire. Somehow, chaos also ignored the wearer restrictions.

‘I can still wear the dark and fire attribute items,’ Hyeonu remarked inwardly. The system proved that chaos was higher than two attributes.

“Do you have any more questions? If so, let’s go to the waiting room, and you can ask there instead of here. Everyone needs to rest,” Hyeonu said while placing his arm around Mason’s shoulder.

Hyeonu, Mason, and the other Crescent Moon players started walking again.

After the players of Crescent Moon disappeared, exactly seven squeaks were heard from the hallway.