Ranker’s Return

The siege proceeded quickly. It was fast since the match times weren’t that long. Five matches ended in just a few hours. The rankings were expected in some ways and unexpected in other ways.

“Zenith is still in first place with 19 minutes and 39 seconds.”

Zenith was ranked number one. The 10 minutes that Karelin earned in the inner office gave them the solid number one spot. Red Bull America, which played defense second, came in second with a time of 19 minutes and 01 seconds.

Ryan’s Manchester played third. They were helplessly crushed by the siege strategy of the seven teams, which had changed dramatically from before. In the end, they were defeated in 9 minutes and 48 seconds. Aike’s PSG played fourth with a siege time of 15 minutes and 58 seconds. Xuanhua was fifth to play defense, and they barely managed to rank fourth with a time of 13 minutes and 33 seconds.

Now, there were only three teams remaining. JT Telecom would be defending sixth, followed by the New York Warriors. Crescent Moon was the main character of the last match.

“Isn’t it better to show it at least once? That way, other teams will run wild less in the last match...” Lee Hoon suggested to Hyeonu as they were about to leave the waiting room.

“Why are you saying that now? Our match is after the next one,” Hyeonu replied. 

“I just— It’ll be fine to do it now.” Lee Hoon’s answer was vague.

“Let’s see... I wonder if I really need to show my strength.”

Hyeonu didn’t intend to participate in the siege. This match would end quickly even without him. Anyone could tell that the break time would be longer than the match time.

“Still, the opponent is JT Telecom,” Lee Hoon muttered in a quiet voice.

“Um...” Hyeonu sighed.

‘He’s showing concern for me.’

Hyeonu was fine now, but the people around him were different. 

‘Maybe it is better to show my strength.’

Doing this might be a better option. A drastic change in Hyeonu’s behavior would send a clear and direct message. If Hyeonu, who had been sitting on the sidelines, were to suddenly enter the battle… especially during the match where the defending team was JT Telecom with Jung Hanbaek...

This was a good enough response to the matter without Hyeonu addressing it directly.

“Yes, I’ll think about it.” Hyeonu patted Lee Hoon on the shoulder.

‘It is worth thinking about...’ He realized it because of Lee Hoon’s words.

Any pressure Hyeonu felt was created by himself, not by someone else.

‘The emperor and Lebron are the same...’

Hyeonu changed his mind as he left the waiting room.

***

“Everyone, let’s hold on for 15 minutes,” Kim Jinyong, the captain of JT Telecom, told the players. Their goal was 15 minutes, which was both a long and a short period of time.

“We can last for 15 minutes. We just have to do what Zenith did,” Yoo Bin, the youngest member of JT Telecom, responded to Kim Jinyong’s words. Although that’s what he said, his expression wasn’t actually very bright. Ultimately, Zenith’s strategy had only been successful for Zenith.

‘It isn’t an optimistic situation...’

Their strategy was only a surprise the first time. After that first match, the other siege teams developed a strategy of sending a team to the inner office to combat Zenith’s strategy. Yoo Bin had already participated in four sieges, so he knew the loopholes in Zenith’s strategy. Even so, he couldn’t point out this reality. Otherwise, the mood of the team would worsen even more. The thing he needed to do right now was make some noise to liven up the atmosphere.

‘Why did he have to cause an incident?’ Yoo Bin carefully shifted his gaze. His eyes were directed at Jung Hanbaek blamefully.

“We have to forget the memories of yesterday and do well from today. We did it last year as well.” Kim Jinyong patted his younger brothers for the last time.

However, the atmosphere of JT Telecom didn’t lighten up.

***

Just before the siege began, there was a strange atmosphere where the seven offensive teams were gathered. There was only one reason why the atmosphere was strange—the words Hyeonu said to them.

“You want to finish it in three minutes? Really? It’s not a joke? Quickly say that it’s a joke!” Mascherano exclaimed with a fake smile. He didn’t believe Hyeonu, and his expression said he hoped it wouldn’t happen.

“It’s our turn soon. I need to warm up my body. Everyone must be tired, so I’ll act freely this time,” Hyeonu replied to Mascherano with a smile. While watching these two people, the players on the other teams exchanged looks. It was strange that Hyeonu said he would end the match in three minutes, but it was even stranger that he would even participate at all, considering he hadn’t taken much action in the matches so far.

They thought there really was something going on between Jung Hanbaek and Hyeonu. Nevertheless, no one was foolish enough to ask about it. There was no reason for them to ruin the atmosphere after all. Moreover, it didn’t matter whether Hyeonu’s words were true. If he participated in the battle in earnest this time, it was clear the record for this match would be much shorter than the ones before.

“Shouldn’t you all go to your designated spots? I think we will start soon...” Hyeonu pointed at the number in the air that continued to decrease. As agreed upon in advance, the teams split up and moved toward the north, south, and east gates. Crescent Moon moved with the New York Warriors.

“You’ve worked hard over the last five matches. I’ll take care of it this time.” Hyeonu stopped walking and turned toward Reina as he saw JT Telecom’s walls.

“I guess you really are going to fight this time,” Reina said.

“If not this time, should I participate in the next match? Isn’t that impossible? This is JT Telecom, while the next match is the New York Warriors.”

At Hyeonu’s words, Reina closed her mouth and blushed. Reina raised both hands to cover her blushing cheeks.

“Wow, a player.”

“You are a player, a player.”

“You are a pro for a reason.”

“I didn’t expect it to be this much... It is amazing, amazing.”

Cries burst out here and there from the players of both Crescent Moon and New York Warriors. They admired this scene of Hyeonu and Reina. The more they thought about it, the more perfect they found it.

‘What’s wrong with them?’ Hyeonu didn’t understand their reaction.

Just like what Lee Hoon said, it was only by fighting well against JT Telecom which contained Jung Hanbaek that Hyeonu could convey a silent message.

‘It’s finally starting.’

In the meantime, the counter went down to zero, and the siege finally began. Then the timer restarted, increasing from zero again. Hyeonu summoned Tang-E and the magic spirit simultaneously in order to save the time required to summon them in succession.

“Tang-E, give me the buffs and get on my back.” Hyeonu glanced at Tang-E before summoning another guy. It was a dark red drake—Caruso. 

The other players looked surprised when they saw the giant drake appear suddenly. Hyeonu ignored them and climbed on Caruso’s back. 

“Master dude, I want to go with you. You can’t go alone.” Tang-E jumped onto the drake’s back as well. “Let’s go, Master dude.”

He landed on Hyeonu’s shoulder and tapped Hyeonu’s head.

“Don’t do that. Hold on tightly. We are going to be moving really fast,” Hyeonu rebuked Tang-E out of concern. Tang-E immediately changed his posture and clung to Hyeonu’s back.

‘That’s it,’ Hyeonu thought. 

Feeling the heavy weight on his back, he tapped Caruso’s back several times. Then Caruso flew up into the sky.

“Get to that wall as soon as possible,” Hyeonu told Caruso. The drake’s large body was covered with a dark red light as he shot forward like a bullet. 

Hyeonu soon reached the sky above JT Telecom’s walls. Caruso was that fast. There was no better means of moving simply without any interference.

Hyeonu activated all of his buffs during that short period of travel and then fell off Caruso.

‘It is a pity to only use him as a means of transportation, but...’

Caruso wasn’t Hyeonu. If Caruso played an active and memorable role, it was Caruso who would be appreciated, not Hyeonu. However, Hyeonu had to leave a strong impression of himself in this match. His body overflowed with a purple energy as he fell toward the wall at high speed. The purple light covering him slowly gathered around the Mysterious Sky Sword too, completely dying the black sword purple.

Hyeonu lowered the Mysterious Sky Sword, and a huge crescent moon shot at the wall. The players of JT Telecom and their NPC soldiers simply stood still and watched the crescent moon that continued to grow in size. The violet crescent moon advanced through the walls. Although Hyeonu’s pure energy didn’t blow away the wall like Tang-E’s Lightning magic had done, it had a sharpness that wasn’t present in Tang-E's magic.

The purple pure energy completely split apart the city wall and flew for a long time before disappearing. It went without saying that many NPC soldiers were caught up in the aftermath.

Hyeonu landed lightly on the wall and swung the Mysterious Sky Sword, which was still emitting a purple energy. This time, the JT Telecom’s players responded. They charged at Hyeonu and used their skills, pouring out everything they had.

The Mysterious Sky Sword grew instantaneously. To be precise, it wasn’t the sword that grew but the pure energy that formed from it. The purple pure energy smashed through everything it hit. The broken things were the skills of the JT Telecom players and the walls, as well as the players on them. The walls were cleared out with a single hit, and Hyeonu was the only one left standing.

“I can’t believe it. Seriously...” a player from the New York Warriors watched with great intrigue like he was fascinated by the sight of a ghost. This sentence appeared in the mind of everyone who watched the scene.

‘I’ll run to the inner office now.’ Hyeonu saw that the walls were clean and jumped high into the air. There were only two conditions to win the siege. The death of all the defenders or occupation of the inner office. It was quicker to go to the inner office than to look for the defenders whose locations were unknown to Hyeonu.

***

After a while, a small pool of blood formed in front of the inner office, and standing before it was Hyeonu—a man in a clean state without a single drop of blood.

“In the sixth match of the siege, JT Telecom’s defense has ended with a record of 2 minutes and 39 seconds.” The siege quickly came to an end. The rest of the JT Telecom players were guarding the inner office, not the outer gates. However, this strategy meant nothing to Hyeonu. They never once prevented Hyeonu from advancing. The JT Telecom players all knelt down before Hyeonu and died in an instant.

“Alley Leader trampled JT Telecom in 2 minutes and 39 seconds.”

“Is it because they played in the same league? Or is there another reason? He smashed JT Telecom like a cold-blooded man with no blood or tears.”