Ranker’s Return

“Master dude!!” Tang-E screamed when he saw Hyeonu get pierced by the spider legs.

‘Master dude... he’s dead!!!’ Tang-E released some lightning bolts angrily. His goal was the spider’s eyes, but the spider wasn’t an easy target. It raised its legs to block Tang-E’s lightning. Tang-E’s Lightning skill was powerful, but it couldn’t break through the solid shell of the mine spider to shock its interior.

“Uwaaah!” Tang-E screamed and charged at the spider. The scene of a 50-centimeter-tall teddy bear running toward a three-meter-tall spider was pitiful to watch. However, Tang-E got bigger as he kept moving closer to the spider. It was Giant Transformation. By the time Tang-E finally arrived in front of the spider, he had become a four-meter-tall bear. 

Giant Transformation, which was used for the first time in the real world, showed extraordinary power. Tang-E’s giant paws struck the spider’s leg. The spider’s leg was literally blown off. There was no need for Tang-E to use Roar. He simply imbued lightning in his paws and displayed formidable power.

The spider’s legs exploded like a bomb that had just been detonated. However, the spider wasn’t just passively being attacked. It moved his legs to hit Tang-E while preparing to release poison from its mouth.

Tang-E didn’t know it and once again wanted to use Lightning. The moment Tang-E’s paws moved, the spider’s mouth opened. It wanted to spit poison at Tang-E. Then there was the sound of the air tearing. In an instant, the giant sword energy cut at the spider’s head that was trying to release poison.

[A ruby spider has been killed.]

[Experience has been acquired.]

[You have leveled up.]

[All health and magic power have been restored.]

[Your fighting energy stat has increased by 1.]

The owner of the sword energy was Hyeonu. How was he still alive? Hyeonu had felt a strange feeling at that moment when he was about to pick up the items. Every corner of his heart had felt uncomfortable. So, Hyeonu had instinctively used Blink without thinking. This judgment saved his life. He avoided the spider’s attack just before the leg was about to pierce him.

“Master dude!!” Tang-E turned off Giant Transformation and rushed toward Hyeonu. Running with all his strength, Tang-E threw himself hard at Hyeonu’s chest.

“Ouch. Do you have to hit me so hard?”

“Master dude, are you okay? You aren’t dead?” Tang-E poured out words of worry toward Hyeonu.

‘This is how he thinks of me...’ Hyeonu hadn’t known that Tang-E thought so dearly of him. He had been watching Tang-E fight from the beginning. After seeing what he thought was Hyeonu’s death, Tang-E lost himself in anger and ran toward the ruby spider without fear. Hyeonu felt touched. ‘In the future, I’ll treat him a bit better.’

At this moment, Tang-E’s mouth curled up within Hyeonu’s sight.

‘Huhu, stupid Master dude.’

Tang-E knew that Hyeonu had used Blink. He had watched carefully with both eyes and felt the magic power move. It was a thorough performance. Tang-E was one step ahead of Hyeonu.

***

At the time when Hyeonu and Tang-E were working to eradicate the spiders, Masked Fighting King was sweeping through the entire Arena community. To be precise, Alley Leader (Hyeonu) was the main character.

[Masked Fighting King, the stage for Alley Leader.]

[Shocking identity, the emergence of Alley Leader.]

[The undefeated legend of Alley Leader.]

People speculated on Romantic Assassin’s unconventional victory march. All the good ranker names came out, but among those names, Alley Leader wasn’t present as his level was too low. He might have crazy control, but it wasn’t to the point where he could overcome the level difference. His fighting ability wasn’t the problem. It was his lack of level, skills, and items.

Then the mask of Romantic Assassin was taken off to reveal Alley Leader. It was shocking. Alley Leader had crushed common sense so far. Level? Skills? Items? Alley Leader seemed to ignore them all. No, he did indeed ignore them. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to beat those who were dozens of levels higher than him.

-Everyone, did you know? Alley Leader has never lost until now. He’s undefeated. All victories.

-Really? Not even once?

-I went to Alley Leader’s channel to look at the videos, and it’s correct. He is undefeated.

-No way? I won against him.

-Then provide some evidence.

Since Hyeonu became Alley Leader, all his uploaded and live streams had never shown Hyeonu losing. Had he ever lost in Arena? No. The character deletion bets? Of course not. Otherwise, Hyeonu’s character wouldn’t still be here. Simple PK? Many times, it was reversed, and the enemies were the ones caught.

-Wow, he completely cleaned them up. I have goosebumps.

-This seems almost inhuman.

-He won against Reina. 

-It is a completely frightening record.

-He destroyed two guilds by himself. 

It was as they said. There were two guilds that had disappeared due to Hyeonu’s character deletion bet—Black Skull and Aisis. This could be called an achievement. It was unbelievable that an individual had done it. As interest in Alley Leader grew, Hyeonu’s reputation continued to rise. Until now, Alley Leader was a stock only to those who knew about him. As of today, he became a jackpot stock that everyone knew about. His price hit the ceiling. His value quickly rose like several big hits, not just one.

Everyone was envious of Nike’s foresight and praised Porsche. However, there were others who were different. The sporting goods and car brands that competed with Nike and Porsche had a terrible time and felt jealous. It was impossible to register as a sponsor when they were in the same fields. That went against commercial morality.

However, not everyone thought the same. This was the case with Cheong Chen, the general manager of Adidas’ Asia division.

“Bring in Alley Leader right now,” he said to his secretary Rudd in a completely emotionless voice.

For Cheong Chen, money was faith. He didn’t care about anything but money and rushed to eat it like a starving man. Even if it was something that others were reluctant to do, he would do it for the sake of money. He was sitting here now because he lived like that.

“However, he belongs to Nike, not anywhere else. This is a place we can’t bring him to.”

“Then remove the main sponsor. Can’t you do this?”

Rudd said nothing in response to Cheong Chen’s words. This was what he meant. The main sponsors were mostly managed by the streamer’s management unless there were some special cases, which was why Cheong Chen’s words were outrageous. However, Rudd was just a secretary. Cheong Chen was his boss, and he had to follow his boss’ words.

“I understand. I’ll approach him,” Rudd replied reluctantly.

Cheong Chen’s expression softened slightly. “Then I’ll wait until the next meeting.”

Adidas started making plans to take Alley Leader away from Nike.

***

Nike screamed happily, not knowing that Adidas was aiming for Hyeonu. Emails and phone calls arrived constantly. All of them had the same content.

-I want to form a sponsorship agreement with Alley Leader. Please connect me with him.

The staff were contacted for two hours and were out of breath. Finally, the communications stopped, but the staff became even busier. It was time to sort out the contracts. They started sorting them out depending on the industry and the amount of money.

All the bold proposals were in Kale’s hands. Mercedes-Benz, Rolex, Armani, Hermès, Bottega, and so on—all of the famous brands known by name sent proposals.

“It is the first time I’ve seen so many proposals.” Kale’s mouth was open with admiration as he scanned all the proposals. He took a long time to sort them out. Then after the cleanup, Kale sent an email to Hyeonu. “Um... They have contacted us, so what thoughts does he have?”

Kale hoped Hyeonu’s thoughts would be positive. Otherwise, things would be complicated. At this moment, Kale was reminded of the phone call he had with Hyeonu a few days ago. Hyeonu had simply responded and seemed to have no interest in Kale’s words.

“Don’t tell me... Surely he won’t just do it casually?”

Kale desperately prayed that this wasn’t the case.

***

Hyeonu was unaware of the outside situation and did his best to level up. The Mine Spider’s Lair was sufficient compensation for a B-grade quest. This dungeon was atypical with low-risk and high returns. Compared to his effort, the results were significant. In other words, Hyeonu was sucking up honey right now. Moreover, it wasn’t just ordinary honey. It was royal jelly. He just had to decide if the end of the honey was to clear the dungeon by hunting the boss monster—the giant spider—or just a quick level-up.

“Right now, it is more important to kill the spider in front of me.”

[Master of Combat is activated.]

[Your stats have increased.]

[The stat ‘fighting energy’ has caused your stats to rise.]

[The other party is stronger than you.]

[Your stats have increased.]

[Mindset of a Murderer has activated.]

[All stats have increased by 15%.]

Hyeonu rushed toward the spider with blue eyes in front of him. Once Hyeonu pulled out his half-sword, the other half that was naturally broken was revealed. It was made by Hyeonu’s imagination using sword energy and was in the shape of the Dwarf’s Single-edged Sword that Hyeonu had used so far.

Hyeonu swung the complete single-edged sword at the blue-eyed spider, which was called the sapphire spider. The hard spider’s legs were sliced like they were rotten radishes. Hyeonu didn’t stop after cutting off the spider’s legs. He aimed his single-edged sword at another leg of the spider attacking him.

It was a form of rash impulse. He was curious to see if he could stop it. ‘Isn’t just once okay?’

The result was disastrous. In exchange for stopping the sapphire spider’s attack, Hyeonu was trapped in a corner of the mine.

Tang-E moved the moment the sapphire spider raised its legs again. “Master dude!!”

Tang-E’s Lightning skill was now getting close to real lightning. It slammed into the sapphire spider’s legs that tried to attack Hyeonu. For normal sapphire spiders, Tang-E’s lightning just caused some stinging. However, the legs had been cut by Hyeonu, so the lightning caused damage that was several times more painful for the sapphire spider. The sapphire spider screamed. It was a scream full of pain.

At this moment, Hyeonu’s shaking body moved again. Right then, the sapphire spider suppressed the pain and moved its legs quickly. This time, the sapphire spider’s entire body shone blue.

‘A special pattern.’

“Shit!”

A single flapping of wings created a big typhoon. His small move earlier created big trouble. Hyeonu had hunted spiders for more than two days and had only seen it once.

‘The ruby spiders are fire. The sapphire ones are ice.’

This light would contain a deadly chill.

“Tang-E! Aim one more lightning bolt at the head.”

At Hyeonu’s request, a lightning bolt shot toward the sapphire spider’s head. Then something strange happened at this moment. The blue light that spread from the sapphire spider’s body formed a shield. The shield successfully blocked the nine falling lightning bolts, but this was Hyeonu’s goal. The real move was Hyeonu’s single-edged sword, not the lightning. Hyeonu used Blink twice and appeared in front of the sapphire spider. The moment the blue light disappeared, he cut the spider’s body in half.

[A sapphire spider has been killed.]

[Experience has been acquired.]

[You have leveled up.]

[All health and magic power have been restored.]

[Your fighting energy stat has risen by 1.]

“Phew, something big almost happened,” Hyeonu sighed. His curiosity almost caused a catastrophe.

“Master dude, why did you try to block it with your body instead of using Blink? Are you crazy?” Tang-E started nagging as he approached Hyeonu, who was sitting down.

“I know.” Hyeonu couldn’t refute Tang-E’s words. Rather, he accepted them. This was clearly an accident caused by Hyeonu’s curiosity. “Tang-E, are you tired?”

“You have to ask? Now I feel like I have black fur from all the dust covering it.” Tang-E brushed his body, and dust flew out.

“We should get out of the dungeon.”

Finally, Hyeonu finished the beekeeping and moved to wipe out the hive.