Ranker's Return

Supplementary Story 42

‘Why is he so calm?’

The man couldn’t understand it. Why was Nutt so casual?

‘Isn’t looking flustered the normal reaction in such a situation?’

There were 20 enemies. Moreover, they weren’t mere rabble but the elite of Zeus, a large guild. At this point, it was the man who was flustered.

‘Were we wrong?’

He even had this thought. Did they misjudge Nutt’s power? It didn’t make sense for Nutt to have this attitude unless he had something hidden up his sleeve.

“Cough!” an urgent groan burst out of someone’s mouth just then.

“Jonathan!” the man called out the name of the guild member who coughed up blood and fell. However, the fallen guild member, Jonathan, never got back up. He was logged out just like that.

‘Does this make sense?’

It was hard to believe even after seeing it with their own eyes. This was 20 against 1. Despite pushing the enemy with overwhelming numbers, their side died first.

“T-T-That... crazy guy!” a curse popped out of the man’s mouth. In the midst of the fierce battle, Nutt picked up the item Jonathan dropped and put it in his inventory.

“If an item drops, pick it up first! We can’t let him take it!” the man shouted at the Zeus Guild members. It was really the worst situation to lose an item.

‘If we don’t do this, it will be a loss to him even if we kill him.’

If they lost even one more item, they would be making a loss to kill Nutt.

‘We must kill him before that happens.’

The best thing was for the members of the Zeus Guild to kill Nutt without dying. Then there wouldn’t be a situation where they lost items.

‘I have to join in.’

The man jumped into the battlefield without hesitation.

***

‘It is a big guild, but the level isn’t very high.’

Hyeonu didn’t lose his composure even when weapons filled his vision. It was because the opposing party’s skills weren’t very threatening.

‘Is this enough?’

20 people weren’t difficult to deal with. There were many cases where their routes overlapped with each other. Hyeonu just had to attack the gaps that were created like this little by little.

“Did you come here to put your head into the mouth of a tiger rather than hunt?” Hyeonu moved his feet nonstop while talking. It was a very strong provocation. The Zeus Guild members weren’t drawn into Hyeonu’s provocation though. Their somewhat reddened faces were the only sign they were agitated by Hyeonu’s provocation.

“One person is already dead, right? You lost an item as well... Why don’t you leave now? It is your first time, so I’ll let it slide.” Hyeonu’s mouth didn’t stop. Rather, the level of provocation was raised even more. Now it was hard for the members of the Zeus Guild to listen quietly.

“Don’t get carried away! Push him slowly,” the man shouted as he grasped the emotional state of the members of the Zeus Guild, who were beginning to become enraged. However, the situation was already beyond his control. The members of the Zeus Guild wielded their weapons and unleashed their skills just to kill Hyeonu. Blue pure energies flew toward Hyeonu.

Hyeonu kicked the ground and shot up into the air. The pure energies lost their goal and slammed into the innocent ground. There was a strong explosion, and a large hole was formed.

“I definitely gave you a chance.” Hyeonu rose in the air, held the spear with one hand, and leaned back.

‘Spear of Destruction.’

Then he pulled his leaning body forward and threw the spear swiftly. After leaving Hyeonu’s hand, the spear turned red. In an instant, it reached the middle of the area where the Zeus Guild members were gathered and exploded. This explosion created a large hole that was incomparable to the previous one. In addition, the members of the Zeus Guild were now scattered in the aftermath of the explosion.

“So why didn’t you go when I told you to go?” Hyeonu landed with sarcastic words and picked up his spear. Then he stabbed the spear toward a fallen Zeus Guild member, piercing their heart.

“This is the second one.” Hyeonu quickly picked up the item dropped by the deceased Zeus Guild member.

“Today’s hunting is very profitable. At this rate... I’ll be rich in no time.” Hyeonu waved the item he had picked up toward the Zeus Guild members.

“This jerk?!” Now even the man fell for Hyeonu’s provocation. Despite his group’s numerical superiority, he couldn’t stand the anger at two of his members dying and even having their items taken away.

“You have to die 10 or 20 times,” the man shouted in a voice filled with anger.

‘I have to keep my spirit up.’ Hyeonu was looking at his situation coldly.

Right now, he had the upper hand, but it wasn’t easy to overcome the numerical inferiority. Therefore, his provocation had to be even fiercer. He had to shake their composure so he could fight to some extent. In addition, just because they were caught by the provocation didn’t mean he could leave this place easily. The odds were very slim.

‘Once I run out of skills... I will die.’

Powerful skills had a long cooldown. Once used, it took between 10 minutes to 30 minutes before the skills could be used again.

‘There won’t be any magic power...’

There was still a problem even if the cooldown time to use the skill ended. It took a lot of magic power to use powerful skills. Hyeonu’s class was a knight that used a spear. It wasn’t a class with a lot of basic magic power.

‘I should’ve bought a bunch of potions...’

Regardless, it was too late to regret it. All he could do now was to inflict as much damage as possible on the opponent in front of him.

“I think you will die sooner than me though? Two people are already dead?” Hyeonu casually accepted the man’s words, grabbed the spear, and rushed toward the Zeus Guild members.

***

-He has been really good since he was a kid. It is 20 against 1. How can he just think about fighting?

-If I were him, I would rip the return scroll and run away.

-By the way, how big was the difference in specs that he can fight like this?

-I know that there are no rankers in Horus Sage who struck out like this from the beginning. Even if it is Alley Leader, this is a bit...

Hyeonu’s story didn’t sound realistic to the viewers. It was even harder to believe for those who had played Horus Saga. In the prime of Horus Saga, the level of the rankers was similar. No matter how good the ranker, three or four similar rankers were enough to kill them.

“Yes, it is possible. I was good at the game back then. There is nothing that can’t be covered with my skills.”

-Oh, he is so annoying.

-I would say something if it wasn’t Alley Leader. Really.

-Really, I would say a few words.

-By the way, who won in the fight? Of course, you won, right?

The viewers sighed at Hyeonu’s confident demeanor but wondered about the next part of the story.

“I lost. How could I have won? It was 20 against 1. Well, I would’ve won if it were Arena... Horus Saga is different from Arena.” Hyeonu shrugged. However, the reaction from the viewers who heard it was very intense.

-You lost? I thought you said you would cover it with your skills?

-Were you not good enough?

-It looks like his skills hadn’t risen at that time. It’s possible if it was a few years ago.

-As expected, Alley Leader wasn’t perfect from the beginning.

Hyeonu was calm even when looking at the chat window filled with nuances that devalued him.

‘There is no reason to be angry.’

After all, this was a thing of the past. In addition...

The eventual winner was Hyeonu.

“I killed 16 people... I was killed by the remaining four. Due to the lack of magic power... I couldn’t beat them.”

-You killed 16?

-If he had potions, he would’ve killed them all.

-Imagine fighting 1 against 20 and winning.

-So how many items did you pick up? Five?

“I got 15. I died as soon as I killed the last one.”

-15? That is ridiculous. He picked them all up.

-Were the Zeus Guild members idiots? Why did they allow you to take the items away?

It wasn’t that the Zeus Guild didn’t try to retrieve the items.

“They aren’t idiots... I just handled it well. I killed the ones who wanted to pick up items the first couple of times. After that, they couldn’t really get near the items.”

They tried but failed. Hyeonu killed anyone who wanted to pick up the items, even if it meant allowing himself to be hit by an attack. As a result, the Zeus Guild turned to kill Hyeonu rather than pick up the items.

-Then it is 14 items. You made a profit.

-Weren’t Horus Saga items expensive back then? How many hundreds of millions would their value be since they were used by a large elite guild?

-This is a complete profit. How much did he earn from a battle at that time?

He gave away one item to receive 15, so it was definitely a profitable business.

“It wasn’t 14. Say it was 15. The equipment I was using wasn’t anything expensive except for the weapon.”

-So you killed them like that even when you were inferior in items?

-No... This isn’t right.

-It is true that he overcame it with skills.

-I acknowledge it.

-Then what did you do with the items? Did you sell them?

Hyeonu shook his head from side to side. He didn’t sell the items.

“Why should I sell them? I put them in a warehouse. Each and every one of them.”

-He didn’t sell items?

-Why not sell it when it is expensive?

-It is normal not to understand it in the beginning. It makes sense now. This human deserves it.

-It is possible for Alley Leader.

-Don’t you know that he deleted the meleegod character?

The viewers understood Hyeonu’s choice at this time. Hyeonu was the one who deleted the overwhelmingly number one character, meleegod, just because he was going to the military. Not selling the items of Horus Saga, which were much less valuable in comparison, was an action that was possible for him.

-What happened after the raid?

-Based on the way that the Zeus Guild was ruined, I think they kept fighting.

Hyeonu nodded.

The battle—no, the war continued.

“We fought constantly for a month. At that time, I really doubted if it was a role-playing game or a fighting game.”

In the course of just 30 days, there were more than 20 battles. It wasn’t possible for him to have the usual game progression. The Zeus Guild appeared every time he left the city, so he was forced to postpone everything, including hunting and quests.

“I will give you a surprise quiz here. I fought them for a month... How many items did I gain? Reina, shall I start with you?” Hyeonu asked the question with a playful expression.

Reina carefully came up with an answer. “Well... you got 15 in the first battle... So around 200?”

“You are wrong. Then what about the viewers?”

-200 is too much. I think it is 150.

-The Zeus Guild members aren’t fools. They were robbed at the beginning, so they would’ve gathered more people next time. I think it is 50.

-Don’t you know that the beginning is where you get all the profit? I think he got around 70.

Various answers popped up in the chat window. Most of the viewers expected between 50 and 150. Only a small number of people called out fewer than 50 or more than 150. No answer higher than 200 came up.

“You are all wrong. I took at least 500 items. They were all more than rare items.”

“500?” Reina asked with a startled expression.

“Yes, 500. Next, I will give you another question. What did I do with those 500 items?”

-You sold them to competing guilds.

-You really sold them this time. How much money is 500 items?

-There is no way they wouldn't be sold unless you are a third-generation chaebol.

The viewers were confident this time. This was regarding 500 items with a rare or higher rating. A normal person would unconditionally sell them and exchange the gains for cash or trade the items for better items. Hyeonu once again shook his head. The expectations of the viewers were wrong.

Back in high school, Gang Hyeonu wasn’t such a normal human being. He was a teenager in a period of emotional storms who couldn’t control his emotions.

“I immediately deleted the character. I fell out of love with Horus Saga. My interest disappeared.”

rainbowturtle's Thoughts