Ranker's Return

At this moment, Hyeonu left his position.

‘Huh? What? Why does he have that look on his face?’ Tang-E saw Hyeonu running toward him with a stiff expression and stopped on the spot.

Hyeonu’s expression became stiffer when Tang-E stopped. Then he opened his mouth toward Tang-E. “......”

“What’s the matter, Master dude?”

It was just that Hyeonu’s voice didn’t reach Tang-E. To Tang-E, it just looked like he was moving his mouth. Just then, Tang-E’s eyes widened. It was because Hyeonu was on the verge of pulling out his sword and wielding it.

“Crazy Master!” Tang-E reflexively pressed his body to the ground. Something passed by the spot where Tang-E’s head had been. There was the sound of something exploding, and Tang-E naturally turned his head. He saw Renfelvik’s head explode.

Hyeonu reached Tang-E, put the Mixed Sky Sword in the sheath, and stroked Tang-E’s head.

“The fight was good.” Hyeonu tried to praise Tang-E rather than pinpointing the latter’s mistakes. Tang-E experienced it personally, so Hyeonu believed this would never happen again in the future.

“You were good with both magic and the secret arts,” Hyeonu added. Hyeonu had no way to discern between magic and the secret arts. He just gave this compliment because Tang-E used them moderately well.

“I was surprised, Master dude.”

Tang-E was surprised in many ways. Hyeonu had swung the sword. In addition, the fact that Renfelvik, whom Tang-E had thought was dead, had come back to life.

“Next time, double-check. Check again, even if the lights have gone out. Understood?”

Hyeonu honestly hadn’t thought that Renfelvik would survive.

‘Honestly, I only knew it from the message window...’

He had only noticed Renfelvik wasn’t dead because the quest notification didn’t rise. If it wasn’t for that, Hyeonu would’ve naturally thought he was dead.

“Understood, Master dude. I’ll check it next time,” Tang-E accepted Hyeonu’s advice.

This was his mistake after all.

“Yes, as long as you understand. He’s dead now. Don’t worry too much.”

Hyeonu had inflicted the last blow, and Renfelvik was definitely dead. It was only natural that the message windows proving it appeared in front of Hyeonu’s eyes.

[The duke of true blood, Renfelvik, has been defeated.]

[Experience has been acquired.]

[You have leveled up.]

[All health and magic power are restored.]

[You have leveled up.]

[All health and magic power are restored.]

[You have leveled up.]

[All health and magic power are restored.]

He just dealt the last, hit but he gained three levels.

‘Isn’t it a bit vague to call it the last hit?’

One blow was right, but he didn’t know what would happen if Renfelvik came back to life.

‘So I might’ve gained a lot of experience.’

In any case, it didn’t matter. It was enough that he had leveled up.

[The title will be changed.]

[The title ‘Vampire Duke Killer’ has been created.]

[Vampire Duke Killer]

[A title given to adventurers who killed a vampire duke, a noble descendant of the night. The title will grow when hunting high-ranking vampires.

Effect: All stats +200, attack power against vampires will increase by 25%.]

‘Is there even a title?’

It was an unexpected reward.

‘It isn’t a new one but an update.’

After examining the message window in detail again, Hyeonu noticed it wasn’t a new title that had been created. Rather, an existing one was updated. It had been so long since he got the title that he hadn’t remembered it properly.

[The death of the duke of true blood, Renfelvik 1/1]

Next was the most important thing. It was a message indicating that the question condition had been met.

‘It is empty.’

Hyeonu sighed and turned away when he couldn’t see any items in the distance. He had killed a boss monster, but he hadn’t reaped the expected harvest.

“Well done. You did well.” Callioraks smiled warmly when he saw Tang-E returning in Hyeonu’s arms. It was really satisfying. He had only taught Tang-E for a short period of time, but it was enough to follow along.

“Did you learn that from him?” Callioraks asked while making eye contact with Tang-E. Tang-E nodded silently. This was definitely what he had learned from Hyeonu. There was no one in the Marionette Bears tribe who could teach him such combat.

“Okay, you did really well today.” Callioraks smiled, raised his head, and made eye contact with Hyeonu. “You raised him well.”

Callioraks didn’t say anything else. It was just this one sentence.

[Dispose of Renfelvik has been cleared.]

[Experience has been acquired.]

[Callioraks’ gift has been acquired.]

“Is there anything you would like to receive? I’ll give you a gift.”

The words that Hyeonu had been waiting for finally came out of Callioraks’ mouth.

“What can you give me?” Hyeonu answered carefully. This reward had to be approached more carefully than ever. The further he went up, the harder it was to upgrade his specs.

‘I need to build the right foothold here.’

He had to unconditionally make a foothold or leap forward for the future. To be honest, he even thought it would be impossible to find better items than what he had now.

“Everything,” Callioraks lightly answered Hyeonu’s question. However, the content wasn’t light at all.

“Everything?” Hyeonu burst out laughing.

Everything—he could feel Callioraks’ quality from this short word.

‘A skill? An item? What should I ask for?’

Hyeonu considered what he could ask for, and there were two main things—a skill or an item.

‘Thinking about the future, a skill is better. If it is an epic or higher rated item right now...’

His troubles deepened. He couldn’t choose easily. Then a new idea flashed in Hyeonu’s mind.

“Can you do something like give a blessing to these items?” Hyeonu asked while pointing to the items he was wearing. It was the Empty Dragon set.

“It is made of that guy’s head.” Callioraks quickly figured out what the Empty Dragon set was made of. All the materials for these items were from the head of the demon world dragon Fuca, which had been given directly to Hyeonu.

“You want me to give my blessings there? That is a good idea. It is a much better choice than getting an artifact,” Callioraks praised Hyeonu’s choice. It was an impeccable and outstanding decision.

“I’ll give it to you right now.” Callioraks snapped his fingers.

At this moment, a purple shooting star fell from the sky of the demon world to Hyeonu.

***

Hyeonu stared at the screen of the big television without even blinking. He couldn’t take his eyes off it. On the screen, the emperor was coming out.

-Advance! the emperor shouted at the players.

The players moved in unison at the emperor’s command and fearlessly entered the ranks of the undead army. The emperor stood behind them and watched. His appearance was very dignified.

“By the way, isn’t the emperor really strong? We fought for a long time without taking back one castle. Meanwhile, this is already the last one.” Yeongchan sat down next to Hyeonu with a loud thud and admired it.

“He is naturally strong. It is an unfair strength. However, honestly, there is no need for the emperor now.”

“Is it because of the guardians?” Yeongchan knew the reason why Hyeonu said this.

The boss monsters known as the guardians were blocking the players’ way, so the rankers, including the large guilds, had fought sluggishly so far.

“That’s right. If the guardians weren’t present, we would’ve pushed them straight away when New World was present.” Hyeonu nodded and agreed with Yeongchan’s words.

The presence of the guardians had been a headache. Now that they had disappeared, it wasn’t difficult to retake a city, and it was only a matter of time. Hyeonu and Yeongchan continued to eat snacks while watching the players fight the undead army.

At one point, the battlefield entered a lull. It happened at a time when the players started to run out of magic power, so they stepped back one by one and alternated with other people.

Just then, the emperor stepped out.

-I don’t want to see this disgusting mess any longer.

The emperor leisurely moved through the battlefield like he was going on a walk. He continued to walk forward, and at some point, there were no players, only the undead. The undead naturally started to rush toward the emperor, who had popped out alone in front of the players.

-You should be honored to be receiving death from me. The emperor flicked his finger at the rushing undead.

A swirl of seven colors appeared behind the emperor. The vortex grew enormous and moved forward. Skeletons and rotten corpses were instantly caught up in it. There was the sound of bones grinding, and they started to disappear without a trace. The vortex only lost its ferocity when it reached the walls.

Yeongchan looked at Hyeonu and asked, “Hey, does this make sense?”

“Does this make sense?” Hyeonu looked at Yeongchan and snorted.

He couldn’t believe it even after seeing it with his own eyes. The emperor made a gesture, and the undead army disappeared completely.

“The players are folding screens, right?”

“I guess so? Honestly, if he had just gone and swept through them alone, wouldn’t he have killed them all?”

Hyeonu and Yeongchan weren’t the only ones thinking this. All the players on the battlefield were the same. It wasn’t just one or two players. This was repeated in every battle to retake a city. Nevertheless, the players followed the emperor. It was because the rewards that could be obtained were enormous.

-We will go beyond recapturing the cities; we will eliminate all the undead. Where are those who will follow me to the glacier zone? the emperor shouted at the players as he turned around.

-We’ll help you.

-I’ll completely remove any traces of the undead.

-I would like to follow Your Majesty.

The players shouted and responded to the emperor’s words. They had to do so. Huge rewards would come from following the emperor. It was like a broken vending machine.

-Follow me. The emperor turned around and started to run toward the northern glacier zone.

The players chased after him in a hurry. The emperor never stopped. He kept running even when he reached the glacier zone.

Hyeonu was watching like a fool. Then he frowned and said, “Hey, change it quickly. Are you going to watch this all day? This isn’t a live stream. It is a video.”

There was no reason to keep watching them run. The thing Hyeonu was watching now wasn’t a live stream but a popular video on A-World.

“Okay, I’ll move it to the coordinates stated in the comments straight away.” Yeongchan came to his senses at Hyeonu’s words.

He had forgotten about it. Yeongchan moved the mouse connected to the laptop. The comments posted by others in advance listed the time stamps of important scenes. Yeongchan clicked on the time part written in the comments.

“What is this?” Hyeonu’s eyes widened when he saw the video.

He pushed Yeongchan away, tapped on the laptop, and started to look back and forth at the video. At this time stamp, a battle between the emperor and the five guardians was taking place. Then at the end of the video, the five guardians fell while the emperor had one limp arm and wounds of various sizes on his entire body.

“The emperor suffered such a big injury?” The corners of Hyeonu’s lips curved up.