Ranker's Return

Translator: rainbowturtle ƒ𝐫𝒆𝐞w𝗲𝚋𝗻૦𝘷e𝙡.c𝑜𝙢

Editor: LD & Jyazen

The hunt for the dark elf chief was smooth. So far...

“Heal!”

The two warriors, Carl and Crawford, blocked the dark elf chief.

“These humans dare—!” The dark elf chief cornered the two warriors with his unique sharp movements.

Len fired an arrow at the chief.“Power Shot!”

At this moment, Taeng showed himself in the corner. There was a tiny stone held in Taeng’s hand. He threw the stone toward Len’s shoulder. Len was hit by the stone, making his aim go a bit off. The result was disastrous.

“Kuaack!”

He pierced the dark elf’s shoulder, not his blade. Then the dark elf chief’s dagger pierced Carl’s neck as the sword struck him in the shoulder. Len realized that something was strange and yelled at Crawford, “Get out! Run away!”

‘Now.’

“Where are you going? You should die here.” There was a person who blocked their retreat with a cheerful smile. It was Hyeonu.

“W...Why?”

“Why? If you are planning to hit someone in the back, then you should know if you can beat them. Yet you didn’t know this?”

“Step aside! Why do you mean by hitting someone in the back?”

“What about ‘Let’s catch the chief and pretend to kill him by mistake. Our good intentions became twisted’? Wasn’t that what you said?”

“...Then?” Len realized the truth and fell into despair.

The fish caught in the net wasn’t Hyeonu, who was standing before them, but themselves.

“It is as you are thinking. It is you, not me.”

It was a terribly chilling truth. Len pulled out a dagger and charged toward Hyeonu. He only fired arrows from a distance and couldn’t compete in close combat with Hyeonu. Len could be killed in a single attack. Yet it didn’t happen. Hyeonu wanted to create an indelible memory for Len.

‘Don’t do this again.’

He wanted to completely trample on this person.

***

Team Holic’s leader, Len, died. He died with a body entirely covered with wounds.

‘He probably won’t do this again.’

“Human!!” Now there was only the chief left.

“Taeng, buff!”

“Forest’s Blessing. Bear's Momentum.”

The real battle was starting now. The dark elf chief’s movements were swift, but they were simple. Hyeonu reacted decisively to every action. This was the end. The dark elf chief lost to Hyeonu even though he normally abused level 50 players who had priest’s buffs applied. Additionally, it was too one-sided.

The dark elf chief was helpless. He didn’t succeed with even one attack. It was blocked by Hyeonu every time. In the end, Hyeonu cut into the dark elf chief’s abdomen. It wasn’t a deep wound, but it was enough to limit his movements.

“A human at most...”

“At most... It is sad. Do you know? Hey~ you’re going to die today because of a human.”Hyeonu showed off his distinctive stance of a sword on his shoulder and accepted the chief’s words.

Hyeonu’s provocation worked well. The dark elf chief ignored the wound in his abdomen and ran forward. The chieftain’s attacks were significantly slower than they were before. It was as if he were moving through water.

Hyeonu couldn’t be affected by these types of attacks. He used exquisite movements to dodge the dark elf chief. Simultaneously, Hyeonu’s longsword moved. Tok. The arm holding a dagger fell to the ground.

“Grrrr...” The dark elf chief groaned from the pain of his arm being cut off. No, he tried to do so. However, his neck had already been cut.

[The dark elf chief has been killed.]

[Experience has been acquired.]

[You have leveled up.] ｆ𝘳e𝒆w𝗲𝐛𝘯𝐨νe𝚕.cｏ𝓶

[All health and magic power have been restored.]

[You have leveled up.]

[All health and magic power have been restored.]

‘Two levels... good.’

Taeng jumped onto Hyeonu's shoulder. Then he did a high-five with Hyeonu. It was a ceremony of triumph. Hyeonu’s big picture was a success.

“Uhahaha!”

***

“Three inventories.”

The result of the big picture was gorgeous. After all, they were professional PK criminals. The penalty resulted in them dropping a lot of expensive equipment. Unfortunately, the priest wasn’t a murderer, so only a few miscellaneous items were dropped.

‘Isn’t it quite profitable?’

Rare items in the level 50 range were worth at least hundreds of thousands of won, no matter how bad they were. If a popular effect was attached, then it could easily exceed one million won.

‘I’d love it if all of their items dropped.’

Hyeonu checked each item. There weren’t any expensive items apart from the rare items.

“Eh? What is this wealth?”

Then a fairly good item came from Len’s inventory.

“A random rare skill book?”

Random rare skill book—Hyeonu had seen it a few times. This item gave a rare rated skill. It was naturally expensive, very much so.

‘Should I sell it?’

Hyeonu struggled while holding the skill book in his hand. Should he make money by selling the skill book or use it to possibly get a bigger jackpot?

“I’ll go to town first and think about it later.”

***

“Did you sell it?” Yeongchan asked Hyeonu who was scouring his laptop.

“Yes, I’ll sell it soon. I only need to subtract the fee of 500.”

“You were lucky. How did you meet those guys?”

Hyeonu explained the situation roughly. It was the story of the people who tried to take Hyeonu’s items. Yeongchan thought it was ridiculous when he heard it. They had picked the wrong target. They didn’t aim for anyone else; they aimed for Gang Hyeonu.

‘Trying to catch a madman... Their luck was lousy.’ Yeongchan expressed his condolences for those who reached an obvious end.

“Did you shoot a video?”

“A video? I took it.”

“Then pass it to me.”

He would do something for Hyeonu. Yeongchan received the video Hyeonu had stored on his laptop. Hyeonu disappeared into the cube, and Yeongchan remained alone in the living room.

“This person is a bit lacking, and this one can’t be contacted. Shall I raise the price a little bit?”

Yeongchan was looking for someone to make a video of Hyeonu. The thing Hyeonu needed now was publicity. He needed to raise awareness of Hyeonu before his streaming debut. Yeongchan decided to edit some of Hyeonu’s gaming videos into a movie. It was the original video from before Hyeonu even opened his mouth. There was nothing more to desire if great editing techniques were added. It was a jackpot.

‘A jackpot, naturally.’

“Ah, found it.”

One person’s name and contact information appeared on Yeongchan’s laptop.

[Ellis Movies]

[Field: Arena video editing expert.

Career: #1 in the video category of the month for Arena World. Arena Maker of the Year.]

“It is expensive but...’

Three million won—some people might think it was too much money spent for editing a video that was only 30 minutes. However, the value of this money... It was not expensive at all considering the value it would bring. Additionally, Ellis Movies was the top among such movie makers. It was a name Yeongchan would never have known if he hadn’t been introduced by an acquaintance. The flaw of the job was that there were more conditions aside from money, but Yeongchan believed that Hyeonu’s video would suffice.

“It is worth it.”

***

Ellis—among the Arena video makers, he was known as a ghost. He selected the appropriate BGM and edited it frame-by-frame. Sometimes, he stole their vision like a ghost by using a change in color. Ellis hadn’t originally planned to be an Arena movie maker. His dream was to be the director of a big blockbuster or a graphic designer who implemented virtual reality games.

In other words, he wanted to be great. Yet reality was grim, and the path he found was Arena. From the moment he stepped into this world, he ran on the road to success. It was to the point where he felt that this had always been his vocation. One day, he had been editing Arena videos like a squirrel when he had a thought. ‘This is the life I dreamed of.’

From then on, Ellis’ heart removed everything else, and he only touched videos.

“This is crap. This as well. Can PK be done like this? It is clearly just hitting for money.”

Ellis sorted out his mail which as usual was piled up today. He couldn’t watch all the footage in detail, so he only watched the opening minute.

“Umm... What is this video?”

His hands stopped pressing the delete button after a while. He saw a video he liked. The combat style of the man in the video was terribly tidy. It was a fighting style Ellis had never seen before. No, he had seen it once in the past. That’s right, it was in meleegod’s videos.

“Yeongchan? Michael introduced him the other day...”

‘Yet this isn’t him?’

Ellis’ thoughts didn’t last long. He was immersed in Hyeonu’s video. It was a video with no editing, but it was very immersive. Ellis’ motivation sparked after a long time.

“From today on, I will be this person’s fan.”

‘I’ll do it for him unquestionably!’

The video of this person catching the PK group in reverse was enough. The man’s combat style in the video was full of star power. It only needed the addition of his editing.

‘This is a jackpot.’

Ellis immediately started the editing. He simply couldn’t stand it. It was the first time there was a video that evoked his desire for editing.

“Put this in the background here and zoom in like this! Good! Perfect!”

Ellis’ hands became busy. Then Hyeonu’s video started changing rapidly. This was the moment when Ellis became Hyeonu’s exclusive video editor.

***

‘What should I do...’

Hyeonu was sitting in a corner of the village. He was feeling troubled. The random rare skill book was something he was reluctant to give up even though it might be useless. He didn’t think he would get a good skill if he used it, but he was hesitant to sell it. The price was expensive, but if a useful skill for Hyeonu came out, then it would be very valuable for the future.

At this time, Taeng approached the struggling Hyeonu.

“Master dude. What are you thinking about?”Taeng asked with his distinctive ears wriggling.

Hyeonu confided his concerns to Taeng as he wanted to ask someone for advice.“I have a piece of land. However, it is a land that isn’t cleared. In other words, I don’t know what the results will be if I plant anything in it.”

“So?”

“I’m wondering if I should sell this land or clear it to build a farm.”

The moment Hyeonu’s story was over, Taeng said,“What will you do if you sell the land?”

Hyeonu paused for a moment before replying, “Huh? I will do farming?”

“Then why sell? Do you have no money?”

“!!!”

‘Why do I want to sell this when they already gave me money?’

Hyeonu opened the skill book as soon as he realized this. He used the skill book.

[You have used the rare random skill book.]

[A skill has been created.]

[You and I in One Shot!]

[You and I in one shot. A blow with soul!

Type: Continuous

Rating: Rare

Skill Proficiency: F

Ignores 10% of the opponent’s defense.]

The result of the gamble was a jackpot. This was truly amazing. It had an effect that would only be seen in high-level unique items. 10% defense penetration literally meant ignoring 10% of their armor and defensive skills. It was difficult to show the efficiency at Hyeonu’s level because the player’s attack power was relatively high while the monsters didn’t have much defense.

However, the efficiency was different as the level progressed. Thus, it was a big hit. After all, Hyeonu’s goal wasn’t to be a mediocre player.

Hyeonu got rid of all the system messages and picked up Taeng. Then he started spinning around. It was an expression of Hyeonu’s joy while it was close to torture for Taeng.

“Damn Master dude!! Put me down!!!”

“Thank you! Thank you!!”

***

A video was uploaded onto Arena World the moment Hyeonu hit the jackpot with the random skill book.

[PK Bugs Catching Video.avi]

People’s reactions were intense. In particular, those who suffered from vicious PK criminals at a low level were cheerful.

-Milk Drinking Yuljae:I was also hit by those guys before.It is exhilarating.

-Power Muscle King:If I meet them, I'll slice at them first.

-High-quality Watch:They were hit in the big picture.

-Unexpected Death when Touched:By the way, why go to the dark elf boss they can’t even catch?

-Sleeping Daoist: The 1.5L shot of cider feels refreshing.Recommended!

-Thailand Opha:Is this an Ellis movie?No wonder why the quality is different.

“Good, good.”

There were 150,000 views. Yeongchan was pleased with the community’s response. It seemed that uploading a few more videos would be sufficient publicity. He uploaded it to his channel, so he was sure the number of views would go up.

“It isn’t a waste of money. I think they made it slightly cheap.”

Yeongchan also liked the post-edited video. Above all, this was an amazing Ellis movie. Yet somehow, the price was very cheap. It was an unbelievable amount of money for the industry’s top expert.

“Well, this means that he likes Hyeonu.”

Yeongchan felt it might be okay to move to the next stage.

‘Plan: Make Gang Hyeonu a star.Subtitle: Return of the gold spoon.’

It was starting now.