Ranker's Return

Chapter 14

Translator: rainbowturtle

Editor: LD & Jyazen

“I will take the late blooming skill.”

“You won’t regret this choice?”

“It is my choice. I have no regrets.”

Hyeonu’s choice was the late blooming skill. Hyeonu’s idea was that even if he climbed quickly, he wouldn’t be able to keep his position if he didn’t have any vision.

“Then I will give you what you selected.”

Raccoon reached for Hyeonu’s hand. Hyeonu instinctively dodged the huge hand that headed toward him. Even so, he couldn’t escape. Hyeonu gave his hand like he was attracted by a magnet. Raccoon’s magic power poured out like a storm into Hyeonu’s hands.

“Okay, is it done now?”

Hyeonu didn’t respond to Raccoon’s question. It was due to his dazed spirit. The fullness of the magic power that swept over his body was like a drug. It was a wave of magic power that he had never felt before.

“Y... Yes.”

[A skill has been created.]

[Magic Power Compression]

[Magic power is compressed to exert a stronger power.

Type: Continuous

Rating: Unique

Skill Proficiency: F

The effect of magic power is increased by 20%.]

The distracted Hyeonu finally checked the skill information. Then his mouth dropped open.

‘Unique?’

The skill that Raccoon gave to Hyeonu was unique rated. It was a skill that increased the power of magic power. Magic power-related skills were one of the things everyone wanted the most when playing Arena.

‘Amazing. Amazing!!!’

Raccoon kept speaking to Hyeonu, “Ah, one more thing. If you ever meet Cancun, tell him something.”

He continued with a desolate tone that couldn’t be imagined from the orc who emitted a fierce atmosphere just a moment ago, “Your home is here, the Black Forest.”

“I understand.”

[A quest has been created.]

[Raccoon’s Message]

[The father, Raccoon, has a message for his son, Cancun. If you ever meet, tell it to him.

Rating: C+

Conditions: Tell Cancun about Raccoon 0/1.

Rewards: Experience, Raccoon’s Gift]

‘Kuoh. He is a generous orc.’

Hyeonu smiled at his quest window while Raccoon continued speaking. “Additionally, tell that bear this—that necklace contained no magic in the first place. So he did nothing wrong.”

“Yes. I will.”

Hyeonu said goodbye to Raccoon and Dakan and tore a scroll.

***

“Gang Hyeonu! Hey! Dude! Wake up.” Yeongchan woke up Hyeonu who was sleeping on the couch. Hyeonu had fallen asleep while watching the reactions and views of the video posted on his channel.

“Ah... Sorry. I was sleepy.” Hyeonu looked blank. He had been hunting tirelessly for days. For such a Hyeonu, Yeongchan linked his laptop to the huge wall-mounted TV.

“Look. This is your number of views.”

[Views: 176,488]

“170,000? Why is it so high?” Hyeonu was stunned when he saw the number of hits. It had risen when he was asleep. The number was too high.

“Originally, it wasn’t that much. Then I spread your video through the community using many methods.” Yeongchan cleverly mixed truth and falsehoods.

Hyeonu’s eccentric fashion was a hot topic in Arena’s community. Yeongchan had used this to promote it.

“Really? Thank you, Yeongchan.” Hyeonu didn’t know the truth and was just grateful to Yeongchan. Yeongchan and Hyeonu looked at the comments on the video together and talked about the future direction they would take.

[Hello. This is Nike Management.]

Yeongchan checked his emails as Hyeonu went to get a drink. The mailbox contained an email that caused Yeongchan to doubt his eyes for a moment. Yeongchan glanced at Hyeonu and yelled at the top of his lungs, “Hey!! Gang Hyeonu, come over quickly!!”

“Why? Again?”

“Quickly! Just come here!”

Hyeonu rushed over at Yeongchan’s urging.

“Look at this. You received an email from Nike.”

“Nike? Are you talking about that Nike?”

“Yes, that Nike.”

Hyeonu also couldn’t contain his excitement after confirming the identity of the email.

[To: Argon]

[Hello, Argon.

I am Kale Brown, and I’m the head of sales at Nike Management.

Our Nike Management is a management agency created by Nike, a company everyone knows, to watch only Arena.

(Omitted).

The reason I’m sending this email is no different. It is because I want to bring the main character of the video [PK Bugs Catching Video.avi] to Nike Management.

Please carefully consider it and contact me at the below number at your convenience.

Contact: XXX-XXXX-XXXX

Email: [email protected]]

“He wants to recruit you.”

“I saw it.”

Hyeonu’s hands trembled. Nike Management was arguably the best company in Arena at the moment.

“Don’t you have to go?”

“Of course. This isn’t the level of an opportunity. It is a lottery win.”

“Right?”

Hyeonu was still bewildered. It had only been a week since he returned to Arena. Many things had happened in the meantime, but this was the most dramatic moment.

“Then I’ll start by calling them.” Hyeonu dialed the number written in the email. Although he could reply by email, it would take some time to receive a response to the email. He couldn’t even wait that long. Hyeonu used the fluent English he had learned in the past.

“Hello?”

-Who is this?

“I saw the email you sent me and called.”

-Ah!Thank you.I am Kale.

“I am Gang Hyeonu.”

-Thank you for the phone call.Then I’ll speak bluntly.Are you willing to contract with us?I am confident that the conditions are better than anywhere else.

Kale asked Hyeonu directly. Would he form a contract with them?

Hyeonu also had a blunt personality. “Yes. I’ll contract with Nike.”

-Where do you live?

“I live in Seoul. It is in South Korea.”

-Seoul...There is quite a time difference.I’ll send you an email.I’m fine, but it will be late at night for you.Check first and tell me if there are any issues you want to fix.I’ll look into it as soon as possible.

“I’ll see and tell you what I’ve decided.”

The phone call was successful. Kale and Hyeonu both got what they wanted. Since then, Hyeonu exchanged emails with Kale. The date they determined was Saturday, three days later.

***

Ellis was waiting for Gang Hyeonu’s email. To be exact, it was his video.

“Ohh, it came, it came.”

Finally, a video arrived from Hyeonu. Ellis took a deep breath. It was in preparation to watch the video with reverence.

‘I will edit after watching it once.’

Ellis couldn’t hold onto his determination. Hyeonu’s video thrilled Ellis.

An intense momentum that overwhelmed his opponents...

The timing of his creepy attacks...

Movements that seemed to foresee the opponent’s attacks...

Everything was literally perfect.

“It’s crazy. It’s totally crazy!!!”

At the end of the video, Ellis moved his hand over the play button like it was natural. Ellis had watched and edited the videos of numerous players. Yet none were like the man in the video. Alley Leader—Ellis didn’t know what this meant. The client just used this as his ID. After watching the video, Alley Leader had become a god in Ellis’ mind.

A god... In combat, Alley Leader was like a god.

“Is he sending the videos slowly because the price is a burden?”

Should Ellis lower the price further?

“I’d like to see more videos...” Ellis murmured as he edited the video. “It can’t be helped. I’ll cut the price. Then I can ask for more videos.”

Hyeonu unwittingly reduced his editing costs.

***

“Boss, the contract to sign the player in the video is done.”

“That’s great. I think he will certainly show a fantastic synergy with us.”

“I think so as well. Ah, his name is Gang Hyeonu. His nickname is Alley Leader, but it is hard to pronounce. Therefore, I decided to call him Mr. G.”

“Mr G... It’s a good name.”

Kale handed Jamie his tablet PC. One video was prepared on the tablet PC.

“What is this?”

“It is the video that Mr. G will upload tomorrow. If you watch this video, you’ll understand that this recruitment is a huge opportunity for us.”

Once the video started, Jamie couldn’t keep his eyes off the tablet PC. The video showed Hyeonu in a one-against-three duel with Park Junu’s group. Hyeonu, who had a relatively low level, would’ve become a big issue just by winning a duel against the high-leveled Shan or Gain. Yet Hyeonu smashed all three of them.

Then the video was touched by Ellis, who was considered one of the best game video editors. It was no wonder that Jamie felt immersed in the video. As he thought this, the video ended in a flash. The video had this much suction power.

“This is a video that is appealing his skills. It is like he is saying, ‘I’m to this extent.’ It’s awesome,” Jamie said. Then he also mentioned the video editing, “I don’t know who did the video editing, but it is excellent. I think it is probably impossible for us to edit it to this extent.”

Kale responded to Jamie's words, “There is a dedicated editor. He is very famous. It is Ellis from Ellis Movies.”

“He's a great friend. Our editors won’t be any good. At least, this time.” Jamie showed a delighted expression. “We created an outstanding star called MJ in the past. Then in order to make stars in Arena, we recruited attractive players, not just good players. Isn’t that right?”

Kale shrugged at Jamie’s words. It was his method of confirmation.

“If MJ is the god of the past, then it is clear Mr. G will be the god of the future. We have to grab him no matter what it takes.”

***

Hyeonu returned to Aslan, and his first stop was the integrated auction house. Now that he had reached level 32, he felt the need to change weapons. He collected 3,000 gold from selling the three inventories he obtained from Len’s group. It was a very large amount of money, but it didn’t hold up to Hyeonu’s heart.

‘I’m going to buy a unique weapon.’

Now that Taeng was sharing his experience, he needed a unique weapon for faster hunting. It was a weapon that would match even high level hunting grounds.

“Sell this, this too. I can use this.”

Hyeonu also organized the inventory he obtained from his duel with Park Junu’s group. They had been close to level 70, so there were many rare items. However, there was only one thing that Hyeonu could use.

[Swamp Frog Shoes]

[Shoes made from the skin of frogs living in the swamp. If you wear them, it feels like you can jump for some reason.

Rating: Rare

Restrictions: More than 80 agility.

Durability: 200/200

Defense: 40

Effect: Agility +15, jumping height increases slightly.]

‘Isn’t this worth at least 500 gold?’

Hyeonu liked the dark leather shoes. He felt better because he got an item worth 500,000 won for free.

“What should I do while waiting for the items in the auction house to sell?”

Ah! Hyeonu finally remembered. There was the necklace Dakan gave him. The impact of the Raccoon’s unique skill was so great that he forgot about the necklace. Hyeonu opened his inventory and pulled out the necklace that Dakan gave him. The necklace was made of small bones, but a bit of vigor could be felt from the necklace. He suddenly thought of Dakan and Raccoon.

Bururu. Hyeonu trembled subconsciously as he was reminded of Raccoon. It seemed to be imprinted in him. That horror...

“Item Information.”

Hyeonu confirmed the information of the necklace. He thought it would be rare rated at the very least.

“Eh?”