Ranker's Return

Chapter 490

Translator: rainbowturtle

Editor: LD & Jyazen

“Who are you?!” the guard, no—the Yeokcheon Group member shouted at Hyeonu who was exerting pressure on his shoulder.

“Did you forget me after only a few months?” Hyeonu recited the familiar song lyrics. Simultaneously, he pressed harder against the shoulder of the Yeokcheon Group member. The Yeokcheon Group member was unable to overcome Hyeonu’s strength and ended up kneeling on the ground. However, even that wasn’t enough as his knees started to sink into the ground.

“I’m sure there are many Samsungga members who died in my hands...” Hyeonu said.

Hearing those words, the guards started to retrace their memories. The hint was the time period that Hyeonu had mentioned. A span of a few months and a man who had killed many people...

“Dark red armor... Dark red mask...?” With these two clues, the guards finally remembered. They had heard of a man dressed like this.

‘A few months ago... The civil war?!’

One of the guards remembered Hyeonu’s identity and shouted a name, “Ghost?!!”

‘Ghost’ was the title the members of the Samsungga gave to Hyeonu after he disappeared. The name was for a human butcher who had given the Samsungga to Chen Long, the current leader of the Samsungga, and a monster who completely dealt with the remnants of the Samsungga. It was a name that incited feelings of wonder and horror.

“Ghost? I don’t like it very much... Well, it doesn’t matter.” Hyeonu kicked with his feet like cracking a whip, and his toes struck the spine of the Yeokcheon Group member.

“Keok!” The Yeokcheon Group member fell to the ground and couldn’t move as extreme pain filled him.

“By the way, what were you talking about? What do you mean by Chen Long disappeared?” Hyeonu asked the guards while stepping on the back of the Yeokcheon Group member. Chen Long’s disappearance wasn’t supposed to have happened. This meant the quest was a very long way from being cleared.

‘I wish it’s simply him going into seclusion...’

In spite of that, Hyeonu’s hopes were crushed as the words that flowed from the guard’s mouth were exactly the opposite of Hyeonu’s wish.

“To be exact, he led his household members to Shalun Mountain exactly three months ago. They were in touch for the first fortnight... No one knows what happened after that.” The guard’s words were shocking.

The Cheonryong Group was a group that only gathered the best in the Samsungga. In the West Continent, they were like the imperial knights and the Knights of Keon. Yet the entire group had gone missing...

‘The matter has become a bit bigger.’ Hyeonu’s expression behind the mask sharpened. He thought the reward was too little compared to the situation presented before him.

‘An organization without a leader is bound to shake...’

“Is there any other power struggle within the Samsungga?” Hyeonu asked. Feeling the Yeokcheon Group member under his foot struggle, Hyeonu once again gave strength to his foot.

“No, most people are concerned about the life or death of Chen Long. They are all of one mind.”

Contrary to Hyeonu’s speculation, the Samsungga was very stable. It hadn’t been long since Chen Long had taken over the Samsungga, but Hyeonu had killed many of its members, so there was no one left who would oppose Chen Long.

“Take care of this guy. I will go looking for Chen Long. If you have a problem, you can use my name,” Hyeonu said. He hoped as much as possible that there would be no more problems. The bigger the problem became, the longer the task would take to resolve and the more delayed his return to the demon world would be.

‘The emperor absolutely can’t visit Etono when I’m not there.’

Hyeonu’s eyes glowed.

***

Based on the information the guards had heard, Hyeonu moved to Shalun Mountain. Shalun Mountain was quite a distance from Linakalu. However, Hyeonu had a number of return charms in his inventory that allowed him to move to cities near Shalun Mountain. It wasn’t difficult to move to Shalun Mountain as long as he used one of them.

‘By the way, why does it have to be here?’

Hyeonu sighed with an annoyed face. Upon arriving at Shalun Mountain, Hyeonu had exited Arena and searched for information about it on Arena’s community.

‘It’s the worst field that has ever appeared?’

Shalun Mountain was the new ‘worst field’ among players. There was only one reason for this—the hunting efficiency was too low.

‘The paradise of attribute monsters.’

For some reason, Shalun Mountain was filled with groups of monsters with water, fire, earth, wind, lightning, and other attributes. They were divided into sections, but the size of the field wasn’t that large. Combined with the monsters’ various attributes, it was hard to keep hunting monsters without a break. This was the case even if there were half a dozen parties of six people or parties specialized in certain attributes.

‘Thus, it is the worst field.’

Of course, this didn’t matter much to Hyeonu. Hyeonu had Tang-E, who was a pet that encompassed these three attributes—fire, ice, and lightning.

“Tang-E, eat.”

As always, Tang-E responded right away to Hyeonu’s call. “Food, where is the food, Master dude?”

Tang-E looked for meat the moment he appeared, but all he could see was Hyeonu standing there.

“Where is the meat, the meat?!!!” Tang-E climbed up Hyeonu’s body and shook the latter’s head. However, nothing came out. Tang-E was only met with Hyeonu’s words.

“I can’t feed those who don’t work.” Hyeonu shook his head at Tang-E with a firm expression on his face. The rules had changed now. The meal would be provided after the labor.

“Uwaah! No way, Master dude!!” Tang-E shook Hyeonu’s head even harder.

“I am still giving it to you. Once you’re done hunting, I’ll give you even more than before. How about double?” Hyeonu tried to trade with Tang-E.

Tang-E’s expression changed when he heard he would receive double the amount of meat. His depressed face became lively, and a smile appeared.

“Okay, Master dude. Let’s hurry up and hunt. Who should we kill? What type of guy is it today?” Tang-E urged Hyeonu with a motivated face. He was running wild for a different reason from before.

‘Foolish guy.’ A sneer appeared on Hyeonu’s face when he saw Tang-E like this. It was true that Hyeonu would give Tang-E double the meat. However, Tang-E usually ate until his stomach was full, and he filled the Subspace before returning to Bung Bung Island. In other words, even if it were doubled, he wouldn’t be able to eat or take more with him than he already did usually since the usual amount was already his limit.

‘Tang-E is done. Now I just need to turn on the streaming?’

Hyeonu started to set the streaming settings with neat movements. He needed to stream three days a week, which was more than he thought. It was a period where he couldn’t afford to prepare dramatic content, so he had to fill up the number of times by showing ordinary hunting like today.

Hyeonu thought about a title that would capture viewers’ attention at once.

‘Which one would be better?’

There were a few titles that came to mind, but they weren’t very appealing. The impact wasn’t strong. They were ordinary titles that were no different from what others had.

‘It can’t be helped because today’s stream itself is nothing special.’

Hyeonu entered a title in the title field.

[Back to the East Continent with Alley Leader, streaming the attack on Shalun Mountain]

Hyeonu started streaming immediately after setting the title. A waiting time didn’t exist.

‘It isn’t a problem if there isn’t one.’

It had already been proven with a few streams that the absence of a waiting time didn’t impact the number of viewers.

-Hi hi.

-I really feel like the league is over.The stream is turned on so often...

-I had the sense to run over before the notification came~

The moment Hyeonu turned on the stream, viewers swarmed in like bees. Originally, A-World had a notification function, but there was a delay of a few minutes. So, a waiting time was implemented to overcome that.

‘They came so fast.’

However, today’s viewers entered Hyeonu’s stream very fast. It was a tremendous pace that was incomparable to the last few times.

“Hello, everyone. This is Alley Leader who is streaming three out of seven days. Thank you for coming at a time when the notification didn’t even go off.”

Hyeonu let go of his admiration and greeted the viewers.

-Isn’t this the basics?We have to come the moment the stream is turned on.

-Our Alley Leader is streaming. How can we not come?

-Moreover, how can we not press it when Tang-E in the thumbnail is so big?

Reality was different. There was only one reason why the viewers came to Hyeonu’s stream—the bear in the small thumbnail. Before they even looked at the streaming title, they saw Tang-E in the thumbnail and instinctively entered Hyeonu’s streaming.

‘As expected of Tang-E...’

Hyeonu stroked the head of Tang-E, who played the role of filial son, and spoke brightly about today’s streaming, “It is as the title says. Today’s stream will feature an attack on one of the most remote areas in the East Continent, Shalun Mountain.”

-Shalun Mountain?

-What are you going to do here?I’d rather you choose a popular field.

-The demon world hunting is good as well.

-Why Shalun Mountain?

The moment Hyeonu’s words were over, the audience expressed their strong opposition. An attack on Shalun Mountain was of no interest to the viewers. Now, their attention was only focused on the demon world.

“What about Shalun Mountain? There is no better hunting ground as long as the attributes are matched. It is easy to hunt, they give a lot of experience, and the level of items dropped is very high. You can get at least two unique items a day when you kill a boss monster.”

Hyeonu did his best to sell Shalun Mountain. He decorated it with beautiful words. Still, the viewers weren’t stupid. They didn’t fall for such words. For them, hunting on Shalun Mountain was impossible.

-Still, we can’t hunt there.

-It is hard to match attributes.

-Plus, there is a large guild controlling it.

-I’d rather go around the Balder Mountains than hunt there.

Shalun Mountain was a controlled area. Hyeonu’s sugar-coated words were true, but there was no way to hunt there even if they knew it.

“Controlled? I don’t know which one...” Hyeonu frowned when he saw the messages. Shalun Mountain shouldn’t be a controlled hunting area. It had been too long since it was made public for someone to preempt the rights.

“My understanding is that Shalun Mountain is too old a field to be controlled. This might sound arrogant, but I will say it here. Starting today, the guild that controls Shalun Mountain should stop immediately. Otherwise...” Hyeonu’s mouth closed.

A terrible silence flowed for a few seconds. Then Hyeonu’s mouth opened again: “I can’t be responsible for my actions either. If you are confident, keep doing it.”

Hyeonu was a monster who did everything for his own stream, especially if it didn’t make things deviate further.