Ranker’s Return

Chapter 395

Emro Sparks’ movements became bustling in an instant, and urgency emerged on the faces of those who had been fighting at ease. Seeing this scene, Mason spoke to Sunny and Yuri, who were with him in the back, “I think Hyung has entered the castle.”

Yuri nodded. It seemed like that to her too. Otherwise, those who had been fighting well so far wouldn’t suddenly retreat with flustered expressions.

“Sunny unni, use the undead,” Yuri asked Sunny to stop the opposing players’ actions. She couldn’t let them go so easily. Of course, it wouldn’t be a big problem anyway even if they went. Hyeonu would be sitting in the inner office before they could even arrive at the city. Still, there were set movements they had to follow. Things had to go as they had planned before the game started.

“I know. I’ll block them as much as possible. You do something about the soldiers,” Sunny replied.

She immediately controlled the undead, moving the fast-moving death knight to dominate the opponents’ backs while the magic of the skeleton mages distracted them. Simultaneously, Sunny cast a curse. Red blood drops appeared in the air and flew toward the opponents. The blood drops were produced by Blood Curse, the skill book that Hyeonu obtained from hunting the vampire marquis.

Hyeonu had given it to Sunny, and she learned it. Blood Curse had the effects of causing a constant decrease in health and afflicting a random abnormal status. Today, the goddess of luck was smiling at Sunny. The movements of the Emro Sparks players slowed down after they were affected by Blood Curse.

Among the numerous abnormal statuses, the one that appeared was the slow abnormal status. For Emro Sparks, it was the worst abnormal status. Upon realizing they were slowed down, the players immediately used skills or items to clear the abnormal status. However, during the moment when they were slowed, Sunny’s undead and the knights of Phinis had already surrounded them.

“Let’s buy some time.” Mason poured magic toward the heads of the Emro Sparks players who didn’t know what to do.

*** 

‘Is it beyond this wall?’

The fast-running Hyeonu slowed down, stopping in front of a rough wall.

‘I have to show something.’

It would be a bit absurd if the siege ended just like this. This was a sentiment felt not by Hyeonu but those watching the game. A siege wasn’t a marathon; they didn’t want to see Hyeonu simply run.

‘No matter how well the rest of us play… In the end, I have to show something.’

Hyeonu knew the expectations people had placed on him, and he was fully prepared to live up to them. This was why he stopped running. Instead, he pulled out the Mysterious Sky Sword, placed it on his shoulder, and stood with his back facing the entrance to the inner castle. It was like he was the master of this castle.

Moments later, the players of Emro Sparks appeared urgently in front of Hyeonu with anxious expressions. They pulled out their weapons and stared with wide eyes at the sight of Hyeonu just standing there.

“Why is he just standing there?”

“I thought we were too late… Isn’t it fortunate?”

“What’s fortunate? Why is he standing there instead of going in?”

The players talked to each other at a certain distance away from Hyeonu. They couldn’t understand it… Why was Alley Leader guarding the entrance to the inner castle?

“Anyone who sees it would think we were coming to take over the inner office.”

This wasn’t a comedy. The roles had been reversed. To be exact, their positions had flipped. Emro Sparks, which had the defending role, should be protecting the castle. Yet now they had to break through the entrance.

“I have been waiting for some time… You’ve arrived later than I expected. I thought I was going to die of boredom,” Hyeonu greeted them with a hand on his hip.

The provocative gesture was just a bonus. However, his relaxed words and actions were buried by the fierce pressure he gave off. The crowd watching through the screen and the people watching through their monitors couldn’t feel it at all. This was a pressure that only the players standing in front of Hyeonu could feel, and it wasn’t without substance. The identity of this pressure was from the combination of his various stats, titles, and skills.

After the initial provocation, Hyeonu didn’t take any further action. He just walked slowly. In his stream, he would’ve shown high-level provocations through his words or actions.

‘I shouldn’t do that here.’

Nevertheless, this wasn’t such a stage. As a pro gamer, the stage was sacred even if the opponents lost their original intentions. Of course, this didn’t mean that players who showed provocative behavior were bad. This was their personality and the way they shone on the stage. It was different, not wrong.

Hyeonu simply chose not to use such a method here. The Emro Sparks players calmly adjusted their combat formation. Hyeonu’s taunts weren’t proper provocations, so they had no effect and were no different from a light greeting. This was nothing compared to the provocations of the people the Emro Sparks players occasionally met in Arena.

They took up a formation they had practiced and fought with countless times, as well as used in hunts and raids. Four melee classes and two priests—this was a mysterious combination that didn’t have any magicians, who could instantly inflict enormous damage or wide area damage. Instead, it focused on the increased recovery from two priests and the outstanding skills of the melee classes.

This was Emro Sparks’ tactic that combined the two types of players. This combination was how they managed to maintain a medium rank in the last league, but this time, the opponent wasn’t a good match for them. The compatibility was the worst. Alley Leader’s damage was stronger than the recovery magic of two priests, and his skills overwhelmed the joint attacks of the four melee players.

‘Damn! The amount of health decreased is much greater than the recovery!’ Park Kyungho, one of Emro Sparks’ melee players, couldn’t help complaining inwardly. He was dissatisfied with the situation he was in and irritated at the enemy who couldn’t be resisted.

Park Kyungho’s usual appearance couldn’t be found at all. The team’s attacks that were usually connected like smooth-running gears couldn’t be seen. Instead, everyone played separately like a broken clock. The moment they blocked Alley Leader’s attack, they stumbled and left their designated positions.

Naturally, they couldn’t show their usual unity. The black-red pure energy exploded countless times, and the fragments of black-red pure energy spread quickly. After getting scratched by the fragments, blood burst out from the bodies of the Emro Sparks players. This didn’t happen to just one or two players but all of them.

“Heal!” Park Kyungho shouted as he bled from all over, yet no recovery magic came to him. It had been a long time since wide-area healing skills were available to Emro Sparks’ priests.

“There are no ranged heals! Two are out!” One of the priests replied.

The single healing skills had already gone to two other players first. The priests were professional gamers, so they used their skills with a quick reaction speed.

“Then I’ll be going first!” The worst news came from Park Kyungho’s mouth. Upon leaving those words behind, he became a corpse. Following that, another player also knelt on the ground. There were two priests and four warriors in Emro Sparks. Since two warriors had the received recovery skills, it was only right for the other two to collapse.

The battle became even simpler after that, filled with a series of light moves like when a grown-up played with children. Hyeonu fired out more pure energy blades, and the opponents blocked them. Nevertheless, Hyeonu immediately fired out some more. He continued to fire them out without stopping.

The Emro Sparks players couldn’t stop the pure energy blades twice in a row, so this was the end. Four people were logged out in turn. 

Hyeonu left behind those who had fallen and headed into the inner castle. On the way to the office, he sent a whisper to Mason, who was engaged in a fierce battle.

-To Mason: You can let go now. Things will become twisted if you kill them all.

It was in preparation for the spectacular finale of the plan. Things would become complicated if the other five of Crescent Moon killed all of the remaining Emro Sparks players, and the plan would be broken. Everything Hyeonu had done so far would be for naught.

-From Mason: They are running over now. They killed the death knight quickly. Then they broke through when Sunny unni was caught off guard.

Hyeonu smiled with satisfaction knowing there was no deviation from his plan. Even today, the painting was perfect. All that was left was the finishing touch.

*** 

Hyeonu climbed the stairs to the inner office with dignified steps. Perhaps the inner office was modeled off the imperial palace as the seat of authority was placed on top of stairs. It was different from Phinis’ inner office, where only chairs and a desk were placed. Hyeonu suddenly had a thought when he saw this.‘Should I do the emperor cosplay?’

This was to be the finishing touch, so it should be different. There was obviously a big difference between the bright eyes of a child or the dull eyes of a rotten child, much like the difference between Hyeonu’s and the emperor’s gazes. As such, the emperor cosplay could create the difference that makes this the best performance. After all, the emperor had the magic power to attract people’s attention.

‘Isn’t it boring to just sit down?’

Hyeonu’s atmosphere changed with every step he climbed. He could feel it behind him. The mood was changing. By the time he reached the final stairs, the mask that covered Hyeonu’s face was gone. He had taken it off and placed it in his inventory This was Hyeonu’s preparation for a perfect imitation.

Before long, Hyeonu turned around to sit on the throne, burying himself deeply in it. Then he closed his eyes slowly.

‘What did the emperor do here?’

With closed eyes, Hyeonu recalled the emperor. He was a man who would look down at Hyeonu with boredom but also made interested expressions sometimes. It was like looking at a bored child. His eyes, though, were clear and transparent. However, there was a fact Hyeonu was well aware of.

‘There is a monster living in it.’

Inside that clear and transparent lake in his eyes, there was a monster who was more powerful and ruthless than anyone else.

‘Sigh, it’s cold, so cold.’ Hyeonu trembled slightly.

The shaking was so subtle that no one could see it. His body reacted abnormally just from remembering the emperor. Wanting to end it quickly, Hyeonu started acting.

*** 

On the screen, Hyeonu opened his closed eyes and stared at the entrance of the interior office. His vision wasn’t clear like usual. In fact, his eyes were unfocused enough to make his sight blurry. However, something felt strange. Beyond the screen…

“His eyes are strange.”

“They are lazy eyes, so why am I so creeped out?”

“Look at this. I have goosebumps…”

The crowd felt a strange emotion from seeing Hyeonu’s weird eyes. They couldn’t put it into words, but it was definitely special. Even though the siege was running overtime to Hyeonu’s actions, the host didn’t take any action. Instead, he just watched.

Before long, Hyeonu slowly stood up with his bored eyes. He started with straightening his back before finally getting up from the throne to look around. Those who saw this scene finally realized what was the emotion they felt—fear. They were terrified like a rat in front of a cat. Arena Stadium was quiet.

A voice echoed through such a stadium. It belonged to Jang Junhyung, the host in charge of this competition. “The siege between Emro Sparks and Crescent Moon has ended with Crescent Moon occupying the inner office. Then I will start the PvP event after the break.”