Ranker’s Return

Chapter 479

The moment Jang Junhyung’s words ended, the lights of Arena Stadium turned off. There was only one place where light appeared—a huge screen. Dazzling light was pouring from it. Then a video started to play on the screen.

A familiar man that everyone knew spoke in a familiar voice: -I wonder how long you can continue to make fun with that mouth. I think 30 seconds. I will shut that mouth in 30 seconds.

He made a character deletion bet. As everyone knew, the result was his victory. Why? If he had lost in that situation, there wouldn’t be the current Alley Leader. The video on the screen changed to a different scene. This time, the man wasn’t wearing a mask; he had a bare-faced appearance. He wasn’t alone at the moment. There were other people around him.

-Where are you going? You should die here.

The man smiled brightly and sealed off the other people’s retreat. In front of them, a dark elf chieftain was holding a dagger and releasing a fierce pressure. The man waited for all the other players to die. Once they were all logged out, the man finally started to move and slaughtered the dark elf chieftain in an instant.

“It’s showing Alley Leader’s history.”

“Isn’t it more like Alley Leader’s life story?”

At this point, the people gathered at Arena Stadium and those watching the competition through various devices noticed the point of the video. They couldn’t help but realize what it was since the featured series of scenes were all from famous videos. It just wasn’t recognized immediately due to the change in perspective.

All the current videos on A-World showed Hyeonu’s face, whereas these were videos from Hyeonu’s point of view. So, it was natural that the viewers didn’t recognize them at once.

‘Yes, something like this happened.’ Hyeonu was watching the screen more intensively than anyone else. Unlike others, Hyeonu had experienced these things himself and couldn’t help feeling emotional.

Jamie smiled when he saw Hyeonu standing still on stage. “It is worth Ellis’ hard work.”

This video had been made by Ellis, who was now the exclusive video director of Nike Management. It was a celebration of Hyeonu’s Winter League victory. Hyeonu had experienced many things since his early days as Alley Leader. A number of them, such as killing boss monsters or fighting with large guilds, were now being revealed.

“So there was something like this.”

“I wondered why they fought. This was why.”

People focused on the behind-the-scenes stories that they hadn’t seen in previous videos. This video had a different feeling to what they’d seen previously. Apart from the occasional exclamation, only the sound of the video was heard in Arena Stadium.

After a while, the screen turned black again. The video prepared by Nike had finished playing.

“The video on the screen just now was a celebration of Crescent Moon’s victory by Nike Management. They feature the highlights of the Arena play of Gang Hyeonu, Crescent Moon’s captain,” Jang Junhyung’s voice rang out as the lights were restored to Arena Stadium. “We will start the awards ceremony now. First, we will present the trophy to Crescent Moon, who are ranked 1st in the Winter League. The trophy will be given to Gang Hyeonu, Crescent Moon’s captain and representative.”

A man in his 30s and dressed in a neat suit walked out of the entrance and came to the Crescent Moon players. His name was Kim Jaeseung. He was one of the major shareholders of Quency and the president of the Korean Virtual Reality Game Association.

“Kim Jaeseung, president of the Virtual Reality Game Association, will present the trophy,” Jang Junhyung added a brief introduction for those who might not know Kim Jaeseung. Kim Jaeseung was famous but only to those people who were interested. His fame was low compared to Jamie’s. Jamie was often mentioned in articles related to Hyeonu, while there wasn’t much news of Kim Jaeseung.

“You are really amazing, player Gang Hyeonu. I won’t see you on stage like this in the future, but I wish you greater success as a streamer,” Kim Jaeseung said as he handed the trophy to Hyeonu. His words were at the level of a ritual—just common polite talk. However, his eyes were filled with his sincerity. The reason was simple. He had such a sincere expression because he was so grateful to Hyeonu.

‘Thanks to this guy, the stock price has gone up…’ Kim Jaeseung had benefited a lot from Hyeonu. It was Hyeonu’s credit that Kim Jaeseung’s honor and wealth increased rapidly. Since the rise of Alley Leader, Quency’s stocks had continued to soar. Unsurprisingly, Quency’s stocks would increase only if the number of players increased, which meant Quency’s upward trend had actually been stuck on pause for a while.

Then Alley Leader set fire to it, so the stocks that Kim Jaeseung owned naturally also rose in value. Yet that wasn’t all. The stock price for Kim Jaeseung himself rose. He secured considerable influence in the association due to the punishments served out as part of the match-fixing incident as well as the success of the Winter League. Kim Jaeseung filled the high ranking posts that had been emptied, including auditors, with people who favored him. These things overlapped, so Kim Jaeseung couldn’t help but favor Hyeonu.

‘Why is he praising me so much?’ Hyeonu wasn’t aware of these facts though. He just felt that Kim Jaeseung’s sincere eyes were burdensome. People far away or looking through a device couldn’t tell, but Hyeonu was standing right in front of Kim Jaeseung and couldn’t miss the heated glance.

“Thank you, I will do my best for the rest of Arena Week.” Hyeonu shook hands with Kim Jaeseung and stepped back naturally, handing the trophy to the other players of Crescent Moon. “Lift it up in order. We have to take photos.”

The players pushed the trophy at each other. Whenever this happened, Hyeonu’s arms were pushed here and there. The trophy eventually ended up with Dwayne. Perhaps it was the impact of living in Korea, but they gave Dwayne, the oldest player, the chance to lift the trophy second. Taking the trophy from Hyeonu’s hand, Dwayne raised it over his head vigorously.

Then Chae Yunho asked him a question: “Player Dwayne, can you tell us how you feel lifting the trophy?”

Dwayne held the trophy with his left hand and lifted the microphone with his right hand.

Surprisingly, Dwayne answered in Korean even though it was awkward: “Um… I would like to say that I am really grateful to Mister Gang for creating this opportunity. If it wasn’t for him, I would still be a player of a level where I was ignored and teased by my friends.”

Dwayne’s answer was more interesting than expected, and Chae Yunho’s eyes lit up. He asked, “So why don’t you take this opportunity to say something to your friends today?”

Dwayne nodded at Chae Yunho’s words. He didn’t show it, but he had something he wanted to say. Unlike before, Dwayne spoke in English: “Then I’ll do so. Crescent Moon won the Arena Winter League in South Korea, and we will also be the winner at Arena Week. I am a player of Crescent Moon. What are you guys doing?”

Dwayne expressed it all like he had been waiting to do so. His message was intense. In a way, it could be considered rude, but no one thought so. Rather, they cheered for his spirit: “Waaaah! Bravo! Dwayne!!!”

Dwayne waved the trophy a few times before handing it to Sunny as she was the next oldest. After Sunny, it was just random. There was no age difference among the remaining three people, so it didn’t matter who held it. In the end, the six people stood in a circle and held the trophy at the same time.

This was how the Winter League ended. They got the record of winning the championship undefeated in their first year.

***

Crescent Moon’s waiting room was as loud as usual. No, it was a bit excessive this time. It was because there were more people here than usual. After a match, the waiting room would usually have a total of nine people, including two employees and Yeongchan who acted as the manager.

Meanwhile, there were a few more people today. Kim Seokjung and Gang Junggu had flown from China to meet Hyeonu, and Jamie and Kale had flown even further from the US. Finally…

“Jennifer? How are you here…?” Dwayne opened and closed his eyes again like he couldn’t believe it. As if this wasn’t enough, he rubbed his eyes with his hands several times.

“Were you even thinking about me? There were no calls… So I just came. I flew over with Jamie,” Jennifer, Dwayne’s other half, said. She was visiting South Korea to meet Dwayne.

Dwayne quickly narrowed the distance to Jennifer and held her in his arms. The two people held each other for a long time without speaking. Then Jennifer raised her head and stared at Dwayne while whispering, “Congratulations, truly.”

Hearing that, Dwayne’s eyes watered up. The others in the room sensed the rapid change in atmosphere, and their expressions became strange. There was no other couple in the waiting room. There wasn’t even a pair of people of opposite sexes who liked each other, let alone being in a couple.

“Hyung-nim? Shall we go to the party? Where should we go? Gangnam?” It started with Hyeonu. He sacrificed himself to break the atmosphere.

“No, we are going to Hannam-dong. A day like this should be enjoyed with acquaintances. Just friends of friends, okay?” Gang Junggu noticed Hyeonu’s intentions and acted in an exaggerated manner on purpose. It attracted the attention of the others.

“Hannam-dong? What is over there? Is it Itaewon?” Yeongchan also quickly joined the conversation. He was uncomfortable with this atmosphere. In fact, he was more uncomfortable because his relationship wasn’t going well.

Gang Junggu shook his head. “No, there is a house in Hannam-dong. We will go there.” 

It was Hannam-dong, not Itaewon. Moreover, they would be going to a party venue he had decorated himself. He added, “If you have friends you want to call, you can call them. It is okay up to 20 people.”

“Is the place that big? How big is the house?” Lee Hoon asked with a very curious expression. No, it was more like he was talking to himself. He wasn’t bold enough yet to speak comfortably to Gang Junggu.

“I think it is just okay. It isn’t very big,” Gang Junggu answered anyway. His words weren’t wrong. In absolute terms, it was a spacious and nice house, but that wasn’t the case when compared to Kim Seokjung’s mansion. Kim Seokjung’s mansion in China was spacious and splendid. It was several times larger than most mansions. Additionally, it had a swimming pool and a very large yard.

“Then let’s go. Dwayne? What will you do? Will you go to the party? It’s fine if you don’t go. You have such a beautiful woman coming to see you. You must need your own time.” Hyeonu sincerely hoped that Dwayne wouldn’t come.

However, Dwayne defied Hyeonu’s expectations in a very brutal manner.

“No, I have to go. We must go to a party like this. Right, Jennifer?” Dwayne said.

Jennifer nodded. After all, she never stopped Dwayne from doing what he wanted to do. She always just nodded and listened.

Seeing this scene, the others sighed.