Ranker’s Return

Chapter 614

‘It doesn’t matter. It is past the time to be surprised by this.’

Hyeonu wasn’t surprised by the axe in Raccoon’s hand. No, he tried not to be surprised. In fact, he had never expected Raccoon to create an axe with pure energy. He just thought Raccoon would punch him.

‘It isn’t that surprising when thinking about it again.’

Raccoon was a monster, like the emperor and Lebron. It shouldn’t be surprising that he could make an axe out of pure energy.

‘Maybe he can smash a mountain with pure energy.’

It might be possible for Raccoon, one of the monsters. Hyeonu shouldn’t be surprised by this.

“It isn’t that hard. Why would I be surprised?” Hyeonu replied grumpily to Raccoon. There was no need to get caught up in such low-level provocation for no reason.

“That’s right. It isn’t that difficult. However, it isn’t something that just anyone can do,” Raccoon spoke as he spun around the axe in the air.

It was as Hyeonu said. It wasn’t difficult to make weapons with pure energy. This was for some people. It was impossible for all but a few. They had no sense of freely handling magic power.

“Do I need to know that? My opponents are the ones who can do it.”

There was only one reason Hyeonu didn’t care about them. All of Hyeonu’s stumbling blocks in Arena were those who had the ability.

‘I’m not going to have to fight with other players anyway.’

Once he retired as a professional gamer, there wouldn’t be much need to fight other players. There was already a difference between Hyeonu and regular players. There was no reason for Hyeonu to be pushed back even if hundreds of people flocked.

“You threw out good words. You are right. Then I’ll teach you one last thing. What the sky above is like.”

Raccoon smiled with satisfaction at Hyeonu. The axe in his hand soon disappeared. Raccoon raised his empty hand. Then a very sharp sound was heard from somewhere.

Hyeonu naturally turned his head in the direction of the sound. It was a very dangerous act, but it couldn’t be helped. If Raccoon was causing damage in any way, he would be hurt regardless of whether he looked at Raccoon or looked back.

The identity of the sound was quickly revealed. It was impossible not to know about it. It was the axe with a white handle that Raccoon had held and swung just before. It was flying through the air. The axe was sucked lightly into Raccoon’s hand.

“Now, it is the last one. Look well.”

Raccoon swung the axe in a natural manner. It wasn’t with excessive force or a fast swing. It was slow but natural.

‘Why can’t I move my body?’ Hyeonu was flustered. His body didn’t move. The axe was coming down, but Hyeonu’s body remained in the same spot.

‘The axe is growing?’

Hyeonu continued to keep an eye on Raccoon as he tried to move his body. He looked at how Raccoon was attacking. Raccoon’s axe grew bigger and bigger.

The blade of the axe grew tremendously in size as it gradually descended toward the ground.

‘Move!’

Hyeonu was desperate as he saw the growing axe. Perhaps such efforts worked but Hyeonu’s body finally moved. Hyeonu pulled up all his magic power and injected it into the Mysterious Sky Sword. The Mysterious Sky Sword was covered with purple energy in an instant. The purple energy exuded a very uneasy feeling. It was just like Callioraks. At this moment—

A huge shadow appeared above Hyeonu. The identity of the shadow was Raccoon’s axe, which had become huge. Hyeonu stretched out the Mysterious Sky Sword by moving the body that previously hadn’t moved according to his will. The purple energy crashed with the huge axe rushing toward his head.

There was an intense light as if the world was going to perish.

***

The host came to the stage. He bowed his head as the representative and grabbed the microphone.

“I sincerely apologize to the audience and viewers watching Arena Week. It has been confirmed that ‘Raccoon,’ the boss monster of the third raid time attack, had more than the stats initially set due to an error. It is a fact that the competition isn’t clean. I apologize again.”

There was a problem with Raccoon, the boss of the third raid time attack that decorated the Arena Week finale. To be precise, only the Raccoon that Crescent Moon and Hyeonu faced had a problem.

The other teams faced Raccoon, who had the stats on par with the elemental hydra and Clone, and lost. Hyeonu’s Raccoon was the same as others at first. Then at one point, Raccoon’s stats gradually increased. Finally, there was a bug that brought out some of his original abilities intact.

Quency explained this to the players.

The players who heard the explanation were astonished. Hyeonu fought against a Raccoon who was stronger than the one they faced.

“All relevant matters have been explained to the players. I said they would be given a chance to play again if they wanted, but all the players agreed with the results.”

The problem was the Raccoon that Crescent Moon faced, but the opportunity to try again was given to everyone. Even so, no one expressed the intention to try again. It was because there was no problem with the Raccoon they faced. They knew the result wouldn’t be different even if they fought again.

Of course, they might be able to hold on for a bit longer than the first time. However, that was all. It was obvious they would show a bad appearance, so they couldn’t say they would try again.

Upon hearing the news, Hyeonu also gave up on the retry. He was the party who had the problem, but he didn’t want to fight Raccoon once again. He has also fought Raccoon longer than the other teams. First place had been confirmed and there was no need to suffer for no reason.

In any case, killing Raccoon didn’t give him any benefits. If this was the real Arena, it would’ve been possible to get rewards such as items and experience, but this was Arena Week. The only reward he could get was the ranking and Hyeonu was already ranked first. He couldn’t rise any higher.

“Doing this at the end… Quency must feel it is a pity as well.”

“I don’t know how powerful he is, but he should be great if all the players gave up?”

“Saying it is great… Crescent Moon’s boss monster was overwhelming.”

“In particular, the last attack. Isn’t it as powerful as a dragon’s Breath? I think I’ve seen that type of power in Alley Leader’s video.”

The audience shared their opinions with the friends around them. Some people pointed out Quency’s mistake. Some people wondered why the teams, including Crescent Moon, didn’t challenge the raid again. Nevertheless, most people understood and respected their choice. They thought there was some information they didn’t know and this was the main reason for the players’ decision. They knew all too well about the players’ obsession with ranking and honor. They would never give up without a firm reason.

‘The atmosphere isn’t as bad as I thought.’

The host looked at the stands. The conversations he heard in his ears weren’t too bad. He thought it was okay to just continue the process.

“Then I will announce the results of the third raid time attack. All teams have failed in the raid, so how do we determine the rankings? It is based on time.”

At the end of the host’s words, the names and time of each time appeared on the giant screen.

1st place: Crescent Moon, 16 minutes and 38 seconds.

2nd place: New York Warriors, 5 minutes and 49 seconds.

3rd place: Red Bull America, 5 minutes and 30 seconds.

4th place: PSG, 4 minutes and 44 seconds.

5th place: Manchester, 4 minutes and 36 seconds.

6th place: Zenith, 4 minutes and 35 seconds.

7th place: Xuanhua, 4 minutes and 28 seconds.

8th place: JT Telecom, 4 minutes and 27 seconds.

First place was Crescent Moon as everyone expected.

There was an overwhelming gap between first and second place. It was a difference of more than 10 minutes. There wasn’t much difference from second place onward. The second place New York Warriors and third place Red Bull America had similar records. Then after fourth place, there was only a difference of a few seconds.

“Arena Week’s awards ceremony and the closing ceremony will begin shortly after the players’ break.”

The real end of Arena Week was the awards ceremony. The PvP, siege, and raid time attack that took place over three days—they would choose the MVP for each event and determine the overall winner.

“Until then, we will look at the traces of the three days.”

The raid time attack record on the screen moved to one corner. Then it was filled with the names of each team and the players.

“On the first day of Arena Week, pre-events were held. It was the class change event. Player Gang Hyeonu was the winner of that competition.”

Hyeonu’s name appeared on the screen. Under Hyeonu’s name, there was a short sentence that read: class change winner.

“On the second day, the PvP took place. Luke of Manchester, Aike of PSG, Reina of the New York Warriors, etc. Many players were in good shape.”

The names mentioned by the commentators appeared on the screen. This was also temporary. Their names were all cleared. Hyeonu’s name was engraved on top of their names.

“No matter what anyone says, player Gang Hyeonu was the strongest player in PvP. With 33 victories and 0 losses, he is the only undefeated player.”

33 victories and 0 losses in PvP—it was an overwhelming record. All those known as the aces of each team knelt down in front of Hyeonu. There were no exceptions. Apart from Hyeonu, the rest of the players had at least one loss. The sentence of PvP 33-0 was added under the class change title below Hyeonu’s name.

“On the third day, the siege was held. In the siege, Crescent Moon was the only team that succeeded in defending and took the number one spot.”

Crescent Moon’s name emerged squarely in the center of the screen. They had succeeded in the siege defense. The other seven teams failed to achieve this. The goal of Crescent Moon wasn’t how long they could last, but how much damage they could prevent. It was different from the others.

“Finally, today. On the fourth day of Arena Week and in the raid time attack, Crescent Moon reached first place with an overwhelming clearance time.”

2 minutes and 18 seconds.

4 minutes and 39 seconds.

In the end, they might’ve failed the 3rd raid, but they had an overwhelming combat time of 16 minutes and 38 seconds compared to the other teams. This was once again written under Crescent Moon’s name.

The commentators finished organizing Arena Week. It wasn’t just the audience. The commentators who organized it were also surprised. There wasn’t a single person or team with something written under them except for Crescent Moon and Gang Hyeonu.

The best in the competition were only Crescent Moon and Hyeonu.

“Crescent Moon… Gang Hyeonu… I think these are names that can clean up Arena Week.”