Ranker's Return

Chapter 878

“Yes, Kale. Please speak.”

Two days had passed since Hyeonu threw the bombshell remark.

Hyeonu contacted Kale and told him about the event.

-First of all, the approximate materials have been sent by email. Check it out and we will talk.

Kale sent Hyeonu the information he had organized by email first. It was because it made much more sense for Hyeonu to see it with his own eyes than for Kale to talk about it alone.

“Okay, I am looking at the email.”

Hyeonu opened the email that Kale sent and checked the contents inside.

‘I think this is it.’

[Alley Leader-Gang Hyeonu event status.]

The size of the file wasn’t very large. It was only a few megabytes at most.

‘This is enough.’

Still, that was enough. It was because what Hyeonu received from Kale was only two days’ worth of data.

-Let me start with the explanation. The first part describes how participation in the event has been happening over the past two days.

Hyeonu heard Kale’s words and immediately opened the file in the email. He quickly skimmed through the file before Kale’s explanation continued. The file had a moderate mix of photos and writing. To be precise, there was a photo and text explaining the photo.

They were the two day trends. On the first day after the announcement of the event in streaming, the applications for the event were mainly through social media. Then as time passed, posts started to appear on the community site analyzing and evaluating Alley Leader.

Kale continued to explain what Hyeonu was reading. He was doing it in a way that was easy for Hyeonu to understand.

-Naturally, social media had the most event participation in the beginning. They didn’t have enough time to physically write in the community or post a video to A-World.

Hyeonu rolled the mouse wheel while listening to Kale’s explanation.

“What is the analysis article? Did they analyze my play style?”

At the same time, his mouth didn’t stop as he reacted to Kale’s words.

-No, they seem to have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to analyze your play style. It seems to be creating a chronology based on your live stream.

Hyeonu asked with a surprised expression, “A chronology?”

A chronology—it meant recording important events over time.

‘They are writing such a chronology? The subject is me?’

Hyeonu’s eyes widened at the completely unexpected words.

-Didn’t you know? In some cases, there has been cleanup done since the days of meleegod.

“Are you talking about the World Tree?”

The World Tree—it was a site that organized records related to A-World. It was a site where anyone could edit or insert a record. It wasn’t a specific person leaving a record.

-You know it. There is a huge amount organized in that place.

Hyeonu frowned upon hearing Kale’s words.

‘Then what is the difference between copy and paste?’

It was just putting out what was written in the World Tree with some modifications. They stole the efforts of an unspecified number of people and packed it as their own. This was an obvious theft unless the person posting to the community had written everything in the World Tree.

“All such articles will be excluded from the event. It isn’t their own content,” Hyeonu said in a firm manner.

-I understand. I was going to ask that. It would be better to post something meaningless on social media than to present other people’s things as if it is your own in this manner.

Kale nodded and agreed with Hyeonu’s words.

‘What is number two?’

Hyeonu quickly moved onto the next content.

[2. Event Main Participants]

[At first, there were many members of the public, but as time passed, there were many famous players as well as large guilds. However, there are also those engaged in illegal activities, so we are constantly monitoring them.]

‘It went as I expected...’

Hyeonu shook his head. He thought it would be like this from the beginning. It was because the unique item was one they wanted to receive, even if it was through that method.

‘I thought perhaps there wouldn’t be any because I told them beforehand...’

In just two days, people doing illegal things already showed up. He thought that people who were obsessed with desires truly weren’t ordinary.

“People who are doing illegal things should be eliminated right away. You’ve already collected the evidence, right?”

-Yes, it was exactly 100 people doing it and it took 38 people. We collected all the evidence.

Kale had already taken action. Evidence was collected and he was prepared to publicize how they had acted illegally.

Hyeonu smiled with satisfaction and asked the next question, “I understand. Additionally, the big guilds have participated in the event?”

-Yess, it isn’t only large guilds, but also named players participating. They can’t give up the chance to get a unique item for free. Isn’t it a unique item that can’t be bought with money? There is even news that professional teams will be participating.

Kale felt it once again when he saw the names of those participating in the event that Hyeonu was holding. It was the fact that this man’s influence was truly extraordinary. It wasn’t just those looking to make money who were participating. Pro teams, large guilds, named players, and even numerous streamers. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that all those who could wear the item that Hyeonu was giving away were participating.

“Is that so? It isn’t even a very good item... I think freebies are good.”

-What do you mean by it isn’t very good? It is an item that can’t be worn because one doesn’t have it. As far as I know, there are only a few items like this. Wouldn’t it be better to have a distinct performance than a unique item with ordinary stats?

Hyeonu diligently rolled the mouse wheel and moved his eyes as he listened to Kale. He had nothing more to ask.

‘This type of thing... it is meaningless.’

The part that Hyeonu had casually skipped over was the one who was closest to 1st place among those who participated in the current event and who would be close to 1st place by the deadline. Such things were written.

‘It has only been two days.’

There was still plenty of time left. It wouldn’t be strange if it was changed. The difference was still too small.

“Is that so? Good luck for the rest of the duration of the event, Kale. Once this is over, I will go to New York. Let’s meet.”

Hyeonu closed the file that appeared on his laptop screen and ended the call with Kale. Now was the time to get back to work.

***

Hyeonu, who had reclaimed one of the northern cities, felt troubled. What next move should he make to his advantage? He had a lot of troubles.

‘Should I take control of more cities... or should I end it here?’

Hyeonu’s concern was about continuing the war in the north. The existing plan was to retake two cities.

‘If I tell Edward, then it will be easy to take back one more city...’

There wasn’t just one. If he had to speak, he could recover all the cities by pushing back the guardians while gradually reducing the number of undead. However, that was very inefficient. The time it took to retake a city was not small.

‘Even if it is a planned game of go-stop, I have to match everything.’

It wasn’t possible to retake the cities one by one in one day. On the surface, he had to act out a play so that it wasn’t awkward. It would naturally take more time than necessary.

‘If I get rewarded for only one city... I don’t need to retake more...’

The skill book that the emperor had set aside for Hyeonu—this was what deepened Hyeonu’s worries. If it was only imperial contributions being given, then he would retake two cities as originally planned. The more cities he conquered, the greater the rewards.

Then what if he could get a skill book with just one city? There was no need to waste more time. No matter how much imperial contributions were received as a reward, there was no way it would be more valuable than a skill book. From then on, it was a waste.

‘If the undead army remains... it will definitely be useful in the future.’

Additionally, the undead army was a force under Hyeonu’s control.

Edward and the Venom Guild—using these two, Hyeonu could swing it in his favor.

‘If there is someone I don’t like, I can push them away.’

In recent times, there were a number of large guilds interested in the north. There were infinite prey called the undead army. This accelerated the level up speed and the nearby cities started to develop. Players flocked to spend gold, so the tax revenue started to rise sharply.

‘It is a weapon, a weapon. It is also an invisible weapon.’

Hyeonu’s thoughts started to tilt to one side. He was thinking about persuading the emperor to give the skill book in order to withdraw from the north.

‘There are other quests. There are too many troubles spending time here.’

Honestly, the biggest problem was that Hyeonu himself didn’t have much fun in the north. The repeated wars were boring. His level and skill proficiency rose quickly, but that was it. The fight with the guardian was fun at first, but now it was boring. The pace of change wasn’t enough to refine anything.

‘I will have to raise my specs and come back to fight.’

Crucially, Hyeonu had a few ways to raise his specs.

‘I can get the skill book from the emperor and find the giants’ legacy.’

There were still two of Larenix’s legacies that hadn’t been found. It would definitely be a great help in raising Hyeonu’s specs.

‘Just based on the Guardian’s Spear... it is huge.’

The Guardian’s Spear, which had now become a ring on Hyeonu’s finger, was one of Larenix’s legacies. The Guardian’s Spear had ridiculous specs to use as a weapon and it was excellent even as a ring. Something that was excellent for Hyeonu was an item that other players could only see in their dreams.

‘Yes, let’s go.’

Hyeonu completely made up his mind. Retaking the cities would end here. It was already an achievement that no one else had accomplished. The city with tens of thousands of players still couldn’t occupy the cities that were the guardians’ bases. No, they would continue to be in that stalemate.

The reason they were able to maintain the front lines right now was because Hyeonu told the Venom Guild to refrain from making the guardian act as much as possible.

‘Stay there for the rest of your lives.’

“I am going.”

Hyeonu disappeared from the north.

***

"Your Majesty, can I come in?”

Hyeonu was standing in front of the great hall. Everyone knew Hyeonu’s purpose for coming here. It was to meet the emperor.

“Come in.”

The emperor greeted Hyeonu with a lazy voice. At the emperor’s permission, Hyeonu pushed open the door and entered the great hall. Then something colorful shot over Hyeonu’s head.

‘What?’

Hyeonu raised his head with a surprised expression. There was a small colorful bear that was smiling. Hyeonu saw it and made a surprised expression.

‘Tang-E? No, that is a magic spirit.’

Hyeonu recognized the identity of the bear the moment he saw it. The magic spirit. It was clearly a magic spirit. It wasn’t surprising that the emperor had a magic spirit and that it looked like Tang-E.

‘He is smiling...’

The emperor had a gentle smile on his face as he looked at the magic spirit. It was surprising.

‘Did the emperor still have this type of emotion?’

Nevertheless, Hyeonu didn’t outwardly show it. He kept his usual expression like he hadn’t seen anything.

“Your Majesty, I have come to tell you news about retaking the lost imperial cities.”

Hyeonu pulled and carefully brought out the reason for his visit.

“Already? It is faster than I thought.”

The emperor reached out and called for the magic spirit while responding to Hyeonu’s words. The emperor’s gaze was fixed on the magic spirit. He didn’t give Hyeonu any attention.

‘I must receive it by all means.’

A tug-of-war between Hyeonu and the emperor had begun.

‘He came just as expected.’

It was a strange tug-of-war where no one was holding the line.