Ranker Who Lives Twice

“Yul.”

A man stepped forward.

The man appeared to be their leader.

A handsome figure with a strong physique. He was a swordsman carrying a big sword on his waist.

Yul looked at them with a curl on his lips.

“What is it? Do we still have things to talk about?”

“How did you….”

“I don’t need to tell you how I got out from there now, do I?”

“….”

The man couldn’t say anything.

His eyes were filled with confusion.

The teammate who had only been a burden and therefore was left behind in the middle of the boss room, had now come back alive.

He didn’t know what to make of this situation.

Yul didn’t hide his hostility towards them. Yet, he wasn’t stupid enough to reveal his murderous intent.

Even though he was seething with anger, he knew that in this world power dictates everything. And Yul did not have the power to take revenge on them for now.

Ignoring them was the right answer.

“I don’t know what you’re going to say, but please, fuck off. I know you don’t even want to see me, ‘cause just looking at you also makes me sick. So let’s just pretend we don’t know each other until the tutorial is over. As you know, I don’t have any power to do anything to you guys anyway, do I?”

But despite his rambling, the four of them just stood there hesitating.

They showed no sign of leaving Yul alone. Rather, they were busy looking at each other.

“What the hell are you guys waiting for?”

Yul scowled at them as his patience ran out.

At last, prompted by the glares of the other three, the leader bit his lower lip and suddenly bent his waist.

“By any means possible, we want to apologize for what happened before.”

Yul’s expression became completely distorted.

“What is this bullshit?”

“And also, I have a favor to ask you.”

“A favor?”

“What happened at that time, would you keep it a secret?”

“What?”

“We’re going to… sorry, I can’t tell you the details, but what happened between us, please don’t talk about it with anyone else. We’re begging you.”

The other three also bowed down.

“Please do us this favor.”

“Yul, please.”

“For old time’s sake, think of what we used to be.”

Yul kept his mouth shut.

Watching them bowing down, Yul could still remember the incident playing like a video in his head.

In the boss room, where their team had struggled several days to pass through, Yul was told that he was useless and was cast as a bait.

He begged them, asking how could they do this to him and cried out for help, but they didn’t even think of looking back and ruthlessly went on their way.

When he first met them in the waiting room of Section A, he thought he had met some really nice teammates.

They were all polite, and they were quite skilled.

And although he had been repeatedly warned by the elders of his family that The Tower was a dangerous world, they were people who had made him think otherwise.

But such expectations were shattered.

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, but get the hell out of here. I don’t want to see your faces anymore.”

Then Yul quickly turned his back.

The leader was vexed and bit his lower lip.

‘This won’t do. If I leave things go like this, the opportunity might vanish into thin air.”

Their leader, Kaen, had some complicated feelings inside.

Just as they got out of Section A, he had thought his hellish life was finally over.

Although the fact that they had thrown Yul as a bait to divert the copper doll’s attention troubled him, he thought of it as an inevitable sacrifice in order to save more lives.

Most importantly, Yul’s ability simply allowed him to read the flow of mana.

He wasn’t playing a big part in the raid, so even if he dropped out, it wouldn’t have much of an impact on the team’s strength.

In fact, he believed that things were fine as long as he could save more people at the expense of Yul’s sacrifice.

So Kaen led his teammates forward and went directly to find the man in the waiting room of Section B.

Bild.

It was the name of the player who had tried to recruit them before the tutorial had started.

“We’re called Arangdan. You guys, I like the look in your eyes. Usually, people with that kind of look show great prospects. Come with us. I’ll be at the waiting room of Section B, come find me anytime if you want to join us.”

At first, they thought he was some kind of freak and didn’t think much of him.

But they found out much later, that Arangdan was a big name in the tutorial.

It was the top clan that had been practically dominating the tutorial for a long time.

Apparently, Arangdan had some connections in The Tower, or that’s what he had heard.

Arangdan was like a vigilante group, formed to prevent chaos within the tutorial.

They tried to prevent all kinds of tricks and cheats, and create a stage where players could play fair and square.

As a result, the selection of their members was strictly managed.

Everything was carefully and meticulously examined, whether the volunteer had done any bad deed, whether they had attempted to threaten or rob an ordinary person, and so on.

As such, for Kaen and his party the sudden return of Yul was like a bolt out of the blue.

‘Damn it, if Yul spills the secret somewhere…!’

He was supposed to meet with Bild this evening.

Kaen’s group had already mentioned that Yul “voluntarily” sacrificed himself in order to save them.

But what if he spoiled their plan?

Everything would be over.

‘There’s a rumor that Arangdan is under direct control of a giant guild in The Tower. If we lose their favor now, we’ll be in real trouble.’

Rumors said that Arangdan was specifically created by a clan in The Tower in order to find potential recruits for their clan.

Kaen didn’t want to miss this opportunity.

But despite their apology, Yul seemed to be not listening at all.

He turned his back on them as if he didn’t want to see them.

‘If I just….’

Then Kaen gritted his teeth. His eyes were full of malice.

It was only hard to betray for the first time. It wasn’t hard for the second time.

Kaen signaled his teammates with his eyes.

It meant to cover him from outside exposure.

Fortunately for him, no one was looking at this corner of the room.

‘It’s easy to get rid of the corpse. Bild doesn’t know Yul’s face anyway. Attributing the cause of death to the damage suffered in the boss room will be enough.’

His teammates were puzzled and worried about whether they should go this far, but they had no choice but to take action, as Kaen continued to signal them.

And then, Kaen carefully moved his hand towards the handle of his sword.

He was going to finish this quickly.

However,

“It is said that there is a clan in the tutorial that directly belongs to Cheonghwado(靑花島), named Arangdan, and that Cheonghwado tends to recruit newbies from Arangdan. But they’re so particular about recruiting that they only want spotless people. Even if they themselves aren’t.”

“What… Kuaak!”

The sudden voice that came from behind startled Kaen. He tried to pull his sword out, but instead, let out a scream.

A terrible pain reverberated across his arm.

His right hand fell down on the floor, dripping with blood.

“My hand! My haaand!”

Kaen screamed as he held onto his right wrist.

Only then did Yul notice something strange and quickly looked back.

With eyes filled with confusion, the other teammates also drew their swords and pointed them towards their back.

There stood Yeon-woo, shaking off the blood from his dagger.

“If you have the malice to go after someone else’s back, of course you should be prepared to lose one of your hands.”

* * *

Underneath the mask, Yeon-woo was slightly frowning.

‘Why did I get myself involved in this shit. I feel like crap now.’

Originally, he should have ignored it and moved straight on to Section B.

But for some reason, his feet didn’t move from the spot.

It was because the image of Yul was kept appearing in his head.

To be precise, it was the image of Yul being betrayed by his teammates.

‘Betrayal….’

Yul’s face kept overlapping with someone he knew.

It was his brother who had been backstabbed by his teammates.

Yul was in the same box. And the ones who had betrayed him once, even went out of their way to find Yul again.

What did this mean?

Usually in cases like this, people were afraid of leaving behind a weakness that could be exploited.

Yeon-woo knew this too well.

That’s why he stayed behind just to see what they were doing, and ended up witnessing such a filthy and dirty sight.

In his mind, he wanted to rinse his eyes with running water.

“My hand! My haaand! You son of a bitch! How dare you!”

Kaen cried out as he grabbed his severed right hand and his face contorted. He stared at Yeon-woo with a menacing look.

“I’m going to kill you!”

His other teammates were also pointing their swords at Yeonwoo.

But they couldn’t think of rushing in.

No one had noticed what happened until they saw Kaen’s hand flying.

‘He’s an expert!’

Cold sweat streamed down their backs.

They knew that Yeon-woo was the one who saved Yul, but they thought he only happened to help him on his way.

And even if he helped Yul fight them, they thought they could easily take him down with numbers.

But they were wrong.

Yeon-woo gave an indifferent smile.

“Try as hard as you can.”

“You bastard!”

Kaen bolted forward with eyes filled with madness. He drew his sword with his left hand and swung it towards Yeon-woo’s neck.

“Kaen!”

His teammates called out his name in surprise.

They weren’t sure how skilled Yeon-woo was, and if he clashed with Yeon-woo right now, their admission to Arangdan could end up being sabotaged.

But none of their words reached Kaen’s ears. He was lost in revenge.

Yeon-woo strode forward.

He was thinking of how to deal with these guys.

They were the kind who had no qualms when putting a knife on someone else’s back, but can’t stand when they’re the one being stabbed.

He was definitely feeling shitty.

*Pat*

Yeon-woo dodged the sword coming for his head and moved to Kaen’s back. He stretched out his arm and wrapped it around Kaen’s arm. All in a split second.

Then he lightly twisted Kaen’s arm in a backward direction.

*Crack*

Kaen’s left arm bent in a strange angle.

“Kuaak!”

Not caring about his cries, Yeon-woo did a flip with his arm still wrapped around him and climbed onto Kaen’s shoulder.

It was a shrewd move just like a cat’s.

Then, with a hard motion of his foot, he broke Kaen’s shoulder.

*Crunch*

“Aak! AAAAAK!”

“Kaen!”

“Y, you son of a bitch!”

“Let him go!”

*Clang*

The sword fell down helplessly to the floor.

Kaen couldn’t withstand the pain and knelt down on the ground.

In the meantime, his teammates still couldn’t approach him.

Yeon-woo was too nimble, and he was riding on Kaen’s shoulders.

Yeon-woo twisted Kaen’s bizarrely bent arm behind his back, placed one foot over his spine and put his weight on it.

He was threatening to destroy Kaen’s back if they approached any closer.

“Keuuk!”

Karen’s eyes were bloodshot as if they were going to pop out at any moment.

“Come at me now. I’ll make sure he will never be able to walk again.”

Underneath the mask, Yeon-woo’s eyes shimmered with a cold glow.