Ranker's Return

Chapter 239

Translator: rainbowturtle

Editor: LD & Jyazen

After he started streaming, Hyeonu blatantly drew out the time. He finished one hunt and used the excuse of communication to rest for more than 20 minutes. Once it became one hour and then two hours, the viewers started to protest.

-It is good to talk, but...the progress is slower than usual.

-Then he should’ve said it was going to be a communication stream in the first place...

-Why? It’s good. There are days like this and days like that.Is it necessary to always hunt monsters in streams?

There were some viewers who protested and others who supported it. The latter liked talking to Hyeonu like they were doing now. It was natural. Every person had different tastes. Hyeonu watched the chat window where the messages kept rising.

‘This... Was it too much?’

It was too much. No matter who looked at it, the stream was stagnant. There was nothing compared to his usual streams.

“Is that so? In the future, I’ll be a bit more careful.”

Hyeonu bowed to the audience.

‘I’ll have to turn it to another area.’

Nonetheless, Hyeonu had come up with a trick in the meantime. It was a trick that would never be discovered. Hyeonu already knew the area where he was currently streaming. No one knew this field well except for Hyeonu. Therefore, as long as he kept the audience’s eyes carefully on the surrounding terrain, he could buy enough time.

‘I need to kill the monsters slowly.’

He would show an appropriate pattern. Hyeonu didn’t want it to be as fast and overwhelming as when he fought the purple ogres. Many large guilds were newly involved in the main scenario competition, but Hyeonu didn’t care too much about them. He already knew it from experience.

The Balder Mountains weren’t a place where the guilds could push deeper with just information. Apart from knowledge, it required experience. This meant that it would take time.

‘New World also took a long time...’

It was obvious without looking at other guilds. Even New World, Arena’s greatest guild, took quite a while to build a camp. By the time other large guilds killed the purple ogre and reached Hyeonu’s current streaming location, Hyeonu, New World, and their allies would have already arrived at Cruise Mountain.

‘It means they are the only ones who can actually use this information.’

The members of the large guilds that Hyeonu had personally recruited were the people who would use the information of the monsters that Hyeonu was going to release today.

***

If divided by the head, chest, and abdomen, the general size of an ant was between 1mm and 23 mm. As such, people weren’t afraid of ants. Yet, what if the size of the ant grew by 100 or 1,000 times?

“As you can see, there are giant ants in the Balder Mountains. Their name is the legion worker ant. They are more agile than expected, and they also emit poison.

Hyeonu started to speak slowly as he pointed at the giant ants in front of him. The viewers saw this and started jumping out.

-It is too disgusting.

-Please kill the ants.

-What are you doing?Alley Leader?Are you sleeping?

-Why are you just talking?Kill it right away.

-There is no need for an explanation.

They instinctively expressed displeasure at the appearance of the giant ants.

“Additionally, their shell is very hard. However, it is vulnerable to the fire attribute. Lightning magic is also effective against it.”

Hyeonu gently flicked his fingers. Tang-E, who was waiting next to Hyeonu, made huge spears of lightning and fired them toward an ant. Two spears penetrated the giant ant’s shell and were stuck in the giant ant’s body. Then the spears in the ant’s chest burned with blue flames. The abdomen also burned. The difference was that it was burned by the splashing blue sparks, not the flames from the spears.

“......” The giant ant let out a cry of pain, but the sound was in a realm that a human couldn’t hear.

“Do you see? If you attack it properly with the right attribute, it will die very well,” Hyeonu stated.

There was something he had realized while walking around the Balder Mountains.

‘The attribute has become quite important.’

Originally, the attributes were important. It meant an additional increase in damage. Nevertheless, the attributes held a different sense of importance to Hyeonu now. The reason for this was simple. The defense of the monsters in the Balder Mountains was too high. Therefore, if a player’s defense penetration wasn’t high like Hyeonu’s, they would have to hit the monster for a while before killing it. In Hyeonu’s mind, the Balder Mountains were a type of starting point—the starting point of killing monsters cleverly with attributes, rather than beating them without thinking like before.

‘Will more magicians appear in the future?’

It seemed their position would rise considerably higher than it was now. Once needed, demand would arise. Supply remained the same, so the value was bound to rise.

‘It doesn’t matter to me.’

In any case, Hyeonu was in a position where he could hunt alone. Additionally, he had an omnipotent pet called Tang-E who was capable of using three attributes of magic. Then it happened while Hyeonu was immersed in his thoughts. Something caught the viewers’ eyes.

-Hey, what is that?

-Is the forest moving now?

-Why is he procrastinating so much?

It was a wave of green, and it really seemed like a forest was moving. Hyeonu also witnessed the scene. He had to see it since the words in the chat window were in front of him.

“What is this?!”

Hyeonu was startled when he saw the wave of green. It was because he had figured out the identity of the wave. The wave consisted of legion worker ants like those Tang-E had just killed, and they were coming in great numbers. The reason for the ants flocking toward them was simple. Not long ago, the legion worker ant Tang-E killed with magic let out a silent scream. It spread a message to the surrounding legion worker ants, ‘I will die here.The opponent is strong, so go back.’

Despite that, the worker ants who received the message didn’t go back. Instead, they gathered to get revenge for the dead worker ant.

‘Take a deep breath.’Hyeonu took a deep breath and quickly regained his composure, calming his astonished heart.

Then he opened his mouth to say, “Everyone, a large group of worker ants are coming. I’m used to it. It has happened more than one or twice. Just kill them. Then your experien/ce and skill proficiency will increase well.”

Hyeonu showed an attitude that wasn’t flustered at all. However, the over 20 million viewers had already heard him cry out with surprise, so such acting wouldn’t work.

-Yes, the next bluff.

-I saw his surprise.Now I’m used to it.

-It is worthy of being Alley Leader.He can’t stop bluffing even when it is a monster wave.

-He was born to bluff.Born out of bluffing.Alley Leader chapter 1, verse 1.

They only teased Hyeonu for a moment. After that, the viewers were shocked by the ugly visuals of the ant army filling the screen.

-Uh, run away.Quickly.

-I feel like I’m going to vomit.It is really disgusting because the ants are over one meter long.

-I was really disgusted just killing a spider previously...This is worse because there are so many of them.

The sight of a colony of ants that were over a meter long was disgusting even though it was viewed through the stream. Yet Hyeonu didn’t frown despite actually being at the scene.

‘This or spiders...’

He had already experienced too many things to be hurt by these visuals. Hyeonu boldly drew the Mysterious Sky Sword. Simultaneously, he didn’t forget to say a few words to Tang-E, “Tang-E, don’t hold back on your magic. Pour out as much fire and lightning as you can.”

Tang-E nodded at Hyeonu’s words and climbed a large tree.

“Why are you climbing up there?” He was surprised by Tang-E’s sudden behavior.

“Ants are dirty. Ugly. I will lose it if they touch my body, Master dude.”

Tang-E’s answer was unbecoming, but there was no time for Hyeonu to punish him. It was because the green wave was already less than 10 meters away.

“Let’s finish it. Once the items come out, pick them up, Tang-E.”

***

When the viewers saw the colony of ants in front of Hyeonu, they became worried about him. They thought it was impossible to hunt so many monsters, even if it was Alley Leader.

-Is today the first time he will die?

-No, no.He can run away.Doesn’t Alley Leader’s equipment have the Blink option?

-Yes, use that to open up the distance and flee.

Then they recalled the existence of Blink and stopped worrying. In the worst case scenario, Alley Leader could still run away.

-Then let’s prepare popcorn.

-Prepare Coke.

-I will get butter squid.

-It will be a spectacle today.He is consistently so good.

-I am selling cheese flavored popcorn.5 gold coins!

Just then, Hyeonu’s sword moved in a neat line from left to right. The blade of pure energy, that was dozens of meters long, literally sliced through the wave. In an instant, the wave stopped moving forward. No, it exploded. The poisonous blood from the wounds of the legion worker ants erupted like a fountain.

-Uhh...Too cruel.

-How is it too cruel?Rather, it is cool.

-However, isn’t their defense high, so you need to use attributes to kill them?How did they die in one blow?

-Alley Leader is an exception.In addition, he has the dark attribute.It isn’t the light attribute.It doesn’t mean there is no attribute damage.Rather, it means the additional damage remains the same.

Still, this wasn’t the end. Hyeonu’s sword moved again and again. It danced over and over. As a result, black cracks appeared in the green wave. It was Mysterious Sky Range. There was a ripple in the green wave like a bomb had exploded. After being struck by Mysterious Sky Range, the colony of worker ants no longer looked like a wave.

They just looked like dozens of legion worker ants. The worker ants stopped advancing again and moved their antennae like they were exchanging opinions. Just then, Hyeonu opened his mouth, “I said it earlier, but attributes are important. That said, it isn’t needed in front of overwhelming power. Magician? There is no need for one. Just cut them all with a blade.”

It wasn’t a high-pitched voice but his usual low voice.

-It would’ve been perfect if he hadn’t said this.

-I felt moved, until this point...Then I woke up all of a sudden.Sure enough, it is perfect when he shuts his mouth.

-I admit it.I don’t think anyone can refute it.

-Anyone who refutes it can be considered as Alley Leader himself.

It happened as Hyeonu was grasping the atmosphere of the viewers. There was something that caught all of the viewers’ attention. A golden object descended in the air. It was Tang-E showing up in a splendid manner.

He landed lightly on the ground, raised his front paws, and emitted a bright red light. Then something incredible happened. A blue sun was created around seven or eight meters above Tang-E’s head. With his front paws pointing out at the end, he proudly faced the colony of legion worked ants

The blue sun moved heavily but quickly in the direction where Tang-E’s paw were pointing.