Ranker's Return

Chapter 649

Translator: rainbowturtle

Rumors started to circulate in the Arena community, especially the Korean community. It wasn’t known who started it, but one thing was for certain.

-Crescent Moon is moving to recruit pro gamers.

That alone was enough for Korean rankers to get excited.

Crescent Moon—this name alone would make many people give up everything they currently had. Their affiliation? No matter how powerful and famous a guild was, it couldn’t compare to Alley Leader. Everyone already knew that if they belonged to Crescent Moon, they could enter New World. The relationship between the two wasn’t very clear, but it wasn’t wrong that the previous Crescent Moon players had entered New World.

More things were added to the rumors little by little. The criteria for selecting players from Crescent Moon kept spreading and increasing.

-The level must be at least 300.

-Streamers aren’t allowed.

-You must be under the age of 25.

-Finished high school without any problems.

It wasn’t known who said it first, but it spread uncontrollably like fire. Sometimes people said they had been contacted, but they all turned out to be false.

***

A male who was too young to be called a man and too old to be called a boy—this person who gave off an ambiguous image opened the door of the cafe and entered. The young man quickly turned his head and carefully examined the interior of the cafe. He seemed to be looking for something. The young man’s head stopped moving when he saw two men sipping coffee and talking with serious expressions.

“We have to select the first person well…”

“It will be fine. It doesn’t matter even if it doesn’t work out. There are still a bunch of names left.”

The young man heard the conversation between the two men as he approached. Then he stopped in front of their table.

“Supervisor Kang Ujong-nim?” the young man called out with a childish voice that had yet to mature.

“Uh, yes. You came?” Kang Ujong, who was chatting with Jeong Byeongjin with a serious expression, smiled widely and greeted Yoo Hyeonsu.

“Yes, Supervisor-nim. Your presence is bigger than before… I like it.” Yoo Hyeonsu pointed out the change in Kang Ujong.

It wasn’t the first time Yoo Hyeonsu had met Kang Ujong. He knew Kang Ujong from before.

“I ate during my break, so I naturally gained weight. So why do you seem thinner? Haven’t you been working out? I thought I told you to exercise and eat well? The game is all about physique, physique. Haven’t you seen Alley Leader?” Kang Ujong scratched the back of his head with an embarrassed expression before attacking Yoo Hyeonsu in order to hide his embarrassment.

“That… How can I do that? There is no one to take care of my meals. I just eat when playing Arena…” Yoo Hyeonsu scratched the back of his head embarrassedly too.

‘Isn’t this a bit serious?’ Kang Ujong looked at Yoo Hyeonsu again and frowned. Then he got up from his seat and grabbed Yoo Hyeonsu’s wrist. Yoo Hyeonsu’s wrist seemed thinner than that of a woman.

“This isn’t right. You are a complete skeleton right now. You aren’t a person. Follow me and pick something to eat. No, do you want to eat?” Kang Ujong felt like he had to save this person before making the scouting proposal.

“Huh? Eat?”

“Yes, eat. Have you eaten?”

“No, I haven’t eaten yet…”

“Then let’s go eat first. Byeongjin, we need to take care of him.”

Kang Ujong turned his head to look at Jeong Byeongjin. Jeong Byeongjin gathered up the papers and got up from his seat. Kang Ujong took the lead, followed by Jeong Byeongjin and Yoo Hyeonsu. They left the cafe and headed to a nearby meat restaurant. It was a place that Kang Ujong and Jeong Byeongjin visited regularly.

“Is beef okay?” Jeong Byeongjin asked Yoo Hyeonsu.

“It’s good. Beef. I couldn’t eat it before.” Yoo Hyeonsu nodded.

He didn’t have time to eat out, and he couldn’t eat it because he was too lazy to grill it at home and clean up. However, when it came to beef, he could even eat it after just waking up.

“Really? Then eat a lot. I will treat you today.” Jeong Byeongjin smiled when he saw Yoo Hyeonsu like this.

Tap!

“Why? Why did you hit me?” Jeong Byeongjin held his forehead that was just hit by Kang Ujong.

“Are you paying for it? You are using the corporate card. It isn’t our money, so we can eat a lot without any burden. There is a lot left of the limit.” Kang Ujong placed an arm around Yoo Hyeonsu’s shoulder.

Crescent Moon gave really great benefits. The limit of the corporate card was higher than JT Telecom’s. It was impossible for them to use it all. The three of them opened the door of the restaurant and took their seats. Then they started ordering immediately.

Jeong Byeongjin was responsible for the order and said, “Give me two flower sets here.”

The flower set consisted of sirloin, tenderloin, and ribs. It was Jeong Byeongjin’s and Kang Ujong’s favorite dish because they could eat three different cuts at the same time. The boss who took the order pulled up a cart containing side dishes.

“I thought you had emigrated. Is this not the case, our Kang Ujong?” The boss seemed to know Kang Ujong.

Kang Ujong froze when he saw the boss’ face. “Hyung, why are you here now?”

“I heard one part-timer would be late today, so I came first… I ended up meeting you like this.”

The boss put down the side dishes on the table with both hands and fired lasers from his eyes at Kang Ujong.

“Woocheol hyung, it’s been a long time.” Jeong Byeongjin greeted the restaurant’s boss, Kang Woocheol, without paying any attention to the conversation between the two of them.

“Yes, Byeongjin. It really has been a while. I’ll give you a lot of service. Eat well and go, understood?” Kang Woocheol replied. Unlike with Kang Ujong, Kang Woocheol greeted Jeong Byeongjin with a very friendly smile.

Then Kang Woocheol walked toward the kitchen while dragging the empty cart.

“Oh, if you don’t come home this week, Mom will remove you from the household registration. You take care of it. If you don’t buy a gift, I’ll place an iron plate on your back.” Kang Woocheol turned around midway and smiled slightly at Kang Ujong.

Then he disappeared into the kitchen.

“Supervisor-nim, do you know this person?” Yoo Hyeonsu asked as he looked in the direction where Kang Woocheol had disappeared.

“That hyung is the boss here. He is Kang-ssi,” Jeong Byeongjin answered Yoo Hyeonsu’s question.

Kang Ujong and Kang Woocheol—the two were brothers. The age difference between them was five years. However, the relationship between the two brothers was indeed good and overshadowed the age difference of five years. They were an immature older brother and a mature younger brother. The older brother didn’t bully his younger brother using his age. It was just that he gave his younger brother all sorts of tests through his mother.

‘Damn Hyung, using Mom…’ Kang Ujong gulped while forgetting that Yoo Hyeonsu was sitting in front of him.

Kang Ujong had enjoyed having a long vacation with Jeong Byeongjin. The big problem was that he hadn’t visited his home for more than three months.

‘I didn’t even buy Mom a gift…’

In any case, his back was unlikely to remain intact the moment he stepped foot into his home.

“Here is the flower set. Please enjoy. This is a service.” Kang Woocheol served a large plate filled with meat.

Then he put three bottles of Coke on the table.

“I’ll eat well, Woocheol hyung,” Jeong Byeongjin said to Kang Woocheol on behalf of Kang Ujong, who was in a daze.

“Eat well and go. I have something to do, so I’ll go first.” Kang Woocheol grabbed his jumper from inside the store.

“Go well, Hyung.” Jeong Byeongjin got up from his seat and bowed to Kang Woocheol.

Yoo Hyeonsu saw it and also bowed. “Coach-nim, I’ll cook it.”

“I’m the type of person who can’t eat meat unless it is cooked by an expert. I think I am much closer to an expert than you.”

After confirming Kang Woocheol’s disappearance, Jeong Byeongjin naturally picked up the tongs and started cooking the meat. Yoo Hyeonsu said he would cook the meat, but he was scolded by Jeong Byeongjin instead.

“Coach-nim, you called me today… Are you recruiting players?” Yoo Hyeonsu moved his lips several times and finally spoke up as he watched Jeong Byeongjin cooking the meat.

“How did you know? I haven’t sent out any emails or contacted you yet.” Jeong Byeongjin looked at Yoo Hyeonsu with a surprised expression. He hadn’t contacted anyone yet. Jeong Byeongjin and Kang Ujong were still writing the emails and carefully deciding the priority of the contact order.

“There are already some rumors. The two of you are rejoining the professional league, and it’s with Crescent Moon.”

“How can there be rumors when no one knows? We didn’t reveal it on our side.” Jeong Byeongjin cocked his head.

He couldn’t understand it. There weren’t more than 10 people who knew that the two of them had been recruited to Crescent Moon: the three players of Crescent Moon; Moon Doyeong, who was the boss of Crescent Moon; and finally, Alley Leader.

‘If we include the two of us, it’s only seven people…’

The people of Nike Management might know. They had quite a bit of power when it came to the operation of Crescent Moon.

‘Yet there is no way they will have contact with Hyeonsu.’

Nike Management was a busy company. They couldn’t afford to come to the Korean community and spread such rumors.

“It is just all rumors. However, the rumors are so specific that they seem true. If you enter the community, you will see the rumors right away. So everyone knows about it.”

Yoo Hyeonsu had only half-believed the rumors. Then yesterday’s call from Kang Ujong that came suddenly gave him confidence. The rumors spread in the community and among the Korean rankers were real.

Kang Ujong opened his mouth to say, “So what choice are you going to make? I am just saying it now but in fact, I wanted to pick you instead of Hanbaek when I was with JT Telecom. You are better in my view. However, I couldn’t do so when thinking of the team. We needed a sharp spear, not a hard shield.”

Yoo Hyeonsu had participated in the entry test for JT Telecom in the past. The result was a failure. He was ahead of the applicants in every way, but he had no luck as he had a class that didn’t match JT Telecom’s situation.

“Am I the first one?” Yoo Hyeonsu asked.

“You are the first. If you join, I will listen to your opinion when selecting players in the future.” Kang Ujong brought out some shocking words.

Player selection rights meant Yoo Hyeonsu would share the work of the coaching staff and team’s front desk with the players.

“Am I the captain?”

“Yes. In the past, if there wasn’t already Jinyong, I would’ve picked you to be the captain at all costs. A sharp knife is important, but the most important thing is the head,” Kang Ujong answered.

“When do I join, Supervisor-nim?”

“It can be from tomorrow. Join when you are comfortable.”

“Then I’ll pack up today and go to my accommodation tomorrow.”

“Welcome to Crescent Moon, Hyeonsu.”

This was the moment when Yoo Hyeonsu, one of the top 10 Korean tank players, became the first player to join Crescent Moon.