Ranker's Return

“Isn’t it a lot of fun to do it after a long time?”

Player kill (PK). It was a different type of fun from monster hunting. It felt even more so because it had been a while.

‘How long has it been...?’

Hyeonu didn’t enjoy PvP that much. In particular, he didn’t do much PK, which was close to illegal. However, this changed when a clear cause emerged.

Carefully and intensely. Biting at the opponent.

‘This is the beginning.’

The raid was just a prelude to the hell that the Baekyang Guild would have to go through. Hyeonu would continue to harass them until the moment they found the scorpion king.

‘I just want to do it this time.’

To be honest, this wasn’t a situation Hyeonu could run away from. If Hyeonu held out even a bit longer, the damage to the Baekyang Guild would be exponentially greater. However, Hyeonu stepped back.

‘If the toy breaks...’

“It will be troublesome.”

There were only two members of the Baekyang Guild who fell at the hands of Hyeonu in this raid. There was some damage, but it was negligible. There was no hindrance in the search for the scorpion king.

‘Should I do it five times?’

It seemed quite feasible. In any case, the Baekyang Guild wouldn’t step down if the power was preserved by more than a certain amount.

‘They will replenish the power.’

That way, they would be able to kill the scorpion king. Therefore, it was natural.

‘Thinking this way, I think I need to do it 10 times?’

Hyeonu’s mind spun quickly. At the same time, his plan became a bit more detailed.

‘Good, let’s do it like this.’

The smile on Hyeonu’s face became deeper as the plan was revised.

***

“So I only did it 10 times. I didn’t do it after that.”

-You did it 10 times?

-Isn’t that enough to almost cause neurosis?

-I don’t think I will get neurosis, but I will really want to kill him?

-It is poisonous, poisonous. He did it 10 times.

The viewers exclaimed at Hyeonu’s words. Then they felt sympathy for the Baekyang Guild, who had to experience this.

-By the way, isn’t the Baekyang Guild a name that isn’t famous now?

-It isn’t a guild that isn’t famous. it doesn’t seem to exist at all, right?

-To be honest, if they had done a bit in the early days, then it doesn’t make sense for them to not be known now.

-Perhaps... did the guild disband as a result of that incident?

-Hey, I don’t think so.

A corner of Hyeonu’s lips curled up as he read the messages asking about the existence of the Baekyang Guild.

“That is something I don’t know. Really.”

It wasn’t a ridiculing smile. It was a bitter smile.

‘I went to the army...’

Hyeonu really didn’t know the whereabouts of the Baekyang Guild.

***

As always, Hyeonu hid in a cactus and looked somewhere. The Baekyang Guild was always present where Hyeonu looked.

‘Did they find the scorpion king...?’

The Baekyang Guild managed to withstand Hyeonu’s raid and found the scorpion king.

“It took too long.”

Hyeonu sighed and shook his head. Hyeonu intentionally guided the Baekyang Guild in the direction of the scorpion king while attacking them.

‘Now they have a bit of hope, right?’

In the first place, the driving force behind attacking Hyeonu was hope for the main scenario.

‘The priests and magicians have arrived.’

Just yesterday, all the Baekyang Guild members Hyeonu forced to log out had joined them. They had only one goal. It was to kill the scorpion king.

‘That hope... I’ll crush it.’

It was the hope that Hyeonu himself had created in the first place. So there would be no problem crushing it.

‘Are they finally moving?’

Hyeonu’s eyes narrowed. The Baekyang Guild showed signs of moving. Hyeonu carefully ran on the sand and narrowed the distance to the Baekyang Guild. The distance decreased and sounds that weren’t heard before started to be heard.

“How long does it take to hunt the scorpion king?”

“The estimated time is approximately two hours or so. However, that is the story of a normal raid. We are putting more power into this raid, so it is expected to be around an hour and a half.”

“When will he appear?”

“Based on our analysis of the raid patterns in the past, I think he will appear within the next hour or two.”

Xiao Chun heard Liu Xing’s answer and repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fists several times.

‘The time to kill the scorpion king and the time for him to show up... it definitely overlaps.’

He had to make a choice between killing the scorpion king now or taking on Hyeonu before killing the scorpion king.

“What are the trends of the other rankers?” Xiao Chun opened his mouth while trying to hide his frustration.

“There is talk that not a single guild has moved, but two or three ranker parties are moving toward this side.”

“Two or three?”

Xiao Chun frowned. Competitors appeared when he thought there were none.

‘I thought there was no one...’

The taste was bitter. He hadn’t seen a player other than Hyeonu when exploring the depths of the Arti Desert. It wasn’t even once. It wasn’t good to hear that a competitor now appeared.

“They are surely targeting the scorpion king, right?”

“There is a very high probability.”

“If we linger...”

“The gap will close. It wouldn’t be strange if they show up tomorrow.”

“Then...”

“We have to kill it right away. We will lose the scorpion king if we care about him.”

Xiao Chun nodded. Liu Xing’s words were right. They could lose everything if they hesitated.

‘I have to challenge myself.’

Otherwise, it was certain that everything would be taken away while his eyes were open.

“Everyone, prepare for battle! In a few minutes, we will challenge Arena’s first scorpion king raid!” Xiao Chun raised his hand and screamed.

***

‘Stupid fools.’

Hyeonu secretly listened to the conversation of the Baekyang Guild and shook his head incredulously.

‘Data analysis...’

Hyeonu moved alone and it was something he had never thought of. He wouldn’t have been shocked if it was just that.

‘Even though I moved as carefully as possible... do I have a habit?’

It was the fact that Hyeonu himself had a problem.

‘It ended well this time, but...’

There was no guarantee that this wouldn’t happen again in the future. Once he found something to improve, he had to fix it right away.

‘That’s it... everybody paid for what they received.’

Hyeonu recalled a few faces and smiled. The faces were the rankers who received items from Hyeonu.

‘They are spreading rumors until the end.’

The information that instilled impatience in the Baekyang Guild—it was fabricated. There wasn’t a single party of rankers that was eyeing the main scenario. They just manipulated the information with the thought of paying for the items they had received from Hyeonu.

‘No, it isn’t about the value of the items. Their other intentions will be greater.’

Hyeonu wasn’t a fool. He didn’t believe the rankers right away.

Borrowing a knife to kill someone—it was clear that they were trying to borrow his hand to make the Baekyang Guild collapse.

‘They just need to say a few words to deal with a competitor.’

On top of that, they even received good items in exchange for saying a few words. They were naturally excited and had no choice but to talk.

‘I know what they’re doing.’

In any case, Hyeonu wasn’t interested in this type of relationship.

‘Fun is important, fun.’

There was only one thing that mattered to Hyeonu. It was a fun thing that would make him forget his confused mind.

***

The tail of the giant scorpion stretched out straight toward the sky.

“It is a tail attack! Avoid it!”

“Watch until the end and avoid it!”

The players of the Baekyang Guild hurriedly screamed when they saw it. The tail attack was the pattern most frequently shown by the scorpion king and the most powerful attack. It was really difficult to keep their cool against it. The tail of the scorpion king shook the desert. Sand soared high into the sky from all sides.

“Give me a heal! My potions have run out!” a warrior was caught up in the aftermath and screamed for treatment.

However, there was no response.

“Heal!!! Give me some heals!!!” the warrior confirmed that his health had fallen below half and spoke even more desperately. However, it wasn’t restored.

‘I don’t have much health.’

Based on this amount of health, he would be logged out with just one hit. The warrior was forced to leave the battlefield. He decided that it was better to leave for a while than to die. This was a really excellent choice.

“What is this...?”

He could see the desert stained with blood.

“Why... are you dead like this?”

Most of the priests and magicians lay dead in the desert. There were only a few who survived.

“Why? Let’s see? Why is that?” Just then, someone whispered very quietly in the warrior’s ear.

“It is you again.” The warrior was no longer angry. Instead, he gave up. He had fought this person dozens of times and never won. This was when it was a battle with the guild, not one-on-one.

“Why are you doing this to us?” the warrior turned around and shouted at Hyeonu.

“Do you need to ask? Anyway, I don’t remember the ones I hit. I just remember the ones who hit me,” Hyeonu replied with a smile, “It was you who touched me first. I didn’t start it.”

Hyeonu quickly swung his sword. The warrior closed his eyes when he saw the sword in front of him.

‘We touched something we shouldn’t have touched.’

He instinctively realized it. Once he reconnected to Arena, many things would’ve changed from before.

“Let’s get this over with. It is just a waste of time.”

Hyeonu pulled his sword out of the body of the warrior who had been logged out and rushed toward the remaining priests and magicians.

“Please get hit!!”

“Is this really the same character? It is ridiculous!”

The priests and magicians were helpless. They tried to cast all types of magic at Hyeonu, but none of them hit. Rather, they were much more likely to hit their fellow guild members. As a result, all the magicians and priests died in less than five minutes.

“Huu...” Hyeonu finally moved the corpses of the priests to the side and exhaled loudly.

‘Now it is the finale.’

All that was left was to mark the dragon’s eyes.

“Xiao Chun!” Hyeonu didn’t hesitate to shout the name of Xiao Chun, the master of the Baekyang Guild.

“In the end, because of you...”

Xiao Chun understood the situation as soon as he heard Hyeonu’s voice. Once again, Hyeonu was the problem.

“It doesn’t matter what happens now. I think I’ll feel more comfortable if I kill him once.”

Xiao Chun didn’t think about controlling his simmering anger. He just let go of his anger and ran toward Hyeonu. He already didn’t care about the scorpion king.

“Master! No!!” Li Xing saw Xiao Chun running and screamed.

‘He can’t do it alone...’

It was crazy to run toward Hyeonu alone. There had to be at least two of them. Hyeonu’s sword swept back along Xiao Chun’s sword blade. Then he literally cut Xiao Chun’s throat.

“You can’t do it alone...”

A sigh emerged from Liu Xing’s mouth.