Ranker's Return Chapter 4

The eyes of the people who came to the auction house were drawn to one side. It was due to one man. This was a true story going on at Arena’s integrated auction house, where countless people were present.

“Oh my, that person seems to be out of his mind.”

“Shh, what will you do if you hurt him?”

“Some people are still making noise at the auction house?”

His appearance was good, but his behavior was completely abnormal.

“What type of jerks are they?!!” The man, Hyeonu, was terribly upset. It had already been an hour. He could only watch as he missed the materials.

In fact, each material wasn’t a big deal. They were items that were classified as common miscellaneous items such as grass and sap. However, the materials Hyeonu was looking for were the ones for the ‘Rapid Growth Elixir’, which was an essential item for him right now.

The problem was that there were people clearing out these items. It was barely at human speed. Moreover, it wasn’t just one or two people. At least a dozen people were making them disappear.

“I must buy it!” Hyeonu ground his teeth together.

Arena’s representative of physical-type players couldn’t sit still in this place.

***

30 minutes later…

“Hey, did you buy it?”

“No, I couldn’t buy one. Some crazy guy is sweeping up all of it. What the hell?”

“Wow, look at that speed. It disappears just when I see it with my eyes.”

“The kids are going crazy. It is almost nuclear. Nuclear. How can someone buy it so quickly?”

They were complaints from all over the place. Like Hyeonu, they were all trying to find the materials.

“These jerks are really…” Hyeonu grinded his teeth together. It was because his plan had gone wrong. From the moment it appeared, nothing was visible. He frantically moved his hand with the one goal of buying the materials. The result was occupying one corner of his inventory.

[Oak Tree Roots] x 2344.

[Old Tree Sap] x 488.

[Red Rabbit’s Fur] x 1832.

[Morning Dew] x 3212.

A huge amount of 50 gold was spent on buying all of them. The problem was that there were more materials to be obtained, but they couldn’t be bought. Hyeonu sobered up and scratched his head. “What should I do? Do I have to get it myself?”

***

A man crawled on a thin branch of a tree that was over four meters tall. It was to pick the leaves.

“Just a bit more! A bit more…”

Finally, the man’s hand grasped a leaf. At this moment, the branch couldn’t bear the man’s weight and started to break.

“Eh? Eh? Uh!”

Thump!

The man fell four meters from the tree.

“Ugh. My waist.”

He fell from the tree, but in Hyeonu’s hand was a leaf that came from the first branch of the Amila tree. Unlike other leaves, it possessed magic power and was a great ingredient in alchemy.

[Amila’s First Leaf] x 10.

‘If I just collect one more…’

Hyeonu’s face showed some joy as he looked at the materials in his inventory. Hyeonu’s steps were light as he headed to find the last remaining material.

***

“Hey, look at him. He is crazy.”

“I guess he hasn’t looked at the world of Arena.”

“Do you think he’s bluffing?”

These were the words of those who saw Hyeonu walking out of Aslan’s east gate. Outside Aslan’s east gate was a field that had been selected by numerous Arena communities as the 10th place spot in the region where there was no reason to hunt. It was because the east gate zone was too difficult to be a beginner’s zone. Hyeonu was going to such a place now.

‘They can talk as they like. I’m going to make something expensive and good.’

Hyeonu ignored all the ridicule and gossip about him. In any case, they were ignorant. They didn’t know why he was going there or what was there. Why should he feel anger toward such people? It was a good idea to just ignore it.

***

Hyeonu arrived at the dungeon field and felt his troubles had ended. However, the reality of the situation wasn’t so easy. There were people interfering with Hyeonu in the dungeon. Those who identified themselves as members of the Black Skull Guild were controlling access to the dungeon.

Hyeonu tried to resist his soaring annoyance. He really thought this was the end of it, but the end didn’t go smoothly. Feeling annoyed, he let out sharp words.

‘I just need one more… That’s it.’

Hyeonu tried to restrain his anger as he spoke to the Black Skull guild member guarding the front of the dungeon, “Get out of the way while I’m still saying good things.”

“Hey, you look like a beginner. I’ll endure it this one time, so leave quietly.” The Black Skull guild member waved his hand toward Hyeonu like he was getting rid of an animal with his hand.

Hyeonu ignored the man and demanded that the entrance of the dungeon be opened. “Get out of my way, I’m busy!!”

“Do I have to say it again? This dungeon belongs to our Black Skull Guild! It isn’t a place where a beginner brat like you can hang around!”

The man’s words caused Hyeonu’s irritation to reach the top of his head. Finally, the anger and annoyance that had acc.u.mulated today started to explode. This ugly bastard…

How could he be like this when he didn’t know Hyeonu’s urgent situation? In this situation, Hyeonu’s choice to relieve his anger was simple. It was one of the reasons why Arena had gained its current popularity. He applied for a duel.

‘Let’s die today.’

“Beginner brat? Then shall we do a character deletion bet? Surely you aren’t scared, oh great Black Skull Guild member?”

The Black Skull guild member, Park Junu, was both fl.u.s.tered and worried by Hyeonu’s suggestion. Perhaps the person in front of him was a hunter cosplaying as a novice to catch numerous players and make them delete their characters. Park Junu shook his head and made a decision. A person like this absolutely couldn’t be a hunter.

“Of course. For me, a beginner like you is like chewing gum. Gum.”

“Then please accept. I’m busy.”

[Player ‘Gang Hyeonu’ has applied for a duel.]

Park Junu’s screen showed a name with random characters instead of ‘Gang Hyeonu.’ In Arena, the player’s name wouldn’t be shown properly unless he was registered as a friend or belonged to the same guild. It was natural. The appearance could be changed but not the character name. It was because a player’s biggest secret was the character name.

[Would you like to accept?]

“I accept. You are second. This beginner brat… It seems you are concerned about customization. I’ll give you a chance to do customization twice today.”

A dome-shaped sphere of approximately 10 meters was created around Hyeonu and Park Junu, temporarily forming a duel area.

“Those words—is that what you want to say?”

[Player ‘Gang Hyeonu’ has set the rules.]

[The rules set are ‘winner-takes-all’ and ‘delete character.’]

Winner-takes-all was a method of giving all the items of the loser to the opponent who won the duel. The deletion of a character literally meant the forced deletion of the character as soon as the duel was lost. In other words, Hyeonu had now applied for the ‘character deletion bet’, risking all his assets and his character!

In Arena, the ‘character deletion bet’ was special. It was something that existed yet also didn’t exist. There was obviously the character deletion bet in the contents, but it was rarely used. Why? There were few people who would gamble on the precious characters they raised using time and money. At this moment, Hyeonu sent the character deletion bet to Park Junu, making him rise to the ranks of the truly bold.

[Would you like to accept?] A notification window appeared in front of Park Junu.

[Yes.]

Park Junu showed no hesitation. His level wasn’t high, but how could he be defeated by a level 1 beginner?

“Yes. You can’t get out of it anymore. Understood?”

“I wonder how long you can continue to make fun with that mouth. I think 30 seconds. I will shut that mouth in 30 seconds.”

Hyeonu’s declaration of war was enough to keep Park Junu quiet.

[The duel will start shortly.]

[5… 4… 3… 2… 1.]

[The duel has started.]