Ranker's Return

Chapter 804

Hyeonu and the Venom Guild broke through the snowy mountain without hesitation. They never stopped. Everyone postponed logging out as if they had agreed upon it in advance. They silently crossed the snowy mountain without showing any signs of difficulty.

However, reality was different.

‘It is hard enough to die.’

This was a common thought in the minds of the six Venom Guild members.

However, they couldn’t show that it was hard. They couldn’t even bring up the words ‘log out’. It was because they didn’t deserve it. Most of the fighting was done by Hyeonu. The Venom Guild members were being carried by him, so it would be shameless if they asked to rest here first. Looking at each other, they postponed their rest. They were waiting for someone to come forward and tell Hyeonu to rest instead.

Meanwhile, time continued to pass by, and at some point, they passed through the snowy mountain. Unfolding in front of Hyeonu and the Venom Guild now was a world of ice where even snow couldn’t be seen.

“Thanks for the hard work. Why don’t we log out and rest in a safe place?” The words that the Venom Guild members had been wanting to say for a long time came out of Hyeonu’s mouth.

“We are fine with this. What time shall we meet again?” Crimson was quick to receive Hyeonu’s words this time.

“Why don’t we meet again after five or six hours of real time? I think that is a moderate amount of rest.” Hyeonu didn’t know to what extent the Venom Guild rested, so he set an appropriate rest time according to his standards. It was definitely a longer break than usual.

‘Is this enough?’

When he was in the divine world not too long ago, Hyeonu slept exactly four hours a day and played Arena.

‘Only six hours off? After playing the game for two days?’ Crimson heard Hyeonu’s words and felt it was absurd.

Six hours…

The break was for only six hours. They needed to rest for at least seven hours, even when they were doing nothing. Only then could they eat and sleep. Of course, things were a bit different than usual right now. There were other things hanging in front of them. It didn’t make sense to rest as much as possible. However, six hours were far from enough.

‘Staying up all night after two days?’

The problem was that for the two days they crossed the snowy mountain, they had moved in preparation to be raided by the dark elf undead at any time. Naturally, the fatigue was intense. They had to take a day off no matter what. Just then, Kalen disagreed with Hyeonu’s words, “That... I think that six hours is a bit short. Alley Leader, we are now all streamers. Shouldn’t we take a break and stream?”

Six hours weren’t good enough no matter how Kalen thought about it. He had already skipped streaming once. Of course, he could take a day off because they had a reason to do so. The Venom Guild has already issued a notice to viewers.

[I can’t tell you the exact circumstances, but the videos will be uploaded to the channel sooner or later. We aren’t just resting.]

It was a notice with such nuances. However, that was only for one day. In the current situation where they were maintaining an upward trend, taking a two-day break was a mistake and reckless. It wasn’t known when the hearts of the viewers would shift.

The Venom Guild wasn’t Alley Leader. There were many, many channels that could replace them.

“Ah, right. There was streaming. I didn’t think about the Venom Guild’s situation. Then let’s meet again in exactly 24 hours.” Hyeonu nodded at Kalen’s explanation. This was a good enough reason.

‘I have to stream as well.’

Come to think of it, Hyeonu had to stream as well. The viewers wouldn’t leave just because Hyeonu took a break from streaming, but he would receive countless complaints.

‘Stop sending me notes. Please...’

Hyeonu was afraid of this.

***

Hyeonu made the most of his one-day rest time. First of all, he slept. He fell asleep the moment he lay down on the bed. Then he woke up, ate straight away, and headed to the fitness center to do some light exercise. Hyeonu was learning that his body would improve after a light workout rather than just lying on the sofa and wasting time.

“Vicious jerk. Truly.” Yeongchan shook his head as he watched Hyeonu eating a salad full of chicken breasts.

“Only eating and playing games is a thing of the past. I split up sleeping and exercising. It is such an era, Yeongchan. So you should take care of yourself as well,” Hyeonu said as he glanced at Yeongchan, who was inhaling snacks in front of him.

Yeongchan clapped as if he had thought of something and asked Hyeonu, “Ah, that’s right. Are you streaming today? Your viewers have been coming to me and asking.”

Hyeonu’s live stream should’ve taken place yesterday. However, he skipped streaming in order to break through the snowy mountain. Therefore, Hyeonu accepted Kalen’s proposal without saying much.

“I have to do it now. I have eaten. Today, I am going to play the arena for the first time in a long time.” Hyeonu had already finished thinking about what he was going to do on the live stream.

“The arena? Why the arena? So suddenly?” Yeongchan asked with a bewildered face. He was also planning to proceed with the arena content in today’s live stream. No, he had already given a preview of it.

“I have only played one battle from time to time to maintain my ranking. Now it is time to show it. There are many viewers who want to see the arena.”

Hyeonu recalled his A-World message window that was full of notes. Half of them were related to Reina, and the remaining half asked him to play the arena ranking battle.

“Really?”

“Why do you look like that? Are you going to the arena today as well?”

Yeongchan nodded slowly in response. The reason why Yeongchan’s expression wasn’t bright was that his viewers would be drawn to Hyeonu the moment his content overlapped with Hyeonu. No matter how tightly Yeongchan tried to hold onto them, it was reality that he wouldn’t be safe when the tsunami, Alley Leader, struck.

“Then let’s do it together. You come and make some progress. This will do. You can also turn on the live stream.” Hyeonu came up with a simple answer. If so, they could do it together. Doing a joint live stream was a solution that would make both of them happy.

“Mine? Really?” Yeongchan asked.

This was a huge concession and favor. The number of viewers who watched Hyeonu’s live stream was greater than the number of subscribers to Yeongchan’s channel. If even a small portion of them could be absorbed, Yeongchan would once again leap upward.

“What is the big deal? Just turn it on when it is time. Think about what you are going to do today.” Hyeonu got up and entered his room. Only an empty plate remained in the spot he just left.

***

[Exploring the celestial world’s ranking battles with Alley Leader.]

Yeongchan was experiencing a new world. Just by adding Hyeonu to the title, the number of viewers was increasing several times faster than usual.

‘Aren’t I going to set a new record today?’ Anticipation grew in Yeongchan’s heart.

The time when Yeongchan gathered the most viewers for his live stream was when he did a joint stream with Hyeonu in Buncheonru in the past. Hyeonu’s status was different from back then, so he didn’t know if he could break the record.

“By the way, you aren’t going to lose today, are you? Aren’t you overdoing it?” Yeongchan asked Hyeonu, who was standing next to him and staring blankly in the air.

What Hyeonu was going to show in today’s live stream was that dangerous. It was something that Yeongchan couldn’t understand at all.

“What are you talking about? I have to do this to get the balance between the fourth and fifth class advancements. Do you even listen to me? The level is different, the level.” Hyeonu extended his index finger to Yeongchan and shook it.

There seemed to be a lack of faith in Yeongchan. Hyeonu decided to fill that void. He smiled and lightly flicked his fingers. A purple light flashed in Yeongchan’s ear, and an intense roar broke out. Yeongchan instinctively covered his ears and lowered his upper body.

Tap!

Hyeonu immediately flicked his fingers again. A purple light flashed quickly around Yeongchan’s face. This time, there was a series of continuous explosions. It occurred as many times as the light flashed.

Yeongchan’s body shrank back even more. In the end, he knelt down with his face on the ground. Hyeonu slowly walked toward Yeongchan. Then he squatted down in front of Yeongchan and patted the arm of the latter, who was covering his ears.

“This is the difference between you and me. I’ve been worry-free since completing my fifth class advancement.”

Hyeonu’s face had a smile that was brighter than ever before.

***

Once the turmoil was over, Yeongchan barely managed to control his emotions and started the live stream.

“Nice to meet you. I am the professional streamer Argon. More and more people have found my live stream today. As the title suggests, today I am spending time with my friend, Alley Leader. The place that everyone is curious about. The celestial world rankings. The highest of them all. We’ll be watching it together.” Yeongchan opened the live stream with neat comments.

It was a high level of progress.

-Wow, it is Alley Leader.

-He is here to raise a friend.

-Explain why he didn’t stream yesterday.

-Did he take a break because of the joint streaming?

The viewers poured out all types of questions at Yeongchan’s appearance. Yeongchan smiled bitterly when he saw the chat window. It was too different from the chat windows he had seen so far.

Hyeonu came forward at this time.

“I took a break from streaming yesterday due to my personal circumstances. A video containing the reason will be posted to the A-World channel soon. In addition, the reason for today’s joint live stream is that I skipped yesterday. I took a break yesterday, so I have to do it today, right? Isn’t that right? From now on, if a message about it appears in the chat window, I will take a break from the next live stream. Do you understand?” Hyeonu dealt with the viewers more powerfully than usual.

It was because this live stream wasn’t his own.

-Then today is Alley Leader’s ranking battle?

-Won’t it be a bit boring?

-Let’s call someone to teach him a lesson.

-Isn’t it too much for Argon to teach him a lesson? Let’s call a few grandmasters.

The messages in the chat window changed in an instant. Hyeonu’s bluff worked.

“Of course, it isn’t just a ranking battle. Wouldn’t it be too boring to just do that? We will show you more than you can imagine.” Yeongchan saw that chat window that had reversed in an instant and proceeded skillfully.

“Now, take a look everyone,” Hyeonu said. Then he dragged the Mysterious Sky Sword in the sheath and walked around the arena. By the time Hyeonu returned to his original position, a picture of a cut cake appeared in the arena.

“The circle is divided into 32 pieces. I will write down one penalty in each piece. Then the wooden sword in the center of the circle will be rotated to select a penalty. That penalty will be used to play the ranking battle,” Yeongchan explained the identity of the circle drawn on the ground.

-I didn’t expect to see a turntable in the celestial world rankings.

-Is it actually a comedy stream today?

-However, isn’t one penalty too weak? This has been done before.

The viewers weren’t very enthusiastic. It wasn’t particularly new. Hyeonu had already done ranking battles in this way.

“The wooden sword won’t be rotated just one time. It will be rotated three times. In addition, the penalties written in the circle will be determined by the viewers,” Yeongchan added with a smile.

-Then isn’t this crazy?

The reaction of the viewers was reversed.