Ranker's Return

Chapter 925

Hyeonu replied reflexively. It was only after a few more seconds passed that he properly accepted the chat sent by Liu Shei.

‘What nonsense is this really?’

The emperor had appeared in the city where Liu Shei was the lord. It was unbelievable. The emperor couldn’t leave the imperial palace empty.

‘That place... Is it the northern battlefield?’

The place where the emperor appeared was the place where battles with the undead were still taking place once a day. The emperor’s departure to the battlefield was a big deal.

‘The emperor went to such a place?’

The problem wasn’t the power of the emperor. The problem was that an iconic figure called the emperor was plunging into the battlefield.

‘It will be different from the demon world...’

In the demon world, players were the mainstream, not NPCs. Rumors spread, but they couldn’t talk about it since no one actually saw it. This time, it was different. Many NPCs would witness the scene if the emperor stepped out.

“Did something interesting happen to you?” Callioraks showed interest in Hyeonu’s reaction. It was rare for Hyeonu to express such intense emotions.

“No, it isn’t a big deal.” Hyeonu shook his head as he looked at Callioraks.

‘It is because he has nothing to do with it.’

This wasn’t something that should be said to Callioraks. It was something Hyeonu had to deal with alone.

“If I have to leave the demon world for a while... Callioraks, will you be able to call me back to where you are?” Hyeonu asked carefully.

“Can I call you? It isn’t difficult. Do you have any urgent business?” Callioraks kept smiling as he stared at Hyeonu.

“Yes, it is a bit urgent.”

“Two days then.” Callioraks stretched out two fingers in front of Hyeonu’s eyes.

“Two… days?” Hyeonu’s expression stiffened. Two days were too long.

‘It’s the time until Renfelvik is killed...’

It didn’t make any sense. In any case, he would arrive at Renfelvik’s location in two days. He should just kill Renfelvik and return to the middle world. There was no need to wait two days.

“No, let’s just go. I will behead Renfelvik,” Hyeonu said with a grim expression.

“That’s fine. There is someone else to take his life.” Callioraks’ gaze shifted downward. There was a bear holding a large chicken skewer and smiling brightly.

***

“What are you thinking about?”

Liu Shei, who was waiting for Hyeonu’s answer, was pulled back by an unexpected voice.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty.” Liu Shei bowed his head. This was clearly his mistake. He had to bow down unconditionally.

“Why apologize? It is my fault for suddenly coming.” The emperor smiled and waved his hand. However, Liu Shei couldn’t make a relaxed expression despite the emperor’s attitude. It was because he had heard from Hyeonu how vicious an NPC the emperor was.

‘If I make any mistakes, I might be deprived of my title.’

It was right to do this as long as there was even the smallest possibility of his title getting removed.

“Excuse me... The reason you came...” Liu Shei asked carefully. Liu Shei could only somehow deal with this by grasping the intention of the emperor’s visit.

“The reason... What is the number of people in the battle now?”

Liu Shei pondered for a moment before quickly coming up with an answer, “There are 3,000 adventurers and 1,000 imperial people. The total is 4,000.”

“4,000... How long will it take to collect them all?” the emperor asked again after hearing Liu Shei’s answer.

“The adventurers can gather in at least two hours. For the rest, 30 minutes is enough.”

“Two hours isn’t a long time. Call all of them together,” the emperor beckoned Liu Shei.

“In order to call the adventurers, I have to explain the reason to a certain extent, Your Majesty.” Liu Shei mustered up the courage to indirectly question the emperor again.

The emperor smiled. “We have to start a war.”

***

After receiving a sudden call from Liu Shei, the players gathered and murmured many questions amongst themselves.

“What is going on?”

“The emperor appeared?”

“Why is the emperor not in the capital?”

“The emperor is leading the war? Is this a quest?”

Those gathered were still dubious about Liu Shei’s words. It was easy to believe it, but it was also too ambiguous to believe. The name of the emperor wasn’t to be taken lightly.

Just then, Liu Shei appeared in the vacant lot near the city walls where the players were gathered. Several players who were acquainted with Liu Shei approached him.

“Is it real, Liu Shei? Has the emperor appeared?”

“What? Did he give a quest?”

“Aren’t you going to tell us why he came?”

Liu Shei frowned as he saw the people who surrounded him and said all types of things.

‘It is crazy...’

The conversation with the emperor had been short, but it caused his fatigue to reach close to the limit. It felt similar to when he spoke with Jin Sijong.

“It is true that the emperor has appeared. He also brought the players together. There is no quest yet. Well, it will happen later.” Liu Shei frowned as he answered the players’ questions.

“Don’t you know why he called us?”

“He wouldn’t have called us for no reason.”

“Is he going to give us a cool bus ride like Alley Leader?”

They didn’t even care about Liu Shei’s expression and continued their conversation.

‘These jerks...’ Liu Shei shook his head at the sight of their behavior.

These players were three of the Kowloon Guild’s nine dragons. They were players who had little interest in running a guild and were only interested in things like hunting and raids.

‘They don’t even care about what a dangerous moment it was.’

They definitely wouldn’t be interested in what Liu Shei had gone through. It was also clear that they wouldn’t be thinking about the aftermath of the emperor's arrival here. Right then, the murmurs of the players subsided. Their eyes were drawn to one place. There was a blond-haired man walking over slowly.

“Warriors who have sacrificed themselves for the empire, please listen.” The blond-haired man, Alexander, opened his mouth and spoke to the crowd of adventurers. “I commend you for the hard work you have done to retake the territory of the empire. Unfortunately, we haven’t regained all of the empire’s territory.”

It was difficult to distinguish if the emperor’s words were praise or criticism. Thus, they kept their mouths shut and continued to listen to the emperor. It wouldn’t be too late to make a judgment after all the words were finished.

“I no longer intend to force sacrifices on you alone. I will be at the forefront of the battlefield myself.”

The emperor’s words were a shock. Of course, it was a shock in a good way for the players. The emperor was very powerful. It was clear that he would be stronger than the guardians who stood in the way of the players. The emperor finished speaking and moved to the top of the walls.

“Is this a real bus?”

“This is how to get on the NPC bus that only Alley Leader used to ride.”

“Let’s properly suck up the profit.”

“Based on what he is saying, he plans to take back the remaining cities?”

It was only then that the players’ closed mouths opened again. Their expressions were very bright. It turned out that the appearance of the emperor was a good thing.

“Everyone, please be quiet. The battle will start in 10 minutes, so please be prepared,” Liu Shei took command of the remaining players.

The players started to move quickly. Being a ranker in the game meant they were very familiar with the game. They were also familiar with the role of a bus driver, but they were more familiar with the role of passenger.

***

“Is this really true?” Hyeonu asked with a cocked head as he looked at the laptop. A large picture of the emperor was on Hyeonu’s laptop screen.

[The emperor is the bus driver of the rankers. How far will he go?]

This was the title of the article with the photo. The emperor took back two cities in one day in real-time. It was a crazy speed. However, some rankers expressed regret. There were no guardians left to act as defenders, so the battle became uninteresting.

On the other hand, most of the rankers thought that they could retake a city with just a little bit of time now that there were no more guardians. This was despite the fact that the New World guild was completely missing from the battlefield.

‘What is he thinking?’

The emperor’s sudden participation in the war and the guardians who disappeared—neither could be understood.

‘Did the emperor kill the guardians beforehand?’ Hyeonu even had this thought.

Otherwise, the current results didn’t make sense.

‘I should think positively first.’

The immediate front line was pushed back, but it could be rebuilt at any time if the emperor returned to the capital.

‘It is frustrating because I can’t leave the demon world.’

Hyeonu had invested too much time in his task for him to leave now. He had to kill Renfelvik.

‘I need to find out if Renfelvik is insignificant or not...’

Hyeonu’s attention immediately shifted from the emperor to Renfelvik. Renfelvik was a type of price. Killing him was the price for increasing the proficiency of one epic skill and the other three skills that Tang-E had acquired.

‘I want to kill him if possible, but...’

“The monster stopped it, so there is nothing I can do.”

It was frustrating because nothing was going Hyeonu’s way.

***

“It is that guy over there. Look carefully.” Callioraks placed Tang-E on his shoulder and stretched out his opposite hand to point somewhere. The place where his finger was pointing showed a man with blood-red hair moving.

“Is he Renfelvik? He doesn’t look as strong as I thought?” Hyeonu narrowed his eyes as he observed the man with the blood-colored hair, Renfelvik. Renfelvik didn’t look as strong as expected. He seemed embarrassingly weak compared to a demon king.

“Of course. It is because he just got the title of duke of true blood,” Callioraks replied with a smile.

“Master dude, how does he not look strong? He looks very strong to me.” Tang-E showed a completely different reaction from the two though. In Tang-E’s eyes, Renfelvik looked very strong. He didn’t understand how Renfelvik was an easy opponent.

“He is weak, so don’t be nervous. If it doesn’t work, I am here. You can act comfortably,” Hyeonu reassured Tang-E like this.

In fact, he was planning on going out straight away if Tang-E were to be in danger.

“Understood, Master dude. I will trust Master dude.” Tang-E’s expression relaxed.

However, Hyeonu’s expression was slightly stiff.

‘By the way, why hasn’t a quest appeared?’

The absence of a quest…

Now was the time for it to show up. Renfelvik was in front of him, so there was no more time left to wait.

“He looks like a strong opponent, but you can overcome it. You have learned so much.” Callioraks stroked Tang-E’s head.

“Tang-E, don’t use dark attribute magic and just fight with the rest. Got it?” Hyeonu added one last piece of advice to Callioraks’ words. It was a reminder that Renfelvik was from the demon world.

Just then, a message window appeared in front of Hyeonu. A quest had finally been created.

“You have to kill him, Tang-E. You have to kill him.”