The Ranker Was a Ranker
The ranker was a ranker.
And Hwarang was Hwarang through and through.
The moment the official announcement dropped, the Yongbungs who had been biting their tongues and holding back all burst out at once.
They came armed with pure malice, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming combat power. The real mad dogs of the fandom had been unleashed.
Take this—thirty-one colors of savage roasts, complete chaos, and even surprise worship on top.
The Haemoo Guild fans, Royal Sword Guild fans, Baekgeom Guild fans, Shinseong Guild fans… even the Kirin fan club that had ruled League 1 until now were getting completely pushed back. This kind of raw street brawl was new to all of them.
While the internet world was getting overrun by ten million Yongbungs, was reality any different?
No. Busan had already turned into a frenzy of madness.
“This is what a major feels like…?”
“Yes! Yes! A ranker! It's a jackpot this year too! Kids, pass the beer around!”
“But Haemoo has a major too… mmph!”
“Right, right! We should have at least one ranker of our own!!”
At last, a major guild representing Busan had been born!
At last, they had become a region that possessed a ranker!
The self-employed businesses that had been sweetly riding the wave of Mir Guild's popularity completely lost their minds over this ultra-high-sugar honey jar called Hwarang.
Of course, anyone who carelessly mentioned “Haemoo” was quietly dragged away. Busan was a rough city.
While the fans and the entire city of Busan danced a joyful tap dance of celebration, the Mir Guild—the very ones who had given them this gift—remained strangely calm…
“Thank you, Director.”
“You worked hard.”
It was time to say goodbye.
“Hee-chul!”
“Nuna~”
Lee Hye-jung approached Lee Hee-chul as he entered the training ground. As always, he flashed a bright smile that showed his gums.
In that smile, Lee Hye-jung sensed something.
It's today…
“You went to consult with the director. What was it about?”
“This nuna is asking even though she already knows.”
Lee Hee-chul nodded with a bright smile.
Until now, after every promotion they had enjoyed the sweetest times. Traveling overseas to surf and vacation… But this year was different.
Even though Lee Shin's bonus envelope was much thicker than before, none of them had gone abroad.
Everyone had foreseen what would come after promotion.
That what lay ahead was an insurmountable wall…
“The Park line guys are like that because their heads are full of flowers. We weren't like them.”
“Because we're dealers.”
“There are so many dealers in the world that you need to have sense! That's what you always told us, nuna.”
Dealers were vending machines. Never act out of line.
That was what Lee Hye-jung had always told her juniors.
People on the outside mistakenly thought dealers were the protagonists after watching their flashy plays on YouTube.
But in reality, dealers were the easiest resource to replace.
“That's why I respect you, nuna. You twisted yourself with poison and switched to utility.”
“…It's because the director recommended it.”
“Anyone can give advice. The real point is the person who listened and actually changed everything. Is there anyone among us who didn't follow the director's advice?”
He wasn't wrong. No matter how busy the schedule got, Lee Shin had never once skipped their regular consultations.
Lee Hye-jung gave a small nod and moved to the main topic.
“Did you ask about the trade?”
“Yeah. Whether to go as a raid member in League 2 or as a starter for the League 3 competition. I consulted him.”
“What did he say?”
“As expected, he was straightforward. He immediately recommended the starter spot for the League 3 competition. Of course, he put it pretty painfully.”
Dual daggers, a classic close-range assassin-type character.
Without small size or humanoid form, it was difficult to exert full power. Inevitably, the character Lee Hee-chul had to aim for the competition.
“…Don't waste time on throwing that doesn't suit you. Just master 'Stab.'”
“I told you not to copy me. You hide and stab from behind…”
“No! Nagging me even on the way out! At least show some empathy!”
“Sorry… So, what else did he say?”
“He said he'd give me this dagger as a gift.”
“You too?”
The twin daggers spun in the smiling Lee Hee-chul's hand.
Naturally, equipment provided by the guild was guild property. A single piece was worth an entire house, so it couldn't be treated carelessly.
Yet Lee Shin was gifting one piece of equipment to each hunter being traded as a token of gratitude.
Ah, of course excluding those guys.
“The more I think about it, the stupider it seems. If you want to transfer, just say so. Our director isn't someone you can't talk to. Why part on bad terms and leave with nothing but scraps?”
“That's what happens when people who lack talent get blinded by greed. We just have to make sure we don't do that.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Lee Hee-chul looked around the training ground with a gentle smile.
This was the place he had first stepped into after receiving Lee Shin's call, back when he had been rejected from League 5 and was desperately looking for odd jobs to cover living expenses.
“Back then, I was just grateful I could train without starving.”
“It really was a hungry time.”
“While training, I looked over and saw the Mountain King I had only ever seen on TV. I seriously thought I would faint.”
“Same here.”
“Nuna grabbed me like a rat because of the vice-captain position.”
“Ah, haha. That did happen.”
“Remember when the director said he'd replace us if we didn't do it right?”
It had only been three years, yet there were so many memories.
But now it was time to let him go.
“Thank you for everything, nuna.”
“We'll see each other again if you call. Why are you acting like…”
“Tsk!”
“Alright, alright. Come here.”
Lee Hye-jung gave Lee Hee-chul a light hug.
“You worked hard. Take care.”
The consultations were gradually wrapping up.
People like Kim Jong-pil, Park Su-bin, and Yu Ri-ra had finished long ago. Including Lee Hye-jung, only about four people remained.
Lee Hye-jung stared at the promotion photo hanging on the wall for a long time, then nodded as if she had come to a decision.
Almost immediately, her phone rang. Seeing “Director” on the screen, she thought that what was coming had come and headed straight for the director's office.
A short while later, Lee Shin and Lee Hye-jung sat facing each other.
“I called you because I have something to ask.”
“Yes.”
Lee Hye-jung finished preparing herself mentally.
With her current skill, staying in League 1 meant she couldn't dream of a competition starting position, and even a raid spot wasn't guaranteed.
In that case…
She waited for his words while thinking about which guild she might transfer to.
The moment Lee Shin opened his mouth, Lee Hye-jung's expression went completely blank.
“Hye-jung, what happened last season?”
Lee Hye-jung was a simple person.
She lived each day faithfully for what she liked, no different from any ordinary citizen.
The only thing she liked was money, and after awakening she had simply chosen hunter as her profession.
So she had lived her guild life the way an ordinary person lived their office job.
Until that incident exploded.
Malicious curses stabbed her like knives.
They called her shameless, said they knew she'd turn out like this, claimed physiognomy was science.
The usual “if it's not true then whatever” style of mockery and criticism.
Before long the blades of condemnation flew past her and straight toward her family.
No matter how much she explained, no one believed her.
Even some of her friends turned their backs.
What she had never done had already become the truth, and her casual everyday actions were maliciously twisted and distorted.
In the world of the internet, Lee Hye-jung had already become a demon.
It was then, along with the shock, that Lee Hye-jung gained a deep realization.
She realized she had been stupid.
She had thought earning money was enough. To earn more, she just needed to train hard, ignore her surroundings, and raise her own value.
If she had been an ordinary office worker, that thinking wouldn't have been wrong. But she was a hunter—a profession that existed between public figure and private citizen.
She had to think and act with constant awareness. She needed to pay attention and look at the world around her.
While Lee Hye-jung was blaming her own foolishness, it was Lee Shin who smiled and told her not to worry.
When Lee Shin stepped forward, the suspicions vanished like a lie.
The demon Lee Hye-jung became a pitiful victim. Those who supported her suddenly raised their voices, while those who had cursed her quietly disappeared.
Lee Hye-jung could not look away from that magical process.
And like a thunderbolt, she realized why that man had called her and the raid team “tools.”
The head doesn't work.
Multitasking doesn't work.
Judgment doesn't work.
The core these three things pointed to.
Our field of vision is narrow.
The difference between Lee Shin and Lee Hye-jung.
The difference between the Mountain King and the raid team.
How much wider, how much more, how much farther one could see.
It was purely a difference in vision.
Because the very amount of information they were looking at was different, the variables they could imagine were different too.
Lee Hye-jung had only seen a handful of information and trembled in fear, but Lee Shin had penetrated the present, the future, and even the past, so he could smile as always.
From that moment, Lee Hye-jung changed.
Instead of training mindlessly, she read books and spent time with people.
She had transformed.
·
·
Right now, Lee Hye-jung was witnessing a shocking scene.
Lee Shin—that Lee Shin—was surprised. His jaw had actually dropped!
“Wait, wait a second. So you're saying you gained enlightenment from that ridiculous media play?”
“Yes.”
“And it was because of me?”
“Yes.”
“This is insane…”
Lee Shin roughly scratched his head.
Seeing the man who always acted like he knew everything in the world so genuinely shocked, Lee Hye-jung felt strangely proud.
“Okay, again. Think about it carefully one more time… You didn't eat any spiritual medicine, did you?”
“Where would I get the money to buy spiritual medicine?”
“Or maybe you stumbled into some fortuitous encounter…”
“Why are you acting like this?”
“Why? Because something that shouldn't exist is here!”
“Yes…??”
Lee Shin loved this GM world. His near-obsessive strategy play had been driven by the desire to know everything about it.
How many times had he played Lee Hye-jung?
He had seen the ending five times, and used her at least several hundred times at minimum.
Lee Shin knew exactly how ordinary this character was.
A character who liked money and worked for money.
A character just like us—living day by day while waiting for payday. Perhaps because of that, even her abilities were extremely ordinary.
A character who went all-in on mobility and dexterity to compensate for her castrated attack power. More suited as a thief than a bandit. High utility but a character whose value could never be high—a pure early-game pick.
Low risk, low return.
If he had to put it in gacha terms, she was basically a no-spender performance character…?
This was why Lee Shin had equipped her with Poison. Otherwise there had been no way to extend her hunter lifespan.
And just as he predicted, the poison complemented her lacking attack power and created perfect synergy with her existing dexterity and mobility.
Lee Hye-jung had been growing exactly as Lee Shin had calculated. As the Mountain King's “tool” who ran the poison shuttle.
But it changed from the second half of last year…
He wouldn't have called her a tool for no reason. The reason Lee Hye-jung had become the jungle starter was because she was passive and lacked any special “ego.” In crude terms, she had been placed there because it was convenient for the Mountain King to use her.
But she had changed.
From Lee Shin's perspective, it felt like this:
The tool is thinking now?
Lee Hye-jung had begun acting noticeably more proactive.
She constantly tried new things and attempted to create. Of course she made many mistakes along the way, but the important thing was that she was trying.
And the round where that talent exploded was round 50.
In the finals.
The area control she performed together with the Mountain King. The clever 「Poison Mist」 control that hid Yu Ri-ra. And the high-level play actions.
That was not the Lee Hye-jung Lee Shin knew. It was a “human” named Lee Hye-jung that he was seeing for the first time.
“…I thought that someday a character I didn't know might appear. After all, the number of letters in ‘human' and ‘character' are different from the start, right?”
But.
“I never imagined it would be you, Hye-jung.”
Delicate Hands
Throwing Mastery
(New!!) Insight
Agile Movements
(New!!) Rookie Commander
Poison Mist
Poison Peerless
The limits on the 'Intelligence' stat and 'Wisdom' stat have been lifted.
"Big Sister" has changed to "Rookie Commander."
Potential has increased.
Lee Hye-jung's eyes widened into perfect circles.
Lee Shin smiled and slid the contract across to her. She glanced at him nervously, then looked down at the contract in front of her.
“Gasp.”
She was stunned.
What was this? Tens, hundreds… Her head spun from the number of zeros.
It wasn't her imagination. The amount written on the contract was a sum difficult to receive at her current level.
“It's a contract extension. I've taken special care of the terms in proportion to how hard you've worked for the guild until now.”
“Ah, uh… Yes…”
“And this is the important part…”
Let's see… Lee Shin rummaged through his drawer and pulled something out.
“I'll give you this.”
He slid a badge across the table.
“It's the 2nd Team Leader badge.”
“!!”
The captain position of Strategy Team 2.
“How about it? Will you stay with us?”
Biting her lip, Lee Hye-jung spoke with tears in her eyes.
“Th-thank you.”
“No. I'm the one who should be thanking you.”
Thanks to you, this world has become even more lovable.
Lee Shin smiled brightly.
However.
The first human Lee Shin had ever seen wasn't only Lee Hye-jung.
“Oh Godddddd!!”
A burst of light exploded from the building directly across.
A miracle was arriving.