Ranker Who Shatters Myths - Chapter 161
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Broken Ranker
Devours Myths
Chapter 161
Guam (6)
A moment later.
“Hey! Turn on the lights!”
“What the hell is going on!!”
“Show us the match!”
Just as the jeers were pouring out.
『¡Silencio! Didn’t you all see it! The power that appeared on this stage today was a force that could turn Carnerium’s pleasure into tedium!!』
In the darkness, Ramon’s voice echoed through the ceiling via the loudspeaker.
And then,
Click!
A single spotlight fell upon Ramon.
But as the murmuring wouldn’t cease, he raised his voice.
『This wasn’t going to be a match but a massacre! Carnerium exists only for shows and legends, not for slaughter!』
Booo!
As the audience poured out jeers and complaints, Ramon soon seemed to regain his smile and continued in a lowered voice.
『But do not despair! Tonight we witnessed ‘a power that even gods fear’…! The show hasn’t stopped, but merely lowered its curtain for a grander stage!』
Meaning that if the match had proceeded as planned, it would have only been a boring, predictable battle.
The audience here were degenerates who sought only the thrill of extreme tension rather than betting odds.
The spectators who recalled how Gwiroae’s magic field had overwhelmed the thirty gladiators nodded their heads.
『Today’s story will become tomorrow’s legend, and the legend of the night after! You will be witnesses to the greatest show in history! So for now… we merely pause.』
In the darkness, the audience was still full of complaints, but swayed by Ramon’s eloquence, their eyes changed to ones of anticipation for what was to come.
At the very least, the showman Ramon they knew had never lied to them.
Moreover, he gave refunds to those who lost their bets and handed out free admission tickets for a month to those who won, so no more complaints arose.
Finally, after all the refund procedures were completed.
“…Hah.”
Ramon could finally catch his breath as he leaned his back against a pillar in the arena.
“The financial damage from today must be quite substantial. Is this really okay?”
Lee Hyeon approached him.
Ramon smiled bitterly.
“That doesn’t seem like something the person who caused such damage should be worrying about…”
“If you want, we could resume the match even now?”
“Haha. If I were worried about losses, I wouldn’t have been able to do this show business. Rather than losing both people and money, it’s better to lose only money.”
Even though he spoke so easily, ordinary people wouldn’t be able to do this. They’d worry only about the immediate losses before them and end up losing everything.
‘He’s someone with firm principles. People over relationships, relationships over money?’
It was a glimpse into how an apostate from a fanatic group could build such a business in this extreme capitalist den.
‘Well, that’s probably why the General continued to maintain relations with him.’
Lee Gun-san always operated secretive networks that even Lee Hyeon and his colleagues didn’t know about.
Was Ramon also one of the members of that network?
“And it’s not really a loss. If I can build a friendship with someone called Gwiroae, that’s a lottery ticket that can’t yet be converted to cash.”
His tongue moved as smoothly as if it were oiled.
Lee Hyeon began to like Ramon, who had initially seemed only suspicious.
“Hey! Ramon!! What are you going to do about this? You raised the betting stakes that high and then suddenly do this!”
“Listen here! My luck was so good today! If you cut it off in the middle, will you take responsibility?”
“That’s right! What about compensation for us!”
The thirty gladiators swarmed toward Ramon, all furious.
Security guards hurriedly protected Ramon’s vicinity.
“Everyone please calm down. Actually, if you think about it, this match wasn’t even fair, was it? In Ali’s case, he had already fought twice before and would have needed rest.”
The gladiator who had won the match just before Lee Hyeon’s intrusion slightly frowned.
“So today, please enjoy complete rest at the resort we’ve prepared, and focus on tomorrow’s match. The compensation will be no less than the Kraken’s Eye—”
“Screw that!!”
Just then, one gladiator threw the wine cup in his hand at Ramon. The guy’s face was already quite flushed with alcohol.
Thwack!
The wine cup hit his forehead and shattered.
Blood trickled down Ramon’s cheek.
The security guards’ eyes turned sharp. Then, nearly half of the gladiators moved their hands toward their weapon hilts with twisted faces.
The other gladiators all drew their weapons in unison.
A tense situation divided into two camps.
“Stop!!”
At Ramon’s command, both the security and the gladiators on this side stopped their actions. It was proof that Ramon was absolute to them.
But the gladiator who threw the wine cup didn’t stop sneering.
“Ha! Look at these guys? I already had some suspicions about match-fixing, but this is just full of rats, isn’t it?”
“Oh my… It seems our slaughterhouse’s mascot, Mr. Darren Seven, is quite angry.”
Ramon smiled brightly while pressing the wound on his forehead with a handkerchief handed by a server.
“What should we do to change Mr. Darren’s mind? If our current proposal doesn’t satisfy you, we’ll try to arrange other compensation.”
“No! What’s the use of all that! Whatever I do, my name is already buried in the gutter!!”
The other gladiators also nodded at Darren’s words and glared at Lee Hyeon with burning eyes.
What was the reason the match was suspended?
It was ‘because Gwiroae was too strong.’ This meant that whatever they did from now on, the tag of Gwiroae would stick to them.
A gladiator’s life is their reputation.
Essentially, that life was as good as finished.
“…Then, what kind of compensation do you want us to provide?”
“It has to be something very expensive! The Kraken’s Eye should be enough, right?”
Darren grinned wickedly and turned his gaze toward Lee Hyeon.
Even then, Lee Hyeon stood calmly and said nothing.
The smile completely disappeared from Ramon’s face too.
“Isn’t that too excessive a demand? We’ll consider additional compensation separately. You seem to have drunk too much right now, so tomorrow when you’re sober, let’s have another conversation—”
“Don’t want to give it? Then we can just take it ourselves!! If we get Gwiroae’s head, our honor will return too!!”
Darren and a dozen gladiators all rushed at Lee Hyeon at once.
An extremely close range.
‘Damn!’
They had deliberately approached to close the distance.
Just as Ramon was about to urgently shout to stop them,
“All this chattering is annoyingly loud.”
Crackle!!
The amethyst of the Rune Staff rotated.
—ᛊ.
A small Thunder Orb appeared centered on Lee Hyeon. Sparks flew up from the sphere’s surface.
Pop pop pop pop!!
And simultaneously, the heads of Darren and his gang exploded.
In an instant, electricity struck all of their foreheads in unison.
The result of having pre-designated targets with the Golden Eyes of Truth.
They collapsed to the floor, losing their heads while still in the position of charging at Lee Hyeon.
“……!”
“……!”
“……!!”
The other gladiators, security, and even the servers covered their mouths with their hands.
Especially the gladiators who had hesitated briefly, unable to decide which side to take, hurriedly removed their hands from their weapons.
Only Ramon smiled bitterly.
“See, you should have taken the chance to live when I offered it to you… Acting recklessly while drunk.”
He gestured to the servers.
“Clean this up. The guests coming tomorrow are particularly important people for our show. We mustn’t give them any unpleasant feelings.”
“Yes!”
“Yes!”
“Lord Gwiroae… shall we go to the CEO office together?”
Ramon bowed his head respectfully.
“It seems you two will have much to discuss.”
* * *
Trickle-
Ramon personally placed the coffee he had brewed in front of Lee Hyeon.
“This is Geisha coffee I personally imported from Panama. For this one cup, only the fruits from a few trees out of hundreds are selected.”
But Lee Hyeon just stared blankly at the coffee.
Ramon asked cautiously.
“Do you perhaps dislike coffee…?”
“No. I was wondering if you learned that person’s preferences.”
That person.
He was referring to Lee Gun-san.
Before leaving, he had warned Lee Hyeon never to pretend to know much about him.
At the time, he wondered why he said that.
“Ah. That person must really love coffee too. Every time he sends me letters, he includes coffee, so I had a feeling.”
‘He was hiding his identity anonymously.’
A faint smile played around Ramon’s lips.
A genuine smile flowing from sincerity, different from the show business smile he had been displaying.
Lee Hyeon slightly lifted his mask to drink the coffee.
“The aroma is certainly intense yet the aftertaste is smooth. Similar to the slaughterhouse’s operating method.”
“I’m grateful you say that.”
“You don’t ask what kind of relationship that person and I have?”
“Haha. When it’s time for that person to tell me, he’ll let me know separately. He’s not someone who would harm me.”
Lee Hyeon was truly curious about Lee Gun-san’s magic.
How had he managed to hide behind anonymity all this time while still earning such unwavering trust?
“However, I’ll briefly tell you my story. I don’t want to cause any misunderstandings with Lord Gwiroae. I never thought I’d be telling my story after leaving that place…”
Ramon took a long breath and spoke calmly.
“You’ve probably already noticed, but the children outside and I are from the Underground Cult.”
Lee Hyeon slightly opened his Golden Eyes of Truth to observe the corridor outside the CEO office.
Beyond that, he could see gladiators pacing anxiously in front of the door.
Their minds were all filled with anxiety about Ramon. They were worried about what might happen with Lee Hyeon.
“I was a bishop, and those children were originally holy knight candidates I was training. The branch was,”
“Inquisitor, right.”
“…You even figured that out? Impressive.”
“No matter how much you try to hide it with other things, habits and gait can’t be concealed. You were in assassination, weren’t you?”
Ramon let out a hollow laugh with an expression that said he’d been completely found out.
Then he nodded heavily.
“Yes. That’s correct. I was originally from the Heretic Inquisition. My main purpose was to brutally kidnap and assassinate heretics who spread rumors about the cult or interfered with the cult’s events.”
“It couldn’t have been easy to escape.”
“Haha… That’s right. The position I held was one that only fanatics among fanatics could occupy.”
Information about the Underground Cult wasn’t widely known to the public.
It would only interfere with world peace, and in reality, information about them was extremely scarce.
However, one thing was certain.
They had spread throughout the entire world.
And they were cleverly hiding their identities.
Like they were truly in an underground world. They never leaked their identities to the outside.
They operated thoroughly as cell organizations, with almost no connections between the cult’s various parishes and branches.
Instead, they were bound together only by fanaticism.
Fanaticism that they would someday submit to the Underground God, the Great Mother.
Of course, for efficient organizational management, shadows were cast everywhere to handle discipline and exclude heretics…
Those were the Heretic Inquisitors.
Among the fanatics of the Underground Cult, they were the tribe most notorious for being vicious.
“But do you know this? Once a person turns their heart away, it’s also human nature to run to extremes. That’s what I did.”
Ramon didn’t mention the things he had experienced. It seemed he didn’t even want to recall them.
However, the emotions he harbored were clearly visible.
Hatred.
Contempt.
Regret.
He was looking at the cult and his past with the same gaze.
“But when I came to my senses, things were already so entangled that I couldn’t see a way out. I wanted to save those children too, but I didn’t know what to do. Right at that time…”
“That person helped you.”
Ramon’s stiff expression gradually relaxed.
“Yes. I don’t know how he found out, but he suddenly sent me a letter saying he would save me. At first, I thought the Vatican was questioning my faith, but… Yes. I ended up coming here.”
‘Just like me.’
Lee Hyeon somehow felt like he could see himself in Ramon’s appearance.
His mentor, Lee Gun-san, who had extended a hand to him and Moon Su-chan when they somehow entered the private academy but couldn’t adapt at all in the early days.
‘The General was an adult who became a lighthouse for both us and this person. Why was he so good to us?’
“Now, let’s forget the bitterness like coffee’s first taste and move on to smooth business talk like the aftertaste, shall we?”
Ramon returned to his cheerful face as if nothing had happened and rubbed his hands together.
“I heard some hints from that person. I heard you have a business you want in Guam?”
Lee Hyeon nodded.
“I want to go to the deep sea dungeon. Can you help?”
“Aha. So that’s why you beat up the City Cartel so thoroughly. To take away the Blue Ribbon?”
“You could say it’s similar.”
Guam has an agreement called the ‘Blue Ribbon.’
A certificate awarded only to 21 corporations that can enter the Hagåtña Black Zone.
Only those with this can have shares in the mines and access to the deep sea dungeon.
Naturally, the Blue Ribbon could also be taken away.
Guam was thoroughly a world of the strong.
“You’re trying to do a very difficult business. However, we’re not particularly interested in mines, so we didn’t get a ribbon… What to do?”
Ramon pondered for a while, then smiled wickedly as if he had thought of something good.
“If necessary, would you be interested in expanding the scale of things?”
“Scale?”
“Yes. To be honest, we’d also like to use this as an opportunity to expand our business by riding on Gwiroae’s coattails.”
He showed the eyes of a negotiator—appearing servile yet not truly servile.
Heh.
Lee Hyeon was starting to like Ramon more for some reason.
“What are you thinking?”
“Our slaughterhouse would become Gwiroae’s sponsor.”
Ramon smiled broadly.
“And Gwiroae would become Guam’s superstar. How does that sound?”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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