Broken Ranker Devours Myths - Chapter 19

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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 19

White Burn (5)

 

 

 

Team Leader Jeong Sun-il of Z Team had been in an extremely foul mood since the early morning breeze.

“That fucking bitch, how dare she make me a laughingstock?”

An announcement had just been posted on the intranet a moment ago.

It stated that an anonymous complaint against a certain team leader had been received, and the Human Resources Department would begin procedures to investigate the matter.

Although the target wasn’t specifically named, anyone with half a brain in the company knew it was about him.

Ring. Ring.

His mobile phone had been ringing non-stop since earlier.

It was his father, who was working as Executive Director at White Burn.

He’d only get yelled at if he answered anyway. Team Leader Jeong let the call go to voicemail.

“Please calm down, Team Leader. If you keep this up, all the fun we had yesterday will disappear.”

“That’s right. We know the truth. No matter how much that bitch Kim Min-jeong teams up with Im Won-young to scheme, she won’t be able to do anything.”

Just then, two men approached Team Leader Jeong from behind, massaging his shoulders while flattering him.

They were guys who had recently been trying to curry favor with him, wanting to escape Z Team.

“Right. They have no evidence, so no matter how much those bastards throw a fit, they won’t be able to do anything.”

Was it thanks to his team members’ flattery?

Team Leader Jeong felt his mind clearing up bit by bit.

Z Team was completely under his control anyway.

So there were no team members who would stand on Kim Min-jeong’s side and testify for her.

Of course, he didn’t know how some outsiders he hadn’t won over yet might act unpredictably, but,

‘Those guys weren’t even there anyway. And even if they were, I can just bury it by saying it’s not credible.’

No matter how much he racked his brain, there didn’t seem to be any problems.

No, if he used it well, it could actually serve as a decent political tool.

What if he turned this into a false accusation charge?

‘Im Won-young must definitely be involved in this. Can’t I somehow implicate her?’

Team Leader Jeong thought Im Won-young was behind this entire incident.

And for good reason, since she was the one who had blown up a trivial matter and demoted him to Z Team.

Everyone in the company knew about the political struggle between his father Executive Director Jeong and Im Won-young.

His father, who aimed for the next CEO position with work ability and excellent leadership alone, versus Im Won-young, who had nothing to rely on but bloodline.

Anyone who wasn’t blind could clearly see how their struggle would end.

‘The current Chairman is a cold-hearted man who would even cast out his own children. But our father, who has served by his side for over 30 years, is White Burn’s greatest contributor. The company shares he owns are enormous too! No matter how pretty a granddaughter is, if she lacks ability, she’ll have to be cast out.’

Perhaps knowing this, Im Won-young spared no petty tactics and tried to devour him, the son, first.

The problem was that it worked too well, making his own position extremely precarious.

Until now, his father had managed to prevent various scandals somehow, but even that was reaching its limit now.

If he slipped up even a little more here, it would be straight to hell.

He had to prevent that at all costs…

‘Shit, how have I endured this place all this time. If I just hold on a little longer, I’ll be able to become famous worldwide, not just in this narrow Korea. I can’t let my ankle be grabbed by something like this!’

Team Leader Jeong recalled the Chinese contacts his father had been meeting frequently recently.

They were the ‘real’ Hunters in Team Leader Jeong’s mind.

Real Hunters who wielded tremendous influence not only across the vast continent of China, but throughout the entire world.

Armed with countless legends and myths, they were so impressive that just looking at them made his knees weak.

White Burn?

It might be worth a snort in Korea, but compared to them, it was just a tiny neighborhood corner store.

Seo Chang-woo, no, Xu Changyou must have known the spirit of that continent and bowed his head to join them.

His father was planning something bigger than Xu Changyou by joining hands with such people.

If things went well, White Burn would become a global guild.

And he would become the second-in-command, no, the successor of such a place.

‘Right. Let me get my head straight. No, rather, I’ll use this as an opportunity to bring down Im Won-young and make father the next Chairman!’

Having decided on something, Team Leader Jeong turned off his mobile phone completely.

He planned not to answer calls from his father or anyone else for the time being.

‘Once Im Won-young falls, that bitch Kim Min-jeong won’t be able to act so stiff anymore either. I’ll make her come to me and beg for forgiveness.’

Thinking this way made him feel as good as if he owned the world.

“Hey, you guys know that once you grab onto a line, you can’t switch sides, right? Once you’re branded a traitor, getting buried in this industry is just a matter of time.”

The two employees who had been flattering him unconsciously swallowed dry saliva.

What was he trying to say?

Team Leader Jeong’s eyes were gleaming like a hyena’s.

“From now on, remember what I’m about to say…!”

Just as he was about to say something.

“Team Leader, this is terrible!”

Suddenly another team member came running over in a panic. He was also one of the guys who had sided with him.

“What’s wrong?”

“A strategy plan was just submitted to headquarters under our team’s name!”

“What are you talking about? We haven’t even planned anything recently, let alone strategized?”

Since dungeon strategy involved considerable danger, there was a mandatory procedure of first submitting a plan to headquarters, having it reviewed for problems, and then receiving final approval.

“Please check the bulletin board!”

“…?”

Team Leader Jeong hurriedly accessed the intranet with an inexplicable sense of unease.

On the bulletin board that only Dungeon Strategy Headquarters employees could access, there really was a plan registered under Z Team’s name.

And it was posted publicly, not secretly!

 

-Target: Pied Piper.

-Expected Date: March 14th, XX year.

-Expected Personnel: 2 people.

-Expected Roster: Kim Min-jeong, Jang Lee Hyeon.

-Plan Details.

Jang Lee Hyeon, who was recruited through special hiring, will utilize his Guide Characteristics to…

 

“These bastards, I’ve been watching and watching, but now…!”

Team Leader Jeong’s face turned bright red with rage.

Naturally, plans must go through the team leader’s decision.

Skipping that and submitting directly meant they were openly slapping him in the face.

Moreover, having only two people was also problematic.

Whether they could really clear a dungeon with just two people aside, what would other teams think when they saw such a report?

They’d only think that Z Team had been dragging their feet on something that could be cleared by just two people.

It was essentially smearing mud on his face.

But the biggest problem was,

 

-Approved.

-Supervisor: Im Won-young.

 

The fact that headquarters approval came down in just 5 minutes.

The malice emanating from those three characters attached at the end was far too blatant.

“Kim Min-jeong! Jang Lee Hyeon! Where are these bastards!!”

Bang!

In the end, Team Leader Jeong irritably kicked back his chair and stood up.

 

* * *

 

『…Well, I did approve it with my deputy director authority as Manager Kim requested. But is this really possible?』

Kim Min-jeong couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh at Im Won-young’s perplexed voice coming through the mobile phone.

She thought she heard someone else’s laughter besides hers,

but she didn’t have time to worry about such things right now.

“First, Section Chief Jang… I mean, Manager confidently said it was possible.”

『Really? Is that so. I understand. Then I’ll handle blocking any other concerns or opposition from my end, so do well.』

…He’s giving permission this easily?

Kim Min-jeong was still a bit dumbfounded even after hanging up the phone.

The Im Won-young she knew was someone with very quick and cold judgment.

Even when she submitted simple reports, he would nitpick and find flaws,

so just how high was his trust in Lee Hyeon that he would approve this ridiculous plan?

‘Even knowing that if the strategy fails and casualties occur, it would all become his responsibility…’

Thanks to that, the plan to drive out Team Leader Jeong could begin,

but Kim Min-jeong still wondered if this was the right choice.

‘It’ll really be okay, right?’

The report contents for the Dungeon were as follows.

 

==============

-Grade: 2~3 stars (estimated)

-Location: Hoengseong, Gangwon Province.

-Origin: German Hameln regional folklore and Brothers Grimm fairy tale.

-Content: A story about the mayor of the City of Hameln, suffering from a rat plague, hiring a flute player to drive out the rats. However, when the mayor refused to pay the reward out of greed, the player harbored resentment and used his flute to lead away all the children.

-Quest: Eliminate the player, find the missing, ensure the safety of natives.

-Attempts:

20XX, Guild ‘Wayward’ first purchased management rights. First strategy failed. 11 deaths. 13 injuries.

20XX, Second strategy attempt. Collaborated with Guild ‘Blood Sword’. Failed. ‘Blood Sword’ annihilated.

…

Total deaths to date: 41, a significant number.

-Progress to date: Boss monster was defeated, but during the subsequent cleanup process…

-Failure analysis cause: Flute sound occurring upon dungeon entry causes mental confusion. Self-inflicted chaos due to debuff is the greatest threat factor.

…

-Additional notes: As time passed in the dungeon, zombification of characters has been added as a new threat factor. Additionally, the missing children’s…

==============

 

Even just skimming through it showed an absolutely formidable history.

Especially the fact that the cumulative death toll was 41 people kept weighing on her mind.

“But is this really going to be okay, senior? Honestly, it’s not that I don’t know your skills, but isn’t this a bit too reckless no matter how you look at it?”

Lee Hyeon laughed lightly.

“Of course it’s reckless.”

“…Excuse me?”

“It’s a long-term unsolved dungeon that no one has cleared for over 10 years, right? How could just two people solve that?”

“…”

As if stating the obvious.

Kim Min-jeong felt a strong urge to grab Lee Hyeon by the collar.

Lee Hyeon burst into laughter watching Kim Min-jeong’s constantly twitching eyebrows.

“It’s a joke, a joke. Well, I did say the two of us would clear it, but I never said we’d enter the dungeon that way.”

“What do you mean…!”

“With Team Leader Jeong’s personality, do you think he’d really stay still after being played like this? I think he’ll come running right away.”

A cold smile crossed Lee Hyeon’s lips.

“Jang Lee Hyeoooooon!”

“See? He’s no gentleman.”

A voice that echoed thunderously through the corridor.

Not even realizing that other employees’ gazes were focused on him, Team Leader Jeong came running with irritated steps.

“Besides, even while being angry like that, he’ll have tons of thoughts inside, right? ‘If I really send just those two, won’t they die in the dungeon? That would be convenient, but what if not?’, ‘What if it was really an easy dungeon to clear?’, ‘If I missed something, I’d become an idiot, wouldn’t I?'”

“…”

“If we succeed, it ultimately becomes Z Team leader’s negligence of duty, so it would likely become his responsibility. He’s probably getting a real headache from all these thoughts, right?”

“…”

“So there’s only one conclusion he can reach in that head of his. ‘Let’s have Z Team go in as a whole instead. Then immediately fall back and let only Jang Lee Hyeon and Kim Min-jeong do the strategy, and if they succeed, I’ll steal it as mine, and if they fail, I’ll shift the blame to them.'”

“…!”

Kim Min-jeong shivered as she watched Lee Hyeon’s cold smile.

From the moment they first devised the plan, Team Leader Jeong was already in Lee Hyeon’s palm.

Team Leader Jeong would be manipulated like a puppet without knowing it, then discarded.

‘The dungeon was a trap to lure in Team Leader Jeong and his gang from the beginning. An inescapable trap…’

Lee Hyeon looked at Kim Min-jeong and asked.

“When you think there are too many enemies, what did I say you should do?”

“…You said never to enter a game the enemy created. You must unconditionally lure the opponent into a game you created.”

“Bingo. That’s exactly it.”

“Then you’ve already thought about how to set the trap, right?”

Lee Hyeon smiled silently.

Kim Min-jeong found that expression even more eerie.

「Pahaha. You’ve become quite the schemer, haven’t you?」

Son Wukong rather found Lee Hyeon’s attitude quite amusing.

‘This is what they call being in Son Wukong’s palm, like Buddha’s palm.’

「This bastard?」

Though he didn’t like the joke that followed.

‘But are you certain this dungeon really contains the Great Sage’s myth?’

「Why? Don’t you trust the Golden Eyes of Truth?」

‘It’s not that… I’m just wondering how the Great Sage’s myth could be connected to a fairy tale with a completely different origin.’

Lee Hyeon was quite flustered when he first received the Golden Eyes of Truth message that the Dungeon was connected to Son Wukong.

The Pied Piper was originally famous as a Brothers Grimm fairy tale. Even its origin was German, so it had no connection to China’s Journey to the West.

But Son Wukong spoke firmly.

That wasn’t the case.

「My scattered myths are a kind of , and pieces that are even smaller and lack proper have difficulty existing alone. So they attach to other to seek survival.」

‘In other words, they’re parasites?’

「…The way you talk. Anyway, that enter this way cause mutations, so the content inevitably becomes very different from the stories you originally knew.」

In short, it meant that when two different stories met, an process occurred.

‘This is why it remained a long-term unsolved dungeon. If you entered with only knowledge of the you knew, you’d only meet disaster.’

Lee Hyeon thought that many long-term unsolved dungeons might be similar cases.

But to flip this around,

‘It means I, who knows the secret, have a huge advantage in clearing it.’

This was the basis for Lee Hyeon being able to use this dungeon as a trap.

‘Right here is where I’ll separate the wheat from the chaff in Z Team.’

While Lee Hyeon’s eyes sank deep in thought, Team Leader Jeong came over and started pointing fingers.

“Are you guys out of your minds!? You think you can get away with pulling this stunt without even getting the team leader’s approval!?”

Lee Hyeon just smiled quietly without giving any response.

This only fanned Team Leader Jeong’s anger even more.

“Fine. So this is how you want to play it? Alright, go ahead and do whatever you want. Let’s see if things go your way.”

Team Leader Jeong glared at Lee Hyeon and Kim Min-jeong once each before turning away.

Lee Hyeon looked at Kim Min-jeong and smiled.

“See? I told you so, didn’t I? It looks like the whole team will show up on the raid date, so let’s give them a warm welcome.”

“…Seriously.”

Kim Min-jeong couldn’t even manage a bitter laugh anymore.

She just shook her head from side to side.

 

* * *

 

Three days later, on the day of the raid.

Hoengseong, Gangwon Province.

Just as Lee Hyeon had predicted, all 15 members of Z Team had arrived first in front of the Dungeon Gate.

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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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