Ranker Who Shatters Myths - Chapter 316

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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 316

Sons of Zeus (6)

Whoooosh!

[‘Sacred Relic: Noeancheongjeong’ is replaying recorded thoughts.]

Lee Hyeon was watching fragments of memories created by Dionysus’s mad thoughts.

‘This is… from several years ago. Four years ago perhaps?’

Lee Gun-san, wearing Apollo’s mask, was blankly staring at a pure white marble sculpture.

His eyes held a bitter expression mixed with complex thoughts.

Lee Hyeon instinctively knew that the time period he was currently viewing was right after the 【Gangneung Incident】 had occurred.

“The convergence point… went astray. Lee Hyeon has awakened. Now what am I supposed to do…?”

Just as Lee Gun-san was muttering quietly, Apollo’s office door suddenly burst open.

Bang!

“Behold, Apollo! I have come to you. Now please grant me this power.”

Dionysus looked utterly exhausted. His clothes were covered in dust as if he had been in fierce combat.

But he triumphantly showed what he held in his hand.

Crack! Crackle!

Pure white lightning that seemed ready to escape from his grasp at any moment.

“Haven’t I obtained a fragment of Astrape like this again! With this, I can create another new brother…!”

“I told you the location of the inheritance, which allowed you to retrieve it smoothly. It wasn’t obtained through your own skill.”

But Apollo’s tone toward the excited Dionysus was nothing but cold.

He didn’t even turn his gaze back, nor did he offer any words of acknowledgment for his hard work.

Lee Hyeon felt that this version of Lee Gun-san seemed unfamiliar.

The fact that he had lost the Lee Hyeon brothers, whom he thought of as sons, must have clouded his judgment… but it seemed as if he was deliberately trying to keep his distance.

Dionysus gave an awkward smile.

“…B-but still, I’m the one who obtained this through hardship, aren’t I? I’ll become your sharpest spear and face the Outer Sea…!”

“Leave the fragment there and go. I need to create a Prosopon immediately after the purification process.”

“…”

“Can’t you hear me, Dionysus?”

Dionysus looked as if he was about to cry, then nodded his head.

“…I understand. Fath-, no, brother.”

* * *

A new time period.

“You’re injured again.”

Apollo was wrapping bandages around Dionysus’s wounded arm.

A gentle rebuke.

Dionysus’s eyes became even more filled with confusion.

“…That’s true, but still, this time I brought back two inheritances. If you could at least praise me…”

“You tried to forcibly take lightning that was resisting you?”

“…”

“That’s how you got this wound. A wound you didn’t need to receive at all.”

Dionysus pressed his lips tightly together. His eyes were anxious.

It was like watching a five-year-old boy being scolded by his father for committing a sin.

“As I told you, that’s not yours.”

“…I, I risked my life to find it. If not me, who, who else can handle this power…!”

“That’s not for you to know.”

Snap.

Lee Gun-san tightened the bandage while casting his gaze elsewhere.

An empty chair.

The seat where Moon Su-chan should have been sitting originally.

“You are not a king, Dionysus. You are merely a servant paving the way for the king’s arrival. Do not covet the king’s weapon. It will burn you to death.”

Lee Gun-san left those words and departed from his seat.

Left alone.

Dionysus’s head dropped powerlessly.

Snap.

His clenched fist held as much strength as the bandage wrapped around his arm.

And…

There was a gaze watching Dionysus with pity from the doorway.

It was Lee Gun-san, who despite his cold attitude, hadn’t gone far.

“…Forgive me for only being able to do this much. But I don’t want to lose you too.”

A small sigh escaped.

* * *

―Sometimes father… Sometimes brother…

―I know why that person, whose title I’m always confused about, spoke such hurtful words to me.

―It would be dangerous if I carelessly used Zeus’s power, so out of worry, he spoke those stern words.

The sticky thoughts filling the space whispered in his ears.

―But those words sounded completely different to my ears.

―It seemed like father was more worried about whether the lightning I held could reach its ‘true owner’ than about my wounds.

―Not a king? Me?

―If not me, then who is the king?

―How long must I shed blood for someone who won’t even come?

A child who used to stare intently at Lee Gun-san’s back as he frequently recorded in his journal.

That child wrote in a journal just like his father, thinking that by acting the same way, he might be able to follow his father’s heart.

But,

That father never gave a single word of praise to the child who silently wrote in his journal.

―Father.

―Why won’t you look at me?

―You called me your ‘sharpest spear’.

―You gave me power and gave me an organization.

―But why are your eyes always looking beyond me to some distant place?

But such efforts went unrewarded.

Jealousy.

Love and hate.

And emptiness.

―Is it because that ‘real one’ won’t come? When he comes, will I be abandoned?

—A sword without a sheath will eventually cut its owner’s hand. Why do you pretend not to know this?

Lee Hyeon slowly closed the diary.

—The hero he waits for will not come. The throne remains empty.

—If he won’t come, then I will sit on it.

—I will devour the sun and end this tedious waiting.

Ham’s resentment had eventually turned into coveting the position that should have originally been given to Moon Su-chan.

Though it wasn’t a very long obsession,

Lee Hyeon felt he could understand where Dionysus’s twisted madness had originated from just that alone.

「Kekeke! It seems the Chosen One’s father was trying to keep his distance for fear that his new son might die.」

“Yes. But… that way of expressing love seems to have once again called forth the convergence point called Dionysus.”

Lee Hyeon smiled bitterly.

After Moon Su-chan’s death, Lee Gun-san couldn’t express his love to Dionysus completely.

Because of the grief of losing his son, Lee Gun-san couldn’t embrace him warmly and had to coldly push him away to keep him from danger.

The problem was that this way of expressing himself was misunderstood by Dionysus.

‘Originally, Dionysus’s rampage was one of the convergence points frequently witnessed in past cycles. But conversely, that also made him easier to manage back then.’

Moon Su-chan’s true identity was inhuman.

Dionysus’s madness actually had a good influence on him. It meant it served as sufficient reins.

「But in this cycle… those reins were absent.」

“Yes. A racehorse without reins is just a wild beast. It was difficult for me to become new reins as well.”

Tap.

Tap.

Lee Hyeon tapped Dionysus’s diary with his index finger while tilting his head.

“The problem is that in this cycle, his madness isn’t simply ‘just being crazy.’ The strong sense of purpose that he must do something is completely different from other cycles.”

Dionysus’s rampage had always led to self-destruction.

It meant he couldn’t control his own madness and collapsed on his own.

But this time, while showing madness similar to, no, even greater than such convergence points, he wasn’t collapsing.

Rather, he was trying to devour Lee Gun-san and aim for something even bigger.

What could that be?

“But coming here, I think I understand.”

「Kek?」

The moment Sha Wujing tilted his head in confusion,

Crackle!

[Releasing Cheon Do-ggaebi’s Thunder Breath (R) at maximum output!]

[Noeya-cha awakens.]

Lightning bolts that shot up into midair gathered together and took the form of Noeya-cha.

Noeya-cha’s eyes flashed with murderous intent as he suddenly swung his fist roughly toward one wall.

Crash!!

Black wine jars lined up in one corner of the room.

They were commonly seen in old wineries,

but strangely, Lee Hyeon smelled more rotting blood than grape fermentation.

[‘Sacred Relic: Neuan Cheongjeong’ detects an abnormal phenomenon.]

[Detecting mutating mythemes.]

As the jars burst open, plaster fragments that had been fermenting inside with the wine fell down.

「Ah, Astrape…!? Wh-why is that suddenly here…!」

Hiss—

As the wine turned to vapor with a rotten stench and disappeared, Neuan Cheongjeong worked actively.

[Activating Golden Headband to analyze the identity of the captured mythemes.]

[These are fragments of Astrape decomposed from Zeus’s myth. They contain Zeus’s lightning.]

[Legend: Koritos.]

[Legend: Tmolos.]

[Two legends are infected by the Outer Sea and undergoing mutation.]

[Warning! Too fermented in the Outer Sea’s deep waters, making immediate recovery difficult.]

[Warning! The mythemes are too corrupted to find their original form.]

[Warning! Creating a Prosopon with these legends may adversely affect the inheritor.]

Lee Hyeon quickly pulled out Snow Sapphire and attempted purification.

Whirrrr!!

Pure white lightning flashed brilliantly.

[Attempting to recover Astrape fragments. Due to severe mutation, purification may take longer than expected.]

[Purifying.]

「…No. Kek! It was the opposite. Dionysus found the Outer Sea entity that destroyed Zeus!」

After a moment of contemplation, Sha Wujing realized the truth and groaned.

Lee Hyeon nodded.

“The madness that drove him crazy drew in the Outer Sea as well.”

「Hah…! Even knowing how much my father hates the Outer Sea, he drew it in? He’s completely insane! No matter how much he resents father, still…!!」

According to Lee Gun-san’s diary, this was the first cycle where the Jade Emperor made a deal with an Outer Sea entity.

Though he couldn’t yet know what butterfly effect had occurred, he was speculating that the disappearance of Flame Emperor Shennong and Xuanhu Jinchuan might be for similar reasons.

‘Then Zeus’s sudden disappearance wouldn’t be strange either.’

Lee Hyeon’s eyes sank deeply.

‘The assumption that Dionysus noticed this fact before the General and greedily attempted contact.’

Whether Dionysus attempted contact first or the Outer Sea entity extended its hand first wasn’t important.

If Dionysus had decided to use the Outer Sea rather than oppose it out of revenge against Lee Gun-san,

and if he intended to become the ‘real’ Dionysus and inherit Zeus’s myth as well,

‘The convergence point of Dionysus’s rampage would bring a tsunami incomparably larger than before.’

Lee Gun-san’s choice not to give power for fear Dionysus might get hurt had instead resulted in turning his child into a monster.

「Kek! Nothing is ever easy. Wait, but where is Dionysus now…?」

“Yes. I think the reason he’s attacking the cult’s headquarters is also to use what I said as an excuse to fill his own power.”

「…Kek. Really.」

The Outer Sea that Lee Hyeon had understood so far wasn’t a place where only one entity resided.

A jungle where countless alien beings were complexly intertwined and busy devouring each other.

The weak were nothing more than food for the strong, or good nutrients.

An underground god swept from the Outer Sea would be very satisfying prey for both Dionysus and the entity behind him.

“He’ll definitely return stronger, so we must catch him at this opportunity.”

Lee Hyeon thought this worked out well.

Since he had preemptively obtained the Sons of Zeus before Dionysus’s madness grew larger, now he could focus solely on dealing with that bastard.

Just then.

Beep.

A transmission reached Lee Hyeon’s ear.

[‘Party Member: Go Jin-woo’ uses the whisper function.]

『I’ve moved all the materials here, plus all the materials from the secret branches to Guam. I’m also investigating and recording each organization member’s identity. Now that I’ve got their real identities figured out, they won’t be able to have any useless thoughts.』

Go Jin-woo’s voice.

It seemed that with Maksus’s cooperation, the internal takeover was completely finished.

『You worked hard, hyung. So now the meeting hall here is completely empty?』

『Yeah. So use it however you want. Whether you roast and fry them, set traps, or just collapse it.』

『Why would I collapse something so valuable? I need to suck it dry to the bone marrow.』

『That’s why you’re such a scary bastard, man. Anyway, I’ll contact you right away once I finish organizing things on the Guam side too.』

『Good work.』

『If you know I’m working hard, hey, President? Could you maybe pretend the salary cut never happened…!』

Click!

Lee Hyeon mercilessly cut off Go Jin-woo’s desperate(?) message,

tore out only the last page of the journal he was holding, put it in his pocket, and placed the journal back in its original position.

And then…

Wooooong!

[Warning! The original owner of 【Olympus’s Vineyard】 is attempting to return.]

Lee Hyeon’s cold gaze turned toward the door of the office.

“He’s coming.”

Dionysus, having completed his mission, was returning.

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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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