The Return of the Genius Ranker of All Times - Chapter 72

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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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Episode 72

Chapter 72.

The next morning.

“Mmph… Haa.”

Dohyun stretched as he woke up to the morning sunlight.

A quick glance at the time showed it was 8:10 AM.

Perhaps because he hadn’t been discharged from the military for long, he would wake up like clockwork every morning even without setting an alarm.

‘Well, being regular is good.’

A regular lifestyle was important for a more efficient gaming life.

This wasn’t just empty words – it was a proven fact.

There were scientific reasons for it, and all the famous rankers in Godseeker were said to live regular lives.

“Shall I have another fulfilling day today?”

After making this resolution to himself, Dohyun went out to the living room.

Chae Misuk must have prepared breakfast before leaving, as there was stew on the table.

This time it was spicy tuna stew.

Next to it, on a plate wrapped in plastic, were Vienna sausages and fried eggs.

“She prepared all this before leaving… She doesn’t need to do this.”

It seemed like she hadn’t paid much attention to breakfast before his discharge, but now that he was an adult, she seemed to take even better care of him.

Since she hadn’t left long ago and the food was still warm, Dohyun scooped some rice and sat down.

After easily finishing two bowls today as well, Dohyun got up, did the dishes, and looked around the living room.

He couldn’t sense any presence at all.

‘Where did she go? Did she go out?’

Finding it strange, Dohyun checked his phone and only then realized it was Monday, nodding his head.

It was natural for Hyuna, a college student, to not be home at this time.

Since his discharge was on Friday, he had only seen her stuck at home, so he wasn’t used to it yet.

“Then I should get to work too.”

Since everyone was spending their weekdays diligently, Dohyun couldn’t lose out, so he quickly went into his room.

He wanted to dive into the capsule right away, but he held back.

There was something he needed to check first.

“I wonder if the view count went up?”

It was none other than the performance of the YouTube video he uploaded yesterday.

Not even a full day had passed yet, so it would be right to wait and see more, but he couldn’t contain his curiosity.

It wasn’t for nothing that YouTubers kept refreshing their pages.

‘Now that I’m actually in this position, I’m getting nervous.’

It felt completely different from simply being interviewed and appearing in someone else’s video.

Gulp, swallowing nervously, Dohyun entered YouTube and went to his channel, where a plain, undecorated channel greeted him.

The appearance felt so shabby it was almost pitiful.

“…??”

Dohyun’s face went blank as he looked at the channel.

Is this right? He blinked with that expression, rubbed his eyes several times, and finally spoke.

“…What is this? Why are the view counts like this?”

A whopping 3.4 million views.

Considering only half a day had passed, it was an absurd view count.

He could even see new comments being posted and view counts increasing every time he refreshed.

-Ah, this is my 12th viewing. No matter how many times I watch it, I just can’t get tired of it.

-I’m dying to stan but there are no videos… Please upload videos frequently. Please.

-You who have lost your way… come to the Kasin Church.

-I’m holding my breath until the next video comes up. Gasp!

-Over here! Someone died here!

-Holy shit… Best gameplay. Is this Korean? I’m shocked.

-Kaiser, what is he doing instead of uploading more videos?

-No, but seriously the subscriber growth rate is insane lol At this rate he’ll hit a million soon?

Dohyun paused while reading the comments mixed with various foreign languages.

‘A million?’

Somewhat stunned, Dohyun was reading the comments when he was startled and checked the subscriber count.

Then he saw it.

[Subscribers: 794,000]

“Crazy.”

The subscriber count was really racing toward 1 million.

Wasn’t it just 9 hours ago that he thought he’d have no regrets if he could just reach 100,000?

Did all this really happen overnight?

He thought the current situation was good so there would be good traffic, but this exceeded all expectations.

It was so unexpected that he felt more bewildered than happy. It didn’t feel real.

“…Maybe getting a million subscribers isn’t that hard?”

That’s how much the thought occurred to him.

Of course, it was an absurd thought.

Even though the market had grown compared to before, a million subscribers was still classified as a major corporation.

It’s just that super-corporations above that had emerged. A million-subscriber YouTuber was something you could brag about anywhere.

“It feels so unreal. What’s this Kasin Church thing? A fan cafe?”

While reading comments, he found a strange name and searched for it, and it really was a fan cafe.

And it was a fairly large fan cafe with over 40,000 members.

It felt strange to hear that it was a cafe made up of his fans.

Fan cafes were common for Dohyun when he was doing well in Demroc, but after it became a dead game, they had all but disappeared.

It felt strange to have a fan cafe appear again after so long.

‘But it existed before too? Why haven’t I heard of it before? Hmm. Well, maybe it was small scale.’

Dohyun dismissed it as nothing significant and turned off his phone.

Though it started with a misunderstanding, thanks to it, things were going smoothly.

YouTube, which had been the biggest hurdle, was now resolved.

Now everyone would focus on Dohyun’s moves.

It was a situation where even those with considerable nerve would feel pressure, but Dohyun was used to it.

For him, meeting people’s expectations was like daily routine.

“Connect.”

Therefore, Dohyun cleared his mind of distracting thoughts and lay down in the capsule, closing his eyes.

Now it was time to focus on his main job.

[Connecting to God of Savior.]

[Have a pleasant adventure.]

When he finally opened his eyes, the now-familiar scenery of the Other World spread before him.

* * *

[Welcome to Adventure Paradise.]

[Guardian ‘Jihad Black’s loyalty has increased.]

…

[Guardian ‘Jihad Black’s loyalty has increased.]

“It went up again this time.”

As soon as he connected, Dohyun looked through the system windows that greeted him one by one.

There wasn’t much noteworthy content. Just about Jihad’s loyalty increasing. But the magnitude of the increase was noticeable.

[Loyalty: 40 / 100]

‘It went up by 10?’

It had risen by a whole 10 points.

Even though visiting the Guardian Room would raise it to some extent, considering the loyalty was at 18 even after taking such a beating, this was an abnormal rate of increase.

As if acknowledging this, the text below the loyalty had also changed.

[Loyalty is high. Maintaining an amicable relationship with the Guardian.]

“Huh.”

Just the other day, this guy was constantly looking for opportunities to stab him in the back.

Now he’s maintaining an amicable relationship.

The remarkable progress in just a few days left him with mixed feelings.

It felt both gratifying and absurd…

As he was scratching his head, Jihad and Eliza appeared and spoke to him.

-You’re here, Owner?

-Liza liza!

As soon as he turned his head, Eliza threw herself into his arms, rubbing her face against him affectionately, seemingly overjoyed to see him.

As he was patting Eliza appropriately, he felt something strange around her neck.

When he gently grabbed it, he could see a long chain with a simple design and a small gem embedded in it…

“Hm? A necklace?”

-Liza! Liza liza!

-Ah, that’s Eliza’s most treasured necklace.

-Liza!

Eliza smiled brightly, confirming it was correct.

Dohyun instinctively started to nod but then stopped.

‘Did she always have something like that? What is it?’

He couldn’t remember clearly, but wouldn’t he have noticed if it had been there from the beginning?

Come to think of it, this wasn’t the only strange thing.

Yesterday she had parted with such regret, but now she was not just bright but excited as if she had just been playing.

“What’s this? You looked so dejected until yesterday, but now you’re so cheerful?”

-Hehe, something good happened. The walkway is amazing, right, Eliza?

-Liza!

“What happened?”

When Dohyun frowned at the sight of the two laughing face to face, Eliza kindly explained.

-Liza liza! Liza… Liza!

“…Could you translate that?”

-Ah. So…

Dohyun couldn’t understand any of it.

-Liza…

When Jihad ended up having to explain, Eliza looked dejected, but once the story unfolded, her energy returned as if nothing had happened and she chimed in enthusiastically.

After hearing their story, Dohyun nodded.

“So, your Guardian Rooms merged? That’s Eliza’s walking leash… no, attachment necklace, and it came along when they merged?”

-That’s right.

-Liza!

Jihad clapped his hands saying that was exactly it, and he definitely looked comfortable.

Well, thanks to that, he could catch up to his heart’s content, which was understandable. Rising loyalty was good for Dohyun too.

However, it was puzzling.

‘Hmm. Does that usually happen? Is it because Eliza came under Jihad’s command…’

He had never heard of Guardian Rooms merging before.

Though he was puzzled by this exceptional situation, he figured it didn’t really matter.

It could be because she came under his command, and there were many possibilities, but ultimately it was a good thing, wasn’t it?

He’d look into this later when he had the chance.

“Let’s go for now…”

“There! He’s over there!”

“A short companion in robes and black clothing… That’s him for sure. Person presumed to be Kaiser spotted, everyone please provide support…”

Before he could finish speaking, Dohyun irritably looked around at the suddenly noisy surroundings.

It was players. Players pointing at him from all directions.

“What should we do, huh? Should we somehow hold him down for now?”

“We were here first! Come out!”

“Just grab him first! Everyone move!”

The words he could catch were quite menacing.

Though he was momentarily flustered, he already knew how things were going, and Dohyun wasn’t one to be intimidated by such things.

‘It’s already started. Were they waiting on standby?’

Seeing them closing in just minutes after he logged in made it clear.

They’d probably try to hold him down first and then attempt negotiations or try to suppress him. Either way, Dohyun would be a windfall for them.

Right now, when Dohyun was at the center of attention.

If they succeeded in negotiations and brought him to their guild, that would be profitable, and if they suppressed Dohyun who was making a grand name for himself as “God’s Return” or whatever, they could attract attention and make their own names known.

This wasn’t limited to just guilds.

‘Considering even the small fry trying to become famous through this incident… Ugh, they’re going to swarm like crazy.’

There would be truckloads… no, several truckloads of PKers and players hungry for fame.

This was why he had been reluctant to gain fame at low levels. There’s no poisoned chalice quite like excessive attention when you lack power.

To be in this situation just 4 days after starting Godseeker…

It seemed like there really was such a thing as a person’s fate.

Recalling memories of experiencing this to the point of exhaustion in Demroc, Dohyun drew Cheonbyeon (Thousand Changes).

-What, what’s this, Owner? Are they surrounding us?

“I know. So get ready.”

-What do we do?

“We break through. Follow me closely.”

-Liza?

Dohyun took his stance and exhaled a short breath before charging forward.

Not toward an escape route, but toward where they were.

The scouts were startled by Dohyun’s unexpected sudden action.

“What, what? Why is he coming this way?”

“Block him! If we all gather and block, what can he do?”

“Gather!”

But they were still experienced veterans.

Having made their decision quickly, they formed ranks in an instant.

Step. Step. Step. Step.

After spreading out widely, they arranged a formation with shield bearers at the front and layers of players behind them.

Unless there was an extreme level difference, it was a human fortress that would be impossible to break through. Even if he tried to change direction now, they would catch up quickly, leaving him with no options.

“Ha, try breaking through if you can.”

Even though they were scouts, they were still people who had been grinding in Brion for at least several months.

At least within Brion, they were among the higher-leveled players.

But Dohyun charged straight ahead without hesitation.

[Cheonbyeon (Thousand Changes) transforms into ‘Silver Iron Shield’.]

Whoosh-!

“Hiek!?”

He threw Cheonbyeon (Thousand Changes), now transformed into a shield, like a boomerang.

Not expecting him to throw his weapon, the shield bearer in the front row hastily crouched and raised his shield.

Fortunately, his reaction was quick, and at this rate, he could definitely block it.

The moment the shields collided.

CRASH!

“Huk!?”

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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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