The Return of the Genius Ranker’s Myth Warehouse - Chapter 344

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 344
Chapter 344
The Imperial Army at the Central Front pressed Cronion hard.
It was to respond to the reinforcements’ assault.
Truthfully, I hadn’t held great expectations.
If I could just resolve the current precarious situation, and if fortune smiled upon us, perhaps we might even reclaim our original frontline positions.
That was the extent of my hopes.
“Cronion is retreating!”
“The reinforcements are performing excellently! Cronion is struggling to respond as it concentrates on battling the reinforcements!”
“The mechanical weapons are dispersing leftward as well!”
“Commander Mir appears to have discovered a method to seize the mechanical weapons!”
“The reinforcements continue to pressure Cronion! This is our opportunity!”
I was wrong.
The reinforcements’ performance exceeded my expectations.
No—calling it “exceeding expectations” was an understatement. It was extraordinary.
The reinforcements were utterly overwhelming Cronion.
And the commander of the Empire’s Central Front was no fool to squander such a golden opportunity due to prejudice against adventurer reinforcements.
“All forces, charge!”
“Kyaaaaaaa!”
“Mobilize all reserve personnel! Deploy every magical weapon under maintenance! Summon all the Sages who were servicing the magical weapons! This is our chance!”
The commander gathered every soldier available on the Central Front and began attacking Cronion.
He also called upon the Knight Order, who had been conserving their strength in preparation for Hellfire’s possible reappearance.
The Knight Commanders surveyed the battlefield situation and recognized this as their opportunity.
“It’s astounding that he received the rank of commander following the Marquis, but to think he could pressure Cronion like this. I wonder if he’s truly the adventurer I know.”
The Black Shield Knights, also called the Emperor’s Shield.
“We recognized his potential from the beginning. We should have recruited him into our order by any means necessary back then….”
The Red Wolf Knights, composed of the Empire’s finest swordmasters.
And above all.
“Finally, our stage has arrived. Chaos has befallen Cronion. Now is our time to shine.”
Those who remained hidden throughout the battlefield, unknown even to the Central Front commander, capable of assassinating Cronion’s key officers at any moment.
The knights of Ash Dust also recognized this as their opportunity and immediately sprang into action.
At this rate, reclaiming the original frontline was no longer the question.
We could push the frontline forward significantly with this momentum.
Or perhaps….
“Push forward with the determination to end this war!”
This opportunity might finally allow us to end the tedious stalemate with Cronion.
With that thought, all the forces of the Empire united and began charging toward Cronion.
* * *
We struck at Cronion’s flank.
The plan was proving remarkably successful.
While it was true that Cronion had already anticipated our arrival and prepared their formations, so it couldn’t truly be called a surprise attack.
However, they could never have expected us to seize their mechanical weapons and turn them against them—it was an unavoidable oversight.
That said, Cronion’s numbers were so overwhelming that we alone would have struggled to push forward any further.
“Waaaaaaaah!”
“Attack!”
“Bring down Cronion!”
“Destroy those metal abominations daring to invade Imperial territory!”
From the start, we hadn’t launched this assault expecting to annihilate Cronion by ourselves alone.
Just as the Central Front was the fiercest battlefield, and Cronion had concentrated their greatest numbers of soldiers and mechanical weapons there.
The Imperial Army likewise had stationed their largest contingent of soldiers, Sages, and magical weapons on the Central Front.
And that Imperial Army was answering our surprise attack.
With their full strength.
Thanks to that, we too.
“The Imperial Army is advancing!”
“Let’s finish this right now!”
“Push forward!”
Could drive Cronion back with ever-rising morale.
The mechanical weapons under my command were playing a crucial role in this.
My machines endured the relentless barrage of bullets from Cronion’s soldiers with their sturdy iron armor and struck back with devastating counterattacks.
Whenever Cronion could no longer hold back and deployed their own mechanical weapons, I would immediately rush forward to attempt a hack.
Once I forced their machines to retreat, I would unleash massive electrical magic, repeating this cycle over and over.
As a result, I could tangibly feel Cronion’s frontline being pushed back steadily.
[ Supreme-Grade Mana Potion ]
I drained the potion and paused to observe the situation.
The Imperial Army was cooperating far beyond my expectations.
They were holding nothing back, charging forward with everything they had, clearly intent on completely crushing Cronion.
At this rate, we might be able to push Cronion back far more easily than anticipated.
I was thinking just that when.
– Master.
“What is it?”
– I sense it.
“…The heart?”
– Yes. Not far from here.
Luke’s urgent voice reached me.
I turned my head in the direction Luke had indicated.
“Groooooooooooooooh!!”
From the direction Luke had pointed.
From beyond the battlefield.
A tremendous roar echoed forth.
It was a grating sound, like something playing through a broken speaker, like rusted gears grinding against one another.
Somehow, that sound felt familiar to me.
It was as if.
‘Dragon Fear?’
The Dragon Fear that Luke uses.
Because it sounded similar to Luke’s roar that I heard back then.
In that instant.
“Grrrowl!”
One of the mecha wolves that had been hacked by me and attacking Cronion’s soldiers under my command suddenly stopped moving.
Even though it sounded like Dragon Fear, the actual power of Dragon Fear didn’t seem to exist.
Neither the players nor the Imperial Army showed any particular abnormality—they merely flinched in surprise.
But when I looked at why a mechanical weapon, not even a living creature, had stopped moving.
Crackle!
Purple electricity was sparking from the mecha wolf’s body.
And as the suffering mecha wolf.
“Kraaaaaaagh!”
Let out a rough roar, venting its pain.
Boom!
The mecha wolf exploded.
And this was only the beginning.
Mecha Scorpions, Mecha Rhinos, Mecha Hornets, and more.
All the mechanical weapons that hadn’t sided with Cronion, all the ones I had hacked, cried out in agony and pleaded for relief.
Boom, boom, boom!
A chain reaction of explosions erupted.
“Take cover!”
“Ugh, it’s exploding!”
“What’s happening!”
“I don’t know, just get back!”
Fortunately, the mechanical weapons were at the vanguard, deep within the battlefield.
Even with the massive explosions, our player forces suffered minimal casualties.
Especially since the explosions occurred from the front, the players positioned behind the mechanical weapons were able to evacuate safely.
The problem was.
‘They all detonated.’
Ever since I infiltrated the Central Front and began hacking operations, I had continuously increased the number of my mechanical weapons.
The mechanical weapons whose numbers had just exceeded one hundred.
All of them exploded.
In the formulas of the mechanical weapons I had researched, I found no sign of a self-destruct function.
I couldn’t understand how only the mechanical weapons I had hacked were detonated, but that wasn’t the problem right now.
“It’s Hellfire!”
“Damn it, didn’t you say it would take more time before he appeared again? He’s showing up already?”
“No, we have to flee! We can’t win!”
“Everyone, snap out of it! Hold your positions!”
The Imperial Army began to panic.
It was inevitable.
The Imperial Army’s frontline had been pushed back significantly by the mechanical weapon now revealing itself—Hellfire.
Suffering massive casualties as the line retreated was only natural.
The Imperial soldiers carried a deep fear of Hellfire proportional to those losses.
And now, I could see it too.
The form of Hellfire.
“Grooooooooooooooo—!!”
Wings forged from steel plates spread wide open.
As if proving it was saturated with the power of the Evil God, it wasn’t just the optical sensors that glowed violet like the other mechanical weapons—its entire body was constructed from violet steel armor.
Most notably, black flames leaked from the joints throughout its massive frame.
Those flames testified to the existence of Luke’s heart within.
The true identity of this mechanical weapon was.
“A mechanical dragon.”
In Cronion’s nomenclature, it was a mecha dragon.
And it bore a striking resemblance to Luke’s appearance when he was alive, as I remembered it.
Of course.
– …How audacious, implanting my heart into such a counterfeit.
– It’s repugnant.
– If they had at least properly recreated my form, but these crude horns and wings—what were they thinking?!
Luke seemed thoroughly displeased with the appearance.
In any case, the mechanical dragon looked far from ordinary even from a distance.
It wasn’t without reason that the Imperial Army had its frontline pushed back so severely by this single mechanical dragon and desperately requested reinforcements from the Empire.
It wasn’t merely a matter of one mechanical dragon alone.
Clang.
Whirrrr—.
The moment the mechanical dragon spread its wings and revealed its presence.
All of Cronion’s mechanical weapons on the battlefield had their optical sensors intensify and their power surge.
“What in the world is that?”
“Is that another mechanical weapon?”
“That’s going too far, isn’t it?”
“Can we even defeat that?”
“How are we supposed to bring down something like that?”
“Damn it, things were going so smoothly until now…”
The players began to panic.
Well, something like that had suddenly appeared.
It was natural to be alarmed when a final boss-like enemy—clearly powerful enough to rival a major boss monster—had emerged.
That enemy seemed like it would require not hundreds but thousands, tens of thousands of raiders to bring down.
But.
“Luke, let’s go. Time to reclaim your heart.”
– Yes, Master.
I felt no hesitation whatsoever.
A mechanical beast? A mecha dragon? Hellfire?
What of it?
The mechanical beast was nothing more than an obstacle standing between Luke and his heart.
My true adversary in this war was not some mechanical construct, but the Evil God itself.
If the Evil God was the final boss, then this mechanical beast was merely a named monster.
At best, it was mid-tier boss material.
When I faced the Evil God, I relied on countless allies to aid me, but I would not cower before a mere mid-tier boss.
With that in mind.
Whoosh!
“M-Mir!”
“Commander, where are you going!”
“I’ll handle this myself. No reinforcements necessary—continue pressing the battlefield.”
I charged directly toward the mechanical beast.
How was I supposed to break through the hundreds of thousands of Cronion soldiers filling my entire vision?
I had no intention of striking them down one by one.
Defeating them all before reaching the mechanical beast would have exhausted every ounce of my stamina and mana.
So I would not strike them down.
Instead.
[ Shadow Skin Hood ]
[ Shadow Skin Robe ]
….
[ You have equipped the complete ‘Shadow Skin’ set (5/5). ]
[ The ‘Shadow Skin’ set effect activates. ]
[ Shadow Skin : Your Concealment skill level increases, and especially when in contact with shadows, your Concealment skill level rises dramatically. ]
I changed into the Shadow Skin set, which I had worn once before.
– Activating the skill ‘Concealment’.
I activated Concealment.
Though the daylight weakened the effect of ‘Veil of Night’, the Shadow Skin set with its elevated equipment level from ‘Rank Ascension’ actually favored broad daylight.
The battlefield was saturated with shadows cast by dozens of soldiers.
Thus, I slipped into the shadows of my enemies.
Dash!
To claim Luke’s heart.
I moved swiftly toward the mechanical beast.
The soldiers who realized I had infiltrated their ranks desperately searched for me, but none could find my position hidden within the shadows.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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