The Return of the Genius Ranker’s Myth Warehouse - Chapter 4

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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 4
Chapter 4
The Crisis Management Team of Second.
This department predicted the autonomous direction Second would take and sought countermeasures accordingly.
Since the path NPCs would follow in Second was largely predetermined, most of their work involved monitoring unusual players.
And Second had countless “unusual players.”
– Whoosh, thud! Whoosh, thud! Still nothing? Shouldn’t something drop by now?
A player who obtained a shovel immediately upon starting the game and had been digging at the outskirts of the Beginner Hunting Ground ever since.
– I’ve hit it ten thousand times and no hidden quest? Fine, I’ll try a hundred thousand!
A player relentlessly striking a training dummy in the Training Ground of the Beginner City.
– Kill me again! My dream is to become a Death Master! The hidden class is coming soon… Ugh!
A player who repeatedly rushed at monsters and died the moment they respawned.
Their inexplicable persistence wore on the Crisis Management Team staff every time they reviewed the logs.
Yet the reason they continued monitoring was simple.
‘What if a real hidden quest actually does emerge?’
It was because of Second’s autonomy.
While Second’s game company had a Balance Team alongside the Crisis Management Team, most of the game’s flow was autonomously controlled by the supercomputers that comprised Second.
Not long ago, hadn’t a player who had been committing acts of cannibalism by embedding teeth into every monster they encountered been granted the hidden class “Predator”?
Since no one could predict what variables might emerge in the game, such situations couldn’t be ignored.
Then.
“Team Lead Kang.”
“Yeah, Seo Deputy. What is it this time? Don’t tell me the guy who was just digging actually obtained a hidden class?”
“No, not that.”
“You say ‘not that,’ but it makes me anxious. So what is it?”
Seo Deputy had sought out Team Lead Kang.
As the team lead of the Crisis Management Team, Kang bore the weight of every variable and crisis situation Second could produce.
Dark circles shadowed his eyes, and stubble covered his face—it seemed he hadn’t been home in days.
Seo Deputy began her report to him.
“A First player has appeared.”
“What? Nearly two years since the game launched, and there’s still a First player left?”
“Yes.”
“Sigh. I thought all First players had already migrated.”
Within the Crisis Management Team, the existence of a First player was special.
First—the game that could be called the origin of Second.
Because it had been such a disaster of a game, its player count was extremely small, but it wasn’t zero.
And a select few of those players, upon starting Second, had obtained some of First’s abilities under the name “Returner’s Blessing.”
One of them was Yul-ha, currently ranked first in South Korea.
Through the swordsmanship and skills she had mastered during her time in First, she had rapidly ascended to the top ranking.
“Understood. Mark them as F-rank.”
“Will F-rank truly be sufficient?”
“The First player was only a concern when Second opened, but it’s already been two years since the game launched. What could someone with a little skill possibly accomplish?”
“But….”
“Seo Deputy, don’t you know how swamped we are these days? If you have time to observe the Beginner City, spend it monitoring the Pacheon Guild instead. Something’s bound to blow up there soon.”
“…Understood.”
Team Lead Kang didn’t even properly review the documents.
In truth, the First player had only been special because it was the game’s infancy.
Now, two years into the launch, even if a First player emerged anew, they couldn’t create any significant variables.
At best, they’d grow a little faster.
That degree of impact no longer qualified as a ‘variable’ for the Crisis Management Team.
This was why Team Lead Kang had simply lost interest.
However, Seo Deputy’s expression as she returned to her desk with the documents was far from pleasant.
‘This user doesn’t seem like an ordinary First player.’
No matter how I thought about it, something felt off.
A First player appearing two years after Second’s opening—it was unprecedented.
And that nickname.
It felt distinctly unusual.
As she turned to head back to her desk.
“Team Lead Kang!”
An employee monitoring the game situation came rushing over urgently.
They hastily reported what they had witnessed.
“The Alley in the City of Beginnings has exploded!”
“What? What are you talking about? Did a bomb go off or something?”
“No! According to our monitoring, it was confirmed to be a lightning strike!”
“Then what I’m asking is—why would lightning strike the Alley in the City of Beginnings with enough force to cause an explosion like that?”
“Th-that’s… I’m not entirely sure!”
“You don’t know?”
“We checked immediately upon discovering the phenomenon, but all we found were charred gangsters.”
“What about other users? Are there any injured players? If there were injuries, we’d be getting reports and chaos would break loose!”
“Th-that much we haven’t ascertained yet….”
“That’s literally your job—to ascertain it! Check immediately!”
“Yes!”
An unusual phenomenon occurring in the City of Beginnings.
Why was that?
Listening to this, a name surfaced in Seo Deputy’s mind.
‘…Mir.’
The returnee from First who had just arrived in Second.
* * *
Meanwhile.
I, who had just obliterated the Alley along with the gangsters using the Heavenly Lightning, stood there.
“Wow, that startled me. Really.”
I had fled far from the alley.
And for good reason—even though my opponent was merely a thug NPC, my attack had obliterated the alley itself with lightning.
Had I been caught by the guards at that scene, I would have been dragged away without question.
The thugs weren’t dead, but I had completely incinerated the alley with that lightning strike.
Faced with this predicament, I hastily retrieved an item from Luke.
[ Tarnkappe ]
( Non-Tradeable )
Type : Cloak
Grade : Heroic
Requirement : Level 150 or higher
Description : A magical cloak said to have been used by the great dragon-slayer Siegfried to conceal his appearance.
Tarnkappe.
A magical cloak imbued with invisibility magic—quite useful when employed properly.
Using its power, I managed to escape the scene undetected by anyone.
As I crouched in a quiet corner, gasping for breath, I felt the Tarnkappe’s power fade from my shoulders and the equipment automatically unequip.
Immediately after, the deactivated Tarnkappe burned black and vanished.
“A penalty?”
The lightning from Astrape that I had witnessed moments before flashed through my mind.
The lightning was certainly formidable, but the true power of Astrape that I remembered was far greater than this.
The same applied to Tarnkappe.
With each movement, I sensed awkwardness around me and caught glimpses of myself—the invisibility felt somehow lacking.
So I conducted several tests.
“If I organize by grade and retrieve items by level…”
After experimenting with items in various ways.
I finally grasped the principle behind how items stored in Luke functioned.
“First: Non-tradeable.”
Just as the item description stated, items retrieved from Luke could not be traded.
Only I could use them.
I had hoped that if trading were possible, I could sell unnecessary items and raise funds.
But that hope was dashed.
“Second: Items can be used, but their performance scales to my level.”
Well, that’s only natural.
Normally, items with level restrictions shouldn’t be usable at all.
The fact that I, at level 1, could use Astrape was nonsensical to begin with.
So it seemed that items mismatched to me had their performance reduced to suit my level.
Even so, the power of a mythic-grade item remained formidable.
“Third: Usage time limits.”
This too connected to the second principle.
The greater the restriction, the higher the item’s grade, the shorter its usage duration became.
For instance, Astrape, a weapon of finality, could only be used once.
Tarn Cafe couldn’t hold out in the Alley for more than the time it took to escape, even with its weakened invisibility performance.
It was unfortunate, but unavoidable.
No, this was enough.
Even weakened, my items were sufficiently powerful, and as I grew stronger, they would gradually recover their original performance.
In any case, what was fortunate right now was.
[ Sudden Quest, ‘Thugs of the Alley’ completed. ]
[ You obtain a small amount of gold that the thugs were carrying. ]
The money the thugs had been carrying—already reduced to dust by lightning—automatically entered my inventory as quest compensation.
I had worried that if I had to search for it directly, I would never obtain it.
Fortunately, I was able to receive proper compensation.
Thanks to defeating five thugs, it was quite a respectable sum for a beginner.
So then.
“Should I secure a room first?”
I decided to settle in first.
The first thing I sought out was naturally an inn.
Finding an inn wasn’t particularly difficult.
The inn’s location itself.
“It’s really the same.”
It existed in the exact same location I remembered from First.
Of course, only the location was the same; everything else was different.
Rather than a two-story inn like in First, this was a three-story inn, and the building’s architecture was far more advanced.
And most importantly.
[ Bonfire Inn ]
The inn’s name was different.
“Welcome! How may I assist you? A meal? Or lodging with meals?”
“Lodging with meals for one night. Please prepare a meal right away.”
“Of course! Our menu features the basic Bonfire Set—would that be acceptable?”
“Yes.”
“Our Bonfire Set is the most popular menu in the city, so you can look forward to it!”
I went in and had a simple meal first.
As it was in First, the meal system in Second was important.
With realism being emphasized, failing to eat would impose various debuffs, and in severe cases, I could even die from starvation.
Conversely, eating well would grant buffs, so there was no reason not to eat.
“Your Bonfire Set is ready!”
The Bonfire Set that arrived was.
“Oh, it smells wonderful.”
“Doesn’t it? It’s our pride, so please don’t leave any and enjoy it thoroughly!”
It looked far more luxurious than I expected.
A rich stew laden with meat and vegetables.
Well-baked bread and fragrant honey water to accompany it.
Still, I didn’t hold great expectations.
No matter how well virtual reality was implemented, replicating taste was extraordinarily difficult….
Slurp.
“Huh?”
It’s delicious.
Incredibly delicious.
It’s indistinguishable from real food eaten in reality.
It wasn’t merely sweet and salty—even the subtle sweetness drawn from the vegetables was rendered with perfect clarity.
How was this possible?
Shocked into action, I inhaled the entire meal in moments.
The staff member watching me smiled warmly.
“I told you it would be delicious, didn’t I?”
“It really is delicious.”
They’d actually implemented taste this flawlessly.
Second.
The advancement exceeded expectations.
I was beginning to realize just how unfinished First truly was.
After finishing my meal, I climbed the stairs to my room.
Typically, beginners who’ve just started the game wouldn’t spend money on an inn room, but I needed a space of my own.
And for good reason.
For what I needed to do next.
“Luke.”
– Yes, Master.
“Can you show me all the elixirs I’m currently holding?”
Whoosh.
[ Heart of the Golden Dragon ]
[ Thousand-Year Fleece Flower ]
[ Elf’s Tear ]
….
I needed time alone, undisturbed by anyone.

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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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