The Return of the Genius Ranker’s Myth Warehouse - Chapter 62

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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 62
Chapter 62
“At last! The first match of the Second Crown that everyone has been waiting for! The preliminary round of the Beginner League, ‘Monster Hunter,’ begins now!!”
“Waaaaaaah!!”
The Second Crown Stadium.
Resembling Seoul’s World Cup Stadium.
No—far grander and more massive in scale, the spectator seats were packed with users.
As they cheered in unison, the stadium seemed ready to burst from the sheer volume.
In that moment.
A low hum resonated.
The magical circle inscribed at the center of the stadium blazed with light, projecting a colossal hologram.
The hologram displayed the field that would serve as the stage for the preliminary round.
It was the Wild Jungle.
“Following last year’s mountainous terrain! This year’s first preliminary round will take place in the jungle!”
“Ah, a jungle terrain? This will be quite challenging.”
“Why do you say that?”
“While mountainous terrain was difficult as well, monster hunting in a jungle—where visibility is poor and movement is restricted—carries exceptionally high difficulty.”
“Ah, I see!”
“I suspect that in this preliminary round, the passing scores will be relatively low overall. Hunting in the jungle is that demanding.”
“Ah yes, we can see it right now! The participants are struggling immensely!”
Indeed, most of the participants visible in the hologram were in dire straits.
Some were struck by venomous insects without antidotes, their health draining until death claimed them.
Others were swallowed whole by carnivorous plants that erupted without warning.
Still others were swarmed and overwhelmed by monsters drawn by the sounds of combat.
Even the skilled could perish if they let their guard slip for a moment—such was the jungle’s nature.
The difficulty was so severe that.
“Isn’t just surviving the jungle—forget the mana stones—enough to pass the preliminary round?”
“Right? It’s brutal, honestly.”
“Wow, the Beginner League is this hard? How much harder does the Challenger League get? Seriously?”
Such remarks flowed naturally from the spectator seats.
As I observed the overall situation in the jungle.
The two commentators began switching the broadcast in earnest.
“Well then, we should examine the favorites first!”
“This Beginner League has attracted many promising new talents!”
“First, we must look at ‘Unmemory Spirit,’ who was recognized for exceptional talent and promoted to full guild member status of Pacheon Guild despite his low level!”
Pacheon Guild—one of the Five Great Guilds.
A man bearing the guild’s emblem on his chest appeared in the hologram.
Monster hunting in the jungle should not be easy.
Yet Unmemory Spirit, as he was introduced, swiftly incinerated monsters with his distinctive flames.
“Unmemory Spirit’s specialty is flame magic!”
“It’s a perfect matchup against the plant-type monsters of the Jungle. With such favorable compatibility, they’re sure to deliver outstanding results in the preliminaries!”
“Next, are we looking at a rising star from the Royal Guild?”
“That’s correct.”
“Ooh! Indeed, the Royal Guild. Their equipment alone is extraordinary!”
“Their worst gear is Hero-grade. In Second Crown, item grades and performance carry over directly, so quality equipment absolutely cannot be ignored!”
More than two years had passed since Second’s launch.
I’d assumed that talented prospects with exceptional skill had already leveled up considerably by now.
But I was wrong.
Even in just the Beginner League, the participants’ capabilities rivaled those of seasoned rankers.
If they continued to grow at this rate, they could easily displace several of the existing top rankers.
“Well then, the next championship contender is….”
“Hold on, hold on! Championship contenders are great and all, but the participants should have accumulated quite a bit of mana stones by now!”
“Ah, that’s right! In the preliminaries, rankings are determined based on the mana stones collected! So, let’s see who’s running in first place!”
“Personally, I’d wager it’s the Unmemory Spirit player, who had such favorable compatibility with the Jungle! Let’s see!”
Both commentators and the spectators watching the matches were all anticipating the results.
Finally, the preliminary rankings were announced.
[ 1st Place: Mir ]
[ 2nd Place: Bong Chul Double Blood ]
[ 3rd Place: Unmemory Spirit ]
….
“Ah, the Unmemory Spirit player is in third place! The ranking is lower than expected!”
“First place is Mir! We haven’t seen that name on the championship contenders list! Who exactly is Mir!”
“Second place is also an unfamiliar name. It seems there were far more rising stars than we anticipated.”
Of all the championship contenders the two commentators had predicted, only one name appeared on the actual rankings.
Both first and second place were completely unknown names to them.
“Let’s start by examining second place!”
Second place: Bong Chul Double Blood.
Curious about what kind of player he was, I adjusted the screen to get a better look.
“Ah… so that’s the strategy he’s been using?”
“Hmm, I see. Of course, it’s not a strategy that violates the rules.”
“But it’s difficult to say he earned second place purely through skill.”
Bong Chul Double Blood.
He was accumulating mana stones through the power of his guild members.
While each individual’s contribution was modest, because all his guild members were offering their mana stones to him, he’d managed to achieve second place.
Right now they were all hunting an Owl Bear together.
The fact that even with all of them gathered, they couldn’t properly take down a single Owl Bear suggested their actual skill level wasn’t particularly impressive.
“Now, shall we take a look at the first-place player!”
Before the two commentators could examine Mir’s performance.
A subtle murmur rippled through the spectator stands.
And for good reason—among them were people who had already heard the name Mir quite recently.
“Mir? Isn’t that the name of the player who took first place in the Duel Arena?”
“The Mir who defeated Lee Hwa-jin and claimed the top spot?”
“No way. This is the Beginner League. You’re telling me that Mir from the Duel Arena isn’t even level 200?”
“Mir isn’t exactly a common nickname. It’s got to be the same person, right?”
“So this user named Mir defeated Lee Hwa-jin and achieved first place in the Duel Arena while under level 200? Even with level adjustment, does that make sense?”
Yes, it did.
Just recently, the player who claimed first place on the Duel Arena’s weekly rankings was none other than Mir.
As the murmurs grew louder around me.
Mir’s image began to appear on the hologram.
In the hologram, Mir was drawing back the bowstring of a long bow that gleamed with golden light, and the moment I released the string.
Whoosh!
The Owl Bear collapsed.
In a single strike.
“Wooooooooow!”
“What was that!”
“An Owl Bear taken down in one hit? That can’t be real!”
“What was that attack just now? This is insane!”
“Was that an archer?”
Roars erupted from the stands.
An Owl Bear was already a formidable monster to begin with.
From its sheer size on the screen, it was clearly a named or boss-tier creature.
To fell such a beast in a single blow.
The cheers were inevitable.
“Incredible! An Owl Bear brought down in one strike!”
“Remarkable indeed. Honestly, I find it hard to believe.”
“Is such an attack even possible at level 200!”
“If the second-place team had worn down its health significantly, it might be feasible, but….”
“The thing is, the second-place team didn’t appear to have dealt much damage at all!”
The two commentators shared the same sense of awe.
The impact of that single strike was so overwhelming that for a moment, the names of championship favorites like the Unmemory Spirit seemed to vanish entirely from their minds.
But then.
“Ah, the second-place player! What’s happening?”
“Surely not the magic stone….”
Second place: Bong Chul Double Blood.
His image appeared on the hologram, threatening Mir.
He’d even mobilized his subordinates to surround Mir—the very person who could be called his lifesaver.
“That’s too much!”
“Hmm, it’s certainly not against the rules, but… it’s not a pleasant sight.”
“Oh no! Mir! Surely you’re not being eliminated like this?”
“Perhaps handing over the magic stone and withdrawing would be the better option.”
“Then I’ll lose first place!”
“There’s still time remaining, so if I work hard enough, I might reclaim the top spot.”
Curses directed at the second-place player echoed throughout the stadium.
I hadn’t expected this kind of scene in the preliminaries, where there was no need to eliminate other players.
Multiple players attacking a single player, no less.
Yet the Mir in the hologram showed no sign of giving up.
Instead, I drew an arrow that looked distinctly unusual and nocked it to my bowstring.
Whoosh!
I fired it high into the sky.
Until that moment, everyone watching the hologram had failed to anticipate my next move.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-!!!
Suddenly, a torrential downpour of arrows cascaded from the heavens.
The stadium fell silent in an instant.
Moments later, when the arrow storm subsided,
Thump.
The group of Bong Chul Double Blood lay sprawled across the hologram display.
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-!!!”
The crowd erupted in a deafening roar of excitement.
* * *
“Why did they even rush in like that?”
After the arrow storm subsided,
not a single survivor remained.
Most of them had exhausted their stamina fighting the Owl Bear anyway.
I’d thought the one they called “big brother” would at least survive since he barely participated in the actual combat,
but I never expected him to die so quickly.
“Luke, the magic stone?”
– Here, would you like to see it? It appears that the larger and stronger the monster, the more dramatically the magic stone’s size increases.
Still, seeing the magic stone Luke showed me lifted my spirits a bit.
A magic stone larger than my own fist.
Now that I thought about it, I’d heard I could check the rankings mid-match, so I shouted out the command.
[ 1st Place: Mir ]
[ 2nd Place: Unmemory Spirit ]
….
I held first place.
Still, I couldn’t afford to be careless.
Another participant could suddenly defeat an incredibly powerful monster and overtake me at any moment.
So I was about to search for my next prey when—
– Master.
“What is it?”
– While we were eating just now, I sensed something. That Owl Bear appears to have been fleeing.
“Running away?”
– It seemed hidden beneath the feathers, but the puncture wounds on its body were substantial. A considerable amount of venom had been injected.
Luke revealed this new information to me.
The Owl Bear, which appeared to be at least Named-rank or higher, was actually fleeing?
If that were true.
‘A boss monster.’
That had to be it.
Last year, the Twin Head Ogre that stood atop the highest mountain at the center of the field served as the boss monster under the title “Master of the Mountain.”
Could the monster that presumably attacked the Owl Bear be a boss monster of similar caliber?
If last year’s boss monster was called the Master of the Mountain, then perhaps this year’s boss monster would be something like the “Master of the Jungle.”
– Of course, this is merely speculation on my part, so please don’t put too much stock in it.
And there’s one more thing.
I’d discovered some information during my preliminary investigation.
Apparently, last year the preliminary round participants joined forces and somehow managed to defeat the Twin Head Ogre known as the Master of the Mountain.
As a result.
The Master of the Mountain dropped an enormous amount of items in addition to the magic stones needed to pass the preliminary round.
Wouldn’t the same apply this time?
“No, if there’s a boss monster, I have to defeat it.”
The rewards obtainable only by defeating the preliminary round’s boss monster.
I couldn’t afford to miss this.
– I activate the skill Tracking.
Wondering what kind of items the Master of the Jungle would drop, I began tracking it through the Jungle.

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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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