The Return of the Genius Ranker’s Myth Warehouse - Chapter 71

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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 71
Chapter 71
The moment Mir pulled the trigger from atop the Pyramid in the Desert and claimed first place.
“The quiet Mir makes his move! Just as he did in the preliminaries! Once again, he seizes the top position!”
“I was worried that since his ranking stayed low for a while after the game started, perhaps he wasn’t accustomed to facing other players! But I was wrong!”
“It seems he devoted himself entirely to movement in order to secure the Pyramid at the Center of the Desert!”
“That makes perfect sense! As an Archer, holding position would be the most critical factor!”
The two commentators analyzing the Beginner League leaped from their seats in astonishment.
To think he arrived at the Pyramid faster than anyone else, secured the position, and from that vantage point sniped down every approaching enemy.
No one could have imagined such a strategy.
No—it wasn’t a matter of imagination.
Even for a long-range specialist Archer, there were limits to effective range.
How many enemies could realistically be hit and suppressed from the pyramid’s peak?
“It’s hardly accurate to call him an Archer! Look at the weapon he’s using!”
“An anti-materiel sniper rifle! Where on earth did such a weapon come from!”
“What is Mir’s actual class? He’s clearly a long-range sniper, but!”
Yet Mir was different.
The anti-materiel sniper rifle Mir wielded demonstrated overwhelming power against enemies thousands of meters away.
Low-HP classes like Sage and Archer died from mere grazes.
Rogues and Martial Artists died the moment they were hit, vital point or not.
Even Warriors fell with a direct hit.
Guardian-class shield-bearers were sent flying along with their shields.
“How is this possible! Felling a Warrior in one shot and sending a Guardian flying shield and all!”
“It’s unbelievable! Even if you brought a Master League player here, I doubt they could demonstrate such firepower!”
“Exactly as you say!”
“The weapon is so massive that movement itself seems impossible! But once position is secured, it’s simply unstoppable! Absolutely unstoppable!”
The two commentators were beside themselves with excitement.
The audience was equally excited, though their reactions varied widely.
The first response was.
“Wow, insane.”
“How is that even possible?”
“Is this really the level of the Beginner League?”
“Even the Master League couldn’t withstand this.”
“When it flashes bright and the thunder roars, it literally warps the shields.”
Those who marveled at Mir’s skill alongside the commentators.
The second response was.
“Isn’t that just broken?”
“The balance is completely ruined….”
“Level 200? That makes no sense. He must be overleveled or cheating his way into the league.”
“That weapon is just pay-to-win. Pure pay-to-win.”
“But if we’re going by that logic, aren’t all the championship contenders cheating too? They all came out equipped with top-tier gear from their own Guilds.”
“No, that’s different. The Unmemory Spirit is real. Whether it’s Mir or whoever—that one’s definitely gear-dependent.”
Those who refused to acknowledge Mir’s true strength, who denied it outright.
He’d faked his level, they said. It was gear-carried, they claimed. A bug abuser, they whispered.
Baseless rumors spread with alarming speed.
The first two reactions came mostly from those who hadn’t properly grasped Mir’s actual capabilities.
But among those watching the match, the truly skilled players who recognized Mir’s prowess were different.
“Who exactly is this person?”
“Even with the best items, hitting enemies thousands of meters away? There’s no way that’s possible through gear alone, is it?”
“I thought he was just an Archer, but he’s not. I suspect he might be a hidden class specialized in long-range weaponry.”
“He said his name was Mir, right? Does anyone have information on him?”
“There’s barely any intel. Apart from recently achieving first place in the Duel Arena, there’s nothing concrete.”
Everyone was scrambling to piece together information about Mir.
Some sought to discover his true identity and recruit him to their Guild. Others wanted to uncover his weaknesses and pass them along to teammates who’d compete in the next tournament.
The motivations varied, but all were united in their desperate search for any scrap of information about Mir.
Then, one detail caught their attention.
“Wait, isn’t that a top-grade mana stone?”
Someone recognized the ammunition Mir was loading.
As the massive display zoomed in, a gleaming mana stone could be seen chambered above the blood-red sniper rifle.
A top-grade mana stone.
For those who wielded mana—Sages, alchemists, and the like—such materials were precious enough to drive them mad with desire.
As the trigger of that sniper rifle, loaded with such a stone, was pulled and the mana bullet flew downrange.
Fwip—
The light of the top-grade mana stone extinguished.
Ting.
What had been a top-grade mana stone clattered to the ground as the rifle was reloaded.
Those who witnessed this couldn’t help but gasp in shock.
“Insane—was every single bullet he fired made of mana stones?”
“He’s consuming one mana stone per shot?”
“Even low-grade mana stones aren’t cheap enough to waste one-time like that. Top-grade stones used as disposable ammunition? Is he out of his mind?”
“I’ve never seen money wasted quite like this before.”
“How filthy rich do you have to be to pull something like this off?”
“So it’s not gear-carry, it’s money-carry. Using top-grade mana stones like that? He’s definitely some spoiled heir from a major corporation.”
“Even a corporate heir would get severely punished for squandering top-grade mana stones like that.”
“If he’s using top-grade mana stones as one-time ammunition… well, that power output actually makes sense now.”
“I mean, considering how expensive top-grade mana stones are, that level of destructive force is what you’d expect.”
Using such precious mana stones as disposable ammunition.
It was a level of extravagance that defied belief, even when witnessed firsthand.
How much wealth had I scattered across the ground with just these attacks alone?
Still, the players who’d recognized the danger kept their distance beyond my effective range, refusing to advance any further.
“Other competitors! We have no choice! We must enter the Pyramid!”
“The Desert continues to sink! We can’t hesitate any longer! We have to charge forward!”
This was a battle royale at its core.
The map’s boundaries contracted continuously.
Remaining outside the effective range meant falling with the sand itself and being eliminated from the competition.
The first to charge was the Beginner League’s formidable championship favorite, now pushed into second place by Mir.
“Ah, as expected of the Unmemory Spirit! He charges to the front!”
“The Unmemory Spirit is entering Mir’s death zone!”
It was the Unmemory Spirit.
Mir immediately fired a mana bullet at the Unmemory Spirit as he entered what the commentators called the death zone, but—
Whoosh!
“He evades it! As expected of the Unmemory Spirit! He had a plan all along!”
The Unmemory Spirit’s body transformed into flames, allowing the mana bullet to pass right through.
A dodge technique unique to the Unmemory Spirit.
Magic that turned the body itself into fire.
Though its duration was brief, Mir didn’t target the Unmemory Spirit again.
And for good reason.
“All the other competitors are now charging into the death zone!”
“They’ve all realized it! Hesitation only means elimination! It’s better to rush in together when someone takes the lead!”
“Exactly! Now is the moment!”
The competitors waiting outside my death zone suddenly surged toward the Pyramid in unison.
* * *
“It begins.”
Bang!
Just as the Desert’s collapse reached my immediate vicinity.
One of the participants clustered outside my range began to charge forward.
The first target’s body blazed as he evaded my bullet, but my sniper rifle’s barrel had already rotated elsewhere.
I couldn’t afford to spend time on a single opponent. There was no point.
“Now!”
“Charge!”
“Let’s call a truce for now!”
Starting with the first user, those outside my range surged into my effective zone simultaneously.
I steadied my breathing calmly and assessed my next target.
‘Dual swords equipped, armor on—so their defense is roughly…’
“Luke, intermediate mana stone.”
– Yes, Master.
Bang!
“Ugh!”
I analyzed the opponent’s defense and health through the equipment they wore.
Then I selected a mana stone capable of piercing that defense and health in one shot, equipped it, and fired.
It hadn’t even taken two seconds to get this far.
Without bothering to confirm whether my mana bullet had struck true, I immediately swiveled the rifle’s barrel toward the next target.
How would I know if the target had fallen without checking?
It didn’t matter.
I trusted my skills, my equipment, and my experience.
If I couldn’t eliminate them with a single shot, it meant they were seasoned enough to survive it.
Against such an opponent, it made more tactical sense to find a new target than to waste another bullet.
Bang!
Another shot.
Bang!
And another.
With each trigger pull, the system notification window—positioned at the periphery so it wouldn’t obstruct my vision—displayed:
[ Player ‘Mir’ has defeated player ‘Chaelgai’. ]
[ Player ‘Mir’ has defeated player ‘Rabin’. ]
[ Player ‘Mir’ has defeated player ‘Monglatte’. ]
….
The kill log notifications scrolled past in rapid succession.
With each one, my first-place position grew more unshakeable.
Though I adjusted the rifle’s barrel slightly, concentrating my fire in one direction meant the players were beginning to anticipate my attacks.
“Luke, change position.”
– Yes, Master.
With Luke’s assistance, I swiftly rotated the sniper rifle’s barrel to the opposite side and reinstalled it.
Bang!
I pulled the trigger.
Players unfamiliar with the bullet’s speed and trajectory became my prey once more, falling one by one.
Long-range fire from thousands of meters away.
Yet even so, there were limits to what one person could accomplish.
‘There are quite a lot of them.’
I couldn’t eliminate all the players converging from every direction—it was like a sea of humanity.
Even though I was dropping nearly one opponent every two seconds at this distance, the number of remaining players hadn’t decreased as much as I’d expected.
Of course, that didn’t mean I had to eliminate all of them myself.
“Gah! Why are you attacking me!”
“Why? It’s a battle royale—I need to eliminate as many as possible!”
A player launching a surprise attack on their running companion.
“Wait… Ugh!”
A player who somehow realized they’d become a target, yanking a nearby player in front of them as a meat shield.
“Hehehehe, have a taste of this!”
“Damn, you’re insane!”
“My legs won’t move!”
“Attack that one! Stop them at all costs!”
“Pyramid, I beg you! Please strike down that bastard first!”
A dark mage and others seized the moment of chaos to cast a large-scale binding spell, immobilizing the legs of the users pursuing behind.
Even as they feared my attacks, quite a few users clearly remembered the nature of the battle royale—the need to remain among the 64—and continued attacking other players.
Thanks to that, the misfortune of having to single-handedly defeat all those users never came to pass.
‘It seems quite a lot have been eliminated already.’
In the meantime.
The user known as Unmemory Spirit, who had departed first, arrived at the front of the Pyramid, and other users began arriving at the Pyramid one after another.
I had failed to reduce the numbers to 64 before the users reached the Pyramid, but mathematically speaking, that would have been impossible for me alone anyway.
Still, having significantly thinned their ranks.
I was catching my breath, thinking that if the gathered users fought a bit among themselves at the Pyramid, they would naturally dwindle to 64 and the preliminaries would end quickly.
“…What?”
The users standing before the Pyramid began displaying something I had never anticipated.
And that was.
“Why are they doing that?”
Instead of fighting each other, the users were joining forces and beginning to climb the Pyramid together.

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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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