The Return of the Genius Ranker’s Myth Warehouse - Chapter 77

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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 77
Chapter 77
The more victories Mir accumulated in the tournament,
the more anxious the remaining participants became.
“He’s not even a monster—what on earth is this guy’s true identity?”
Their panic hadn’t started just now.
They’d been losing their composure ever since Mir’s first match in the tournament.
Who would have the audacity to begin a match by confidently drawing a massive longbow and holding the bowstring taut from the opening bell?
A gamble where a single miss meant defeat.
Moreover, the opponent had even crammed in last-minute arrow-dodging practice specifically to counter Mir.
Thwack!
Yet that opponent
couldn’t even dodge the first attack and fell in a single strike.
The remaining participants thought that if they could just evade that first shot, they’d devise new strategies—
Whoosh!
In the second match,
Mir released the longbow and immediately switched to a crossbow, felling his opponent in one shot.
Such a method actually existed?
Startled though they were, they still thought they could manage if they prepared a counter-strategy.
Thwack!
The short bow he drew next completely eliminated the cooldown window that appeared after each attack.
Still manageable.
If they just found a way to block ranged attacks themselves without relying on tricks, they could win.
That’s what they prepared: Deskel’s ‘Ghost Veil’.
Thwack!
“Gaaahhh!”
Even that failed spectacularly.
Mir had drawn out a Saint Arrow—an attribute arrow.
“Insane, how much money does this guy have?”
Saint Arrows.
Arrows that could only be purchased at the Temple, and they were astronomically expensive.
Unlike other equipment, they couldn’t be reused once fired, so even wealthy players rarely used them casually.
Yet Mir wielded them with such ease.
Between the mana stones and these items, the players who witnessed Mir using such resources so freely became absolutely certain he was extraordinarily wealthy.
‘I still can’t give up!’
The surviving participants and the players supporting them
all began racking their brains to devise strategies to defeat Mir.
This was no longer just the competitors’ battle.
With the strong favorites eliminated, many believed that if they could just take down Mir, their sponsored player would become champion.
Countless people crowded around the competitors, researching methods to bring Mir down.
But.
“The semifinals continue! Ah, Grima is moving with such effort, but….”
“In the end, Mir! Once again, he hasn’t moved a single step and has completely subdued his opponent!”
“It’s unbelievable! How is this even possible!”
The result was the same as before.
Every strategy the opponent had painstakingly prepared was completely dismantled by Mir.
Nothing worked against him.
The high-level Guild members who belonged to the same Guild as the competitor and watched the match imagined as they observed Mir’s performance.
‘Could I actually win against him?’
If I were to face Mir at the same level in the Tournament Arena?
If all the strategies I’ve carefully researched were dismantled just like this?
Could I win with my far superior gaming experience?
I ran simulations in my head, but the result was.
‘It’s impossible.’
It seemed I couldn’t win.
The power Mir displayed was simply that overwhelming.
And shortly after.
Finally.
“Now, at last! The finals of the Second Crown Beginner League!”
“No one has been able to defeat Mir! No, not only that—no one has even made him take a single step!”
“Will Mir finally be defeated this time! Or will anyone even manage to make him move a single step! I’m so excited!”
“Competitors, take the stage!”
The semifinals of the tournament.
In other words, the finals had begun.
Mir immediately ascended to the Tournament Arena.
And the moment Iron Man, Mir’s opponent, appeared on the stage.
Both commentators and the entire audience erupted in cheers.
Without Iron Man needing any explanation, one could clearly see from his appearance alone what strategy he had come to use against Mir.
“Iron Man has equipped full plate armor!”
“Full-body armor. While it requires considerable Strength and Health stats due to its weight, once equipped, it becomes extremely easy to block ranged attacks!”
“That’s right! And look—he’s even carrying a tower shield!”
“With a shield that size, he could block arrows as thick as a forearm without any problem!”
“I can see magical runes inscribed on it, so it appears to be high-grade equipment with substantial magical defense as well!”
That was true.
The greatest weakness of ranged attackers who use bows or guns rather than magic was ultimately their insufficient attack power.
So for ranged attackers, targeting the opponent’s vital points was crucial.
But if one surrounded themselves with high-defense armor like that, there would be nothing to target.
Arrows with their insufficient attack power couldn’t penetrate the armor.
And all the vital points were blocked by the armor anyway.
“In fact, this was the most basic strategy that had been suggested for facing Mir!”
“Exactly! However, equipping full plate armor and a tower shield requires extraordinarily high Strength and Vitality stats—a strategy other competitors simply couldn’t attempt!”
“And Iron Man has prepared precisely that strategy!”
“Mir! I’m eager to see how you’ll overcome this!”
Mir and Iron Man.
The two competitors stepped onto the Tournament Arena.
Upon seeing the equipment Iron Man wore, Mir—contrary to his usual approach—did not draw his longbow.
Instead.
“Ah! Mir is drawing a shortbow from the very start!”
“A rapid-fire shortbow?”
“Correct! I thought he might deploy that sniper rifle he showed us last time! This is unexpected!”
“A rapid-fire shortbow has relatively low attack power among ranged weapons, doesn’t it? Can this really work?”
The shortbow he’d displayed in the previous match.
He drew the ‘Downpour Shortbow.’
A shortbow with the smallest arrows and consequently among the lowest attack power.
Why would he equip such a weapon against an opponent wielding full plate armor and a tower shield?
The moment doubt took root.
“Match, begin!”
Their match commenced.
Immediately.
Whoosh!
“Ah, Mir moves!”
“For the first time since the tournament began, Mir leaves his position!”
“Iron Man has succeeded in forcing Mir to move!”
Mir began to move.
* * *
Mir’s opponent in the finals.
Iron Man.
He was confident.
Confident that he alone could bring Mir down.
Though not from the Five Great Guilds, he’d received tremendous support from ‘Steel’ Guild, a major organization of the next tier.
A full-body armor of Unique grade, no less.
The shield he carried was also a Heroic-grade tower shield with a 200-level restriction.
Iron Man, who possessed the ‘Guardian Knight’ class and thus naturally high defense.
Now, armed with Unique-grade full plate armor and a Heroic-grade tower shield, he was nothing short of a mobile fortress.
‘Arrows won’t pierce through.’
Had he concluded that a longbow couldn’t penetrate the tower shield?
Mir didn’t draw the longbow he always used first in tournaments.
Instead.
‘A shortbow?’
He drew a shortbow.
With a short bow, piercing through shield and armor would be even more difficult.
I couldn’t fathom why he’d chosen a short bow, but the moment Iron Man raised his shield and settled into stance.
“Match, begin!”
The match had started.
Whoosh!
Mir moved.
Since Mir had always held his ground until now, I hadn’t expected him to suddenly advance.
‘So he’s aiming for an opening.’
Iron Man wasn’t flustered.
While not among the tournament’s top contenders, he was a skilled fighter who’d reached the finals through his own merit.
Rather than panic, he calmly pivoted and raised his shield toward Mir.
But then.
‘He’s fast.’
Mir’s movement speed was extraordinary.
Mir was clearly circling around Iron Man in a smooth arc, and all he needed to do was rotate his shield to track him.
Yet turning his body even slightly lagged behind Mir’s rotation.
At this rate, he’d lose sight of Mir entirely.
But.
‘Even so, it won’t matter.’
He trusted the full-body armor he wore.
Unique-grade defensive equipment, no less.
Arrows alone.
Certainly not small arrows from a short bow could penetrate this armor.
Besides, moving like that would drain his stamina quickly, no matter how agile he was.
He could counterattack slowly once that happened.
With that thought, the moment he lost sight of Mir.
Thunk!
A sharp sting erupted from his back.
What was happening?
His back was definitely covered by the full-body armor.
So why did he feel pain?
Before he could finish that thought.
Thunk, thunk, thunk!
The stinging sensation continued relentlessly.
Like rain soaking through cloth?
The damage wasn’t severe, but with each sting, he felt his stamina draining steadily.
“What are you doing?!”
He spun around desperately, but couldn’t keep pace with Mir’s movements.
Even as he turned, the stinging continued.
His stamina dwindled steadily.
“What in the world…!”
My entire body was protected by a Unique-grade full-body armor.
So why did I continue to feel these sharp, stinging pains?
Then, feeling a sharp pain in my side, I lowered my head to examine it.
I couldn’t see the pain coming from my back, but I could at least check my side.
What entered Iron Man’s field of vision was.
‘An arrow!’
Of course, it was an arrow.
A small, thin arrow characteristic of a short bow.
That arrow was lodged precisely within the microscopic gaps of my full-body armor.
“Impossible!”
Only then could Iron Man comprehend it.
All the pain I’d felt until now came from arrows embedded in the tiniest cracks in my full-body armor.
The gaps were so minuscule that even if someone thrust a blade right before my eyes, it would be difficult to strike accurately in one motion.
Yet, to hit those gaps so precisely with archery.
“Are you a monster!”
This isn’t human skill.
Until now, I’d believed Mir’s strength came from expensive, high-quality items.
But I was wrong.
Mir’s true strength was nothing but pure ‘skill’.
The items merely supported that skill.
The arrows densely embedded within the gaps of my armor proved this.
However.
“Uoooooh!”
Iron Man refused to surrender.
Shouting a battle cry, I activated my prized skill, ‘Guardian Citadel’.
My armor blazed with light as the arrows lodged in the gaps fell away, and a defensive barrier shaped like a fortress materialized around my body.
“Even so, you cannot pierce through me!”
Iron Man charged toward Mir.
Using Provoke to prevent Mir from escaping, I prepared a powerful skill that dealt damage proportional to my defense.
A fortress charging forward.
Watching Iron Man approach, instead of fleeing, Mir.
“Luke, Ulr’s bow.”
– Yes, Master.
I drew a new weapon instead of the short bow.
A savage design evoking ancient Northern European aesthetics.
Runes were carved into the bow’s limbs, and the bowstring was woven from the sinews of an ancient monster.
The true identity of this weapon was.
[ Ulr’s Bow, Ýdalir ]
( Non-Tradeable )
Type: Bow
Grade: Mythic
Requirement: Level 1,000 or higher, Bow Mastery Lv 100
Description: The bow of Ulr, the god of archery and skiing from Asgard, once called the deity of bows and skis.
Vidarir.
Named after Yew Tree Valley, where Ulr, the archer god of Norse mythology, once dwelled.
As I drew the bowstring, frost emanated from it, and an arrow of ice materialized.
“Haaaaaaah!”
Then I released the bowstring toward Iron Man.
The arrow of ice surged toward the moving fortress.
I had thought that no matter how powerful the arrow was, Iron Man could surely block it.
But the arrow did not collide with the fortress-shaped barrier he had created.
Whoosh.
The ice arrow pierced through the fortress.
It was not a matter of overwhelming force punching a hole through the barrier.
Like an attack from another dimension, the arrow passed through the fortress as if it did not exist.
In the moment Iron Man’s eyes widened.
Thud!
The ice arrow ignored even his steel helmet and drove straight into Iron Man’s head.
Thump.
Unable to reach me.
He collapsed right before my eyes.
“The winner is Mir!”
A roaring cheer erupted from the Beginner League Tournament Arena.

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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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