The Return of the Genius Ranker’s Myth Warehouse - Chapter 81

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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 81
Chapter 81
“Kang Ju-hyuk advances to victory!”
Kang Ju-hyuk clenched his fist with determination.
He had just defeated another promising contender—one of the Master League’s championship favorites.
Though his opponent had been on the brink of collapse, barely clinging to consciousness, Kang Ju-hyuk had claimed victory without ever resorting to his special abilities.
“Phew….”
The waiting period passed in a flash.
Now only one match remained.
The tournament’s final match.
In other words, the Master League finals.
He stood in the place he had only imagined reaching.
Yet the presence of his opponent was far from ordinary—it dampened any sense of triumph.
‘Moneycay.’
A promising prospect sent forth by the Royal Guild, one of the Five Great Guilds—Moneycay.
The equipment he wore was befitting of the Royal Guild’s prestige.
A simple search at the Auction House would make one’s eyes widen in disbelief.
Any single piece of his gear could easily purchase a car—the equipment dazzled with such overwhelming value.
But.
‘I can win this.’
Kang Ju-hyuk refused to surrender victory.
In that moment.
“Match start!”
The Master League finals had begun.
Instantly, his opponent charged forward, wielding a sacred sword that gleamed with golden radiance.
Kang Ju-hyuk attempted his usual tactic, detonating smoke grenades to conceal himself first.
“It won’t work!”
His opponent produced a Wind Spirit Stone.
A rare and expensive item used for contracting with spirits or infusing their power into equipment.
His opponent took that spirit stone.
Clang!
And shattered it against the ground.
The wind’s power contained within the spirit stone erupted instantly, completely dispersing the smoke that filled the arena.
Though not its intended purpose, his opponent had used that expensive Wind Spirit Stone merely to clear away the smoke.
In that instant.
Mir’s words echoed in Kang Ju-hyuk’s mind.
– Other people don’t seem to do that, do they?
He had climbed this far thanks to Mir’s guidance.
He had climbed this far because he trusted Mir.
Yet as someone who had always aspired to be a traditional martial artist, this fighting style had always weighed on his conscience.
But now, facing this opponent, I could understand it completely.
‘Using items is a skill in itself.’
The capital to purchase expensive items.
The fortune to obtain rare items.
The connections to craft the finest items.
In the end, it all came down to the user’s skill.
Using smoke bombs and incendiary bottles while fighting is cowardly?
Then what about him?
That Moneycay bastard, draped head to toe in foreign luxury gear—is that not cowardly?
That’s right.
In the end, it’s all skill.
The moment that realization struck me.
Whoosh!
Kang Ju-hyuk’s speed accelerated further.
[ Smoke Bomb ]
[ Incendiary Bottle ]
[ Iron Net ]
[ Bursting Fire Powder ]
[ Ash Dust ]
[ Poison-Coated Shuriken ]
[ Venom of the Blood Viper ]
All hesitation in using items vanished.
Pouring every ounce of strength into the fight, Kang Ju-hyuk now held his ground evenly against the Royal Guild’s promising prospect.
Then.
“You’re even more cowardly than I heard.”
The opponent pulled out a potion and drank it.
[ Hero’s Emergency ]
A supreme elixir that maximizes physical abilities instantaneously.
An item impossible to craft and obtainable only rarely from ancient hunting grounds—its price was astronomical.
[ Hellfire Oil ]
He then poured the oil across his sword’s blade, and with an acrid sulfurous stench, flames erupted from the steel.
[ Blessing of the Four Spirits ]
His armor was slathered with various blessings.
Just the consumables used so far were extraordinarily expensive items.
Seeing this, I.
“That’s not something you should be saying, is it?”
Without hesitation, I could use the secret technique Mir had taught me.
[ Breath of Death ]
Crash!
The potion shattered, and the death mist spread across the entire Tournament Arena.
The opponent’s expression twisted as they detonated a Spirit Stone of Wind, but the mist of death refused to yield even to the spirit’s gale, standing resolute in its place.
They had no choice but to use an antidote.
“Cough! W-what? Why?”
It didn’t work.
This was a supreme-grade antidote that cured all poisoning below the Unique rank and even provided resistance for a time.
Yet even such an antidote proved ineffective.
“Are you trying to take me down with you?”
A potion like this didn’t discriminate between friend and foe.
Kang Ju-hyuk would have been poisoned as well.
So I assumed he was aiming for mutual destruction.
But still, my opponent seemed confident they could win.
Even if their health kept depleting, they’d brought plenty of recovery items.
By using recovery items to offset the poison damage, Kang Ju-hyuk would eventually fall first.
But then.
“You really think you’re the only one dying?”
Kang Ju-hyuk equipped a mask.
Death’s Visage.
A sort of gas mask that nullified all status ailments transmitted through the respiratory system for ten minutes.
With this equipped, Kang Ju-hyuk could move freely even within the mist of death.
“How cowardly…!”
Within the mist of death, the two figures clashed ferociously.
And it didn’t take long before their match reached its conclusion.
* * *
Immediately after the Master League ended.
“Mir! Mir! Mir!”
“Hey, stop. Enough.”
“I love youuuuu!”
I brushed aside the figure who suddenly rushed at me.
If we were on the Second server with its massive level gap, suppressing Kang Ju-hyuk would be simple, but on the Second Crown Server, it was child’s play.
I didn’t accept the enthusiastic embrace, so instead I tumbled to the ground, but Kang Ju-hyuk wouldn’t stop laughing, clearly overjoyed.
And for good reason.
“First place! I’m the Master League champion!”
“Congratulations.”
“I really found a great friend! Thanks to you, I won the Master League! Hahahaha!”
The Master League finals.
In that final match, Kang Ju-hyuk emerged victorious.
His opponent was a promising prospect from the Royal Guild, equipped with gear so impressive that even I had to admire it.
Honestly, I was surprised.
‘I thought even the mist of death might not be enough, but…’
Kang Ju-hyuk’s opponent had fought far better than I’d anticipated.
He had also made decent use of powerful items depending on the situation.
Kang Ju-hyuk seized that advantage, using the death mist to prevent his opponent from deploying items while steering the match in his favor.
It was like watching my own past self in action.
Seeing Kang Ju-hyuk claim victory filled me with a sense of pride.
“Hey, at this rate we’re gonna end up competing in the world tournament too, aren’t we?”
“The world tournament?”
“I mentioned it before. The world tournament will be held soon. Well, unlike the Beginner League, there are no level restrictions, so you and I would probably get crushed immediately if we entered.”
The world tournament.
Honestly, looking at the current level of Korea’s rankers, I think we’d be ready with just a bit more time.
But since there’s still quite a bit of time left, I can afford to think about the world tournament slowly.
And.
“That combat method won’t be usable once you hit around level 500.”
“That? You mean this fighting style?”
“Yeah.”
“Why? Once you hit level 500, there should be consumables designed for level 500 combat, right?”
The combat style I taught Kang Ju-hyuk.
It has its limits.
Not just for the world tournament, but continuing this method for future hunts would be difficult.
And for good reason.
‘This is a combat method I abandoned in the first place.’
Didn’t I mention it before?
This was the combat style I used during the early stages of my First playthrough.
In other words, it’s a method I abandoned because it stopped yielding efficiency the moment I entered the mid-game.
“You’re telling me to abandon this fighting style now? I’ve only just gotten used to it.”
“It can’t be helped. Later on, the efficiency becomes terrible relative to the investment.”
“Ugh, isn’t there any way? I really like this style.”
Kang Ju-hyuk grabbed at my pants leg, pleading.
I suppose it makes sense he’d be reluctant—he’d won the Master League championship with that fighting style, after all.
And well, it’s not like there’s no solution.
“You could change to a related class.”
“A related class?”
“Why do you think I mentioned Street Fighter in the first place? Even if not Street Fighter specifically, if you change to a class that has advantages in using combat consumables, you could extend the peak effectiveness of this method.”
The reason I abandoned this combat method was simply due to insufficient efficiency.
The Weapon Technique Master could gain advantages when using combat consumables, but it was more advantageous to fight by switching between proper weapons instead.
Conversely, if you changed to a class focused on those combat consumables, you’d be able to fight far more effectively.
“A class change, you say….”
Kang Ju-hyuk nodded.
From here on, this is something I can’t help with.
Even I don’t know the class change methods for every job, and especially not the class change methods specific to Second.
And so, the next day, the final match of the Second Crown tournament was held.
“The victor, Yul-ha!”
“Waaaaaahhhhh!”
“Yul-ha! Yul-ha! Yul-ha!”
“If not Yul-ha, who else would win!”
As everyone had anticipated.
Yul-ha, ranked first on Second, had claimed victory in the Challenger League.
After that came congratulatory performances, craftsman interviews, and various other ceremonies.
But the most significant event was, without question.
“We will now commence the Second Crown awards ceremony!”
The awards ceremony itself.
The ceremony was far more than a mere gathering where only league champions received recognition.
The production-class player who sold the most items throughout the Second Crown tournament.
Players who earned the most gold, those who captured the greatest popularity—
A surprisingly diverse array of players received various accolades.
And finally.
“The moment you’ve all been waiting for! I present to you the champion of the Beginner League!”
My turn had arrived.
“The Beginner League champion! A rising star who appeared like a comet! Player Mir!”
“Waaaaaahhhhh!”
I ascended the podium amid the roaring cheers of the crowd.
When I first entered the Second Crown tournament, I had thought only of the championship rewards.
But hearing the crowd’s thunderous acclaim now, I felt something entirely different.
‘This feeling is strange.’
Though both were virtual reality games, the experience was utterly unlike playing First, where the user base was so sparse it felt like a solitary endeavor.
“Player Mir! Would you share your thoughts on this victory!”
The host extended the microphone toward me.
Victory remarks, he said.
Truthfully, I felt no profound emotion warranting such remarks.
For someone who had once conquered First, winning the Beginner League—not even the Challenger League—could hardly stir my heart.
‘This is merely the beginning.’
Most players would use their victory remarks to trumpet their success.
But I was different.
The Beginner League championship was nothing more than a starting line for me, having been on Second for less than a month.
So my victory remarks could only speak not of the present, but of the future.
“I shall see you next in the Challenger League.”
A victory statement laden with the promise that next year I would claim the Challenger League championship—not even the Master League.
To my such victory remarks.
“Waaaaaaaahhhhhhh!”
The arena erupted with a roar that seemed to shake the very foundations.
With this, I had achieved my goal of ranking first in the league.
Now, what remained.
“Mir, please confirm your Beginner League first-place reward.”
Confirming the first-place reward for the Beginner League on the Second Crown Server.

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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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