I Became The Rankers’ Number One Pick [EN]: Chapter 12

12.

“Ah, wait a minute. I haven’t even read it properly yet!”

[Fighting, Love Yourself, Silent Night, Warm Sunlight, Land of Rest, Breakthrough……]

Skill names that couldn’t be identified just by their names flashed before her eyes. Seo-ah reached out, but the system didn’t stop.

As if a roulette wheel was spinning, it turned quickly, and finally two skill names floated up.

[Breakthrough] [Fighting]

[Mission 1 completion reward has been 지급되었습니다. Check the details in the status window.]

‘Breakthrough, Fighting?’

She had no idea what kind of skills they were.

The blue system window disappeared, and the surroundings darkened again.

‘Ah… I’m so sleepy.’

Soon, drowsiness washed over her, and Seo-ah fell back into unconsciousness.

* * *

“Sister, sister……!”

Kang Su-jeong shook the collapsed Park Seo-ah, tears streaming down her face.

She had defeated a D-class boss all by herself, but she wasn’t happy at all.

It was Ahn Ji-yu who rushed in at the speed of light and shielded Park Seo-ah just before she was hit by the stone. But after that, Seo-ah didn’t regain consciousness.

Seo Hee-eun arrived a hair’s breadth behind Ahn Ji-yu, clicking her tongue as if disappointed.

“Damn it, I hurried so much, but I missed out.”

“Why are you so late!”

Kang Su-jeong protested with tearful eyes, and Seo Hee-eun frowned.

It didn’t matter that she had managed to find them even though the fireworks [a signal flare] hadn’t gone off.

“I flew straight from the northwest. It was completely end to end. Besides, even useless things were sticking to me.”

But feeling like she was making excuses, Seo Hee-eun closed her mouth. She almost lost something important.

“Were you any different?”

Seo Hee-eun snapped at Ahn Ji-yu, and he slowly opened his mouth.

“The same.”

“They must have sent us far away on purpose to delay us. I was going to pretend to go and then come back.”

“Why would they do that…? But what about Seo-ah unnie [term for older sister]? Why isn’t she waking up? Is she going to die like this……”

“No, she just fell asleep because her mana is depleted.”

Ahn Ji-yu quickly cut off Kang Su-jeong’s ominous words.

Mana slowly recovers over time. If she were conscious, they could give her a mana potion, but there was nothing they could do while she was unconscious.

Instead, Seo Hee-eun took out a brooch with a blue mana stone embedded in it from her inventory and placed it near Seo-ah’s heart.

It seemed to be an item that increased mana recovery.

It goes without saying, but such items were extremely rare and couldn’t be obtained with ordinary money.

“Who are you people…? Are you really D-class hunters?”

Kang Su-jeong finally felt something was strange and looked at the two of them.

“You’re saying you caught this guy with just the two of you.”

But Seo Hee-eun didn’t answer that question. Instead, she muttered, circling around the Stone Knight, which had now crumbled into gravel.

Then, Ahn Ji-yu glanced at Kang Su-jeong and muttered quietly.

“The E-class is lucky.”

But even though they hadn’t seen the scene, they seemed to guess what the situation was.

An E-class dealer and healer catching a D-class boss? It was logically impossible.

If they were very experienced hunters, it might be possible, but Kang Su-jeong was just a rookie on her fourth raid.

But the reason it was possible was, of course…

Kang Su-jeong was already looking at her status window, her mouth agape.

“This is……?”

The changed numbers in the status window were flashing.

[Stats: Strength 24/20, Agility 22/20

Active Skills: Dual Swordsmanship (lv.1->3), Punch (lv.1->2), Sprint (lv.1)

Passive Skills: Nimble Legs, Weakness Targeting]

“No way…… Strength and agility have exceeded 20?”

Seo Hee-eun clicked her tongue as if disappointed, watching Kang Su-jeong mutter.

* * *

How long had passed?

“She seems to be waking up too late. Should we give her a mana potion now?”

A worried voice lingered nearby. A calm and low voice continued.

“No, it’s almost done now.”

“Seo-ah unnie……”

Along with the murmuring voices, Seo-ah slowly opened her eyes. In her slowly blinking gaze, the faces of Seo Hee-eun, Ahn Ji-yu, and Kang Su-jeong, who were members of Team 2, came into view.

“Oh, she’s awake! Unnie!”

“Whew, I was going to bring our guild’s healer if we had to wait any longer.”

The reason they had waited until now was that this incident was Seo Hee-eun’s independent action, unrelated to the guild.

“But where is this……”

Seo-ah looked around with a bewildered expression. This was a hospital.

There were IV lines hanging from her arm. Seo Hee-eun explained to Seo-ah’s questioning gaze.

“You’re so weak. It breaks my heart. I asked them to give you the best nutrients first.”

“Ah, um, yes. Thank you.”

Seo-ah retraced her vague memories.

She remembered Kang Su-jeong defeating the Stone Knight at the end, and at the same time, a large stone flying towards her.

But the fact that she was alive and well meant that they must have saved her, right?

Seo-ah stared at Ahn Ji-yu and Seo Hee-eun alternately, then made a sulky expression.

“Um. Can you stop now? You two.”

“You noticed? How did you know?”

Seo Hee-eun asked awkwardly, pulling at the skin on her face. Ahn Ji-yu also nonchalantly tore off the mask that covered his neck.

As expected, they were Baek Eun-hee and Yoo Ji-ahn, respectively.

“What’s with the names Seo Hee-eun and Ahn Ji-yu? It’s all obvious.”

Even S-class hunters didn’t seem to have a knack for naming things.

Of course, Seo-ah had accurately noticed their identities when they shook hands before entering the gate.

Unlike other hunters, they hadn’t reacted to the [Mission]. It meant that this wasn’t the first time they had contacted Seo-ah.

“Gasp, who is this? S-class…… that……”

While Kang Su-jeong couldn’t say anything, her lips moving silently, Seo-ah asked in disbelief.

“What is that anyway? I kept getting confused because your faces looked so different.”

“It’s a mask for hunters that changes your face without being noticeable.”

“So why……”

It was a mask that changed your face to look like someone else’s the moment you put it on without being obvious.

It was a gate byproduct that came out very rarely, so it was very expensive, but unfortunately, it was disposable. Because of that, most people didn’t even think about using it for this kind of thing.

As Seo-ah was talking, she closed her mouth, and Baek Eun-hee carefully examined her complexion.

“Baby, are you angry? We didn’t mean anything else. Just……”

“……”

“I was worried.”

Baek Eun-hee muttered as if making excuses with a troubled face.

Yoo Ji-ahn, who was leaning against the wall on the other side, didn’t say anything, but the way he glanced at her seemed to be gauging Seo-ah’s reaction.

“Heh, haha.”

“Seo-ah?”

Seeing that, Seo-ah couldn’t help but laugh.

Who in this world could receive the attention of those two S-class hunters like this?

Of course, it wasn’t unconditional goodwill, but an action based on necessity, but she didn’t particularly dislike this excessive attention.

She had actually received a lot of help.

Seo-ah sat on the bed, looked at Yoo Ji-ahn and Baek Eun-hee alternately, and slowly lowered her head.

“There’s no way I’d be angry. I’m grateful to both of you, you saved my life.”

Thinking about it now, she was reckless. She went to such a place in a powerless and ignorant state and suffered this kind of misfortune.

Frankly speaking, she wouldn’t have survived without them.

At Seo-ah’s polite greeting, the two were silent for a moment.

“It wasn’t on purpose that we went late. I was going to go straight away, but those guys tried to persuade me.”

After a beat, Yoo Ji-ahn muttered something like an excuse.

Seo-ah didn’t know who the ‘guys’ Yoo Ji-ahn was talking about were, so she thought for a moment, and soon realized that it was Team 1 who had gone with them.

“That’s right, what happened to those people?”

“The gate is a dangerous place. Even if it’s a low-level field, accidents can happen at any time.”

Baek Eun-hee, who said those words, raised the corners of her mouth with a smirk. That smile felt a little cruel.

“Oh, so……”

Yoo Ji-ahn added an explanation in a more firm tone to Seo-ah, who was only blinking her eyes because she didn’t know what he meant.

“It means we made the gate their grave.”

“Oh, um. Are you saying you killed them?”

Yoo Ji-ahn nodded slightly to Seo-ah, who was confirming. Seo-ah swallowed hard.

But even though Yoo Ji-ahn and Baek Eun-hee, who casually said they had killed people, were unfamiliar, she didn’t feel like blaming them easily.

Even though they were S-class hunters, she didn’t think they were people who killed indiscriminately for no reason.

“I want to hear what happened.”

At Seo-ah’s calm attitude, Baek Eun-hee sighed in relief and sat leaning on the bed.

“Yoo Ji-ahn and I went northeast and northwest, respectively. But if we did that, we would be too far away from you, Seo-ah, who was going south, so we just pretended to go.”

After Team 1 had dispersed to some extent, they said they returned to the reference point. But on the way south, they met the members of Team 1.

From the beginning, they were guarding the path to prevent the members of Team 2 in the north from joining Park Seo-ah and Kang Su-jeong in the south.

The healer, who they thought was injured, was also more fine than they expected.

“Kim Dae-hoon and Choi Tae-hyun suggested to me that if you two disappeared, we would catch the boss together and divide the gate reward according to the number of remaining people.”

At Yoo Ji-ahn’s words, Baek Eun-hee retorted annoyedly.

“They didn’t say that to me. The dealer, Lee So-ri, and the healer bastard just stopped me from going. Later, they even tried to kill me?”

“They must have thought I was more useful than you.”

Yoo Ji-ahn pointed at Baek Eun-hee and sneered, and Baek Eun-hee snorted.

“Good for you? Getting recognized by trash.”

Yoo Ji-ahn frowned instead of answering.