I Became The Rankers’ Number One Pick [EN]: Chapter 2

Became a Top Ranker’s One Pick – Episode 2 (2/255)

Episode 2.

Why is he doing that?

Could it be because of that finger-pointing just now?

S-scary.

“T-thank you for saving me. I’ll be going now!”

Seo-ah had grown up in the Land of Eastern Courtesy. Even in this situation, she didn’t forget to thank her savior. But since she wanted to get out of there quickly, Seo-ah headed straight for the gate.

“You, wait a moment…”

“Yes?”

Just as she was about to step into the gate, Yoo Ji-an’s voice called out. When Seo-ah turned around, she saw a monster with its mouth wide open behind Yoo Ji-an.

“There, behind, behind you!”

At Seo-ah’s warning, Yoo Ji-an stopped speaking and quickly turned around.

Seo-ah shouted an apology and encouragement toward his back.

“I’m sorry for leaving first! Please come back alive!”

‘He’s the number one ranked player in the country; he can handle that much on his own.’

Seo-ah hurriedly threw herself into the shimmering blue exit. The last thing she saw was Yoo Ji-an taking out his exclusive weapon, ‘Ruin Blade,’ from thin air.

* * *

As soon as she escaped the gate, Seo-ah was grabbed by a Hunter Association employee outside and couldn’t leave until she answered a few questions.

In fact, she didn’t remember the process of returning home very well. Overwhelmed by extreme fatigue, she collapsed as soon as she entered her house.

At that time, she really felt nauseous, and her whole body was as heavy as waterlogged cotton. All she could think about was sleeping.

Almost dying from the monster was a big deal, but before that, spamming unfamiliar recovery skills had also put a strain on her body.

‘Even though I’m only E-rank and inexperienced, how can a healer be so exhausted after using some recovery skills?’

Of course, it wasn’t like she had no idea why.

[Stats: Too insignificant to display. (Stats below 1 are not displayed.)

Stamina 3, Mentality 10]

‘No wonder I’m running out of energy.’

Seo-ah forced herself to look away from the small, cute numbers and glared at the problematic phrase this time.

[※ If you fail to activate the position ‘Supporter (S-rank)’ within the period, you will die! (D-99)]

Just in case, she even washed her face and came back, but it was still there.

[Mission 1. Touch a Hunter.]

This was still there too.

“This is crazy.”

Seo-ah shook her head and flopped back onto the bed. Then, she went to a portal site on her phone.

<'Sudden Gate' in the Middle of Seoul, Is This Okay?>

<[Kim Reporter's In-Depth Report] Yoo Ji-an Visits A-rank Gate Like a Stroll.>

“So, he got out safely, that’s a relief.”

Seo-ah only realized it was an A-rank gate after seeing the article title.

As a complete newbie hunter, Seo-ah couldn’t even figure out where it was.

First, she clicked on the top article.

“The fifth in the world to solo clear an A-rank gate, following China’s Luo Ran… He’s amazing.”

She scrolled down to look at the comments.

* Yoo Ji-an is a national treasure! Never underestimate Korea again.

└ Agreed, getting drunk on national pride!!!

* Are you bragging about clearing an A-rank gate that anyone can clear? Where did you sell Yoo Ji-an’s interview?

└ As always, he ran away with the leader of the Taeyang Guild as soon as he came out.

└ Yoo Ji-an always does that. Other hunters give interviews, but Yoo Ji-an is always in a hurry to run away from the gate. I heard that the Taeyang Guild doesn’t allow reporters to approach him.

└ There are only 5 people in the world with that record, is that anyone? Jealousy, lol.

* Baek Eun-hee VS Yoo Ji-an, who wins?

└ Of course, Yoo Ji-an wins. Why else would he be ranked number 1?

└ Isn’t Yoo Ji-an close-range and Baek Eun-hee long-range?

└ Even if you create distance, you’ll be caught in 0.1 seconds.

└ I love you, Baek unnie! [Korean slang for older sister]

It was a common reaction where praise and jealousy coexisted. Seo-ah’s finger stopped abruptly as she scanned through them.

Suddenly, she remembered something very important that she had forgotten.

“…Ah, Geon-hoo!”

Seo-ah had been caught up in the sudden gate while on her way to hear about her younger brother Park Geon-hoo’s test results at the hospital yesterday.

“Oh, look at my mind. I’m crazy.”

She had forgotten something else. Seo-ah hurriedly finished preparing to go out and left the house.

* * *

Beep, beep, beep, beeeeeep-

A man with bright yellow hair carefully opened the door and looked inside.

It was Han Seok-hyun, the guild leader of Korea’s number one guild, Taeyang Guild.

He went in as quietly as a cat, but surprisingly, Yoo Ji-an, who had just finished showering, was staring blankly at him, looking perfectly fine.

“Oh, you… are you okay?”

Han Seok-hyun asked, not easily closing the distance. Yoo Ji-an sat down on the sofa with a nonchalant look and replied briefly.

“Yeah.”

“Phew, well… that’s a relief. But you recovered very quickly.”

Still wary, Han Seok-hyun slowly closed the distance and sat opposite Yoo Ji-an.

“Yeah, I recovered unusually quickly this time.”

“I sent support, but you didn’t have to catch the boss and come out alone, did you? You must have used Thunderclap to catch an A-rank boss alone.”

The toad monster they encountered as soon as they entered the gate was not actually the boss.

After killing about ten of those same toads, the real boss came out, and that’s when the real thing started.

Generally, to clear one A-rank gate, one or two S-ranks and a large number of A-ranks would enter and cooperate.

So, normally, even if you were an S-rank, it was very difficult to solo clear an A-rank gate.

The article was a big hit because of that.

Yoo Ji-an readily admitted to Han Seok-hyun’s guess.

“That’s right, I used it.”

“But, are you okay?”

Han Seok-hyun’s question contained concern.

Yoo Ji-an seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, then nodded.

“Yeah, I don’t know why, but…”

In fact, considering all of Yoo Ji-an’s abilities, he was second to none in the world rankings. But he had a fatal flaw.

After using a certain amount of power, his magic power would go out of control, making it difficult to maintain his sanity.

In particular, the skill ‘Thunderclap’ was Yoo Ji-an’s ultimate move, boasting immense power, but using it would almost always put him in a state of frenzy.

When he entered a state of frenzy, his attack power increased dramatically, but his defense power became extremely weak.

In addition, because he recognized everything he saw as an enemy when he was in a frenzy, he couldn’t use it at all in raids with teammates.

Yoo Ji-an in ‘this iteration’ was quite cooperative, but after solo clearing a gate, he always fended off reporters and quietly slipped away alone. It was for safety.

Usually, the frenzy would subside and he would come out, but once the boiling magic power had completely cooled down, it would take at least a few days.

Even when registering for rankings, he only registered about 70% of his original abilities.

Even in raids, Yoo Ji-an would only use about a quarter of his original abilities unless it was a special case. That was enough for most cases.

This time, he had to deal with an A-rank boss, and since he was alone anyway, he went wild. But even so, his magic power stabilized quickly this time.

In a way, it was amazing that Yoo Ji-an was still ranked 3rd in the world even after all that.

Of course, what was even more surprising was actually something else.

“But that gate was created there in the previous life, right? You knew that and went there?”

“Yeah, but it was created about 30 minutes earlier than I knew. If I had gone a little earlier, there would have been no damage.”

That was the fact that Yoo Ji-an’s life was currently in its 4th iteration. He was a regressor. And the only people who knew that fact were Yoo Ji-an himself and Han Seok-hyun.

“So people got caught up in it. But it seems like quite a few came back alive. I heard there was a healer or something. So why did you suddenly go there alone?”

“There was something I was looking for there.”

“So did you find it?”

Yoo Ji-an covered his forehead with one hand, as if his head was still throbbing. As soon as he did, Han Seok-hyun lifted his butt as if he was about to run away.

Fortunately, Yoo Ji-an sighed deeply and lowered his hand from his forehead.

“No, I don’t think so.”

“If it’s not, it’s not, what do you mean you don’t think so?”

“Anyway, I didn’t go berserk.”

Even though he had reduced the output by half, it was the first time in this life that he had used Thunderclap and not gone berserk itself. There was more solid evidence than that, but he didn’t want to explain it here.

“Was that what was preventing the frenzy? Hey, if you can’t find it…”

“That can’t be helped. I have to find that woman now.”

Yoo Ji-an looked anxious. Han Seok-hyun looked at Yoo Ji-an with curious eyes.

In Han Seok-hyun’s eyes, Yoo Ji-an had always been so relaxed that he was even annoying.

“Who is that woman?”

“One of the survivors this time. The last person to leave. Use any means to bring her to me.”

“Why? Did she take that item or something?”

“No, probably.”

Again, an uncertain word was attached to the end. Han Seok-hyun twitched his lips.

“Then why? Did you fall in love or something? A guy who’s actually over 60 years old…”

Before he could finish speaking, Yoo Ji-an flicked his finger, and Han Seok-hyun’s collar was grabbed, and his body floated in the air.

Yoo Ji-an had activated the skill ‘Telekinesis’.