The Return Of The Genius Ranker Of All Times [EN]: Chapter 3

337.

Part 2, Episode 3.

[Charlie]

-LV : 58

[Jihad Black]

-LV : 53

Now, not only was he caught up in levels, but a significant gap of 5 levels had emerged.

At this rate, it wouldn’t be surprising if Charlie reached the maximum level of 70 while Jihad was only at level 60.

-I’m the senior…… Charlie was level 1 when I was over level 10…….

-Umm. Cheer up.

-Lizariza…….

Charlie offered comfort to Jihad, who seemed to be sinking into the ground with depression, and Eliza patted his back with her small hand.

Watching them, Dohyun shook his head.

‘I’m something else, but he’s really something too.’

In fact, Charlie’s growth rate wasn’t particularly fast either.

Even though he received less experience, he had only managed to level up 8 times after hunting for three months.

It was extremely strange that Jihad had been overtaken by Charlie by so much.

“Still, you gained a skill when you reached level 50 this time, right?”

-That’s true…… but Charlie also uses something called the Light of Dawn.

“In my opinion, what you got is definitely not inferior. There just haven’t been many situations to use it yet, but a chance to shine will come later.”

-……Really?

-Lizariza!

-Um! I think so too. I’ve never seen a necromancer use such an ability before. If I were you, I’d be very proud.

Eliza and Charlie, seeing Jihad perk up his ears as if he were tempted, seized the opportunity to shower him with praise.

Could it be that it worked?

-……Ke, Kehem! Right? I thought so too!

-Liza!

-Um!

Dohyun chuckled at his triumphant appearance, as if he had never been depressed.

He was such a simple guy, no matter how many times you saw him.

‘Well, it’s not a lie. It’s true that he got something good.’

It’s just that there aren’t many opportunities to use it.

As long as we keep hunting field monsters like this day and night, won’t there be no chance to use it for the time being?

‘I wish a hidden quest would just drop out of the blue.’

Hidden quests give a ton of experience, not to mention the rewards.

If one dropped, Jihad would get a chance to shine, and I would level up, so it would be a win-win situation.

‘What’s the point of using the Eye of Truth a hundred times if nothing comes up…… Sigh.’

With the seeds of quests dried up, not to mention hidden pieces, it was just wishful thinking.

Dohyun sighed, turned off the status window, and turned around.

It had been 20 minutes since he took a break, so it should have regenerated to some extent.

He thought that there was no point in complaining all day, so he might as well hunt more during this time.

As he was about to grab Chunbyeon [likely a weapon or skill name] and search for prey with the eyes of a hawk.

Ding-

[You have an unread message.]

A system notification, hidden by the status window, was faintly visible in the corner.

The moment Dohyun checked the message, he stopped immediately.

‘Message?’

There were a few words that Dohyun wasn’t very familiar with, and one of them was ‘message.’

As with most game addicts, Dohyun, who did nothing but play games, didn’t have many opportunities to exchange messages with anyone.

Especially after serving in the military, it was safe to say that he had none except for contact with his family and group chats with friends.

Would it be any different in the game than in reality?

‘Is it Old Man Bora?’

The only messages he received were occasionally from Old Man Bora, Kkukkukku, or Sword Saint.

Kkukkukku and Sword Saint had sent messages so few times that Old Man Bora was the more likely candidate.

‘Judging by the looks of it, it seems like it’s been a few days…… He’s probably sulking again because I didn’t check the message.’

At this point, it would be right to develop a habit of checking, but Dohyun had his own reasons.

After his existence became known, he often received whisper requests from strangers, and after catching Garion, it went into overdrive.

He didn’t usually have any business whispering, and he had been too focused on hunting recently.

If he had leveled up, he would have checked the notification window while looking at the status window, but that wasn’t the case, so there was a reason for it.

Ding-

The moment he checked the message, expecting the usual barrage of nagging.

“Hmm?”

Dohyun tilted his head.

[You have an unread whisper.]

[Would you like to check?]

It was a whisper notification as expected.

However…… the person who sent the message wasn’t Old Man Bora.

It wasn’t Kkukkukku or Sword Saint either.

[Hello, Kaiser! I’m BJ Marti. I’m contacting you because I’d like to propose a collaboration…….]

‘A BJ [Broadcast Jockey, a streamer]?’

A collaboration request from a BJ he had never met before.

There had been a lot of advertisements and collaboration requests when it became a hot topic for a while, but that was all in the past.

Recently, he had been focusing on the New Continent, and the trend had subsided to some extent, so Dohyun exclaimed as if he was surprised.

Moreover, it’s not a name I’ve seen before.

[As someone who has been watching Kaiser’s performance for a long time…… I decided that Kaiser is the perfect fit…… (omitted)……. Although I’m a small streamer with only 46,000 NewTuber [YouTube equivalent in this world] subscribers, I have a decent fixed fan base on God of Seoul Streaming [streaming platform in this world]…… It’s not even close to Kaiser, but it’s not a shameless one-sided proposal.]

‘God of Seoul Streaming, huh…….’

I’ve heard of it.

No, users who play God of Seoul, including Dohyun, would all know about it.

It was a platform where only God of Seoul could be broadcast live, and various God of Seoul streamers were active here.

If NewTube is a rebroadcast, then God of Seoul Streaming is more like a live broadcast.

‘God of Seoul Streaming is said to be more dominant in terms of real-time buzz.’

There were often comments on Dohyun’s NewTube asking him to stream God of Seoul.

He was quite intrigued that he had some recognition in such a place.

But the most interesting thing was what came after that.

[……So, would you be willing to do a collaboration to clear a hidden quest together? I can confidently say that it’s a hidden quest that no one else has discovered. Because I’m the only one who found it.]

Also, this is the first time I’ve proposed it to Kaiser, so I hope you’ll consider it in a positive direction.]

Even in the long message that had to be scrolled down for a while, the words that caught his eye stood out.

‘Hidden quest?’

That was more than enough to stimulate Dohyun, who was more sincere than anyone else about hidden pieces.

‘There were more hidden pieces left?’

Usually, when a game has been around for about two years, it tends to stagnate to some extent, and most of the information is released.

The Empire, which could be said to be the Seoul of God of Seoul, was full of users, and most of the hidden pieces had been攻略ed [攻略ed is likely a term for ‘solved’ or ‘completed’].

It had been half a year since he had heard that a hidden quest had been found in the Empire, which was how many hidden pieces had been攻略ed.

That’s why even Dohyun, who had the Eye of Truth, couldn’t find it.

‘A hidden quest with prerequisites…… In that case, it makes sense that the Eye of Truth can’t find it.’

The Eye of Truth is a fraudulent trait, but it’s not omnipotent.

Since the activation conditions are clear, it finds hidden things like ghosts, but the Eye of Truth couldn’t find things that were hidden carelessly in the bushes.

If there were prerequisites such as talking to an NPC, it was natural that Dohyun couldn’t find it even if he searched for it a hundred times.

‘A hidden quest found in half a year…….’

Dohyun, who was deep in thought, smiled.

‘It’s perfect for decorating the end before going to the New Continent.’

Whether that was true or not was not a factor to worry about.

That’s something you can check yourself.

Dohyun, who had made his decision, pressed the reply button.

* * *

BJ Marti.

A NewTuber with 46,000 subscribers.

He always says that he mainly streams God of Seoul, but that’s just because it doesn’t work on NewTube.

In reality, even God of Seoul Streaming has less than 10,000 viewers, a so-called small streamer.

‘I can’t understand it at all. Why don’t people watch such fulfilling broadcasts?’

Marti couldn’t understand this fact.

He seriously thought that there was no explorer who had the ability to handle content as fulfilling as his.

It wasn’t unfounded pride.

‘Where else can you find an exploration journal that makes your heart swell like this?’

A perfect explorer with legendary exploration skills and a heroic-grade unique ability ‘Eye of Selection’ that is treated as quasi-mythical.

At least in this field, he was the one with the conditions that wouldn’t have many rivals.

If there was someone to succeed the Adventure King Barion, it was him.

With such pride, he had always competed fairly with content and protected his pride as an explorer.

But the reality was cold.

‘There are 1 million viewers for aggro broadcasts that are just sensational without any emotion or admiration, but only 20,000 for unknown explorations? It’s the end of the world, the end of the world.’

People liked broadcasts like ‘I scolded an elf with a confession’ more than the unknown explorations he was proud of.

Such pranks that elementary school students would do get more attention than the exploration that he invested months of time and effort in.

‘No matter how much lighter content sells better than masterpieces in this era…….’

This is seriously wrong.

Especially for him, who was famous as a young꼰대 [Kkondae, a Korean slang term for a condescending older person], among his friends, it was even more incomprehensible.

Was this why he refused all the guilds’ scouts and suffered? He felt a sense of self-disgust and pain for a moment.

‘No. This isn’t꼰대. The world is wrong, so I don’t have to follow it, right?’

You can’t be a true explorer if you only chase sensational content because of money.

Marti, who took a deep breath, turned on Barion’s broadcast.

-Why go through the trouble? The joy of getting something after suffering is meaningful. There is no value in getting something for free!

Barion’s voice, answering a viewer’s chat, contained a firm belief.

Marti, who gained strength from it, clenched his fist.

‘As expected, it’s Barion.’

Seeing him adventuring as he pleases without paying any attention to the eyes of the world, one side of his heart would get hot.

Isn’t this what it means to be drunk on romance?

‘But…… it can’t always be like this.’

It’s an era where you have to have money to chase romance.

As a full-time streamer, it wasn’t easy for him to get the money to buy the materials needed for exploration.

The 물가 [Mulga, Korean for ‘cost of living’] of God of Seoul was beyond imagination, so even if he worked two jobs, it was only enough to make a living.

‘One shot.’

No more, no less, just one shot.

All he had to do was hit one shot.

And after a year of starting as a streamer, he finally got the chance for that one shot.

‘I never thought I’d get a hidden quest through this route.’

He was lucky.

That wasn’t enough to say.

A hidden quest that he accidentally obtained like a 기연 [Giyeon, a lucky encounter or fate] by chasing true exploration and overlapping coincidences.

He could confidently say that no one else would have obtained it for at least the next year.

As such, he had to攻略 [conquer/complete] it for sure…….

‘It’s a pity that there’s a limit of 2 people and only one chance.’

He can’t ruin the opportunity he got.

He absolutely can’t clear it with just himself, who is an explorer, so he needed a reliable helper, but the problem was that the New Continent was updated at this timing.

Most of the users had left for the New Continent, and he couldn’t even get in touch with them properly.

He tried sending messages to the better candidates, but the answers he got were always the same refusal.

‘I guess they don’t have time to care about a small streamer like me.’

Do they know what kind of opportunity they’ve kicked away?

He was filled with the desire to flatten their noses, but the reality is that it’s hard to find even one decent helper.

A user who is stronger than most max levels but hasn’t entered the New Continent yet.

A user who plays the role of 2-3 people alone.

‘To be sure, I need to find such a user, but oh, where in the world is such a user…… Huh?’

That’s when Kaiser flashed through his mind.