The Return Of The Genius Ranker Of All Times [EN]: Chapter 5

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Part 2, Episode 5.

It took ten minutes for him to calm down. After freezing the chat room, Marty, confirming that he had regained control, finally spoke.

“Hello, everyone. I’m Marty, the unknown explorer with a burning heart! I’m honored to be doing a collaboration stream with Kaiser! We’ve already surpassed 8 million viewers. I can confidently say that this is a special quest you can only see here, so please give it lots of attention! I’ll be handling the progress, usually…”

After finishing various precautions and explanations, Marty glanced at Kaiser.

It was a silent request for a word.

Kaiser nodded, chose his words carefully for a moment, and then blurted out.

“I’m Kaiser. Please take care of me.”

A simple and clear comment.

It felt even shorter because it came right after Marty’s long speech.

Slightly taken aback by the very short comment.

Although he had almost never invited a small-time streamer as a guest, Marty had been broadcasting for a while, so he quickly continued.

“Ah… yes. Kaiser doesn’t need an introduction, right? I think everyone knows him well, so let’s get started right away!”

He hurriedly checked the chat, and the atmosphere was not as bad as he had thought.

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-? Is that all the explanation?

-Well, it’s Kaiser, what explanation is needed.

-True, it must be him. You can tell by the aura.

-Marty is so flustered lol

-That’s what small streamers are like. Hurry up and get on with it. If you’re in charge of the progress, you need to move quickly.

-Isn’t this Marty’s stream?

-No way. Kaiser is the main character, and Marty is the MC [Master of Ceremonies, host].

-Oh, I see.

-Yeah, that’s right.

…It’s not just not bad, they actually like it.

‘…But it’s my stream.’

Some people are liked even if they only say one word, but even though he talks so much, all he hears are words like MC, small-time streamer, and loser.

His heart ached for no reason, but it was okay.

‘Hoo.’

He knew that Kaiser was the embodiment of combat, but that ability was of no use in this quest.

The main point of this quest was finding the way.

The legendary explorer Jakub had only revealed that there was a hidden place, but he didn’t give detailed directions on how to get there.

‘How accurately and quickly you find that path. That’s the key element of this quest.’

Detection, pathfinding, trap disarming.

There was no better condition for him to show off his abilities, as he possessed all the skills necessary for an explorer.

It was no exaggeration to say that this was a stage for him.

‘I’ll show you. How great of an explorer Marty is.’

When that time comes, the name Marty will be clearly engraved in people’s minds.

Then no one will ignore him anymore.

“Then let’s move,” Marty shouted energetically, suppressing his excitement and shining his eyes with determination, and the full-scale collaboration began.

And how long had it been?

Marty strongly felt that something was wrong.

“It’s a fork in the road.”

“I see.”

The first time he felt it was when the first fork appeared.

-Wow, crazy… Why are there four forks? A hell course from the start.

-Is that so difficult?

-Do you think that’s easy? There are four forks right away?

-No, damn it. Of course, it’s hard for me to find, but is it difficult for explorers too, you idiot?

-It’s a real hell difficulty for a professional explorer. Even if you bring in pathfinding experts, they’ll be wandering around all day.

-Are the four paths that difficult?

-The problem isn’t just that there are four forks, but the bigger problem is the surrounding environment. It’s hard to find traces in such a dense and dark forest. Once you take the wrong path, it’s hell from then on, so you have to find the right one from the beginning, but it’s not easy to find clear traces.

-Oh, I see. Thanks, SpeedXGun.

-So, in short, is it screwed from the start?

-Are they messing around from the beginning?

Should he say it’s like Jakub’s hidden quest, who was a legendary explorer?

Like the viewers said, he couldn’t help but think that they were messing with him from the first chapter, but Marty welcomed it.

‘It’s my turn to show my skills!’

It was a maze that would make most explorers shake their heads, but he could do it.

Because he had the unique effect called the Eye of Selection.

‘An ability to select whether an item is suitable for what you want or not.’

‘In such a fork, clear traces are more important than anything else.’

Here, the legendary skill Shadow Acquisition, which collects the shadows of objects to investigate traces.

And if he used the trait ‘Explorer’s Sense’, which increases the accuracy of exploration and shortens the time?

Marty nodded, running the simulation in his head to the fullest.

’20 minutes. I’ll do it within that time.’

Breaking through this hell course in 20 minutes was a feat that even explorers belonging to the top 10 guilds could not easily achieve.

It was truly the perfect way to make his name known.

‘Hehe… good, very good.’

Marty barely suppressed the laughter that was about to burst out as he imagined the viewers who would soon be shocked, and cleared his throat before opening his mouth.

“Ahem, I’ll take the lead here…”

“Let’s go to the left.”

“…Pardon?”

“It’s right to go to the left.”

Marty’s face stiffened at Kaiser’s sudden interjection.

‘…What is this? Is he kidding me?’

Marty was bewildered.

‘Even though I didn’t explicitly say that I would guide the way…’

He had clearly stated in advance that he had no combat skills.

He also said he was an explorer.

So, isn’t it natural to think that he would guide the way and Kaiser would fight?

He was the one who brought this quest in the first place.

‘Tsk.’

He should have made these things clear, just in case.

Marty glanced at the viewers, thinking that he hadn’t done his job properly because he had almost never collaborated with a guest.

Hoping that there wasn’t a broadcasting accident.

-Huh? Kaiser says left?

-Looks like he just guessed.

-He seemed too sure to be guessing?

-Then he answered in 1 second as soon as he saw the fork, what else could it be if not guessing lol He must be joking.

-Yeah, I also confidently pick number 3 when I take tests.

-Ah, number 3 is legit.

-True lol

-Marty, what are you doing? Find the way quickly.

-It would be funny if it was really the left after searching.

-Ah, was God the God of Guessing lol

Fortunately, the viewers seemed to be enjoying the situation.

Marty breathed a sigh of relief and opened his mouth with a smile.

“Ah, Kaiser has chosen the left. It’s a well-known anecdote that Kaiser is unlucky. Let’s see if he can become the God of Guessing this time, as the viewers say?”

Since he had some experience, he decided to use this situation to amplify the viewers’ expectations.

-Kaiser being the God of Guessing, hmm~~

-Hmm, Kaiser and luck are far apart.

-True, even Kaiser worshippers can’t deny that.

-Gaaal!! Relying on luck is what losers do! Our God is just being fair and square.

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Ah, how can one person have everything~ His luck has to be a little bad to balance things out.

-Agreed, agreed.

The flow of the chat was also going well.

He glanced at Kaiser, and since he didn’t say anything, it seemed like he agreed.

Since Marty was in charge of the progress and guiding the way, he decided to push forward more confidently from here.

“Now, Marty, who will become the legendary explorer, will! Verify it. The most important thing in finding a path at a fork is finding traces. The first thing to do is…”

Saying that, Marty stood in front of the left fork and flashed his eyes.

[Using the legendary skill, ‘Shadow Acquisition’.]

[You can acquire information through all the shadows in front of you.]

Then his pupils turned black, and soon the world Marty was looking at changed.

The shadow created by the giant tree facing the sunlight.

The shadows of the branches swaying and the shadows created under Marty and Kaiser. Even the shadows in the shape of birds circling in the sky.

Various marks floated above the various shadows that filled the entire dense forest.

[?]

[!]

A world full of question marks and exclamation marks.

Among them, some were gray question marks, and some were yellow exclamation marks.

And since Marty had set all his vision to be shared with the viewers, the viewers were also witnessing the scene in the same way.

-Wow, this is Shadow Acquisition. It’s amazing.

-It’s always a scam skill [overpowered skill].

-I didn’t expect much because he was a small streamer, but this is amazing? Why is he a small streamer? Even with just that, any guild would want to recruit him.

-Is that so great? I don’t know much about explorer skills.

-Yeah, you have to get the title of Explorer Who Doesn’t Fear Darkness, but it’s ridiculously hard to get. Do you have to find 5 legendary-grade materials that raise the Book of Adventures in the dark for 3 months?

-Yeah, the material locations are all only in places like cliffs or giant larva poop, and even then, it’s random, so no one tries it.

-Crazy;;

-I think he’s not normal either, since he’s one of the few explorers who got it after Barion.

Marty nodded proudly as he watched SpeedXGun explain in detail.

It was as they said.

How much he had suffered to get this skill.

‘I really wanted to give up when I spent 3 days inside a larva.’

Even though it was a virtual reality game, he felt all five senses, and he felt hunger, cold, and heat in the same way.

He saw more than 20 types of parasites in his stomach at that time.

Even Marty, who could pride himself on having a strong stomach, felt dizzy when he thought of the terrible stench and bugs of that day.

Still, it was worth the trouble he went through.

[!]

[Dry leaves with traces of life]

[Something might be discovered if you investigate]

[?]

[Dry leaves]

[No special traces are felt]

When he checked the yellow question mark on the giant tree on the right side of the fork, he saw a list of information.

‘With this, I can find any trace.’

Of course, there were over 400 exclamation marks to investigate, so it would take a considerable amount of time, but it was really just a matter of time.

And Marty had the elements to shorten that time.

[Explorer’s Sense is reacting.]

[Explorer’s Sense is not reacting.]

….

[The Eye of Selection selects whether it is a trace related to the path.]

[It is not a related trace.]

‘If I mix in a few exploration skills here…’

As he muttered inwardly and activated his abilities in order, the vision that had been cluttered by the sea of information began to clear little by little.

-Oh… it’s amazing how it’s being organized in real time.

-It feels like watching a hacker movie.

-It’s more high-tech than I thought. It feels like watching SF [Science Fiction].

-True lol

“Hey, this is romance, everyone. You don’t know anything~”

-Really?

-Romance has frozen to death.

-Look at Kaiser shaking his head in the back lol

The chat room became a sea of laughter at Marty’s brazen reaction.

“Oh oh, is that so, Kaiser?”

“…No.”

“Is it just me who thinks he looks like he’s taken aback?”