Ranker Who Lives Twice
Chapter 119: Mercenary (3)

Translator: HH Editor: HH

But Yeon-woo couldn’t show his anger right now.

Yeon-woo laughed, and spoke.

“Sorry I’m late. I wanted to come right away, but it didn’t work out.”

“It doesn’t matter if you come late or not. All that’s important is that we’re together now.”

Phante tapped Yeon-woo’s shoulder with his hand.

Bahal welcomed Yeon-woo like they were really close, and all the players watching were surprised.

“Were Bahal-nim and the Hoarder close?”

“When he visited outside the Tower. I heard he scouted him himself. But I didn’t know it was that much.”

“If they’re that close, why didn’t he come earlier?”

“Hm. He’s an interesting person.”

They continued to speak amongst themselves.

But Yeon-woo knew why Bahal was welcoming him to this extent. The reason was simple.

‘It’s probably to raise his standing within Red Dragon.’

The Hoarder was well known throughout Red Dragon. Some had checked him as a rookie they needed to get rid of right away. But it also meant that he was worth a lot. A novice that slumped a semi ranker. The disciple of the Martial King. A rookie with a view.

What if someone like this switched sides to the Red Dragon, with the Martial King’s children in tow? And also had information about Cheonghwado.

If the person that had overseen all this was Bahal.

‘His standing will increase. And he must’ve liked the present.’

It was good for Yeon-woo. Since the bigger the welcome, the easier it would be to get a place within Red Dragon.

“But is it ok for the Martial King’s children to come over? He’ll be displeased.”

Phante, thankfully, wasn’t clueless and just shrugged his shoulders and spoke.

“It’s been a while since I stopped listening to my father.”

“Really? I guess. Since the children of Cheongram are so talented that even the tribe can’t touch them. Anyway, welcome.”

Bahal had a big smile, and led Yeon-woo’s company inside.

“So, let’s go in now. We were just in a conference. There’s a lot of people to introduce you to.”

***

As Bahal said, there were about 10 rankers in the strategy room waiting for them. And in the center of them was a player with a strong aura. They didn’t seem to want to pull back their presence at all. Yeon-woo squinted his eyes at them.

‘81 Eyes.’

If Cheonghwado had their 5 Martial Gods, the Red Dragon had 81 high rankers at their center.

They were ‘81 Eyes.’

It was from the legend that in a dragon’s single eyes, there were tens of compound eyes.

Also, they led independent powers as well, having their own fighting squads,

‘There’s a lot of familiar faces.’

Yeon-woo could recognize a few of them from the diary.

‘White Draconian, Flame Beast, Blaze, Corona Anaconda, Red-Ringed Band…there’s a lot. Are they planning on flipping the 11th floor over?’

As Yeon-woo scanned their faces, when he arrived at the last face, he was taken aback. There was a completely unexpected person here.

A playful beautiful woman with long blue hair that reached to her shoulders. Unlike what the public knew, her hair was dyed blue instead of red, and she was wearing comfortable clothes.

Yeon-woo recognized her instantly.

“What’s wrong, Hyungnim?”

“….Never mind. Nothing.”

But it seemed like she didn’t want to reveal who she was, so Yeon-woo pretended like he didn’t know. His thoughts were a mess.

‘That person, here?’

Why was someone who detested the lower floors, saying they were places for insects, here?

He thought that the war had gotten bigger than expected.

Bahal introduced Yeon-woo’s company.

“So. This is the Hoarder and the children of the Cheongram family from the One-horned tribe. Even if you’re not interested in the lower floors, you’ve heard of them, right?”

A few nodded their heads. Some people showed interest, and others, wariness.

But most of them didn’t seem to care. They had eyes that said ‘So what?’

‘No. Is it because they’re not interested in Bahal?’

Like Leonte, people from Arthia were considered betrayers, and not welcomed to new organizations.

It seemed like that was the case for Bahal. However, he was known to be favored by the Summer Queen for his talents and wits.

“You all seem indifferent. But not after seeing this.”

Bahal placed a pile of papers on the table. The rankers naturally shifted their attention towards it.

“Do you know what this is?”

“What is it?”

Bahal grinned.

“Where Cheonghwado placed their troops.”

“….!”

“….!”

“Is that true?”

The rankers with careless expressions changed to one of surprise.

Raul, who had been fighting with Cheonghwado even this morning, burst up from his seat and asked again.

“Of course. Do you want to check?”

Bahal threw the map he had at Raul.

Raul quickly caught it and spread it open.

A detailed map of the 11th floor. A red ‘X’ was marked in various locations.

Raul knew approximately where the troops were located, but he didn’t know the exact locations.

“…..And the people that brought this?”

“Our friends here.”

Bahal proudly patted Yeon-woo’s shoulder.

This was the present that Yeon-woo had given Bahal. He memorized the map he had seen when he entered the Martial King’s office with his Draconis Eyes, and he had copied it exactly down.

Of course, he left out the information that would hurt the One-horned tribe.

But this was enough to help Red Dragon. This was going to change the tide of the war.

“How is it?”

Raul flinched at Bahal’s question and lightly coughed.

“…I think we’ll need to confirm first. It could be a trap from Cheonghwado, right?”

Raul narrowed his eyes at Yeon-woo and Phante’s back. Bahal nodded.

“Shouldn’t you go check that at Red Wolf?”

“I’ll go confirm right now, sir.”

Raul quickly left the strategy room. He looked excited.

If the map was real, they would be able to turn the tables.

Bahal looked around him.

“If the map is real. Then they’ve done a great thing for us. What do you all think? If there are no objections, I’d like to award them with a reasonable condition and rewards.”

No one said anything. But they were all paying close attention.

Bahal accepted the silence as approval.

“So I’ll take it, everyone agrees. Cain.”

“Yes, sir.”

Yeon-woo stepped forward and bowed his head.

“The second team leader’s position of Foreign Legion is empty. I’d like for you to take charge. What do you think?”

Yeon-woo’s eyes shined. The Foreign Legion was composed of mercenaries. It was a large legion of over 3,000 people, and it was difficult to be accepted into it.

To be a leader of such a team meant that you would be in charge of hundreds of players. To place an outsider in that position was unheard of.

That was how priceless the present Yeon-woo brought was, and how sought his talent was.

Yeon-woo welcomed it, because he would be able to do more with a higher position.

‘I’ll stay here and climb my way up.’

Whether it be the Saber God, Leonte, Bahal…he was going to catch them if he got a chance.

‘This is a war, where knives and arrows fly around constantly. It won’t be weird if something happens.’

Also. A warzone might be a place of fear and horror to some people, but to Yeon-woo, it was as comfortable as his own bedroom.

He spent half of his twenties in a dangerous warzone. Even with the addition of more magic, it was still the same.

Saber God? Leonte? Bahal?

No matter how talented they were, Yeon-woo was sure that he surpassed them in war.

So that was why he was planning on ending their lives.

‘Jeong-woo. Just wait a little bit. It’s boring with just Bild, huh? I’ll send the other guys your way soon.’

The first person he would get was the Saber God. Then Leonte. And lastly, Bahal.

He had already chosen the order. And created a detailed plan. The map was only the first step.

‘That woman gets on my nerves…but it shouldn’t matter. No. It’s actually best. Since it’ll become more confusing as the gameboard gets bigger.’

Yeon-woo’s eyes glinted sharply.

‘But first, I need to build up credibility with Bahal.’

And so, hiding his thoughts. Yeon-woo bowed his head.

“I’ll do my best.”

***

“I’m telling you in advance, but I don’t trust you guys. It’s best if you try to stay under my radar.”

The person who took them to the Foreign Legion on Bahal’s orders was named Amber.

‘Head of White Draconian, member of Poison Owl.’

Yeon-woo dug through the information of Red Dragon in the diary. He was also Shanon’s boss.

So Amber was glaring at Yeon-woo like he was going to kill him.

He was annoyed that they met like this. But his will to kill Yeon-woo for killing his subordinate could be felt. Whenever he got the chance, he would do it.

Yeon-woo thought that his life would be uncomfortable because of him. However, he had expected this much, so he didn’t worry too much about it.

Amber looked at Yeon-woo, who didn’t even respond, and kicked open the door to the second team of the Foreign Legion.

Bang!

The door almost broke.

There were about 250 people. It must’ve been freetime. They stopped smoking cigarettes or gambling, and looked over in their direction.

A sharp aura could be felt from them.

“This is your new team leader, Cain, and new members Phante and Edora. Greet them however you’d like.”

Amber scowled on Yeon-woo and turned on his feet to leave.

“Team Leader?”

“I did hear someone would be dispatched here. I guess they really came.”

“But isn’t he unfamiliar? Was there someone like that?”

“Isn’t the One-horned tribe with Cheonghwado? Is it ok for them to switch sides like this?”

The team members narrowed their eyes at Phante, Edora, and Yeon-woo. They were scanning the new team leader and the new addition to their team.

Mercenaries were fierce. They prioritized setting a hierarchy amongst themselves to see if they were stronger or weaker.

Some of them looked at the pretty Edora with lingering gazes. Edora slightly frowned like she didn’t like them. But Yeon-woo didn’t worry about them and slowly walked towards the center. Naturally, their gazes turned towards him. A few of them made faces like they realized something.

“Hey. That mask, isn’t he the Hoarder?”

“What?”

“I think you’re right. The black mask that makes his look like a ghost, and that armor. And the One-horned tribe’s brother and sister pair that follow him. The Hoarder, right?”

The words started to spread among them. And they all scowled. A few of them pulled out their swords to show their intent. They were actually victims who had suffered when Yeon-woo hoarded all the hidden pieces of the 11th floor for himself.

Seeing Yeon-woo, their old days suffering came to mind.

“Hyungnim. I guess you got more popular when we weren’t around?”

Phante giggled seeing Yeon-woo.

Yeon-woo’s eyes behind the mask were annoyed. Although he had somewhat expected this, annoying things were still annoying.

Then. A few mercenaries stood up holding their axes and swords. Clearly showing what they meant.

“Look here. Team Leader. We’d like to speak with you?”

Looking at them, Phante shook his head like they were absurd.

“Geez. There’s sure a lot of ways to kill yourself.”

Edora just quietly nodded her head like she agreed.

TN: Team and squad will be used interchangeably. Please note they mean the same thing. 🙂