The Returnee's Hidden Strategy Stream

[Translator - Jjescus ]

[Proofreader - Starfall ]

Chapter: 75

Bzzt-

A fourth-floor office in an old building near Jongno, Seoul.

Only one desk lamp was on, and the desk was vibrating.

"Ugh..."

Kim Jaeha, who had fallen asleep with his head buried in a messy desk, fumbled around.

He barely managed to grab his smartphone and half-lifted his heavy eyelids.

"Black Dragon"

[I'm sorry to disturb you. Are you available to log in now if you have time?]

"...Ah."

As soon as he saw the name, he was wide awake.

It was because he hadn't been able to reply to the previous message.

The reason was his frustrating situation.

"This is such crap."

Immediately after Black Dragon's auction was posted on the RP trader, Kim Jaeha hurriedly reported the situation to his boss.

He wanted to bid on behalf of the company and establish a business relationship.

But as always, the reaction was disgusting.

‘This guy is just trying to spend money like crazy. Hey, did you team up with Black Dragon? Are you trying to steal some of the company’s money?’

Even if he had succeeded in contacting Black Dragon, the company would need to provide him with real benefits.

He argued that this investment would bring huge profits.

He tried to persuade him with all sorts of words, but his boss simply ignored him with curses.

It was such a pathetic and incompetent judgment.

He couldn't look Black Dragon in the eye after extending a goodwill.

The thought of doing something for a person like his boss and company filled him with shame.

"Haah."

Taking a deep breath, Kim Jaeha looked at the pile of documents.

A tremendous amount of export and import document organization and numerical verification that he had been working on for two nights straight in the office.

Working for two departments regularly brought about such hellish situations.

He hadn't even been able to check the stream since Black Dragon cleared the episode.

"Haaah."

Kim Jaeha, slumped in his chair, looked up at the ceiling.

Why was he working at this company? When and where did things go wrong?

Such thoughts swirled in his head.

‘Are you coming home today?’

‘Are you eating properly?’

‘Yuna keeps asking for you.’

His short conversation with his wife.

He wanted to go home, eat a warm meal, and hold his lovely daughter in his arms.

The reality of not being able to sleep and forcing down instant noodles was too bleak.

"I should quit."

They say that salaried workers always carry a resignation letter with them.

But a person who has a family to support cannot take out that white envelope.

He could choose to change jobs, but even that was full of uncertainty.

"...Let's just work."

Returning to the harsh reality, Kim Jaeha turned his attention to the piled-up work.

Before that, he sent a short reply to Black Dragon.

[I'm sorry.]

* * *

At the edge of Edlen forest Hanbit stood, facing a tall man.

"Nice to meet you again! I'm Avantgarde, a streamer who loves RP!"

His appearance was exactly the same as when he saw him at the department store.

The nickname 'Avantgarde' was clearly engraved above his head.

"Nice to meet you. You came very quickly."

"It's only natural. I always have Black Dragon's stream on. It's a pity that Roper is not here."

Before Avantgarde arrived, Yeonwoo had logged out to handle some work related to his company.

Judging by how busy he was, it seemed like he was almost finished.

‘Is his company really that busy?’

Originally, he wanted to bring Kim Jaeha along and talk to him, but he only received a short reply saying sorry.

Looking at the situation, he might be in a similar situation as his senior, Lee Minho.

It seemed like he needed to visit him in person.

"Um..."

Avantgarde took a step closer, looking around.

"How about we move to another place? More and more people are gathering here."

The crowd of people around them was becoming difficult to ignore.

“It’s kind of surprising that the enraged Ranger isn’t around.”

“But how did these people find this place? I deliberately hid the screen and moved.”

“Oh, Black Dragon’s location is being streamed live on the community.”

“…Huh?”

Confused, Hanbit opened the community.

He checked a post.

<Share Black Dragon’s location in the comments>

I saw him at Artsvel’s store.

Please share in the comments if you saw him.

-Crazy stalkers lol

-Is he getting something from Artsvel again?

-He’s going to a dungeon now?

-He’s moving outside of Edlen.

-I found the dungeon at the location marked here.

-He’s clearing the dungeon now.

-This dungeon is insane;

-Clear complete.

-Exited the dungeon.

-Moving while hiding the screen.

-Now at 11 o’clock direction from Edlen dungeon. …

‘These people are insane.’

He had fully expected someone to follow him.

But he hadn’t expected this kind of real-time stream.

Sighing, Hanbit turned to Avantgarde and said, “I understand how it happened, but they’ll follow us wherever we go.”

“Oh, that’s fine. I have this item.”

He pulled out two red cards.

The familiar hourglass pattern on the surface was something Hanbit recognized well.

“Isn’t that a teleportation card? Where did you get it?”

A teleportation card that could move you randomly within a certain range.

It was a difficult item to find or obtain within the Raven Kingdom.

“As expected, you know what it is! I got it from a rural village called Bananbara.”

“Wow, you managed to find that place. Have you used it?”

“I’ve used one, but it’s a pity that it’s random teleportation. It seems like it’s only for emergency escape.”

“Hmm.”

It was a magical tool that was considered ambiguous due to its lack of control.

However, Hanbit knew how to use it properly.

It would be even better if he could use it in the next episode.

“Would you sell it to me? With gold or cash…”

“Oh, no. Please take it if you need it!”

Avantgarde handed over the cards without a second thought.

Strangely, there was no other intention in his actions.

“You’re just giving it to me?”

“It’s my pleasure. I was really touched when you called me. I would have cried if it weren’t for the stream.”

-Black Dragon is just a good guy...

-I’m an Avantgarde viewer, and I’ve been in Edlen for days just to see Black Dragon.

-Is that the viewer’s fault?

-It’s the streamer’s fault.

Avantgarde’s eyes were sincere.

His desperation was evident from the fact that he had donated and tried to contact Hanbit multiple times.

“Then, thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Since Hanbit was sure he could get something in return from Avantgarde, he accepted the offer.

The two cards went into his inventory.

Avantgarde looked around and said, “More people are coming. What should we do?”

The increasing number of players were openly watching them.

“Let’s just ignore them and keep going.”

“Really? Are you sure?”

“As long as they don’t attack us suddenly, it’s fine. Let’s walk towards the forest.”

“Sounds good! Isn’t a walk the real RP?”

Avantgarde nodded happily.

He suddenly remembered that Avantgarde’s main content was traveling around the world.

Since they had agreed, the two of them started walking along the path.

As they walked through the forest, making various exclamations, Avantgarde cautiously brought up a topic.

“Can I ask why you called me?”

“Why?”

“When you cleared the episode and the global message appeared, I simply resigned myself to it. I thought that only a large corporation or an advanced team could be of help to Black Dragon.”

Avantgarde was a streamer with an average of 10,000 viewers.

Although he was a veteran who had started playing RP from the beginning, he was insignificant

compared to the big shots.

He hadn’t followed the path of focusing on the story and growth like others.

“You’ve supported me a lot and kept contacting me. And since we’ve met in person, it’s like fate.”

“I really thought it was a dream back then. If you hadn’t been with your family, I might have talked too much.”

-?

-Meeting offline?

-Where? I’ll be right there.

-As usual, you’re probably holed up in your room.

-Harsh words...

-I would anyway...

Avantgarde happily recalled the memory.

Seeing that, Hanbit decided to adjust his assessment of him.

“If you take out the RP elements, I’m just a beginner too. I still don’t know much about the system or the players.”

“While those rigid rules might not restrict someone like Black Dragon... based on the direction of the previous episodes, information about other players and relationships are quite important. There are places you can’t proceed to alone.”

“Do you mean teaming up?”

“Sometimes you team up, and other times you form factions and clash. Of course, as you showed in the Edlen episode, if you follow the path of truth, you might have a completely different experience!”

His words started with worry and ended with anticipation.

He understood Avantgarde’s thoughts, but whether he could proceed completely alone depended on the situation.

Especially since it was difficult to predict stories he hadn’t reached yet.

‘I want to speed things up, but…’

While looking at the map, Hanbit thought about the future.

Even though people said his progress was fast, he honestly felt it was lacking.

His goal was to eventually catch up with the leading advanced player.

With that thought in mind, Hanbit asked Avantgarde, “I heard you travel all over the world. Where have you been?”

“I’ve pretty much explored the entire western continent where Raven is located. I’ve also explored a bit of the central part because I was curious about the Holy Kingdom, but I couldn’t go to the east because it was blocked off. I’ve had so many experiences.”

As someone who made content about traveling, Avantgarde had met countless players and NPCs in various places.

It seemed he had quite a few unexpected connections he had made naturally.

‘That’s great.’

Hanbit was surprised by the unexpected advantages.

It was a different kind of information than what he could get from Luna.

And since he had traveled to various places in the game, there might be information that Hanbit didn’t know.

Thinking for a moment, Hanbit asked him a question.

“Actually, I have a question. Why did you contact me, Avantgarde? Are you looking for information as well?”

“Absolutely not!”

Avantgarde waved his hands frantically in denial.

Then, with a more serious expression than usual, he continued, “I just wanted to get closer to someone who knows the truth of this world!”

[Translator - Jjescus ]

[Proofreader - Starfall ]