Former Ranker's Newbie Life

—We have received the items you sent and confirmed their contents.

Through the crystal orb, a faceless man bowed politely to Albert.

—I am deeply ashamed that something like this managed to circulate within the empire without our notice.

The Minister of Imperial Security was a man whose face, name, age, and even gender were kept completely out of public record. When Albert responded with nothing more than a slight nod, he moved on.

—You mentioned that you are in possession of a ledger containing the names of those involved in this incident?

Once again, Albert simply nodded. The minister fell silent for a moment before speaking again.

—If there is anything you desire in return, I am willing to hear it.

Elthomagia had prevented an incident that could have thrown the empire into absolute chaos if mishandled. That alone warranted a considerable price, should the other party choose to demand one. On top of that, Elthomagia held a ledger listing those connected to the incident. In any negotiation, the one forced into a lower position was clearly the minister.

If this had happened anywhere else, cooperation would have followed the moment the Security Bureau stepped in. But since Elthomagia feared neither the Security Bureau nor even the imperial court itself, caution was essential.

“Elthomagia has no intention of demanding compensation for this incident.”

—From my perspective, that makes your words even more unsettling.

Albert let out a soft chuckle. “Do not be alarmed. I mean it. We will return the ledger by placing it in the hands of one of your people. I trust you will handle the matter properly from there.”

—One of our... people?

“Not a formal agent, though. She seems to be an informant that was dragged into this incident and chased about, yet she still played a significant role in resolving it. You are fortunate, Minister. Acquiring talent like that is no small task.”

The minister understood what Albert was implying. He felt a flicker of curiosity about why someone of Albert’s stature would take an interest in a mere informant, but that was a question for later.

—I didn’t realize there was even more to be grateful for. When it comes to serving the empire, one can never have too much talent.

At that moment, Deneve’s promotion was all but assured. There would be scrutiny and oversight due to the involvement of an external power, but when that power was Elthomagia, the benefits far outweighed the drawbacks.

“The individual and the ledger will arrive in the capital within one hour. Arrange for their retrieval.”

—Thank you for your consideration.

The light within the crystal orb faded, and Albert turned his gaze away.

Deneve stood there, frozen in place. She was so tense that it was hard to tell whether she was even breathing, and she couldn’t muster even a single bead of sweat.

“You heard everything.”

At Albert’s words, Deneve nodded so hard it was almost violent. “Yes!”

“Always watch your words. Until he chooses to reveal it himself, do not discuss anything about that individual.”

“Yes!”

“Remembering whose favor allowed your life to change will also be important for the rest of your days.”

“Of course!”

“You already have the ledger. I have left one more item for my minister below, so be sure to take it with you when you leave.”

“Yes!”

Deneve answered on reflex, but the response never reached its intended recipient. By the time she realized it, she had already been ushered out of the room, and she felt nothing but gratitude for it. She had never imagined that being thrown out could feel this relieving.

Deneve followed another mage toward a long-distance spatial transfer site. There, she found a single human being, neatly “packaged” in leather restraints.

“This is something you need to take with you,” her mage escort said, referring to the man as if he were an item.

“W-What is that...?”

“That is the mayor of Kula.”

Just as Do-Jin had predicted, the mayor of Kula had proudly listed his name in the secret ledger. He had been a man who, for years, steadily accepted tributes from smuggling rings and provided protection from behind the scenes. He had attempted a midnight escape with his family, only to be beaten senseless by the mages Albert dispatched and dragged here in restraints.

“Then what about those...?” Deneve pointed toward several boxes of varying sizes stacked off to one side.

“They are his family.”

“They’re alive, right?”

“Of course, but they’ll all die eventually,” the mage answered casually and gestured with his hand. It was time for her to go.

“We will send them along shortly. Have a safe journey.”

Deneve vanished from Kula. When she arrived at the Elthomagia mage tower in the capital, she came face to face with the people who would now be her superiors. From that moment on, a bloody wind swept through the empire, a cold and merciless gale set in motion by a single flap of Do-Jin’s wings.

***

In the end, the keyword “Cult of Ruin” never made it past the Light of the World. However, the bomb created for mass slaughter was enough to make the empire recognize the existence of a hostile faction targeting it. Because of that, the secret ledger carried by the smugglers did far more than simply claim the lives of the people named in it.

The scale of the incident forced every organization under the Security Bureau to mobilize and comb through the empire from top to bottom. Whenever they caught someone, they interrogated them to the point of tearing apart their minds, dragging out anyone still hidden in the shadows.

Some of the bastards dying in there have to be connected to the Cult of Ruin, Do-Jin assumed.

Even if the taboo prevented them from speaking about it directly, the fact that some of those who died in silence had been cooperating with the Church was already a win. Do-Jin continued playing the game as usual, but he kept track of the subtle changes happening around him.

Every city tightened its security. Uniformed personnel became a common sight. Roads leading into high-class residential districts were frequently shut down.

“Feels like bounty quests for people instead of monsters have shot up lately.”

“Yeah. There’s even a request to capture a baroness over here.”

On the Adventurers’ Guild request boards, manhunts had increased almost as much as monster hunts. Overall, the atmosphere of the Altera Empire remained tense and unstable for quite some time. Even players who normally lived far removed from NPC affairs could feel it in their bones.

It’s better to cut deep and clean, even if things stay chaotic for a while.

Do-Jin’s assessment proved exactly right. The iron-tainted wind he had set loose began steadily reshaping the empire itself. An astonishing amount of blood was spilled, but it was all rotten. Left untouched, it would have gone on poisoning the empire, and only now did it finally have a chance to be drained.

***

If the empire and Lostania had benefited from Do-Jin’s actions, then there was one place that had quite literally been left bleeding: the Cult of Ruin. They were a group that desired their own eternity just as much as they longed for the end of the world itself.

In that place, two voices drifted through the empty space, yet there were no bodies in sight.

“This is fucking ridiculous.”

“That idiot Nepas... what the hell was he doing instead of keeping watch?”

“He was keeping watch. The problem was that the observers were killed or abducted before he broke free. That said, having us monitor him directly would have been a waste in itself.”

“So what are we doing now? Do you even know what the situation inside the empire looks like? Our limbs are being hacked off in droves. Decades’ worth of carefully planted assets are getting wiped out!”

Even with nothing but voices, their irritation and fury carried through clearly.

“Of all six saints, it had to be that brain-dead bastard mixed in with us...”

“Watch your words. The Great Star personally chose all six of our saints. No matter how lacking he may appear, do not forget that he is still our brother.”

“You just called him lacking yourself, and now you’re lecturing me?”

Sighs passed through the silent space, each one different in weight.

“Nepas’s actions were rash and stupid, that much is clear. Still, I do not think he was entirely wrong. I mean his instincts.”

“What are you getting at?”

“He acted because he thought we could not afford to sit still anymore, didn’t he? That animal instinct he is always going on about actually got it right this time.”

“The one who has been interfering with our great works lately came from another world. I am talking about Bella’s filthy mercenary. If we leave him alone, it feels like we are just inviting another massive headache. Am I the only one who sees it that way?”

“If Nepas was telling the truth, then he said he sensed Bella’s light coming from that one.”

“Shouldn’t we... take action?”

Silence fell again. Breathing could be heard, slow and deliberate, as if calculations were being made.

“The timing is bad. If the Church or we ourselves move openly right now, there is a high chance we will undo everything we have endured and built.”

“Then we find a way to apply pressure without the Church stepping in directly. Whether it is Bella’s mercenary or that disgusting Blue Star.”

“Is there such a method?”

In the pitch-black void, a pair of eyes appeared, curved into a thin, smiling shape. “Perhaps.”

***

While the empire and the Cult of Ruin adjusted their moves to match the shifting situation, the real world where Do-Jin lived was just as loud and chaotic. The incident now labeled the Imperial Bombing Attempt had been split into multiple videos and uploaded to Do-Jin’s channel. Every single upload made the view counts explode all over again.

└ A new video just dropped on Do-Jin’s channel!

└ Looks like this one’s a highlight reel.

└ Season 6,226,535,664 highlight has entered the chat.

His subscriber growth curve went completely vertical. The fireworks went off nonstop, and even after blowing past thirty million subscribers, the number just kept climbing like it didn’t know how to slow down. The growth was so absurdly aggressive that all this attention had even spread beyond Korea. Do-Jin’s face was starting to appear not just on the news, but in political circles as well.

“You know, these days, people keep saying Korea is reclaiming its position as a gaming powerhouse,” a reporter claimed. “The economic impact has been enormous ever since this young guy shot to global fame almost overnight, and there is no way something like this can end as a one-off phenomenon. That is exactly why we need bold, forward-looking investment, along with a properly structured Korean-style model that can sustain this momentum and turn it into long-term growth.”

That statement, of course, got torn to shreds and buried under a mountain of criticism. Not that getting cursed out ever stopped people like that from pushing projects with backroom money attached.

Either way, Do-Jin’s name and face were everywhere, every metric was flashing green, and everyone involved looked downright pleased with themselves. Seeing people with panda-dark circles under their eyes grinning like idiots wasn’t exactly a pretty sight, but it still beat watching them sink into despair.

***

“Then we will proceed with this plan, Mr. Do-Jin.”

“Yeah. Please handle it.”

Do-Jin followed Chun Ji-Hyun to the office for the first time in a while, and since he was already there, he took care of a few things he’d been putting off. He also stopped by a café with a nice terrace and grabbed a drink.

As he sucked down a sugar-loaded beverage through a straw, Do-Jin thought to himself that the world felt strangely peaceful.

And yet, something about this still feels off.

Despite a fair amount of time passing, not a single thread connected to the Cult of Ruin had surfaced, and that fact kept scratching at the back of Do-Jin’s mind. Even when he tried tracking them using future knowledge, the bastards had tucked themselves away so thoroughly that he couldn’t grab onto anything.

They are definitely not the type to behave quietly, but once they hide this thoroughly, tracking them becomes a massive pain in the ass. At this point, it might be better to stop burning time and resources on them for a while and dig into something else instead.

That thought had just crossed his mind when he overheard a voice from the table beside him.

“There is this quest in LOST that is blowing up right now,” someone said, sounding half amused and half disturbed.

The other replied, “Apparently you can gain experience by killing NPCs, which already sounds bad, but people are saying the rewards get higher if the NPC is innocent or harmless. On top of that, the post claims the experience scales even more if the NPC is young or weak, and that is why everyone is losing their minds. The backlash is insane, and the forums are basically on fire over whether the developers meant it to work that way or if the system is just completely broken.”

Do-Jin slowly lowered his drink. Something about that sounded very, very familiar.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!