Emperor of Solo Play

 ­ Bulkas Mountain Range (1)

[You have leveled up.]

[You have obtained the title, ‘Giant Bear Killer’.]

[You have obtained the title, ‘Bear-hunting Skeleton.]

[Skeleton Fragment skill rank rose to C.]

[Slow Curse skill rank rose to E.]

[You have obtained the title, ‘Beginner Curse Magician’.]

The consecutive alert sounds were as beautiful as Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Hearing the alert sounds, Hyrkan nodded as if he was listening to music. He did a light shoulder dance, and as if that wasn’t enough, he snapped his fingers thrice as well.

Then, the four Skeleton Warriors standing in front of corpses of two Giant Bears began to dance. This time, it was Los del Rio’s Macarena, a hit from the 1990s. The scene of the four dancing skeletons was memorable to say the least. The combination of three largely built skeletons and a tiny goblin skeleton was quite cute in a way.

Of course, the scene of a man dancing in a lion suit wasn’t so cute.

‘That’s one big problem down.’

If anyone was watching the battle Hyrkan just had, he would be unable to say Hyrkan was funny, disgusting, weird, or ugly.

Hyrkan; He had fought against two Giant Bears at the same time, when hunting only one usually took a 5-man party.

While the Golem and Skeleton Warriors fought the Giant Bear, he kept the aggro of the other Giant Bear. All the meanwhile, he watched over their fight and continuously snapped his fingers and manipulated the Skeleton Warriors’ movements.

It was a battle that surpassed the level of being impressive to being monstrous. It wasn’t possible with just excellent individual battle skills. It also needed excellent situational judgement, tuning, and commanding ability.

In other words, it was a difficult fight.

In reality, not only did Hyrkan lose most of his magic power in the process, but he also lost two of his Skeleton Warriors. Considering that he didn’t lose any of his Skeleton Warriors when fighting against just one Giant Bear, it showed the difficulty of the fight.

If Hyrkan’s aim was an efficient fight, he wouldn’t have fought against two so stupidly. He would have lured just one of them or avoided the fight altogether.

There was a reason he went through such a difficulty.

‘I hope Romany Film can make a hit this time as well.’

He was in need of a new video to follow his Golden Skeleton video.

‘With this video, I’ll make a definite profit.’

Hyrkan’s popularity had gone up much higher by now, and his YouTube page had surpassed 80,000 subscribers. Just the Skull Clown video had 700,000 views, the Golden Skeleton video 400,000 views, and his introduction video 500,000 views. Other than that, all his other videos had at least 100,000 views. Both his donation amount and views were higher than what someone of his subscriber count should get.

Hyrkan was now at a level where he could earn an acceptable salary depending on the quality of his videos.

From now on, making videos could officially be considered his job. If up to now, he had been handing out his business card for free, it was now time to reap the harvest from his subscribers and viewers.

Not to mention, he was now able to make videos on a completely different level than before.

Because he had the Golem.

Even so, just using the Golem to easily hunt monsters was stupid. It was something any necromancer could do. Something like that wasn’t worth paying for.

For that reason, Hyrkan did something no one else could do – hunting two Giant Bears alone.

At the same time, it was a form of training.

‘I’m going to have to train my ability to fight against many servant monsters before fighting the boss monster.’

Hunting a single strong monster was no longer a difficult thing to accomplish for Hyrkan.

However, it was still tough when he was fighting multiple monsters. It was also an ability Hyrkan needed to have if he really wanted to become the best in Warlord. This was easy to see. Even in this time’s Corrupt Count raid, the problem was not fighting the Corrupt Count, but reducing the losses as much as possible while fighting against the boss’s servant monsters.

Hyrkan had no plans of becoming the strongest with just what he had now.

He knew that with what he currently had, he wouldn’t be able to keep himself safe, much less aim to be the strongest.

He needed more.

He needed to completely surpass the ability of the Hero Slaughterer Hyrkan.

Only in that way…

[The quest, ‘Searching for Migi’, ends.]

“Oh! The Red Bulls did it!”

Would he be able to make the upcoming new era into his own.

★★★

[You obtained the title, ‘Destroyer of Corruption.’]

[You obtained the title, ‘Hero of the Hiban Kingdom.’]

[You obtained the title, ‘Corrupt Count Slayer.’]

[You obtained the title, ‘Corrupt Count First Kill.’]

The simultaneous ringing of alerts. It was a sound that would normally bring joy to Warlord players, but the Red Bulls’s guild master, Chev, couldn’t bring himself to smile.

With a stiff expression, he stared at a young lady standing in the distance.

A short-haired beauty wearing heavy armor engraved with the Red Bulls’s logo.

Storm Queen Shir.

Although her left arm was missing and several parts of her armor crushed, no man would be able to doubt her beauty.

It was the same for Chev. Setting aside any attraction as member of the opposite gender, seeing her always made him think ‘a beauty was a beauty!’ There was a reason that it was in past tense. The Shir in front of him now was not a beauty, but a being that would make any monster or demon cower in fear.

‘Amazing. Scarily amazing.’

Although the Corrupt Count raid had been tense, in a way, it progressed quite calmly.

The Red Bulls and Stormhunters alliance didn’t make the same mistake the Hydra Guild did. After watching the Hydra Guild’s raid video, they practiced day in and day out until they almost fainted. They didn’t spare any money on items either. Whether it be equipment, buff potions, or consumable potions, they prepared them in mass. They spent what was normally too expensive to use in other raids like they were drinking water. It was like using 100 dollar bills to feed a campfire.

Thanks to that, however, they still only managed a 6-1 score against the Corrupt Count’s seven servants. Although one team lost, they were able to prevent the team from being completely wiped out.

The battle that followed was just as amazing. They didn’t spare their ace cards either.

Matador Chev!

Warlord’s Rank 9 player fought on the front line with the help of Storm Queen Shir. Even other than them, some of the most skilled Warlord players fought on the front lines.

The problem was when the Corrupt Count’s HP turned to 0.

When they thought it was all over, a fiery black pillar bursted out from the Corrupt Count’s body.

It was the start of a new phase.

The pillar became a human-sized fire bomb, and scattered in all direction. The scattered fire mercilessly devoured the players it hit, and magicians with low HP were killed in just a single attack. Unable to have predicted such a situation, the priests were slow to heal or to cast shields. Their losses were big.

Meanwhile, the Corrupted Count had been revived and he began to run away furiously.

Watching the scene, Chev could only sigh. He never would have thought the Corrupt Count would have such a phase.

However, Shir was different. She ran. Dodging hundreds of black fire bombs, even losing her left arm in the process and falling down, she got back up and charged towards the Corrupt Count. In the end, she pierced through the Corrupt Count’s body with her sword.

When everyone else was busy celebrating a false victory, she had remained collected.

‘I can see where her arrogance comes from.’

Chev had no choice but to recognize her ability.

She wasn’t just a celebrity born as a conglomerate’s successor and peerless beauty. She was a skilled player worthy of her title as a Ranker.

It wasn’t just Chev. Everyone present was surprised at Shir. They acknowledged her arrogance to be justified dignity.

All except one.

‘Tsk.’

Only Shir did not acknowledge herself.

In reality, the last fight was nothing more than an all or nothing gamble.

It was by luck that it was the former.

‘It’s still not enough.’

It was still impressive nonetheless.

However, achieving victory in such a close fight wasn’t what she wanted.

‘If we didn’t join hands with the Red Bulls, we would have failed as well.’

An overwhelming battle force and battle strength. A one-sided destruction created by the best players wearing the best items!

That was what Shir wanted.

‘Tsk.’

In that sense, the Corrupt Count raid was a failure. There were still many things her guild was lacking. If she didn’t borrow someone else’s hand, she wouldn’t have been able to achieve victory.

‘More.’

For that reason…

‘I need more skilled players.’

She was now burning with more desire and longing than ever.

★★★

On March 16th, the Corrupt Count died.

It marked the end of Warlord’s first main scenario quest, which had continued for over a year.

The Corrupt Count’s death affected the entirety of Warlord.

First, all the quests related to the Corrupt Count ended. Because of this, many players expressed frustration, especially those who had their quests ended in the process.

At the same time, it caused many others to burn in passion.

-The new main scenario quest is starting soon, right? I’m going to properly participate in this one.

-It’s the start of a new era.

-Warlord’s going to change significantly.

Although players had no time to prepare for the first era, everyone had somewhat readied themselves for the second era.

The new era had already started. Few players had already achieved great success through the changed attitudes of NPCs and newly discovered areas.

In the middle of it all, a shocking news was revealed.

It was that the Red Bulls Guild and the Stormhunter Guild had joined hands to beat the Corrupt Count raid.

It was truly newsworthy incident.

– Really? The Stormhunter Guild really joined hands with the Red Bulls Guild?

– Then why didn’t they announce it before the raid? Aren’t they losing out?

– They’re splitting the profits, so they’re not really losing out on anything. In fact, didn’t they gain more since they were 3rd in order?

– Please. Without the Stormhunter Guild, the Red Bulls Guild would have failed. Then, the Stormhunter Guild would have surely taken it.

– Fuck. If I knew it was like this, I would have purchased a live ticket. When is the paid video coming out?

Although it was common for guilds to collaborate, no one had expected the competing Red Bulls and Stormhunter Guild to join hands before such a big raid. In fact, their alliance wasn’t revealed until after the raid.

It was, of course, what they aimed for since the start.

They had made a contract. The Stormhunter Guild would hide their identity and join the raid. When they revealed this matter, many more people would buy the paid video, and the Stormhunter Guild would take most of the profit from it. In exchange, the Red Bulls would take most of the profit form the live ticket revenue.

It was an unprecedented incident, something no one had expected.

Because of this fact, this incident…

“Waaa!”

Made a huge impact on a certain man.

“Uwaaaaa!”

An Jaehyun. He was currently rolling on the ground holding his stomach.

“Uwwwoooo!”

As he fiercely rolled on the ground, he seemed like he was about to cry. To him, this news was equivalent to seeing a cousin one hated suddenly strike it rich because the land he bought on a whim went into redevelopment.

‘Shit, fuck, shit!’

That was how much of a pain An Jaehyun was currently in.

‘Just why?’

An Jaehyun never expected the Red Bulls Guild to join hands with the Stormhunter Guild. He thought only the Red Bulls Guild would be participating in this raid.

‘Choi Sulyeon. Why would miss ‘I’m the best in the whole world’ do such a thing? She even hid her identity and wore the Red Bulls logo!’

An Jaehyun knew Choi Sulyeon’s temperament better than anyone else. She was the type who believed no one could do what she failed to do, and crushed whoever went against that rule. Naturally, there was no such thing as a negotiation, cooperation, or co-existence in her mind.

One had to either kneel down to her or die.

Choi Sulyeon always forced the same two choices to her enemies. One who won’t kneel would only receive merciless punishment.

Not to mention, the Red Bulls Guild was a fierce competitor of the Stormhunter Guild. It would have been more right to pray for the Red Bulls to fail. But joining hands? That was not something that should have happened.

Of course, the cause of it all was An Jaehyun. The information he leaked caused a butterfly effect, ending with the two of them joining hands.

‘To think I’d help Choi Sulyeon this way. Come to think of it, didn’t I help her at the Peach Store last time? Am I crazy?’

It was true An Jaehyun did so knowing someone else would benefit, but he didn’t think that someone would be Choi Sulyeon. He didn’t think the Stormhunters would succeed, even if they were 3rd in order.

“Haa!”

An Jaehyun threw himself on the floor and let out a heavy sigh. Although he was still sick to his stomach, he didn’t keep complaining.

‘The Corrupt Count’s dead. That’s it.’

A new era had already begun.

‘Although everyone’s different in skill, we’re on the same starting line for the Immoral Prince.’

Everyone was on the same starting line.

An Jaehyun now had the chance to obtain several valuable titles.

‘With my current level, there’s a limit to my reach.’

Factoring in An Jaehyun’s level, there was only one place at the moment where An Jaehyun could obtain an Immoral Prince-related quest title.

“It’s time to go meet the rangers.”

Rangers protecting the Bulkas Mountain Range.

It was time to go meet them.