Even Today, the Ranker Dreams of Retirement

“Well then, take care everyone! I’ll come back to enjoy another staycation!”

Habin, having finally tidied up her affairs with the demon realm, bid farewell with a cheerful face.

Though by “affairs,” she really just meant entrusting everything to Kriksha and Ipsine.

“Demon God-nim, if you could stay just one more day……”

“Nope, can’t do it! I need to get home quickly. Do you know how many dramas I have piled up? Plus, there’s a free movie event tomorrow.”

[There’s also the KakaoPage app attendance event!]

“It would be foolish not to take advantage of that!”

“I see, so you’re busy with work in other places as well!”

Ipsine nodded with an impressed expression. On the other hand, Chae Jiseok, who understood everything, wore a guilty expression.

‘That’s not work… It’s just plans to have fun…..’

Anyway, what’s good is good. There’s no need to unnecessarily destroy the innocent minds of these seemingly naive demons.

Habin, having finished her greetings, stretched out her hand.

With a crackle, an error appeared in mid-air. Before entering the interdimensional space, Habin drove home her point.

“I’m counting on you two! Take care of things here!”

While these words sounded kind and trusting, they really meant, “You guys handle it yourselves!”

‘It does bother me a bit to leave all the troublesome work to them, but…’

Habin shrugged her shoulders as she looked at Kriksha’s dejected expression and Ipsine waving her hand enthusiastically.

‘Still, I’m going home!’

Wait for me, fantastic country of South Korea, where delivery food is abundant and Wi-Fi is blazing fast!

A heavenly life where I can enjoy myself without worrying about anything, as long as it’s not the training institute!

‘I’m going home!’

Let’s just drop by the demon realm occasionally to enjoy a staycation.

‘Originally, you shouldn’t do staycations for too long. It’s more enjoyable when you come occasionally. It’s like a fresh experience of briefly leaving home and receiving amenities and accommodation, right? In the end, home is the best!’

◆◇◆◇◆

“……So, where did Jise-unni go?”

Solaris Kill Screen branch.

After escaping from Kill Screen, Habin frowned as she sat in the first-floor cafe they had visited before.

She took a sip of her iced Americano with an impatient expression.

Sitting across from her, Jiseok was stirring the local specialty menu item, ‘Kill Screen Parfait’, while checking documents on his tablet.

Habin exclaimed:

“I thought I’d be able to meet Jise-unni as soon as we left Kill Screen!”

Her voice was full of disappointment.

Jiseok quietly replied from across the table.

“Nuna can’t come right away. Since Kill Screen has been conquered, she needs to attend a wrap-up meeting with other hunters, including Fides-nim, and hold a press conference about the conquest. She’s asking if you can wait just one day?”

“What? Why won’t everyone let our unni go! Why don’t we just kidnap her and get her out of there!”

“Then the whole world would be turned upside down saying ‘The leader of Solaris has been kidnapped’, you know?”

“Tch.”

Habin checked her KakaoTalk with a disgruntled expression. She had already received a message from Chae Jise.

Jise-unni

Habin-ah! I’m sorry!!!! Please wait just a little bit!!! I’ll finish up work here really quickly and come!!!

I’ll take you to a strawberry buffet as soon as I get out, so please wait just a little bit!!!!!!

“……Hmm. I can feel her sincerity from all these exclamation marks at the end of each sentence. If our unni says so, I guess I have no choice.”

Habin shrugged her shoulders with a resigned expression.

“Plus, she’s going to take me to a strawberry buffet as soon as she gets out. That’s my unni for you! She didn’t forget my promise?”

Habin nodded with a satisfied face, her mood considerably improved.

“Of course, I can understand all of this. I’m originally a very understanding person.”

“What about the kidnapping plan you were just making?”

“Ahem.”

[Tell her it’s okay to come out slowly. There are many novels piled up… Oh ho, this author has made a comeback! There are even more episodes to read!]

Ahezar, who was excited, occupied the remaining seat at the cafe table and was intently looking at the phone screen. Seeing this, Habin opened her mouth.

“The good thing about this place is that the Wi-Fi works well. There’s no difference in speed compared to when we’re in Korea.”

In response to Habin’s admiration, Jiseok added:

“Well, a lot of Koreans visit this place. They’d feel inconvenienced if the Wi-Fi was slow. So we paid extra attention to that.”

“Good. I absolutely cannot tolerate slow Wi-Fi.”

Habin nodded and resumed playing the drama on her tablet.

“Ah, I can’t tell you how much I missed this modern communication network! Next time I meet Jise-unni, I should ask her about researching ways to get Wi-Fi working inside dungeons!”

Getting data and Wi-Fi to work in dungeons.

That had always been on Habin’s wish list. Jiseok replied:

“Come on, even if it’s nuna, how could Wi-Fi work inside a dungeon……”

As he was answering with a smile, he suddenly paused as if something had occurred to him.

‘Huh? Somehow, if it’s nuna, she might actually be able to do it?’

[The constellation ‘Nearest Light’ whispers secretly that it might be possible!]

‘L-let’s just stay quiet for now.’

He had an ominous feeling that if he told her, something on an enormous scale might happen.

His premonitions, as someone with precognitive abilities, were rarely wrong. Jiseok hurriedly flipped through the documents on his tablet without answering.

“What’s wrong? Why did you stop mid-sentence?”

“I have a backlog of documents.”

Chae Jiseok quickly found an excuse to change the subject. He pointed at Habin’s left hand and asked:

“Oh, right. By the way, that ring……”

“Shh!”

She hastily put her finger to her lips and looked around. After all, they were in an ordinary cafe.

‘There are many eyes and ears here!’

Habin glared at the ‘Demon God’s Ring’ on her left hand. It was already an inconspicuous design that wouldn’t catch the eye, but…

‘Let’s hide it completely so it can’t be seen.’

Just in case someone might become suspicious.

As Habin used , the ring smoothly disappeared from sight as if it had never been there.

“And this is just a junk item, so don’t worry about it.”

“Junk item……?”

Did she just call the 50th floor conquest item a junk item? For now, since Hyun Habin’s expression didn’t look good, Jiseok decided to ask about the details later.

Also because this was a public place.

Chae Jiseok opened his mouth.

“So what are you planning to do for the next two days? Should we return to Korea first before nuna arrives?”

“What? What are you talking about!”

Habin immediately objected.

“This is my first overseas trip in ages, and you want to go straight back to Korea? From what I can see, there’s a resort and swimming pool, and the surrounding area is full of night markets and tourist attractions! Plus, since we’re abroad, we need to stop by the duty-free shop! Only a fool would come to a foreign country and not visit a duty-free shop!”

Jiseok tilted his head.

“Duty-free shop? Do we really have to go to a duty-free shop? Is there something specific you want to buy there?”

“Huh? Do you only go shopping when you have something to buy? Even if there’s nothing to buy, you have to at least look around a duty-free shop! For a commoner like me, how precious is the opportunity to not pay taxes!”

A golden opportunity to legally avoid taxes!

[Last time we came, you just went straight home, didn’t you?]

“Back then, I didn’t know there was a place in Kill Screen with blazing fast Wi-Fi like the Solaris branch! If I had known, I would’ve watched dramas here. Oh, right. I didn’t have this guidebook either!”

Habin was engrossed in reading , which she had obtained from somewhere.

“Now, the sun will set soon. We need to watch the pink sunset at the Kill Screen Sunset Cafe over there!”

She pointed at a photo in the guidebook. Below it was a description introducing the Sunset Cafe.

‘The combination of the rainbow-colored Kill Screen, the beautiful sunset, and the sea creates a truly magnificent scenery!’

“It’s a famous spot for star-studded photos.”

“When did you look that up?”

“Well, that’s not all, Chae-ssi. Look at this too.”

Habin turned to the next page with a serious expression.

A photo showing yellow lights strung up against a night backdrop and food trucks gathered together came into view.

“After the sun sets completely, we need to go to the night market. I saw it on programs like ‘Running Man’ and ‘Chun Jong-won’s Food Stream’. They say there are lots of unique and delicious foods there? Having come this far, we absolutely can’t miss out on good restaurants!”

“When on earth did you find all this……”

“Plus, since this is a night market where hunters gather, there are supposed to be many interesting items. I want to check it out.”

Whoosh. After finishing her words, Habin opened yet another section. The last page featured a photo of the very place they were in now,

The Solaris Kill Screen branch.

“Tomorrow morning, we’ll eat breakfast here. Look, it says the breakfast at the Solaris Kill Screen branch is incredibly delicious. After eating that, we’ll head to the duty-free shop.”

“This is like a package tour level of planning?”

“That’s right. I need a vacation and rest!”

Habin tapped on her phone. Hyun Siwoo’s annoying photo with the Eiffel Tower in Paris was still set as the profile picture.

Habin shouted:

“Does Hyun Siwoo think he’s the only one who can travel? I can travel too! All this time, I couldn’t even dream of traveling and just worked hard. Actually, as soon as the training institute life was over, I was thinking of packing my bags and going on a world tour right away!”

“I don’t know who Hyun Siwoo is, but it’s clear that he’s going to get an earful from you when he returns from his trip.”

Jiseok replied like that and tilted his head.

……Wait. Hyun Siwoo?

That name sounds familiar.

‘Ah.’

He was Hyun Habin’s family member. Her older brother, wasn’t he?

It was a person he hadn’t investigated deeply, thinking it might be private. Besides, there wasn’t much information available even if he did investigate.

He had received reports that he was just an ordinary hunter.

Chae Jiseok added his own speculation.

‘If he’s family with Hyun Habin, do they have similar personalities?’

Another person like Hyun Habin?

‘I can’t even imagine.’

Just as Chae Jiseok was shaking his head, it happened.

-This just in. According to information obtained about the recently conquered 50th floor of Kill Screen, while there were multiple participants, the decisive contribution to the 50th floor conquest was made by Fides, according to insider testimony.

At some point, Habin had turned on the breaking news on her tablet. Chae Jiseok turned his head.

“Huh?”

The key figure who conquered the 50th floor was Fides?

When they were on the 50th floor, Chae Jise had overheard Fides’ statement, but at the time, Chae Jiseok had been too focused on Hyun Habin’s situation to properly hear Fides’ claim of “I conquered the 50th floor”. He belatedly wore a puzzled expression.

‘Hyun Habin was the one who conquered it, so why is it being reported that Fides-nim did it?’

“Huh.”

As if she had noticed the same thing, Hyun Habin poked the screen.

“The masked magician didn’t do anything though?”

A puzzled voice.

A statement blurted out, forgetting they were in a cafe.

“……That’s true.”

Chae Jiseok hurriedly used a soundproofing item. While this wouldn’t cover everything, it would serve as a temporary measure.

Habin crossed her legs and opened her mouth.

“Oh, so he’s completely stolen someone else’s achievement, is that it?”

[My, how disappointing! I didn’t think he was like that! I liked him because his past actions were so heroic, but to think he was such a despicable person who steals others’ achievements!]

“See, I told you, Kim Jaljal! I said this guy was secretly fishy, didn’t I?”