The Seven-Time Hero Goes Live - Chapter 10

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Seven-Time Hero Goes Live ◈

Chapter 10: The Eighth Request (1)

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Jun-il had realized it when he smashed through the officetel wall.

This was not human strength.

It was the power of mana.

Mana flowed through this place, and Jun-il had unleashed it unconsciously.

When he fought the goblins, he became certain.

He could still use some of the strength he had possessed as a hero.

That was why he could easily kill goblins with something as insignificant as a ballpoint pen.

It wasn't the pen refill that cut the goblins. It was the mana gathered around it.

So, watching the roulette spin, Jun-il thought:

‘Won't I get an S?’

He would probably be better at killing monsters than anyone else here.

The purpose of the Awakeners was obviously to kill the monsters here.

If so, Jun-il deserved an S rating.

And there was one more reason.

‘And because I'm the protagonist...?’

When Pam sent him off to become a hero, she hadn't simply tossed him into another world empty-handed.

Heroes came with countless privileges.

A kind of protagonist buff.

Arrows fired thoughtlessly by extras would simply miss him.

An important item would appear at a crucial moment in a dungeon.

It varied somewhat by world, but because heroes were chosen beings, they generally received favorable treatment as a matter of course.

So he expected an S rating.

The highest grade.

Ting!

[F]

An F rating appeared.

“...What?”

Jun-il spoke aloud without meaning to.

[Potential: F]

==== ====

Awakened Weapon: None

Class: None

Skills Granted on Level Up: 0

Stat Increase on Level Up: 0%

Bonus Experience: 0%

==== ====

What was with these stats?

Wasn't this practically the same as not being Awakened?

“No, fuck... Me? I'm a failure?”

A seventh-run hero.

A hero of seven worlds.

Yulian?

Moon Jun-il, the Line 4 Goblin Slayer?

Only then did he notice the small guidance text beneath the roulette.

[*This roulette fairly determines each person's potential grade through a completely random process.]

“...Are you kidding me? Who decides someone's potential at random?”

Did they not know what potential meant?

It wasn't ranked by inherent ability. It was assigned randomly, “fairly.”

“Can this be raised?”

As if it understood him, another message appeared.

Ding.

[Is your potential too low? Level up more diligently! You can catch up!]

It didn't say he could raise his potential. It just told him to level up.

Well...

Potential wasn't something that could be raised in the first place.

“But...”

Jun-il studied the window that had appeared again.

==== ====

Awakened Weapon: None

Class: None

Skills Granted on Level Up: 0

Stat Increase on Level Up: 0%

Bonus Experience: 0%

==== ====

He wouldn't receive any stats or skills when he leveled up.

And his bonus experience was 0%.

“What is this?”

He couldn't understand it.

If this was a story Pam had made, it shouldn't be like this.

Shouldn't he at least have room to grow?

“Does F mean I'm supposed to die?”

Wasn't this completely different from everything he had experienced until now?

Had she changed her style when switching to modern fantasy?

‘Why don't I have a protagonist buff?’

Jun-il, who had always lived as the protagonist whenever he went to another world, couldn't hide his disbelief.

The Constellations reacted even more strongly.

-Wow, he got F?

-Ah, fuck this. So frustrating. I'm out.

-Why the fuck is it F? Isn't this a bug? LOL.

-Was he F-grade trash? He really was an extra after all... I had hopes for him, too.

-I'm leaving.

-F is too much.

One by one, they seemed to stop watching Jun-il and go elsewhere, talking about dropping the story.

‘Well... They're always like this.’

He had experienced it often.

Even when he acted as Yulian, there were those who caused a scene whenever something went wrong.

Since he had received an F from the start, there was no way impatient people would stick around.

‘Do I even have any reason to impress them now?’

Jun-il wasn't particularly disappointed.

Pam had betrayed him by releasing monsters into the world where he lived. There was no reason for him to curry favor with the Constellations.

But Jun-il was mistaken.

Poof!

White smoke rose, and time suddenly stopped.

“L-Lord Yulian!”

With that urgent cry, a fairy was summoned.

The moment Jun-il spotted the fairy, he shouted.

“Hey! Pam! What the hell are you doing, you bitch... Huh?”

Then Jun-il tilted his head.

Pam had become far too chubby.

That couldn't be right.

Pam might be small, but she was a slim fairy like classic Disney's Tinker Bell.

She wasn't supposed to look like a flying dumpling.

Had she changed to a modern Disney style because this was modern fantasy?

“Pam... What is this? Did you get patched or something?”

“No! I'm Ham, ’kay?”

“Ham?”

It was another fairy.

“Yes, I came to deliver a message from Lady Pam.”

“Where's Pam?”

“Ah... W-well...”

Ham hesitated for a moment, then whispered.

“She went to prison.”

“...?!”

Honestly, Jun-il found that a little funny.

But he couldn't laugh comfortably.

Why?

‘Then who caused this mess?’

If Pam was in prison, who had turned the world into this?

“Um... To explain the situation, this is what happened.”

What Ham told him afterward was extremely shocking.

* * *

A few days earlier, at Fairy Corporation.

Pam had finally bought modern fantasy.

She had been about to send Yulian there.

“How... did this happen?”

[This dimension belongs to another Story Fairy.]

But someone had already bought that dimension.

It made no sense.

This was Yulian's home dimension.

“Here?”

Someone bought this place?

Impossible.

This dimension was a Blue Zone.

“This is a place where we're supposed to sell stories!”

A Blue Zone was a dimension with enormous story consumption. It was far more profitable to leave it as a consumer market than to use it as a setting for stories.

The largest population, the busiest lives, minds most barren amid abundance...

A perfect place to sell stories.

That was a Blue Zone.

Only two kinds of intervention were permitted in a Blue Zone.

Hero transfers.

Fairy business trips.

Nothing else could be purchased without headquarters' approval.

Pam was the only one who had received that approval, thanks to seven consecutive hits.

Something was wrong.

“Wh-what's wrong, Lady Pam?”

Ham asked with worried eyes.

Until just moments ago, Pam had acted as though she owned the world. Now her eyes were filled with panic.

“It was sold.”

“Pardon?”

“It was sold! Yulian's dimension was sold! How could this happen?! I'm going to see Cap right now!”

Bang!

Pam beat her wings and burst out of her office.

* * *

“Branch Manager!”

Bang!

Pam barged into the branch manager's office without knocking.

She didn't have the peace of mind for that.

“Something unbelievable has happened without headquarters' approval...”

Pam stopped mid-sentence and stared blankly at them.

Cap, Ram, and a tall blonde woman who looked like an elf, rather than a short, round Story Fairy.

Opal-colored light scattered from her wings and glittered around her.

‘Headquarters...?’

They were fairies who worked at headquarters.

Those who had shed the restraints of all stories and regained their true forms from the World Tree.

Fairies called them Seraphim.

“Oh my. You must be Pam?”

The Seraphim seemed pleased to recognize Pam.

“You did something unusual.”

Why did her brightly smiling face look so terrifying?

Pam swallowed dryly.

“Ahem.”

Cap cleared their throat and stepped in.

“Pam. I know why you came. It's because Yulian's dimension was sold, correct?”

“Yes...”

“Well, as you can see, headquarters approved it. More than approved it... she came here personally.”

Cap pointed at the Seraphim.

Pam shrank back slightly, but still asked firmly.

“What happened? Why did you suddenly remove its Blue Zone designation and sell it? It's nearly in the top ten among our consumer dimensions...”

“Hmm. No, no.”

“Pardon?”

The Seraphim cut her off.

“That isn't the issue, Pam.”

“...Then what is?”

“This is an emergency.”

“...An emergency?”

“The Constellations became interested in that place. Who do you suppose caused that?”

“...!”

Was that even possible?

Could Constellations become interested in a dimension that no fairy had opened up?

“Hm? Surprised? I made the same face, Pam.”

The Seraphim grinned and approached.

“What kind of crazy bitch sends the same hero not once, not twice, not three times, but seven times?!”

Fwoosh!

The Seraphim's wings turned red, and her hair rose as though it were burning.

The corners of her eyes shot upward like a demon's.

“!”

Pam's knees went weak, and she trembled.

“You did it seven whole times! How could the Constellations not become interested?!”

After that, the Seraphim poured out every curse imaginable.

“...! ...!! ...!”

Pam was overwhelmed by terror so intense that she thought she might lose her mind.

Ssssss...

Steam rose from the Seraphim's body, and her wistful, innocent-looking face returned.

“Haah. I got a little excited for the first time in a while. Anyway, Pam? I need to deal with that hero. But you know how troublesome it is when the Constellations take even a little interest in someone.”

Pam knew all too well.

The source of the protagonist buff was the Constellations' interest.

Even a tiny amount of it made intervention by Story Fairies extremely difficult.

“But we found a very beautiful solution.”

Tap, tap.

The Seraphim held up a disc.

[Storyboard 3.0 ver.]

It was a Version 3.0 disc boasting the latest Storyboard system.

“With Storyboard 3.0, we bought Yulian's dimension.”

“!”

So they were the culprits.

That was why she couldn't send Yulian there.

“And we downloaded Ram's story into that dimension.”

“Ram's? All of a sudden?”

“Oh my. What do you mean, all of a sudden?”

The Seraphim stroked Ram's head beside her.

“Ram was the top contributor to stopping this incident. What would we have done if Ram hadn't reported you to headquarters in advance?”

“Kiiiriri~!”

Ram stuck out their tongue and stretched both cheeks, as if teasing her.

‘That fucking...’

Ram had reported her, too?

Pam wanted to curse, but barely held it in.

She didn't want to see the fiery Seraphim again.

“So from now on, Ram will oversee that dimension. Headquarters approved it. Ah, and of course, in Ram's story, Yulian is only Extra No. 1, so... he'll be ‘dealt with’ soon, right?”

Pam was startled at the mention of Yulian.

“Are you really planning to kill Yulian? The Constellations are all watching!”

“He's only Extra No. 1, isn't he? The Constellations will focus on the main story and protagonist, gradually losing interest in him. And when that interest reaches zero...?”

The Seraphim drew a finger across her throat.

“Khk.”

“Kah!”

Beside the Seraphim, Ram copied her.

“Kiiiriririri~! More importantly, Pam, is this the time to worry about Yulian?”

“What?”

“You'll soon receive a ‘writing ban.’ Did you know that?”

“!”

The ultimate punishment for a Story Fairy.

A writing ban.

“Lock her in the Root Prison until the trial begins.”

“Yes!”

At the Seraphim's command, countless guard fairies rushed in and bound Pam.

She was imprisoned in an instant.

* * *

“Dun-dun...!”

Ham even made a drum sound with their mouth as they finished the story.

“And that is what happened.”

“What a tragic story.”

“Put some feeling into it!”

Ignoring Ham, Jun-il asked another question.

“So this is Ram's work, then?”

Ding.

As he displayed his potential above his head.

[F]

Awakeners who received ratings like this could display their grade above their heads.

It was practically the only skill allowed to an F-grade Awakener.

“Pff... Pfft! Yes!”

Ham nodded while struggling to hold back laughter.

“Why are you laughing? Is F funny? I got an F because of you people! Ram rigged the odds so all the Constellations would leave.”

“Oh?”

Ham nodded, apparently impressed by Jun-il's analysis.

“An amazing deduction, Lord Yulian! Ram really did it!”

Jun-il felt awkward at Ham's praise.

“Well... I've only been a hero for thirty years...”

“Just as you said, Ram will create all kinds of obstacles to make the Constellations lose interest. Don't expect good luck. There is no protagonist buff anymore.”

That was right.

The moment the Constellations' interest faded, Jun-il would disappear without a trace.

‘Because I'm an extra.’

No one might even notice the death of an extra.

“The good news is that Lord Yulian has already become the Line 4 Goblin Slayer, so more Constellations are interested than expected. You're amazing!”

“Ah, that? It's nothing... Anyone would do it.”

Jun-il awkwardly scratched his head again.

He was surprisingly weak to praise.

Seeing an opening, Ham got to the point.

“But just receiving interest is dangerous.”

“What...? Why?”

“You saw it, didn't you? They can apply strange bad luck, and the Constellations go, ‘Ugh! So frustrating!’ and run away. You need more, more Constellations!”

It meant that, just as he had been slapped with an F rating regardless of his real potential, anything that depended on luck would go badly from now on.

‘Damn it.’

The Constellations might come to dislike him no matter how much he accomplished.

“Then how many do I need to be safe?”

“If you gather more Constellations than the protagonist, you'll be safe! Then control of this story will come to Lord Yulian!”

“More Constellations than the protagonist? Is that even possible?”

The protagonist was the protagonist by definition.

The one this world favored.

The Constellations would be the same.

“That is why Lady Pam said that offense is the best defense.”

“Hm? What do you mean all of a sudden?”

“So, Hero Yulian, this is a request...”

A request, all of a sudden?