WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Seven-Time Hero Goes Live ◈
Chapter 22: Pam's Gift (1)
──────
Jun-il had previously heard from Pam what could happen when the Constellations noticed outside interference in a story.
It could become serious enough for the story to be shut down and restarted.
And he had never heard whether the Hero inside would be shut down along with it.
That was why Jun-il was so tense.
Maybe this was the second most nervous he had been since all this began.
The first was when he watched footage of a plane flying toward his apartment.
But that tension quickly became pointless.
-Big Spender's here, damn.
-Nice.
-The Big Spender's saving Jun-ilㅠㅠ
-Thank you!
-(Big Spender worship emote)
“Huh?”
A hollow breath escaped Jun-il.
‘A Big Spender?’
Storyboard 3.0 allowed Constellations to make additional payments and offer something like donations.
They could even affect the character they supported in real time.
Of course, Jun-il had never experienced Version 3.0, so he had never imagined anything like this.
-@$&*# is here??
-Mom! When I grow up, I want to be #**@(! Mom! When I grow up, I want to be #**@(! Mom! When I grow up, I want to be #**@(!
-As expected of @$(@
The Big Spender's name? Or ID?
It was censored.
Knowing a Constellation's true name was far too dangerous.
Jun-il stared blankly at the chat for a moment.
-Did this guy get shocked? lol
-Doesn't he know what it is?
-Come to think of it, Jun-il must've been totally shocked.
-How's he gonna react???
The Constellations were worried.
They did not know how Jun-il would take this.
Just as Jun-il had worried about how the Constellations would take things earlier, now they were worried about him instead.
‘What do I do?’
Jun-il first bought himself some time by putting on a startled expression.
‘This is my first time having to react in real time too. Damn it.’
He thought it over.
That Hidden Quest notification he had received.
Had some Big Spender set a mission or something?
No.
If it had been a mission, the Constellations would already know.
They had no idea.
The Constellation presumed to be the Big Spender said this.
-I was moved after seeing him save those kids, so I'm throwing in a little support before I go^^
They had donated after watching what happened.
‘Then why did the Hidden Quest appear...?’
It was as if the quest had appeared because it knew the Big Spender would donate.
Wasn't that causality backward?
Jun-il's head started to hurt.
‘But something like this happened before.’
There had been another time when cause and effect had reversed.
Suddenly, she came to mind.
The mage who liked to wear red, sitting on a rock with golden autumn fields at her back.
“Magic that twists causality?”
He had once asked her how the order of cause and effect could change.
“Wishes.”
She had answered simply.
“I heard that an intense, pure wish can twist causality. They said it's one kind of ancient magic.”
Then had that Hidden Quest from earlier actually been the wish of the Constellation called a Big Spender?
An intense wish.
It had been delivered to Jun-il in advance.
‘They couldn't have felt that strongly about an Extra... Could this be something they originally wanted to do for Kang Hae-il?’
It seemed he had intercepted a reward meant for Kang Hae-il.
‘That insane Protagonist Buff.’
In other words, if Kang Hae-il had saved those children, he would have power-leveled with this experience reward despite already being S-rank.
Or perhaps he would have received something else, since he already had enough experience.
-Why's he just standing there?
-Lagging again?
-He's shocked.
-Lol, it came out of nowhere.
‘Anyway, I need to handle this.’
Jun-il had suddenly leveled up. He could not pretend he had not noticed.
He had to react somehow.
How could he make it seem natural?
He absolutely could not let them find out that he knew of the Constellations' existence.
If they did, everything would fall apart.
He needed to keep it as indirect as possible.
‘Yeah...’
Having made up his mind, he opened his mouth.
“H-hidden reward?”
Gulp.
A tense moment passed.
-?
-Oh.
-He figured it out.
-Hidden? lol Looks like it says it's a Hidden Quest reward lol
-Ohhh.
The Constellations' reactions were not bad.
It worked.
“What is this? There was some kind of Hidden Quest? This is crazy...”
Jun-il played it up even more.
-He was probably shocked his level went up lol
-You hit the jackpot, you punk.
-Lol, what a surprise.
-His level went all the way up to 9, so yeah.
The Constellations completely accepted it.
‘Whew.’
Jun-il sighed inwardly.
‘This means I can get away with it even if another Hidden Quest appears.’
From now on, if he saw a Hidden Quest, he had to clear it no matter what...
‘Huh.’
His consciousness cut out, and his eyes slowly closed.
-?
-...?
-He's sleeping?
-Going back to sleep?
-Does this bastard think it's a dream again??? lol
-Does he have narcolepsy or something?
The Constellations were dumbfounded, but there was nothing they could do.
-Sigh. He'll be back in a few hours.
-Right when we were catching momentumㅠㅠ
-I came because I heard donations were exploding lol, and he's sleeping lol.
Most of the Constellations left the instant Jun-il's eyes closed.
[Current Constellations Watching: 29]
The number of Constellations, which had passed two hundred, fell to twenty-nine.
-Sleep stream time~
-Is it time for the real ones? Heh heh heh.
-Tier Zero, wake up!
-Let's see your back, Jun-il. Heh heh.
-Fucking freaks lol.
Only the Constellations doing strange roleplay remained as several hours passed.
-? What is this place? Is this stream weird?
-This is creepy as hell. What is this?
-Is this guy really L4GS??
-?? Why are there so many newcomers?
-Yes, he's L4GS!ㅠㅠ It's just that only weird people are here right now!
-L4GS is the weird one, though.
More and more Constellations began to arrive.
-No! Our time alone...!
-I can't lose my little-known Jun-ilㅠㅠ Get out!
-What's with all these newcomers?
The small group of sleep-stream enthusiasts did not like it.
Regardless, Constellations kept pouring in.
Even though some left again after seeing him asleep, their numbers continued rising.
[Current Constellations Watching: 169]
It passed one hundred and fifty.
[Current Constellations Watching: 298]
It nearly reached three hundred.
-Is this the guy from the article?
-Yep, that's L4GS~
-Is this the Hero? Oh... Why did he wear a mask? He's pretty good-looking.
-I didn't recognize him once he took off the mask.
-Our L4GS isn't world-famous. Please leave~
-Yeah, he looks pretty generic.
-He looks exactly like an Extra.
It was because Do Ju-hye's article had been published.
[The Return of the Line 4 Hero? This Time, He Rescues Trapped Children]
* * *
Bang!
Ram slammed a hand down on the desk.
“What is this!? Why... Why isn't there a single article about Kang Hae-il...?”
Bang!
She struck the monitor as she shouted.
“Why are they all articles about L4GS!?”
[Line 4 Hero? Or an Impostor?]
[Myeonmok-dong Goblin Rampage, Who Is Behind the Black Cat Mask?]
[The Return of the Line 4 Hero? This Time, He Rescues Trapped Children]
[We Have Entered the Age of Heroes]
They were all articles about L4GS, Moon Jun-il.
Do Ju-hye's article in particular identified this person as L4GS.
==== ====
The mysterious masked man asked to be introduced as the Line 4 Goblin Slayer. That was all he left behind, and there was no other information...
==== ====
-Wow, he even took them all the way to the police station.
-That pose proves it's definitely that guy lol
└For real lol
-He's kind of an attention seeker.
└So what? He's a hero, fuck.
└For real...
└He saved kids, and you're calling him an attention seeker?
-The other Awakeners who went in there ignored the trapped children and came back after power-leveling.
└Huh?
└Really???
└Mmm, goblins, so tasty~
└└Yeah, I was nearby too. They only cared about killing goblins, not rescuing anyone.
└└They have to level up or they're done for. Can't blame them.
-Meanwhile, L4GS didn't even kill goblins and only rescued kids. What the hell is this guy?
└Seriously, isn't he just a hero?
└???: Nope, gotta save the goblin farm, y'all.
└└Fuck lol
└└This is insane lol
There were even comments putting down the other Awakeners besides L4GS.
They had received quite a few upvotes and were prominently displayed.
“Why... Why aren't there articles about Hae-il!? Huh?! You said you specially assigned a reporter!”
“W-well, Lady Ram told me... to steer things toward an article saying Yulian killed someone...”
“What? How did that turn into this?”
“I, um... I used my cheapest option, ‘Puffing a Breeze,’ to turn the camera a little toward Yulian, but... he happened to rescue the children...”
That was right.
They had noticed Jun-il killing the Dark Mage and wanted it reported.
But the exact opposite result had come out.
“Huh...?”
“S-so I think it would have been better if Yulian had not drawn any attention at all. Even bad attention.”
“...Urgh.”
Ram admitted her mistake.
But that did not mean she intended to overlook Sam's mistake.
“Fine. Put that aside. Why was the reporter assigned in the first place? Why was this whole situation set up? It was to get an article about Kang Hae-il! Where's the article, you punk!?”
Creak!
Ram grabbed Sam by the collar, shook him, and raged at him. Sam hurriedly pointed.
“T-there is one. Over there...”
At the bottom of the web portal, where they were nearly impossible to see, were a few articles.
[Myeonmok-dong Goblin Uprising, Suppressed by Heroes.]
“Really!?”
Ram's eyes widened as she looked.
Kang Hae-il was not mentioned at all. There was only a photograph of flames rising high.
“You're telling me this is an article!? Huh?”
Sam was shaken again.
“T-there's this too...!”
Sam hurriedly brought up another one.
It was not even an article, but an editorial.
[An Arsonist? Or a Hero?]
It was even an editorial criticizing Kang Hae-il.
“An... arsonist!? An arsonist!?”
“Hae-il did cause a bit of a scene...”
“Heyyyyy!”
Bang!
Ram headbutted him.
“Urk!”
“Does it hurt?”
“Yes.”
“It hurts me too!”
Bang!
Ram headbutted him once more.
“Y-you're headbutting me! Of course it hurts!”
“Argh! We were both wrong, so let's both get hit!”
Unable to tolerate Sam's earnest advice, she continued headbutting him.
Bang! Bang!
A little later.
Sssss...
Sam and Ram sat side by side, smoke rising from their heads as they sighed.
“Let's stop here... There are still plenty of chances.”
“...I know.”
In truth, Hae-il only needed to take things one step at a time to receive attention.
He was the only S-rank right now.
It might even be better that he was not receiving attention too quickly.
“Yulian... It's because of that bastard.”
Ram was anxious solely because of Yulian.
He was drawing far more attention than she expected.
This was far beyond a matter of whether or not to kill him.
“What if... It won't happen, but just in case... What if he becomes more popular than Hae-il?”
“Come on. That won't happen. The limits of an Extra are clear. They're nowhere near each other.”
Sam snickered.
“Our Story setting is doing very well. It charted immediately yesterday. We've already settled into the forties.”
“Really?”
Tap.
Sam showed her the chart.
“Yes. Being a modern fantasy story on Version 3.0 gives us a head start. The response to Kang Hae-il's abilities has been very good too.”
Ram's expression immediately brightened.
“Right! As long as our numbers are good, that's all that matters. Just like that bastard Pam said. And...”
Ram grinned.
“Wasn't he F-rank? He can barely level up, right? Kihihihi.”
Ram had calculated that Jun-il would fail the quest anyway.
That was right.
She had no idea.
“Ah...”
Sam broke out in a cold sweat.
“Haha... Well...”
“What? Why are you laughing?”
“Someone donated.”
That day, the sound of headbutts echoed through the monitoring room all day.
* * *
The next morning.
Jun-il woke up refreshed after sleeping straight through the night.
As he drank a cup of coffee, he browsed the articles about himself.
[The Return of the Line 4 Hero? This Time, He Rescues Trapped Children]
[Reporter: Do Ju-hye]
He liked the article quite a bit.
Judging by the photographs and interview, it seemed to be written by that female rogue.
‘Hmm. Things are going well.’
The corners of his lips lifted as he slurped his coffee.
His eyes also glanced at the number of Constellations.
[Current Constellations Watching: 319]
‘The effect is great.’
There were more than three hundred the moment he woke up.
[Inheritance of Incarnation ‘Hero - Yulian’]
[3.19% Complete]
Now, the moment he woke up, he could use a full three percent of Yulian's power.
‘0.03 Yulian.’
For some reason, he felt as if he were bursting with energy.
There was one slight problem, though.
[Main Quest #1]
==== ====
Reach Lv. 10 within 72 hours!
On failure: Awakening Revoked
On success: A random item will be provided.
==== ====
[Time Remaining: 21:09:57]
Jun-il was still Level 9.
He needed to reach Level 10.
‘It won't be easy at F-rank.’
F-rank had no additional experience bonus at all.
There was no way he could break through the Level 9 range by painstakingly killing goblins one at a time.
‘It's not like Hidden Quests appear whenever I want.’
Jun-il wondered if he should look for another major incident on the Gaksalbeop community.
Pop!
A plump little figure suddenly appeared in midair.
“Y-Yulian, sir!”
It was Ham.
“Pam says it's settled at two billion! Hehehet!”
Ham brought good news.
“Hmm. Of course it is.”
Jun-il accepted it as a matter of course.
“Ehh? That's all the reaction you have?”
“Two billion is cheap.”
“Tch... But there's more!”
Bet he did not know this.
Ham was not simply saying Pam had agreed to two billion.
“...More?”
“Pam was moved by Yulian's grand, grand loyalty and friendship! She gave you more coins! Her entire fortune, sniff...!”
“?”
Jun-il could not understand what Ham was talking about.
What friendship had moved Pam?
“You can buy items here with these! They're sort of cheat items! I took a while because I kept thinking about what would be best to buy!”
He did not know what had happened, but cheat items?
That was welcome news.
If Ham was offering them, he would keep quiet and take them.
“What I prepared is...”
Jingle!
Ham tossed up a coin and began reciting a spell.
‘It isn't going to be something like a Bamboo Helicopter, is it?’
Footnotes:
“Bamboo Helicopter” refers to Doraemon's Take-copter, a small bamboo propeller that allows its wearer to fly.
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