WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Seven-Time Hero Goes Live ◈
Chapter 25: Swarm (1)
──────
Lee Suyeon.
Jun-il had definitely been attracted to her in the past.
He remembered it.
The time when his heart had raced upon first seeing her at the freshman welcome party.
‘Before I became a Hero...’
Seven full runs as a Hero had completely changed who Jun-il was.
Around thirty years had passed. He had met countless people, and countless people had died.
After that, Lee Suyeon had become no more than a pretty junior to him.
She was no longer that important to Jun-il.
She just happened to remind him a little of Maylin.
‘But then...’
The problem was that she had happened to be with him when L4GS was born.
[Suyeon: Oppa, what Rank are you? Why won't you tell me? Is it really low? lol]
[Suyeon: But did you see this? It's crazy. (Link)]
[Suyeon: They say this person is L4GS. Is that you, oppa?]
[Suyeon: Oppa?]
At some point, Jun-il had stopped checking her messages.
He thought that once they no longer had reason to meet, he would naturally forget her.
When her messages went unread, she had not contacted him again either.
And now they were meeting here.
“Mr. L4GS. Long time no see?”
Suyeon spoke as she led the way up the mountain trail.
There was something prickly in her tone.
She had always respectfully called him Sunbae or oppa.
“Uh...”
For some reason, Jun-il felt small.
He had not even done anything wrong!
-Mr. L4GS? LOL
-Wait, was she really his fling? LOL
-Wow, he had someone like this?
-Newbies wouldn't know~
The Constellations who had not watched Jun-il back when Suyeon was around were intrigued.
Of course, Jun-il knew.
Their interest would not last long. Eventually, they would find Suyeon bothersome.
It had always been that way.
“Was your phone broken?”
“No.”
“Oh, at least you're not lying.”
“What would be the point?”
Since things had come to this, Jun-il decided to act even more cowed and pathetic.
“Who am I to deserve anything...”
“What?”
“I'm not worthy of answering your messages. I'm a failure. A failure at life.”
-?
-What is he saying now LOL
-Why's this guy like this? LOL
-Huh?
-What a loser...
“W-why are you saying that? Why are you a failure, oppa? You saved all those kids.”
“...Kids?”
Jun-il spoke as if he had no idea what she meant.
“It was in the news. Wasn't that masked man you? They called him L4GS.”
“No.”
“What?”
“That guy isn't me...”
“Th-then... an impersonator?”
“Something like that. Not that there was really anything to impersonate.”
Suyeon suddenly got angry.
“I knew it! That guy in the cat mask looked kind of perverted! I didn't think he was you, oppa!”
“...”
Jun-il was not sure whether he should feel good about that.
-Pervert LOLLLLL
-The pervert is right here
-<<<<<
-Run awaaay~
“Then are you depressed because someone's impersonating you?”
“No, no. I'm not depressed. It's true. I'm a failure.”
Ding.
[F]
Jun-il brought up his F Rank.
“!”
Suyeon's eyes went wide.
“F... F? Isn't that E with some kind of display glitch?”
-Display glitch LOL
-It really is hard to believe
-Honestly, it's harder to believe than S LOL
Suyeon thought E might have glitched.
Potential F was not a common occurrence.
“No. It's really F.”
“...Whoa.”
Suyeon's eyes wavered.
‘Now.’
Jun-il's eyes gleamed.
He copied a legendary villain from an old dating show he had watched.
“I'm just... I'm trash!”
Jun-il bellowed, putting on a bizarre display.
“AAAAAAAAAH!”
-Crazy LOLLLLLLL
-Is he an opera singer? LOL
-LMAO
-Damn, those lungs
-What was that scream, fuck LOL
Most people would have frowned at this.
But he had made one mistaken assumption.
The truth was, he barely knew anything about Lee Suyeon.
Her personality, her values...
‘Huh.’
He knew nothing.
He had simply liked her because she was pretty.
“O-oppa...”
So he had not expected this reaction from her.
‘She's tearing up?’
Was she crying because she was scared?
Because he was a crazy bastard suddenly screaming at her?
“You're not trash, oppa.”
How could this be?
No.
It was pity.
“You're a hero... So what if you're F? You even killed Goblins with a ballpoint pen...”
“That was just luck...”
Jun-il had not panicked even when Goblins appeared out of thin air in the subway.
But this time, he was genuinely flustered.
‘W-what is this?’
This was not how he wanted things to go.
Would he have to comfort Suyeon and travel with her now?
‘No.’
But who was Moon Jun-il?
A man who had endured ten years without a penny or any background knowledge before slaying the Demon King.
His obsession with achieving his goals could not be compared to anyone else's.
And his current goal?
‘Stay away from women.’
Then he just had to get away.
Even if he had to force it!
Jun-il suddenly turned around and began running at full speed.
Tap tap tap tap!
-?
-...?
-??
-What?
Question marks flooded the chat.
But Jun-il was certain.
‘This is right.’
If he kept sticking with Suyeon, these bastards would start saying things later and all drop the stream.
He had been through it several times.
And more importantly...
‘I can't let her stay with me.’
Ham's words bothered him.
「In this world, Lord Yulian is an Extra. A hated Extra, at that. You'll suffer forever. Forget good luck, you can't even expect to avoid bad luck!」
The bad luck that had followed him around all day also seemed to be part of it.
The real interference would begin soon.
He could not take responsibility for Suyeon too.
Of course, she had no way of knowing any of that.
“...?”
From far away, Suyeon stared blankly after the man who had abandoned a crying woman and run away.
‘She won't contact trash like this again, right?’
No matter how kind Suyeon was, this behavior would probably make him look like a bug.
Jun-il ran away with all his might.
* * *
“Pant... Huff...”
Thud.
After reaching the location marked on the map, Jun-il leaned against a rock and rested for a moment.
-He's really allergic to women
-Woman allergy confirmed
-To think L4GS is actually allergic to women
-As a 38-year veteran never-dater, I acknowledge it. Real recognizes real
-This is Moon Jun-il~
-This is L4GS...?
The Constellations were amazed by Jun-il's loser side.
-This guy's really L4GS???
-He's supposed to kill Goblins? LOL
-Hmm, is he really that good...?
They even doubted his ability.
These were probably new Constellations.
[Current Constellations Watching: 362]
It seemed that entering the incident area had naturally brought in new viewers.
“Skreeee...”
“Skree!?”
He could hear Goblins nearby as well.
Jun-il cautiously raised his head above the rock and checked their numbers.
‘There are a lot of them.’
There really were an abnormal number of them.
He could see quite a few other Awakeners nearby too.
“D-damn it, why are there so many!?”
“Hey! The tank needs to go up front!”
“Would you go up there!?”
“Isn't this a little abnormal? They're suddenly swarming us!”
The Awakeners were struggling.
The unusual terrain of the slope.
Too many Goblins.
A Goblin force moving with strange coordination.
‘Hm?’
Jun-il noticed something odd.
Rumble...!
It sounded like a landslide.
‘This is... a Swarm?’
-We're fucked
-Huh?
-What is this
-Damn
-Shouldn't we run?
‘How is this possible?’
A Goblin Swarm at this point was nothing less than a disaster.
* * *
A Goblin Swarm.
A phenomenon that occurred when the Goblin population grew too large and their density rose too high.
“Skreeeeeee!”
“Skreeee!”
Their eyes turned even redder, and their muscles swelled massively.
They grew a little taller too.
From around one meter tall, they became one and a half meters.
Black spots appeared on their skin, making them look like a different species altogether.
[Swarm Goblin Lv.5]
The Goblins that had only been Level 1 monsters had risen to Level 5.
It was an unprecedented level-up.
And that was not all.
There were an unbelievable number of them.
“Skreeeeeee!”
“Skree! Skree!”
Goblins began pouring out as though there were more of them than leaves on the mountain.
“A-ahhh?! What is this all of a sudden!?”
“Fuck... Are those really Goblins?”
“Fall back! Fall back!”
“No! We don't have time to level up!”
“Do you want to die!?”
While everyone at the scene was thrown into panic, someone watched it all through a monitor.
“K-kiririri!?”
Ram let out a flustered laugh.
“A-a Swarm?”
A flaw in the Bad Luck Strategy had emerged.
It could not be controlled.
Luck was luck, after all.
Bad luck was luck too.
Luck was, by definition, a natural force beyond control.
Bad luck was no different.
“A Goblin Swarm already? Is this the power of bad luck...? This was part of your plan, right, Ram?”
Sam asked, his eyes shining.
Ram had no choice but to nod.
“O-of course!”
“But a Swarm phenomenon is almost a disaster for Awakeners at this point. Who's supposed to stop it?”
Sam had asked out of pure curiosity.
Cold sweat ran down Ram's back.
‘Who is supposed to stop it?’
A Goblin Swarm of this scale was not supposed to appear at this stage.
Such a powerful disaster had to be handled very carefully in terms of story structure.
‘Did I get too excited just trying to kill one Yulian?’
Ram had made a mistake.
Yulian's bad luck stat did not end with him seeing a toilet full of crap.
Of course it did not.
It was not some trivial number.
“If this is not stopped here, not only this mountain but the entire surrounding area will be devastated. In addition, thirty percent of the Swarm Goblins that survive are projected to continue leveling up and become Champion Goblins.”
Champion Goblins.
Goblin individuals close to gods of battle, born from countless Goblins engaging in a mad free-for-all.
Thirty percent of this Swarm becoming something like that?
The story setting itself would be at risk.
They might have to end the story here.
Everything had its proper order.
‘Ugh...’
Ram clutched her head.
In truth, she had never successfully run a story before.
This was her first Modern Fantasy, and her first time using the Storyboard 3.0 system.
She was a complete novice Story Fairy.
‘W-what do I do?’
Out of the corner of her eye, she checked the rising number of Constellations on the main channel.
Extreme situations naturally drew attention because they were so stimulating.
“S-so many Constellations are coming! All of them are coming here!”
Drrrriiiing...
The sound of the number rising continued to ring out.
-Wow, damn
-Nice, this is some bold pacing
-This is it, streamer
-LOLLLL this is insane, how are they stopping this?
-Kang Hae-il is pretty far away LOL Who's stopping this?
-Legendary LOL Was this an apocalypse story?
-Even Kang Hae-il can't stop this
‘T-there are a lot of viewers, at least.’
Quite a few Constellations had their eyes on the scene.
‘If I can't fix this here, it'll cost an astronomical amount of Coins.’
It took astronomical sums to redirect or change what the Constellations were focused on.
This scene was becoming exactly that.
But there was no sign of it being resolved.
[Run, run away!]
[Fuck, what is this!?]
[Monsters! They're monsters!]
Look at them running away and screaming about monsters when they had been fighting monsters all along.
They had not even considered Level 1 Goblins to be monsters.
Anyone who knew how to use skills a little could easily handle four or five alone.
But Swarm Goblins were different.
[Grrrrrr!]
[Bark! Bark!]
Goblins with protruding snouts and fangs ran on all fours, barking like wolves.
They looked vicious at a glance.
Crunch!
Blood burst from a bitten thigh.
They went straight for the carotid artery in a single bite.
[A-ahhhhh!]
[Ahhhhh! S-Seongjin!]
Thud.
Awakeners began to die.
How many of the Awakeners who had come out hunting to level up had been prepared to die?
The hunters were being hunted.
Constellations gathered at this highly stimulating spectacle.
-They're fucking strong
-Nice
-This is intense~
-This is it
-You thought about what comes next, right? LOL
One Constellation asked whether she had planned for what came next.
‘What comes next...? I don't know either.’
The cold sweat down Ram's back only grew worse.
If this was not stopped here, the story might collapse.
Then it would be discontinued.
This story setting might be shut down.
So should she stop?
“No...”
Ram shook her head.
“We have to deal with this here.”
She steeled herself.
“Ram...?”
“Even if there's a risk of failure! We have to kill that bastard and move on!”
Her instincts told her that if she did not deal with Yulian here, things would only get harder later.
“I-is it that serious? More importantly, you really didn't have a plan, did you!?”
“Shut uuuup!”
Wham!
As Ram sent Sam's head flying, the background music suddenly changed.
Wheeeeng...!
A rather cool electric guitar sound began to play.
“Huh? Why is there music...?”
Doo-doong, doo-doong...!
A stylish bass line rang out.
[Cool BGM]
It was an item purchased from the Shop.
-Huh?
-What is this song? LOL
-That music came on when he showed up? Is he important?
-There's someone with entrance music, damn
-Isn't that L4GS?
-What's L4GS?
Even the Constellations who had merely been watching the surroundings began to take interest.
Boom!
Drums thundered.
Tap.
A masked man suddenly charged into the Goblin horde.
-?
-Gasp
-Into that?
-Who is that?
When the Constellations' attention reached its peak.
Slaaash!
A sword strike cut through the air.
-Oh?
-Ohhh!
-Wow
-He's pretty good?
‘L4GS...!’
It was Yulian.
He had begun fighting.
Ram clasped her hands and closed her eyes.
‘Please die. Please!’
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