WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Seven-Time Hero Goes Live ◈
Chapter 29: I'm a Porter, But... (2)
──────
Bzzzt!
When static filled his vision, Jun-il stopped for a moment.
‘What was that?’
The static looked as if something was about to appear, then vanished again.
Still, it let Jun-il confirm something.
[Current Constellations Watching: 591]
The number of Constellations had risen considerably.
‘That’s quite an increase...’
Around a hundred had joined.
A hundred human viewers would not have been much, but Constellations were different.
Considering the influence each of them had on this place, gaining nearly a hundred in a day was enormous.
‘Even after dealing with the Goblin Swarm, I only gained about seventy.’
Even when he had dealt with the Goblin Swarm with Cool BGM playing, he had only gained around seventy.
‘Is this what it means to be the protagonist?’
Just by joining Kang Hae-il’s party as nothing more than a porter, he had gained over a hundred viewers.
Nothing had even happened yet.
“Phew.”
Jun-il took a slow breath.
‘If being near the protagonist draws this much attention... that means the risks are just as great.’
Jun-il knew well from his many dealings with Constellations.
They held every random supporting character or Extra beside the protagonist to an unforgiving standard.
This interest could turn into hatred in an instant.
‘One wrong move and it’s over.’
He had to stay alert from here on.
‘This is different from all my previous hero gigs.’
He had lived as a Hero seven times already.
But this eighth contract was unlike the others.
‘I’m not the protagonist.’
Jun-il was only an Extra here.
This world favored the protagonist.
The Constellations were the same.
-Hae-il T_T
-He’s handsome even from here.
-Now this is Hae-il.
But an F-rank Extra who was no help to such a protagonist?
To the Constellations, he was practically the axis of evil.
Jun-il had to prove his usefulness.
To this party, and to the Constellations.
‘If I do that, an opportunity will come.’
As Ham had already told him, Kang Hae-il currently had Constellations gathering around him in the hundreds of thousands.
It was impossible to surpass him early in the story.
But Jun-il knew.
As the story progressed, it became difficult to retain even five thousand, let alone ten thousand.
‘Seven thousand.’
Jun-il repeated the number to himself.
He had once watched seven thousand Constellations remain until the very end.
That was the point he needed to aim for.
First, steadily raise his own viewers to seven thousand.
Then lower Kang Hae-il’s viewer count below seven thousand.
The moment those two graphs crossed.
‘Mission complete. Two billion acquired.’
Everything would be over.
As he considered this grand plan...
“Excuse me, Mr. Moon Jun-il?”
One of the party members ahead of him spoke.
It was the Paladin, Jeon In-su. He was a middle-aged man with a kind face.
“Yes?”
“You said you were a porter. What Skills do you have? I don’t see any luggage, so...”
-Gasp.
-Damn.
-Run.
-It was nice knowing you...
-L4GS’s Bizarre Adventure: The End lol.
-Speechless.
-O_O
The Constellations were excited, thinking Jun-il’s identity would be exposed immediately.
But there was no way that would happen.
“Ah. It’s nothing special.”
Whoosh.
Jun-il opened his inventory and put something resembling a stone inside.
“It’s an inventory ability.”
“...Oh.”
The questioner had assumed that, as a porter, Jun-il simply carried things around with brute strength. His eyes widened.
“Oh? That’s not bad.”
“Well, that’s all I have.”
Jun-il casually shrugged and checked the Constellations’ reactions.
-Oh shit, that’s why he called himself a porter.
-Damn.
-This was it lol.
-In-su is nice, at least. He even talked to him.
-Using an inventory like this lol.
-Jun-il really thought of everything?
-Gasp lol.
The Constellations finally realized he had called himself a porter because of his inventory and were impressed.
“Then your physical abilities are not particularly good?”
“Yeah. I’m a porter, so I might be a little stronger than average, but it’s nothing special. The inventory is all I have.”
“Ah...”
Someone else spoke up from beside them.
It was the mage, Kim Chae-young. She was a woman who looked to be in her late twenties.
“But... how exactly do you use your inventory?”
She had phrased it indirectly, but she was asking where he could be useful.
Jun-il answered without hesitation.
“When you kill Goblins, you just throw weapons like these away, right?”
Swish.
He took out a dagger a Goblin had used from his inventory.
He had put one away after killing a Swarm Goblin earlier.
“Things like this could be worth money later, right? But collecting everything would be heavy and cumbersome. I carry it for you instead.”
“Wait. That can be sold for money?”
“You could at least sell it to a scrapyard. Besides, in games, all this stuff is worth money.”
It really would be worth money here as well.
Weapons used by monsters looked like ordinary metal weapons at first, but they had been contaminated with demonic energy.
Demonic energy was another manifestation of mana.
A kind of corrupted version.
If properly refined, it could be made into Mana Crystals with considerable magical power.
Usually, alchemists or highly skilled blacksmiths handled that work.
Once that infrastructure was in place, things like these would likely all be worth money.
Of course, Kim Chae-young had no way of knowing that.
‘If it’s worth money in games, will it be worth money here too...?’
Looking slightly worried, she said,
“Don’t push yourself too hard, Mr. Porter.”
Apparently, she thought he was overreaching just to prove that he had a use.
-She’s basically telling you to leave lol.
-Get out, man.
-Hahahahaha.
-“Kyoto-style speech.”
Indirect or not.
“I’m not pushing myself. But... over there.”
“Yes?”
“The Goblins are here.”
“?!”
Jun-il said that and quietly stepped back.
“Skree!”
“Skreeee!”
The party members jumped.
“D-damn!”
“What? Wh-when did they...?!”
In truth, they had been surrounded for a while already.
‘They didn’t notice that? They have a long way to go.’
Thud! Thud!
The Goblins hanging from the cave ceiling began dropping one after another.
“Grrrk!”
“Grrk!”
Their sounds were a little strange.
Jun-il scratched his head as he watched them.
‘Hmm... Is it because of me?’
“Grrrrraaaah!”
[Swarm Goblin Lv.5]
They had entered a Swarm state.
It seemed to be because of the pheromones stuck to Jun-il’s clothes.
The party members had apparently never seen Goblins in a Swarm state before and panicked.
“W-what the hell are those things?!”
“Goblin Swarm.”
-What the hell lol.
-Then who would know that, asshole lol.
-Are you teabagging them? lol.
-Fuck lol.
“W-what is that?!”
“Calm down, Ms. Chae-young! We just need to form up like before!”
Even so, Jeon In-su was B+. He shouted and took the initiative.
Hummm.
He pressed his palms together as though in prayer, forming a barrier around them.
Kim Chae-young began casting as well.
[Chain Magic Bullets]
A basic spell that fired mana bullets in rapid succession.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The ordinary Goblins were knocked over after taking several hits.
“Grrk...!”
“Keck!”
But the Swarm Goblins were different.
“Grrrrrr!”
“Bark! Bark!”
They charged on all fours like wolves, seemingly unaffected by the attacks.
“W-what...? They aren’t taking any damage?!”
Jun-il muttered beside them.
“Fire attacks should work well.”
“...Really? I’m an electricity-type caster.”
Then it happened.
Whoosh!
Kang Hae-il appeared amid flames.
-Nice.
-That’s so cool.
-Here comes the fire type you asked for.
-This is insane.
-Nice.
He had been far ahead of the group, and only now joined the rear guard after it had been surrounded.
“I’ll break through in one direction.”
Hae-il rolled one shoulder and muttered before throwing a punch.
An enormous wave of fire shot forward.
Boom!
The Goblins were burned to black ash.
Even the Swarm Goblins were no exception.
“Grrrk...?!”
Thud.
They crumbled into black ash.
“This way!”
Tap tap tap tap!
As the Goblins died and a path opened, the party members moved.
‘His firepower is ridiculous. What a fucking unfair world.’
Even as he ran after them, Jun-il thought of how he had painstakingly cut the throats of Swarm Goblins one by one.
“H-here too!”
Whoosh!
Boom!
The Goblins vanished once again.
‘He’s definitely gotten stronger. He’s still way too clumsy, though.’
The firepower of an S-rank was absurd.
The Story setting must have concentrated all the energy it could grant on him.
Still, Kang Hae-il was clumsy in how he used it.
It was like a child driving a twelve-cylinder muscle car with one thousand horsepower.
Straight ahead only!
“This way!”
Boom!
The Goblins hit by his attacks crumbled away as though they had collided with a natural disaster.
“Grrrrraah!”
“Grrr!”
But strangely, no matter how many paths they opened, the encirclement only grew thicker.
“We’re surrounded again...?!”
Countless openings, irrational tactics, stupid decisions...
‘Seriously.’
Jun-il kicked the ground several times, either out of frustration or to check something.
Tap. Tap.
‘Will this work when enemies keep coming from the front?’
They could not escape the encirclement this way.
They would be better off backing against a wall and resolving to kill everything.
“W-what do we do? It feels like we can’t solve this...”
Kim Chae-young, quick to catch on, muttered.
But Kang Hae-il bit his lip and walked farther forward as if he could not care less.
“Just break through.”
-Nice.
-What a man’s man.
-Nice.
-Lol.
-Crazy.
-If it weren’t for his face, he’d be an idiot.
-Wow.
The Constellations’ reactions were at their peak when...
“Mr. Hae-il, instead of breaking through the front, how about we break through the rear?”
Jun-il could not hold back any longer.
If they all died here, it was over.
“...?”
Everyone but Kang Hae-il looked at him as if to ask who he thought he was.
“If we go forward, we’ll become increasingly surrounded. The rear only looks surrounded. There are actually fewer Goblins there.”
He looked as though he considered it for a moment, then nodded.
“To the rear.”
He accepted the suggestion immediately.
-He listens when something makes sense lol.
-He does it when it feels right.
-Lol, Kang Hae-il changed his tune fast.
The party members were flustered.
“What? B-but it looks like there are more in the rear to me?”
“That’s enough. To the rear.”
“Y-yes, understood.”
The Paladin, Jeon In-su, took the lead while swinging his huge war hammer, and Kang Hae-il followed.
Their formation changed.
The rear became the front, and the front became the rear.
“Bark! Bark!”
“Grrrrk!”
As Goblins charged at them like wolves, another mage, Kim Seong-woo, cried out in horror.
“W-what is this? We’re on the front line now?!”
“Because we switched the front and rear of the formation.”
In truth, switching the front and rear was a completely insane strategy.
All those Goblins that had faced the tank line of Kang Hae-il and Jeon In-su were now targeting the mages.
“Run! Everyone!”
When Jun-il shouted that, the mages’ fear exploded.
“Aaaaah!”
Kim Seong-woo began running with a scream, and Kim Chae-young fled after him.
“Ah, shit... Is this really right?!”
Tap tap tap tap!
-This looks completely screwed.
-Ah, Hae-il... You listened to this?
-Is L4GS doing this on purpose??
-What the hell, we’re doomed.
Breaking through the rear because there were more Goblins in front?
It was garbage tactics.
All those Goblins from the front would attack the party’s rear line.
It exposed the weak part of the party to the enemy’s strength.
“Skreeee!”
“Skree!”
The Goblins seemed to understand that too and charged excitedly.
But there was a solution.
‘But what if Yulian shows up?’
Step!
Jun-il stepped in front of them.
He faced the Goblins rushing toward him.
“Skreeee!”
“Skree! Skreeee!”
Their eyes were vicious.
-What? Why isn’t he running?
-Is he going to take them all on alone?
-Is he going to kill them all?
-Damn.
-The porter is hiding his strength.
The mages had no time to look back, while Kang Hae-il and Jeon In-su were too far away.
In other words, no one was watching Jun-il.
‘This should be enough.’
Tap. Tap.
He briefly tapped the ground with his foot.
[Mana Punch]
Then he slammed his fist down.
Boom.
A heavy impact rang out.
The ground split apart immediately after.
Craaaack!
“Skree?!”
“Skreeee?!”
The pursuing Goblins faltered.
But it was already too late.
Boom!
The ground caved in, revealing a black hole.
Rumble!
-?
-...?
-A sinkhole?
-What the hell.
-Holy shit.
That was right.
After testing it with his feet, Jun-il had confirmed that the ground here was hollow.
The theory about the front and rear had only been meant to fool the party members.
Luring the Goblins here had been Jun-il’s plan.
“Skree?!”
Whoosh!
The first Goblin, which had charged in excitedly, suddenly dropped into the ground.
“Sk-Skreeee?!”
“Skreeee!”
Crash!
All the Goblins behind it fell as well.
“Skreeee...!”
They desperately flailed their arms.
‘Goodbye, experience points.’
They soon fell to the bottom and became ketchup.
Splat!
With that, nearly all the Goblins chasing them would die.
-Wow.
-Damn.
-Nice.
-This is... a porter?
-This is L4GS?!
-Wow lol.
-What the fuck is this???
-What the hell, you said you were a porter?!
The Constellations cheered at Jun-il’s performance after he had pretended to be a porter.
His viewers rose to an unprecedented level.
‘Nice.’
[Current Constellations Watching: 701]
He had passed seven hundred.
[Incarnation "Hero - Yulian" Inheritance]
[7.01% Complete]
Then static began filling his vision.
Bzzzt!
‘Huh?’
Would he really see memories this time?
No.
Something else appeared instead.
[Hidden Quest]
==== ====
Goal: Kang@$ Affinty#
Reward: $##@?@#!
==== ====
A Hidden Quest had appeared.
Footnotes:
“Kyoto-style speech” is joking shorthand for polite but highly indirect criticism.
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