The Seven-Time Hero Goes Live - Chapter 32

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

◈ The Seven-Time Hero Goes Live ◈

Chapter 32: The Porter's Power Is Exposed (2)

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“Gasp!? P-Pam! Is this going to be okay?”

Ham trembled anxiously.

No one knew how contribution was calculated, but it was hard to imagine any system where Moon Jun-il, an F-rank known as a porter, could come in first.

Beside Ham, Pam responded by unleashing a barrage of curses.

“What the fuck!? Kyaruru?! She changed the setting however she damn well pleased!?”

To Pam, a veteran fairy, it was obvious that Ram had arranged this to expose Moon Jun-il's identity.

“Why did he even stick himself to Kang Hae-il's side!? Isn't this way too dangerous...?”

Ham rested her chin in her hand, disappointed. Joining Kang Hae-il's party in the first place had seemed far too risky.

“No. Joining them was the best strategy.”

“Huh?”

Yet Pam called the decision itself the best possible move.

“Ham. In a story, other than the protagonist, which positions do you think are best for drawing the Constellations' attention?”

“The main supporting character? The main villain?”

“Exactly.”

Ham tilted her head.

Exactly. That was it?

What did that have to do with Yulian's decision?

“Both.”

“Huh?”

“You don't get it? From Kang Hae-il's perspective, the main villain is a masked man impersonating L4GS. The supporting character is an F-rank porter.”

“Ah!”

That was it.

Jun-il intended to occupy both positions most likely to draw attention after the protagonist.

“Yulian intends to obstruct all of Kang Hae-il's accomplishments from those two positions.”

Moon Jun-il would destroy Kang Hae-il from within, while L4GS would destroy him from without.

“...S-scary.”

Ham was stunned.

Who would have thought Yulian's plan was so meticulous?

Truly, he was a Hero who had prevented the end of the world seven times. He operated on a different level.

“From Kang Hae-il's perspective, this would drive him crazy, wouldn't it?”

“Hm? No.”

“Huh?”

“Why would Kang Hae-il go crazy? He won't even know what's being done to him.”

“Th-then...!”

“The Constellations watching Kang Hae-il will go crazy.”

“Gasp!”

Ham nearly fainted again.

Kang Hae-il would keep losing Constellations forever without ever knowing what was happening to him.

“Th-that's so cruel... H-how far are you going to...?”

“Cruel?”

Kyaruru.

Pam scoffed.

“The cruel one is Ram. She utterly destroyed the apartment Yulian went through hell to buy.”

That was why Yulian could use such cruel methods without the slightest guilt.

What had been done to him was far worse.

“Ah, is an apartment really such a rare artifact?”

Ham could not easily understand.

“Um... I don't really know either, but I've heard that if words like Seoul and Han River come before it, its value transcends not only space but even the axis of time. Wouldn't that make it an artifact?”

“I see? There are artifacts even in the mana-free Blue Zone...”

The fairies tried to understand Jun-il's fury in their own way.

Of course, they would not understand even twenty percent of it. By then, apartment prices would have already risen another twenty percent.

“Anyway, the plan got tangled up from the first step. How are we going to fix this?”

Pam focused on the screen again.

Yulian had openly taken first place. Everyone in the dungeon looked utterly bewildered.

“Well... I-if there's a Protagonist Buff, they might just let it slide...”

It was not actually that serious. With the right explanation, it might be brushed off.

Under normal circumstances.

“But Ram lowered his Luck stat so much... Will that be possible?”

Ham was anxious.

Pam was no less anxious. After all, it was Pam, not Ham, who was locked in prison.

But...

“I... I believe.”

“Huh?”

“Yulian will resolve it. He's a Hero capable of resolving something like this.”

“Can the abilities of a Hero really solve this?”

“A Hero's abilities aren't limited to cutting off the Demon King's head. You need a wide range of abilities to get that far. For example...”

“?”

“The gift of gab.”

* * *

[Contribution Rankings]

==== ====

1. Moon Jun-il (F)

2. Kang Hae-il (S)

3. Jeon In-su (B+)

4. Kim Chae-young (C+)

5. Eliminated

==== ====

After the contribution rankings were revealed, Jun-il's Constellations were beside themselves with joy.

- Where are all the bastards who called Moon Jun-il a porter now???

- Hae-il stans, have you come to your senses!? Hae-il stans, have you come to your senses!? Hae-il stans, have you come to your senses!?

- Fucking hell, Kang Hae-il got second place lol

- This is Moon Jun-il. This is L4GS!

- Still saying he isn't L4GS? Then does that mean Kang Hae-il lost to a porter? lol

- That hit the spot~

The Constellations were more excited than Jun-il had ever seen them.

But Jun-il was seriously worried.

‘Damn. They've seen right through me, haven't they?’

A system that revealed first place?

“...T-the porter came in first?”

“Um? Jun-il came in first...?”

“...”

Kim Chae-young, Jeon In-su, and Kang Hae-il.

All three were looking at Jun-il.

‘What should I say?’

What stance should he take?

Should he say he had accidentally landed the final blow?

‘That makes no sense. They would have seen me standing far away.’

Jun-il had used Flash Step twice to go back and forth.

But to them, he had simply been standing at a distance.

Saying he had accidentally landed the final blow from that far away was not a believable excuse.

‘Then...’

There was only one thing left for now.

“Ah, no...?! I-isn't this a bug? It can't be right...”

Just pretend not to know.

Jun-il might not have had the acting skills of a movie star, but when it came to pulling a con in the field, he was top-tier.

He was a Hero, after all.

Why a Hero needed that particular skillset was a long and dark story, so that could be skipped.

‘Will the bug excuse work?’

He was confident in his acting, anyway.

The problem was logic.

Would this claim of a bug be accepted?

Until now, humans had treated every word in these status windows as absolute.

And now, suddenly, a bug?

It would not make sense.

“A bug...? Th-that can't be. Didn't the porter do something...?”

Kim Chae-young asked a sharp question befitting a mage.

With someone like that in the group, it would be hard to just muddle through.

Fortunately, Jun-il had prepared some logic.

“Contribution.”

He threw it out there first.

“Huh? Contribution?”

For the moment, everyone reacted with a question mark.

Then he activated a skill.

[Mana Shout]

Mana Shout, which increased his persuasiveness!

“It says contribution, not who killed the Champion Goblin.”

“...Isn't that the same thing?”

“No. We don't actually know how contribution is calculated, do we? If it were the same thing, why wouldn't Kang Hae-il be in first place?”

“W-well, that's true, but...”

“Then contribution must be calculated more comprehensively. For example... strategy.”

“Strategy?”

“Maybe someone made a strategic suggestion that helped things go well.”

“!”

That was right.

Jun-il was going to give his own contribution a justification.

It seemed like that would make things more convenient going forward, too.

“You're saying Jun-il's suggestions count toward contribution?”

“Right. I told everyone how to deal with the Swarm Goblins earlier... and didn't we all survive because of it? Maybe all the Goblins that fell to their deaths when the floor collapsed were counted as kills by me...”

If he cleverly mixed truth with lies, acting became much easier.

Eighty percent truth, twenty percent lie.

Combined with Mana Shout's boost to his persuasiveness, it felt as though the old Hero's presence was radiating from Jun-il again.

“Hmm...”

Kim Chae-young looked somewhat confused, but Jeon In-su nodded beside her.

“That makes sense. A considerable number of Goblins died when the floor collapsed. They all died at once. Jun-il was also the one who suggested switching the front and rear formations.”

“Hmmm.”

Chae-young seemed a little persuaded, though she could not shake her doubts.

‘But the real problem was the Champion Goblin. He didn't do anything then.’

The greatest ordeal she had faced was not the Goblin Swarm, but the arrival of the Champion Goblin.

‘And Seong-woo too...’

Their teammate, Kim Seong-woo, had died.

“I think...”

Just as the debate was about to drag on, Kang Hae-il spoke up.

“I think it makes sense.”

“...What?”

Chae-young asked in surprise.

She had assumed Kang Hae-il, who had lost first place right in front of him, would be the least willing to accept it.

“If we hadn't known the Swarm Goblins' habits, the mages wouldn't have used their big spells. If we hadn't changed formations, we would have been overwhelmed by their numbers and died. He deserves a high contribution score.”

At the mention of the big spell, Chae-young's face reddened.

Come to think of it, she had not wanted to follow the porter's suggestion back then. Yet the porter had been right.

“R-right.”

With her mistake pointed out, Chae-young finally accepted it.

Kang Hae-il had settled the dispute.

- Holy shit, Kang Hae-il lol What a troll

- Kang Hae-il's stream is sobbing lol

- The Hae-il stans will probably switch over again because they're so frustrated lol

- But it's true, though? L4GS's calls alone give him high contribution. Without him, they all would have died.

- But the people in that stream probably don't even know he landed the final blow lol They have nothing to cry about

‘Whew.’

Jun-il rubbed his chest in relief.

‘It worked.’

This seemed to have gone over well enough.

By persuading them with contribution, he could probably handle similar problems in the future.

Ding.

[Rewards will be distributed according to contribution.]

As though it had waited for the dungeon participants to accept one another's results, the message only appeared now.

The rewards were given out in ascending ranking order.

“Huh?”

Pop!

First, something like a celebratory firework shot up over Kim Chae-young's head.

“Wow. Experience points. I finally reached level 10.”

As fourth place, she received only a large amount of experience points.

Next was Jeon In-su in third place.

Pooof!

“I reached level 10 too. And... what is this?”

Third place received a large amount of experience points and a small amount of something like jewels.

‘Mana Crystals.’

Jun-il recognized them, but the others could not.

“They give out jewels?”

They would learn what they were for once they had a use for them.

Pop!

Next was Kang Hae-il.

He too received experience points and Mana Crystals, as well as an additional item.

Clink.

A necklace.

‘That's...’

Jun-il knew the item.

‘Champion's Heart.’

The necklace was called Champion's Heart.

‘Seriously. Do they recycle the same items too?’

Champion's Heart.

It greatly increased the wearer's stamina and endurance.

Simply put, it made you better at cardio.

Real battles often became contests of endurance, so it would be quite useful.

Kang Hae-il had become stronger as a result.

‘Well, it doesn't matter.’

Jun-il did not particularly care.

‘You need to be strong enough for me to survive, too.’

Kang Hae-il growing weaker was a bigger problem than him growing stronger.

A global problem.

‘Mine is coming too.’

Now Jun-il's reward arrived.

Pop!

[Level Up!]

First came a large amount of experience points.

- Wow, finally

- ㅠㅠㅠ

- He's level 10 at last ㅠㅠ

- Nice

- Wow...

- The self-made success icon, L4GS

- Finally, fuck lol

[Lv.9 -> Lv.10]

He had finally reached level 10.

Then Mana Crystals fell.

There were far more than Jeon In-su had received.

They came in a whole pouch of Mana Crystals.

Thud.

“Wow... That's incredible.”

Even Chae-young, watching beside him, gasped.

But that was not the end.

Jun-il received an item reward as well.

Ting!

A dark purplish-black ring fell into his hand.

“!”

Jun-il recognized the ring.

[Gravity Ring]

‘Ram... that lunatic...’

The corner of his mouth twitched.

‘You were going to give me something this good?’

==== =====

Rank: Hero

Type: Accessory

Description: A ring that allows its wearer to learn gravity magic. It is said to have been created by an ancient Lich.

*Gravity Field: Creates a powerful gravitational field in a designated area, gathering enemies in one place and crushing them under its weight. Cooldown: 2 hours.

==== ====

It was a Hero-rank item.

- Nice

- Hero rank, damn

- Wow, that's insane

- Heroes recognize heroes

- That gravity magic looks good?

- Nice

- Hero? lol Holy shit lol

Even the picky Constellations were satisfied with the reward.

But had second place not received an item reward as well?

Each successive rank had received one additional type of reward that the previous rank had not.