The Seven-Time Hero Goes Live - Chapter 43

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Seven-Time Hero Goes Live ◈

Chapter 43: Mushrooms and Memories (1)

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Moon Jun-il could have killed every Necromancer here one by one himself.

‘But why would I?’

Still, who was Moon Jun-il?

A GPA monster.

A demon of efficiency.

A man who had nearly founded the three-month crash Hero program.

He hated inefficiency with a passion.

Perhaps even more than he hated the Demon King.

That was right.

To him, efficiency was murder.

“G-gaaaaaah!”

Fwoooosh!

Look at the countless Necromancers burning now.

The dark cave was lit by flames consuming evildoers, while they danced in agony.

With [Cool BGM] playing over it all...

It was almost beautiful.

Efficiency was certainly a concept far removed from aesthetics, but pushed to its limit, it too reached the realm of art.

The Constellations looked on in awe.

-Now this is it, lol

-Ahh

-<(_ _)/

-L4GS! L4GS! L4GS!

-So good T_T

-That was so satisfying~

-<(_ _)/

Ding.

[Hidden Quest Complete!]

The Hidden Quest had been completed as well.

[Reward: 300 Feelings (FL)]

He had earned 300 Feelings through the Hidden Quest.

If he collected another 700 Feelings, he could buy the Narrative Trick Hwando.

Hidden Quests did not appear often. Wasn't that still a long way off?

Not necessarily.

Ding!

[An Anonymous Constellation has donated 10 Feelings (FL)!]

Hidden Quests were not the only way to build up Story Coins.

When the Constellations found something especially entertaining, they donated.

Those donations became Feelings, which accumulated into Hearts, then eventually Afterglow.

[An Anonymous Constellation has donated 20 Feelings (FL)!]

[An Anonymous Constellation has donated 10 Feelings (FL)!]

[An Anonymous Constellation has donated 20 Feelings (FL)!]

Naturally, more rewards followed when he did exactly what they wanted.

‘Nice.’

Jun-il watched his Story Coins pile up with satisfaction.

-This is so damn fun, lol

-I can't believe he killed them all like that, lol

-Peak entertainment, lol

-I came because I heard there was a dumbass Golden Bell game, and now I'm shocked...

The newly arrived Constellations were pleased as well.

[Current Constellations Watching: 882]

The number of Constellations was climbing toward the 900s again.

It meant something that he had grown this much even in a Free Chapter, where no major incident was supposed to occur.

‘Good. It is good, but...’

Jun-il looked at the corpses scattered around him.

‘The boss wasn't here after all.’

If the boss had been hiding among them, Jun-il had expected only that one to remain.

That was not the case.

All that remained were the charred Necromancers and the corpses they had stolen.

People who appeared to have died only recently...

‘Something I heard earlier is bothering me.’

He had only caught it in passing.

That they had been victims of the Line 4 incident.

Back then, Jun-il had certainly been forced to weigh lives as a Hero, and he did not regret that decision.

It had been a Hero's decision.

He shook his head and pushed the thought away.

‘Whatever. The Sub Quest first.’

What was done was done.

He moved forward.

That too was a Hero's decision.

‘The source of demonic energy, was it?’

The Elf's request was not over yet.

Following the information he had gained through Hell Golden Bell, Jun-il went looking for their altar.

Thud. Thud.

Walking through a dark cave without a single sound from another person was unsettling enough.

-Holy shit

-Where the hell is it?

-This place is creepy

Of course, that was something the Constellations felt.

It meant nothing to Jun-il.

He had fought in a Lich's graveyard before.

Ghosts and spirits were merely Goblins with stranger appearances to him.

“Is this it?”

He found what appeared to be an altar.

A magic circle drawn in blood, grotesquely burning candles, and a stone slab with several corpses laid out in horrific forms.

-Oh shit

-Holy fuck

-What the fuck

-Ugh...

-He doesn't even get startled by this stuff;

-Fuck

-Was he in the special forces or something?

The Constellations clicked their tongues.

The cruelty demanded by Black Magic was more than most people could endure.

Jun-il simply was not most people.

That did not make it any less unpleasant.

‘Good thing I burned those bastards alive.’

He endured the revulsion and approached the altar.

Wouldn't he have to find the source of demonic energy to fulfill the Sub Quest conditions?

The altar itself was not giving off demonic energy.

‘Where is it?’

There had to be a container used to store the red mana generated by the sacrificial rite.

‘There it is.’

Jun-il approached a round, red object that looked like a Christmas ornament.

“Hmm? What's that?”

Jun-il muttered despite already knowing, so the Constellations could hear.

“It's suspicious at a glance, isn't it?”

-For real

-Is that it?

-What if he dies if he touches it? T_T

-Ugh...

Jun-il calmly placed a hand on the sphere.

It was not some extraordinary object that killed anyone who touched it.

It was simply a device high-level Dark Mages used to store red mana.

‘A Blood Orb.’

It was basically an external hard drive.

‘People in the modern age have already made something like this...?’

Jun-il found it hard to accept.

Even if something like A+ Rank potential could make high-level Black Magic possible, was it not strange for an ordinary modern person to bring out this degree of cruelty?

Ding.

In any case, he had fulfilled the quest condition.

[The source of demonic energy has been found!]

[Return to the Elf and report your findings!]

Jun-il placed the Blood Orb in his Inventory and returned to the Elf.

* * *

Rummage, rummage.

Without a word, Ram searched through her Subspace Pouch.

“Um... R-Ram? The golf club is over there.”

Sam nervously pointed out the golf club's location.

After all, Sam had boldly declared that the Necromancers would defeat Yulian, only for that claim to be spectacularly overturned.

He was already prepared to get beaten.

‘It doesn't even hurt anyway...’

But instead of hitting him, Ram spent a long time silently searching through her Subspace Pouch.

“Ah. Here it is.”

Click.

What Ram pulled out was a gun.

“!?”

Sam's eyes went wide.

“Apparently ordinary corporal punishment is not enough to make you come to your senses, Sam. As your senior, I have no choice but to take this out and give you a proper education...”

“Y-you don't even know what that means, do you?”

“I do. Education that is proper.”

That was, literally, the dictionary definition.

“I looked into how people give proper education in that dimension, and apparently this is the best way.”

Click.

The black barrel was aimed at Sam.

“The rod of love. Let's take it, Sam.”

“R-Ram! Calm down! T-that's not a rod! It'll kill me if I get hit!”

“Then die, you bastard!”

Ram shouted as she pushed the barrel closer.

Eek.

Startled, Sam backed away.

“Our dear Necromancer brothers are all dead! And you're trying to survive!?”

‘Since when were they our brothers...?’

When was it that they deserved to die for making department-head jokes?

“Sam. Let's die. No, let's go right up to death. I need an assistant if you die. You're going to get shot and survive. You might live if it hits you lightly.”

“Ram, listen to me. At this distance, if I get shot, I'll die instantly. I-I was wronged here. Why did you carve that Mark in the first place...!”

That was right.

The true culprit was the Mark.

Because the Mark of Silence had been placed on them, the Necromancers had been slaughtered with absurd ease.

Of course, the more decisive reason was that Yulian had created a situation where they had no choice but to desperately give that answer.

But Sam could only hate the Mark.

“Hah? Now you're blaming the Mark? Let's see who you blame once you've been shot.”

“R-Raaam!”

Sam tried to calm her down again.

“B-but there still aren't even a thousand of them. He's just an Extra. An Extra with a little more presence! Look at the filter through which the Constellations see Yulian.”

Sam pointed to one side of the monitor.

It showed the world through the Constellations' eyes.

Yulian's face was rendered especially simply.

The system had decided that Extras were not worth spending graphics on.

“T-that guy did one Sub Quest. There's no way he'll become anything important. Didn't the number of Constellations get stuck at around 900? This is all the result of the Storyboard 3.0 system I carefully designed! I did everything I could!”

“Yeah. Sure. I heard you.”

Ram nodded at Sam's passionate speech, then pulled the trigger.

Bang!

“Gyaaaaaah!”

A lump rose on his head.

“I'm dying! I'm dying! Oh, god!”

That was right.

The gun contained an extremely soft rubber bullet.

Story Fairy battles were like this.

They were theatrical.

Just like Sam making such a scene now.

“I-I'm going to die! I've been shot!”

“Hey, don't make a scene. Next time, I might issue a warning.”

“...R-Ram!”

“Waaaaah!”

Sam was more frightened by the word "warning" than the barrel of the gun.

“I'm sorry, Ram! I, I...!”

“Haah. Forget it.”

Ram sighed and pushed away Sam, who had latched onto her.

“I know too. That bastard is... sly beyond belief.”

“R-right! He's insane! We should never have gotten involved with him!”

“To think he used the Mark to kill them. But I saw hope in that.”

“What?”

What was that supposed to mean?

Had Sam's wishful thinking infected Ram?

“The fact that he resorted to such a cunning method means, conversely, that the Necromancers would definitely have won if they had joined forces.”

“...!”

That was true.

Why would Yulian go through such trouble?

Was it not because he would lose in a direct fight?

Normally, that was what anyone would think.

‘That may be true, but...’

Sam felt deeply uneasy.

Yulian had seemed far too relaxed while taking the L4GS pose and savoring the moment.

It was almost as if he had handled them that way because stabbing each one to death was too much trouble.

And then...

‘Was it simply because he wanted to look fucking cool?’

Who was he even trying to impress?

Yet Sam could not shake the feeling.

It had definitely been showmanship.

“We still have one card left.”

“W-what...?”

Sam was afraid.

Did she want to provoke Yulian again?

Honestly, he did not think it would work at all.

“The Necromancer boss.”

“T-that...!”

That was actually meant for Hae-il.

But Ram's eyes were now swirling with madness.

“Sam. This is the first time. The first time that bastard has shown weakness.”

“W-weakness?”

Taking the L4GS pose while burning Necromancers to death was weakness?

More like he had gotten high, wasn't it?

“You went out of your way to lower his luck, too. This is completely possible. He took the Blood Orb, so that bastard must be pretty angry too. With the boss at full combat power now, taking care of one Extra? Honestly, what Constellation would care?”

Ram was talking about narrative causality.

The more natural it was, the fewer Coins it took to steer the story.

Jingle!

“Send in the boss. Buffed.”

“!”

Ram finally gave the order.

She told Sam to send out the Necromancers' boss early, and strengthen it.

A boss appearing too early and being excessively strong could naturally feel strange to the Constellations.

“They'll think, ‘Oh, he was just a gauge for measuring the boss's combat power.’”

But if the target was an Extra, the story changed.

It was much easier to accept.

“By the way, Sam.”

“Yes?”

“What is the Sub Quest reward?”

“Ah...”

“Does it help in battle, by any chance?”

She was asking because it would be troublesome if Yulian suddenly became even stronger.

“Um...”

Sam looked even more troubled about answering.

“Well, it was originally supposed to go to Hae-il, so it was prepared at Legendary Rank... Aaaagh!”

Bang!

Smoke continuously poured from Ram's barrel.

* * *

The Elf blinked blankly when she made eye contact with Jun-il.

“Why are you here?”

It was an absurd question.

“No, you asked me to find the source of the demonic energy, remember?”

“I did. But what are you doing here? Why haven't you gone?”

-What? Lol

-Lol, her sense of time is killing me

-You've lived a long time. Have a drink~

-Is she buffering? Lol

“I went and came back.”

“No way.”

The Elf was surprised.

That was not a sight one saw often.

Having lived so long, she had experienced every sort of situation.

“I can't sense any demonic energy at all. More than that, you barely left any time ago. Are you trying to deceive me? Do you think we keep careless time too?”

“...”

It seemed that the Elf had been taken advantage of by humans a few times because she lacked a sense of time.

Whoosh.

Seeing was believing.

When Jun-il took out the Blood Orb and showed it to her, she stepped back.

“You already brought that back...?”

-Her expression, lol

-Now that's impressive

-Even the Elf thinks that's amazing

The Elf blinked.

“What... are you?”

-<(_ _)/