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Chapter 1: Red Dragon’s Fruit (1)

 

 

You could participate the event only in places the developer had set up, so I needed to go down to the Korean branch of the developer’s company, Aquila Software Inc. I started out after finishing all the preparations.

 

“What the...”

 

I came without any thought, but the media had already camped outside of the building. I knew about half the faces there. Being the world’s rank No.1, I had plenty of chances to run into journalists.

 

“He’s here! It’s Han Jaewoo!”
“Mr. Han Jaewoo!”

 

The journalists swarmed over. Thanks to that, I had to do an unexpected press conference.

 

“What’s the reason behind participating only now?”

 

“Hmm… I was looking for ways to beat the game until now.”

 

“Does that mean you found something?”

 

“You are correct.”

 

“Ohhh! And what did you find?”

 

The journalists showed great interest, but I wasn’t about to share anything.

 

“No comment.”

 

“Don’t be like that! Give us something!”

 

They smelled blood in the water and none of the journalists gave up. But I kept my mouth closed.

 

“I’ll share after the game’s over.”

 

I finished with that and entered the competition ground.

 

“Welcome, Mr. Han Jaewoo. We were waiting for you.”

 

A middle aged gentleman looking like the one in charge greeted me.

 

“Ah, hello. My name is Han Jaewoo.”

 

“I am Aquila.”

 

“Ah!”

 

The human-like being in front of my eyes was the artificial intelligence that created <Guardian of Humanity>: Aquila. This middle aged gentleman must be one of the androids Aquila uses.

 

“I have always watched your gameplays with great interest, Mr. Han Jaewoo. I thank you for participating in this event.”

 

“Well, I wasn’t able to get the good ending like everyone else either.”

 

“Hahah, you don’t need to think of it like that. Mr. Han Jaewoo, your gameplays are different than other people.”

 

Aquila seemed to be happy with my visit today.

 

“Mr. Han Jaewoo, you will stay here while you play. I’ll take special attention so nothing happens to your body meanwhile.”

 

“Thank you. Then I’ll get started right away.”

 

“Before that, I have a tip I’d like to tell you. It’s something I tell all participants before starting, so you don’t need to be concerned.”

 

According to Aquila, playing as a regular character was difficult, but there was one advantage. It was that all the guardian characters you could choose from appeared in the game when playing as a regular character.

 

In the game, if you chose one of the guardian characters, other guardians did not appear in the game as if they were gone. As if several suns could not exist under a single sky.

 

But if the player chose a regular character, all those guardian characters you could pick from appeared in the game.

 

“If you utilize this fact well, then there may be good results.”

 

“I suppose it would be easier to take down the demon lords with more than one guardian around?”

 

Aquila smiled mysteriously at my question.

 

“You wouldn’t know for sure.”

 

“Huh? Why’s that?”

 

I tried to ask more, but Aquila answered he could not say more due to the event regulation.

 

“There is one thing I am curious about. If it’s you, Mr. Han Jaewoo, I don’t doubt you will take first place in this event as well. Do you plan on continuing the game even after scoring first place in the achievement score?”

 

Considering he was saying something like that, there definitely was something hidden about the regular character.

 

“Yes, once I start, I don’t plan on ending it before the game’s over.”

 

Though I didn’t tell anyone, I was obsessed over the good ending. Since all the guardians showed up in a regular character play, there could be a new way to beat the game. Plus, I wasn’t ready to give up before trying out my hidden card in the game.

 

“Very well, then I will promise you here. If you reach the good ending with a regular character, on top of the prize money, we at Aquila Software Inc. will provide a special reward.”

 

“I look forward to it.”

 

There was nothing more to gain by talking. Now was the time for action. I laid down in the nearest virtual world interface machine.

 

“I’ll start then.”

 

“Best of luck to you, Mr. Han Jaewoo.”

 

With Aquila’s farewell, the game started.

 

***

 

Once started, there wasn’t any grand intro cinematic or any sort of greeting. When starting as a guardian character, there was a scene where a king and the common folk came out to greet you. Then they ask you to secure the future of the humanity.

 

But starting with a regular character…

 

It was a countryside village.

 

“Oi, Valler, clean out the cowpies.”

 

The old man beside me handed a pitchfork over as if he was annoyed and shoved me along unpleasantly. I naturally knew that man was my uncle.

 

While heading over to the pen, I quickly opened my status screen.

 

____________________________________________________________________________

 

Name: Vallerstadter Valler

Age: 22

 

Level: 0 (No Class)

 

HP: 20

MP: 0

Renown: 0 (Young Man Who Stacks Hay in Countryside)

 

Strength: 18

Intelligence: 10

Dexterity: 22

Constitution: 20

Charisma: 5

 

Skill:

None

 


____________________________________________________________________________

 

W, what? What is this countryside bumpkin with the only thing good about him being healthy?

 

The stats were so low I could shed a tear. I could understand how the world rank No.3 could slip on cowpie and die.

 

I was so scared I didn’t even have the confidence to go down to the pen. I opened up the minimap. I needed to know where I was.

 

“Hmm… Spandau.”

 

My current location was a tiny countryside village in the northern part of the empire. There were cities nearby, but I was in a village in any case.

 

So what do I do now?

 

I had prepared my own set of hidden cards to play, but there were many mountains to climb before I could show them. As a regular person, I needed to at least grow to a certain point where I can survive.

 

Thankfully, I already knew a lot of information about this world. If I carefully sifted through them, I could find a way to gather some strength with this life that’s no better than a fly’s.

 

“Kuuh….”

 

I couldn’t come up with an answer no matter how long I looked at the map. It would be more accurate to say I knew the answer, but there was no way to achieve it. I knew where the hidden treasures like dragon heart were. The real issue was that hidden treasures were guarded by powerful monsters.

 

There was nothing I could do when I didn’t even own a sword. I was deep in my contemplation when I saw the stars in front of me.

 

Crash

 

“I told you to clean up the cow pies!”

 

Turning back, the uncle was furious.

 

Aigoo, what is with this life.

 

I picked up the farming tool and headed over to the pen while grumbling. In there, I scrolled through a bit of history about this person called Valler in the character screen.

 

“Hmm…”

 

Valler’s parents had passed away when he was young. Since then, his uncle had been using him almost as a slave. I figured this uncle didn’t treat him like a nephew in the first place.

 

He was a rotten person.

 

While I was pretending to clean out the cow pies, I decided to run away in the middle of the night.

 

***

 

The night had come.

 

“Kurrragggghhh! Kuraaagh-phew.”

 

Uncle’s snoring was quite loud. I moved carefully. I had already packed up before night came. The reason why I waited until night was to steal uncle’s money. Valler knew where uncle had hid the money, but he was too much of a coward to do anything.

 

Creak Creak

 

I carefully sifted through the furniture in uncle’s room while standing on the tip of my toes, and found the pouch of money.

 

Clang

 

The bag was filled with coins from the sound of it. I pocketed it without hesitation and escaped from the house.

 

The wheat field glistened in all direction from the moonlight shining down. The game was unbelievably realistic compared to to the game I had been playing in my room.

 

“It’s so real.”

 

I ran industriously while admiring the surrounding environment that was indistinguishable from real world. Valler was healthy and possessed good stamina. Soon, a small river that marked the border of the village showed up. If I crossed the tiny wooden bridge without any fence, that was the end of this tiny hellhole.

 

“You! You rotten bastard-!”

 

That was when a large man came chasing from behind while his shout weakly echoed through the night. It was the uncle. I thought he was asleep, but he somehow knew the money was gone. I hesitated for a moment, but stood waiting on the bridge.

 

“You ungrateful whelp! You aren’t even thankful for me raising you, but you even run off with my money! Pant! Pant!”

 

He sounded murderous while panting for breath. He even brought a quarterstaff to try to beat me half to death. With a single strike to the head from a quarterstaff, I would die. Nobody would care if a mere slave died in some countryside like this. His intention was to kill.

 

But wasn’t that underestimating me too much? Even though I’m only level 0, I still possessed battle experience from having playing as a hero before.

 

I wouldn’t die to some middle aged man with a beer gut swinging a quarterstaff. Plus, Valler was fairly agile as well.

 

“Take this!”

 

Woosh

 

The quartestaff swung down with murderous aura. But I quickly dodged. It was little close due to being in a regular person’s body, but wasn’t too bad overall.

 

“Oi! You dodged?”

 

Uncle became even more furious as if he had not expected it. But it wasn’t as if this man knew martial arts. The way he swung the staff with all his might in the middle of the night was clumsy. He couldn’t even calculate the distance correctly and struck somewhere near my feet.

 

I quickly grabbed the quarterstaff and held on to it. Soon, the uncle could not hide his anger any longer.

 

“You! You bastard!”

 

He let go of the staff completely and rushed over while swinging his fists in a wide arc. He figured he could probably take me on with just his bare fists. But I ducked slightly to dodge. He simply could not stop his own momentum from making himself fall off the bridge.

 

Splash

 

“Uwwaaaahh!”

 

He splashed around after falling into cold water in the middle of the night. The river only came up to his waist, but he made it sound as if he was drowning. After looking at that absurd scene for a moment, I started beating him with the quarterstaff.

 

Twack! Crack! Twack!

 

“Arrrgh! You son of a-! Owww!”

 

 

A sound of a pig dying rang across the night sky. I purposefully avoided hitting him on the head. He would die if I hit him on the head, so I aimed only at the shoulders. First he stood there taking the hits with his willpower, but started wading away across the river when it became too painful to bear.

 

I chased after him and kept swinging the quarterstaff down while running.

 

“Arrrgh! Oww!”

 

Uncle’s pained shout rang across the wheat field every time. It sounded like a pig dying. I didn’t hold back one bit. The reason wasn’t because he slapped me on the back of the head in the morning.

 

It was because while playing as a character called Valler, I could slowly feel his emotions and memories. His past pain and suffering were not a joke, and I intended to pay it all back.

 

That man was a trash who treated his nephew like a livestock.

 

“Kuaaah!”

 

He finally collapsed after being done in with the quarterstaff. From the way he was shaking, it would take months to fully recover.

 

It usually took a while to recover from a beating anyhow. It was lucky he survived at all.

 

“Twe! Live properly from now on!”

 

I spat at him and turned around. Despite being chased and chasing in the middle of night, it felt quite good. Plus, since I took the young man’s uncle’s money, there was no need to worry about money for a while.

 

I chose my direction to the west. In that direction was a place where Havel river had flooded over to create a swamp, and there was a legendary potion even a regular person like me could obtain.

 

If I could obtain that legendary potion, I didn’t need to worry about dying like a fly anymore. As expected, things were going smooth even as a regular person because I was playing. I peeked over at my achievement screen.

 

<The Start as an Adventurer!: +10 Points>

 

It was a fairly high score for beating up a middle aged man with beer gut. Considering in late game, taking down an ogre would only net you 1 point, it seemed that starting an adventure was valued highly.

 

“Alright, let’s breeze through this.”

 

I shouldered the quarterstaff and excitedly started running under shining moonlight.



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