〈 Episode 2 〉 Possession
*
In a dark room. A gaze staring at the fallen character on the monitor.
At the same time, the mouse kept clicking excitedly.
[Would you like to support the character?=""/]
Yes
[Would you like to support the character?=""/]
Yes
[Would you like to support the character?=""/]
Yes
[Would you like to support the character?=""/]
Yes
[Would you like to support the character?=""/]
Yes
But it seemed futile, as if it was all in vain.
Finally, a cold growth failure window appeared before me.
[You have failed to grow.=""/]
Character: Allen Pleuk
Growth Attempt: 100th Attempt
Reaching Stage: Hero Candidate (Ranking Not Counted)
“Ahhh!”
I let go of the mouse as if recoiling.
No way.
This guy is absolutely never going to become a hero.
A hundred attempts at growth.
After a hundred attempts, each taking several days, the result was always the same.
[You have failed to grow.=""/]
The reasons were varied.
Mostly dying.
Or just plain dying.
Thinking about it, the scenarios for dying were merely different.
But what if he somehow survived?
I shook my head.
He succeeded in surviving this attempt as well.
But he has no talent.
No talent, and not even a hint of luck.
No matter how I think about it, this guy can’t farm, let alone be a hero.
‘At this point, it feels like they made this character just to fail.’
That was my conclusion.
The conclusion most communities reached was the same.
[Allen Pleuk (1 Star)=""/]
User Rating: 0.97/10
I really don’t understand how it’s this weak. It’s just frustrating.
ㄴDoesn’t listen at all. Is there any point to this growth?
ㄴHe did listen well, but what’s up with that?
Worst performance, worst personality.
ㄴ+ The worst character that ruined the game.
ㄴPersonality isn’t too bad though, is it?
ㄴWhat is that even supposed to mean?
Trying to raise this guy to level 50 was the worst choice I ever made.
ㄴHow do you even manage level 50?
ㄴStrangely, my Allen listened well and had a decent personality, so I tried to raise him. But of course, being a hero is impossible. He’s garbage.
ㄴLOL The conclusion is that no matter what you do, being a hero is impossible.
That’s right.
‘The conclusion is that no matter what you do, being a hero is impossible.’
This one sentence summed everything up.
Moreover, usually, a character this weak would have some kind of unique charm to make it popular, but not Allen. To most users, Allen was an unlikable character.
Beyond just in-game performance, he was a disaster in the game’s operational aspect as well.
The name of this game is ‘Hundred Braves.’
It was a game commonly referred to as a growth simulation.
You know, the kind where you select options to grow your character.
But the important part was in the game’s name and catchphrase.
Translated directly, the name of the game is ‘Hundred Heroes.’
And the catchphrase was ‘Grow unique characters into heroes!’
The developers had been adding new characters accordingly.
Up to this point, it didn’t seem different from ordinary mobile games, but the game’s difficulty was on another level compared to other casual mobile games.
It took at least a few days, if not a week, to turn a single character into a hero.
And to make matters worse, if a character died, you’d have to start from scratch again due to the roguelike system.
Thanks to this, there were times when user growth rates couldn’t keep up with the addition of new characters.
It was a rather heavy game for a mobile title, but loyal users like me were diligently trying to level up each character as they were added.
Thus, the only interest for those following the game became one thing.
‘What will happen after the 100th hero is added?’
When the 100th hero was finally added, the widely expected outcome was new content.
The final villain mentioned only in hints, or perhaps a new storyline in a new world.
Everyone was waiting with excitement for the next update.
However, what actually unfolded was…something no one had anticipated.
Even the so-called prophets who babbled about the 101st hero fell silent after trying to level the character.
That was the 101st hero, Allen Pleuk, who showed up with a pathetic performance.
A character so ordinary it might as well be garbage.
The developers’ malice was evident in the difficulty of making him a hero.
Putting all that together, everyone said in unison.
This is a complete failure of a character.
Even as complaints flooded in and people left the game, I continued to play.
After all, I had already turned the other 100 heroes into heroes.
Even with a cracked head, I was diligently focused on leveling up Allen Pleuk, sacrificing sleep in the process.
However, the difficulty of leveling up Allen Pleuk truly exceeded all imagination.
‘Please move. Please!’
When battles occurred, he froze and couldn’t do anything.
‘Why on earth are you going there?’
He barely listened to me and died absurdly.
[You have acquired the title [Cowardly Allen]=""/]
Is this really a hero?
Yeah, I could give up a lot of things.
How many characters have I raised by now?
Even without talent, there should be a way.
But at the very least, he should listen to me.
Without obeying at least, there’s simply nothing I can do.
If he had just acted according to my commands, a hero debut wouldn’t have been impossible…
Then it happened.
As I flipped past the growth failure screen, a notification appeared on the screen.
‘Huh?’
[You have achieved the condition and obtained a new blessing item.=""/]
I felt something was off.
After all, I hadn’t accomplished any mission or achievement that would have triggered this notification. I had cleared most of them up to that point.
‘Was there a patch today?’
Now that I thought about it, I had been so obsessed with leveling him up that I hadn’t checked the official community.
Seeing other players whining took away my motivation to play as well.
On the other hand, there was a sense of relief realizing the developers hadn’t completely abandoned the game yet.
‘By the way, what blessing is this?’
A blessing was a one-time consumable item that could be given to a character before leveling up, up to a maximum of three. It was somewhat similar to boost items in other games.
I pressed the notification to check the details of the blessing.
Then the newly acquired blessing appeared on the screen.
[Blessing of the Chain God］
During this attempt, the character will absolutely follow the player’s commands.
It felt as if it read my mind.
Of course, it couldn’t be literal.
‘Of course, they would have hidden something.’
If it was the developers of ‘Hundred Braves’ that I knew, this had to be the case.
I couldn’t help but suppress a laugh. If someone observed me, they’d probably think my head was finally clearing up.
Sorry, but there’s nothing left to crack.
Just as I was about to hurriedly enter the growth preparation screen, I paused my finger.
I thought this attempt was my last, having spent several days awake for it. However, it wasn’t fatigue that held me back.
It was merely the self-imposed limit of 100 attempts.
‘…’
After a moment of deliberation, I eventually clicked the growth preparation button.
‘Well, with a blessing like this, I can’t just not use it.’
And considering the nature of blessings, once used, getting another would be quite difficult.
So I wanted to begin leveling up as soon as possible, while still remembering the 100th attempt. No matter what, this 100th attempt was one of the closer ones to being a hero.
‘This attempt is really the last.’
As I entered the growth preparation screen, I began to check my play records up to that point.
While I did refer to some community strategies, in the end, nothing was more reliable than my own play records.
It’s a game that can change dramatically each attempt, so even that couldn’t be fully relied upon.
‘Considering various possibilities…’
Having formed a certain plan, I turned my gaze to the character’s upper section.
There, Allen Pleuk’s stigma was displayed.
The stigma was a unique pattern that each character possessed, granting them special powers and serving as a medium to record their stats and skills.
And from that stigma, five directions had empty spaces.
[Stigma Inheritance=""/]
[Stigma Inheritance="" /] was a system designed to encourage players to grow various characters. Players inherit part of the stigma from previously raised characters.
Although what was inherited through stigma inheritance was only a portion of a character’s complete stats and skills, the merits it provided to low-level characters were undeniable.
If you inherited a useful part by chance, you might still benefit from it even after debuting as a hero.
If you were lucky, that is.
‘In the end, it’s just a game of luck in a trash game.’
Usually, the inherited parts were from the useless sections of the stigma. There were times when you could inherit five stigmas and not receive a single useful part.
Nevertheless, I carefully selected five stigmas and placed them into the three directions.
Please let me inherit something useful.
That was a necessity. Originally, for him to survive, it was essential to start with at least one useful part.
To make him debut as a hero, I might need all five to be useful.
‘A versatile and flexible stigma, a secondary stigma to assist in growth, and…’
I finished examining the last stigma.
Among the hundreds of stigmas I had raised before, these were the selected five. I had some regrets, but I couldn’t think of a better combination.
However…
‘Maybe I should have pushed a bit harder to make Gwen’s swordsmanship grade SS?’
Suddenly, the image of Gwen, who would still enthusiastically wield a sword even as a grandmother, popped into my mind.
She kept refusing my commands, so I eventually gave up, but I really should have pressed her a bit more.
Well, it doesn’t matter much. I was aiming for other parts instead of swordsmanship anyway.
‘So, the remaining part is the blessing.’
This time, I looked at the blessing slots under the character.
In fact, I felt a bit regretful over the blessings, which were one-time consumables.
Realizing that it was impossible to raise Allen without a useful blessing, I had been using my collection of blessings freely since the 50th attempt.
In fact, right before reaching the 100th attempt, I had exhausted all kinds of overpowered blessings with the intention of calling it quits.
‘This one’s fixed for sure.’
I placed [Blessing of the Chain God］ in the foremost slot.
Now there were two slots left.
‘For the remaining slots…’
After thinking for a while, I assigned one blessing to each of the remaining two slots.
Finally, all preparations were complete.
Surrounding Allen in the growth preparation screen were various stigmas and blessings. True, it was all on a garbage character.
‘This is probably the best I can do.’
I felt tired even before I began, but that’s just how this game was.
‘…Shall we begin?’
Even though it was just a game, there was a strange tension in the air.
I reached my finger towards the growth start button after checking all settings one last time.
‘You’re screwed now, Allen.’
At that moment, my vision went black.
‘Huh?’
What just happened?
Did the monitor suddenly turn off?
The sensation felt strangely unfamiliar.
‘What the…’
I opened my eyes.
‘…’
An unfamiliar ceiling.
Well, I’ve been playing games for days without sleep, so maybe I was brought to a hospital. If it weren’t for the voice that followed shortly after, I might have thought that way.
“The other!” “A-L-L-E-N!”
‘Allen? Who are they calling?’
“I can’t believe you’re still zonked out, Allen!”
At that moment, one thought popped into my mind.
I’m screwed.
*
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