Chapter 2

 

〈 Chapter 3 〉 Absolute Obedience

*

What I said kept echoing in my head.

“You’re screwed now, Allen.”

But it was me who was screwed.

Wait, since I’m Allen Pleuk now, did it actually turn out the way I said it would?

“Hah…”

I sat crouched by the well, letting out a long sigh.

I felt like I wanted to have a cigarette in my mouth.

But I didn’t have any, and being in this kid’s body, I wouldn’t even be able to smoke in the first place.

‘How did it come to this?’

In front of me, Allen’s long blonde hair fluttered in the wind.

It wasn’t the brightest shade of blonde, but that didn’t matter.

What mattered was that I was somehow possessing Allen Pleuk’s body.

“Damn it.”

There had been no signs at all.

There was no reason for me to possess Allen Pleuk.

I had just opened the game, and suddenly I found myself in Allen Pleuk’s body.

‘What am I supposed to do now?’

I gritted my teeth.

To a passerby, I might just look like I was staring blankly into space, but in front of my eyes, one line of text hovered.

[Objective: Become a Hero.]

It was a line I had seen many times while raising Allen Pleuk.

A message that simply demanded to become a Hero with no explanation whatsoever.

I knew. It was close to impossible to achieve that goal.

No, even saying it was impossible up to this point was okay. No user had ever achieved the goal.

‘I know it’s impossible but…’

I didn’t want to give up without even trying.

After all, I wasn’t Allen Pleuk.

Maybe it really was possible.

‘Becoming a Hero isn’t all that hard.’

There were roughly a thousand Heroes.

Among them, becoming a High-ranking Hero, which consisted of the top one hundred, might be difficult, but if I could just get into the Hero Academy, I’d have a free pass as a regular Hero.

‘So the important thing is how to get into the Hero Academy.’

While it was true that entering and graduating from the Hero Academy would guarantee becoming a Hero, it wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

At least not for Allen.

With Allen’s current state, it seemed obvious he would die before reaching the entrance exam.

He needed to get stronger—strong enough to at least enter the Hero Academy.

And one way to get stronger was right on my arm.

I cautiously rolled up my sleeve to check what was inside.

Stigma.

One of the few weapons given to the trash character known as Allen Pleuk; my last hope.

I discovered one more thing: I could check my status through the Stigma.

‘Status.’

[Status/]

1. Information

Name: Allen Pleuk

Age: 15

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Stigma: ???’s Emblem

2. Stats

Health: G+

Strength: F­

Agility: F+

Magic: F

3. Skills

None

4. Traits

[Absolute Obedience]

I understood that the stats were just Allen Pleuk’s original stats, so that made sense.

But there was one part that didn’t make sense.

‘What the hell is this Absolute Obedience?’

It was a trait I had never seen before.

I had never seen it while raising other characters, and to my knowledge, Allen never started with a trait.

So that meant it was…

‘Is it a trait that appeared because of me?’

I immediately checked the effects of the trait [Absolute Obedience].

[Absolute Obedience]

Allen Pleuk will absolutely obey the Player’s commands.

Are they messing with me?

In the current situation where I was possessing Allen Pleuk, it was a trait that was utterly useless. I regretted hoping it might let me control others.

‘Huh?’

I realized that the text of [Absolute Obedience] felt familiar.

Soon, I figured out the source of that familiarity.

‘That blessing!’

[God of Chains’ Blessing]

During this playthrough, the character will absolutely obey the Player’s commands.

Did that mean this was what it meant?

If so, did it mean that he would absolutely obey my orders…

And that included me being possessed by Allen Pleuk?

‘These damn scammers…’

I was at a loss for words from disbelief.

I never expected anything like this.

It was the moment I finally got betrayed by the creators of Hundred Braver till the very end.

‘No, this isn’t the time to be like this.’

One thing was clear: it was a useless trait.

That left only one thing I could truly rely on.

The Stigma. I looked at the Stigma section under traits.

5. Stigma

SP: 160

Main: [???’s Emblem (Large)]

Inheritance 1: [Rose Emblem (Small)]

Inheritance 2: (Inactive)

Inheritance 3: (Inactive)

Inheritance 4: (Inactive)

Inheritance 5: (Inactive)

SP refers to Sacred Point, also known as Faith Points.

You could earn them by defeating monsters, clearing quests, or achieving accomplishments.

And those points could be used to acquire traits or skills embedded in the Stigma.

The problem was that Allen’s Stigma was utterly useless.

[???’s Emblem (Large)]

Inheritance Skills: None

Inheritance Traits: None

An empty emblem with no inheritance skills or traits.

I was taken aback when I first checked it.

I had never seen such an emblem before.

The stats were garbage, and with an emblem in that state, I was halfway expecting some sort of unique growth element to be available.

In reality, it was a character that was fundamentally incapable of growth.

However, there were still other inherited Stigmas left.

Currently, only the first inherited Stigma, the Rose Emblem was activated.

Please let there be decent skills or traits inherited.

[Rose Emblem (Small)]

Inheritance Skill: [Swordsmanship (B)] – 150 SP

Inheritance Trait: [Precocious (Small)] – 250 SP

A sigh escaped me. Of all things, it had to be Swordsmanship.

Of course, Swordsmanship B rank was still powerful at this point in time.

It was something ordinary fighters without Stigmas would usually acquire only near the end of their careers.

But just being a B rank was a significant limitation.

For someone who ranked higher among regular Heroes, ordinary fighters proficient in [Swordsmanship (A)] were everywhere.

Moreover, since it was a skill learned through Stigma, it wouldn’t be easy to raise it to A rank.

‘Should I have raised my Swordsmanship to SS instead?’

The original skill of the Rose Emblem was [Swordsmanship (S+)].

When it was inherited, it dropped to B rank.

If I had managed to raise it to SS, the decrease wouldn’t have been the same, and I would’ve received a more useful level of Swordsmanship.

Still, it wasn’t a complete loss.

As mentioned earlier, [Swordsmanship (B)] wasn’t useless, and I had succeeded with the inherited trait.

[Precocious (Small)]

Of course, besides that, the large Rose Emblem had various skills and traits that were seen as successes, but among them, [Precocious (Small)] was something I could call a win.

It was a growth-supporting skill that allowed Allen’s unremarkable physique to break past its limits and aid in his growth.

‘I’m 90 SP short.’

If I had a character that started with a lot of SP, I might be able to acquire it right away, but Allen didn’t have that luxury.

‘So then, how do I earn SP…?’

At that moment.

“Hey, Allen!”

I heard a voice calling me from somewhere.

Hastily, I pulled down my sleeve and turned towards the direction of the voice.

There stood a group of kids.

“What are you zoning out for?”

Fortunately, all of Allen Pleuk’s memories were intact.

I didn’t know the exact principle, but my recollection was vivid, as if it had always been mine.

But if you asked if I had completely merged with Allen Pleuk, the answer was absolutely not.

‘These kids are…’

They were the ones who usually teased Allen.

Among them, a kid who seemed to be in charge held a stick in his hand like a sword and poked at me.

“Are you coming along?”

‘Where am I supposed to follow to…’

It was at that moment.

 

[A quest has been triggered.]

 

A sudden notification popped up.

[Protect the Village Friends.]

A starving wolf will attack the friends who have decided to explore near the barrier outside the village.

Defeat the wolf and save your friends.

Danger Level: D

Reward: 10 SP

‘This is…’

It was a quest.

The content was the same as Allen Pleuk’s first quest that appeared in the game.

Just a single wolf. Moreover, the danger level was only D.

The danger level was assessed in comparison to the character’s stats.

It wasn’t absolute, but a D-level danger meant the chances of failure were nearly nonexistent.

Yet, Allen had stubbornly refused this quest every time.

That was how cowardly the character Allen was.

The other kids seemed to think I was scared by my silence and began to giggle.

“Are you planning to make an excuse that you came to fetch water again and then run away?”

But I was different.

Yeah, that really bothered me.

What was there to be scared of that would make me not want to follow?

“Of course, cowardly Allen wouldn’t come along…”

“I’ll go.”

“What?”

“I’m going too. What? Are you deaf?”

The kid with the leader’s role, who had been looking dumbfounded for a moment, soon broke into a grin.

“Great. Looks like you’re finally feeling the thrill of exploration.”

As if that could be a reason.

I just wanted to earn some SP.

There wasn’t really anything else I could do to earn SP, anyway.

*

The kids who set off from the village took quite a while.

They were conscious of me, who usually didn’t follow them.

A kid who seemed to be trailing behind the leader quietly spoke up.

“Hey, aren’t we going too far this time?”

“Shut up. You think the wolf will hear us? We’ve always come this far.”

“But the adults say chaos beasts come near the barrier…”

“If they come, then what? We’ll just beat them up.”

Beat a chaos beast? You?

I almost said that but held back.

Chaos beasts were monsters living beyond the barrier, the area where humanity was supposed to survive—stronger than ordinary game monsters.

At least not something the village kids could handle.

‘This time, what pops up is just an ordinary wolf, though.’

I let out a small chuckle.

“By the way, doesn’t Allen seem a little off today? Different from usual?”

“Who knows? If you scare him a bit, will he start crying and wetting himself like always?”

Hearing such foolishness, I walked through the forest with the kids for a long time.

The exotic trees radiated a completely different atmosphere from what I’d seen in Korea.

While the scenery was somewhat captivating, for some reason, the tension that clung to my body didn’t allow me to relax.

“Look. He’s scared even though there’s nothing around.”

Scared of nothing? A wolf’s assault is coming soon.

Still, I was overly anxious.

I didn’t understand the reason myself. Was it the influence of the original owner of the body, Allen?

‘There’s no need to be nervous. It’s just a single wolf.’

No matter how much of a weak Hero I was, I could easily defeat a regular wolf.

In fact, the difficulty of the quest assessed based on my stats was D level.

There was practically no chance of failure.

‘Plus, I’m not alone here.’

There were plenty of other kids around.

It would surely be helpful in case of a mob attack.

‘So there’s no need to worry…’

At that moment.

“Ahhh!”

I heard a scream from the front.

I snapped to attention.

The wolf must have emerged.

One kid shouted.

“Run away!”

Before those words could even finish, the kids were already fleeing.

One by one, two by two.

The kids rushed by me, who was just standing there.

‘Huh?’

I felt like the plan was falling apart.

In an instant, all the kids vanished from sight, leaving behind a single wolf.

At that moment, I locked eyes with the wolf.

Its eyes were full of murderous intent fixated solely on me.

‘Should I have run away?’

A pang of regret struck me.

No. Perhaps it wasn’t that I couldn’t run.

I suddenly realized that my body was completely frozen, and I couldn’t move.

Now that I faced it, I had no idea how to fight.

I hadn’t realized it before.

As a Player, I had no idea.

The cold, sharp sensation of danger seeping from the enemy.

How terrifying just the thought of it could be.

‘What kind of Heroes are the others made of?’

While I was stuck in regret, the wolf made a low growl.

The corners of its mouth lifted up.

It almost looked like it was smiling.

Did it realize how scared I was?

That ominous feeling pierced through me as the wolf lunged in my direction.

‘I’m going to die.’

That instinct echoed loudly in my mind.

The approaching wolf felt like death itself closing in.

I had never felt this emotion before in my life, yet it wasn’t entirely unfamiliar either.

My body refused to move.

However, just because my body didn’t move didn’t mean I lost my rationality.

I desperately pleaded with my unmoving body.

‘Please…’

In fact, it was barely more than a command.

‘Move!’

It was then.

 

[Trait [Absolute Obedience] is activated.]

My body moved.

*