The SSR Spearman (Doesn’t) Hide His One-Shot Damage - Chapter 3

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 3

‘What? Why is the System Window showing up in red?’

Ding, ding!
One after another, System messages surfaced before my eyes.

[TIP! – Secure your safety by eliminating hostile Heroes!]
[It would be wise to nip any Hero who might become a future threat in the bud…]

The blood-red System Window kept on speaking to me.
Finish off that Hero lying in front of you, right now.

“K-kill… I’ll kill you…”
“…”
“Even if both my wrists are crushed… even if both my legs are torn off! Setanta, I will be the one to kill you!”

Amid the crimson messages piling up in dense rows,
the Hero dragged his body across the floor, pouring curses at me.
…Judging by how he’s carrying on, he does look like the sort who’d become a problem later.

‘But I still can’t shake this unease.’

Ding, ding, ding!
Even now, the red System Windows kept shifting their tone as they pressed me to kill the Hero.
Kill him, eliminate him, dispose of the Hero, right now…
Again and again.
Popping up one after another before my eyes.

‘…Yeah, this doesn’t feel like advice so much as…’

As if the System was…
Doesn’t it look like it wants me to fall into the abyss?

“Setanta… Setanta… you demon wearing a human skin..!”
“…”
“I curse you, and curse you again… for making me trust you, even if only for a moment…!”

The Hero kept crawling along the floor, still screaming at the top of his lungs.

‘At this rate, I’m going to draw aggro.’

The humanoid low-tier Demonic Monsters that appear early on are especially sensitive to sound.
I stole a glance downward to check.

“Kkrrrk… kruk…!”

Off in the distance, the revolting faces of monsters with their mouths gaping wide came into view.
Great, a few of them are already trying to climb up the outer wall of the building.

“Setanta… how can you… with that unbothered expression!”
“I’m sorry, but I didn’t do that. Instead, could you keep your voice down a little?”
“Ugh… AAAAAAGH-!”
“…”

For now, I decided to put dealing with the Hero on hold.
Party because the red System Windows piling up on each other like a horror game’s staging made me uneasy…

‘In the original game, Game Over popped up the moment the Hero died.’

In the worst case, this world might end the moment the Hero dies.
So I decided not to make any high-risk choices.

…Ding!

And then, just like that.
The crimson messages rising before my eyes all froze at once.

[The Tutorial has ended.]
[Survival successful!]

[By satisfying a hidden condition, the <Hidden Route> has been unlocked!]

‘Huh?’

Blue System Windows began popping up one after another.

‘…A Hidden Route?’

I rubbed my eyes and looked again.
Hidden…
Hidden Route?

My heart began to race.
Even I, who had played this game countless times, had never seen this development.
No, there wasn’t even anything about it on the wiki to begin with.

[Entering the Hidden Route, 【Savior of Ailand】.]
[Epic Quest triggered!]

A rainbow-colored aura unfurled around me, and a Quest Window with an ornate border appeared before my eyes.

◈Epic Quest◈
【At the End of This World】
-Become the Savior of Ailand and reach the end of the story.

[Clear Condition: Reach the Hidden Route Ending]
◆ On Quest Success: Return to the Original World, and one Wish.

‘If I see this world’s ending, can I actually go back to the original world…!’

The sound of my pounding heart brushes past my ears.

…Ding!

[【Hidden Route Privilege】 unlocked!]

‘Privilege?’

I immediately clicked on the Privilege to check it.

[Opening the list of Privileges.]

◈Hidden Route Privilege◈
【Viewpoint Change】
-Peek into the viewpoint of the Hero in the Party.
Costs 1 Player Point per 5 minutes

【Mind Reading】
-You can read the hero’s innermost thoughts.
Costs 1p of Player Points.

【Action Compulsion】
-You can force the hero to act. (Same target, limited to once.)
Costs 5 to 10p of Player Points.

[TIP – You can earn Player Points by clearing quests.]

‘Oh?’

Looking at them again, the three privileges seemed to converge on a single concept.

Read a character’s mind.
Give the character orders.
And every so often, shift the viewpoint to watch how they behave?

Why, that’s exactly how a player behaves while playing a game!

‘A three-piece set of privileges made for gamers. Perfect for me.’

The last privilege in particular caught my eye.

‘Forcing the hero to act…’

The cost was a hefty 5 to 10p.
On top of that, it was restricted to once per hero.

[The Player Points cost will fluctuate depending on the difficulty of the action you force upon the hero.]

‘What if I order the hero to kill himself? Would it cost 10p, and would he try to strangle himself with his own hands?’

A privilege with endless possibilities, depending on how it’s used.

[Special Bonus – For the first use only, each privilege can be activated without spending points.]

What’s more, the first time I use it, the privilege activates without costing any points at all.

‘This could be very useful indeed.’

“Krrrk-.”
“Kkrraaah…”

Besides, with the demonic monsters starting to crawl up onto the roof, it seemed time to move to another spot.

“Hero, I’ll take your weapon.”
“Setanta, you f-filthy bastard…! You! I will never, ever forgive you!”
“…”

Even with my whole body crushed and battered, I approached the hero, who was still hell-bent on killing me out of pure spite.

…Pat!

“Hic!”

Pat! Pat!
Pat-pat-pat-!

“Gyeuh-eok!”

After patting the kid on the back five or six times.
I unbuckled the longsword he was wearing, scabbard and all, and took it.

[You have acquired the Hero’s Longsword.]

‘Oh, a new weapon.’

It was heavy enough to feel solid, yet its center of balance sat exactly where I’d want it. I liked it more than I expected.

“Grrrrr……!”

Just then, a Demonic Monster was about to haul itself onto the roof.
Judging by its clothes, it must have been some kind of Imperial guard before the mutation.

‘It looks even more wretched than it did in the game.’

It still wore the shape of a human, but its skeleton was twisted in ways no human skeleton should be.
Its yellowed whites gleamed with a rather repulsive sheen.

‘Shall I try out the new weapon on it?’

I walked right up to it.
Swish!
I swung the blade flat across, aiming for its neck.

……Splurt!

‘Huh?’

A single gush of dark red blood spurted from the monster’s cleanly severed neck.
Then, headless, the thing toppled limply off the edge of the building.

‘It cut through that far too easily.’

When I played through Hell Mode Tutorial as the Hero, I had to slash it more than ten times just to bring one down.
The gap in strength was enormous.

Whoosh.
I swung the longsword a few more times, just to test it.

The arc of the swing.
The balance of force.
Every sensation felt familiar.
So much so that I almost felt as if I’d been handling blades for over ten years.

……And maybe because I’d possessed the body of Setanta, the one who had slaughtered his own comrades who shared his bread, I felt strangely devoid of morals myself.

‘Could the body be affecting me somehow?’

I’d become a Bamboo Spear-wielding Lu Bu, but I did feel a bit…numb.
Still, in this horrific game, that might actually be an advantage for surviving.

‘Better than being fragile in the head.’

I suddenly glanced back toward the Hero.
Something about him looked off.

Inch by inch, crawling……
The Hero, his body a total wreck, had already dragged himself all the way to the edge of the roof.
Beneath it, monsters were lurking, too.

“What are you doing?”

I watched the scene for a moment, then asked the Hero.

“That’s dangerous, you know? Like I said earlier, I’m not the Setanta who killed you. So you don’t need to run away…”
“Setanta, rather than be violated and killed by your hands once again…”
“…Hero?”
“At the very least, I’ll have a death I can choose for myself.”
“Hero, what do you think you’re—”
“I, Charles Brown, will meet an honorable death in this life!”

Whoooosh—.

…….
…….

…Thud!

[The Hero is near death.]
[Left wrist fracture, right femur fracture, and internal bleeding have temporarily lowered the Hero’s stats.]

“Huh?”

The Hero had attempted suicide by throwing himself off the rooftop.

* * *

“What the hell…”

I rushed over and looked down.
On the stone floor, soaked in blood.
I could see the Hero’s legs and wrists twisted at grotesque angles.
And the monsters, catching the scent of blood, had begun charging toward us from far away…

[Warning! If proper measures are not taken, the Hero may die.]

[Due to an unknown error, the collapse of the world is accelerating!]

‘The world… is collapsing?’

I lifted my head and looked up. Somewhere along the way, the sky had turned red as blood.
Just like the screen right before a GAME OVER.

‘So the Hero really can’t die…!’

The moment that guy dies,
it’s like a GAME OVER popping up and the save file closing: this world goes under, too.

“Damn it!”

I threw myself forward and leapt down to the Hero’s side.
Kwaang!
The impact of landing made my legs tremble.
But this was no time to steady myself.
I had to get this guy to a safe place, and quickly!

“Cough… ugh…”
“You lunatic! Why the hell would you jump from up there!”

I quickly hoisted the Hero into my arms and leapt back up onto the rooftop.

‘He definitely got a Health Potion when the Tutorial started…!’

So there should definitely be a potion in the Hero’s pocket too.
He charged straight at me saying he’d kill me, so he probably hasn’t used it yet…

Clink-clank.

‘…Damn it.’

Maybe from the impact of the fall, the potion bottle had shattered.
Carefully, I picked up the broken vial and poured whatever liquid remained into the Hero’s mouth.

“Cough…!”

[The Hero’s condition improves slightly.]

“Setanta… Setanta…?”

The Hero stared up at me with clouded eyes.
Before long, he stretched out a trembling hand and grabbed the shard of the potion bottle I was holding.

“Ho… nor…”
“What?”
“An honorable death-!”

…Krrk!

“…!”

Acting on pure reflex, I reached out and blocked the Hero’s self-harm.

‘This lunatic…?’

The Hero tried to slash his own throat.
With a shard of the broken potion, against his own neck!

‘Damn it, what do I do with this?’

If this damned world is to avoid ruin, if I’m to make it back alive.
This bastard has to stay alive.

Then a single thought flashed through my mind.

[Action Compulsion]
-You can compel the Hero’s actions. (Same target, limited to once)

…A Privilege.
Could I use this to stop the Hero from killing himself?

‘But what if it only applies this one time, and the Privilege’s effect vanishes afterward?’

That won’t do.
I have to make sure this damned Hero can never give up on living, not from now on.

Then…

‘Let’s make that guy my slave.’

Whether the Command Right will actually extend this far is anyone’s guess.
Still, I decided to give enslavement a try.

“Setanta… Just… please, let me die…”
“Activating the privilege .”
“…?”
“From this moment on, the Hero of this world will swear absolute obedience to me.”
“S-Setanta…? What on earth are you-”
“You’re going to become my slave now. A slave who can’t die whenever he pleases.”
“…What-”

[Action Compulsion is activated on the Empire’s Hero, Charles Brown!]

“…Huh? Uh… ugh… Gnnh…!”

The Hero writhed a couple of times.
Thud!
Then he collapsed forward, as if he were bowing to me.

[Action Compulsion Check – Critical Success!]

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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