The SSR Spearman (Doesn’t) Hide His One-Shot Damage - Chapter 5

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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 5

In the dark red sea of blood steadily spreading across the shop floor.
Only the monsters’ shrieks spun chaotically through my ears when—

“Ugh… Je-Jame, s…?”
“…Ah.”

And to make matters worse.
The Hero’s mind had come back.

“Uh… uhh…?”

[The Hero has witnessed the gruesome deaths of his former companions.]
[The Hero’s mental state is deteriorating.]
[Status Ailment – Mental Collapse!]

“Aaaaaaah-!”

The Hero convulsed once.
Then, all at once, he began to scream at the top of his lungs.

“Krrk?”

The noise made several of the monsters turn their heads toward us.

“…Damn it!”

I immediately hoisted the Hero over my shoulder and ran.
The monsters’ shrieks and the screams of James, left behind alone, grew fainter by the moment, until they dwindled into a few short, dying cries.

That was the moment my first-draw Gacha Hero was wiped cleanly off the board…

.
.
.

“Aaaah…! Aaaaaaaaaargh-!”

The Hero’s mental collapse lasted quite a while.
He wailed so loudly that every monster in the vicinity came swarming toward us.

Fleeing in a frenzy, I soon found myself at the outskirts of the imperial capital.
I had considered knocking the Hero unconscious along the way,
but the moment I thought about chopping the back of his neck with the edge of my hand, I realized he might turn into a ‘hero/ sa’ and gave up on it.

‘They weren’t the kind of people who should have died like that. My triple pull, wasted so pointlessly…’

Thinking about it any further would only sour my mood, so I decided to let it go.

“Phew…”

Once I felt I had shaken off the pursuit to some degree, I clambered up onto a suitable building.

…Gulp!
My throat was so parched that I pulled out a Potion and took a single swallow.
Normally, this is a medicine you shouldn’t use this way, but I had to hydrate urgently, so there was no choice.

‘We should rest for a moment and then move on. I can’t guarantee safety here.’

Lesser Mutants, transformed into Demonic Monsters by contact with Red Steam.
These Humanoid Demonic Monsters are drawn not only to whatever stimulates sight, hearing, and smell, but to Mana as well.

So sleeping on the rooftop was out of the question.
All night, the bastards would stubbornly crawl up the building, gaping their maws wide right in my face.

“Sniff… hic…”

The Hero sniffled, fat tears streaming down his face.
In the previous Run, his precious comrades had been brutally slaughtered right before his eyes, and he clearly still couldn’t believe it.

“Everything, everything is a mess…”
“…”
“This isn’t some new chance… this is a nightmare. No, a curse…”

If another Status Ailment popped up and he started screaming, that would be a headache.
I decided to offer a bit of an explanation and try to soothe him.

“Hey, Hero. Charles Brown.”
“…”
“Just so you don’t get the wrong idea. In the previous Loop… no, in my previous life, it wasn’t me who wiped out your party.”
“…What?”
“Can’t you tell just by looking at me? What I say and what I do don’t match.”
“…?”
“I was living well in another world, and then I suddenly got possessed into this body. It’s driving me up the wall too.”

The Hero stared at me, looking utterly bewildered, for a moment.
Then one corner of his mouth twisted, strangely.

“…You’re a different person?”
“Pretty much, yeah. Another soul moved in, after all.”
“No, you look the same to me. Both psychopathic murdering bastards, aren’t you?”
“…”

Silence settled between us.
A breeze laced with the stench of blood drifted by, brushing our noses now and then.

It was a long while before the Hero finally spoke.

“…Confessing to a bastard like you, tormenting her heart over it. And in the end, she got killed. It’s pitiful.”

The Hero’s eyelids fluttered, and then he looked away from me.
Like a male that had lost a mating contest.

“Why… did you cut her throat first, back then?”

‘Don’t tell me the Hero had a one-sided crush on that healer in the previous Run…?’

I was staring blankly at the Hero when it happened.

Woooong—

“Hm?”

Suddenly, a powerful surge of Mana rippled up from somewhere far below.
Kwaaang!
And then, to top it off, an explosion went off.

‘That’s the entrance to the Underground City, right?’

Judging by the surrounding terrain, its position, and that uniquely gloomy atmosphere.
A dungeon infamous as a newbie grinder.
It was definitely the entrance leading to the Underground City, but……?

‘But people are blocking the entrance?’

Wait, don’t tell me this is—

‘Is this the point before the Underground City was ruined by the Mutant outbreak?’

Ding!

[TIP – First Step Toward Ailand’s Independence!]
[Complete the checklist and reach the Hidden Ending.]

At that moment, a hologram window rippled into view before my eyes.

[Loading checklist.]
[Hidden Route Progress: 0%]
-(New!) 『Purify the Underground City』
-『???』
-『???』
…….

‘……Purify the Underground City?’

Is this a different course of events from the original work?
I clicked it right away to bring up the detailed description.

【Purify the Underground City】
-Beneath the Imperial Capital lies a home for the filthy, unclean, and lowborn Ailander migrants.
Eliminate the Special Mutants hiding in the Underground City and prevent the mutation from spreading.

‘So the real Hidden Route begins now.’

My heart pounded fast.
At last, a thread of hope to escape this damned world and return to the Original World came into view.

“Hero, get up. Looks like we have to go help them.”
“W-what—?”

I hoisted the Hero over my shoulder just like that and headed straight for the entrance to the Underground City.

“Put me down! Put me down, Setanta……!”
“Hold still. If you keep thrashing, you’ll draw the monsters around us.”
“Let go of me……!”

He kept squirming so much.
Smack!
I gave his backside a light swat with my palm, and the Hero twitched violently and went rigid.

“Hhk……! Hnnf, hn, ha…….”
“Oops, sorry. You’re still alive, right?”

They say the old saying goes that heroes must be disciplined with the rod, don’t they?
Anyway, I’m glad it’s quiet now.

* * *

After approaching close to the Underground City,
I lowered my body.

‘…The atmosphere doesn’t look good. Let’s hide for now and watch how things develop.’

Around the entrance to the Underground City, humans from both camps stood facing off, looking as though they were about to start a brawl.
Judging by their appearance, some of them had already begun mutating across their bodies.

“Open this door right now! If you don’t open it by the time I count to three, I’ll blow the whole entrance to pieces…!”
“Do you have any idea what you’re doing?! And look at your state… The mutation has clearly progressed quite a bit!”
“You bunch of parasites…! This is nothing a little rest won’t fix! Open up, now-!”

The man who had been shouting snapped his fingers, and a sphere of mana bobbed up into the air.
He seemed to be a mage.

“Hey…! You can’t cause a commotion! If more demonic monsters come swarming in, we really won’t be able to hold them off!”
“Then let us in. Listen to me while you can still keep it quiet.”
“Do you have no conscience at all? Think about what you’ve done to us Ailanders all this time! How dare you-.”
“Shut up!”

The mage-looking man raised his hand and pointed at the other side.
Pwoong!
The sphere of mana flew forward and struck the face of the one who had been protesting, dead on.

“Ugh… Aaaargh!”

With a small explosion, he was flung backward and rolled a couple of times.
Between the fingers clutching his face, roughly half his skin stood up, scorched black.

“S-Setanta. Let go of me!”
“Charles, keep still. Let’s watch the situation a little longer.”

I caught the Hero as he struggled.

‘The residents of the Underground City are mostly Ailander migrants, if I recall.’

Once their homeland had become unlivable from the occupier’s plunder and pollution,
the people of a fallen nation had no choice but to migrate to the Empire just to survive.
…Naturally, they must have been exposed to every kind of discrimination and injustice.

‘Good. If I win over the Ailanders here, I can easily get into the Underground City, can’t I?’

It was a simple affection event.
Save someone being bullied, and their hearts will naturally start to lean toward you!

“Hey, Charles. Stay here by yourself for a moment.”
“What? Setanta, what are you planning to do…!”

I decided to go straight for the affection route.
Scum like that only understand one thing, and that’s a beating.

‘Alright, from this angle they won’t see me.’

I approached from a blind spot, silencing my footsteps.
The thugs were so focused on tormenting the innocent Ailander migrants that, fortunately, none of them seemed to have noticed me.

“Open the door while I’m asking nicely… you Ailander trash.”
“H-hic… hhk…”
“Damn it! We have to survive too, you know!”
“…….”
“Stop squirming and open the damn door-.”

Thud!

I lunged forward at once and smacked the back of one punk’s head as hard as I could.

“Live a good life starting today!”

Thwack-!

“…Uh, ugh.”

With a dull crack.
His eyes rolled back in his head, and he collapsed heavily onto the floor.

‘Huh?’

I only meant to give him a little scare.
So why is this guy trembling all over, with foam bubbling at his mouth?

“W-what? What just happened…?”
“Who did that!”

Then all at once, their gazes swung toward me, chilling and cold.

“Hey, I was just telling you to live a good life.”
“…That Ailander accent? He’s one of them! This bastard is in cahoots with the Underground City scum!”

The thugs spat curses and immediately came at me, swinging swords and spears.

‘Damn it…!’

I twisted my body slightly and let the attack slip past.
Stepping back one or two paces at a time, I dodged by twisting my body just enough, and the blades whistled past my sides, stirring the air.

…Whoosh!

A diagonal upward slash.

Swish!

A thrust.

Shk, shk-!

Off-beat, staggered follow-up strikes.

‘…Their attack paths are wide open to see, aren’t they?’

It was as if time itself had slowed for a moment; their attacks felt like they were moving in slow motion.

Ding!

[TIP – If there is a relatively legitimate reason for injury or killing, the Hero’s Good-Evil Value will not decrease.]

And right on cue, a System message appeared.

‘…So this counts as legitimate self-defense, then.’

Shing!
I drew the Hero’s Longsword.

Of course, I had no intention of killing them.
I just wanted to help them become ‘good people,’ that’s all.

“He’s drawn a blade! Everyone, be careful!”
“….”

Their assault against me came again.
Clumsy, slow attacks, like a bunch of idiots.

Clang! Clank!

I let their half-hearted strikes slide past me as I stepped back,
…Tap!
then, in an instant, I lunged forward one step.

Shk-!

I drove the longsword into the knee of the man at the very front.

“Ah, aaaah-!”

…That’s one down, disabled.
I pulled the blade free right away.

“Y-you lunatic…!”
“From today on, all of you, live good lives!”

Shk!

“Gyaaah-!”

I wrecked the knee of another one.

“S-s-s-save…!”

Puck!
And then another one.

“W-wait a moment! Ah… ahh-!”

Kudeuk!

“Aaaaaaaaah-!”

Crack!

In a similar fashion, I jabbed into the wrists and knee ligaments of the rest of the gang.

Clang-clatter!
One after another, unable to grip anything, they dropped their weapons and collapsed onto the ground with a thud.
…Gurgle!
From their trembling bodies, pools of red spread out beneath each of them.

Whew.
At long last, the bandit extermination was over.

‘Now, let me farm for a new weapon.’

[You have acquired the Bandit’s Spear.]

A sturdy-looking spear lay on the ground nearby, so I picked it up.
This spear is mine now.

“People of the Underground City, you’re safe now. These bandits have turned over a new leaf.”

I turned around and called out to the persecuted Ailander settlers.

“…”

An uneasy silence settled over the crowd.

Aside from the curses and groans of the thugs crawling across the floor, no one dared to speak.
Every face looked drained of blood.

‘What? Don’t they even plan to thank me?’

After a while.
A man with one side of his face scorched black asked me, his voice trembling.

“Th-thank you… Thank you… But what do you mean, they’ve turned over a new leaf…? I don’t quite understand…”
“Hm?”

I gathered my thoughts for a moment.
Then I answered his question.

“Thanks to me, these bandits can no longer do any wrong, so I’d say they’ve truly turned over a new leaf.”
“…?”
“Their knees are shattered, so they can’t even walk. Before long, the demonic monsters will tear them apart. And once they’re dead, they can’t discriminate against anyone anymore, can they?”
“…Huh?”
“In other words, I used justifiable force in legitimate self-defense to make these men good.”

The man with the scorched face stared at me, blank-faced.
Did he actually understand what I said?

“To put it simply, I’m a kind and harmless adventurer who opposes discrimination!”
“…”
“So, would it be possible for my companions and me to spend the night in the Underground City?”
“…Y-y-yes, of course…”

The man nodded slowly.
He was clearly accepting that I was a harmless traveler.

Though their gazes, belonging to people who seemed a little out of their minds, kept drifting to the spear and sword in my hands.
It seemed I had successfully taken the first step toward the Hidden Route.

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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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