Chapter 7
Chapter 7
1. Status Window and Tutorial -5
I could feel the stare boring into me.
“Um, Mentor... perhaps you could start telling us something?”
“What did we even come all the way here for?!”
“It’s all wrong. We’re not going to get anything...!”
“........”
Because that crazy spear-wielding bastard was staring holes in our direction even while abandoning his own wailing mentees. He didn't even say something like "You'll regret this."
Not that I could switch mentors now, and even if I had the chance, I had no intention of doing so. A lunatic is someone to avoid, not someone to suck up to.
“Let’s look this way.”
“...Oh.”
I gently turned Sohye's face forward; she'd been fidgeting nervously beside me. What we needed to focus on was the knowledge that would come out of our assigned mentor's mouth, not that pointless glare.
The giant bald man clanked his gauntlets and introduced himself.
“I am R-11. It’s been about three years since I obtained this System. You probably have a lot of questions, so I’ll keep the introduction short... and take questions one at a time. Shall we start with the first-place finisher?”
Questions, huh.
What should I ask first? Deciding that wasn’t very difficult.
“What’s your hunter rank?”
"Same as you. D-rank. Though there's a huge difference in our actual strength."
“Same D-rank...? I, I also have D-rank written on my Status Window. But Mentor, you seem incredibly strong...”
When Sohye asked in puzzlement, R-11 grinned and continued.
“Since the topic came up, let me explain—D-rank is bigger and broader than you think. So being the same D doesn’t mean being the same grade. Remember that well.”
I see.
The bald mentor, R-11, could probably beat hundreds of people at Sohye's level even if they all rushed him. That spear-wielder would produce an even better exchange ratio. But within the System's domain, they were all lumped together as D-rank...?
Then naturally the next question arose. One hunter assigned to the same mentor—this guy was dressed like a Cold War-era Robin Hood—raised his hand and asked.
“Then what about C-rank hunters?”
“I don’t know much about that either.”
“You don’t know?”
"Hahaha! You'll come to know naturally, but the System strictly separates the tiers. You probably won't even see a C-rank Hunter before you rank up. So you can consider every Hunter you routinely encounter to be D-rank."
“Huh...”
Come to think of it.
The bulletin board was also locked to the D-rank Hunter board, and the Stage and Shop were restricted to D-rank as well, as I recalled. C-rank was nowhere to be seen, no matter how hard you looked.
Someone else asked.
“What do you have to do to become C-rank?”
“You have to undergo 『Promotion』.”
“Promotion...?”
“There’s a special Stage for becoming C-rank. Most call it the 『Promotion Exam』. According to the long experience of senior hunters, you have to become stronger than a certain threshold to pass the Promotion Exam.”
Whoosh—!
R-11 clanked the gauntlets on both hands and thrust them upward as if showing off. When he lightly clenched his fists, dizzyingly hot flames blazed up from the gauntlets.
Considering the distance and the temperature felt on my skin, those had performance equivalent to an Earth-standard A-rank flame ability user. If you divided grades by Earth’s classification table, that single gauntlet was worth 1 Noah Won.
“This is a Unique weapon purchasable from the Shop. Prices vary, but most are set around ten thousand Credits.”
“If you equip that, could you pass the Promotion Exam—”
“You’d need at least three pieces of equipment like this to have a shot at passing. Or techniques equivalent to equipment... meaning you’d need to possess that many D-rank Skills.”
So there’s a kind of combat power cutoff.
You need to obtain about three Unique pieces of equipment to aim for C-rank promotion. Converted to Credits, that’s 30,000 Credits. If equipment has no equip restrictions, then with just 30,000 Credits you could raise an incompetent person into that much of a combat asset.
I suddenly felt dizzy. The back of my neck went cold.
[Credits Held: -10,000,000,000 (Debt)]
Maybe the amount of debt I’d incurred was a bigger and heavier shackle than I’d thought... That was the thought that came to me.
The mentor explained more kindly than expected. Things like: 90 percent of the hunter bulletin board is meaningless information, so filter it out; when looking for information, trading with Credits is the most reliable method.
There’s a system where, when a hunter dies, their last post gets moved to the [Will] board, so he didn’t recommend it, but—if you want to look for free information, dig around there.
Even a ghost-story-like tale from somewhere: if a messenger message ever arrives from a hunter name written on the [Will] board, you must never reply.
Pretty substantial.
Though he did gloss over what “higher-tier information” was...
Unlike someone else, he explained everything smoothly without being prickly about it, so the atmosphere was warm and friendly. Just as I was thinking the unease I'd felt from that baldy's smile had been needless worry—
R-11 revealed his true colors after one round of explanations had passed.
“Hahaha! You all seem like you’ll grow quickly. Your questions are sharp and your listening attitude is good. So, about that... this is an offer I’m making only to you all. Listen carefully.”
“........?”
“I said you’ll rarely meet C-ranks, didn’t I? But wherever you go, there are exceptions. Our [Hunter Alliance] has connections with C-rank hunters. And we have a lot of other information besides. You’ve experienced this tutorial, so you know—how much help would that be inside a System where information is hard to come by?”
“Is it... some kind of organization?”
“Call it a guild. It’s nothing special—I’m making this offer because you all look promising. Would you like to join?”
Just hearing it, it sounded like an offer with nothing but benefits. But the Hunter Alliance—I’d seen it a few times on the bulletin board.
└ A new person, welcome! We are the [Hunter Alliance]. We support and educate beginner hunters, so if you’re interested in joining, please contact us!
On posts left carelessly by hunters newly entered into the System, there was always a comment promoting membership, saying they were the Hunter Alliance. Just from that, R-11’s claim that this was “a special offer only for you all” fell apart.
I asked point-blank.
“Can we join for free?”
“...Haha! Where in the world is anything free? We do take a membership fee. One thousand Credits.”
“O-One thousand Credits?!”
Sohye was startled. Yeah, it was startling enough even for me. Everyone must have dropped in penniless—how were they supposed to pay a huge sum like a thousand Credits?
“Um, the Credits the System gave as a subsidy were 2,000, so spending half of it on a membership fee...”
...There was a subsidy?
This System bastard—because I have debt, it didn’t even give me a subsidy?
“But listen carefully. This membership fee is practically free. If you invite other hunters and get them to join the Alliance, half of the membership fee that hunter paid goes back to the inviter. Invite just two people and you’ve recovered your principal. You might even make money instead.”
“........”
“........”
Sohye and I had the same thought and looked at each other with awkward expressions. This is a pyramid scheme.
Isn’t this a textbook scam? I naturally frowned and signaled refusal, but... the others weren’t like that.
“Then isn’t that a benefit?”
“Right. No matter how I think about it, it seems like a benefit.”
Because the other five, excluding Sohye and me, were people who, judging by their attire, hadn’t gone through modernization. Closer to medieval fantasy, I should say.
I stepped forward and spoke to R-11.
“We’ll think it over and get back to you. Deciding during the tutorial Stage is a bit sudden. But thank you for the offer, Mentor.”
“...Haha, aren’t you deciding too hastily? I can give you plenty of time to think right here.”
“I don’t have any Credits at the moment. I bought a ton of food from the Shop, so I can’t pay the membership fee.”
“You can use a contract sold in the Shop and pay in installments. Regarding Credit transactions, the System handles them fairly, so rest assured.”
“........”
Persistent. This bastard. He seems hell-bent on squeezing something out of us one way or another.
While I was agonizing over how to refuse even more bluntly, Sohye, who had been watching this tussle, muttered without thinking.
"Th-This... really is a pyramid scheme..."
But unfortunately, it didn’t end as a mutter to herself. The hunter next to her had heard it.
“A scam? What do you mean by that?”
“Do you know something?”
“Y-Yes...? Huh? N-No, that’s...”
As that spark seemed about to spread to the other Hunters, R-11's face flushed with anger. An unmistakable expression of fury.
“You—”
Aggro management is a tank's job. I sighed once, looked at R-11, and said flatly,
“It’s not exactly wrong, is it? Mentor.”
“You should watch your words.”
Stomp. R-11 walked up and pressed close to me. He wore a thoroughly menacing expression. Aggro management had worked properly.
I glanced at Sohye. Her face said, What do I do? This is my fault. She seemed about to do something to fix the situation, so I quietly shook my head to signal her. It's fine.
Honestly, hadn’t I just said the truth?
This baldy’s height was about 2 meters 20. Big guys are actually easier to deal with, but having to crane my neck up to look at him still bothered me. As expected of a tall bastard, his defense against low attacks looked a bit sloppy.
The guy lowered his voice and growled.
“...One piece of advice. The System fines hunters for killing each other inside an event, but it doesn’t touch minor scuffles. Understood?”
“You really want to get us to join, don’t you?”
I heard the clanking of gauntlets. It seemed like a threat that, if things went south, he’d use that flame-spewing function he’d shown earlier. Clearly, from what I’d seen before, the activation trigger was clenching his fist.
I asked myself.
Well, Noah Won. Can you win if you fight? Is it worth charging in?
I’m not the type who struggles to bow my head and grovel. If there’s something more important than pride, I can lower myself at any time. I’m confident I could even lick boots.
But I don’t bow my head even in situations where I can protect my pride.
He’s holding a remarkable artifact, and if he’s rolled around enough to obtain it, his basic skills must be decent. Probably about as difficult as fighting two A-rank hunters at once. So, to reach a conclusion.
Yeah.
The odds were good enough to take him on.
Maybe not the spear-wielder, but I could take this baldy. I made the most obnoxious expression I could and smirked quietly.
“Even excluding me and Sohye, there are five. Just go quietly while you can still scoop up those five. Or, well... if you’re confident, would you like to have a friendly match with me, Mentor?”
“...Not every D-rank is the same D-rank. I’m pretty sure I just told you that... You must have listened carelessly. As a mentor, I have no choice but to carve it into your body.”
“If I lose, I’ll join without complaint. But shouldn’t there be something on the line if you lose too, Mentor?”
“With a body that doesn’t have a single artifact and a magic power reaction that’s nothing special, I don’t know where that confidence comes from. Fine. If you can hold out for even 3 minutes, I’ll give you something.”
3 minutes, huh.
R-11 stepped back a few paces, gave a magnanimous laugh, and shouted loudly.
"Hahaha! This first-place friend says he wants to feel the mentor's power firsthand, so we'll conduct a brief instructional spar! It could be dangerous, so step back and keep your distance. But don't worry! His life won't be in danger!"
That wasn’t for me to hear—he seemed to be explaining things to the beginners he’d caught in his net.
If he talked that big and then got beaten, how was he going to explain it? While the baldy was running his mouth, I quietly took my stance.
Shield forward, dagger blade hidden behind the inside of the shield. This would do.
“Watch and learn! Once you accumulate years inside the System, you’ll learn just how strong you can become—”
“What are you doing, not coming?”
“...Begin!”
Whoooosh—!
Flames blazed up from R-11’s gauntlets. With fire wrapped around his fists like that, he began charging with heavy thuds. Good, focus. Focus.
Focus.
It changed.
‘What the...’
Something, something changed. The atmosphere.
‘What the hell is it, damn it...!’
That white-haired gigolo had merely opened his eyes wide, but that alone created a pressure as if his soul had been pierced through.
Feeling that he'd gotten himself into serious trouble, R-11 unconsciously swallowed hard.
A bird of prey? A wild beast? No. It wasn’t that kind of gaze.
This Noah Won bastard, his eyes were...