The Scammer's Blessing

My own words echoed in my head: "You're fucked now, Alan."

But as it turned out, I was the one ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who was fucked. No, wait—since I was Alan Flake now, I guess things had turned out exactly as I'd said.

"Haaah..."

I set down the tin bucket by the well, squatted, and let out a long, heavy sigh. I desperately wanted a cigarette, but not only did I not have one, this kid's body couldn't have handled it anyway.

How on earth did this happen?

Alan's long blonde hair fluttered in the wind before my eyes. It was a bit too dull to be called a true gold, but that wasn't the point. The point was that I had transmigrated into the body of Alan Flake.

Dammit.

There had been no warning signs. No reason for me to transmigrate into Alan Flake, either. The moment I started the game, I simply opened my eyes in his body.

What do you want me to do?

I gritted my teeth. To any passersby, I probably looked like I was just staring blankly into space, but a single sentence hovered right before my eyes.

It was a sentence I had seen countless times while raising Alan Flake. A blunt, contextless command to simply become a Hero. I knew all too well that achieving this goal was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠next to impossible. Actually, calling it flat-out impossible wouldn't even be an exaggeration. To this day, not a single player had ever cleared it.

I know it's impossible, but...

I didn't want to give up without even trying. After all, I was different from the original Alan Flake. Maybe, just maybe, I could pull it off.

And besides, becoming a Hero isn't inherently that difficult.

There were roughly a thousand Heroes in the world. Sure, reaching the top hundred—the High-grade Heroes—would be incredibly tough, but becoming a Standard Hero was practically guaranteed as long as you could get into the Hero Academy.

In the end, the real issue is how to get into the Hero Academy.

They said graduation guaranteed you'd become a Hero, but that was easier said than done. At least for Alan. In his current state, he'd probably drop dead on the side of the road before he even reached the exam venue.

I had to get stronger. Strong enough to at least pass the Academy's entrance exam. Fortunately, one of the keys to gaining that strength lay right on my forearm. I carefully rolled up my sleeve to check what was underneath.

The Stigma.

One of the few weapons granted to this absolute trash-tier character, and my final hope. I had also discovered one more thing: I could check my current status through this Stigma.

"Status."

I could accept the stats, since Alan Flake's starting stats had always been garbage. But there was one thing I couldn't understand.

What on earth is this Absolute Obedience?

It was a trait I had never seen before. Not only had I never encountered it while raising other characters, but as far as I knew, Alan wasn't supposed to start with any traits at all. In that case...

Did this trait appear because of me?

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

Was this a joke? Now that I had transmigrated into Alan Flake, this trait was utterly useless. I cursed myself for briefly hoping it might be a trait that let me command others.

Huh?

Come to think of it, the description of [Absolute Obedience] felt strangely familiar. It didn't take long for me to realize why.

That blessing!

Was that what it meant? So "absolutely obeying my commands" actually meant... dragging me into Alan Flake's body?

Those absolute scammers...

I was so dumbfounded I couldn't even speak. I had never expected this. It was the ultimate betrayal by the developers of Hundred Braves, whom I had trusted until the very end.

No, now is not the time to lose my head.

Either way, it was clear the trait was useless right now. That meant there was only one thing left I could rely on: my Stigma. I looked down at the Stigma section beneath the status window.

SP stood for Sacred Points, also known as Faith Points. They were points earned by slaying monsters, clearing quests, or unlocking achievements. Players could spend these points to acquire the traits and skills embedded within their Stigma. The only problem was that Alan's own Stigma was completely useless.

An empty emblem with absolutely no inherited skills or traits. The first time I saw it, I had been utterly speechless. I had never seen such a useless emblem in my life. Since his stats were garbage and his emblem was in this state, I had actually wondered if some unique, revolutionary growth mechanic was waiting to be unlocked. In reality, he was just a character who was fundamentally incapable of growing.

Still, there were other inherited Stigmas left. Though the only one currently active was the first succession slot, the Rose Emblem (Minor). I prayed that some decent skills or traits had been passed down.

A groan escaped my lips. Of all things, it had to be Swordsmanship. Granted, B-rank Swordsmanship was plenty powerful at this stage. For an ordinary swordsman without a Stigma, Swordsmanship (B) was a level they could only hope to reach in their twilight years.

But being capped at B-rank was a massive limitation. It was only impressive by the standards of normal people; once you got to the High-grade Heroes, or even the upper echelons of Standard Heroes, swordsmen who surpassed Swordsmanship (A) were a dime a dozen.

Furthermore, because it was a skill acquired through a Stigma rather than direct experience, raising it to A-rank would be incredibly difficult.

Should I have raised Swordsmanship to SS after all?

The original skill in the Rose Emblem had been Swordsmanship (S+). It had degraded to B-rank during the succession process. If I had raised it to SS, even with the same rate of decay, a much more viable rank would have been inherited.

Still, all was not lost. As I'd thought, Swordsmanship (B) wasn't completely useless, and more importantly, the inherited trait was a massive success.

Precocious (Small). Of course, the Rose Emblem (Large) had contained various other skills and traits that would have been considered successes, but Precocious (Small) was a true jackpot. It was a growth-assisting trait that would help Alan overcome the physical limitations of his mediocre body and accelerate his development.

I'm 90 SP short.

If I were playing a character who started with a lot of SP, I could have learned it immediately, but Alan was not that kind of character. So, how do I farm SP... Just then—

"Hey, Alan!"

A voice called out from somewhere. I quickly pulled down my sleeve and turned toward the sound. A group of kids was standing there.

"What are you staring blankly for?"

Fortunately, all of Alan Flake's memories were intact. I didn't know the exact mechanics behind it, but they were so vivid it felt as if they had been mine all along. That didn't mean I had completely merged with Alan Flake, though.

These guys...

They were the kids who usually picked on Alan. The ringleader of the group pointed a stick at me like a sword and spoke.

"You coming with us?"

Go where... At that moment, a sudden notification popped up.

This is... a quest. The details were identical to the very first quest Alan Flake received in the game. It was just a single wolf. On top of that, the difficulty was only D. Difficulty was calculated relative to the character's current stats. While not absolute, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a D-rank difficulty meant there was virtually zero chance of failure.

Even so, the original Alan had always stubbornly refused this quest. That was just how cowardly his character was. The kids seemed to take my silence as fear, and they began to snicker.

"You're gonna make up some excuse about fetching water and run away again, aren't you?"

But I was different. Honestly, this was the first thing that had annoyed me about him. What was there to be so scared of that he wouldn't even go?

"I knew it. There's no way coward Alan would ever—"

"I'm coming."

"What?"

"I said I'm coming. What, are you deaf?"

The ringleader stared blankly at me for a moment before grinning.

"Alright. Looks like you've finally realized how fun exploring is."

As if it were for such a childish reason. I just wanted to earn SP. And when it came to farming SP, nothing beat quests.

After leaving the village, the children walked for quite a while. They seemed highly conscious of my presence, since I had never joined them before. A kid trailing closely behind the leader whispered,

"Hey, don't you think we've come out too far this time?"

"Shut up. He'll hear you. We always come out this far."

"But the adults said Chaos Beasts appear near the barrier..."

"So what if they do? We'll just beat them up."

Beat up a Chaos Beast? You? The retort almost slipped out, but I held it back. Chaos Beasts were monsters that lived outside the barriers protecting humanity's territories, equivalent to high-level monsters in other games.

They were certainly not something a random village kid could handle. Though what's about to jump out isn't a Chaos Beast, just a regular wolf. I let out a quiet, dry chuckle.

"By the way, doesn't he seem weird today? He's acting different."

"Who knows. If someone jumps out and scares him, he'll probably piss his pants and cry like usual."

Listening to their pathetic chatter, I walked with them through the forest for a long time. The exotic trees around us had a completely different vibe from the ones back in Korea. It was a scenic view worth admiring, but the tension gripping my body wouldn't allow me to relax.

"Look at him. There's nothing even there, and he's totally bricking it."

Nothing there, my foot. A wolf was about to ambush us. But even knowing that, I was excessively tense. I couldn't understand why. Was it the lingering influence of Alan, the original owner of this body? There's no need to be tense. It's just a single wolf.

No matter how low-level a Hero was, they could easily handle a common wolf. In fact, the quest difficulty calculated from my status was D. There was almost no way to fail. Plus, I'm not alone. There were plenty of other kids around. There was strength in numbers; surely they'd be of some help. So there's really no reason to be tense... Just then—

"Aaaack!"

A scream erupted from up ahead. I snapped out of my thoughts. The wolf had appeared. One of the kids shrieked, "Run!"

Even before the words left his mouth, the children were already fleeing. One by one, they bolted past me as I stood frozen. Wait, what? I realized my plan was falling apart. In the blink of an eye, the children vanished from sight, leaving only a single wolf standing before me.

In that instant, my eyes locked with the wolf's. Its gaze was filled with pure, murderous intent.Should I have run?Regret washed over me. No, maybe it wasn't that I chose not to run, but that I couldn't. Was I really standing here because I wanted to fight? I had only just realized it, but my body was completely frozen, refusing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to budge.

Now that I was actually facing the beast, I had absolutely no idea how to fight.

I didn't know. I had never known when I was just a player. The raw bloodlust of an enemy, the hair-trigger tension of a life-or-death situation—how cold and sharp it truly felt. How on earth did the other Heroes deal with this? As I stood there drowning in regret—

"Grrr."

The corners of the wolf's mouth curled upward. It looked almost like a sneer. Had it realized I was terrified? As if confirming my worst fears, the wolf lunged straight at me.

I'm going to die. The premonition echoed violently in my mind. The rapidly approaching wolf felt like death itself closing in. It wasn't a feeling I had never experienced in my life, but it was far from familiar. My body refused to move.

Yet, even as my limbs remained frozen, my mind remained sharp. I desperately pleaded with my unresponsive body. Please, just... No, it wasn't a plea. It was a command. Move! At that exact moment—

My body moved.