Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Charm Offensive
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- Plop.
The massive rainbow slime slowly melted away, vanishing into the ground.
[Field Boss 'Slime King' defeated!]
[Achievement 'Slime Slayer' acquired!]
'Oh, an achievement.'
Ever since the game turned into reality, trying things I never did before comes with rewards like this.
- Ding.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【Slime Slayer】
Whoa! Just how many slimes have you killed?!
: Skill 【Vivid Color Play】 acquired.
- You can imbue mana and magical power with 'color.'
Slimes fear you to this day.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
'Imbue mana and magical power with color...'
I get that it's a pretty useless skill, but I've got one fatal flaw.
'I can't use magical power.'
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【Mask of Silence】
Grade: Mythic
Unique Skill
: 【Binding】
It binds completely to the wearer.
Cannot be stolen or transferred, and even removal is forbidden.
: 【Mana Suppression】
Magical power usage is sealed.
Magical power regeneration is fixed at 0.
You can wield natural mana.
: 【Stigma】
Unique trait 【Stigma】 activates.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
This is the item I got as a reward for being the first—and last—to defeat the game's inaugural hidden boss.
'Fucking stupid game.'
Fine, whatever. Setting aside the fact that I can't take off the mask.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【Stigma】
You are shunned by the world.
: Speaking causes excruciating pain.
: All talents are fixed at 'lowest.'
: Stats do not grow.
: However, stats can increase through fortuitous encounters or achievements.
The world's answer to you is silence alone.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
'But fuck, I can still talk, at least.'
I widened my eyes.
'And on top of that, all talents were fixed at 'lowest'?'
I wanted to scream it out loud, but even that brought agonizing pain, so I held back.
Don't ask how I figured out that yelling hurts too.
'Ha...'
How the hell did it come to this?
How many thousands of hours did I sink into that game?
No.
Did I create that game?
No, that wasn't it either.
Did I grind my life away for some character's happy ending?
Nah, I was just playing it for the first time, following a guide to a T.
'Then why?'
Why the fuck did I end up possessing this goddamn game?
"Fuck."
Ah.
I spoke.
"Grrgh...! Gahk!!"
***
[Calamity Lurks in the Academy]
A classic kingdom RPG set in an academy.
This world has seven calamities.
The bosses of each chapter, these calamities awaken one by one to threaten the world.
And the protagonist, 'Klaus,' stops them.
'Of course, that's back when it was just a game.'
Now that the game's become reality, things aren't so straightforward.
'And I'm not even controlling that character.'
Though even if I were, it probably wouldn't make much difference.
"...."
But there's one big question.
'Update.'
Calamity Lurks in the Academy—'Academy Calamity' for short—got an update right before I possessed this world.
And that update introduced the eighth calamity.
The hidden boss: 「The Silent King」 Laplace.
'It was insanely strong, no doubt.'
I threw everything I had at it and took it down.
'And what I got for that...'
This piece-of-shit 【Mask of Silence】, and this thing now in my hand.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【Leviathan】
Grade: Mythic
The sword wielded by 「The Silent King」 Laplace.
A monster born from the abyss, 「Leviathan,」 slumbers within the blade.
Unique Skill
: 【If 「Leviathan」 awakens, its sealed powers are unleashed.】
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"...."
Just looking at its 'Mythic' grade, it's a pretty—hell, extremely—good weapon.
'Can't help but smile.'
But that's not the point.
'Laplace.'
For a hidden boss, it was the strongest of them all.
No boss I saw could stand up to it.
I swear.
'The problem is that.'
Did that update apply to the reality I'm standing in now?
Even if I wipe out all seven calamities, if that irregular eighth one shows up...
'...Ugh, don't even want to imagine it.'
That's why I need to get stronger.
To prepare for Laplace, too.
'...And besides.'
Gotta take care of some personal gains on the side.
"Hey~ Adel, went at it again?"
Lost in thought as I walked, I'd arrived in what could pass for a city proper.
The city called the Cradle.
And within it, the academy.
The stage for [Calamity Lurks in the Academy].
"So? Slimes again?"
[Yeah, Uncle Beru]
I pulled out my whiteboard and scribbled a quick message for him to see.
Can't talk, so this is always my one and only way to communicate.
"Jeez, why're you bleeding just from one slime?"
At his words, I glanced over my body.
Bloodstains I hadn't wiped off yet lingered.
[Right?]
"Yeah, well, shit happens."
No, Uncle, shit doesn't happen... What the hell are you saying?
Is bleeding from a slime normal?
"So today? It entrance exam day right?"
[Yeah]
"Alright, give it your all. If you pass, swing by sometime."
[Sure thing]
I nodded as I wrote my reply on the whiteboard.
Uncle Beru patted my shoulder a couple times, then casually vanished into an alley.
'Hmm.'
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
[ Adel ]
Limit Break: ☆☆☆☆☆
Attribute
: 「None」
Skills / Traits
: 【Vivid Color Play】
: 【...】
Unique Skills
: 【■■■ ■■ ■】
: 【Silent Step】
: 【...】
Unique Traits
: 【■■■■】
: 【Eyes of Laplace】
: 【Word Bind】
: 【Linguist】
: 【Stigma】
: 【...】
Achievements
: 【Slime Slayer】
: 【...】
Stats
: Vitality: 10 (E)
: Strength: 1 (F)
: Intellect: 26 (B)
: Willpower: 30 (A)
: Magical Power: ■ ()
Talents
: 【All talents fixed at 'lowest' due to 「Stigma」.】
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
'...Still looks like total ass.'
I stared at the status window floating in the air.
The character I possessed.
'Adel.'
A character with stats so bizarre, there's no equal in this world.
Sure, I ragged on it like that, but surprisingly, it's not a bad character.
Especially the number of unique skills and traits—even the main characters in the game couldn't compare.
Normally, abilities prefixed with 'unique' define a character's core identity on their own.
At most 2-3.
That's standard.
But Adel has over five.
'At this point, it's cheat mode.'
But all that falls flat in front of a single 【Stigma】.
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【Stigma】
You are shunned by the world.
: Speaking causes excruciating pain.
: All talents are fixed at 'lowest.'
: Stats do not grow.
: However, stats can increase through fortuitous encounters or achievements.
The world's answer to you is silence alone.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
'But seriously, this is bullshit.'
【Stigma】 is a shackle that blocks all growth from start to finish.
Combat? Leveling? Talents?
Everything starts off rejected.
'No, but strength 1? Come on.'
I scanned the stats again.
Stats
: Vitality: 10 (E)
: Strength: 1 (F)
: Intellect: 26 (B)
: Willpower: 30 (A)
: Magical Power: ■ ()
'Is this even human?'
This character is definitely a guy, not a girl.
And strength 1?
That's barely enough to swing a sword properly.
I'd lose if I arm wrestled a kid.
'No, even for a girl, this is too much.'
On top of that, growth is sealed.
Training, special drills, time—none of it matters.
Effort means nothing.
Feels like the world itself rejects me.
'Life tastes bitter.'
Anyway, let's think positive.
Surprisingly, I've got an overpowered ability or two.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【Silent Step】
All that remains in your wake is silence.
: Erases all presence, hiding your very existence.
The world turns from you, and silence follows in your footsteps.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
'At least I've got something like this.'
Not for combat, but this skill alone nullifies detection, tracking, surveillance, ambushes—everything.
With or without detection skills, no one can even perceive me while it's active.
'Alright, time to go.'
Off to do the 'job' that'll pay for today's meals.
***
- Step...
Even my footsteps faded away.
Today's goal was the usual.
Making a living.
'You're the one.'
In front of a fancy clothing store.
A woman peering into a mirror, was picking out clothes.
Dressed nicely, hairstyle screaming well-off family—you.
'Ah, thanks for the daily bread today.'
I walked right up to her.
She couldn't perceive me anyway.
- Swipe.
My hand lightly lifted the hem of her skirt, aiming for the pouch at her waist.
The cold metal touch at my fingertips.
By feel alone, a few silvers—and even some golds mixed in.
'Jackpot. Sweet.'
I slipped my hand out of the pouch.
Turning toward the alley, I took one step.
- Grab!
Something caught my hand.
"You, what do you think you're doing?"
"...?"
I stopped at the alluring voice.
'Talking to me?'
I turned around.
A blurry face.
'Who?'
I started to pull out my whiteboard, then tilted my head.
Maybe a mistake?
"Pickpocketing in broad daylight. Unbelievable."
But she said it with total conviction.
"...."
I tilted my head again, pointing at my face with my free hand.
She pointed right back at my face, incredulous, and snapped in a sharp voice.
"Ha, yes, you! Zero manners, seriously."
"...."
Oh... it is me.
'No way, how?'
Unbelievable.
【Silent Step】 had never been pierced before—not once.
'I'd never been caught before!'
My career was crumbling.
All those countless nobles and merchants I'd hit without a single failure—my stealthy, perfect livelihood.
All that pride.
Shattered by a few words from this white-haired woman.
"So? Got anything to say for yourself, thief?"
Can't talk, lady.
I covered my mouth with one hand.
A gesture showing that even opening it brings hellish pain.
Of course, she had no clue and stayed pissed.
Instead, I pulled out my whiteboard.
"Hmph."
She seemed to get my gestures somewhat and let go of my wrist with a flick.
"Go on, spit it out."
No choice.
Might as well try the charm offensive.
- Squeak squeak.
The marker squeaked across the board.
'Done.'
I turned the whiteboard to show her.
"...."
Silence.
Her blurry face stiffened.
Her eyebrows twitched faintly, lips maybe spasming.
'What? Didn't get it?'
Worried I messed up, I checked the board again.
[ㅗ]
Hm.
It's written right.
No mistakes.
I wiped the board clean.
Decided to convey emotions more politely.
- Squeak squeak.
Drew a circle.
Inside: two smiling eyes and a mouth.
Next to it: one finger raised like a mountain pointing up.
'Perfect.'
I turned the board to her again.
[😊🖕]
"...."
This time, I could feel the killing intent radiating from her face.
Blurry or not, it was definitely twisted.
Her lips twitched as her hand went to her waist.
'Oh... she gets it.'
Yeah.
Fuck you.
He had no regrets.
She ruined my career— she should be sorry.
"Eek...!!"
At the sound of something snapping.
- Whoosh!
I spun around, activated 【Silent Step】, and bolted full speed toward the academy.
