The System Helper and the First Trap

The System Helper installation bar crawled across my vision.

I stared at the message with a tense expression, still standing in the middle of my room. I had no idea what would happen once the installation finished. Even if it didn’t steal my personality, there was always the chance it could mess up my body. So it was probably best to stay somewhere safe for the rest of the day. Collapsing in some random alley would be a disaster.

The moment the message appeared, a black box materialized in front of my eyes like an OS logo booting up on a computer screen.

It greeted me cheerfully. Was this some kind of artificial intelligence?

“Hello?”

“What’s your name?”

“Explain exactly what the Mother Box is.”

After a few more exchanges, I finally got a feel for what this so-called System Helper actually was. It wasn’t some grand artificial intelligence. It was just a simple program that spat out pre-set responses. The kind of useless, brain-dead assistant that came with operating systems from a few generations ago. Unless I asked it something within its narrow purpose, it would be completely worthless to me.

“Alright. Then what exactly can you help me with?”

“Guidance? Can you tell me where the other systems are?”

“Go for it.”

“Aigoo.”

It couldn’t even detect the other systems properly. What the hell? This thing was basically useless. I let out a long sigh at the far more incompetent helper than I had expected.

“What exactly can you do?”

“Tips, huh. So even those require finding the other systems first?”

“Haa… what do you even have?” This thing is seriously useless. The moment I muttered that, the helper spat out something strange.

“Combat learning database?”

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

“Activate it.”

Combat Helper? I tilted my head in confusion as the System Helper began whatever process my command had triggered.

“…Oh?”

Following the helper’s guidance, faint afterimages unfolded before my eyes. I could see the predicted trajectory of a punch I was about to throw. This was actually pretty useful. Just as I thought that, the System Helper offered one more piece of information.

“Auto-combat? Hmm, go ahead and turn it on.”

Auto-combat. A term you couldn’t avoid in mobile games. With that thought in mind, I activated it, and my body began moving naturally along the predicted paths.

“Whoa.”

My body, following the trajectories, naturally executed a complete martial art. It felt similar to the martial techniques used by people from the Murim. Had it referenced those? One thing was certain: it was a level I could never reach no matter how much I trained.

“This is nice.”

The auto-combat function was genuinely good. Everything else was useless, but this one feature alone made the whole thing worthwhile.

“For now, disable auto-combat.”

I hadn’t been particularly interested in securing the systems before, but after tasting auto-combat, my mind changed. If just the H.A.N.D system could do this, how many more amazing functions would unlock once I obtained the others? For now, there didn’t seem to be a better way to become stronger immediately. Of course, taking in too many systems might result in my body being taken over, but one or two probably wouldn’t cause that.

“First, I’ll focus on recovering as many systems as possible…”

I muttered to myself, outlining my future plans. From now on, I had two things to prepare for. One was earning 150 million credits every month to prevent my citizenship from being revoked. The other was getting stronger. If recovering the systems could cover the latter, then what I needed to focus on right now was a way to make money.

Generally, hunters who entered Shion had two main ways to earn money. The first was entering gates, collecting magic stones, and selling them. But since I wasn’t affiliated with a guild, that option wasn’t easy.

The remaining method was completing personal requests given directly to individual hunters. However, this was far more dangerous than running gates. Gates only required fighting monsters, but these requests often involved clients who were trying to take advantage of you. That was why only hunters who couldn’t join a proper guild took them, and most ended up dead or buried in massive debt.

“…But I’m different.”

I had the Community. Through the posts there, I could distinguish between legitimate requests and traps. If I completed those requests and built up my reputation, I might be able to enter gates without guild support. And if that was possible, I wouldn’t need to worry about making money. As long as I could process magic stones cleanly, securing a steady supply would solve the financial problem.

“Let’s see…”

With that in mind, I flopped onto the bed and stared at the constantly updating bulletin board.

“Aigoo.”

Maybe ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠because it was late, the bulletin board was on fire. The topic, as expected, was me being implemented as a 3-star character.

Well, having the only male character appear in a game full of female characters was the perfect bait for the troublemakers.

“……”

Hmm. I quietly imagined what the future would look like after I was implemented, and no matter how I thought about it, a massive flame war was inevitable.

That was because I had already become deeply entangled with Estelle. A dating scene with a character who was competing for first and second place in the popularity poll even before release? In the actual game?

“…Ugh.”

The non-virgin controversy was basically guaranteed. Hell, there might even be an NTR scandal. The game company might have to shut down that very day.

But deliberately avoiding entanglement with the original characters for the sake of the future was impossible. I had to survive first before I could worry about popularity polls or anything else.

Maybe the developers would polish it nicely before release? It wasn’t like I was the one making the game. They’d probably manage it somehow.

It was a bit irresponsible to dump everything on the developers, but there was genuinely nothing I could do. At best, I could help the protagonist and build up a favorable impression, but that was something I couldn’t even start for at least four months.

I could barely take care of myself right now. Worrying about others was a luxury.

Still, if this had been the old days, no one would have been protecting me. But now things were a little different.

Of course, it wasn’t pure affection. There was a heavy dose of meme culture mixed in, but this was still a huge improvement. Anyway, just staring at the bulletin board wasn’t going to give me proper information. I needed to use the search function. Since I hadn’t used today’s search count yet, finding what I wanted should be easy.

“First, let’s try ‘resource farming.’ Will this work?”

“Oh. One good one.”

A decent post popped up immediately.

“Hmm…”

I followed the link in the post and checked the details. The Sparring Partner and Monster in the Sewer quests were impossible at this point in time. But the Rumors of the Haunted Mansion was different.

The post explained that once you accepted the request and headed to Mist Street, the necromancers would be waiting. After defeating them, a cutscene would play and you’d be moved to the haunted mansion. There you had to solve puzzles by arranging colors in the correct order based on hints in each room. You could farm a massive amount of magic stones while exploring.

After that came the boss fight. The tip was to bring holy water, which made the boss fight ridiculously easy. After the boss, another cutscene played and the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠quest ended, but if you searched the boss room carefully, you could find a hidden room containing an item that could be exchanged for a huge amount of credits.

Considering it had been a famous trap request for a long time, it was probably still available now. Finding the informant might take some work, but it shouldn’t be too difficult. Since it was a trap aimed at newly arrived hunters who were short on money and information, they would have made the informant easy for those kinds of people to find.

“I should try going for this tomorrow.”

It was too late to move today. I moved the strategy post to the corner of my vision so I wouldn’t forget the details, then thought for a moment. I still had two searches left. What should I use them on?

That was when Crome’s face from earlier today came to mind. His name hadn’t appeared in the popularity poll. Did that mean he didn’t exist when the game started?

“……”

No, that probably wasn’t it. If Estelle had come to meet him personally, he had to be quite skilled. There was no way someone like that would have disappeared during the city’s disaster. He would definitely show up in the original story somehow. Searching for what he did wouldn’t hurt.

I typed “Crome” into the search bar, but all that came up were posts about the internet browser.

Nothing about the person. Hmm. Did he really not appear in the original story at all? Just as I was thinking that, I remembered the name Crome had given when he introduced himself.

“Doctor Aurum?”

Yeah, that was it. Should I search for that name?

The search results that appeared were… unexpected.

“…Huh?”

It seemed Doctor Aurum was the mastermind behind a raid boss. It was surprising, but thinking about Crome’s behavior today, it wasn’t that shocking. Honestly, he did seem closer to a villain. As I scrolled through the posts, I noticed an emoticon in the comments.

“Hmm…”

So that was what Doctor Aurum looked like? Wait, did that mean they weren’t the same person? Crome with only a head left, and Doctor Aurum with no head. There was clearly some connection between the two.

I thought about it for a while, but since there was nothing I could do about it right now, I quickly shook my head and let it go. For now, I’d just remember that Crome would eventually do something that got him raided by the protagonist.

The next day arrived. I left the lodging early in the morning. I had no idea how long it would take to find the informant, so it was better to head out quickly. With that thought, I stepped outside and checked the map I had pulled up on my phone.

“The government district is… that way.”

It was directly across the main road from the Hunter Guild. While the guild’s territory felt like a bustling downtown area full of people, the atmosphere changed as soon as I entered the government sector. Hunters moved with stiff expressions on their way to missions, and the occasional blue glow of gates created an alien landscape.

“Where could the informant be…”

I muttered to myself and thought for a moment. The guide had only said the informant operated in the government jurisdiction. The area was too wide. Wandering around aimlessly could waste the entire day.

But if I considered the nature of the trap, the answer was simple. This trap targeted new hunters who had just arrived in Shion, were short on money, and lacked information. In that case, the informant would be somewhere those kinds of hunters could easily find. I stopped walking deeper into the area.

I looked around. There was a huge electronic billboard for posting official requests, shops repairing and selling hunter equipment, and narrow alleys between them. My gaze stopped at the entrance of one alley.

“Ah, it’s going to take a while to fill the quota today.”

“Newbies these days are too picky. They don’t even want to do odd jobs.”

Hunters were grumbling as they tried to recruit people. Should I ask them if they had any decent work? It might lead somewhere. I put on the most naive, easily-exploitable expression I could manage and approached them.

“Excuse me, I heard you were looking for workers.”

At my voice, a man with a scar over one eye looked me up and down. His gaze was unpleasant, like he was appraising whether I was a valuable item or not.

“Just a kid. You registered as a hunter?”

“Yes. Here.”

When I held out my phone and showed my profile, the man’s eyes changed after confirming I was the final survivor.

“Final survivor? Why is someone like you here?”

“Well, you see… the requests from the guild all have low pay. I heard that if you have the skills, even newcomers can take on decent requests here. Is that true?”

The moment I acted like a clueless fool who didn’t know how the world worked, the hunters’ expressions changed as if they had found a sucker. A sly smile crept across the scarred man’s lips.

“Heh, you’ve got guts. I like that.”

The man patted my shoulder in a friendly manner and made the offer I had been waiting for.

“Actually, there is something better… but it’s not something we give to just anyone. We need to check your skills first.”

“What kind of job is it?”

“It’s a bit awkward to talk about here. Let’s go somewhere quiet.”

The man jerked his chin toward the dark alley behind him. It was an obvious trick. If I went in there, they would definitely attack me.

If this had been a back alley, I would have hesitated, but we were still inside the main street. Using abilities without permission was prohibited, so instead of flashy powers, it would be pure hand-to-hand combat.

The auto-combat system was telling me I could win in that state. In that case, it would be better to subdue these guys and hear what they had to say. Having made my decision, I followed the man like I didn’t suspect a thing.

“Yes, that sounds good.”

“Alright, follow me.”

I followed the two men into the alley. The deeper we went, the less light there was, and the noise of the city gradually faded. Eventually they stopped in front of a dead-end wall. The other man who had been following blocked my escape route.

The scarred man slowly turned around. The sly smile from earlier was gone, replaced by a face full of greed.

“Do you know what a good job is, kid?”

“What is it?”

“You take the equipment we lend you and do this and that. Don’t worry. It’s a bit dangerous, but it’s the perfect job for making money.”

“But I have to pay equipment rental fees and introduction fees to you guys, right?”

“Oh. You catch on quick? We took the time to talk to you. You’re not going to say no, are you?”

Even as they threatened me, I didn’t change my expression and muttered quietly.

“This is so exactly as expected that it’s actually surprising.”

My calm reaction seemed to confuse the two men.

“What the hell is wrong with this kid? Can’t he read the situation?”

“No, I understand it perfectly.”

I smiled faintly. In my field of vision, where they couldn’t see, combat trajectories began to form.

“Auto-combat, start.”

Now, let’s see just how great this auto-combat really is.