Pam's Gift (1)
When the Constellations noticed external intervention in the story, Pam had already explained what would happen.
It was serious enough that the story could be shut down and restarted from scratch.
But he had never asked whether the hero inside that story would get folded along with it or not.
That was why Junil was extremely tense right now.
This might have been the second time he had felt this nervous since the whole mess started.
The first was when he watched a plane hurtling straight toward his apartment.
But that tension quickly became pointless.
Huh?
Junil let out a dazed breath, completely stunned.
Big spender?
Storyboard 3.0 allowed Constellations to make additional payments and send support like this. It could even affect the character they were cheering for in real time.
Of course, Junil had never experienced version 3.0, so he couldn’t even imagine it.
The big spender’s name or ID was completely mosaicked out.
Knowing a Constellation’s true name was apparently too dangerous.
Junil stared blankly at the chat window for a moment.
The Constellations were worried.
They had no idea how Junil would take this.
It was the exact reverse of how Junil had been worried about how the Constellations would react earlier.
What do I do?
For now, Junil put on a shocked expression to buy himself some time.
This is my first time reacting to something like this in real time too. Damn it.
He racked his brain.
The hidden quest that had popped up for him.
Did that mean the big spender had dropped some kind of mission?
No.
If a mission had been issued, the Constellations would have already known about it.
They clearly had no clue.
The Constellation presumed to be the big spender had said this:
They had only sent it after observing the situation.
Then why did the hidden quest appear…?
It was as if the quest had known the big spender Constellation would sponsor it.
Wasn’t that reversing cause and effect?
Junil’s head started to hurt.
But something like this happened before.
There had been a time when cause and effect had switched places.
Suddenly, she came to mind.
The wizard who loved wearing red, sitting on a rock with her back to a golden field dyed by the autumn harvest.
A spell that twists causality?
When he had asked her how the order of cause and effect could be reversed, she had answered simply.
Desire.
If the desire is intense and pure enough, it can twist causality. It’s one of the ancient spells.
So did that mean the hidden quest from earlier was actually the desire of the Constellation known as the big spender?
An incredibly strong one at that.
And it had been delivered to Junil in advance.
There’s no way they’d hold such a powerful desire for a mere extra… Wait. Was this originally meant for Kang Hae-il?
It looked like he had stolen a reward that should have gone to Kang Hae-il.
Damn main character buff.
If Kang Hae-il had saved those kids, he would have gotten this experience reward on top of being S-rank and leveled up like crazy.
Or maybe they would have given him something else since he already had enough experience.
Anyway, I need to handle this situation.
Junil had suddenly leveled up. There was no way he could pretend not to notice.
He had to react somehow.
How could he make it look natural?
He absolutely could not let them find out that he knew about the Constellations’ existence.
If that happened, everything would collapse.
As indirectly as possible.
Alright…
He made up his mind and opened his mouth.
“Hi… hidden reward?”
Gulp.
A brief moment of tension.
The Constellations’ reactions weren’t bad.
It was working.
“What is this? There was a hidden quest? This is insane…”
Junil poured it on even thicker.
The Constellations fully accepted it.
Phew.
Junil breathed a sigh of relief inside.
If I play it like this, I should be able to brush off the next hidden quest too.
From now on, if a hidden quest appears I absolutely have to clear it…
Huh?
His consciousness cut off, and his eyes slowly closed.
The Constellations were dumbfounded, but there was nothing they could do.
Most of the Constellations left the moment Junil’s eyes closed.
Current Viewers: 29
The number of Constellations that had broken past two hundred had dropped all the way to twenty-nine.
A few hours passed with only the Constellations with weird concepts remaining.
More and more Constellations were pouring in.
The small group of hardcore fans who enjoyed nap time hated it, but the flood of new Constellations kept coming anyway.
Even though many who had left after seeing him sleep were coming back, the viewer count kept climbing.
Current Viewers: 169
It broke past one hundred fifty.
Current Viewers: 298
It was closing in on three hundred.
This was all because of the article Do Juhye had posted.
* * *
Bang!
Ram slammed her desk violently.
“What the hell is this!? Why… why is there not a single article about Kang Hae-il…”
Bang!
She pounded the monitor and shouted.
“It’s all Sagosul articles!?”
Every single one was about Sagosul—about Moon Junil.
Especially the article written by Do Juhye, which clearly stated that this man was Sagosul.
The mysterious masked man requested to be introduced as the 4th Line Goblin Slayer. That was all he said. No other information was…
There were even comments bashing the other Awakened besides Sagosul.
They had received quite a few likes and were pushed to the top.
“Why… why isn’t there a single article about Hae-il!? Huh?! I even assigned a reporter specifically for him!”
“T-that’s because… you told me to guide the reporter into writing that Julian killed someone, so…”
“What? How did it turn out like this?”
“Well… I used the cheapest ‘Gentle Breeze’ to turn the camera toward Julian, but… he ended up rescuing the kids instead…”
That was exactly what had happened.
They had noticed Junil killing the dark sorcerer and wanted to turn it into an article.
But the complete opposite result had come out.
“Ha…?”
“S-so I think it’s better not to draw any attention to Julian at all. Especially not bad attention.”
“…Ugh.”
Ram admitted her mistake.
But that didn’t mean she was going to let Sam off the hook.
“Fine. We’ll let that slide. But the reason we stationed a reporter there in the first place! The reason we set up that whole scene! It was all to get articles about Kang Hae-il! Where are the articles, you idiot!”
Crunch!
When Ram grabbed Sam by the collar and shook him while yelling, Sam frantically pointed at the screen.
“Th-there are some… down there…”
At the very bottom of the portal site, barely visible, were a few articles.
“Really?!”
Ram’s eyes widened as she looked it over.
There wasn’t even a single mention of Kang Hae-il. Just a photo of roaring flames.
“You’re telling me this is the article that came out!? Huh?”
Sam was shaken again.
“Th-this one too…!”
Sam hurriedly shoved another one forward.
It wasn’t even a proper article. It was an opinion piece.
And it was criticizing Kang Hae-il.
“Ar… arsonist!? ARSONIST!?”
“Hae-il did cause quite a bit of chaos…”
“YAAAAAAA!”
Bang!
Ram headbutted him.
“Ack!”
“Does it hurt?”
“Yes.”
“It hurts me too!”
Bang!
She headbutted him again.
“Y-you’re the one headbutting me, of course it hurts!”
“Aaaaaaaaah! We both screwed up! So let’s both get hit!”
Unable to endure Sam’s sincere advice, she kept smashing her head into his.
Bang! Bang!
A little while later.
Hssssss…
Sam and Ram sat side by side, steam rising from both their heads as they let out long sighs.
“Let’s stop here… We still have plenty of chances.”
“…I know.”
In truth, it was fine for Hae-il to gain attention gradually.
He was currently the only S-rank in existence.
It might even be better if he didn’t get too much spotlight too quickly.
“It’s all because of that bastard Julian.”
The reason Ram was getting impatient was entirely because of Julian.
He was receiving far more attention than expected.
This had gone way past the level of whether they should kill him or not.
“What if… just in case, though it won’t happen… what if he becomes more popular than Hae-il?”
“No way. The limits of an extra are obvious. There’s a huge gap between them.”
Sam chuckled.
“Our story board’s performance is actually really good right now. It charted yesterday and is currently sitting comfortably in the top 40.”
“Really?”
Sam showed her the chart.
“Yes. First of all, it’s a 3.0 version with a modern fantasy setting, which helps. The reactions to Kang Hae-il’s abilities are very positive too.”
Ram’s expression brightened immediately.
“That’s right! As long as the numbers are good, nothing else matters. Just like that bastard Pam said. And…”
Ram grinned.
“He’s F-rank, so he can barely level up, right? Hehe.”
She had calculated that Junil would fail the quest anyway.
That was right.
She had no idea at all.
“Ah…”
Sam broke out in a cold sweat.
“Haha… well, you see…”
“What? Why are you laughing?”
“Someone sent him a sponsorship.”
That day, the sound of headbutts echoed through the monitoring room all day long.
* * *
The next morning.
Junil woke up after sleeping like a log, feeling completely refreshed.
He brewed a cup of coffee and browsed through the articles related to himself while drinking it.
Reporter: Do Juhye
It was a very satisfying article.
Judging by the photos and interview content, it looked like it had been written by that female thief.
Hmm. Things are going well.
The corners of his mouth rose as he took a loud sip of coffee.
His eyes glanced at the number of Constellations as well.
Current Viewers: 319
The effect is good.
It had surpassed three hundred right after he woke up.
Avatar 'Hero - Julian'
Progress: 3.19%
Now, the moment he woke up, he could use a full three percent of Julian’s power.
0.03 Julian.
He somehow felt full of energy.
But there was one small problem.
Reach Lv.10 within 72 hours!
Failure: Awakening revoked
Success: Random item provided
Time Remaining: 21:09:57
Junil was still level 9.
He needed to reach level 10.
Being F-rank, it won’t be easy.
F-rank had zero additional experience bonuses.
Purely grinding goblins one by one would never let him break through the level 9 wall.
And it’s not like a hidden quest will just appear whenever I want.
Junil was wondering if he should check the community for major incidents again when—
Poof!
A chubby figure suddenly popped out of thin air.
“M-Master Julian!”
It was Ham.
“Pam says it’s twenty billion! Hehehet!”
He came with good news.
“Mm. Of course. That’s only natural.”
Junil accepted it as if it were obvious.
“Eh? That’s all the reaction I get?”
“Twenty billion is still cheap.”
“Tsk… But there’s more!”
You didn’t expect this, did you?
What Ham was about to say wasn’t simply that Pam had accepted the twenty billion.
“…More?”
“Pam was so moved by Master Julian’s magnificent loyalty and friendship that he gave even more coins! He gave his entire fortune, sob…!”
“?”
Junil couldn’t understand what he was hearing.
Moved by friendship? What friendship?
“With this, you can buy items here! It’s basically a cheat item! I spent a long time worrying about what to buy and that’s why I’m a bit late!”
He had no idea what was going on.
But a cheat item?
That was welcome news.
If he was offering, Junil wasn’t going to refuse.
“What I prepared is—”
Jingle!
Ham tossed the coins and began chanting some kind of spell.
It better not be a bamboo helicopter or something.