Swarm (1)
Lee Suyeon.
Junil had definitely been interested in her once.
He remembered it clearly.
The days when his heart first raced after seeing her at the freshman welcome party.
Back before I became a hero…
Seven lifetimes as a hero had completely reshaped Junil’s identity.
Thirty years had passed. He had met countless people. Countless others had died.
After that, Lee Suyeon had become… nothing more than a pretty junior with a nice face.
She was no longer someone important to him.
She just reminded him a little of Meyrin.
Or so I thought…
The problem was that she had been right there with him when Sagosul was born.
At some point, Junil had stopped checking her messages.
He figured that if they never ran into each other again, the whole thing would fade naturally.
When she noticed her texts weren’t even being read, she stopped reaching out too.
Yet here they were.
“Long time no see, Sagosul.”
Suyeon spoke as she led the way up the mountain trail.
There was a strange edge to her voice.
This was the same junior who used to call him “sunbae” or “oppa” with perfect politeness.
“Uh…”
For some reason, Junil felt himself shrinking.
He hadn’t even done anything wrong!
The Constellations who hadn’t been watching since Suyeon’s time were clearly intrigued.
Of course, Junil knew better.
Their interest wouldn’t last. Eventually they would find her presence annoying.
It had always been that way.
“Did your phone break?”
“No.”
“Oh~ So you’re not even going to lie about it?”
“What would be the point?”
Since things had come to this, Junil decided to lean all the way into being pathetic and cringey.
“Someone like me… I’m not worth it…”
“Huh?”
“I’m not the kind of person who deserves your messages. I failed. I’m a total failure at life.”
“Why… why are you like this? You’re not a failure, oppa. You saved all those kids.”
“…Kids?”
Junil spoke as if he had no idea what she meant.
“It was all over the news. That masked guy, wasn’t that you? They called him Sagosul, right?”
“It wasn’t me.”
“What?”
“I’m telling you, that wasn’t me…”
“Then… someone was impersonating you?”
“Pretty much. Though it’s not even really impersonation.”
Suyeon suddenly got angry.
“I knew it! That guy in the cat mask looked kind of perverted! I had a feeling it wasn’t you!”
“…”
Junil wasn’t sure whether he should feel good or bad about that.
“So you’re depressed because someone’s impersonating you?”
“No, no. It’s not that. I’m serious. I really am a failure.”
Ding.
[F]
“!”
Suyeon’s eyes widened.
“E… F? Isn’t that just an image glitch or something?”
She was so shocked she assumed the E-rank must have glitched into an F.
An F in potential wasn’t exactly common.
“No. It’s real. I’m F-rank.”
“…No way.”
Suyeon’s eyes trembled.
Now’s my chance.
Junil’s eyes flashed.
He copied the legendary villain from that old dating show he’d once watched.
“I’m just… I’m trash!”
He suddenly shouted in a bizarre, theatrical outburst.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Most people would have frowned at such a ridiculous display.
But there was one thing Junil had forgotten.
He actually knew almost nothing about the woman named Lee Suyeon.
Her personality. Her values…
Huh.
He knew nothing at all.
He had only liked her because she was pretty.
“O… oppa…”
So he had no way of knowing she would react like this.
Is she… tearing up?
Was she crying because she was scared?
Because a crazy guy suddenly started screaming?
“You’re not trash, oppa.”
This couldn’t be happening.
No.
It was pity.
“You’re a hero… Who cares if you’re F-rank? You killed a goblin with a ballpoint pen…!”
“That was just luck…”
Junil, who hadn’t even flinched when goblins popped out of thin air in the subway, was genuinely flustered this time.
What… what is this?
This wasn’t the reaction he wanted.
Did this mean he had to comfort her and keep going together?
No way.
But who was Moon Junil?
A man who had spent ten years with no money, no background, and no knowledge, and still managed to kill the Demon King.
His obsession with achieving his goals was unmatched.
His current goal?
Keep women at a distance.
Then he would simply have to make her stay away.
Even if he had to force it!
Junil suddenly spun around and sprinted away.
Tap tap tap tap—
Question marks flooded the chat, but Junil was certain.
This is the right move.
If he stuck around with Suyeon, these guys would definitely start complaining and leave later.
He had been burned by that several times already.
And most importantly—
She can’t be around me.
Ham’s words still bothered him.
In this world, Sir Julian is an extra. And not just any extra—an extra who is hated. You will suffer forever. You can’t even hope for good luck, let alone expect to dodge misfortune!
The unusually bad luck following him today seemed like part of that.
The real pressure was about to begin.
He couldn’t take responsibility for Suyeon too.
Of course, she had no way of knowing any of that.
“…?”
Far behind him, Suyeon stared with a dazed expression.
Watching the back of the man who had abandoned a crying woman and run away.
She won’t contact trash like me after this, right?
No matter how kind-hearted she was, this behavior probably made him look like a bug in her eyes.
Junil ran with everything he had.
“Haa… haa…”
Thud.
After reaching the location marked on the map, Junil leaned against a rock to catch his breath.
The Constellations were amazed by Junil’s pathetic side.
Some even began to doubt his abilities.
Most of them were probably newly arrived Constellations.
Current Viewers: 362
It seemed that entering the incident area had naturally drawn in more viewers.
“Kiiik…”
“Kiaaak!?”
He could hear goblins nearby.
Junil carefully peeked over the rock to count their numbers.
That’s… a lot.
The population was abnormally high.
He could also see quite a few other Awakened in the area.
“D-damn it, why are there so many!?”
“Hey! The tank should go first!”
“Would you go if you were me!?”
“I-isn’t this abnormal? They’re suddenly swarming!”
The Awakened were clearly struggling.
The strange terrain of the slope.
The overwhelming number of goblins.
And the oddly organized goblin troops.
Hm?
Junil noticed something strange.
Rumble rumble rumble…!
A vibration like a landslide.
This is… a swarm?
Does that even make sense?
A goblin swarm at this stage was nothing short of a disaster.
Goblin Swarm.
A phenomenon that occurs when the goblin population grows too large and their density becomes unsustainable.
“Kiaaaaaaaaaaak!!”
“Kiaaaaak!”
Their eyes turned a deeper red. Their muscles swelled dramatically.
Even their height increased.
From around one meter tall to one and a half meters.
Black spots appeared on their skin, making them look like an entirely different species.
Swarm Goblin Lv.5
Goblins that had once been nothing more than Level 1 monsters had jumped to Level 5.
It was an outrageous level-up.
And that wasn’t all.
The sheer number was overwhelming.
“Kiaaaaaaaaaaaak!”
“Kiaak! Kiaak!”
Goblins began pouring out in such numbers that it looked like there were more of them than leaves on the mountain.
“U-uaaaaah?! What the hell?!”
“This is insane… Are these even goblins?”
“Retreat! Everyone retreat!”
“We can’t! There’s no time to level up!”
“You wanna die!?”
Everyone on site was in complete panic.
And the one watching it all on a monitor—
“Kii… kiririri!?”
Ram let out a bewildered laugh.
“A s-swarm?”
The downside of her bad-luck strategy had revealed itself.
It couldn’t be controlled.
After all, luck was literally just… luck.
Bad luck was still luck.
And since luck by definition was an uncontrollable force of nature, bad luck was equally impossible to manage.
“A goblin swarm already? Is this the power of misfortune…? Everything’s going according to plan, right, Ram?”
Sam asked with sparkling eyes.
Ram had no choice but to nod.
“Y-yeah… of course!”
“But a swarm at this point is basically a disaster for the current Awakened. Who’s supposed to stop it?”
Sam had asked out of genuine curiosity.
Cold sweat ran down Ram’s back.
Who is supposed to stop it?
A goblin swarm of this scale.
It should never have appeared at this stage.
Such a powerful disaster event needed to be handled with extreme care according to proper story structure.
Did I get too excited just trying to kill one Julian?
Ram had made a mistake.
Julian’s misfortune value didn’t simply end with him looking at a dirty toilet.
Of course it didn’t.
It was never going to be that mild.
“If this isn’t stopped here, not only this mountain but the entire surrounding region will be devastated. Furthermore, thirty percent of these swarm goblins are projected to survive, repeatedly level up, and evolve into Champion Goblins.”
Champion Goblin.
A near-godlike combat entity born from countless goblins fighting in a frenzy of madness.
And thirty percent of this swarm’s numbers would become that?
If that happened, the entire story board would be in jeopardy.
The story might have to be canceled altogether.
Everything had an order.
Ugh…
Ram clutched her head.
In truth, she had never successfully managed a story before.
This was her first modern fantasy, and her first time using Storyboard 3.0.
She was a complete beginner Story Fairy.
W-what do I do…
She glanced sideways at the rising number of Constellations on the main channel.
Extreme situations tended to attract attention, at least.
“S-so many Constellations are coming! They’re all heading here!”
Ring ring ring ring—
The sound of the viewer count climbing continued without pause.
At least… a lot of people are watching.
Quite a few Constellations had their eyes fixed on the scene.
If I can’t clean this up, it’s going to cost an insane amount of coins.
Changing or reversing a situation that had drawn this much attention required an astronomical sum.
The situation was rapidly heading in that direction.
Yet there was no sign of it being resolved.
They had been fighting monsters this whole time, yet now they were screaming “monster” and running for their lives.
They had never even considered Level 1 goblins to be real monsters.
With just a few skills, one person could easily handle four or five.
But swarm goblins were different.
[Grrrrrrrr!]
[Grr! Grrrr!]
Protruding snouts and fangs.
Goblins barking like wolves and charging on all fours.
Just looking at them, their aura was terrifying.
Crunch!
Blood exploded from a bitten thigh.
They had gone straight for the femoral artery.
- Awakened Death
Thud.
Awakened began to die.
How many of the people who had come out to hunt for levels were actually prepared to die?
The hunters were now the hunted.
This high-intensity scene drew even more Constellations.
One Constellation asked whether this had been planned with the next part in mind.
The next part…? I don’t even know what that is.
Cold sweat continued to pour down Ram’s spine.
If this wasn’t stopped here… the story could collapse.
Then it would be canceled mid-broadcast.
The entire story board might be shut down.
But should she stop it?
“No…”
Ram shook her head.
“It has to be handled here.”
She steeled her resolve.
“Ram…?”
“Even if there’s a risk of failure! We have to kill that bastard and move on!”
Her instincts were screaming at her.
If she didn’t deal with Julian here, things would only get harder later.
“I-is it that serious? Wait, more importantly, you really didn’t have a plan, did you!?”
“Shut uuuuuup!”
Whack!
While Ram was busy smacking Sam in the head, the background music suddenly changed.
Kiiiiiiing…!
A rather cool electric guitar riff spread out.
“Huh? Why did the music suddenly…?”
Doo doo doong, doo doong…!
A stylish bass line rang out.
Cool Battle Theme
It was an item purchased from the shop.
Even the Constellations who had just been casually watching began to pay attention.
Boom!
The drum hit rang out.
Tap—
Before anyone realized, a masked man had charged straight into the middle of the goblin horde.
When the Constellations’ attention had reached its peak—
—Shaaaaaaa!
A sword strike flashed.
‘Sagosul…!’
It was Julian.
He had begun to fight.
Ram clasped her hands together and closed her eyes.
Please die. Please!