Just a Porter, You Got a Problem With That? (1)
Fairy Corporation Monitoring Room.
The screen displayed Moon Junil sweeping through goblins, accompanied by a slick BGM.
The Constellations kept pouring out admiration, their attention gradually shifting toward Junil.
Even from the Constellations’ perspective, Junil’s strength was on another level. If you only looked at raw firepower, an A-rank Awakened would obviously be stronger. But there was something refined about the way Junil fought. It carried a kind of elegance.
He fought like someone who had been battling goblins since birth. Every motion was fluid, without a single flourish, wasted movement, or even the slightest hesitation. Even when modern people tried to shoot goblins from a distance, they hesitated. Yet this man peeled off their green hides with a utility knife at point-blank range without so much as blinking.
The Constellations couldn’t help but pay attention. Eventually, some of them began flowing into Junil’s channel.
His viewer count had surpassed five hundred.
Ram’s eyes nearly popped out of her skull.
“What the… damn it! What is this!? Why is he so strong!?”
She had every right to be furious. In the original plan, Moon Junil was supposed to get beaten as an F-rank and quietly fade from the Constellations’ memory. Then Ram could have handled things discreetly. But now things had gone completely off the rails.
“F-five hundred? This is getting a bit…”
They were about to cross a critical threshold.
“S-should we still force a cleanup? Five hundred is still manageable, right?”
“You idiot!”
Thwack!
Ram smacked Sam upside the head.
“Are you insane!? Five hundred only doesn’t matter when you’re already sitting at the top of the charts! We’re in the middle of climbing right now! If something weird happens while five hundred people are watching, it’s game over! Everything’s ruined!”
Even handling a single Constellation who showed strong interest was difficult. Trying to eliminate someone watched by hundreds was pure madness. They’d have to brace for hundreds of unsubscribe bombs, write hundreds of incident reports for headquarters, and there was no telling what kind of effect it would have on the Constellations. In the worst case, Ram herself could end up taking Pam’s place in prison.
Ram returned to the fundamental question.
“Hey. Sam.”
“Yes?”
“Why the hell is he so strong? This has to be a bug, right!?”
Grab!
Ram seized Sam by the collar and shook him violently. She had planned the board, but Sam had handled all the detailed settings. Even if she suspected he was a traitor, she had no comeback.
“N-no, that’s not it! I’ve been checking him obsessively ever since the subway incident, but there wasn’t a single bug or anomaly!”
As far as Sam could verify, there had been nothing strange. The human Moon Junil was exactly what he appeared to be—an F-rank, weak, modern liberal-arts graduate majoring in business administration.
“B-but at least Julian stopped the Goblin Swarm, right? That’s lucky, isn’t it?”
“You think that’s supposed to comfort me?”
“I’m right though… If that swarm had been released into the city, we’d all be finished.”
“Haa… yeah, that’s true.”
Ram sighed and nodded.
“See? I told y—”
Sam thought Ram had finally accepted one of his points, but—
“That’s exactly why you deserve a beating!”
Bam!
Ram’s flying high kick slammed into Sam’s face.
“Guh!”
Sam went flying, did a full somersault in the air, and crashed to the floor. It didn’t actually hurt, of course.
“Haa… haaa… calling that comforting, my ass.”
Panting, Ram returned to the monitor.
Getting worked up wouldn’t solve anything.
If I get greedy and try to remove Julian now, I’ll only make things worse.
By shaving away his luck, she had instead turned Julian into an even bigger star.
Restoring luck that’s already been cut costs a fortune too.
Rolling back an intervention required several times more coins than the original meddling. She needed a different approach. She had to think smarter.
Even if it felt roundabout, she had to take the long way. Indirectly.
A sly smile crept across Ram’s face. She had an idea.
“Dungeon real-name system.”
“Huh?”
“Hae-il’s about to enter one. Let’s make the dungeon display ranks and real names.”
“B-but he’s about to walk in right now? Immediately? His foot’s literally stepping inside the entrance?”
“You moron! Just pause it for a second and apply it deeper inside!”
Thump!
In a fit of irritation, Ram slammed a button.
While the advertisement played, the Story Board’s timeline froze.
During the ad, the Story Board’s time stopped. It was a permitted loophole that didn’t cost any coins, but it could only be used once or twice.
“A-an advertisement!?”
That was why Sam looked so shocked. After all, Constellations were notoriously impatient across all dimensions. There was no way they’d sit quietly through an ad.
[The Farmer Who Chose Farming Because He Hates People]
[But… My Plants Are Acting Weird!?]
[A Cold-Hearted World! Plants That Spit Blood!]
[The Farmer of a Ruined World]
[Now Airing!]
Sam frantically typed away at the controls while the ads played.
Tap tap tap tap tap…!
“Done!”
He barely finished the settings right as the advertisement ended.
“Now ranks will be displayed, and even the people who already entered will get a notification! Julian will have no choice but to reveal his rank before going in!”
The advertisement ended and the world began moving again.
Kang Hae-il and his party entered the dungeon. They smoothly cleared the early sections, drawing in more Constellations. Since it was the first dungeon raid, countless Constellations were watching.
But Ram’s gaze was fixed somewhere else entirely.
Sagosul, you bastard… If you don’t want your identity revealed, you won’t be able to enter.
It was Junil. After taking photos with the Awakened, he had finally arrived in front of the dungeon.
“Oh? He’s hesitating.”
“Yes. He probably won’t go in. His real name and rank are both exposed now.”
Ram knew. Julian desperately wanted to keep his identity hidden. Hadn’t he gone out of his way to conceal it from Soo-yeon too? On top of that, Kang Hae-il hated Sagosul. He would want to hide it even more. Could he really endure an S-rank’s hostility while his entire identity was laid bare?
He won’t go in.
In fact, Junil seemed to be standing there pondering for a long time.
However—
“…?”
Suddenly, Junil changed his clothes and took off his mask.
“W-what? This guy is taking his mask off instead?”
“Huh?”
“Didn’t he want to hide his identity!? He’s been covering his face for every photo until now!”
Ram looked like she had lost an entire country.
“I… I burned an entire ad slot for this?”
She had made a pretty big bet on this move. And yet Junil was strolling in like he was just entering a neighborhood bathhouse, casually changing clothes and walking inside.
Whoosh.
In an instant, Junil was summoned to where the party members were.
Kang Hae-il’s party stared at him with bewildered expressions.
What the hell is going on?
Ram wore the exact same expression. She couldn’t understand it. Why was he walking in with his face, name, and rank all completely exposed?
* * *
The moment he closed and opened his eyes, the space had completely changed.
The first thing he saw was Constellations laughing excitedly.
Why?
F-rank Moon Junil has joined the party.
The notification had appeared across the entire dungeon.
The Constellations were half worried, half excited. Some thought it would be fine since Junil’s combat power was strong regardless of rank…
Others foresaw various bad outcomes and worried. Either way, he was already inside.
The party members stared at the suddenly-appeared Junil.
Yeah. I’m F-rank.
It was clear from their eyes what they were about to say.
“Um… wouldn’t it be better if you left? It’s dangerous here.”
Someone suggested he should leave. The others chimed in.
“Yeah, it’s really dangerous.”
“F-rank…? Aren’t you a production class? This doesn’t make sense. How did you even get here?”
But Junil didn’t back down.
“I’ll be helpful.”
“Sorry?”
“My class will be useful to all of you.”
It sounded like a reckless claim.
“What’s your class? Farmer?”
One man asked with a snort.
Junil answered.
“I’m a porter.”
Junil didn’t actually have a class. He had simply picked the most plausible-sounding one he could think of on the spot.
“Porter? I’ve never heard of that class before.”
“Why would a porter even come into a dungeon like this?”
“What are we supposed to do with a porter?”
Everyone was chiming in when—
“Porter?”
From the back, a man who had been listening stepped forward. He swept back his black hair and stared at Junil, as if trying to see through him.
Kang Hae-il.
Gulp.
Junil swallowed dryly, wondering if Kang Hae-il might recognize him.
This bastard… his mana feels even stronger now.
As expected of an S-rank diamond spoon, he had gotten stronger again in such a short time. The so-called protagonist buff didn’t feel like much when you had it, but watching from the side, it was quite impressive.
“Ah… yes, Hae-il. This person is F-rank and says he’s a porter… haha. That doesn’t make any sense, right?”
“Hyung-nim, I’ll kick him out. You should just rest.”
Everyone seemed flustered by Kang Hae-il’s appearance, but Hae-il ignored them all and walked straight up to Junil.
Once again, Hae-il’s eyes scanned Junil multiple times.
Why is he staring like that? Does he have an analysis skill?
He could feel some kind of mana movement, but even Junil couldn’t tell what it was doing. Just what had Ram given this guy?
“Porter. Can you do it?”
“…Me?”
“Who else would I be talking to?”
Why is this guy speaking so casually? Junil thought, but then remembered—
Must be a protagonist thing.
Now that he thought about it, Julian had also spoken casually to almost everyone during his hero days.
“Yes. I believe I can do it.”
“Then it’s fine.”
Kang Hae-il’s simple answer left the rest of the party stunned.
“…What?!”
“Hae-il, wait—”
“He’s F-rank?”
Kang Hae-il shot them a glare.
“What does it matter if he’s F-rank? Ranks are just numbers.”
And so, in a slightly absurd fashion, Junil joined their party.
“…Ranks are letters, though.”
Junil muttered without thinking, but—
Well… at least it worked out.
He was relieved that he had joined without any major incident.
Anyway, he had ended up next to Kang Hae-il. There were several big advantages to this.
First, I can keep him from dying.
Thinking back to his first round as a hero, no matter how many protagonist buffs were stacked on him, there had been dozens of near-death moments. If Junil stayed close, he could prevent those.
But the real advantage was something else.
.
.
.
The number of Constellations was increasing rapidly.
Simply by joining the party without doing anything, he was on the verge of breaking six hundred viewers.
Was it because the count had suddenly jumped by the hundreds?
Crackle.
Static flickered across Ram’s vision.