The Porter's Strength Revealed (2)

Huk!? P-Pam, sir! Is this really okay?

Ham trembled with anxiety.

He might not have understood exactly how contribution points were calculated, but there was no way an F-rank porter like Moon Junil should have been able to take first place.

Beside him, Pam responded not with words but with a torrent of curses.

Pam could see right through it. Ram had clearly rigged the settings this way on purpose just to expose Moon Junil’s identity.

"Why the hell did he even join Kang Hae-il’s party in the first place!? Isn’t this way too dangerous…?"

Ham pressed a hand to his forehead, visibly distressed. He’d thought signing up for Kang Hae-il’s raid team carried far too much risk from the start.

"No. That was actually the best possible move."

"Huh?"

Yet Pam claimed the decision to join the party had been a masterstroke.

"Ham. In a story like this, aside from the protagonist himself, what position draws the most attention from the Constellations?"

"Well… the main supporting character? Or the main villain?"

"Exactly."

Ham tilted his head, confused.

Exactly? Was that it?

What did that have to do with Julian’s judgment?

"Both," Pam said.

"Both?"

"You still don’t get it? From Kang Hae-il’s perspective, the main villain is the masked man pretending to be Sagosul. And the supporting character is the F-rank porter."

"Ah!"

That was it.

Junil planned to occupy both positions that could draw the most attention besides the protagonist himself.

"Julian is going to sabotage all of Kang Hae-il’s big moments from both angles."

Moon Junil would destroy him from within, while Sagosul would crush him from the outside.

"…What a terrifying person."

Ham was stunned. He hadn’t realized Julian’s plan was this meticulous. It was exactly what you’d ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠expect from a hero who had prevented the world’s destruction seven times.

The scale was completely different.

"From Kang Hae-il’s point of view, this must be driving him insane, right?"

"Hm? Not at all."

"No?"

"Why would Kang Hae-il lose his mind? He doesn’t even know what’s ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠happening to him."

"Then…!"

"It’s the Constellations watching him who are going to go crazy."

"Huk!"

Ham nearly fainted again. Kang Hae-il would remain blissfully unaware forever while the Constellations kept abandoning him one after another.

"Th-that’s too cruel… How far is he going to…"

"Cruel?"

Pam let out a cold laugh.

"The truly cruel one is Ram. Julian just had his hard-earned apartment smashed to pieces in the most pathetic way imaginable."

That was true.

The reason Julian could employ such vicious tactics without feeling even the slightest guilt was simple: what had been done to him was far worse.

"Is an apartment really such a rare artifact?"

Ham had trouble wrapping his head around it.

"Well… I’m not entirely sure, but I’ve heard that when words like ‘Seoul’ or ‘Han River’ get attached to it, the value transcends space and even time itself. So yeah, I’d call that an artifact."

"I see? To think artifacts exist even in a mana-free Blue Zone like this…"

The fairies tried to make sense of Julian’s rage in their own way. Of course, they couldn’t possibly understand even twenty percent of his actual fury. By the time they figured it out, apartment prices would have risen another twenty percent.

"Anyway, the plan went off the rails right from the first step. How is he going to fix this?"

Pam turned her attention back to the screen.

Julian had taken first place in the most blatant way possible. Every member inside the dungeon looked completely stunned.

"I don’t know… If the protagonist had some kind of buff, maybe they’d let it slide, but…"

It wasn’t actually that big of a problem. With the right words, it could probably be glossed over. In normal circumstances, anyway.

"But Ram lowered his luck stat so much… Do you think it’ll work?"

Ham sounded anxious. Pam was just as worried. After all, she was the one who’d been thrown in prison, not Ham.

But—

"I… I believe in him."

"You do?"

"Julian will handle it. This much is well within a hero’s capabilities."

"Can a hero’s abilities even solve something like this?"

"A hero’s power isn’t limited to cutting off the Demon King’s head. To reach that point, you need quite a variety of skills. For example…"

"…?"

"The gift of the gab."

After the contribution rankings were revealed, Junil’s Constellations lost their minds with joy.

The Constellations were more excited than Junil had ever seen them. Yet Junil himself was deep in serious thought.

Shit. They found me out.

A system that publicly revealed the top contributor? This was bad.

"…The porter? In first place?"

"Hmm? So Sir Junil took first…?"

"……"

Kim Chaeyoung, Jeon In-su, and Kang Hae-il. All three were staring straight at him.

What do I say?

What stance should he take?

Should he claim he accidentally landed the final blow?

That won’t work. They saw how far away I was.

Even though Junil had used Flash Step twice to come and go, from their perspective he had simply been standing at a distance.

Claiming he’d accidentally taken the last hit from that far away would never fly.

Then…

There was only one option left.

"W-wait…!? Isn’t this a bug? There’s no way this is right…"

Just play dumb.

While Junil couldn’t act like a movie star, when it came to real-life scams and cons, his skills were top-tier. He was a hero, after all.

Why a hero needed to be so good at bullshitting was… a long and rather dark story, so let’s skip it.

Will the bug excuse even work?

He was confident in his acting, but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the logic had to hold up.

Would the claim that this was a "bug" be accepted?

Up until now, the Status Window’s messages had been treated as absolute truth by humans. And now suddenly it was a bug?

It sounded ridiculous.

"A bug…? Th-that can’t be. Porter, did you… do something?"

Kim Chaeyoung asked the sharp question one would expect from a mage. With someone like her in the party, simply brushing it off wasn’t going to be easy.

That was why he had prepared a logical explanation.

"Contribution."

He went straight for it.

"Contribution?"

At that moment, everyone’s reaction was a collective question mark.

Now was the time to activate the skill.

The Mana Shout that amplified persuasiveness!

"It doesn’t say who killed the Champion Goblin. It says contribution, right?"

"…Isn’t that the same thing?"

"No, it isn’t. We have no idea how contribution is actually calculated, do we? If it was that simple, why isn’t Kang Hae-il in first place?"

"W-well… that’s true, but…"

"Which means contribution must be calculated in a more complex way. For example… strategy."

"Strategy?"

"Like whose strategic suggestions led to a better outcome."

"!"

That was right. Junil was trying to give his contribution score legitimate justification. It would also make things easier for him going forward.

"You’re saying your suggestions added to your contribution score?"

"Exactly. I told you how to deal with the Swarm Goblins earlier… and thanks to that, we all survived, didn’t we? Maybe all those goblins that died when the floor collapsed are being counted as my kills…"

When you mixed truth and lies skillfully, acting became much easier. If eighty percent was true and twenty percent was false, and you added the persuasiveness buff from Mana Shout on top of that, it was almost impossible to see through.

The aura of the hero from his past seemed to radiate from Junil once again.

"Hmm…"

Kim Chaeyoung still looked a little confused, but Jeon In-su nodded beside her.

"He has a point. Quite a lot of goblins died when the floor collapsed. They all died at once when it suddenly gave way. And it was Junil who suggested we switch the vanguard and rear formation."

"Hmmmm."

Chaeyoung seemed somewhat convinced, though she still couldn’t completely shake her doubts.

The real threat was the Champion Goblin. He didn’t do anything then, did he?

The ordeal that had shocked her the most wasn’t the Goblin Swarm, but the appearance of the Champion Goblin.

And Seongwu died then, too…

Their teammate Kim Seongwu had been killed, after all.

"In my opinion…"

Just as the debate seemed ready to drag on, Kang Hae-il stepped in.

"He’s right."

"…Excuse me?"

Chaeyoung asked in surprise. She hadn’t expected Kang Hae-il—the one who had just lost first place—to accept it so easily.

"If he hadn’t known how the Swarm Goblins behaved, the mages wouldn’t have been able to use their big spells. And if we hadn’t changed formation, we would’ve been overwhelmed by numbers and wiped out. His contribution score makes sense."

At the mention of the big spell, Chaeyoung’s face turned red. Come to think of it, she had almost ignored the porter’s advice back then, but it turned out he had been right.

"Y-yes, that’s true."

Having her own mistake pointed out, Chaeyoung finally accepted it.

Kang Hae-il had put the controversy to rest.

Phew.

Junil let out a sigh of relief and patted his chest.

It worked.

It seemed like he had successfully gotten past it. Using contribution as the explanation meant any future issues could probably be handled the same way.

Almost as if the dungeon had been waiting for the party members to accept each other’s results, the message finally appeared.

Rewards were given out starting from the lowest rank.

"Oh?"

Bang!

First, something like celebratory fireworks burst above Kim Chaeyoung’s head.

"Whoa. It’s experience points. I finally hit level 10."

The fourth-place finisher received only a massive amount of experience.

Next was third-place Jeon In-su.

Bang!

"I reached level 10 too. And… what’s this?"

Third place received a large amount of experience and a small number of gem-like objects that fell into his hand.

Those are magic stones.

Junil recognized them immediately, but the others had no idea.

"They gave us jewels?"

They would learn their value when the time came to use them.

Bang!

Next was Kang Hae-il.

He received experience, magic stones, and one additional item.

Clink.

It was a necklace.

That’s…

Junil recognized the item.

Champion’s Heart.

The necklace was called Champion’s Heart.

Really? They’re just recycling the same items?

Champion’s Heart greatly increased the wearer’s stamina and endurance. In simple terms, it made cardio much easier. Since real battles often came down to endurance, it would be quite helpful.

This made Kang Hae-il even stronger.

Well, it doesn’t matter.

Junil didn’t particularly care.

You need to be at least this strong for me to make money off you.

It was more problematic if Kang Hae-il became weaker. That would be a problem for the entire world.

My turn.

Now the reward was coming to Junil as well.

Bang!

First came the massive amount of experience points.

He had finally reached level 10.

Next, a much larger quantity of magic stones than Jeon In-su had received fell into his inventory.

Thud.

"Whoa… Jackpot."

Even Chaeyoung, who was watching from the side, let out a gasp of admiration.

But it wasn’t over yet.

An item reward was given to Junil as well.

Ting!

A violet ring dropped into his hand.

"!"

Junil recognized the ring immediately.

Gravity Ring.

Ram… you crazy bastard…

The corner of his mouth twitched upward.

You were going to give me something this good?

It was a Hero-grade item.

Even the picky Constellations seemed satisfied with the reward.

But hadn’t second place also received an item reward? Each subsequent rank received one additional type of reward that the previous rank hadn’t gotten. First place was no exception.

Bang!

Something else dropped.

Huh?