I Became the 101st Hero – Chapter 1

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Wjin
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A dark room. Eyes fixated on the fallen character inside the monitor.

At the same time, the mouse clicked excitedly.

[Cheer for the character?]

-Yes-

[Cheer for the character?]

-Yes-

[Cheer for the character?]

-Yes-

[Cheer for the character?]

-Yes-

[Cheer for the character?]

-Yes-

But as if to prove it all futile,

a cold, indifferent result window soon appeared before me.

[Failed to incarnate.]

-Character: Allen Blake

-Incarnation Attempt: 100th

-Stage Reached: Hero Candidate (Rank Unrecorded)

“Agh!”

I recoiled as if electrocuted and threw the mouse from my hand.

It’s no use.

This guy could never become a hero.

100th attempt at incarnation.

The result of trying 100 times, each attempt lasting several days, was always the same.

[Failed to incarnate.]

The reasons were diverse.

Mostly, he died.

Or rather, he just died.

Come to think of it, only the ways he died were diverse.

But what if he somehow survived?

I shook my head.

This time, he had managed to survive.

But he had no talent.

Talent aside, this guy didn’t even have a single lucky chance.

No matter how much I thought about it, he was a guy who couldn’t even farm, let alone become a hero.

‘At this point, he’s a character designed to be unplayable from the start.’

That was my conclusion.

And it was the same conclusion reached by most of the community.

[Allen Blake (1 Star)]

User Rating: 0.97/10

-I don’t know how he can be this weak. He’s just frustrating.

ㄴHe doesn’t even listen properly. I wonder if there’s any point in training him at this rate.

ㄴMine listens well, what’s wrong with yours?

-Worst performance, worst personality.

ㄴ+The worst character to ruin the game.

ㄴI kind of like his personality though?

ㄴWhat is this guy talking about?

-Trying to raise this guy for 50 playthroughs was the worst decision I ever made.

ㄴHow did you even reach 50 playthroughs?

ㄴStrangely enough, my Allen listens well and has a decent personality, so I tried raising him patiently. But as expected, becoming a hero is impossible. Don’t even try.

ㄴlol So the conclusion is that no matter what you do, he can’t be a hero.

Indeed.

‘The conclusion is that no matter what you do, he can’t be a hero.’

Those words summed it all up.

Moreover, usually, even if a character is this weak, their unique characteristics make them somewhat popular, but not Allen. To most users, Allen was an unlikeable character.

Beyond his in-game performance, he was also disliked from a game management perspective.

The name of this game is ‘Hundred Braves.’

It was a genre of game commonly called a raising simulation.

You know, the kind where you make choices to raise your character.

But the important thing was the game’s name and its catchphrase.

The name of the game, which literally translates to ‘Hundred Heroes.’

And the catchphrase, ‘Raise 100 unique characters and make them heroes!’

The developers had been steadily adding new characters to match the theme.

Up to this point, it might seem no different from other typical mobile games, but the game’s difficulty was in a league of its own compared to other casual mobile games.

The time it takes to raise one character into a hero is at least a few days, and up to a week if you take it slow.

On top of that, it incorporated a roguelike system where you have to start over from the beginning if your character dies.

Thanks to that, there was a time when users complained that the speed of character releases outpaced their ability to raise them.

It was a pretty heavy game for a mobile title, but loyal users like me diligently kept up with the new releases, turning each new character into a hero.

And there was only one thing on the minds of the users who were keeping up with the game.

‘What’s going to happen after the 100th hero is added?’

With the 100th hero finally added, the main expectation was new content.

A raid against the final boss, who had only been hinted at, or perhaps a new story in a new world.

Everyone was filled with anticipation, waiting for the next update.

But what was revealed… was something no one expected.

Even the prophet villains who had been rambling about a 101st hero shut their mouths after trying to raise the character themselves.

It was the 101st hero, Allen Blake, who appeared with abysmal abilities.

An ordinary, even trashy character with no symbolism whatsoever.

The difficulty of raising him seemed to be a testament to the developers’ malice, designed to make him impossible to turn into a hero.

All of this combined made people say one thing.

He’s a character that jumped the shark.

Even as complaints poured in and people left the game, I continued playing.

After all, except for this guy, I had already managed to turn the other 100 heroes into actual heroes.

With my stubbornness reaching new heights, I even sacrificed sleep to focus on raising Allen Blake.

However, the difficulty of raising Allen Blake was truly beyond imagination.

‘Please just move. Please!’

When a battle occurred, he would freeze up and do nothing.

‘Why the hell are you going there?’

He wouldn’t listen properly and would die in ridiculous ways.

{‘Title [Coward Allen]’ acquired.}

Is this a hero?

Right, I could compromise on everything else.

I had raised so many characters already.

Even without talent, there are ways.

But at the very least, he should listen.

Since he didn’t follow my instructions at all, there was nothing I could do.

If he had just listened to me, he would have at least debuted as a hero…

That’s when it happened.

As I scrolled through the training failure result screen, a notification popped up.

‘Huh?’

[Conditions met to acquire a new blessing item.]

I felt strange.

That’s because there were no missions or achievements I could have possibly achieved in this playthrough. I had already cleared most of them.

‘Was there a patch today?’

Come to think of it, I had been so obsessed with raising this guy that I hadn’t checked the official community lately.

To be honest, seeing other players whine made me lose my appetite for the game as well.

It was also reassuring in a way, as it meant the developers hadn’t given up on the game yet.

‘By the way, what kind of blessing is it?’

A blessing was a one-time consumable item that could be bestowed upon a character before raising them, with a maximum of three blessings allowed. It was similar to a boost item in other games.

I pressed the confirmation button on the notification window to check the contents of the blessing.

Then, the newly acquired blessing appeared on the screen.

It was as if it had read my mind.

Of course, that couldn’t be true.

‘Well, well, well.’

As expected, there was something hidden.

This is what I would expect from the developers of ‘Hundred Braves.’

I couldn’t help but smile. If anyone had seen me like this, they would have clicked their tongues and said I hadn’t lost enough of my mind yet.

I’m sorry, but there’s nothing left to lose.

Eager to use the blessing before it disappeared, I was about to enter the training preparation screen when I stopped.

I had been up for nights on end, thinking that the 100th attempt would be the last. But it wasn’t because of fatigue or anything.

It was simply because of the self-imposed limit of 100 attempts.

‘…’

After a moment of contemplation, I finally clicked the training preparation button.

‘I have to use this blessing now that I have it.’

And given the nature of the blessing, it was highly likely that I wouldn’t be able to obtain it again after using it once.

In that case, I wanted to start training now, while the feeling of the 100th attempt was still fresh in my mind. After all, this 100th attempt was the closest I had ever gotten to making him a hero.

‘This time really is the last time.’

Entering the training preparation screen, I started reviewing my previous playthrough records.

I did refer to some user strategies posted on the community, but ultimately, there was nothing more reliable than my own play records.

Since this was a crazy game where the situation could change completely with each playthrough, I couldn’t fully rely on them either.

‘Considering the various possibilities…’

Having formulated a rough plan, my eyes shifted to the top of the character.

There, the stigmas possessed by Allen Blake were displayed.

Stigmas were unique patterns that each character possessed. They granted special powers to the character and served as a medium for recording their growth, such as stats and skills.

And there were five empty spaces surrounding the stigma.

[Stigma Inheritance]

[Stigma Inheritance] was a system designed to encourage players to raise a variety of characters. It allowed players to inherit a portion of the stigma from another character they had previously raised.

Although stigma inheritance only transferred a portion of the character’s stats and skills, its benefits to a low-level character were significant.

If you were lucky enough to inherit a useful part, it could even be used after debuting as a hero.

If you were lucky, that is.

‘It all boils down to luck in this broken game.’

In most cases, the inherited parts were often useless ones among those engraved on the stigma. There were even cases where you wouldn’t receive a single useful part even after inheriting five stigmas.

Nevertheless, I carefully selected five stigmas and placed them in all five directions.

Please let me inherit something useful.

He needs it. For this guy to even survive, inheriting at least one useful part was a prerequisite.

To make him debut as a hero, I might need to inherit useful parts for all five slots.

‘Versatile stigma for flexibility, auxiliary stigma to aid growth, and…’

I finished checking the last stigma.

These five stigmas were carefully chosen from hundreds of characters I had raised so far. I did have some regrets, but I couldn’t think of a better combination.

However…

‘Should I have pushed Gwen a little harder to make her swordsmanship SS rank?’

I suddenly pictured Gwen, the owner of the rose-shaped stigma embedded in the bottom right corner, diligently wielding her sword even in her old age.

She refused no matter how much I ordered her, so I eventually gave up. I should have tried persuading her a bit more.

Well, it didn’t matter much. I had chosen the other stigmas with a focus on areas other than swordsmanship anyway.

‘Then all that’s left is the blessing.’

This time, I looked at the blessing slot below the character.

I did feel a bit of regret about the blessings, which were one-time consumables.

Having realized that raising Allen was impossible without useful blessings, I had been using all the blessings I had saved up from the 50th attempt onward.

I even used up all the cheat-level blessings since right before the 100th attempt, determined to see it through to the end.

‘This one is a must.’

I placed [Blessing of the Chain God] in the first slot.

Now two slots remained.

‘The remaining slots…’

After much deliberation, I placed one blessing in each of the remaining two slots.

Finally, all preparations were complete.

Various stigmas and blessings filled the spaces above and below Allen, who was standing on the training preparation screen. Not that it mattered much with his trashy base stats.

‘I can say I did my best with this.’

For some reason, I felt exhausted even before starting the training, but that’s just how this game was.

‘…Shall we begin?’

A strange tension filled the air, even though it was just a game.

After checking all the settings one last time, I reached for the training start button.

‘You’re screwed now, Allen.’

At that moment, my vision went dark.

‘Huh?’

What just happened?

Did the monitor suddenly turn off?

This sensation feels strange…

‘What is this…?’

I opened my eyes.

‘…’

An unfamiliar ceiling.

Well, I guess it’s possible that I passed out and was taken to the hospital after playing games for days without sleep. I would have continued to think that if it weren’t for the voice that followed.

I might have even denied reality, saying, ‘Hospital ceilings sure are dirty.’

“Allen! Alleeeeen!”

‘Allen? Who are they calling?’

“When the hell are you going to wake up, Allen!”

In that instant, only one thought crossed my mind.

I’m screwed.

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