I Became the 101st Hero – Chapter 3

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Wjin
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As soon as that message appeared before my eyes, my body moved.

However, perhaps because my stiff body had suddenly loosened up, my feet tangled and I tripped.

Thanks to that, I was able to avoid the lunging wolf.

“Ugh!”

My knees scraped against the ground as I fell, sending a jolt of pain through me.

But I couldn’t stay fallen forever.

‘Get up!’

It worked again.

My body immediately got up.

I recalled the effect of [Absolute Obedience].

What I had misunderstood was the meaning of the word “player.”

I thought that by possessing Allen Blake, I had become one and the same with him.

But that wasn’t the case. This world still recognized me as a player. That’s why Allen’s body obeyed the commands I issued.

‘Is this fortunate?’

Now that I knew I could somehow move my body, it was time to make a decision.

‘Fight or flight.’

I made eye contact with the wolf.

The wolf, having failed to pounce on me, was turning around, leaving long scratch marks on the dirt ground.

It didn’t seem like it was giving up on me.

‘Even if I run, I wouldn’t be faster than the wolf.’

That meant I had no choice but to fight.

I quickly moved and picked up the stick that had fallen on the ground. It was the one that the leader kid was holding.

As I picked up the stick, the wolf took the opportunity to lunge at me again.

‘But how do I fight?’

I had picked up the stick, but I had no knowledge of how to actually fight with it.

It was only natural. Neither I, in reality, nor Allen, in his memories, had any experience fighting wolves.

In the end, all I could do was swing the stick haphazardly at the wolf that was rushing towards me.

Thwack!

The stick hit the wolf’s head, but it wasn’t enough to stop it.

“Aaargh!”

A sharp pain shot up my left calf.

It bit my leg and wouldn’t let go.

The sudden pain made me drop the stick and almost collapse to the ground.

‘Kick it!’

My right foot moved.

The wolf, kicked by my foot, went flying surprisingly easily.

‘No time to relax.’

I quickly picked up the stick from the ground.

I had managed to come to my senses in the nick of time and survive, but I had almost died just now.

The pain in my leg, which showed no signs of subsiding, was proof enough.

Growl!

The wolf jumped up, this time aiming for my neck.

I desperately shoved the stick into its mouth.

I put all my strength into it, but the wolf thrashed about with the stick in its mouth, making it feel like I would lose my grip any second. I couldn’t lose the stick, my only weapon against this wolf.

I had to survive.

No matter what, I had to live.

To do that, I had to do something.

‘But what can I…?’

That’s when I saw something through my torn sleeve.

The stigma.

‘The stigma!’

There was still something I could do.

‘Inherit [Swordsmanship (B)] from [Mark of the Rose (Small)]!’

Then, a notification appeared before my eyes.

There was no time to waste.

‘Just do it!’

At that moment, the stigma shone brightly.

At the same time, something started flowing into my mind.

From how to hold a sword to how to position my feet, how to put strength into my swings.

Knowledge about swordsmanship was being etched into my mind.

I gripped the stick again.

It felt familiar, as if I had always known this swordsmanship.

Trusting that feeling, I took a step forward.

“Raaagh!”

I abruptly changed my stance, using the wolf’s momentum as it struggled against me.

Using that force, I swung the stick with all my might.

The wolf, which had been firmly biting down on the stick, was helplessly sent flying and crashed to the ground.

Thud!

A whimper escaped from the wolf.

But it wasn’t over yet. I had to make sure it was down for good.

As expected, the wolf was trying to get back up, even as it staggered.

We made eye contact again.

The killing intent in its eyes was even fiercer than before.

I could feel my body stiffen again under its gaze. I quickly issued a command.

‘Don’t panic.’

My stiffening body instantly relaxed.

Moreover, I started to feel a sense of killing intent towards the wolf as well.

Because I had a hunch that this fight wouldn’t end until one of us was dead.

“Come at me.”

At that moment, the wolf started to move again.

It was charging at me with incredible speed.

I pointed the stick at the wolf and calmly observed it as it approached.

‘This feels completely different from before.’

The wolf’s speed was still incredibly fast.

The stick I was holding was also heavy for my strength.

But I felt like I knew how to swing it.

Unlike before, the wolf was charging in a straight line.

Its trajectory, its timing, I could sense it all.

Now.

It was a bit far, but now was the time.

I stepped forward. To shift my center of gravity.

It was a feeling I had never felt before, but it felt strangely familiar, as if my body had always known it.

‘Die!’

I swung the stick, which I had been holding up, downward as I rotated my upper body.

A clean swing.

Crack.

A completely different sound from before I had inherited [Swordsmanship (B)] rang out.

At the same time, a heavy impact ran through my hand, sending a jolt up my arm.

The wolf went flying.

‘Finish it off…!’

The moment I tried to close the distance to the wolf again,

I had to stop.

The wolf, which had been trembling, collapsed.

‘It’s dead?’

Its limp body, clouded eyes, lolling tongue.

I had never seen a wolf corpse before, but I could tell.

It was dead.

‘Why?’

It might seem like a strange question, but it was truly perplexing.

Even with B-rank swordsmanship, my strength was F.

Therefore, I never imagined that the wolf would die from a single blow.

But the wolf was definitely dead.

‘This guy…’

I cautiously approached the wolf.

I hadn’t noticed it before, but now I could clearly see the wolf’s condition.

Its body was covered in wounds that weren’t inflicted by me.

The only wounds I had inflicted with the stick were a few bruises on its head. The other wounds were already there before it encountered me.

Its physique was also emaciated, as if it had been starved for a long time.

It was utterly weakened. It must have charged at me with the last of its strength, on the verge of death from starvation.

The fact that wolves are pack animals also came to mind. For it to be in this state, it was safe to assume it had been abandoned by its pack.

‘But…’

I unconsciously stopped my hand, which was reaching out to the wolf.

Why did I reach out my hand?

Pity for the wolf’s plight? Or a sense of camaraderie with its loneliness?

I didn’t know.

But one thing was clear, it wasn’t my emotion.

‘Is it Allen’s emotion?’

It seemed like what remained wasn’t just the body and memories.

Perhaps a part of Allen’s emotions lingered as well.

Considering how my body had stiffened in front of the wolf, it wasn’t an impossible assumption.

And it also made me understand why Allen’s survival rate was so low.

‘This isn’t the time to be lost in useless sentiment.’

As if to prove it, the sentimental feelings subsided, and rational thought returned.

I got up from my spot. My left calf, where the wolf had bitten me, was still throbbing.

I needed to hurry back to the village and get treatment.

That’s when I heard a faint sound nearby.

Rustle.

I turned towards the direction of the sound.

There, a girl was lying on her back.

It seemed she hadn’t been able to escape either.

‘If Allen had refused the quest, this girl would have died.’

I felt a bit sorry for her when I thought about it like that.

This girl must have died countless times until now.

“Are you okay?”

I asked as I held out my right hand.

The problem was that I was still holding the wolf-blood-stained stick in my right hand.

The girl, perhaps mistaking the stick for a weapon, began to back away in fear.

I saw that her clothes were covered in dirt and dust.

“I’m not trying to hurt you, I just need a little…”

“Aaaah!”

The girl, having finally managed to get up, turned and ran away as fast as she could.

I didn’t understand why she hadn’t run away earlier if she was going to be this good at escaping.

“I was going to ask her to help me walk.”

My left leg was starting to swell.

It throbbed with every step, making it hard to walk.

But I had to get back to the village, so I started walking on my own.

‘Speaking of…’

The quest reward was displayed in the corner of my vision.

It was a measly reward.

It was true that it was generous for defeating a single wolf.

But objectively speaking, it wasn’t a very rational process.

‘Damn it.’

It was an impulsive decision.

Inheriting [Swordsmanship (B)] was nothing but impulsive.

In the first place, the quest’s D-rank difficulty was determined by considering my stats and the environment.

I should have at least been suspicious once. Whether the wolf was in its right mind or not.

I hadn’t noticed it in the heat of the moment, but the wolf had been extremely weak. Perhaps every attack it threw at me was a desperate struggle for survival.

If I hadn’t confronted it head-on and slain it, if I had just bought some time and endured, the wolf would have been the first to collapse from exhaustion.

Of course, I was glad I survived.

I couldn’t guarantee my survival if I hadn’t inherited [Swordsmanship (B)] in that situation where I had already decided to fight.

But the thought lingered… that if I had only stayed calm and assessed the wolf’s condition…

‘Ugh.’

The bite wound on my leg throbbed with every step.

It was hard to say who had truly won.

Right now, I was both the player and Allen Blake.

The dissonance between the two had led me to make a series of wrong judgments.

I had gone to fight the wolf with the half-baked resolve of a player, and in the heat of the moment, driven by Allen’s emotions, I impulsively learned [Swordsmanship (B)].

The game world had become my reality.

It was clear that my current situation wasn’t good.

A dangerous world already on the path to destruction.

And I had been thrown into it as the good-for-nothing character, Allen Blake.

One might think that I could just live a long life in the village without becoming a hero. That’s the kind of judgment Allen Blake, as a character, would have made in most cases.

The character ‘Allen Blake’ wasn’t very interested in becoming a hero. It was because he was well aware of his own weakness.

But after losing his village friend by refusing the quest, and eventually witnessing the destruction of the entire village, he realizes something.

Becoming a hero isn’t a goal, but a cruel fate bestowed upon him.

Of course, in most cases, he dies before reaching that realization.

The 100th playthrough of Allen Blake was unique in that regard.

He did things that no other Allen Blake had done before.

Of course, he didn’t completely follow my instructions, but he steadily and voluntarily walked the path of fate.

He ended up failing because he couldn’t overcome his lack of talent.

And I became the 101st playthrough of Allen Blake.

What should I do now?

I turned my head and looked in the direction of the barrier.

The massive hemispherical barrier enveloped the entire region of Basil, and because of it, I could see the faint red glow of the barrier wherever I went.

The barrier was the last line of defense protecting humanity from an unknown substance called Chaos, and beyond it, monsters called “chaos beasts” roamed.

The barrier might seem like it would protect humans forever, but that was just an illusion.

This winter, the Demon King would breach the barrier, allowing chaos beasts to invade.

And the village closest to that breach was none other than the one Allen lived in.

Because of that incident, Allen would lose his hometown and be forced to embark on a journey.

‘Can I stop it?’

With [Swordsmanship (B)], I would be able to fight off a certain number of chaos beasts.

Of course, I would need to raise my physical stats to some extent.

But if I were to ask if I could fight the Demon King, it would be absolutely impossible.

The Demon King was an existence that even high-ranking heroes struggled against.

In that case, I decided not to think about it for now.

It was more important to focus on what was possible rather than dwell on the impossible.

‘I need to get stronger.’

Even if I couldn’t defeat the Demon King.

I wanted to make Allen Blake a hero.

That was the reason why I had raised Allen Blake for 100 playthroughs.

Becoming a hero.

I’ll show those who threw me into this world as if mocking me.

I’ll prove to them that if he had just listened to me, he could have become a hero.

Investing SP in [Swordsmanship (B)]?

Now that I thought about it, it wasn’t a wrong choice.

The only frustrating part was that it was an impulsive decision.

In my current situation, learning [Swordsmanship (B)] was better than having [Precociousness (Small)], which offered no combat ability whatsoever.

I could just learn [Precociousness (Small)] later after earning SP using swordsmanship.

Becoming a hero.

I already knew what I had to do to achieve that.

After 100 playthroughs, a perfect plan was already formulated in my mind.

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