I Became the 101st Hero – Chapter 50

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Wjin
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‘Libero?’

For a moment, I thought I was mistaken.

But it was him, standing there in the alleyway.

‘What is he doing here?’

He walked towards me, his gaze fixed on me.

He stopped a few paces away.

Having learned swordsmanship from him, I knew that distance well.

It was the exact reach of his blade.

‘Why?’

I tried to ignore him, pretending I hadn’t noticed him. But our eyes met.

Libero’s eyes were filled with curiosity.

“Are you the one who killed the 71st Demon King?” he asked.

How did he know?

He hadn’t been here in my previous playthrough. And he hadn’t known about the 71st Demon King’s death.

“The 71st Demon King? What’s that?”

Caught off guard, I feigned ignorance.

But Libero wasn’t fooled.

“You’re lying. But the power I sense from you… it’s unbelievably weak.”

He sneered.

“Perhaps you used some kind of trickery. Or maybe you’re hiding your true power.”

Crimson particles gathered around his hand, forming his signature blade.

There was no escape.

“How did he find out?”

I needed to know how he knew about the Demon King’s death.

This was crucial information, even after I left the Trial.

Knowing this would be a significant accomplishment in itself.

But his answer shocked me.

“A hero who visited that village reported it to the Order. He said there was a suspicious boy there.”

My mind went blank, as if I had been struck by a physical blow.

‘Gwen?’

I couldn’t believe it.

But in hindsight, it made sense.

To her, I was nothing more than a means to an end.

Gwen… was a professional. She kept her personal feelings separate from her work.

‘Damn it.’

My supposed optimal plan had backfired spectacularly.

But I wasn’t giving up yet.

I swapped out Gravitas Replicant for the 2-star relic I had obtained and took a fighting stance.

“That stance…”

Libero’s eyes widened as he recognized my stance.

“Do you have some connection to me?”

But his surprise was fleeting.

He raised his sword, his expression hardening.

“I’d like to chat, but it seems I’m on a tight schedule.”

A wave of killing intent washed over me, the air crackling with energy.

His presence was so overwhelming, so sharp, I felt as if he could kill me with a single glance.

If only I had Absolute Obedience… but it was useless here.

“The Demon King Council wouldn’t appreciate it if I kept them waiting.”

And then I saw him clearly.

‘Libero… the Demon King.’

He was a Demon King who had honed his swordsmanship to its absolute limit, allowing him to conceal his true nature and move freely within the human world, even within the barrier, along with the 71st Demon King.

And he was a Hero Slayer, tasked with assassinating powerful heroes, following the orders of the Demon King Council.

That was why I had been so careful to keep my connection with him a secret from the Order.

“I had high hopes after hearing you killed a Demon King… but this is disappointing.”

His blade flashed.

He sheathed his sword, turning away from me.

His back… it seemed so… small.

“…Libero, the Demon King.”

I spoke, blood dripping from the wound on my chest.

I knew the real Libero, the one outside the Trial, wouldn’t hear my words, but I had to ask.

“Is this truly… the justice you believe in?”

I wasn’t accusing him.

I was just… curious.

The Libero I knew, the one who had taken me in as his disciple, wouldn’t have done this.

“Which one is the real you?”

There was something inherently wrong with this version of Libero.

He was a walking contradiction, a bundle of paradoxes.

He had given up on reaching the pinnacle of swordsmanship, yet he would come running at the first sign of a strong hero.

He claimed to have no reason to live, yet he clung to life with a stubborn tenacity.

And…

‘Why is a Demon King so fixated on justice?’

I saw it.

A flicker of… something, in his eyes.

‘Is this the end of the Trial?’

My vision faded to black.

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“Gasp…”

I woke up in the familiar inn room once again.

‘Another chance?’

Then I remembered the number I had seen.

‘It changed from [1/100] to [2/100].’

There was only one explanation.

‘I have 100 tries?’

That was… a lot of chances.

Or maybe not, considering how many times I had already died.

Especially if I was aiming for the perfect ending.

‘Damn it. Every little change throws everything off balance.’

What should I do?

There was a way to avoid that encounter with Libero, but I had been too intimidated to act on it.

‘I should have inherited the Authority of the Lodraim Royal Family.’

It was because I didn’t have Absolute Obedience.

If I had, I could have triggered the inheritance, even in that situation.

No matter how much Allen’s personality had grown, he still couldn’t help but cower in fear before a Demon King like Libero.

‘If I inherit the Authority of the Lodraim Royal Family before encountering him, it might solve the problem…’

But that would create other complications, a butterfly effect rippling through the timeline.

But simply replicating my actions from my previous playthrough as a player… did that even align with the Trial’s purpose?

‘With 100 chances… the perfect ending seems more likely.’

I had only died twice so far.

It was too early to give up.

‘I need to revise my plan.’

Was there a better route? A more efficient path?

My third playthrough had begun.

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Third playthrough. Fourth. Fifth.

All the way to the twelfth.

Each failure had its own unique cause.

Careless mistakes, unforeseen events…

In real-time, I had spent at least four years within the Trial.

But I didn’t pay much attention to the passage of time.

The concept of time within the Trial was… fluid, to say the least.

My first Trial had been a good example of this.

It had been divided into two distinct spaces: the desert and the realm of memories.

Time flowed normally in the desert, matching the passage of time in the real world.

But in the fragmented realm of memories, time was nonlinear, skipping and jumping erratically.

This Trial was closer to the latter.

Every death sent me back to a specific point in the past.

It wasn’t that time stood still in the real world, but it definitely flowed at a different pace.

That was just a guess, though.

Regardless of how much time had passed in the real world, I was starting to feel the strain.

Repeating the same six months over and over again, even with 100 chances, was taking its toll mentally.

It was called a Trial for a reason. There had to be a greater reward waiting for me.

But that rationalization was starting to wear thin.

And there was something else I had noticed from the third playthrough onward.

While the actions of NPCs like Weiss and Finn remained consistent, the actions of playable characters like Gwen and Elsie had started to change.

Elsie, in particular, often failed to show up in Basilium, no matter how long I waited.

And on one playthrough, a different character had visited the inn instead of Gwen.

I was starting to consider compromising, to abandoning my pursuit of the perfect ending…

When I finally reached my goal on the thirteenth playthrough.

I told Gwen the location of the relic.

I saved both Weiss and Finn.

And I guided Elsie to Libero.

I wasn’t there to witness it myself.

There was no room for personal attachments if I wanted to save everyone.

But I had rewritten the past, creating a better future for them.

‘But what does it even matter?’

It was just a Trial.

No matter how much I changed here, it wouldn’t affect the past in the real world.

There was no way to change what had already happened.

The God of Regret’s words came to mind.

[He’s just as much of a pain in the ass as I am, be careful…]

Back then, I hadn’t believed it.

I had even felt a sense of gratitude towards it for giving me this chance to rewrite the past.

But with each playthrough, I sensed something… genuine in its words, a hint of pity for me, for my relentless pursuit of an impossible goal.

And now, on my thirteenth playthrough, after finally achieving everything I had set out to do, I understood the true purpose of this Trial, the intention of the god who had designed it.

‘No wonder he’s not on good terms with the God of Regret.’

This Trial was a direct refutation of the God of Regret’s domain.

‘Regretting the past doesn’t change the past.’

Looking back could be a powerful motivator.

But dwelling on the past would prevent you from moving forward.

You might be able to move, but you would never reach your destination.

The Trial itself was a trap.

The content, the events… they were irrelevant.

“The answer… reality is more important than these fleeting illusions of the past,” I said to the empty air.

And then,

A voice, this time a mature, feminine voice, responded.

[Let’s just say that’s the correct answer for now.]

The space around me began to distort.

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[Congratulations. You have passed my Trial.]

I stood before the massive tree, the familiar sight bringing a wave of exhaustion.

I had passed the Trial. My reward should be dropping from the branches above.

But there was something I needed to know first.

“What is your name?”

[I was just about to introduce myself. I am the God of Reality.]

The God of Reality…

It wasn’t unexpected.

“What was the purpose of this Trial?” I asked, the question burning in my mind.

It had been a strange Trial, unlike any other.

Most people, given the chance to revisit the past, would try to change it, to right their wrongs, to erase their regrets.

But what if…

“What if the challenger… doesn’t try to change the past?”

What if they had already let go of their regrets?

They could potentially use the Trial to gain knowledge of the future, to explore all possible outcomes.

100 playthroughs, 100 different futures.

[Then they would pass my Trial. But don’t worry…]

Don’t worry? What did that mean?

[The content of my Trial… it isn’t the same for everyone.]

“Not the same? What about the others…?”

[You are the only one who had to endure 100 playthroughs. I cannot reveal the specifics of others’ Trials.]

“Why me?”

[The purpose of my Trial… it isn’t simply about overcoming regret. It’s about facing reality, the reality you’ve been avoiding.]

The reality I had been avoiding?

The God of Regret’s Trial had also been about facing the past, the past I had been running from.

But unlike the regrets that haunted me, I couldn’t think of anything in my current reality that I was trying to avoid.

That’s to be expected. That’s why you’ve passed my Trial.]

My mind was struggling to keep up.

What was this god trying to say?

[Didn’t you find it strange? This Trial was almost identical to reality. But there was one key difference. Though your inability to notice it is a testament to your growth.]

A fundamental difference between this Trial and reality?

I started replaying the memories of my 13 playthroughs, searching for clues.

The answer came sooner than I expected.

It was something I had gradually stopped paying attention to as the playthroughs went on.

“Absolute Obedience?”

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