I Gave Up on Conquering the Heroines – Chapter 3

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Rest in peace, Blin.”

Blin’s funeral was conducted as a natural burial. After holding the noble ritual of him becoming one with wild animals, fungi and trees, returning to nature, I left the spot. I absolutely did not just abandon the corpse on the ground and leave.

What I obtained as loot was Blin’s wooden club.

[Achievement Unlocked]

[First loot obtained!]

[As a reward for the achievement, the trait ‘Inspect’ is given.]

[Trait: Inspect]

[Reveals information about items.]

It was an easy achievement. The trait received as a reward was also a basic trait. But just because it was basic didn’t mean it could be taken lightly.

[Wooden Club (+1 Enhancement)]

[A club made by carving wood. The resentment of one who lost his family is imbued in it.]

Originally, it was impossible to peek at information except for items the system gave as rewards. But now, if I used traits on items like this, information about it would pop up. Even information I couldn’t know just by observing with my eyes.

In games, you could immediately know the identity of an item you obtained, but not in reality. If you picked up a mushroom, there was no way to tell if it was poisonous or edible. The Inspect trait made that possible. What was just a basic ability in games turned into a cheat when applied to reality.

“I’m starting to get uneasy.”

This was ominous. This game was kind, but excessively so. It wasn’t even a reward from clearing a hidden achievement like killing 100,000 goblins, it was essentially a freebie, yet it gave a trait of this level.

Perhaps it wasn’t kindly showering rewards because it was generous, but because you couldn’t clear it anyway even if it poured them on – such a thought brushed past my mind.

Being moved by the game system here would be as stupid as being moved by the professor’s words that this test was open-book, I bet.

“Let’s get out first.”

Although I obtained more than I thought for a tutorial, there was still a lot I didn’t know. In fact, I didn’t obtain any meaningful information other than

‘To clear this game, go seduce the heroines you created yourself’.

I needed to gather information. And to do that, I first needed to escape this forest. Setting the direction wasn’t too difficult. Once I figured out the cardinal directions from the movement of the sun, I just had to head endlessly west from then on.

I remembered that to the east of the starting village, there was a forest where goblins lived, so I could easily make a decision. When I walked for nearly an hour without rest and there were no signs of the forest ending, I started getting anxious.

Perhaps this wasn’t the forest near the starting village but some other remote forest that just happened to have one goblin. Fortunately, just as such doubts began creeping in, the village started coming into view.

If someone who didn’t know this game came, they would have undoubtedly gotten stranded and died… Having safely escaped the forest, I choked up thinking of Blin. If not for Blin, I would have roamed the forest with -1 luck stat and encountered a boss monster at least five or six times.

From now on, I’d have to enshrine this wooden club as a sacred object.

“Wow. Majestic. So majestic.”

Standing on a hill and looking down at the village, exclamations automatically slipped out. It wasn’t a huge city to the point of being called impressive.

I was just struck anew seeing in person the village I had only seen as a blurry background illustration.

‘It really feels like I’m on an adventure.’

My heart seemed to pound entering the village. Things I had only known through text and a few illustrations until now unfolded vividly before my eyes.

Not only ugly green goblins but people also all moved and spoke naturally. Who wouldn’t get excited seeing the game they created become reality and writhe alive?

‘Let’s be extremely cautious.’

But I shouldn’t get rash here. Were the players who came here only me? It was hard to say for certain. Since this game allowed you to customize everything like name, appearance, job, and starting equipment before beginning, you couldn’t definitively say who was in the protagonist position just by looking at the outside.

In other words, there might be other guys who fell into this game and just received Blin’s memento like me. I didn’t know if this was a cooperative game or a winner-takes-all game. If I revealed myself as a player here, another player who had been lying low might backstab me.

Since there was still no way to know what happened if you died, I had no choice but to become cautious. Surely it wasn’t something like achieving ‘First Death’ and spouting nonsense while giving a cheat skill, right?

‘For the time being, let’s act as an NPC and observe the situation.’

You never know. Guys shouting “Pikachu!” in excitement might pop out. I had to keep in mind possibly smacking those guys in the back of the head too.

If no one showing strange behavior appeared even after waiting quietly for a while, I had no choice but to tentatively conclude that I was the only player in this world… Then it might be a bit lonely.

So how do you act as an NPC? Simple. Walk around the village with natural steps. As a bonus, I could roughly collect information on the market prices of goods by circling the marketplace once.

Fortunately, my real name was also Yoo-jin, so it was perfect for disguise since it sounded fantastical.

‘The currency unit is the same as the game.’

The large, hard, unappetizing-looking bread was 3 gold each. Apples were 3-5 gold each. Knife sharpening service was 10 gold. Armor cleaning service was 20 gold.

Crazy. So freaking extravagant.

“Is business going alright?”

“Sigh. It’s tough. The war ended a few years ago but the economy still hasn’t recovered.”

“Hahaha. What year did the war end again?”

“Wilhelm…”

“It was Wilhelm year 8, right? I remember now. So now it’s Wilhelm…”

“Year 12.”

“Ah. Right.”

The country name, era name, and current year. I checked it as naturally as possible without raising suspicion. Unsurprisingly perhaps, it completely matched the setting at the start of the game. Meaning, there were no pointless or moving plot twists like

“Oh my, I actually possessed 100 years before the game starts???”

‘Is this a wallet?’

Opening the pouch on my waist, it was full of gold coins. Excitedly reaching my hand in, a window like this popped up.

[Money Possessed: 3000 Gold]

Just because the name was gold, even the currency was gold coins. Wasn’t the national standard that 1 gold coin was a month’s living expenses for a family of 4? Saying you could exchange 3 gold coins for one apple…? What was this groundless nonsense?

Anger surged for a moment but I barely suppressed it. That’s how it was with otaku games made thoughtlessly by an out-of-touch company that knew jackshit about subcultures, hearing that geeky games made a lot of money these days.

“Welcome.”

Entering the familiar building, a familiar scene greeted me. The Adventurers’ Guild. A place that gives quests to adventurers and provides rewards and various services for them.

The moment I entered, gazes suddenly focused on me so I tensed up. But the reason I drew aggro seemed to be because I was flashily dressed in armor for an adventurer, not because my behavior was suspicious.

In others’ eyes, I probably looked like an armor-poor b*stard who took out loans and blew his entire fortune on armor.

“Are there any vacant rooms at the inn?”

“Yes. There are.”

For now, I needed a place to wash up and rest. I was already drenched in sweat all over from walking around in this armor for hours. A space without others’ eyes would also be good to test out traits.

“One night, please.”

“How much have you checked before coming?”

“Pardon?”

“I asked how much you checked before coming.”

“…”

Unbelievable. I never expected to encounter pushy haggling from an Adventurers’ Guild employee. In games, they always said the protagonist was looked down on for having an adventurer background, but seeing it now, it seemed justified. Turns out this place was a den of ruffians who never learned manners.

You had to deal with ill-mannered folk in an ill-mannered way.

“1 gold.”

“Please leave.”

“Excuse me?”

“I said please leave. You are too rude so we cannot take you.”

The employee spoke with hands clasped together. No way, this was a complete psycho, wasn’t it? Dumbfounded, I looked back but the adventurers gathered at the guild all sat calmly, and no one seemed to find the employee’s attitude strange.

“How much is this potion?”

“We don’t do price checks. Please check the bulletin board notice.”

“Ah. My mistake. I’ll go check the notice at the central plaza first and come back.”

Such conversations took place like it was nothing. A sense of dread washed over me that if I stayed here, I might turn into a guy like that, awkwardly scratching the back of his head as he left.

“Have a good day, customer. I hope you never come back.”

“…”

I hurriedly left the Adventurers’ Guild. No matter how you looked at it, it was a den of crazy scumbags. With my starting capital quite loaded, I didn’t need to do labor anyway, so I had no intention of getting involved with these guys in the future.

That would be advantageous for mingling with nobles too. There was no need to deliberately crawl into a group that acted as a restriction on the protagonist in the beginning.

‘But it’d be good to know the performance and activation conditions of traits at least.’

[Initial Trait: Guardian Knight]

[When protecting someone, stats are amplified. When inactive, base stats decrease by 5 as a penalty.]

The trait, Guardian Knight. The condition of “When protecting someone” was a bit concerning. It was a rather ambiguous expression, so it would be good to know the exact conditions. And I still didn’t know the amplification amount of stats.

It’d be nice to gather comrades and go to a hunting ground once.

-Bodyguard Knight Selection Tournament

“…?”

At that moment, I spotted an eye-catching notice on the village plaza’s bulletin board.

-Saintess Jill Diner’s bodyguard knight selection

-Race, ethnicity, status, education, gender not considered at all

-Decided only by skill and character

-To be held in the capital Hameln

Finally, it appeared. The main heroine appearance event. What freezing-to-death comrades, when seducing the heroine would solve everything.

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