abcnovels
Chapter 349
Chapter 349
Chapter 349: Fortunate Brat
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
It was said that when Beyana self-destructed, divine golden light lit up the entire sky. Not only were the brilliant streaks seen by people in the Forest of Dreams and Nightrain City, but even those in the Mage Country across the sea were able catch the great spectacle.
If it weren’t for the fact that Beyana had carefully controlled the radius of her self-destruction, she could have blown up the entire Oak Town together with her incarnation’s death.
When the suddenly-evolved Mars displayed his potential, giving what remained of the Thunder Titan Giant actual danger, the Thunder Titan Giant’s older brother was unable to simply sit by and watch his younger brother’s incarnation perish. After all, the Titan Giants were still sealed in statues, and every bit of strength was valuable.
Yins “The Thinker,” who had been holding back all this time, finally went all out. He proceeded to crush a part of Mars’ undead army and save the other Titan Giant, Hatley, but when he did so none of the True Gods’ incarnations moved to stop him.
If a Titan Giant was forced to the brink, their incarnations, too, were capable of self-destructing themselves. None of the True Gods were confident enough to claim that their incarnations could survive the self-destruction of that of a Titan Giant.
This was also why it was a terrible idea to use numbers to surround and attack a high-level existence’s incarnation. Forcing it to the brink and making it self-destruct would end in nothing but losses for all sides—nobody, of course, wanted to have anything to do with such a prickly porcupine... It was like dealing with certain monsters in video games. Nobody would want to challenge a boss monster that was incredibly difficult to fight and wouldn’t even give you any money, experience, or special items.
Since the main fighters—the True Gods’ incarnations—didn’t want to fight this to the end, none of us would be able to do anything to stop the Titan Giants that had decided to make their escape.
Although Mars wanted to continue fighting, he didn’t possess the ability to travel at high speeds, so he was unable to catch them.
And so, this battle concluded.
“We’ve won!” “We’ve finally survived...” Cheers resounded throughout Oak Town simultaneously with sighs exclaiming how lucky they were to survive. Powerful existences came out one after another, fighting with power that could casually shatter the body of any ordinary adventurer with a single touch. It was only natural for the adventurers to all feel chills run down their collective spines.
For these first-generation “Contract Heroes,” today was a day destined to be one they’d never forget. Today’s battles would have outstanding impact.
The Titan Giants, True Gods, Undead Emperors, and Undead Calamity. Not only did these mythical existences appear in real life, but they even fought against each other. This had long since surpassed the comprehension of the Contract Heroes.
The adventurers typically did their jobs to make a living or to obtain more resources to reach the next power level. But, today, the Titan Giants and True Gods seemed to step right out of the pages of history, giving them a chance to encounter top-level strength of the world. By now, they all realized that they had gotten involved in a huge incident. This was a revolution, one destined to occur as the generation changed. It was also a great opportunity for the courageous.
“...Perhaps one day we, too, will have the power to accomplish things on this type of battlefield instead of hiding in the corner and praying.”
For some things, one would only realize their importance upon coming into contact with them. Only by noticing the difference between them would one be motivated to work harder. Some things weren’t actually impossible—it was just that people didn’t dare to think about them. But once the fires of ambition ignited in people’s minds, it would be near impossible to extinguish them.
This was exactly why the video games in my previous world would put out all sorts of cool and flashy opening videos as their advertisements. Perhaps you wouldn’t be able to accomplish what’s depicted in them right away, or maybe you might never reach the skill shown in the advertisement. Yet at least you would have hopes and expectations not only towards the game itself but also from what you would obtain from playing it.
“Perhaps many things now are different from before.” I did also believe that treading on the brink of life and death and witnessing a battle of such epic proportions would make many adventurers quit the job tomorrow. Still, there would be people who would become ever more passionate. This was a trial given to them by this generation, as well as an opportunity. They could reach the peak with this Contract Hero shortcut as no other method would give them this opportunity—the opportunity to reach the peak with such speed.
“Let’s increase the number of Hero Armlets we hand out for the second batch of Contract Heroes. How about 300,000 for all of Eich—no—let’s go with 500,000!”
This was my hope as well. After today, the second batch of Contract Heroes would become more popular with the signups. Unless people accepted this contract, they would never be able to even come into contact with such high-level battles.
I didn’t need to care about the advertising channels for now. With their actions, the Ayer Faction’s True Gods proved their full support for the Contract Heroes system—another reason the Goddess of Wealth chose to self-destruct her incarnation in the end.
Who stood to lose the most if the two Titan Giants were allowed to destroy Oak Town? While the wood spirits would fail in developing a new territory for the Forest of Dreams, they wouldn’t actually have concrete losses. Most of the wood spirits would have been able to retreat, and it was always possible to simply try again. But if this first-ever batch of Contract Heroes met with an insurmountably powerful opponent and died off in droves on their very first major mission, the credibility rating of the entire Contract Heroes system would suffer a huge hit.
While losing people didn’t count as much, losing believability in “Justice Points” counted for much more.
Although the first batch of Contract Heroes was drawn to us by the rewards we offered, they also joined us because of the Ayer Faction’s strength and credibility. Otherwise, no matter how many treasures we offered, none would be willing to join the crew of a sinking boat.
No idiot could obtain Godhood. Beyana knew these hidden factors full well.
“Failure is fine for the second or third times. Great risks are associated with great rewards, and most people can understand that. However, failure nor large-scale deaths absolutely can’t be permitted for the first time. Otherwise, a serious credibility problem will arise.” That was why Beyana had secretly made preparations to prevent this first ever large-scale mission from failing. She, along with several other True Gods, had descended with their incarnations. She could have chosen to make her incarnation escape instead of self-destructing, leaving the Titan Giants up to others more powerful than her.
After all, if things developed to a certain extent, it was possible that even Ayer himself would come down and intervene. However, Beyana still chose the action that would bring her the greatest losses, self-destructing her incarnation.
She didn’t choose to protect her incarnation...
Not only did Beyana want this large-scale mission to succeed, but she also hoped for the Contract Heroes to take as few losses as possible. And, on another level, her self-destruction was evidence of the Gods’ attitude: “Even I’m willing to self-destruct myself, so what are you mortals afraid of?” From a certain standpoint, her self-destruction would make for excellent propaganda. When even the True Gods were seen as willing to pay the price of losing an incarnation, when even the legendary Titan Giants were forced to retreat, when not a single Contract Hero had perished, the support for the Contract Hero system would rise to unprecedented heights.
From another level, Beyana’s losses could be recouped from her allies. From what I knew, Ayer was never stingy. He would perhaps even give her more than what she lost. And her self-destruction not only helped her obtain my friendship but it also made me owe her a favor.
A favor wasn’t much? For some people, owing a favor meant nothing to them at all as some people were capable of repaying kindness with evil. But others were more willing to be stabbed by a sword than to owe someone else a favor... Fine then, I admit it! I hated owing favors more than anything as it was quite an unpleasant feeling to look at others and feel like I owed them money. Let’s just think of a way to repay this favor as soon as possible.
“...As expected of the Goddess of Wealth. Perhaps she’ll even stand to profit from her self-destruction. She probably calculated everything quite clearly from the very start.” Actually, Beyana currently jumping up and down in anger in her Divine Kingdom was the best evidence that Roland had thought too much into things. Beyana had merely had a faint feeling that that suffering defeat in this battle would make her lose more in the end, even if she didn’t lose her incarnation. But as Roland kept “cheering” her on, her blood pressure kept increasing, and she ended up self-destructing her incarnation in a fit of rage. Not only that, this self-destruction didn’t even kill her opponent, which she found humiliating. She was so furious that she even closed off her Divine Kingdom and refused to see any of her allies that came to console her.
Beyana was never someone who had a kind and forgiving nature, so blaming others when she was angry was quite normal. Now that she thought about it, she even wrote Roland’s name down on her list of grudges, looking for an opportunity to take revenge.
Of course, they were still on the same side, so doing something directly to him was off the table. Still, it was more than fine for her to prank Roland and give him a hard time.
The ‘Even though I’m rich, buying a single luxury item will bring me misfortune to the point where I can afford nothing but instant noodles in the end’ curse. The ‘Even though I have a harem, I can only afford a three square meter room, and my harem all ran off in the end’ curse.
The ‘Even though this lottery ticket is clearly the number that I choose every time, I discovered that I filled in the number wrong the one time it won’ curse.
The ‘What’s living paycheck to paycheck? My paycheck lasts less than three hours, and my wallet will never have more than five copper coins’ curse.
The ‘Excellent luck with women who will make off with all my money’ curse.
“Darn it, I’ve developed too many poverty curses... just which one should I use on him...?”
But, for certain reasons, no matter which curse Beyana chose, she discovered that she couldn’t obtain any payback.
“What? It’s actually ineffective? Could his fortune be forever fixed to be the best...? That’s almost impossible—even the Fate God would be unable to do such a thing. Or, based on the natural laws where a weaker curse is unable to override a stronger one, could it be that an even more powerful poverty curse is already upon him? How is this possible!” Even my ‘Poor? That’s an adjective I’m really jealous of. I’m a girl from an illustrious family who owes 30,000,000 gold coins and can’t find anyone to purchase my debt’ curse isn’t working against him? Just what’s going on with his wealth fortune?” Actually, from the very start, all curses related to fate were ineffective against Roland. Perhaps from the very day his System was bound to him, or from the very day he was born as the Child of Fate, he was destined to break all known standards for negative luck. In front of his extreme misfortune, how could these somewhat unlucky poverty curses possibly have any effect on him?
“...I’m truly impressed with how he can persist in living on despite how unfortunate he is.” Out of curiosity, Beyana obtained records about Roland’s past. When she saw how Roland’s country and family were both destroyed, that his first ever girlfriend deceived and stabbed him, that the Holy Light betrayed and stabbed him, that a hero he personally raised fought and stabbed him, and that his disciple he treated as his daughter judged and stabbed him... As she read about the succession of tragedies in Roland’s life, even the Goddess Beyana who had the nickname of the “Heartless and Tearless” Goddess ended up crying tears of sympathy.
“He’s truly, truly so strong. His life can’t even be sufficiently described by the word ‘tragedy.’ His life is basically like a cutting board with countless knives stuck in it, or a sponge... filled with holes! Roland, you’ve truly had a tough life.” In the future, people also asked the Goddess of Wealth why it was that she only ever made an exception for Roland and gave him a 1% discount on her goods and services, along with many other benefits, when she was renowned as the stingiest Goddess in the entire world. Was it really, as people gossiped, that they were actually lovers? Anyone that asked discovered to their surprise that this Goddess who “only cared about money” would actually tear up and become quite emotional.
“As long as you can live a pitiful life like his and still smile every day and somehow have fun, I can give you a 1% discount as well.”
Of course there were some skeptics who didn’t believe this and even requested to try it out. Yet Beyana only had to cast several hundred different poverty curses upon them—without even asking the Love Goddess to add a “Single forever” curse or the God of Victories to add a “Forever almost successful” curse—before they would pathetically crawl towards her, wailing and beg for mercy. Legend had it that if Beyana had been slow by even a second in removing her curses, they would have truly committed suicide.
In fact, after such rumors started spreading, Roland gained the eye-popping nickname of “Envoy of Misfortune”...
Cough, let’s get back on topic to the present. No matter what, this battle ended in a victory for Roland’s side and would be greatly influential to future events.
And, currently, I didn’t have the time to do anything like holding a celebration party as new bothersome things were lying in wait. I was currently apologizing to Little Red while trying my best to resuscitate a gigantic Red Dragon.
The pitiful Molly was now barely breathing after major blood loss... maybe it was that she had been forgotten in a world of ice and snow—a world that was her greatest weakness.
“How about you try some CPR on her... why are you hitting me? Isn’t it normal to perform CPR when there are no signs of breathing? Fine, if you don’t want to give her CPR, I will—stop hitting me! Even Buddha has times when he gets angry! I’m going to go all out against you crazy women!”