Fired Characters from an Idle Game

4. The First Eruption – (1)

[The Rift is Erupting.]

[Various Calamities can be collected from the Rift’s Eruption.]

[Defeat the Calamities and Dominate them. Dominated Calamities will strengthen your base as loyal Minions.]

[The Eruption will end in 6h.]

The system message declared the end with cold indifference.

And the nation’s leaders, who had been confident they could hold back any disaster with their well-trained armies, watched in frustration as the monsters moved as if unbothered, even with bullets and shells lodged in their bodies.

The soldiers on the ground felt the same.

“Why aren’t the guns working!”

“Ah, it seems our weapons are useless.”

“What’s that b*stard over there!”

“Didn’t he… become a Player or something?”

Only the bullets of a few soldiers seemed to inflict real damage on the monsters.

A sergeant, watching the scene, scratched his cheek.

He, too, had received the system message a few days ago.

A suspicious message asking if he wanted to become a ruler of this world. Most people had chosen to decline, or simply put it on hold. They had chosen to remain bystanders.

And only thoughtless idiots had chosen to become Players.

Sure enough, these monsters could only be dealt with by fools who didn’t value their lives.

Like that man over there, with the bat.

Thwack!

A monster that dozens of bullets couldn’t even stagger was now collapsing, its head caved in by a single baseball bat.

The sergeant, watching this, smiled wryly.

“The world’s going to change a lot, I guess.”

“…It’s already changed a lot.”

The officer, too, believed that before long, the world’s structure would be reorganized around these Awakeners.

“If I’d known this would happen, I would have become an Awakener myself.”

“…You’re telling me.”

At the sergeant’s words, the officer grimaced and spat on the ground.

*

*Crack!*

The spirit-bound baseball bat caved in the head of a goblin-like monstrosity.

[You have defeated a 1★ Forest Imp.]

[Reward: 5 Exp / 1★ Forest Imp]

*Ding.*

[No Stronghold detected. Cannot collect Calamity.]

“Tch.”

I snorted a laugh at the sight of the game’s cheap trick being applied so faithfully.

[Dominator ‘Actor,’ please establish a Stronghold.]

[Calamity collection is essential for Stronghold enhancement!]

The system message was practically screaming at me to create a Stronghold, but I casually ignored it.

As the status window said, gathering basic Calamity from the initial fissure’s eruption was extremely important.

However…

“Why would I need a Stronghold when I have a chance at infinite experience farming?”

Having played this game for five years, I knew the score.

You needed a Stronghold to collect characters. But you couldn’t collect them infinitely. There was a cap on the amount of Calamity you could collect at once, depending on the Stronghold’s upgrade level.

A freshly built Stronghold could only acquire a measly ten characters.

In other words, the experience needed to upgrade the Stronghold was only enough to feed ten creatures.

But what if you eliminate monsters without setting up a Stronghold?

[You have defeated a 1★ Leaf Sprite.]

[Reward: 5 Exp / 1★ Leaf Sprite]

[No Stronghold detected. Cannot collect Calamity.]

[Please establish a Stronghold.]

You can defeat Calamity without filling up the Stronghold’s slots.

You don’t get the Calamity, but you’re free to gobble up the experience.

When I first started the game, I reset the data immediately after realizing this fact.

But in reality, no such thing as “rerolling” exists.

If I don’t diligently maximize efficiency from the start, I could topple at any moment.

*Crack!*

The Forest Imp struck by my baseball bat left behind only a death cry, before dissolving into shimmering silver particles.

The sensation in my hand, heavy and solid, was undeniable. Yet, instead of leaving a corpse, they dissolved into experience points – a display ripped straight from a game.

“…What rhythm am I supposed to dance to, exactly?”

Was this a game, or was it reality?

The ache in my shoulders suggested it was reality.

“I have no intention of dying.”

I couldn’t know how this world would change.

However, I knew intimately the terrifying lore behind the Calamities that appeared in Disaster Order.

Even these Forest Goblins and Leaf Fairies, with combat power barely exceeding a small dog, were, according to the setting, monsters that hunted lost travelers in packs and engaged in cannibalism.

If even a group of 1-Star Calamities could kill a person, how horrific must a 5-Star Calamity be? The 5-Star characters I’d collected were, each and every one, the most heinous villains who had destroyed worlds.

To survive against those monstrous creatures, I needed to adapt to this system as quickly as possible.

*Crack!*

[You have defeated a 1★ Leaf Fairy.]

[Reward: 5 Exp / 1★ Leaf Fairy]

And so, I beat down every Calamity I laid eyes on.

My stamina was the one thing I could boast about, so it wasn’t overly difficult.

Not difficult, but certainly taxing.

Even if they were monsters, they were still living things. Each time I killed a Goblin, I had the disconcerting illusion of crushing a child’s skull. It was unpleasant, to say the least.

[The Rift’s Emanation will end in 4h.]

Already, I’d been swinging my club for two hours.

In that time, I had taken care of a total of fifteen 1-Star Calamities.

Converted into numerical value, that was 75 Exp.

Not much, but precious experience nonetheless.

“Guess I should set up a base of operations soon.”

I caught my breath, tapping the warped baseball bat against the ground.

The 1-Star Calamities in the immediate vicinity were, more or less, dealt with.

Returning home, establishing a base, taking a breather, and then heading back out to collect Calamities seemed like the most sensible course of action.

Having made that decision, I started to walk.

“…H-Hold it! It’s a person!”

The moment I rounded the corner, I came face to face with four or five burly men.

The man in the lead was raising a sledgehammer high above his head; if I’d been a step faster, my head would have been impaled by it.

“Shit, fucking hell. Thought it was a Monstrum.”

The man shook his head, setting down the sledgehammer.

Only then could I scrutinize the appearance of the men behind him.

Like me, they each held a weapon.

“Ah…”

Meanwhile, the man at the front, seeing the club I held and the flesh clinging to it, flinched.

He swallowed hard and asked,

“So, you’re also an Awakened?”

“You too, then… you’re all Awakened…?”

The men nodded at my question.

So many dimwits who pressed ‘Accept’ on that suspicious system message.

Though, with Awakened stories popping up daily in the community, it shouldn’t be any different near my house.

Perhaps relieved that we were in the same boat, the man chuckled and extended his hand.

“Since it’s come to this, how about joining forces? Seems we need to fill ten before the Rift closes, and we’re about halfway there.”

They were hunting Calamities as a group, it seemed. The leader was a burly-looking guy with a close-cropped haircut.

He even had a dragon-shaped irezumi tattoo snaking across his arms and shoulders.

“Young fella, looks like you’ve already done some decent farming. How about it? Wanna roll with us?”

Years of reading people’s moods had taught me well.

This guy was a thug, plain and simple.

Nothing good could come from getting involved with him.

“Well, I’m afraid I’m a bit tired… I should be heading back.”

The thug didn’t react much to my words.

Perhaps it was thanks to my less-than-imposing physique.

The thug gestured with his chin, and I bowed slightly as I passed in front of him.

‘I have to be careful.’

Unlike Disaster Order, which was a solo game, there must be tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of players in this world.

It was said that the most terrifying thing wasn’t monsters, but people.

More than the monsters, I needed to be wary of my fellow players.

It was as I was thinking this and passing through the group of men that…

“Uh, uh? Boss! There’s a pretty big one over there, y’know?”

The party on patrol spoke, and everyone’s gaze followed toward the alley’s end.

There, a beast with a coat the color of congealed blood stood.

Its build resembled a large dog. Its face was almost gentle, giving it a seemingly harmless appearance at first glance.

“What’s this? Looks tougher than the little ones we’ve been catching, eh?”

“You think it’s a 2-Star? Be good to catch one of those.”

“2-Star, huh? Is that… good?”

“Ah, Hyung, you don’t play these types of games often, do you! Catching a strong monster early on makes the game easier, you know? Common knowledge, common knowledge.”

The men exchanged glances, murmuring amongst themselves.

But I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the wolf.

“…That’s a Hellfire Watchdog.”

The form was all too familiar.

A dud character that always popped up when synthesizing high-grade calamities.

But even a dud was still, undeniably, a high-grade calamity.

[4★ Hellfire Watchdog Roars.]

“…Why is a 4-Star here…?”

A 4-Star calamity, the Hellfire Watchdog, stood before us.

There was only one option.

We had to run.

“Aha. So, catching that thing will make things easier from now on, you say?”

Meanwhile, the men seemed to have already made up their minds. The man with the sledgehammer tapped the handle against his other hand.

“I’ll draw its attention first, then Hyung can nail its head, okay?”

“Got it.”

Perhaps it was because they’d already killed several 1-Star calamities.

The men had grown overly arrogant.

Maybe they were blinded by this reality that felt like a game.

But that thing wasn’t something that could be handled with mere human strength.

And I, too, wasn’t the type of person who could coldly turn their back on fools committing a suicide charge.

“No! You can’t! We have to run!”

I shouted, and the men turned to face me.

“…What?”

“That, that wolf is on a completely different level than anything I’ve encountered before! You can’t compare it to forest goblins, no way!”

“Alright. It’s probably different. But there are six of us.”

The thug said that, then flashed me a grin.

“No, now there’s seven.”

“Huh?”

“You’re in too. You’ll get some experience points at least. Not like you’ve got anything to lose, right? That 2-star, or whatever it is, doesn’t tempt you?”

Shit.

The thug casually added me to the party.

My mouth felt bone dry.

At this rate, I’m completely trapped into a suicide charge.

What should I do?

I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“I’ve played this game before!”

“And someone who has, is insane enough to come out hunting again?”

“Ah.”

It didn’t work at all.

Instead, the thug gave a devilish smile and took a step closer.

“Listen to me. That thing is a 4-star class. A 4-star calamity. You absolutely cannot win.”

“4-star?”

The thug tilted his head, then spoke to his companion.

“Hey, is 4-star supposed to be good?”

“Aha, of course, boss. In another game, it’d be something worth fighting over.”

The easily swayed thug smirked.

The next moment, the awakened ones I thought were allies turned into my rivals.

The thug holding the nail gun pointed it at me.

“Lead the way.”

“…Huh?”

“…Damn, who’s gonna care if one of you dies here? Shut your mouth and go first. You’ve got a bat, don’t you?”

Getting involved was a mistake, after all.

A dizzying headache came over me.

Should I flee? Even for a thug, would they really shoot a nail gun at someone’s back as they ran?

I didn’t know. And I didn’t want to wager my life on the odds.

“Damn it! Just listen to…”

That’s when it happened, right as he was about to roar.

“Huh? Boss. That one, he saw us.”

“Eh?”

It seemed the sounds we made had reached the ears of the hellhound, for the beast was now staring right at us.

And the thing looked hungry.

Because it charged, straight towards us.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The ground trembled with each impact, the hellhound’s mane flared out in a radiating sunburst.

So different from its docile appearance, the hellhound wreathed in its fiery mane began to rampage, destroying anything in its path.

“…H-hey, boss! That… it’s too…”

Those were the man’s last words.

The hound, now right in front of him, tore at his throat.

Blood gushed out, and the heat from the flames licked at my face.

“…aaargh!”

Someone died right before my eyes.

Who wouldn’t be shaken?

The party disintegrated in an instant. Even the thugs turned tail and ran. But to the hellhound, a back turned was simply a better sacrifice.

The hound’s teeth sank into the thug’s back, and blood soaked the ground around him.

Amidst the chaos of bodies turning into corpses, I stumbled backwards.

“Shit, shiiiit…”

My teeth chattered.

I should have kept my nose out of it, ran the moment I saw the wolf.

Is this how it ends?

Just on the first bloom, the first stage?

“Grrr?”

[4★ Hellfire Watchdog is watching you.]

And finally, after turning six humans into minced meat, the hellhound glared in my direction.

The beast lunged, raising a forepaw wreathed in flame.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

But the impact never came.

“Enough.”

The voice, rough with disuse, sliced through the air.

A single word, yet it pulsed with authority.

The hellhound that moments before had been tearing humans limb from limb, whined and cowered as if facing a tiger.

Then, a figure shimmered from the shadows beyond.

Enveloped in roaring flames, I could still make out their features with stark clarity.

The ripped nun’s habit, ashen hair, crimson-burning eyes.

A face I had seen countless times while playing Disaster Order.

*Ding.*

[5★ Scortched Saint Selene is watching you.]

“Selene.”

At the sound of her name, the Scortched Saint looked as though she might burst into tears.

“Master.”

The Disaster recognized me.

Warm flames encircled me.