Pick Me Up!

The Following Evening

I sat on a bench in the second-floor plaza.

Heroes passing by near the square looked at me with strange eyes, but I didn’t mind.

[I wonder when they will come…]

Next to me, Iselle fluttered her wings anxiously.

In her hand, she held a rainbow-colored stone, and around her forehead, a white band that read ‘Wishing for Success!’

[It must not fail, not fail, not fail…]

Iselle tightly closed her eyes.

I wonder why you’re so frantic. I looked up. In the sky, a dark shadow loomed like clouds.

‘From 4-stars onward…’

There’s a chance of failure.

The likelihood is low, even generously less than 1%.

But the probability undeniably existed.

“Don’t worry. It will definitely succeed.”

[But.]

“It’s only the inept ones who fail.”

A hero who has grown normally cannot fail.

[Welcome to Pick Me Up!]

A notification message from Anytng popped up.

He logged in at precisely the same time every day.

I like that.

[Loading is complete.]

[T O U C H! (Choose)]

[Don’t miss it! Fun is great! Rewards are double great!]

[Ladies and gentlemen, you have been waiting for a long time. The festival of all masters is about to open!]

[Especially this festa, there are enormous rewards that any master would drool over! Shall I tell you? Rainbow-colored stones for S-rank engravings. And 5-stars… Ahem, that’s all for now. A second announcement will be released soon. Please check there for more details!]

‘It’s already the 7th season.’

Well, it’s still a long way off from starting.

Right now, there are more urgent things. The contents of the notice can wait.

Anytng skipped the announcements and entered the main screen.

[Master, there is a hero awaiting promotion!]

[Possible heroes for promotion – ‘Han (★★★)’, ‘Jenna (★★★)’, ‘Velkist (★★★)’]

A green notification window popped up at the bottom of the screen.

Anytng immediately entered the hero box. A list of heroes he owned appeared in quick succession.

[Here we gooo!!!]

Iselle shivered as if she had been struck by lightning.

[Master, the promotion begins!]

[Target hero – ‘Han (★★★)’]

[The hero will be promoted to 4-stars. The promotion has a low probability of failure, and if it fails, the hero will fall into a ‘corrupted’ state. Would you like to proceed?]

[Yes / No]

[Tips/ From 4-stars, there is a chance of failure. Heroes who fail the promotion become corrupted, and in this state, they lose their reason and go berserk.]

Anytng hesitated for a moment.

He seemed hesitant at the warning of possible failure.

Naturally. A hero who is corrupted is unusable. There’s no choice but to discard them.

I looked at Anytng, hesitating, and thought strongly.

‘Do it.’

[The leader of the first party, ‘Han (★★★)’ requests promotion.]

And then.

[Yes (selected) / No]

Thud.

The door to the synthesis room opened.

Inside was the promotion chamber. I stood up, taking the promotion stone that Iselle handed me with trembling hands. Iselle clenched her fists as she looked at me.

[Fighting! You can’t lose!]

“Thank you.”

I smirked and headed toward the synthesis room.

Jenna and Velkist should have been here too.

‘But we could only make one.’

Even though it was a 50% chance, it failed more than ten times.

Only one promotion stone was made. What can we do? We have to gather more.

The other members of the first party were currently rolling in the daily dungeons.

I’ll have to share my experience after it’s over.

I placed the rainbow-colored stone on the altar in the promotion chamber.

Threads of magical power, like spiderwebs, sprouted from the altar, wrapping around the stone, and simultaneously, the magic circle below began to glow purple.

‘It begins.’

Vroom.

‘…?’

I looked down at my belt.

Bifrost in the sheath was vibrating.

Before I could wonder, a flash of light burst from the magic circle and enveloped me.

When I opened my eyes again.

[Dimension 0000 – Townia]

Just as I thought, I was thrown into a strange space.

First, I looked up. The pale violet sky. Huge pieces of glass slowly rotated and floated around. Beyond that, the scenery was covered in darkness.

‘Sigh.’

I sighed and lowered my gaze.

And then, I narrowed my eyes. An impressively large palace was displaying its magnificence ahead, with a tower stretching up to the end of the sky beside it.

‘Where is this now?’

Nearby, there was a garden full of nameless flowers and stone walls.

No people were in sight.

[#!Empty#^Ture##@]

Crackle. Crack.

With a noise, letters carved themselves into the air.

[Floor 0.]

[Msigsw %#!Type – ?!#?]

[Mokmok – Email Protected]

Is this a joke?

I couldn’t understand the letters.

The only thing I could read was the Floor 0 at the top.

‘Floor zero…?’

Of course, there is no such thing as a floor zero in Pick Me Up.

What this meant, I would have to find out by going to the end.

I followed the marble path leading to the grand doors of the palace.

‘Where is this place.’

It was obvious this was no ordinary place.

The air was as cold as if I had entered a freezer, and the surrounding scenery was desaturated.

As if the saturation had been lowered.

As I nearly reached the grand doors, a large sign hanging above caught my eye.

I read the letters, which were decorated with jewels, on the sign.

[Ragnasar’s Palace]

[Throne for the Master of Gold]

Pria’s face came to mind.

Was this a place where the emperor of the empire stayed?

I pushed the gold and silver decorated grand doors.

Creak. With an old metallic sound, the doors began to open.

Bang!

As I entered, the doors closed as if they had been waiting.

I pushed slightly, but they didn’t budge. They seemed locked.

‘…’

The space inside was endlessly vast.

On both sides were pillars made of marble, and a red carpet led to the center.

[The Golden Court]

It was kindly informed.

This was where the emperor stayed.

I had always wanted to see his face.

I followed the carpet.

I'm currently Translating the following novels: Pick Me Up! | A Frontline Soldier Awakened as a Gamer In The War! | The 100th Regression of the Max-Level Player. If you want to support me and read more chapters please subscribe to my Patreon!