Surviving a Shounen Manga

Neo Archive

"Then… it's time for our farewell."

Haka flashed his usual smile.

Full of secrets and hidden meaning.

There was no emotion in his crescent half-moon eyes.

"What about your body? Are you really fine?"

"Seems the association paid some attention. The recovery pills were excellent. It's all good now, other than throbbing a little."

He was fine. Or rather, pretending to be.

But that's why I was even more concerned. It was as if he was deliberately playing up his normal behaviour.

I was going to Eastland. I planned to visit the goblins' den while I was there.

For Haka, it had to be the journey of his dreams.

Moreover, unlike the times when I'd been tied up with the author's useless developments, we had been moving far more freely recently. Freed from the various settings that'd been subtly constraining my actions, we'd been living a more satisfying and enjoyable life.

So my words to him yesterday had to have come as a shock.

"Haka, I have a favour to ask you."

"… What?"

"I want you to move separately for a little while."

There were two reasons why I wanted to keep this guy apart.

First, as my mouthpiece.

Simple. I needed someone to stay in Westland and constantly remind Leo and the rest about my existence, so I wouldn't be easily forgotten.

Somebody capable of keeping up the expectations about me by properly mixing loud lies with meaningful truths. Again, there was no one more fitting than this guy.

In fact, Leo and his friends already knew him as my colleague, so such actions wouldn't even be suspicious.

Of course, I didn't just ask Haka to do this outright.

Nominally, his job was to unite the various criminal organizations he was vaguely connected to, such as the ‘Windrider Gang'. I didn't really think that those organizations would be any help, but they worked as an excuse.

Because I honestly thought it'd be pretty shitty to tell him to stay here just to sing my praises.

And second. I needed him to throw around ‘rice cakes' about the goblins left and right.

In fact, this guy had never properly taken up his ‘original role' since our very first meeting.

That is to say, to spread the word about the goblins.

According to the original storyline, this guy would've already gone to bother Leo and his party several times, asking them to solve a riddle or to make a bet. And in the process, he would've constantly mentioned the goblins and their five gods.

But here, he hadn't.

In other words, at present neither Leo's party nor the readers had any inkling about the existence of goblins. Even though they'd seen Chinuavi a few times already.

I needed Haka to start up this activity. If only to add foreshadowing and additional significance when I did finally manage to bring the goblins here in the future.

Also, this guy who'd been the epitome of ‘secrecy' and ‘strength' in the early parts of the original, had gradually withered and disappeared in the later parts. Because despite talking up the goblins, he hadn't managed to stay relevant till that Chekov's gun had fired. But what if the timing was better this time?

His significance would skyrocket, in proportion to his early foreshadowing. Enough that he wouldn't disappear facing the future plotline, and would be able to fulfil his true potential.

"Three months. Three months at the most. I'll be back by then."

"Well… even if you say that…"

"I'm telling you again. Even if we're away for a while, we're still the same adventurer team. Got it?"

Haka snorted at my words.

"How come you believe in me so much… Of course, I truly respect Sir Chinuavi… But I've just been passing the time with you guys…

"Okay, you don’t have anything else to do, so don’t spout nonsense and just wait. Don't forget my request, either. I'll check your scorecard once I'm back."

"…"

It was necessary to instil a sense of belonging in this guy. If you cannot establish a background where loyalty takes root, he would just disappear without a trace.

And… I already thought of this guy as a friend.

"I’ll tell you all about the goblin den afterwards. Maybe I can show you something more interesting, too."

I intentionally skipped the part about bringing the goblins. There had to be some surprise.

"But I never even got to hear about the goblin gods. Are you just throwing out empty promises again?"

"Ah, right. You want the Cliff Notes version? I can do it now if you want?"

Then Haka smiled and shook his head.

"Leave it. Just show me the goblin gods the next time we meet. Shouldn’t that be enough?"

"Hah…"

This guy wanted more than my little surprise.

Of course, it was meant as a joke, but it stung a little bit.

Actually, I had that in mind too.

"And, you know? Don't forget to talk about me later in front of Leo and the rest. That we'd already departed for Eastland a long time ago. Be sure to add in that the one who's late to solve their mission loses."

"Hey, somebody's confident."

"Believe it. Say we're doing well. And it's okay to exaggerate the rumours about us. Like we defeated an S-class adventurer team, or built a kingdom of some sort… stuff like that."

"Hey, who'd believe that? I'll take care of my end, so just do your job and come back. Well, it doesn't matter if you don't come back. Anyway."

I smiled as I watched Haka turn around in a hurry.

As usual, he was shy like a baby chick inside.

"Ah! Not going to say hi to Cocoa and Chinuavi? Want me to wait at the door?"

Haka didn't turn back despite my shout.

However, after a while, a faint whisper was carried over by the wind.

"I’ll see you all soon anyway."

Three days later.

A city in the southwestern parts of Westland, Neo Archive.

Contrary to its sophisticated-sounding name, the city looked poor and dismal. The streets were empty, the ground littered with trash and fallen leaves, and the incessantly blowing wind was the sole lonely wanderer in the quiet silence.

I looked back at Cocoa and asked –

"Is it right here?"

"Yeah."

Seeing her face so taut with tension, we had to be in the right place.

"The real city is built under the ground. Living facilities, shops, everything. All the residents live underground."

In a word, our enemy had built his very own subterranean kingdom of slaves.

He really couldn't have made me any sicker.

"Really, this organization likes the underground. The cafeteria you led me to back then was the same."

"But I'm not familiar with the detailed design of the settlement. I'd started following that baldy as soon as the marks were engraved on my neck. Of course, I could try and find a path in if you want, but…"

"It's fine, why would you have to go? It's enough just to have brought me this far. Even now, that guy might be feeling your presence."

"He might, but I don’t think he'd really care, right? After all, everyone here is his subordinate. And I've never even seen the boss except during the engraving. Maybe he doesn't even remember me?"

That was true enough. Had Cocoa been the subject of Firmino's attention, it wouldn't have been so easy to come this far. Right now, as long as he decided to, he could even make Cocoa stab me.

He was her boss.

‘… How annoying.'

I had to get Cocoa out of that devil's thumb.

After apologizing to Cocoa for a while, I headed to a nearby vacant lot.

Then I quickly opened the shop window.

[Currently held points: 501,773p].

"Nice…"

Really, it was an astonishing number.

Yesterday afternoon, as Chapter 17 ended, more than 300,000 points had come in.

Even though there were no additional rewards, I'd earned this much just via awareness.

The actual number of people described as ‘a lot of readers' who gave me enthusiastic support, was as high as 105,000.

It was so dazzling I'd had to rub my dazed eyes when I'd first seen the numbers.

Wouldn't this be better called popularity, rather than awareness?

It was possible to guess why it'd risen so much.

Probably not just because I got 1st place in the qualification exam. Readers didn't even get to see how I got my place, after all.

Simple. The readers were up in arms.

Even though I came first in the popularity poll, not a single moment of the process of my taking first place in the exam was shown. Moreover, the author was now even trying to send me away to Eastland.

To be honest, I was curious about the reactions, so I couldn't help but check the readers' comments.

[Chapter 17 Appearance at the Awards Ceremony – Reader Comments]

Fighting Somansal – Bring back Squatjaw!

Matiz – Author's going a bit too far.

adfd – Isn't it because he's taken a bite out of the protagonist's narrative weight?

Ari-ari – You can see the author's level from how he's putting the most popular character out to pasture.

Jang Moonchungnaga – Author fiat hahaha

LWJ – Author, apologize. What happened to narrative plausibility?

These were comments that warmed my heart.

Somehow, it felt like second-hand satisfaction.

‘Ah, this is great! More, more!'

But,

jh7free – Isn't this going to be dual viewpoint from now on? Divide the main point of view, and show Leo and Hiro alternately.

No answer. – Agreed. This is how a rival should be treated.

akdtm1 – If you get to see one moving in the east and one in the west, it'd be awesome.

Some readers completely misunderstood the author's intentions.

Sharing the leading point of view with me? No way.

Our author, who'd leave no stones unturned trying to cut somebody off if they cross the line just once?

But, of course, I couldn't expect the public opinion to completely turn against him. Perhaps an opportunity would come in the future.

‘… Oh no. I'm deluding myself again.'

I shook my head to shake off my futile hopes.

It was time to focus on what I had to do right now, rather than fall into such wishful thoughts.

I opened the ‘Troops' page in the store.

Shop Category / [Character Settings] – [Troops]

※ You can check the details by touching

1. Normal – 200p

2. Sturdy Meathead – 500p

3. Normal with a Weapon – 800p

4. Experienced in Martial Arts – 1,200p

5. Lesser Combatant – 1,500p

⁝

‘Let's see…'

▶ [Intermediate Combat Agent] detail page.

• Characteristics
  • 10x the strength of ordinary people. Varied combat techniques. Proficiency in handling 17 weapon types. Able to conduct group operations.
• Rental period
  • 6 hours – 1800p
  • 12 hours – 3,000p
  • 24 hours – 5,000p
• Special
  • Discount for group purchase.
  • 10 or more – 10%
  • 100 or more – 20%
  • 1,000 or more – 30%

‘Anyway, it's exorbitantly expensive.'

The higher the price, the more difficult it was to judge. Would it be better to buy them individually, in bulk lots to get a discount, or should I directly buy groups with a combination synergy?

15. Nameless D-Class Adventurer Team – 100,000p

16. New Mobile Team of Adventurers' Association – 120,000p

17. International Council Battle Group C-1 – 150,000p

⁝

The reason I wanted to increase the number of troops by spending so much money was simple. Because the number of enemies I'd have to face from here on would be enormous.

The [Scribe's Shackles] of Corps Commander Firmino could increase his number of subordinates indefinitely. Of course, he wouldn't have as much power and time as when he'd appeared in the original story, but nonetheless, there had to be at least a thousand enemies. Even in the Mount Knock arc, he'd said that he had five thousand troops.

"A thousand people…"

Of course, that didn't mean I had to take them all out. After all, this mind control ability meant the battle was one to capture the boss, so it was enough to just make a beeline for him and save time.

As far as I knew, this guy wasn't even strengthening his subordinate's abilities. Roughly speaking, I thought it appropriate to assume that we'd face about a thousand enemies ranging from ‘low-level combatants' to ‘experienced in martial arts'.

Once we attracted them towards us, how many troops would our side need to hold out, even for a short time?

‘For intermediate agents, we should need at least two or three hundred people, right?'

With two hundred people, 6 hours was 360,000p.

How much did my heart hurt, thinking of that?

I repeated to myself as if incanting a magic spell.

"It’s not that bad. It's not that bad…"

Then, after taking a deep breath, I called forth a hundred intermediate agents at once.

After a while,

– Shhh. Shhh. Shhh.

One by one, people were created in the middle of the vacant lot.

"Oooh…"

This time too, it was an amazing sight. Like Terminators swarming through a warp gate.

Of course, they were all wearing clothes.

Oddly enough, as soon as the agents appeared, they looked around and started shaking hands. As if the new extras were congratulating each other.

That was then –

"You seem to be calling the soldiers from your dreams, like you did at the amusement park, right?"

"Huh?"

Someone's voice came floating from afar.

It was Chinuavi.

The guy watched the summoning scene with interest, but didn't ask about the underlying method or ability. In fact, he didn't seem that excited.

It wasn't just because he was a goblin, probably.

In fact, most people in this world would've felt the same. That it wasn't that surprising.

In the first place, the basic worldview included the words ‘everything imaginable', so there were many cases where people didn't react much seeing various abilities.

Every time I managed to do something new, I myself was usually the most surprised.

"It looks like you’re calling quite a few this time. And… fairly strong soldiers at that?"

"This time, there're quite a few enemies. So I need more."

"How many enemies are you facing? You've already got a hundred here, looks like. Isn't that enough?"

"A thousand."

"I see. Then this should be enough."

"… Hoo."

I just looked at him, a bit puzzled. Weren't such remarks too arrogant for somebody who'd failed the Brawler Goblin Test multiple times?

"If the commander is good enough, the number of soldiers doesn’t matter much."

"… True enough, but I'm not going to join the battle. Like I said before, I have to infiltrate the place by myself. So I have to ask for your help. I need a couple more commanders…"

"Who said you won’t join?"

At that moment,

Pyorong–.

Another Squatjaw appeared in front of me.

Wearing a bright red cloak that who knew came from where. He looked like a real general, with an air of command.

"Isn't Captain Sqautjaw right here?"

Thump-thump-thump–.

Thump-thump-thump–.

"… What?"

Awakened by the noise, the man habitually glanced at the periscope pointing up at the ground. Because that was the duty of the man in charge of the city's borders.

But the man soon grew speechless at the sight reflected through lens of the periscope.

"What, what is that…"

Something like a giant earthworm was crashing into the city entrance. Not one, but three.

Fortunately, unlike his frozen mouth, his hands did not forget their mission.

Ding-ding–.

Ding-ding–.

The sound of the invasion alarm resounded through the underground city.

"Emergency, emergency!"

"It’s an attack!"

"What is it?"

"What is it!? What are you guys doing!?"

The man was well aware that he had a duty to convey what he had seen, but he was finding it strangely difficult to articulate.

"H-, huge earthworms… and a big, big…"

"Earthworms? What else other than earthworms!?"

There were countless modifiers to describe ‘that man', but strangely, what the guard finally came up with was a phrase he wouldn't usually use.

But after a moment, he felt convinced that it was a fairly accurate designation.

"A guy with a big jutting chin! A real squat-jaw!"

Wearing a red cloak, riding atop a giant earthworm, leading an army of about a hundred men, he'd come to raid the city of Neo Archive.

Editor's Notes:

None for this chapter.

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