Surviving a Shounen Manga

“Hoo…”

I took a couple of deep breaths.

I’d dragged him into the secret room so confidently, but I still couldn’t help but be a little nervous. Strictly speaking, it was hard to call this guy weaker than me.

An executive of the Black Shadow assassin organization.

In fact, they were also extras, who didn’t distinguish themselves too much from the rest of the herd. Although they were able to pose a certain level of challenge to Leo and the rest, that was their limit. To consume Leo’s stamina was the only role they had been assigned.

But even so, it was hard to say that their power was low. Although they weren’t strong enough to cause any trouble for Leo once he released his unique ability, if you asked me if I was stronger, my answer would probably be closer to ‘no’.

“You did something to me.”

The executive seemed to have noticed that the environment around him had changed, but he didn’t seem to understand the exact operation of the secret room.

“No big deal. You don’t have to be so nervous.”

“It’s funny. That ring must be… you bastard, are you sure you want to try and force me into wearing it?”

He pointed his sword at me as he spat out those words.

“I don’t know what your plan is, but you’ve really, definitely cocked things up.”

“I’m not really planning on anything huge.”

My words were sincere.

To be honest, brainwashing these guys really didn’t do me any good. I had no use for them, nor was I going to take them with me on my journey.

Nevertheless, there were two reasons why I had no choice but to make such a plan.

First, to preserve the original ending.

We succeeded in inserting Yan into the plotline at the right timing. In all probability, the one-on-one confrontation between Leo and Yan wouldn’t differ much from the original.

The problem was that there were other variables. The executives who remained untouched by Leo and Kiriko. Who knew if these guys would quietly step back after Yan’s defeat? It seemed hopeless to wish for that.

So, they needed to be tidied up.

Second, a more essential reason.

There was nothing wrong with just grabbing some limelight.

After the battle between Leo and Yan gets finished, the following scene would naturally show the audience around them.

At that moment, I’d grin and say –

“Thanks for taking your time… I managed to tidy it all up.”

What if I could announce my presence with a meaningful line like this? With the Black Shadow executives kneeling at my back.

Wouldn’t it be possible to capture the readers’ attention, amplifying their curiosity about me? Of course, since I’d be taking away some of the spotlight that should have been focused on the protagonist, I’d draw the author’s ire a little bit.

And not to mention one more reason. I wanted to check my current abilities.

There was a total of six backgrounds currently applied onto me.

Among them, there were two that provided ‘hidden characteristics’ which directly affected the body.

1. [Unknown Itinerant]

2. [A Man Who Once Visited the Bezyt Gorge]

The characteristic acquired from the first background was ‘doesn’t get tired very easily for some reason’. In other words, stamina.

The traits obtained from the second background were ‘the body is a little more agile’ and ‘becomes more powerful in moments of crisis’. That is, agility and self-control.

What happens if my currently elevated ‘rank’ upgraded these hidden characteristics on top of the original ‘a little strong’ characteristic?

No matter exactly how strong that made me, I thought it should be enough to deal with these extras.

Therefore,

“It’s not that big of a deal for you to obey me… isn’t it?”

I provoked the executive with some confidence.

Then,

Swish –.

I almost died.

‘… This is more than I expected.’

I stared blankly at my clothes that had been slashed and torn.

If that guy’s point of attack had moved just a little, it wouldn’t have been just a piece of cloth lying on the floor.

“You seem to be misunderstanding something. Don’t you think it should be the other way around? You, being obedient like a dog. And I don’t think I’ll even need that ring for it.”

The guy let out a sly smile. I guess he thought I was nonplussed.

But of course,

“Uh, not at all. You are the one who’ll obey. And your friends too.”

It didn’t mean that I was scared, or that I had a premonition of defeat.

His attack had indeed been faster than expected. But I did still see it. That’s why I didn’t avoid it.

I felt like I had to clash with him a few more times.

I grabbed a stick of wood lying on the ground nearby, and rushed at him like a thunderbolt.

To gauge the depths of his ability, and mine.

Swish –.

But I didn’t reach him.

My movements were faster than I’d expected. Almost as fast as when that guy had just rushed at me.

The reason I still didn’t reach him was simple. Because he was even faster.

His expression was still relaxed.

“You were hiding some skill after all. Aren’t you pretty fast?”

“Are you going to keep talking after every hit?”

“I was going to give you some time to breathe, but if you don’t like it, then there’s nothing I can do.”

Then his attack began.

The trajectory was monotonous. Just stabs and slashes here and there with the sword he was holding.

But,

Swish –.

‘It’s tough to handle.’

It was as powerful as it was simple.

This guy didn’t even have a special ability, let alone a unique ability.

The problem was that, for these ‘assassin’ or ‘ninja’ types, there were great hidden characteristics basically built-in.

Especially, agility.

I also had it, so I thought it would be a good match, but I was wrong. Instead of catching up with his speed, I had to focus on avoiding his rapid onslaught. Even that was hard enough, and small wounds were constantly accumulating on my body.

‘Shit… I should’ve bought something more expensive.’

Again, looked like it’d been a mistake to try and work things out somehow with the characteristics bundled with cheap backgrounds. Of course, I was regretting it now, but it was already too late.

“Are you alright? Do you think you can see the end now?”

Maybe he also noticed my difficulties, so he smiled and relaxed.

‘I think it’ll be fine if I can catch him just once.’

There was one way.

Ignoring small attacks and blindly closing the distance. There would be quite a few wounds, but I’d at least be able to try and get one chance to fix things.

But,

“Ah, I can’t do this anymore. I give up.”

I didn’t do that. I just gave up cleanly.

As I stopped moving and stood still, he looked at me with puzzled eyes.

“What’s your plan?”

“It’s no big deal.”

Why didn’t I even try it? What was the problem with giving it a try?

First, the limited scope of the closed room.

What if the guy didn’t respond and moved all the way back? The moment our distance exceeded the range of the ability, the secret room would be immediately dismantled. Since it was just part of the surroundings, not an actual separated space, there were no restrictions on getting out. Should I call this the limit of special abilities?

The reason I didn’t move around and tried to take all of his attacks head-on actually stemmed from this.

And second, because I just didn’t have to try it.

“I’ll just stop here, since it’s hard.”

“… What? So can I just kill you like this? Or do you mean that you will obey me?”

“Not that. Wait. Didn’t I send a signal just now?”

“Signal?”

“A signal that I’m going to stop. Wait just a second.”

“…?”

That was then.

Thud –.

With a dull sound, the guy suddenly collapsed.

I glanced at the owner of the bat that had stunned my opponent.

“Why make him faint? Now you’ll have to wake him up again.”

“But it’s too much work to subdue this guy without putting him to sleep…”

“Really? Alright. Great job.”

I didn’t come into the secret room alone with this executive in the first place.

In fact, I was hiding one more guy.

“Is that a goblin bat? Do you have any dreams stored in it?”

At my words, Chinuavi looked at me with amazement.

“Senior, you really know everything.”

I see.

Chinuavi’s answer surprised me a bit, to be honest.

It wasn’t even a hard hit, but seeing the guy pass out so easily, I asked just in case it was true.

A goblin bat with dreams stored in it.

This was truly one of the cheat items of the goblins, capable of transferring the ‘dream stored in the bat’ to the target being hit. In other words, you can make them sleep for as long as you want. To a maximum duration of ‘eternity’.

“Can you wake him up right away?”

“He was only going to sleep for about a minute anyway. Delivering dreams beyond that is burdensome for me.”

“Alright.”

I quickly approached the man and put one of the seven rings on him.

It was set to obey me when a new host came along, so when the guy woke up he should carry out my orders.

“Thank you.”

“It was nothing. Just don’t forget our deal.”

“Yes, yes.”

I was looking at Chinuavi with fresh eyes. 

Really, goblins were cheat existences.

At this point, I could understand a bit why the author had put off the appearance of these guys to so much later.

Because with guys with this kind of ability around, I didn’t think the story would progress properly.

You need to at least pour out a truckful of guys with great unique abilities to keep them in check.

And this meant that the author would definitely despise my current behaviour.

I felt like I had to be prepared to some extent.

“By the way, senior, aren’t you being a bit too cowardly?”

“What about it? I don’t have to be so righteous right now. Because they’re not looking at me anyway.”

“Yes? What do you mean…”

“Alright. Hmm? This guy is slowly waking up. Hide again. If I need you, I’ll send another signal. It’ll probably be fine, though.”

“Yes.”

Then, the executive came to his senses.

“E-, eh?”

“Have you come back to your senses?”

“Uh… sure…” 

“Okay, let’s start with bowing your head and pretending to be a dog.”

It wasn’t that I’d gotten my nose tweaked by this guy’s remarks earlier. It was just to confirm his obedience. Really, that’s the truth.

Soon after,

“Woof!”

The guy barked.

Yeah. That’s alright then.

I immediately dismantled the secret room and gave him a special order.

“Just grab a friend of yours and bring him here. An idiot who wouldn’t be suspicious.”

“Yes.”

After a while,

“What, why are we here now? Right now, Master Yan is in perfect form…”

He brought in another executive with a slender impression.

“… You?”

Instead of answering, I immediately activated the secret room.

Then,

“Catch him.”

“Yes.”

I ordered my new subordinate 1 to grab him.

“What? What are you doing now?”

“Hold on tight.”

Then, before the newcomer came to his senses, I approached him quickly.

“I never got to use my strength when I was fighting with this guy earlier. He was too fast. So I’ll just test it out with you right now.”

“What, what?”

Then, with both palms, I smacked his chin.

Thwack –.

Ah. It only took one shot.

“Did he just faint?”

“Really.”

My agility was below expectations, but my strength seemed to be several times relative to expectations. Maybe because it was a characteristic inherent in ‘Villain 3’, and it seemed to have been more directly influenced by my ‘rank’.

After putting the ring on him, I slapped his cheeks to wake him up.

“Hey, who are you?”

“Okay, now pretend to be a dog.”

“Yes?”

“Imitate a dog.”

“Uh… yes. Woof!”

“Alright.”

I hurriedly unlocked the secret room again.

Now only two activations were left. Five executives still remained.

I could roughly fit the puzzle.

The problem was time. 

Looking at the situation, the battle between Leo and Yan was almost approaching the climax. In order to naturally hog the spotlight, I had to finish all my work on time.

I hurriedly gave orders to subordinate 1 and subordinate 2.

“Bring them all here one by one. Whichever of you is tardier, better prepare himself.”

[Dance with Ghost Killer].

Yan’s unique ability was to materialize transparent ghosts, that looked just like him, floating in the air. Although they were called ghosts, the concept was similar to clones, and they were set to have egos of their own as well.

Simply put, creating fakes who were not much different from the main body, except for the fact that ‘physical attacks have no effect’.

Currently, two such ghosts had been created on the battlefield. This was the largest number Yan could produce at this point, meaning the showdown was slowly approaching its final stage.

And just in time,

“This is the last one. I don’t have any more power left.”

“Me, too.”

“Really? I’ve still got some left in the tank though?”

“Me too. Our physical body is really fragile, isn’t it?”

“Damn it, you be quiet.”

Two (or four) forms clashed for the last time.

Bang –.

A cloud of dust spread out like an explosion.

Before long, the silhouette of a man appeared in the haze as the dust was settling all around.

The winner, as always, was Leo.

Yan was lying on the ground, and the two ghosts had already disappeared.

“You… you’re amazing. I can’t win.”

“You weren’t bad either.”

“If I go with you…, can I become stronger?”

“What… why not find that out yourself?”

After confirming that Yan had passed out, Leo immediately slumped to the ground. He really looked exhausted.

An action that was a signal to announce the end of the chapter. 

I took a step forward without wasting time.

“Huh?”

“Great job.”

Leo was wary as soon as he saw me.

“You…”

“No need to be so vigilant. Because I’ve tidied all your enemies up already.”

Leo’s eyes widened as he saw the Black Shadow executives kneeling behind me.

“What… it can’t be?”

Suddenly, the vigilance in the boy’s eyes was replaced by surprise.

“Thanks to you keeping their attention, I was able to easily tidy them up.”

“What the hell are you…?”

Kiriko and Siana, who’d rushed to Leo’s side, also asked in bewilderment.

“Who are you?”

“Are you our enemy? Or do you have another purpose?”

I enjoyed their questioning gazes to the fullest. Because this was the moment when my presence would soar.

In a while,

“We were enemies before, but today, we are allies.”

I turned around slowly. The Black Shadow executives had already fallen back.

Repeatedly sowing doubts would just anger the readers. But it wasn’t time yet.

With a smile as meaningful as possible, I retreated.

Leaving only the last word.

“You’ll soon find out.”

A while after I left the battlefield, a message arrived in the hologram window.

Tiling –.

I opened the message with a pounding heart.

[Chapter 10 – Black Shadow Assassins (1) has ended]

[The character evaluation of the Enigmatic Squatjaw has been updated]

[The support of many readers followed]

[Awareness has increased by 3,500]

[Attracts the author’s attention]

[The author’s favourability has decreased by 40]

[Received fan art from a reader]

[The author’s favourability has increased by 1]

[Reappearance probability has increased to 50%]

‘Oh, fan art? That’s great, right?’

[State]

Tiling –.

[The final evaluation of the character has been calculated by the author]

[The Enigmatic Squatjaw is the subject of a preliminary appearance in the next chapter]

[Character points paid 10,500p for the rise in awareness]

[Character points deducted 3,900p for the fall in author’s favourability]

[Character points paid 1,000p for eliciting enthusiastic support (fan art) from a certain reader]

[Character points paid 500p for the rise in reappearance probability]

⁞

Now it was all over.

It was finally time. To get what I want.

[Currently held points: 32,373P].

Editor’s Notes:

None for this chapter.