“What’s going on? You’re telling me to conquer the Tower?”
This damn system, can’t it answer?
For a while, I was throwing a fit like a crazy person by myself.
In the midst of that, the yellow system window’s color changed to red with a *ping!* I jumped back a step in surprise.
……Of course, even if I stepped back, the status window just followed along with me.
[Error.]
[Error.]
[The 1st ranked Druid should have possessed, but you possessed instead. This is an error.]
“An error?”
There was no hiding my absurdity.
So my possession is an error? Someone else should have possessed instead of me?
I understand that farmers who make crops grow and druids who handle nature’s spirits are somewhat similar.
But farmers are just people who produce things, and druids are combatants. They’re fundamentally different!
It feels like talking to a poorly performing AI. I crossed my arms and decided to listen to what the red system had to say.
“Does it make sense to mistake who to possess and possess a different person?”
[We will proceed with memory erasure and send you back to your original world right now.]
“No! How can you give and then take away!”
That won’t do. I reached out toward the status window and snapped at it. Of course, I couldn’t actually grab it.
I finally secured my own home and now you’re taking it away?
Besides, if I return to the original world, a bigger problem awaits.
‘I was stabbed with a knife by a robber. Even if I go back like this, there’s a high probability I’ll die.’
In conclusion, I absolutely cannot go back. It’s not simply a matter of which life is better—it’s a matter of my survival.
Then there’s only one way for me to live.
I don’t know if conversation is possible, but I’ll try negotiating with this system.
“I’ve already possessed someone, so what are you going to do? Don’t do that and just let me be. I’ll really just quietly farm here and live.”
[Impossible.]
[Impossible.]
[It goes against the game system.]
[If you wish to choose this place, you have no choice but to challenge the ‘Tower Challenger Finals’.]
This is driving me crazy. My dazed mind snapped back to reality in an instant. I chewed my lips with the desire to tear my hair out.
I have absolutely no talent for fighting. I don’t want to be stuck between combat classes either.
I asked slyly.
“What happens if I can’t conquer the Tower?”
In the game, you just get a game over; people don’t actually die. So maybe?
[You return to your original world.]
But my hope was shattered to pieces.
If you can’t clear it, you return to the original world. It’s too simple a principle.
I slowly accepted the reality that was more game-like than the game itself.
In the end, I have no choice at all.
Just like the days I went to the company to save my salary…… I have no choice but to participate in the ‘Tower Challenger Finals’ to defend my cabin.
Because if I return to the original world, I’ll really die.
When the guys flying high in the game world are going on a rampage, I can only hold farming tools and tend the fields, but let’s defeat them all and conquer the Tower.
“No, this really doesn’t make sense.”
A feeling of unfairness suddenly surged up. Whew…… I let out another sigh to calm down, then grabbed the status window that had turned yellow at some point.
The yellow status window didn’t directly converse with me like before. Instead, it displayed and informed me of the possessor’s rules.
[The possessor can either directly become the emperor (Tower conqueror) or make a selected character the emperor to win.]
Make a selected character the emperor?
This wasn’t in the original game. I opened my eyes wide and carefully read the lines below.
[If you become the ranked 1st Hunter on the continent, you can enter the Tower. You must defeat all competitors, become 1st place, and seize the qualification to challenge the Tower conquest. This is called the ‘Tower Challenger Finals’.]
Up to here is exactly the same as the game scenario. But if there’s something that changed.
[At this time, the conquest challenger can be yourself or a character you’ve selected. If the selected character becomes the Tower challenger, the possessor challenges the conquest together as a companion.]
[Even if the selected character succeeds in conquering the Tower, the victor receives the same reward.]
This is a method that didn’t exist before. Rather than yourself, it’s a method of raising another person to make them emperor…….
Wait, I think I know why this rule was created?
[The character is chosen from among the 9 origin characters that existed in the game’s previous version.]
That’s right. It’s because of this.
To know who the origin characters are, you need to know this game’s history.
This game started as a single-player game. Now it’s an MMORPG where users customize their own characters, but originally it was a game played with nine playable characters.
I’m someone who first started with the renewed version, but I became interested in the previous version of the game too, so I personally looked up the stories.
‘Mercenary, Royal Knight, Doctor, Priest, Magic Tower Master, Princess, Assassin, Singer, Secretary.’
I was familiar enough with all the stories and scenarios to immediately recall all nine of them in my head.
I know quite a bit of information about the future…… If it’s this.
Couldn’t I somehow manage even with a farmer status?
Around the time I finished organizing my thoughts, a message arrived in the yellow status window.
[Please select the character who will be your partner.]
So it’s officially starting. I finally stopped pulling weeds.
No, actually I didn’t stop. I kept my hands moving while glaring at the character selection window.
[Singer/Princess/Magic Tower Master
/Secretary/Priest/Assassin
/Royal Knight/Mercenary/Doctor]
I have to choose one from among these nine.
If I return to the original world, I’m facing death from being stabbed with a knife, so the one who will definitely allow me to remain in this world.
I know how much weight hangs on my choice right now.
“……”
In the end, strength slowly entered my hands that had stopped pulling weeds.
I feel like deep breathing will become a habit. The sighs I couldn’t breathe well while at the company because I was being mindful—I let them out heavily enough to make the ground sink. I reorganized my mind.
‘Alright. Let’s think about it.’
The characteristics of the nine are literally worlds apart, but if I divide them simply, I can define them like this.
First is ‘high risk, high return.’ Characters who are weak in the early stages but have excellent growth potential.
If you’re not careful, you might get a game over right there, but if you endure the early stages, they’re the so-called late-game carry characters who return with great physicals in the later stages.
The opposite is ‘strong early-stage physical.’ Characters who achieve smooth growth all the way to the late stages based on favorable early conditions and physicals.
Characters who are already strong from the start—typically good statuses like Royal Knights or Magic Tower Masters fall into this category.
‘Between these two, I……’
Of course I need to get a character who’s strong and excellent from the early stages.
‘Think about my level.’
My physical abilities are zero. If I get into a fight with another character, my partner and I will definitely lose.
‘So I desperately need a character who can fight one-on-one even alone.’
A character who can grow on their own even without someone supporting them from behind.
The strategy of expecting the late game and choosing to raise a weak character is impossible for me from the start. Because I have such disadvantageous conditions.
While I was agonizing, the weeds I’d finished pulling piled up like a mountain beside me.
Finally, I made my decision.
‘……Considering all these premises.’
I’ll choose the ultimate high-risk, high-return character.
[You have selected ‘Mercenary’.]
Mercenary. The name is Belsus.
When you look at the character selection window, character image cuts appear.
Someone is a knight clad in gleaming silver armor, someone is a secretary with a ponytail wearing clean vest and glasses, and someone else is a princess adorned with jewels…….
Among them, there’s one raggedy beggar bastard with shaggy hair wearing some kind of rags with a swarm of flies buzzing around him.
That guy is Belsus.
In the previous version of the game, the clear difficulty was ‘Hard’.
‘Of course, clearing itself is possible.’
But that’s only when Belsus was a game character.
If it’s a game, you can just retry even after game over. But this is reality. You only have one life.
If you think this far, you can realize it. How dangerous it is to choose a character with low early stats. They could just die in the early stages and be unable to do anything in the late game.
Yet I still chose the mercenary.
Despite being a farmer who can only pull weeds.
The biggest gamble of my life…… No, it’s not that. I don’t do stocks or investments. Because it doesn’t suit my aptitude.
‘Because this character is my best option.’
This is reality.
A character who’s strong from the start. A character with a lot of possessions and abundant connections. Of course that’s important since this is reality. But.
‘Since we become a team of two, “whether I can recruit that character” also becomes a major point.’
Let’s say I chose a high-spec character to cover for me being a shithead.
Then will that character say, “Oh my, I shall serve you,” and help me?
Not in a million years. I’d be lucky not to get brutally killed.
Imagine if I, a farmer, chose a Royal Knight or Magic Tower Master with good early firepower. They’d kick me to death immediately saying, “What’s with this commoner?”
Fighting power? None. Brains? Fucking stupid. I’m not particularly confident in acting either.
For someone like me, there weren’t many options.
I need to choose ‘someone who needs me.’ Not someone I need.
That’s why I chose the mercenary Belsus.
All I have is one farm.
And Belsus is a homeless person who doesn’t even have that one farm.
‘I become a home to someone who has no home. Well, it’s too simple logic though.’
And one more thing. The reason I picked Belsus as my first choice.
‘The biggest sucker in gaming history.’
Because Belsus is the greatest acknowledged simpleton pushover, he’ll probably follow along saying it’s good even after seeing my pathetic farm.
