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Arthur sighed deeply while staring at the busy village.
"I don’t know what’s going on anymore."
He couldn't understand it. Even if Gilberto managed to defeat the failures, a more terrifying challenge was waiting for him. It was a challenge that he could only do once, and failure meant death.
"I was planning on giving up when I heard about how I only have a one percent chance of succeeding…” Gilberto trailed off and looked at the ground.
‘Planning?’ Arthur asked carefully, “Father… are you doing this because the village chief looked down on you? That’s not it, right?”
‘One, two…’ Gilberto was inwardly counting the ants on the ground, but he eventually spoke, "Arthur, they provoked me—”
"Wait, really? Wow!" Arthur facepalmed and scoffed. "Was that really the reason? That was such a dumb move, Father! I’m sure the people back on Earth won’t believe it if I told them that you’ve risked your life because you were looked down on.”
The Gray Envoy—Gilberto Green—was the epitome of composure, but to think that he could be so immature. Arthur was right. The people back on Earth would never believe it, even if Arthur told them about it.
"Arthur…" Gilberto looked up and smiled slightly before speaking, "Sometimes, a Player must throw away everything they have to uphold their pride.”
"…I'm sorry, but that’s not cool at all."
"Hm…" Gilberto looked down and resumed counting the ants on the ground.
Meanwhile, the village chief approached him and asked, “We’re ready; how about you?”
"We’re… well…” Arthur's gaze glanced at his immature father.
"I’m always ready," replied Gilberto with sharp eyes. It looked as if his previous sullen appearance had been an illusion.
The village chief nodded and said, “A human is going to make targets, so I'll calculate the score for the sake of fairness."
"Sure," said Gilberto.
"Your name is Gilberto, right? You have a total of 783 opponents."
Seven hundred and eighty-three… Gilberto pondered over the number and muttered, “It seems that it’ll be a bit overwhelming.”
"Well, we have many convenient abilities."
"Are you not going to participate?"
"Hm?” The village chief grinned and said, "I’m struggling to even walk because of my old age, so I won’t participate. There’s also no reason for me to do so. I’ll just count the scores.”
"…Is that so?" Gilberto nodded and started moving. His opponents—the 783 failures—were already prepared.
"I’ll hurl pebbles into the skies on the count of ten!" Arthur’s voice echoed throughout the village under the amplification of magic. The reason Arthur decided to use pebbles rather than larger stones was simple.
'Anything heavier than pebbles will be too much for me to handle…’
There were many participants, so Arthur had to throw at least a hundred thousand stones for a meaningful result. To do that at once, Arthur had to use pebbles.
"The rules are simple: destroy as many targets as you can.”
The failures nodded and muttered to themselves.
"Oh, that’s easy."
"Yeah, I don't think it's particularly difficult… I think we’ll win.”
"It's so easy it’s like taking candy from a baby…”
“Ten!” Arthur started counting, and the failures started to feel a bit nervous.
It couldn’t be helped because it was a competition.
“Four, three, two, one…!” Arthur abruptly sent pebbles flying into the skies.
"Wait, what?!"
"Hey, what are those?! Why are they so small? I can’t even see them from here!”
Some of the failures screamed in indignation.
The largest stone Arthur had sent flying into the air was only the size of a ping-pong ball. They were thrown so high that they looked like tiny dots from the ground. The failures kicked up a fuss, but someone emptied his mind and concentrated.
Bang, bang, bang!
The failures were startled by the gunshots, and they inadvertently turned to where the noises had come from.
Gilberto wielded two revolvers and was constantly pulling their triggers. His eyes were steady rather than darting around because he was looking not at every single pebble but at everything above him.
Bang, bang, bang!
A magic bullet was fired every time Gilberto’s gaze grazed a pebble.
He looked like he was haphazardly firing his revolvers, but each bullet struck true.
'And it’s because my body knows...’
He instinctively knew the trajectory of each and every pebble, even if they were under the influence of the wind. Every information he needed to deliver a bullet to his target had long been memorized by his body, which had fired millions of bullets.
Bang! Ba-ba-bang! Ba-bang!
“…”
"D-damn it! We can’t just stand here and watch!"
"Destroy them, no matter what!"
"We can't let a human beat us!"
The failures activated their unique abilities to destroy the pebbles.
Gilberto quickly captured vital information that he had to take advantage of.
‘The failures are destroying the pebbles on the right side.’
Gilberto immediately focused his shots on the left side.
However, the failures quickly caught on.
"Hey, spread out! Don’t overlap!"
"He’s hogging the left side. Keep him in check, you idiots!"
The unique abilities of the failures created a kaleidoscope of lights that pervaded the sky above the village. Gilberto’s bullets started missing their targets because the failures would get to the pebbles first before Gilberto’s bullets could.
‘Is it too much to keep up with them using just a revolver?’ Gilberto quickly made up his mind and holstered his revolvers. He retrieved a weapon from his Inventory, and it was a weapon that was much larger than a revolver.
"It's been a while since I brought this out."
M61 Vulcan.
It was an American Gatling-style rotary cannon named after Vulcan, the god of fire, metalworking, and the forge.
‘It's not very useful against strong enemies, but it’s a different story against pebbles.’
It was a weapon that was weak against the strong and strong against the weak. In short, it was the best weapon to deal with a large number of weak enemies. However, it was an extremely difficult weapon to wield, especially if one wanted to use it accurately.
‘My concentration has to be at its peak while I’m wielding this...’ Gilberto's eyes sank coldly. He knew that if his concentration dropped even just a bit, his bullets would start missing their targets. 'This is at least two times more difficult than during those days.’
The reason Gilberto was a crucial member of the 5 Heroes during their heydays was that he was unrivaled at wiping the weaker monsters. In other words, Gilberto was the best at cleaning up battlefields.
Clack, clack!
Gilberto wielded two custom-made M61 Vulcans and looked up. His cold eyes immediately captured the radiance of the pebbles in the sky.
‘All right.’ Gilberto gnashed his teeth.
The moment he pulled the triggers of the two Gatling-style rotary cannons, a tremendous vibration coursed through him.
Brrrrrt!
Gilberto unleashed a hellfire of 6,600 rounds per minute or 13,200 rounds per minute combined.
"Argh…!” Gilberto's eyes turned bloodshot, and the extreme concentration required to allow every bullet to strike true made his head feel so hot that it felt like it was about to explode.
‘Damn, it’s worse than I thought...!’
Gilbert had to calculate, aim, generate the magic bullets, and then fire them—all within a blink of an eye. It was a grueling process that he had to repeat many times over.
"Argh!" Gilberto groaned.
He almost fell to the temptation of rest, but he persisted and focus on his goal.
The failures who had lost their fighting spirits muttered to themselves.
"Hey, why are we just standing around in the middle of a competition?”
"Huh? Wait, how can we even beat that? It's impossible."
"Our opponent is doing his best, you know?! We should do our best as well!"
The failures knew that the tenacious human had already won the competition, and they were sure that the latter knew that as well. However, the tenacious human was still doing his best, and it seemed that he would keep on doing that until the end.
The sight ignited the hearts of the failures.
"Hey, punks! Get a move on and do your best!"
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"Stop those damn bullets! Do everything!"
"Are we a bunch of weak-hearted fools? Show me the iron will we have cultivated for over a thousand years!"
A kaleidoscope of colors filled the skies once more.
The match ended when Arthur finally exhausted his magic.
"Huff… puff…!" Arthur sat down and checked the time. '47 minutes and 14 seconds.'
He was sure of it.
This was the longest time he had ever used Telekinesis (B) in recent months.
Meanwhile, the failures ran straight to the village chief. They were curious about their own scores. They were sure that the human was the winner of the competition, so there was no point asking for the latter’s score.
"Chief!"
"What’s the score? How many stones did I break?"
"Hmm. Let me see… It’d be better to do it all at once.”
The village chief used Force to carve words in the air.
"Oh! I’m so close!"
"Damn it, I lost to you?"
"What did I tell you? When I’m focused, I’m always better than you…”
The Failures who had done their best didn’t seem to be regretful.
The village chief clicked his tongue. "Tsk, tsk. What’s good about losing?"
"Did you really expect us to win against that, Chief?”
"Yeah, that weapon was disgusting as well.”
The failures approached Gilberto, who was quietly catching his breath.
"Hey, congrats."
"Congrats. I knew you would win. I became sure of it in the middle of the competition."
Gilberto opened his eyes at their words, and he couldn’t see anything through his bloodshot eyes other than red.
“My…”
"Huh? What?"
Gilberto swept his gaze across the failures and said, "My opponents… are all of you."
“…”
The failures were confused by his words, but Gilberto soon drove it home. “Compare the number of pebbles I destroyed to the sum of all the pebbles you have destroyed. I want to keep my word.”
"…What?"
The atmosphere turned ugly.
It seemed that Gilberto really thought that he was fighting them all.
"Chief, who won?"
“Give me a moment,” said the village chief, evidently startled by Gilberto’s bloodshot gaze. He calculated and soon arrived at the sum of the pebbles that each and every failure had destroyed by themselves.
"Gilberto, you destroyed a total of 520,706 stones."
Meanwhile, the failures destroyed a total of…
"What a shame; it’s only 519,102.”
"What?!"
The failures were dismayed. The difference was less than two thousand. They were even more dismayed when they recalled that they had decided to rest in the middle of the competition.
"Ah, if I had known that the difference wouldn’t be so huge, I wouldn’t have rested.”
"Yeah. If we hadn't taken a break, we could have won it.”
“…” The village chief stared wordlessly at the failures’ reaction before turning to look at Gilberto. “Human, are you willing to accept a rematch if they want a rematch? Of course, you can refuse."
Gilberto grinned at the question and said, "I don’t mind a rematch."
"Ooooh!" The failures were thrilled upon hearing Gilberto’s answer.
"Pffft! Hahahaha!" The village chief started laughing.
Stony blinked at the sight and asked, "Chief, why are you laughing?"
"Hahaha. Do you still not understand it, Stony?” He stared deeply at Gilberto, and he looked like he was appreciating something greater than him. "He has answered my question."
"Well, you just asked him for a rematch."
"Not that."
Gilberto had just told everyone that his patience and concentration were superior to theirs. The village chief chuckled. "Concentration. Indeed, your concentration is better than ours from what I saw in the competition. The answer you gave me just now has also told me that your patience is extraordinary.”
“…”
The village chief sounded remorseful for his earlier prejudice. "Human. No, Gilberto."
"Yes."
"Your concentration and patience are greater than the failures—No, perhaps even greater than the Overminds out there."
“Does that mean…” Gilberto trailed off.
The village chief clasped his hands and continued. “Are you willing to accept the fruit of the research that 72,392 failures started a thousand years ago and were just completed by 784 failures?”
The failures’ eyes widened. The village chief’s words meant that he would leave everything to the human in front of him.
"Well, it should be fine if it’s him..."
"Yeah, I mean we fought him..."
"He knows how to ignite a heart that has cooled down long ago."
No one opposed the village chief’s decision.
The 784 failures bowed with their hands clasped together.
Gilberto took in the sight and nodded.
"I will make sure not to disappoint those who have already gone to heaven.”
***
Meanwhile, in the Imperial Palace of the Babella Empire...
"Y-Your Majesty!" A knight opened the door to the throne room and entered. He fell on his knee and reported, "A-a huge flow of Force was detected from beyond the wall!"
“The wall?”
"Yes! The lab is also asking for support!"
Kineos' eyes narrowed. He had locked up the failures beyond a massive wall, and he had been farming them for many years now.
‘And that is why I’m concerned. What are they trying to do when they have been quiet for a thousand years now?’ Kineos didn’t really care about anything else aside from the failures. He couldn’t allow them to disappear because their existence was necessary for his lifespan. ‘The lab is asking for support as well. Do I have to make a move myself?’
Kineos’ brows frowned for the first time in a really long time. He was in a dilemma because it hadn’t been that long since the holy relic that had been powering up the Radio Tower was just taken away from him.
'She must have recovered slightly after recovering one of her holy relics. If she sees a gap, she'll definitely take the rest of her holy relics…'
Kineon was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
All of a sudden, Prince Digor spoke. "I’ll go there, Your Majesty."
“Are you confident?”
"Of course, I am aware of its importance as well, so I will definitely take care of it."
Kineos nodded at Prince Digor’s confident response.
"All right. Do whatever is necessary to stabilize it."
"Understood, Your Majesty," said Prince Digor. However, his eyes—hidden from His Majesty the Emperor—shone in a bleak light.