Chapter 1
As soon as I opened my eyes, what I felt was stale breath and the smell of cheap liquor. I got up, clutching my splitting head.
I understood my situation as I stared at the scene before me with bleary eyes.
'Eck.'
I was the tutorial boss of an adult game.
I was the boss who raped the protagonist first.
The tutorial boss of a third-rate adult game.
That was me.
My memories came rushing back.
I looked around to assess the situation.
This was the first floor of an adventurers' guild.
A medieval setting where the smell of sweat mingled with the stench of rotting meat, making it hard to breathe.
I instinctively rubbed my neck.
A chill ran down my spine.
I was going to die today.
Because I saw a familiar silhouette in a secluded corner of the guild.
A small figure cloaked in a worn cape. A woman who tore off pieces of bread with trembling hands and swallowed them with water. The black sword on the table, without a scabbard, was chipped here and there.
I knew who that woman was.
'Elena.'
The protagonist of this adult game, and a genius swordswoman who would one day make a name for herself across the continent.
For now, a newbie who had recklessly become an adventurer to earn medicine money for her sick younger sister.
According to the original scenario, I would spout some bullshit like, "Rookie, you need money, right? I know a good place. How about it?" then get sliced to death by her awakened sword in a dungeon.
The moment I raped Elena, I would become ensnared by the fate of death.
I may be a villain who takes a virgin by force for the protagonist's tutorial, but I had no intention of becoming a sacrifice to fate.
I shoved myself up from my seat. The chair scraped the floor with a raucous noise. Still drunk, I trudged over and plopped down in the seat across from Elena.
She flinched and stiffened her shoulders.
The blue eyes revealed beneath her cape hood trembled, gone pale with fear.
She looked like a terrified little rat. She looked ready to run at any moment, but the cost of her younger sister's medicine blocked her retreat.
"Hey."
A low, rumbling voice came from my vocal cords. The manner of speaking etched into this body came out involuntarily, making my tone threatening.
Elena's hand reached for the hilt of the sword on the table.
"A brat carrying something dangerous around. Planning to hunt monsters with that sword?"
Elena bit her lip.
"......That's none of your business."
"It is my business. If you go in there looking like that and get caught by a monster, cleaning up the monsters you give birth to will be our problem."
As in adult games, a woman captured by a monster becomes its breeding vessel.
I pulled a crumpled sheet of parchment from my clothes and placed it on the table.
It was a map.
A genuine map known only to the initiated, in a different league from the shoddy maps sold by the guild.
Eck, a boss who ranked among the strong, carried a real map.
Elena's eyes shifted to the map, then back to me.
They were full of suspicion.
Naturally.
In a place like this, anyone who shows kindness to a stranger is either a con artist or a lunatic. Everyone here is out to swindle everyone else.
Even if someone seems friendly, an adventurer who fails to stay suspicious will eventually end up dead.
To survive, you had to constantly question and doubt everything.
The protagonist's reaction was only reasonable.
It probably wouldn't last long. That was what made her an adult-game heroine.
I pointed to the map and explained.
"When you come to the second fork from the forest entrance, take the right. The path on the left is a trap made by toads; once you get caught, it's over. Whatever you do, don't go in here."
"......Why are you telling me this?"
"I told you. I don't feel like cleaning up the extra monsters you'll cause."
I drummed my fingers on the table.
"And those black-maned wolves that appear at the edge of the forest. When you fight them, don't aim for the neck. Their manes are too tough; your sword won't even scratch them. Aim for the belly. Don't foolishly go for the head."
Elena's eyes widened.
I could see her growing shaken as I pointed out the monsters' patterns.
It was merely a weakness to exploit in maned wolves, but information difficult for a novice adventurer to know. A single small piece of information could decide victory or defeat.
Even if Elena came from a family of hunters, it had fallen into ruin by now; she may have butchered animals, but she likely had never hunted one herself.
"Don't get greedy with your attacks. The moment you attack is when you're most vulnerable to a counterattack. You'll end up laid up for nothing and spend all your money on medicine."
Elena had come to earn money for medicine, and she raised her eyes at the word 'medicine'.
A reasonable amount of wariness was good for her.
"Care to make a bet?"
I rummaged through my pocket and pulled out three silver coins.
Eck was well-off.
As befitted a tutorial boss swaggering around the back alleys, his financial situation was more comfortable than my wallet had ever been in my previous life.
"If you bring me five wolf pelts before sunset today, you can have this money. But if you can't bring them...."
I let my words trail off and grinned.
Elena's expression grew even stiffer.
"Hand that sword over to me. If you can't even do that much, you'll only be a burden if you go into the forest."
"...."
It was a deal Elena had nothing to lose. That sword was going to break in a few days anyway.
Elena looked back and forth between the silver coins and my face, then nodded as if she had made up her mind.
"....All right."
"Go on. Before the sun goes down."
Elena snatched up the map and left the guild.
I leaned back in my chair and let out a long sigh.
Under normal circumstances, Elena would most likely meet one of two endings.
She would be raped by Eck, the tutorial boss. The novice adventurer knew enough to be wary, but not how to push him away.
She would be forcibly held down, her soft buttocks bared as she bled.
The other was getting lost and wandering around the hunting grounds today, only to be caught by a toad monster and give birth to toad eggs.
Every mid-boss-level monster had its own "If you don't know, you're gonna get hit" pattern.
Even if her exceptional talent let her defeat ordinary monsters, the toad monster's hidden pattern would simply beat her down and rape her.
I had no idea how the protagonist escaped in reality after being caught by a monster.
But since the patterns I knew from the game and the patterns Eck knew in reality matched, she might be raped by the toad before I got to her, depending on her hunting route and order.
In truth, it didn't matter who had her first.
There were countless villains and monsters who would rape the protagonist in the future.
'It doesn't matter if she gets raped for defying what I told her. The sense of danger will only make my words seem more credible.'
So there was no downside.
If she followed the information I gave her, her growth would accelerate.
Even if she didn't, it would give her more reason to heed my words.
My goal was simple.
To make her see me not as 'an enemy she had to kill,' but as 'an older man who gave useful advice.'
I could easily kill her now, but I couldn't do that.
She had to grow.
Only then would the main story progress, rekindling the vigilance dulled by too much peace and preparing her to stop the monster wave.
If we failed to stop it, the city would be destroyed.
In this world overrun by monsters, the destruction of a city was tantamount to the destruction of an entire world.
And above all, in the process she would grow far stronger than me. In game time, she was a monster who reached S-rank in under a year.
"Jeina! Bring out the liquor!"
For now, I had made it through today's crisis.
If I hadn't managed to recall my memories at the last moment, she would have hated me.
There was nothing more frightening than being hated by a talent who would one day become the strongest in the world.
***
This body had less patience than I expected.
The way my leg trembled under the table was an obvious signal that it was on the verge of going crazy with impatience.
It grew dim outside.
The sun went down.
Wolf monsters were among the weakest aggressive monsters. A single one was only a little stronger than a goblin.
Since she was a hunter's daughter, she wouldn't be slow at skinning them, either.
I knew Elena's character profile inside out.
Since it was known as the Dark Souls of adult games, it had surprising depth to its setting; because it suited my tastes, I had picked it apart, corner to corner.
It was a game I had poured an absurd number of points into for its combat system, and I still played it often.
'Did she fail?'
Elena was not a player right now.
She was, quite literally, a woman with no combat experience.
An ordinary woman killing five wolves made no sense whatsoever. In fact, it was practically telling her to die.
The gap between the game and reality.
As the alcohol wore off, the disconnect began to creep over me.
If she'd been caught, I could just rescue her.
It would be even better if I could build trust that way.
I could embrace her, dejected after being raped by monsters, and make her my sex partner.
Then someone entered the guild.
The red glow of sunset cut a long swath through the room. A silhouette stood with its back to the light. I noticed the unsteady gait.
Once I recognized who it was, I finally relaxed and schooled my expression.
Elena walked up to me.
Thump.
A heavy sack was placed on the table.
"Check them."
Her voice was hoarse with exhaustion.
I untied the sack.
My hand closed around a damp clump of fur.
One, two, three... five pelts. They were the five wolf pelts, just as we had bet.
"They're in terrible shape."
I said it gruffly on purpose and tied the sack back up.
"If you don't wipe the blood off properly, the hide gets damaged. At this rate, there's no chance you'll get full price."
Elena furrowed her brow.
Her eyes held a hint of resentment.
She stuck out her lower lip.
Still, it was impressive that a woman who had never fought before had brought back wolf pelts.
"A promise is a promise."
I neatly stacked three silver coins on the table in front of Elena.
Elena's expression instantly relaxed.
Apparently, she had thought I'd make excuses, cut the payment, or refuse to pay altogether.
She snatched up the silver coins and tucked them into her clothes. The way she watched out for anyone who might take them made her look like a stray cat.
"Why are you helping me?"
Elena asked.
Her suspicion remained.
Naturally.
Because there was no such thing as kindness without a reason.
Even I had an ulterior motive for helping Elena. Still, I wasn't foolish enough to reveal it.
"Don't get the wrong idea. I didn't help you. I just don't want to see the number of monsters increase."
I indicated the leather sack with a glance.
"Besides, if you'd brought them back properly, you could have sold these at the market for two silver coins, plus one more as a bounty. Considering my labor and information fees, you'd hardly be losing anything."
My actions couldn't appear to Elena as pity. More precisely, I was making a thorough public declaration to everyone watching.
I was declaring that I intended to profit from her, so no one should touch her.
If any of you touched her, I'd beat you to death with my own hands.
The protagonist had become an adventurer for her younger sister. She might look emotional at a glance, but in reality she was an analyst equipped with the rationality to calmly observe monster patterns even while being attacked herself.
At first, she had some stupid tendencies for understandable reasons; later, her innate disposition led her to do good deeds that turned into sex scenes, making her an idiot—but when it came to combat, she became an unquestionable killing machine.
"Do you understand why I'm going to all this pointless trouble?"
Elena kept her mouth shut.
"For now, this is about not needlessly increasing the number of monsters, but one day you'll repay me for this favor."
Elena's face seemed somewhat relieved, as if she thought I'd approached her with the intention of making a profit.
She was relieved, if anything, to learn she was being used.
"That's enough for today. Go wash up and get some sleep so you can head out again tomorrow."
I waved my hand dismissively.
Elena gave a small bow, then turned around.
Wobble.
Before she could take even one step, her body staggered. The tension had left her. A bandage was wrapped around the calf visible beneath her cape.
It was a wound inflicted by a wolf.
Even if ignored, in this world of humans blessed with abnormal healing, it was truly the sort of wound that would heal if you just spat on it.
But even a wound like that would affect her condition and her hunting.
"Wait."
Elena stopped short.
"Where are you going with that leg? Go if you must, but get treated first."
"...It's only a scratch."
"You really don't understand what I'm saying. Who knows more about hunting, you or me? I don't feel like explaining, so just use this to treat it."
I rummaged through my pocket and pulled out a small, flat glass vial.
An emergency low-grade potion.
It was the tutorial boss Eck's hidden pattern: after his health was fully depleted, he drank a potion and delivered a critical blow to the player.
When I tossed the potion, Elena fumbled and caught it.
"Drink that and go to bed. By tomorrow morning, you'll be completely healed."
"How much is it?"
"It's on the house. They say suckers try to repay favors when they get something like this, don't they? I wonder what you'll do."
"...."
I sank deep into the back of my chair.
"You don't have to come here tomorrow. Ten goblin ears. The payment is four silver coins."
"Huh?"
"Go kill goblins and come back."
Elena's eyes trembled.
Goblins are famous both in and out of the game.
They kill the men and rape the women.
Goblins, all male, are crazy about women, so their first instinct is to kidnap them. They are the disposable mobs of adult games that kidnap women, rape them, and make them give birth to offspring.
But if Elena had faced wolves, fighting a group of goblins had become manageable.
Elena gripped the potion bottle tightly.
".....Five silver."
"What?"
"Give me five silver coins. If I bring back ten goblins, give me five silver coins."
Hah.
A hollow laugh escaped me.
She was trying to bargain with me?
"Fine. But there's a condition."
I pointed at her waist with my finger.
"When this is over, sell that piece of trash you call a sword. Taking care of your weapon is the most basic thing for an adventurer. Are you going to stake your life on a lousy sword like that?"
"But I need the money..."
"Think about the money later. Are you doing it or not?"
Elena thought for a moment, then nodded.
"See you tomorrow."
She gave a brief greeting and left the guild.