Surviving a Shounen Manga

p>I immediately took out another bundle of cash and threw it at him.

“How can you talk like that even after that kind of a tip? Fix it.”

“Uh… uh, how?”

“Now you ask? Be respectful.”

“Uh… yes.”

“Now tell me.
With full sincerity.”

And then,

“Yes.
Let’s begin.
The No.
2 of the Red Scorpion is…”

I was satisfied with the new softened tone, and I pored over everything I had to remember.

I stared blankly at the oddly shaped building to my opposite.

As if inspired by Casa Batlló, the famous tourist destination in Barcelona[1], ​​it was a building that resembled a skull’s face.

Skeleton House.

The headquarters of the largest mafia organization in Destomb.

‘Shall we start soon?’

Now it was time to apply the backgrounds.

I’d already decided the order.
First, apply the others in the order of purchase, and then finally, apply the ‘No.
2 of the Red Scorpion’.

It was a bit annoying to keep the author’s gift for last, but I really couldn’t use it first.
Because if I applied it first, and there was an unexpected restriction, it’d be a major flop.

I opened the list of backgrounds that I had purchased with a bit of excitement.

[Wandering Guide]

[The Boy Cursed by the Witch]

[Unknown Itinerant]

[A Man Who Once Visited the Bezyt Gorge]

[Southland National Park Zookeeper]

[Expelled Corrupt Adventurers’ Association Member]

I purchased a total of 6 backgrounds.

Only 11,500p points remained.

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Of course, except for [The Boy Cursed by the Witch], none of them were really that great.

“Hu…”

After taking a couple of deep breaths, I tapped [Wandering Guide] on the window.

– Do you want to apply this background?

“Yeah, let’s go.”

And then,

Pa –.

In an instant, a pure white light filled my vision.

“Eek.”

I closed my eyes without thinking, and by the time I opened them again, I had become a ‘wandering guide’.

‘Is this fine?’

There was no noticeable change.
It just felt like my eyesight was a little bit broader?

I’d thought that the knowledge related to the background would naturally flow into my head, but no luck.

And,

[Character’s rank has increased slightly]

One holographic message.

‘Oh, I guess the stats are there under the hood.’

In fact, it had been a long shot.
Although I’d been given a ‘rank’ or ‘class’, there was no window to check it.

Not sure why, but the system seemed to be hidden, or perhaps conditionally accessible.

Anyway,

“I was really nervous.”

I was relieved.
I’d wondered if the concept built into the role might be forced on me.

Next, I applied the rest of the backgrounds one by one, followed by No.
2 of the Red Scorpion.

Pa –.

[Character’s rank has increased]

Pa –.

[Character’s rank has increased slightly]

Pa – Pa – Pa – Pa –.

[Character’s rank has increased slightly]

[Character’s rank has increased slightly]

⁞

The last four I just applied at the same time.

“Well.”

My body felt cool.
There didn’t seem to be any side effects.

However, there was only one difference compared to before.
An unknown power welling up in my chest.

This, presumably, was the special ability built into the background of ‘No.
2 of the Red Scorpion’.
In case special abilities collided with each other, only the hidden characteristics would be chosen.

“Okay, it’s all done.”

After turning over the information obtained from the Information Guild once more in my mind, I moved towards the skull-shaped building.

As I got closer, the two giants guarding the entrance stopped me.

However, their attitudes were quite different from the guys I had met in Virgin City.

“… Who are you?”

Quite polite.

They looked rough, and the type who’d tell people to fuck off, but they were being really polite to me.

Of course, this wasn’t because they were stronger than I thought, for example, strong like the gangsters who’d guarded the entrance to the “Cafeteria before a Bizarre Adventure.”

It’s just that these guys had fallen under my momentum.
It was a simple difference in ‘class’. 

And this was about what I’d expected.

Although not absolute, a character’s ‘class’ is usually directly proportional to their ‘strength’ in this type of world.

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It’s simple if you think about it.
The stronger a character is in a fight, the more space it’d take up in the story.

Of course, physical strength is not the sole measure of a character’s ‘strength’.
Siana is also a character with high ‘class’ as a key supporting cast, but she is hardly a strong physical type.

However, it was a general rule.
And I was included in that general rule.

At my glance, the big-sized guys quickly lowered their eyes.

“Hey, go tell the boss.
His brother’s come visiting from Red City.”

“B, brother, sir?”

“Yeah.”

“Ah, would you mind waiting for a moment, please?”

“I hate waiting.”

“I’ll be right back! “

Looked like raising my voice worked.

Not long after, I saw a fat middle-aged man in the distance, coming with his men in tow.

‘… It’s him, right?’

It wasn’t a face I remembered.
No matter how big a fan I had been of Adventure King, there was no way I could remember the face of an extra who I wasn’t even sure had appeared in any scenes or not.

‘For the boss of Skeleton, he’s sure got some girth, hasn’t he?’

Still, I thought it would be him, because there were a number of subordinates with him.

Soon after, he waved his hand towards me, as if he had seen me too.

By this time, I was a little nervous, because I didn’t know how he would react to my looks.
Obviously, there must have been some basic appearance for this backstory.
But even if it was simple and basic, there was a high possibility it was very different from my appearance here and now.

But,

“Oh, you’re here, my brother!”

There was no sign of him being conscious of that at all.

As if I’d been worried for nothing, he just greeted me with a wide smile.

I was a little relieved.

“How have you been?”

“Fine, fine.
Same as always.
Rather than me, you… But looking at your face, the situation doesn’t seem so bad.
Let’s go in right away.”

“Alright.”

I followed behind as he waddled into the Skeleton House.

I kept my words blunt.

“I want to devour the whole of the Red Scorpion.”

“I heard the news.
I knew you were going to say that.
But… would that be as easy as it sounds?”

“Yeah.
There’s a way.”

“A way… like asking me to call the Scorpion boss here alone?”

There was a look of disdain on his fat face.

“No one knows that you are here, or that you are friends with me.
Like I told you, I have no intention of calling him here personally.
Won’t that just mean encouraging fights between Coalition members for no reason? Although we used to be sworn brothers, the Coalition members are also like my family.
Anyways, I can’t do it.
And even if I call him, he’ll never come here alone.”

Looked like he’d already considered what I could talk about and what I might ask for.
Even the excuses had been rehearsed in advance. 

He made me come in here pretending to be friendly.
Really, people from the underworld couldn’t be trusted.

But, of course,

“Aha, but so what?”

“Huh?”

“That’s how it is.”

I wasn’t someone who could be trusted either.

“… Eh?”

“You really should’ve called him.”

“What? What did you do…?”

“It’s time for some pleasant conversation.”

“…?” I smiled at him, who was looking at me with puzzled eyes.

Editor’s Notes:

[1] Casa Batlló is a skull-shaped building at the centre of Barcelona.
See the Wikipedia entry.