Trapped in a Game That Flopped

Chapter 76

Episode 76

A moment later, the inside of the pub was filled with five self-proclaimed heroes, beaten to a bloody pulp and scattered about.

Just as I had done to the knight bastards who'd tormented Kassel, I stripped all the bastards' clothes off.

It wasn't with the same intention of fucking with them as last time; it was to meticulously retrieve the potions and gold coins they had hidden all over their bodies.

"One, two, three, four... Hmph, damn it! 10 of them are missing!"

Thwack!

"Ugh...!"

"Guh!"

"Kkeuk..."

I, who had been counting the potions gathered from searching the pockets of the stripped clothes, got angry at the missing quantity and kicked the bastards one more time each.

"Annihilate."

[Lv.999 Annihilate skill has been activated.]

And then, I burned all of the bastards' clothes I was holding.

"Hoo..."

The flames that shot up in an instant consumed all the clothes. I was patting the soot from my hands when I heard the sound of someone gasping for breath from somewhere.

When I turned my head, I saw the pub owner, frozen blue with terror.

"Huh, hup! I, I didn't see anything, Shari!"

As soon as our eyes met, he fled through the back door like an arrow.

Once the owner also vanished, the inside of the pub was completely empty.

It was for the best. It meant I could dispose of the bastards to my heart's content without worrying about onlookers.

"Ban."

I recited without mercy.

'Hero from Billwood, Dominic' is permanently banned from this region.

'Hero from Billwood, Jonny' is permanently banned from this region.

'Hero from Billwood...

A flood of ban messages, which I hadn't seen in a while, popped up.

I felt a sense of relief wash over me.

These small-fry bastards would have been instantly annihilated even if they had participated in the tournament anyway.

"Don't just take up data. Just fuck off, you filthy AI specters."

After confirming that the last bastard had completely disappeared, I left the pub without any lingering attachment.

It was the moment I had just entered an alleyway to return to my wrecked shop.

"Sob, hwaaaaa..."

A young girl was crouching and crying in a corner of the alley entrance.

[Jena from Billwood]

I ignored the nameplate I glimpsed above her head and quickened my pace.

"Hwaaaaaa...!"

However, perhaps sensing my presence, the child's crying grew even louder.

I looked around to see if anyone else was there, then grit my teeth and cursed internally.

'Dammit...'

She's just a game character, and a mere extra at that, so why can't I just walk past?

"...Why are you crying?"

When I came to my senses, I had already backtracked and arrived in front of the child.

"Hk, heuk... Daddy... Daddy left me here..."

The child, who had been crying endlessly, peeked her head up at my words and answered.

I wasn't sure if it was from crying or if she was just like that, but her face, flushed with fever, was pitifully red.

Unfortunately, the child was right.

Because I had just permanently sent him away a moment ago.

"What about your mom?"

"Mommy died... Cough, cough!"

I asked just in case, but a tragic answer returned along with a barrage of coughs.

"Hahaha! We got a ton of potions, and we'll cure Jena's sickness too! The gods must be blessing us with good fortune for once!"

Why do useless memories like this surface so vividly at times like these?

A snippet of conversation from the banned bastards, who had been laughing loudly while clinking their glasses, flashed through my mind.

It's not like potions were a panacea, and there was no way they could cure a chronic illness with mid-to-low-grade potions at best.

As I was having that kind of pathetic thought, to make matters worse, I felt a sharp tug on my clothes.

"Can't you find my daddy, unni?"

I looked down and saw the child's face, staring at me with desperate eyes while clutching the end of my robe's sleeve.

"Ha... This is driving me crazy!"

It was an exasperating situation.

I roughly swept my bangs back, not even realizing my hood had flipped off.

At that, the child, who saw my hair revealed under the bright sunlight, stopped crying and muttered blankly.

"Unni, you're so pretty. Cherry blossom color, so sparkly..."

I stared down at the child silently, then let out a sigh and pulled the hood back on.

Then I immediately opened the chat window.

Me: Can you bring back a banned person?

GM Jinu: Yep. Just undo the ban.

It was a simpler solution than I'd expected.

Hearing the answer, another question arose.

Me: By the way, what happens when someone gets banned?

GM Ari: Their info is saved in the server DB and then auto-deleted after one week.

GM Ari: If you unban them before that, it's a system that restores them. Hehe.

Fortunately, it had barely been one minute, let alone a week.

Having gotten the answer I wanted, I immediately closed the chat window and asked the child.

"What's your dad's name?"

"My daddy's name is Dominic."

"Got it."

I nodded, then quietly recited.

"Unban Dominic."

At that moment, a middle-aged man appeared in the empty alley with a 'Pop,' as if sprouting from the ground.

"Daddy!"

"Je, Jena-ya!"

The child immediately ran to her father.

The man, who had been wearing a bewildered expression, immediately brightened up and swept his daughter into his arms.

I had definitely stripped him naked before banning him, but whether it was the default setting, the man reappeared fully clothed.

Not only that, but the places where I had beaten him were also perfectly restored.

'Oh. Is this a similar principle to when I was auto-summoned?'

While I was marveling at this unexpected new piece of game information I'd learned.

The child, lucky to have found her father, sniffled and complained loudly.

"Why did you leave Jena all alone! You said you'd never abandon me! I hate you, Daddy! I hate you!"

"N, no, Jena-ya! I was definitely just having a beer with my friends at the pub... Huk!"

Just then, my eyes met with the man, who was looking around in a flustered panic.

"Th, that person is..."

"That unni found you for me! She's a nice unni!"

As if the process of unbanning him was automatically interpreted that way, the child pointed at me and spoke cheerfully.

At that, the color drained from the man's face.

He clearly recognized me.

"Huh, huk! D, don't come any closer...!"

As I walked toward him, the bastard had a fit, pulling his daughter into his arms and backing away.

'Like he wasn't the one who abandoned her to go getting wasted.'

I scoffed at the bastard's ridiculous behavior, then took something out of my pocket and held it out.

At that, the bastard squeezed his eyes shut and begged.

"P, please spare me...!"

"What's wrong, Daddy! I told you, she's a nice unni?"

I reached out and covered the ears of the child, who was just bewildered by her father's incomprehensible behavior.

Then I whispered quietly into the ear of the father, whose eyes were still squeezed shut.

"Open your eyes. If you don't want to get your ass beat again."

"Yes, I'm sorry!"

As expected, the effect of violence was immediate.

To the man who had snapped his eyes open, I held out what I had taken from my pocket.

"Take it."

"Th, this is..."

High-Grade Antipyretic Potion x3

The man's eyes widened as if they would tear when he saw the potion bottles resting on my palm.

Seeing her coughing, it seemed like a cold with a fever. It looked like he'd been cheerfully celebrating curing her illness after feeding her the wrong potion.

Of course, there weren't any high-grade potions among the ones the bastards had stolen, either.

"Give it to the kid."

"Wh, why are you giving this..."

I pursed my lips as I looked at the man, who was staring back and forth between the potions and me as if he couldn't believe it.

It wasn't that I had forgiven the bastard who stole my potions.

And I was definitely not a philanthropist.

As proof, I had no intention of unbanning the other bastards.

She was just a game character, but this was... well.

It was something like compensation for, however briefly, deeply wounding a young child's heart.

"You not going to take it? Suit yourself if you don't want it."

"I, I'll take it!"

When I acted like I was going to take the potions back, the man, who had been wearing a dazed expression, hastily accepted them.

In an instant, my palm was empty.

I thrust that hand up threateningly.

"Damn it, and you have a kid, too. Stop thieving and live right! If I catch you one more time, you're dead."

"Th, thank you, Teacher! Thank you so much!"

⚜ ⚜ ⚜

Leaving the series of commotions in Dover Village behind me, I returned straight to the capital without stopping by the shop.

It was a total mess with no room to even step inside, and I had neither the energy nor the inclination to clean it up.

Fortunately, I had already hassled the developers and wrangled a bunch of Teleport Scrolls that could take me to the center of the capital.

I headed straight for the hotel where I was staying with Elaine.

"Green Mask. I'm ba..."

The moment I opened Elaine's door.

The noisy clamor inside abruptly stopped, and countless eyes turned to me all at once.

My mouth fell open at the sight of the crowd, large enough to fill the spacious suite.

"...What is all this?"

"Ah, Teacher Apothecary-noona! Y, you're back already? Haha..."

Elaine looked at me with a guilty expression and laughed awkwardly.

The room was full of elves.

That is, Elaine's kin, whom he had led out of the black market ahead of me, were crammed inside.