I Killed the Hero and Took His Achievements-Chapter 49: The Hero’s Training Arc (It’s a Prank)

[Location: The Radioactive Wastelands of the West]

[Time: High Noon]

[Atmosphere: Toxic Green Haze]

The sun beat down on the cracked earth, but it wasn’t the sun that burned. It was the rocks.

Kenji dragged a boulder the size of a carriage up a steep, jagged cliff. His muscles screamed. His skin felt like it was on fire. His vision swam with green spots. "Ninetysix... ninetyseven..." he rasped, his voice was raw.

"FASTER, MAGGOT!" The voice cracked like a whip. Standing at the top of the cliff, hands clasped behind his back, was Master Wu. Master Wu was an enigmatic figure. He wore a white hanfu, had a gray hair that was perfectly tied, and had a beard so long that almost covered his chest. "You call that effort?" Wu scoffed. "My grandmother climbs faster than you! And she is dead!"

Kenji gritted his teeth. "I... I can do it!" He channeled his mana. Or what was left of it.

[Skill: Hero’s Spirit.] A golden aura flared around him, pushing back the green sickness in his veins. He heaved, and he stepped in. THUD. He finally reached the top. He dropped the boulder. He collapsed while panting like a dying dog. "I... did it... Master," Kenji wheezed.

Wu looked at the boulder, then he kicked it. It rolled all the way back down the hill. "DO IT AGAIN."

"What?!" Kenji looked up while looking horrified. "But... but I just brought it up!"

"The path to strength is repetition!" Wu declared while stroking his beard. "Do you think the Demon Lord Cain rests? Do you think he complains about his legs hurting?"

"No..." Kenji muttered. The hate flared in his eyes. Image of Cain that was stealing his items, his dignity, and his Princess fueled him entirely. "I will kill him," Kenji growled. "I will rip his head off."

"Good! Use that anger! Now, fetch the rock!"

Kenji scrambled down the cliff.

Master Wu watched him go. Inside the robe, Unit 77’s optical sensors zoomed in.

[Subject: Kenji.]

[Status: Severe Radiation Poisoning.]

[Muscle Density: Increasing.]

[Brain Cell Count: Decreasing rapidly.]

"Sol," Unit 77 transmitted via internal comms. "The Subject is exhibiting signs of cognitive failure. He has forgotten his own name twice today."

"EXCELLENT," Sol’s voice replied in his processor. "KEEP HIM GRINDING. WE NEED 500 TONS OF URANIUM FOR THE FLEET’S REACTOR BY TUESDAY."

"Understood. Initiating ’Wise Proverb’ Protocol to maintain motivation."

Kenji reached the bottom. He grabbed the glowing green rock. It was warm, and tingled. "Why does this rock hurt to touch?" Kenji asked, looking at his blistering hands.

"That is the pain of weakness leaving the body!" Wu shouted down. "It is the Planet’s Spirit that is testing you!"

"The Planet’s Spirit feels spicy," Kenji muttered, but he lifted it anyway. He started climbing.

————————————————————

[Location: A Hidden Cave - Kenji’s Camp]

[Time: Nightfall]

Kenji sat by a campfire. The fire was green because he was burning radioactive moss. He was eating a can of beans. "Master," Kenji asked while looking at Wu who was ’meditating’ or recharging his battery in the corner. "When will I learn the Ultimate Secret Technique?"

Shifu opened one eye with a glowing blue lens. "Patience, grasshopper. You are not ready."

"I am ready! I’m Level 10 now! I regained my levels fast!"

"Levels are numbers," Shifu said mystically. "True power comes from... The Glow." He pointed at Kenji’s arm. It was literally glowing in the dark. "See? You are accumulating energy."

"Is that good?" Kenji poked his arm. "It feels like my bones are melting."

"That is the Molten Core technique. Your skeleton is becoming liquid so it cannot be broken. It is ancient physics."

"Wow," Kenji whispered in awe. "So I’m becoming indestructible?"

"Eventually. Or you will turn into a puddle. The path of the martial practitioner is risky."

Wu stood up. His joints was whirred faintly, disguised by the rustling of his robes. "Tonight, we practice the Mind."

"Meditation?"

"No. Tactical Yelling."

"Yelling?"

"The Demon Lord Cain uses words to confuse you. He uses ’Logic’ and ’Contracts’. You must learn to ignore them." Shifu picked up a stick. "I will insult you. You must scream ’JUSTICE’ until you cannot hear me."

"Okay!"

"Begin!" Shifu hit him with the stick. "You are a failure! Your princess loves the Emperor!"

"JUSTICE!" Kenji screamed, closing his eyes. Whack.

"You have no money! You are homeless!"

"JUSTICE! JUSTICE!" Whack. Whack.

"Your haircut is stupid!"

"JUSTIIIIICE!" Kenji screamed until his throat bled, until the words lost meaning, and until he was just a vessel of pure, blind, and deaf determination.

"Good," Shifu nodded. "You are learning the art of The Shout Domain. Now, no logic can penetrate your skull."

[System Notification: Subject Kenji.]

[Intelligence Stat: -5.]

[Willpower Stat: +50.]

[Trait Acquired: Ignorance is Strength.]

"Now sleep," Shifu ordered. "Tomorrow, we carry bigger rocks."

————————————————————

[Location: The Imperial Palace - Cain’s Office]

I watched the feed on my monitor, and was eating a sandwich. "He’s actually doing it," I chuckled. "He’s screaming at a rock."

Sylvia stood behind me while peering at the screen. She looked disturbed. "Master... his skin is peeling off, his hair is falling out, and he looks like a ghoul."

"He’s adapting," I said. "Look at his regeneration stats. The [Martyrdom] artifact the Church gave him is working overtime. It’s constantly healing the radiation damage, and forcing his cells to mutate."

[Analysis: Kenji.]

[Cellular Structure: Unstable.]

[Mana Affinity: Nuclear.]

"He’s becoming a living reactor," Sparky noted while looking at the data from Unit 77. "If he explodes, he could take out a city."

"That’s the plan," I said. "He’s not a Hero anymore. He’s a dirty bomb."

"Are you going to use him against the Foreigns?" Ahri asked.

"No. The Foreigns have shields. Radiation won’t hurt them much."

I leaned back. "I’m saving him for the Omega Weapon."

"The what?"

"The final defense system of the planet. The one guarding the Admin Console in the Planet’s Core."

"We haven’t even found the Core yet," Sylvia pointed out.

"We will," I said. "Once we deal with the Aliens, we go down. And when we meet the Guardian... we throw Kenji at it."

"Like a grenade?"

"Like a very loud, self-righteous grenade."

I closed the window. "Enough entertainment. How goes the Necro-Mech project?"

"Production is at 80%," Sparky reported. "But we ran out of skeletons. The graveyards are empty."

"Empty?"

"We looted the War of Roses cemetery, the Plague Pits, and even the Royal Mausoleum. We need more bodies."

I frowned. "We can’t just kill people to make soldiers. That’s bad PR. It ruins my approval rating."

I looked at the map. There was one place with millions of bodies, fresh ones. In the Northern Empire, the Frozen Wastes. During the ’Flash Freeze’ event when I fought Moloch, I froze 50,000 demons. They were still there, perfectly preserved in ice. "Sylvia," I said.

"Yes, Master?"

"How do you feel about defrosting some demons?"

"Disgusting," she wrinkled her nose. "But necessary."

"Good. Take the transport ships. Bring me the frozen legion."

"But Master," Ahri interjected. "Demons aren’t skeletons. They have flesh. Sparky’s cybernetics are designed for bone attachment."

"Then we strip the flesh," I said calmly.

"How?"

I smiled. "We have a city full of hungry slime monsters in the basement, why don’t we?"

Ahri turned green. "You’re going to feed the demons to the slimes... to clean the bones... to build robots?"

"It’s the Circle of Life," I said. "Industrialized."

I stood up. "Let’s go to the factory. I want to see the first prototype."

————————————————————

[Location: The Star-Forge - Assembly Line B]

The factory floor was a cacophony of grinding metal and magical sparks. Conveyor belts moved endless lines of white bones.

Station 1: The Acid Bath. (Slimes eating the meat).

Station 2: The Cleaning. (Water elementals power-washing the bones).

Station 3: The Assembly.

I watched as robotic arms (controlled by Goblins) drilled into a massive demon skull. They inserted a glowing red sensor eye into the socket, bolted steel plating onto the ribcage, then replaced the legs with tank treads.

[Unit Complete.]

The creature rolled off the line. It stood 7 feet tall. A skeletal torso mounted on tracks, while holding a heavy mana-repeater gun. Its single red eye scanned the room. "TARGET ACQUIRED," it buzzed, its voice was a mixture of a demon’s growl and static.

"At ease, soldier," I ordered.

The Necro-Mech stopped. "REPORTING FOR DUTY. GLORY TO AVARICE."

"It works," Sparky beamed while wiping oil from his face. "The Demon Souls are bound to the CPUs. They retain their combat instincts but follow our code independently."

"How many can we make them?"

"With the frozen demons? About 50,000 units. That’s a division."

"It’s not enough," I muttered. "The Interstellar Fleet has millions of drones." I looked at the Mech. "Can we upgrade them? Make them... volatile?"

"Volatile?"

"If they get destroyed," I touched the Mech’s chest plate. "I want them to explode."

"Self-destruct sequence?" Sparky grinned. "I can install a Mana-Overload capacitor. 500 Gold per unit."

"Do it." I walked down the line of silent, metal skeletons.

"An army of suicide bombers," Sylvia noted while walking beside me. "You really have no honor."

"Honor is a luxury for the victorious," I said. "The dead don’t care about honor. They care about revenge." I stopped at the end of the line. There was a special project under a tarp. "What’s this?" I asked Sparky.

"Ah! That’s... a side project. Since we had the Demon General’s body..."

He pulled the tarp. It was Moloch. Or what was left of him. His massive, headless body had been reassembled. But instead of a head, he had a cockpit. And instead of an axe, his arm had been replaced with a chainsaw the size of a truck.

[Unit: The Juggernaut (Prototype).]

[Pilot Required.]

"It’s a suit," Sparky explained. "A bone-mech suit. Needs a strong pilot to handle the neural load."

I looked at the cockpit. "I know just the pilot." I tapped my earpiece. "Gallywix. Send me your craziest, most adrenaline-junkie Goblin."

"Boss? You want Mad Max?"

"Is that his name?"

"No, it’s ’Scrappy’, but he thinks he’s Mad Max. He drives a nitro-boosted cart into walls for fun."

"Send him." I patted the Juggernaut’s hull. "We’re building a Monster Squad."

Suddenly, the alarm blared. "BOSS! INCOMING TRANSMISSION!"

"Who?"

"It’s... Kenji?"

"Kenji has a radio?"

"No... he’s shouting. He’s shouting so loud that the seismic sensors actually picked it up."

I opened the audio feed.

"CAIN!!!!" The scream vibrated the speakers. "I AM COMING FOR YOU! I HAVE MASTERED THE ROCK! I AM THE ROCK! I AM COMING TO THE TOURNAMENT!"

I blinked. "The Tournament?" I asked Sylvia. "Did we announce the tournament yet?"

"We were planning to announce it tomorrow," Sylvia said. "How did he know?"

"The ’Old Master’ told him," Sol admitted. "I MAY HAVE UPDATED HIS QUEST LOG TO MOTIVATE HIM."

I sighed. "Fine. If he wants a tournament, we’ll give him a tournament."

"But Boss," Ahri said. "If he comes here, he’ll see the factory, the slaves, and the truth."

"No, he won’t." I grinned wicked. "Because we aren’t holding the tournament here."

"Where then?"

I pointed at the sky. "We’re holding it on the Floating Arena. We’re going to build a stage in the clouds. Above the smog, and the misery. It’s a place where heroes can shine. And where I can drop them from 30,000 feet if they bore me." I turned to the crew. "Get the marketing team. We need posters, tickets, and a prize."

"What prize?" Seraphina asked.

I reached into my inventory. I pulled out a small, unassuming wooden box. Inside was a single [Revival Scroll]. "The ultimate prize," I said. "A second chance at life. Kenji will want this. He wants to resurrect his dead party members who are actually just chilling in a tavern in the South, and retired."

"Let the games begin," I grinned wickedly.