chapter3 · 059-ep59

Episode 59: Achiever

『I am an Achiever.』

When the boy said that, the comments began flying past too fast to follow with the eye.

"What's an Achiever?"

"What do you mean, eleven slots?"

"This is a middle schooler's bait stream."

"Won't this stream get deleted too?"

"Anyone watching from an overseas site?"

After watching the comments for a while, the boy scratched his cheek as though a little troubled.

『Hmm. Where should I start?』

Despite starting a stream on this scale, apparently he hadn't even decided the order he would talk in.

『First, do you know about Achievements?』

The instant he said that, the comments shifted a little.

"I've had an Achievement pop up once."

"That thing where your Status goes up when you complete one, right?"

"I don't know."

"Oh, that achievement field?"

"The stat boosts from Achievement rewards are nice."

Hey, hey.

The state had been trying so hard to hide Achievements, and now the public was learning about them like this?

But judging by the comments, way more people knew about them than I'd expected.

Well, figures.

Three months had already passed since dungeons appeared.

With a whole achievement field plainly sitting in the window, it would be stranger if nobody had noticed by now.

『It looks like everyone knows by now. After becoming an Awakener, you can complete Achievements by performing certain set actions. You can receive stat increases, Skills, and new functions.』

The boy's explanation was almost the same as what I'd seen until now.

『And Achievements have an additional reward only the first person in the world to complete them can receive.』

The boy raised his index finger.

『It's called a World-First Reward. Besides the usual rewards, you can receive stats and Skills too.』

"World-first?"

"Nobody told us that."

"I know, I know."

"What can you get from an extra reward?"

"Are there any I can still get now?"

Then suddenly, the boy's voice cut off.

The screen darkened, switching to a notice that the video had been deleted.

"It gets deleted here?"

I didn't know why it had been taken down.

With this much attention, it wouldn't be strange if reports were flooding in. And I didn't even know what method the boy had used to broadcast it.

I immediately went back to SNS.

People who had been watching the stream like me were starting to make noise about it being deleted.

"It got deleted after all."

"Right when he started talking about Achievements."

"Someone already reposted it somewhere else."

"You can still watch it on overseas video sites."

"Saved a clip. I'll post it again if it gets deleted."

When I tapped a link attached to a post, the same boy appeared on-screen.

It wasn't a Japanese video site, but an overseas one I didn't even recognize by name.

The footage had rewound to a little earlier, but it played without a problem.

It seemed others were posting recordings and clips too, and links to the same footage kept increasing one after another.

While one video was being deleted, several more were uploaded elsewhere.

I didn't know why, but at this rate, even if they deleted it, another video would probably come out right away.

『It seems some people know, but lots of people still don't, right?』

The stream caught up to where it had cut off.

I remembered the Skills I had acquired until now.

If World-First Rewards spread too, the Awakeners who started searching for Achievements would increase all at once.

What I had been doing until now would be started by Awakeners not only across Japan, but across the world.

『Most of the World-First Achievements I found had already been claimed by someone. I don't know how many are still left either.』

The boy paused a little there and smiled happily.

『But today, I've come to talk about something even more incredible than World-First Rewards.』

Something even more incredible.

As though reacting to those words, the comments sped up further.

『The Achiever I mentioned at the start is an Awakener who completed ten different Achievements and gained a reward limited to eleven people.』

Ten different Achievements.

A reward limited to eleven people.

『What this Limited Reward gave wasn't a powerful Skill. When I received it, a new field called Personal Achievements appeared in my Status.』

I sat up in bed.

『In my case, one new Achievement alone appeared there. When I completed it, a field separate from my Job was added.』

The boy wore a slightly proud expression.

『A field called Observer, and a role that belongs only to me.』

Hearing that much, the Achiever the boy described finally connected to the words inside me.

【Personal Achievement: The achiever reaches a dungeon interior】

The Personal Achievement that appeared before me just after I entered that unregistered Gate.

This boy had likely met the same condition as the achiever written there.

He completed ten different Achievements and got the reward limited to eleven people.

...Wait, then that made me an Achiever too.

Come to think of it, it said something about an achiever in the Personal Achievements description.

And the 【Interferer】 added to my Status was one of the roles that boy meant.

『The role I was given is Gate Administrator.』

The boy said it happily, then rose from his chair.

『At first, I thought it was just a role for watching over Gates.』

The boy moved to the edge of the screen.

In front of the white wall behind him, the air warped, and a black line ran across where nothing had been.

The line expanded up and down, eventually becoming large enough for a person to pass through.

There was no way I could mistake it.

A Gate.

『Apparently not.』

The boy stood beside the finished Gate and lightly tapped its surface.

『I can make a Gate anytime, anywhere I like.』

The comments that had been flowing seemed to stop for a single instant.

They immediately filled with posts saying it was compositing or fake, but it didn't look fake to me.

Since I had power as an 【Interferer】 too, it wouldn't be strange if the boy could create Gates.

No, still, it was strange.

Being able to create Gates was just normally way too bad, wasn't it?

It was cheat-level, or almost god-level.

As an ability, it was plenty insane.

『And this Observer has one more ability.』

The boy returned to his chair and continued speaking.

『I can see the names and current locations of the Achievers who exist now.』

At those words, the hand holding my smartphone stopped without thinking.

『I can't see their faces, Jobs, or what abilities they have. But I can see their names and where they are now.』

Wait.

If I was an Achiever too, this boy knew even my name and location?

Which meant whether I was at school, at home, or in a dungeon, this boy could see everything.

Even if I went somewhere hard to tell people about, somewhere suspicious.

Not that I had any plans to go somewhere like that right now.

I didn't, but having some middle schooler I'd never met constantly know my location was normally unpleasant.

The boy spread both hands to show ten fingers, then raised his index finger as though adding one more.

『There are eleven Achievers I can see now, including me.』

Eleven people.

When I got the Limited Reward, I was definitely seventh.

Only about a month had passed since then, yet apparently all four remaining slots had been filled.

"Eleven in the world?"

"They're all full already?"

"So it's too late even if I get ten now?"

"Give us their names."

"Is it eleven per country?"

"Are there no Achievers overseas?"

『I don't think it's right to give out names without permission, so I won't.』

His sense about that was normally sound, at least.

『I don't know whether the eleven slots are for the entire world, divided by country, or divided by a large region like a continent.』

The boy tilted his head as though thinking a little.

『But all eleven people I can see have Japanese names. So I only personally think overseas might be separate.』

I didn't know how the divisions worked.

But at least, it seemed all eleven slots visible to this boy were filled.

『Actually, the reason I didn't stream until today was because I was waiting for the eleventh person to be decided.』

"Why did you need to wait?"

"You should've told us earlier."

"If I knew, I'd have gone for it too."

"You hoarded information?"

Accusing comments increased all at once, but the boy answered without looking bothered.

『Because if I told everyone while slots were still open, they'd compete over them, right?』

The boy continued as though stating something obvious.

『Some people might search for reckless Achievements, or get in the way so other people couldn't get them. That would be dangerous.』

I see.

He hadn't hidden the information while he had an advantage. It seemed he waited until all the slots were filled to avoid a scramble.

Pretty thoughtful for a middle schooler.

No, whether he had common sense was questionable, considering he started a stream on this scale and it kept being reposted after deletion.

『Now nobody needs to fight over slots to become an Achiever. So I thought it was okay to tell everyone about Achievements too.』

No slots remained to become an Achiever.

But Achievements themselves hadn't disappeared, and people could still aim for stats, Skills, and World-First Rewards.

I couldn't imagine what Awakeners who watched the boy's broadcast would begin doing tomorrow.

『There are a lot of things I don't know too, so I want to talk with the other Achievers. I want to know what Achievements they completed and what roles they were given.』

Looking at his innocent expression, he didn't seem to be lying at all.

Somehow, I could tell he genuinely just wanted to meet the Achievers like himself.

That said, he could bring out Gates wherever he liked.

He knew my name and location, and there wasn't even a guarantee he would visit through the front door.

Him coming to meet me was normally scary.

『I thought you'd be surprised if I came suddenly, so I wanted to tell you through a stream first.』

No, even with warning, it was plenty scary.

『All right then, Achievers. I'm going to come meet you all one at a time from now on~』

Of course, there was no way my voice could reach him. The boy only smiled innocently beyond the screen.