Chapter 7: Ever tried playing dumb
Arnold Kristoff, the male lead, the son of heaven, the protagonist, the one who is destined to be great, the one who'll stand above all his peers and leave his mark in the world. Well at least that's what Fae showed her in the plotline. Apparently, one of the perks of being attached to a system is that you get access to the storylines of the world. Once Miho steps foot on a new planet, Fae would automatically receive the plotline or fate of the world. He can also selectively choose to know the fates or plotlines of places Miho hasn't been to yet if he wants. That's how he was able to tell Miho in advance about the imminent destruction of the planet Aquamarine they were currently on.
It's not that she wasn't aware that Arnold Kristoff was the male lead before, in fact, he was the one that she accepted the Chimera extermination mission from. She wanted to use this as an opportunity to get in contact with him and inadvertently, get in contact with all the big bases around the world.
Him being the male lead was not what made her wary, what made her wary is what Fae told her all male leads and female leads have. A golden finger and an extraordinary amount of luck. In fact, hold a male lead or female lead at gunpoint with the intent to kill them and they will survive one way or the other. But this is not what makes her wary the most, what makes her wary the most is his golden finger. Which makes him impossible to beat.
Miho silently let Fae use the system scanner to scan the male lead. It's a good thing she did, as it let her see the absurdity that was called a skill.
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Skills: Passive: Break the limits IV, Passive regeneration, Ever burning will. Active: shooting, Archery, hand to hand combat technique, fencing, boxing, meditation, politics, facial reading, intuition, presence perception, danger sense, swordsmanship. |
The skill that Fae told her to be wary of was Break the limits IV. Cause that was this male lead's golden finger.
>>Break the limits IV<<
When HP goes below 40%, the next damage taken will be completely negated, be it mental, physical or spiritual for the next 10 seconds. While HP is 40% all stats rise continuously by multiples of ten until it reaches equal to or higher than the stats of the opponent. (Note, this is irrespective of the level or grade difference. It also scales when multiple strong enemies are fought at once, to achieve the same effect)
WARNING: THE USER WILL BE IN A FRENZIED STATE THROUGHOUT THE DURATION OF THIS PASSIVE SKILL. At least until he /she recognizes that there is no more danger.
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Yes, only that skill alone is enough to achieve whatever one wants as a protagonist. Luckily, the protagonists are blissfully unaware of what their passive skills are. Whenever it is triggered in a fight, the protagonist would only think they went overboard and channelled their true potential.
What crap?! No wonder the villain always loses in the end. It's because of damnable skills like these!!
[So that's the secret to the power of friendship, it had nothing to do with friendship all along]
Miho couldn't help but comment inside her mind, while Fae was saying something completely incomprehensible to her.
"May I check the recording, Miss Miho?" Arnold said, giving her a business smile.
Miho just nodded and passed him a memory card. He took the memory card, completely unfazed by her lack of manners and inserted it into a laptop next to him. Watching the content intently.
Miho just sat there and studied Arnold. Although he was seated here casually, nobody knew who he really was. Thanks to Fae showing her the plotline the previous night, Miho knew that Arnold Kristoff is the base leader of Mirage city but hardly comes out to the public, which makes people unaware of his true appearance. Although he is the base leader of Mirage city, he is also secretly in charge of Mirage city's underground under a different alias. And also a minor government official under another alias which he uses to spot talented people by hiring them to do a task for him as a mercenary. If they succeed, he'll accept them under his wing after stunning them with the great reveal of his identity and if they don't, well they died on the task. Miho originally took the task to kill a Chimera to test her limit as it was the hardest task Arnold Kristoff had at the time and also for this moment, for when she'll be alone with him during his review of her task completion.
She's going to have to be more direct now, cause there is not much time left.
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Author's Note: Double chapter updates this week as I am feeling motivated. Though short but paves the way for future explanations.
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So, clearly the only real way to beat a lead with that skill is either 1 shot them from above 40% health, or heal them above 40% health so they lose the HP threshold needed to activate the skill. Not taking into account plot armor of course
Exactly. But each male lead have varying skill types.
@AvalonPenndragon A question-if Miho is misandric/androphobic because of the traumas she experienced in the lab, how/why is she fine with (even dependent on) Fae, who is clearly a male voice/soul (and Fae has repeatedly stated that in no uncertain terms that he is male)? Is it something like Miho had no choice but to get used to Fae and has over time gotten over her fear/distrust of Fae despite Fae being male (I.e-either she doesn’t see Fae as male anymore or if it’s him she’s ok with it)? Fae’s even gone out of his way to try and get Miho to be self sufficient and living for herself just in case he suddenly disappears one day (something I commend him for-it’s a very good idea), though he’s gotten mixed results on that since Miho is clearly still extremely dependent on him emotionally
@FallingLeaf Nice to see you are following up on the storyline so far. That makes me feel really great. Well let me answer your questions one after the other.
if Miho is misandric/androphobic because of the traumas she experienced in the lab, how/why is she fine with (even dependent on) Fae, who is clearly a male voice/soul (and Fae has repeatedly stated that in no uncertain terms that he is male)?
To Miho, Fae is like a being of an entirely new gender that stubbornly clings to the fact that he is male, just to get her to open up to men more. She is even keenly aware that Fae can choose to use the voice of a female if he wished but still refuses to in order to help her rehabilitate.
Does Fae feel a headache on how to treat Miho's phobia for men?
Yes, yes he does.
@AvalonPenndragon ah, so it was option 1, she doesn’t see him as male. At least, not really. As for rehabilitating her-well, I’ll go out on a limb here and say he’s probably made a fair amount of progress on it since she’s willing to be alone in a room with a man without freaking out or wanting to flee from or attack the guy, something I suspect she probably would have done if it was her right before/after meeting Fae or shortly after escaping the lab.
Hopefully he’ll have more luck in the future for getting Miho to be more independent and self reliant instead of depending on him as an emotional crutch to keep her from collapsing. I think she’s making progress after seeing her now beautiful appearance in the mirror, but she’s still got a ways to go before she’s really past it
@AvalonPenndragon So, in Miho's opinion, the Fae is a genderless being just like Rimuru, right?
If the Fae found a way for him to control puppets as an avatar, he could speak through them. Would Miho be uncomfortable if the Fae used a 70cm tall male model doll?