XXIII: Carlos
I liked Laslei, and I didn’t really have any complaints. That’s the truth. I didn’t really have anything to complain about at all. I had plenty of friends, and I never had any trouble with women. But it was all just kind of…boring. It lacked stimulation. There was something missing. For the longest time, I felt a sort of hunger for something.
I started to hunt monsters as a way to kill time. I was confident in my strength and I’d never lost in a fight, even when I was a kid. I brought along some friends who looked useful and we fought monsters together. It was pretty damn fun. After all, I was risking my own life. It was more thrilling than any game, and it made me feel really alive. But, just as how your body quickly gets used to weak alcohol, I gradually stopped feeling anything from fighting weak monsters.
So, I started going after stronger monsters. The stronger they were, the more alive I felt. But at that point, the friends who’d come along with me got cold feet. One by one, they left, and in the end, I was all alone.
I felt something then, but it wasn’t isolation—it was freedom. This surprised even me. I had expected that I’d feel lonelier, but that just didn’t happen. My newfound freedom brought me joy—I didn’t have to worry about anyone else. All I needed to do was think about myself and fight. So I continued to fight alone, defeating many monsters by myself until I became convinced that I was invincible.
However, we all have our limits. No one is really invincible. And one day, as I was fighting a lizard monster that was a bit on the large side, it tore open my stomach. Just so you know, that didn’t mean I lost. I was winning the fight, when the monster’s claw barely nicked my abdomen. Then, blood started spurting out and I couldn’t move anymore. What awful luck. It had been a good fight, too.
I wasn’t afraid of dying or anything. I had been risking my life, after all, so it was only natural that I would have to pay the price eventually. But it was also true that I wished I could have enjoyed myself just a bit more.
I could see the monster open up its massive gullet as it prepared to eat me. I was the main course of the day, which pissed me off, so I wrung out the last of my strength and waited for it to strike. I thought I’d shove my sword down its throat, but then out of nowhere, its head suddenly flew off.
“You’re being reckless.”
Before I knew it, there was a man standing nearby, shouldering a huge, bloody sword. He was older, with blond hair and blue eyes. An easterner, most likely. He was the one who had chopped off the monster’s head.
“What were you doing, fighting an Earth Dragon all by yourself like that? You know there’s no way you could win, right?”
“The hell are you saying?” I retorted. “I was just about to make a dramatic comeback, if only you hadn’t shown up. Stay out of this.” Honestly, it hurt just to breathe, but if I couldn’t still be stubborn, I knew I was done for.
“My bad, then,” the man said. Then, he began to treat my injury. He had salve, and he skillfully stopped the bleeding and sewed up my wound. After that, he started to eat the Earth Dragon. And he ate it raw, without even cooking it.
“Hey, don’t eat my kill. Give some to me,” I said. I’d never eaten monster meat before, but it irritated me that he could eat it and I couldn’t.
“You’d better not. You’ll die if you try it, you know. You don’t want to go out in the middle of a meal, do you? If you’re going to die, then—”
“Then I’d rather go down fighting, right?”
“Exactly. You and I are cut from the same cloth. We can only ever picture ourselves in battle. That’s the kind of hopeless creatures we are.”
“Hmph, don’t act like you know me.”
Although I put up a tough front, what the man said made me happy. I was glad there was someone else out there like that besides me.
The man introduced himself as Million. He encouraged me to eat monster meat, because (he said) it was the fastest way to grow stronger. I ignored his advice to start with a small monster at first, and I began by attempting to eat the meat of a decently strong one—which led to me throwing up blood and nearly dying. Million pounded on my back like crazy until I vomited up the meat, and after that I did as he said and started with the meat of a weak monster.
I started fighting Million what seemed like every day. He never held back, so I was always beaten to a pulp. Still, it was fun. It was the first time in my life I’d ever had a goal to strive for: defeating Million, at any cost.
We would fight near a hut in the woods where Million had settled down, and after a while, people started to gather there. They had various reasons for coming—some wanted to fight, others wanted to watch fights, and still others wanted to learn how to fight—and I treated them all coldly. They were getting in the way of our matches, after all.
Million, on the other hand, welcomed them. “Accept those who seek battle,” he would say. “They are your true comrades.”
As a matter of fact, everyone who came around was passionate about growing stronger. They ate that awful monster meat too, and they risked their lives to fight. They were so enthusiastic that I had no choice but to accept them. Plus, fighting a wide variety of people taught me a ton. Honestly, I got even stronger than I had when I’d just been fighting Million.
After a year had passed, I finally managed to beat Million. I felt an ecstatic sense of accomplishment like I’d never felt before. But at the same time, I also felt empty. I didn’t know where to go from there. Then, Million told me something:
“Carlos, from now on, call yourself First, and form the Hundred in this country,” he said. “Keep striving for power. That is where your future path lies.”
Even I knew the name of the Hundred. It was a group of crazy Farunian fighters with a name that struck fear in the hearts of anyone who heard it.
“I’m not interested in becoming one of them,” I replied. I was a bit disappointed to learn that Million had been a minion of the Hundred the whole time.
“Listen to this before you decide: if you become stronger than Zero, you’ll stand at the very top of the entire Hundred. Strength is everything. That is the law of the Hundred.”
I laughed. “I like that.”
It was a regressive and irrational law, but it was also simple. That was what I liked. It was what I had been seeking. And the idea that I could eventually be above the mad king of Farune was attractive as well.
Apparently, Million’s goal, as you might expect from his name, was to increase the number of people in the Hundred to one million. It was a completely crazy idea, but also an entertaining one. If a million people like us got together, that would surely be one fun hell.
After Million left Laslei, I continued to fight and greedily devour monster meat in search of new battles and new challenges, and the Hundred grew bigger. The Hundred had some harsh rules, but I made them stricter or more lenient depending on how I was feeling that day. I was First, so I could do whatever I wanted—that was how it worked in the Hundred. I didn’t care when people started gambling on the fights or turning them into shows, but if someone did something I didn’t like, I walloped them hard. As long as I was strong, I was free.
I spent my time feeling decently fulfilled, but then one day, Million returned out of nowhere and came to me with a plan: “Do you want to take over Laslei with the Hundred?”
“That’s not a bad idea, but why?” I asked.
“Farune has defeated Eyland and conquered eastern Ares. The day when they come to the west is near. Won’t you be embarrassed if you haven’t even taken Laslei? You’ll only be able to challenge Zero to a fight once you’ve become his equal. Doesn’t that make sense?”
It did. Even in the Hundred in Laslei, rookies couldn’t challenge for the top spot right when they joined. There was an order to things.
I see, so if I’m going to challenge Zero, I’ll need a country that I can stake on the outcome of the fight.
“All right. I’ll take over Laslei,” I declared.
After that, I began to proactively gather companions. Around then, spies and adventurers hired by the government started trying to infiltrate the Hundred, but strangely enough, I could always tell what they were about just by glancing at their faces. They looked completely different depending on whether or not they were willing to fight. Sometimes, there were even people I accepted as comrades who had started out as spies, but then swapped allegiances and stayed in the Hundred. My judgment was perfect.
However…I also felt a strange sense that something was off, as if things couldn’t continue like this. No matter how many people joined, it felt like we were lacking in passion. All of us ate monster meat and fought with our lives on the line. However, that wasn’t everything. We were missing something essential. I just didn’t know what.
It was then that a couple of schmucks showed up—a swordsman and a warrior from the east. And one of them said something stupid:
“We’re here because we heard the rumors. They say you can get into some crazy fights here.”
I could tell right away. These were the faces of some idiot adventurers hired by the government. So, I had them fight lower-ranking members, one after another. By continuing this until they couldn’t move, I would expose their lack of true determination. But then, just when it seemed like I would only need one last push to make them spill everything, a wizard in their party spoke up.
“I’ll go next.”
A wizard? Was he an idiot? Not only that, but the look on his face told me he had the least will to fight out of anyone I’d ever seen. The best thing to do with these smartasses was ground them to a pulp. Simple.
Or so I thought.