I Became a 6★ Gacha Character-Chapter 560: Ashes 5

Until the snare caught my ankle and my vision flipped upside down, I hadn't felt any real danger.

It wasn't like I'd mindlessly crossed the gate without protection. Thanks to the Secret Terror's advice, I'd reinforced my armor and shield with mana and drawn upon holy power to maximize my physical abilities.

This allowed me to fully grasp the situation within just a few seconds, despite being flipped upside down with dizzy vision.

'They've prepared quite thoroughly...?!'

A pit dug to prevent escape by jumping, covered with a lid of branches. Apparently finding that insufficient, natives completely surrounded the gate, and I could feel a mana-infused snare. It must have been a special type designed to coil around the ankle even if not directly stepped on, as I could feel it wrapping around my ankle and climbing up to my calf.

But more important than the collapsing floor or the rope climbing up my leg were the natives.

Yes, natives.

Not orcs, but natives.

"Wait, hold on?!"

"He's a fire demon! Don't listen, just stab him-!"

They had nicely tanned skin like people from the southern Kingdom, with leaf skirts covering only their lower halves. Both men and women left their chests uncovered, painting their upper bodies with black and red dye, and instead of human ears, a pair of animal ears perked up from their heads.

...Great, I'm about to kill animal-eared beauties who can speak with reflection damage!!!

Obsidian-edged spears and axes sharpened with mana stones. Those weapons wouldn't pierce my armor, but the reflection damage was the problem. In Heroines Chronicle, most beast-kin warriors are fierce female warriors with a gimmick of turning berserk when their health drops.

In Heroes Chronicle, which borrowed settings from Heroines Chronicle, beast-kin would likely go berserk and stop listening to reason when injured. That's why I began desperately twisting my body like a fish caught on a hook, avoiding the weapons flying at me.

"Wait, wait, stop! We're not demons, we're here to hunt demons!"

"Don't, don't be deceiveeed-!"

Beyond my inverted vision, I could see various bosoms, from modest to voluptuous, bouncing vigorously up and down, drawing my attention despite hanging upside down.

It's not that I was some hormone-crazed maniac who'd get distracted by breasts during combat and make mistakes... but when topless animal-eared beauties charge at you with bouncing chests on a suicide mission, you can't help but be surprised!

Using my core strength, I made the rope bounce up, down, and sideways, then suppressed my mana while maximizing my holy power as I climbed up onto the branch where the snare had been set.

"Whi-white light? Chief! Something's strange!"

"But he reeks of terrible hellfire?!"

'Oh shit... could they smell the sticky oil with their dog noses?'

During all this, a few natives who couldn't completely avoid my reflection damage collapsed. Fortunately, after seeing my holy power and reflection damage, they just perked up their ears and glared at me without trying to climb up the tree.

It seemed the canine beast-kin had caught the scent of sticky oil, flames, and ash on my body, so I had to make excuses.

The one called chief was a slender young man with dark ash-gray hair and triangular pointed ears. The pointed ears, sharp teeth, nose that wouldn't stop sniffing, and tail that swayed slowly confirmed my suspicion that he was a wolf beast-kin.

"We just came through that ash heap you mentioned, so we might smell like it!"

"B-but... how can we trust human words!"

"Do you know forest fairies? My companion with the fairy emblem will come through, so if you're worried, keep your distance."

It's absurd to be hanging from a tree branch having this conversation—not like a dog chasing a chicken only to end up staring at the roof. Even more absurd was the fact that Han Se-ah's camera was filming all of this.

...Come to think of it, I believe the camera couldn't go very far to prevent map hacking, but apparently it could film companions who'd crossed through the gate?

Fortunately, it was Irene who came through the gate next, not Katie or Grace. Though completely different from our usual gate-crossing order, it definitely helped. The beast-kin natives' bristling fur gradually settled as Irene burst through, emanating holy power and carrying the forest fairy emblem from Han Se-ah's inventory.

Shit, I thought there were no forest fairies up here so we put away the emblem, but there were beast-kin instead.

'Holy shit, if there were natives in the layer we burned...'

It seemed the deep forest layers were divided like the harpy and stone dwarf areas in the high mountain layers—forest fairies below and beast-kin above.

More precisely, the forest fairies from the 61st floor managed the forest up to the 65th floor, while beast-kin natives were evenly distributed from the 66th to 70th floors. Meanwhile, the 62nd floor had burned completely, and the affected area was beyond imagination.

Internet news had reported that the massive Australian fires were visible from satellites, so sensitive beast-kin likely detected the 62nd floor's great fire from far away.

"What's going on here?"

"Fire! Fire demon! Kyaaak! Weap, ons!"

"Ugh, my nose, hurts..."

The way they immediately clutched their noses in shock upon seeing Han Se-ah proved just how exceptional beast-kin senses were.

※

"I'm, I'm so sorry... We judged too hastily."

-Bowing to NPCs is so fucking funny, what's happening with this broadcast ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Hnnnng I want to be stepped on barefoot by animal-eared beauties while getting beaten too it's so good

-Damn if only they didn't cover up with dye it would be perfection

-Body painting is hot you tasteless noobs ㅋㅋ if you just wanted nude you'd watch porn

-These guys just like boobs ㅋㅋ they don't care about story progression or isekai alliance plot points, just BOOBS BOUNCE BOUNCE AAAAH

Even for someone as thick-skinned as Han Se-ah, she couldn't proudly boast about burning 10% of the forest in front of forest-dwelling natives. Though she might claim it was efficient, she clearly hadn't even checked what was in the forest first.

She had enthusiastically committed arson just because wraiths were blocking the way, so she couldn't hold her head up in front of the bristling natives.

Of course, she wasn't genuinely feeling remorseful toward game NPCs—she was playing along because viewers were going crazy over the animal-eared beauties. Still, seeing the powerful hero with forest fairy emblems bow and apologize first seemed to soften the hearts of the beast-kin natives.

"Chief, isn't it okay?"

"The fire smell is awful, but I don't smell much blood."

"They apologized first without even drawing weapons. Mother said people who apologize first when they're wrong are good people."

"That's right. They didn't draw weapons even though we're pointing ours at them."

The viewers were so entranced by the animal-eared beauties—or rather, given the broad viewer base, by both the male and female animal-eared youth—that they were ready to string Han Se-ah up.

We knew the fire was set on the 62nd floor, physically thousands of kilometers away from here, and that only wraiths and beasts existed there. And it was the viewers who encouraged it, even creating missions that pushed Han Se-ah to set the fire, but... would viewers consider any of that?

The chat instantly shifted to portraying Han Se-ah as ^Isekai Imperialist Vanguard Hero^ oppressing animal-eared beauties for a plantation. The flames burned especially fiercely since we'd already breezed through the 63rd and 64th floors.

Just as Han Se-ah couldn't genuinely feel remorseful, the viewers obviously weren't truly hating or cursing her.

"Hmm, very well. Human reasoning is difficult to understand, but if it was for the greater good, to save the forest fairies..."

-You understand this? Have I been too immersed in forest fairy thinking?

"I'm sorry to say this to the forest spirits, but we can't protect every forest."

Regardless of sincerity, the light banter between viewers and broadcaster helped calm the beast-kin's anger, which was fortunate. Wasn't this the essence of Han Se-ah's broadcasting motto and family precept, "All roads lead to Rome"?

Our perception had been upgraded from evil fire demons caught in a snare to human adventurers who defeated wraith interference to help forest fairies. The wolf beast-kin chief nodded at the explanation that some magical effect would prevent the fire from reaching their village, while the Secret Terror watched, questioning her own common sense.

Thanks to this, we were able to follow the various animal tails swaying beneath leaf skirts toward the beast-kin village.

"This way, human children. It's not our village, but a base we quickly set up to investigate the fire."

"Thank you for the invitation. By the way, have you seen any strange stone structures on your way here?"

More precisely, it was a temporary base set up by beast-kin from the 66th floor who had rushed over in alarm. ...The range of one layer must be hundreds of kilometers, yet they ran that distance because of the fire. Any way you look at it, this really did seem to be Han Se-ah's fault.

The shadow fang tiger, starlight finch, wraith, and beast-kin began crossing the forest together with the hero party carrying a lich's head.

What a chaotic combination.

Enjoy the chappy!