At present, I have been given two Goddess Points.
I obtained one for being the first person to form a contract, and the other for being the first to be killed by another candidate Hero.
The former came from taking active action to become a Hero.
The latter was not intentional, but happened to be a factor I could conveniently exploit.
Unfortunately, I did not receive any Goddess Points as a sympathy vote for being “the first to die.”
As for those who died in between, all they could do was lament their bad luck.
In that case, for now, I need to distinguish what I have lost from what I have gained.
What I lost was one thing.
The fact that my body is currently dead, and I am watching the tutorial unfold as a ghost.
“Kyaaaaak!”
“A-a real goblin!”
A goblin attack.
Monsters of the sort that often appear in fantasy comics appeared and began attacking the candidate Heroes.
Their assault was truly merciless and indiscriminate.
Puuuk!
“S-save me...!”
“Aaaagh! Against those things without even a w-weapon...!”
“Noooo!!”
People who were merely college students in their early to mid-twenties were being ravaged by goblins.
The small daggers the creatures wielded stabbed into throats.
Poison needles flew in, paralyzing bodies and leaving them collapsed before blades were driven into their hearts.
While fleeing from the goblins, some lost their footing and tumbled off cliffs to their deaths.
Now, the candidate Heroes had to figure out exactly how to survive against “108” goblins.
“M-Mister! Please save me!”
“Kh, student!! Come this way for now!”
Whether they received help from others.
“Hey! Good! Throw rocks!”
“Aim for the head no matter what!! Th-then steal their clubs!!”
Or analyzed the enemy’s strength and found an angle to counter-kill.
The advantage gained by those who survived was the realization that monsters were not as weak as the slimes in front of a village that a level 1 Hero would face in a tutorial game.
And that, since the pain of death was unmistakably real, they needed to prepare themselves psychologically for it.
Combat experience.
Mental fortitude.
—Ah, I really have entered this hell.
And an awareness of reality.
“I don’t need any of that.”
As a regressor, I had already experienced it all in my first round.
If Goddess Points had not been my goal, I would have tried to obtain the title “Goblin Slayer of the Tutorial” and its passive skill.
.
Damage against goblins +N%.
Do I currently have that title and skill?
I do not.
But there is no need for me to deliberately go around hunting in the tutorial just to obtain goblin effectiveness.
What I need to do right now is manage what I gained through my swift death and actions.
I obtained Goddess Points, but I did not gain only benefits.
The reason I died was because there was a bastard making a fuss about extracting information from me.
In other words, I am currently under suspicion.
If there were an analogy most universally understood by people who have read a bit of web fiction, I could say it would be one of two things.
One.
This world is actually the world inside a novel, and I am one of the many readers who fell into that novel.
That is not it.
Unfortunately, this is not the kind of worldview that breaks the fourth wall. It is a world where the Goddess gets utterly stomped by the Demon King’s Army every time the world line repeats, over and over again.
Two.
The possibility of a regressor.
Regression stories have become a fairly commonly known, ordinary cliché, and in this world, regression is actually one of the somewhat known skills.
A Hidden Piece that cannot be obtained even with Goddess Points, brought about by the combination of a Hero’s powerful wish, achievements, and a miracle.
In other words, a skill.
Whether it is [Return by Death] or something else, it is one of the countless save points the Goddess and angels have prepared in order to win against the Demon King’s Army.
Hundreds and thousands of save points intended to reach the ending called “Killing the Demon King.”
The Goddess and angels cannot easily perceive those saves, but they are clearly aware that such skills exist.
Because those are skills that the Goddess entrusted to the angels, or privileges that Heroes had already received, only for them to be lost when the Heroes were killed over there in the other world.
I know.
I know that the angels manage “regression” more thoroughly than anyone else.
The main duty of the angels is to find those who are presumed to have obtained the miracle of regression or future sight in each Tutorial Factory, or those who possess such skills and become the starting point of a branch.
Why?
Whether for a petty reason or a grand one, the activation of regression as a skill is no different from saying that “the Goddess’s side failed.”
It is difficult to think of it through common sense.
No angel, not even the Goddess herself, would likely imagine that “the one who defeated the Demon King declared regression as his wish.”
The regression the angels know of as an existing skill is the act of loading a save point again.
But my regression is different.
My regression does not rewind a save point. It is an absolute, one-time regression in which even those outside it cannot perceive that time has reversed.
How to regress again?
There is one way.
Kill the Demon King and obtain the right to a wish from the Goddess.
Based on that understanding, there is one thing I must do now.
Risk management concerning my regression.
For that purpose, I called Estiel.
“I will use a Goddess Point.”
In order to summon the administrator, and to make a secret pact with that administrator.
Saaaaaa.
Even though the tutorial was still in full swing, my body was moved somewhere else.
“You are a strange person.”
Blond hair and gray eyes.
Though she was dressed in white, the winged woman who approached me felt less like an angel and more like a reverent nun.
“I am truly curious. To say you will use a Goddess Point...”
“If a Korean who knows how to game a little gets a special kind of point, it’s practically an unwritten rule that he’ll try to make use of it somehow.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
Estiel nodded in a voice that sounded somewhat dissatisfied, yet also convinced.
“Very well, Goddess Points are—”
“Skip that explanation. Instead—”
“One moment.”
When I cut off Estiel and tried to speak, this time Estiel reached a hand toward my face.
“The tutorial is currently in progress. The quest to survive against the goblins lasts for 24 hours. And during that period, it counts as my ‘working hours,’ so records of all conversations are reported.”
She was speaking gently, but her eyes were asking me a question.
As if asking whether I knew that, perhaps.
“That is why I said I would use a Goddess Point.”
So I answered.
“At the moment a Goddess Point is used, access to information regarding the candidate Hero is treated as confidential, is it not?”
“......As expected.”
I said something that those in the know would know.
“The moment you declare the use of a Goddess Point, that information enters a period in which only I may access it. Well... there may be angels who question why no action was taken during that blank period.”
And the other party, Estiel, was someone who knew.
“Are you a regressor?”
“Something similar.”
“Similar...?”
“I am the survivor of the final ‘raid party’ who returned after reaching a certain degree of the world’s truth.”
Angels have the ability to detect lies.
Needless to say, I did not lie.
“I was a member of the final Hero Party assembled to subjugate the Demon King’s Army in my world. And I used a special power to return to now, to the beginning.”
Hero Party (1/OOO).
Because the final Hero Party had consisted of one person.
“It would be troublesome if the fact that I regressed became known to those of the Angel Commander class.”
“Hmm... Why is that? I have a duty. Regarding anyone who appears to be a regressor, I must grasp their movements and report them to the Archangels who personally assist the Goddess—and to the Angel Commander.”
“But if you fulfill that duty, do you think the Archangels will really leave you alone?”
Estiel’s smile deepened.
“So... you are saying you wish to ‘bet’ on me? Hero Yu Siu?”
“Yes. It’s a bet. And not a bet I am making alone. This is a bet that a Hero and his ‘assigned angel’ make for each other.”
“Assigned angel...”
Estiel smacked her lips and approached me.
“I am curious. You do not seem to want the higher-ups in the Heavenly Realm to learn of your regression. But what can I gain in exchange for keeping that secret?”
Not what can I gain.
What do you think I can gain would be the correct question.
“Do you not want to become an Archangel?”
I submitted the correct answer.
“I will make you an Archangel of thirteen wings. One comparable not only to Michael, Gabriel, and Uriel, but even to Metatron.”
“...If you intend to elevate me that much, you would need to kill at least over one hundred thousand demons.”
“That is not impossible. The number of demons I killed before regressing alone exceeds one hundred thousand.”
Including the Demon King.
“My results and achievements will become your performance record. Naturally, graduating at the top from this Factory is only the beginning—”
“You need say no more. I have already understood enough.”
Estiel made a gesture as though zipping her mouth shut, then clasped her hands together.
“Understood. Hero Yu Siu.”
From the way she addressed me alone, she was already referring to me as one who had completed the tutorial—a Hero.
“What is it that you wish to say while revealing only to me that you are a regressor? How will you use your Goddess Point?”
“First.”
A Hidden Piece I had known even before regressing.
“Level up through sex.”
“......Pardon?”
“An ability that lets me increase my mana through sexual intercourse with any being except demons. There should not be any particular restrictions, right?”
No matter what form a Hero’s ability takes, as long as it ultimately points in the direction of defeating the Demon King, anything goes.
“Uh, um.”
Estiel blushed and looked me up and down.
“This is unexpected. I thought you would request some special item or one of your skills from before regression as a privilege.”
For a moment, her gaze brushed over my face and the area below, but Estiel cleared her throat and corrected her posture.
“Very well. That authority—”
“I will use a Goddess Point.”
“...Pardon?”
“Second.”
I raised two fingers.
“Have sex with me. Right now.”
And pointed them at Estiel.