A Regressor's Bucket List Chapter 78

Orc Mountain Range (★★★☆☆). The longest-running Anti-Demon Front in the northern part of the continent, and the one boasting the largest scale among all existing 3-star Anti-Demon Fronts. It was one of the regions most avoided by Heroes for undertaking quests. As a place renowned as an avoided region even among the numerous Anti-Demon Fronts on the Central Continent, if one were to list all the various reasons Heroes gave for refusing to undertake quests in the , half a day wouldn't be enough. In reality, the fundamental reason could be summarized in one sentence. ‘High risk, low return.’ The imbalance between the ‘reward’ one could obtain by completing a quest and the ‘risk’ one had to bear. This was because the balance of that core factor, which dictated whether a Hero would take on a quest, was completely broken. Of course. It wasn't as if such cases were nonexistent. Quests were, by nature, a type of contract between a Constellation and a Hero, so they had a fluid quality, with the balance constantly shifting according to macro-dimensional politics and local variables. When these factors overlapped in an extreme way, a temporary break in that balance was a common occurrence that any Anti-Demon Front had likely experienced at least once. However, such a ‘temporary imbalance’ was bound to be rebalanced according to market principles. Other Anti-Demon Fronts didn't let it persist long enough for it to become a reason for ‘avoidance’. But the Orc Mountain Range was a slightly different case. The imbalance between risk and return, which was merely temporary elsewhere, had become permanently entrenched due to two unique characteristics of the Orc Mountain Range. ‘…….’ The first unique characteristic was the fact that the war in the Orc Mountain Range had been going on for the longest time in the northern part of the continent. It lay in that ‘long period of war’. Due to the excessively long Anti-Demon War, the very ‘scale’ of the rewards offered as returns for completing quests had diminished. The absolute reduction in rewards had become a key factor in the avoidance. Although the existence of Constellations was transcendent, even they couldn't create an infinite supply of physical rewards to provide to Heroes. The rewards a Constellation gave to a Hero originated from the offerings made by the people in the region under that Constellation's care. Countless believers offered a portion of their production to the Constellation as tribute, and the sum of these tributes became the basis for providing rewards to the Heroes. Of course, since these offerings accumulated over eons on a national or racial scale, it was extremely difficult for a Constellation's treasury to run dry. But the unparalleled duration of the war in the had managed to accomplish that difficult feat. The second unique characteristic that fanned the flames was the ever-expanding ‘scale of the front line’. As explained earlier, the Orc Mountain Range was the largest among the existing 3-star Anti-Demon Fronts, but it hadn't always been that size. It was small-scale, one of the smallest among the 3-star fronts. A tiny front line that anyone would have called ‘small’. At the time, the Orc race wasn't perceived as a particularly powerful one, so the Constellation overseeing the , ‘Olympus's Ruffian’, didn't think of the front as a serious matter. Amidst his indifference, as he was simultaneously managing other Anti-Demon Fronts in adjacent regions, the Orc race expanded its power. Eventually, the Orc Mountain Range, which had expanded based on its overwhelming reproductive power, grew to a massive scale, becoming one of the largest among the 3-star Anti-Demon Fronts. Only then did the Constellation, ‘Olympus's Ruffian’, realize the gravity of the situation and pour in all its resources and supplies. Despite his efforts, they ultimately ended up growing their forces to their current size. An overwhelming growth rate considered ‘unprecedented’ even in the long history of the Anti-Demon Wars. The ‘risk-return imbalance’ of the , exacerbated by this ‘sustainability’ and ‘growth rate’, soon became an unsolvable problem. This led to the ‘avoidance phenomenon’ that currently plagued the Orc Mountain Range. “…Hah.” And the 1-star Hero, ‘Jackson’, who was under an Exclusive Contract with the Constellation, ‘Olympus's Ruffian’, was an unlucky man who, while feeling the cause of this avoidance phenomenon more keenly than anyone, had no choice but to participate in the war. “What sin did I commit in my past life to deserve this…” At first, he didn't know what was wrong either. During his clueless days as a Hero candidate, he was just happy about the name ‘Olympus’ and the fact that he had an Exclusive Contract. Back when he had just come up from a Lower-Dimensional Plane as a candidate, he received all sorts of support that others didn't, allowing him to receive his 1-star Investiture relatively quickly. But the problem started after that. As soon as he received his 1-star Investiture and became an official Hero, the Constellation, ‘Olympus's Ruffian’, threw him into this hellish Orc Mountain Range. It wasn't without pay, but compared to other quests of the same class, he had to carry them out for a reward so miserably small it was numbing. The bright future he had envisioned as an official Hero during his candidate days vanished without a trace, and when he came to his senses, he was living a life no different from a slave. Of course. Other than completing the number of priority quests stipulated in his Exclusive Contract, there was no way out of this situation. “…Looks like this place is about done for, too.” Jackson sighed and muttered as he looked around the base, which was quiet in the early morning dawn. The 77th Garrison. It was the third battlefield Jackson had participated in since becoming an official Hero and being stationed continuously in the Orc Mountain Range. A garrison, as the name implied, meant a base where the soldiers of the anti-demon army stayed. The number in front of it signified that it was the 77th defensive base of the anti-demon army, established around the Orc Mountain Range. “…I liked the number, though.” Unlike the number, which seemed to hold some significance, the 77th Garrison was not a very important area in the Orc Mountain Range. The fact that the number assigned to a garrison was almost proportional to its importance proved this, as did the fact that it was the garrison farthest from the central front where the Orc Lord was active. …Furthermore, the fact that Jackson was the only Hero in the base starkly revealed just how low its importance was. ‘…….’ Though he didn't say it out loud, Jackson believed that the retreat of the 77th Garrison was a foregone conclusion. The reason was simple. The two previous battlefields he had experienced both ended with the base's retreat, and from Jackson's perspective, having personally gone through it all, it was painfully obvious that the 77th Garrison was following the same pattern as the previous two. A gradual retreat of the defensive line. A reduction in the scale of participating troops. Frequent defeats. Loss of the base’s purpose. Base retreat. When he was first dispatched to this garrison, it had already reached the ‘reduction in participating troops’ stage. And now, the purpose for which the ‘77th Garrison’ was established—‘defending the Bloodflow Gorge of the Orc Mountain Range to the death’—seemed to have already concluded in failure. For now, the continuous battles had entered a lull. But the condition of the base was so dire that if an orc troop were to attack right now, they would have to immediately give up their position and pull back the defensive line. Of course, that wasn't to say that the commander of the 77th Garrison's anti-demon forces, ‘Colonel Hank’, had just stood by and watched. He felt sorry for Jackson as a commander, given the harsh environment where he had to face Named-class Magical Beasts alone. Beyond just that apology, improving the situation was his mission as the garrison commander, so he constantly requested support from his superiors. And eventually, he received a firm promise that they would be provided with Hero-class personnel. …The problem was. “…This isn’t a problem that can be solved by sending a ‘Penal Soldier’.” The Hero-class personnel they had managed to secure with such difficulty turned out not to be a Hero, but a ‘Penal Soldier’. * * * Rattle. Rattle. Screech- “…Hangma! We’re here from The Order's headquarters on business to hand over a ‘Penal Soldier’.” “……” Penal Soldier. A soldier with the status of a ‘convict’, forcibly deployed to the Anti-Demon War. It was a term for those who were specially assigned quests instead of hard labor under The Order's ‘penal system’. To put it simply, they could be summarized as ‘convict soldiers who were formerly Heroes’. Of course, as they held the unpredictable risk of being a ‘former convict’, not just anyone was eligible to live outside of prison. It was a system implemented only for convicts of certain crimes who, according to The Order’s various criteria, were judged fit to serve on the battlefield without causing major problems. It was a special troop transfusion system that The Order had established a few years ago, mostly for regions like the ‘Orc Mountain Range’ where the Heroes’ avoidance phenomenon was at its peak. The reason Jackson was out in front of the barracks since before dawn was ultimately because of the handover of that ‘Penal Soldier’ coming from The Order's headquarters. Normally, it would have been the commander’s duty, but that was only possible when the commander was a superior officer equivalent to ‘Hero-class personnel’. The commander of a small base like this was usually an ordinary person, with a Hero dispatched separately. Since they were treated as separate domains, Jackson had decided to take over the duty. “…Thank you for your hard work.” As Jackson offered a perfunctory greeting toward the window of the arrived vehicle, a soldier stepped out from the passenger seat of a military truck emblazoned with The Order’s cross symbol. “Hero Jackson-nim. Is that you?” Nod- Ssk- “Ah, confirmed.” At the soldier’s request for identification, Jackson expertly held up his medal. - Get out. Number 4331. - ……. The Crusader soldier, having confirmed Jackson’s identity, gave a nod and went back to the cargo bed, bringing out a figure with both hands in cuffs. He handed over a sealed document envelope bearing the seal of The Order's headquarters. “The information on the Penal Soldier is in here.” “……” “Please confirm and then dispose of it.” “…Is this it? Just one? I thought at least two would be coming.” The soldier nodded as Jackson took the envelope with a familiar motion and asked. “It seems we don't have a surplus of Penal Soldiers either.” “……” “The Penal Soldier assigned to the 77th Garrison is just this one.” At the soldier’s reply, Jackson muttered to himself. ‘…It really seems like the end is near.’ It was a moment that clearly revealed the Constellation’s inner thoughts of having given up on this place. Sending a Penal Soldier instead of a proper Hero was already unsettling, but to send only one… It further solidified Jackson’s own conviction that the end of the 77th Garrison was imminent. “Keep this in mind, Number 4331.” The soldier then unlocked the Penal Soldier’s cuffs and warned him. “Your person will be free from restraints only for the duration of the quest. If you cause any trouble or are caught after deserting, you will be immediately sentenced to death without a trial.” “……” Nod- The man called Number 4331 nodded indifferently at the soldier’s warning. With his cuffs removed, his custody was transferred to Jackson. “Hangma!” Once again, a salute was exchanged, and the vehicle from The Order's headquarters that had delivered the Penal Soldier immediately left the 77th Garrison. And. ‘…Execution?’ An unbelievable word from that brief exchange caught Jackson’s ear.