Playing as a Tank

was an open-world RPG game set in a fictional modern world with a special power called mana.

Like other open-world games, it boasted excellent freedom, a deep game where many things were determined ‘belatedly’ according to the player’s choices.

But perhaps the freedom being higher than average was somewhat problematic.

The impact of the snowball effect was truly enormous, so if you made a mistake, it wasn’t easy to reverse it.

From the beginning, it was hard to know where things went wrong.

When I realized belatedly that the final boss hadn’t been sufficiently weakened after somehow making it to just before the ending, I was truly devastated.

It was only after memorizing every trivial element in the game that I finally completed my first playthrough.

However, I obviously didn’t have the option to start over from the beginning now.

Therefore, I had to be extremely careful even about the smallest things.

I couldn’t let anything go wrong or get complicated due to my incorrect choices after finally breaking through the stalled story progression.

I decided not to make mistakes that could be avoided by using my first playthrough experience as a foundation.

The first step was to prevent what would later be called the [Asad Dungeon Rampage] incident.

Actually, I had momentarily forgotten about it until I heard some familiar names and finally remembered… but anyway.

“Look at this dragon picture. Doesn’t it look similar to that monster?”

I knew there wasn’t much to gain by pretending to know something based on a picture I’d briefly seen in a magazine.

I also knew that veteran hunters who had been through thick and thin wouldn’t easily believe a child like me.

Nevertheless, I raised the outlandish suspicion that the lizard monster in the report was actually a dragon for exactly two reasons:

“Um, Lua. What part looks similar?”
“This flat nose and the striped pattern on its belly! If it gained a little weight and had shorter legs, wouldn’t it look exactly the same?”

Because in the first playthrough, there were several specimens that evolved into real dragons if certain conditions were met.

Of course, there was a slight possibility that all specimens could be ones capable of evolving into dragons… but honestly, that would be too unbalanced.

Even though I’m not one to talk with all my overpowered stats and skills, if every creature could become a dragon, that wouldn’t be an RPG game but a horror story.

“Hmm, now that you mention it, it does seem like that…”
“…The evidence is too weak to dispatch additional personnel based merely on physical similarities.”
“But monsters that evolve into higher species aren’t unheard of, right?”

Reason 2 why I revealed the true identity of the monster currently just classified as a ‘lizardman’:

“Isn’t it better to be more certain by spending on personnel costs than to regret it later?”
“That’s too much of a hindsight argument. I won’t deny the possibility itself… but still, I wonder if it’s to that extent.”

Because in the first playthrough, an accident that could have been prevented if there had been even one more person to communicate with the dungeon exterior finally occurred, and as a result, both Asha and Tana were in an unstable mental state for quite some time.

I had to do all sorts of things to restore the two greatest forces of the Lunatic Guild back to their original state.

Unfortunately, I realized much later that I just needed to make them choose the option to dispatch additional personnel.

Anyway, in , when the level of monsters changes, the overall level of the dungeon changes as well.

This means that if the dungeon’s monsters suddenly become stronger for some reason, the overall level of the dungeon also rises accordingly.

My intention in enduring Tana’s sharp gaze now was to force her to consider the possibility of this [Dungeon Rampage] event occurring.

The ultimate goal was to make her choose the option to dispatch additional personnel.

Since there was still some time until the final decision date, for now I had to be satisfied with just planting the seed of doubt, but still, this was something.

To make any snowball roll in a desirable direction, it’s important to build up in advance.

“I will… consider it.”

From the point where the word “consider” came out of the mouth of someone known to be the most meticulous person in , it was fair to say that the first button was well-fastened.

Seeing that she hadn’t been so forceful for some time, it seemed that Tana also subconsciously had some suspicions.

Even if that wasn’t the case at all, I had no way of knowing, so for now, I decided to think in the most positive direction possible.

Finally, the notification that the measurement room was empty came about ten minutes later.

Why did Asha’s eyes, which had almost turned into dead eyes while listening to Tana’s admonitions, begin to fill with life?

“Somehow it seems like you’re trying to escape from the office using Ms. Lua as an excuse…”
“T-that’s not true. You’re mistaken, Tana.”

Anyway, somehow, we finally arrived at one of the massive measurement rooms located in the basement of the guild headquarters.

Immediately after, I was semi-forcibly dressed in something incredibly thick and heavy by Asha, who had suddenly disappeared somewhere.

“C-can’t I just not wear protective gear?”
“No, you can’t. What if you get hurt?”

I mean, I fully understand the concern, but… this was a bit too much no matter how you looked at it.

Not only was it heavy, but it was similar in thickness to a medieval knight’s armor, making it literally difficult to walk.

In the end, Tana, unable to stand it anymore, brought a relatively light and thin protective gear separately.

“This is too thin!”
“A C-type measurement won’t even leave a scratch anyway. I think you’re overprotecting someone who has even manifested abnormal abilities.”

After continuing to repeat meaningless arguments, we finally agreed that Tana would enter the measurement room with me.

Only when Tana herself said she would personally intervene if it seemed like I might get hurt even a little did Asha reluctantly agree.

So, at the moment when one of the lowest-grade monsters, a frog-shaped creature, suddenly popped out from across the measurement room.

“What… are you doing now?”

Tana questioned me as I stood still, barely holding a round shield instead of a sword or club.

Right after that, I used the skills that had blocked Ifrit’s attack earlier on the shield I was holding.

[Using You Are the Shield (A) on .]
[Entity name: Lua’s HP stat and regeneration stat have been applied to .]
[Skill: If the Incoming Words Are Bad (P) has been applied to .]

Only then did I walk slowly toward the monster that had been staring blankly at me, and nudge it slightly.

You see, this extremely harmless-looking monster was a counter-attack type, so it would only attack if provoked even slightly like this.

Well, even that attack was essentially just extending its soft tongue to push me a little.

-Ding.

[A total of 2 damage has been accumulated.]
[Cumulative damage: 0 ▶ 2]
[Available damage: 2]

However, the damage inflicted was so ridiculously low compared to what I had expected.

Even if [The Outgoing Words Are Worse] amplified the damage by 2-3 times, it seemed impossible to defeat the monster.

It also seemed like there would be too much of a discrepancy compared to the previous scene where the shield with Ifrit’s attack stored in it had spewed fire almost like a dragon’s breath.

If Asha saw that I couldn’t even defeat such a weak monster, she might send me back to that quiet village.

…After all I went through to get here. That absolutely couldn’t happen.

“Excuse me, Big Sister Tana. Could you hit me?”
“What?” / “What?”

As expected, Asha and Tana’s eyes widened almost simultaneously at my completely unexpected statement.

Almost immediately, Asha’s voice, clearly showing confusion, flowed from the speaker installed on the ceiling of the measurement room.

However, I opened my mouth again to make a more detailed request to Tana.

“Not too hard, just enough to take down that frog monster in one hit.”

I then reminded Tana once more that I was wearing protective gear that wouldn’t even get scratched by most things.

If I had to take Tana’s attack with my bare body, I probably wouldn’t have asked her to hit me.

Right after that, I noticed that Tana’s characteristically insensitive gaze had caught on that I had something in mind.

Separate from Asha’s face turning pale by the second, a trump card was finally pulled out from Tana’s possession.

The card held between her slender fingers cut through the air and stuck into the shield I was holding right after.

-Ding.

[A total of 27 damage has been accumulated.]
[Cumulative damage: 2 ▶ 29]
[Available damage: 29]

“Oh.”

A short exclamation of admiration escaped me involuntarily at the perfectly appropriate damage.

Just to be safe, I stretched out the arm holding the shield to maximize the distance between the shield and my body, and perhaps thanks to that, fortunately, [Ugh Trash] didn’t activate.

Although Asha’s slightly sharpened gaze had been piercing my back since earlier…

I could explain everything to Asha later.

So, ding once more.

[Using The Outgoing Words Are Worse (A) at maximum capacity.]
[Total damage: 87]

A trump card slightly larger than the one Tana had thrown emerged from the shield I was holding and sliced the monster in half.

Almost simultaneously, I raised my head toward Tana with a satisfied expression.

“How about that?”