"Playing" the Heroic King from the Start (Part 1) / "Playing" the Heroic King from the Start (Part 2)

Multiverse: Ragnarok's Beginning - The Hero King's Path Author: Glance

Synopsis:

In Record of Ragnarok, he began as the Hero King through different lives, leaving a profound mark on history.

The gods would decide humanity's destruction or continuation, and he would represent thirteen humans in battle against the gods.

Would the gods judge humanity? Or would humanity judge the gods?

Would humanity march toward its end? Or would the gods head toward twilight?

In High School DxD, he descended as King Solomon, reestablished the Seventy-Two Pillars of Demons, and faced a conspiracy targeting both worlds.

In...

The Hero King at the Beginning (Part One)

Mesopotamia was the ancient Greek name for the land between the two rivers—the Euphrates River and the Tigris River.

Here, the Sumerians had established numerous city-states across the land between the rivers.

And on the right bank of the lower Euphrates River in the south stood a city.

Its name was—Uruk.

Today, nearly everyone from the city's two great governing bodies had gathered in its palace.

Today, a grand banquet would be held: the coronation celebration for the new king.

Though they all appeared to show the new king respect, their eyes still revealed varying degrees of disdain and indifference.

A few influential figures even looked at him with naked contempt.

Though he was king, his power was far from absolute. Royal authority was restricted and checked by the two governing bodies—the Council of Elders and the Citizens' Assembly.

In other words, if the king came into conflict with those two bodies, he would become nothing more than a puppet.

"Hmph!"

A member of the Council of Elders gave a quiet snort, then began eating.

The king had not even delivered a speech, yet the man had started eating first in such an openly disrespectful manner.

That elder had always disliked the king.

Naturally, his actions drew the king's gaze. It was not a sharp look, but one that seemed helpless and resigned.

With that elder taking the lead, the others also took their seats and began the feast.

In most people's eyes, the king before them was nothing to fear. He was only a little over ten years old—what was there to be wary of?

The young king was probably still excited and confused after suddenly ascending the throne. He was just a brat.

"This king offers everyone a toast."

The young king spoke with what seemed to be great boldness. Though most people responded, their attitudes were exceedingly perfunctory.

Then the young king lifted a wine jar and began guzzling from it.

He looked exceptionally bold, as though he did not want others to underestimate him because of his age.

But if one looked closely, one would find that he had not swallowed a single mouthful. It was pure waste.

Of course, no one paid attention to that detail. No one took him seriously.

The banquet continued. Everyone drank with abandon, and some even used their drunkenness as an excuse to say harsh things.

"So this is our king?"

"This won't do at all."

"When I was his age, I had already..."

At that moment, someone noticed that the figure on the throne had actually fallen asleep.

They could not help sneering.

He had only drunk that little and was already unconscious?

What a useless little brat. He should learn from them in the future.

"Hmm? This taste—"

A one-eyed man in his forties who had been wolfing down meat suddenly frowned.

The meat he was chewing had suddenly begun to taste strange. His mouth felt numb and astringent, and he could no longer swallow it.

Then his throat suddenly turned dry and burning, as if it had been roasted over flames. He found it hard to breathe, followed by an intense wave of nausea that made him want to vomit.

He tried to stand, only to find something wrong with his limbs. Pain suddenly erupted through them, growing increasingly intense.

"Ugh, s-save me!"

An incoherent cry escaped his throat, which felt like it was on fire.

His entire body ached as though it were being torn apart. The pain was unbearable.

Then his body collapsed directly onto the floor.

"Bleurgh!"

He vomited.

Those around him did not yet realize anything was wrong. Some even mocked him, asking if he was already done for after drinking so little that he had thrown up.

"What? Usually, you're quite—hmm?"

The voice stopped abruptly, and the speaker's face twisted in shock. The fallen man was foaming at the mouth, his entire body convulsing nonstop while his eyes rolled back.

Was that what normal drunkenness looked like?

Immediately afterward, someone else fell, displaying the same symptoms.

Bang—bang, bang!

The sounds of bodies collapsing and objects being knocked over rang out one after another.

This sight instantly made the faces of those at the banquet who still seemed unaffected change drastically.

"Is this... a curse?"

"Quick, go fetch Lord Anr!"

Lord Anr was the head of the temple, a priest responsible for communicating with the gods. He was a figure of immense status and authority.

It could be said that everyone present could disrespect the young king, but none dared disrespect Lord Anr.

Ordinarily, the head of the temple was also the king of the nation.

But the current king was too young, so the more prestigious Lord Anr temporarily held that position.

Thus, in a sense, Lord Anr was Uruk's true ruler at present.

In the blink of an eye, before Lord Anr could arrive, over half the people at the banquet had already stopped breathing and their hearts had stopped beating.

The terror caused by this situation drove everyone else out of the hall, afraid that they would be the next to be killed by the unknown curse.

At that moment, the slender young king seated upon the throne suddenly stirred.

His complexion was perfectly healthy, as though he had not been afflicted by the curse.

He opened his eyes. After briefly staring at the scene before him in surprise, he yawned.

He was not frightened by what he saw. Instead, he looked as though he had expected it all along.

And indeed, he had expected it, because he himself was the mastermind behind this scene.

The corner of his lips lifted slightly, and he revealed a mocking gaze utterly unfitting for someone his age.

So, had these people truly been cursed?

Not at all. They had merely consumed the processed Realgar powder he had mixed into their food and wine.

Simply put, they had suffered Arsenic poisoning.

Good. He wondered how the system would judge him after this incident.

Current Progress: 65%

Oh? It had only been 55% before, yet it had suddenly risen by 10%?

Within his field of vision, a card emitting specks of golden radiance appeared.

This card, which looked as if it had been petrified, had now been freed of 65% of its petrification.

It was a character card, depicting a golden-haired, red-eyed youth!

He was an unruly king, a king who stood Above and below heaven, I alone am honored.

He was a king who deeply despised the gods!

That was right. The person depicted on it was the Hero King!

It was Gilgamesh, the one who possessed Enkidu.

The Hero King at the Beginning (Part Two)

Hero King Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh, who possessed the Gate of Babylon.

As long as his system's imitation recognition reached 100%, he could completely unseal this card.

Then, he could apply the power of that card to himself.

The result would be that whatever abilities Hero King Gilgamesh possessed in the Type-Moon world, he would naturally obtain those same abilities.

In fact, his current identity was also Gilgamesh. He had merely just become the king of this city-state.

Originally, Bai Yue had been nothing more than an ordinary office worker.

Like everyone else, he lived the same repetitive life every day: work, clock out, go home. He was just a corporate drone.

As for a girlfriend? He could only dream on.

Supporting a real girlfriend was too difficult. He might as well keep a two-dimensional wife.

Then one day, he lay flat—the kind of lying flat where he did not move at all, where his body had already gone cold and been carried straight to the morgue.

On his day off, he had been lying at home watching Fate when his television malfunctioned.

Some unscrupulous manufacturer must have cut corners. Smoke began pouring from the television, and it caught fire.

Well, it seemed to happen right during an incredibly hype scene in the anime, when a character unleashed a powerful move and the screen flashed. He had even thought someone inside was about to blast their way into reality.

Then, when he hurriedly tried to cut off the power, he got electrocuted flat.

When he woke up, he discovered that he had arrived in ancient Sumer more than two thousand years before the Common Era.

He had been reincarnated as Gilgamesh.

He was not too panicked about it. His old life had already been heading nowhere, and since he had grown up in an Orphanage, he did not have many attachments.

So, in a sense, he had transmigrated, right?

Then where were all the cheats that transmigrators in novels were supposed to have? There had to be something, right?

There was: an Imitation System.

As long as he could properly play his current role and receive a 100% evaluation from the system, he could activate the card.

Of course, playing the role well did not necessarily mean repeating the Gilgamesh of legend's life story exactly as people knew it.

As long as his achievements reached a comparable level and later generations gave him a roughly similar evaluation, that would be enough.

Generally speaking, it was safer to follow the course of the legend. The system also provided relevant records.

Otherwise, if he pulled off some wild stunt of his own and caused a butterfly effect that left later generations with no record of him at all, that would mean the imitation had failed. Naturally, he would be unable to become that Hero King.

That was why he constantly watched the imitation recognition progress above. If it suddenly dropped, it meant that what he had just done was wrong.

If the progress increased, it meant his actions were not a problem.