The NPC Doesn’t Want to Be Number One on the Server

【The main story is complete; bonus chapters are updating. It's ready to binge!】 【For complete Western fantasy novels, see the author's page: Survival Guide for Another World's Hero and I Became the Sea King's Favorite After Summoning Players. Plenty to read, so dig in!】 Synopsis: When Iris wakes up, it seems the world around him has changed. First, a densely packed health bar appears above his pet's head. Then the objects around him gain strange names and descriptions. Even his body has changed, and his current quest is to kill the wild chicken running amok at the village entrance. 【Ding! Player's white magic affinity is at maximum! Your current class is locked as: Priest!】 Iris, hardcore black-magic loyalist and white-magic-is-for-wimps type: “...Huh?” Is it too late to delete my character and start over? Priests are fragile and have weak attacks. To most full-dive gamers, they're little more than frail healers and buff-bots. And yet, a priest named Iris takes the top spots on every leaderboard. He wields purification in his left hand and forbidden spells in his right, and his kill count on the Abyssal Battlefield is in a league of its own. To uncover the secret behind this impossible player, a reporter from the Oracle Daily has been tailing Iris for three straight days On the first day, he sneaks into a ceremony at the Church of Light and watches Iris receive the Holy Son's staff, adored and revered by the priests. On the second day, he sneaks into the Dark Church to stake out the place, only to see Iris put on the Holy Crown of Thorns and get swarmed by enthusiastic worshippers. Clutching two coronation gift envelopes, the reporter breaks down: “Are you playing both sides?!” Would anyone even believe a news story this ridiculous if he published it?? On the third day, the game's ultimate dungeon, Nightmare Black Tower, opens. Legend says it's a tower even dragons can't fly over, and a demon capable of destroying the world lies sleeping inside. The reporter follows Iris to the dungeon entrance, excitedly raises his camera, and gets ready to document the thrilling clear. But the person he's been following looks straight at him, then waves him over. “You've been following me for ages. Want to come over to my place?” The player, bearing the titles of both major factions, jingles his keys and opens the Black Tower right in front of him. #Can't broadcast this, can't broadcast that# #On the possibility of being a Holy Son for both sides# #Help, if you know this much, won't they kill you to keep you quiet?# #You asked what the dungeon's clear condition is? The boss says to kill 1,000 wild chickens first# 【Before you read:】 【1. Welcome to the world of adventurers!】 【2. The protagonist's world turns into a game; the game characters don't come to life. The natives are influenced by the world's will and accept adventurers, quests, resurrection, and other game mechanics as real.】 【3. The synopsis doesn't represent the entire story. Please leave your brain here before reading, and remember to take it with you when you leave! (Bows) (Cleaning out the recycle bin...)】 Upcoming short story below A two-person adventure, I Picked Up a Hero. See the author's page → Meili is one of the street kids on a prison planet who survives by scavenging trash. One day, she happens to pick up a strange, melodramatic guy. He claims to be a hero, but he's so useless he can't even start a fire. “Right, you're a hero. Of course I believe you.” Meili placates him while prying every last gemstone off the hero's sword. Then one day, right in front of her, he kills the mech dragon guarding the prison with a single strike. “A hero, hic, a hero should draw his sword to rescue a princess,” he sobs between gasps as he wipes his blade. Meili stares at the bare hilt in his hand. “This might be hard to believe, but... I'm actually a princess.” ...Is it too late to put the gems back? Simon is a hero from a fantasy continent. He's just set out from the beginner village when he falls into a completely unfamiliar interstellar world. Luckily, he meets a princess very early on. Though his princess doesn't have a pretty dress, has a terrible temper, and is even poorer than he is! But that's all right. Heroes are supposed to rescue princesses! He wins back the gems his princess lost and reclaims her stolen lands. At last, Simon asks his princess what else she wants. But the princess, dressed in the emperor's robes, holds out her right hand to him as he kneels “Simon.” Even in the end, Simon never figures out whether his princess is calling his name or answering his question. Little scene: Long, long ago, there was an exiled dragon in the world. One day, she found a hero. Hero: “You're so beautiful. You must be a princess in distress, right?” The dragon considers this, then graciously accepts the compliment. And so the greedy dragon raises her own hero. We may not be the heroes of a fairy tale, but you're the only one in my story. CP: A princess who isn't like a princess × a hero who isn't like a hero A two-person coming-of-age adventure, fighting monsters, falling in love, and saving the world along the way. Theme: Strive and work hard