I Became a 6★ Gacha Character

Come to think of it, this witch we had to catch embodied everything I hated - flying through the air, avoiding direct confrontation, setting traps with sorcery and potions, and using her human test subjects as decoys.

Setting aside differences in natural ★ ratings and stats, it's always those annoying flies that make life hell for ground-bound tanks like me. Just like in Heroes Chronicle and every major FPS war game where helicopter-flying assholes are universally despised.

While I was dwelling on my hatred for this mad witch, fueled by memories of flying enemies in various games, the interrogation continued.

"So why did you come to the village?"

"To... to bring more people..."

Though calling it an interrogation was generous given how readily he answered, at least we learned what the witch wanted, if not what she was doing.

Attacking merchant caravans headed to the Empire's frontlines wasn't just robbery - it was considered betrayal of humanity, punishable by brutal torture and execution of everyone involved. This was naturally due to the Bretagne incident from Roland's past.

Yet the witch attacked the caravan not for its wealth, but for its supplies - to feed the people she needed. She needed resources to manage the many test subjects required for her experiments.

She quickly disposed of high-ranking individuals who were hard to control, while scattering mid-ranked ones under her sorcery to kidnap civilians. She used the caravan's supplies to feed the captured people while slowly using them one by one as experimental materials-

"They're probably not important experiments."

"What? But she's kidnapping so many people!"

At first glance, it seemed like a mad witch plotting something terrifying might bring calamity to the Empire's east. But after hearing the mercenary's story, Elize chewed her lower lip until it bled before heavily stating:

The mad witch was doing this simply to cure her boredom.

Because that's why her village and master had died too.

"She's not gathering people randomly for some grand ritual... She's just bored and using whatever sorcery she feels like. Just look at the curse on these mercenaries."

"What do you mean?"

"A witch capable of subduing fifteen superhuman high-rankers used a curse that breaks from a shepherd's staff blow? ...She probably cast it carelessly out of boredom."

Was this supposed to be good news?

The party was shocked to hear she was killing hundreds just for entertainment rather than some evil plot. Particularly after hearing about the attack on a caravan bound for the margrave territories, a hazy aura began rising around Jacob.

His anger had manifested as visible killing intent, weighing down the air around him. Even standing still, his muscles trembled and veins bulged as he growled like an enraged beast.

"...Brother, you alright?"

"...Yeah."

His gaze, along with everyone else's, was fixed on my face.

Their seemingly excessive anger made sense - Jacob was also a victim of the Bretagne incident. As an adventurer who'd stayed in Bretagne clearing monster waves with Roland, he must have lost all his companions and acquaintances when it fell.

Though he'd mentioned keeping in touch with some people who weren't in Bretagne... that was probably just due to Jacob's naturally sociable personality giving him many connections.

Yet despite leaking killing intent, Jacob was worried about Roland Bretagne's feelings. While grieving for dead friends was natural, that grief couldn't compare to losing one's parents and everyone they knew.

'Oh goddess damn it.'

If only I actually had Roland's memories.

As the mood grew heavy and difficult to break, I wracked my brain. Of course, my simple-minded tank brain developed over 11 years of adventuring couldn't find the right answer, but I could probably muddle through.

"It doesn't matter. That's ancient history."

"If you say so, brother. Still, I want to beat that witch to a pulp."

"Well, the request is to kill her anyway."

"Jacob, your killing intent. You'll kill the mercenaries before we even hear about the witch."

"Ah, oops."

When I spoke briefly to indicate I was fine, Jacob clenched his fists. His boulder-like fists twitched as if already imagining how to crush the witch.

The problem wasn't his twitching muscles and bulging veins, but the killing intent pouring off him. Seeing the mercenaries slowly suffocating as if from gas, I hurriedly stopped him. If Jacob accidentally killed them, we'd lose our quest leads.

Why wasn't Han Se-ah stopping this--

"Urgh... what is this? A killing intent debuff? My whole body's tingling and itchy... is this Jacob's passive...?"

You got hit too, huh.

※

While a hangover debuff made the screen waver, Han Se-ah learned firsthand that a killing intent debuff made your whole body tingle and itch like blood flow returning to a limb.

"I-I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine. Bad memories can do that."

-Why's she suddenly being so polite and formal?

-After milking 150k won in donations she should be bowing in thanks lol

-As expected of the global whale expert, smoothly changing her attitude ㅋㅋ

-I want to get tickled and earn 2.04 million won per hour too

-170k didn't seem like much for Han Se-ah's level but calculating the hourly rate makes it insane

She didn't seem particularly upset, having received plenty of donations along with mockery in exchange for writhing like a squid on a grill alongside the mercenaries who were nearly foaming at the mouth. Who wouldn't be happy earning 170,000 won for about 5 minutes of tingling?

Having tasted the killing intent debuff and collected hefty donations while capturing the chattering viewers' attention, Han Se-ah continued interrogating the mercenary through Elize after calming Jacob and positioning Grace and Irene beside me to milk more donations.

They were seriously having donation battles over whether Irene or Katie should be next to me? How committed were they to their "mama squad" and "kid squad" concepts?

"So where is this witch? Since you walked here, she must be nearby."

"I'm not sure exactly... Not that I don't want to tell you! The sorcery, it threw us around so I'm not sure!"

"This sorcery that moves people, what exactly is it?"

"Well, every time we cross a hill we fly to some strange place. They said we could return if we caught people... This, this is my first time! I've never kidnapped anyone before so I don't know exactly how to get back."

As I pretended to compose myself while watching the chat and leaning against Irene who gently stroked my arm, the mercenary's testimony continued. Given how quickly he'd spoken up, he didn't seem evil enough to be used to robbery.

Thinking about it, experienced bandits would have walked in normally along the road to scout the village's defenses. He was probably planning to kidnap a couple people while not in his right mind due to the witch's threats.

I'd thought he was a mercenary-turned-bandit, but he seemed more like a porter pretending to be a mercenary. No wonder he surrendered without drawing his weapon when one of the five just got deeply cut rather than losing a leg entirely - he clearly wasn't used to combat.

"You move to different places each time you cross a hill? Did the witch give you anything?"

"Something? I'm not sure... I passed out and when I woke up she was cackling about putting a curse on my head before throwing us away."

"Take everything out. Except your underwear."

"Should I strip too?"

"I said except underwear, didn't I? How else can we check if something's carved inside your armor?"

While I silently watched Han Se-ah's broadcast and Elize's interrogation alternately, the poor mercenary suddenly found himself doing a late-night strip show.

Still, he seemed to think stripping was better than getting his limbs cut off or his skull cracked by Jacob's massive fists, as he quickly removed his armor at Elize's irritated urging. Starting with his clattering belt, he hastily stripped off his cheap armor.

Not wanting to look at the nearly naked man, I lowered my eyes to the equipment scattered on the ground and immediately spotted something suspicious. Something that made my eyes go wide, along with Elize's and those of Grace and Irene standing silently beside me.

"This is definitely blood, right?"

"Wow, they're really giving us obvious hints."

Inside the back of the armor was a head-sized drawing that you'd have to be blind to miss.

Especially since it was made of foul-smelling dark red bloodstains.

No wonder we couldn't smell it earlier with how medieval mercenaries naturally stink.

Enjoy the chappy!