213 – The Returner Endures (10)

I got into the car and arrived back at the courtesy laboratory.

If there is a difference.

“… “

“… “

The agents and soldiers secretly show signs of being afraid of me. In fact, they are not truly afraid of me, but rather ‘mistakenly’ think they are scared.

Anyway, when I arrived at Professor Kim after being guided, I immediately sat down and declared.

“Areum is now a normal person.”

“… “What do you mean, Shinji?”

Professor Kim is confused. There were many reasons why he was out of breath, but one of them was probably this ‘chill.’ It must be difficult for him to breathe as his muscles keep shutting down. If you are unaware, it will feel like your body has become stiff due to excessive tension. The phenomenon of the body becoming stiff, breathing difficult, and body temperature dropping… You might mistake it for being scared.

Did Hangi originally have this function? It is a type of trapping technique obtained in the process of erasing Areum’s magical powers. I tried it because I thought people wouldn’t feel uncomfortable if I made the muscles naturally harden rather than artificially stopping them, and the result was successful.

Anyway, I got straight to the point.

“Take him and have him examined. “Now there is not a single ‘Zeta’ left in her body.”

“… “Please wait a moment.”

Professor Kim calls someone with his in-ear phone and has him take Areum. When Areum left, it was just the two of us left in the room.

“… Who are you?”

Only then did Professor Kim take a deep breath. At first, I thought his lightheadedness was due to his mood, but now I see that he was holding his breath too much and was suffering from a lack of oxygen.

“… “Who am I?”

Who am I? Junho Kim. Player. Climber. Regressor. There are many words that can describe me, but I have a different identity to share with this person right now.

“I am a person from the future, 50 years from now to be exact.”

“… Yes?

“Professor Kim. No, Professor Yongseung Kim. Thanks to you, Korea is entering an unprecedented heyday… And because of you I perish.”

“Uh, uh… “

How did you know the name? I found it by searching on my iPad. I knew the face and last name, so I searched among famous professors and found it. I assumed that the person in charge of a project like this would not be a stupid person.

“Your ‘Zeta’ research will be successful. Humanity takes a leap forward in search of new resources, and new technologies are discovered one after another. “The fact that I was able to come from the current time zone is all thanks to you Zeta, or rather, finding a way to utilize magical power.”

“… “

“But… Because of this, humanity will perish.”

“Like a nuclear weapon… Did they shoot zeta particles at each other?”

“No. “It was because humanity was too strong when an unspeakable disaster struck.”

This world is a world inside a tower. In other words, it means that the world has already been destroyed by the tower.

“Disaster is… It attacked differently depending on how strong each race was. And thanks to magic, the human race was overvalued more than necessary.”

Maybe… Professor Kim must have succeeded in his research. He did an excellent job of researching ways to utilize magical power, and may have even devised a way to naturally concentrate magical energy. However, it perished without being able to climb all the way up the tower.

I guessed that one of the causes might be this magic power. It is common to see in creative works that the difficulty of the trials changes depending on the strength of each world.

If magic power was discovered after the tower was built, it could end in disaster if it was discovered before then. Of course, this is all just speculation on my part.

“… “This is an incredible story.”

“You still have to believe it. “I’ve been through a lot more than you can imagine.”

When I hold the edge of the wooden table with my fingers, the table cracks and creates a groove in the shape of my finger. Professor Kim looked at my arm closely, but found no traces of any device. The chill that gently radiates from my body adds to the persuasiveness.

“Taking away power from Areum is part of that. “I am here to prepare for the future and to warn you.”

“… Her.”

Professor Kim, who was staring at the cracked wooden table, laughed. Even if it were me, I would be shocked if someone who said they came from the future suddenly started yelling at me while I was working hard on research.

Of course, I had no intention of just smashing it and then running away.

“Take this.”

“… This?”

Four bottles of intermediate potion that I had stored in the subspace created by my fingernails. Two bottles are in a normal state, and two bottles are frozen with a lot of my magic.

“This is a potion. You can think of it as an all-purpose medicine that can even treat cancer. “I stored my magical energy separately in these two.”

“… “Cancer is incurable.”

“So, isn’t it all-powerful? Study this.”

Rather than developing over-technology using magic power, it would be safer to research healing-related technology using potions. If this man was really concerned about the future of humanity and was researching it… This potion will help. I thought about giving the elixir hotly, but honestly, that would be too much.

This… It’s a kind of apology.

I apologize for not being able to find a way to properly resolve a broken situation, and for resolving the conflict with such assertiveness. An apology for not being able to untie the twisted knot and cutting it with a knife. An apology for lying.

“Professor!”

The door suddenly opens.

“Zeta is truly not detected in the test subject’s body. “No agglutination reaction occurs.”

“… “Okay.”

With good timing, one of the researchers returned with Areum, and Professor Kim nodded his head helplessly.

“Really… If the world is really ruined because of me… I should also be responsible… “

“More than that, I have one favor to ask.”

**

The task on the 21st floor was ‘Survive for 7 days.’ This meant that I couldn’t go out for seven days, whether I rolled forward or backward, and I tried to make the most of this wasted time.

“Oppa, I can become a chef later. Lol.”

Areum smiles brightly. I guess I really liked the idea of making pizza myself at a theme park where you can experience jobs.

“Was it fun?

“Yes! Very!”

In the meantime, I took Areum here and there to play. Going to the amusement park again, going to the zoo, going to the movies… I did everything she wanted to do. Where did you get the money? Professor Kim gave it to me.

The past days were quite fun for me too. I felt like I was back to being a child after a long time. I wonder if this will happen later when I have a daughter.

Of course, the good times always come to an end.

“Oppa.”

“Yes.”

“Do I have to go?”

“Yes.”

The remaining time is about 30 minutes. The calculation is correct. In 30 minutes, I will return to reality.

The requirement to survive for 7 days may have been a lifeline for some, but for me, it came as a kind of bondage. If it were a structure like the previous floor where I could choose whether to leave or not, I would stay longer, but… The word ‘survival’ doesn’t seem to allow that.

“…”

I looked at Areum blankly.

I don’t know what will happen to this world after I leave. Will it stop, disappear, or continue forever? Since this is something I cannot observe, I can only imagine.

The world may fall sooner because I blocked magical power research. Conversely, it may last longer. Because this world will end up destroyed anyway and be absorbed into the tower. That’s why it exists in the tower.

If the world falls apart anyway… Everything I did became meaningless.

“… “

The moment I was about to feel depressed, I felt warmth at my fingertips.

“Oppa.”

Areum. I don’t know her very well yet. Even though she has invested a lot of time into him, she is not confident that she is fully acquainted with him. It may be because she intentionally tried not to give affection. Because we have to part ways someday.

“Thank you.”

But if you look at me with both hands on my belly button and bowing straight at 90 degrees… I feel like my hard work was not in vain.

“Thanks to you, I ate a lot of delicious food…” And coming out of that stuffy place… You don’t have to get any strange injections… It’s all thanks to my brother. “The teacher said I should say thank you in times like this.”

“… “

I have already found out where she will be staying. She roughly took the necessary steps. She saved her words to Professor Kim, so at least she won’t live an unhappy life.

“Thank you, too.”

It was not a meaningless time.

I couldn’t think of the right trick, so I crushed it with force, but I piled up lies upon lies… Still, it was not a meaningless time.

I protected the human heart. People were not placed on the scale of efficiency. I kept my faith.

“… Be sure to be happy.”

I wish this world would just stop. So that she can take only her happy memories with her.

“Yes! I’ll be happy! Be sure to be happy too!”

The gears of the clock, which had been running continuously for 7 days, stopped.

-Cleared the 21st floor.

-The ‘Girl’s Cheering’ trait has been acquired.

Again, it was on the first floor.