341 – Catastrophe (2)

I already understood the situation. The president revealed my identity, and as a result, more people became dependent on me, and the hero trait was activated excessively. As a result, I am now in a state where I am too strong to handle. I was lying down, but I already understood that much. Since I could see and hear everything, it wasn’t difficult to understand.

I understood why the status window was broken. My soul was broken, so naturally the status window was broken too.

Fortunately, the way the ‘Hero’ trait works is not by inflating the outer perimeter, but by adding on top of it, so I survived. If not, I would have gone bust a long time ago and become a wreck.

“…I didn’t understand.”

Since Jiwon didn’t understand, let me explain further.

The hero trait is a structure that ‘adds’ strength to the soul itself. It’s like putting an Iron Man suit on a person’s body. My soul itself doesn’t become stronger, but rather, it’s adding powerful auxiliary materials.

If it was a way to temporarily amplify the power of my soul, my soul would have been shattered. Just like a balloon that bursts when you put too much water in it. Instead, it’s now a steel balloon that’s been covered with steel.

Anyway, I was more fine than I thought. My soul, which had been wavering, had now stabilized to some extent, and I was now able to block out the senses I had been unable to control at will.

-bang!!!

“Uh… sorry.”

I’ll cancel. I still can’t control it. This force that’s running through my body, I can’t control it at all. Right now, my beloved bed is broken in half. I just put my hand up to get up, but the mattress won’t hold up.

“For now… I’ll just stay still.”

I’m a moving disaster right now. The best thing to do is just sit still in bed.

“But… I don’t feel anything.”

Choi Ji-won touches my body as she speaks.

“If you say you’ve become stronger, shouldn’t you feel something? Something like a tremendous amount of pressure, like a dragon or a celestial horse…”

“That’s… because I’m sloppy.”

The reason the warrior cut off my neck. The reason I could look down on this entire planet, against my will. It’s because I’m weak. What does that mean?

My current body is in an ‘amplified’ state. Not only my physical abilities, but also my magical power has increased to an indescribable degree. And the problem here is the magical power. The ‘momentum’ or ‘pressure’ that Jiwon talks about usually comes from magical power.

Originally, my magical power was quite large, but now it has become something that cannot be described as ‘a lot’. If it was a pond before, it is now across the river and close to the sea. However, the soul that should control that magical power is staying in the pond, so how can the magical power be controlled?

“But this doesn’t disappear just because it’s not controlled.”

It’s not that I can’t control it, or that all my magic power is gone. I’m definitely the owner of that magic power, but I can’t use it. Therefore, my magic power that I lost control of has spread across the Earth, and is still floating around here and there. The reason my senses jumped around is because the magic power is transmitting information, and the reason the hero cut his neck is because I spread the magic power throughout the base. He must have felt like I was picking a fight.

“So are you used to it now?”

“No. I can only endure so much.”

For the past time, I have been silent and focused on ‘holding on’. It was so hard that I felt like I would lose consciousness if I moved, and I had a gut feeling that if I lost consciousness, a disaster would occur. So I held on and held on, and now I can speak normally. Maybe as time goes by, I will be able to go about my daily life. I don’t know about fighting, but at least I will be able to move as I wish.

Well, that’s my body story.

“… I’m angry.”

I’m angry. I’m annoyed. I’m distressed. I don’t enjoy being used and dragged around. Who enjoys that in the first place? I’m deeply, deeply disappointed in the president and Jeter because of this.

Was it just those two? The magic that spread across the Earth injected me with unwanted information. I saw countless people say my name, and I recognized everything they said. It was torture.

“Are you kidding me?”

“Believe what you believe. Would you die if the President of the United States told you to?”

Those who didn’t believe in my abilities were okay, because they weren’t interested in me anyway.

“Wow, you really have the ability to regress?”

“I think I’ll break the top in about a year. That’s fortunate.”

The expectations you place on me are arbitrary.

“That guy Kim Jun-ho is a total idiot.”

“But how many floors is it? If it’s still the 29th floor, isn’t that a bit lazy? Just go up quickly.”

“How many times have I regressed?”

“If you’ve done it a lot, you’re still on the 29th floor. Normally, if you go past the 3rd time, you’re all idiots. Others just clear it, but you do it multiple times on your own. As you know, I cleared the 11th floor this time, right? Without that kind of fraudulent ability. But there’s a regression.”

“Then that regressor is…”

“Either he’s in the early stages of regression, or he’s an idiot. It’s one of the two. But if the president came out, isn’t he an idiot?”

“Wow, as expected, players are different.”

“I know a little bit.”

Words spoken without even knowing. They all hurt.

“Oh my. This guy is going to have a hard life. I’m jealous, I’m jealous. Give me some too.”

“Kim Jun-ho, that guy…”

“Kim Jun-ho…”

“Kim Jun-ho…”

“Kim Jun-ho…”

“Kim Jun-ho…”

Everyone knew me. Everyone was talking about me. It was a feeling that I couldn’t express in words.

Are you not angry? I am angry. The president and Jeter who decided my fate without asking me. The public who are talking without knowing anything. I am angry about everything.

But now I can’t even control my anger.

“Jiwon, I saw a guy while I was lying down.”

A psychopath who was locked in a dark corner of a room and constantly wrote malicious comments about me. His smile, carefully choosing words that were too provocative to even utter. My magic power that spread across the entire Earth sensed his giggles, and I clenched my fists in rage without realizing it.

“Ugh…!”

But the next moment, the guy suddenly collapsed. He was discovered late because he was only in the room, and he was taken to the hospital a little later. He suffered permanent brain damage due to difficulty breathing.

The cause is clear. It’s me. My emotions reacted to the magic, and I almost killed someone. Now I can’t even move as I please. I can’t even feel emotions. If this isn’t hell, then what is?

“First of all… I want to go inside the tower.”

But on the first floor. There, I can wield my power as I please. In the slowed-down time, I’m sure I can adapt to this power.

Next… let’s think about it. What can we do with this power, and what should we do going forward? Should we climb the tower as fast as they want? Or should we do something else?

and…

“…Junho?”

Jiwon tapped me on the shoulder while I was making plans for the future.

“huh?”

“Why don’t you always mention… what you’ve always done?”

I don’t know what she’s talking about as ‘always doing’. What did I always do?

“Regression, regression. Usually when something happens… you make a plan to regress. You first gather as much information as possible from reality… and then you try to regress.”

“ah.”

Yes. That’s been my principle of action so far. When something happens, I concentrate on gathering information, then go back and solve it.

But things are different now.

“By what means?”

The president offered his man when I was already in the tower. It was a long time before Michael Jeter and the president were bickering among themselves.

What’s the point of me coming back now? What should I do? It’s easy to get rid of Michael Jeter and the president. But what will change?

I gave up. There are some things that cannot be changed. Now… I have to adapt. To this twisted reality. To this broken…

“Junho.”

Chin. Choi Ji-won holds my shoulders tightly.

“I don’t care what you think. Instead, let me ask you this one thing.”

Choi Ji-won looks at me with watery eyes.

“Is this… what you wanted?”

“…”

Is this what I wanted?

Not getting stronger step by step. Not working hard consistently. Is it really true that becoming incredibly strong by just becoming known to others, by activating hero traits, is that what I want?

“No way.”

No. This is not the situation I wanted. You may call me selfish. You may ask me, “Does my Hoo matter when the entire human race is going to perish?”

But this… wasn’t the situation I wanted. That much was clear.

“okay?”

Choi Ji-won put her arm around me and hugged me tightly.

“then…”

She just buried her body in my arms.

“Let’s try something.”

Once again, it gave me hope.