Chapter 36
Chapter 36
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Chapter 4 Eyelids (9)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
**
What a relief. It felt like finally facing something I'd been ignoring for so long, stubbornly turning my head away from. It was terribly sad, still repulsive, but in the end, that was me.
This is how I live. Laugh harder when I'm sad, shout even louder and more boisterously when it hurts. Until I die, finally able to confess my sins before those two.
To get there, I have to live today with all I've got.
Having fully regained control of his body, the Professor first checked his status window.
==========
Name: Professor
+ Race: [Human]
+ Gender: [Male]
+ Age: [Growth Stage (20 years old)]
+ Appearance: [Hulking / Muscular / Pale / Rough / Infected Human]
+ Starting Point: [World 3 / Lordric North]
+ Origin: [Bastard Son of a Fallen Knight Family]
+ Job: Mage's Test Subject
# Warning: 'Mutation Blood' infection rate 97% (delayed by unknown force)
+ Skills: Basic First Aid (12%), Water Mana Affinity (95%)
- Traits
1. [Curiosity] - Your interest in the new world you encounter surges wildly. This positively affects your skill growth speed.
2. [Mana Aptitude] - You sense an unknown energy. You receive positive effects on growth related to mana.
3. [Sparkling Gaze] - You see the world a little more beautifully. You gain additional bonuses in activities related to art.
4. [Extreme Regeneration] (Glass Body + Mutation Blood Regeneration Boost + Mutation Blood Epidermal Boost): Durability fixed at 120 / Natural recovery increased by 5200% / In crises, consume blood to multiply regeneration x4 / Failure to replenish blood depleted by excessive regeneration leads to death.
5. [Honorable Soul] - You inherited your father's spirit. In certain situations, options are fixed to the `Honor` choice.
6. ★[Overcome Mental Fragility] - You confronted your trauma and successfully accepted it. The eyes that once feared the world now scan it boldly, and the mind that isolated itself strongly resists external intrusions. / Provides effects of 'Sensitive Observation' and 'Steel Will'.
7. ??? - Out of data / Out of data / Something is with you.
+ Realistic Mode ON
==========
A lot had changed.
The infection rate had maxed out as high as it could go, and the natural recovery of Extreme Regeneration had increased even further.
'An unknown force... that guy, huh?'
After I fully regained consciousness, he vanished somewhere again. He's probably watching over me from some corner of my mind. He said he'd suppress the infection factors as much as possible, so that must be it. The loss of infection traits like [Mother's Call] was probably his doing too. He said himself he'd been freed from his mother and all that.
'Basic First Aid... must've come from all that emergency treatment before. Everything's good. All good, but...'
★[Overcome Mental Fragility]
What the hell is this?
Is this game really just a simple game? Does it perfectly replicate people inside it, have in-game entities poke at a person's trauma, and record overcoming it in the game system?
'What the... what was Gedroits thinking when he made this game?'
No idea. But it was clear this wasn't a game made just to laugh and have fun.
'...Think about it later. The crisis isn't fully over yet.'
I'd eliminated the mental danger, but the situation hadn't changed much. The plain infection factors—not from that guy—were steadily creeping through my body, and mutants were still prowling outside.
'From the sounds, they seem to be gone near the Mandalius estate. Oh, right, I left the stream on. Maybe someone saw something while I was messing around with that guy?'
Without thinking, the Professor opened the Zone 47 chat room.
- Landrad Lord: So, using a pump is way more power-efficient than a purifier, got it?
- Footprint Expert: Where's water gonna come from, just digging the ground? You know how much groundwater's contaminated? Why not just mix cesium in water to make it soda like some psycho gang?
- Pom Pom Kodo: Ooh, sounds tasty.
- Oswald: Hehe! Posting some naughty memes!
- Soy Sauce Gaybar: Wh-what is this?
- Speed Wagon: Wrong room for that.
- Deer Drug Please: Oh my, what a treasure. I'll put it to good use~
- DOOMgay: Oh, Professor's awake.
- NEET: For real. He's moving now? He was screaming and freaking out alone earlier, he okay?
Wah-wah! Wiggle-wiggle!
"Wh-what the hell is this..."
The chat scrolled so fast he couldn't track it with his eyes. Weird? He'd shrunk the screen to a corner because of all the gore, and even added a warning pop-up.
The viewer count had exploded ridiculously.
- Soy Sauce Gaybar: Yaaa! Professor! Manage your stream!!! Quit the game and work!
- Take a Look: Ooh, status window's up. He's bulked up a lot since the first time we saw him?
- Deer Drug Please: Back then he needed national welfare. Head-to-toe infected, how's he controlling it? Mutation traits are showing, he's basically full mutant now.
- Speed Wagon: Traits changed a bit? What's with the star one.
- Number Three: First time seeing it.
- Jokasss: Me too.
"No no, what happened all of a sudden? Why are there so many people?"
- Speed Wagon: Why? Your playstyle's so unique, word spread.
- Jokasss: Starts the game, gets smashed by a white sonic, flies around like a bowling pin, wakes up to mages grinning and using him as an infinite blood bank. No hardcore play like that in GG history.
- Soy Sauce Gaybar: Why'd everyone think they wouldn't watch something this fun? I spread the word a bit, and boom, crowds!
Yeah, my bad. Thinking about it, wasteland folks wouldn't be fazed by this level of gore.
- Jokasss: Anyway, what'd he do to get that weird trait? Overcome? First time seeing a prefix like that.
"I'll explain that later when I have time. Anyone see where the mutants outside went while I was freaking out in here?"
- Highway Nacho Man: I saw. They came and went around you a bunch, then just left like they didn't see you. Been quiet since.
As expected. They searched inside and left.
- Speed Wagon: But how you gonna handle the infection? Mutant blood has freshness, right? Once infection factors die inside, suppression's gone.
"Yeah, gotta solve that first."
Sort out complicated thoughts later. Handle the urgent stuff now.
The Professor recalled observing himself over the past few days. Delay through wounds. Infection doesn't progress while factors focus on regeneration. And broad slashes or tears delayed it more than a whole leg amputation.
'A severed leg takes longer to regrow, but instantly, it's just regenerating the cut surface—not that wide an area.
That's when it hit him: a way to cure this incurable infection.
'Remodel this body completely.'
The Professor picked up rock shards from the wall smashed by mutants, smiling. If it works, no more struggling with low combat power.
***
Clunk, clunk!
- Take a Look: Uh, um... Professor?
"Tw-twenty... three! What!"
- Take a Look: Sorry to ask while you're busy, but... what are you doing right now?
The Professor cautiously scanned the underground lab wing, confirmed no mutants left, and returned to his original room. In his hands: iron bars broken when mutants forced their way in, and rope found nearby.
"What else! Exercise!"
Right. He'd tied brick shards to iron bars to make a barbell and was doing weighted squats.
"Infection factors! Use power to repair wound areas, more area means more power used!"
While pondering how to maximize wound area, he'd realized he didn't need external wounds.
"Muscle growth is simple. Overload beyond fiber limits, fibers break. Regenerating fibers become tougher, stringier muscles."
Hwoooo!
With trembling legs, the Professor lifted once more, explaining.
Key point: exercise overload destroys muscle fibers at the cellular level.
'And push even harder, muscles necrotize.'
That's why humans have limits on muscle gain from training over time.
"But my body, as you know, regeneration is! Ins...ane...!"
Crash!
"Huff, huff! Ins...a...ne..."
Broad but shallow wounds. Stop exercising briefly, they heal in seconds.
- Speed Wagon: Hold up. Even so, muscle growth like that has limits, right? More muscle means needing even bigger loads...
"Heh heh, you thought of it midway too?"
Trait, [Extreme Regeneration]. Glass Body fused with others keeps durability at 120 no matter what.
"Sure, more muscle volume means more load needed, so up the exercise load. But what takes others dozens of days to achieve in fiber destruction, I can do in one day.
Felt it using Glass Body a lot: not just low durability. This body really is like glass.
'Extremely fragile to impacts, but holds up way better than normal to pushing or pulling forces.'
Sometimes shattering, sometimes holding fine—probably why. Skin like thin glass wrapping the body, muscles and bones like thick glass. So lifting heavy stuff doesn't rip arms off.
'Feels just like a game in that way.'
"And as strength keeps growing like that, eventually physical vitality will surpass infection factors."
Mana-filled bodies or extremely trained physiques resist infection factors easily.
Pump strength like this, and soon infection factors won't stand a chance—best body ever. That was the plan. Pure hypothesis. But a highly plausible one.
'Of course, tons of things to consider in the process...'
First, mutant blood for regeneration. 5200% natural recovery means 52x faster than normal. Scrapes, shallow cuts, soreness gone in a day. But necrotized muscles making arms immobile? Takes time. To shorten it, need mutant blood.
'Regrowing limbs didn't scale arithmetically, but difference between bathtub and out was clear.'
Can't forget my time limit. Grow fast, escape, make money.
Still, having a solution is key.
- Soy Sauce Gaybar: ...Genius?
- Speed Wagon: Nah, in-game strength training to boost strength stats isn't rare...
- Deer Drug Please: Strength copies over!
- Beluga Guy: Cheat! Cheat!
"Not quite a cheat. Still just slightly tougher glass body."
Other characters would've grown fast and sliced black mages by now. I'm just starting at the line.
Crack! Creak!
"Grraaah! Uwaaaah!"
'Biggest downside... feeling the pain of infection factors burrowing during regeneration!'
Pain like muscle soreness amplified 500x races through convulsing thighs.
Endure seconds writhing on the floor, unable to even scream, then strength returns.
Clunk!
"One...!"
And repeat.
"Just you wait... Lead Flow School... Isaac Mandalius... New drug experiments always cost a fortune, right? I've been your lab rat for hundreds of doses, so when I get out, I'll collect every penny... heh heh heh..."
Days to debt repayment: 15. Real time: 3 days.
The Professor was truly turning into a monster.
***