Chapter 30
Chapter 30
4. The Savior Who Ended the Cold Wave -6
I gave Sergios a courteous welcome.
"You're here."
"You've got some nerve."
Pride gets you nowhere.
I'd learned that massive lesson through my body in the cutthroat entertainment industry. How many people had gotten their wings torn off and crashed after puffing themselves up in front of senior artists or industry figures?
But people are still people, so even when you know it's better to toss your pride aside—your heart doesn't cooperate. Bowing your head to someone you don't like is inevitably stressful.
So I'd come up with one method. A way to bend at a ninety-degree angle and still feel less stress. That method was, simply, looking at the long game.
Sleeping on brushwood and tasting gall.
If I could just pay it all back someday, then all this humiliation becomes nothing more than an intermediate step. So this isn't surrender or submission. It's like Cao Cao hiding his treasured sword and plotting to assassinate Dong Zhuo... it's righteous resolve.
I explained myself as earnestly as I could to Sergios, whose expression said, "Let's see how far you'll clown around." Sure, I'd basically flipped him off and bolted at the end, but depending on how you package it, the vibe can be pretty different, can't it?
"As I said, last time was a joke. We'd gotten close, so I just tossed it out lightly—"
"Are you referring to the part about dropping the act and living, or the part about it being filthy to be together and never wanting to see each other again? Well, since you've come asking me for help, the part that was a joke must be the latter."
"Ha, hahaha..."
The spear guy remembered what I'd said word for word even after all this time. What a petty bastard. Had he been chewing on it this whole time?
Just as a flicker of guilt was rising—
Remembering the shit this guy had pulled brought some of the fury right back. The fact remained that this bastard hadn't said a single word of apology for hurling a javelin at me in the Tutorial.
I forced an awkward, crooked smile as I suppressed my irritation and said,
"Now, can we move on to business, Sergios? Let's start forgetting the past..."
"Your eyes are insolent. If you're going to apologize, shouldn't there be genuine remorse welling up from within? Noah Won. How regrettable."
No!
"⋯⋯Well! Think back to our first meeting. Don't you remember hurling a Whirlwind Thrust at me out of nowhere? Who exactly made things regrettable first?"
"Heh."
I was bowing now because I was the one in need, but if you actually tallied it up, the spear guy was the one who'd thrown the first punch, and if you counted me saying one nasty thing, then we'd each given and taken one, hadn't we?
And even if he was going to nitpick, he should do it after settling his own accounts. If he left out what he'd done and argued, my temper was bound to flare—
"Yes, that's it."
"What is?"
"A hero ought to be arrogant and insolent. Rather than crawl along the ground while watching how others look at you, it's better to stare straight into the sun and go blind."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
I let out a hollow laugh as I looked at Sergios, who seemed to have cheered up a bit. This spear guy apparently wanted others to act exactly as lacking in social graces as he did.
You could call it fair and square, in a sense.
I'll smoke while walking, so you smoke too. That's a bit much. Endorsing that made me feel like my character would sink to Sergios's level, so it didn't exactly sit well with me.
Sergios paid not the slightest attention to my sour expression and said,
"I do not lie. Nor do I go back on my words."
"And?"
"Recall. When you hurled abuse at me, I generously said that from then on, I would forgive you for dropping formal speech."
So basically, let's call it even and move on.
Being told to go back to formal speech after using casual speech would be one thing, but the reverse is easy. If he wanted it, there was no reason to hesitate. I nodded readily, straightened my face, and said,
"Sure thing, you bastard."
"...At least include a modicum of respect."
Sergios seemed a bit taken aback.
Landed a small hit.
I lined up the people of Camp Ace and introduced Sergios.
"This is Sergios, a hunter with tremendous skill and experience. Today, he'll be looking after all of you."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
Sergios had been grinding in the System longer than I had. Given his personality, he'd probably mostly played solo, but that didn't mean he'd lived with his eyes and ears shut.
He'd be able to objectively assess Sohye's world and Camp Ace's situation. I wanted to ask him for a kind of evaluation.
I'd worked Sohye hard, worked Sojin hard, and worked the soldiers Camp Ace managed hard too. Naturally, I hadn't been able to grow them as much as Seoul's battle-worn hunters, but I took pride in the fact that comparing before and after training showed a significant difference.
What do you think, Sergios? Aren't these fine warriors at this level?
At that, the spear guy looked at me with eyes like an animal lover looking at a merchant selling chicks at the market.
"What are these civilians? I don't understand what you're asking of me."
"...? No, I mean, I'm asking you to inspect their training state in preparation for the anti-plant battle..."
"Noah Won. Not content with conscripting these civilians, are you seriously planning to send them to the monster front lines? Yes, there have occasionally been heroes who used such inhuman methods. I don't like it, but I'll respect it."
Why is this bastard suddenly making me out to be garbage?
Sure, thinking back, this guy had been rude in word and deed but had been quite kind to the villagers. He'd even stepped forward readily to save Eve.
But this case was different.
Those people had been barely scraping by farming. The Camp Ace people I'd trained were active-duty soldiers, plus Sohye, who'd been recognized by the System, and the talented Sojin.
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
The faces of the lined-up soldiers and Sojin crumpled.
The vocabulary Sergios used was unfamiliar to them, so they probably hadn't fully grasped what he meant. But nuance is nuance.
They'd surely felt enough to know the spear guy was looking down on them considerably. I defended them. You shouldn't disparage other people's efforts.
"Sergios. These are people who can fight back and have the will to fight. Don't tear down their resolve like that."
"It's not resolve, it's arrogance. Even if they struggle, could they break the sky? No, even dedicating their whole lives, they'd be lucky to topple a single tree with their bare hands."
"...What are you talking about?"
"Those who are not heroes should all lay down their swords and shields and farm. That is what's right."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯!!"
The crowd began to stir at the spear guy's appalling farming doctrine.
Was this bastard doing this on purpose because I'd crossed the line earlier?
...No, it didn't seem like it. He genuinely thought that way. Just as he'd tried to weed everyone out in the tutorial and teach only me, he believed everyone except the few with promise should just increase their productivity.
"...I get the gist of what you mean."
In the old days, when individual martial power had limits, that would've sounded like delusion, but now that a single person could summon wind and rain, it was worth serious consideration. But.
Whether right or wrong, that solo strategy came with a fatal weakness. Put all your eggs in one basket, and when it tips over, you crash straight down and lose everything.
If the 'hero' dies, are those called civilians just supposed to drop their hands and die?
And another thing. That logic was self-contradictory from the start.
"You've seen high-ranking hunters in the System too. You know more than I do. So you'd know they're practically godlike beings."
"I do."
"Compared to gods, you're no different from a farmer. So why don't you leave it to them? Just pray that those great seniors take care of the plant bastards on their own."
"Because there's no guarantee those gods will move in the direction I want. And because I too will rise to such a position someday."
That right there.
"Same for us. Whether it's you, me, or anyone else. The world never moves the way I want it to, so we have no choice but to carve our own way through. So it's not arrogance, it's resolve. Take back what you said."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
The furrow pressed into Sergios's brow deepened.
I tensed, wondering if the spear guy might draw his spear, but Sergios silently turned his back and walked over to the soldiers. And then.
"If you intend to become heroes rather than civilians, you'll have to climb countless mountains of proof. Noah Won must have taught you basic Magic Power operation. Show me. I'll see whether you can prove it."
"Y-yes, sir!"
Passing by each one, he began fixing their shortcomings with uncanny precision. Silently, at that.
Watching that, Sojin crept over and quietly asked me,
"Noah, what is that person's deal?"
Right?
...I really couldn't get a read on that guy. The fact that he was checking their training while brushing it off suggested he'd understood my words and accepted them in his own way.
But for someone capable of that kind of reflection, the framework of his thinking was flimsy. If you asked whether my rebuttal was truly irrefutable logic, it wasn't exactly that either.
It was like... yeah, like watching someone who'd read a single book thousands of times.
Maybe Sergios actually didn't understand the word 'hero' that he always had on his lips, not really.
"Follow me into the forest, Noah Won. I'll see whether your training has been done properly."
"Into the forest?"
Still, well.
If you confronted him head-on and he thought you had a point, he accepted it. This spear guy.
Is he more magnanimous than I thought...?
Magnanimous my ass.
"Your training in 『Quick Flash』 is still lacking, so despite my warning, you went around using only that wind-handling skill. Swing. Don't stop until your arm muscles tear."
"How am I supposed to know when they'll tear and swing until right before that?"
"If they tear, that would be regrettable. But since you can't properly control your body due to the curse anyway, losing the use of one arm wouldn't change much."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
...No matter how I thought about it, this felt like he was venting leftover resentment from earlier.
"...Are you angry?"
"I am not swayed by such petty emotions. I have already forgiven you for publicly insulting me. But you seem to hold onto the past. Seeing as you're still dragging around the tutorial incident."
You ARE angry, you petty bastard!
Whether he intended to work out the grudge from being scratched by facts, Sergios worked me over like he was catching a rat. Of course, I understood, since I'd gone around spamming 『Azure Wind Wanderer』 despite hearing the advice that using skills was bad.
But there hadn't been a choice. If I hadn't brought down torrential rain, how would I have dealt with the Hunter Alliance assassin, and how would I have lured the zombie horde?
But brutal training was still brutal training.
"Your angle is off."
"This?"
"Lay the edge a bit flatter and try again."
"Ah, like this."
The efficiency was no joke. Things that would've taken dozens of thrusts to realize and fix, I could correct immediately thanks to Sergios's coaching.
And... I got it.
Once my proficiency in 『Quick Flash』 passed a certain threshold, a strange intuition brushed against my instincts.
Sergios had explained that if you trained a martial art to the extreme and achieved mastery, you could deceive the System and register it as a 『Skill』. Back then I'd just thought, "Is that so," and moved on.
What even was a 『Skill』 in the first place?
Fragments of worlds, curses, bestowed gifts—there were plenty of add-on explanations, and I had no clue what they really were... but ultimately, interpreting it through practicality, a skill to me was 『something downloadable』.
Then what did I need to do to turn a martial art into a skill? I'd formed my own hypothesis on that.
First, to download something—wouldn't it need to be uploaded?
Gravitational pull.
I felt a subtle pull flowing along my arm from the tips of my fingers holding the dagger.
Only I, with the 『Download -2』 ability, could perceive this strange sensation. It was hard to explain, but I carefully pushed and pulled. I pulled so that this force's direction faced toward me, and pushed so that its hierarchy faced upward.
The feeling of standing on tiptoe to place a ball on a high cabinet just barely out of reach.
There was a click, a sensation of something locking into place. And then.
Ding!
Skill List
└ Unidentified Skill 1 (F) : B07#@R2e8
-> Download Slot 1 :
-> Download Slot 2 :
Storage List : 『A01#@47Eb』, 『Flame Goat Gauntlet : Flame Emission』
(Re-evaluation required due to an error of unknown cause)
└ Azure Wind Wanderer (D / B)
Progress : 20% (2-star / growth restricted)
'The System's significance lies in wandering the wide world, so roam various worlds and feed it various rains and clouds. Then you shall be able to command wind and rain.'
(Additionally, progress can be increased by consuming Credits)
└ Quick Flash (D)
Progress : 81%
The skill had been registered in the Status Window.
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
Somehow, I felt like I could take another step forward. This formless martial art—this concept that was nothing more than a sequence of movements—existed scattered throughout my entire body.
But if I gathered it all and compressed it into a single point...
Rrrrrrrr-
Quick Flash, forcibly compressed by 『Download -2』, took the shape of a small sphere and settled in my lower abdomen. And with that, I understood not only the various applications of Quick Flash but also that I could emit this skill from any part of my body.
It felt like enlightenment was being forcibly crammed into my head.
Then the Status Window transformed once more.
Ding!
└ Quick-Flash Inner Core (快閃內丹) (D/??)
Progress : 100%
Good. Up to here.
"Haaaa..."
Inhale.
Shwack──!!
Quick Flash erupted from my hand, slicing through even the wind as it shot out, then was retrieved in an instant. Even to my own eyes, it was a nearly flawless motion.
Looking at the System's percentage change, my understanding of this martial art had leaped by a whopping 20% in an instant.
I didn't know why this phenomenon occurred, but the sense of perceiving 『Skills』 I'd gained while using 『Download -2』... seemed to have granted me the power to skip the latter stages of training.
Sergios asked, his voice carrying suppressed surprise.
"You... what did you just do?"
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
I kept my expression as blank as possible and organized my thoughts.
Right, from his perspective it would look strange. If a trainee who'd been dancing slightly off-beat suddenly performed a perfect dance, wouldn't it feel jarring?
Wait.
Then this situation, from the spear guy's point of view...
Thwack!
Sergios placed his hand on his own forehead with an audible sound and lamented.
"So you deliberately slacked off and pretended not to train, then suddenly revealed your skill? What is this farce, Noah Won? Did you want to be called a genius?"
Huh?
"...N-no."
"How embarrassing and cringeworthy. You're well past twenty..."
"N-no! I used my ability to—!"
"Enough. But don't do that in front of me from now on. Go do it in front of those women who chase after your tail. Don't expect praise from me. Tsk."
Oh, for fuck's sake. No!
Overcome by shame surging all the way to the top of my head, I tried to explain my 『Download -2』 ability and its derivatives, but this spear bastard wouldn't hear me out to the end.
Since I didn't know how far I could ally with the spear guy, keeping my ability tightly hidden was the wise call. That was why I hadn't given Sohye a detailed explanation either. But still. Fuck.
This was clearly a major discovery.
Why did my chest feel so cold...?
That day, despite discovering an application of 『Download -2』, I had to spend the whole day feeling gloomy.
The expedition to prevent the miraculous crossover of the zombification curse and the plant bastards was decided to be undertaken by just Sergios and me.
Because Sergios judged that Sohye's skills hadn't ripened enough to bring her along. My judgment was the same. She needed to build her fundamentals a bit more.
"P-please come back safely, Noah! If it gets dangerous, you can just come back⋯⋯!!"
"Keep working hard, Sohye. Don't worry about me, I'll come back in one piece."
I smiled and waved to Sohye and the others who'd come out to the entrance to see us off. The action came out naturally, ingrained in my body from occupational habit. Angles and movements calculated for how they'd look on camera.
Seeing that, Sergios scowled like he'd spotted a cockroach and said,
"Stop showing off."
"I'm not!"
Fuming, I set out to catch and deal with the master of the 『Corpse-Plague Curse』.