212. I've gotten stronger. Charge!
212. I've gotten stronger. Charge!
In a way, it was a natural outcome.
I should have noticed when my body grew younger after using 'Advent'.
I should have realized when Hestia called me a 'successor'.
Now, seeing my body almost fully returned to its original state, I should have understood.
'...Hestia's blessing is definitely'
one that expands the target's 'vessel'.
Put another way, it was a blessing that steadily absorbed all the things I hadn't been able to digest.
The 'Time of Effort' and 'Time of Enlightenment' I had wrung out of the Ares Guild Master.
And even the 'Power of Cronus' I obtained through the 'Advent' Hestia mentioned.
Now that I had almost completely absorbed that colossal power—so vast it had transformed my body into that of a small child—just how much stronger had I become?
"Really... was that your full power?"
"...You... son of a—gahk!"
Looking at Jupiter collapsed on the ground, gasping for air, I asked again.
Jupiter couldn't even answer and just collapsed again.
'Is this... possible?'
It was possible.
Even if he was a 2nd-loop Protagonist, it wasn't entirely impossible.
The immediate proof was that early in the entrance period, I couldn't do a thing and just got beaten down.
But I, 'this body', was an NTR villain.
An NTR villain who, if he dawdled instead of dealing with things quickly, would have already stolen away all the heroines before anyone knew it.
And to commit such NTR villain acts, one inevitably required 'military force superior to the Protagonist'.
Therefore, inversely speaking, the statement 'He possessed talent superior to the Protagonist'—though it might be a bit of a leap—wasn't entirely baseless.
"Geum Taeyang being stronger than the Protagonist is a cliché among clichés."
These days, cliché-breaking stories were emerging, like Geum Taeyang actually being a pure love guy,
or an absolute being possessing Geum Taeyang and shouting 'Stop discriminating based on appearances!', but the gist was that in this game, Geum Taeyang was a talent monster among talent monsters.
'And'
Based on that theory, I could conclude that my body, 'this body', was a 'talent monster'.
A talent monster who could lightly chew up and swallow someone of the Protagonist's caliber. That was the conclusion.
And if such an insanely 'talent monster' received even a 'blessing' and got a booster for his growth?
"....Huh."
Just how strong had I become right now?
I desperately wanted to check my status window to understand this power that even I couldn't fully grasp.
But because it kept showing 'loading', I was just fruitlessly clacking my bracelet until Hestia, who had been standing beside me, approached.
"So... shall we finish what we were doing?"
"What about the kid?"
Abandon the Protagonist? Abandon the little brother?
Hestia smiled brightly and pointed to Theia, who had been hiding and watching from behind.
"Mom~~~!"
"...Sigh."
Theia emerged from behind the utility pole and forcibly hoisted Jupiter up.
His strength was drained, but he hadn't completely fainted, so Jupiter barely managed to lean on Theia and stand.
"How... I definitely gave it my all...?"
"....Haaaaah."
Theia let out a deep sigh as she took Jupiter away.
Hestia considered that matter resolved and wrapped her arm around my shoulder, clinging to me.
"Alright~ Now that the nuisance is gone."
Where shall we go now?
Hmm? Hmmm?
Hestia blinked her eyes and clung to me so tightly it was almost burdensome.
Beyond those blinking eyes, the motel sign I could see was purely burdensome.
'So Ultimately, things just flow that way, huh.'
Not that I disliked it or anything.
I awkwardly shuffled along, letting Hestia pull me away.
And then
"Wow! I want to play too!"
""......?""
Merk attached herself.
...
..
.
"Mmm... I’m using him first today, you know?"
"But Ter ended up like that so I have free time now, don't I?"
She didn't fall off.
"Ah! Then I should go take care of Ter, right?"
"But his mother went with him, so isn't it fine?"
She absolutely did not fall off.
"Merk? You understand what I'm saying, right?"
Even at Hestia's sharp warning.
"Eung? Playing together is more fun, isn't it?"
Merk shamelessly stepped forward and insisted.
"Or could it be... Chrono, are you cheating right now?"
"....Whoa!"
She even lightly poked at me and shook me up.
Turning the mood around and leading it in an instant was no ordinary skill.
"Merk. The word 'cheating' doesn't suit Chrono."
"What?"
"To begin with, isn't the idea of a harem man cheating a contradiction in terms?"
"Th-that... eh?"
Her opponent was Hestia.
A hikikomori who had lived for centuries.
One who had always watched the lower realm and suffered inwardly alone.
Simply put, she was like a multi-century-old X-geller. And so.
"Think about it. A harem is ultimately a form of love where 'dating multiple women' is permitted, right? As long as that 'harem' is established, don't 'cheating' or 'adultery' cease to be valid?"
"Uuuuh... Then, Hestia, are you Chrono's...?"
"Aha. So you're talking about that?"
Hestia answered with a beaming smile.
"It was my first time wearing a wedding dress, so I was really excited!"
"Eck."
"We finished our first night just like that, too?"
"......."
"Right now, we're on our way for a date!"
"............"
Eyes grinding to a halt.
As Merk slowly turned her eyes toward me, I lightly nodded and answered.
"We didn't register the marriage."
"....Then..?"
"Most of it is true."
"..........."
Hiccup!
A small hiccup.
"Uu, but you filled out all the marriage registration papers!"
"Ma-marriage...?"
Cough! Keup, cough!
Frequent coughing.
Merk tried her best to regain her composure.
"Ah, speaking of which, there's something I forgot to mention to Merk."
"Yes...?"
Hestia said.
"I'm planning to go to a love hotel now, so please don't interrupt us♪"
"───Ah."
What defeated shameless lies
was the purest, unadulterated fact.
*******************
"Hut...!"
It stretched out long.
I twisted it, carefully adjusting the strength.
"Haa... Huuut...!"
Slowly drawing circles as I shook it.
The movements gradually intensified.
Just at the moment it slowly approached the climax...
"Now!"
Click!, Kiiiiiiing!
The crane descended and smacked the doll's head.
Thud. The doll toppled sideways. It scored straight into the empty space beyond below.
"I got it~!"
Hestia picked up the doll that had dropped down and hugged it to her chest.
Seeing Hestia happy over a doll so small it could disappear hidden in two hands, I lightly applauded her.
"It's a 20,000-won doll."
"...It's the value of the memory."
A 20,000-won memory.
It felt both pricey and cheap, but if you called it the memory of one chicken, it sounded somewhat plausible.
Hestia tucked the doll she had just won between her cleavage and showed it to me.
"How is it?"
"...What do you mean, how is it?"
"Jealous?"
"............"
What the hell is this goddess saying.
Hestia pouted and said I was no fun, then took my hand again and moved to another spot.
A zombie FPS game, a racing game, air hockey, darts, whatever.
'I thought we were going to a love hotel until just a moment ago.'
When I opened my eyes, I was headed to the game center.
At first, I wondered what kind of situation this was...
[Kyaaahk♪ Did you want to do it with me that badly?]
"............"
I just decided to shut my mouth.
"Chrono! Let's do this together!"
"Is it whack-a-mole this time?"
Hestia was jumping around again, holding something.
I went over, put in a coin, and picked up a rubber mallet following Hestia's lead.
[Beeeep! Catch the moooooles!!]
"Ah! Over there! Here!"
The game started with a loud racket.
Hestia swung the mallet as if throwing her whole body into it, smashing down on the moles' heads.
Twong! Twong! Kwak! Kwadeuk!
"Eit! Uht... Eeeik!"
At first, she caught them well, but as they popped out faster, Hestia couldn't keep up.
As the sound of the rubber mallet in her hand getting smashed up grew louder than actually catching moles, I stood beside her and started slamming down on the moles' heads too.
Twong... Twong... Twong... Twong...
'...This is unexpectedly.'
Each time I hit a head, I felt a satisfying, sticky impact.
The moles kept disappearing right after being hit and popping up again repeatedly.
Hit, twong. Pop up, beep. I gradually immersed myself in this oddly addictive game, focusing more and more.
Twong! Twong! Twong! Twong!
"This is....."
Twong! Twong! Twong! Twong! Twong! Twong! Twong!
"Getting...!"
The speed gradually increased.
A mole trying to disappear before I could hit it.
I hit it just before it vanished, then struck the next one that popped up again.
Just as the sticky, satisfying impact was starting to turn into a tingling pain.
[Wowaaaa! Caught them all!]
".....Huh?"
The game ended.
The scoreboard flashed at [999] points.
I thought I smelled a faint burning scent, too?
"Chrono...?"
".....Ah."
I realized I, the little shit, had practically pushed Hestia aside to play the game.
I hurriedly put down the rubber mallet and apologized, but Hestia instead raised her voice and clapped.
"Amazing...! I've never seen anyone hit them this fast before!"
"...Really?"
That was a bit surprising even to me.
How did I get such a score when I hadn't used any special ability?
'How should I put it... It felt like I could see everything, right?'
I could see it. I could react.
Gradually, I did feel out of breath, but it never felt like I couldn't keep up at all.
So I struck down with all my might—and the score that came out was none other than [999].
".....Could this really be."
A bizarre feat I could absolutely never do in the past.
But now, suddenly, I could do it?
No matter how you looked at it, it was a suspicious situation. Hestia grabbed my sleeve again and dragged me toward another arcade machine.
"Let's try this next! Pump Pump Revolution μ's!"
"Pump...?"
A rhythm game where you step on the pads with your feet.
If it were the old me, even if I attempted it, it was the kind of machine I could only barely clear by using an ability like slowing time.
—Tudududududududuk!!!
".....???"
I cleared it.
I even cleared the hardest difficulty on Full mode.
'...What is this?'
Reaction speed, power, and so on.
It had improved. Quite excessively so.
As a side note.
"Excuse me. Are you the Protagonist who cleared that dance just now?"
"Uh... yes."
One of the spectators watching from behind approached me.
A person who seemed overall reserved. A woman with striking, bright blonde hair walked up to me.
"Let's get married."
...Huh?
"You don't need to worry about a thing."
No, well.
"I will ensure you live doing nothing but dancing—for the rest of your life!"
".....Um."
So that's why the game machine had Muse (μ's) in its name.