President!
President!
Internally, I apologized to her. To Jo A-young, and to Kim Hye-in.
Honestly speaking, I had no intention of listening to Kim Hye-in's words.
Rewinding one year back to eliminate only the side effects of forced awakening?
And leaving her to live in the pain of the rare disease?
That was not salvation, but mere survival.
Since I was going to do it, I should do it properly.
That was my way.
Exactly 5 years.
Thinking about rewinding 5 years, I firmly resolved myself and took out the ampule from my pocket and injected it into my arm.
And I chanted the incantation internally.
'Rehands.'
Light flowed from my right hand and began to envelop Kim Hyeyoon.
At the same time, I felt something entering my body.
Pain information, damage extent, memories, experiences.
All of that poured in, but...
'...Huh?'
But something was strange.
The information was clearly flooding in, but the pain I felt in my body was strangely disproportionate.
'Surprisingly tolerable?'
It wasn't without sensation.
My chest was throbbing, and there was a throbbing pain.
Also, there was a clear pressure as if all the bones in my body were creaking.
But somehow.
Compared to when I treated Lee Jaehoon and Kim Eun-hyeon one after another, this time it was just a throbbing sensation.
'Is the effect properly taking hold?'
Or perhaps tolerance had developed.
What was clear was that the ampule was blocking the penalty of Rehands.
At this level, I thought I could endure it to the end.
The light was reversing Kim Hyeyoon's body.
The sickly skin began to gain color, and the grotesquely swollen swelling subsided.
One year. And further, two years.
The vitality started to return to Kim Hyeyoon's face.
Three years. Four years. And five years.
Kim Hyeyoon's body shrank, and her face sharpened.
In the appearance of a spirited, clear-eyed girl.
Watching this phenomenon of aging backwards, Kim Hye-in's eyes widened.
She looked back and forth between Kim Hyeyoon and me.
In disbelief.
And the emotions rising on her face were not joy.
A worried expression. And a face full of discontent.
She covered her mouth with both hands and shouted at me with her eyes.
'Why...?!'
I had promised to rewind only one year.
And to remove only the plant-like state.
Why rewind 5 years?
The face as if asking why I am doing this while breaking my promise with her.
Facing her trembling eyes, I smiled.
To reassure her.
It will be okay.
I tried to say that I could endure this much. But.
'...?!'
Suddenly, something indescribably horrible surged from deep within.
Something sloshed inside and began to reflux.
Before long, it came out of my mouth.
"Uweok-!"
The bed blanket and the floor were completely stained with blood.
The blood I vomited splattered on the floor.
Duduk. Dududuk.
'...What is this.'
I was only supposed to feel throbbing in my body.
No great pain.
But why am I vomiting blood?
While thinking it's strange.
Ping-
Suddenly, my vision spun, and I felt my mind going hazy.
"Ugh...!"
The world spun, and a pain as if my head was splitting assaulted me.
Why? Why?
The pain I still felt was not great.
The ampule's effect was working.
But I immediately noticed the contradiction.
'...Just to forget.'
The medicine just makes you forget the pain.
The penalty is not disappearing.
The body was receiving the damage information intact.
The ampule just prevents you from feeling that pain.
The body was being destroyed in real time, collapsing, feeling the threat to life.
And that collapse was being transmitted to the brain.
The nerves say it doesn't hurt, but the body is screaming that it is dying.
The gap in the information that the brain is overloaded with.
The conflict and cognitive dissonance in the brain led to the headache that was about to break.
"Kuhk...! Kulak!"
It was so bad that I thought maybe the pain in the body would be better, but I couldn't breathe with the pain assaulting my brain.
Blood flowed endlessly from the corners of my mouth.
In the constantly twisting vision, what was in front of me was.
"Ah... Aaaaa...!"
I saw Kim Hye-in gripping her head and face with both hands as if she was going to tear it off.
As if she was going to wound her own face.
As if she was going to dig her nails into her skin.
Her mind was breaking with pain.
Not me.
It was unbearable to watch from in front of my eyes.
Her face was already a mess with tears.
After a while.
Kung. Kung!
Soon, she slammed her head against the bed mattress corner and expressed her agony throughout her body.
She sobbed as if her breath was cut off, then raised her head again and looked at me.
She tried to watch me somehow.
She wanted to turn away. She wanted to run away.
But she seemed to want to engrave it clearly in her eyes and watch it.
How much time had passed?
"Uuk...! Kulak, kulak!"
After vomiting blood a couple more times.
Finally, the light began to fade.
With rough breaths, I checked the bed with hazy vision.
There, Kim Hyeyoon lay in the appearance of a girl from 5 years ago, so small that the hospital gown felt loose.
No trace of illness, full of vitality with flushed cheeks.
Watching her chest rise and fall regularly, I thought.
'Success...!'
And.
'...Still can't endure it.'
A meaningless laugh escaped at that thought.
At that moment, my eyelids felt increasingly heavy.
Kwang.
Suddenly, the hospital room door opened, and Jo A-young rushed to me.
Then she urgently hugged the me who was about to fall.
"President-nim...!"
In her arms, I heard her voice choked with tears.
Her face, barely looking up, was full of tears.
She was biting her lip while desperately holding back sobs.
'Is the timing... already arrived?'
Then why didn't she come in immediately?
'I was waiting.'
"Haa..."
With that thought, I exhaled a long breath.
The sensation of strength leaving my body.
"President-nim...! President-nim!"
I saw Kim Hye-in approaching me by crawling around the bed.
Her voice was already cracked.
'Still, I endured this time.'
At that moment of thought.
A system window appeared in front of my eyes.
[Skill acquired.]
[Rank increased.]
'...Huh?'
The messages pouring in one after another.
When those messages entered my vision, a sense of relief I didn't realize I had seeped in, and my tension eased.
That was the end of my memory.
Again... is this it.
The memories continuing like fragments.
"———— —— ——— —— !!!!"
Jo A-young's shout.
A voice filled with emotion far beyond what I could imagine from her usual self.
"—...! —! —,— ———!!"
And Kim Hye-in's voice as if pleading.
Even in that haze, I couldn't hear what they were arguing about.
I couldn't hear the content of their conversation.
Only the feeling of arguing, crying, and despairing came over.
Like a radio from far away.
How much time had passed?
When I opened my eyes, what entered my vision was...
'Ha.'
I swallowed a sigh mixed with irritation.
Again. Again, that ceiling came into view.
When I vomited blood on the day of the inauguration ceremony.
When I treated Jo A-young and recovered.
When I treated Lee Jaehoon and the child and recovered.
The same ceiling that had become familiar to the point of being sick of it.
I had boasted that I had consciousness until just before collapsing.
'...I endured a bit.'
Thinking that this hospital room might even get a name as President-exclusive, I swallowed a meaningless mutter.
Then, as I was about to slowly turn my head.
'Wait... clearly...'
The system messages I had seen before losing consciousness, one after another.
[Skill acquired.]
[Rank increased.]
'Rank had increased, and I acquired skills too...'
If it wasn't a hallucination, I had definitely increased the rank and acquired skills.
I opened the status window to check.
Physical Ability and Mental Strength had increased by 1, and lowering my gaze further down.
[Acquired Skills]
Rehands (Active)
State Domination (Active)
Experience Absorption (Passive)
Regeneration (Passive)
A new skill that I hadn't had before occupied a spot in the skill slots.
And that skill was, ironically, a passive skill.
Regeneration (Passive)
It was Regeneration.
Regeneration (Passive)
I hurriedly checked the detailed information of the skill.
[Skill: Regeneration (Lv. 1)]
The user's body continuously regenerates.
The higher the level, the greater the regeneration power.
'Continuously? What level is the regeneration power?'
Kim Hyeyoon's rank was B-rank.
If I absorbed that rank as is...
At that moment.
"......?!"
Suddenly, someone's face appeared right in front of me.
"Wa, waak!!"
Startled, I let out a scream without realizing.
A face so close that I could feel the breath.
The person blinking her eyes repeatedly while looking at me was none other than Jo A-young.
Her pretty, large pupils seemed to shake.
And soon, tears began to well up in her eyes.
She looked at me with a now furrowed face and said in a trembling voice.
"Why...!"
"...Eh?"
"... ."
But Jo A-young couldn't continue.