The Collapsing Hero
Thud! Thud!
"Ugh, you piece of trash villain...! Enough with that nonsense...! There's no way Smile would end up in the same place as garbage like you!"
...For some reason, it wasn't me—the one Eternox had actually directed his final taunt at—but Ravi who seemed more furious about it.
Setting aside the sight of her kicking the already-dead Eternox's side over and over for the moment...
I stared at the notification window that had suddenly floated up in front of me, its contents looking anything but ordinary no matter how I looked at them.
Completely tuning out the corpse that was now tumbling and rolling underfoot ahead of me, I first had to sort through the countless thoughts racing through my head.
So... what the hell is this even saying...? Stat points? Don't tell me these are the same ones the game gave out every time you cleared a stage, the ones you used to power up hero units...?
...This insane status window had kept quiet about them for fifteen whole years, stockpiling them without a word, only to dump them all on me at once now?
And what was with that ridiculous number...? Had everything I'd done as a hero all this time been accumulating as stat points?
...No. Calm down first and think this through more carefully. Hard Mode or whatever—if it's like the chaos era, I just have to round up more villains, and if the status window is right and they all flock toward Seoul where I am, that actually works out better for me.
Right. The system where "villain" units gained stats every time they took down a "hero" unit wasn't particularly strange for a game.
...Though when it got the reality patch, it seemed to have been recreated in the horrifyingly disgusting form of "cannibalism."
Now, just as the status window and Eternox's warning had said, more villains would be targeting me. If they all came charging at me instead, I could just smash them to pieces as easily as always. After all, no matter what villains tried, it was practically impossible for them to inflict any "damage" on my body.
...So the only thing that really bothers me right now is those stat points. Can I use them on other heroes besides myself, the way you could in the game...?
If that were possible, all the worries I was having right now would be completely meaningless. After all, I could just invest that overwhelming amount of points—well over two million—into Ju Eun-ha, the girl most likely to become my successor, and turn her into the strongest hero. Then I could retire in an instant, and Hard Mode or whatever wouldn't be any of my concern at all, would it?
Even if that weren't the case, as long as those stat points got distributed evenly among other heroes, the average hero's abilities would rise significantly. Either way, for someone like me who just needed to meet the retirement conditions, it wouldn't be a bad deal at all.
...But there's no way things will work out that easily. I don't think that damn status window is going to sit back and watch me retire that quickly.
Besides, if that had been the plan, it wouldn't have said the points would be used "automatically." ...Because that meant the damn status window itself was going to invest those points I'd unknowingly accumulated over fifteen years however it saw fit.
Most likely, those points that seemed to have piled up from my hero activities over the past fifteen years—contrary to my faint hopes—weren't usable on other heroes at all. The highest probability was that they could only be used on me.
So then... all those stat points are going to be invested into me after all...?
...No, honestly, even now it didn't matter how many villains came at me. If I got any stronger here, all it would do was make controlling my strength harder for a while. What was the point of that...?
All unused points have been spent.
The noble achievements you have built up as a Hero will now all take root in your body.
And then—
...That status window, which was always only interested in wringing my heart and turning me into a hero I never wanted to be just to mess with me, did not betray my miserable expectations this time either—
Thump! Thump—!
Guhh...! Wh-what the hell?! M-my body all of a sudden...!
Your Defense stat is already at its maximum. No further investment is possible.
Your Potential stat, which governs maximum level, is already at its maximum. No further investment is possible.
Damn it, what the hell is this...! Ghhhk...!
All 2,897,431 unused points are automatically allocated to the Attack Power stat.
Your Attack Power has reached its maximum value.
...It presented me with an absolutely wretched gift.
"Huh...? Smile, what's wrong all of a sudden...? You look a little pale..."
"Haha, no. Nothing to worry about. It's just that Eternox's last words... stuck with me a bit."
"Ugh, i-it'll be fine...! Everything that trash says is a lie anyway...! Eating people makes abilities 'bloom'? There's no way something like that could be real!"
"...Hahaha! You're right. And even if what he said turned out to be true, any villains who try something that horrific—I'll just round them all up myself."
Thump! Thump—!
"H-huuh, r-right...! Trash like that just needs to get arrested...! B-but still, Smile, don't push yourself too hard alone... Even if that villain's words were true, me and the other heroes won't go down that easily."
...Even though she'd been kicking the dead Eternox's body until just a moment ago and still didn't seem fully calmed down, Ravi stood in front of me with her face flushed apple-red, and I kept talking with her as if nothing were wrong.
All the while, I was reeling from the immeasurable, overwhelming power surging in as my heart pounded—and I broke into a cold sweat, desperately trying to keep this insane strength now rooted in my body under control.
Thump—! Thump!
Ghhhk...! Damn it, if I move my body even a little wrong right now, who knows what kind of disaster will happen...! Somehow, somehow I have to get somewhere completely open, with nothing around...!
No—maybe even that wouldn't be enough.
The instant the notification appeared that the enormous quantity of accumulated points had all been dumped into Attack Power, my body—already unnaturally strong from the start—began to fill with a power so overwhelming it couldn't even be compared to anything I'd felt before.
My Defense had always been literally "infinite," but that simply meant my body was hard enough to ignore any attack. No matter how insane the number was, I never felt any real inconvenience from it. Unfortunately, the Attack Power value that was the cause of my cold sweat now was nothing like that.
...Back when I'd first possessed this body, a slip in strength control might break a doorknob, or kicking off the ground a little too hard to take flight would crack or gouge the floor a bit. This was on a completely different level from that.
...And honestly speaking—the talent this body possessed was exceptional enough that it had let an utterly ordinary civilian from a world without abilities adapt to that absurd strength in less than a month, well enough to handle both hero work and daily life without major trouble. So, just as my uneasy prediction earlier had gone, I'd been quietly assuming that even if those massive points made me stronger, I'd only struggle with strength control for a while... that there wouldn't be any huge problem.
Thump! Thump—!
Ghhhk! Damn it...! This isn't just a little stronger or whatever...! Even if I'm a broken, balance-failed trash-game unit, there should still be some kind of limit...!
...But as infinite, uncontrollable power kept pouring into me like a great dam whose floodgates had burst, I—who had subdued countless villains with carefully measured force and built up experience—finally understood, instinctively, the moment that endless influx of power settled.
If, right now, I put my full strength into it and slammed the ground as hard as I could...
...It wouldn't just be Seoul that was the problem. The vast Earth where humanity lived could be reduced to cosmic dust in a single instant.
If I failed even slightly at controlling my strength from this posture and twisted my body the wrong way—it wouldn't be a broken doorknob or a gouged patch of ground. The surface of the Earth itself would be scraped away, and a scrap of land as small as the Korean Peninsula would vanish without a trace.
Ghhhk...! First, as much as I can, drain every bit of strength from my body...! This body's talent is beyond even the word genius—if I just hang on a little longer like this...! I can adapt enough to at least move...
So, belatedly noticing the cold sweat running down my face—
"Uh...? H-hey, are you really okay...? You're sweating, which isn't like you at all. Did you maybe overdo it in the fight earlier—"
...I left behind Ravi's worried expression as she approached, having sensed something wrong with me.
Hoo... right...! Empty every last bit of power from my body, and think of myself as a speck of dust floating on the wind...!
Thud—!
"Hic! Wh-what...! Wh-why did you suddenly—! H-huh, d-don't tell me?! Did you actually push your body too hard...?!"
Right. I am dust...! Don't do anything. For a while, just stay stuck to the ground like this...!
Blankly watching Ravi, who seemed to have badly misunderstood my actions and was now pouring fat tears from rabbit-red eyes—
...I simply plopped down onto the earth.