Be Happy
Be happy.
Kim Seojun.
The protagonist of Gate Apocalypse, and the powerhouse who would eventually become the world's number-one hunter.
From the Abyss's perspective, he was nothing short of an obstacle.
The original plan had been to finish the cleanup with magical beasts before the Royalty made their move. But a handful of humans on the other side began showing strange behavior, rising to prominence and slaughtering the rank-and-file. Eventually they grew strong enough to cut down even the Royalty's direct subordinates and the leaders of allied forces in a single stroke… Naturally, the invasion hit snags.
Of course, the "gaps" only widened with time. No matter how hard humanity resisted, the Seven Kings of the Abyss still existed on this side. Given enough time, the kings' legions would squeeze through those widening gaps and turn the Earth realm into a living hell.
But the irregular known as Kim Seojun defied even that prediction.
Amazingly, his growth rate far outstripped the pace at which this side could reinforce its forces… By the time the Royalty were summoned to the Earth realm, he had already surpassed our military might.
It was like watching the Demon God reborn.
Whatever this side planned, he already knew everything, and neutralized the Abyss's legions with flawlessly perfect countermeasures. He always appeared at the right time, in the right place.
How could a single human possess power that surpassed the Royalty? Dare I say it — it was because he possessed a godlike field of vision.
…Or so Pecia would have said.
What do I do?
I never imagined the protagonist would catch on this early.
I'd been somewhat curious about his explosive growth rate in the game, but who would have guessed he was a regressor who already knew everything?
Didn't that completely change the plan?
Why the hell did that protagonist bastard borrow the Director's power? He doesn't need to know the near future!
I briefly dug through my memory to check whether Gate Apocalypse had ever had a setting like this, but it wasn't that important anymore.
This wasn't a world running on "just a server computer." I had to be ready to handle any variable that came my way.
Still, this one was pretty damn surprising.
"Pecia…?"
…First things first — I needed to deal with Elaine.
I briefly considered manipulating her memories with hypnosis.
But no. Better not.
Hypnosis skills had two major weaknesses: first, they were vulnerable to "absolute will" regardless of mana; second, even on success, they continuously drained mana depending on the conditions.
Forcing away a suspicion this solid could hurt Elaine, and it'd be a waste of my mana either way.
In the end, I made the same choice I had with the Director.
"Yeah. I learned mana."
"I knew it! But then…"
Elaine fails to perceive Mana Concealment.
That much was enough.
Killing Elaine was also an option, but I wasn't the real Pecia. Let's resolve this peacefully.
"Um… what was I about to say…"
Elaine's expression went suddenly blank. Just as expected — she'd been about to press the mana issue.
I smiled faintly and made a request.
"More importantly, Elaine, I'd prefer you didn't tell anyone else about my mana."
"Huh? Oh, of course!"
Elaine agreed readily. I didn't even need hypnosis — she was a noble, so she wouldn't go blabbing other people's secrets. She'd use them as bargaining chips when it mattered, sure.
Elaine stared at me for a moment, then asked,
"I'm curious about something, though. Why did you hide your power until now? Honestly, with that much strength, you wouldn't have had to take that beating from Siwi last time."
Meaning I could have won if I'd fought back.
I sighed at the painfully obvious question.
"Because then I wouldn't be happy."
"Wouldn't be happy?"
"If everyone just solved everything with raw power, where's the fun in that? People should talk things out peacefully, and if they're lacking something, they should work for it the proper way."
"…"
Crushing everything with force was just the easy path. The people you crushed would go on to oppress others the same way, and the world would inevitably become a vertical hierarchy of power.
A world without family or neighbors, just like the power struggles of the dynastic eras.
Not a colorful amusement park — a bleak gray colosseum.
That was why, even if the other party was in the wrong, you had to try talking first.
If a sinner repented, it warmed the heart. And even if they turned out to be pure evil, casting them into endless ruin made us happy — because the world would know they were wrong.
Who would grieve over the punishment of a villain?
"I think a little differently…"
But Elaine muttered timidly.
"Hm?"
"There are people who grieve even when a villain is punished. And that resentment would be directed at you, Pecia."
"Why would anyone grieve over a villain getting punished?"
"Because that villain might be someone's benefactor. Or someone's family."
Then weren't those people wrong too?
If you defend evil, you get wrecked right alongside it.
I blinked at her incomprehensible words, and Elaine gently took my hand.
"The world isn't divided into good and evil anyway — it's divided into producers and consumers. And we're producers, Pecia. Instead of wasting time getting tangled up with that filth, we should be creating things that benefit society."
Then the villains I spoke of would gradually disappear on their own, Elaine murmured.
I immediately scowled.
"So you're saying I'm wrong?"
"Well… it is a little extreme, isn't it?"
"…"
Ah. Another troublemaker.
I shook my head firmly.
"Trash needs to be disposed of on sight. What you're saying is bullshit."
Elaine's eyes went wide.
"Bullshit?"
"Yeah."
"…"
Seeing Elaine clutch her pillow tightly, I grabbed another pillow first and struck the opening blow. And so began Round Two. Following my room, her bedroom too descended into a chaos of pillow stuffing.
Meanwhile, the Party Bears huddled together in the corner, watching the horrific battlefield unfold.
While snacking on Elaine's cookies.
"Bwoo-bwoo (This is fun)."
I should have beaten those little bastards senseless, but our argument dragged on into the next day. Damn it. Someday I'd hang them from a teacup and spin them at light speed. Ungrateful brats who couldn't even recognize their own queen.
"You fucking bitches are fighting over useless shit. Compensate me for my time, you bitches! You bitches!"
Thwack! Thud!
First period the next day.
Kang Jihun started mercilessly smacking the backs of our heads. We'd wasted forty minutes at the café.
As it turned out, Elaine had also run off without telling Kang Jihun she was going out.
Elaine and I stopped mid-argument and slumped over our classroom desks, heads pressed together.
Our fellow freshmen stared at us in confusion, but we had sins to answer for, so we couldn't fight back.
We just cupped both hands over our skulls and defended against Kang Jihun's palms.
"I-It's Elaine's fault."
"Yeah. The teddy bears are cuter than you. Stop pretending to be adorable."
"They're at it again between themselves. Ignoring me? You ignoring me? Huh?"
Crack! Smack!
"Apologize, you fucking bitches!"
"…"
"…"
We didn't say a single word to the end.
Honestly, maybe for someone else — but apologizing to that psychopathic delinquent? I'd rather die.
And he'd already hit us enough. What more did he want an apology for?
Elaine seemed to share the exact same thought. The moment our eyes met, we both curled the corners of our mouths up at the same time.
"Purple Bunny-nim. Looking forward to working with you again today."
Ever since hearing Elaine's story, I'd started running gates little by little.
I'd played around for a full week — now it was time to make some realistic preparations.
Now that the protagonist knew I existed, there was no telling what he might do. I needed to recover at least half of Pecia's original power to handle any sudden confrontation.
"Thank you for your hard work. As the top contributor of the B-class Gate… plus item distribution fees, the total comes to eighty million."
Deliberately running dawn gates made the money pile up fast.
My level shot up close to 100 in no time, and pouring the gained stats into Craftsmanship made Party Bear production speed noticeably faster.
Now it only took thirty seconds to manufacture one.
Everything went smoothly — except that advancing from A-rank to Rank 2 required high-grade Mana Cloth and Mana Cotton.
Twenty million won per sheet…
Add Mana Cotton and it was nearly thirty million.
One B-class Party Bear costing as much as a car made me want to clutch my head, but I couldn't just not make them.
I had to hit Rank 1 on this before the rest of them unlocked.
The silver lining was that crafting proficiency was shared.
Once I hit Rank 1 on Party Bears, other crafting skills would start from Rank 5.
"Haaah—! Time for a break."
I stretched as I headed back after clearing the gate.
I peeled off the uncomfortable mask, tossed it into the gate, and changed clothes.
Starting tomorrow, free time.
High-grade Mana Cloth had to be specially ordered from overseas farms. Honestly, I hadn't expected advanced materials to be necessary from Rank 2… but it couldn't be helped. Rushing wouldn't change anything.
I pictured myself burrowing into my dorm bed like a caterpillar and rolling up in the blanket.
A warm room and a fluffy blanket in winter — if that wasn't heaven, what was?
Hehe. Can't wait.
I'd already postponed going home last weekend, so I needed the rest. Classes had been a bit hectic, and I'd had gates to run.
More than anything, I needed to track down Black Serpent.
"That bastard, seriously. If you're gonna show up, show up properly instead of making people nervous."
His whereabouts were a mystery.
True to his nickname (serpent = snake), he seemed to be quietly coiled up somewhere — but no matter how hard I searched, all I found were reports of him clearing a few high-rank gates and vanishing.
Tap!
I grumbled and kicked a pebble as I walked.
Even at dawn, the main roads still had too much foot traffic, so I'd taken a detour along a walking path. It was a decent enough environment for sorting out a mind that had been busy for days.
Thud—.
……?
But mid-flight, the pebble suddenly stopped against something.
I narrowed my eyes. Three or four human silhouettes were blocking the path.
A man holding the pebble in his hand slowly stepped out of the shadows and grinned.
"……Scared? That's what you get for sticking your nose where it doesn't belong, friend."
A buzzcut with a long scar running across his left eye. Judging by the mana waves, roughly D-class. Or higher.
Both the mana and the look of him somehow reminded me of those troublemaking protesters from before.
"And you are?"
I stopped walking and asked. The buzzcut answered.
"Gi-tae's little brother."
"Ah—!"
"I heard he got locked up completely. They said it was because of you. That right?"
Gi-tae — that would be Park Gi-tae, the protest ringleader.
I nodded.
"If we're talking root causes, yes."
"…So it is true?"
"Yes. So what do you want? I don't need any gifts."
The buzzcut blinked, then locked eyes with the burly men behind him.
He turned back to me and craned his neck forward.
"What gift. Why the hell would I give a gift to the bitch who got my brother locked up?"
"Well… because I cleaned up your family for you?"
"…"
"Aren't you happy?"
I clasped my hands in front of me and tilted my head. If it were me, I'd have been delighted that someone took out a freeloading piece of trash. How much suffering must they have endured living next to a villain like that!
But the buzzcut's jaw trembled as he ground his teeth.
"Hey."
"Yes?"
"How does my face look right now."
He wasn't happy? No way.
"……You should be happy. Come on, try smiling."
"Just cripple the halfwit and get started."
In that instant, I felt a heavy object cutting through the air behind me.
…….
Thud!
"Intae. Can I have a taste of this now?"
"In the back seat of the car? We're almost there, hyung-nim."
"Haa— damn, she's seriously pretty. Once we get there, I'm going first before we cripple her."
"Hey, hey, both of you, hold up. Where the hell are we?"
"What now."
"Why's it so dark? Not a single streetlight around. Wait— are the headlights broken too?"
"Ah— hyung-nim took a wrong turn."
"You crazy bastard. We came straight here. What wrong turn."