The Smell of the Ocean
"Wait! I want to go too!" Akemi suddenly raised her hand and shouted.
"Ah! Do you need bedding too, Akemi?"
"Eee~? No! Sumatra!"
It seemed Akemi also figured she might get a chance to witness Yunjae's true power there.
"Demian! Can the plane leave right away?"
Since a sudden trip to Sumatra had been decided out of nowhere,
"Ah, about that..."
"Wait a second," Akemi interjected, stepping in for the flustered Demian. "Everyone, grab my hands."
"Our hands...?" Mari asked, utterly clueless as to why they suddenly needed to hold hands.
"Ah..." muttered Slender Forearms, looking incredibly bashful.
"Hey, don't go getting any weird ideas! We're just holding hands!"
Suyeon had hugged him before, but it seemed holding hands still made his heart flutter.
"Ah! I'm not a weird person! Please don't misunderstand!"
"...Pfft." Seeing him so incredibly shy—looking more like a delicate girl than a boy, and clearly not giving a single damn about Kadmus, the Demon King destined to destroy humanity—Demian asked Akemi with a complicated expression,
"Anyway, is it actually possible to teleport all the way to the airport?"
"Of course! It'll drain a lot of my energy, but it's not like I'm going to fight anyway!"
Ultimately, she just wanted to watch Yunjae fight.
But is he really going to be fine on his own? Shouldn't we gather more people? While Demian hesitated, Akemi reached her hand out to him.
"Hurry up and grab on! If we keep dragging this out, Yunjae's heart might explode from embarrassment!"
"Ah! I-I really wasn't thinking of anything weird! I swear!" he shouted defensively, but his earlobes were already bright red.
"Your face looks like it's about to explode! How can you say you weren't thinking of anything weird?!"
"Ahhh! I thought I was hiding it well!" Watching him squirm with embarrassment while holding Akemi's hand in one and Mari's in the other, Demian's expression grew dead serious once more.
Can he really do this alone...?
"Anyway, let's go for now, Demian!" Either way, the flight would take about eleven hours. That would give him plenty of time to contact the allies he had met before joining the Blast Guild.
They might arrive a bit late, but...
"Let's do that!" Demian agreed, grabbing Akemi and Mari's hands.
"..."
"..."
No matter how strong they were, Mari and Akemi had tagged along for Yunjae's night shift and hadn't slept a wink. They were completely exhausted.
They had been completely passed out during the first-class flight to Jakarta, and even now, as they headed toward Sumatra Island from Jakarta, neither of them showed any signs of waking up.
Demian, whose face was tense as if he could sense Kadmus's energy in the sea breeze, glanced over.
"...The smell of the ocean." He looked at Yunjae, who was happily basking in the scent of the sea for the first time in nearly sixty years.
He had been pretending to sleep until now, but the ocean breeze seemed to have lifted his spirits.
"What is your relationship with Mari?"
Despite his extreme social anxiety, Yunjae didn't show a single shred of tension. Intrigued, Demian asked the question.
"Ah..." Yunjae, who had indeed been pretending to sleep because of how awkward he felt around Demian, blushed as he spoke.
"Mari has helped me a lot. I'm incredibly grateful to her. Even this time, I was stubborn and insisted we get office jobs together..."
To define their relationship, they hadn't actually known each other for very long. Watching him get so flustered, Demian couldn't help but chuckle.
On the outside, he was so incredibly shy and delicate, like a teenage girl...
"...I see." Yet, how could he be so terrifyingly strong? Of course, Demian had heard the story.
He had been trapped alone inside a game for fifty-seven years. To keep from losing his mind, he had mastered every single class and quest, which resulted in his current state.
"But it's quite surprising. I would think you wouldn't need anyone's help at all. To be frank, others look up to me as an incredibly powerful hunter. But compared to you, Yunjae..."
Calling him a god wouldn't even be an exaggeration. Demian had barely escaped Kadmus after losing everyone in his past life.
Even Demian, who had always been hailed as the strongest among humans, had fought alongside countless allies and support teams, only to face utter defeat. Yet this man before him was capable of taking down Kadmus entirely on his own.
Ever since the monsters appeared, the world's order had crumbled, and the strong had begun to rule. With that kind of power, Yunjae could easily rule over everyone. Why did he act so humble?
"While I was alone in there, I thought about it constantly," Yunjae said with a soft chuckle, as if reading Demian's mind.
"Pardon?"
"I realized what true loneliness felt like. I kept begging to meet anyone, absolutely anyone."
"Ah."
"...You probably don't know what that feels like. It felt like an eternity had passed, but when I checked, only ten minutes had gone by. Back then, it felt like all of my senses were completely breaking down."
They say humans are creatures that absolutely cannot survive alone. Hearing Yunjae's firsthand experience of that truth left Demian speechless.
"No matter how much praise I received in there, it was just programmed dialogue. I was utterly, completely alone. It was so lonely and painful. I couldn't even die. Even if I died, I would just respawn back in the village."
"I-I see." The tone was incredibly solemn, but because it was mixed with game mechanics, Demian didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Anyway, I managed to return in this state, but after spending my entire life alone, I realized I'm completely useless in the real world."
"Useless?" Demian tilted his head. Though Yunjae had his eccentricities, he seemed perfectly functional. In fact, he was practically transcendent.
"How to talk to people, what I should do... I'm relying entirely on my past memories for everything. But there's no way that works properly. It's been fifty-seven years..."
Yunjae had to live his life relying on memories from fifty-seven years ago—memories that were already fading.
"I have nothing left..." Since he was chronologically seventy-seven, his parents had naturally passed away, and he couldn't find a single trace of his old friends either.
"Sometimes I wonder, just like others used to say, why someone like me was even born."
"Others?"
"Ah! It's a very old story... It's nothing." He brushed it off, but it was a rather concerning statement. It seemed his life had been filled with severe ups and downs.
"Besides, I'm the only one who's a game character..." The feeling of being cast out alone into the world. What must that feel like?
"Ah..." Demian realized that despite his overwhelming power, surviving as a regular human in society must be incredibly difficult for Yunjae.
"Anyway..." Feeling a bit embarrassed about sharing such personal thoughts with someone he barely knew, Yunjae laughed awkwardly and changed the subject.
"Mari helped me even though she knew I was strange. She could have easily taken advantage of me or deceived me, but she never lied. When she was annoyed, she showed it. When she was angry, she let it out. Even when she knew she might lose out, she spoke from the heart if she thought it would help me. I was so grateful for that. Truly..."
Yunjae finally revealed why he trusted and relied so heavily on Mari, who was currently just a C-class hunter. It seemed he was deeply grateful for how she had responsibly looked after him during their first encounter in Point 6, despite the chaotic situation.
And she had honestly asked him to be her partner. Though she sometimes got angry or annoyed, she always treated him with absolute sincerity. It was a genuinely human reaction.
To Yunjae, who was interacting with a human for the first time in fifty-seven years, her presence might have felt like a saving grace.
"I think I understand."
"In any case, just because I gained a bit of power after suffering thousands, tens of thousands of times alone, I don't want to look down on others or treat them poorly. That would be wrong."
Then, he turned to Demian and smiled softly.
He's beautiful...
His shy smile was enough to make even another man daze off for a moment. It wasn't just because of his pretty face; his nature was so pure and kind that his very existence felt endearing.
"And in my opinion, I'm still just a fool who can't do anything right on my own..." Letting out a small sigh as if he still had a long way to go, he continued.
"So I believe I'll still need a lot of help in the future. I'm just worried that I'm being as much of a nuisance now as I was in the past."
Having finally returned to the living world after fifty-seven years, everything was bound to feel precious to him. Perhaps that was why, despite having the power to reign above everyone, he chose to mingle with them instead.
"...I see." That was a perspective Demian had never considered. He possessed god-like power, yet his outlook was profoundly human.
"Ah! I'm sorry. I got carried away and started rambling..."
"Not at all. I genuinely think you're a wonderful person, Yunjae. It's incredibly difficult to remain so strong yet never lose your respect for others."
"Ah!" Demian chuckled at his immediate, girl-like embarrassment. Looking at him again, he really just looked like a pretty, short-haired girl on a vacation to Sumatra.
"...But I can definitely feel Kadmus's energy getting closer." Meanwhile, Yunjae stared out at the ocean. His eyes, usually timid and introverted, now shone with a strange, sharp light.
"Please stop the boat now."
"Pardon? But we're still..." At those words, Yunjae stood up, indicating there was no need for the boat to get any closer.
"I can go the rest of the way alone."
Flash! In that instant, accompanied by a brilliant light, Yunjae's clothes began to transform.
"T-That is...!" Demian gasped. The delicate, slender forearms were now concealed beneath the magnificent, radiant armor of the Goddess's Sacred Armor.
"Mmm..." The brilliant light woke Mari and Akemi from their slumber.
"Yunjae?" Mari rubbed her eyes, seeing him back in the armor he wore when they first met.
"Eee~? Incredible! So cool! You really turned into a game character!" Akemi squealed, instantly bursting with energy the moment she opened her eyes.
"Ah! I'm not a game character, Akemi!"
"Is this your true form, Yunjae?"
"No. My true form is just a good-for-nothing human who wasted more than half his life on a video game." As always, Yunjae's lack of self-confidence remained unchanged.
"N-No! That's not what I meant...!" Leaving the utterly flustered Demian behind, Yunjae chuckled softly and stepped onto the deck.
"Anyway, I'll be back."
"But are you really going to be okay alone? Let me help!" Crackle! With his lightning abilities, Demian was more than capable of providing backup.
"Taunt." However, Yunjae, fully focused on eliminating Kadmus, didn't seem to hear him.
Taunt
Hummm! At that moment, a crimson light rippled outward with Yunjae at the center.
"W-What is this?!" Akemi asked, flinching in surprise.
"...He's drawing the monsters to him," Mari replied with a relatively calm face, having already witnessed this in Point 6.
"Drawing them to him?" Before Demian could even process what that meant,
Screeeech! A black cloud of Exotic Birds began swarming the sky!
"My god!" The super-sized portal near Sumatra was indeed Kadmus's sealing site.
Seeing the sickeningly massive horde, not only Demian and Akemi, but also—
"Yunjae!" Even Mari, who had seen him hunt before, looked utterly bewildered.
It seemed impossible to even break through that overwhelming swarm of Exotic Birds!
"My fallen comrades... you monsters will pay!" Consumed by rage and hatred, Demian unleashed his lightning toward the sky.
Crackle-crackle!
"Whoa!" It was a spectacular sight as the massive lightning bolt generated by a single human swallowed dozens of Exotic Birds.
"Nova Field." At that moment, a spell slipped from Yunjae's lips.
Nova Field
Rumble-boom-boom-boom! Countless lightning bolts rained down simultaneously!
Screeech! It was an absolutely overwhelming spectacle. A tempest of blue lightning raged, vaporizing thousands of giant black monster birds in a single instant.
"Holy crap." Demian's lightning ability, which had looked so impressive just moments ago, now seemed like a mere taser in comparison.
"Gae Bolg." Then, Yunjae summoned the Holy Sword Gae Bolg.
Summoned
Flash! The longsword Gae Bolg materialized, radiating an overwhelming aura of holy light!
"Gae Bolg...!" Was this the true extent of Lim Yunjae's power?
With his cloak fluttering in the wind against the backdrop of the ocean, which seemed to burn from the aftermath of the Nova Field, he held the glowing holy sword. He looked incredibly cool—even with the username Slender Forearms floating right above his head.
Thump!
W-What! They had actually just thought he looked cool! While Mari and Akemi blushed at their own thoughts, Yunjae turned around and shouted.
"Ah! Mari! Akemi! Saying 'Gae... Bolg' with a pause sounds weird! You have to say it quickly as one word, 'Gae-Bolg'!"
"Who cares about that right now, you dummy!"
"Ah! But if you pause, it makes me feel so awkward wielding it!"
His cool demeanor vanished in an instant, replaced by his usual blushing, embarrassed self. Mari let out a deep sigh.
"Because you said that, now I'm starting to think of weird things too!"
"Ah! I used to think about it a lot when I was alone!"
"But isn't Gae Bolg originally a spear? Why is it a sword? It's way more famous as a spear!" Akemi, possessing plenty of gamer knowledge, chimed in with a question.
"Actually, if you do this..." Yunjae began, looking incredibly eager to explain.
"The monsters are swarming us again!" Mari yelled.
"Ah, don't worry. Nova Field is still active."
Boom-crash! At that exact moment, mermen leaping out of the ocean were caught in the powerful lightning, vaporizing instantly without even having the chance to scream.