Academy's Savior
"I only came to greet you today. We'll meet again later."
"You didn't come to greet me. You came to dig up information on me."
"…Hmm. So you do know about me after all. How much, exactly?"
"……"
"Don't feel like answering? Fine by me. But should you really be focusing on me right now? Your mother is in rather serious danger."
I lowered my gaze without meaning to. My eyes pierced straight through the pussy monsters and locked onto the ground below. Seong Ha-ri stood there, lips pressed tight, enduring the pussy wind the monsters kept blasting out.
"Forty-five seconds. That's how long your mother can hold out. Ah, make that forty-one now."
"…You think I don't know this world is fake? No matter how many people die here, it won't touch reality."
"Is that so? Then come at me. You abandoned your mother and chose me, so I'll oblige."
Laplace gave a theatrical little smile and crooked a finger.
Full Recovery
Back at peak condition, I drove power into my legs. Crack. The force field couldn't take it and spider-webbed with fractures.
I kicked off with explosive force—not upward, but straight down.
Laplace. Looking at that bastard's face, he's got something up his sleeve. He probably already knew about Full Recovery too. Even if I fight him, I can't be sure I'll kill him.
Seong Ha-ri was visible far below.
She was fake. I knew that. Even if she died, the real Seong Ha-ri wouldn't feel a thing. But fake or not, I didn't want to watch her die.
KRA-BOOM!
I slammed into the ground, scooped up the exhausted Seong Ha-ri, and sprinted.
"Oppa?! That bastard's running away!"
"Shut up. That's not what matters right now."
I set her down far enough that the pussy wind no longer reached her. A little color returned to her face.
"…What about those monsters? I barely managed to take down one… and there are twenty-two of them. What the hell is the Hero Association even doing?"
Chaos had already swallowed Seoul before we arrived. Laplace had arranged it that way. The Association would need time to respond properly.
"We run. Whether they scramble fighters or fire missiles, they'll handle it somehow."
"…Oppa, do you really think that? The second those things start moving, at least half of Seoul is gone."
"……"
I was thinking the same thing. One pussy monster was bad enough; twenty-two were moving at once. Power was secondary—the size was the real problem. Even a single one stretched over five hundred meters long.
"Oppa. Help me. We have to take them down."
"You're already at your limit. And I don't exactly have a clean way to deal with them either."
"Their weak point is the eyes. Focus fire on the eyes and they go down easy."
"Easy to say."
I pointed at the pussy monsters.
All twenty-two were slowly crawling toward the heart of Seoul. Their speed barely hit ten kilometers an hour. The real issue was the constant pussy wind. That foul-smelling gale turned into sticky liquid that melted everything it touched.
Trees, concrete, rocks—everything sloughed away in rivulets. Ranged attacks? That damn pussy wind formed a curtain that blocked everything.
"…The wind's coming out of those holes, so… if we attack from above, maybe?"
"Their backs are even tougher. They've got these giant hair-like—"
An idea flashed through my mind. I quietly rubbed my lips. The method that had just appeared would look completely insane to anyone else.
There's a chance it fails… but if those monsters were designed around pussies, and if what's on their backs really is hair…
Worth a shot.
"You thought of a way?"
"…Yeah. But there's no reason I have to be the one to do it."
"Seoul will be destroyed. Hundreds of thousands will die."
"Not my problem."
"……"
"……"
Seong Ha-ri glared at me. She didn't back down. She was already exhausted; I was fresh. If we fought, I'd win. Jumping her right here didn't sound half bad either.
"Oppa, help me. If you help… I'll do anything."
"Anything? If I tell you to strip, will you?"
"…I'll just go die fighting then."
She raised her spear. Her eyes never wavered. She hadn't even entered the academy yet, but those eyes had already accepted death.
I sighed without meaning to. I'd just ditched Laplace and gone out of my way to save her, and now she wanted to throw her life away? Everything I'd chosen and worked for was about to turn into foam.
I caught her shoulder as she started walking.
"…Give me one kiss. Then I'll help."
Seong Ha-ri turned to look at me.
"……"
Her eyes were deadly serious. I swallowed another sigh that tried to escape. Might as well call it filial piety.
"Ah, never mi—"
She stepped in close. In a single motion she was against my chest, rising onto her toes and pressing her lips to mine. She pulled away in less than a second.
"Y-you promised you'd help."
"…Was that your first kiss?"
"N-no. I've kissed plenty of times."
I snorted.
She'd kissed a lot and that was the best she could do? I guarantee even elementary school kids kiss better than that.
Yu-jin. Time to be a good son.
I stoked my fighting spirit.
The one who rules over pussies—that's me. If it comes down to it, I'll just drop a few thousand bombs.
I built force fields. A staircase of them rose into the sky.
"I'll handle this. You stay here."
"…I'll help."
"No. You're exhausted. You'll just get in the way."
"……"
Yeongcheon Style: Thunder Sound Step.
Thunder cracked as I shot into the sky. High above, I looked down. Pitch black. The backs of the pussy monsters filled my vision. Pussy hair writhed across those backs like dancing tentacles. Hair and tentacles at the same time.
I made my decision and layered hundreds of force fields over the monsters. Then I sprinted across them like a madman, dumping thick black potion downward.
Hair-growth tonic I'd made in the world of The Tyrant for You. The stuff worked so well that even a drop made hair explode outward in seconds.
Laplace's future-sight works through his Authority of Possibility—he sees the most probable future. And I just pulled hair-growth tonic into this world for the first time. In other words, the possibility of me using it was born right now. He never saw this future. If he never saw it, he can't prepare for it.
I watched the monsters' backs.
The black tentacles—pussy hair—were shooting upward. Crossing fifty meters took no time at all. I didn't stop. I kept pouring. Around five hundred bottles later.
The flying pussy monsters had become flying pussy-hair monsters. They couldn't support the weight and plummeted. They thrashed, but the tangled masses of hair became shackles that locked every movement.
Looking down from the sky, I shook my head.
Looks exactly like a clogged drain full of hair. Disgusting.
I dumped gasoline all over them and dropped a single bolt of lightning. The pussy monsters went up in flames, reeking. They flailed, trying to put the fire out—spraying weird fluids, blasting pussy wind, trying to take off again—but it was useless. I kept pouring gasoline so the fire never died.
By the time dawn broke, the pussy monsters had become motionless black coal pussies.
The city was still in chaos.
I carried Seong Ha-ri as far as the outskirts of the Jinryeong Seong Family estate.
"Oppa. Come by my house for a bit. You like cola? I'll treat you."
"Pass. I've had so much cola I'm sick of it."
I pointed at the sky. She looked up.
"See that?"
"…See what? I don't see any spirits."
The dawn sky was cracked all over. Proof the dungeon was collapsing. Honestly, it caught me off guard. In the original story it still had a few more days.
This is Laplace's influence too, isn't it… that bastard.
I'd wanted to enjoy this world a little longer… nothing to be done.
"If you can't see it, forget it."
"Ah, come on, what is it? What's up there?!"
"Actually nothing. Gotcha."
"You asshole!"
She smacked my shoulder in irritation. It hurt. She knew I was strong and was putting real force into it. I made a pained face and checked her favorability.
Seong Ha-ri: 42
Pretty high. Fighting together this time must have jacked it up in bulk.
When favorability is low, the right trigger makes it climb fast.
They call it a favorability event.
"Go inside. The Jinryeong Seong people will be worried."
"…I doubt they're that worried. More like a lot of them will be disappointed I came back alive. The spirits too."
My expression twisted instantly.
"Domestic violence? Want me to level that house?"
"It's not like that. Do I look like the kind of girl who just takes beatings?"
Imagining Seong Ha-ri getting hit didn't come easily. Picturing her as the one doing the hitting was far more natural.
Originally Seong Ha-ri ran away from home… was that after she dropped out of the academy…?
I pushed the memory aside and waved goodbye.
"…Oppa. Did you fall for me?"
"……Have you lost your mind? Is this revenge?"
"A love runaway. Want to try it with me?"
"Love runaway my ass. You just want to run away from home."
"…I was being serious, you know."
She put on a dead-serious face. I stepped closer. She didn't retreat. I studied her for a moment, then cupped her cheek and kissed her. Not some clumsy peck—a real kiss, tongue and all.
I rubbed our lips together thickly, toyed with her unmoving tongue, and pushed my saliva into her mouth. Saliva ran down her white chin. Whose it was, I couldn't tell.
I pulled back. Seong Ha-ri's head had turned into a tomato. I almost worried it would burst.
"That's a kiss."
"Y-you crazy pervert bastard!"
"Ow!"
She kicked my shin. I hopped backward on one foot. She glared and huffed.
Seong Ha-ri: 45
It had gone up. I grinned and told her,
"About that love runaway. Let's do it later."
"Like hell we will!"
"Take care."
I bolted before she could kick my shin again.
I sat on the same bench as yesterday and used Spirit Eye and Heavenly Eye to confirm Seong Ha-ri had gone inside.
Once home, she was getting chewed out by her father Seong Han-gu and her grandfather Seong Myeong-saeng. She wasn't injured, but her uniform was so wrecked her underwear showed, which had clearly startled both men. They scolded her pretty harshly, yet Seong Ha-ri just pouted and let it go in one ear and out the other, treating it like background noise. Impressive woman.
The sky began to break apart in earnest.
An hour later the entire dungeon collapsed.
Exiting Special Dungeon: ???
Outside the dungeon I found Ryu Hana collapsed on the ground. Her clothes were torn in places and blood ran freely from slash wounds.
"Ryu Hana…!"
Startled, I hurriedly summoned potions and treated her.
She looked at my face, then twisted her expression. It was the face of someone forcing down emotions boiling up from inside.
"…I lost. …I lost."