You Bastard

The next morning, my steps were light as a feather as I left the motel for work. Even after the ferocious day I'd had yesterday, there wasn't a trace of fatigue in me. If anything, vitality was pouring through my whole body. Peak condition.

Yuna, on the other hand, said her legs were shaking and she was far too exhausted to function. She told me she'd sleep a little longer at the motel before heading home. She'd already put in for a day off, of course.

So I went to the office alone, closed my eyes for a moment, and slipped into meditation.

Yeah... something's definitely different.

My mana had gone astonishingly still — calm in a way it had never been before. And then there was the message I'd only gotten around to checking last night.

Focusing in on it, I figured my total mana had gone up by roughly ten percent. Not a dramatic leap by any means, but it was enough that using Elemental Burst wouldn't leave me completely running on empty afterward.

And if I put this sudden increase together with everything else that had happened...

Don't tell me I can grow my mana by satisfying my desires?

It had a lot in common with strength training, actually. You overload the muscle, stress it out, then let it rest and grow. Maybe Primordial Power worked the same way — once the stress of desire got resolved, it stabilized and leveled up.

It was the kind of convenient, wish-fulfillment logic you'd expect from a trashy harem novel — but so what? What mattered was that I'd found a way to expand my mana pool itself, which had always been my biggest bottleneck. And the method wasn't some miserable grind I had to force myself through. It was something joyful. Something that made me happy.

Which, of course, brought back every filthy thing Yuna had poured out of her mouth yesterday. Begging me to put it here, to put it there. Telling me exactly where she wanted to go. Pleading with me, please, to take her there.

She's a dirty girl, through and through.

Was Yuna actually a succubus? I spent the entire day grinning like an idiot with that thought in my head, and wrapped up my work in high spirits.

Then came Friday.

I stepped out of the building after work and found Yuna waiting for me.

We didn't have plans to meet today...

A day of rest had done her good — her color was much better. She hooked her arm through mine and asked, in a voice thick with aegyo,

"Manager! What are you doing today?"

Her eyes were bright with expectation. Unfortunately...

I was supposed to work out today and then head to Base Camp...

I'd already told Aria and Kiki I was coming. I had to go.

"Ah — sorry. I'm a little busy today..."

"Busy? What about tomorrow, then?"

"Tomorrow's a bit..."

"Sunday?"

She wasn't letting go. She kept pushing, relentless.

"Sunday's a bit tight too..."

With every refusal, Yuna's expression hardened. She let go of my arm and asked, her voice gone cold,

"Then when exactly are you free?"

"Uh... next Wednesday...?"

A hollow laugh burst out of her, equal parts disbelief and disgust.

"Manager. Are you messing with me right now?"

"No... that's not it..."

"You never planned on dating me, did you? So that was just a one-night stand?"

Heads were starting to turn. People walking by were looking at us now. I waved my hands in a panic.

"No. It is absolutely not that. I genuinely have something I have to do. Please, just try to understand."

"What could you possibly have to do? Are you working a second job? What, are you out there driving drunks home? Running food deliveries?"

"It's not like that..."

As a Participant, I go to another world and kill people and demons for a living. Yeah, there was no universe in which I could say that out loud. She'd think I was insane, for one thing — but even setting that aside, I had no idea what the system would do if I told her. Worst case, I could get erased on the spot.

Which was why I was standing here looking more and more like a piece of garbage.

"Do you honestly think that sounds believable?"

"Yuna, keep your voice down..."

"Take responsibility."

"...What?"

"I said take responsibility! You went that far with me yesterday and now you're just going to run? You're not even going to own it?"

"It's not that I don't want to date you, I swear..."

"Then what is it?! Take responsibility for me!!!"

People had stopped walking entirely now, standing there staring and murmuring. And with a loaded phrase like "take responsibility" hanging in the air, I looked even more like a complete piece of shit.

Even if we'd done things backwards — sex first, relationship later — you still needed time to actually get to know each other and see if you fit. I had to clear up this misunderstanding, at least.

"I mean... it's not like this is the first time for either of us... demanding I take responsibility without even giving us time to figure things out..."

"I... I beg your pardon?"

Yuna's face flooded with rage.

Fuck. I just said something catastrophically stupid.

"No — what I meant was, I still think we need more time to get to know—"

"Wow... you really are trash..."

"That's not what I—"

"Forget it!! I don't want to date you either!! Who said I'd even go out with you?! I've got plenty of guys after me!!!"

"Yuna..."

"You absolute bastard!! Don't you ever contact me again!!!"

She spun on her heel and ran.

"Hah..."

A long, heavy sigh dragged itself out of me. Honestly, a woman like Yuna was someone I had no business even looking at. Beautiful, incredible body, easy to talk to, filthy in all the right ways... On any normal day, she was the kind of person I'd be bowing and scraping just for the chance to take home.

And this fucking Participant life had ruined all of it.

Reality, and the life of a Participant. Trying to hold on to both at once meant I couldn't live either one properly.

What the hell am I even doing with my life...

I trudged off toward the gym with that bitterness sitting in my chest. Whatever else was going on, I still had work to do.

Back at Base Camp, I started by sorting through the supplies I'd brought from the real world.

And then I stopped.

"What the hell? Why is there barely anything left?"

"We kept eating with Rin, hehe..."

Apparently Rin had shown up at every single meal, and the four of them had torn through the lot of it in high spirits.

Aigoo... I was going to have to start buying a lot more.

Still, Aria had been a very good girl about one thing: ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she'd sent Rin away ahead of time yesterday. Rin still didn't know the details of the Wanderer Skill.

"So what have you two been up to?"

"Training with Kiki."

"What kind of training?"

"I cast magic, and Kiki blocks it with his barrier."

"Oh, that's actually solid. Mind if I jump in?"

"Kerek! Kerek!"

The three of us headed out to the training ground behind the building. Calling it a training ground was generous — it was more of a vacant lot, really. Still, it had the basics: wooden swords, straw dummies, the works.

We got started. Aria and I attacked with our skills, and Kiki used his barrier to stop whatever we threw at him, by any means necessary. Offense and defense, practiced together — a brutally efficient drill. Every so often Kiki would find a gap and thrust his spear through it, and those counters were genuinely threatening.

The three of us ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠were pouring sweat by the time we finally called it.

"Kerek? Kerek?"

Kiki flickered his barrier on and off, looking at me and chattering about something.

"Ah — you're asking why I don't use a barrier?"

"Kerek!!!"

I wiped the sweat off my face.

"If I use that thing, the mana drain is brutal. I have to save it as a genuine last resort."

"Your Primordial Power is truly fascinating, Minwoo. Lightning magic, barriers, even Elemental Burst... is there anything it can't do?"

"Beats me. From where I'm standing, it feels like a worse version of everything."

I sat down on the bench beside us and kept going.

"I can imitate Elemental Burst. I can imitate a barrier. But the mana efficiency is godawful. You use it once, and that's it — you're done."

I was starting to understand what that actually meant.

"Take lightning magic. I can't do what you do — I can't throw a bolt and shock someone. All I can manage is that body-reinforcement trick you showed me back in the tutorial. And even that doesn't last if I crank the output too high."

Aria frowned, looking puzzled.

"It's true that wrapping myself in lightning makes my body stronger... but I can't get anywhere near as strong as you, Minwoo. No matter how much I raise the output, I can't even reach a comparable level..."

She wasn't wrong. Even when she used her lightning magic, she never got as physically powerful as I did. But I'd already been turning that over in my head, and I had a working theory.

"This is just my take, but I think when your lightning reinforces the body, the strength of the base physique matters a lot."

"The base physique?"

"Yeah. I don't think the reinforcement is additive. I think it's multiplicative. If my base strength is a hundred and yours is ten, and we both ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠use a spell that doubles our power, the results are going to be wildly different, right?"

"Ah! So because you were already so much stronger than me to begin with...?"

"Exactly. The efficiency of the reinforcement scales with the gap in our physical stats."

"Ah..."

If the enhancement ran on multiplication, nothing mattered more than the body you started with. A high enough multiplier might close the gap — but even then, a stronger base would make the returns grow exponentially.

"Anyway, that's why you two need to start working out and putting on muscle. I'll put something together for you later."

"Yes, Minwoo. Understood."

"Kerek!"

I was going to teach the two of them strength training and get them lifting. If I wrote out the whole program myself, they could run it even when I wasn't around.

A holy trinity of gym rats, born at last.

I'd need equipment for that, though...

With the Subspace Bag, I could set up a whole home gym right here.

Then I could drop deadlifts here as loud as I wanted without catching dirty looks at the gym, couldn't I?

After COVID, the secondhand market had been flooded with that kind of gear. Money was the problem. I really should have grabbed those gold coins back then.

Aigoo...

"Let's just call Rin and eat."

"Yes, Minwoo."

And so our soul trio, plus Rin, spent a pleasant evening together.

The next day, we headed to the Quest Office to look for a request.

And then...

"Oppa, there aren't any requests at all...?"

"..."

D-Rank missions had been wiped out completely, and even the C-Rank ones were down to a handful. The few that remained were all vaguely unappealing in one way or another. Nothing we could actually take.

"What now... should we wait around a bit?"

We grabbed a table in a corner of the Gathering Hall and sat down. With nothing in particular to do, we were just killing time shooting the breeze when I spotted a familiar bulk ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wandering around nearby.

A man of the Dragonkin, with a horn jutting from his skull.

That's Karante...

He spotted us and came striding over.

Don't tell me he's here to pick another fight...

I straightened up, wariness climbing. But the look on Karante's face as he drew close was nothing like what I'd expected. He looked grave. Weighted down with worry. He came to a halt in front of our table.

"Choi Minwoo..."

"What?"

He clenched his fists and bowed his head low.

"I know how shameless this is of me... but I need your help."

The look in Karante's eyes was raw. Desperate.