I Need Advice
"KHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
The laughter wouldn't stop. A ridiculous, impossible surge of euphoria was tearing through my head, scrambling everything inside it. I felt incredible. And why wouldn't I? Look at all these things just lying around, waiting to be smashed.
"AHAHAHAHAHA!!! Smash it all!!"
I kicked off the ground and launched myself forward. The giant Death Knight standing right in front of me — I packed Primordial Power into the blade and carved it apart on a diagonal. No resistance whatsoever. It felt like slicing through tofu. Why had I ever thought these things were dangerous? We must have all been hypnotized or something.
I stabbed them, cut them, kicked them into paste. Every last one.
"KHAHAHAHAHA!!!! This feels AMAZING!!!"
"M-Minwoo…?"
"Oppa, have you lost it? Why do you keep laughing like that??"
The Death Knights and skeletons that had been swarming us were nothing but wreckage now, tumbling across the ground. I was having the time of my life taking them apart when—
Huh…?
The strength drained out of me. My mana had hit rock bottom. The yellow lightning I'd forged from Primordial Power flickered, faded, and started to wink out.
But.
"Not enough yet!!! I can't finish destroying things with just this!!!"
I wrenched Primordial Power up from inside myself anyway.
Something in me caught fire and began vanishing at a terrifying speed. Then came the pain — like a fist closing around my heart and squeezing. I had no mana left, but Primordial Power kept boiling up all the same.
Ah. I see.
I was burning my own life. My lifespan was being shaved away in real time.
This is… actually… pretty great…?
Life is nothing more than fuel for power. That's just common sense, right? A lifespan is only worth that much. Why hadn't I figured out something this obvious until now? The me from a minute ago was such an idiot. But the current me? A smart guy. A true elite, coldly analyzing the situation and carrying out destruction.
"AAAAAAHHHH!!!! Kh…KHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
Yellow lightning erupted from me all over again, exploding upward with an output that made everything before it look like a joke. I swung the sword like a madman. I destroyed everything around me. I even stomped the ones I'd already wrecked into fine powder, just to be thorough. Nothing stood in my way now.
"Minwoo! It's all over! The barrier's down!!"
Over?
What was that supposed to mean? Nothing was over. I could still smash so much more. I still had this much lifespan left. Everyone knows if you hoard something it just turns to shit. Why didn't they understand something that obvious? Seriously, everyone in the world was an idiot except me.
I looked around.
I have to destroy something… I have to smash whatever I can find!
That was when I saw it. Something red and deeply unpleasant.
"Heh heh heh. Found you."
I broke into a huge grin, spun toward it, and sprinted. The horned guy's face went white with terror the instant our eyes met.
"W-what the hell?! AAAAAHHH!!"
He screamed and bolted. Of course he did. Anyone who runs like that can't possibly be innocent. It's always the guilty ones who run.
"GYAAAAH!"
I snatched him by the scruff of the neck and slammed him into the ground.
"W-why are you doing this, Choi Minwoo! Why me of all—"
That irritating horn sticking out of his head. That hideous thing. I clamped one hand around it and squeezed.
"GRAAAAH!! D-don't grab the horn!!"
"Heh heh heh. What's wrong? Is this an erogenous zone?"
"Y-you lunatic, snap out of it!"
"Utterly blasphemous. An abomination that has no right to exist in this world!!!"
I put my weight into the hand on his horn and wrenched it back and forth, fully intending to rip it out from the root.
"AAAAAHHH!! No!! It's gonna break!! It's gonna SNAP!!!"
That was when someone clung to me. Hands locked around both my arms. Arms wrapped around my waist. I tried to shake them off on reflex. With my strength, I could have destroyed them in a heartbeat.
And yet.
Huh…?
It was warm. A cozy feeling spread through me. They felt so precious.
Things that were precious to me…? What was that? Did I have those? I was an orphan, though?
I turned my head slowly. Two beautiful women looking up at me. And a cute little kobold.
"Minwoo… please come back…"
"Oppa… stop it…"
"Kerek…"
The moment our eyes met, the fog that had filled my head began to lift. The vice around my heart, the boiling lust for destruction — all of it drained away as if it had never been there.
"Minwoo, it's okay now. It's all over."
"A-Aria…?"
My mind snapped back into place. What the hell had I been doing? I unsummoned the Sword of Asrein in a panic. My palms were soaked with cold sweat.
Have I actually turned into a psychopath…?
Harassing Karante was one thing. But thinking it was perfectly natural to burn my own lifespan — that kind of insane idea was something only a genuine lunatic could come up with.
This sword is dangerous…
I should never use it unless it was a truly desperate, life-or-death situation. If I drew it again, I'd probably become a monster that did nothing but destroy until I'd burned through every last bit of my life and dropped dead.
"Let's just… head back…"
We all started for Base Camp, except Karante was still sitting there fondling his horn.
"Karante, mind stopping with the horn? It looks like you're jerking off, and it's unpleasant to watch."
"Yeah. Get up already, Horn-head!"
"YOU LUNATIC!!! YOU were the one tormenting me!!!!"
After we'd sufficiently comforted Karante, we headed back to Base Camp together. We'd wiped the enemies out so thoroughly that nothing else showed up on the way.
"God, this is so infuriating!!"
Yuna hadn't slept properly since that day, too busy turning it all over in her head. The night she'd spent with Minwoo had been incredible. No — "incredible" didn't even begin to cover it. Pleasure so intense she could barely believe it was real. A happiness so overwhelming she'd completely let go of her mind. Yuna had believed, without a shred of doubt, that this was love.
And then.
He won't date me because I'm not a virgin?
Minwoo had never actually said those words, but that was how it had sounded to her. She'd been so angry afterward that she'd blocked him on everything. Every so often she'd unblock him, just in case he'd tried to reach her. He never had.
"God, what do I DO!!!!"
Reaching out first would be a blow to her pride. And even if she clung to him, there was no guarantee he'd let himself be caught. A complete mess of feelings. So she thought—
He said he doesn't do forums and stuff, right…?
She posted a relationship advice thread on Blind, the anonymous workplace app.
The second she posted it, the feelings surged up all over again. Yuna buried her face in the pillow and cried.
"This is so… hic… what do I do…"
She had no idea how long she'd been crying when her phone started buzzing nonstop with Blind comment notifications. Yuna read them one by one and typed out replies.
What am I even doing right now…
A sudden wave of "what the hell am I doing" crashed over Yuna, and she deleted the post.
This post has been deleted.
She'd posted it hoping the wisdom of the crowd might somehow produce an answer. Not a single comment had actually been helpful, of course. The closest thing to advice was "go apologize and beg."
Should I actually try that…?
Yuna realized all over again that she'd already become someone who couldn't live without Minwoo. And she started worrying, all over again, about what to do next.
Back in the real world, I was so exhausted I could barely stay on my feet.
Has to be the aftereffect of burning through my lifespan to use Primordial Power.
Luckily, tomorrow was Sunday. I figured I could spend at least a day resting and recovering my stamina. I was about to shower and collapse into bed when—
Ah, hell… I should get the groceries done now.
I remembered the pantry. Rin had been dropping by every day and demolishing our food supplies, leaving the place stripped bare. I'd restocked it yesterday, but it'd definitely be empty again by next week.
So I turned on the computer and pulled up the site, intending to hit the hot deal board.
"Huh…? What's this?"
A new post notification had popped up in the bottom right, and the title caught my eye.
"Oh, this looks interesting."
Click.