38. My Buff is a Drug
38. My Buff is a Drug
"Huff... huff..."
[ Duration of One-Strike Skill has ended. ]
Geum Na-rin dropped to her knees right there, clutching her chest.
It was over.
Everything was over.
Not in the sense of "the end" she had imagined all this time, but in the sense that everything had been resolved.
The aberration had just vanished.
She had destroyed it with her own fist.
She was definitely supposed to feel relieved, but her chest felt heavy and it hurt.
—Senior... please take... the last of my strength.
'The last of my strength?'
Had he died so many times that his strength had finally given out?
To save her?
She had to check his condition, but she was afraid to turn around.
But she had to.
Na-rin turned around and checked on Hye-yong.
The moment she touched him, Hye-yong's body crumbled as if it had been waiting for her.
"Ah..."
She reached out, trying to catch even the scattering particles, but nothing remained in her hand.
'If I wait... if I wait, won't he come back?'
On the monitor screen, Hye-yong had always rushed back out again no matter how many times he died, his face showing no sign of giving up.
So maybe this time too he would come back, smile, and say, "Everything's over now, Na-rin senior."
But soon, even that thought flickered out in Na-rin's heart.
When he had cast that final buff, his face had been completely different from when he had rushed to save her.
It was as if he had accepted his own death and squeezed out his last strength...
Na-rin knelt there and waited for a long time for Hye-yong to return.
But he did not come back.
'Right... this is inside my dream. He didn't really die. He has to be okay.'
Eventually, she rose from the spot and walked toward the door.
She hurried through the dark passage, toward the light.
Because he might have woken up long ago and could be waiting for her to open her eyes.
"Whoa... thought I was a goner for a second."
A grumble laden with profound relief.
Hye-yong was steeped in satisfaction.
He had felt like he would lose his mind from the real pain, but somehow he had held onto his senses.
The situation had been resolved well, too.
Geum Na-rin still seemed to be in the dream world, but she would return soon.
'What should I say first when she wakes up?'
Naturally, hugging each other in joy was a given.
'At times like this, you should be cracking open a can of beer and savoring the victory.'
Come to think of it, he hadn't had a single drink since he got here.
There were bars on the street outside. Going once wouldn't be so bad.
'Anyway...'
This was also the first time he had quietly watched Geum Na-rin sleeping with such a relaxed state of mind.
People said a sleeping face got an appearance buff, and although he wasn't sure if it was true, Na-rin's sleeping face looked positively angelic.
Just then, tears welled up from Na-rin's eyes and streamed down.
For a moment, he was alarmed.
Was it not over yet?
Hye-yong fetched a towel and wiped away the tears that kept flowing.
'She might be shedding tears of overwhelming emotion.'
Geum Na-rin had endured remarkably well, although he had no idea how.
If that kind of horrible torture were repeated every day, Hye-yong would definitely have killed himself within two days.
"Mmm..."
About an hour passed before Na-rin showed her first reaction.
"Oh. Senior?"
"Mm... Choi... Hye-yong..."
"Yes, senior. I'm right here."
Geum Na-rin's hand fumbled over Hye-yong's face.
She prodded his lips and nose for about two seconds before shooting upright and turning around.
"Y-you! You're alive!?"
"Of course I'm alive. The one who died was inside the dream."
"Hnng, hng, hnnngh...!"
Geum Na-rin choked up, then threw her arms wide and tackled him.
Hye-yong didn't dodge but hugged her tightly.
"It's all over now, right!?"
"Yeah, it's over!"
"I don't have to have those dreams anymore, right!?"
"I definitely saw the aberration get eliminated. We can get back to everyday life now!"
KWAH!
'Hrrk.'
She squeezed so hard he could barely breathe, but he couldn't exactly say it hurt in this situation, so he decided to stay breathless for a moment.
"Thank you! Ahahaha! Thank yooou! I'm finally free! I'm free!"
"Y-yeah, senior... f-free...!"
"Ahah! Ahahahah! I'm so happy!!"
Geum Na-rin laughed loudly.
Even though the dormitory had decent soundproofing, if she was this noisy, the neighbors might hear.
But Hye-yong didn't dare tell her to be quiet.
In this situation, anyone who told her to be quiet had to be a genuine psychopath.
Daybreak.
The two lay on the bed facing each other and talked about this and that.
"So, if you're in the Secret Society, that means you've exterminated other aberrations before, right?"
"Of course. That's why I got acknowledged in the first place."
"Is there another member in this Facility?"
"There's one."
"Mmhm, I see. So it's not a secret just between us two."
"Even if you told other people, they wouldn't understand anyway, right? That's what aberrations are like."
"Ahahah, that's true."
A natural smile.
Pure laughter.
Seeing Na-rin reclaim those things made Hye-yong feel proud too.
"Is there anyone else in the secret society besides you?"
She's asking a lot about the Secret Society.
Hey, if you dig too deep, you'll get hurt.
Even though it doesn't actually exist.
Hye-yong made up some appropriate details and told her.
"There are, but I've never actually met them. How should I put it... it's like receiving a revelation from the heavens. Or maybe we're not meant to meet each other."
"Hmm. I don't really get it. Anyway, I'm so glad there was a Society member near me! If you weren't a student at this Facility, I wouldn't be in this world anymore."
"It's not so much that I did a good job as much as it is you held on, senior. That punch at the end. It was seriously awesome."
"You were... watching, huh. Yeah! Like I said at the start, I shattered that bastard's mask into smithereens and blew him away!"
Na-rin thrust her fist out and laughed ferociously.
Chatting like that, they naturally drifted off to sleep.
From now on, she'd be able to stretch out and sleep soundly every night.
May 27th, 7:36 AM
Choi Hye-yong's Room
All the problems Geum Na-rin had been suffering through were resolved.
They couldn't live together in this cramped room forever, so it was time for Na-rin to return to her own nest.
"You can sleep alone now, right? Promise you won't cry or anything just because I'm not there?"
"I-I won't cry...!"
Na-rin blushed as she put on her shoes.
"You're going back to everyday life now. Going on raids, training. Third semester's coming up soon, so you'll have to attend classes too."
"Yeah. I'm really glad we got rid of the aberration before third semester started."
Just before opening the door and leaving,
Na-rin leaned against the front door as if she had something to say.
"But... can I come sleep in your room sometimes?"
"Huh... why?"
"Back then, when you held me in your arms and stroked my back. It felt really reassuring, so I liked it."
With her putting it like that, he couldn't very well put up a no-entry sign.
"If it's just sometimes... that's fine."
"Okay!"
Na-rin beamed brightly like that, then opened the door and left.
Somehow, it felt like sending a baby bird out of the nest for the first time.
'Hoo boy, somehow it all wrapped up nicely.'
When he had been grabbed and flung around, he'd had no idea what to do, but as expected, there's always a way if you look for it.
And it made sense — the Virus Hye-yong was dealing with was a dreg-like entity formed from accumulated dust.
If it wielded such immense power and influence, it obviously had to have a fatal weakness too.
It was the sort of feeling that, in order to borrow and use power, it had to create its own weakness...
'As long as the situation is right, being able to use buffs a bit more freely is huge.'
Maybe because it was inside an inner world, as long as the owner of that inner world kept their wits about them and cooperated, anything seemed possible.
Should he say it felt like the cost restrictions became incredibly lax?
So for example, let's say he made a normal Swordsmanship Proficiency Increase buff.
If he purely raised only swordsmanship proficiency, right now the limit seemed to be around level 15 or 16.
Those base values themselves didn't change.
But he could create buffs that would be absolutely impossible to realize in the real world.
You could see it as the range of what he could craft expanding.
Looking at just the basic functions of this Buff Custom system, there didn't seem to be anything it fundamentally couldn't do.
The reason many buffs hadn't been created was probably mostly cost deficiency.
The fact that some functions had locks on them was also because Hye-yong lacked the World's Power to control.
From what Mina had said last time, there were currently three beings who could control the power of this world.
The Creator Mina, the co-creator Choi Hye-yong, and the invader Virus.
In the current situation, Mina and the Virus's power were roughly equal.
However, Mina was using all her power to block the Virus's spread, so she had no way to gather power on her own, while the Virus could slowly accumulate power in dust form no matter what.
If nothing was done, eventually the suppression would fail, and all the worlds would be devoured and end.
In the midst of this, if Hye-yong stepped in, collected the Power of Perception for Mina, and occasionally crushed some Virus fragments, Mina's influence would rise, and she could pressure the Virus more strongly.
That was why Mina kept sharing the World's Power with Hye-yong.
Because that way, he could gather more Power of Perception and also stand against the Virus.
'Since I caught a Virus, there should be a reward this time too, right?'
He called Mina via Messenger.
[ Choi Hye-yong : You felt it too, right? That the Virus was eliminated. ]
Mina : ( An emoticon of a blonde female character holding three birthday firecrackers and popping them all at once. )
[ Mina : Of course! You pulled it off splendidly again this time! Creator is the best! ]
[ Choi Hye-yong : So, you got anything like a reward to give me? ]
[ Mina : Just wait a moment! ]
Not even two seconds after she said to wait, a system message appeared before his eyes.
[ Will you accept Mina's invitation? ]
[ Yes ]
[ No ]
He had no idea what she was inviting him to give him, but of course it was Yes.
His vision seemed to fade to black, and before he knew it, he was inside a room where all four walls were made of pale brown wood.
"Over here, over here!"
Hearing Mina's voice, he turned around and saw her smiling brightly and wiggling the index and middle fingers of both hands in a V sign.
"What is this place?"
"It's my inner world! Thanks to defeating the Virus this time, I can now call the Creator into my inner world!"
Hye-yong thought about what possible benefit that could have.
But nothing really came to mind.
"So you're saying after all that suffering, there's no reward this time?"
"No reward? Th-this IS the reward..."
"How is this a reward? Are you kidding me?"
"Hear me out, Creator! I can help you with all sorts of things."
Hye-yong, having resolved to at least listen, waited for Mina's words.
"First! You can use me as a sandbag."
"What the hell is that..."
"This body is strictly that of an ordinary female. You sometimes create buffs with attack skills, right? You can test directly on me what form the skill takes when used, or how much power it has. Because here, no matter how many times I die, I can always come back to life."
It wasn't entirely wrong, but.
Looks really do matter.
When someone with such a cute and pretty face says things like that, you can't help but think something is wrong here.
Even though he clearly knew the being in front of him was far removed from human.
"That seems completely useless."
"Or you could learn how to hit and torment a body to break someone's will without endangering their life."
"No... I mean, do I really need to learn that sort of thing? I'm not the Virus..."
"Creator. There will definitely be characters in this world who come to hate you or try to kill you. At times like that, no matter what you say, it'll be useless, right? It'd be better to break their will, make them submit, and then build up their affection — you'll be able to get more Power of Perception that way."
"W-well, that's true, but..."
He felt like she was talking him into it. Since that felt unpleasant, he decided to deny it for now.
"No. It's still useless. Rather than beating them till their bones give out to make them submit and then building affection back up, just raising someone else's affection seems better."
Mina's face fell.
"Hing... In that case, whenever you're upset, you can just come here and beat me up or kill me as stress relief..."
No, that's a bit much too.
'But what would it feel like to seriously sock someone in the face just once?'
He suddenly grew curious. Something he'd thought he'd never get to try in his entire life.
Here, with Mina right in front of him, it seemed like it wouldn't matter at all.
"Then, can I try hitting you in the face once?"
"Ah, yes! Of course!"
Mina smiled with a slight blush and clasped her hands behind her back.
A bit of reluctance did creep in, but still, he threw his fist with all his might toward her nose.