Not Hiding Spoilers (2)
Not Hiding Spoilers (2)
The current seventh-ranked S-rank, and my friend before regression: Công.
In the end, he succeeded in defeating the Grade 0 villain known as the Necromancer and became a hero of Vietnam.
But only in the year I turned thirty, ten full years after the point to which I'd regressed.
『Future Sight (S-rank) — Observes the future.』
'I might have wanted him around for gacha pulls, but I'd have hated to face him as an enemy.'
That great achievement was entirely thanks to Công's ability.
Công was an awakener who could actually peek into the future.
His reputation as a specialist in clearing Gates, and his position as commander of the Vietnam Liberation Army—
were all thanks to that cheat-level Innate Talent.
'How did he fight so well with such a finicky ability?'
Of course, there were side effects to match its cheat-like power.
Like my hypnosis, he could use it at no cost—but only to see three seconds ahead.
If he continuously foresaw ten seconds ahead, he'd collapse from exhaustion in less than an hour. Extending the range to one minute would leave him feverish and unconscious within three minutes.
That was because the human brain couldn't withstand the overwhelming amount of information.
Foreseeing isolated fragments was far less taxing, but...
even then, the burden on his brain rose exponentially with the distance into the future.
By the time he looked an hour ahead, even an S-rank like him couldn't endure it for a single second.
In other words, unlike my all-purpose hypnosis, it was genuinely difficult to use.
Yet Công had mastered the ability completely.
With just one finger.
'He had not told even me the secret until we had known each other for ten years...'
Công's method of using it was extremely simple.
Whether or not to dispatch someone somewhere.
Whether or not to attack at that moment.
He accepted the risk of overloading his brain only at such crucial binary choices.
That was his way of minimizing the burden on his brain.
He even minimized the casting time.
As though taking a photograph with his brain, he viewed only one desired frame of the future and then ended the foresight.
He claimed that this method even allowed him to see a future one day away.
'No one but you could pull that off anyway.'
It was easier said than done—a feat of absurd difficulty.
The former demanded extreme reflexes and strategic insight.
The latter required him to judge from one snapshot how his choice would alter the future.
And in real time.
It was the kind of application that made his Intelligence stat in the upper nine-point range seem entirely natural.
'Besides, the ability damaged his mental health the more he used it.'
But there was one problem even he could never overcome.
What happened at a binary choice when both options caused a loss?
As a leader, as a commander, at the moment of deciding tactics,
if no matter what he did, at least one person would die?
He had been forced to face that kind of trolley problem dozens—hundreds—of times.
His war against the Grade 0 villain Necromancer had been that brutal.
'Even after he saved Vietnam, he'd ended up drinking and whining every day. That guy.'
Because of that, I had suffered plenty as his drinking companion.
Even after everything was over, whenever he drank, he'd mutter things like, 'Nguyễn Xuân Thiên, I was sorry...'
I could never say anything. I had only listened.
It was a bitter fate for a hero who had saved his homeland.
'Still, all that hell you endured had meant something, Công.'
"The Necromancer's weakness is that if you know her unique mana pattern, you can disable the zombies."
"......?"
But now that I had regressed,
Công didn't need to go through that same hell again, did he?
The drunken laments I'd heard so often before regression that my ears had gone numb.
A strategy for defeating the Necromancer, soaked in regret.
A future ten years away that even he couldn't glimpse.
It was time to spoil his life.
"How is that a weakness? How would you even figure that out...."
"Vietnam’s national anthem... Tiến Quân Ca, right? Match its frequency with scale-based mana and make it resonate. The zombies will collapse on their own."
"......?"
The Grade 0 Villain Necromancer.
A villain who could endlessly raise corpses and command them as zombies.
A necromancer who protected herself with elite zombies on par with A-rank awakeners and ravaged Vietnam with hundreds of thousands of B- and C-rank zombies.
Her specialty was a war of attrition with such overwhelming numbers that even my master and I had grown sick of it, but...
one person was controlling that entire army.
There was no way the control system could be complicated.
The Grade 0 villain’s ability boasted security comparable to a smartphone pattern lock: know the pattern, and it opened.
'Granted, he and Vietnam’s researchers had only discovered it by a miracle after ten years of grinding.'
The look on his face when I told him had been a sight to behold.
Seriously, how could the forced reset code for zombies controlled by a Grade 0 villain be Tiến Quân Ca, Vietnam’s national anthem?
That was exactly the expression he wore.
"No, how do you know that?"
"Basic implant— Ahem. Application. My ability also manipulates the mind, so the principles are similar."
"Even so. You've never even seen her in person...."
"She's S-rank at best. I am EX-grade. Got it?"
"...Well, I can't argue with that."
Anyway, I had cut ten years of blind trial and error down to a single minute.
Furthermore,
"Besides, from what I saw, her patterns were fairly straightforward. I'll explain them."
"Even her patterns? That's seriously absurd. Even if you're EX-rank...."
"Just watch. If you do this, she'll react like this, right?"
Appendix: a guide to the patterns Công had learned through ten years of constant fighting.
I had learned all of it by watching him get drunk and demonstrate, 'When she does this, I do this! Like this!'
From an amateur, that would have been nothing but drunken rambling, but...
he and I had both been S-rank, so even that much had been enough for me to get the gist.
Perhaps he sensed something too, because Công’s expression turned puzzled.
"No, it's definitely similar to my fighting style, but...."
'Because you had done it.'
"I'll film this and send it to you later."
".........?"
Utterly baffled, Công blinked several times before finally raising one finger.
He was about to activate his ability, Future Sight.
"Wait a moment. Now...."
—Drip.
"......Why is this real?"
After peeking into the future, he stared in disbelief, apparently forgetting his nosebleed.
He had probably seen himself disabling the zombies.
It felt wrong to act smug about it, so I merely patted his shoulder.
"So you don't need to interrogate the Grade 1 Villain anymore, right?"
"Huh? Ah, uh, yeah...? Well, I guess so."
"Then can I leave now? My wives—cough, cough. My classmates are waiting."
'We could have soup and soju later, after he saved Vietnam.'
A quintessentially Korean promise to meet again.
But perhaps because he was Vietnamese despite appearances,
an un-Korean degree of clinginess held me back.
"Alright, I'm off. Later...."
—Grab.
"Huh?"
"Wait. Yujin."
When I turned around, Công was looking up at me.
It was an angle that made him look like a cute girl, which pissed me off a bit.
"Assuming all this is true... then why are you telling me this?"
"Huh?"
"A method to neutralize a Grade 0 villain’s ability is priceless intelligence. You could demand anything in exchange—even me, the seventh-ranked S-rank—and it would be fair."
'Ah, shit. What a creepy thing to say.'
Even coming from a man, it sounded rather disgusting.
He probably meant I could ask him to naturalize as a Korean citizen, but his appearance made it sound needlessly strange.
I scowled and waved him off.
-Swish.
"Ugh, impossible. I like women."
"...? No, I'm not joking, Yujin. Why are you showing such kindness to me—to Vietnam?"
But his serious mood showed no sign of fading.
I understood. I had essentially granted his deepest wish without asking for anything in return, but...
when a close friend became that serious, it made me cringe a little.
So I gave him a simple answer.
"It's information you'd have found out in about ten years anyway, so you don't need to thank me... but later, much later. If something happens to Korea, come help."
"Huh?"
"In this dangerous world, who knows what might happen? A real EX-rank Gate could appear someday."
'Fifteen years later.'
A colossal Gate would appear fifteen years later.
A catastrophe that even I, then ranked first among the S-ranks, had been unable to stop.
With that in mind, the more strength humanity had, the better.
...Though I would've helped him even without that reason.
It'd have been shameless to exploit the life-or-death struggle he had endured merely because I'd regressed.
I smiled faintly, trying to convey that.
"You'll come help, right? We are friends."
"......."
As for what his answer was...
I didn't need to hear it.
We were friends, after all.
"Yeah. I'll definitely come. Yujin."
"Okay, then...."
"I swear on my name—Võ Chí Công, seventh among the S-ranks."
"———Pfft!!!!"
He even set me up for one final assassination.
He was definitely my friend.
* * *
After that touching yet dizzying exchange,
Công took a picture with me and left.
"Why would two men take a picture together?"
"I don't like it either, but I have my reasons, so bear with it."
"Ugh."
It wasn't a special picture.
It was just a photo of two guys standing there blankly.
They posed as though the photo deserved a caption reading, 'The Two of Them Are Troublemakers, but They Are the Strongest.'
Anyway, after retrieving his phone from the robed woman.
Công grinned at me.
"Then I'll be going, my friend. There are people suffering even at this very moment."
"Yeah, sure. Let's have some rice soup and soju next time."
"Pfft. Sure."
A thoroughly Korean farewell.
Then he strode out of the faculty office as though every second mattered.
———Alone, leaving behind the robed woman who had accompanied him in silence.
"......? Hey, aren't you taking your secretary or adjutant with you?"
-He paused.
Công stopped for a moment.
His head turned back toward me.
More precisely, toward the robed woman.
"You've seen him, so you know. He is a good man, and my only friend."
"......."
"Please be gentle with him."
-Swift.
He even left me with that baffling remark.
The only thing I understood was that his lips silently formed the word 'sorry' in my direction.
It didn't take long to realize why he was sorry.
—Rustle.
"......?"
Only then did the woman raise a hand to her robe.
Her face slowly emerged from beneath the fully hooded robe.
—Soft rustle.
"...Haa."
"............!!!!!!!!!!?"
Silver hair elegantly tied back.
Mysterious purple eyes.
An overall noble grace that women in their twenties could never possess.
And finally...
and a fierce personality that kicked first whenever she disliked someone.
-Thwack.
"Gahhh!!?"
A single kick from her sent my backside dropping automatically onto the sofa.
But I was not upset.
Because the woman who plopped down in front of me.
That woman who didn't even care that her clothes had loosened and her cleavage was showing......
"I enjoyed your little farce. You have some skill."
-Plop.
"But I did not seek you out to watch mere tricks of the tongue."
The woman ranked first among the S-ranks without dispute, hailed as humanity’s strongest since awakenings began.
The pinnacle of awakeners whose mere existence sparked a katana craze.
A hidden heroine who could be romanced in the game only after clearing the final entrance exam.
The last of my three wives before regression.
My master, who had taught me the Jaha Sword Art.
"Now, I ask you."
"That sword art of yours—who taught it to you? Lie, and I will cut you down."
She was the Sword Saint, Aika Ninomiya.