Chapter 183: The Price
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 183: The Price
"Is this... Time Stop?"
No, it hadn't reached the level of a full stop, but time had indeed been significantly dilated.
Muen quickly deduced the nature of this power from the changes in his surroundings.
As the embryonic form of an Artificial Authority created by Teacher Mela over a thousand years to master the laws of time, it wasn't surprising that the Eternal Clock possessed such miraculous capabilities.
He just hadn't expected that the very first inscription of the second stage would reach this level of potency.
Everything around him had slowed to a crawl in his perception. Judging by the falling droplets of water, time had been slowed by at least several dozen times.
If it was already this powerful, how terrifying would this strength be once Teacher Mela’s construction was fully complete?
At that point, would it truly be possible to possess the grand power to reverse time itself?
If he had that kind of power...
For some reason, Muen once again thought of that beautiful face, a face that had bloomed as briefly as a night-blooming cereus.
...
...
"I feel like if I don't do something in a situation like this, I’d be failing my reputation as a blonde bastard."
Amidst the slowly drifting water droplets and flower petals, Muen looked at Teacher Mela. Her frozen expression made her look somewhat dorky and cute—especially those chubby cheeks, so white and tender they made one want to take a bite. Suddenly, his brain short-circuited, and a wicked courage rose within him.
Just one squeeze. I’ll just take one squeeze!
The face of a legal loli wasn't something you got to touch whenever you wanted!
This was his chance!
The distance between them wasn't great. Under the drag of time, Muen’s movements had also become much slower, but when he moved at full speed, he was still far faster than the sluggish objects around him.
Closer! Closer!
Muen’s fingers slowly approached Teacher Mela. As he drew nearer to that fair, soft cheek, his heart couldn't help but race with excitement...
However, the very instant Muen’s finger was about to make contact, he discovered to his horror that Teacher Mela—who should have been frozen still—suddenly shifted her amber-red eyes with perfect fluidity.
It was as if a girl in a photograph had suddenly broken through the constraints of the dimension to cast a meaningful look at him.
"Your courage always manages to surprise me, kid. Both in what you think and what you do."
Muen’s expression stiffened slowly, agonizingly slowly.
Yet, even within his own slowed movements, he saw Teacher Mela’s body give a slight shudder. Then, as if completely shaking off the shackles of time, she began to move with agile grace.
"Any last words?" Teacher Mela blinked, saying terrifying things with an adorable face.
"Tea—cher—Me—la—I—was—wro—"
Muen’s voice was stretched out incredibly long. Before he could finish, Teacher Mela had already adopted an impatient expression.
"I'll take that as a no. Go cool your head in the sky."
Teacher Mela clapped her small hands.
With a whoosh, Blonde Head Rocket No. 2 successfully detached from its neck-mount, breaking the sound barrier as it soared into the sky. After performing several high-difficulty maneuvers in the air, it made a successful landing—face-first.
The time dilation had vanished at some point. The pure water droplets spilling from the watering can reflected a faint rainbow in the air.
Teacher Mela picked up Muen’s head, staring at the pale-faced boy with a beaming smile. "How does it feel?"
"I... I have exited the capsule. I... feel good."
Good, my foot. Muen was seeing stars; he felt like his brains had been scrambled into a smoothie.
"Excellent. You’re about to feel even better."
Teacher Mela gave a wicked grin. That meaningful expression made the hair on Muen’s neck stand up. He wailed in terror, "Wait, Teacher Mela, isn't this a bit much? I was just joking!"
"This isn't my punishment for you. This is the price you were always meant to pay."
"The price?"
Before Muen could wrap his head around that, Teacher Mela lifted his head and set it back onto the neck of his body.
In an instant, his senses snapped back into place.
An indescribable agony surged through him.
At that moment, Muen felt as if he could hear his tendons tearing and his bones cracking. Immediately after, a series of sharp pops, like beans roasting in a pan, exploded from his joints.
His skin turned a faint red, but it wasn't a healthy flush; rather, the capillaries near the surface had all burst, and beads of blood began to seep through his pores.
Before Muen could even process what was happening, he felt every ounce of strength drained from his body. He collapsed into a heap on the ground like a pile of boneless mush.
"Cough, cough... What... what’s going on?"
Muen opened his mouth and coughed up several mouthfuls of blood mixed with bits of tissue. Clearly, his internal organs had sustained significant damage as well.
"I told you, this is the price you must pay."
Teacher Mela looked down at Muen, a hint of schadenfreude flickering in her eyes. "Did you really think the power of the Eternal Clock was that easy to control?"
"But why does the price have to be paid like this? Can't I just pay with money?" Muen shouted indignantly.
"We call it a 'price,' but the root cause is simply that your physical body is too weak."
Teacher Mela rolled her eyes. "The Eternal Clock, which has a preliminary connection with you, can extend your time, but it cannot strengthen your physical form."
"Which means..." Muen suddenly understood.
"Exactly. Because time was stretched, you overexerted your body without even realizing it."
Teacher Mela put her hands behind her back, pacing around Muen as she explained:
"Generally speaking, it is difficult for a human to exert their full strength because the body has a protective mechanism to ensure we don't damage ourselves when using our power. However, under the effects of time dilation, that protective mechanism struggles to function. As for the reason..."
"Because in that state, my brain perceived my movements as being very slow." Muen recalled his attempt to pinch Teacher Mela’s cheek.
Because he felt he was moving too slowly, he had desperately tried to go faster, and faster still.
But that "slowness" within the dilated state... in the flow of real time...
"It had long since shattered your physical limits."
"Exactly. That's it."
Teacher Mela snapped her fingers, nodding in satisfaction that her foolish disciple wasn't entirely beyond help.
"This is precisely due to the limitations of the body. Even though your consciousness can clearly perceive time slowing down, your physical form still can't keep up. The Eternal Clock only affects time; it cannot influence anything else."
"But I feel like the price is more than just that."
Muen forced a bitter smile. Crimson flames flickered on his body, but the fire was weak, making the recovery of his injuries agonizingly slow.
"I feel like using it for even that short amount of time has completely hollowed me out."
"Of course. What do you think you were influencing? That is Time—something even the gods cannot fully master."
Teacher Mela stood with her hands behind her back, her gaze drifting past the sea of flowers toward the distance.
Her petite frame exuded a cold arrogance that seemed entirely at odds with her appearance.
Yet, this arrogance felt perfectly natural to Muen.
Compared to the Artificial Authority of the Eternal Clock, perhaps Teacher Mela—the one who had created it—was the truly inconceivable existence.