Chapter 21

Chapter. 21

A suffocating silence!

Han Seol-ah’s face went cold.

Jin Cheon-jin’s hand trembled.

Min Ji-hee bit her lip.

The atmosphere was grim.

Ah.

My explanation had been too brief and too simple.

“Of course, I am going too.”

“…Ah.”

A sigh of relief escaped all three of them at once.

Their shoulders, which had been stiff with fear, slowly loosened.

Since I had only told them to carry the nuclear bomb, from their point of view it might have sounded like I was saying, ‘Go there and blow yourselves up.’

They were already treating me like some merciless dictator, and if I left things as they were, I was about to be branded a psychopath who used his subordinates as disposable tools.

‘It has been far too long since I last spoke with people.’

A trivial mistake. Ha ha.

I added calmly,“…You did not think I meant you were supposed to clutch the bomb in your arms and perish in a blaze of glory, did you?”

“N-no! Of course not!”

I clicked my tongue.

Judging by their expressions, that was exactly what they had thought before they got caught.

I should clear up this misunderstanding once and for all.

“Do not misunderstand. I loathe things like noble sacrifice.”

The three of them flinched.

‘Ah. So that was not it.’

…It felt as though I could hear voices saying that.

Good grief. Just what kind of monster did they think I was?

“It will be the same from now on. Not only for you three. I have no intention of letting any Hunter or Awakened in the Republic of Korea die a meaningless death.”

“…You mean.”

“The salvation I promised you is not something built upon someone’s sacrifice.”

I continued flatly.

“One dies, another survives and grieves…. Endings like that leave a bad taste in the mouth.”

“…Pardon?”

“If we are going to do this, it is better to do it cleanly with a No-Death Clear.”

I truly meant that.

I had always been the type who preferred happy endings. Whenever possible, I aimed for total survival, for a No-Death Clear.

I did not want to see the ending credits sullied by a memorial roll.

Besides,This was not a game. It was reality.

The weight of a life was equally heavy for everyone.

If possible… I wanted to pursue a No-Death Clear for as far as my hand could reach.

That was why I needed an even more ‘perfect strategy.’

If there was a path where no one had to be sacrificed, there was no reason to deliberately choose a second-best option.

Silence fell for a moment.

As expected, the first to respond was Min Ji-hee.

“…Apostle.”

“Mm?”

“You are… remarkably merciful.”

Min Ji-hee’s gaze deepened.

It was the kind of look one might turn upon a sage.

Ugh.

That was going a little too far.

I shook my head.

“I am not saying I am a good man. It is only that….”

Mercy? It was nothing so grand.

I simply wanted to eliminate variables that would raise my Quest failure rate.

And I had the ability to do that.

“My plan has no need for something as crude as another person’s sacrifice.”

“Ah….”

“…Stop entertaining strange thoughts and just do what you are told. That is all.”

“…Yes. I will remember that.”

Min Ji-hee bowed her head and stepped back.

‘…She understood, right?’

…Right?

***

After the Apostle left, Min Ji-hee called for a strategy meeting.

Jin Cheon-jin spoke in a doubtful voice.

“I think I may have misunderstood the Apostle as a far more heinous being than he truly is.”

“And what do you think now?”

“‘Endings like that leave a bad taste in the mouth’… was that not simply his way of expressing that he cares for us in his own manner? It turns out he is rather soft-hearted beneath it all….”

“Ahaha. Association President, no. No….”

Still smiling faintly, Min Ji-hee slowly shook her head.

“That was not human affection.”

“Hmm? Then what was it?”

“Perfectionism.”

As though the smile she had worn until just now had been a lie, Min Ji-hee’s eyes sank into an icy calm as she dissected the hidden meaning behind the Apostle’s words.

“And a truly vicious kind of it….”

“…?”

Min Ji-hee continued while staring at the door through which the Apostle had vanished.

“Think carefully about what he said earlier. He said it would ‘leave a bad taste in the mouth.’ Not that it would be sad, but that it would be unpleasant.”

A tremor entered Min Ji-hee’s voice.

“From his point of view, the death of an ally is not a tragedy. It is a blemish splashed across the perfect blueprint he drew. Why would someone strong enough to guarantee the clear of a Quest choose to clear it while losing points for no reason…? That was the logic of the strong.”

“Huh… that was what he meant?”

“So you must keep your wits about you.”

Min Ji-hee’s eyes flashed as she declared it.

“If we die, he will not grieve for us. Instead, he will likely be displeased and think, ‘Who gave you permission to die and mar my perfect clear record?’”

“…What a terrifying man.”

“Yes. Which is why we absolutely must survive.”

Min Ji-hee said only that much before closing her mouth.

But her thoughts were spinning even faster inside her head.

‘Quest, Bad Ending, No-Death Clear….’

The words the Apostle had let slip without thinking.

The direction to which they pointed was obvious.

‘Apostle. Are you viewing this world with the same sensibility as a game?’

If so…

‘…Are we nothing more than chess pieces?’

Meanwhile.

Han Seol-ah, who had been quietly watching the increasingly grave conversation between the other two, merely tilted her head.

‘…I thought he was just cheering us on, telling us not to die and not to worry anymore.’

***

Inside the helicopter headed for Pyongyang.

It was just Han Seol-ah and me.

Below us, the trail left by the ‘Absolute Zero’ I had fired stretched on like a white scar.

Han Seol-ah stared at that mark in deep thought.

“Apostle.”

Then she suddenly called out to me.

“…Will we be able to go back to that world again?”

“Hmm.”

I could guess what Han Seol-ah was thinking.

After tasting Glacial Flash for the first time, she had tried however she could to imitate it.

She probably wanted to learn the Ultimate Skill that had carved that swath of destruction below us as well.

“No.”

I understood how she felt, but I refused.

The Possession Ticket had to be used more carefully.

Besides, there was a second reason as well.

“And you cannot use it.”

It was something I had realized after using it myself in reality.

This was not a spell the human brain could calculate.

I could cast it with a mere ‘click’ only because Synchronization handled the calculations for me.

‘If I had to cast it raw, there is no way I could.’

And this was not the ‘Skill Tree’ Han Seol-ah needed to master either.

“Give it up.”

“….”

Instead of answering, Han Seol-ah pressed her lips together.

Her mouth jutted out ever so slightly. It seemed she was upset.

‘Well, what can you do.’

There was no point staring up at a tree you could never climb.

HUMMM—!

With a shallow tremor, the helicopter touched down in Pyongyang.

It was directly above the coordinates Min Ji-hee had calculated for me.

The place where the Boss Gate would be born for the first time.

“Han Seol-ah.”

“Yes.”

From here on, this was the important part.

“What do you think is the essence of Frost Type magic?”

“…?”

A puzzled look bloomed across Han Seol-ah’s face.

As if to ask why I was bringing that up now, of all times.

But she quickly steadied herself and answered earnestly.

“…It is cold magic.”

“….”

Mm. That was the correct answer.

“Then what is the defining trait of Frost Type magic?”

“It is difficult to handle, but a single strike is powerful?”

“And why do you think it has that advantage?”

“Well….”

Han Seol-ah blinked as though at a loss for words.

Her expression clearly asked, Why are you even asking something so obvious?

“……Because that is simply what kind of power it is?”

I nodded.

I had expected that answer.

“Then what about fire magic?”

“I have heard it does not require complicated control like Frost Type magic. You just fire it, and it goes.”

“Why do you think such a difference exists?”

“…Because that is how it was decided?”

That was not exactly wrong.

In reality, Frost Type magic, Han Seol-ah’s specialty, was difficult to handle.

The reason her magic consumed so much Mana was that its complexity required countless safeguards to keep it from injuring the caster.

Meanwhile, fire magic was not nearly as difficult to use as Frost Type magic.

Why?

Why did such an irrational balance exist?

Most Hunters simply accepted it, saying that was just how the Tower’s blessing worked.

So Han Seol-ah’s answer was not incorrect.

“But it is not the right answer either.”

“…What?”

I was a seasoned veteran who had raised Lost Honor’s Frost Sorcerer all the way to max level.

I was a mage who had handled both Han Seol-ah’s magic and the Frost Sorcerer’s magic.

When Synchronization was active, I was an EX-rank Hunter, and more than that, a genius who, I would say without hesitation, handled Frost Type Mana better than Han Seol-ah herself.

That was me.

And because it was me, I could reach a conclusion.

—Han Seol-ah had grown along the wrong path.

The premise itself had been wrong from the beginning.

The Frost Type was not a school of magic meant for a damage dealer.

‘Frost’ was CC… in other words, it was magic for a ‘debuffer,’ a role specialized in crowd control and inflicting status effects.

That was why Han Seol-ah had found Frost Type Mana so difficult to handle.

‘Wrong application.’

She had tried to forcibly twist Mana specialized for support and control into offensive magic, and so the difficulty had increased exponentially.

To use an analogy, fire magic was a ‘pistol’ that fired the moment you pulled the trigger.

It was easy. Simple. Because it was a kind of magic meant to be used in exactly that way.

Frost magic, on the other hand, was a ‘hand-built gun’ where you had to shave down the barrel with Mana, assemble the bullet, mix the powder, and then fire it.

Compared to the other, it was vastly harder. Because it was not magic meant to be used in that way.

And if you slipped during that process?

The gun exploded in your hand.

…But none of that was Han Seol-ah’s fault.

‘…It was an unavoidable choice.’

The problem began with the fact that the Republic of Korea’s Hunter pool was warped.

There were no reliable damage dealers, so they had built a structure that placed every decisive blow on this girl’s shoulders.

To live up to those expectations, Han Seol-ah had forcibly compressed Mana unsuited to that purpose and developed a finishing move powerful enough to crack open the head of the 94th Floor boss.

And despite doing something that absurd, she had not even died.

‘What terrifying talent.’

I was probably the only person in this world who knew that.

Let me return to the question.

Why had Han Seol-ah been the first host given to me?

Because she was the strongest?

No. In terms of pure force and toughness, Jin Cheon-jin had the edge.

Because she was the smartest?

No. In strategy, tactics, and sheer mental agility, Min Ji-hee overwhelmingly surpassed her.

Because she was the prettiest and cutest?

…I would not deny it, but surely that was not the reason.

The moment I unlocked Frost Sorcerer as my first class, I instinctively understood why.

There was only one reason.

Because she was the most necessary.

Necessary to whom?

To me.

Necessary for what?

For clearing the Tower.

I lifted my head and looked toward the southern sky.

Far in the distance, I could see a colossal pillar piercing through the clouds.

—The Republic of Korea’s Tower.

That cursed structure had stopped at the 94th Floor and driven the nation to the brink of ruin.

For the past ten years, the goal of every citizen of the Republic of Korea had been to clear that Tower.

I had been the same.

For ten years, I had prayed and prayed to be given a chance to break that Tower.

For ten years, I had carried the hope, I want to Awaken.

In the end, that hope had merely been another face of my obsession to clear that Tower no matter what.

According to the information I had gathered over those ten years, it took at least three Hunters to break through the 94th Floor.

In game terms, a perfect party composition was required to clear it.

One of those roles was a debuffer.

And not just any debuffer. At minimum, S-rank talent was required. Ideally, EX-rank.

I stared fixedly at Han Seol-ah.

“…?”

Han Seol-ah.

This Hunter possessed the finest possible qualifications for a ‘debuffer’—no, talent granted by the gods.

Whenever I simulated a Tower clear, she was always the first person I wrote down.

The essence of a Frost Sorcerer was that of a debuffer.

It was a class that could never truly become a damage dealer.

And yet Han Seol-ah, as she was now, had been forced to live the life of a damage dealer, and had spent ten years doing exactly that.

In game terms… because I was the only damage dealer in the party, she had put points into the wrong Skill Tree and the wrong stats.

A supporter could wrap themselves in spell-power items all they liked, but they would still find it difficult to match the efficiency of a true mage.

If this were a game, a single tap on a Skill Reset Ticket would solve everything.

But reality had no such item.

That meant we had to tear apart habits ingrained into her body for more than ten years, and even remake the sense of self she had built as a damage dealer.

That was not as easy as it sounded.

If I tried to teach her again from the beginning, it would take far too long.

But we did not have time. In two days, destruction would be upon us.

So.

I was sorry, but there was only one method left.

‘Shock therapy.’

I lightly tapped Ice Dragon’s Eye with Eternal Winter.

CRACK!

With that crisp fracture, a crack ran across Ice Dragon’s Eye.

“…Apostle?”

“Here.”

I shoved Eternal Winter and Ice Dragon’s Eye into Han Seol-ah’s hands.

RUMBLE—!

Ice Dragon’s Eye began to vibrate.

An ominous mass of Frost Type Mana—no, Demonic Energy—began to billow out.

“Apostle? There is something wrong with this.”

I took a step back.

“There is nothing wrong. It is functioning normally.”

“Ah, I knew it. So I do not need to be alarmed, right?”

“It is in the state right before it explodes.”

“Ah… what?”

Han Seol-ah slowly turned her head toward me.

“…What?”

Her face clearly said, What do you mean by that?

“It is going to blow very soon. 10.”

In her hands, the ‘nuclear bomb’ screamed as it emitted a crimson light.

“9.”

“W-wait!!!”

There was no time to think with her head.

At this moment, only instinct remained.

Throw away the habits of the past ten years and awaken your true talent.

“8.”

The greatest stimulant known to man was the threat of death!

Go, Han Seol-ah!

If you want to live, then awaken!