Ch.662Chapter 25. Let it Unfold (12)

After Ymir diligently cleaned off the awakening sentence made of chocolate.

“It’s quite remarkable to meet in this combination.”

After each of them landed at Incheon and Gimhae airports where they were spotted by people, they immediately flew to the Ulleungdo pension where I was staying. I raised my glass to the two of them.

“Welcome to Korea.”

“Sure.”

“What are you saying?”

“……”

Seeing the prickly reactions from the two women, I turned my gaze to Seong Ji-eun, who was watching the situation like a spectator from across the river.

“Ms. Seong Ji-eun. Aren’t you managing your juniors properly?”

“They’re upset because someone supposedly enjoyed an overnight patriotic party on a ship with a 17:1 ratio.”

“That was obviously ability consulting, of course. Ah.”

“That’s why they’re upset.”

I casually raised my glass toward White and Blue—Hyun Se-rin and Cheon Ju-yeon—who clearly looked down.

“…Want to have a match before the preliminaries?”

“I’d prefer after the preliminaries but before the main tournament.”

Hyun Se-rin wanted a one-on-one battle with me in a stadium, not in bed.

“I’ll pass on the match, but something else.”

“What else?”

“I want time acceleration too. I called it ‘Hyper’ thinking it would make me move faster, but I had no idea it would be that fast. I couldn’t even comment after that.”

Cheon Ju-yeon showed more interest in the ability I demonstrated than in having a match.

“How did you do it? Simple ultra-high-speed movement? Or did you really spray particles that accelerate relative time like you mentioned before?”

“It’s similar if you combine all of those. But it’s not infinite—I use it with restrictions.”

Abilities have limitless potential, but placing restrictions on that potential is one way to bring forth powerful strength.

“In exchange for moving quickly, there’s a sacrifice.”

“What is it?”

“As much as I move more than others in a slow-motion world, I have to accept that time as it is. What’s one second for others might feel like 120 seconds to me.”

It’s like experiencing each frame of 120 frames per second as one second.

“Basically, I age 120 times faster while using it.”

“Gasp.”

“…I don’t want to learn it.”

After hearing about the serious side effect of the ability, Cheon Ju-yeon quickly gave up on learning it.

“I don’t want to age faster than others.”

While everyone would feel that way, women would be especially sensitive to it.

Living through time faster than others.

Even if one had the power of “agelessness,” if the brain feels like it’s aging during that time, the mind would age too.

No one would want to grow old.

“Still, I’d like to learn about it.”

“Learning is fine, but every time you use it and get used to the acceleration, your eating time increases?”

“What?”

“Remember when you somewhat understood time acceleration while catching Dueoksini? When you reach my level, you really do age that much faster. Much faster. Because the more proficient you become, the more time gets accelerated. Think of it as constantly running at 2x speed.”

“…So if I could move 1024 times faster, then I’d age 2048 times faster?”

“Something like that.”

Even if it’s an incredible ability, if the side effects are unspeakably serious…

“Hey, Manager Do?”

“Yes?”

“Theoretically, could you live up to 10,000 times faster than others?”

“That’s right. And I might fall into a world of time from which I can never return.”

The side effects of time acceleration have been depicted in many forms of content.

For instance, a knife piercing the heart might only enter and exit in 3 seconds, but one might have to feel that time over several years.

Or, being unable to escape from a world of eternal acceleration, becoming visible only to those who can perceive the acceleration.

“I might watch over someone I love for decades or centuries, while that person can barely glance at me for a second due to the time disparity.”

“Then, shouldn’t you be careful about using that ability?”

“That’s why I haven’t used it carelessly. Oh, but why did I use it against S-rank collaborators? Because my ‘cooldown’ was ready.”

After capturing Dueoksini, I hadn’t used it for quite a while, so my sense of time acceleration had dulled considerably.

“I can adjust to a speed that’s appropriate for me to use, so there’s no problem. It’s similar to alcohol.”

“Everything in moderation, huh?”

“There’s no word easier to say than ‘moderate.'”

Everything in moderation.

And according to the situation.

“Even just taking a casual photo of the five of us together like this. Who would think this scene is a meeting of Syndicate executives?”

I pulled out a magical image of our photo taken through the Syndicate Watch.

“A patriotic hero and S+ rank ability users, America’s four Riders all soaking together in an open-air bath.”

That’s right.

Currently, we’re soaking in a hot spring.

Seong Ji-eun, Cheon Ju-yeon, Hyun Se-rin, and Yoon Hye-ra/Ymir.

Me too.

The image edited for public release would naturally show us “wearing towels” so as not to shock people, but that would be after taking proper alibi photos.

“Yoon Hye-ra/Ymir suggested that the four of them get matching maid outfits and take a photo next to me in a suit.”

“That doesn’t sound like something Hye-ra would suggest.”

“Unnie, I’m Ymir.”

“I know. I was just wondering if Hye-ra had that kind of taste.”

Fortunately, Yoon Hye-ra wasn’t misunderstood as having the twisted desires of someone who had to act as the Red Rider.

“After taking that photo, we need to go straight to the opening ceremony, so when are you planning to drop the bait? During the preliminaries?”

“The bait will be spread by the non-ability users with EX+ rank time.”

“EX+ rank time…?”

“In other words, they’re also called the time Bill Gates.”

“Ah.”

Even if popular bait flares up briefly and ends, the firewood will burn 24 hours a day.

“While using them to keep public attention focused on the patriotic hero’s affairs, we need to move in another direction. The things happening behind the patriotic hero.”

“Should I step up?”

Hyun Se-rin’s eyes sparkled.

“No, is it time for Hyun Fenrir to appear?”

“Hyun Fenrir has already been active, so how about this? We’d like to create some alter egos too.”

“…Why don’t all four of you just appear as alter egos?”

As if Hyun Se-rin had caught on, the other two also subtly expressed their intentions.

“What about Yoon Hye-ra/Ymir?”

“Hmm… I’ll be like backup? I’ll respond if demons appear. Not as Hye-ra unnie, but as Platinum Sun.”

“That’s good too. Even if it’s the World Cup, those who are destined to become demons will become demons.”

In this world, people become demons even to recover stolen honey for their wives.

“There will definitely be one or two who fall in the preliminaries and become demons. Or…”

“Someone who fails to fulfill a special mission from their country and becomes a demon.”

“Someone who gets attacked by a villain in Korea and becomes a demon to survive.”

“…Someone who came to recover money owed by Haeguneul, only to find out the money has completely vanished, and becomes a demon out of anger.”

There are truly diverse reasons for becoming a demon.

“Whether you unify or appear as alter egos, I’m grateful, but you already need to move officially with your main identities in public. I’ll just accept your goodwill.”

And removing those factors is the role of executives other than the “Riders” who need to publicly appear as Syndicate-Heroes.

“Now is the time for the Goblin to handle things nationwide. Unfortunately, it’s not time for you to appear as alter egos.”

“That’s a bit disappointing. But don’t you also need to bring out multiple alter egos simultaneously, Manager Do?”

“That’s right. There’s ‘Doblin’ too.”

As Yoon Hye-ra/Ymir said, while taking down villains and demons, I need to bring out another alter ego for this World Cup, one that’s neither the Goblin nor Do Ji-rider.

“That’s true.”

Doblin.

The only “male S+ rank” ability user among what feels like a female quartet S+ party.

All that’s known is that the official call sign is ‘Doblin,’ a variation of Goblin where the G is changed to D.

“You have to participate in the opening ceremony parade. We can’t say an ability user couldn’t come because of a cold.”

Like many in America and others around the world, Doblin is the entity who completed hero registration and World Cup entry registration just “10 minutes before” the deadline.

As an S+ rank.

“Yoon Hye-ra/Ymir. Do you know Doblin’s information registered on the Hero Wiki?”

“Um… S+ rank, male. That’s it.”

“Right. And your concern is this? That my appearance while catching the manipulators might look similar to Doblin’s.”

“Yes.”

“We’re not particularly worried about you getting hurt or anything…”

“Doblin should be a completely different type of entity. One that evokes the Goblin.”

“Yes, that’s true, but…”

I displayed a visual screen for everyone.

“It seems that since Seonbital has taken that position now, I can position my alter ego a bit more freely?”

“…Hmm?”

Seonbital is the Goblin.

It’s bait that someone has been consistently posting online, and the response has been pretty good.

They say the Goblin defeated Haeguneul, and to act righteously, the Goblin discarded the goblin mask and wore the Seonbital mask.

“Since I have various abilities anyway, I might as well use this one too.”

Everything is.

“At the very end, I’ll say ‘that was all me too,’ but until then, I need to complicate things for people and make their hair fall out, right?”

For the peace of the world that the Syndicate will rule.

“That way they’ll buy a lot of the hair loss treatment we developed.”

For the boundless sales of the hair loss treatment successfully developed through the arduous research of abilities, magic power, and the Syndicate.

“Transform.”

I demonstrated Doblin’s appearance in front of everyone.

“You’ve all probably forgotten. That I can change my form like this too.”

“Oh, shit…”

Seong Ji-eun got a nosebleed.