Chapter 246
[13th Round] Stress
▷ Intervention: It looks like you’ll have to postpone preparing for retirement until later, Hero. The genocide you caused is beyond common sense and cannot be justified even by making changes and adjustments. All progress will be overwritten from scratch.
‘What?! Wait! My hand just slipped!’
▷ a.n.a.lysis: Your adventures were excellent before arriving on the Eastern Continent. However, the incident that just took place is so fatal that it crossed out all of your achievements and previously earned reputation. Launching the regression process now…
‘Wait. If you force me to start all over again, then I’ll give up this venture altogether and go straight to Earth.’
That was no empty threat.
Until now, due to the system and teachers who could read minds, I had been hiding it, but I had a trump card up my sleeve.
Factoria.
During the festival, I gave her a special bracelet and told her to return to Earth to connect with my home planet.
Thanks to this connection, I could return to Earth, and once I did, I could no longer be kidnapped.
I now had the strength to reject the forced spatial displacement.
‘What do you say to that, you d.a.m.n system?’
▷ Calculation: a.n.a.lyzing data related to the festival…
The light of spatial movement that enveloped my body immediately disappeared.
▷ Conclusion: The Hero’s words have been proven true. How can you justify what happened?
I didn’t think I would be forced to use my trump card, which I wanted to hide until the very end, but I couldn’t help it.
Northern, Western, and Southern Continents.
Too much time had been spent on those three.
I had put in a lot of effort to promote flush toilets, show the locals how to use septic tanks, and train foolish wizards and inventors.
I didn’t want to do it all over again.
‘So listen carefully, system.’
The blue dragon that caused the problem was trying to charm me by pretending to shake my hand, and I instinctively reacted to it, causing my hand to slip.
And that wasn’t a made-up scenario.
The dragon really tried to examine me with magic.
▷ Judgment: That falls within the acceptable range of self-defense, but that cannot be used as the reason behind your subsequent genocide.
‘That’s not fair!’
Before that happened, I first told them that meteorites would start falling from the sky if I were deceiving them. However, the stupid locals didn’t believe me and even started to accuse me of unreasonable use of force.
Therefore, I was forced to rephrase what I said to convince them, due to which meteorites began to fall from the sky.
They brought the trouble to themselves.
‘Let’s be honest. I haven’t killed a single person on the Eastern Continent in this era. You cannot punish me for what happened to the random natural disaster victims.’
On the contrary, I tried to save them.
Instead of incompetent hypocrites (dragons) who fled by themselves since they couldn’t stop the disaster, I protected the Eastern Continent with the help of spirits!
‘What other proof do you need?’
▷ a.n.a.lysis: Searching for errors in that logic…
‘Ha! My logic is perfect.’
▷ Conclusion: Regression is inevitable.
‘Why?!’
▷ Reason: Your logic is subjective. If only the locals who blamed you were hurt, you could try to justify it. However, this incident affected many innocent lives that had nothing to do with the entire situation. You committed a crime that heroes should never commit.
‘Do you have proof that I was the cause of the natural disaster?’
▷ Reb.u.t.tal: No. However, your very act of praying with the desire for meteorites to fall is undeniable. Failure to provide a.s.sistance is also a crime. You watched the dragons attempt to stop the meteorites and waited for their retreat.
There was no accusation imaginable that was more stupid than that!
If someone else were in my shoes, they wouldn’t have been able to stop the meteorites at all.
If procrastination was a sin, then what about my companions who had killed many people while they were throwing time-wasting parties?
If they diligently performed their duties, we would have saved even more residents.
‘According to your logic, this should also be a crime.’
“You should stop, Drug Hero. The system can’t be persuaded. If it were possible, I would—”
“I don’t care.”
If I couldn’t convince the system, then I would just flee to Earth. If they wanted me to come back amicably, then they should convince me accordingly.
‘Hey system, what are you going to do?’
▷ Calculation: Eliminating logical contradictions…
‘Seek as much as you want, but there are no contradictions.’
▷ Conclusion: Rest is important for the Hero’s party, so this cannot be equated with not providing a.s.sistance. However, another conclusion follows this, recognized as the fault of the “G.o.ddess of Fantasy,” an auxiliary system that a.s.sists the Hero throughout his adventure. From the first day of your adventure, you have not rested a day. Negligence in the support system is tantamount to not providing a.s.sistance. This led to a build-up of stress.
The system’s findings far exceeded my expectations.
‘Is it all about stress?’
▷ Confirmation: Stress was the cause of this incident. This is an error of the auxiliary system, which failed to notice such a factor earlier. Instead of regression, an alternative option will be implemented.
After that, the system went silent.
Soon enough…
(I’m sorry, Hero!)
The G.o.ddess of Fantasy appeared, who could be called the personification of the system.
(All I can say to excuse my shortcomings is that there were no such heroes before your appearance. They rested when they needed it without any intervention. This has not happened before. I apologize again.)
‘Dear G.o.ddess, I a.s.sume an apology won’t be the end of it?’
(Of course! But before that, we must deal with the situation first. Even though this was my mistake, the blame will still fall on the shoulders of the Hero. It is impossible to continue the adventure as if nothing had happened.)
“Drug Hero, you really managed to convince the stubborn system… I think I’ll never stop respecting you.”
“Right. Respect me properly.”
I didn’t even think it would turn out that way.
Stress? It was unexpected.
(Don’t underestimate it. Stress is the source of all diseases. There is a way to resolve this situation and the issue of your vacation. The biggest problem is the innocent locals who died in the natural disaster. If we bring them all back to life, I think we’ll be able to solve this predicament.)
I also thought about it.
I could bring back to life all the inhabitants who died on Island E by summoning Saintess H, who acted as my representative in the present era.
Why did the system decide to resort to regression instead of coming to such a decision?
▷ Denial: There are no saints in this age. Hence, you cannot use resurrection. However, there is another option. High-ranking demons have the ability to reincarnate other races into demons.
‘A high-level demon… The Demon Lord?’
▷ Error: Your standards are too high. Pursuant to paragraph 8 of Article 4 of the “Emergency Measures,” the ownership of the first-cla.s.s prisoner “Ssosia” will be permanently transferred to “Kang Han Soo,” the chairman of the Emergency Response Committee. If you agree with this decision, say “confirm.”
First-cla.s.s prisoner.
Ssosia, the developer of the system, said that she was betrayed and imprisoned by the First Angel, who was one of her investors.
And they were going to free her out of there just like that?
The First Angel would unlikely be pleased by that.
“I confirm.”
But I didn’t care.
▷ Confirmation: The transfer of ownership of first-cla.s.s prisoner Ssosia is complete. She can be summoned immediately, but she was moved and imprisoned to a certain location for the sake of the events’ continuity. According to the script, she was sealed in a gem after confronting her father, the Demon Lord. You can go there and pick her up.
As much as this system bothered me, it still gave me a way out of the situation.
Had the property really pa.s.sed into my hands?
I immediately learned Ssosia’s whereabouts just by thinking about it.
“Okay, let’s finish this quickly.”
The system said that I had acc.u.mulated stress.
Over the past four years, Boris had served me as a heating pad, helping me drive away the cold nights. Still, the stress acc.u.mulated by the cowardly demoness stabbing my back with a knife grew like a s...o...b..ll daily, with compound interest accruing.
It was time to get rid of that stress.
“Drug Hero, this cemetery is suspicious.”
“Yes, very much so.”
Ssosia was sealed in a graveyard on the city’s outskirts, where stupid locals who criticized the Righteous Hero lived.
Poor people made small donations to nearby temples and returned the bodies of the dead to nature. Wealthy merchants and families, on the other hand, erected imposing monuments and crypts in such cemeteries.
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“Stop! You’re that stranger—”
“Do you want to shake hands too?”
Hearing my friendly offer, the dragon pretending to be the steward of the cemetery immediately stopped his resistance.
“What do you need?”
“I came to see a cowardly— a faithful companion.”
“A companion? This is the last refuge for the local townspeople. If your companion is from this city, say his name. Then I will take you to him.”
“Not necessary.”
I went to the crypt in the center of the cemetery.
It only had one entrance. Its structure was reminiscent of a country toilet, with a series of steps outside the door leading into a dark bas.e.m.e.nt.
My instincts whispered that Ssosia was inside.
“Stop! Don’t you dare defile the dead! You… Kh-akh?!”
“Do you want me to desecrate you?”
The dragons who had escaped from the falling meteorites began to gather around in human form one after another.
They obviously didn’t want to let me go.
But herniated discs quickly broke their resolve.
“Where did this monster come from…”
“Are you even human?”
“Agh! My back…”
They attempted to flood the crypt as a last resort, but their dastardly strategy failed when the Earth Spirit King protected me.
Out of desperation, they took on their dragonian forms and tried to block my path.
Regardless, their attempts were still in vain.
Their transformations were far from Noebius’s. All they gained was a slight change in appearance.
They just became bipedal beings with horns and wings.
Was that a joke?
I was silent because I didn’t want to complicate matters by denying the system’s judgment, which believed that my actions were caused by stress, but in fact, I just didn’t like the dragon race.
I soon went down to the crypt and found that it wasn’t dark at all.
Its interior resembled a hotel lobby without windows. Its beautiful, magnificent interior decoration and large s.p.a.ce were definitely surprisingly striking.
From the lobby, there were multiple corridors that led to different directions.
“Hey, where are the bodies that I was supposedly going to desecrate?”
“…”
The dragon, which I delicately held by the neck, didn’t answer.
Upon closer examination, I concluded that this was a nest in which many dragons lived.
In the modern era, such “common nests” have practically disappeared.
My dear friend Noebius killed most of his kind, leaving many empty nests, ultimately eliminating the need to live together.
“Sir Hero, there are so many treasures here!”
The curious Snow Woman, who lived in the wizard’s house her whole life and visited only the small town near it, roamed the dragon dwelling without fear.
“And there are a lot of people too!”
Of course.
Dragons weren’t only interested in precious stones.
Anyone could get any number of gems by digging through the ground, but in a whole century, they could only find one or two of the rarest treasures: heroes.
Their rarity was incomparable with jewelry.
Hence, they became one of the collectibles that dragons h.o.a.rded.
“There must be mutant monsters like you here.”
That was also why Eshinoff, the evil dragon of the Northern Continent, kidnapped the Snow Woman.
If she were an ordinary harpy, he wouldn’t even have looked at her.
The same was true of Sleas, the main culprit behind the present’s global warming. That Ice Dragon created a cool paradise in the middle of the desert and invited the heroes there.
All of that was to keep the rarest treasures to ever exist nearby.
“Sir Hero, can I free them?”
“How will you do that without hands?”
“Uhh… I can find them all, and Sir Hero will lend a helping hand… Ouch!”
“If you keep talking, I’ll turn you into a fried chicken.”
I didn’t come here for the dragons’ hobby. I only needed one thing.
I entered the vault, which was full of jewelry.
“She’s really here.”
“Where?”
The cowardly demoness slept peacefully in a huge hexagonal amethyst.
She didn’t yet know what fate awaited her.
“Ah, here she is. My vacation.”
I already felt like I had gotten rid of a lot of stress.
So I didn’t get it.
My father said that he could only rest properly while his mother wasn’t home. Why was it the other way around for me?