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Chapter 5 – Hero
Chapter 5 – Hero
Chapter 5 – Hero
[Proofreader – Prøks]
Chapter 5 – Hero
1
In this world, there are many mysteries unknown to me, but among them, there are quite a few cases deliberately left as unsolved mysteries by me.
Today, I want to lightly touch upon such an episode…. Although it may seem a bit out of the blue, I want to start by asking this question first.
Do you happen to enjoy fantasy genres?
I do. And while opinions may vary among people, I personally believe that if a Saintess appears in a fantasy work, the profession of ‘Hero’ tends to come along with it.
These two professions are like chocolate and mint. They must always be observed simultaneously and from the same position to make a dish complete.
…But what if the combination of the two ingredients goes awry?
If the ratio of chocolate to mint collapses from 1:1 to 1:3? Or if the collapse accelerates to 1:81, 1:729?
It’s no longer mint chocolate. Just plain mint.
For the record, I quite like mint chocolate, but I detest mint alone. In that sense, the world I’m living in could be considered a kind of failed dish.
In other words—
There are too many heroes in this world.
2
“Excuse me? Excuse me? Can you hear me?”
“Ugh….”
If you were walking down the street and happened to witness people collapsing here and there, and still had enough kindness left to gently shake someone’s shoulder and tell them to snap out of it, rather than taking advantage of the situation by stealing people’s wallets and even going as far as cutting their throats, and if, on top of that, the place was in the middle of a city on the Korean Peninsula that had already experienced a Gate incident over 13 years ago.
Then you would roughly have a 6% chance of encountering such a reaction.
“Where is this…?”
“Oh, are you coming to your senses? Phew. Sir, you shouldn’t collapse on the street like this, especially in this cold weather.”
“Where… is this? It can’t be. Is it… Earth?”
Because I witnessed it.
The miracle of a passerby who had just collapsed moments ago suddenly getting up and looking around at the subway station… no, the plaza.
“Yes?”
“Um, sir. Do you happen to know what year it is right now?”
But when I asked, he answered.
“It doesn’t make sense. It’s clearly been 20 years, but in reality, it’s barely been a year…?”
He said with a bewildered expression, his eyes trembling with unfocused focus.
If you were a normal person, you would naturally feel something eerie and run away. Even if you’ve never encountered a crazy person in your life, crazy people are like cow dung—you recognize them instantly as soon as you see them.
Unfortunately, living as a regressor for far too long had slightly damaged my senses.
Instead of my brain screaming ‘run away right now,’ it mistakenly typed ‘feel curious’ as I observed.
“No. What’s going on?”
“…I, just a moment ago, was in a place called the Sintara Continent. It was a place where mana and aura existed.”
Those were services introduced to the Earth server after the Gate incident, but they didn’t really catch on.
“Have you experienced dimensional travel?”
“Yes, exactly. I was summoned there and given the title of a Hero. I embarked on a quest with my precious… truly precious comrades to defeat the Demon Lord.”
To dismiss it as a mere lie would be too dismissive; a profound sadness lingered in his earnest, bitter reminiscence.
Above all, there was one particular aspect that caught my attention.
“A Demon Lord? You defeated the Demon Lord?”
“Oh, yes. In the end… there were sacrifices from me and my comrades, but we managed to subdue it somehow.”
“Hmm.”
If the person had truly fallen into another dimension and spent nearly 20 years fighting on the battlefield, and even reconciled with their party members to defeat formidable enemies… this would mean they were a perfect ‘veteran.’
And to me, as a physician, such veteran Awakeneds were desperately needed. Very desperately.
“But after I was critically injured and my teammates, the priest and mage, saw me dying, they said, ‘You can’t die here, Hero. We’ll send you back to your original world before your breath ceases…’ They promised to send me back before I died, but now, how can I live alone in a world without them…?”
Warm tears welled up in the man’s eyes.
“I wanted to die with my comrades. Now, how can I survive alone in a world without you guys…?”
Even his affection for his comrades passed.
With faint hope, my heart pounded. Could it be that, by chance, I had unknowingly picked up a candidate for an epic warrior?
“Ah, I see. That’s regrettable. If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, could you demonstrate your mana or aura here?”
“Huh? Oh, yes, of course. I’m an examiner… Huh?!”
The man suddenly clutched his forehead. The smartphone he had been tightly holding in his left hand fell to the ground.
“Ugh…”
“Just a moment. Why are you doing that? What’s wrong?”
“My mind… My, my memories. They’re fading! The memories of the 20 years I spent on the Sintara Continent, the journey with my comrades, my… love… they’re disappearing, becoming fainter… No, noooo!”
Just so you know, when I tell a story to someone, I don’t mix in any exaggerations. So, when the bearded man suddenly grabbed his head with both hands and let out a gut-wrenching scream, it was all part of the moving true documentary.
At this point, it belatedly occurred to me that perhaps the other person might simply be a crazy person.
“Uh, sir?”
“….”
“Hello?”
I waved my hand in front of him, but the man stood there in a daze for quite some time.
Leaving him like this didn’t seem right, so I picked up the smartphone that had fallen to the ground.
“Hmm?”
The smartphone was still on, and it was connected to a website community for Awakeneds.
We’ll talk about this community later. What’s important now is the content of the post displayed on the man’s smartphone screen.
??????????
Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Clicking on this post will take you to the?Otherworld?.
Hero.
The fact that you are reading this post means that you have safely returned to your homeland.
You sacrificed yourself to protect our world, even though you knew it would become a painful memory for you someday.
We saw you suffering after losing your comrades in the final battle against the Demon Lord.
We have decided to erase your memories and send you back to your original world.
You may accuse us of being selfish.
But we…
Didn’t want to see you suffer.
Well then, farewell.
– P.S. We apologize, Hero. Due to the imperfection of our magic, you may feel like you’ve lost something.
??????????
“….”
I went to the fridge late at night to heat up the frozen pizza I had saved, only to realize, like a college student living alone who noticed they had left the fridge door open by mistake during the day.
Then, I heard murmuring beside me.
“Huh?”
The man…
“Why are you crying?”
He was shedding tears…
Even though he seemed to be trying to suppress them, as if he didn’t want to cry, his lips twisted oddly, as if trying to force a smile… He sobbed.
“Why on earth am I crying…? I hate it. It feels like… I’ve lost something precious…”
“….”
Sigh.
I handed the man his smartphone and quietly left. Without a word. Without a sound. Without looking back.
It was the practiced technique of a seasoned regressionist.
And so, I safely distanced myself from the lunatic. But unfortunately, the lunatic didn’t want to distance himself from me.
More precisely, the lunatics didn’t want to distance themselves from me.
“Huh? Where am I…?”
“I’m not Kim Junyoung from Anyang! I’m Namgoong Muncheong, a disciple of the Namgoong Clan!”
“Please, send me back to that world… Why are there tears?”
Oh, for…!
The first time I witnessed such a phenomenon was in the 118th Run.
Since then, in any given episode, I occasionally encountered the so-called ‘returnees’ with a 6% chance, and they always showed the same reaction.
The reasons for ending up in this world were varied. Some experienced regression, some possessed, and some reincarnated. It was a total mess, what I’d call a ‘rebirth-crisis-party’.
I, Undertaker, have experienced all sorts of things in my long life, but this was a particularly unique spectacle.
“Good grief.”
It wasn’t until dozens of episodes later, after enough data had been collected, that I finally realized this wasn’t just some surreptitious camera prank pulled by one or two lunatics, but something serious—a societal phenomenon.
The so-called ‘Hero Syndrome.’
They were monsters of the mental interference type.
3
“Monsters?”
And so, in the 161st Run,
I immediately began devising a plan. After hearing the explanation about the ‘Hero Syndrome,’ the Saintess who had always served as my consultant asked a question.
“Is it possible for monsters to not have a material form, Doctor?”
“Yes, it’s possible.”
I nodded.
“In fact, those that are immaterial or don’t adhere to the laws of physics are even more dangerous. So, calling them anomalies rather than monsters is more fitting.”
“Indeed. The Hero Syndrome… Monsters that exist in the form of mental illnesses, or rather, anomalies.”
The Saintess’s emotionless voice subtly betrayed a hint of discomfort, like a nostalgic scent.
By the way, this person had a strong tendency to be a shut-in and was always holed up at home. In the living room of the Saintess’s house, the sound of bubbles popping in an aquarium echoed like part of the interior for a while.
“…Then how should we deal with these anomalies? If they don’t have a material body, we can’t kill them.”
“Well, in cases like these, it’s not about principles but about heresy, in other words, we may have to resort to unorthodox methods.”
In truth, there might not even be a need to subdue them.
The Saintess stared blankly.
“If it’s unorthodox methods?”
I turned on my smartphone.
“Do you see this message?”
“Yes? Uh, yes. It says if you click on this message…”
“All the confirmed cases of Hero Syndrome patients were found collapsed after clicking on this message. It’s likely that the anomaly is spreading through this internet post.”
“…Are you saying it’s a case of online contagion? My goodness. In the era of COVID, jokes have become reality.”
The Saintess, lost in thought again, briefly raised her head.
“So, does that mean I’ve also been infected just now?”
“No, you haven’t. This message is just a nonsense post I anonymously uploaded to the community… So, it’s nothing more than a mimicry of a real post. Rest assured.”
“Ah.”
I chuckled softly as I watched the serene Saintess.
“But within this seemingly mundane post lies a clever method to fend off strange spirits of the mind.”
“…?”
From that day on,
The community board for Awakeneds was flooded with relentless posts.
– Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Click on this post to be transported to the?Otherworld?. (Views: 56)
– Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Click on this post to be transported to the?Otherworld?. (Views: 17)
– Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Click on this post to be transported to the?Otherworld?. (Views: 34)
– Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Click on this post to be transported to the?Otherworld?. (Views: 11)
Like it was deliberate, posts kept popping up incessantly, without pause, with the same title. It was the power of macros.
Naturally, the members of the forum were bewildered.
– Anonymous: What’s going on?
– [Samcheon] Officer: What’s happening?
– Anonymous: What’s this concept again?
At first, members clicked on the posts just to see what the fuss was about, leading to some posts even surpassing 50 views.
But the steady stream of posts that poured out without any change in content quickly turned into objects of aversion.
– LiteraryGirl: Seriously, who keeps writing these boring posts? There’s no fun or excitement. No emotion either.
– [Baekhwa] 6th Grader: Huhu (?_?)
– dolLHoUse: Childish.
– Anonymous: What are the moderators doing? They’re not cutting off those posts.
? [Samcheon] WitchJudge: Maybe from the moderators’ perspective, they don’t see these posts as worth cutting off? It happens often.
? Anonymous: Ugh…
– ZERO_SUGAR: How about you all set up some keywords to block them…? I blocked them and it’s so nice not seeing anything^^
– Anonymous: Blocked.
Views 10, views 6, views 3.
Finally, the views on the steady posts dropped to 0.
Occasionally, there would be a view count of 1. But after over 13 years of relentless macro posting, eventually, all members active on the board had blocked “Otherworld” as a keyword.
– Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Click on this post to be transported to the?Otherworld?. (Views: 0)
– Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Click on this post to be transported to the?Otherworld?. (Views: 0)
A beautiful matrix of zeros.
The Saintess who was observing the community alongside me expressed a slight admiration.
“Indeed. Without necessarily exterminating the strange entities themselves, simply eliminating the exposed individuals can achieve the same effect as ‘subjugation.'”
“Yes. While physical entities can freely approach us, entities without bodies lose their strength simply by ‘disappearing’ from the perception of people.”
“Indeed. It’s an effective method. It could be called truly pragmatic… A simple yet adept approach.”
“Thank you.”
Originally, only Awakeneds could post on this community. However, interference from entities using various cunning tactics to meddle in the community had to be taken into consideration.
And now, regardless of the methods these entities used to post, they would have no effect on the members.
Well, perhaps a member who, just for the sake of curiosity, temporarily lifted the block could accidentally click on a post… But for every one post the entity made, the macro would generate a hundred identical ones.
What would be the probability of a member accidentally lifting the block, then coincidentally clicking on one out of hundreds of steady posts, and then further coincidentally encountering one that was a genuine post infected with the ‘Hero Syndrome’ after breaking through a 1/100 chance?
Even if there were a victim, it would be akin to boarding a plane and experiencing a crash. In other words, an unfortunate accident. No matter how much of a regressor I am, I cannot control all probabilities.
Besides, even if someone were infected, it wouldn’t cause much harm in the grand scheme of things.
Thus, once again, I had successfully sealed another entity smoothly.
“However… Doctor.”
“Yes?”
“What if it’s not a mental illness but actually real? What if those who truly witnessed the posts were transported to another dimension, faced some kind of life-threatening situation, and returned to the real world thanks to their comrades?”
“The probability of that happening would likely be low.”
Or rather, close to 0%.
“Why do you think so?”
“It’s just from my own experience. All those people spend about 20 years on a journey, and then they claim to have defeated the demon king and saved the world. From what I’ve experienced, I know very well that it’s impossible to save the world in just 20 years.”
“Ah…”
“Most of all, even if there were a one in a million chance of another dimension, it’s not something I need to worry about. Shouldn’t we focus on saving our own world with all our might?”
The Saintess seemed to understand my words as she calmly nodded.
“Indeed. You’re right.”
Sipping my café au lait, I glanced back at the forum screen once again.
– Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Click on this post to be transported to the?Otherworld?. (Views: 0)
Even without running the macro, the post that had just been automatically generated showed a view count of 0.
Probably forevermore.
[Proofreader – Prøks]