Chapter 13: To Become Stronger (5)
The conversation was in full swing, and we’d finished a delicious meal. It felt like the time had come to part ways.
“Mr. Ji-hwan.”
Baek Seol-hee started addressing me by my name.
“Mr. Jihwan, if you were to awaken as an ice ability user, how would you use your ability?”
“Are you asking for my advice as an ice-ability user?”
“Yes. It’s just a question. It’d be great if it could help.”
“What should I say to a specialist in ice abilities?”
“They say two heads are better than one. Right? If you were an ability user who had awakened ice magic, if you could freely produce ice, how do you think you would fight?”
“Um….”
Was I being asked for advice by an enemy?
Well, since I didn’t know yet that she was an enemy, I could just speak casually.
“Well, all I know about how Ms. Seol-hee fights is from videos. You use an ice whip, create walls of ice, spread wings of ice…?”
“That’s correct. What do you think would be a good variation here?”
“Um….”
Should I help her?
When it came to ice-related abilities, I definitely knew more than Baek Seol-hee.
Ice abilities were indispensable in this subculture.
“First of all… what about an ice spike?”
“Ice spike?”
“Yes. Literally a spike, but the size is almost like a stalactite. You would impale your enemy with it. If it pierces an enemy’s shoulder and they’re pinned to a wall, they won’t be able to escape without breaking the ice, right?”
“I see.”
Her response was lukewarm.
It probably didn’t differ much from the way she currently used her abilities - things that were abbreviated as ‘skills’ in two letters - like an ice spear.
‘How to do it?’
Should I tell her about the ice magic she awakened in the original work?
Or should I tell her about the ice magic that didn’t exist in this world but that I knew about?
‘Headmaster. You told me to try my best to persuade her to our side, so don’t complain later.’
If Baek Seol-hee, or Snow White, became stronger and later led to complaints about me, I could just say that I was loyal to my mission.
“You seem to already know about things like ice spikes.”
“Well… for now.”
“Then how about this? You scatter ice crystals in the air. They freeze any enemies they touch instantly, like dry ice.”
“…Um.”
Now she was troubled for a different reason.
“Is that… possible?”
“Isn’t whether it’s possible or not up to you, Ms. Seol-hee? After all, the power of ability users usually develops based on their imagination.”
“You seem to know quite a bit about the abilities of ability users.”
“For those living in this world, knowledge about abilities is akin to knowing how to use a computer or smartphone.”
I smoothly dodged Baek Seol-hee’s inquiry and pointed at the ice cream that was served as a dessert.
“Pieces of ice this size spread all around, numbering hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands. When someone touches an ice piece, the compressed ice spreads and covers the enemy with cold.”
“Um….”
“The skill name can be something like ‘Ice Age Oxidation,’ right?”
“Even a skill name? That’s very detailed.”
“When we were young, didn’t we all try to create our own heroes?”
The so-called self-character creation.
“It’s just an expression of that kind of imagination.”
“Understood. I think it will be a big help. Although I can’t quite grasp it yet, I’m sure it will become a powerful skill if I can come up with some ideas based on this.”
Of course.
That was your ultimate move in the original novel.
I barely pushed the words welling up to my chin back down with the ice cream.
“Then, Ji-hwan, if you were an ability user, what kind of ability user would you want to be?”
“Me, an ability user?”
“Yes, an ability user. Any ability is fine. Any grade is fine. Do you have a preferred ability?”
“Hmm…”
If it were me before becoming Goblin, perhaps I wouldn’t have wished for such an ability.
No, I would still have wished for it.
“The ability to enter books?”
“Pardon?”
“The ability to directly experience various story worlds. To enter countless worlds, I’ve only seen in print, to see, hear, and feel the protagonists in action, and to vividly feel that world.”
“You really… seem to love stories, Ji-hwan.”
“Yes, I really do.”
That was why I enjoyed them so much, and while reading this and that, I flamed the excessively nationalistic light novel and ended up coming to this world.
“Ji-hwan, you seem to… purely enjoy stories. Others usually analyze how to make the story their own while reading it.”
“Pardon?”
“That’s how it is. The imagination of others often becomes their own abilities. In this age, directly manifesting abilities from comics or novels is not considered plagiarism but ‘homage,’ and it’s popular.”
“……”
“Ji-hwan, do you know the most commonly used sword for people who have awakened their abilities?”
“It’s a lightsaber, right.”
Orange color.
A sword that sprang out as such.
A sword made based on the power of the Force.
“That’s right. That’s what we all learned. After we awakened our superpowers… because that’s what we had seen since we were young.”
It was popular because the ‘superpower-themed’ content that adults could show to the kids who had awakened their abilities was exactly the content of that era.
“Did you often watch children’s TV channels? Most of what comes from there was like that. Content that educates not to use abilities recklessly. When the children were old enough to have a sense of self and control, they were finally able to enjoy stories.”
Of course, as the children aged and grew, they gradually started to create their own abilities, and adults created worlds with their imagination to show through media for the enhancement of children’s abilities.
“I mean, this world feels harshly expressed by imagination. You can’t enjoy things meant to be enjoyed as they are and only look at them to improve abilities.”
Therefore…
“Do you know what I thought when I saw that movie earlier? If I create dinosaurs with ice and fight, that’s exactly how I would fight. What would it be like to create wings out of ice and fly into space? What should I do to stop a meteor falling from space with ice magic?”
The reality of this era was that even the movie we watched was inevitably seen by the ability users as content to analyze, like ‘how can I break through the atmosphere’ or ‘how should I fight if I transform into a dinosaur’.
“In that sense, I envy you, Ji-hwan, who purely enjoyed the movie. Because you enjoy content purely as content.”
Baek Seol-hee sincerely smiled widely at me and poured me a cup of tea.
“Even when you go to Sejong Academy, can I ask you to share stories like this sometimes?”
Evening.
After her encounter with the unidentified man, Do Ji-hwan, Baek Seol-hee came home and threw herself on the bed.
Bee-bee-bee-bee-beep!!
As soon as she switched from personal privacy mode, where no contact was allowed except for emergency calls, to everyday mode, all sorts of contacts started flying in.
A proposal for her to appear in a hero public service advertisement.
A request for her to show her face at an official government event.
A request for her to attend a gathering of heroes from Busan.
All of them were official matters and things where she had to be in front of others as a ‘hero’.
There was no ‘Baek Seol-hee’, the individual, the human, there.
What merely existed was an S-Class superpowered individual, the pride of South Korea.
“Haah.”
Baek Seol-hee covered her face with her hand.
“Do I have to live like this for the rest of my life….”
Probably until the day she died.
Even marriage would be a concern for the state.
If she were to fall for a foreigner and consider marriage, everyone from the country would be mobilized to reprimand and dispute the marriage.
Her freedom as a hero was already gone.
From the moment she started walking the path of light.
Heroes with overwhelming power roamed around like emperors, even overseas, but it was hard in Korea.
“I am….”
The moment Baek Seol-hee stretched out her hand toward the empty air.
“……!!”
An ice crystal she unintentionally created in the air began to scatter instantly.
Small ice pieces multiplied from one to two, two to four, and four to eight.
She picked up an ice fragment that spread out like a grid as if forming a cube and gently tossed it towards the balcony window.
Crackle.
The balcony window started to freeze as if frost had settled on it.
Even though it was just palm-sized, the small ice fragment exploded like a bomb with ‘coldness’.
“Wow….”
What just happened?
Could that man’s conversation have helped her develop a new skill?
Because of just one thing that man said?
“… That’s impossible.”
She hadn’t thought of such a skill.
Yet, she mastered a new skill as if she had known it all along.
Thanks to Do Ji-hwan’s imagination.
“……Hehe.”
Baek Seol-hee gripped her smartphone.
And she looked at the profile picture of the man named Do Ji-hwan.
“…What?”
His profile picture, his face fully exposed.
“Is it a selfie? Pff.”
It was a selfie taken with an awkward expression.
“……Hmm.”
Click.
With the sound of a screenshot, Baek Seol-hee began to examine the profile pictures back and forth.
Click.
Click, click.
Click.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel