“You’ve made a wise choice, Mr. Baek Ubin.”
Lee Chaeyeon gave a light nod and curled up the corners of her lips.
A faint look of satisfaction showed on her face.
I looked down at the Aegis provisional appointment consent form she had handed me.
…Is this really okay?
Even though it was a ticket guaranteed by the Association, something about it felt unsettling.
“The Association has already completed all your discharge procedures. If you feel well enough, you may leave right away.”
“Ah, yes. Well, thank you for your trouble.”
I answered halfheartedly and got up from the bed.
Lee Chaeyeon gathered the documents with neat, efficient movements.
…Ah.
‘Wait a second. Do I even have anywhere to go right now?’
Would my room even be intact? There was no way it would be.
I remembered burning my room down because I couldn’t control the lightning.
Forget my deposit—if they didn’t ask me to pay damages, I’d be lucky.
And my entire fortune amounted to just over a hundred thousand won.
When I made a troubled expression, Lee Chaeyeon stopped walking, tilted her head, and asked,
“Is there a problem?”
“Ah, well. It’s good that I’m being discharged, but I don’t really have anywhere to go… My place burned down when I reawakened.”
A flimsy hope that the Association might at least arrange temporary lodging for me.
I tried to make myself look as pitiful as possible.
But Lee Chaeyeon let out a sigh.
“For now, you are only a provisional appointee. Once you are officially registered, you will be able to stay in top-class facilities. Food and lodging will be perfectly provided, so you need not worry too much about that.”
“…No, I mean, that’s after I register. Haa… I understand.”
With those words, Lee Chaeyeon gave a slight bow and left the hospital room first.
Watching the door close, I rose from the bed.
As I changed into new clothes, I let out a short sigh.
“Haa, what do I do?”
I muttered, roughly mussing up my hair with my hand.
Maybe I should’ve insisted I was still sick and stayed put.
She said that once I registered with Aegis, I would be staying in top-class facilities, so I didn’t have to worry much about housing…
But that was only after I was registered.
If I failed to register with Aegis, it was the same as saying I’d get nothing at all.
“…Seriously, what do I do?”
I murmured quietly as I left the hospital room.
Walking slowly down the corridor, I once again focused my mind inside my body.
The Regia Cultivation Method the Archmage had taught me.
The mana core located at my heart was beating rhythmically.
Thump, thump.
Each time my heart beat, mana flowed gently through my blood vessels and spread throughout my entire body.
Circulation, circulation, circulation.
The more it circulated, the more mana accumulated, however faintly.
In other words, just by breathing, mana would cultivate itself on its own.
‘…Should I ask?’
I had a cheat called the Gallery, so what was the point of leaving it unused?
As I thought of the Gallery, a familiar notification sound rang out, and a translucent blue window appeared in the air.
Still walking down the hallway, I began to write a post.
Title: Guys, I need money
Author: Baek Ubin
[ I’m seriously in a hurry. Is there any fortuitous encounter or something that can get me money right now? ]
ㄴ Your greed knows no bounds. Do you think fortuitous encounters are so easy to come by? If you truly need one, go to the hidden cave abode this lady left behind.
ㄴ Where is it?
ㄴ China.
ㄴ Bullshit.
What the hell do you mean, China?
ㄴ How is he supposed to go to China right now? Wouldn’t it be better to just go to the Tower?
ㄴ That’s right! If you clear the Tower, earning money is easy!
“…Well, that’s true.”
Title: I could just clear the Tower, but there’s a problem
Author: Baek Ubin
[ I couldn’t even clear the 5th floor, so I only have 1 chance left out of 5 ]
ㄴ What?
ㄴ You really are super weak, aren’t you? A total scrub. How can you not clear the 5th floor?
ㄴ Seriously? Really the 5th floor??
…Sorry. Yeah.
If I cleared the Tower and sold magic stones, I could make money.
Easy to say. But this was the mess my past self had left behind.
Thanks to being a total scrub who couldn’t even clear the 1st floor, I only had one chance left out of five.
No, but still, the 5th floor is basically a semi-boss stage!
Isn’t it already a miracle that an F-rank made it all the way to the 4th floor?
Swallowing down the irritation rising in me, I pressed back.
Gallery Master is a total scrub [11]
Just go to the Tower [32]
—————————
…These bastards, seriously.
Title: Just go to the Tower
Author: ㅇㅇ
[ I thought about it, and if you go now, you’ll just clear the 5th floor easy. Go go ]
ㄴ That’s right!
ㄴ You’re a coward, aren’t you? Such a scrub you can’t even think of going.
“…Is that so? I guess it is.”
I had the Regia Cultivation Method, and I was a nature-type in my own way, so surely I wouldn’t fail to clear a single 5th floor.
Thanks to the post, I gained confidence and nodded.
In the meantime, I arrived at the lobby, which was bustling with a huge crowd.
Hunters who had come in injured for treatment, guild members protecting them, and even Association employees were all mixed together, making it fairly noisy.
Since it was a hospital directly under the Association, I figured that was only natural and was about to head toward the entrance.
KWA-A-A-ANG!!!
A tremendous explosion rang out.
And far in the distance, the door of a special treatment room crumpled and came flying off.
“Kyaaaaaak!”
“Wh-what the hell! What’s going on!”
Screams rang out from every direction, and people began murmuring in panic.
From behind the crumpled door, a massive man with a fierce expression burst out.
His broad shoulders, the scars covering his entire body, and even the ragged breaths he took with his eyes rolled back—
No matter who looked at him, he was not in a normal state.
A villain? Or a rampage phenomenon?
“Get ouuuuut of my way!!! I’ll rip every last one of you to death!!! I’ll kill you!!!”
He shouted in a badly damaged voice and began to charge.
In both his hands, a red aura shimmered like a haze.
“P-patient!! Please calm down! If you don’t withdraw your ability right now…!”
Security personnel rushed in urgently with their equipment, but the man swung his hand without hesitation.
Puuuk!
“Keheuk!”
With a single gesture, three security guards flew through the air.
Then, with a roar, they were slammed into a corner.
The people were frozen in fear, unable to move.
If they stepped forward rashly, they might get caught up in it too.
As if he knew that, the man laughed even more ferociously.
“Kuhahaha! That’s why I told you to get out of the way!! Move!!!”
The man began charging madly toward the hospital’s main entrance.
Destroying and sweeping aside everything that blocked his path.
But ironically enough, the direction he was heading in matched exactly where I was standing.
He was a man who had taken down security guards in one blow and was smashing everything as he came.
Just like the people trembling in fear over there, I should have been trembling in fear too.
But that only applied to the me of the past.
“I clearly told you to move!! If you don’t, I’ll smash your head first!!”
How kind of him to warn me, this villain.
Whether he was really a villain or not no longer mattered.
He was glaring at me with bloodshot eyes and emitting a horrifying killing intent.
The distance between us shrank at tremendous speed.
And yet I neither ran, nor screamed, nor backed away in fear.
I merely… stared straight at the ignorant brute charging in without thinking.
Strangely, my heart was calm.
Why was that? Was it because I had completed my mana core with the Regia Cultivation Method?
Or was it because I had reawakened as a nature-type?
Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter.
What mattered to me right now was only the fact that I felt no threat whatsoever from that lunatic.
The current flowing through my body sharpened my senses with a thrilling sensation.
And it stirred my battle instincts. As if whispering to me.
Test your new power. Feel for yourself just how incredible your strength is.
‘…He won’t die, right?’
Of course, I was talking about him, not me.
I slowly curled up the corner of my mouth and muttered quietly.
“I can’t control my strength yet, so don’t die on me.”
I slowly aimed my right hand at the man.
Then I deliberately circulated the Regia Cultivation Method faster, raising my mana.
My heartbeat grew rough for an instant, and the mana that had been circulating through my entire body began condensing toward my right hand at terrifying speed.
The moment I instinctively felt the mana lingering precariously at my fingertips—
I saw the man’s massive fist stretching toward me.
Even so, without the slightest change in expression, I lightly swept my right hand downward.
As if swatting away an annoying fly. Utterly arrogantly.
Pajijik. KWA-A-A-ANG!!
A straight line of blue lightning shot out.
And struck the villain squarely in the chest.
Along with a roar like a thunderbolt striking down, the smell of burning flesh spread through the air.
“Gghhh… Uuuhhh….”
The villain trembled, wrapped in vivid blue lightning.
Then he foamed at the mouth and collapsed to the floor.
His charred body twitched hideously on the ground.
“…Phew, he didn’t die.”
Only a silent stillness lingered in the lobby.
The people who had been trembling in fear, and even the security guards who had been thrown into the corner, did not so much as make a sound.
They simply stared at me blankly.
I looked down at the blue sparks still crackling at my fingertips.
Perhaps thanks to the cultivation method, controlling it wasn’t all that difficult.
On top of that, its power exceeded my expectations.
“…Oh, right.”
I turned my head and looked at the receptionist frozen in place.
And with complete sincerity, I asked him,
“Do I get some kind of reward money for this?”