Chapter 5
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Hero
Shin Noah
1
There are many unknown mysteries in this world that I don't know about, but among them, quite a few are cases I intentionally, deliberately left as unsolved cases.
Today, I thought I'd lightly touch upon one such episode... Even if it feels somewhat out of the blue, I'd like to start with this question first.
By any chance, do you like the fantasy genre?
I do. And though opinions may vary from person to person, I believe that if a Saintess appears in a fantasy work, the profession of 'Hero' should also appear for it to be truly satisfying.
These two professions are like chocolate and mint. They must always be observed simultaneously, in the same position, for the dish to be complete.
...But what if the combination of these two ingredients goes wrong?
What if the ratio of chocolate and mint collapses from 1:1 to 1:3? What if the collapse accelerates even further to 1:81, 1:729?
That's no longer mint chocolate or anything of the sort. It's simply mint.
For reference, while I somewhat like mint chocolate, I detest mint. In that sense, the world I live in could be called a sort of failed dish.
What I mean is――.
There are too many Heroes in this world.
2
"Excuse me? Excuse me? Can you hear me?"
"Ugh..."
If you happen to witness people collapsed here and there while walking down the street, and if you still have enough goodness left in your heart to tap their shoulder and tell them to wake up rather than thinking "what a stroke of luck" and stealing their wallets and incidentally their throats too, and finally, if that location is in the middle of some city on the Korean Peninsula where over 13 years have already passed since the Gate incident erupted...
Then you will encounter such a reaction with approximately 6% gacha probability.
"Where is this...?"
"Ah, have you come to your senses? Sigh. Mister. You shouldn't be collapsed on the street when it's this cold out."
"This is... No way. Earth?"
Because I witnessed it.
The miracle of a subway terminal... no, the miracle of a square, where the passerby who had been lying collapsed just moments ago suddenly sprang up and looked around.
"Excuse me?"
"S-sir. Do you happen to know what year it is right now?"
He asked, so I answered.
"No way. Clearly 20 years have passed, but in reality, not even 1 year has gone by...?"
His face looked utterly dumbfounded, and weren't his pupils trembling violently?
The man held a smartphone in his hand.
Here, if you were a normal person, you would naturally sense something ominous and flee. Even if you've never encountered a crazy person in your entire life, crazy people are like cow dung―the moment you see one, you immediately realize "ah, that's cow dung right there."
But unfortunately, my senses, having lived as a regressor for far too long, had become somewhat broken.
Instead of typing "run away right now" into my brain's wrinkles, those senses accidentally typed "feel curiosity."
"No. What exactly happened?"
"...I was, until just moments ago, in a place called the Syntra Continent. It was a place where magic and aura actually existed."
Those were services that had been newly introduced to Earth's server after the Gate incident as well, so I didn't particularly object.
"Are you saying you experienced dimensional travel?"
"Yes, exactly that. I was summoned there, received the title of Hero, and embarked on an expedition to defeat the Demon King with my precious... truly precious comrades."
There was a seriousness and bitter, wistful quality to his beard that couldn't be dismissed as mere fabrication.
Above all, there was something else I focused on.
"Demon King? You defeated the Demon King?"
"Ah, yes. In the end... though there were sacrifices from me and my comrades, we somehow managed to subjugate him."
"Hmm."
If the other person really had been dropped into another dimension, rolled around a battlefield for a full 20 years, and even defeated a powerful enemy while coordinating with allied party members... this meant they were a complete "veteran."
And I, the Undertaker, needed such veteran Awakened. Desperately so.
"But seeing me with fatal injuries, the priest and mage among my team members said the Hero must not die here... Sob. They said they would send me back to my original world before my breath stopped..."
Hot tears welled up in the man's eyes.
"I wanted to die together with my comrades even if I died. Now, how am I supposed to live alone in a world without you all..."
Even his affection for his comrades passed the test.
My heart pounded with faint expectation. Perhaps unexpectedly, by chance, had I picked up a historical warrior candidate?
"I see. That's regrettable. If it wouldn't be impolite, could you demonstrate either aura or magic right here?"
"Huh? Ah, aah. Yees. Of course. I'm a swordsman... Ugh?!"
The man suddenly grabbed his forehead. The smartphone he had been gripping tightly in his left hand until then fell to the ground.
"Uuuugh...?"
"Wait a moment. What's wrong? What's happening?"
"My mind... my, my memories. No! The 20 years of memories from the Syntra Continent, the journey with my comrades, my, my love... are disappearing. They're fading... No, aaaaagh!"
For reference, when I tell a story to someone, I'm a plain narrator who doesn't mix in any exaggeration whatsoever. So the bearded man in front of me suddenly grabbing his head with both hands and recreating Munch's The Scream in 3D was all part of a touching true story documentary.
Only at this point did the thought slowly creep into my head that perhaps the other person might simply be a crazy bastard.
"Uh, sir?"
"...."
"Excuse me?"
I waved my hand in front of his eyes, but the man stood blankly for a while.
Feeling it would be wrong to just leave him there, I picked up the smartphone that had fallen on the ground.
"Hmm?"
The smartphone was still on. And it happened to be connected to an Awakened-exclusive website community.
I'll cover this community separately later. What's important right now was none other than the content of the post displayed on the man's smartphone screen.
──────────
Anonymous: [SYSTEM] If you click this post, you will be transported to 《Another World》.
Hero.
If you are reading this post now, it means you have safely returned to your homeland.
You sacrificed yourself, knowing it would become a painful memory someday, in order to protect our... no, our world.
We, who saw you suffering after losing your comrades in the final battle with the Demon King.
Have decided to erase your memories and send you back to the original world.
You may curse us for being selfish.
However, we.
Did not want to see you suffering.
Then, farewell.
-P.S.: We apologize, Hero. Because our magic was incomplete, only the feeling that you have lost some memories will remain.
──────────
"...."
I made the same expression as a college student living alone who went to the refrigerator at midnight to heat up a frozen pizza they had saved, only to realize they had accidentally left the refrigerator door open all day.
Just then, a muttering came from beside me.
"...Huh?"
The man was....
"Why are there tears?"
Shedding tears....
As if he didn't want to cry but couldn't control it, as if he was trying somehow to gloss it over with a smile, his lips twisted strangely... and he sobbed.
"Why on earth are tears coming...? I hate this. It's like I've lost some precious memory――or something..."
"...."
Squeeze.
I placed the smartphone back in the man's hand and quietly left. Without a word. Without footsteps. Without looking back.
It was the footwork of a seasoned regressor.
And so I successfully distanced myself from the mentally ill person, but unfortunately, the mentally ill person didn't want to distance themselves from me.
More accurately, the mentally ill 'people' didn't wish to distance themselves from me.
"Huh? Where is this...?"
"I'm not Kim Jun-young from Anyang! I am Namgung Mun-cheong, the first-generation disciple of the Namgung Family!"
"Please send me back to that world again... huh, why are there tears?"
What the hell.
The first time I witnessed the above phenomenon was in the 118th iteration.
Even after that, in whatever iteration, I encountered so-called 'returners' with a 6% probability, and they always showed the same reaction.
The cases of falling into other worlds were diverse too. Someone experienced regression, someone possessed a body, and someone else reincarnated. A so-called 'reg-poss-rein' grand chaos party had unfolded.
I, the Undertaker, having lived long and seen all sorts of things, this was yet another landscape with a particularly distinctive flavor.
"Good heavens."
It was only after dozens of iterations passed. In other words, only after sufficient data had accumulated, did I finally realize this wasn't some hidden camera prank show by one or two mentally ill people, but something of a serious social phenomenon.
The so-called 'Hero Syndrome.'
It was a mental interference type monster.
3
"A monster?"
And so in the 161st iteration.
In this iteration, I immediately set about establishing countermeasures. After hearing the explanation about 'Hero Syndrome,' the Saintess, who had always served as my consultant, asked a question.
"Can monsters not have physical substance, Undertaker?"
"Yes. It's possible."
I nodded.
"Rather, those that aren't material or don't follow physical laws are more dangerous. That's why, actually, it's more appropriate to call monsters 'anomalies' rather than 'creatures.'"
"I see. Hero Syndrome... A monster that exists in the form of mental illness. No. An anomaly."
A faint troubled color settled in the Saintess's emotionless voice like perfume.
For reference, this person had strong hikikomori tendencies and always stayed shut inside the house. The sound of water bubbles from a fish tank in the Saintess's living room played like part of the interior for a while.
"...Then by what means should we subdue this anomaly? If there's no physical body, we can't kill it."
"Well, in cases like this, we have no choice but to use not the proper path but the wicked path, in other words, an expedient method."
Actually, I wasn't even sure if we needed to subdue it at all.
The Saintess tilted her head.
"An expedient method?"
I turned on my smartphone.
"Can you see this post?"
"Huh? Yes. If you click this post... it says etcetera."
"All the Hero Syndrome patients discovered so far were collapsed after clicking this post. The anomaly must be spreading the infection through this internet post."
...Are you saying it's an online infection? Goodness. A joke from the COVID era has become reality."
The Saintess, lost in thought again, raised her head with a "hmm."
"Then did I just get infected too?"
"No. This post is a shitpost I anonymously uploaded to the community... in other words, it's merely an imitation of the real post. Please rest assured."
"Ah."
Seeing the relieved Saintess, I smiled slightly.
"But hidden in this very shitpost is an expedient method for repelling mental-type anomalies."
"...?"
From that day on.
Steady posts began to sprout like bamboo shoots after rain on the Awakened-exclusive community board.
-Anonymous: [SYSTEM] If you click this post, you will be transported to 《Another World》. (Views: 56)
-Anonymous: [SYSTEM] If you click this post, you will be transported to 《Another World》. (Views: 17)
-Anonymous: [SYSTEM] If you click this post, you will be transported to 《Another World》. (Views: 34)
-Anonymous: [SYSTEM] If you click this post, you will be transported to 《Another World》. (Views: 11)
Like it was planned, endless shitposts with the same title, without rest. It was the power of macros.
Naturally, the netizens were baffled.
-Anonymous: What is this?
-[Samcheon]Officer: What's going on?
-Anonymous: Fuck, what kind of concept is this again?
At first, members clicked on the posts just to figure out what the commotion was about, which was why some even exceeded 50 views.
But the steady posts that poured out wave after wave with completely unchanged content quickly transformed into something to be avoided.
-LiteratureGirl: No, seriously, this is fucking not funny. Who keeps shitting out these kinds of posts? No fun. No emotion either.
-[Baekhwa]6thGrader: Hueeeengㅠ_ㅠ)
-dolLHoUse: Childish.
-Anonymous: What are the Constellations doing? Not cutting these posts?
└[Samcheon]WitchJudge: Maybe from the Constellations' position, they didn't judge it as posts that needed cutting? They do that often.
└Anonymous: Sigh...
-ZERO_SUGAR: How about everyone just setting keywords and blocking them...? I blocked them and see nothing, it's great^^
-Anonymous: Blocked.
Views 10, views 6, views 3.
Finally, the view counts of the steady posts dropped to 0.
Very occasionally, the view count showed 1. But since I kept the macro running ceaselessly for over 13 years, finally all active members on the board set 《Another World》 as a blocked word.
-Anonymous: [SYSTEM] If you click this post, you will be transported to 《Another World》. (Views: 0)
-Anonymous: [SYSTEM] If you click this post, you will be transported to 《Another World》. (Views: 0)
A beautiful row of zeros.
The Saintess, who had been observing the community alongside me, said with a hint of admiration.
"I see. Without even needing to exterminate the anomaly itself, simply eliminating the people exposed to it produces the same effect as 'subjugation.'"
"Yes. Anomalies with physical force can approach us on their own, but anomalies without bodies lose power simply by having 'people who perceive them' disappear."
"Certainly. It's an effective method. Should I say it's worthy of a regressor...? A simple yet skillful method of handling."
"Thank you."
Originally, only Awakened could write posts on that community. But we had to keep in mind the possibility that the anomaly might interfere with the community using some bizarre trick.
And now, no matter what method the anomaly used to write posts, there would be no effect on the members.
Well, a member who temporarily removes the block out of curiosity could accidentally click on a post... but when the anomaly writes 1 post, the macro writes 100 shitposts.
What's the probability that a member who accidentally removes the block, and accidentally clicks one of hundreds of steady posts, and that too accidentally breaks through the 1/100 probability to click the 'real' post infected with 'Hero Syndrome'?
Even if by some chance a victim emerges, that's no different from dying in a plane crash while on vacation. In short, an unfortunate accident. No matter how much of a regressor I am, I can't control all probabilities.
Originally, being infected doesn't cause major damage anyway.
And so I, the Undertaker, joyously sealed yet another anomaly safely.
"But... Undertaker."
"Hmm?"
"What if it's not a mental illness but real? What if the people who actually witnessed that post really did move to some other dimension, experienced some life-or-death crisis, and all returned to the real world thanks to their comrades?"
"That probability is probably low."
Low, I say.
I think it's infinitely close to 0%.
"Why is that?"
"It's a simple anecdote from experience. All those people testified that after just about 20 years of journey, they caught the Demon King and saved the world. I've experienced it myself so I know well, but 20 years is nowhere near enough to save the world."
"Ah..."
"Above all, even if there really is another dimension in the one-in-a-million of one-in-a-million chance, it's not my concern. We have our hands full just taking care of our own world, don't we?"
At my words, the Saintess nodded calmly, apparently convinced.
"Certainly. You're right."
I sipped my café au lait and gazed at the board screen again.
-Anonymous: [SYSTEM] If you click this post, you will be transported to 《Another World》. (Views: 0)
The post that had just been generated on its own without even running the macro showed a view count of 0.
Probably forever.
- Hero. Fin.
An infinite regressor telling stories.