The Guy Next Door to the Heroine

7 – The Dilemma of the Strongest

“Those incapable beings are making a fuss, thinking they’re hurting their own tiny pride.”

Once upon a time, before the world turned out like this, I too once held a question.

Why do these so-called strongest beings never show a serious demeanor? While it’s become too natural at this point, there were times when it was incomprehensible to the sensibilities of an ordinary person.

Why don’t the strongest take things seriously? If you grab the weight and stay serious, damn, it’s like being in a perpetual alert state for 365 days because of a Jindo dog.

Everyone around you would drown and die.

Think about it. If the boss gets angry, the country turns upside down, and that’s damn serious. But they say things like this.

‘Why can’t you do your job properly?’

You’d want to submit your resignation that day, waiting for a hole to open up above.

But it’s a bit light. The personality is pretty loose. It’s a bit slacking but.

‘Hey, can you do your job properly?’

You hear it like this, even as you get a smack on the head. Although you’d be upset, you wouldn’t worry about dying.

“Well, that’s the situation. That’s it.”

“What is that…”

“Anyway, that’s it. So, whoever came up with the idea to create a drug factory, show yourself. Raise your hand.”

I’m not an elementary school teacher, and I’m not saying, ‘Come out, I’ll let you off if you do.’

However, an example needs to be set.

“Come out, huh? The bastard who suggested making drugs in Incheon, with that dog, moronic idea, show yourself.”

“Uh, Siwon.”

“What… Ah, yes.”

I thought someone was interfering, but it turned out to be Narae.

“There’s someone running over there.”

“Ah, that person. Then, Narae, can you hold these kids here?”

Prevent everyone from moving, and I could see a person running toward the bottom of the ocean I had spread out.

“Huh, is it just one?”

Swoosh, as I draw on the cigarette, the tip burns red.

Probably the ringleader. There’s a high probability they received a request from somewhere. Especially because they’re so sneaky.

As I approach the running figure, feeling the increasingly hot surrounding air.

“Kuh, caught up already…!”

“Yeah, if you don’t want to be burnt to death, stand still.”

I’m not really controlling my power right now, you know? If you stay for 30 seconds, your lungs will burn just from breathing.

The surroundings are under my control anyway. Even if the air gets hot, I carry ice in my pocket, so it’ll cool down quickly.

“Or, shall I use a lighter?”

Although I didn’t know initially, cigarettes were easy to control. Using a lighter can raise a pillar of fire.

When I erected a white pillar of fire, 5 meters high and 1 meter in diameter, I was quite astonished.

From noble mtl dot com

“I turned it off immediately, but it was dead.”

While recalling the past, the villain, who was diligently blocking the heat, speaks.

“… Omnipotent one! Why are you trying to kill us?!”

“Omnipotent? Is that my nickname?”

People in the world give me a nickname like Omnipotent. Who the hell made that?

I’m not omnipotent. But in some ways, I can see how it might appear that way.

“Hey, you’re talking nonsense after setting up a drug factory. But omnipotent… Isn’t it impossible?”

But hmm, I feel like I might become omnipotent in about ten years.

“Because of the drug factory…?”

“Hey, answer one thing and I’ll let you die comfortably.”

“……”

He stays silent and still, but that was consent. Or else, what can he do!

“Who ordered it? No, where was it ordered?”

Absolutely, this bastard couldn’t do it on his own. I had established several rules while cleaning up Incheon.

One of them was drug eradication. ‘The villains are talking about drug eradication, damn it!’ The guys who said this no longer exist. They’re all dead.

It wasn’t my doing. They cleaned each other up before I intervened.

Anyway, this guy neither had the guts nor the ability.

Someone, somewhere must have shielded him.

“I’ll keep the promise. I think I know, you know?”

I keep promises. I don’t say that promises with villains are meaningless! However, I don’t promise to spare lives.

He must know that too. After all, he knew my nickname that I didn’t know.

“I don’t know in detail. It was a request that came through several channels. However, I have a guess. China’s Manmazhen, Japan’s Yamahachigumi. Perhaps, they speculated about your existence, it’s just a conjecture. And… we were played.”

Manmazhenling, Yama something…

I kind of understood China. China is being China, what can you do. North Korea was already ruined by a rebellion, and half of it was divided between China and Korea.

To be precise, it was China’s unauthorized invasion, but the world was not stable enough to wage a war yet.

There were too many, and powerful, villains.

In such a situation, my existence would be burdensome. But it seems they don’t know the saying that if you touch it first, your hand will be chopped off.

And Japan. I heard Yama something for the first time. Well, there are too many types of Yakuza. The names are all different, not like some fish.

Anyway, I didn’t need to worry about Japanese Yakuza. Just thrash them if they cross the line.

But Manmazhen is different.

“We were played, not you. Any last words?”

“Leave the corpse intact.”

“Sure, well. I’ll let you have a funeral.”

It will be held in prison, but where else can you have a funeral?

“Cough!”

The villain clutched his chest and fell, stopping breathing, stopping the heart, stopping thought.

He just died. There were no twists.

“It was busier than I thought.”

Carrying the corpse back to the boat, Narae, who had finished capturing and was waiting for me on the boat, was there.

“You did well. Thanks to you, it could be wrapped up without major damage.”

“I killed this one. An example is needed. Although I cleaned Incheon, it’s impossible to get rid of all the villains.”

Even if you kill and clean them up, others crawl in. Who knows if it’s a girl or a guy. Anyway, villains never end, no matter how much you clean them up. So you just have to skillfully use the ones that are there.

It’s best to forgive a bit of mischief, suck money from them, and crack down on those who cross the line.

So, should I say I’m using the villains as a kind of vigilante group?

“C-class hero Narae, revived!”

“My goodness… are all of these villains?!”

I pulled the boat back and restored the sea. And I left the handover to Narae.

“But next

to it is…”

“People you’ll get hurt knowing.”

Once again, I wore a cloak. If discovered, they’ll scout me, bring me goodwill, or tell me to change my nationality… It will be annoying. An investigation will also come in.

It would end with a few investigations for a small matter, but this one is quite large.

‘???: Split… the sea…’ it happened.

“Earlier, that sea was…”

“It was this person.”

“Move on. Also omit it from the report.”

“But, but…”

“I don’t think you want to see me split the earth, right?”

“Yes, yes…”

At best, a B or A-class hero. Omitting it might result in a beating, but it doesn’t matter.

They’re the ones who even tagged me with the nickname Omnipotent. They should know their place and crawl accordingly.

“Then take care. I’ll take this one.”

“Uh, uh…?”

“Sleep…”

Still powerless, I carry Narae and take a leap.

“Ah, ah?!”

The trajectory of the leap sends us soaring high into the sky.

“It might not hurt if you fall, but it would be scary, right?”

Narae, looking up at the night sky with her mouth shut, has eyes filled with light.

“I never thought I’d fly in the sky at this age…”

“What does age have to do with it? You can call me Yuhwa, okay?”

“Madam, your teasing is too exciting.”

“Madam? I said I’m 38, didn’t I? What’s a ten-year difference?”

“……”

Yuhwa covers her face with both hands. It seems the teasing was quite severe. But, half of it was sincere.

“Age doesn’t matter to me. Lifespan, aging, pain, disease, death. As long as there is life, everything is up to me.”

I can even make my appearance younger whenever I want.

“What kind of ability, it’s practically no different from a god, isn’t it?”

“My ability? Want to know?”

Gulping, as if hearing the whispers of a devil, Yuhwa nods with a grave expression.

“If you tell me.”

“Fixation.”

“Fixation…?”

“Yes, fixation. If you think about it normally, it would be used as the fixation of state, fixation of position.”

Actually, at first, it was a simple ability. It’s just that the first way I used it was special.

Stop breathing. Stop the heart. Stop thought. The first time I left home and stepped outside after the world changed, it was the demise of the villain who attacked me.

Although it was an absolute ability limited to one person, it certainly wasn’t like it is now.

“One day I realized. How trivially I was using this ability.”

I light a lighter. I fix the elevated temperature and the growth rate of the fire’s size and density over the past second.

With each second that passes, the heat, size, and density of the lighter’s fire grows by a percentage. The temperature, size, and density increase by 1.5 times each second.

Until I stop, the fire will not stop, even stretching into space.

Because my fixation ignores the laws of the world. Even entropy.

That’s why I’m not affected by internal or external shocks and temperature changes, changes in space and time, or any dangerous materials.

Invincible.

“In this way, I can fix the state of lifespan and aging. With each day that passes, I can make the skin firmer and more elastic. It’s becoming younger.”

I call this the next stage of fixation, adjustment.

If I develop my ability in this way, I’ll surely achieve omnipotence.

“…!”

“So don’t worry about age. But how did we get onto this topic…”

“I don’t know…”

It was a night too bright with moonlight to hide a flushed face.