CH 179

It was too late, and Yongno knew this. Since he’d awakened his special spiritual powers, Yongno could utilize internal energy, but only five to ten years’ worth. He could quicken his movement if he circulated internal energy throughout his body, but he wouldn’t be fast enough to jump onto the tracks and get Eunhye out safely. Moreover, Yongno didn’t have a Gold Core and hadn’t opened the No Living World, so it was impossible to output a large amount of internal energy at once.

‘I need to save her, though.’

Yongno started thinking of possibilities. ‘How? What can I utilize?’ Yongno thought of using teleportation, but he didn’t prepare anything beforehand, so that wasn’t possible on such short notice.

If he wanted to use magic, Yongno had to gather the surrounding qi through his forehead mark and convert it into usable magic power. Considering that he needed nearly five minutes of preparation to operate his Magic Eye for a mere moment, trying to use magic with no arrangements was impossible. Despite the magic circuit on the back of his right hand, he wasn’t able to fully charge it because of the agents who unexpectedly barged into his apartment.

It's not possible. This isn’t fun.

Still, Yongno circulated his internal energy throughout his body and took a step forward in an accelerated state. He didn’t have enough time. Even if he moved at his top speed, the best result he could hope for was dual suicide.

This isn’t fun.

Yongno’s vision became dark; he couldn’t see anything. A feeling of defeat and helplessness washed over him.

No fun.

He wanted to quit… quit everything. Even though Yongno wanted to take a step forward, his body just trembled and shook without moving.

Yongno started accelerating his comprehension and reasoning. Time began to pass sluggishly, and every movement seemed to slow down. He imagined himself jumping on the tracks below to join Eunhye and be turned into scraps of meat alongside her.

No fun.

A childish whining voice kept repeating the same line in Yongno’s mind. The voice was correct; this wasn’t fun. Yongno wasn’t enjoying this at all. Honestly, he was scared. Yet, could he stand by and watch Eunhye, a girl who lived such a pitiful life, die? Could he do that?

No fun.

“Shut… up.”

Yongno spoke as if he was forcefully regurgitating the words. He strained his body, which was resisting any advance, and urged it to move forward.

/No fun…./

“Shut up! Shut up! How can someone only do what’s enjoyable for their entire life? Are you a freaking idiot!”

Boom!

Yongno smashed his foot on the ground and jumped on the tracks. At this point, the distance between the oncoming train and Eunhye was only four meters. Considering the speed at which the train was moving, Eunhye was essentially right in front of it.

“Y-Yongno?”

Eunhye widened her eyes which were full of despair, displaying an expression that she had never made before.

‘No! Get away!’

She didn’t say this; there wasn’t enough time to utter such words. The train was now two meters from Eunhye, and in this critical moment, Yongno smiled and shook his head. Then, he said what he had often told a younger Eunhye when comforting her.

“It’s alright. Everything will work out.”

There was no way Eunhye could understand these words. Yongno’s mind was in an accelerated state, so his words came out rapidly, too fast for anyone to comprehend, but Yongno didn’t care.

Crack! Boom!

Suddenly, Yongno felt something breaking within him. His fear and dread, which had been oppressing and restricting him until now, shattered. Yongno’s Consciousness rose firmly within him.

“Hahaha.”

Yongno started laughing. He felt as if something heavy, something weighing him down all these years, had been lifted. His accelerated comprehension and reasoning extended to the ends of his Consciousness; he felt like he could do anything he wanted.

“Oh, my! So close.”

Though Yongno was feeling renewed and rejuvenated, the train was still fast approaching and was less than ten centimeters away. The train was literally right in front of their noses. However, as Yongno’s mind continued to accelerate, time seemed to halt. Under close examination, one could see that the train was, in fact, slowly moving forward, but at this rate, it would take the train at least ten more minutes before it reached Yongno and Eunhye.

“Alright, let’s see. What do I have to do now?”

Yongno now had enough time to consider his options. His thoughts were faster than anything that could occur in the world, but this didn’t mean he had enough time to physically move, grab Eunhye, and escape from the tracks. Even in DIO, where Yongno could move at instantaneous speeds of 500 kilometers per hour, he’d only barely escape without injury. So, without any of those abilities in real life, he couldn’t avoid the train at all.

“What can I do in this situation… Merlin, do you have any ideas?”

“Hmm. All I can think of at the moment is how beneficial a dual suicide would be for us.”

“Ugh, stop looking at everything so negatively.”

At some point, Yongno’s inner self, Merlin, appeared before Yongno. The only difference was that Merlin was no longer in the form of a child; Merlin looked exactly like Yongno, although Merlin was wearing a mage’s robe and garb.

“Hmm, I guess the first option that comes to mind is teleportation. Since your mind is accelerated, you can cast the teleportation spell in an instant.”

“That’s a no-go. It’s impossible to do something like that with my real body. I’ll probably die before I can even activate my magic.”

“That’s why I said this was a dual suicide.”

“Ah, are you really going to be like this?”

Yongno and Merlin argued. However, though they were bickering, they started to smile.

“… Did you overcome it?”

Merlin’s words seemed random and without any context, but Yongno laughed.

“Well, I realized that nothing in life is easy.”

“Hmph. Even high schoolers realize and understand that concept. You’re acting as if you received some epiphany.”

After stating this, Merlin shot his hand toward Yongno.

“You know that you’re demeaning yourself, right? It’s like trying to spit while lying on your back,” Yongno said as he reached out and grabbed Merlin’s hand.

Whoosh!

Merlin became transparent for a moment before being sucked into Yongno’s body. Of course, nothing really changed in reality. Yongno was still incapable of freely using internal energy or magic power in real life. Even so, Yongno’s eyes didn’t contain a single speck of doubt.

Pat.

Yongno extended his right hand to place it on the oncoming train. Though he moved slowly, like the rest of the world, the infusion and circulation of his internal energy were enough to quicken his hand so he could touch the train.

“The backlash and aftermath won’t look pretty, but I have no other choice.”

It was impossible for Yongno to activate his gifts and special abilities in the real world. This was because he didn’t possess any spiritual pathways. This also meant that things like magic, martial arts, magic beasts, spiritual beasts, and holy artifacts didn’t exist on Earth.

However, as a one in a quintillion, an Irregular, Yongno was born with immense talent and gifts, so even though he existed within reality, he could still use some special powers.

One of those was swimming. When he was younger, he loved swimming and was immensely talented in that area, and his immense speed wasn’t only limited to outdoing adults, either. Without any special gear, Yongno had been able to dive 100 to 200 meters underwater, and if he kicked to speed up, he could nearly keep pace with a motorboat. In the water, he could do things that seemed to defy the laws of physics.

‘But there’s no water here.’

Yongno possessed another talent. It was something that he trained during his transit to and from his high school on the bus. It had started with a playful thought of, ‘I wonder how long I can maintain my balance without grabbing onto a handle?’

However, when one, two, and finally three years passed, his continual practice and efforts developed his talent in this area. The previous main operator of DIO, Tan, observed Yongno’s ability and offered Yongno an invitation to DIO’s closed beta at the time. Back then, Tan had stated,

“The boy doesn’t have internal energy, magic power, or chakra, and he doesn’t understand the concept of ether…. In other words, he’s a simple human who cannot access any innate talents or gifts, but he moves as if he possesses spiritual pathways?”

After Tan spoke, a young man accompanying him replied,

“Even amongst the elite fighters, back in the day of the three Korean kingdoms, a few could use something called Divine Step, and there were also some fighters who were known to use a similar movement. Of course, the understanding and realization necessary to execute those skills are immense. Compared to what that boy showed, the difference is as wide as the distance between Heaven and Earth, but….”

“But?”

“… the shocking thing is that the boy’s potential is as wide as the distance between the heavens and the earth.”

Yongno placed both hands on the train as if trying to stop it. He didn’t do anything remarkable or special; he just took a step backward.

Step.

He started walking, and Yongno transferred the tremendous energy placed on him into the flow of the wider world. This was the fundamental principle and logic of Yongno’s Weightless Controlled Movement.

Boom!

Screech! Clank!

“Woah! What the hell?!”

“Kyak!”

As if a cannon was fired from nearby, the ground momentarily shook. The pebbles and rocks scattered near the rails shot in all directions, and the riders on the platform couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. Some even lay on the ground in fright.

The train stopped.

“W-what happened? What just happened?”

“Why did the train stop? W-wasn’t it running at full speed a moment ago? You saw it abruptly stop, right?”

“I-I don’t know. The train suddenly stopped in place….”

“If the train stopped moving all of a sudden, shouldn’t the people and things inside be in shambles? How are all of them standing without any injury?”

“I-I don’t know. Stop asking me!”

After witnessing such a weird and confusing phenomenon, the gathered people started murmuring amongst themselves. Yet, regardless of their reactions, Yongno bent down to pick the dazed Eunhye up. Eunhye stumbled while getting to her feet.

“W-wait. What did you do just now? No, how did you do it? How did you… under such a circumstance… you….”

Eunhye wanted to speak further, but she abruptly stopped. This was because Yongno had lifted her in his arms, and his face was quickly approaching her own.

Kiss.

Yongno’s lips met Eunhye’s, and when Yongno pulled his head back, Eunhye stood as if she was frozen solid.

Poof!

Suddenly, both their bodies disappeared, only to reappear in a nearby open area. From Eunhye’s perspective, this sort of teleportation should have been a shocking scene, but since she was still in shock from Yongno’s kiss, she didn’t seem to pay any attention to their teleportation. When he saw Eunhye in such a state, Yongno smiled like he did when they were kids.

“It’s alright. Everything will be fine.”

And then, they vanished once more.