My Students Regret It After I Retired

17 – Regret for the Days Gone By

Heresia jacked into her Interlanner, talking to Leos.

“Whoa… Leos, look at this! We’re in first place again for popular posts? How many points have we racked up this time?”

“Hold on.”

Leos logged into the site, checking their remaining points.

“7,055 points.”

“No way… Is that even possible? We haven’t even been active for a full week and we’ve already got that much?”

[+ Popular post first place for 15+ hours additional points awarded]

[+ Highest number of comments reached additional points awarded]

[+ Accumulated views ranking fastest breakthrough additional points awarded]

Looking at the list, she could see a ton of additional points being awarded in real-time, more than she could even count. It seemed like the system wasn’t just about views, comments, and likes. It was also boosted by some other, secondary system.

But there wasn’t much to overthink. Just stay in first place with popular posts. Write stuff that people are interested in. If they managed that, they could also snag those additional bonus points.

‘Damn, the info about the Red Gate hasn’t been leaked yet, and a lot of people want it to survive. Some of the individuals who were active have some scraps of info, and they’re selling it for cash. But right now it’s pointless because I can’t spend cash anyway. It’s better to use this when I actually need something.’

[Auction House Access Pass]: 1,500P

Leos’s desire to check out the auction house grew as his points started to build up again. But he pushed that to the back of his mind. There was something else he had to buy first.

[Insufficient points, purchase of high-grade artifact crafting blueprint is unavailable.]

‘…Damn.’

He could create the artifact he wanted if he had monster byproducts. High-grade artifacts, in particular, included some crazy cheat-items that boosted survival rates like mad, so they were a must-buy, priority one.

‘I’ll buy it as soon as I get the points. That’s my top priority.’

With that in mind, Leos headed outside.

“Where are you going?”

“Going out to kill monsters, gather materials.”

“Ah… is it because of that low-grade artifact crafting book we bought before?”

“Yeah. It says it can be made with three Red Wolf fangs, so it shouldn’t take too long.”

“Brother! I’ll go with you!”

Bendict tried to follow, but Leos shook his head.

“Wait inside. There’s no place safer than this bunker.”

With those words, Leos walked out of the bunker. He went up to the surface, opened the massive door, and the wooden plank house on the ground came into view. Leos sat on a chair for a moment, sighing.

‘I can’t keep protecting them forever, though…’

Leos knew. Hiding and protecting Herisia and Bendict wasn’t the end of everything. It would be better to have them gain real combat experience against monsters, to encourage them to fight and grow.

‘If I do that, I can ease my burden, be more comfortable, but…’

Leos quietly took a photo from his pocket, looked at it, and muttered to himself.

“Garf, what do you think?”

– What, would I know? It’s up to you what you do, brother.

“When I was active as an individual, not as part of the old government, I tried to train a mercenary group to fight the mutants, but they all ended up being killed by them. Even if I taught them something, it was impossible for them to adapt to every situation. It only fostered arrogance. It’s my fault you died too.”

– Hey, brother, don’t say it like that? We died because we weren’t skilled enough. You taught us everything, but in the end we made a fatal mistake and were wiped out; how can we blame it on you? Still, our mercenary group had a lot of fun thanks to you, isn’t that enough?

“When you guys asked me to teach you how to fight them, I shouldn’t have said anything. I made you think you could handle it, which put you in danger. If I hadn’t told you anything, you wouldn’t even have thought to fight, you would have just run away…”

– If you hadn’t taught us, we wouldn’t have killed even a few of those b*stards and would have been wiped out anyway? At least we killed some of them, so wasn’t it a win? Well, it wasn’t officially recognized, but I’m still proud of myself!

Leos stared blankly into space. Then he quietly smiled.

“Your problem is that you’re too much of a flatterer. Even death hasn’t fixed that habit.”

– “Hyung, the problem is you always brood alone like that. All you did was try to protect those Gatekeeper disciples, and look how they backstabbed you! Take that jerk Direk, for example. He didn’t even know what you went through in the past, and when you single-handedly took care of all those dangerous things, he whined to the higher-ups about you stealing his credit. That b*stard. I wonder if he’s doing alright. If I hadn’t died, I would have ripped his head off. The guys in our mercenary group, even those dead b*stards, would rise from their graves if they saw you like this.

“…It’s my fault.”

– “What do you mean, it’s *your* fault? Those guys are so useless, they died against mutated monsters. They were getting wiped out by monsters that you could kill while picking your nose! If you had taught those guys how to deal with mutants, they would have done even worse. They should be bowing their heads and thanking you for taking care of the dangerous stuff all by yourself! I’m telling you, if those b*stards were thrown into a mutant fight, they’d all get wiped out. *All* of them.”

Leos chuckled, then got up from his seat and walked away, his footsteps heavy.

– “Hyung, are you leaving? We haven’t talked in so long, can’t we chat a little more?”

“That’s enough. I need to let go of the past now. And you, too, are just a regret I made.”

– “Ah, that Benedict guy, his personality’s kind of like mine, right? But I’m glad, at least you won’t be too lonely.”

“Yeah, similar. Dumb and slow, that one.”

– “Hey, *shit,* if I was weaker than him, you would be the one who’s dead right now, not me.”

“What?”

– “Hehe, just kidding, Hyung.”

“Garf, I want to stay with these guys for a long time. I don’t want them to die. They’re the only people I have left. You know I was abandoned by everyone. I thought I wasn’t lonely, but it turns out I am.”

– “Well… just protect them, then?”

“I’m afraid they’ll resent me like my former disciples did. I’m starting to wonder if I should just create situations where they can fight mutants instead.”

– “Are you crazy? Maybe not Benedict, but Heresia, that girl, she’ll definitely die. Definitely! Actually, even Benedict might die, too!”

“I’ll give them enough artifacts. High-grade artifacts are hard to find even in the Empire.”

– “Wait… you’re going to give those precious artifacts to Heresia and that blockhead Benedict? All that precious stuff? Is that why you’ve been writing so much on the InterRunner lately?”

“Yeah. I don’t need those things to survive alone, anyway. But those who are with me might.”

– “Ugh, even if you do that, they’ll just treat you the same way your old disciples did. If things go wrong again, they’ll complain that you didn’t teach them about mutants or train them properly. They’ll take all the advantages they can get from you while you give them your heart and soul. If I could come back to life, I wouldn’t do anything dangerous. I would just leech off you. You’re a complete pushover, hyung!”

“Make sure you do.”

Leos finished the sentence and stepped outside.

*

A man, splattered head to toe in blood, rummages through a corpse and shouts.

“Found it! This b*stard had a decent stash of food, hid it inside his body, the dirty rat.”

“Good work.”

A man with silver hair approaches, then proceeds to collect the items, and throws the cadaver toward the monsters in the distance.

A band of plunderers, they called themselves [Uldric].

“Boss, it seems we’ve cleaned up all the little critters around here, huh? Not many monsters left in the neighborhood either.”

As members of Uldric were talking, a mutant suddenly appeared, and the man, as if it was second nature, threw a corpse he’d stored in his inventory as if offering a tribute.

-Crunch… MUNCH…

The mutant monster began eating the human corpse, and Uldric’s leader, Kyler, gestured and spoke.

“We can’t deal with a mutant type, let’s make a run for it.”

With nimble movements, Uldric’s pillagers swiftly began to run away from the mutant. After a short time, they began to find areas with fewer monsters.

“Boss, this is weird. Why aren’t there any monsters around?”

“How should I know? There’s very little known about the Red Gate. But, this is luck. A safe zone without monsters. That means people will gather.”

“Hee hee, you’re right, aren’t you? Let’s hurry up and kill them, grab their food, and keep the bodies in the inventory for the mutants. Who would have known? If you throw a human corpse to a mutant, the b*stards prioritize eating that.”

Uldric’s chieftain, Kyler, smiled with satisfaction, looking at the inventory full of corpses.

“There are plenty of corpses, and now that we’re in a safe zone, all that’s left to do is loot.”

“That’s right. Oh but boss, we should be a bit careful, shouldn’t we?”

“Why?”

“You know about the Interloper community, right? It’s the only network still running, so everyone’s flocking there.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s the only place to get information these days.”

“Right. But because we’ve been picking them clean, people are starting to talk about the Uldric, you know? It’s like, someone’s watching us. They’re saying to be careful and all that.”

“They’re just a bunch of useless trash, can’t do anything. What’s so scary about keyboard warriors posting online?”

“True. And that LEO guy? That weirdo’s been stirring shit up lately, posting about Redgate, right? If he’s such an expert, why doesn’t he go out there, wipe out Redgate, and extort a fortune from the Empire? People are idiots. Believing that useless information. It’s fiction, if you ask me. The guy who wrote it’s probably some kind of bug, I bet.”

Kyler chuckled and nodded, then put a finger to his lips as if to say, be quiet.

“Oh… It’s a guy. He looks like he’s carrying a lot of stuff, we can definitely fleece him properly, right?”

“Approach silently.”

The Uldric raider group began to slowly move towards the solitary man, soon closing the distance to within 20 meters.

“Why isn’t he moving?”

The Uldric guys held their breath, waiting for their target to move, but the man had remained still and silent since entering the dense forest.

Slowly drawing his sword, the man, Leos,

Spoke into the bushes where the Uldric members were hiding.

“Why have you been following me?”

Kyler, thinking they couldn’t possibly be detected, remained silent with the others.

“If you don’t come out in three seconds, I’ll assume you’re following me for malicious reasons.”

A few of the Uldric raiders snickered.

“Look at this punk, the way he’s talking. Thinks he’s something special, posing and shit.”

“How many are we? This guy’s a moron.”

“Boss, let’s play with him a little before we kill him, right? What’s he gonna do if we’re following him for malicious reasons, you dickhead?”

His men were making a racket, but he didn’t bother to stop them. He knew that would only cause a bigger commotion. Kyler was just lying low, like a snake waiting for its prey.

The terrain was bad. He’d planned to kill them when they fled from the brush. Or so he’d thought.

– Whiz!

A sound cut through the air, and then a dagger slammed into the head of one of the Olderik members, leaving a gaping hole.

“Guh…!”

The raider fell without even a proper scream from the bush. Leo spoke to them, his tone emotionless.

“You ignored the warning, so I deem you enemies. I will kill you all.”