NOVEL WEB Chapter 5
< Chapter 5 >
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The Hero
Shin Noah
1
In this world, there are many mysteries unknown to me, but there are quite a few cases where I have intentionally left them unsolved.
Today, I’d like to lightly touch upon such an episode… Even if it feels a bit abrupt, I want to start with this question.
Do you like the fantasy genre?
I do. And while opinions may vary, I believe that if a ‘saint’ appears in a fantasy work, the job of a ‘hero’ should also be present—it’s as essential as chocolate to mint. They must always be observed together, at the same position, for it to constitute a dish.
But what if the combination of these two ingredients is off?
What if the ratio of chocolate to mint collapses from 1:1 to 1:3? What if it accelerates further to 1:81, 1:729?
That is no longer mint chocolate. It’s merely mint.
For the record, while I somewhat like mint chocolate, I absolutely despise mint. In that sense, the world I live in can be described as a failed dish.
What I mean is—.
There are too many heroes in this world.
2
“Excuse me? Hello? Can you hear me?”
“Ugh…”
If you were walking along and saw people collapsed everywhere, and instead of pickpocketing them and even stealing their Adam’s apples in what seemed like a stroke of luck, you instead had enough kindness left to tap them on the shoulder and tell them to come to their senses, especially if the place had already been the site of a Gate incident for over 13 years in the middle of a Korean city.
Then, you would likely encounter this response about 6% of the time.
“Where am I…?”
“Oh, you’re awake? Gosh, sir. You shouldn’t be lying on the ground in such cold weather.”
“Here… No way, Earth?”
Because I witnessed it.
Just moments ago, a pedestrian who had been obliviously collapsed suddenly sprang up and looked around—it wasn’t the miracle of a subway terminal, but that of a plaza.
“What?”
“Sir, by any chance, do you know what year it is now?”
When I answered, he said.
“It can’t be. Surely 20 years have passed, but in reality, not even a year has gone by…?”
As he spoke, his face showed utter confusion, his eyes trembling uncontrollably as if they had lost focus.
In his hand, he held a smartphone.
If you were a sane person, you would naturally sense something ominous and flee. Even if you had never encountered a madman in your life, madmen are like cow dung in that the moment you see one, you instinctively know, ‘That is definitely cow dung.’
Regrettably, having lived as a regressor for far too long, my senses had slightly deteriorated.
Instead of typing ‘run away now’ into my brain folds, by mistake, they typed ‘feel curious.’
“No. What happened that has you so agitated?”
“… I was, up until just a moment ago, in a place called the Sintra continent. It was a realm where magic and aura truly existed.”
These were services newly introduced to the Earth server after the Gate incident, though I didn’t make any particular fuss about it.
“You experienced dimensional travel?”
“Yes, exactly. I was summoned there as a hero, and together with my very precious… truly precious comrades, we set off on a campaign to defeat the Demon King.”
His seriousness and the bittersweet aura swirling around his beard made it hard to dismiss his story as mere fabrication.
But there was something else that caught my attention.
“The Demon King? Did you defeat him?”
“Ah, yes. Ultimately… there were sacrifices made by my comrades, but we managed to subdue him.”
“Huh.”
If this man had indeed been dropped into another dimension and rolled through battlefields for a full 20 years, even coordinating attacks with his party members to defeat formidable enemies… it meant he was a true ‘veteran.’
And to me, the Mortician, such veteran Awakeners were desperately needed.
“But seeing me fatally injured, a priest and a wizard among my team said, ‘You must not die here, hero’… Sob. Before I ran out of breath, they promised to send me back to my original world…”
Tears welled up in the man’s eyes.
“I wanted to die with my comrades. Now, how am I supposed to live alone in a world without you all…”
His affection for his comrades was clear.
My heart fluttered faintly with hope. Perhaps, by sheer chance, I had stumbled upon an exceptional warrior candidate?
“It’s regrettable. If it’s not too much trouble, could you demonstrate some aura or magic here?”
“Huh? Oh, yes. Of course, I am a swordsman… Uh?!”
Suddenly, the man clutched his forehead. Until then, he had been tightly holding a smartphone in his left hand, which now fell to the ground.
“Uh… Uh?”
“Hold on. What’s happening? Are you alright?”
“My mind… My, my memories. They’re not there! The twenty years spent in the Sintra continent, the journey with my companions, my love… It’s disappearing, fading away… No, nooo!”
Let me be clear—I’m a straightforward narrator who doesn’t mix exaggeration when telling stories. So, when the bearded man suddenly clutched his head and tore at his hair, reenacting Munch’s ‘The Scream’ in 3D, it was all part of an emotional true-life documentary.
At this point, a thought belatedly began to sneak into my mind—perhaps the person in front of me might simply be mad.
“Um, sir?”
“……”
“Hello?”
I waved my hand in front of him, but the man stood there dazed for quite a while.
Not wanting to just leave him there, I picked up the smartphone that had fallen to the ground.
“Hmm?”
The smartphone was still powered on. And by chance, it was logged into a community website exclusive to Awakeners.
We’ll cover this community later. What’s important now was the content displayed on the man’s smartphone screen.
──────────
Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Clicking on this post will transport you to “another world.”
Hero,
If you are reading this, it means you have safely returned to your homeland.
You sacrificed yourself for our world, knowing it would one day become a painful memory.
Seeing your torment after losing a companion in the final battle with the Demon King, we decided to erase your memories and send you back to your original world.
You may call us selfish.
However, we did not want to see you suffer.
Goodbye.
-P.S.: We are sorry, Hero. Due to the imperfection of our magic, you might still feel as though you have lost something.
──────────
“….”
I, looking as if I had just realized I left the refrigerator door open earlier in the day while preparing to heat up a frozen pizza at midnight, had a similar expression.
At that moment, a murmur came from beside me.
“…Huh?”
The man…
“Why are the tears?”
He was crying…
Despite not wanting to cry, as if he couldn’t control it, he seemed to be trying to disguise it with a laugh, his lips oddly twisted as he sobbed.
“Why am I crying…? I hate it. It feels like I’ve lost something precious――.”
“…”
Squeezing.
I handed the smartphone to the man and quietly left. Silently. Without a sound. Without looking back.
It was the skilled walk of a regressor.
Thus, I safely distanced myself from the lunatic, but unfortunately, the lunatic did not wish to be away from me.
More precisely, the lunatics did not want to distance themselves from me.
“Huh? Where is this…?”
“I’m not Kim Jun-young of Anyang! I am the premier disciple of the Nangong Clan, Nangong Mooncheong!”
“Please take me back to that world again… Huh, why the tears?”
Damn.
I first witnessed this phenomenon in the 118th iteration.
Since then, I occasionally encountered these so-called ‘returnees’ in various iterations, and they always showed the same reaction.
The circumstances of their falling into another world varied as well. Some experienced regression, some possession, and others reincarnation. It was a crazy chaotic party, briefly called ‘Regression-Possession-Reincarnation.’
As a mortician, having lived long and seen all kinds of sights, this was a uniquely peculiar scene.
“My word.”
After dozens of iterations, that is, once enough data had accumulated, I finally realized that this was not just a few lunatics’ hidden camera nonsense but a serious social phenomenon.
It was known as ‘Hero Syndrome.’
It was a type of monster that interfered mentally.
3
“A monster?”
Thus, in the 161st iteration.
Having learned about ‘Hero Syndrome,’ the Saint, who had always been my consultant, asked.
“Can a monster exist without a material body, Mr. Mortician?”
“Yes, it’s possible.”
I nodded.
“In fact, those that are not material or do not conform to physical laws are more dangerous. That’s why it’s more appropriate to call them monsters not as ‘monsters’ (怪物) but as ‘anomalies’ (怪異).”
“Indeed. Hero Syndrome… A monster, no, an anomaly that exists in the form of a mental illness.”
The Saint’s impassive voice faintly carried a troublesome air, reminiscent of a perfume.
For reference, this person had strong hikikomori tendencies and would always stay cooped up at home. In the living room of the Saint’s house, the sound of bubbles bursting in the aquarium continued for a while as if it were part of the decor.
“…Then, how should we subdue this bizarre creature? If it doesn’t have a physical body, it can’t be killed.”
“Well, in such cases, it’s not about orthodoxy but heterodoxy; in short, we have to resort to unconventional methods.”
In fact, there might have been no need to subdue it at all.
The Saint tilted her head in thought.
“Unconventional methods?”
I turned on my smartphone.
“Do you see this post?”
“Yes? Yes, I see. If you click on this post, it says… etc.”
“All the Hero Syndrome patients found so far had collapsed while clicking on this post. The bizarre must be spreading the disease through this internet article.”
“…Are you saying it’s a cyber infection? My goodness. The jokes from the Corona era have become reality.”
The Saint, deep in thought again, suddenly perked up.
“Then, have I just been infected?”
“No. This post is just a nonsensical one I anonymously uploaded on the community… In other words, it’s merely an imitation of the real article. Please, be assured.”
“Ah.”
Seeing the Saint’s relief, I smiled softly.
“However, this nonsensical post contains a trick to defeat a mental-type bizarre.”
“…?”
From that day on.
The Awakeners’ exclusive community forum saw a steady influx of nonsensical posts.
-Anonymous: [SYSTEM] If you click on this post, you will be transported to 《Another World》. (Views: 56)
-Anonymous: [SYSTEM] If you click on this post, you will be transported to 《Another World》. (Views: 17)
-Anonymous: [SYSTEM] If you click on this post, you will be transported to 《Another World》. (Views: 34)
-Anonymous: [SYSTEM] If you click on this post, you will be transported to 《Another World》. (Views: 11)
As if on purpose, incessant and unceasing, the same nonsensical posts kept being uploaded. It was the power of macros.
Naturally, the online members were puzzled.
-Anonymous: What’s this?
-[Samcheon] Officer: What’s happening?
-Anonymous: Shit, what kind of concept is this now?
Initially, just to figure out what the chaos was all about, members clicked on the posts, leading to some even garnering over 50 views.
But the persistent posts that continuously barraged the forum without any change in content quickly became objects of disdain.
-Literary Girl: “Seriously, who keeps posting such boring stuff? It’s neither fun nor moving.”
-[Baekhwa] High School Senior: “Oh nooo T_T)”
-dolLHoUse: “Childish.”
-Anonymous: “What are the Constellations doing? Not cutting out such rubbish posts.”
└ [Samcheon] Witch Judge: “Perhaps from the Constellations’ perspective, there’s no need to cut what doesn’t seem worth it? It often happens like that.”
└ Anonymous: “Ugh…”
-ZERO_SUGAR: “Why don’t you all just set up your keyword filters and block them? I’ve blocked them and now I don’t see anything, it’s really nice ^^”
-Anonymous: “Blocked.”
Views 10, views 6, views 3.
Eventually, the views on the persistent posts dropped to zero.
Occasionally, there would still be a view count of 1. However, as macros continued to post persistently for over 13 years, all active members of the forum eventually added “Another World” to their blocked words list.
-Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Clicking on this post will transfer you to “Another World.” (Views: 0)
-Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Clicking on this post will transfer you to “Another World.” (Views: 0)
A beautiful array of zeros.
Standing next to me, observing the community, the Saint remarked as if in admiration.
“Indeed. Without the need to eradicate the anomaly itself, merely eliminating those exposed to it achieves the same effect as a ‘subjugation.'”
“Yes. Physical anomalies can approach us at will, but those without a body lose their power simply by having no one left to recognize them.”
“Definitely. It’s an effective method. It’s simple yet skillful handling fitting of a Regressor.”
“Thank you.”
Originally, only the Awakeners could write in this community. However, the possibility of anomalies interfering with the community through some strange tricks also had to be considered.
And now, regardless of what tricks the anomalies used to write posts, they would have no effect on the members.
Perhaps a member, out of curiosity, might unblock and accidentally click on a post, but while an anomaly posts one article, the macros spam a hundred useless ones.
A member accidentally unlocked a block and clicked on one of the hundreds of regular posts, which just happened to be a genuine article about ‘Hero Syndrome’, infected by a 1/100 chance. What would the probability of that be?
Even if a victim were to emerge, it would be no different than having boarded an airplane only to crash. Simply put, an unfortunate accident. No matter that I am a regressor, I cannot control all probabilities.
After all, even if infected, it doesn’t cause significant harm.
Thus, I, the Mortician, happily sealed yet another anomaly.
“But… Mr. Mortician.”
“Hm?”
“What if it’s not a mental illness, but real? What if those who saw the post really moved to another dimension, faced life-threatening dangers, and all returned to the real world thanks to their companions?”
“Probably low.”
Low, he says.
I think it’s infinitely close to 0%.
“Why is that?”
“It’s just based on experience. All those people claim that after only about 20 years, they defeated the Demon King and saved the world. From what I’ve seen, 20 years is hardly enough to save the world.”
“Ah…”
“Above all, even if there were one in a million chance of another dimension existing, it’s not my concern. Our job is hard enough just taking care of our own world.”
The Saint seemed convinced by my words and nodded calmly.
“Certainly. You’re right.”
I sipped my café au lait and looked back at the forum screen.
-Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Clicking on this post will transport you to 《Another World》. (Views: 0)
Despite not setting up a macro, the newly generated post showed zero views.
And it likely always will.
-Tale of The Hero.
Conclusion