I’M A Max-Level Regressor [EN]: Chapter 15

15.

“If you are the benefactor who saved the young lady’s life, then sacrificing my life would not be a difficult task.”

“It would be much better if you could be more specific.”

“I will be your steadfast guardian and errand runner at all times, except for work and scheduled hours. How does that sound?”

I don’t particularly need anyone’s protection.

Unless an Awakened of SSS-rank or higher suddenly appears and tries to subdue me.

However, Jeong-hoon’s offer sounded quite plausible.

To be protected by a cold-blooded man with no tears? It feels like it would be a strange experience.

“Let’s do that.”

I accepted the offer with a smile.

I had jokingly returned the question, but I received an unexpected answer.

Yes, this way, there’s more reason to focus on Jin Bo-mi’s treatment.

The motivation is definitely there.

*Click*.

A text message arrived in the meantime.

[Kang Shin-hwa, are you not available? This is Yoon Byeol from KSA [Korean Special Ability Association]. It’s not spam.]

Yoon Byeol contacted me again.

Did she report to the higher-ups and receive instructions to make a scout offer?

It wasn’t like Yoon Byeol to persistently contact someone like this; it was out of character for her.

‘Well, appropriate silence is golden.’

I put my smartphone back into my pocket.

Right now, I wanted to focus only on Jin Bo-mi, who desperately needed treatment.

* * *

‘As expected, it’s Yanghwa Group.’

I admired and marveled at the magnificent entrance of the Yanghwa Building.

In the lobby, there was a sterilization and purification zone made by crafting Dimensional Stones [rare and powerful magical crystals].

Also, in the center, nearly 500 of the highest-grade Dimensional Stones, worth 1 billion won [approximately $750,000 USD] each, were clustered together.

Equipment worth 500 billion won [approximately $375 million USD] in itself.

As I passed through the area where the equipment was installed, my entire outfit began to sparkle, and sterilization and purification were completed in an instant.

It was as if I were wearing new clothes.

‘In an emergency, this thing can also be turned into a strategic weapon.’

The weapon that effectively suppressed Magus’s movements during the Shindorim battle was this.

It gathered the Dimensional Energy concentrated in 500 top-grade Dimensional Stones and fired a literal ‘killing ray.’

With instantaneous firepower, it had the destructive power of combining the talents of several EX-class Awakened [extremely powerful individuals with supernatural abilities], making it a very effective weapon.

“Yanghwa!”

“Yanghwa.”

A group of Awakened ran over, discovered Jeong-hoon, and greeted him.

‘It’s the Hwang Elder Suit?’

Everyone was wearing custom-made enhanced suits worth 200 million won [approximately $150,000 USD] each.

It was an armament befitting the Yanghwa Group, which spared no investment in its guild members.

* * *

Following Jeong-hoon’s guidance, I arrived at the VIP ward located on the top floor of the Yanghwa Building, the 73rd floor.

The entire floor was structured as a giant hospital room so that outsiders could not enter arbitrarily.

Inside, there were not only treatment facilities but also exercise, recovery, and rehabilitation facilities arranged in separate zones.

“…….”

As soon as I entered the 73rd-floor lobby, a security guard began searching me.

There were no problematic metals or weapons. If necessary, I could transform my body.

“You may enter.”

The security guard gave the OK sign, and I stood at the entrance to the ward, following Jeong-hoon’s guidance.

“The Chairman is very heartbroken. Please say many encouraging words.”

“I understand the Chairman’s feelings well, but I cannot lie. I intend to speak only the truth.”

“There was a fellow who used to spew malicious words that the young lady would soon pass away. At that time, the Chairman was really hurt.”

“Let’s go in and examine the condition in more detail first.”

“I apologize for being impolite out of concern.”

“What do you mean, apologize? The two of them must feel secure having someone like Jeong-hoon by their side.”

I offered words of blessing.

Jeong-hoon is a person who is only concerned about the safety of Chairman Jin Seong-tae and his daughter, Jin Bo-mi.

So, his blind loyalty often came out as excessively misguided words.

However, in front of me, he was restraining those emotions and earnestly asking me for help.

For a man known as a cold-blooded person to reveal his anxious feelings, that alone was very significant to me.

How should I put it?

If I could cure Jin Bo-mi, it felt like I could save not only her but also Jeong-hoon’s future.

Anyway, it was time to meet her in person.

*Click*.

The door opened.

It wasn’t a sterile room or a negative pressure room, so there weren’t any complicated entry procedures.

“Hmm.”

I let out a slight groan as I saw Jin Seong-tae and Jin Bo-mi, who immediately came into view.

Both of them were people I had only seen on TV or heard about in my previous life.

After regressing, they were the first new connections I was making, following Jeong-hoon.

– Hey, Kang Shin-hwa. The butterfly effect, you know. It’s unpredictable! Just because you did something you didn’t do in your previous life doesn’t necessarily mean the future will change, you know?

I remembered Nicholas’s words.

According to him, the point at which the future differs from what he remembers after regression is.

When an event occurs that creates a major inflection point in the world.

To give me an example, it would be killing Magus.

Since the disaster that would strike in 2030 has disappeared, the person who should have died then will not die 10 years later.

I didn’t care about that anyway. By then, I would be enjoying a cocktail somewhere in the South Pacific, sunbathing.

‘Saving Jin Bo-mi won’t mess up my retirement plans.’

Because Jin Bo-mi isn’t that great of a person. I don’t think I need to worry about it much.

“Welcome, Kang Shin-hwa. I heard about you from Chief Jeong. You know everything about my child’s illness?”

Jin Seong-tae shook my hand and opened the conversation first.

He was clearly a person who was accustomed to polite manners, treatment, or hospitality as the chairman of a large corporation, but.

In front of me, he shed that social status and clasped my hands respectfully with both hands.

“I’m Kang Shin-hwa. Yes, Chairman. I can accurately diagnose your daughter’s condition.”

“What’s the disease called?”

“It’s more like a curse obtained from a monster in a dungeon than a disease. Miss, are you able to talk?”

I called out to Jin Bo-mi, who was visible over Jin Seong-tae’s shoulder.

Her blonde hair, which seemed to have been last dyed a long time ago, was now very layered.

Moreover, the black hair that had grown out from the roots clearly indicated that the time was not short at all.

“I can’t move, but I can…… talk.”

“I have just one question.”

“Yes. As much as you want…….”

“You may have been injured in the dungeon, but it wouldn’t have been fatal. However, around the time you came out of the dungeon, a high fever started to occur, and your ability to utilize magic gradually began to decline, right?”

I recited the progression of Akero’s curse that I remembered. For confirmation.

“That’s right. After that, the efficiency of magic circulation gradually worsened, and at some point, it stagnated…… and the energy in my body began to drain.”

“Do you have any idea what it is?”

Jin Seong-tae asked me.

His heart was heavy, so he seemed to want to hear the exact cause.

“It’s a monster’s curse. The problem is that, apart from the magic emission disorder, the curse on the body turns ordinary healing energy into ‘poison.'”

“Poison, you say? Is that true?”

“In the meantime, the more you were treated, the more potions you drank, or the more IVs you received, didn’t your condition worsen?”

“That’s right.”

“That state is usually called Death Heal. It’s a state of curse that makes you closer to death the more you heal.”

“Death Heal?”

“The moment the body considers the healing energy introduced from the outside, that energy becomes poison.”

“This can’t be……. More than that, how do you know all those principles?”

Jin Seong-tae said to me with a surprised expression.

It wasn’t because he suspected me, but he seemed surprised that I was speaking as if I had completely grasped the history of Jin Bo-mi’s treatment process from the first time we met.

“If you don’t know these principles and blindly pour in healing power, there’s no way the young lady’s condition will improve.”

“Can I get better? Is there any hope……?”

Jin Bo-mi’s voice, which seemed tired from the long treatment, had a feeling of half resignation.

I would have felt the same way.

Clearly, something was being done in the name of treatment, but my body condition was only getting worse.

The despair must have been immense.

“If you trust me entirely, I’m confident. If not, well, we’ll have to call it off.”

I glanced back, and Jeong-hoon was nodding continuously with his arms crossed.

He seemed to be thinking similarly to me.

He had been watching Jin Bo-mi closely and had felt something.

“Until now, no one has ever seen through the cause as specifically as you! No, even if they explained it, they didn’t think much of it!”

Jin Seong-tae grabbed my hand again and poured out his emotions as if he were overwhelmed with emotion.

It was like the reaction when meeting a skilled fortune teller? He was amazed and impressed, with just that kind of look in his eyes.

“If it’s okay, I’d like to examine the young lady’s condition in more detail.”

“I was being insensitive.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Jin Seong-tae bowed his head and stepped aside.

Looking at the current situation, it felt like I was the chairman of the group, and Jin Seong-tae was the executive secretary.

I could feel his desperate heart that much, and my heart was touched.

The heart of a parent thinking of their child is always affectionate and heartbreaking. My deceased parents were like that too.

“I’m going to hold your hand. I hope you don’t mind.”

“It’s okay. As long as I can get better somehow.”

Although she seemed very tired, Jin Bo-mi was still smiling.

As soon as I grabbed her hand, I immediately pushed in my magic.

By using the Magic Heart to increase the emission power, I could ignore the repulsive force that her body was reflexively reacting to.

“Ah?”

“Do you feel it? I think you’ll feel my magic pushing in from here to here.”

“That’s right. I feel a very pure magic flowing in along my left arm.”

“You’re pushing in magic?”

Right then.

Jeong-hoon, who was behind me, shook his head and strode forward.

It was a natural and typical reaction.

The concept of being able to accept another person’s magic is completely absent from today’s Awakened.

“I can let you experience it directly if you want.”

I replied calmly.

Jin Seong-tae, who was not an Awakened, tilted his head, but Jeong-hoon would know what I meant.

“I want to feel it. It’s not that I doubt you, but it’s because no Awakened has ever approached it that way.”

“I understand.”

I grabbed Jeong-hoon’s outstretched arm tightly. And I poured in my magic without hesitation.

In the very next moment.

“Ah! This is ridiculous…….”

A dramatic change occurred on his face, which had maintained an expression as cold as ice and as hard as a brick.

Recognition that he couldn’t deny even if he wanted to! That feeling of surprise was fully captured on Jeong-hoon’s face.

“I’m going to treat the young lady’s emission disorder with this power. The problem is the healing of the body, but I think I’ll have to use a different modification method than before.”

“Hmm?”

The gazes of Jin Bo-mi, Jin Seong-tae, and Jeong-hoon were all focused on me at one word that was carefully uttered.

Since it wasn’t a story that could be deceived or turned around anyway.

I mentioned the only treatment method that didn’t exist as an alternative with an indifferent expression.

“I’m going to make a healing potion with a portion of my saliva mixed in. Of course, it’s in a state that’s virtually close to ordinary water that’s been sterilized.”

“Saliva?”

“That’s right. The young lady should hold this potion in her mouth for about 30 minutes, and when the adaptation is over, she can drink it. Then you can see the healing effect.”

“…….”

Silence flowed.

Did I say it too difficult to hear? So I decided to explain it more easily.

“Just think of it as drinking the drink I just drank with my mouth on it. That’s all.”

At that moment.

“…….”

Perhaps everyone was surprised by the new treatment approach, time seemed to have stopped, and no one said anything.