1.
With a flash, my eyes flew open.
I wasn't staring at some unfamiliar ceiling.
I was back in our familiar home. Beside me, I could hear Silver Wolf’s soft, steady breathing.
“I’m alive....”
The King has returned.
This body—the king of Rank 7—had returned once more.
Yeah, that's right. I’d even awakened a new technique.
Now it was my turn to start living the easy life, just like those other protagonists.
I cracked my neck and stretched. My toes, ankles, and legs all felt normal; every bit of sensation was intact.
Had a doctor come by?
My body felt far too fine.
When I woke up, I’d expected to be stuck in a wheelchair at the very least, rolling around in misery.
But instead, I was brimming with energy.
“Good is good!”
I decided to chalk it up to Aha watching from above and handing me some insane healing and a bonus perk.
“Aww, our cute little Silver Wolf!”
“Mmm....”
“Just in case, let’s recharge that nice scent of yours!”
“Mmmmmm....”
She clung to me, drenched in a cold sweat.
Normally, if I bothered her this much, she’d wake up, but all she did was keep making those little groans.
“Silver Wolf, wake up. Big bro’s got something awesome to show you.”
“......Huh?”
“Adrian Servet, returning from hell!”
So, so cute.
Coming back from the brink of death made her look even cuter!
“A... Adrian?”
“Not a ghost. The real Adrian.”
“......Thank goodness.”
Silver Wolf pressed her forehead against my chest and buried her face there.
“It was because of you, right? You dragged me to a doctor somehow?”
“Huh? Yeah, I barely saved you.”
Silver Wolf answered while avoiding my eyes.
She seemed like she was lying about something.
But hey, as long as I’m alive, it’s fine.
“Want anything to eat? Your big bro’s treating you to a celebration meal for my resurrection!”
My chest felt warm and itchy.
Silver Wolf, my true companion in Neon City—the one person who never stabbed me in the back.
She saved me.
Even if I regress, that value and weight don’t disappear.
Looking at the calendar, a full week had already passed. Silver Wolf had apparently stayed by my side the entire time and nursed me back to health.
“Let’s eat!”
“......Want to go get some chicken?”
“Should we? No, wait. You pick whatever you want, Silver Wolf.”
“I want chicken too.”
“Yippee, then let’s go!”
On top of that, Silver Wolf hadn’t forgotten to loot the pockets of the dead Rank 7 and Rank 8 thugs.
Including the money we’d collected from that Rank 7 bastard Yuto who died last time, we ended up with a whopping 7 million credit points in our hands.
It wasn’t anywhere near 55 million credit points.
But still, wasn’t this plenty?
“Let’s go to the market together first. If you see anything you want, I’ll buy it all!”
“Is it okay to spend money like that?”
“We survived! Days like this call for a party!”
From here on out, our road was smooth sailing.
Me, who had already surpassed a Rank 7, and Silver Wolf, the genius of Ether Editing.
Two problem children, yet the strongest.
The arrival of two superstars who would turn the fixer industry in Neon City upside down.
“Bring me wine and women at once!”
“The woman’s right here.”
“Ah, is she?”
Now that I’d awakened, I was running on pure high tension while Silver Wolf watched me.
We headed to the best decent restaurants and chicken shops on the outskirts of Neon City.
Unlike other places that used some mystery meat, this one at least used meat that could actually be called meat, along with slightly better seasoning.
Normally, I’d just drink cheap beer.
But today was a day to celebrate a fresh start, so I even bought a bottle of wine whose name I didn’t know.
“Give me everything tasty.”
“......I don’t drink wine.”
“Then I’ll get you some fruit soju later.”
Once, after buying some from the Remnants of the Past, I’d given Silver Wolf fruit soju.
She loved it, with her childish little palate.
She drank way too much, so I stopped her halfway through, and after that, she threw every kind of drunken fit at me before passing out.
Fruit soju really was the kind of drink women liked.
“Mister! One spicy chicken and one fried chicken!”
On the way back after buying the chicken, the usual armed robbers showed up.
“Hehe, mister. Looks like you’ve got a lot in your hands?”
“Leave the woman and whatever you’re carrying, and we won’t touch you.”
Like the random grass monsters in PocketXster.
Armed robbers were basically the tutorial monsters of Neon City.
But who did they think I was?
“Sky Leap.”
“You son of a bitch!!!”
I casually turned the two loudmouths into a bloody mess.
As long as I didn’t use it repeatedly, using it once in a while was fine.
“This is too easy....”
So this was the feeling of strength?
From now on... I’d stand above them all.
Silver Wolf and I returned home carrying bags full of food in both hands.
We’d planned to eat out if nothing came up, but she said she didn’t want to, so we came back inside.
I laid the food out on the table. Compared to what I’d eaten in Korea, it wasn’t anything special, but when you throw a party like this, atmosphere matters.
In terms of luxury, I’d brought out some ridiculously expensive fruit soju and ramen.
Ramen and fruit soju were Silver Wolf’s favorites.
“Let’s eat!”
“......Looks delicious.”
The meat was greasy, but once I drank the ramen broth, it felt like everything in my stomach had settled right down.
Then I downed a glass of wine without thinking, and my mood turned pleasantly fuzzy.
The aftertaste lingered, but I didn’t care.
If I stole some of Silver Wolf’s fruit soju, that would go away too.
“I told you not to steal mine!?”
“Hey, brat. This is all my blood, sweat, and credit points.”
“......Open your mouth. Let’s drink until one of us dies today.”
Just drinking wasn’t fun enough, so I even turned on Silver Wolf’s game console.
Surprisingly, there were multiplayer games too.
“Die! Die!”
“Silver Wolf! This is a team game!”
“What does it matter? If I’m the last one standing, I win!”
It was supposed to be a simple team game, but Silver Wolf kept throwing me into lava.
“......Aren’t you trying to win?”
“I play games for the joy of bullying you.”
“Stop throwing red shells already!!!”
Silver Wolf stuck to my character’s tail, gave up on first place, and kept hurling shells at me.
Huh...? It had seemed manageable the first time I played.
Now she was completely toying with me.
“If you’d been born in Korea, you’d have debuted as the first female pro gamer.”
“Pro gamer? What’s that?”
“There are people who make a living playing games.”
“......That’s a real job!?”
For one year, I’d reached the top.
Even I, a former peak player, could tell Silver Wolf had absurd talent for gaming.
“What kind of food do you like?”
“......Sweet things. I like sweet things.”
“Huh? Then why don’t you ever say you want to buy them?”
“Because they’re expensive....”
“Heh, don’t worry. From now on, I’ll buy everything for you. Just trust your big bro!”
Maybe it was the alcohol.
I could see Silver Wolf’s ears and the back of her neck turning bright red.
Even while drunk, she seemed to love the taste, gulping down fruit soju like water. I stopped her before she drank any more, worried she’d start another drunken tantrum.
“I’m an adult too.... I’m not a kid.”
“Adults don’t drink like that.”
“What do you know? What do you knowooo....”
Drunken mode: ON.
At times like this, Silver Wolf got twice as cute and twice as much of a handful.
It was about time to clear the table.
I left Silver Wolf whining on the floor that she could still drink more, and shoved the table into a corner of the room.
“Ugh... my head hurts.”
“I’m still drinking...!”
“Enough. If you don’t want to cringe yourself to death tomorrow, stop drinking.”
“It’s mine... it’s mine....”
Silver Wolf rolled around on the floor, clutching the fruit soju to her chest.
I pulled the bottle from her arms and set it on the table.
How many bottles had she opened?
It felt like we’d spent over 100 points.
Don’t factor K-soju prices into a place like this.
“Come here. Let’s get some sleep now.”
I grabbed Silver Wolf’s arm. She was sprawled out on the floor, but she still pouted and curled herself up as if she didn’t want to get up.
“......Ugh, I feel like throwing up.”
“Hey! Hey!! Don’t puke in here!!!”
I panicked when I saw her covering her mouth and dry-heaving.
We had to end the night on a good note.
If she puked here, the whole mood would be totally ruined!!
“Just stand up for a second. Let’s get some cold air on the balcony and clear your head.”
“Mm... Adrian, carry me.”
“Are your legs just decoration?”
“Carry me....”
“Jeez, seriously.”
With my enhanced body, carrying Silver Wolf was child’s play.
No more of this weak, wheezing Adrian Servet who’d get winded after hauling her around for thirty minutes like some pathetic little runt.
I carried the whining Silver Wolf out to the balcony.
The only good thing about this apartment.
The view was nice.
Looking up, I could see tall buildings that seemed to reach the sky above the tiny apartments packed tightly together.
Skyscrapers that looked like they could touch the clouds.
And us, looking up from the ground.
“Mm....”
“Feeling better now?”
“......Yeah.”
Silver Wolf rubbed her face against my neck.
Like a pouting child, as if she didn’t want to be apart from me.
She’s acting like a kid today.
That wasn’t usually how she was.
A vague unease rose in some corner of my heart, but I shook it off as needless worry.
“Adrian.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you happy?”
Happy.
It was a word far removed from me.
It was a little bitter to think about it now, but...
I’d once let go of, and thrown away, the happiness I’d earned with my own hands.
That kind of thing in a person’s nature can never really be changed. Someday, I might end up disappointing Silver Wolf too. And even now, with regression—this infinite chance—suddenly in my hands, I still couldn’t get my bearings.
Still, for this moment.
Wasn’t I happy?
The thought occurred to me.
“I am. Why wouldn’t I be? I’m not some weakling you can just ignore anymore.”
“Heh. You still can’t catch up to me.”
“......Hey, you’ve only had that cartridge for less than two weeks. And I’m the one who gave it to you, too!?”
“So what? I’m stronger now.”
“Guess I have no choice but to show you. ‘Sky Leap’....”
“Don’t go bragging and break your leg.”
A cold wind blew.
For a while, the two of us kept talking while the breeze washed over us.
“Let’s go inside and sleep now.”
“......Sure.”
After closing the door,
I set Silver Wolf on the bed and dove in after her.
It was cramped when we slept together, but maybe because I always hugged Silver Wolf tight, I’d never really felt uncomfortable.
“Ssshhh!!!”
“......You really are unusual.”
One thing I always noticed when we slept like this:
Silver Wolf always smelled faintly of fresh peaches.
She was basically a human diffuser. It wasn’t overpowering, just enough to be pleasant, and if you smelled it while falling asleep, it made you drowsy right away.
And then there was her soft, warm body.
She was small, making her perfect to hold while sleeping.
Tonight, with the alcohol, she was twice as warm!
I slipped my legs over her body and settled in.
I hugged her tightly and rubbed my face against the top of her head.
“This is perfect. Absolutely perfect.”
“......”
Silver Wolf didn’t say anything. I thought she might already be asleep, so I stopped talking and closed my eyes.
Then I heard a heartbeat.
The pounding sound wasn’t my own heart.
Silence.
A long silence followed.
“......”
“......”
I could hear Silver Wolf’s careful breathing.
The usual Neon City night noise drifted in from outside the window.
Silver Wolf shifted and turned over.
Her face came into view. Delicate features, big eyes—the face of the top one percent in Neon City.
My eyes met Silver Wolf’s. Her eyes were glistening with moisture. She looked at me as if the drunken act from a moment ago had been a lie.
For a brief moment, we just stared at each other.
Then she came closer and rested her forehead against mine.
“Thank you. Always.”
“......What are you thanking me for? This time, I would’ve died if it weren’t for you.”
“I just did what I had to do.”
“Hey now, there’s no such thing as something that’s just naturally owed.”
There are no ideas or promises here that are supposed to be kept by default.
Everyone acts that way, and everyone learns that way.
“I don’t forget the price of a life. We’re going to rise to the top of Neon City, aren’t we?”
“......Are you serious?”
“Yeah. We can do it.”
I was the owner of that insanely broken infinite regression ability.
Silver Wolf was LV.3, but a genius who could make Ether Editing do whatever she wanted.
There was nothing impossible about it. Just like I’d gone from a nobody gambler to a pro gamer and taken the championship, there was nothing in this world that couldn’t be done.
“......Adrian.”
“Yeah.”
“Will you hold me?”
For a second, my brain short-circuited.
I was already holding Silver Wolf.
I looked at her face and tried to figure out what she meant by asking to be held.
Fine. Sure. I’d been starved for a woman ever since I fell here anyway.
And if Silver Wolf said it herself, there was nothing to hesitate over.
Only then did I notice how red her face was, even beyond the flush of alcohol. I reached out and gently touched her cheek.
She flinched.
Silver Wolf’s body trembled slightly.
“Silver Wolf.”
“Yeah.”
“If you’re drunk, go to sleep already.”
Thwack!
“Oof.”
“You, you... really.”
She shoved my chest hard.
I was knocked back against the wall.
“Kha, your hand’s hot.”
“Forget it! Just go to sleep!”
“Haha.”
The reason I didn’t do it, even though I could have...
I was scared.
I was afraid like a coward.
Because I felt like the emotions I was feeling would disappear into time.
If Silver Wolf didn’t remember today.
If time rewound and I ended up alone again, unable even to die.
“Instead, just be satisfied with this for now.”
“What? Wait...!”
A light, fleeting kiss.
Our lips touched and parted.
Silver Wolf’s face turned so red it looked ready to burst.
Seeing that face, I found her so cute that I started kissing her over and over.
“Mmm, mmh. Wai, wait...!”
“Let me stamp you as mine.”
From her lips to the back of her neck, then to her collarbone.
Red marks bloomed across Silver Wolf’s body.
“Hah, stamp complete!”
“You....”
“Now nobody can touch you. You’re my woman.”
Even though I couldn’t bring myself to say what I really felt,
for now, I was content with this.
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