Chapter 3
The red letters stabbing into Chaeho's vision refused to disappear.
He roughly rubbed his face with both hands.
He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again.
But the translucent window still floated there, filling his vision.
What the hell is this?
His heart was pounding so violently that it felt like it was screaming at him that all of this was real.
The back of his neck had gone stiff.
His mouth was completely dry.
Chaeho wet his cracked lips with his tongue and quietly glanced around.
The Hunters gathered in the rest area were still laughing and talking among themselves.
The sound of someone slamming a table while boasting about a dungeon raid mixed with the noise of coins dropping into the vending machine.
There was even a Hunter sleeping on the sofa across from him, snoring loudly.
Not a single person looked in Chaeho's direction.
This huge, glowing system window floating in the air was visible only to him.
If I stay here any longer, there's no telling what kind of scene I'll make.
Chaeho nudged the crushed empty coffee can on the floor with his foot, pushing it into a corner.
Then he quickly grabbed the bag resting on the chair, slung it over his shoulder, and stood up.
He hurried out of the rest area.
Even as he walked through the Association branch hallway, the letters—
[EX]
—continued to flicker clearly before his eyes.
He nearly bumped shoulders with a Hunter from another party coming from the opposite direction.
Chaeho only gave a brief nod and kept walking.
He had no time to get dragged into a pointless argument.
His destination was the far end of the Association building, where very few people passed.
An empty basic training room that Hunters rarely used.
Chaeho turned the handle.
The old iron door opened with a heavy creak.
He stepped inside, immediately closed the door behind him, and secured the thick lock.
Click.
Only after hearing the lock firmly turn did some of the tension finally leave his body.
The training room was nearly empty.
A stale, moldy smell struck his nose.
The floor was covered in old mats full of dents and tears.
In one corner stood a broken water dispenser that leaked constantly, while several old punching bags lay nearby with sand spilling out of them.
High on the wall, a large ventilation fan rattled loudly as it spun without stopping.
Chaeho tossed his bag, which still smelled of monster blood, into the corner of the mat and walked to the center of the room.
"Huu..."
He took a deep breath and slowly released it.
His entire body was still tense.
He had no idea where he should even begin testing this thing.
But avoiding it wouldn't change anything.
He was the one who had absorbed the skill book.
It had already happened.
I have to try it.
Chaeho opened his eyes wide and focused his attention on the letters floating in front of him.
The sensation of awakening a newly acquired ability.
It was something Hunters instinctively understood without ever needing to be taught.
The tiny amount of mana gathered near his lower abdomen slowly began to stir.
Time Slow.
He called the skill's name inside his mind.
And then—
A disturbing ringing sound stabbed into his ears.
It felt as though someone had suddenly forced down the power switch of the entire world.
The massive ventilation fan that had been rattling and spinning violently slowed down almost instantly.
Each blade crawled through the air as if it had become trapped inside a set of rusty gears.
Chaeho could even clearly see the layers of dust stuck to the blades.
His eyes widened.
Then he noticed the water droplets falling from the broken dispenser.
The droplets were no longer simply falling toward the floor.
They moved downward so slowly that they looked almost suspended in midair.
It was like watching something underwater.
Or inside zero gravity.
The sight was completely unnatural.
"This is insane."
A breath escaped Chaeho's lips.
Even that short sentence sounded strangely heavy and muffled.
Through the long, narrow glass panel in the iron door, he saw someone running urgently through the hallway outside.
The person was clearly in a hurry, arms and legs moving rapidly.
But to Chaeho, it looked like an absurd slow-motion video.
The runner's shoe took an incredibly long time to return to the floor after leaving it.
Even the slow flutter of the man's clothing was perfectly visible.
This is Time Slow?
His mind was surprisingly clear.
His thoughts hadn't slowed down at all.
Neither had the speed at which he understood what was happening around him.
If anything, his senses had become so sharp that he could even see individual dust particles floating through the air and tell which direction they were moving.
Then what about his body?
Chaeho clenched his fist and opened it again.
The sensation was strange.
His mind ordered his hand to move as quickly as lightning.
But his actual muscles followed that order painfully slowly.
He hadn't become faster just because the world looked slower.
This wasn't magic that physically stopped time.
Nor did it actually slow monsters down.
Instead, it seemed to increase only his perception and thought speed to an abnormal degree, making everything outside appear incredibly slow in comparison.
Just because I can see an enemy's attack coming doesn't mean my body can automatically dodge it.
Chaeho immediately understood the skill's critical weakness.
He could clearly see a monster's claws coming toward him...
And still get hit because his body was too slow to react in time.
But the information itself was already an incredible weapon.
If he could read the direction of an attack, the shift in the enemy's center of gravity, and where its foot would land...
Then he could avoid fatal strikes with the smallest possible movement.
