I Became the Drug-Addicted Childhood Friend

I’m not in my right mind.
But I still believe I’m human.
Unless you plan to strip every right away from mentally unstable people, isn’t this treatment too harsh?
Worse than a stray dog.

A dog.

Being a dog would be better.
Didn’t everyone raise a dog at least once when they were kids?
Anyone want to adopt a Seo Ah?

Ah, no—more like a dog without a leash.
But one that still wears a collar.
I remember trying to raise one like that and failing.

It feels like something similar to that.
If you ask whether a dog can handle explosives, the answer is yes.

Boom.
The building explodes entirely.
The "can of tuna" perched on top comes crashing down.

[37%]

There’s no real retaliation.
Cheon Yuhwa is using her skill to protect Shihu.

Thud.

I fell.

Thanks to body reinforcement, I’m not hurt.
I surround my body with mana to harden it.
I’ve learned not to release this barrier—last time I did, I got skewered by a sword.
I need to keep it up at all times.

The explosions follow a similar principle.
Instead of creating attacking thorns, I form a sphere.
If you keep inflating a sphere made of mana, eventually the surrounding area explodes.

Watching them send specialized vehicles to capture me, I had a thought:
Maybe I’m pretty strong.
This is no different from a boss raid.
Doesn’t that make me at least a mid-boss?

If I’m a boss, I should be able to use attacks worthy of one.
That much would be fair.

A dog.
A wolf.
No, something else.
I think I’ve become a similar kind of monster.
A creature that only looks vaguely human.

To keep the dog from running, they tie it down.
Drive stakes into the ground and leash it.
A hammer?
That looks nice.

“How about a giant hammer?”

I create a weapon, making it massive.
It doesn’t matter how heavy it is—I can’t feel the weight.
The hammer’s head grows as large as a building, but the handle remains relatively thin.

F = M * A
Force equals mass times acceleration.
Here, mass is replaced by mana.

What a nonsensical world.
It must be because this is like a novel.
The laws of physics are completely twisted.
I slam the hammer down.

Boom!

Crash, crash, crash…

I grind the debris of the destroyed building into dust.
Fragments scatter everywhere.
Cheon Yuhwa is nowhere to be seen.
Oh, there she is.
She’s put some distance between us.
It seems like she’s hesitant to attack me directly.

“I won’t let it happen like last time,” she says.

Rena must be nearby.
Which means someone could appear behind me at any moment.

I’ve learned not to drop my barrier—it leads to immediate penetration.
Pierced, pierced, pierced.
The smell of blood was unbearable.

[57%]

I remember being stabbed by a sword.
Right.
There’s no weapon as effective as that.

“This time, it’s going to be a massive sword.”

Instead of a hammer, I create a giant sword.
The blade is absurdly disproportionate to the hilt.
I swing it.

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

Forget air resistance—it tears through space itself.

“This doesn’t even make sense,” I mutter.

Everything in the sword’s path turns to ruins.
Structures are reduced to dust.

It’s less a sword and more a massive black rectangular prism.
I swing it again.
This isn’t the kind of attack a little ice can block.
Cheon Yuhwa knows that too—that’s why she’s keeping her distance.
Does she have a movement skill?

Boom!

A shockwave erupts.

[68%]

“My head… feels strange.”

Is it because of the shockwaves?
No.
The effects of the drug are wearing off.
I can feel it.
This peculiar, unpleasant sensation.

“How much time… How much time is left?”

Of course, I can’t use this power forever.
The accumulated drug effects must’ve lasted for a thousand hours by now.
I feel horrible.

Emergency stash in my pocket?
Gone.

“What time is it?”

[68%]

Give me the timer.
Why is my status window so limited in its functions?

The ringing in my ears grows louder.
Discomfort crawls up my body.
I need to resolve this quickly.

I swing the sword down.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Am I even swinging this by my own will?
Why am I wielding the sword again?
To become normal.

Somehow, swinging it makes the percentage go up.

[74%]

Starlight flickers.
And then it grows brighter.
Beams of light launch toward me from the horizon.
Not shooting stars—missiles, or maybe magic.

Who else would be hit by such weapons but me?
That’s why they kept their distance.
So they wouldn’t be caught in the attack.

“…What did I even do wrong…”

Boom!

I raise a mana shield to block it.
It’s less a shield and more of a dome.
This is why they don’t use modern weapons much—spending a fortune on them only to have someone like me block them effortlessly.

Crash.

At this point, I think my eardrums are completely shot.
I can feel the shockwaves, but I can’t hear a thing.
This kind of attack would’ve vaporized an ordinary person—or even a tank.

Why do they want me dead so badly?

- You’ve nearly exhausted your supply.

I remember my last conversation with the doctor.

- Unfortunately…

- If it were going to work, it would’ve succeeded by now.

- It’s over.

- I underestimated Seo Ah. That’s my failure.

- If we had used pure solution from the start, this wouldn’t have happened.

“I didn’t fail.”

Whatever it is, I can’t afford to fail.
No matter what the doctor intended.
I refuse to be left as a failure.
That much, at least, cannot happen.

Please, give me a reason to live.
Tell me I’ve lived a life of value, even in some small way.
Don’t tell me I’ve become this for nothing.
I need to believe I’ve done this for something worthwhile.

- Well done, Seo Ah. From here on…

When I came to, I had already killed the doctor.
Though, somehow, I feel like he’s still alive somewhere.

***

Concentrated fire.
The bombardment continued, one strike after another.
Amidst the dense smoke, a black sphere emerged.

“That must be the source of the sudden surge in monster activity.”

“What… is that?”@@novelbin@@

The massive trail left by a clump of mana passing through.
The area, already a ruin, had turned into an even greater wasteland.

“Don’t get too close. We’ll provide support from a distance. The 'Awakened' will handle the frontlines.”

“And the people already fighting over there…?”

“Probably the 'Awakened' who arrived after hearing the reports. Either way, we keep our distance.”

The black sphere didn’t seem to have taken any significant damage.
Waiting for the 'Awakened' to handle things had become the military’s standard tactic.
But there wasn’t much choice.

“Did you see that earlier? Swinging a sword the size of a building?”

“Yes.”

No one wanted to get close to that.

“To pull off something like that, it must have strength equivalent to launching rockets. The main body looked humanoid, but there’s no way it’s human.”

“There’s been an increase in humanoid monsters lately.”

“Ah, that’s… You know this is near an experimental facility, right?”

“I heard it was a testing area.”

A government site for experiments involving monsters.

“They say they’ve been capturing 'Awakened' and experimenting on them.”

“That’s real?!”

“Yeah, it’s real.”

Silence.
We wait for the order to fire again.

“So that thing, too… from the experimental facility?”

“There’s been a string of incidents near testing zones lately. Those in the know can put two and two together. I’ve seen them transporting monsters in vehicles… That thing’s no human.”

“I never thought the government would go that far.”

“That’s why a lot of the weaker 'Awakened' keep their abilities hidden these days.”

“Really?”

“Of course. It’s better that way. If you don’t have anything to back you up and enroll in the academy, you’ll end up like those guys—fighting on the frontlines before anyone else. Even fully grown adults get dragged into these fights all over the place.”

It was easy to envy the 'Awakened,' but their reality wasn’t always desirable.
Being exploited under the guise of being humanity’s only hope seemed like too high a price.

“But still, don’t they seem cool, like the protagonists of a novel or comic?”

“Dragged off to experiments. Different genre entirely. It’s not a hero story…”

“Oh, look, the 'Awakened' have arrived.”

The 'Awakened' moved alongside the military forces.
I heard one of them was an academy professor.
Apparently, their students borrowed a vehicle for this mission.

“They’ll handle it just fine.”

“What is that? Some kind of summoning spell?”

From the ground, enormous arms rose up, attempting to crush the black sphere.
They looked like they were trying to smash the sphere into the concrete floor.

“A monster. A total monster.”

A battle beyond human comprehension had begun.
Here, a mere soldier was nothing more than an extra.
Holding position was enough.

“Whoa, is that a beam? Could it reach us here…?”

“Looks more like spikes.”

The giant hand was pierced by black spikes and shattered.
From a distance, the battle looked like an entertaining spectacle.
But it was hard to fully enjoy when your life might be on the line.

“Whoa, there’s more coming! How many arms does that thing have?”

Four or five arms rose from the ground, trying to crush the black sphere again.
It looked even more intense through binoculars.

“What is that? Giant plants… and ice? There’s so much going on.”

“Yes.”

Huge tree trunks grew, as if they were about to turn the concrete into a forest.
Whoever was doing this must be a skilled 'Awakened.'

“But I’ve got a bad feeling. Forcing things like that usually leads to trouble.”

“You mean the black sphere?”

Now lightning was striking from the sky.
Lights of various sizes flashed, accompanied by a storm of spells.
Even from a distance, the explosions echoed loudly.

“It’s like in games, you know, boss battles…”

“Yes?”

“There’s always a second phase, right? You think you’ve won, but it’s just getting started.”

“Don’t jinx it. We don’t even know what that thing is, but… we should be fine, right?”

Haha.
A weak chuckle escaped.

“They should be able to handle it. If they capture it, they’ll hand it over to the government anyway. Not our problem.”

Not our problem.
After all, we couldn’t get involved in a fight between monsters like this.