107. Flying to Mars for Vacation

Flying to Mars for Vacation

The exhaustion from what I had done in that outburst hit me like a ton of bricks…

But a ton of bricks was no longer much of a problem for me.

The potential consequences, on the other hand, very much were.

I had just burned through the equivalent of an hour of stamina in a burst of anger, blindly created a constantly accelerating missile, and launched it toward the far side of the solar system.

I raised my hands in front of my eyes and examined them from an entirely new perspective.

That… had not been easy, but it had not been some extreme effort either.

Compared with nearly killing myself to make a giant bullet circle Earth, the difference was night and day.

“You have just noticed the first half of the answer to your question. Your contribution to destroying Mort was greater than anyone else’s, and that has consequences. Some of them are beneficial. Others are far less so.”

She paused, giving me time to absorb information that should have been obvious in hindsight.

Whether a villain empowered by violence and destruction, or a hero protecting the helpless and bringing down evil, helping destroy that absurd, enormous, mediocre avatar of malice would improve my superpowers.

Apparently, the improvement was… substantial.

This was not the first time since the battle ended that I had tried to look at my character sheet and see what had changed.

Just like the previous six or seven attempts, absolutely nothing happened.

“In addition, you should consider that your regeneration has been growing stronger. The more often you regenerate, and the longer you continue regenerating, the greater the overall temporary enhancement to all your abilities becomes.

“Your confrontation with Mort and his personal entourage lasted for several hours. During that time, you were pushed to your limits again and again.

“Given the difference in power during the latter half of the battle, you may not have noticed the change, but I assure you, everyone else did.”

Since I definitely heard a trace of teasing in her tone, I wondered exactly what Lia meant by “everyone else.”

Then I decided that was a problem for future me, not for vacation me, who had just stopped the end of the world.

So I said nothing.

“Which brings us to the heart of the matter. Death is not a door you pass through. It is not a switch that can simply be flipped, nor is it something so absolute.

“It is a transition. A continuous state. Being dead for three hours, three minutes, or three seconds does not even compare to the seventeen-hour human record on your planet. For the powerful in our world, that would be a ridiculous joke.”

She did not laugh.

Neither did I.

“As your damaged body began to break down, your regeneration further enhanced your abilities as the injuries accumulated. Around the two-hour mark, your healing surpassed the rate of damage, and your condition began to improve—starting with the regrowth of vital organs.”

That was when I decided the implications of this situation were also a problem for future me.

I sat up again, repaired the angel shape I had ruined during my tantrum, and enjoyed the brief peace and the magnificent view of the sky.

The red tint was a little too close to the crimson nightmare Mort had turned Sanguang City into with his power at the end, but because this color was natural, it was acceptable.

More than acceptable, really.

It fulfilled a very old, perhaps slightly childish dream, and I had just helped save the world.

If I wanted to be childish, I could be childish. If anyone had a problem with that, they could go take a swim in the sun.

“How do you know all this?”

Because when a previously mysterious alien mastermind became willing to provide answers, you asked questions.

Lots of questions.

“No, let me rephrase that. How much do you know about everything? And why did you help?”

“I know more than others because knowing things is my nature. Perhaps that is only a small part of me, but it is the…