"Anyway, seems like I overstayed my welcome. I need to get these wounds treated—you really hit hard, for Christ’s sake," Kaito muttered, rolling his shoulder as he prepared to leave.

  Just then—

  A groggy moan broke through the air.

  “Ughhh… my head is killing me…”

  The group turned toward the source.

  Paul, somehow still alive, groaned as he sat up, rubbing his temple. He winced when his fingers brushed the still-healing wound on his head. His bleary eyes darted around, finally taking in the destruction surrounding him.

  “What the hell happened…?”

  Kei, despite everything, immediately seized the moment.

  “See? Told you I didn’t kill him.” He gestured at Paul, his tone smug despite his own clear suffering.

  No one reacted.

  Paul, still clueless, continued looking around. The ground was torn apart—burn marks, ice fractures, deep gouges from blades and projectiles. Scorched trees. Cratered earth.

  Then, he noticed the two barely conscious figures beside him.

  His expression hardened. “What happened to you two? Why are your feet—” His eyes widened when he saw the deep slashes across their Achilles tendons. Blood pooled beneath them, and both of them were still twitching in pain.

  Paul’s face twisted in rage as he shot to his feet, wobbling slightly.

  His gaze snapped to Kei.

  “You…! This was you, wasn’t it!?” His finger jabbed toward Kei, his voice rising in anger. “You’ll regret this! Just you wait until our leader, Orin Graves, finds out—”

  Hearing Paul’s words, the entire group stared at him blankly.

  After everything that had just happened—after the carnage, the chaos, the absolute disaster that had unfolded—they found it hard to believe they were hearing this man issue a threat.

  Talia, Kai, Reese, Owen, Kaito, and Dragbane exchanged glances.

  Kei, still wincing from the pain in his foot, glanced up.

  Then he looked at Paul.

  Then at the absolute wreckage around them.

  Then back at Paul.

  Then at everyone else.

  Finally, he sighed as if this was the most exhausting moment of his entire day.

  "So… uh… is it okay if I, you know—" he pointed lazily at Paul "—kill him? Just checking."

  Talia groaned into her hands.

  Kai tilted his head toward the sky like he was questioning the heavens.

  Reese pinched the bridge of his nose, muttering something about migraines.

  Owen just let out a deep sigh.

  Kaito and Dragbane, meanwhile, stared at Kei like he was the insane one.

  Kei blinked at them.

  "What?"

  "You—if you know what’s good for you, you'd leave right now," Dragbane ordered, his tone leaving no room for argument.

  Paul scoffed. “I’m not a member of your guild, you don’t boss me around. Just wait until Graves—”

  “Orin?” Kaito cut in flatly. “The guy who was already killed once by him?”

  He nodded toward Kei, who was still inspecting his wounds, seemingly disinterested.

  “That guy already sent Orin to his grave—literally—and when he resurrected, he ran away scared.”

  Paul froze.

  Kaito took a slow step forward, his presence pressing down on him.

  “And, unless I missed something, I think you and your little friends are no longer members of the Black Talon group anyway.”

  Paul visibly swallowed.

  Kaito’s eyes narrowed.

  “If you dare think I’m lying, I’d be more than happy to finish his job.”

  That was all it took.

  Paul turned and bolted.

  "But what are we going to do with these two?" Dragbane asked, gesturing toward the former Black Talon members who lay motionless on the ground.

  Kei barely spared them a glance as he continued inspecting his own wounds, still irritated by the strange bites he kept receiving.

  "My official diagnosis?" he mused. "It's probably best if they just reset."

  Talia and the others blinked. "Reset?"

  Kei nodded, his tone completely matter-of-fact. "Not only is there no blood available for a transfusion, but this site is nowhere near sterile enough to keep them from getting infected. Even if we had the right conditions, I don’t have surgical tools or anything remotely close to performing reconstructive procedures."

  He gestured vaguely toward their mangled legs. "I mean, I may have figured out how to regrow limbs, but there's a limit to what I can do. This? This is beyond me."

  Dragbane crossed his arms, considering the situation. “So, you’re saying it’s better for them to die and resurrect with their bodies intact?”

  Kei shrugged. "I’m saying that’s their best shot at walking again. But, hey, if they want to crawl for the rest of their time here, who am I to judge?"

  They heard every word.

  Lying face down on the ground, their bodies wrecked, their strength all but gone—they were conscious enough to understand the reality of their situation. The blood loss alone made it a battle just to keep their eyes open. Their ruined knees? They had already lost all sensation below them.

  And now, the choice was being laid before them.

  A choice they never imagined they’d have to make.

  They had stepped into this world believing they were special. The system had granted them abilities straight out of comics and light novels—things they had once only dreamed of. They thought they were untouchable. That they could take what they wanted, impose their will, and carve out their own power without consequence.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  But they were wrong.

  They were foolish.

  Foolish enough to forget that everyone in this expanse had been given the same opportunities. That power alone didn’t make them invincible.

  And now, they had learned a lesson—one they never wanted to learn.

  A brutal, inescapable truth had been beaten into them.

  If they could go back, they would be different.

  They swore they would be different.

  But for now—

  All they could do was lie there and let the tears fall.

  Sighing, Dragbane shook his head. “Well, if that’s the only option left to them, then that’s what it is. I’ll trust you to deal with them how you like.” He turned to his own members, fixing them with a sharp gaze. “I trust you all know better than ever to behave and treat him properly. If you piss him off, it’s your funeral.”

  With that, he turned and walked away, clearly done with the situation.

  “Time for me to get going too,” Kaito added with an exhausted sigh. “Once again, I’m really sorry about everything.” He gave Kei a short wave before dashing off, leaving the scene behind him.

  The two still on the ground finally accepted their fate.

  “You know,” one of them rasped weakly, “my force is healing-aligned, and I still can’t use it to save myself.” He laughed bitterly before turning his head toward his companion. “Hey, how about you crawl over? Maybe I can at least fix your Achilles tendons. I don’t think it’ll work on your knee or restore the blood we lost, but maybe I can get you patched up enough to walk to someone who can.”

  Kei, who had been watching the entire exchange, suddenly frowned. “...Now I feel bad.”

  Kai sighed, rubbing his temples. “Well, I guess it’s too late for them to learn their lesson, but at least with a second life, maybe they’ll be different from now on.”

  "Hmmmmm, I wonder if this would work with humans too," Kei muttered to himself, deep in thought.

  Without hesitation, he made a small cut on his finger, letting a few drops of blood bead up. He crouched down and placed his bleeding finger in front of the guy still lying on the ground.

  “Try this.”

  The injured man blinked in confusion. “What?”

  “Just try it,” Kei repeated, his tone casual, as if this wasn’t a completely insane suggestion.

  The guy hesitated. At this point, with his body barely functioning and his options nonexistent, he figured it wouldn’t make a difference. What more could go wrong?

  So, ignoring the strange circumstances, he leaned forward slightly and—hesitantly—sucked on Kei’s finger.

  Kei felt it immediately.

  A connection.

  Like a tether forming, like something unseen but deeply familiar threading between them.

  Aether reacted.

  Not just within Kei—but in the area itself.

  The air trembled. The ground pulsed with faint energy.

  Something shifted.

  Focusing on the newfound connection, Kei honed in with everything he had. His perception dug deep, reaching into the unfamiliar link between his aether and the man who had just ingested his blood.

  Slowly, his aether shifted.

  It responded.

  It carried something new.

  Kei watched as his hands became bathed in an unfamiliar glow—not just the usual Breeze Force swirling around him, but something deeper. Something warmer.

  Healing.

  A smirk twitched at his lips. “Interesting.”

  Without hesitation, he walked over to the other injured man and placed his hands over his destroyed Achilles tendon. The moment his palms made contact—his aether flowed.

  The effect was immediate.

  The torn flesh began knitting itself back together.

  The man twitched, his face contorting with an almost overwhelming sense of relief as feeling returned to his foot.

  Kei’s eyes burned with curiosity.

  His Observation pulsed to its absolute limit. He took in every detail—the way the wound closed, the speed at which the flesh mended, the residual aether still lingering in the affected area.

  He committed everything to memory.

  Soon, the injury was completely patched up.

  Kei leaned back, fascinated, his mind already racing with possibilities.

  "If this is how it works, then..." He trailed off, glancing at the surrounding settlement, thinking about the thousands of other participants.

  His eyes sparkled with excitement.

  “There’s more than 9,000 people here. That should be enough.”

  He turned to his friends with a grin.

  “Hey guys, wanna be part of a science study?”

  Reese took several steps back, gripping his bow tightly. “I will shove an arrow in your eye—stay away!”

  The others weren’t far behind him, all collectively retreating as if Kei had suddenly become more terrifying than any Apex Boss.

  Kei’s face fell into a genuine pout. “Betrayal. Deep. Utter. Betrayal.”

  He sighed dramatically, clutching his chest as if he had been mortally wounded.

  Then—his expression shifted.

  Something clicked.

  “Wait.”

  Without hesitation, he summoned the sword he had won earlier, its flat, hiltless blade appearing in his grasp.

  The guy he had just healed, still testing out his newly mended foot, barely had a second to process the sudden shift before—

  Flip.

  Kei grabbed him and flipped him onto his back.

  “Wha—?”

  Before he could even ask—

  Schlick.

  Kei stabbed straight down into his previously injured knee.

  "AGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!"

  The scream ripped through the air, sheer agony flooding the man's expression as he thrashed on the ground.

  Kei, on the other hand?

  He simply turned his head, looking at the others with the most innocent expression imaginable.

  “Do you guys have any healing potions?”

  Silence.

  Talia, Reese, Owen, and Kai just stared.

  Blank.

  Empty.

  Disbelieving.

  As if they had just witnessed the single most unhinged act they had ever seen.

  As they stared in sheer disbelief, Kei calmly used his thin, hiltless blade to pry out the bone projectile still lodged in the guy’s knee.

  The poor victim gritted his teeth, trembling as he fought the pain, while everyone else just stood there, watching this insanity unfold.

  Owen, finally realizing what Kei was doing, hesitantly reached into his inventory and pulled out a healing potion.

  Wordlessly, he handed it over.

  SPLASH.

  Kei dumped the entire bottle directly onto the gaping wound.

  The guy screamed, twitched, and then—

  His knee mended itself instantly, the torn tissue stitching back together as if the injury had never happened.

  Kei watched, fascinated.

  "This world is really useful," he muttered, eyes practically sparkling as he turned toward the other guy.

  The second Black Talon survivor saw the glint in Kei’s eyes—the sheer curiosity—and immediately panicked.

  He scrambled backward, hands frantically pulling out bottles from his inventory.

  "WAIT! TAKE THEM! TAKE ALL MY HEALING POTIONS!"

  He practically threw them at Kei's feet, desperate to avoid becoming the next test subject.

  Kei's eyes gleamed with the twisted amusement of a scientist on the verge of discovery.

  "In the advancement of science, some people don’t get a say in whether they’re test subjects or not."

  The poor guy, face pale with dread, stammered, "S-Since when?!"

  Kei’s grin widened.

  "Since today, my idiot. Now shut up."

  Without waiting for permission, Kei dumped a healing potion directly onto the Achilles tendon he had previously shredded.

  The guy screamed as the raw, exposed injury fizzed and bubbled, the healing properties slowly repairing the torn tissue.

  Kei watched intently, nodding to himself.

  "Hmmm... not as effective as my aether. Works slower, requires more potion, but still effective."

  Before the poor man could plead for mercy, another sharp agony shot through him—Kei had yanked out the projectile lodged in his knee and poured another healing potion over it.

  "AGGHHHHH!"

  Kei ignored the screaming, completely focused on his analysis.

  "Although the healing process is slower, these potions do have the potential to repair bones. Interesting."

  The guy twitched, his breathing ragged, looking at Kei with pure terror.

  Too much noise.

  Kei’s fist shot out, striking him squarely in the jaw.

  Silence.

  Knocked out.

  He sighed in satisfaction and stood up, rolling his shoulder.

  Talia, having watched the entire ordeal with a look of disbelief, finally spoke.

  "Ignoring the fact that you just punched that guy unconscious... you must’ve been a deranged surgeon back home."

  Kei stretched, completely unfazed.

  "I got results. If anything, the world seemed better off for it."

  He closed his eyes for a moment, mentally committing every observation to memory, already calculating how he could refine the process further.

  Kei clapped his hands together. “Alright, you spoke about a quest. What are we doing, buddy?”

  Owen blinked as if he had forgotten all about it. “Oh yeah… it’s just to fight a bear—an Earth Force one. I was hoping you could give me some tips on Force manipulation while I fought it. Figured observing would help me learn better.”

  Kei tilted his head. “Hmm. Bear meat is kinda stinky and tough to cook, but okay.”

  “I said fight, not kill!” Owen protested.

  “But I’m hungry,” Kei whined. “Its life is worth sustaining mine.”

  Ignoring his complaints, Owen glanced at the quest details again. “Hmm, the rewards for killing it are really good, but the ones for capturing it seem more worth it. What are the chances we can pull that off?”

  Kei shrugged. “We’ll have to see when we get there.”

  Just then, the guy he had healed stepped forward hesitantly. “Umm… thank you for helping us. There’s no excuse for what we did before, but I promise we’ll change our ways and work harder to be better.”

  Kei waved it off. “No problem. Just strive to have a positive purpose in this world. Would be a shame to live a life with no meaning, don’t you think?” He flashed a genuine smile, looking relaxed—almost like he hadn’t just tortured the guy and knocked his friend unconscious.

  The man swallowed hard, clearly unsettled by how quickly Kei could switch between warmth and cruelty.

  Kei turned to leave but then paused, glancing back over his shoulder with that same wide grin. “Leave him be. He’ll wake up soon.” His tone was lighthearted, but then—without changing expression—he added, “Also, I’m assuming you’re smart enough not to reveal what you just saw me do with healing you.”

  The smile remained, but the threat was crystal clear.

  The man stiffened, his throat dry. “Uh… thanks,” he said quickly before grabbing his unconscious friend and hurrying away.

  Kei chuckled, stretching his arms behind his head. “Make sure you eat something nutritious! You’re low on blood!” he shouted after him.