Chapter 8: The World Slows Down

“Eunho, doesn’t Secretary Kim’s voice sound really nice?”

“Does it?”

“She reminds me of some announcer. Looks like her, too. Who was it again?”

At that moment, a trivial conversation suddenly flashed through my mind.

A chat with someone who had feelings for Jieun.

“Uuuueeunhoooosiiii—!”

But right now, Jieun wasn’t making the voice of an announcer or even a normal person.

She was producing strange, almost unnatural sounds, like a broken video slowed to a crawl.

‘Everything around me has slowed down.’

I racked my brain desperately while trying to move.

My left hand was gripping Jieun, and my right hand held onto the wall-like floor.

To move comfortably, I first had to get Jieun to a safe place.

— Tap.

I opened the system box attached to the floor, stepped on it, and climbed up.

Quickly, I placed both feet one after the other, then pulled out the fingers stuck on the wall and dug them back into the upper wall.

‘If it weren’t for the petrification skill, I’d have fallen for sure.’

Only after two or three steps, my left arm started twitching.

Fortunately, I reached the pillar where Jaehyuk was hanging just before my arm gave out. Otherwise, I might have dropped poor Jieun into the flames.

“Huff… Jieun’s pretty heavy.”

I laid Jieun across my back and tried to catch my breath for a moment.

“Uuuueeegiiihhh… Up there! Huh?”

Click.

The time axis found its place again.

The massive table, which seemed to fall slowly as if frozen, regained its normal speed.

— Boom!

The heavy sound shook the space.

Then came the silence.

If I’d been hit, my head would’ve exploded for sure.

“Ah, no, why am I here…?”

As I breathed a sigh of relief, Jieun’s round eyes grew even wider.

Then she said,

“Thank you so much, Eunho! How did you move so fast?”

“Later. For now… let me check my skill.”

[One skill is available for confirmation.]

[Do you want to check Accelerate (Lv.1)?]

“Yes.”

「Accelerate (Lv.1): Increases the user’s relative speed. Can extend 1 second to (5) seconds.」

A translucent system window appeared with white letters.

The number (5) was written in blue, implying that as the skill level increases, the time extension lengthens.

‘One second into five seconds… so that’s why everyone else seemed slowed down.’

To others, I probably appeared to move five times faster.

‘What if I could extend it to 10, 50, or even 100 seconds?’

It would be almost like stopping time.

I could get so much done in one second.

‘This is insane.’

I tried shouting ‘Accelerate’ again, but a message popped up saying it was on cooldown.

Same with the petrification skill.

Such overpowered skills must come with penalties.

Anyway, about one minute remained. During that time, I had to survive without petrification or accelerate.

“Hey, doesn’t the fire seem a bit weaker?”

“Hmm? Oh, you’re right! The slope’s gentler, too.”

“Must be because we climbed up!”

Jaehyuk was right.

The only change from before was that we’d climbed a few steps, but the fire had lessened slightly and the incline had become more gradual.

There had to be a rule.

‘What if I were the administrator?’

Faced with the need to reduce the crowd, slippery floors, and someone lazy with details.

‘Let’s retrace the steps from the beginning.’

The floor first tilted when the arguing couple walked to the corner of the exhibition hall.

Then, people rushed toward the couple down a steep slope.

The slope eased again as the three of us moved away, climbing upward.

Could it be…?

“I think I might have an idea. Let’s climb a bit more.”

“Did you find something?”

Not completely certain, but probably.

“A seesaw… maybe?”

“A seesaw?”

“There's a pointed fulcrum in the center, and we’re standing on top of it.”

Carefully climbing the slope to avoid falling, I continued.

“So, when people gather on one side, that side of the floor goes down because the weight shifts.”

“Ah…”

“It seems designed so that when the tilt passes a certain angle, fire bursts up.”

‘They want to gather people in one spot and burn them all at once.’

That was likely the concept and goal of this mission.

“Oh! So that’s why we’re moving to the opposite side—to balance it out?”

“Yes. To be exact, we’d have to know everyone’s weight here and calculate it, but…”

I trailed off, thinking it wouldn’t be easy to find the weight of thirteen people to distribute evenly, and Jieun gasped.

“Y-You want to know our weights?”

“Yes, weights.”

Asking that now would probably get me labeled crazy.

But if at least the three of us climbed up and leveled it out, maybe they’d believe it.

Jieun then fired out words like a machine gun.

“Um… maybe that’s unnecessary? If it’s about weight, there are objects stacked over there, and I doubt just three of us moving had any effect.”

The wall she pointed to was piled high with items that had rolled down the slope earlier.

‘Then maybe it’s based on the number of people?’

It made sense, so I pondered quietly, and Jieun quickly added.

“I’m not saying this because I don’t want to reveal my weight!”

There were thirteen people left.

If the goal was to balance the group evenly,

Six people could stand on each end, and one person could guard the very center of the exhibition hall.

After finishing that calculation, I shouted to those still tangled up in the corner.

“Hey! Only four of you come over here! I think we found a way!”

“Climb up how? Didn’t you see people falling just now?”

“It’ll be fine now. The slope isn’t that steep!”

The doubtful people began looking around cautiously and started moving out.

One, two, three, four… five?

“Stop! That’s too many! You with the hat, stay where you are!”

“I’ll go if I want to!”

“This mission requires an even distribution of people! If more come over, this side will tilt!”

“Ah, what?! So you want us all to burn to death here?!”

The man shouted angrily, causing unrest.

Though the slope had almost flattened and the fire had noticeably weakened, those who had lost reason couldn’t see that.

If anything…

“Move! I want to go, too!”

“Damn it! I’m first!”

‘What do I do? They’re too excited.’

— Boom!

Thanks to those running after me, the floor quickly leveled.

‘If we move any further, this side will tilt.’

“Stop here! Don’t move any further!”

I shouted at those rushing in, fleeing the flames behind me.

One woman and two men.

“Damn it, you want us to die?!”

I felt the floor tilt again.

This time in the opposite direction.

I had to block it fast…

‘Words won’t work!’

— Crackle!

So, I stepped forward.

Striding toward the flames the others had barely escaped.

“Eunho! Where are you going?!”

To strangers, it must look like I was running into the fire.

But I was moving to avoid the flames.

“What the hell is that guy?”

“You crazy bastard!”

People came rushing at me. Now then…

“Accelerate.”

“Giiiiiitttt ouuuuuutttt!”

The world stopped.

Frowns deepened, breaths panted, feet kicked off the ground.

‘Leave the woman as she is.’

— Grab.

I grabbed the backs of the two men’s necks with both hands and ran.

They scraped along the floor, kicking up dust, but it was a hundred times better than dying.

— Crackle!

‘We have to distribute the people evenly. So that no side of the square tilts.’

I imagined a square and plotted thirteen imaginary points inside it.

Like a soccer game, I looked down from above and placed the people.

‘One goes… here.’

I placed the man with the hat like a toy soldier in an empty spot.

‘Another goes about here.’

And placed the last person in his spot.

Finally, the place I should stand was…

‘Right in front of the raging fire.’

A spot where even in manipulated time, I could feel the sweltering heat.

‘That’ll definitely draw people’s attention.’

If they focused on me, they wouldn’t leave the spots I arranged.

I thought hard until my forehead burned and closed my eyes tightly.

Click.

Time passed.

“Yoooouuu’re ddd-dooomed if you try to run awaaaay—huh?”

“What’s this?!”

“E-Eunho? Why are you there…! Run!”

The blazing flames shimmered just inches from my nose.

I turned and shouted at the people, feeling the fierce heat envelop my body.

“Everyone, stay still!”

Standing as if about to be consumed, speaking without panic or fleeing, the people looked around bewildered.

“W-What? Why suddenly there…?”

“If you don’t want to die, don’t move! All of you!”

‘I didn’t want to show my skill, but there was no time to persuade.’

The calculation was perfect.

This would probably end soon.

If my prediction was right.

— Fwoosh.

“D-Don’t!”

“The fire’s dying down!”

The flames shrank from waist-high to shoulder, then waist, knee, and finally barely reaching my feet before vanishing.

[Project ‘Selection’, First Mission Complete.]

[‘Arena’ is now unlocked.]

— Thud.

“It’s over…”

I collapsed, unable to support my legs.

“Eunho! What was that earlier…? Are you okay?”

“Why didn’t you just take me with you? Running into fire alone!”

“Haha…”

I opened my mouth to say I was fine, but the tension released and only a weak laugh came out.

Anyway, I survived.

“Oh my… Is everyone okay? I thought we were all going to burn…”

“Yeah. At this rate, maybe it would have been better to just fade away quietly… Ah, no.”

The people cautiously glanced at the spot where the burnt couple had been.

A mixture of fear from the sudden disaster, anxiety as people kept dying, and relief that I survived.

“Honestly, if it weren’t for that young man, we’d all be dead.”

“Thanks to you, we’re alive.”

“Thank you. You saved us from those idiots.”

Accounting team’s Yejia nodded toward ‘those idiots,’ and the man with the hat snapped back.

“What’re you looking at? Damn!”

“What! Did I say something wrong? All you do is swear!”

That guy had been cursing since earlier.

Jeans, hoodie, a deeply pulled-down hat, and three-striped slippers.

Clearly not a worker.

Probably a bum living nearby, coming to eat at the underground food court.

‘People like him make hardworking folks get disrespected too…’

“...go.”

“What did you say?! You sound younger than me but wanna talk down?”

“I thought I was going to die scared, but I’m damn grateful you saved me! …yo!”

‘…Guess not.’

“The fire chased us like hell, stuff was falling from above smashing our heads! Damn, if it weren’t for you, we’d be dead or brain damaged! …yo!”

Just a foul-mouthed guy.

His words sounded like curses and thanks mixed together.

Others chimed in one by one.

Then someone cautiously asked,

“Uh… how did you move so fast?”

The bespectacled man’s question drew everyone’s attention.

A brief silence followed.

“That speed’s impossible… Ah! I’m not trying to argue or anything…”

Everyone was curious.

They saw me as their savior but couldn’t bring themselves to ask.

‘Should I tell them about the skill?’