Steve held his chest and looked down, "Hahaha yeah! Thank goodness."
After they finished relaxing, Steve was called back to rest in his treatment room.
From a distance, Gaki smiled widely and waved cheerfully, followed by Shizuku.
The gates began to open, and the atmosphere closed in again with the smell of medicine everywhere. Steve entered his room slowly, reached for his bed, and lay on it with a comfortable feeling.
After a long time pondering, Steve finally became curious and called out to Unknown, who hadn't spoken since earlier.
"(Unknown... Unknown, where are you?)"
A moment of silence. Usually, Unknown would respond immediately with an arrogant tone, but this time there was only the sound of a very heavy sigh inside Steve's head.
"(Noisy... Don't yell, idiot. Your voice is making my head spin even more...)"
Unknown replied. His voice sounded very hoarse and weak, far from his usual booming impression.
Steve frowned, feeling that something was off. "(Your voice... why does it sound so pathetic? And where did your colorful aura that usually overflows in my body go?)"
"(This is all because of your weak human body!)" Unknown grumbled, his tone a mix of annoyance and resignation.
"(While fighting that higher-dimensional monster named Polypus, your heart exploded and stopped beating! Your body was destroyed! If I had kept forcing my RGB power, your body would have completely turned to dust... and I would have died a ridiculous death along with you!)"
Steve widened his eyes. He reflexively touched his chest, which was still wrapped in bandages, recalling the excruciating pain before he fainted.
Unknown's words threw Steve's consciousness into a blurry memory right after the explosion against Polypus.
[Flashback]
In the midst of the destroyed dimensional void, Unknown stood staring at Steve's charred and lifeless body. The young man's heart had stopped.
For the first time, the King of Kings gritted his teeth in a panic he had never felt for thousands of years.
"Stupid kid... this fragile human body of yours won't survive if I keep holding onto this power," Unknown growled.
With a heavy heart, Unknown raised both his hands into the air.
The absolute Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) aura that had been the symbol of his power all this time was slowly pulled out from the core of his soul. The excruciating pain made Unknown let out a muffled scream.
The three giant pillars of light were finally released, shooting through the cracked dimensional sky, spreading to various corners of the world as falling stars carrying fragments of cosmic energy and also aiding the recovery from the destruction that occurred.
As soon as that power left, Steve's body slowly stopped burning, and his heartbeat returned, beating slowly but surely.
Unknown, who was now only enveloped by the Pure Darkness aura, stared at his weakened hands, then snorted softly.
"You owe me your life, Idiot."
...
"(So...)" Unknown continued with a heavy tone. "(To save both our lives, I was forced to release that absolute RGB power and let its energy scatter back to where it came from.
Now, I can only give you the basic Pure Darkness power and the four weapons we just took from the Void. Do you understand what I mean, kid?)"
Steve gulped. "(You mean... you're weakened now?)"
"(Not weakened, idiot! But sealed by the limitations of your body!)" Unknown snapped, although his voice wasn't as loud as usual.
"(From now on, you have to train like crazy! If you want us to win the rematch against Shiro in three days, your body has to be strong enough to contain my energy flow without exploding!)"
Steve grabbed his pillow and lay back relaxed, "Hahh... Yeah, yeah, later when I'm recovered."
A few hours passed. The sunlight began to slant to the west, piercing through the hospital room window.
On the bed, a miracle happened. Steve's previously completely destroyed body slowly knitted its own tissues. His internal bleeding stopped completely, his burn wounds peeled away into new skin, and his energy flow stabilized again as if he had just woken up from a sound nap.
"Haaah... so nice," Steve muttered while stretching his muscles, which now felt light.
Feeling fully fit (and perhaps his stomach was starting to get hungry again), Steve threw off the blanket and walked casually out of the room.
In the evacuation hallway, a few nurses who were busy carrying trays of medicine and bandages suddenly stopped in their tracks all at once. Their eyes bulged wide, their jaws almost hitting the floor.
They stared in horror at the casually jacketed young man who had just walked past them.
"E-eh?! Wait a minute... isn't that the patient from the ruins whose heart had just stopped earlier?!" whispered one of the nurses with a pale face and trembling hands.
"Impossible! The surgeon said it would take months just for him to be able to sit up! How is he already walking around getting some fresh air?!" replied another nurse, almost dropping her medicine tray out of sheer shock at seeing Steve's physical resilience that was beyond human logic.
Steve opened the iron gates and walked out, intending to look for some monsters to increase his still-low level. In the middle of his journey, Steve found a small eatery covered only by a cloth that read Pecel Lele.
Steve, who had started getting hungry from walking all this time, finally decided to stop by for a moment. He ordered food there consisting of catfish, tempeh, tofu, chili paste, and warm rice.
Because the food was so delicious, Steve thought the price would be very expensive, but it turned out to be very cheap, only 20 Haipur. After finishing paying, Steve walked out. He increasingly felt something strange; why was this place getting slummier the further he went?
The asphalt roads that were initially smooth became full of potholes. Trees that were banned in Laponia because they could cause flooding were planted abundantly here.
Steve kept walking until he finally arrived at a village named Sentosa. The houses there were extremely uninhabitable; roofs made of rusty zinc, walls made of used plywood, and river water full of waste.
He glanced around at the people whose gazes were empty and desperate, wearing shabby clothes that were already torn.
"Wh-what is actually going on in this place!" Steve said with great annoyance.
Steve's eyes glanced at something, as if his human instinct was telling him. Steve saw a very heartbreaking sight: a group of children eating and drinking rotting things.
In the blink of an eye, Steve approached the children and threw away the rotten food. Seeing this, the children's bodies trembled; their mouths looked like they wanted to say something, but they couldn't utter it because they were too scared.
Steve gave them some bread and food he had bought earlier. Steve's face turned red, his veins popped out, he gritted his teeth, his pupils shrank and trembled.
Steve smiled faintly but still full of emotion, "It's better if you eat this instead, okay!" Steve continued his journey.
In the middle of the forest, he saw a group of people wearing construction clothes and the heavy equipment they brought.
Steve created a black mist and hid inside it. Faintly but surely, Steve listened to their conversation.
"Hahaha, we're getting rich cutting down this forest, bro," said one of them.
"Of course, especially with the injured people being evacuated here. If it weren't for that damn AH, why would we even care, hahaha," his friend replied.
Steve's aura of anger radiated even more. Their disgusting laughter was forcibly stopped.
WHOOSH!
An incredibly heavy energy pressure suddenly choked the air around them. From behind the black mist, the sound of dragged metal was heard. A legendary sword with a dense aura whizzed, cleaving the air.
SLASH! BOOM!
In the blink of an eye, the giant excavator heavy equipment behind them was split in two with a very smooth cut, as if just cutting butter.
A second later... BAM!
The worker who had laughed the loudest was already sprawled unconscious, his head struck squarely by the sword's hilt until the asphalt beneath him cracked. His friends could only stand frozen in horror. Their knees trembled violently seeing the giant machine destroyed and their comrade fall in the blink of an eye.
Before them, the black mist slowly thinned, revealing the figure of Steve staring at them with an ice-cold gaze. The legendary sword in his hand radiated a murderous Pure Darkness aura.
"Now..." Steve whispered in a low, bone-chilling tone. "...who wants to laugh again?"