Four years have passed since the trip to the zoo where I took the first step of my plan, and now I am 12 years old. Many things have happened during this time. On the family side, the most important are that Seonhwa finally overcame her attention crisis and instead of being jealous of her sister, she now dedicates herself to taking care of her and showing that she is a good Unnie.
Jinhee and Seunghae are now 6 years old and are super active. They always stick to Seonhwa or me whenever they can.
Poor Wooseok feels abandoned because he can't get the little ones' attention and feels like he failed in the path of being an Oppa.
But in my opinion, as a Hyung, he is unsurpassable, so I always encourage him. From what I heard, next year Hyung will start attending university, so seeing him will become more difficult because he will go to live in a student residence and except for vacations, he will not have much time to come to see us.
As for me, these years I have advanced more than I thought I could. My [Self-Healing] is now at a Low range and is capable of healing minor wounds without leaving a trace in a couple of days. I have not wanted to test it on more serious wounds, as I do not want to carelessly hurt myself and scare my family. A serious wound is not something I can hide in any way, and if I get seriously injured, they will definitely notice, and I will lose many privileges and trust that I have gained these years by demonstrating my maturity that does not fit my age.
My [Nine Eyes] have also improved. Now I can see the Black color of the Lower Direction, which represents a danger or mortal situation. But I still cannot see the Gold color of the Upper Direction that represents the Golden Commandment.
My [Mana Circuit Application] ability rose to a Low rank and thanks to that, my mana control has also improved quite a bit. Now I can move mana through my body at will, and I have even tried moving it outside my body and using it to move objects without touching them, and it was a success, although it requires my absolute concentration to do it. I suppose that the more mana control I have, the easier it will be for me to move objects.
And with better mana control, I also managed to master the [Physical Reinforcement] ability, which is now at the Very Low rank. This ability allows me to use the mana in my body to feed and reinforce my physical capabilities.
Thanks to this ability, I can multiply my physical capabilities. When I use it to the maximum capacity that my body supports, I can triple my physical capabilities. I can run as fast as a slow car, between 50 to 70 km/h, or carry almost half a ton of weight. I know it sounds great and exaggerated for a 12-year-old, but the truth is that it is less incredible than it sounds because my base capabilities are far superior to those of any child my age thanks to my constant training and my passive abilities. Moreover, the disadvantages of [Physical Reinforcement] at this moment outweigh the advantages.
As I said, tripling my physical capabilities is achieved by using reinforcement at maximum capacity, and using it at maximum capacity has serious drawbacks. First, the more I enhance the reinforcement, the faster I spend my mana. At maximum capacity, I can only use it for 30 minutes at most with my current mana.
Then there is the other drawback which is the worst, the damage. The reinforcement consists of boosting my capabilities by channeling mana through my body, and the more the mana, the greater the reinforcement.
But just as different materials have different resistances to different energies, the body is no exception. When mana is channeled through the body as a conduit, if the mana channeled exceeds the resistance, then the body begins to suffer damage, and that is what happens to me when I use the reinforcement at my maximum capacity. The large amount of mana that passes through my body not only reinforces it but also begins to damage it when it exceeds the resistance. In the end, it ends up being an ability like the Eight Gates or the Kaio-ken, which boosts physical capabilities but at the cost of damaging a body not trained to withstand the load.
However, by hurting my body using [Physical Reinforcement], I am able to improve the [Self-Healing] ability by repairing the damage. If I activate both abilities at the same time, I can partially counteract the damage caused by the reinforcement, but only a little, since my healing is not yet good enough to heal me immediately.
As for my base physical capabilities without using any ability, they are comparable to those of an untrained normal adult. For a 12-year-old body, I can say it is a great success.
But now I face a situation I did not want to reach.
I knew it would happen sooner or later, and I have been vigilant over the last few years to avoid it because I did not know the exact moment, and although it was in my plans and when I did the notebook test, this always weighed on my mind. It is the only topic that was not even touched upon for some reason, in any of the messages.
This led me to the conclusion that for some reason, my future selves deliberately avoided sending a message regarding this matter.
But today, this morning, the Wheels of Destiny are turning once again. Just like every morning, I went out early to run and do my morning exercises, always taking an hour and returning in time to get ready to go to school, but when I was returning home, I saw it.
A Yellow color, not that of the Golden Commandment, but that of Required Attention. and the source of that color is a car, not my parents' or Hyung's, but that of the parents of Seonhwa and Seunghae.
I was frozen for a moment. I know from the novel that the parents of Seonhwa and Seunghae die, but it was never said when they died or how, so for the last few years I have been as vigilant as I could be of them and any source of danger, and now for the first time, I see one.
I sent more mana to my eyes and activated the [Observation], which is one of the sub-abilities of the [Nine Eyes].
{Automobile
Vehicle type: Double cabin pickup truck.
Good condition.
Year of manufacture 1995}
Nothing, I found nothing wrong with the vehicle. To check if there was something different that would help me compare, I used the [Observation] on other vehicles around me, but all show similar descriptions. Some are in very good condition, others are in poor condition or suggest that they require maintenance or may show failures, but the average condition of the vehicles around me is good, so based on comparison, there is no problem with the uncles' pickup truck.
Then I thought of another possibility, maybe if they go out today in the pickup truck and follow their normal routine, at some point they are destined to have an accident.
I just have to prevent them from going out today, but I have to check first if that is really the case. For example, if I damaged the pickup truck so they can't go out in it today, I'm sure I would avoid the accident.
I activated the [Nine Eyes] once more to see if with my intention of damaging the pickup truck something changed, and I was right, as long as I maintain this intention the Yellow color disappeared.
I sighed with relief, and when I was about to go puncture the tires of the pickup truck, uncle Jung came out of his house. And what I saw surprised me once again.
"Good morning Jihu, I'm glad to see that you are as hardworking as always. Just seeing your spirit gives me energy so that I will also give my best today," said uncle Jung while striking a fighting spirit pose.
What surprised me is that, although my idea of damaging the pickup truck proved to work when the pickup truck lost the Yellow color, now that I saw uncle Jung, he has the Yellow color. I quickly looked at the pickup truck and it remains colorless. I thought about not damaging it and the color returned, and I looked at uncle Jung, but he also maintains the Yellow color.
"Good morning uncle Jung. Is there by any chance any special event or novelty at your work today?" I asked curiously and full of expectations, hoping that this was the case and perhaps the reason is more oriented towards it being a day where he has a different routine than normal.
"Mm, there is nothing special. Just an ordinary day like any other boring and tiring day at work. However that does not change the fact that you have to work with all your strength during the workday and give the best performance. Don't forget that we live in a fiercely competitive world. If you don't give your best, you don't know when someone who does will come along and take your place and then you won't have money to put food on the table. Normally I would not say this to someone your age, but I know you are not like other children and you can benefit more from the wise words of this old man," said uncle Jung trying to give off the air of being an old sage, even making gestures of touching his imaginary beard.
While his gestures amused me, I cannot lose focus on the current situation. If his day is normal and even if the pickup truck is damaged he is still Yellow, it means that the accident will occur in a place he will go to today regardless of whether the pickup truck works or not, and knowing uncle Jung's routine, work is the only possible place.
I kept watching him, and this time I focused on the hypothetical case where I prevented uncle Jung from going to work today, but the color remains there. I thought about preventing him from leaving his house in any way today, but the color remains there. I looked towards his house to see if there was anything that would give me a clue, but there was nothing.
"Well, it is getting a little late, I better hurry up to warm up the car while your aunt finishes getting ready. You as well should not delay much and should get ready to go to school. I know you still have time but if you are not careful, time will fly by and when you realize it instead of having extra time you will be short of it," said uncle Jung as he approached the pickup truck and started it to warm up the engine.
If it were any other day, I would have used the facade of an obedient and responsible child while following uncle's advice, but not today. I have to find the source that puts him in danger and prevent a tragedy.
The door of uncles' house opened and I saw aunt Seonmi coming out, and to complete my fears, she is also Yellow.
Now I can be sure, today is the day they lose their lives, if I don't take the necessary actions they will definitely die today.
Since my early days in this world, I have known uncle Jung and aunt Seonmi and they have always taken care of Hyung, Jinhee, and me like my parents do with Seonhwa and Seunghae.
They are good people and are very hardworking. They are good parents and good uncles. They have earned my affection and respect and they are like my second parents. I just cannot and will not allow them to die.
I thought about tying them up inside their house all day and preventing them from going out at all costs to prevent any accident that could happen today. Despite that idea the Yellow color still did not disappear and I almost despaired for not finding any clues, but as I still maintained the idea I could see a change, this time although they are still Yellow the change is not in them. Just like when the pickup truck changed color when I thought about damaging it, this time something else changed color when I thought about locking them up and that was the house, the house changed to Yellow color.
So instead of locking them in their house, I thought about locking them in my parents' house and to my surprise, the Yellow color immediately disappeared from their house but changed to my parents' house.
'What the hell is going on here? It's as if no matter what I do, they will always be in danger. Is this what they call immutable destiny? That no matter if you know and do everything possible, in the end, you can't change it?'
'I really don't know, but I can't accept it. There has to be a way, I have to find it. I have to save them!'
"Jihu dear, you are very lost in your thoughts, look how you have not responded to me yet. Is everything okay? Are you worried about something? You know you can tell your aunt any problem, right?" Said my aunt as she pulled my shoulder. It seems I was too lost in my thoughts and did not return the greeting.
"Good morning aunt Seonmi. I'm sorry for not greeting you, I was absorbed in something and did not realize my surroundings," I said, feigning a bit of embarrassment for ignoring her, to reassure her.
But the one who cannot be reassured is me. I don't know why my uncle and aunt are going to die and I don't know how to avoid it, I only know that it will happen and although I can be almost sure that it is today, I have no certainty of the exact moment or the way it will happen...
And my time is running out, they are almost ready to go to work. I have to make a decision right now, stop them at all costs or let them go. The problem is that using the [Nine Eyes], none of the hypothetical scenarios changes the result much. If I forcibly stop them in the house, the house becomes Yellow. If I let them go, it is the car that becomes Yellow.
If I damage the car but do not restrain them, instead of the car or the house, they are the ones who are Yellow.