Time to make the most of a bad outcome

Youngwoo opened his eyes again. There was darkness all around him, just like the first time he had died. However, this time around, he nearly immediately got hold of his situation. He looked on his body, and saw that he was standing on nothingness. Well, it was difficult to call it nothingness, rather, it was a surface so dark that it seemed infinitely far away (wasn't this how optics work? He couldn't remember).

As a few seconds of silence passed, he heard a zooming sound to his left. There were 5 skill cards approaching at fast speed. Before Youngwoo had a chance to think for too long, the floating cards stopped just within hand's reach. There was a single F-rank skill, 2 C-ranks, 1 B-rank and 1 A-rank, shining brilliantly at him.

He clenched his fists.

"FUUUUUUUUU-" But he didn't even finish. Instead, he stifled the words that wanted to escape his mouth and fell to his knees. There was no point in getting unnecessary mad. Hell, was this really his decision right now? Or was is that damnable Calm Mind? "...fuck."

Why, why, WHY?! Everything seemed to be coming together nicely. For once in his life, he actually had a chance with a girl, and now he regressed...

He hit the surface underneath him with anger. His fist bounced and hit him straight in his face. Youngwoo bent backwards, feeling the pain suddenly reverberate in his mind. He immediately dismissed the notification that showed up, and then... wait, what was that?

In the first moment, he wanted to swipe his hand to dismiss the notification that appeared, but... it didn't appear. Hell, actually, that hit, did it really hurt? The pain felt real, but... was it? No, wait... something was off. Youngwoo decided to pinch himself. However, no matter how hard he did that, he felt no actual pain. What did it mean?

'It must be because I'm dead now... hmm. The Tower did reply to my thoughts last time, so I can ask, probably... nah. I know it's true anyway.' He thought. Well, to be honest, even if he wanted to ask, it would be redundant to him. He won't be staying around here for long, anyway.

He stretched his hand and almost grabbed the A-rank skill, but suddenly he hesitated. For a moment, he thought. 'How do I want to go about this? I don't want to have to redo this again...' Youngwoo looked at the shining cards. He liked Hilda. He loved the dance they had made, and making out with her was incomparable to anything he'd ever feel. He wouldn't mind doing it again someday, but... but here was the problem. For her, this now would be the first time again, while for him this would be a repeat. He didn't like it, not that way. Truly, this skill was rotten. If he wanted to succeed, he needed to ensure that he could perform perfectly.

And so, he took his hand away. First of all, he needed to know what those skills were. Just grasping at a rank would be sufficient any day, but not this one. He knew that there was a chance that A-rank skill card would contain a passive skill. This is what happened with Calm Mind before, after all. No, for now, he needed to read the description on the skills.

He got up and walked around the cards. Or rather, he tried to. Whenever he made a step, the cards followed, if he turned his head, they flew right in front of him, forcing themselves into his field of view, their backs turned on him. He tried running, covering his eyes, hell, he even tried spinning around as a last ditch effort to try and get a glimpse of what the descriptions would say. Alas, none of his methods worked. Feeling some anger, he suddenly yelled:

"TOWER! What's the meaning of this? Why can't I read descriptions of those cards?!"

[The Tower looks at you. It believes that this is an appropriate drawback to the SSS-ranked skill you possess.]

"Drawback? So, do I have to pick one of those with no information other than rank?" He raised his eyebrow.

[The Tower replies positively.]

"Wait, where's TM? Can you hear me?!"

["Mortal, I cannot assist you. I am unable to see what the skill cards in front of you depict.]

"...so no help, I guess..." Youngwoo let his head down a little. "...It's alright. It would be rotten of me to expect more than this. Getting a second chance is more than enough for me."

[TM smiles at your attitude. It is something they didn't expect of you, but welcome it regardless.]

Youngwoo also smiled a little bit. Yes, his road was bound to be filled with all sort of suffering, both big and small. So far, he died only three times because of a reason other than himself. This number was bound to grow eventually. But, in his ****, there was a secret power. With every ****, he would become stronger. More capable. He had to accept it all. The good, the bad, and the crispy. There was no reason to falter, no incentive to give up just because he failed once. Youngwoo grabbed the A-rank skill card.

[You have picked a card. The skill engraved is 'Charismatic Leadership (passive)'.]

[You made your selection. 'Charismatic Leadership (passive)' is added to your skill list.]

'Oh come on, that's 2 passive out of 2 choices so far.' Thought Youngwoo for a moment, and a bitter smile of irony crept onto his face as the world turned black.

[Rewinding time 24 hours back.]

[You are penalized. Your rank is F. Penalty severity is low.
Displaying trauma...]

Youngwoo saw a scene of a fight. There were an older farmer arguing with someone else. Dulan was watching it from afar, but could make out all the details. There was something about him that made him step on his feet quickly in place. Nerves caused his body to shudder. But, he couldn't **** himself to move to stop the argument. No, wait, could he even stop them? He was looking up at them. He was just a small, scrawny farmboy, not the huge bandit leader. No, for now, he could do nothing.

But suddenly, the farmer faked a blow at the man. Was it meant to scare him away? Or to prove a point? No matter. The rake he held made a short stab and suddenly retreated just before it would pierce the man. However, the other side of the argument didn't seem to take this well.

The man (who Youngwoo guessed to be some kind of a superior, perhaps a lower noble) took out a small knife out of his pocket. Suddenly, he lunged forward a little, and the knife pierced farmer's stomach before backing off, seemingly realizing what he'd done. He immediately looked around, and noticing Dulan, he started running away, not caring for the farmer who was on the ground. Tears swelled up in Dulan's eyes as he immediately broke out into a run. And then, the world became dark again.

[Recalling of trauma finished.]

[Due to effects of skill 'Calm Mind (passive)', strain on your mentality has been nullified.]

...so that was what this was. Was this the reason for Dulan to go rogue? Youngwoo was certain that it must've been a factor in it. Perhaps it was the event that made him view nobles in bad light?

'Is it possible to talk him down?' He pondered for a moment, laying in his bed. Checking time on his phone, he noticed 7:50 coming around. He was in middle of texting with Hilda. Actually, no, it was coming to an end. Youngwoo finished up setting up a plan with her, and then let his phone down.

To subdue Dulan... just cornering him won't suffice. His body was a testament to all the obstacles on his way he overcame, and he was sure to be strong. This quest was bound to be difficult, unless he did either of the two: found a way to bind him properly, or killed him.

'Hmm... it's not even binding him that's going to be difficult. Once we do that, he'll bellow every bandit to attack us. This quest is actually ridiculously difficult, but... I think I got an idea.' He thought about it for a moment. For once, he felt thankful for Donnie's presence in their raid.

Later

The day went smoothly on. Youngwoo did everything in his power to make the day play out in the same manner as it did before, and the results spoke for themselves. The atmosphere for him was pretty awkward as he knew the outcome, but thanks to Calm Mind he didn't let any of this out for the world to see. In the end of the day, what mattered was the outcome.

"Why do you link Pinnacle and Kill so often?"

...and the rest was history.

The dance, the kiss, the overwhelming feeling that flushed over him. Feeling her back tense just a little when he pulled her in, he immediately recognized that as she pulled away, she relaxed. First time be first time, but she must've had some trust in him to become so relaxed, so fast.

Soon enough they both started another dance. Sweat glistened and flew off her skin and hair as Hilda made a rapid spin in a fashion of Transcend, and Youngwoo caught her by striding forward with Linked Revolve. But then, he suddenly stopped, getting a hold of her shoulders.

"...?" Hilda looked at him with surprised expression. "Is something the matter?"

"No, it's just... I was thinking... do you know how to use Earth Dragon Ascension to make tunnels?"

"...I haven't made many, but I know the principle." She replied.

"Is it possible to make a tunnel without seeing it?"

"...? Could you explain a little?"

"Let's say you want to make a tunnel from here to there." He pointed towards a tree. "And you don't have enough magic to make it all the way. Is it possible to pick off from where you left it?"

"...yes, of course. But I'd need to know where to start, otherwise I'd just be making short, unconnected tunnels. But why are you asking me all this, Youngwoo?"

"I think our raid just became 99% easier." He said, forming a little smile. "Let's go get your scepter. It's going to be a very long night."

Meanwhile

She was drinking tea while sitting in her own room. On the huge TV hung on a wall, some Netflix show was going on (she lost interest in it halfway anyway). She took a long, deep sip of the warm liquid; she loved the taste of black, bitter tea. Soon, she closed her eye and concentrated all the magic she had.

Norma Jacobsen. She was Norwegian woman who got the S-rank prediction ability at age of 16, and was among the first people to enter the Tower. Her skill made her a hot topic in the beginning of Tower's existence, but one day, any trace of her disappeared. On the Internet, many people speculated that she saw the end of humanity and decided to commit suicide. Others believed that her skill was a fraud and someone decided to test it, and thus she died. And what was the truth? She did see quite far into the future. She took note of so many paths that she wasn't sure if she was able to even pick one of them. And then, she noticed a way out.

It was when the Tower had been in place for 3 years. Norma had made a lot of money through her prediction, but it was still difficult to survive. However, one day, she met the woman who'd become head of Shadow Cult (until this day Norma thought that it was a stupid name for an organisation, but she decided to not waste her brainpower on searching a better one).

No, actually, it was right to say that she shaped that woman to be Shadow Cult's head. And with Boss in place, Norma secured her place, removed any traces of her existence, and spent days on doing whatever she wanted, be it sleeping, trying different foods or whatever else. So long she obeyed the Boss, she would live in prosperity, hidden away from the world. All she wanted was stability, and with her talent, she was guaranteed to have just that. She played along the group, pretending to be afraid of them and working with them out of need to survive, and thus she had all she wanted.

It was Norma who found Mobius long before he came around. It was her who picked this location of all of them, knowing that nobody would find her for a very long time. It was none other than Norma who told the Boss that Ieva Coull would be a massive problem. Indeed, that pesky Tinkerer would be able to bring down the Shadow Cult on her own, had she been left alive for too long. That was why she, for the first time in a long while, actually ordered the Boss to kill her (even if Boss thought she had the upper hand). Ieva's sister, Hilda, was negligible. She would kill the thugs they sent anyway, she she would never know who did it. Besides, she was bound to die one day, too.

But then, a new variable appeared. At first Norma thought that it was a lapse in concentration, a sub-optimal scenario she'd accidentally picked, but no. She had seen this future so many times, and did whatever she could to make it go all the way. There was no way she could make such a simple mistake.

That man, Youngwoo Lee. Until that very day, he was a nobody. A person who'd live and die as cannon fodder. But, for some reason, he appeared in that park, striding from his usual path. The moment she saw it, Norma knew that there was something off about him. He completely escaped bounds of her calculations. Not even her S-ranked skill, one that saw nearly 20 years into the future, managed to grasp his being. No, there was something more going on with him.

For a few days now, she did accurate predictions on how this man would behave. He cleared the 11th floor with Hilda, and was on his way to clear 12th. But, here was where things suddenly broke apart. The man was bound to die. In every single future she saw from the point she woke up, he would die to the bandit leader. But now...

"It's... changed..." She said absentmindedly, keeping her eye closed as she saw different futures. "...but... why?"

The future changed again. And it happened about 24 hours before that man would have died. No... wasn't there a pattern here?

'Could it be? Is he able to see his **** and avoid it? No... then why would he save Tinkerer? He would have lived for years thereafter, without lifting a finger... No... no... no... none of this makes sense...!' She put her hands on her temples and massaged lightly. She knew she couldn't predict everything, she wasn't naive. However, this man was too... bizarre in the way he worked. Clearly, he was a Clairvoyant, seeing how he saved the Tinkerer, but why did he only do something about his own **** 24 hours before it came into effect? And then, she had a thought.

Youngwoo Lee. He reshaped the future how he saw fit. He was far more powerful than Norma, as he didn't even send her a message for trying to shape the future how she wanted. He saw her as an insignificant person, and Norma was certain of it. And now, he was simply messing with her. He wanted to show her just how powerless she was against him. That man wanted to show her: he was now in control.

No, but then, what could she do? This was the first time in her life she'd felt so helpless. Youngwoo Lee... he was unpredictable. Norma gritted her teeth as a heavy headache struck her. She quickly swallowed a few pills to help her, turned off the TV, and then laid down in her queen-sized bed. After nearly an hour of suffering though her mental state, she managed to fall asleep.