Kimsung had a healthy fear of that man, so he believed it would have been better to kill him instead of recruiting him. Yet, a small part of him wanted to see that man on his side, instead of against him, so they could win, and as many humans as possible could survive. It wasn't something he could accept, strangely enough, but even the strongest people must give in to the wishes of others.
"Fine. We'll find him, and he'll work with us, but if I see him trying to kill us, I'll kill him first."
He stated, still firm in his own idea to kill that monster. Their talk lasted until late in the night, planning out their time for the first year even more, until they were sure of themselves. The three of them went to bed soon after, but Keido was still awake in bed, thinking about their future encounter. They were about to meet the future most powerful man, after all. A man who single-handedly beat, killed, outsmarted, and one-sidedly crushed Kimsung and his allies, reset after reset, without even a single victory, no matter how small it was.
So he was quite scared to meet him, but also excited to meet someone even the main character couldn't beat. The night came and went, and with the new morning, on August 22nd, the day of the First Disaster, Keido woke up to his alarm. He looked up and saw his system open, with another message.
Dear Song Keido, we wish you good luck in these Ten Disasters and hope you can survive to the end of it all. If you do, you will be offered the chance to return home or stay in this world. To assist you, we've decided to give you a guide/assistant on your Journey. After reading this message, you will meet your guide, Lilith! Be nice, because yes, she does bite.
After he finished the message, he heard a raspy and sultry voice next to his bed.
"Hello there, dear child. I am Lilith."
He slowly turns to see a woman with blond hair and blue, captivating eyes, her skin a warm beige, with a voluptuous figure. Her attire was a beautiful black dress with red accents, a V-slit going down from her neck, showing off a large amount of cleavage, and a slit showing off her thigh, with black heels. She smiled as his eyes widened, "accidentally" staring at her.
"It's alright, you can look. I don't mind showing you more, if you'd like…"
She trails off, and he straightens up, blinking a few times before getting out of bed and taking a better look at her. She was actually also taller than he by several centimeters. He guessed she had to be over 190 centimeters with her heels on. He could barely look at her for a few seconds before becoming mesmerized by her, but he managed.
"Sorry, are you…Lilith? My assistant?"
He asks, looking away, and straightening his bed. She chuckles, a bit amused by his embarrassment, and takes a deep breath before hugging him and leaning in close.
"Yes, I am. I'll help you through these Ten Disasters and keep you company. After all, the gods aren't so heartless as to leave you without any help. That's where I come in. All I'll do is give you words of encouragement, teach you a few things, and let you go from there. Also, you can decide if other people can see me or not. I'm sure your sister is confused about why you're blushing so much, after all."
His eyes widen, and his gaze shifts to Heidi, who's looking at him with a confused expression, getting out of bed. She then asked a question he was both expectant of and embarrassed to answer.
"Who are you talking to? And why're you blushing so much? Were you watching something before I woke up?"
She asks with a small grin forming on her face. In her mind, she was more than ecstatic to have caught him doing something embarrassing, as any sibling would be, but for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to be ashamed at either the fact that he most likely was doing something naughty or that she had been peacefully asleep in her own bed while he did. Mustn't have been too important, she supposed. Keido wisely permitted Lilith for his sister to see her as well, but couldn't doubt that such an idea would spiral into an even worse situation.
"Holy shit! Who is she? Some sort of ghost, like a previous resident? Even if she's not, she's too hot for someone like you to catch her interest!
She says the jab towards her brother was not missed by him at all.
'I'm not that unattractive.'
He looked himself in the mirror quickly, something he hadn't done much of since arriving in this new world. He had dark brown hair, brown eyes, and fair skin. He was of a slightly average height compared to most Koreans his age, around 174.6 cm, and he considered his body slightly attractive. It wasn't that he wasn't unattractive; it was really just Heidi being her usual self, sending jabs at her brother as any sibling would.
"Very funny for that, Heidi. Anyway, this is Lilith. Um, I guess the system gave me her as a guide of sorts? Just to help us out or whatever she said."
He quickly explains, not wanting any confusion or misunderstandings. Lilith waved with a small smile, a bit humored by the sibling interaction. It reminded her of a time when- What? What was she thinking about again? Well, she didn't remember, so it must not have been something too important.
While Heidi did her morning routine of taking nearly half an hour for a simple shower, Keido checked his system again for any changes so far. When he was given his skill, he always wondered what his drawback would be. In the TTD lore, drawbacks were given strictly to anyone possessing S to Z-ranked skills to give them a limit on having abilities capable of affecting reality. So naturally, he would also receive one. He looked all over his screen and found it.
{That which you trust most will be your downfall}
'Son of a b-'
"Keido! You and Heidi are almost done there?"
His thoughts were interrupted by Kimsung's knocking on the door. Keido opened the door, still both annoyed and processing the description of his drawback.
"You look like you got something stolen from you. You alright?"
The taller man asks. Keido sighs and decides to tell him the truth. Truth, after all, helps gain trust.
"I just got my drawback, that's what happened. Something about being killed by what I trust the most."
"...Why the hell are you telling me?"
"Well, I thought you could help me figure it out a bit…"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"So are you not going to or…"
"What, no, yeah, definitely… but your drawback is something you're meant to figure out. It's like a fateful moment in your life. Literally only you can figure out when it'll happen."
"Oh… you're right. But still, two- no three, are better than one."
Kimsung sighs, both understanding the logic, but still used to the other resets, when those with drawbacks were meant to figure it out themselves instead of with help. Drawbacks were times in a person's life that were meant to happen, or would constantly be a part of who they are, such as dying. That one was considered the best, because you at least knew you'd die at some point. However, the more obscure ones are always the ones that have the worst fate.
His own drawback didn't allow him to achieve the same outcome for every reset, meaning he could never achieve a happy ending twice. Which wasn't the worst, but it honestly was annoying, having to work so hard for a good ending, only for it to get messed up, and he could never have the chance to fully fix it again. They'd have to see Heidi's as well later, but it could wait. What he really cared about was his Evolution. An Evolution only happened when someone had a profound and extremely, (keyword, extremely) deep knowledge and understanding of their skill. Yet no matter how long he spent on it, he could never figure it out. Probably because if he did, his skill would constantly be evolved in any other reset after this one. Which seemed like a fair tradeoff in all honesty when rationally thought about.
Since his skill was focused on absolute time manipulation, it would obviously require an extreme amount of understanding to even comprehend what he does. He never understood it himself, either, how he was able to return to the same point every time, and it gave him a headache when he tried to figure it out. Something about physics was involved? Whatever.
Once Heidi was out of the shower, the trio sat down on the couch and checked their systems. Sure enough, all of them had received their drawbacks, as Keido had earlier. Kimsung's drawback made it impossible for him to ever achieve the same outcome from one reset to another. Heidi's was more obscure, with a strange description.
{Rarely ever does a doctor try to kill their patient.}
It was indeed a strange one. Maybe she tries to kill somebody by poisoning them? Heidi herself wondered why she'd ever do such a thing, as she never was one for violence of any kind, despite the gory and mature books she read. It's not that she wouldn't, it's just that she didn't believe it necessary to kill someone, whatever the reason. The siblings stayed still for a while, thinking about what their drawbacks could mean. Kimsung rose from his spot on the couch and opened a window, shivering a bit from the sudden freezing weather. He checked his phone, and sure enough, the weather was 5°C, or 41°F, since they were in the United States.
'This is it.'
He closes the window and turns to the siblings. In the novel, all over the world, where people experienced summer, an unexpected and rapid drop in temperature from summer weather to winter weather, signifying a prelude to the First Disaster. He felt ready, but since he didn't know New York City well enough, he wasn't sure of his chances of surviving without messing up many times along the way.
"Kimsung, is it 5°C yet?"
Keido asked, noticing the man's serious expression.
"Yes. It's already quite cold outside. I'm not too familiar with times outside of Korea, so the First Disaster should be starting around 5:30 PM EST, right?"
"Yes, that's correct. We should go to the Metropolitan Museum about an hour before it begins, so we'll have weapons early on."
Their plan, ever since visiting the museum, was to wait there with some supplies for a few days, collect weapons, and head out to find Achilles after about a week. Whatever they did afterwards would need time, time they wouldn't have today. Having planned accordingly, Keido opened his inventory, taking out winter clothes to wear and setting them out on the table. The time now was 9:47 AM, so they had over seven hours to make sure they had everything. It was also the second-to-last day they'd spend in the hotel here, which, if everything was normal, they'd leave the hotel the next morning.
After breakfast downstairs, for the fifth time since the story began, they would go over their plan. First, they'd go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and stay there for a week so the monster wave calmed down. Second, once it calmed down, they'd begin grinding monsters and raising their EXP levels to F-rank, the first and weakest rank. It'd take some time, but they'd eventually do it. After all, it was only 1000 EXP!