Chapter 296: The Colosseum Effect (1)
Everyone has their secrets—personal pasts cloaked in solitude, skeletons too sensitive to reveal. It’s never easy to divulge such things, especially if it’s a bizarre ability that could easily be dismissed as nonsense, like stopping time.
Yet Lloyd found the courage, abruptly, over breakfast as if the thought had just struck him. Mid-sip of his soup, he stared intently at Javier. Perhaps sensing his gaze, Javier paused his spoon mid-air.
“Do you have something to say?” Javier asked.
“Uh.”
“Shall I pass the pepper?”
“No, not that.”
“Salt, then?”
“I don’t need salt. Actually, I can stop time.”
“…”
“Really.”
“You seem fully awake.”
“I’m serious.”
“You don’t appear to be sleepwalking.”
“It’s not a joke.”
“There’s no poison in the soup.”
“I’m telling you, it’s true.”
“Your eyes look normal too.”
“Hey.”
“I understand.”
“What?”
Lloyd hesitated as Javier cracked a faint smile.
“I understand. You said you can stop time.”
“What do you mean you understand?”
“Just as you said, you can stop time.”
“Yeah, right. So, you believe me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Javier’s response was unexpectedly straightforward, which confused Lloyd even more.
“Do you really find it that easy to believe I can stop time?”
“I must believe you.”
“But why?”
“Because there’s no reason not to.”
Javier stared back earnestly, his gaze as serious as ever.
“Remember? When you first said you would invent underfloor heating.”
“Yeah.”
“I thought you were mad.”
“…”
“But strangely, the crazier I thought your ideas were, the more they actually helped the family and became reality.”
Reflecting on the past, Javier’s eyebrows knitted slightly.
“Be it the underfloor heating, the road and tar mine construction, or the waterworks, all of it. In fact, I don’t need to list everything; everything you’ve started has been the same.”
“Every time, you thought I was mad?”
“Yes.”
“And as you considered me mad, those things really happened?”
“Yes.”
“So, you think I’m mad now too?”
“Yes.”
“And that’s why you believe what I’m saying?”
“Yes.”
“Well, that’s very kind of you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Javier smiled gracefully.
“Just now, when you looked at me seriously right after waking up, with your hair all messy, and said, ‘I can stop time’—that seemed mad.”
“Huh, did it now?”
“Yes. Is it a power you gained from absorbing the Heart of Winter?”
“Yeah.”
That’s reassuring.
Javier really seemed to believe him. To cement this belief, Lloyd quickly added:
“I guess so. After absorbing the Heart of Winter, I felt like I could do it.”
“Stop time, you mean.”
“Yes, thanks to the Heart of Winter.”
“Have you tried stopping it already?”
“Not yet. To be precise, I can keep time flowing normally within a certain area centered around me.”
“So, you plan to use this ability for the construction work coming up.”
“Exactly.”
Lloyd inwardly sighed in relief. He had been worried about Javier’s possible reactions.
‘Good. After all, we’ve been through hell and back together.’
It seems that their shared trials and tribulations had built a strong foundation of trust.
‘Makes sense! I’ve invested so much in him! I taught him the Asrahan techniques much earlier than history would have, taught him demolition, gave him shelter, clothes, food. Oh, and by ‘put him to sleep,’ I literally sang lullabies to him.’
Thanks to all this, Javier had become a grand master, far surpassing the abilities typical of this period in history.
‘It’s all thanks to me.’
Lloyd nodded to himself, puffing out his chest like a landlord watching a top-scoring law student he had nurtured.
Having secured Javier’s trust, Lloyd then accelerated preparations for activating the time freeze.
He went to the Centaur tribe to quell their unrest.
He explained about the time freeze skill.
He would freeze time everywhere except for a specified area where construction was to take place.
He spoke boldly, and the chief looked at him as if he was insane.
But then he smiled back freshly at the chief.
The chief clicked his tongue but relayed the story to his tribespeople anyway.
Two days later, Lloyd stood at the center of the plains, under the watchful eyes of hundreds of Centaurs.
He opened the Mana Heart skill option.
Ding-dong.
[Skill Exclusive Option ⑤: Time Freeze – Unleash the power of the Winter’s Heart embedded in your Mana Heart to freeze the flow of time in the world.]
[RP Required for Using This Skill: 3,000]
[Current RP Held: 4,655]
[Do you want to use Time Freeze?]
[YES / NO]
‘Of course, yes.’
He nodded, and the response was immediate.
Ding-dong.
[Skill Exclusive Option ⑤: Time Freeze is activated.]
[3,000 RP will be consumed.]
[Current RP Held: 1,655]
[From now on, you can freeze the world’s time flow for up to one year with the power of the Winter’s Heart. You can designate a specific area as the unfrozen area where time will continue to flow normally.]
[The limit of the unfrozen area you can designate is determined by the total amount of your mana.]
[Please specify the range of the unfrozen area you want.]
Messages rapidly filled his vision. Thankfully, the designated unfrozen area was sufficiently large.
‘Max it out!’
Zzzzzzz…
‘…Gwaaat!’
Mana began to drain from the Mana Heart like a tide.
It felt as if the seven servings of pork belly he had just eaten were digested in ten seconds, leaving his stomach completely empty.
Then the mana transformed into coldness.
It gushed out from his entire body.
Shot straight up into the sky.
Spread out in a dome shape from several kilometers in the sky towards the ground.
Like a massive umbrella coming down to cover the land.
Or an enormous soap bubble turned upside down.
It enveloped the designated range.
Quickly froze.
Formed a barrier.
Ding-dong.
[Time Freeze is complete.]
[The range of the unfrozen area cannot be changed until the option is deactivated.]
[If you leave the unfrozen area, the Time Freeze option will immediately be cancelled.]
[For the next year, all living beings within the unfrozen area, including yourself, will not experience aging.]
Messages cheerfully filled his view.
Finally, Lloyd exhaled the breath he had been holding.
‘Phew, it’s done.’
A dizzy sensation hit him.
He felt slightly shivery.
Amidst this, Lloyd leaned on his knees.
His arms and legs trembled.
He felt as if all the strength had drained from his body from his toenails to the tips of his hair.
But he was filled with a sense of accomplishment.
‘It’s activated correctly. Now, except for this area, the entire world has stopped.’
The power of the Winter’s Heart fused into his Mana Heart allowed him to feel this.
It was a successful time freeze.
But Lloyd didn’t just rely on this feeling of success.
‘I still have to see it with my own eyes.’
He forced strength into his shaky legs.
He moved with a deliberately firm expression, to verify with his own eyes that the option had been properly activated.
‘Of course. No matter how good your sense is, it’s never better than seeing with your own eyes. It’s the same on the construction site. If you slack off on site inspections because you think it seems well built based on reports, it leads to disaster later.’
He had seen similar situations often back in South Korea.
High-ranking officials who never showed their faces on site.
Merely circling around with their subordinates for show.
They rarely inspected the construction hands-on to see the results for themselves.
‘It’s the same now. Skill option? Good. Messages? Convenient. But if I rely only on them and neglect hands-on inspections, it could lead to major regrets later.’
Inspection and verification should be done as thoroughly as possible.
Using various methods is even better.
So, relying only on reports and messages for reassurance is not enough.
You need to use your eyes, ears, and all other senses for secondary and tertiary checks.
With this in mind, Lloyd walked on.
He traveled several kilometers.
Finally, he stood in front of the ice barrier formed by the Time Freeze option.
‘…Phew. It’s like an upside-down rice bowl made of ice. I’m inside it.’
The dome-shaped ice barrier was thin.
It appeared to be less than a centimeter thick.
This allowed the outside sunlight to adequately shine inside.
The outside landscape was clearly visible too.
Everything was frozen.
An eagle soaring high in the sky was stuck in mid-flight, wings spread.
A rabbit that had been darting across the field to escape the eagle was frozen mid-leap.
The grass it had kicked up was also suspended in the air.
Everything in the visible landscape and the objects within it were frozen.
The sun and clouds were no exception.
It was as if someone had taken a remote control to a smoothly flowing world and pressed the ‘pause’ button.
Perhaps it was this bizarre and overwhelming sight that caused a stir among the Centaur tribespeople who had come to see.
“It’s real.”
“The human’s bold claims are true.”
“The world outside this place has really stopped.”
“What happens to us now?”
“Is this okay?”
They worried, murmured among themselves, and anxiously clicked their hooves.
Lloyd couldn’t help but smile bitterly.
‘Tch. They’re getting anxious too soon.’
He had merely (?) used the Time Freeze.
There were still more shocking things to come.
‘Of course. Now we really need to start construction, and for that, we need strong, big workers, no, machinery.’
So, he called the biggest worker he had on standby nearby.
A being with whom he could communicate anytime, connected by soul.
That’s why he had contacted it to come here just before activating the Time Freeze option.
And shortly thereafter.
The real surprise became a reality.
From the far reaches of the plains came the sounds of mighty bones clattering.
Clack! Thud! Clack! Thud!
The ground shook.
Dust rose.
A gigantic skeletal figure dashed across the plains.
It was Yongyong the Bone Dragon.
Because Lloyd had ordered it to come here before activating the Time Freeze.
And because he had specifically asked it to dress in a way that would be familiar to the Centaurs.
Yongyong had meticulously reassembled its entire body for the occasion.
It popped its wing bones out.
Twisted its spine and pelvis.
Detached and freshly reattached its limb bones.
Thus, it had meticulously reassembled itself into the appearance of a Bone Centaur.
Yongyong, having put effort into its appearance, clattered cheerfully across the ground.
This caused the Centaur tribespeople to scream.
“…Aaah! It’s a monster!”
“It’s an invasion!”
Thus began the first day of construction for what would be a racetrack-shaped Colosseum.
The Shalewind Centaur tribespeople, who would benefit the most from the Colosseum, filled the plains with their passionate (?) cries.
♣
Meanwhile, far to the south of the Shalewind tribe’s plains.
Not just far, but the southernmost point on this planet.
There, in the polar ice caves of the south, a being was startled.
“What is this? Why has time stopped?”
Long ago, in the ancient days, it was the one who had gifted the Heart of Winter to the founder of Magentano.
Tiranus the Ice Dragon was shocked by the unexpected freezing of time and sprang to its feet.
