The Real Hero and the Fake Hero (3)
... He carried me in his arms through the flames, extinguishing them with his own power, and he protected me by slaying dozens of monsters. Even after that, he carried me on his back all the way to the rooftop while I was still burned and barely alive.
He didn't extinguish the fire by carrying me. He tore my clothes to put it out.
The monsters he killed? Exactly four. It was exaggerated.
— On SNS, the heroic act that Choi Cheon-yeol claimed he performed... was actually what that person did that day?
— Correct.
— May I ask who that person is?
When a major disaster occurs and a huge number of people die, the media is required by law to find and report on heroes. It's written in the real disaster protocol. It's a system that lets citizens overcome their grief by watching the heroes active in the disaster.
... I can't tell you.
Why not?
Because he doesn't want his good deeds known to the world.
— Did the righteous person himself say that?
— No. I just heard it from someone else. After I left on the phoenix, the righteous person saved all 138 people left on the rooftop. Then he told them to never reveal their names to the world...
138?
What the hell? Where did that number 138 come from?
Ki Ju-hye had always exaggerated a lot. That personality, when it hit the media buff, got amplified and kicked into high gear.
— May I ask why you had the courage to reveal everything?
— Because I couldn't stand the fake hero Choi Cheon-yeol bragging about being a hero while the real one was buried. That guy kept cursing me nonstop after he realized I wasn't Jang Sara. And he even told me to jump off the phoenix. I was too scared... heh heh hek.
— Finally, what do you have to say?
Ki Ju-hye pulled out an envelope and threw banknotes at the camera.
— Choi Cheon-yeol! Gwanggaeto Guild! I'm returning this to you! The two million won you gave me to shut me up! Take it back and use it for your own living!
After confirming that we were all alive, Ki Ju-hye seemed ready to sacrifice a hundred or two even if it meant spending the rest of her college life as a social outcast.
Then, with Ki Ju-hye's sudden attitude change, she dropped that line on the public broadcast nine o'clock news and the mood flipped completely.
— Well, well. Even though deepfakes have gotten better, that video was just too real.
— Choi Cheon-yeol hid it, but there were plenty of bad rumors about him in the hunter world to begin with. It was bound to blow up.
— Sigh. Choi Cheon-yeol, you pathetic coward. You still gave her two hundred? If you were staying in a room, you'd pay way more than that.
— └ Trying to save money and lost hundreds of billions. If you'd given two thousand, the woman would have kept her mouth shut just to save face.
— So, who exactly is the hero who killed dozens of monsters and saved that woman?
— └ The 'TowerGay' guys already started calling him 'Kill Dog Great Hero' and making memes?
Public opinion reversed again. Choi Cheon-yeol's image plummeted, and the stocks linked to the Gwanggaeto Guild began to crash. The guild had always been one-man show—S-class Choi Cheon-yeol feeding them.
Fortunately, the false official statement from Jeguk Medipharm didn't hurt much. If the video and Ki Ju-hye's testimony were true, Jang Sara would have become the hero who saved the injured while risking her life. The pitying public was already calling the false statement the necessary act to protect the real hero 'Kill Dog Great Hero.'
And now the entire nation was hunting for the identity of the righteous man who saved the 138 people.
— XX University Archaeology Department kids said they had a meeting there that day.
— The guy famous as Apideadman is from that department, right? So Apideadman equals 138 Kill Dog Great Hero?
— Apideadman saved the wife of Jeguk Medipharm's CEO Jang Hancheol, didn't he? Jang Sara is the CEO of Jeguk Medipharm? This is getting interesting.
— But how did he save everyone in the middle of it?
— It seems related to the public pyramid somehow.
— This has to be dug into until the end!
— What, dig what? Shut up!
I felt like my head would explode.
Fortunately, the sixty people who swore to keep the incident secret didn't cause any more trouble. Countless reporters and YouTubers harassed our classmates, but they all stuck to their promise.
I locked myself in the house for days, avoiding the press. Jang Sara did the same.
The last question was who had uploaded the video of Choi Cheon-yeol being caught.
“It'll stay an unsolved mystery. After checking, it was uploaded first from a PC room without any CCTV, cleverly placed there.”
Those were the words Jang Sara said days later.
— What happened to the two hundred billion won from Choi Cheon-yeol?
“Kept it. Not returning it.”
“You were going to eat it?”
“Of course. Why return it? I'm still holding the position that I 'wasn't on the rooftop that day.' I kept my contract, right? Besides, Gwanggaeto has great cash flow. Two hundred billion isn't even money.”
“In the end, everything worked out nicely. I did good, made money, Choi Cheon-yeol became a fool, and although I'm a little suspicious because I'm the 138 Kill Dog Great Hero or something...”
— How should we divide this two hundred billion?
Han Yejin spoke up then.
— I want a share of that two hundred billion too.
Jang Sara laughed.
“Hearing you say that, it seems you think this money was earned with some effort?”
— I can't say. But it's true there must be something behind it.
I glanced at Han Yejin's phone.
It had already been upgraded to the latest model.
I smirked.
“Let's just put the money in the guild's slush fund. There'll be tons of money coming in from now on.”
— Agreed.
— Good.
The incident ended in a pretty satisfactory way.
** **
“Found it out? How did that woman escape that chaos?”
Jang Pomi, the only daughter of the Empire Guild's chairman, asked with a vicious tone. A sharp-looking middle-aged man answered.
— Sorry. The survivors estimated that day all swore not to speak to each other.
— No remaining videos?
— None at all. Everything vanished the moment the nuke went off.
— There must have been videos received before it exploded. Right after the gate opened, the car owners who parked near that location that day should have received blacked-out footage.
— The government blocked all data transmission in the area after deciding to carry out the nuclear attack. So no videos remain after that moment.
— CCTV?
— The government set a strict non-disclosure policy. It probably couldn't be made public. The footage is too gruesome for the public.
The man pressed the play button.
— This is the CCTV footage of that building that day.
— How did you get this?
— It's my business secret.
— Hah.
The video showed a normal building from a 45-degree angle. The first and second floors were trendy bars, the third was a billiards hall, and the fourth housed cocktail bars.
In the footage, some of the monsters in the alley were climbing the walls of the building, repeatedly falling from the rooftop due to strong resistance and climbing back up.
— Is this all?
— Let's rewind a bit.
The forward button was pressed and the video resumed.
The rooftop railing of the building collapsed then. Dozens of monsters piled up and died.
Suddenly, massive Ougres fell from above.
The spot where the Ougres landed turned into a battlefield. They swung their clubs at high speed, turning the already stunned monsters into dead ones.
Jang Pomi, watching the video, finally lit up with interest.
— Where did these Ougres suddenly come from?
— I don't know. But it's clear they didn't come from the gate. I've scanned every report of gates that opened worldwide. None said monsters fighting each other inside a gate. Plus...
— Count the number of fingers on those Ougres' arms.
— Two, four, six... eight?
— Exactly. So a multi-armed Ougre appeared?
Jang Pomi slammed the desk.
— Wow, Team Leader Kim. You really know something big.
— I suspect the guy called '138 Kill Dog Great Hero' might be connected to this multi-armed Ougre.
The man named Team Leader Kim pulled out a photo.
— This is him.
Jang Pomi looked at the photo of the beautiful woman.
— Wait. Where have I seen this face before?
— This man is called 'Apideadman' and has appeared on TV. He became famous by crawling up an apartment wall and saving a young lady's aunt.
But Jang Pomi shook her head.
— No, I have no interest in that kind of face. This man... I think I've seen him somewhere else. Where? Where?
Jang Pomi suddenly remembered something and slammed the desk.
— I got it! That waiter! The rude waiter at the VIP auction—the one who was that guy!
Jang Pomi thought for a moment longer.
— This is strange. Too strange. The waiter who saw the multi-armed Ougre carcass for sale one month later appeared again with a living multi-armed Ougre? Something smells fishy.
— How about we investigate a bit more?
Jang Pomi lifted the man's photo and studied it closely.
— Of course. I want to know everything about this guy. Where should we start?
— There's a rumor that on that day he had a meeting with his classmates at the building. Let's start there.
** **
Dark basement.
A young, beautiful woman sat tied to a chair.
— Uhhh...
The lights suddenly came on.
The woman squinted because it had been a while since she'd seen light.
— Please... please save me!
Click-click.
In front of the bound woman, the silhouette of a woman in high heels appeared.
The bound woman sighed in relief.
If the person approaching was a woman, at least her body wouldn't be violated.
The silhouette woman walked right up to the chair, crossed her arms, and said,
— What a bold girl. You stole our Empire Group's money with your boyfriend?
— Uhhh... I'm sorry. It was my boyfriend who forced me. I just... I did what he said. Uhhh... I will... I will pay it back. No matter what, I'll pay it back right now. Uhhh...
— Money? Do I look like I'm begging for a few billion?
— R-right?
— Debt is just an excuse. I simply... I like cutting off the possibility of irreversibly damaging this beautiful face... That's the act itself I enjoy. It's futuristic! Avant-garde! It's too exciting.
— Ahhh... Please... uhhh...
The woman said that and turned her head.
— First, pull out the left eye.
The woman behind the camera pulled a short knife.
The bound woman's body went completely numb when the cold blade touched her temple.
The floor under the chair quickly flooded with tears.
— Please! Uhhh... Please! I'll do anything you say! Anything! Please~!
Jang Pomi savored the deep pleasure that came when one person completely breaks another and took one more step forward.
— You'll obey me, right?
The woman on the chair trembled all over and said,
— I'll do it. I will definitely do it!
Jang Pomi placed her hand on the woman's shoulder and asked,
— You... can you seduce Hwang Geumpa for me?