Chapter 60
Chapter 60
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 60
Chapter Title: There's a Reason for Everything!
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I'll arrange a tour to Ulleungdo and Dokdo. Family can tag along if you want.
"Ooh. That's a mighty gracious offer."
The staffer clapped his hands, looking thrilled just at the thought.
But soon he scratched his temple, a troubled look crossing his face.
"I'm worried it might not be okay. If word gets out that I got this personal offer and took it..."
"No issue whatsoever. No special treatment controversy here. Hwiwoon is simply giving a commendation—kind of like a good Samaritan award—to an academy staffer who helped our promising pre-hero cadet, Kang Yuna."
Hwiwoon was already footing the bill for the entire first-year field trip.
And they'd announced support for other grades too.
Taking one staffer along was just standard employee welfare.
No one could complain. Who dared question Hwiwoon's spending?
"What do you say?"
"Well... mind if I check my schedule real quick?"
"Of course. This was our proposal first."
The grateful man pulled out his cellphone from his pocket.
For a split second, Jeong Yebin's expression stiffened ever so slightly.
"Excuse me."
That phone in the man's hand. Orange Corp product.
Hwiwoon hadn't dethroned the global cell phone giants yet.
Orange's influence was overwhelming. Their throne rock-solid.
They needed some game-changer, but those weren't easy to come by.
"Ever thought about switching phones?"
There wasn't much she could do personally for Hwiwoon.
But if there was even one thing, she'd do it.
Like right now. If she could just promote Hwiwoon Electronics' phones.
Even if performance lagged a bit, they offered killer prices.
"We met like this—must be fate. Let me give you a little gift."
Jeong Yebin reached into her side.
Kang Yuna's eyes went wide. Space tore open with a rip.
"Ooh. No way—a subspace ability?"
Subspace creation via mana. One of the rarest abilities out there.
Capacity scaled with the user's prowess.
The catch? The portal size was pretty limited.
"Sharp eye. Yep. The small entrance is a bottleneck, though."
Jeong Yebin nodded as she pulled something from the subspace.
"Lucky break. Had one left in the same color as yours."
"What's this?"
The case held Hwiwoon Electronics' brand-new flagship phone.
"We're the owner family steering Hwiwoon—think we'd go without one? Take it. No strings attached, pure gift."
"Ooh... this is getting too generous."
"Use it, spread the word with good reviews, and it's a win for Hwiwoon. Plus, you can report any glitches straight to me."
So just take it already. Jeong Yebin smiled, holding out the case.
Hahaha. The man laughed. Felt a tad pushy.
...Nah. Technically not selling, so no.
Anyway. He thanked her profusely and pocketed the case.
If this chipped away even one Orange user, great.
Jeong Yebin thought as much, bid him see-you-on-field-trip-day, and parted ways.
She probably never imagined back then.
The storm this one act would unleash on Hwiwoon phones.
The heroes' global holy land. Ulleungdo and Dokdo vicinity.
Legendary site where apocalypse-class monsters were wiped out in one fell swoop.
Crawling with visiting heroes and tourists alike.
The sea train was one of many ways to get there.
But it boasted unmatched luxury and wow factor.
A train literally sprinting across the ocean. Nothing like a ship.
As the saying went: a moving five-star hotel and the facilities were insane.
"Welcome aboard, Hero Academy cadets."
The first-years who'd just boarded stood speechless.
They'd figured "train" meant something like a high-speed KTX.
Nope. Incomparable on every level.
It was at least twice as opulent as the promo videos!
"You have a hall car for group hangouts and two-person bedrooms for rest. For full details on amenities, please check the guide here..."
Some listened intently to the rundown.
Others stared out the windows.
It was moving. The train hurtling right over the sea.
No ship-like waves rocking you.
Take in the endless blue ocean at leisure, total comfort.
A national megaproject pouring in cash and cutting-edge tech.
Why blow that much on some train?
"This is nuts. We're riding what only loaded folks, celebs, or top-tier heroes can snag."
That was the answer. Ulleungdo and Dokdo is both a tourist hotspot and a holy site.
Heroes from Korea and worldwide made the pilgrimage to reach here.
And the ones with time to even come here? They were all famous and loaded.
To draw them reliably, you needed something special.
"Spa, pool, casino inside? How massive is this thing...?"
"The tracks are wider than standard lines, so yeah—it's a behemoth."
"Classic Korean move. Once they decided to do it? They go all out."
The cadets buzzed: let's hit this spot, check that one.
"..."
Seo Ha-eun sat in the hall car, blankly gazing out the window.
'Last week too... it was a total bust...'
Heroes slain by the Smiling Man so far and their associates.
Families? She'd given up prying info from them.
Too much resentment from them. They didn't seem to know squat anyway.
To them, it was just heroes being murdered by a villain.
So she dug into their colleagues and acquaintances.
Pieced together some scraps and inferred the gaps.
Mostly dead ends. No leads anywhere.
t was hard to believe it. Soon despair crept in briefly in her heart.
"Who are you."
It was her final stop: one guy in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi-do.
Living the hermit life, tilling fields in a near-abandoned rural village.
His true colors: A-Rank hero who'd been big news just three years back.
At first, he stonewalled her warily. Wouldn't say a word.
Even threatened force if she didn't scram.
But Seo Ha-eun didn't budge. Didn't back down. Didn't quit.
She planted herself there all day, explained her visit.
Who she was. Why she was doing this. Why she had to know.
"You hate villains. So why do you dig dirt on heroes?"
The retired man hit her with that sharp jab after hearing her out.
"That's..."
She hesitated. It was a fair point, no denying it.
But her resolve was ironclad. She knew her reasons.
"I need to know."
To Seo Ha-eun, the Smiling Man was... different from the run-of-the-mill villains.
If you had to categorize him, he didn't qualify for her revenge list.
Which meant no need to waste her power and time on him.
That was her self-justification. SHe kept him segregated.
The man eyed her a moment, then scanned the surroundings.
Clear caution. Checking for tails.
Muttered, 'Cadet? They won't bother tailing.'
Then ushered her inside. Spilled the story she'd craved.
"The guy I teamed with. A-Rank hero Blader. Smiling Man got him."
"...Colleague? Nah. Subordinate's more like it. That bastard."
"Never saw us as equals. Sure, same A-Rank, but he'd climbed first, racked the most feats—treated the rest like dogs."
A-Rank hero Blader. Remembered as a solid guy, he had a good rep.
Other heroes who'd run with him called him righteous.
Key detail: every one still on active duty.
The retirees who were living quiet? Polar opposite takes.
"Gets worse. That was just the appetizer."
"During a villain fight—few civilians didn't evac fast enough, they got caught up in it. He just sliced them."
"Why si there no fallout? The brass buried it. Blader was a non-S top dog then. Treated it like spilled milk—pin it on the dead villain."
It was jaw-dropping. Seo Ha-eun's voice rose.
How could a hero pull some villain shit?
How could higher-ups sweep it under, zip their lips?
"Because he's a hero."
The man shook his head, utterly fed up.
"Heroes gotta be justice incarnate. Pure good. Brass figured there's more to lose than to gain by exposing it."
"I retired over the stench? They low-key threatened me. 'Weren't you there too? Play saint now, folks'll paint you the devil. Stay silent—that's how retired heroes keep the badge...'"
She bit her lips raw. Seo Ha-eun stared at the cloudless sky.
From her parents she learned that heroes would gladly die for the citizens.
Yet her parents were slain by loathsome villains.
She'd sworn to slaughter every villain for revenge.
She thought it was for her parents, for the heroes.
Now she learns of this—the heroes' rotten underbelly, it was anything but heroic.
'What the hell...'
She clutched her face, unthinking.
Everything she'd held sacred crumbling one by one.
Foolish as it sounded. She suddenly missed the Smiling Man.
At that same moment.
"Hahaha! Check it out, sis. Sea's gorgeous, right?!"
The Smiling Man sat pointing out the window.
Beside him, the Black Woman lounged with arms crossed.