Chapter 82
Chapter 82
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 82
Chapter Title: Hero?
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Suddenly, a mysterious woman's voice echoed from the shop window.
'...What the hell is this.'
Hearing that voice only made my already muddled head even more tangled.
Hero? What's a hero? This isn't some fantasy world—it's Murim. Where the hell does a hero fit in...
'...Wait a second.'
Something I'd vaguely suspected long ago came back to me.
'Why does the shop window only stock fantasy items?'
The shop window was strangely devoid of Murim goods.
There were a few things that might plausibly exist in a fantasy setting too, but fully 99% were items unique to fantasy worlds.
Stuff you couldn't dig up even if you scoured the entire Central Plains of Murim.
Gazing at them, I'd once vaguely wondered if the shop window was linked to a fantasy world.
Back then, it hadn't seemed important enough to dwell on, so I'd brushed it off. But now, with a voice coming straight from the shop window, ignoring it was impossible.
A voice emerging from a shop window connected to a fantasy world.
Which meant the speaker on the other end...
"..."
...was very likely someone from the fantasy world.
In that instant, a flood of questions raced through my mind.
Why did this shop window exist in the first place? Why me, of all people? Why had the voice suddenly started now?
And the way to unravel all this...
"...I can hear you."
...was to have a chat with the voice's owner.
"Uh... I'm pretty damn confused right now, so could you start by explaining what the hell is going on?"
Interference capacity? What's that about.
Sounded like some term straight out of Earth's webnovels.
"Saintess?"
I wasn't asking out of ignorance about what a saintess was.
Of course I knew.
'...Sure. In a world with vampires...
Murim already had vampires crawling around, so saintesses showing up was hardly a stretch.
Just roll with it.
Anyway.
"So why are you calling me Hero?"
Why tag me as some hero?
My martial arts were self-explanatory in their mediocrity, and I had no standout talents otherwise.
At best, I could read heavenly secrets, but who knew if that even counted for much.
For all I knew, fantasy worlds might not even have such a concept.
"I don't have any special powers or anything."
Flashy words like that rang hollow in my current mess.
"Haa... Fine, I'll ask some questions, so just answer them."
"First off... the Holy Kingdom you're talking about—the place linked to this 'shop window'—that's a whole different world from where I am now, right?"
I pretty much knew the answer, but I asked anyway, just in case.
If it turned out to be some distant western land, things would get messy again.
And her response matched my expectations.
"No... I get it."
Just as I'd feared.
Next question.
"You know I'm originally from yet another world entirely, right? So do you also know why I ended up in this world?"
The shop window had appeared the instant I dropped into this body.
It wasn't some prior ability of the original owner.
So naturally, it had to be tied to my possession—and the shop.
A deep breath came through from the other side of the shop window.
"It's your fault!!!"
"Ah... my nape."
I clutched the back of my neck and slumped against the wall.
Who could've guessed there was a backstory like that to my inexplicable kidnapping into this world.
"...But seriously, why were you summoning me in the first place?"
Come to think of it, all that happened was the kidnappers changed—from their side to whatever heavenly deities. From my perspective, they were all the same.
They'd planned to drag me over without a lick of consent.
"...I did?"
"I have zero memory of that?!"
This was a real gut punch.
Me, originally slated for their world?
"What happens if I'm summoned as a hero to your world? Do I have to bust my ass defeating the Demon King or something?"
'Huh...?'
"Then why the hell do you need a hero?"
Something smelled fishy.
Heroes got summoned to slay Demon Kings as a rule. If theirs was long gone, what was the point?
Why? What for?
"...You lying about the Demon King being gone on purpose...?"
"Then why do you need a hero?"
After that, the saintess laid out the history of their world.
It roughly matched descriptions I'd skimmed in the shop window before.
The Demon King—properly titled the "King of the Undead"—had unleashed his undead legions in a grueling war against every living thing on the continent.
A brutal slog against foes that refused to stay dead, dragging on for decades until the living finally triumphed.
The King of the Undead and his horde were utterly annihilated, ushering in peace across the continent.
...Or so it seemed at first.
Decades of carnage left scars no quick fix could heal.
The continent's lifeforms had dwindled by 90%, with countless species wiped out entirely.
"That's not a stud horse job?!"
"Yeah, as if!"
Sure, I'm not asexual.
Little as this body was, it belonged to a healthy adult male—morning erections proved that much.
But...
'No way in hell.'
A world so desperate for bodies they'd import a stud from another dimension?
Could sex even be simple fun there?
One slip, and I'd be chained in some basement, drained dry till I dropped dead.
"So I don't remember any damn contract! Produce it then!"
"Tough luck! Go find another hero!"
"Not my problem!"
Harem? Yeah, sure—every guy's fantasized about it at least once.
Sowing your seed across a bunch of women? Biologically, it'd stroke the ego hard.
But the dealbreaker?
I had no clue what the women there even looked like.
For all I knew, they could all be orcs.
"Now you're reading my mind too?!"
I let out a heavy sigh and mulled over my current predicament.
If I hadn't ended up here, I'd be playing stud horse over there right now.
And even having dodged that fate...
"...Haa."
No sexual torment, at least—but the mental strain was brutal.
This was a world where trouble lurked around every corner.
Which hell was better, really?
A life milked relentlessly till death? Or holing up in some mountain for a dull fade to old age—or chasing thrills only to eat a blind sword to the gut?
"..."
I cupped my face in my hands and thought.
I just wanted to go back to Earth.