The Hero's Also a Professional (1)
Junil’s dream was ordinary.
He wanted a medium-sized apartment in Seoul. He wanted to marry a beautiful wife, have one son and one daughter, and live a good life.
“Hmm…”
In a university lecture hall, Junil rolled a pencil between his fingers while thinking through his future plans to make that dream a reality.
Whirr.
It really won’t be easy, will it?
The apartment he had his eye on had climbed all the way to two billion won. It had definitely been nine hundred million before he left for the military.
Two billion won. Could an ordinary salaryman ever afford something like that?
Junil stared blankly at the lecture in progress. A stream of boring, pointless drivel poured from the professor’s mouth. If things kept going this way, he was headed straight for a lifetime of mediocrity.
Whirr.
He spun the pencil again, thinking.
To succeed, I’d need to start a business or land one of those high-paying specialist jobs…
Business carried too much risk for an ordinary person. In the end, the answer seemed to be one of the elite professions—doctor, judge, prosecutor, lawyer, that sort of thing.
Medicine was already off the table. Tax accountant, CPA, lawyer… Among those, lawyer looked like the most realistic target.
Lawyer sounds good.
The reason was simple: he hated studying numbers. On the other hand, he was confident in English and his GPA. That meant law school.
The options are narrowing faster than I expected.
A third-year university student. Old enough to start worrying about the future. Junil was settling on his career path with surprising simplicity.
That is, until this guy showed up.
Bzzz—
“……?”
A large insect was buzzing back and forth right in front of his nose. Junil swatted at it on reflex.
The result was a direct hit.
Smack!
“Kyaa!”
It let out a clear scream as it slammed onto the desk.
Kyaa?
It had definitely made that sound.
“What kind of bug makes a noise like—”
When he looked closer, it clearly wasn’t insect-sized.
“Bug?! I’m a Story Fairy, you jerk!”
A tiny girl—no, a fairy-like being—flapped her wings in outrage.
A girl with wings. Exactly. She was literally a fairy.
Flutter!
She flapped her wings again and flew right up to Junil’s face. Then she thrust out a tiny hand in greeting.
“Story Fairy Pam. Nice to meet you.”
Junil looked around in confusion. The other students were still listening to the lecture as if nothing had happened.
“Wait… did I fall asleep in class?”
“Correct.”
“Huh? I did?”
“Yep. You’re dreaming right now. Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to talk to me, would you?”
Well, that made sense. Junil relaxed and gently touched Pam’s tiny hand with his fingertip.
“I see. I’m Moon Junil.”
If this was a dream, shaking hands with a fairy was perfectly fine. Why not?
“I’ll get straight to the point. Any interest in becoming a hero?”
“……A hero?”
“It looks like the perfect career for you.”
“Are you some kind of career-consulting fairy?”
“I told you, I’m a Story Fairy.”
What the hell was a Story Fairy?
“We create entertaining stories and broadcast them across countless dimensions to bring joy to the masses.”
The explanation only made him more confused. Dimensions? Why did it sound so over-the-top?
“Simply put, I’ve chosen you to be the hero for my story.”
Chosen? Who asked for your opinion?
“I just bought a Story Board, and I’d love to send you in as the hero. Come on, be a hero. Please?”
“I’m going to be a lawyer.”
“No, no. Hero. I’m going to be a lawyer. I need a proper professional career.”
“Professional career?”
“Yeah. One of those jobs that ends in sa. You know, specialist professions.”
“But hero ends in sa too, doesn’t it?”
“……Get lost.”
That was when Pam raised a tiny finger.
“One hundred million.”
“……What?”
“I’ll give you one hundred million won if you become a hero.”
One hundred million?
The sudden mention of real money made Junil’s ears perk up.
“What exactly does a hero do?”
“What do you think? You go to another world, gather companions, and kill the Demon King. Classic, right?”
Come on.
Kill the Demon King? That sounded easy on paper, but wasn’t that basically an extreme outdoor manual-labor job where you swung a sword in all kinds of weather?
“No thanks. One hundred million? Make it five hundred million.”
Since it was a dream anyway, Junil decided to push his luck.
“Three hundred million.”
“……?”
“I’ll give you three hundred million.”
What? She’s actually raising the offer?
A strange thought occurred to him. Was the Demon King… really that difficult to kill?
Pam spoke as if she had read his mind.
“It’s not that hard. If I load the protagonist up with proper buffs, even an ‘ordinary high school student’ can pull it off. All you have to do is say yes! The initial deposit of one hundred and fifty million will hit your account immediately.”
Pam kept up the sales pitch.
One hundred and fifty million.
“Just promise me, okay? It’s a dream anyway. Wouldn’t it feel nice if the money actually showed up? Kyarruru!”
It was a dream anyway.
Those words carried weight. It was just a ridiculous dream. If they were offering money, why say no?
Junil nodded at Pam.
“Fine.”
“Kyarruru! Excellent!”
Pam spun once in the air with delight, then declared,
“I’ll give you a cool name too. Let’s see… Julian. Yeah, that works.”
She snapped her fingers.
Snap!
Junil’s entire world shook and crumbled apart.
Nara Bank
Deposit Alert
150,000,000 won has been deposited from 'Fairy Corporation'.
* * *
“Oppa? Were you dreaming?”
“……!”
When he opened his eyes, a pair of round pupils filled his vision.
It was Suyeon.
“You kept muttering about one hundred million… three hundred million…”
She was trying not to laugh. Junil shot upright and looked around.
“Huh? Lecture’s over?”
The hall was completely empty.
“Oppa, the lecture ended ages ago. What’s with you sleeping like that?”
Wow. He had slept straight through the end of class.
Junil’s face burned with embarrassment. Of all people, it had to be Suyeon who saw him.
“Wow. Even the grade-obsessed ghost Moon Junil sleeps sometimes.”
Her friend of the same age teased him from the side.
This is mortifying.
Junil scratched his messy hair and hurried out of the lecture hall.
“Yeah, thanks for waking me. I’ve gotta run.”
Because he left in such a rush, he never noticed the notification on his phone.
He never saw the message that had arrived in his pocket.
That was why he didn’t know—yet.
Nara Bank
Deposit Alert
150,000,000 won has been deposited from 'Fairy Corporation'.
* * *
After somehow finishing the day and heading home, Junil kept staring at his banking app in disbelief.
This is insane… Is this real?
He checked it during lectures, while eating, and even now while walking.
The same message remained on the screen.
I can’t believe it.
One hundred and fifty million won had landed in the account of a broke college student. It didn’t feel real.
So that dream was actually…?
The fact that the money had arrived meant the whole hero thing had been real too.
Then becoming a hero was also—
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAMP!
An enormous horn blared. Headlights as bright as the sun blasted toward Junil, who had been staring only at his phone.
Ah.
It was a truck.
Crash!
And just like that, Junil became a hero.
I should’ve asked for five hundred million.
* * *
Crash!
Julian’s sword slammed down on the Demon King’s neck.
“Huff… huff…”
Thick green blood spilled out.
You disgusting bastard.
“F-finally! The Demon King is dead!!”
Julian shouted.
“After ten years!”
Yes. Ten years.
It had been a full decade since the hero party formed and set out to subjugate the Demon King.
It had taken ten long years to kill him.
“Waaaaaaah!”
“Julian! Julian!”
His companions threw down their weapons and rushed over, chanting his name—the name the world knew him by.
They all embraced one another.
“Damn it… guys…!”
Tears poured endlessly from Julian’s eyes.
All the suffering he had endured after being dragged into this world as a weak modern man flashed before him. It was a journey that would have been impossible without his companions.
“Hic… Meyrin! Tou! Sei!”
The hard times were over.
Only happy days lay ahead.
He had meant to say that, but—
The story has concluded.
‘Huh?’
The moment that message appeared in Julian’s vision, the entire world went dark as if someone had turned off a TV mid-drama.
What… what is this?
In the pitch-black space, a single spotlight shone down like a stage light.
Fwoosh.
Pam appeared in the center.
The same fairy who had guided him at the beginning.
“Good work.”
“……What? It’s over?”
“Three hundred million will be deposited once you return.”
“Three hundred million?”
“Kyarruru? Did you forget? You went through ten years of hell just to earn three hundred million.”
“……”
That was right. He had.
Damn it.
Ten years of suffering for three hundred million. Was that really a fair trade?
Never mind that…
Julian couldn’t just let it end like this.
“Can’t I at least say goodbye?”
“You already said plenty of goodbyes.”
“That was after killing the Demon King! They don’t know I’m leaving!”
“Huh?”
Pam looked at him in surprise, then burst out laughing.
“Kyarruru! Julian, you’re actually a warm guy? Heroes like that aren’t popular these days. That’s why it flopped.”
“……What? Flopped?”
Julian’s expression darkened.
After rolling around in the dirt for ten years and saving the world, she was telling him it flopped?
“What do you mean it flopped?”
“Exactly what I said. The reactions weren’t great.”
He couldn’t accept it. Who would, after having ten years of hardship dismissed?
“Whose reactions? The citizens were thrilled I killed the Demon King! Everyone loved me!”
“The Constellations.”
“……Huh?”
“Hmm… How should I explain this?”
Pam tilted her head.
“You’re a college student, right? Let’s look at your report card.”
She snapped her fingers, and a giant letter appeared in the air.
Average viewer satisfaction was mediocre.
Hero’s likability score was low.
Constellation reaction metrics: below expectations.
C-plus.
Even though it had been ten years, Julian had once been a monster when it came to grades.
“C-plus… Are you fucking kidding me?! What did I do wrong?!”
He couldn’t understand it.
“Sure, three companions died! But I rolled around for ten years, killed the Demon King, saved the country, and helped the suffering citizens! I did everything!”
“Kyarruru? No need to get angry. Even a C-plus still pays out properly, you know?”
Julian wasn’t listening anymore. The resentment that had built up over ten years was finally exploding.
“My ten years! Ten years for a C-plus?! Are you joking?!”
“I’m telling you, the money will be paid. Didn’t you do it for the money? Three hundred million, remember? The evaluation isn’t up to me—it’s decided by the Constellations.”
“Is three hundred million after ten years even worth anything?! When I go back, what am I supposed to—”
“Hey, Julian!”
Snap!
The moment Pam flicked her finger, Julian’s throat tightened as if gripped by an invisible hand.
“Ghk… huff…!”
“Calm down a little, yeah?”
Julian nodded desperately. Only then did the pressure around his throat ease.
“Cough… huff…”
He breathed roughly, trying to regain his composure.
The fear he had just felt was deeper than anything he had experienced while fighting the Demon King for ten years.
What the hell was that?
It hadn’t just constricted his throat—it felt like his very existence had been threatened.
Damn it.
In the end, Julian gave up. He realized in an instant that he could not defy her. His instincts, honed by ten years in this other world, were screaming at him to stop.
“Fine… I get it. Just let me say goodbye. It’s my last request.”
“No can do. Once a story ends, it can never be restarted.”
She wouldn’t even allow him to say farewell to his companions.
Shit…
At the very least, she should have let him attend the victory festival after subjugating the Demon King.
The others might be fine, but I had something to say to Meyrin…
Of course, he didn’t dare voice that thought. He didn’t want his throat crushed again.
“Doesn’t your story even get an epilogue?”
“Not this one. It flopped, remember?”
Was that because of the grade too?
“That’s pretty cold.”
“Kyarruru. If you’re upset, you should’ve gotten an A~”
Hm? Wait.
There was something strange in what she just said.
“This one… doesn’t…?”
“Bye bye!”
He tried to argue, but Pam had already snapped her fingers.
Bang!
The world twisted and distorted.
Ah… No. What am I supposed to do when I go back?
He had spent ten years doing nothing but hero work. What was he supposed to do in society with only three hundred million won?
But he never got an answer to that question.
Julian vanished from that world.
Whoosh!
* * *
“Oppa? Were you dreaming?”
When he opened his eyes, round pupils filled his vision.
Meyrin?
No.
It was Suyeon.
“You were muttering about one hundred million… three hundred million…”
Huh?
Junil stared at her round eyes in a daze. He recognized that she was Suyeon.
And he instantly understood the situation.
His brain flooded him with information as if it had been waiting for this moment—when this was, what was happening.
This is…
Thanks to that, even though it had happened ten years ago, he remembered it perfectly.
This was that moment.
The time I fell asleep in the lecture hall.
Junil asked the same question he had back then, just to test it.
“Uh… is the lecture over?”
If he asked that, she would normally answer, “Oppa, the lecture ended a while ago. What’s with you sleeping like this?”
“Oppa, the lecture ended a while ago. What’s with you sleeping like this?”
It was exactly the same.
And then her friend would tease him too.
“Wow. Even the grade ghost Moon Junil sleeps sometimes.”
Junil’s pupils trembled.
What the hell is going on?
He quickly turned on his phone.
April 17, 2025.
Thursday.
10:55 a.m.
This is insane…
It was the exact same day he had that dream about Pam. Not even a single day had passed since then. Nothing had changed at all.
Ah. No, that wasn’t quite right.
There was one thing that had changed.
Vibrate.
A message alert rang on his phone.
Nara Bank
Deposit Alert
300,000,000 won has been deposited from 'Fairy Corporation'.