The Professional Hero (2)
Junil opened his banking app and counted the numbers again.
‘One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand······ a hundred million.’
300 million!
300 million won.
An enormous sum for a mere college student.
‘This is insane.’
His heart pounded wildly.
Should he buy the clothes he’d been wanting?
No, clothes were nothing.
What if he bought a foreign car and drove it to campus?
The thought made his heart race even faster.
But the fantasy was short-lived.
—Julian! H-help me.
—Thanks, Julian!
—It’s all thanks to you, Julian!
The voices of his comrades who had shared ten years of hardship and joy echoed in his ears.
—I······ I think this is as far as I go······
—You guys go ahead! I’ll—I’ll hold them off!
—Good work. I······ think this is the end for me.
Some of them had even lost their lives.
Junil lowered his head.
‘What am I doing? I······’
300 million.
This money was born from their noble sacrifices and contributions.
It was never something he could spend carelessly.
‘I have to use it for something good.’
Junil opened his real estate app.
[Life-Changing Deal]
He browsed through the listings.
[Sale: 2.1 billion]
His head cooled far faster than when he thought about his hero party.
‘Not enough.’
300 million wasn’t the kind of money that could change a life.
Maybe back when apartments were 900 million, but not now.
‘I probably need to invest.’
He holed up in the library, furiously building investment plans on his laptop.
And whenever he fell asleep, he still dreamed of Meyrin.
‘D-don’t······ go! Julian!’
‘Meyrin? Can’t you hear me!? I—I have no choice!’
Meyrin always waved her hands, begging him not to leave.
She seemed unable to hear Julian’s words.
‘Don’t go! Julian! Where are you going!? There’s still so much we haven’t finished!’
‘Meyrin! I really have no choice!’
‘You bastard, Julian!’
Meyrin always ended up cursing him.
‘Aaaaaaaaah······!’
Julian was dragged away by a black beast and vanished.
“Aaaaaah?!”
With nightmares like these, he always woke at 7 a.m.
“Hah! Hah······ Hah······ Meyrin······”
Only after seeing the sweat-soaked sheets did he realize it was reality again.
After all, it had been ten years.
He had lived as a hero for ten years.
‘I can’t adapt.’
He needed time to adjust.
‘Maybe after a month it’ll be fine.’
Just like that, a month passed.
As expected, he gradually adapted to reality.
With a mind hardened by ten years as a hero, he somehow made it through midterms.
The 300 million he received from hero work was all invested according to a carefully constructed portfolio.
And then the grades came out.
[GPA: 3.2]
“······Shit······ damn it.”
Junil despaired.
Because of his GPA?
No. That was nothing.
[Total Net Profit Average] [-51%]
His investment had been cut in half.
“Aaaaaaaaah!”
Thud!
Junil threw himself onto the bed and screamed.
“Damn it! Damn it!”
Nothing in this world was easy.
His mistake had been greedily putting more than half his portfolio into cryptocurrency.
Next was trusting Korean stocks.
“I should study. Studying is the way to survive. What was I thinking with investments······!”
Even though his GPA had dropped significantly for a while.
Maybe studying really was the only answer?
Junil muttered to himself and turned on YouTube.
He clicked on an investment lecture.
“······What are you doing, Moon Junil?”
Staring blankly at the lecture, he asked himself.
“No, the studying I need to do······ was investment studies? Junil?”
A college student aiming for law school watching investment lectures.
What kind of madness was this?
‘Well······ law school is probably over anyway.’
That was true.
He had already felt it.
Things like GPA no longer concerned him much.
Ten years of hero life had turned Junil into someone else.
‘I just can’t bring myself to care.’
If anything, he would rather invest.
He was too far removed from the life of an ordinary college student who picked up a pen, studied, and took exams.
‘My head doesn’t even work that way anymore.’
After spending ten years slaughtering people in that barbaric yet romantic medieval era.
How could his study brain possibly function?
‘Maybe those days were better······’
The thrill, friendship, and emotion he had felt back then······
All of it still felt vivid.
His comrades still felt close enough to touch if he just reached out.
Sei, Tou······
‘Meyrin.’
Meyrin’s brown hair flickered in his mind.
‘Can I never go back now?’
Junil was confused.
What was he supposed to do with this life now?
Pam had said he would return without losing any time, with nothing changed.
But even if the world hadn’t changed, Junil had.
‘What the hell am I supposed to do, damn it.’
That was when it happened.
Whoosh—
A buzzing sound reached his ears.
Since summer was coming, he assumed it was some large moth.
“Where did I put the electric fly swatter······”
Junil grabbed the electric fly swatter and zapped it.
“Kyaaarururururururuk!!”
The moth made a strange sound and fell to the floor.
“······”
Junil was startled.
This familiar voice······
“Pam?”
“Kyaruru······ Y-you remember?”
Pam flew upward with her hair standing on end from the electric shock.
“It’s me. Story Fairy. Pam.”
“Is this a dream too?”
“No.”
“······No?”
“Yeah. You don’t need to see me in dreams anymore. Since you’ve already been a hero once.”
“Ah······”
If it had been the old Junil, he would have felt dissonance at this being reality.
But Julian, the hero with ten years of otherworld experience, felt nothing of the sort.
‘Don’t tell me.’
He quickly guessed why Pam had appeared.
“Did you come to offer me the hero position again?”
“Yes.”
“No, but······ is it okay for someone who’s already done it once to do it again?”
“Hmm······ Sharp question.”
Pam scratched her head as if troubled.
“Actually, no. It’s kind of an unspoken rule? Heroes are always ordinary high school students who know nothing······ Well, these days the average age has gone up to college students. Anyway, they have to be ordinary and know nothing. But you’re not someone who knows nothing.”
“Then why me?”
“Substitute.”
“······What?”
“The previous candidate didn’t get trucked to another world—they actually died. Kyaruru!”
A hero candidate who went to the afterlife instead of another world.
Junil felt chills.
“No, that’s crazy. That can happen too?”
“It wasn’t our mistake. Our truck hit another truck, and that truck ended up hitting the hero candidate. A really unlucky incident.”
That was definitely your mistake, wasn’t it?
“So, Julian. How about it?”
Whoosh~
Pam crossed her legs and sat on the desk, grinning.
“Was modern life fun? Spending money like crazy?”
“······”
Junil couldn’t answer.
Pam grinned wider.
“Nothing beats being a hero, right?”
He agreed.
Nothing beat being a hero.
Wasn’t it a job where you earned hundreds of millions in just a few seconds?
There couldn’t be anything else like this.
As long as Junil’s mind could endure stretching those few seconds into ten years.
“So how much is it this time?”
Junil accepted it and just asked for the price.
Pam laughed happily.
“300 million.”
“Again?”
“You completely messed up last time. Did you expect it to go up? This is already being generous.”
That was true.
300 million in a few seconds.
Did that even make sense?
But Junil had his own grievances.
“No, I still don’t get it. What exactly did I mess up?”
They called it a few seconds, but it was ten years of hardship.
And they kept saying he messed up.
At least tell him what the problem was.
“Hmm. That’s something the Constellations decide. It has nothing to do with me?”
She had no intention of telling him.
Junil changed the question.
“Phew. Fine. Then how about giving incentives based on performance?”
“······What?”
“Incentives. If my grade is higher, give me more money.”
“Kyaruru! After getting screwed over, you’re still this confident?”
“It’s my second time. I can do well.”
“Hmm······ Then what if it’s C+ or below?”
“······Lower it.”
Junil declared boldly.
After all, without that, there wouldn’t be a deal.
“Good. I like that a lot?”
“This time, put Meyrin in the party first······”
“Puhaha! What? Meyrin?”
The fairy suddenly burst into laughter.
“What are you talking about, Julian? Did you think you were going to the same place?”
“······Huh?”
“That’s a strict taboo. It would completely change the nature of the story.”
Of course.
So it wasn’t the same thing?
“Why? Don’t want to do it now? Huh?”
Tap.
Pam held up two fingers.
“If you get an A, double. 600 million. B stays at 300 million, C is half. How about it?”
Insane. 600 million?
“Deal.”
Money was money after all.
Junil found himself jumping up to prepare to leave.
“Kyaruru! Good thinking!”
Pam nodded and snapped her fingers.
Crack!
“Let’s go. To the other world.”
“Ah, but this time, instead of getting hit by a truck······”
Junil had to stop mid-sentence.
“······Crazy.”
Vwooooooooom······!
An enormous noise came from outside the window.
It was an airplane.
The airplane was heading straight for this one-room officetel.
‘Huh?’
KABOOOOOOM!
He became a hero once again.
KABOOOOOOM!
Julian’s sword exploded with sword energy, flying toward the Demon King’s body.
“Die, you bastard!”
This time, seven years.
It took seven years.
Even though it was a different place from last time, it was much more advanced.
‘Anyway, it’s medieval fantasy.’
Different country, different background, different people.
Even though many things were clearly different, the basic framework was similar.
They used mana as power, and monster weaknesses were the same.
Above all, Julian now knew for certain.
The power of a hero.
‘If you just keep going till the end, you win.’
If you just keep going till the end, you win.
A hero grows endlessly, and that growth has no limits.
The only limit is the hero’s patience.
When it came to patience, Julian was confident.
He persistently chased the Demon King for seven years.
The single strike containing seven years of resentment turned not only the Demon King but everything around him to dust.
KABOOM!
“U-uaaaaaaaaah!”
The Demon King burned white and disappeared.
“Hah······ Hah······”
Julian sat down in the clearing where ash flew about, catching his breath.
“J-Julian! Julian! This is huge!”
A beautiful blonde elf spirit mage ran over and hugged him.
Other bizarre companions approached as well—a dwarf warrior, halfling thief, lizardman priest.
“That was an incredible strike.”
“That’s our Julian.”
“Tch. I’ll admit it. The last one was cool.”
Julian nodded and slowly looked at each of their faces.
‘Soon······ we’ll part.’
He would never see them again soon.
‘Well, I already knew.’
It was a farewell he had already experienced in his first run.
He decided not to get attached.
He hadn’t grown as close to them as last time.
But then—
‘Huh?’
Static crackled!
Suddenly the world distorted.
Something strange began appearing before Julian’s eyes.
‘What?’
‘No, what the······ why are there so many dogshit comments like this······?’
It felt as if someone had been watching his entire life and evaluating it.
A feeling of being stripped bare in front of a crowd.
Static crackled again!
Noise filled the air once more, and all the text disappeared.
Instead, Pam appeared in its place.
Pop!
“Kyaruru! You finally finished! Congratulations, Julian!”
When she appeared, everything around them stopped.
“What was that just now?”
Julian asked.
Pam tilted her head curiously at the question.
“Huh? What just now?”
“J-just now······ something weird appeared.”
“Eeh? Did you work too hard? There was nothing there?”
What was that?
Pam didn’t know either.
Julian was puzzled.
But it had passed so quickly that it might have really just been a hallucination.
“Hah. Fine. Just tell me my grade.”
“Oh? You’re not going to talk about the friends you spent seven years building bonds with?”
“I can only see them if my grade is good anyway, right?”
She had said that if his grade was good, an epilogue would play.
Then he could properly say goodbye before leaving.
“You adapt fast. I like that.”
Pam smiled and revealed his grade.
Clack-clack-clack-clack!
An alphabet sign spun wildly like a casino game.
Gulp.
Julian swallowed dryly.
‘This time only one comrade died, and I cleared it three years faster.’
He had navigated things much more skillfully than last time.
Of course, he should get a higher grade.
‘Please let it be A.’
If he got an A, the amount would double.
He would earn 600 million.
‘Please!’
Click!
The slot stopped.