Being a Hero Is a Professional Job (3)
Julian thought for a moment.
Was this déjà vu?
Or was he dreaming?
C+
“······?”
Why had the exact same evaluation appeared again?
“Kyaa, kyaruru!”
Pam shoved her fist into her mouth and clutched her stomach, desperately trying to hold back her laughter. Even so, giggles kept slipping out.
“Kyakyakya kyaruru~!”
If Julian had possessed the strength to beat this fairy to a pulp, he would have thrown a punch without hesitation. But he had already learned his lesson last time. You do not touch this fairy.
He asked in a relatively calm tone.
“What the hell? Why the same C+? I did way better this time than last time!”
“I already told you. That’s entirely up to the Constellations.”
What kind of ridiculous standard was that?
“So I’m supposed to accept half the compensation for seven years of suffering in ignorance? At this rate I’ll never be able to work as a hero again.”
“······Hmm.”
Maybe the phrase “never be able to work as a hero again” had gotten through to her, because Pam paused.
“Fine. Then promise me you’ll do the hero gig next time too. If you do, I’ll show you something that must never be revealed.”
Something that must never be revealed?
What on earth could that be?
Julian pondered for a moment before answering.
“Alright. I can manage one more round.”
“Kyaruru. No, not just one. I think it’d be good to train you as a professional hero.”
“Professional… hero?”
“Yep. It’s a proper profession. The kind of specialized job you like. You’ll become a professional hero, take my commissions, and jump into any story that comes along.”
Professional hero.
The words left Julian’s mind momentarily blank.
Well. If it’s about making money, it really is a job.
He had never once considered turning hero work into an actual career. Hearing it spelled out like this, though, it suddenly seemed plausible.
Come to think of it, “hero” literally ends with “job” in Korean.
When a request came in, you could earn hundreds of millions of won in mere seconds. Not a bad gig at all.
This might actually be pretty decent.
Julian felt himself wavering.
“This isn’t an offer I make to just anyone. I’m saying it because I see real potential in you.”
“Two C-pluses in a row and you’re talking about potential?”
That was what Julian thought.
But Pam saw things differently.
Hmm? He really doesn’t realize?
The truth was, for an ordinary person to be suddenly thrown into another world and cleanly defeat the Demon King twice in succession? And over the course of ten years and then seven?
That was anything but easy.
Ninety percent fail.
It took more than ordinary tenacity. Even with the protagonist buffs the fairies provided, most people still failed. Their stories would then be axed midway—resulting in an F.
That was the absolute worst outcome for a story fairy.
On the other hand, simply completing the story to the end—no matter the grade—was a huge win for them.
In other words, Julian, who had finished strong twice in a row, was a highly desirable talent in Pam’s eyes.
Of course, she kept all of that to herself. If he started overvaluing himself, things would get complicated.
“Whether you have potential or not doesn’t matter. If you agree, I’ll show you some data.”
“Data…?”
“That’s right. Information that’ll help you with future hero work. Once you see this, your evaluation scores will improve and you’ll earn way, way more money. It’s like a kind of…”
The fairy paused, searching for a term Julian would understand.
“Test cheat sheet, I guess?”
A test cheat sheet?
What was that supposed to mean?
Julian thought hard. It made sense that he struggled with the reference—he had lived seventeen years as a hero but only three as a college student.
“Ah… right. That thing. Okay, I get it.”
It took him a long while, but he finally remembered.
“So you’ll do it?”
“Yeah.”
He agreed without further hesitation.
Might as well give it a shot.
He had already come to a clear realization.
I can’t go back to living like a normal person.
He had spent far too long as a hero. There was no returning to his old life. The hero lifestyle was pure dopamine, and the rewards were insane. Earning hundreds of millions in seconds? No ordinary job could compare. Anything else would feel suffocating.
“Kyaruru! How cool. Alright, I’ll show you.”
Snap.
110,237
110,002
109,245
87,372
“See? It completely tanked, right?”
“What is this?”
Julian could tell that the rapidly falling numbers were bad, but he had no idea what they actually represented.
Was it money?
“This is what happened when you stuck your nose into that village woman’s request and one of your companions died.”
“What does that have to do with these numbers?”
Pam ignored him and continued.
“And look at this one. The time you unnecessarily went to meet the princess again and ended up delaying the main quest.”
84,102
83,012
52,112
“It plummeted, didn’t it?”
Whatever those numbers meant, they were clearly important. The drop was massive.
“Don’t tell me those are the Constellations’ evaluations?”
“Mm, close enough.”
Pam gave a simple explanation.
“It’s basically a measure of how many Constellations are watching your story. You need to keep at least ten thousand until the very end to get an A.”
“I get why it would drop when a companion dies… but why does meeting the princess tank it?”
“Romance arcs rarely get good reactions. Besides, the princess’s favorability toward you wasn’t high enough.”
Julian felt wronged.
Wasn’t the princess into me?
I’m the hero, damn it.
“How am I supposed to know her exact favorability level?”
“Kyaruru! You don’t? Then you deserve to get hit!”
Thwack!
Pam flicked him hard on the forehead. It didn’t hurt, but it was incredibly annoying.
“Oh, and you even flirted with other women, didn’t you? Total no-no, no-no~”
Flirted? That was a harsh way to put it. He had simply shared a few meals.
“You have to meet people to know who you like! What, heroes aren’t allowed to date?”
“Why does that sound weird to you? Humans have rules like that too. ‘No office romance,’ right?”
Oof.
The phrase “no office romance” hit Julian like a slap to the face.
“You’re a professional hero now. A pro. Emphasis on professional. You think it’s okay to chase romance in the middle of a job? Kyaruru!”
He had no comeback. She was right.
If this was a real profession, he needed to maintain professionalism. Trying to date during a mission was naturally going to earn him dislike.
“So this is what happens.”
84,102 → 83,012 → 52,112
The numbers vanishing from eighty-three thousand down to fifty-two thousand made his chest ache just looking at them.
There were plenty of other problems besides romance.
“O-okay. I get it. Next?”
Julian nodded.
“The time you got betrayed like an idiot and didn’t even notice.”
The numbers had crashed into the thirties of thousands then.
That betrayal… happened in my first run too.
Was having a traitor in the hero’s party some kind of cliché? He had fallen for it twice. Even he could admit that was a problem.
And it didn’t stop there.
“Then there was the part where you got stabbed in the back, whined about how hard it was, then got drunk the next day and hit on a village girl. Three strikes in a row! Way too emotional.”
The feeling of having his entire life stripped naked made Julian lower his head in shame.
Why do I have to be the one feeling humiliated…? Ah. Of course I do.
Pam scrolled rapidly. The numbers kept dropping.
Finally she showed him the last set.
1,933
1,601
1,383
1,520
“Even at the end, the most you got was 1,520. Kyaruru!”
1,520.
It was nowhere near the ten thousand required for an A. Utterly dismal.
Okay. I can do better next time.
Like a model student, Julian carefully reviewed everything Pam had said, committing it to memory as if taking lecture notes. He was preparing to earn an A next round.
No romance, no getting emotional, identify the traitor… huh?
At that moment, a memory flashed through his mind.
Wait a second.
Julian suddenly felt like he understood what those texts were.
Don’t tell me… those were the Constellations?
They matched almost perfectly with what Pam was explaining.
“Any questions?”
“Ah… no. None.”
Julian chose not to mention what he had seen.
He had lived a total of seventeen years as a hero. He was no longer the naïve young man he used to be. Instinct told him not to reveal this to the story fairy.
This would be his own private weapon.
He changed the subject.
“So when’s the next hero assignment?”
Pam snapped her fingers as she answered.
“I’ll let you know soon. Off you go now!”
Snap!
At the same time, Julian returned to reality—his own bed in his room.
I can just sleep like this.
Unlike last time, he was able to fall asleep comfortably and begin his activities refreshed. The exhaustion from killing the Demon King weighed down his entire body. Julian stretched out on the bed and slept for a long time.
* * *
The next day, Julian met his school friends for the first time in seven years(?).
Fortunately, he had been on break right before his second hero summoning, so he didn’t have to drag himself to those mind-numbingly boring lectures.
“Hey. Hyung’s here. That makes eleven, so let’s head out?”
They had gathered to play soccer. They had managed a full twenty-two people for a proper match.
The opposing team was from the mechanical engineering department.
“I heard the mech guys are insanely good at soccer. Don’t get nervous, everyone. Just play like usual. Okay?”
“Okay!”
Julian followed his friends onto the field full of fighting spirit.
“Huuuaaaam.”
He was still half-asleep and exhausted.
Even as the soccer ball moved with urgent intensity across the field, he felt almost no tension.
Hmm.
Tap—
He simply tapped a ball that was coming too slowly with his foot.
“Huh?!”
“Shit! Chase him!”
The opposing team scrambled after him, kicking up dirt.
What are they doing? I’m already there.
Near the halfway line, Julian casually swung his leg.
Thwump!
“Hey! I told you not to play kickball!”
A senior from his department scolded him, but—
“Goal! Gooooooooal!!!”
The roar erupting from the front left everyone stunned with their mouths hanging open. The shot, fired at incredible speed, had flown straight into the goal.
“Hey Mun Jun… huh?”
The senior who had been about to say something stared blankly at the goal.
The pattern continued afterward.
Boom!
“Gooooooal!”
Bang!
“Goal! Another goooooal!”
“Julian’s gone insane!”
Every ball he kicked went in. The game had stopped being a game.
The fact that he had held back his strength and the first half only ended 8 to 1 was practically a mercy. If he had gone all out it could have been 15 to 1.
What the…
Even Julian felt something was off. He asked to be subbed out, saying he was tired, and returned to the stands to sit down.
What’s going on? My body feels incredibly light. Everyone else seems slow.
Maybe all the experience from his hero days had been etched into his brain?
Well, I lived like a medieval maniac and my grades got destroyed, so I might as well get something out of it.
Feeling like the balance was now roughly even, Julian didn’t question it further.
But his soccer skills today really must have been something else.
“Wow… Oppa, that was amazing. When did you get so good at soccer?”
“Right, right. Today was insane.”
The girls from his department who had come to cheer approached him.
“You were like Messi. For real.”
“More like Ronaldo style, no?”
“Either way!”
“Julian oppa, where did you practice?”
Su-yeon was among them.
It had been a long time since he had seen her. From her perspective it had only been a few days since finals, but from his it had been seven years.
She’s still pretty.
These days, looking at her made him think of Meyrin.
He turned his gaze away and answered bluntly.
“Just watched YouTube and practiced.”
It was a ridiculous excuse, but what else could he say? That he had gone to another world and practiced soccer there?
Su-yeon simply accepted it.
“Oh? Hmm… I see.”
At the same time, her eyes traced his forearms and chest.
Julian felt her noticing the change.
Has he been working out lately?
Had his build always been this solid? Maybe the short sleeves made it more obvious. His whole body seemed transformed into dense, hard muscle.
Even his aura felt different. He seemed more thoughtful somehow.
What is he thinking about so hard?
After all, he was practically glaring into empty space and muttering to himself, completely ignoring her.
No romance, no emotions, keep companions alive, don’t help random people…
He was reviewing how he would play the next round.
No dating, no flirting. I have no emotions. I have no emotions.
He looked utterly determined, almost venomous.
It was all because of the viewer-count chart he had checked that morning.