The Path of the Alpha Male

I settled Park Soyeong's problems on the spot.

I contacted the hospital and paid off every last won of her mother's overdue medical bills, then wired the early-termination penalty to the real estate agency as well.

There was no reason for her to suffer over any of this any longer.

And between Park Soyeong and me, we drew up a separate contract.

Honestly, I hadn't planned on putting anything in writing. I'd told her several times she could just pay me back slowly.

"That won't do."

"Look, Assistant Manager Park, I'm fine with—"

"What if I skip out on the debt and run? You absolutely have to have a contract like this."

I couldn't break her stubbornness.

So the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠contract was drawn up. As I reviewed the contents, I paused.

A perfectly ordinary contract. But the further down I read, the more unsettling the language became.

"In the event of failure to fulfill said obligations…"

The clause that followed:

"…Isn't the wording a little extreme?"

Were contracts normally like this? Reverting even herself? She wasn't some kind of item. Language that treated a human being like property sent an involuntary chill down my spine.

"Sir."

Park Soyeong's voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

"Yes?"

She spoke with a deadly serious expression.

"I belong to you, sir."

"…Excuse me?"

For a second I was sure I'd misheard.

"You've claimed me. You have, sir."

"…"

"…I-if you'd prefer, I could address you by a different title—"

"No, no, wait. Stop. Stop right there!"

She'd been like this ever since yesterday. Something had shifted in her after I paid off her debts.

I looked at Park Soyeong. It wasn't that I couldn't understand how she felt. Having her mother's hospital bills and the lease penalty covered for her — for an ordinary office worker, that kind of weight would crush anyone.

I was the president of KJ Group now, sure. But in my previous life I'd been a perfectly average middle-class guy. I knew exactly how thoroughly money could strip a person bare.

That was why I'd told her not to pay me back…

"I can't do that."

She spoke again, just as earnestly as before.

"I'm going to repay every last won of this money, and if I can't, then I belong to—"

"I get it, okay? I get it. How many times are you going to say the same thing? More importantly — you know you can't say stuff like that outside this room, right? If the other employees overhear, we're in serious trouble."

My image within the company had improved considerably, but the optics still weren't great. A young, pretty female employee wandering around declaring I belong to the boss? And the boss in question a rough-looking, pot-bellied middle-aged man? Getting reported to the police wouldn't even be surprising.

"Anyway, let's leave the contract here. You can head back down."

"Yes, sir! I'll go work hard!"

Park Soyeong flashed a bright smile, pumped herself up, and left the president's office.

"If it were me, I'd have just said thank you and never paid it back…"

Honestly. Being too conscientious was its own kind of hardship. I shook my head at the door she'd disappeared through.

"Uuurgh…"

With the contract sorted and Park Soyeong gone, I leaned back in my chair and stretched long and hard. The tension draining out of me let the exhaustion hit all at once.

It had been a hell of a ride. Lee Junho's betrayal. Park Soyeong's debts. And now, this new relationship with her.

"Hah…"

I let out a short breath. But it wasn't over yet. The system notifications that had been pinging nonstop since earlier — I had a pretty good idea what they were about. The point rewards it'd previewed before, no doubt.

I pulled up the notification window I'd shoved aside.

"…This many points?"

I stared at the screen for a moment. Twenty thousand. Even among everything I'd earned so far, this ranked near the top. It was a completely different tier of reward from reclaiming an employee's slush fund or seizing a car. You could call it a personal best.

"Feels like I unlocked an achievement."

Thinking about Kang Taeseong's role in the original game, I really had pulled off something achievement-worthy. I'd been isekai'd before I ever actually played the thing, so I didn't know the details — but another word on the screen held my attention more.

"Sub-heroine…"

So Park Soyeong was a sub-heroine. Her looks had always seemed a cut above ordinary, and now it all made sense.

"Wait. Then that means…"

There were other heroines too? Other women cast as main heroines or sub-heroines existed out there.

"…I should look into that."

Of course, nobody walked around with Main Heroine or Sub-Heroine stamped on their forehead, so I had no real method of identifying them. But based on Park Soyeong's case, anyone whose looks were well above ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠average had a high probability of being a heroine.

I was still turning the thought over when a burst of glittering effects exploded across my vision and more messages cascaded into view.

"Ohh."

A sound of genuine admiration slipped out of me.

"Yeah. This is the kind of reward I'm talking about."

A skill evolution. I didn't know yet how it differed from before, but the name alone sounded promising. I was already itching to find out what had changed.

But it didn't end there.

"Special Shop?"

I flipped through the screens without much thought. And then, the next moment—

"Shit."

The curse flew out on its own.

"…You've got to be kidding me."

I rubbed my eyes, unable to believe it. But no matter how many times I looked, it was unmistakable. A hair loss cure. The shop was selling a hair loss cure.

"…Hah."

A laugh burst out of me unbidden.

"Finally…"

It was finally here. If someone asked me what I'd resented most since waking up in this body, I could answer without a second's hesitation.

Hair loss.

That godforsaken hair loss. Every time I caught sight of those sparse, thinning strands, my stomach twisted itself into knots. Sure, the rolls of fat disgusted me too. The first thing that made me miserable after possessing this body was how excessively overweight it was — breathing itself was a struggle. Climb a few flights of stairs and my lungs seized up completely.

But fat, you could lose. Exercise. Diet. Invest the time, put in the work, and it was a problem you could solve. I'd already gotten this body into reasonably decent shape; the discomfort was almost gone.

But hair loss was different.

This was a curse no amount of effort could break. Hair transplants? Possible, but imperfect. Medication meant taking pills for the rest of your life — and the hair that was going to fall out would fall out anyway, no matter how carefully you tended it. In my previous life, I'd seen the despair of balding men more times than I could count. And the current Kang Taeseong carried that despair in full.

No matter how well I dressed, no matter how diligently I maintained myself — every glance in the mirror snagged on that barren crown. How many sleepless nights had I spent agonizing over this?

Had the system read my mind? Through the shop's functions, it was telling me it would cure my affliction.

"System, you beautiful bastard…"

For the first time, I actually liked the thing. Wicked boss, alpha male — I'd play along with all of it. Just keep this up!

If it'd been standing next to me, I would've clapped it on the back.

The problem was the price. A full hundred thousand points.

"…That's steep."

Not just expensive — astronomically expensive. A hundred times the cost of Villain's Charisma or Observer's Eye, the skills I'd bought and used so far. Even emptying every point I'd accumulated wouldn't come close.

But the more I thought about it… maybe it wasn't that expensive after all.

"It is hair loss, after all."

An intractable condition tormenting hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Pharmaceutical companies had poured astronomical research budgets into it for decades and still failed to produce a cure. If a drug that perfectly treated hair loss actually hit the market? Forget a Nobel Prize. It would become one of the most profitable medicines in human history. Every major pharmaceutical giant on the planet would be frothing at the mouth to get their hands on it. You wouldn't just be sitting on a money pile — you'd be filling your bathtub with cash. Hell, you'd furnish the entire house with it and still have money left over.

And the system was selling that for a mere hundred thousand points.

"…"

I looked at the price again.

"…Looking at it again, you're a damn angel."

The system had proven itself time and time again. Not once had this thing betrayed my expectations. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠The hair loss cure's performance would almost certainly blow past anything I could imagine.

"…It's cheap?"

The more I thought about it, the less expensive it seemed. It was absurdly, ridiculously cheap.

"…Nngh."

I pressed my fingers into my temples. In the end, I'd arrived at the same conclusion I'd been circling for a while now — only this time, the stakes were far higher. Before, it had been a casual it'd be nice to earn some points. Now the weight of it was entirely different.

"I have to earn them. No matter what."

The hair loss cure. That was something I needed to get my hands on by any means necessary.

"Do I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠seriously need to go hunting for heroines…?"

I muttered bitterly. Running the company the normal way, I'd never scrape together a hundred thousand points — hell, I wouldn't even hit fifty. Based on the data so far, getting involved with heroines was by far the best way to rack up points.

"…What if I just straight-up steal them?"

Like the original Kang Taeseong. Then a hundred thousand would be nothing — two hundred thousand, easy—

I shook my head the moment the thought formed.

"…That's pure garbage."

No matter how desperate I was about the hair loss, I had no intention of wrecking innocent people's lives for points. Part of it was fear of the protagonist who'd come after me if I started committing real villainy. But more than that, my goal was to live long and quiet — just run the company at my own leisurely pace.

"If I run into trash human beings, maybe I'll just help out a little."

That was my hard line. The only way to earn points legally without my conscience screaming at me. I'd set that as my operating principle for now.

"Aigoo. Long road ahead. Long road ahead."

Hundred thousand points or not — first things first, get some work done. I let out a small sigh and turned my eyes to the mountain of documents that had somehow piled up on my desk.