The Hero's Part-Time Job

After Park Nayoung fled the scene like she was running for her life, I finally made it back home from the fire. I tossed my soot-stained, smoke-stinking clothes into the washing machine and stepped into the shower, savoring the sweet taste of finally losing my virginity. It felt ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠like I’d been reborn. Just thinking about it sent waves of overwhelming emotion surging through my chest.

The hot water cascaded over my body, washing away every trace of what had happened in the karaoke room. The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠intense marks Park Nayoung had left on me slowly rinsed down the drain.

“This is what sex feels like.”

Memories of all the women I’d met in the other world flashed through my mind. Every single one of them had parroted the words “I love you” like some broken record, yet not one had ever let me lay a finger on them. Looking back, I felt pathetic for believing in their empty declarations of love.

One round of actual sex brought more pleasure than a hundred “I love you”s ever could. From now on, I wouldn’t believe a single word that wasn’t backed by physical intimacy. Part of me wanted to fly back to the other world and teach that lesson to all the women living their comfortable lives there, but the sad reality was that I’d never see them again.

After finishing my shower, I collapsed onto the bed and fiddled with my smartphone. Sex was sex, but I was also worried about Park Nayoung—my childhood friend of over twenty years—so I sent her a quick text.

It was marked as read immediately, but no reply came. One minute. Two minutes. I waited anxiously until, after about five minutes, her response finally arrived.

I’d been secretly worried she might have suffered burns in the fire or that the Sex Power might have caused some side effects. Hearing that she was okay let me breathe a sigh of relief. I was still debating how to explain my abilities to her when another message popped up.

I’d already been struggling to figure out how to explain everything, but now Nayoung was outright refusing to hear it. Her suggestion to treat the entire day like it had never occurred felt like she was trying to erase the fact that I’d taken her by force.

“Should I consider this a good thing?”

Park Nayoung had always been dead set on staying a virgin until marriage. Even though the situation had been a life-or-death emergency, the fact remained that I had taken her first time. It was a relief that she wasn’t reporting me to the police or telling her parents, but at the same time, it felt a little disappointing. Her message basically said the whole thing had been an accident and that she would never sleep with me again.

I sent the reply, but the “read” indicator never disappeared. It seemed she really meant she wouldn’t even look at any messages from me until she contacted me first.

“I want to do it again.”

After staring at my phone for a long time with no further response from her, I set it down and replayed what had just happened. Simply remembering the sex with Park Nayoung was enough to make me hard again. The sensation of my cock thrusting deep inside her—it wasn’t something I’d be forgetting anytime soon. It was a shame we’d only done it once. If the situation hadn’t been so urgent, I could have gone two, three times… hell, if my Sex Power had been high enough, I could have kept going all day.

“Now that I think about it, I should check what happened to my power.”

My status window looked downright pathetic compared to before. This was the result of accepting the Goddess Cerer’s offer to convert my Holy Power into Sex Power. Thanks to that, I had avoided dying the moment I returned to Earth, but every single ability I’d built up over ten years had been reset to zero. A hollow sigh escaped me.

Back then, my power would rise just by praying to the goddess and slaying monsters. Now, the only way to gain Sex Power was through sexual relations with the opposite sex.

“There’s no way to restore it, is there?”

Not only was restoring my old state impossible, I wasn’t even sure if I could raise it any higher from here. For me, sleeping with women was far more difficult than hunting monsters.

“The only skill is Healing? And what the hell are these points?”

The only skill I had was the basic Healing spell, and a new “Points” category had appeared that I’d never seen before. I wished someone would explain all this to me. The goddess who should have been doing the explaining had completely severed the last faint connection after my status window changed, so I couldn’t reach her anymore.

I poked around the status window, trying to figure out how to use it, when a voice suddenly whispered right beside my ear.

“Would it be alright if I explained it to you?”

I looked around. There was no one in my room. But the voice was familiar, so I immediately knew who it was.

“Wait… is that you, Ria?”

“Yes. It is good to see you again, Hero.”

Seria, the spirit of the Holy Sword. She had been my partner from the moment I was summoned to the other world until the day I defeated the Demon King—never leaving my side for even an instant. When I delivered the final blow, the Holy Sword had glowed and vanished along with the Demon King, so I thought I’d never hear her voice again. I never imagined I would hear the Holy Sword’s voice here on Earth, of all places.

“The sword is gone. How…?”

“I am right here, Hero.”

This time the voice didn’t come from beside my ear—it came from directly below me. It was my smartphone. The spirit of the Holy Sword had manifested as an app on my phone.

I was so confused I didn’t know what to say. Seria immediately began to explain.

“I am a God-grade bound item. Even though the physical form known as the Holy Sword has disappeared, my spirit will remain eternally bound to you as long as you do not abandon me. Since I am a God-grade item created and permitted only for use by those chosen by the gods, it seems the binding was able to cross dimensions and follow you here.”

I called out the nickname I had always used for her—not as the spirit of the Holy Sword, but as the smartphone app she had become.

“It’s really good to see you again, Ria.”

“The feeling is mutual, Hero.”

This time her voice was a soft whisper meant only for my ears.

“I’m not a hero anymore. Just call me by my name.”

“Then what should I call you?”

“Hyunjin? Or just Jin. Whatever’s comfortable.”

“Understood, Jin.”

Her calm, gentle voice slowly eased the chaotic emotions I’d been feeling since returning to Earth.

“Then I shall explain your new abilities. As the Goddess told you, you can now gain Sex Power and Points through sexual relations with members of the opposite sex.”

That much I already understood. What I wanted to know was what these Points were for and whether I could learn any other skills.

“Points can be thought of as currency for a gacha system. By spending 100P, you can randomly obtain one of the skills you have previously learned or one of the items stored in your subspace.”

“What? It’s a gacha pull?”

I never expected to run into an annoying random gacha system the moment I returned to Earth. My brow furrowed deeply.

“Wait, you’re saying items I stored in my subspace can come out? Even God-grade ones?”

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

“Yes, that is correct. During your time as the Hero, you acquired numerous God-grade items. However, since only you could use them, most of them have been sleeping inside your subspace. Among them are several God-grade items capable of forcibly abducting women—just as you yourself were forcibly summoned to the other world. I would very much like to use them on the Saintess in particular. She needs to pay for toying with you.”

While I was burning with thoughts of revenge, Ria called out to me.

“Um… Jin? I apologize, but that plan will most likely be quite difficult.”

“What? Are you taking their side? Weren’t you on my side?”

Feeling betrayed that the partner I had trusted was opposing me, I snapped back.

“I am always on your side. However, there is a problem. Do you know how many skills you learned and how many items you stored in your subspace combined?”

“I don’t know… around a hundred?”

“There are 4,384 skills, 5,998 items, for a total of 10,382 entries.”

“......”

Come to think of it, they had told me the Hero could learn every skill, so I had mindlessly learned anything and everything. Of course, I had only learned them—I had no idea what most of them even did, and they had simply gathered dust in my skill list. The same went for the items. Since the Hero’s subspace could hold anything, I remembered cramming in everything from priceless artifacts to food and random junk.

How many pulls would it take to get what I wanted out of over ten thousand options? Having sex with Park Nayoung had given me 232P—two pulls. That meant I would need to sleep with thousands of women on her level just to get a decent chance. In other words, it was practically impossible.

‘Let’s think positively. It’s close to impossible, but not completely impossible, right?’

Satisfied that the probability of getting revenge on the Saintess wasn’t exactly zero, I decided to spend the 200P I had for two pulls. Who knows? Maybe I’d beat the 0.01% odds.

Yeah, right. Instead of any high-tier skills, I got two basic ones that any priest could learn.

“...Well, at least I didn’t get attack skills like Fireball or Meteor, so that’s something, right?”

In this world, practical everyday skills were probably more useful than flashy combat magic anyway.

Clean was a skill that instantly removed dust, dirt, and other filth. I had used it often during my days as a hero when I couldn’t shower or needed to tidy up an area. It was especially handy after jerking off alone—it cleaned up every trace and even eliminated the smell, so I had used it quite frequently.

Power Infusion was a skill that temporarily granted Sex Power to other objects. Unlike permanent weapon enchantments, the effect would fade after about a week, which was why it was considered a minor skill. But it had one very specific use: cooking.

Depending on the ingredient, applying Power Infusion could transform most foods into something incomparably delicious.

‘It’s literally a divine seasoning made with the power of a god.’

The Saintess had thrown a fit about it, claiming it was blasphemy to use the Goddess’s sacred power that way, so I hadn’t been able to use it much. But now that she wasn’t around to complain, I could do whatever I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wanted.

“Maybe I’ll cook something with Power Infusion for the first time in a while.”

The moment I opened the refrigerator, my smartphone started ringing. Thinking it might be Park Nayoung, I rushed over and answered immediately. But the voice that came through was someone else entirely.

“Hey, you bastard! Where the hell are you right now?!”

It was the voice of my part-time job boss—the one person I really didn’t want to hear from even after ten years.