The Hero Returns

* * *

Darkness settled after dusk had come to the world.

A trail of dust cloud was heading toward a small and humble-looking thatched-roof house located in the deeper part of a mountain valley.

Tadadadadada—

Inside the house, the Bull Demon King had just finished brewing tea and was about to drink it, but after hearing all those raucous approaching footsteps, he quietly put the teacup down.

Du-rururuk—

Bang—!

“Big brother!”

“You’re being too loud. You might break the door, too.”

The Bull Demon King spotted the tea’s surface rocking about and looked back at Sun Wukong with a somewhat stern expression.

If it was any other occasion, Sun Wukong would have calmed down a little after getting scared by that expression, but he didn’t budge an inch this time.

“Big brother, I heard that you went to see the fourth brother.”

“Did you hear that from the second brother?”

“That’s not important right now, is it?!”

Sun Wukong rushed over to the Bull Demon King’s side and settled down there. Even though they hadn’t seen each other for a while, the monkey king didn’t seem to be all that interested in the latter’s return.

Then again, the Bull Demon King was far too powerful to be worried about anyway, and more importantly, he hadn’t been gone as long as the fourth brother.

“Where did you see him? Was he doing well?”

“You know better than anyone that I didn’t see him on this side.”

“What I’m saying is, on which world did you meet him?”

“It was a place with many strange gods.”

“Can’t you, like, tell me in detail already?”

Sun Wukong’s highly excited face got really close, and the Bull Demon King lightly flicked his finger on his younger brother’s nose. He then began leisurely talking about what had transpired in the other world.

Unlike in the past, the Bull Demon King was now well aware of the kind of world Su-hyeun was originally from. Sun Wukong was currently climbing the tower, the one with countless many floors, the same as Su-hyeun, after all.

These two got to learn a lot more about who Su-hyeun was.

“Maybe because there’s no more need for secrecy, he told me quite a lot of things. Like, what the world he’s living in is like, what kind of people are around him, and how he’d been living until now.”

“That punk. He’s never told me anything like that, though.”

“And his life has been a lot harder than I thought. After listening to him, I finally understood a little why he was making those kinds of expressions when we first met him. He lives every day with billions of lives shackling him like a lump of lead, so how could he relax and be more carefree?”

“What are you even talking about?”

“Well, there is something like that.”

“Big brother! Are you going to keep the fourth’s matters a secret, too?!”

Sun Wukong shot up from the spot with a wounded face, but the Bull Demon King simply nodded his head as if it was the obvious thing.

“You should hear it directly from him when you two meet again later.” The Bull Demon King stared at his face’s reflection on the ceramic teacup’s surface and continued with a slightly sorrowful voice, “Because this tale isn’t something I should convey.”

“…”

After hearing that, Sun Wukong sat back down on the spot even though he was still frowning deeply. “Dang it.”

He couldn’t continue asking anymore.

Sun Wukong rested his elbow on his knee and placed his chin in his hand. The Bull Demon King saw that and smiled faintly. The monkey king must have been worried about their fourth brother because his expression showed how jittery and nervous he was.

“If you keep climbing that tower, wouldn’t you someday run into him?”

“But I wanted to know when that will be. Could it be that I won’t ever get to run into him for the rest of our lives?”

Sun Wukong must have been feeling frustrated because he was replying with an unusually higher tone. Judging from what he said, he seemed to be worried about the possibility of never seeing Su-hyeun ever again.

“Hmm…I wonder about that.” However, the Bull Demon King’s thoughts were a little different from Sun Wukong’s. “I’m sure it won’t be that long from now.”

Those were some meaningful words.

Sun Wukong made yet another pouting unhappy expression and slapped his knee. “Fine, but when will that be, big brother?”

“I also don’t know that.”

“Brother, are you going for that ‘I know, but I’ll pretend to not know’ again? I mean, you didn’t even tell us and went behind our backs to meet the fourth brother all by yourself.”

“That’s because you’re still too lacking.”

“Awww, really now?!”

“Next time, why don’t all of us get together and share a drink?”

At the Bull Demon King’s sudden suggestion, Sun Wukong faltered a little and began scratching his head. “You mean, that bitter thing called booze?”

“If you don’t want to drink, then you can just accept the cup. In human society, drinking together is apparently a type of ritual that they do to signal their intent to become brothers in arms.”

“Hmm, is that so?” Sun Wukong scratched his chin while thinking for a bit and then nodded contemplatively. “Well, since the fourth brother is a human, let us do that,” he said, the corners of his lips curling up ever so slightly. His expression said how hard he was suppressing a smile from breaking out. It seemed that he was feeling rather pleased after thinking about the future.

“Indeed, let us.”

The Bull Demon King began picturing it—him, the second brother, the Roc Demon King, the third brother, Sun Wukong, and the fourth brother, Kim Su-hyeun—all four of them together, drinking happily.

“It’ll be nice if that day comes sooner rather than later.”

* * *

[Strength: 101]

“…”

Su-hyeun confirmed his stat one more time and quietly stared at his palm for a little while.

It hadn’t been all that long since his strength stat had increased, yet it went up again. Was it because the trial was related to Hercules? Out of several different stats he had, it happened to be his “strength” that went up.

“Is this kinda like the evolution of godhood, then?”

According to what the administrator said, class differences existed even within the same type of godhood.

Currently, Su-hyeun possessed the godhood of strength and fire, and the fact that his strength stat had risen up indicated that the godhood of strength had gone up a level.

“It would’ve been nicer to have either agility or stamina rise up, though.”

In any case, an improvement in his stats was something to be happy about, like the sweet rainfall after a lengthy drought.

Although it was just a one-point increase, Su-hyeun began thinking that even if he were to fight Hercules again, he would not be pushed back so much now with his current level of strength.

Of course, he would still need another point added to his “strength” stat if he wished to compete with Hercules in purely physical power alone.

Su-hyeun sheepishly scratched his head while scanning his new surroundings.

Tumble, swah-aaah—

Splash, splash—

Tall waves crashed and scattered away. The sounds of the ocean coming from the beach felt so refreshing to him, while the bright and clear skies above tried to burn his eyes.

Su-hyeun found himself standing in the middle of a small island, completely surrounded by an endless stretch of ocean. More correctly, on a beach where not even a single tree could be found, just plenty of sand under his feet.

“So, this is the 103rd floor.”

He couldn’t see the administrator for the floor. He couldn’t even sense any presence here at all. It seemed that just like the 101st and 102nd floor, this world had already been destroyed as well.

He wondered if he should search for the administrator right away, but decided to postpone that.

He had spent enough time on the 102nd floor, after all. After clearing the 101st floor, Su-hyeun immediately challenged the 102nd, so he had been basically neglecting his own world for far too long.

“Right, for now, I should go back.”

* * *

During Su-hyeun’s month-long stay on the 102nd floor, he returned to his own world only once.

The save zone included everywhere else except Hercules’s house and the purple-colored dungeon where the Giants spawned from. Meaning, it was not all that hard to discover the save zone, but the trial’s content was about protecting someone, so he couldn’t stay away for too long.

In the end, Su-hyeun chose to phone Lee Ju-ho when he got back during that one visit, asked about the current events, and once he heard that nothing of note had happened, quickly returned to the trial.

That was about a fortnight ago.

“Okay, so, still nothing happened, right?”

“Well, something did happen,” Lee Ju-ho replied on the phone. It seemed that something must have happened in the last 15 days.

Su-hyeun made a puzzled expression.

If that something was a serious matter, then Lee Ju-ho wouldn’t have sounded like this on the phone. Indeed, he would be replying with an urgent or grave tone right about now.

But, well, Lee Ju-ho’s voice sounded rather irritated somehow.

“What happened?”

“I’ll tell you when you get here.”

“Is it something really urgent?”

“Nah, it’s not like that. It’s been a while since you’re home again, so you should take your time and, I dunno, wash up, relax, and come to the office. I’m hanging up now.” After saying that, Lee Ju-ho one-sidedly hung up. He sounded like he was moving away from the phone as he ended the call, and it seemed like he was talking to someone else at that time.

Maybe he was busy.

It seemed that something did happen here. However, it must’ve been not that urgent either, just enough to cause him a little bit of irritation.

“Well, I’ll find out once I get there.”

Su-hyeun put the phone down, took a shower, and got ready to depart.

For the first time in a while, he started his car and drove to the Jongno Tower. He was about to step into the first floor after parking his car when Lee Ju-ho called him up on the phone.

“I forgot to tell you this. When you get here, come to the top floor.”

“Eh? Why?”

“Since last week, I’ve become the association’s chairman.”

“…?”

“In any case, just come to the top floor, please. Okay, I’m hanging up now.”

Beep—

Su-hyeun wondered what was going on here and scratched his head while pressing the top floor button in the elevator.

On the 45th floor.

It felt like the elevator was going up forever. The other people in the elevator left one by one, and eventually, Su-hyeun was the only one remaining.

He stepped onto the top floor of the Jongno Tower and directly headed to the office of the Awakener Association’s chairman.

Knock, knock—

“Come in,” came Lee Ju-ho’s voice from the inside.

Creak—

Su-hyeun opened the door and stepped inside. Lee Ju-ho was sitting inside the chairman’s office, which was certainly a lot larger than his previous one.

“What’s going on here?” Su-hyeun asked.

“What do you mean what? It’s as you can see.”

“But what about Mister Jung Yoon-ho?”

“That uncle never liked the idea of being the association chairman, to begin with. Honestly, I did most of his work, anyway. But then, not too long ago, he just called for a press conference and suddenly declared his intention to step away from the role, and then, without asking for anyone’s opinion, he…”

Lee Ju-ho’s expression showed how stressed he was.

With how gaunt his cheeks were and the messy state of his hair, he must have been not sleeping lately and had been tearing his hair out several times already.

Su-hyeun found Lee Ju-ho’s current state somewhat funny and ended up smiling a little before hurriedly changing his expression to a worry-filled one. Lee Ju-ho was probably in the most serious state he had ever been in right now.

“Did the handover go well?” Su-hyeun asked.

“There wasn’t much to ‘handover’ in the first place, though. I’ve already been doing most of that uncle’s job for a while, after all.”

“What about the Paragon Guild’s matters?”

“That’s chugging along fine all on its own. Honestly speaking, Gordon is the main player there instead of me, anyway. Ah, right. Coffee?”

“Yes, please.”

At Su-hyeun’s reply, Lee Ju-ho got up from his seat while groaning loudly. He prepared coffee and returned to the desk.

Su-hyeun took the coffee, and while taking a sip, he surveyed the chairman’s office. “The office looks pretty nice, though. And wide, too.”

“Whether having authority is good or not, I don’t know anymore. I never imagined that one day, I’d end up in a position like this one. But somehow, I’m already here.”

“Does it suit your disposition, though?”

“My disposition, hmm?” Lee Ju-ho seemed to be pondering it while sipping his own coffee and then nodded his head. “I think it’s a good match.”

“Well, it’s a relief in that case.”

“It’s all thanks to you. Honestly, if it was only me, how could I have gotten this far? Sure, A-Rank isn’t exactly low-tier, but there are plenty of S-Ranks around these days, you know.”

“That only goes to show that you’ve been doing excellent work so far, bro. Isn’t that why Mister Jung Yoon-ho handed the chairman’s position over to you?”

“I won’t deny that it had some effect in that regard, but it’d not have been possible without you or the Paragon Guild. I’m sure other people are thinking the same thing. And it’s also a fact.”

Lee Ju-ho looked like he had already accepted his new reality by now as he said that while shrugging his shoulders. The “Lee Ju-ho” Su-hyeun knew since the beginning was not the type of person to care much about others pointing their fingers at him or talking behind his back.

“Well, I’m sure it’ll work out as long as I do my best. All I have to do is to gradually let the world know that me being in this position is a good thing for everyone. When that happens, this position will have become truly mine.”

“Bro, you are unexpectedly power-hungry, aren’t you?”

“Didn’t you know? What I’m really good at isn’t fighting but something like this. I told you, right? It’s a good match for me,” Lee Ju-ho replied, his expression not looking so bad.

Even if his new duties were tough and complicated, he seemed to be more than satisfied enough by the position of the chairman itself and the gratification he derived from the job.

“When you said something happened, I wondered what it could be, but what a relief that it wasn’t anything bad, bro. I thought that—”

“Ah, that. This wasn’t it.”

“Hmm?”

“That’s a separate issue from me becoming the association chairman.”

“There’s something else?”

“There is. As soon as I became the chairman, the Awakener Authority started provoking us. Actually, it’s the director picking a fight, but still.” Unlike how he was a second ago, Lee Ju-ho replied with a face full of irritation. “And this whole thing, it’s a provocation aimed not at me but at you.”