The Hero Returns

Step—

Su-hyeun leisurely walked into the room.

The director poured liquor in a cup as if he had been waiting. A girl barely old enough to have taken off her “underage” tag recently sidled up right next to Su-hyeun.

“Please, all of you leave the room,” said Su-hyeun.

“Pardon?” the girl asked, surprised.

Su-hyeun used his eyes to point at the door. “It will be all right, everyone. We have an important topic to discuss, you see.”

“W—what are you doing, fella?”

“Will it be fine for you to not have them leave, Director? Considering what we are about to say?” Su-hyeun answered the flustered director’s question with another question instead.

The director gulped his saliva down and hurriedly scanned the room before cautiously opening his mouth, “All of you, leave.”

Would the voice of a man biting the bullet sound like his?

Two girls present in the room to “service” the clients carefully studied the director’s moods and left. Finally, some peace and quiet had settled down in the room now.

Driiiip—

The room’s soundproofing was excellent, completely cutting off all noises coming from the outside. Only the sound of liquor filling up a cup rang within the room.

It was the sound of Su-hyeun pouring himself a cup.

The director hurriedly tried to pour the liquor himself for Su-hyeun, but the latter simply ignored the extended hands.

“As I thought, you and I are not really compatible with each other.”

Su-hyeun didn’t even bother to clink the cup with the director and simply took a sip. A single bottle of this luxurious imported liquor cost over $1,000, but he had no clue about that. All he did after drinking this expensive and rare alcohol was to furrow his brows instead.

“Kinda tastes like petroleum, doesn’t it?”

Su-hyeun complained about the bitter taste and put the cup down. In all honesty, he was acting like a young child who didn’t know how to appreciate the taste of fine liquor.

If it was someone else doing the same thing, the director would’ve shot back with, “That’s because you’re still too young and don’t know how to drink properly yet.” He was a connoisseur of expensive imported liquor, after all.

However, he couldn’t do that this time. He simply gulped down the strong liquor and filled up his cup instead.

Su-hyeun watched that sight for a little while before shaking his own cup a little. “I don’t think I can ever enjoy drinking stuff like this. It’s just too bitter and disgusting.”

At the end of his words, he put the cup down and then added something else, “Just like you.”

The director momentarily couldn’t breathe, and his head dropped lower. The inside of his mind had turned blank, not knowing just from where he should start his excuses.

“Didn’t you have something you wanted to say to me?”

“T—that...that was...”

He forced some colors into his blank mind. If he couldn’t say anything right now, then all of his efforts to make Su-hyeun come here would have been pointless.

“I...I’m truly sorry.”

“About what exactly?”

“The event in the city of Cheonan, I was the one behind it. I’m the one to blame.”

“Okay. So?”

“Your emigration...please reconsider it. Please.” While saying that, the director knelt down before the chair. “I beg of you. Our country needs someone like you. We can’t afford to lose you because of my mistake.”

“Stop pretending to be worried about this county.” Su-hyeun massaged the bridge of his nose and frowned deeply. “I’m assuming here, but if I do emigrate, you will lose your head immediately. Am I right? Chopped clean off and all that.”

Su-hyeun could easily guess the reason for the director’s desperation.

But then again, that was obvious since this was what he aimed for when making his moves in the first place.

“Is there a reason for me to save your neck, though?”

“P—please...”

“You know, the only reason why I left you alone was that I thought having you remain in the position was better than letting some other trash that’s worse than you take over. But it seems that you’re far worse trash than I initially thought.”

“That...that’s a misunderstanding!”

“Not a misunderstanding. You manipulated the events so that a dungeon outbreak would occur in the city of Cheonan.”

“But I’ve made sure no damage would come to civilians.”

“Oh, you made sure? If that’s true, you would’ve evacuated the citizens well ahead of time first. But you didn’t because the association would’ve noticed it if you did.”

Su-hyeun’s words caused the director to forget what he wanted to say.

The latter couldn’t think of any excuses at this stage. For sure, this scheme had to be undertaken without the association’s knowledge. After all, the purpose of this whole thing was to promote the role of the Authority by any means necessary and expose the problems of the association’s system to the public.

“The safety of the citizens? That was only secondary, wasn’t it? You thought that if they can be protected, fine, but if not, it’s also fine. Your number one priority was to create a pretext to bind the association and me to the Authority somehow. Am I wrong?”

The director squeezed his eyes shut.

For him to survive, he must hold onto Su-hyeun somehow. The moment the latter confirms his emigration, the former would be killed off in the most gruesome manner imaginable.

Right now, countless national assemblymen and minister-level individuals and even the president of the nation were focusing their attention on the director.

If they combined their might, then offing one person wouldn’t be a difficult thing to achieve.

“P—please, spare my life.”

After listening to the director’s trembling voice, Su-hyeun let out a long groan and swept his hair back.

Of course, he didn’t feel one iota of pity for this man. Out of the three things the director said so far—”I’m sorry,” “It’s my mistake,” and “Spare me”—only the last one sounded genuine.

“I have one condition,” said Su-hyeun.

The director, who had been keeping his eyes shut and waiting for his execution, quickly raised his head at those words.

Although faint, a thin threadlike ray of hope appeared in his heart. Su-hyeun, putting forward a condition, indicated that he wanted something from the director.

“W—what is it?”

“How deep does the rot extend to?”

“When you say how deep...?”

“Surely, you couldn’t have planned and carried out this event all by yourself. At the very least, there must’ve been several people involved, right? With you as the line, some people above you and below you, plus several other awakeners, are all riding on the same boat.”

“...”

“You and all of them better go down with that boat, together. That’s my condition. If you do that, I won’t emigrate.”

What Su-hyeun said just then prompted an unreadable expression to surface on the director’s face. It was an expression that was a jumbled mixture of hope and despair.

As long as Su-hyeun didn’t emigrate, the director would find himself with a lifeline. All the problems crushing down on the latter came about because of Su-hyeun’s announcement of emigration, after all.

However, on the flip side...

“He wants me and everyone else involved to sink with the ship?” he thought.

Gulp—

The inside of the director’s head became a mess of complicated thoughts.

If he did that, would he be able to survive?

“Hey, Tae-ho. You know this, don’t you? You should go down alone. But it’ll only be for a little while. Once people start forgetting things, I’ll fish you out again.”

He used to believe what he was told.

He believed that as long as he could convince Su-hyeun, then even if he had to spend a few years in jail, he would still be able to make his triumphant comeback someday.

Not only did he have a powerful backer, but also he had a few incriminating things to threaten his backer with if the latter didn’t play the ball. As such, the director held onto this faint little hope.

But now...

“If it happens as he says, then how will I be able to make my comeback?”

Even with his brain—the one he felt confident of being ingenious—he couldn’t come up with anything no matter how hard he tried.

Not wealth, not pretexts, not even the backer...

Without any of those things, a way to stage a comeback didn’t exist in the world the director was familiar with.

“I’m also unwilling to emigrate just because of single garbage like you. So I urge you to make a wise decision here and repent for your crimes,” Su-hyeun said as he stared at the dazed face of the director before getting up from the chair. “Inside a jail cell for the rest of your life, of course.”

Step, step—

Su-hyeun left the room with those parting words, and the director watching his back ended up drowning himself in liquor where he sat.

[Dark scheme of the Awakener Authority, a collaboration between the vice minister of the management bureau and several Authority-affiliated awakeners]

[Kim Su-hyeun retracts emigration decision, “Will remain in the country now that the plot has been exposed”]

[Corrupt Authority Minister Jeon Gyeong-guk bows head in apology]

[How far does the chain of irregularity extend to? The Authority’s end goal, absorbing the strength of the association?]

[Cheonan’s dungeon outbreak, manipulated. Unprecedented in history; what is the proper punishment?]

Articles were flooding out from practically everywhere.

Lee Ju-ho had to field various phone calls without a single break for a while, and eventually, he simply turned his phone off and collapsed on the desk. “It’s finally over.”

“You worked hard, bro.” Su-hyeun lightly patted Lee Ju-ho’s shoulder.

The latter had been mentally tormented for the last few days, attending various meetings with people occupying quite high places. Since Su-hyeun wasn’t all that accomplished in the art of conversation, Lee Ju-ho had to sub for him as the representative of the association and deal with the politicians.

Of course, those people wished to speak to Su-hyeun as well. However, Lee Ju-ho didn’t think that was strictly necessary.

There was only one thing to discuss during the meeting, after all.

All those people connected to this incident had been culled from the Authority, and then, by using Su-hyeun’s emigration announcement as the gun to their heads, the association’s position had been strengthened and solidified even further, and finally, the hammer of justice was brought down on the criminals that included the likes of the director.

“What do you mean, I’ve worked hard? There’s more to be done. I still need to hammer the nail on the coffin lid of life sentences on the director, the vice minister, the section chief, and everyone else involved in this incident.”

“Won’t that happen naturally even if you don’t do anything?”

“Don’t you know how the politicians operate? Those folks, they all lead one another, drag one another out, push and pull, whatever. If I don’t pay attention, I bet you they’ll try to shave away at the sentences, you know?” Lee Ju-ho said while remaining slumped on his desk but still scratched his head roughly before groaning grandly. “In any case, you did well.”

“I didn’t do much, though. All I did was to meet the director and chuck a little bait in his way, that’s all.”

“That’s that, but also, all these were only possible because you rampaged around big time. Without that, we might not have such a desired influence.”

The goal of this event was one thing—make sure everyone understands how valuable Su-hyeun was.

And Su-hyeun easily achieved the goal. Thanks to this feat, South Korea suddenly found itself with some leeway in the awakener manpower department, and the plan was to dispatch some of the available awakeners overseas.

“What were the international reactions like?”

“You’re asking me because you don’t know? Of course, it’s been crazy.”

He said “crazy.”

No other description suited the situation better.

“Since they couldn’t contact you, all the calls came through to the association instead. Well, out of all your known associates, I’m the closest to you and also the easiest to discuss political matters with, after all.”

“I’m sorry about that. It’s the same as wasting your time by making an unnecessary announcement, isn’t it?”

“For a while there, it felt like I was dreaming, you know? Especially with Americans. If you went to America, it would’ve become the world’s strongest nation with you and Gordon Rohan on their roster. It wasn’t just the Americans, though,” Lee Ju-ho suddenly groaned as he explained the situation and sat back up from the desk before grandly stretching his limbs.

“It was the same story for the other countries too. They all offered to pay for the huge penalty fee the Korean government slapped you with due to this incident and on top of that eye-watering amount of annual salary, plus various benefits.”

“Well, that sure sounds tempting.”

“Korea was the same. Oh, and they issued you with a special privilege, and they also canceled the penalty fee.”

“What kind of special privilege is it?”

“The master dungeon raid permit. Simply put, it’s a free pass.”

Although no in-depth explanation had been provided, Su-hyeun could already figure out what this special privilege was from what was being said. “Sounds like it’s a privilege allowing me to raid any dungeon without the corresponding permit.”

“Correct. Only in Korea, though, and those dungeons with already-issued permits are excluded.”

“That’s still a pretty major deal, isn’t it?”

“The reason for getting a permit was to prevent low-leveled awakeners blinded by greed from attempting a raid on a dangerous dungeon, anyway. But you’ve proven that you don’t need such things.”

“No one opposed it?”

“There was some opposition, but it looks like most have no problem with it.”

“It’s not too bad, considering.”

“However, in case you do exercise your privilege, half of the resulting loot from the raided dungeon will belong to the government instead. You know, if you really want to, it won’t take long before you become the wealthiest person on Earth.”

“I won’t do something that’ll only delight the government, though. Besides, I won’t have the time, anyway. I gotta climb higher as soon as possible.”

“Right, you aren’t that kind of a person, to begin with, anyway.” Lee Ju-ho smirked and nodded sagely.

It would’ve been easy to abuse such a privilege, but he knew Su-hyeun and wasn’t worried in the slightest.

From the very beginning, Su-hyeun was never interested in raiding dungeons for the resulting wealth; his focus had always been on climbing the tower as quickly as possible.

“Still, it feels like you’ve been staying on this side for a longer time than usual. I was busy enough to almost lose my hair, but you seemed to be taking it easy recently.”

“Well, I figured that I should take a break every now and then,” Su-hyeun replied while recalling the trial on the 102nd floor when he ran into Hercules. “I learned the importance of doing that recently, you see.”

“Is that so?”

It didn’t seem like Su-hyeun was blowing hot hair here. Rather, his expression indicated that he was pondering something deeply.

Lee Ju-ho was about to ask what was going on but quickly changed his mind. He thought that Su-hyeun’s expression wasn’t 100 percent relaxed somehow.

So he changed the topic instead. “What did you do during your downtime, though? I did hear that you had dinner with your mom.”

“I was in a bit of a dilemma.”

“A dilemma?”

“Yes,” said Su-hyeun with a nod.

[Agility: 99]

[Stamina: 99]

“A dilemma on...what will be for the best.”

During his break, Su-hyeun had been deliberating at length on one of those stats.

It might have been a happy dilemma, but even then, it was not something he should decide on carelessly either.

“And did you make up your mind?” Lee Ju-ho asked, and the corners of Su-hyeun’s lips arched up.

“Yes.”