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Homecoming (2)

Cha Si-eun stared into the mirror. The thought of meeting her boss after three months made her nervous.

“In, out. In, out. Deep breaths.” After calming herself down, she waited for the teleporter. She chewed her lips as her head filled with all kinds of negative thoughts.

What should I do if that was a message from a hacker? The teleporter would probably return alone and yell at her to not pull another prank like this.

All her worries disappeared the moment the teleporter returned. A familiar man was with him.

“J-Junho-nim!”

“Oh? Long time no see, Secretary Cha.” It had been three months since she saw him, but she couldn’t help but laugh.

“What’s this? You look like a castaway who was just rescued.”

“Hm… Really? That’s the second time I’ve heard that.” The teleporter had said the same thing.

The first thing Cha Si-eun did was hand him a mug of tea.

“Lavender tea, right?”

“I brewed it just now, so it’s still hot.”

“Thank you.” He looked happy as he blew on the steam. “Mm~ I feel like I’m melting. This is really nice.”

“How are you feeling? Are you hungry? Are you hurt anywhere? I wasn’t sure, so I have a healer on standby…”

“Slow down. Let’s take things one at a time.” Seo Junho grinned as he took a seat, taking a big gulp of his tea. “First of all, I do need some treatment. The injury isn’t very big, though.” He was talking about the injuries on his shoulder and the crown of his head that he received from Kis.

The healer on standby stepped forward. “I-I will assist you. Please show me where you were injured.”

“This shoulder and the top of my head.” The healer finished quickly and poured their magic into him to release his fatigue.

“Man, that feels good… Thank you.”

“Not at all. You’ve worked hard!” The healer bowed. They looked at him in admiration, and so did all the other people who had awaited his return.

“Wow… He really cleared one of the Three Uncleared Gates?”

“Amazing. I don’t think any player has pulled off such an achievement since the Nine Heavens.”

“He’s on a similar level with Kim Woojoong and Shin Sunghyun, but he’s faster. That’s insane.”

“I can’t believe we’re both in the Association.”

Seo Junho just quietly sipped his tea, but he didn’t feel all that great. His body and mind were exhausted from fighting with Kis, but they were treating him like a monkey in a zoo.

Cha Si-eun suddenly grabbed his wrist. “You’re tired, aren’t you? I will escort you home.”

“What?”

“Ah, I wanted an autograph…”

She didn’t bother telling them off as she rushed to the elevator. When it was just the two of them, she looked at him apologetically.

“I’m sorry. I should have been more discreet about your return…”

“It’s fine. It’s my fault for being away for so long.” Seo Jun-ho had spent three months and seventeen days within the Gate, but that translated to three months and two days on Earth. “Anyways, I didn’t expect you to be so energetic,” he said, looking down. She was still gripping tightly on his wrist.

“Oh, I-I’m sorry…!” She quickly pulled away, realizing her mistake. It started to feel a little awkward, so Seo Junho changed the subject.

“How are things in the Association? I expected this to some extent, but I want to hear it directly from you.”

“…Things aren’t great.” She looked displeased as she chewed the inside of her cheek. “Multiple conspiracy theories have started to circulate after you didn’t come out in three months.”

“People always love rumors.”

“Sponsorships and personal commission requests have stopped completely, and… Haa, it makes me angry just thinking about it. Can you believe it? I got asked if I could refund a sponsorship fee that was already paid. I fought those people tooth and nail.”

“That’s too much.” Seo Jun-ho’s face went dark for a moment as he considered something. He nodded. “Alright. Give them what they want.”

“…Excuse me?”

“Refund all the sponsorship fees for all the people who asked. And we’ll release an article saying that they asked for a refund while I was in the Gate, so we refunded them. We’ll thank them for their sponsorship… and then list all their names at the bottom.”

“……!” Cha Si-eun shivered. She’d never even considered such a method of revenge. “So they’ll be publicly screwed… I mean, scorned.”

“They brought it upon themselves.”

“But they’ll make complaints, saying that you’re hurting their reputation…”

“Reputation?” He was smiling, but his eyes were sharp. “They had the nerve to do that in the first place. Weren’t they the ones who hurt my reputation first?”

“That’s true.”

“If anyone ever insults me, bring them to me. If they can still lodge their complaints after seeing me face to face, I’ll be impressed.”

“Bring in people who complain… I’ll make sure to do that.” She wrote down a note in her Vita. The thought of getting revenge made her feel giddy.

“How is everything else?”

“The guilds have started moving. You know what they say: strike while the iron’s still hot.”

The guilds that were jealous of his skills had put out statements that he was too weak to clear the Winter Castle—that he was too greedy and arrogant.

“You’ve noted down all the guilds that did this, correct?”

“Yes. I also investigated the Guildmaster and guild members, just in case.”

“Very nice.” Seo Junho gave her a thumbs-up. “Please send all those documents to me. I’ll accuse them of defamation.”

“Will it be okay? Your reputation may fall if they say you’re abusing your power…”

“My reputation? Nothing good comes out of maintaining it.” He’d already experienced it all before. When I was Specter, I was the most admired person in the world, but it didn’t help one lick. His good reputation had actually weighed him down.

“I can’t live like that again…”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s nothing,” he replied with his usual expression, and Cha Si-eun stared at him.

“Junho-nim… does it not bother you at all?”

“What do you mean?”

“Those people tried to use you. They lifted you up when you were doing well and clamored for your attention, but they threw you away like nothing simply because you didn’t come out of the Gate for three months. Doesn’t that make you angry?”

“Not really.” He was already used to such people. Things are good right now. It was worse when I was Specter. If it weren’t for his Hero’s Mind skill, he was sure he would have some sort of panic disorder at this point. Even with the skill, he was already largely distrustful of others.

“People will swallow if something is sweet and spit it out if it’s bitter. Most people care more about themselves than others and will want more gains than losses. In some ways, they’re the smart ones.”

“But…” Cha Si-eun looked down at the elevator floor, taken aback. “If it were me, I think I’d start to ask myself why I climb the Floors for people like this…” she muttered.

“What? Ahahaha!” Seo Junho burst into laughter, as if she’d just told a funny joke.

“Why… Why are you laughing?”

“I’m sorry. I think there’s been a misunderstanding, Secretary Cha.”

“Misunderstanding?”

“Yes. A very big one, at that.”

The elevator opened. Seo Junho got off first and gestured for her to come forward. They looked out the floor-length window. The view of Seoul’s sunset from the 77th floor was breathtaking.

“Isn’t it beautiful?”

“…Yes, very much so.” Cha Si-eun’s eyes sparkled as she approached the window. She’d already come here a few times before, but she had never been able to look at the view because she was so busy.

“‘Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.’ Have you heard that quote before?”

“Yes. I believe it’s from the comedian, Charlie Chaplin.”

“That’s right.” She watched as he started to speak.

“When I first heard that, I thought of the streets.”

“The streets?”

“Yes.” Seo Junho tapped on the glass. “When you see it from afar, the world is beautiful. But if you venture into the sea of buildings… there are many problems within. But if you don’t look closely, you would never know.”

“……”

“It’s the same for me.”

Cha Si-eun listened carefully. She had a feeling that he was about to answer all her questions.

“You probably think I’m a very good and moral person, Secretary Cha.”

“…A lot of people think that. You’ve helped out others so many times.” He’d saved dozens of people from the Cinder Fox and had minimized casualties in the Wild Forest by rallying the players together. Many people thought that he was becoming a role model for the next generation. It was rare for players to take care of others, not just themselves.

“See? You don’t know because you’re not looking closely.” He smiled. “I’m also human. I care most about myself. Other people are secondary. I only pay attention to the people around me when I know that I can safely clear a Gate. It was probably the same for Specter and the Five Heroes that you respect so much.”

Society saw the Five Heroes’ deaths as divine sacrifices, but Seo Junho knew better than anyone else that it was far from the truth.

We never intended to sacrifice ourselves or anything like that.

Mio wielded her sword to honor her family name. Skaya hunted to reach greater heights. Rahmadat faced the Frost Queen because he wanted to fight stronger enemies. Gilbert pulled the trigger because he wanted his son to live in a peaceful world.

The same was true for Seo Junho.

…I entered the Queen’s Nest for the sake of revenge.

They’d all had their own reasons for fighting. But the world now considered their lives as mere sacrifices simply because ‘they’d died’.

It amused him. “I don’t climb the Floors for other people.” He looked her in the eye. “It’s the opposite. I’m climbing because I have my own goals I want to achieve. It doesn’t matter if you’re disappointed, because that’s simply not true.”

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“……” She bit her lip and looked down at the floor for a long time. “Everything you’ve said is right. I should have lived like you…”

She’d lived while placing so much importance on what other people thought of her. She’d anticipated, disappointed, and doubted herself because of them. She felt so stupid that she laughed. “I can’t believe I didn’t realize something so obvious. I’ve been living like an idiot.”

“I didn’t know that you’d have a clueless side of you too.”

“What was that?”

The sound of laughter rang from the 77th floor hallway.