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Chapter 88. 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 she calmed 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-Jun-ho-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?” she said, “I brewed it just now, so it’s still hot.”

“Thank you.” Seo Jun-Ho 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 Jun-Ho 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 that Cha Si-Eun had put 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 quickly healed him before pouring their magic into him to release his fatigue.

“Man, that feels good...Thank you.”

“Not at all. You’ve worked hard!” The healer bowed. He[1] looked at him in admiration. He wasn’t the only one. The others that had been waiting for his return stared at Seo Jun-Ho as well.

“Wow… He really cleared one of the 3 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 Woo-Joong and Shin Sung-Hyun, but he’s faster. That’s insane.”

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

Seo Jun-Ho simply sipped his tea, but he didn’t feel all that great. His body and mind were both 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…”

Without even giving them the time to stop her, she quickly rushed Seo Jun-Ho to the elevator. When it was just the two of them, she looked at him apologetically. “I’m sorry. I should have been more discrete about your return…”

“It’s fine. It’s my fault for being away for so long.” Seo Jun-Ho had spent 3 months and 17 days within the Gate, but that translated to 3 months and 2 days on Earth. “Anyway, I didn’t expect you to be so energetic,” he said, looking at her. She was still gripping tightly to his wrist.

“Oh, I-I’m sorry…!” She quickly pulled away, realizing her mistake. It started to feel a little awkward, so Seo Jun-Ho changed the subject. “How are things in the Association? I have a vague idea… 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 since you’re still inside despite it being 3 months since you entered.”

“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 hardened for a moment as he considered something. All of a sudden, 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… Then, we’ll list all their names at the bottom.”

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

“They brought it upon themselves.” Seo Jun-Ho shrugged.

“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 that hurt my reputation first? How daring would they be to complain.”

“That’s true.” Cha Si-Eun nodded.

“If anyone ever insults me, bring them to me. If they can still lodge their complaints to my face, I’ll acknowledge them,” Seo Jun-Ho declared.

“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 hot.”

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

“You’ve noted down all those Guilds, correct?”

“Yes. I also investigated their Guildmasters and Guild members just in case.”

“Well done.” Seo Jun-Ho 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…” Cha Si-Eun hesitated.

“My reputation? Nothing good comes out of maintaining it.” He had 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. Back then, he had to be careful of his every action and watch every word he spoke.

“I can’t live like that again…”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s nothing.” When he replied with his usual expression, Cha Si-Eun stared at him. “Junho-nim...Does it not bother you at all?”

“What do you mean?” Seo Jun-Ho asked.

“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 better right now. It was worse when I was Specter.’

If it weren’t for his Hero’s Mind skill, he was sure that 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,” Seo Jun-Ho said.

“But…” Cha Si-Eun looked down at the floor of the elevator. She was astonished by what she heard. “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 Jun-Ho burst into laughter as if she had just cracked a joke.

“Why… Why are you laughing?”

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

“Misunderstanding?”

“Yes. A very big one, at that.”

The elevator opened. Seo Jun-Ho 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 had 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 a 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 continued. “When I first heard that, I thought of the streets.”

“The streets?” Cha Si-Eun was baffled.

“Yes.” Seo Jun-Ho 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 she was about to obtain the answer to all her questions.

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

“...A lot of people think that. You’ve helped out others so many times,” Cha Si-Eun responded.

He had 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. After all, 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 the 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 5 Heroes that you respect so much.”

Society saw the 5 Heroes’ deaths as divine sacrifices. But Seo Jun-Ho knew better than anyone else that it was far from the truth. There wasn’t an ounce of self-sacrificing desire in any one of them.

‘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. Gilberto pulled the trigger because he wanted his son to live in a peaceful world.

The same was true for Seo Jun-Ho.

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

They all had their own reasons for fighting. But the world had considered their lives as mere sacrifices simply because they 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 that I want to achieve. It doesn’t matter if you’re disappointed, because that’s simply not true.”

“...” 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 lived a life where she placed so much importance on what other people thought of her. She laughed and cried at the words and judgment of people who had nothing to do with her. She didn’t know why she was 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 have such a clueless side too,” Seo Jun-Ho said.

“What was that?”

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

1. The Korean word was genderless, so instead of going with ‘they’ I went with ‘he’ so it doesn’t seem like there were multiple healers ?