Not All Heroes From Earth Are Bad [EN]: Chapter 272

Joy and elation filled the air.

The long, arduous war had finally ended.

Some cheered for victory.

Others were relieved to have survived.

Some shed tears of joy, having protected their loved ones.

Emotions surged across the continent.

Choi Hyun-seok felt it all so vividly, as if he could grasp it in his hands.

‘Is this real?’

Despite the vivid emotions, he felt a sense of unreality.

It was as if he were dreaming.

That was why Choi Hyun-seok stood there with a calm expression.

“It’s warm.”

He opened his palm, and a white crystal landed on it.

It resembled snow, yet it was endlessly warm.

It was too beautiful and warm to be the force that had driven the continent to its death.

‘Warm snow, huh…’

Perhaps this contradictory crystal represented the current reality.

He had such a trivial thought.

“Rachel, are you there?”

“I’m here!”

Rachel appeared at Choi Hyun-seok’s call.

She sat on Choi Hyun-seok’s shoulder.

She tilted her chin up, gazing at the crystals sparkling in the sky.

“I have a question.”

“Yes?”

“Did I succeed?””Of course! You saved the world!”

Rachel flew into the sky, reaching out to the falling crystals.

She looked like an innocent child, excited by the snow.

“Yah! Yah!”

She was so clumsy that she couldn’t catch any, but she kept reaching out.

After flying around for a while, she sighed and returned to Choi Hyun-seok’s arms.

“Hero.”

“What?”

“Can’t you stay a hero forever?””What nonsense are you suddenly spouting?”

Asking a hero to remain a hero.

He wondered if she was joking, but Rachel’s expression was utterly serious.

For some reason, her face seemed shadowed.

After hesitating for a moment, she opened her mouth.

“A hero should be adventurous! You’re not thinking of retiring to the countryside after defeating the Demon King, are you!?”

Choi Hyun-seok smiled bitterly.

“I don’t know. I don’t think I qualify as a hero anymore.”

Too much blood had been spilled on his hands.

No matter how many lives he had saved.

Could he ever wash away this deeply ingrained stench of blood?

“What do you mean you don’t qualify!?”

Rachel jumped up.

She put her hands on her hips and shouted.

“Hero! Repeat after me! There is no such thing as a bad hero!”

“…”

“I said, repeat after me!”

“Forget it.”

“Hmph!”

Suddenly, Rachel threw a punch.

Choi Hyun-seok, whose eyes were suddenly filled with a fist, cursed and stepped back.

“What the hell are you doing!?””Repeat after me! There is no such thing as a bad hero!”

“I said forget it.”

“Aaaagh! Repeat after me!”

Seeing her cheeks puffed up with air, it seemed like she would whine until he repeated it.

Choi Hyun-seok reluctantly said quietly.

“… There is no such thing as a bad hero.”

“Louder! And more confidently!”

“Sigh… There is no such thing as a bad hero!”

“Good!”

Rachel smiled brightly and said.

“Repeat this too!”

“What is it now?”

“The sacrifice of the few for the sake of the many is natural!””Hey! Are you even a fairy!?”

He flicked the forehead of his dedicated fairy, who was spouting lines that a final villain would say.

“Ouch! Don’t hit me, think rationally! You saved a world that was about to be destroyed, what more do you want!? You saved far more people than you killed!””You idiot! It’s not as simple as addition and subtraction!”

In the pure white world, the hero and the dedicated fairy grabbed each other by the collar.

As they argued about who was right, Choi Hyun-seok suddenly felt empty and collapsed to the ground.

“Yeah. What’s the point of all this.”

Originally, Choi Hyun-seok didn’t place much meaning on the past.

The past is the past.

He had lived thinking that the present and future were important.

The current event was too big to simply dismiss as the past.

But so what?

He killed people to save people.

And as a result, he saved more people.

However, he was simply tormented by the fact that he couldn’t save even more people.

Even if he went back, his decisions and actions would not have changed.

“Okay. Let’s say you’re right this time, Rachel.”

“It’s not ‘let’s say,’ it is right.”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s just say that.”

“No, Hero! It’s not ‘let’s say,’ it’s really…”

Choi Hyun-seok lay flat on the ground.

Rachel kept chattering beside him, but he ignored it as it was a familiar occurrence.

The system message appeared then.

[Hero Objective Achieved!]

[Transferring consciousness for reward!]

“Huh?”

Before he could react.

Choi Hyun-seok’s consciousness was cut off.

***

“Where is this…”

Choi Hyun-seok looked around.

It was a familiar space.

The bright blue sky and the dazzling sun.

The pure white clouds on the ground were softer than any bed.

“It’s been a while.”

He unconsciously chuckled.

It was a very short moment, but perhaps because it was so intense.

This space was still vivid in his memory.

The place he arrived at immediately after dying on Earth.

This is where it all began.

When he was tricked by Rachel’s sweet talk and dropped into the Demon King’s fortress.

-Welcome, Hero Choi Hyun-seok.

A voice echoed throughout the space.

Choi Hyun-seok realized that the owner of the voice was the one who was called God.

And the being who brought him to this other world.

“It’s the first time we’re talking. Oh, can I speak casually?”-Of course.

Choi Hyun-seok had been looking forward to this conversation with this being for quite some time.

Because he had so many questions to ask.

“Do we have enough time to talk?”-This is a space of souls and consciousness. The flow of time in reality is different, so there is plenty of time to talk.

Fortunately, it seemed that they didn’t have to rush the conversation.

Choi Hyun-seok crossed his arms and closed his eyes.

“What should I ask first? Now that you’ve set the stage, I can’t think of anything.”

He couldn’t easily start talking.

Many questions floated around in his head and then scattered.

As Choi Hyun-seok’s 고민 [Korean: concern, worry] seemed to be lengthening, the other party spoke first.

-If you don’t mind, I would like to express my gratitude first.

“Gratitude?”

-Thanks to you defeating the Pope, the power that was taken from me has been restored, and my consciousness has returned. In addition to saving the world, thank you once again.

“Oh, so that’s what happened.”

He was curious about how the Pope had summoned such immense divine power, but it seemed that he had used the power of this being.

Choi Hyun-seok naturally asked a question that came to mind in connection with this.

“What are you? Are you really a god?”-I am not something as grand as a god.

“Then?”

-A mental entity created by human wishes reacting with mana [magical energy]. That’s how I can summarize it. If it’s difficult to understand, you can think of me as a tool for human happiness.

Choi Hyun-seok slowly nodded.

It wasn’t impossible.

Mana could become anything.

It could even create a being similar to this god.

“What’s your name?”

-I don’t have a name. If you need a title… you can call me X.

“Okay.”

X.

He didn’t know what meaning was behind it, but he decided to call him that for now.

“X. What was the Pope? He said he was a hero too. How did he take your power?”-Pope Orban IV. His real name is Thomas Jakobsen. He is a hero who came here about 134 years ago.

At this point, Choi Hyun-seok received a somewhat fresh shock.

Orban IV wasn’t his real name.

-He was the most talented hero besides you. He had a very strong sense of justice.

“Then why did he become like that?”-That’s…

To summarize the following explanation.

X recognized the Pope’s talent early on and invested in him generously.

Thanks to his outstanding talent and X’s full support, the Pope grew at a tremendous rate.

To the point where he reached a level surpassing all previous heroes.

But at some point, he suddenly changed.

He became a completely different person than before.

“He changed without warning?”-That’s how it felt to me.

“Hmm, I have a slightly different thought.”

Why did the Pope change?

Choi Hyun-seok somehow felt like he knew the reason.

“True salvation. Eternal peace. Those are all illusions.”

“Even if I die, and the Gatren and Deusis religions collapse. Do you think peace will come to this continent?”

“Saving the world? It’s just an empty slogan. It’s nothing more than propaganda that forces the hero’s sacrifice.”

As he continued his life as a hero, the Pope must have realized.

About the irrationality of the world and the ugliness of humanity.

Unlike modern Earth, this world is a class society.

Thanks to this, the human form is revealed more rawly and explicitly.

After seeing this reality, if you ask, ‘Does salvation exist?’ – then…

Nine out of ten people would say this.

‘There is no salvation.’

Even if all the demons are killed, as long as the nobles who squeeze blood remain, there is no salvation for the commoners.

The same is true even if all the nobles are killed and the class system is eliminated from the world.

Because the nature of human beings will never change.

Then why should he sacrifice himself?

What is the reason why a hero should fight for a world that can never be saved anyway?

Choi Hyun-seok had similar 고민 [Korean: concern, worry] at one point.

That’s why he was able to infer the Pope’s underlying thoughts even in a short conversation.

“Well, that’s enough of this story.”

Choi Hyun-seok had already 정리 [Korean: organized, settled] his thoughts on this.

It was over now anyway.

He didn’t want to ask questions again and get a headache.

“Anyway, you poured everything into supporting the Pope, but he betrayed you and you ended up with nothing.”-That’s right.

“So you were watching me and constantly testing the waters?”-That is also true.

From X’s point of view, he would have been reluctant to give him full support.

Because there was already a failed precedent called the Pope.

He would have tested Choi Hyun-seok at times, helped him at times, and watched his growth.

-And to confess one more thing, it was also intentional that I entrusted Rachel with your transfer and sent you to the Demon King’s army.

“Haa… so that’s what it was.”

Having heard this far.

Choi Hyun-seok could infer one more fact.

Why did he hide the final reward of this adventure?

“Perhaps the reward you mentioned in the hero quest, the reward for saving the world. Is hiding that also in the same context?”-… That’s right.

“The reward must have been terribly insignificant.”

What would happen if a hero who had saved the world received a meager reward?

There was no guarantee that an angry hero wouldn’t turn like the Pope.

That’s why X didn’t tell him the final reward until the very end.

Choi Hyun-seok smiled with a slight sense of futility.

“So. What’s the reward? I think you said you would give me some options then.”-It is specifically about your future residence.

“Residence…”

-The first is to send you back to Earth.”

The first option was obvious.

Returning to Earth.

Choi Hyun-seok nodded calmly as he had expected it.

-If I use all my power, I can send you back to the point just before you died.

“I don’t really have any thoughts about that. What’s the next option?”

Choi Hyun-seok didn’t want to go back to Earth now.

He didn’t have any family he wanted to see.

He didn’t think he would be able to adapt well even if he went back.

-Before I tell you the next option… I need to tell you about your current state, Choi Hyun-seok.

“My state?”

-You have entered the ranks of the Transcendent.

“Oh, so there was a separate name for calling this.”

Transcendent.

He thought it was an appropriate name.

In fact, he felt like he had transcended everything.

He was far from being omnipotent like a god, but at least he was no longer a being that could be called human.

“So. Why is it a problem that I became a Transcendent?”-Transcendent cannot exist in the same dimension as humans. This is because dimensional cracks occur due to the overwhelming power.

“I see…”

-The longer you stay, the greater the danger. Once this conversation is over, you will have to leave the 현계 [Korean: the present world, this world] within a week at the latest.

“I don’t have much time.”

He had to leave the continent within a week.

Choi Hyun-seok felt a heaviness in his heart.