WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Seven-Time Hero Goes Live ◈
Chapter 2: Even Heroes Are Professionals (2)
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Jun-il opened his banking app and counted the digits again.
‘One, ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand... a hundred million.’
Three hundred million won.
Three hundred million.
An enormous sum for a mere college student.
‘This is insane.’
His heart pounded.
Should he buy the clothes he had always wanted?
No, clothes were nothing.
What if he bought an imported car and drove it to campus?
His heart raced wildly at the thought, but the fantasy did not last long.
“Yulian! H-Help me!”
“Thank you, Yulian!”
“It’s thanks to you, Yulian!”
The voices of the companions he had shared life and death with for ten years passed through his mind.
“I... I think this is as far as I can go...”
“You guys go ahead! I’ll... I’ll hold them back!”
“Good work. I think... this is the end for me.”
A few of them had even lost their lives.
Jun-il lowered his head.
‘What am I doing...?’
Three hundred million won.
This money had been earned through their noble sacrifices and contributions.
He could not spend it carelessly.
‘I need to use it somewhere worthwhile.’
Jun-il opened a real estate app.
[One Big Break]
He looked through the listings he wanted.
[Sale: 2.1 billion won]
His excitement cooled far faster than it had when he remembered the hero party.
‘It’s not enough.’
Three hundred million won was not enough to change his life.
Maybe if that apartment still cost nine hundred million won.
But not now.
‘I guess I need to invest.’
He shut himself in the library and diligently made investment plans on his laptop.
Whenever he fell asleep, he still dreamed of Maylin.
‘D-Don’t go! Yulian!’
‘Maylin? Can’t you hear me? I... I have no choice!’
Maylin always waved her arms and told him not to go.
It was as though she could not hear him.
‘I said don’t go! Yulian! Where are you going?! There’s still so much we haven’t settled!’
‘Maylin! I’m telling you, I have no choice!’
‘Hey! You bastard, Yulian!’
Maylin always ended up cursing him.
“Ahhhhhhh...!”
Yulian vanished as a black demonic beast dragged him away somewhere.
“Ahhhh?!”
He always woke at seven in the morning from that nightmare.
“Gasp! Haa... Haa... Maylin...”
Only after seeing the sheets soaked with sweat did he realize he was back in reality.
Of course it was difficult.
He had spent ten years as a hero.
‘I can’t get used to this.’
He needed time to adjust.
‘Will I be okay after about a month?’
* * *
A month passed.
As expected, Jun-il gradually adapted to reality.
With a mind hardened by ten years of hero work, he somehow made it through midterms.
He invested all three hundred million won he had earned as a hero after building a portfolio.
Then his grades came out.
[Grade Point Average: 3.2]
“...F-Fuck.”
Jun-il despaired.
Because of his GPA?
No. That was nothing.
[Average Total Net Profit] [-51%]
Half his investment had vanished.
“Arrrghhhhhh!”
Thud!
Jun-il threw himself onto the bed and screamed.
“Damn it! Damn it!”
Nothing in the world was easy.
His first mistake had been putting over half his portfolio into cryptocurrency out of greed.
His next mistake had been trusting Korean stocks.
“Study. Studying is the way to survive. What investment...!”
His GPA had dropped sharply, but perhaps studying really was the only answer.
Muttering to himself, Jun-il opened YouTube.
Then he clicked on an investment lecture.
“...What am I doing, Moon Jun-il?”
He stared blankly at the lecture before asking himself that question.
“No, the studying I should be doing... was investment studying, Jun-il?”
A college student aiming for law school was watching investment lectures.
What kind of insane behavior was this?
‘Then again... law school is already over for me.’
That was right.
He had already felt it.
Things like grades no longer mattered much to him.
Ten years as a hero had changed Jun-il into someone else.
‘I just can’t bring myself to care.’
He would rather invest.
He had grown far removed from the life of an ordinary college student who held a pen, studied, and took tests.
‘My brain doesn’t work that way anymore.’
He had spent ten years in that medieval era of barbarism and romance, doing nothing but beating people to death.
How could his studying brain still work?
‘Maybe those days were better...’
The exhilaration, friendship, and emotion he had felt back then...
They were all still vivid.
Companions who felt as though he could reach out and touch them even now.
Sei, Tou...
‘Maylin.’
Maylin’s brown hair flickered through his thoughts.
‘Can I never go back?’
Jun-il was confused.
What was going to happen to his life now?
Pam had certainly sent him back without losing any time and without changing anything.
The world had not changed, but Jun-il had.
‘What am I supposed to do? Damn it.’
That was when it happened.
Bzzzz.
He heard an insect buzzing.
Since summer was approaching, he assumed it was a somewhat large moth.
“Where’s the electric fly swatter...?”
Jun-il grabbed the electric fly swatter and immediately zapped it.
“Kyarurururururk!!”
The moth fell to the floor with a strange cry.
“...”
Jun-il froze.
That familiar voice...
“Pam?”
“Kyaruru... Y-You remember me?”
Pam floated up, her hair standing on end from the shock.
“It’s me. Pam, the Story Fairy.”
“Is this a dream too?”
“No.”
“...No?”
“Yep. You don’t need to see me in dreams anymore. You’ve already been a hero once.”
“Ah...”
The old Jun-il would have found this reality bizarre.
But Yulian, a hero with ten years of otherworld experience, did not.
‘Don’t tell me.’
He quickly guessed why Pam had appeared.
“Did you come to offer me another hero job?”
“That’s right.”
“But... can someone who has already done it do it again?”
“Hmm... Sharp question.”
Pam scratched her head, looking a little troubled.
“Normally, they can’t. It’s an unspoken rule, I guess? Heroes are always supposed to be ordinary high school students who know nothing... Well, the average age has gone up lately, so now they’re college students. Anyway, they have to be ordinary and know nothing. But you don’t know nothing.”
“Then why me?”
“You’re a replacement.”
“...What?”
“The previous candidate got hit by a truck and, instead of going to another world, actually died. Kyaruru!”
The hero candidate had gone to the next world, not another world.
A chill ran down Jun-il’s spine.
“No, what the fuck. That can happen?”
“It wasn’t our mistake. The truck we operate hit another truck, and that truck hit the hero candidate. It was just incredibly unlucky.”
Wasn’t that your mistake?
“So, Yulian. What do you say?”
Bzzzz.
Pam crossed her legs as she flew onto the desk, then grinned.
“Was modern life fun? Spending money like water?”
“...”
Jun-il could not answer.
Pam grinned.
“Nothing beats being a hero, right?”
He agreed.
Nothing beat being a hero.
By real-world time, it was a job that earned several hundred million won in just a few seconds.
There could not be another job like that.
As long as Jun-il’s mind could endure stretching those few seconds into ten years.
“So how much this time?”
Jun-il admitted it and simply asked the price.
Pam looked thrilled as she laughed.
“Three hundred million won.”
“Again?”
“You completely screwed it up last time. Were you expecting a raise? This is already a generous offer.”
That was true.
Three hundred million won for a few seconds.
Did that make any sense?
Still, Jun-il had one grievance.
“No, I still don’t understand. What exactly did I screw up?”
It might have been a few seconds in real time, but he had suffered for ten years.
What had he supposedly kept ruining?
She could at least tell him what the problem was.
“Hmm. The Constellations decide that. It has nothing to do with me.”
It seemed she had no intention of telling him.
Jun-il changed his question.
“Hah. Fine. Then how about an incentive based on my score?”
“...What?”
“An incentive. If I get a high score, you pay me more.”
“Kyaruru! You were only brought in as a replacement, and you’re already getting cocky?”
“This is my second time. I can do better.”
“Hmm... Then what if you get C+ or lower?”
“...Lower it.”
Jun-il boldly declared it.
Otherwise, there would be no deal.
“Good. I like that.”
“This time, I’ll make Maylin the first person in my party...”
“Pfft! What? Maylin?”
The fairy suddenly burst into laughter.
“What are you talking about, Yulian? Did you think you were going to the same place?”
“...Huh?”
“That is strictly forbidden. It completely changes the nature of the story.”
No way.
He was not doing the same thing again?
“Why? Don’t feel like doing it anymore? Hmm?”
Pam held up two fingers.
“An A gets you double. Six hundred million won. A B stays at three hundred million, and a C gets half. How about it?”
Holy shit. Six hundred million won?
“Deal.”
Money was money.
Jun-il jumped to his feet without thinking and began getting ready to leave.
“Kyaruru! Good choice!”
Pam nodded and snapped her fingers.
Snap!
“Let’s go. To another world.”
“Ah, but this time, getting hit by a truck...”
Jun-il had no choice but to stop speaking.
“...What the fuck.”
Rumble...!
A tremendous noise came from outside the window.
An airplane.
An airplane was flying straight toward this studio apartment.
‘Huh?’
Craaaash!
He became a hero again.
* * *
Craaaash!
Sword aura exploded from Yulian’s blade and flew toward the Demon King’s body.
“Die, you bastard!”
This time, it had taken seven years.
Seven years.
It was a different place from the previous world, yet he had developed much faster than before.
‘It’s medieval fantasy either way.’
Different countries, different settings, different people.
Many things were certainly different, but the basic structure was similar.
Mana was used as power, and monsters had the same weaknesses.
More than anything, Yulian knew for certain now.
The power of a hero.
‘If I keep going until the end, I win.’
If he simply kept going until the end, he would win.
Heroes grew without end, and there was no limit to that growth.
Only a hero’s patience could become a limit.
Yulian was confident in his patience.
He had relentlessly pursued the Demon King for seven years.
The strike carrying seven years of hardship turned not only the Demon King, but everything around it, into dust.
Kra-boom!
“A-Aaaaaaagh!”
The Demon King burned white and vanished.
“Haa... Hah...”
Yulian sat in the clearing where ashes drifted through the air, catching his breath.
“Y-Yulian! Yulian! That was incredible!”
A beautiful blonde elf spirit mage ran over and hugged him.
Other strange companions approached as well, including a dwarf warrior, a halfling thief, and a lizardman priest.
“That was an incredible strike.”
“This is Yulian.”
“Tch. I’ll admit it. That finish was impressive.”
Yulian nodded and slowly looked over each of them.
‘Soon... we’ll part ways.’
Soon, he would no longer see them.
‘I knew that already.’
He had experienced this parting during his first run.
He decided not to grow too attached.
He had not grown as close to them as he had the first time.
But then...
‘Huh?’
Bzzzt!
The world suddenly distorted.
Something strange began to appear before Yulian’s eyes.
‘What?’
- Ah. I almost dropped this, but the ending was okay.
- The fact that I watched this trash all the way here makes my life legendary.
- First he made moves on the princess, then he got involved with a village woman lol. Jeez.
An endless stream of text appeared.
Yulian panicked.
‘What is this?’
- The spy is that obvious, and nobody notices? Isn’t that completely broken narrative logic? I was dying of frustration.
- The protagonist is too emotional and takes everything too far. Hard to watch.
- I dropped it when he failed to deal with the traitor, got drunk, and screwed up another mission. The ending is a little better.
- I think Yulian should have died instead of Sophie.
- I dropped it at the random scene where he suddenly grabs the princess’s hand, then skipped straight to the ending lol. Yep, it really is trash.
- The princess is such an awful character... She does not even like the protagonist that much. It feels like she is just stringing him along lol.
.
.
.
The words were brutally frank.
‘What the fuck... Why are there so many awful things being said...?’
It felt as though someone had watched every detail of his life and passed judgment on it.
As though he had been stripped naked before a crowd.
Bzzzt!
Static filled the air again, and all the text vanished.
Pam appeared in its place.
Pop!
“Kyaruru! You finally did it! Congratulations, Yulian!”
The moment she appeared, everything around him froze.
“What was that just now?”
Yulian asked.
Pam tilted her head as if confused by the question.
“Huh? What just now?”
“I-I saw something strange just now.”
“Hm? Did you work too hard? There was nothing there.”
What was that?
Even Pam did not know.
Yulian found it strange, but it had passed so quickly that perhaps it really had just been a hallucination.
“Hah. Fine. Just tell me my score.”
“Oh? You’re not going to ask about the friends you spent seven years growing attached to?”
“I can see them only if my score is good anyway, right?”
Pam had said that a good score would earn him an epilogue.
Then he could properly say goodbye before leaving.
“You adapt quickly. Good.”
Pam smiled and revealed his score.
Whirrrrr!
A sign filled with letters spun wildly like a casino game.
Gulp.
Yulian swallowed dryly.
‘This time, only one companion died, and I cleared it three years faster.’
He had unquestionably made it through this far more skillfully than the first time.
Naturally, he should receive a higher score.
‘Please let it be an A.’
An A would double the money.
He would earn six hundred million won.
‘Please!’
Ding!
The slot stopped.
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