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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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Chapter 3
"Y-Yes, understood. Don’t worry, sir. I’ll take care of it. You can head in now, sir. Assistant Manager Lee, about earlier—!"
Just as he hung up the phone and opened the office door, Manager Park Cheol-woon froze in place.
The office was in shambles.
Three guards lay unconscious on the floor, and in one corner, Assistant Manager Lee Sang-cheol was a pitiful mess—his face streaked with tears and snot, pants soaked through… likely from pissing himself.
“…W-What the hell happened here? Hey! Assistant Manager Lee! Snap out of it!”
Park shook the collapsed Lee Sang-cheol until he groggily came to.
“...M-Manager Park…”
“You—what the hell happened to you? And the office? What the hell went down here?!”
“Manager… (sniff)… some lunatic… some psycho just showed up and—hkk!”
Lee struggled to get the words out between sobs.
“You’re telling me a single hero came in and did all this? And strong enough to trash three C-rank guards like they were nothing?”
“Yes! That bastard was totally insane! He demanded we only take 1% commission… (sob)!”
“And? The mana stones? The cash?”
“About that…”
Turns out, the guy really did only take a 1% cut. Took the rest in cash and just walked out.
If there was any silver lining, it was that he at least left the mana stones behind.
But even the Gate Control Center—the official facility for trading mana stones—takes a 5% fee. Leaving just 1%? Maybe not full-on robbery, but it was damn near it.
“Who the hell does this lunatic think he is?! Did you get a description? A name? Age? Where he lives? No—wait, it should all be on the security footage, right?”
Manager Park, seething with rage, glanced up at the three security cameras in the office. All were working just fine.
Then Lee Sang-cheol spoke up again.
“That bastard… he said he’d come back.”
“…Come back?”
“Said he wanted to keep doing ‘cool trades’ or something…”
The whole thing was so absurd, it snuffed out Manager Park’s rage on the spot. He just stood there, blinking in disbelief.
＊ ＊ ＊
He’d just cleared a C-rank Gate—and pocketed ₩9 million.
“At this rate, how the hell am I supposed to make 1.1 billion?”
Even if he hunted in a C-rank Gate every single day, it wasn’t a number that made sense. The math just didn’t add up.
“I need to aim for higher-ranked Gates…”
But climbing the ranks in Gate hunting wasn’t that simple. The stronger the Gate, the tighter the regulations—not to mention the monsters were on a whole other level.
Without an official Hero license, sneaking into higher-ranked Gates like he did with C-ranks wasn’t going to fly. He’d be stopped by Gate Control agents before he even got close to any monsters.
In other words, he’d have to bust through just to get in—and then somehow manage to hunt monsters and score mana stones?
No matter how you looked at it, it sounded like a colossal waste of time and a massive pain in the ass.
“Should I just go legit and get licensed?”
But the idea didn’t sit right with him.
He didn’t like the thought of registering his identity with some government agency. Getting a Hero license also meant becoming a ‘monitored individual’—placed under constant national supervision. On top of that, carrying out Hero duties came with legal and moral obligations he had zero interest in.
And the taxes? Insane.
To put it into perspective, even a mid-grade mana stone goes for ₩2 million.
The ones above that—mid-high grade and high-mid grade—ran for 5 million and 10 million each, respectively.
Even if you just cleared a B-rank Gate, you could come back with all three kinds of stones. That meant you could easily pull in hundreds of millions of won in a single day.
And you think the government would just let that kind of money flow tax-free?
Not a chance in hell.
They slapped you with a mountain of taxes, all under the name of "Gate Management Fees."
Even just the mandatory processing fee on mana stones was 5%, and once you tacked on all the other little taxes, a 10-million-won stone might only net you half of that—if you were lucky.
“Power-hungry bastards are the same wherever you go.”
He wanted to burn the whole corrupt system to the ground. But even if he did, would it really change anything?
Some other greedy asshole would just swoop in and take their place.
With that in mind, the way they did things at Gasan Hero Complex—buying and selling mana stones in what was basically an illegal market—was actually kind of appealing. At least there, he didn’t have to deal with taxes.
“They’ll make a good business partner.”
Shoving the business card back into his pocket, the man looked up at the rundown old house barely still standing.
“Of all places…”
He clicked his tongue in annoyance and pushed open the rusted gate.
Creeeaaak.
It groaned in protest as it swung open.
“Dojun, is that you?”
“Oppa!”
A voice, raspy and phlegmy, called out alongside a much younger one.
The window—barely attached and only good for keeping out rain—creaked open.
A frail old woman and a pitiful-looking young girl peeked out.
⋮
"Please… I’m begging you! Just take care of my Grandma and Eunyeong!"
⋮
This was the family of Seo Dojun, the man now standing at the door.
The people he once lived with—and now had no choice but to live for.
＊ ＊ ＊
The world I once lived in… was destroyed.
One day, without warning, a massive hole tore open in the sky—and from it poured an endless swarm of monsters. It wasn’t isolated. This phenomenon struck across the entire continent.
To survive, humanity had no choice but to fight. I was no exception. I fought my entire life.
The dream I once held—of becoming a great knight and living in service to the Empire, upholding my family’s honor—I had to abandon it. In the end, all I could do was wield my sword to stay alive and protect what little family I had left.
Days, months, years—then decades—passed in a blur.
Time lost all meaning. All I did was fight, and fight, and fight again.
Eventually, people started calling me the Sword Demon. Then the Sword King. And at last… the Sword God.
With a single blade, I could cut down any monster. Nothing frightened me.
But even as the so-called Sword God, there were limits to what one man could do alone.
Each time a kingdom collapsed, each time the Empire stumbled and fell, those I once fought beside were taken one by one—claimed by death, and vanished from my side.
But what broke me wasn’t just their deaths.
It was the fact that some of those friends and comrades I had trusted, who had once fought by my side… chose to join the monsters.
They abandoned their humanity, becoming monsters themselves—helping to bring about the end of the world.
The pace of destruction only quickened, driven by both monsters and the humans who stood with them.
At first, I was consumed by rage. Betrayal lit a fire in me, and I expressed it in the only way I knew how—by killing everything I saw. Even if the enemy had once been someone who fought at my back, I didn’t hesitate.
In truth, it was their grotesque, twisted forms—worse than any monster—that truly shattered my sanity.
But as time passed, the rage faded. The hatred dulled. All that was left was a crushing emptiness.
Why was I still fighting? What was the point of raising my sword anymore?
Each day I watched the world fall further into ruin, and I too became hollow inside.
Whether it was a monster or a man, if they stood in my way, I cut them down like a machine—without hesitation, without emotion.
Kill. And kill again. Never stopping.
Before I realized it… I was the only one left.
“Give it up. The world you knew is gone.”
Then he appeared—the one who had caused it all.
I hadn’t even had a sip of water in days, endlessly swinging my sword—and that’s when the bastard showed up.
He looked like a man, but he wasn’t one. He spoke fluently, behaved rationally—not like a beast, but with cold, terrifying reason.
“It’s a waste to let your skills rot. Become my sword.”
Disgusted by his arrogance, I used the last of my strength to strike him down.
All I managed to do was sever the tip of one of his fingers.
Infuriated, he retaliated—and tore me apart.
My shoulder shattered.
My arm ripped off.
My leg severed.
“No matter how hard you struggle… you’re nothing but an insect before me.”
And in that dying moment, he looked at me like I wasn’t even worth acknowledging anymore—as if I had become utterly irrelevant.
In that moment, with the last bit of strength left in my elbow, I slammed it into the ground and threw myself at him in one final attack.
To be honest, calling it an “attack” was generous—it was nothing more than a dying man’s desperate thrash.
A worthless act, like a fly pathetically ramming into a wall.
He knew it too. That’s why he didn’t even try to stop me. He just looked at me with that mocking expression on his face, like I was some kind of joke.
At least, until I bit down on his jewel.
“Y-You bastard!”
His face twisted in panic, his voice rising with urgency.
That blue gem he’d been wearing—whatever it was—I didn’t know. But it was the only accessory on his otherwise bare body, so I figured if I was going to die, I’d take ‘something’ of his with me.
Crunch.
The jewel shattered in my teeth.
“No! NOOOOO!!”
I heard his scream—more of a desperate wail—as I lost consciousness, a strange sensation like being sucked into something overwhelming me.
Death.
That’s what I believed it was. I thought I had finally died.
But…
As the fog in my mind began to lift, I saw something drifting before me… a faint, translucent haze, like a ghost made of smoke.
“Wh-Who are you?”
It wasn’t exactly a voice. It felt more like a thought echoing inside my head.
Who are you?
“Seo Dojun. My name is Seo Dojun… and I… I’m dying.”
Somehow, I had entered the body of a man at the brink of death. Not in my ruined world, but in a completely different one.
And now, this man—Seo Dojun—and I were sharing each other’s memories. I knew his life as he knew mine.
But two souls can’t inhabit one body forever. One of us would have to disappear.
“If… if you grant my request, I’ll go quietly. I’ll fade away.”
Why would I?
I had no lingering attachments to life. I’d finally escaped the hell I was in. Why should I start all over again, in someone else’s dying body?
Besides, you’re already on death’s door. Even if I do nothing, your soul will vanish on its own.
“Th-That’s…”
He couldn’t argue. I’d hit the mark.
His soul, that hazy light, flickered uncertainly, trembling like it could blink out at any moment. It wouldn’t take much longer, by the looks of it.
“Please… I’m begging you! Just take care of my Grandma and Eunyeong. That’s all I ask…”
There are few requests more cruel than asking someone to take responsibility for others.
I flatly refused.
But he kept pleading, again and again.
Then, like a scream, he cried out—
“This is easy for YOU! Just until Eunyeong can stand on her own! Just long enough for Grandma to live out her final days in peace! That’s all I’m asking! If you won’t help—if you keep refusing me to the very end—!”
Yeah? And what are you going to do about it?
I asked, almost scoffing.
But he had no answer.
Just as I knew his past, he knew mine.
A man endlessly kind… and pathetically weak.
“Please… I’m begging you. Please… please…”
He repeated the same words over and over, voice trembling, eyes filled with tears.
His soul began to flicker even faster now. The end was close.
Of all the souls I could’ve landed with… it had to be this guy.
Fine.
Just one.
I’ll grant you one request. No more, no less.
So choose carefully. No vague wishes. No open-ended pleas.
Tell me clearly—just one thing I can do.
Even with annihilation breathing down his neck, he hesitated.
Only when it was right at the brink—when the last moment arrived—did he finally speak.
“What I want is……”
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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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