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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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Chapter 4
“Wh-What kind of money is this…?”
Dojun’s grandmother stared at the ₩9 million laid out in front of her, her face riddled with disbelief.
Dojun clucked his tongue silently.
He couldn’t tell her he’d earned it from hunting in a Gate—that would only worry her—so he gave a vague, harmless excuse instead.
“It’s from a friend I invested in a while back. His business just hit it big.”
“Invested?”
“You know where I grew up. He was one of the guys I used to run with back then.”
“…Yeah, I know.”
Her reply came with a heavy expression.
“Oppa, does that mean we’re rich now?”
Eunyeong, barely 7 years old, piped up at the sight of all that money, eyes wide and sparkling.
Anyone else might have scoffed at such a naive question, but—
“Yeah. From now on, we are.”
It wasn’t because of the money sitting in front of him. It was the certainty that he could earn much, much more from now on. That confidence made it easy for Dojun to say it without hesitation.
“Wow! Grandma, did you hear that? Oppa says we’re rich now!”
Eunyeong jumped around, full of joy. But her grandmother’s face remained somber.
They had nothing but this old, crumbling house—and even that was becoming harder and harder to hold onto.
Their lives had started falling apart 6 years ago, after her daughter died. Things only got worse. Dojun’s biological father, who had been sending them living expenses every month, stopped immediately after her death.
‘Poor thing…’
Tears welled up in the grandmother’s eyes as she looked at Dojun.
Seo Dojun had been born out of wedlock and ignored for most of his life. It wasn’t until he turned 7 that he was added to the family registry—only because the family needed someone to carry on the line. That’s when he was forcibly brought into the main household.
But even that didn’t last.
5 years ago, the legal wife gave birth to a son, and Dojun was tossed aside once more, eventually driven out of the house altogether.
He’d bounced between extremes all his life. And at just 18, he was now living in his maternal grandmother’s home—his mother dead, and sharing a roof with a half-sibling he barely knew.
Anyone else would’ve fallen into despair. Wandered, lost.
But not Seo Dojun.
‘He really is a good kid…’
Without a second thought, he stepped up as the head of the household.
Though they shared only a father, he cared for his two-year-old half-sister with unwavering affection. And despite barely knowing his maternal grandmother, he looked after her with sincere devotion.
“Dojun… Grandma’s so sorry.”
She took his hand and whispered her apology. Dojun answered softly.
“It’s alright.”
Even though he’d been acting so different lately—like a completely changed person—his grandmother didn’t question it.
She just assumed he was tired. Worn down. She only pitied him for having had to endure so much.
“Just promise me one thing—don’t get involved in anything dangerous, okay?”
At her plea, Dojun’s expression twitched subtly.
Seo Dojun…
If only she knew that her ‘real’ grandson had already died doing something dangerous.
“Huuuh…”
With a heavy sigh, Dojun stepped outside the gate.
He didn’t know why he’d ended up in this strange new world. Didn’t know why he had been pulled into the dying body of Seo Dojun, forced to live on in his place.
But at least now, he had made peace with it. The confusion had passed. What still frustrated him, though, was the reality of his situation.
He’d lost 90% of the power he once wielded as the Sword God. A new body meant a new vessel—naturally weaker. But still, the loss gnawed at him.
The one silver lining?
The people of this world were… surprisingly weak.
“Rifts,” “Gates,” “Heroes”… all of it looked like child’s play to him.
But the real issue was—
Why were the monsters that destroyed his world now appearing on Earth?
“Are they really the same ones…?”
Based on Seo Dojun’s memories—and what he had seen firsthand through the gates—they looked ‘exactly’ like the monsters from the world that had fallen.
But he couldn’t be certain just from appearances.
For one thing, their method of arrival was completely different.
In his world, monsters poured out of the sky like it had been torn open.
Here on Earth, they came from something called a “Rift”—a sort of third space, separate from both the monsters’ world and Earth. Sometimes, rifts would evolve into Gates. But even then, monsters didn’t just come flooding out. Heroes had time to shut them down or stabilize them.
In other words, they were safely contained in a sealed-off area.
And this had been the case for 10 whole years.
A world apart from the chaos and collapse he had once known.
“If 10 years have passed already… maybe it’s safe to say things are stable?”
In his own world, it hadn’t even taken a year for multiple kingdoms to fall, and for the entire continent to descend into chaos.
So many lives lost, so quickly. The entire continent plunged into a dark age.
But Earth?
Earth was fine.
Sure, initially, rifts had caused some panic, but now things were calm.
Occasionally, there’d be a Monster Wave, but even those were contained, with minimal damage.
And the people defending against them?
To Dojun, their skills didn’t even match trainee knights in his old empire.
He found it laughable.
The difficulty level was just different.
If his old world had been “Hell Mode”…
Then Earth was on “Tutorial Difficulty.”
Dojun still couldn’t decide whether Earth’s current state was truly comparable to his own ruined world. He hadn’t yet made a concrete judgment.
What he ‘did’ know was that it was too soon to feel safe—though there was no need to rush, either.
“If I can just recover even half my power by this world’s standards… I should be fine, I think…”
Dojun had lived a life entirely devoted to the pursuit of strength. Even so, he wasn’t confident that such recovery was actually possible.
At times, he wondered—was it even worth going through the same exhausting struggle again, especially when all that fighting hadn't even been enough to save his original world?
His thoughts swayed like reeds in the wind. Some days, he wanted to grow stronger than he ever had before, to get revenge on the ones who’d destroyed his world. Other days, he was overwhelmed by a sense of futility and thought maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to just live quietly and forget everything.
“I don’t even know what I want anymore.”
His convictions may have wavered, but one thing was clear: if the same catastrophe ever occurred on Earth, Dojun would not hesitate—he’d regain his strength and take vengeance on the monsters.
Yes, he'd felt helpless once. But that helplessness only existed in times like this, when peace fooled people into thinking they were safe.
If the ones who destroyed his world appeared before him again? He would use any means necessary to kill them.
“Even if I’m guaranteed peace for the rest of my life… I still need to regain some of my strength if I’m going to survive here. And most importantly… if I’m going to keep that promise.”
Dojun’s brow furrowed as the memory surfaced.
“Just promise me… that you’ll make sure Eunyeong and Grandma have a safe home to live in for the rest of their lives. I’m not asking for the safest house in the world. Just… somewhere that’s the safest in Korea. You can manage that, right?”
It was the last request made by the real Seo Dojun—right before his soul faded away.
He didn’t even get to respond before that soul vanished completely.
And just like that, Dojun had inherited a promise he couldn’t avoid keeping.
The problem? The house considered the safest in Korea cost ₩110 billion.
Which meant, to fulfill that promise, Dojun would have to come up with ₩110 billion.
No, the original Dojun’s soul wasn’t going to rise from the dead and hold him accountable. Technically, there was no obligation at all.
But still… he wanted to honor it. He saw it as the price of receiving this new life.
“Once I get my strength back, that kind of money will be nothing.”
Just as Dojun was muttering to himself, he caught sight of 5 men swaggering toward him nearby.
They recognized his face immediately and raised their hands, grinning.
“Seo Dojun! What, you came out to welcome us again?”
Loan sharks.
The real Seo Dojun had borrowed a hefty sum from them to cover his grandmother’s hospital bills before he died.
‘If it weren’t for that damn debt, he probably wouldn’t have had to throw himself into that dangerous Gate…’
Dojun’s gaze sharpened.
He didn’t mind the idea of lending money and receiving fair interest. But this?
This was daylight robbery.
A loan of ₩5 million had ballooned into tens of millions in just a few months.
“Heard you went into a Gate recently.”
“Good move, kid. When you’re young, that’s when you gotta grind. Swing some weapons, roll around in the dirt—that’s how you make real money. What’re you gonna get from some part-time job, huh? Am I right?”
“You’re totally right, hyung! If you’re a man, you’ve gotta be willing to face danger—like jumping into Gates!”
“By the way, Dojun… buy yourself some proper clothes, will ya? You looked sharp when I first met you. Not a rockin’ designer anymore, fine. But at least wear some decent brands, eh?”
They chuckled amongst themselves.
Dojun just stared in silence.
“Why’s this punk giving us an attitude? Look, man—do whatever you want, but just hand over the money, alright? That’s all I care about. Gyu, how much interest is he behind?”
“Exactly ₩48,579,000, hyung.”
Nearly ₩50 million—in interest alone—on a ₩5 million loan.
Dojun involuntarily let out a small scoff.
“Heard you hit a Gate recently. Got paid, right? Hand it over—every last won. You know how we work. We keep things legal—interest rates all by the book. Only thing is… the interest compounds. Then it compounds again. And again. And again.”
“You forgot one more compound, hyung.”
“Oh, right! Hahaha!”
As the thugs laughed and joked, Dojun finally spoke up.
“You know, the more I think about it…”
“Huh? Think about what?”
The lead shark tilted his head in confusion.
“I think I’m the one who should be getting paid.”
“What?”
“I borrowed ₩5 million. I’ve already given you 9.36 million. Let’s say the legal interest accounts for some of that. Doesn’t that mean I’m owed the difference? Like, 2.36 million? Plus interest?”
The thug’s face twisted into a sneer.
“You’re askin’ ME for money now?”
“That’s right. Because you owe me.”
“You out of your damn mind?”
His tone turned cold and dangerous as he glared at Dojun.
“You wanna die, you little shit? You think some low-level Hero bailed you out in that Gate? You think we’re scared of those punks? Or what, your daddy from T-Electronics gonna come help you? Listen closely, punk. I don’t know about YOU, but those old and young ones back at your house? Your daddy doesn't give a rat’s ass about them. Like I told you before—we might not be able to sell the granny, but the kid? We can flip her anywh—GACK!”
Before the man could finish, Dojun grabbed him by the throat.
His eyes gleamed with cold fury.
“Before we talk about money, let’s start by tearing that filthy tongue out of your mouth.”
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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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