Chapter : 01
Scenes of extraterrestrial creatures—the kind you’d only see in Hollywood hero movies—and the resulting battles of “Awakeners” or superhumans had become common sights in daily life since the Gates first opened five years ago.
“This way, please! You there! Stop pushing!”
An employee from the Association’s Management Division was breaking a sweat, guiding citizens toward the evacuation routes. Perhaps because it was an S-Class Gate, the predicted emergence time hadn’t been much help this time. Normally, a D-Class hero like him shouldn’t have been at such a site, but he had been deployed just to hold the line until the S-Class arrived.
A man picked up a child who had been shoved aside and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. This was about all a D-Class hero could do at a scene like this.
‘I’m gonna die at this rate.’
After quickly returning the child to their parents, the hero decided to flee from the monster before him. His ability was merely creating small whirlwinds; it wasn’t a power that would be particularly useful even after the S-Class arrived. He’d be lucky if he didn’t just get in the way.
The Association still hadn’t contacted him—
“Wow. It’s huge. Really huge.”
Backpedaling away, the employee spun around in surprise at the voice behind him. If a civilian had wandered in here now—!
“Hi.”
Wait. A civilian… …No, he wasn’t.
A man with flashy silver hair. Wearing a formal S-Class hero uniform and sunglasses, the man whistled as he looked up at the Gate. He didn’t forget to wink, either. The SH Unit’s exclusive uniform, worn by this flamboyant, silver-haired man, certainly stood out.
“Save the greetings for later, won’t you?”
A black-haired man walking behind him spoke up as he pulled on a glove.
“Oh my, is our Jae-ha pissed because he had to leave in the middle of lunch?” “……Pissed over something childish like that? Though looking at your face does make me angry.” “….Guys, please, stop fighting.”
A small boy poked his face between the two. The white headset around his shoulders and his trademark expressionless face were striking. A woman with short hair and a bob cut rested her arm on the shoulder of the boy, Jeong Mu-eum, and laughed boisterously.
“Right, if you’re gonna fight, do it properly at the Education Center later.” “Noona, don’t encourage them. Lee Su-ho isn’t here today, so let’s wrap this up quick, okay?” “Huh? Why do we have to finish early just because Su-ho’s missing?” “He says he has to do his school homework.” “….Aw, how precious. Our baby.” “He’s surprisingly good at his studies.”
‘….SH Unit 1. It’s SH Unit 1.’
The D-Class hero stood frozen in place, watching them share such trivial conversation. When he offered a crisp salute, the silver-haired man gave him another wink as he sauntered past.
For a low-ranking member of the GH Unit, meeting an S-Class in person was a once-in-a-lifetime event, unless it was an emergency like this.
— Ah, ah. Can you hear me? “Yep, loud and clear.”
Unlike the frozen D-Class, Hwa-shin responded to the voice in his ear with a relaxed attitude, lightly pressing his in-ear piece.
— The Gate that appeared this time is a typical S-Class. Clean it up quickly and come back.
“Aren’t you being a bit too casual?”
— Contact me when you’re done. Respond in the middle if necessary; I’ll be watching via drone. Please. Please don’t cause any trouble.
“Yeah, yeah. Got it.”
Cha Jae-ha, Jeong Mu-eum, and Yu Ji-an stood side-by-side with Yu Hwa-shin as he adjusted his sunglasses.
Cha Jae-ha asked while putting on his gloves, “What are you staring at?” “Just thinking about how to finish this efficiently.”
A relaxed, gentle tone.
The D-Class watching nearby swallowed hard. The tension-filled scene from a moment ago was gone. This was now a defensive zone under their protection.
Monsters fresh out of the Gate charged toward them. Thud, thud, thud. A roar echoed. The ground vibrated.
Even in that situation, SH Unit 1 continued their leisurely conversation.
“Hyung stops them and we attack, right? How many seconds if you don’t overdo it?” “Hmm. Their mana isn’t that strong, so maybe 10 seconds? But I don’t mind overdoing it.” “Hyung, please control yourself.” “And that’s more than enough time.”
Yu Ji-an spoke as she drew the twin axes secured to her back. The clang-clang of the metal was impressive.
Hwa-shin smirked at their answers.
“Alright. Then let’s start.”
Golden threads connected the air to the monsters’ movements. Holding those threads between his fingers, Hwa-shin spoke.
“「All monsters before my eyes.」”
「Stop.」
He remembered hearing it somewhere.
Why was the S-Class hero Yu Hwa-shin so famous? What made him this renowned?
His reckless personality? His loose attitude and way of speaking?
All of those were factors, but the biggest reason for his fame was his extraordinary ability.
“….This is insane.”
Beyond the Gate’s danger zone, one of the reporters capturing the scene lowered their lens instinctively.
Five monsters. Just five monsters had caused the ground to heave, buildings to collapse, and citizens to flee.
Those grotesque, giant monsters that the D-Class hero couldn’t even touch had all stopped at once.
“Grrrrr.”
Occasional growls were heard. But they did not move. No, they couldn’t.
Such was the power of the S-Class hero, Yu Hwa-shin.
“Mu-eum-ah—.”
As if waiting for Hwa-shin’s voice, the boy who had been hovering in the air dropped straight down. His landing point was the head of a giant lizard-like monster that had stopped moving.
Pop. The head burst like a balloon. Drip. He landed lightly where the pieces of the carcass fell. A grumble full of annoyance followed immediately.
“Hyung, next time you use your Word Soul, can’t you tell the blood to stop too? ….The blood splatter is no joke. It’s so dirty.”
Jeong Mu-eum spoke as he hung his headphones around his neck. With a relaxed expression, Hwa-shin stroked Mu-eum’s hair.
“Mu-eum, you always speak so beautifully.” “No, I’m saying you should try getting covered in it once, Hyung.” “I’d rather not. Hahaha.” “Ah, don’t just laugh!” “Hahahaha.”
Before the D-Class heroes watching the scene could even exhale in admiration, Yu Ji-an’s twin axes sliced through the neck of another monster with a boisterous shout.
“Why act so relaxed after killing just one?”
One down.
The head Yu Ji-an cut off floated into the air. It flew right in front of Jeong Mu-eum’s finger. The monster’s head moved at high speed. That head pierced through the body of another monster.
“…Whoa.”
There wasn’t a single moment that didn’t inspire awe. A fluid, natural coordination, and a relaxed demeanor through it all. Furthermore….
“…That’s freaking legendary, holy crap.”
On the road where flames soared, there was no longer any trace of the monsters. Even in front of the road that had turned into a literal hellfire, Hwa-shin maintained a leisurely face, taking photos of the scene with his phone camera.
Like a proud parent showing off a star child, he spoke with a satisfied face.
“Our kids are quite good at their jobs, aren’t they?” “……Ah, well.”
Yes.
Yu Hwa-shin was so proud of how far he had come he could burst.
Having transmigrated into the novel Your Hero is Here, he—the former Archmage—was here together with the characters he loved most.
Oh, to start this story, I should probably tell you about my past first.
My name was Elric.
My previous profession wasn’t a hero, but an Archmage.
Hwa-shin, who had been taking burst-fire photos of Cha Jae-ha, briefly reminisced about his past before the transmigration.
With a snap of Archmage Elric’s fingers, lights flickered on one by one starting from the entrance of the dark cave. Outside the entrance, monsters were swarming. It seemed they were under the delusion that they could defeat a dragon who was so close to death that it wouldn’t leave its cave.
The pillow Elric was leaning his head on spoke to him.
‘Shall I help?’
The Dragon language of the “pillow” flowed directly into his mind. Elric responded with a smile.
“I’ll do it alone. It seems like it’ll be more fun that way.” ‘You’re always looking for something fun. If that’s the case, try living like the Hero in the next town over.’ “I tried that about a hundred years ago.”
Elric gave a shrug.
“「Barrier Release.」”
With his voice, the flow of Karma surrounding the cave changed. The barrier blocking the entrance shattered with a crisp sound. All sorts of magical beasts—from hobgoblins to rainbow-furred mutant unicorns—rushed inside.
A goblin wielding a massive club was the lead hitter.
Clubs again, and another group fight. Why is it always the same repertoire with these guys? I can’t even play with them.
Ha. After letting out a short sigh, he opened his mouth.
“「In the order you entered. You, starting there.」”
Elric pointed his finger at the goblin in the lead.
“「Explode one by one. Neatly, if possible.」”
At Elric’s single word, the body of the leading goblin began to swell slowly. The stretched green skin burst with a pop. Flesh torn into neat rectangular shapes fell to the floor with a thud.
“Grruk?” “Grruuuk!”
The monsters following behind stopped in their tracks. A few fled back toward the entrance. However, the “result” already dictated by the Word Soul could no longer be changed.
Blood, beginning to explode in sequence, pooled on the floor like a puddle. The stalactites stretching down from the ceiling turned blue, soaked in monster blood.
“Then, Dragon, do you want to do the cleaning?”
An indifferent voice. A listless attitude, as if waking up from a boring dream.
Elric, an Archmage over 200 years old, was pathologically bored every single day.
It was roughly 20 years ago when Elric, bored with life, found the dragon living in the cave. (Since he no longer counted dates properly, even this wasn’t accurate. Thus, Elric didn’t even know his own age correctly.)
Elric, who gave the dragon the simple name “Yong,” lived with him and listened to old stories, which he found quite interesting.
One day, Yong tossed a book to Elric, who was scratching his belly with a bored expression. He couldn’t read it, as it was written in the script of another world. Only after a very long time did Elric finally succeed in decoding the book the dragon had given him!
A novel titled Your Hero is Here, containing the story of a hero. However, it seemed that in this book, heroes were called “Heroes.”
Elric stuck close to Yong, who had his eyes closed as if about to fall asleep, and began to chatter.
“This SH Unit 1 in here is so cute. I’m telling you, total babies are saving the world.” ‘How old are they?’ “The protagonist is 25.” ‘Even a kid like that thinks of saving the world. While you….’
Yong opened one eye and glanced down at Elric. And Elric was a master of changing the subject.
“Anyway, thanks. It’s a fun story for a change.”
Elric reread the book several times after that. Even if he could read the characters, expressions he occasionally didn’t understand became easier to grasp the more he read. Naturally, his affection for the protagonist, Cha Jae-ha, grew.
Cha Jae-ha needs to speak a bit more softly.
His tone is harsh, but the kid is really kind-hearted. He’s politely rude.
Is the face on this cover Cha Jae-ha? If he looks this good, it makes sense he’s popular.
Cha Jae-ha dies to prevent the destruction of the world. But the world ends anyway. ….Is it possible to just rip out the ending of this book?
After chattering for a while, Elric sat right in front of Yong, who no longer responded. The “today” he wanted to avoid so much had arrived.
Elric rested both arms on Yong’s snout. The soul of his only friend was now nearing the end of its life. Elric whispered softly.
“……You’re not dead yet, right?” ‘It’s troublesome if you kill me off as you please, Elric.’ “Is it not possible to just live a bit longer as I please?” ‘You should have found me sooner.’
Trivial conversation followed. It was better because the content was meaningless.
‘When I disappear, try going into the book. Then you won’t be bored. You hate being bored.’ “That’s quite out of the blue. …Of course, if you’re gone, the inside of a book might be better. I could save Cha Jae-ha, too. Honestly, I cried when he died. Haha.”
Elric held the dying dragon and stroked him gently. Silver scales that had turned to powder were clutched in his hand. Yong, who seemed to have no strength left to speak, continued until the end.
‘Live well.’
A dragon that ends its life peacefully returns to where it originally came from. To the earth if it were earth, to the fire if it were fire, to the wind if it were wind.
Yong’s body was surrounded by a white light. Squeezing out the last of his strength, Yong uttered human words for the first and last time.
“Don’t worry. You won’t be very bored even without me.”
His vision was swallowed by a pure white light. Everything became cozy, and he felt as if his soul was going on a journey with the dragon.
Elric naturally closed his eyes. He would be left alone once Yong disappeared anyway. He thought it wouldn’t be bad to return to nature together.
When Elric opened his eyes again, his body was lying in the middle of a pool of blood.
‘…What is this.’
He manipulated Karma to properly reattach his broken arm. There was some discomfort in his right ankle, but this much was fine. Elric stood up with a “hup,” noticing his legs were somehow longer than his original body. He was wearing black clothes of a form he’d never seen before, and his white sleeves were soaked in a blue liquid.
He flexed his long, elegant fingers.
This body was not Elric’s. Trapped in the dark night, he barely managed to look around and saw many strange monsters lying dead. He kicked a piece of tattered flesh and scanned his surroundings.
Before long, the memories of the man who had owned this body began to return to Elric’s mind. The memories quickly intertwined with Elric’s original ones.
Hero, Cha Jae-ha, South Korea, Awakener, Gate.
Amidst the scattered words, he realized where he was.
The world of the hero he cherished most, the one who vowed to save everyone and die even if he became a villain.
“……Hahaha.”
He had now moved to a new dimension called the novel Your Hero is Here.
Right. Come to think of it, my dragon friend.
“He was a Dragon of Dimensions.”
