## Chapter 17 – 3. Corrupting a Hero (1)
“Umm…”
Waking up, I was hugging something soft.
Enjoying the pleasant sensation, I pulled it closer, and a small voice spoke.
The soft and subtly erotic scent made me feel cozy, and I almost drifted back to sleep.
Naturally, the source of this softness was Hanna.
Instinctively, I buried my face in her embrace and inhaled deeply again. Hanna stirred, rubbing her sleepy eyes as she woke up.
She twisted slightly, looking a little embarrassed, and asked me,
“Um… do I smell bad?”
Hanna asked worriedly.
“No? It smells really good. And a little naughty.”
“Then it’s okay.”
Hanna grinned.
The word “naughty” was high praise, at least between us.
We woke up in each other’s arms but stayed on the sofa, just lying there.
I took the chance to open the quest board.
And reread the quests I had already looked at.
[Corrupting a Hero]
[Taming in a Zombie World]
Corruption and taming.
Both were quest titles that stimulated the imagination.
And the reward was the same for both: three million won.
I didn’t know the details, but judging by the quest titles, I would probably end up fighting a hero or a zombie.
“Hmm…”
I was conflicted.
Heroes would be strong, but as heroes, they probably wouldn’t threaten my life. Zombies wouldn’t be as strong as heroes, but they would have no mercy.
What happens if you die doing a quest, anyway?
The quest board only told you the rewards.
It didn’t say anything about what happens if you fail or die.
But I wasn’t brave enough to fail or die just to find out.
After some thought, I chose “Corrupting a Hero.”
If they were a true hero of justice, even if I acted as a villain in the quest, they wouldn’t kill me.
Probably.
…Come to think of it, there have been quite a few hero stories recently where the hero is the main villain.
Once I made up my mind, I felt even more uneasy.
“Sss…”
“Aah….that tickles…”
Sniffing Hanna’s scent as if it were a sedative, my mind was at peace again, like magic.
I felt like I was getting addicted.
I wanted to stay like this forever, but I couldn’t.
Unlike me, who was unemployed, Hanna had a schedule today and had to go to the studio by lunchtime.
“I got a commercial for workout clothes.”
Hanna wore a slightly proud, smug expression.
As her numbness weakened, Hanna’s expressions gradually became richer and more vibrant.
It was a commercial for a fairly famous sports brand.
Hanna’s SNS, with its richer expressions, was growing explosively.
Hanna’s genuine smile, which always wore similar expressions, was enough to attract many followers.
In the meantime, when the news broke that she had broken up with her boyfriend, Kim Tae-yang, who was a minor flaw, the male fans who had disappeared returned, accelerating the growth.
Hearing that Hanna was doing well made me feel good.
Hanna, on the other hand, looked regretful.
“What if I get too busy and we have less time like this?”
“What are you talking about? Is it okay if this video gets out? You have to cancel your schedule and run to me when I call.”
I picked up my phone and threatened Hanna for no reason.
Of course, it wasn’t a real threat.
I was just saying it like that moment when I threatened Hanna because of our twisted encounter.
Hanna, threatened, smiled and hugged me as if she couldn’t win.
“Actually, I think it’s okay if it gets out.”
“…”
That made me shudder.
We hugged each other until we couldn’t put it off any longer, and then Hanna left the house for her schedule.
And I entered the quest.
Into [Corrupting a Hero].
“Huff, huff…”
I endured the dizziness that I never seemed to get used to, no matter how many times I experienced it.
And then I suddenly heard a lot of noise around me.
This time, I was in a downtown area, not a house.
The violent smell of street food, couples laughing and chatting, and foreigners carrying large bags.
Seeing the densely packed commercial buildings reminded me of Hongdae, which I had visited often in the quest.
That was it.
It was a hero world, but I didn’t see anything particularly different yet—
“Oh, there is something.”
The models on the billboards all over the shopping district were all heroes.
I could tell at a glance.
Just by looking at the outfits they were wearing, they were wearing flashy, burdensome outfits that seemed to say, “I’m a hero.”
Especially the female heroes’ outfits.
They wore tight-fitting outfits or revealing outfits.
In some ways, it was a typical hero outfit.
Unlike in comics, the outfits were too provocative in real life.
It wouldn’t be strange if the villains got distracted while fighting.
[Corrupt the Hero]
[Reward: 3 million won, Quest Board Upgrade]
A reward has been added.
I don’t know why, but it was a good thing for me.
First, I went into an alleyway and rummaged through my pockets for a moment.
I found a wallet and a cell phone that I had never seen before.
The wallet was empty.
It only contained my familiar ID card and a debit card.
I also looked at the cell phone.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t a stock market millionaire this time.
No, rather.
“This isn’t easy…”
I saw a reality that was even more bleak than my reality.
The debit card balance was 600 won.
Enough money to buy some cheap snacks.
No, these days, even cheap snacks have gone up in price, so you might not be able to buy anything with 600 won.
“Haa…”
I was a multi-billionaire in stocks just a while ago, but now I have to live the most frugal life in the world.
I was busy corrupting a hero, but now I was going to starve.
“Hey, come here quickly.”
Someone greeted me happily as I was rummaging through my cell phone in the alleyway.
I turned my gaze to the sound, and a bald man popped out from deep in the alleyway.
If that was all, I wouldn’t have thought much of it, but the black short-sleeved shirt and the irezumi tattoo on his exposed arm created a physiological aversion.
A gangster, a thug.
Or, considering this quest world, maybe a villain.
I might have been intimidated by that look in the past, but now I had weapon skills.
…I didn’t actually have a weapon, but maybe I could use my cell phone as a weapon.
Suddenly, my confidence dropped.
“You brought the stuff, right?”
“…Stuff?”
The bald man asked with a serious expression, but of course, I had no idea what he was talking about.
The only thing I had was a sturdy thing between my legs.
However, I was sure of one thing.
The stuff this bald man was talking about must be illegal.
“Hurry! Or else that girl—”
The bald man shouted urgently when I didn’t say anything, and at that moment, I felt a gust of wind, and the bald man disappeared from in front of me with a bang.
“Huh?”
As if he had never been there in the first place.
I looked around to find the bald man who had suddenly disappeared, and he was lying against a trash can in the corner of the alleyway, and next to him stood a bob-haired woman with white skin and red hair that didn’t match the narrow, gloomy alleyway.
A jacket, gloves, and a coolly exposed lower body for some reason.
I could tell at a glance that she was a hero just by looking at her outfit.
The woman who suddenly appeared jumped lightly and perched on the building.
It was a low building of about two stories, but it was an absurd jumping power.
She looked back and forth between her cell phone and me and asked.
“Who are you?”
“Excuse me?”
“Who are you and why were you with a villain?”
I looked at the bald man who was lying on the ground.
I thought he might be a villain, and he really was.
And the woman in front of me was suspicious of me for chatting with the villain in the alleyway.
“I don’t know him.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
Believe it or not, that was the truth.
But I couldn’t prove it.
Frustration welled up, and at the same time, I didn’t like the way she was talking to me so bluntly.
Of course, the frustration and dissatisfaction were somewhat mitigated by her appearance and revealing outfit.
And I habitually stole a peek at her weakness.
[Weakness: Strong Men]
Simple, but difficult.
Strong men.
“…You’re not on the list, so I can’t help it.”
The woman clicked her tongue and came down from the building, lifting the fallen bald villain with one hand.
I don’t know how such strength comes from that slender arm.
Is that what a hero is?
It was clear that she was a target for capture, but I couldn’t see a way to capture that weakness.
Be stronger than that?
“If I run into you in a place like this again, I’ll consider you a villain even if you’re not on the list.”
“…”
She glared at me as if to warn me and disappeared as quickly as she had appeared.
That look felt a little arrogant.
Maybe it’s because the two women I’ve captured recently have been a little submissive, or maybe it’s because my personality has changed.
It was a brief encounter, but a desire to correct the woman’s arrogant appearance arose.
“…Hoo…”
Of course, it seemed impossible now.
As I was thinking about what to do from now on, I suddenly thought of my ID card.
It looked exactly like my ID card from the original world, but the address was different.
Maybe this address is my house in this world.
“Let’s go.”
Even while going home, I couldn’t stop thinking about the woman.
