"This... what kind of money is this?"
Do-joon's grandmother stared in disbelief at the nine million won in front of her.
"Ge...."
Knowing that his grandmother would be worried if he told her he'd been gate hunting, Do-joon clicked his tongue to keep from making a sound.
"It's money from a friend of mine whom I invested in before, and he's been very successful this time."
"Invested?"
"You know, the one I grew up with, the one I used to hang out with."
"...Aldamada."
The old woman's expression was heavy as she answered.
"So, big brother, are we rich now?"
Eun-young, who was only seven years old, looked at the nine million won and said rich.
Anyone else would have sneered at the question as unworthy of an answer.
"Yes, from now on."
It's not about the 9 million won in front of her right now. Do-joon didn't deny Eun-young's words because he was confident that he could make a lot of money in the future.
"Wow- Grandma, we're rich! My brother says we're rich!"
Eun-young jumps for joy.
The old lady's expression was never bright when she looked at Eun-young.
All she had was this crumbling old house, but even that was hard to hold on to anymore.
Ever since his daughter died six years ago, the pendulum had swung sharply downward.
To add insult to injury, the monthly allowance from Dojun's father had been cut off when she died.
"Poor thing.
Tears formed in the grandmother's eyes as she looked at Do-joon.
Born out of wedlock, Do-joon was shunned and shunned until he was seven years old, when his name was added to the family register and he was forced to enter the family home to continue the lineage. But even then, when his father's wife gave birth to a son five years ago, he was shunned again and eventually kicked out of the family home.
From the time she was a child, her life was in flux, and at the age of eighteen, she was forced to live with her maternal grandmother and her half-sister, whom she had never met.
It's easy enough to be pessimistic about your life and drift away, but Seo didn't.
'I'm lucky.
Without any hesitation, Do-joon became the head of the family, and although his father was different, he took care of his half-brother, who was only two years older than him, and his maternal grandmother, whom he had only met a few times.
"Do-joon... Grandma is so sorry."
As his grandmother held his hand and apologized to him, he stammered, "I'm sorry.
"It's okay."
His grandmother didn't seem to mind that he looked so different from his usual self a few days ago.
She's tired.
She felt sorry for him for all he had endured.
"I don't know about anything else, but just don't do anything dangerous. Do you understand?"
Do-joon's expression twisted subtly at her insistence.
Do-joon Seo.
Do you realize that your real grandson died doing that dangerous job?
"Hoohoo."
Frustrated, Do-joon stepped out of the gate.
He had no idea how he had ended up in this unfamiliar world, or why he had entered the body of a dying man named Seo Do-joon and lived in his place, but now that he had cleared his mind, he was no longer confused.
He just didn't like it, because his current situation was by no means a good one.
I've lost 90 percent of the power I had when I was called Sword God. It was to be expected, given his changed body, but he couldn't help but be disappointed.
The only good news was that the people of this world were weaker than I thought.
Rifts, gates, and heroes seemed like child's play to Dojun.
The question was.
Why did the monsters that destroyed his world appear on Earth?
"Are they really the same monsters?"
From his memory, and from what he had seen through the gate himself, the monsters of the destroyed world bore a striking resemblance to the monsters of his own world, but that wasn't enough to convince him that they were the same.
First and foremost, the monsters were different in the way they appeared.
Monsters should have poured out of the sky like a hole in the ground, but on Earth, they appeared from a completely different third dimension called the Rift Zone.
Even then, if the heroes closed or gated the Rift Zone in advance, monsters could not come out of the cracks or gates.
In other words, they were safely isolated in a separate space.
And that was for a decade.
The situation was different from that of the destroyed world.
"If it's been this long... can it be considered safe?"
In his world, in less than a year, several kingdoms had been destroyed, and the entire continent had been wiped out.
So many people were killed by monsters that the entire continent was plunged into darkness.
Earth, however, was a different story.
When the Rift Zone first appeared, it caused great chaos, but now it's peaceful.
Occasionally, the Rift would spawn monster waves, but the damage was minimized, and stability was restored.
It was almost comical to Tojun that heroes with lesser skills than those who had just earned their Imperial apprenticeship could do it.
In short, they were of a different class.
If the doomed world was on Hell difficulty, Earth was on Beginner difficulty.
Dozun still had doubts about whether Earth's situation was the same as his own, and he still couldn't make a concrete judgment.
What was clear was that it was too early to be reassured, but there was no need to be impatient.
"By the standards of this place, even if I only regain half my strength, it shouldn't be a problem...."
Dojun had lived a life of pursuing strength since birth, and he doubted that it was possible.
On the other hand, I wondered if it was necessary to repeat a life with clear limits again, because despite living so fiercely, I couldn't even protect my own world in the end.
Some days she felt like she wanted to gain more power than she had in the past and take revenge on those who had destroyed her world, and other days she felt helpless and wondered if it was possible, and thought it would be better to just forget everything and live as she was.
"I don't know my mind."
My thoughts were shaky as reeds, but I was certain of one thing.
If the same thing happened here, on Earth, Dojun would not hesitate, he would not hesitate, he would not hesitate to find the strength to take revenge on them.
He had already tasted defeat once, so he felt helpless, but that was only a feeling he felt when he was living a peaceful life.
If the one who destroyed her world appeared before her eyes, she would take revenge on him by any means necessary.
"Even if I'm safe until I die, it's true that I need to regain some of my power to live here, and above all, to fulfill my promise to him...."
Dojun's brow furrowed as he spoke.
"Just promise me that you'll let Eun-young and her grandmother live in a decent, safe house for the rest of their lives. I don't even want the safest house in the world, just let them live in the safest house in Korea. You can do that much for them, right?"
A request made just before his soul was extinguished.
And it was the real Seo Do-joon's soul that disappeared before he could answer.
Jolji had no choice but to honor his promise.
The problem is that the safest house in Korea is worth a whopping 110 billion.
That means Do-joon would have to raise 110 billion won to fulfill his promise.
Of course, there was no way the soul of Seo Do-joon, who had been extinguished for not keeping his promise, would come back to haunt him, and to be honest, he wasn't obligated to.
But he wanted to honor that promise anyway.
It was the price he paid for his new body.
"It's a small price to pay if I get my powers back."
Dojun was about to say that it was nothing, but then he saw the five men approaching from a distance.
They, too, recognized his face and raised their hands with a smirk.
"Seo Do-joon, how did you know to greet us again?"
The loan sharks.
The real Do-joon had borrowed quite a bit of money from a loan shark to pay for his grandmother's hospital bills before she died.
"If it wasn't for that money, he wouldn't have entered that dangerous gate.
His eyes narrowed fiercely.
'I don't blame them for lending money and collecting a certain amount of interest.
But a belly button bigger than a boat?
He was stunned to realize that a mere five million won had grown to tens of millions in a few months.
"You said you went to the gate not long ago?"
"Yeah, that's a good idea. When you're young, you have to work hard, roll around, and earn money before you can touch your pocketbook! You're not going to make a lot of money working a part-time job, are you?"
"That's right, big brother, a man should go through the gate, even if it's a little dangerous."
"By the way, Dojun, buy some clothes. You looked pretty booty when I first saw you, you little bastard. You may not be able to wear luxury goods like you used to, but you should at least wear Junmaker, right?"
DoJoon just stared at us as we giggled and chatted amongst ourselves.
"Why is this bastard suddenly setting the tone? What does it matter to me if you set the tone or not? As long as I get paid, I'm fine. Gyuhyung, how much interest do you owe me until today?"
"48,579,000 won, to be exact, brother."
A five-million-won debenture owes 48 million won in interest alone.
One corner of Do-joon's mouth turned up.
"You got some money from the gate, right? Bring me everything you have. The sooner you pay off the interest, the easier it will be for you. I told you, we honor the legal interest. It's just that it's compounded, compounded, compounded, compounded."
"It should be compounded one more time, brother."
"Is that so? Hahahaha!"
After staring at the loan sharks laughing and talking amongst themselves, Dojun finally spoke up.
"I've been thinking."
"Thinking? What thinking?"
The loan shark tilts his head, puzzled.
"I think I'm the one who should get the money, not you."
"What?"
"I borrowed 5 million won and gave you 9.36 million won. The statutory interest? Okay, let's give you that, but shouldn't I get the principal and interest on the remaining 2.36 million won?"
The loan shark's face turned into a look that said, "Ha, look at that.
"You want me to pay you?"
"Because it's the right thing to do."
"Are you crazy?"
The loan shark's expression turned chilling, and he threatened Dojun.
"Do you want this asshole to die? Do you think we're going to be scared of those bastards, or do you think Abby, the president of T-Electronics, is going to help you this time? Just so you know, I'm not going to let you get away with this. You don't know it, but your dad doesn't give a shit about the old man and the kid in the corner of the house. I told you, the old man's worthless, but the kid would sell him for anything... KUCK!"
Grabbing the loan shark by the throat, Do Jun said with a cold glint in his eyes.
"Let's start by pulling that tongue out before I take your money."