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The Guardians members left the sadness behind, and everyone returned to their routines of investigating the Demon Cult and completing all sorts of missions.

Guardians mainly handled missions related to investigating the Demon Cult and eliminating the monsters that walked out of the gates, and they did all sorts of rescue missions around the world.

Oh Kang-Woo asked, "You want me to go to South America?"

"Yes," Gaia said.

Kang-Woo fell into thought.

She explained, "A group of indigenous people who have remained in those lands has been attacked recently by monsters. They asked for help from the USA, but there are many refugees, and they\'re spread out, so they\'re lacking personnel. I want you and Si-Hun to guide the indigenous people to the US soldiers."

Although most countries in South America and the Middle East had collapsed and become deserted, it wasn\'t that no one lived there anymore.

Countries like Argentina and Brazil had pretty much been reduced to countries in name only, but many people were still living in these countries and trying to rebuild their nations.

Many people had refused to leave when a nuclear power plant had exploded in Japan due to a huge earthquake, so it wasn\'t weird that some people still lived in a territory that had become infested by monsters.

\'I don\'t really want to.\'

He couldn\'t care less about the people; they had been the ones who had decided to live in a dangerous region.

No, even if they had no other choice, Kang-Woo had no reason to save them.

\'I don\'t want to play hero.\'

He just wanted to protect Earth from demons and beings of other dimensions he didn\'t know about.

Kang-Woo was doing it because of his own personal desires.

If the problem wasn\'t as serious as an entire civilization being on the verge of collapse, he didn\'t feel the need to go around the world playing hero.

\'On top of that, they\'re citizens of a country that has already collapsed.\'

Even if they died, the situation in the world wouldn\'t change.

Although incidents around the world had increased, people had accepted it as something inevitable.

It was a cruel thought in a humanitarian sense, but Kang-Woo couldn\'t give less of a shit about being a humanitarian.

\'Well, maybe it would be different if they were dying right in front of me.\'

How humanitarian someone could be was often influenced by whether they could see it or not.

Watching someone die of hunger was more shocking than hearing on the news that hundreds of thousands of people on the other side of the world had died from starvation.

He would save them if he could, but he didn\'t feel the need to make an effort to save people.

—That was how much morality Kang-Woo had left.

\'It\'s not like I have something to gain, either.\'

He\'d been able to grow exponentially after absorbing Tirion\'s power, and the biggest change was that he could use a bit of the demonic energy in the deep end of the Demonic Sea.

\'The best part is that the number of Authorities I can use has increased.\'

There were many Authorities he couldn\'t use unless he used demonic energy from the deep end. No, in reality, most of the Authorities that belonged to archdemons could only be used with demonic energy from the deep end.

Kang-Woo, however, couldn\'t be content with just that. He still had a long way to go before he could face the princes of Hell, so he needed to focus just as much on getting stronger.

\'This Michael, or whatever, is also a bit of a problem.\'

In other words, he didn\'t have time to go around saving people.

"Of course, I know this is a dangerous task," Gaia said, seemingly noticing that Kang-Woo didn\'t like the idea too much. "But Si-Hun will be with you, and if you need it, we will provide you with more sup—"

"Oh, it isn\'t because of the danger," he answered firmly.

He wasn\'t lying.

Saving people who lived in areas infested by monsters…

Leaving the tasks related to the Demon Cult aside, it was one of the most dangerous missions. No, the average task related to the Demon Cult wasn\'t as dangerous.

Still, he wasn\'t too worried.

After his Demonic Energy stat reached 129, Kang-Woo had acquired power surpassing an archdemon, so to him, it wasn\'t a hard task.

"Hmm."

He crossed his arms and fell into thought. It was true that he didn\'t want to do it, but it wasn\'t like he had anything else to do.

\'The Demon Cult still hasn\'t taken action.\'

Since his stat growth had been blocked, absorbing the souls of demons and fulfilling the first condition of \'Demonic Soul\' was his priority. But the problem was that there weren\'t any demons.

Unlike other players, he didn\'t need to train, so he had even fewer things to do.

\'I guess I could play hero for a bit.\'

Gaia, Kim Si-Hun, and the other Guardians thought of Kang-Woo as Hero Reynald\'s successor after he inherited the power of the God of Heroes. It didn\'t matter if it was true or not. Kang-Woo had to show himself doing some heroic things from time to time.

\'There\'s also a chance the recent increase in attacks is because of the Demon Cult.\'

He thought it wasn\'t a bad idea to investigate their movements while drilling into people\'s minds that he was the God of Heroes\' successor by rescuing civilians.

Kang-Woo nodded.

"Okay, I will take the mission."

"Ah! Thank you very much, Kang-Woo."

Gaia smiled brightly. Although she looked very frail, her bright smile had something that could stimulate the hearts of all men.

\'Si-Hun, you should be thankful to me.\'

He felt guilty for having gotten rid of the innocent Reynald for the sake of Si-Hun\'s love, but after seeing things develop like this, he was kind of proud.

\'Come to think of it, where has that guy been lately?\'

He had heard that Si-Hun had gone somewhere else in order to train, but he hadn\'t heard where. They\'d met in the Hall of Protection a few times, but they\'d only exchanged simple greetings.

He felt as if Si-Hun was avoiding him.

\'Don\'t tell me it\'s because of that?\'

When Tirion\'s power was tearing his body apart, Kang-Woo had treated him coldly because Si-Hun hadn\'t realized the pain he was going through.

"In that case, I will have a flight to South America ready for you two. Can I ask you to relay the mission details to Protector Kim Si-Hun?"

"Ah. Yes, of course."

"Protector Kim Si-Hun has been looking down lately… Please also ask him what\'s wrong," Gaia said in a worried voice.

Kang-Woo nodded. He was planning to do that anyway.

\'Si-Hun, it isn\'t actually because of that, right?\'

He began walking faster in search of Si-Hun.

* * *

Si-Hun was in a training room inside the Hall of Protection.

As Kang-Woo walked toward it, he heard an explosion.

Click.

Boom! Slam! Crash!

"Huff! Huff! Huff!"

Si-Hun was swinging his sword at a practice scarecrow.

The scarecrow, which had been made using a special magic device, was tattered like a mop.

"Si-Hun."

"H-Hyung-nim?"

As Kang-Woo entered the room, Si-Hun\'s expression hardened. Si-Hun averted his gaze and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I have something to tell you."

Si-Hun remained silent.

Kang-Woo looked at him quietly and then opened his mouth.

"Let\'s go somewhere more comfortable."

"Hyung-nim?"

He dragged Si-Hun to the rooftop of his apartment. The view from the rooftop was beautiful, as expected from an expensive apartment.

Kang-Woo leaned on the railing and asked, "Has something been on your mind lately?"

"…"

"If it\'s because of how I acted before, I\'m s—"

"No, it wasn\'t because of you." Si-Hun stood next to Kang-Woo while smiling bitterly. His voice had a sense of loneliness. "This is my own problem."

"What kind of problem?"

There was a short silence.

After thinking about it for a while, Si-Hun opened his mouth.

"Do you remember when Reynald died?"

"Yes."

"Back then…"

He bit his lip and clenched his fists, gripping the railing. His grip indented the metal railing. Si-Hun said in a trembling voice, "To be honest, I was a bit relieved."

\'Oh, so that\'s what this is about.\'

Kang-Woo smirked.

Si-Hun had felt disgusted at himself after feeling relieved that his rival had disappeared.

It was a Si-Hun-like worry.

Kang-Woo said, "Don\'t worry. It\'s normal for humans to feel like that."

"… But you were different, hyung-nim."

"Not really. If I were in your shoes, I would\'ve danced with joy right then and there."

"Hahaha."

Si-Hun laughed. He probably thought Kang-Woo was joking.

\'No joke.\'

If it were Kang-Woo, he actually would\'ve danced with joy.

He looked at Si-Hun and said, "Let me ask you something."

"What is it…?"

"Why are you so strict with yourself?"

Kang-Woo had been wondering about this for quite some time. To be more precise, he\'d been wondering ever since he saw Si-Hun stand up for Alec and put his life on the line.

\'It\'s too unnatural to call it a personality trait.\'

During the Isu Station incident, although Kang-Woo had told him to do so, Si-Hun had been able to cut down ordinary people who had been turned into demonic beasts without hesitation.

Alec and Reynald wouldn\'t have been able to do such a thing.

Si-Hun wasn\'t like them; he was merely trying to become like them.

There was a heavy silence.

Si-Hun narrowed his eyes and fell into thought for longer than before under the silence.

"Haha. I guess I can\'t hide anything from you, hyung-nim."

Si-Hun laughed lightly.

"When I was a kid… my mother told me something."

Si-Hun looked up at the sky with sad eyes.

"She told me, \'I\'m sorry for giving birth to you.\' "

Si-Hun clenched his fists, his veins popped out.

"I despised those words. I hated them so much that I couldn\'t stand hearing them.

"But…

"Yes. I\'m sure she doesn\'t think that anymore. No, she probably doesn\'t even remember saying that to me."

He continued, saying in a pent-up voice, "But that wasn\'t something I had achieved myself with my own hands. I was simply saved by you, hyung-nim."

His voice became more and more intense.

"I wanted to be like you, hyung-nim. I wanted to be a savior to those who had suffered just like my past self so that I could… proudly say that what my mother had told me when I was a child was wrong."

"…"

"That\'s why I can\'t stand my narrow-minded and selfish self."

Si-Hun finished talking.

Kang-Woo sighed.

\'A savior, huh?\'

Kang-Woo felt as if he finally had an idea of what kind of person the man named Kim Si-Hun was.

Si-Hun didn\'t want to become a hero. He didn\'t want to receive people\'s admiration or cry out about justice. He just wanted to extend a hand to those in need… so that he could be proud of himself.

\'Dumbass.\'

Kang-Woo frowned.

In a sense, Si-Hun was dumber than Alec.

It was a frustrating, annoying, and childish thought.

Trying to help others to overcome a childhood trauma was something only morons with chuunibyou[1] would think of.

It was a way of thinking Kang-Woo could neither understand nor sympathize with.

But…

Tap.

He placed his hand on Si-Hun\'s head.

"Hyung-nim?"

Then, Kang-Woo ruffled his hair.

"Argh! Wh-What are you doing, hyung-nim?!"

"Haaa."

Kang-Woo couldn\'t help but sigh. He smirked as Si-Hun looked up at him in confusion.

"Fuck. I\'ve grown so soft."

Although for a short moment, he had cheered Si-Hun on.

Kang-Woo did not understand him or calculate what he could get out of it by doing so; he had cheered Si-Hun on in the purest sense.

It didn\'t suit Kang-Woo at all.

\'I feel like I\'m gonna hurl.\'

He was cringing so hard, but it wasn\'t an unbearably bad feeling.

"Hyung-nim…?"

"Let\'s go."

"Wh-Where?"

Smiling, he lightly patted Si-Hun\'s head.

"To save people."

1. A Japanese term referring to people with grandiose delusions who desperately want to stand out and have convinced themselves that they have hidden knowledge or secret powers. ☜