Actually, Dad Was a Hero

Chapter 47: Ice Cream on Your Way Back

“Hey, Jin Seong-Gyun. Look at this.”

Jin Su-Yeon showed her younger brother, Seong-Gyun, her smartphone playing a short video.

Seong-Gyun, engrossed in his computer game, replied in an annoyed tone without even looking up.

“Ah, what? What is it?”

“A friend sent it to me on KakaoTalk… Isn’t this Dad?”

“What are you talking about? Why would Dad be…”

Seong-Gyun absentmindedly glanced at the smartphone screen and froze.

On Su-Yeon’s phone, Jin Beom-Min was walking confidently down a deserted street, wielding a long sword.

It was a video a boy had shared in Su-Yeon’s group chat, praising how cool it was.

“Uh, ah… uh… No? I don’t think so?”

“It is! That armor, isn’t that the one he dug up from the ground?”

“Ugh, uh, I don’t know… Ah, shit! I’m dead!”

The game screen on the monitor turned black and white, displaying a message that his character had died.

“Ugh, you die all the time anyway. Hey, look closely.”

“I don’t die all the time.”

“Ah, shut up. Isn’t this Dad?”

“Ah, no…”

Jin Su-Yeon stared at Jin Seong-Gyun with sharp eyes. Seong-Gyun couldn’t meet his sister’s gaze and just stared at his keyboard.

“What are you doing?”

“What, why?”

“You’re hiding something, aren’t you?”

“No…”

“Tell me.”

Seong-Gyun kept his mouth shut and stared at the keyboard.

If he broke his promise to Dad, his allowance increase and gift certificates would be gone next month.

However, his sister, Jin Su-Yeon, had spent the last decade researching how to effectively manipulate her brother from various angles. Seong-Gyun knew that he would eventually have to confess.

“Look, Seong-Gyun.”

Su-Yeon continued in a soft tone. It was five times creepier than her usual yelling.

“…Why should I waste my energy and stimulate your pain receptors when you’ll tell me anyway?”

“Uh, well…”

“It’s going to hurt a lot today. You haven’t been punished enough lately.”

“Ah… Wait, wait. Nuna, wait. Okay, okay.”

Grabbing his sister’s slowly rising fist, Seong-Gyun slowly began to speak.

***

Ring ring ring―

Jin Beom-Min leaned back, dodging the spear thrust by a dark elf soldier, and pulled out his phone from his pocket.

“Huh? Su-Yeon? Did I forget to turn off roaming?”

Pak!

The dark elf, along with his spear, was sliced in half in an instant.

Lightly dodging the spurt of blood, Jin Beom-Min pressed the answer button.

Behind the falling dark elf soldier, another squad of dark elf cavalry riding giant mantises was charging towards him.

“Oh, daughter! What’s up?”

[Dad! Where are you right now?]

“Dad? I’m working.”

[Doing what?]

Keeeeng!

Jin Beom-Min’s sword vibrated with a high-pitched sound. The dark elf cavalry leaped into the air, thrusting their spears.

“Working… Dad’s work is the same every day.”

Papapak!

However, as Jin Beom-Min’s sword emitted a bright blue light, the dark elves and their mantis mounts were simultaneously cut in half and tumbled to the ground.

Kudang! Kukung!

[Liar! I know everything!]

“What, what?”

[Seong-Gyun told me everything! You’re that… what’s it called… ‘Grey Knight’ or something!]

“Uh… That’s…”

Cold sweat dripped down Jin Beom-Min’s back, which had remained unfazed even while facing dozens of dark elf cavalry.

[Why didn’t you tell me!]

“Well, that’s because, Su-Yeon…”

Splurt!

While Jin Beom-Min was flustered, a large lump of spiderweb flew towards him, covering his body.

“Oh no… Su-Yeon, hold on.”

Jin Beom-Min quickly froze and tossed his phone into the air to avoid getting it covered in the constricting spiderweb.

Then, he drew up his Mana and infused it into his body instead of his sword.

‘Mana Conversion…!’

The Mana covering his body transformed into electricity, momentarily emitting a blue-white spark.

And in the next moment, Jin Beom-Min burst through the spiderweb, burning and crumbling it with electricity, and leaped into the air.

Pwak!

A Lakhne spider, which had been attached to the building wall and shot the web, was cut in half. However, instead of falling to the ground, it dangled from its web, spraying blue bodily fluids.

Catching the phone he had thrown in mid-air, Jin Beom-Min landed silently on the ground and continued.

“Uh, that’s… Dad didn’t want you to worry.”

[Does that make sense? Seong-Gyun knows everything.]

“That’s because Seong-Gyun found out first by chance…”

[Whatever, how long are you going to treat me like a kid?]

A terrible stench emanated from the bisected Lakhne spider. Perhaps smelling it, spiders began to swarm from all directions, crawling along the building walls.

“Uh… Dad’s busy right now, can we talk later?”

[It’s always like this. Later, later. Why can’t you be honest with us?]

Fwip―

Fwip―

A barrage of spiderwebs rained down from all directions. Jin Beom-Min leaped into the air, kicking off the roof of a nearby bus.

Then, he infused a small amount of Mana to cut the spiderwebs that were holding the spiders in the air.

Kukung! Kung!

The spiders that had been clinging to the building walls plummeted to the ground with earth-shattering roars.

Jin Beom-Min brushed past the spiders struggling on the ground, swinging his sword a few times.

“No, it’s not like that.”

[Yes, it is! Since Mom passed away, you’ve never once said you were struggling in front of us!]

Jin Beom-Min’s feet, which had been moving swiftly and smoothly even while on the phone, came to a sudden halt.

“Su, Su-Yeon…”

Kwaang!

A whitish object flew towards Jin Beom-Min at lightning speed, striking his body.

He flew like a kite with its string cut, crashing into a building and breaking through the wall.

[Huh? What was that sound?]

Thud…

Thud thud―

Jin Beom-Min shakily rose from the cloud of concrete debris and dust. The phone, which he had held tightly to his chest even during the crash, was perfectly fine without a scratch.

A giant Lakhne spider emerged in front of the collapsed wall.

It was twice the size of the ones he had just defeated, and the green stripes on its body were so faint that they were almost lime green.

“Uh, no, Su-Yeon. It’s just a spider…”

[Why are you scared of a spider when you’re a grown adult…?]

Lakhne spiders grow larger and their color fades as they age. Older Lakhne spiders have weaker web viscosity, but they use this to their advantage by launching hardened clumps of spiderweb to attack their prey.

In other words, the Lakhne spider in front of Jin Beom-Min was the mother of all the other spiders.

“Hold on, let me just take care of this spider…”

Keeek!

The Lakhne spider shrieked and thrust out its poisonous stinger. Drops of venom, emitting a sour smell, dripped from the tip of the stinger, burning the ground.

Chizzzzz!

Jin Beom-Min’s sword glowed blue-white, scattering sparks in all directions. He kicked off the ground and charged forward, decapitating the giant Lakhne spider with a powerful Thunder Strike.

Boom!

The spider’s head exploded as its bodily fluids, exposed to highly compressed energy, boiled over.

Passing by the instantly deceased Lakhne spider’s corpse, Jin Beom-Min brought the phone back to his ear.

“Uh, Su-Yeon. Got the spider. Sorry about that, we were talking.”

[What did you use to kill it?]

“Uh… An electric fly swatter… kind of.”

[Okay, good job.]

Jin Beom-Min briefly looked around. He could no longer sense any monsters nearby.

He dusted off the white concrete powder from his clothes and called out to Su-Yeon.

“Su-Yeon…”

[Yeah.]

“I’m sorry for hiding it. From now on, I’ll tell you everything honestly, like you said.”

[Okay, Dad. No more secrets between us.]

“Okay… I think I treated you like a child for too long, you’re almost an adult now.”

[You can tell me… no, us… anything.]

“Okay.”

[We’re family.]

Jin Beom-Min’s heart felt warm and a little tight.

“Yes, we’re family.”

[Hehe, I’ll hang up then. You must be busy, Dad.]

“Okay, daughter. I love you.”

[Yeah, I love you too, Dad. Be careful.]

“Okay, I will. Don’t worry.”

[And get ice cream on your way back!]

“Okay, okay. Bye, click―”

After ending the call and turning around, he saw that the spot where he had crashed was a small ice cream shop on the side of the building.

Jin Beom-Min chuckled and put his phone back in his pocket.

***

“Truly… incredible…”

Charlotte muttered, her eyes wide and sparkling like stars.

The other WECRO agents dispatched with her, who were watching the live footage of Jin Beom-Min’s battle, nodded in agreement.

“He’s handling those monsters like child’s play, the ones the military couldn’t even touch.”

“Look at his movements. Is it even possible for a human to have that kind of speed and strength?”

“He can’t be human. He must be from somewhere other than Earth, just like those monsters.”

Not only Charlotte, who was dispatched from the United States, but also agents from powerful countries all over the world, including England, France, China, and Russia, were voicing their opinions.

“…Should one human be allowed to possess such immense power?”

Suddenly, the agent from China spoke in a fearful voice.

“It’s better than the Chinese government controlling it.”

“What did you say?”

The British agent scoffed, and the Chinese agent jumped to his feet.

“Now, now, calm down everyone. We’re all part of WECRO, aren’t we?”

Charlotte tried to calm the situation, but the other agents didn’t seem to agree.

“Let’s be honest, you all came here with the same thought in mind, didn’t you?”

“What thought?”

“Trying to figure out the secret of this ‘Jin’ person, the source of his power. And how we could possibly obtain it. Isn’t that obvious?”

“Haha, you’re quite frank.”

“But we still have to maintain some decorum.”

Charlotte’s firm voice silenced the other agents. Her eyes, which had seemed naive just moments ago, now held a resolute glint.

“Regardless of our individual thoughts, we’re fundamentally here to prepare against the attacks of these monstrous creatures. Aren’t we?”

“That’s true.”

“And currently, the only means we have to counter these monstrous creatures is that man.”

“Sounds like you’ve already fallen for him.”

The British agent sneered, but Charlotte’s sharp glare made him cough and shut his mouth.

“So let’s agree on just one thing.”

“What agreement?”

“Are you suggesting we write a contract?”

Charlotte raised her index finger.

“We only need to abide by one rule. We will not do anything that could harm Jin.”

“Come on, who would do such a thing?”

“It’s possible. There are quite a few people who believe that if they can’t have it, no one else should either.”

“Hmm…”

The assembled agents pondered Charlotte’s words, each lost in their own thoughts.

In truth, most of the agents present had initially considered assassinating Jin as a viable option.

From the perspective of powerful nations, the existence of someone capable of disrupting the global balance of power was unacceptable.

Their efforts to prevent relatively weaker nations from developing nuclear weapons were also based on the same logic.

However, Jin was not just an asymmetrical strategic weapon.

Based on what they had witnessed, he could potentially be ‘humanity’s last hope.’

After a moment of contemplation, the agents from various countries began to nod one by one.

They were, after all, humans living together on Earth. They couldn’t choose the destruction of all mankind for the sake of their own national interests.

Seeing everyone agree to her proposal, Charlotte smiled faintly.