Three more days passed.

  Lee Aseok was not concerned with any of this.

  He had long since forgotten the drama involving strawberries, emotional breakdowns, and moral outrage.

  His days were now spent walking through the growing forest alongside Pudding, who occasionally chased butterflies and brought back sticks far too large for his size.

  The West Zone had completely transformed.

  What was once a ruin now teemed with green life, vines twisting through broken windows, roots cracking through pavement, and massive trees towering high enough to block the skyline.

  It was beautiful in a haunting, unnatural way. Isolated. Silent.

  Just the way Lee Aseok liked it.

  He walked without urgency, dressed in a dark jacket too clean for someone living in overgrowth, the holy sword always following him like a loyal hound.

  The blade didn’t need a scabbard, it floated silently behind him, its glow gentle but constant, like a star that refused to set.

  Anyone else might have looked heroic.

  He just looked… done with everything.

  Still, something glimmered in his eyes today, an unusual anticipation.

  He stopped on a ridge where the forest thinned out enough to see the horizon. The trees bowed around him like a natural cathedral.

  Pudding sat beside him, panting with his tongue out.

  Aseok looked at the sky, clouded with streaks of violet dusk.

  His lips curled slightly.

  In his last life, this was the beginning of the end.

  The Hell Gate, the worst dungeon breach in history. Unpredictable, monstrous, and the only known gate with a true intelligence waiting inside it.

  Not some giant beast with claws.

  Not a mutated insect or a cursed golem.

  No, the final boss had been something else entirely.

  Humanoid. In appearance, speech, and thought. Capable of conversation.

  And cruelty.

  Lee Aseok still remembered the way it had tilted its head, curious and condescending, like a researcher observing a failed experiment.

  Back then, Lee Aseok had been weaker. Less experienced. Still believing in the idea of “heroes.” He’d died anyway.

  Now?

  Now, he wasn’t interested in justice. Or duty. Or saving the world.

  He wanted answers.

  Why had he been chosen?

  Why had he come back?

  Why did the sword follow him even when he didn’t want it?

  All the pieces pointed toward that final boss. The intelligent one.

  The only being who had spoken to him during the Hell Gate, and whose last words had echoed in his mind until the moment he died:

  “You are an interesting ant.”

  Lee Aseok tilted his head back slightly, eyes narrowing.

  If he met that thing again… would it remember him?

  Would it recognize the man who should’ve died in obscurity but now walked again with the very sword it feared?

  He didn’t know. But he would find out.

  The wind shifted.

  And somewhere far in the distance, he felt it, a shift in energy. Weak, but unmistakable.

  A gate was beginning to stir.

  Meanwhile, back at the camp, chaos brewed in the form of exhaustion.

  Seo MinHyun collapsed under a tree, covered in dirt, his fingers still glowing faintly from barrier runes.

  “I did it,” he croaked. “I sealed the whole forest. It took three hundred high level magic stones and my will to live, but it’s done.”

  “Congrats,” Park Taegun said dryly. “Maybe now we won’t get eaten by flower monsters.”

  “Or Aseok’s new monster ‘decorations’,” Kang Juwon added, rolling a mana core between his fingers.

  Yoo Eunsae was kneeling beside a flower patch, muttering incantations to try and adjust the strawberry taste profile.

  She looked haunted.

  He Ziqin approached her gently. “You know, you really don’t have to..”

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  “He spit it out,” she said flatly. “They spit it out. At the same time.”

  He Ziqin hesitated. “…Yeah, that was… painful.”

  “You don’t understand. He gave me that disappointed look.” She gestured furiously. “Like I failed some kind of cosmic test.”

  “Well,” Kang Juwon called from behind a tree, “you did. It was a test. The Great Strawberry Judgment.”

  Park Taegun shook his head. “I’m more worried about the fact that he’s planning something.”

  “What makes you say that?” Seo MinHyun asked, face still in the dirt.

  “He smiled,” Park said.

  Everyone paused.

  Kang Juwon frowned. “Wait, when?”

  “Just now. I saw him in the distance while I was doing patrol. He stopped walking, looked at the sky… and smiled.”

  Another silence.

  “Are you sure?” Seo MinHyun asked.

  “I have photographic memory,” Park Taegun said grimly. “And PTSD now.”

  Kang Juwon looked thoughtful. “If he’s smiling, it means something terrible’s about to happen. Or someone’s about to die.”

  “I think he sensed a gate,” He Ziqin muttered. “There’s been some energy shifts to the northwest. I got a report. Very faint.”

  “Great,” Seo groaned. “Just when I finished the barrier.”

  “Should we tell him?” Yoo Eunsae asked, standing up.

  Everyone looked at her.

  “No,” they all said at once.

  Back in the forest, Lee Aseok walked calmly as branches moved aside for him. Pudding trailed behind, sniffing things with dramatic curiosity.

  The holy sword hovered like a ghost at his back.

  He didn’t say anything. Didn’t smile again. Just kept walking.

  But inside?

  He was ready.

  Soon, the Hell Gate would reopen.

  And this time, he wasn’t a broken soldier on his last legs.

  He was reborn. Weaponized. Hollowed out and harder than steel.

  And if the final boss still remembered him?

  Good.

  Because this time, he would be the one asking questions.

  And if he didn’t like the answers… well. He’ll get all the answers one way or another.

  There was a reason no one else was allowed in the West Zone anymore.

  Meanwhile, on the other side of the Time-space wavered.

  A crack formed in the golden twilight.

  And from it emerged a tall man with golden hair and violet eyes, unnaturally beautiful, his smile too refined to be anything but chilling.

  He too smirked.

  “Finally,” he said softly, as if he'd been waiting a very, very long time.

  Back in the forest, Lee Aseok walked with deliberate calm until he spotted something bizarre ahead.

  A greenhouse.

  Not a gate. Not a dungeon. A literal greenhouse.

  Made of transparent magic panels, balanced precariously between two large stones, with vines wrapped around the base like decorative frosting.

  Inside sat five familiar figures around a makeshift table made of repurposed mana crates.

  He narrowed his eyes.

  Mu Yichen was standing, reviewing a map like some noble general on a tea break.

  Park Taegun looked far too serious for someone sipping soup out of a metal mug.

  Kang Juwon was chewing on a protein bar like it owed him money.

  Seo MinHyun was passed out in a chair, drooling on a crystal tablet.

  And Yoo Eunsae, quiet, formerly flustered Yoo Eunsae, was now sitting upright in a battle jacket, her expression stoic, her aura sharper than ever.

  Lee Aseok blinked.

  Was that a combat braid in her hair?

  The moment they noticed him, everyone froze.

  Then, like synchronized trauma patients, they stood up.

  Before they even said a word, Lee Aseok kept walking without looking at him.

  He stopped directly in front of He Ziqin, who had just finished pouring tea.

  Lee Aseok didn’t even sit down.

  He opened his mouth and said one word:

  “Teleport.”

  He Ziqin sighed long and deep, the kind of sigh that echoed with the weight of unpaid overtime and trauma.

  Then, without needing a word from Lee Aseok, he turned and looked at the others with eyes full of regret.

  They all looked back at him.

  And then, like cursed students hearing the school bell after summer break, they rose from their chairs in perfect synchronization, groaning, stretching, shoulders slumping.

  “Time to die again,” Seo MinHyun muttered, dragging his feet.

  “I just sat down,” Park Taegun muttered, grabbing his shield like it was his coffee cup.

  Kang Juwon wordlessly shoved the rest of his protein bar into his mouth like it was his last meal.

  “Teleport where this time?” Seo MinHyun asked groggily, wiping his mouth.

  “To death,” Kang Juwon replied, standing with a stretch. “To glorious death.”

  Even Mu Yichen, dignified and always graceful, pinched the bridge of his nose like a disappointed parent before following. “Well. The tyrant calls.”

  Aseok glanced at him.

  Mu Yichen calmly looked away.

  And then, Yoo Eunsae.

  Once shy, easily flustered, and chronically soft-spoken, she now looked like someone who had stared into the abyss and punched it in the throat.

  Her expression was hard. Her ponytail is tight. Her battle gear neatly adjusted with a kind of quiet fury.

  She marched like she had a score to settle.

  Maybe with the dungeon.

  Maybe with Lee Aseok.

  Hard to say.

  Either way, she now walked with the rest of them.

  No hesitation.

  No second-guessing.

  Just quiet, purposeful rage.

  Which meant one thing: she was now officially part of the Hero Team.

  Just like that, the dungeon-clearing resumed.

  Lee Aseok, as usual, didn't offer explanations, warnings, or prep time. He simply walked—and the others followed like cursed souls on a pilgrimage to Hell.

  Gate after gate was cleared in record time.

  A-rank, B-rank, unstable, irregular, it didn’t matter.

  Monsters barely had time to roar before they were bisected by a glowing holy sword or exploded under Pudding’s erratic zoomies.

  The public, lulled into a false sense of peace after Lee Aseok’s brief disappearance, collectively sighed in resignation.

  “THE TYRANT HERO RETURNS!”

  “FOUR GATES CLEARED IN THREE DAYS: HERO OR NATURAL DISASTER?”

  “GOVERNMENT SPOTTED CRYING IN BACK ALLEY AFTER LEE ASEOK IGNORES STRATEGY PLAN AGAIN.”

  The guilds despaired.

  The media exploded.

  The civilian population cautiously rejoiced.

  And one article, buried in the third page of the Hunter Tribune, nearly broke the internet.

  [Breaking News] B-RANK YOO EUNSAE JOINS TYRANT HERO TEAM

  “The quietly rising B-rank hunter has somehow become part of the infamous Lee Aseok's team. Known for his absolute refusal to work with anyone weaker than A-rank (or anyone at all), his toleration of Yoo Eunsae raises several questions. Theories range from blackmail, prophecy, to the possibility that she makes good tea…”

  The comments section was a warzone.

  “That’s fake, right? Lee Aseok doesn’t work with people. He just uses them as furniture.”

  “She must have skills he respects.”

  “I bet she bribed the husky.”

  As they finished clearing the dungeon, an unexpected visitor waited outside.

  Mu Haejoon.

  One of the most influential guild leaders in the world, and, in another lifetime, Lee Aseok’s sword master.

  Near him stood He Ziqin, nervously holding Pudding like a hostage made of fur, and Yoo Eunsae, standing beside them with the posture of someone who’d accidentally walked into a diplomatic summit.

  The team emerged from the gate in a burst of light and exhaustion. The moment Aseok stepped out, his calm gaze met Mu Haejoon’s.

  He blinked once.

  Then crouched down, and hugged Pudding.

  Everyone froze.

  Seo MinHyun and Park Taegun exchanged a look that said we are not paid enough for this.

  Then, like responsible adults, they gave polite greetings.

  Kang Juwon only nodded, professional courtesy between guild leaders.

  Mu Yichen walked forward, bowing slightly. “Uncle.”

  Mu Haejoon returned the greeting with a faint nod… but his eyes never left Aseok.

  Then, to everyone’s collective horror, he approached.

  His boots stopped just a step away from Aseok. His gaze swept up and down, sharp and unreadable.

  Finally, he sighed, the deep, resigned sigh of a man who’d seen too many disasters and recognized one standing right in front of him.

  “I heard you finally took a break from gate clearing,” he said mildly. “I was relieved.”

  Aseok stared at him. The recognition hit, heavy and cold. The last time they met had been after the Shadow Guild contract. He hadn’t expected to see his old master so soon, much less here.

  Author Note:

  Every “OH MY GOD ASEOK STOP” gives me the strength to write the next disaster.

  Mon ? Wed ? Fri

  (Yes, I too question my life choices.)

  https://www.patreon.com/c/LithutheBloom

  please leave a review or rating—it helps summon new victims readers. ??