Chapter 21
'At this rate...'
He could confidently say that he would reach the pinnacle realm, called a master, within half a year at the latest.
'Amazing.'
In the past, when he was active as a martial artist in the Thousand Continent, it took a full 10 years to even discuss the pinnacle realm.
But now, less than a month after returning to Earth, he was already discussing the pinnacle realm.
Although he had past experience and knowledge, it was still an absurdly fast rate of growth.
'I never knew becoming stronger could be this easy.'
He could even feel himself getting stronger moment by moment.
Every time he leveled up and used bonus points, he could immediately feel the changes in his body.
'Hunter... it's an even better job than I thought.'
For a martial artist, there's nothing more joyful than becoming stronger.
And the hunter profession allowed him to earn enormous amounts of money as well.
'4.1 billion won.'
50 million won as promised for handling the E-grade gate, with an additional 20 million won bonus, totaling 70 million won.
An additional 75 million won from selling the dimensional core and monster byproducts and magic stones.
Lastly, with the 5 billion won contract fee added, even after taxes, over 4 billion won had been deposited into his account.
'With this much money...'
He could help his family who were struggling with living expenses.
It meant he no longer had to just watch as his family worried about tomorrow's livelihood.
As a smile spread across his face, he caught the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs beyond the front door.
Though nothing was visible yet, his heightened senses immediately told him who was coming.
'Mom, Dad, and Seo-yun.'
3 PM - normally it would be quite early for family members to be returning home.
Moreover, they never came together like this.
But Lee Seong-jun's expression showed no sign of surprise.
After all, it was he, Lee Seong-jun, who had made the appointment with his family in the first place.
Lee Seong-jun stood up, pushing his chair back with his waist, and immediately headed towards the front door.
Clunk-!
Lee Su-hyeok's eyes widened at the suddenly opened door as he stood at the front.
"...Were you going out somewhere?"
"No, I just came out to greet you."
"How did you know?"
"I heard the sound."
"I guess being a hunter really is amazing."
With Lee Su-hyeok chuckling and leading the way, the family members took off their shoes and sat down at the dining table chairs in the living room one by one.
The gathered family members then turned their heads to look at Lee Seong-jun.
"Son, can you tell us now?"
"I'm curious why you suddenly asked us to take a half day off."
If it had been an ordinary family living an ordinary life, they could have talked slowly after work.
But because everyone was so busy struggling with living expenses, there were occasional unfortunate incidents where someone in the family would leave for work before all family members could gather in one place.
Wanting to ease his family's worries and burdens from living expenses as quickly as possible, he boldly requested that all family members use a half day off.
"I have an important announcement to make."
"An important announcement?"
Everyone's eyes gathered on Lee Seong-jun at once.
Having prepared his mind sufficiently beforehand, Lee Seong-jun nodded and opened his mouth.
"To summarize the main point simply, you no longer need to work excessively day and night."
Lee Su-hyeok's head tilted back.
"I don't understand what you're saying."
"It's exactly as I said. You no longer need to worry about money, so instead of forcing yourselves to work like now, I'd like you to do what you want to do."
For clear understanding, he handed Lee Su-hyeok a bank book that he had prepared and organized in advance.
"First, check it with your own eyes."
At Lee Seong-jun's words, Lee Su-hyeok opened the bank book handed to him.
At that moment, Lee Su-hyeok's eyes widened.
"Hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand, million, ten million, hundred million, billion..."
Seeing Lee Su-hyeok's reaction, Lee Seo-yun quickly checked the bank book and her eyes shook.
"Where did this huge amount of money come from?"
"Where else? Of course it's money earned from hunter work."
"...But you haven't even been working as a hunter for a month."
"Yes, that's right."
"And you earned 4 billion won?"
Lee Seo-yun, who had been observing the conversation and reading the atmosphere, gently opened her mouth.
"You're not... doing anything illegal, are you?"
Lee Seong-jun's palm quickly stretched out towards Lee Seo-yun's forehead.
Smack-!
"Ow!"
"How dare you, what do you take your brother for?"
Lee Seo-yun, rubbing her forehead with her hand, immediately offered an apology.
"Sorry, I was so surprised that I misspoke."
Instead of answering, Lee Seong-jun let out a small laugh before turning his head to continue the conversation.
"The immediate income itself isn't this big. It just looks like I earned a lot because the contract fee came in this time."
Despite the reasonable explanation that followed, Lee Su-hyeok still couldn't close his gaping mouth.
"Even so..."
He was well aware that hunters' value easily exceeded tens of billions of won.
But that was based on high-ranked hunters.
It could be said that among those who had started hunter work less than a month ago, those who received contract fees amounting to tens of billions were extremely rare.
In South Korea, they could be counted on one hand.
Lee Su-hyeok bit his lip hard.
'How hard must life have been in that place called the Thousand Continent...'
There is no reward without cost.
This was one of the life wisdoms gained from living for quite a few years.
Therefore, he could tell that Lee Seong-jun must have gone through considerable hardship to gain his current strength.
"You must have... had a really hard time."
"It's okay. I'm being rewarded now for all the effort I put in back then."
Despite Lee Seong-jun's bright smile, Kim Ji-young's eyes were filled with worry.
"Son, are you really okay?"
Time doesn't just give wisdom.
It also tends to instill quite sharp intuition and insight.
In other words, what Kim Ji-young was worried about now wasn't just the past.
She was considering those who might be jealous or try to check him when he earned a lot of money and gained strong power.
However, as Lee Seong-jun had already finished preparing his mind earlier, he could answer confidently.
"Yes, I'm fine. So now you can just do what you want to do and live comfortably without worrying."
They knew he was doing hunter work because the family circumstances weren't good.
However, what they knew intellectually and what they faced in reality were clearly different.
That's why Lee Seong-jun's family couldn't easily answer.
Their eyes held several complex emotions.
The silence lengthened quite a bit.
But Lee Seong-jun waited without saying anything.
"..."
It was a problem that was bound to require deep consideration from the start.
Even for family who had lived together for a lifetime, it wouldn't be easy to readily accept such a large amount of money.
'It must be burdensome...'
Because they're family, they care for each other.
In fact, the family members had always tried not to pass their burdens onto each other.
But now suddenly, one person was trying to shoulder all the burdens they had been carrying.
Although the situation wasn't favorable, it was natural to feel sorry. They might even deprecate themselves, thinking they were useless burdens.
As various worries flashed through his mind, Lee Su-hyeok, who had been observing the family members, opened his mouth.
"No matter how I think about it, this doesn't seem right. You earned this money by risking your life..."
"Please don't say that."
Lee Seong-jun cut off Lee Su-hyeok's words.
Unlike his foolish past self, he now knew for certain.
That his father, Lee Su-hyeok, was a person who had sacrificed his own life for his family.
So how could such a father feel guilty and push away his family's sincere feelings just because of poor family circumstances?
It made no sense.
Rather, this could be seen as proper compensation.
The past Lee Seong-jun would never have thought like this.
Because he had taken the sacrifices of the head of the family, his father, for granted.
Because he thought it was the natural duty of the head of the family to protect the family.
But now he knows.
Because through his life in the Thousand Continent, meeting countless people, he had seen and learned many things.
'There's nothing that's natural in this world.'
Even among blood relatives, there were plenty of evil people in the world who would ruthlessly abandon or try to use their family.
Nevertheless, his father, Lee Su-hyeok, had made sacrifices because he held sincere love for his family.
He was so grateful and wanted to convey this feeling.
However, it was still too difficult to speak the sincere feelings deep in his heart.
A brief silence fell for a moment.
But in that time, as if he had organized his thoughts, Lee Seong-jun nodded once and carefully opened his mouth.
"...This is what I want to do."
"I know that. We talked about hunter work before, didn't we? But..."
"No, it's not just about hunter work."
"Huh?"
Lee Su-hyeok tilted his head slightly, expressing his confusion.
"This, too, is the same. This is what I want to do. I... I don't want to see my family struggling anymore."
"Hmm... Your heart is in the right place, but this dad isn't struggling."
"Mom is really fine too, so don't worry."
"That's right, I can take care of myself well enough."
Bright smiles spread across the family members' faces.
Lee Seong-jun felt his heart ache even more at that sight.
"It's just how I feel. I want to see you living happily, smiling while doing what you want, not working forcibly while worrying about livelihood."
"Forcibly... As we have to live in society, there surely were times when we had to work forcibly even though we didn't want to. But even on such days, this dad could spend them smiling."
Lee Su-hyeok's hand on the table overlapped with Lee Seong-jun and Lee Seo-yun's hands.
"It's all thanks to you and Seo-yun. Since you two were born, no matter how hard things got, this dad could always live with a smile."
By now, a bright smile had spread across Lee Su-hyeok's face.
"So just seeing you two grow up healthy like this is enough for this dad to live happily."
Lee Seong-jun's eyes trembled as he felt the warm temperature of Lee Su-hyeok transmitted from his fingertips.
"..."
Lee Seong-jun's lips moved several times.
But no words came out.
It wasn't that he had nothing to say, it was just that the words couldn't come out of his mouth.
It was because he couldn't handle the emotion welling up in one corner of his heart.
'Yes, this is how he was.'
He always tried to embrace the family with love.
That's why he wanted to give back even more.
The love and affection he had received.
Lee Seong-jun spoke with his fists tightly clenched.
"Just think of it as my selfish desire. I want to see my family become even happier than they are now."
"Sigh..."
At Lee Seong-jun's resolute words, a long sigh flowed from Lee Su-hyeok's mouth.
Fortunately, the shadow that had fallen on his face was gone.
But the wrinkles that had settled between his brows were still there.
Still, his face looked much more peaceful than at first, as if Lee Seong-jun's sincerity had reached him to some extent.
"Let me ask just in case, can this be refused?"
An awkward smile spread across Lee Seong-jun's face.
"..."
Of course, there was no option to refuse from the beginning.
He would make sure all family members could live happy lives, to the point where it felt like compensation for their hard lives so far.
Perhaps sensing Lee Seong-jun's firm resolve?
In the end, Lee Su-hyeok nodded his head.
"You really are unstoppable."