Dark red blood stained the floor.
Baek Yuhyun looked down at the massive body collapsed at his feet.

The sword had pierced the Demon King’s heart.
Those cruelly gleaming red eyes had now faded to a dull black.

“Whew, cough! Fck… Even this monstrous bstard finally croaks if you keep stabbing it.”

The curse, spat out thickly with blood, echoed through the half-ruined Demon King’s castle.

It had been a long,
tedious,
and grueling time.

But those sh*tty days had finally come to an end today.
As he gazed at the Demon King’s corpse, a hollow emptiness spread deep within his chest.

Ten years.

A whole ten years.

The time he’d been kidnapped into this damned world while playing a game, forced to roll through the mud as some so-called hero.
The scars and ugly marks etched across his body bore testament to the weight of that time.

“Ughhh…”

Yuhyun groaned as he stretched his aching back.

That’s when it happened.

Shaaaaaaa—

Suddenly, a formless cluster of light appeared above the Demon King’s corpse.
Then, a familiar voice flowed from within the light.

[Hero, at last, you have saved this world.]

A voice that tickled his ears.
Its holy tone alone could make one’s mind feel distant.
But the moment Yuhyun heard it, irritation surged within him.

The being that had “guided” Baek Yuhyun since his summoning, calling itself a goddess.
The very culprit who had kidnapped him and dumped him into this hopeless, sh*tty world.

“Yeah, Ball. I finally killed the Demon King like you wanted. So now, send me back home.”

Yuhyun swallowed his rising anger and responded in a calm tone.

[Do not refer to me, the Goddess of Light, with such vulgar terms! How many times have I—!!]

“Don’t care if you’re the Goddess of Light or some b*tch deity. You’re Ball to me. A glowing orb. Ball.”

[Eeeeek—!! Even until the very end, you truly—!]

The light shimmered faintly with agitation.

Conversations with this thing had always been like this. For ten years.
Yuhyun shrugged, feeling a small sense of satisfaction at its frustration.

“Enough. Just send me back to Earth. I did everything you asked. You said if I killed the Demon King, you’d send me home.”

[Indeed. You have fulfilled my mission flawlessly… Thus, I must grant your wish. However…]

The light hesitated, trailing off.

“Hey.”

Yuhyun cut her off, his voice sinking coldly as he called out to her.

“Fck, did I ask for something complicated? Did I ask to become a god? To rewind time and go back to the past? No. Just one thing. Send me back to Earth. That’s all I wanted. Don’t tell me you’re pulling some bullsht like there’s no way to send me back now…”

He drew the sword still lodged in the Demon King’s heart.
Dark red blood, still warm, dripped from the blade.

“If you lied to me just to make me kill the Demon King, you’re dead. That day, this place will see the birth of the second Demon King.”

Woooooo—

A massive aura surged from Yuhyun’s body, rippling with intensity.
The light flickered in panic, scattering and regathering repeatedly.

[No, no! Hero! The promise to send you back will be kept! How could I break an oath sworn on my divine name?!]

“Then why the hell are you hesitating?”

[It’s… your home…]

“My home?”

[Yes, your home, Earth, is not in a peaceful state right now…]

The goddess answered in a shrinking voice under Yuhyun’s interrogation.

Not in a peaceful state?
As he tilted his head, a bad feeling began to creep up on him.

“Wait a second! You said the time ratio here is ten to one!”

[Correct. While you spent ten years here, only one year has passed on Earth, in another dimension.]

“…And in that one year, what, gates opened on Earth, and awakened hunters and monsters are running rampant?”

[Gates? Awakened? What are those?]

‘Huh, back in my day, the cliché was that when a hero returns home from another world, gates are open. Guess that’s not it.’

“If it’s not that, then what’s this ‘not peaceful’ situation?”

Yuhyun asked, his voice tinged with embarrassment.

[War. A nuclear war has broken out.]

At those words, Yuhyun’s jaw dropped.

“…Nuclear war?”

[Tensions between China and the United States escalated, and they resorted to nuclear weapons. As a result, most nations are on the brink of collapse. And your home country, Korea, caught between the two…]

The goddess didn’t finish, but it was enough for Yuhyun to guess the rest.
If China and the U.S. were lobbing nukes at each other, there’s no way Korea, stuck in the middle, would be unscathed.

It was absurd.
Getting dragged into this sh*tty world while gaming, forced to play hero against his will—that was bad enough.

He thought he’d finally escaped that hell, ready to enjoy a peaceful world.

What? A war broke out?
And not just any war—a nuclear war?

Thud—

In his emptiness, Yuhyun lowered his sword and sat on the Demon King’s corpse like a chair.
“Ha, f*ck.”

He covered his face with both hands, spitting out a curse.

There was no way not to curse in a situation like this.
Why was his life always so screwed up?

‘Is this fair?’

Bzzz—Bzzz—

[Thus, I wished to propose two options to you! I swear, I had no other intentions!]

“Two options…?”

Yuhyun lifted only his eyes, staring at the light.

[Yes. The first is to return you to your home, Earth, as promised. In this case, you can take all the transcendent powers, abilities, and body you’ve built here with you.]

‘Take this power back with me…?’

That was better service than he expected.
With this power, he was confident he could handle radiation or anything else.

Even cleaning up a nuclear war would be possible, though it’d take time given the size of the U.S. and China.

But…
A passage he’d read back on Earth came to mind.

If World War III broke out, the weapons of World War IV would be sticks and stones.
What was the point of being a big shot in a world where modern civilization was destroyed?
There was no reason to return to Earth from this dark fantasy world.

He’d already been treated like a king here.
Having defeated the Demon King, that treatment would only get better, not worse.

“So, what’s the other option?”

[The other option is to send you to a parallel world similar to the one you lived in.]

“A parallel world? No nuclear war there?”

[Correct. There may be slight social and cultural differences, but I can assure you, there is absolutely no nuclear war.]

‘A parallel world with slight cultural differences…’

Yuhyun pondered the goddess’s proposal.

That changed things.
No, it wasn’t bad at all.

[However, in this case, you cannot take your current body with you.]

“Why not?”

[Let me explain. In that parallel world, there was a version of you, but they recently passed away.]

“The parallel world’s me is dead?”

Yuhyun flinched, trembling at the goddess’s words.

[Yes. The parallel world’s you saved up to buy a dream gaming console. But upon starting the first game, they saw a monster and collapsed from a sudden heart attack. With no one around, they passed away.]

Collapsing from a heart attack after seeing a monster pop up in the opening screen?
How weak was the other world’s version of him?
Yuhyun couldn’t hide his dumbfounded expression.

“…Anyway, so what?”

[Your soul would transfer into that body. Thus, you cannot take the powers you currently possess. Of course! Considering your efforts, I plan to grant you a slight blessing…!]

Ah.
So that’s the deal.

Go back to a nuclear-war-torn Earth with his current powers.

VS

Lose all his powers and go to a peaceful parallel world.

For someone else, it might be a tough choice, but for him, it was easy.

“I’ll go to the parallel world.”

Surprisingly, it was the goddess who seemed flustered.

[Are you sure? You’d lose all the power you’ve painstakingly built here and have to start over in an unfamiliar world!]

“Yup.”

Yuhyun nodded firmly.

“I don’t care about losing power. I want comfort.”

Even if it was a parallel world, if it was similar to Earth, adapting wouldn’t be an issue.
More importantly, avoiding a nuclear war in exchange for ten years in this world felt like a fair trade.

‘Delivery! Internet! Food! Hygiene! Dopamine! Those matter more to me than superpowers!’

Sensing his resolve, the light grew quiet, then shone brightly.

[Then, in gratitude for your dedication and efforts, I, the Goddess of Light, shall fulfill your wish.]

The light grew brighter.
The ruined surroundings filled with white light.
As it bathed him, his body tingled.

[May you find happiness in your new world. I sincerely wish you well, Hero.]

The goddess’s voice faded like a dream.
And when he opened his eyes—

“F*ck… The ‘social and cultural difference’… was a gender-reversed world…!?”

Yuhyun had landed in a world where genders were reversed.