Chapter 2 - A Life-and-Death Deal
"Haah, today's schedule is finally over. Having to explain everything one by one is such a pain. It's not like it's the first or second time; I feel like I've done this a hundred times already."
The goddess, Ruin, whose pure white wings had once shimmered, was gone.
All that remained was an ordinary being with a withered expression.
A being much like a university student forced into a lecture on the very first day of the semester.
It made sense, as this was a task she had repeated hundreds of times.
Summoning heroes from another world and explaining the rules of this place.
Now, the mere thought of it was so tiresome it was enough to make her swear.
"If it weren't for the Great Goddess, I wouldn't have to be doing this crap."
The reason Ruin was grumbling like this was simple.
It was because she wasn't doing this voluntarily, but because she was ordered to.
If the heroes she summoned would at least defeat the Demon King, she might feel some sense of accomplishment.
But reality was different.
Most heroes died without even lasting a month.
Even if they survived longer than a month, they died without ever getting close to the Demon King.
At this point, she wondered if she was recruiting a suicide squad instead of heroes from another world.
Ruin's spirit had broken long before any hero could break the Demon King.
"I wonder how many from this batch will survive?"
Just as the goddess let out a sigh unbefitting of her station, she heard a sound that should not have been there.
"Excuse me?"
"Eeeeeek!"
Ruin let out a scream without realizing it.
It was an act that, had the Great Goddess or even a senior goddess seen it, would have gotten her dragged to the stairway for a 15-minute lecture.
That's how truly startled Ruin was.
"Wh-who are you? Why are you still here?"
"You're the one who summoned me, Lady Ruin. Don't you remember?"
"Ah? Ah..."
A strange being, left all alone.
His attire was clearly not of the Lumos Continent.
This meant he was a being from another world that Ruin herself had summoned.
In that instant, Ruin felt her heart drop.
There was a legend passed down only within the goddess realm.
Once upon a time, a goddess had forgotten about a being from another world, leaving him stranded in a subspace.
The otherworlder, trapped in that subspace for 120 years, suddenly awakened a new power.
He drove the Lumos Continent to the brink of destruction and only calmed down after killing that goddess.
Ever since then, the absolute taboo of the goddess realm was to never leave a human from another world behind in subspace.
In other words, if this got out, she would be summoned before the Great Goddess herself and get an earful.
'No way, that can absolutely never happen.'
Ruin shuddered as the image of the Great Goddess's ice-cold gaze came to mind.
She racked her brain over and over, searching for the best possible move.
"I have been waiting for you, O Final Hero. I have prepared something special just for you."
Ruin's final smile was strange for some reason.
I hovered around the goddess, trying my best to receive the blessing.
I was being so obvious about it that if she couldn't see me, there had to be a serious problem with her optic nerves.
And yet, the thing I feared actually happened.
The goddess not only failed to give me a blessing, but she sent all the other kids away, leaving me behind.
At this point, the problem wasn't just about the blessing.
There was no other choice.
I had to use that method.
"Excuse me?"
I was generally excluded from people's senses of sight and hearing.
But that didn't mean I was ignored in every single situation.
After all, I wasn't a ghost but a real, existing person.
If someone bumped into or touched me, they would perceive me properly.
This time, to maximize the effect, I specifically poked the nape of the goddess's neck.
"Eeeeeek!"
Just as I expected, the goddess shrieked.
It meant that until I had physically touched her, she had completely forgotten about my existence.
But her reaction was a little strange.
The moment she found me, her face crumpled by the second.
She looked just like my elementary school homeroom teacher.
The teacher who had left me at the rest stop.
Her face had turned pale from the guilt of realizing her mistake so incredibly late.
At the time, the teacher had pressed a 100,000 Won bill and various snacks into my elementary school hands and said:
"I'm so sorry. Let's go somewhere even better together. This will be our secret from the other teachers!"
I was an elementary schooler at the time, but I wasn't an idiot.
I realized that leaving me behind was a huge deal for the other person, and that I could use this as leverage to get something out of it.
This time was the same.
If leaving me behind was a mistake big enough to make a goddess's face turn pale, then there was definitely something to be gained here.
'Hoooh… Interesting…'
"I kept you behind to give you something special, O Final Hero."
"Hmm… Are you sure you didn't just forget?"
"Of course not. How could I possibly forget the hero of the prophecy?"
She tried to speak clearly, but the ends of her words trembled slightly.
I could guess the reason why.
Considering her muttering from before, it seemed there was another goddess above her.
"Phew, telling lies like that. Won't you get in trouble if they find out you left me behind like this?"
"How did you—! No, that's not it. Who would get in trouble for what?"
"You, Lady Ruin. From the Great Goddess."
"...Who are you? How do you know about that?"
It seemed she didn't even remember the things she'd blabbered on about herself.
Well, to other people, my presence was like air.
It was only natural since she wouldn't have even been conscious that I was there.
"I'm just a poor otherworlder that you summoned. I don't know how many times you've repeated this whole act, though."
"Gasp..."
"Anyway, the important thing right now isn't who I am. It's the question of how we're going to solve this little problem."
"It's simple. I will give you my blessing. And then I will send you to where you are supposed to be. Then there will be no problem."
"But my memory will remain. What if I happen to tell another goddess somewhere? And from the looks of it, it seems there's more than just one."
In that moment, the goddess's eyes turned fierce. For a second, my chest tightened and sweat poured from my entire body.
Summoning me as a hero and yet having secrets like this… this goddess wasn't the kind of goddess I had imagined.
If there was any hope, it was that she didn't kill me even after exuding such a murderous aura.
In that case, what was needed here was a proper negotiation.
My goal isn't to fight a goddess.
I'm just trying to get a little something extra by using her mistake as an excuse.
"Our dear hero wouldn't do something so foolish. Right?"
"That's right. All I need is to receive what I didn't get. Along with a little extra for the mistake."
"..."
"Well. You could also just send me back to my original world. It's not like my absence will change much, right?"
"Hah, this hero is truly courageous. But that is impossible. The fact that you died is unchangeable. Even if I were to send you back, you would simply die a cold death."
"Can't you send me back alive?"
"That is the reward for when you defeat the Demon King. Without that, there is not enough causality."
"Hmm..."
I didn't know exactly what "causality" was, but it basically meant she wasn't going to do it.
Her tone was firm when she said it.
If that's the case, then on to Plan B.
If I can't go back, it's important to find a way to adapt to this new world.
Besides, if she's sent heroes to kill the Demon King this many times, the problem could be solved by someone else, not necessarily me.
"How about we make a deal? In my world, if you want to buy someone's silence, you have to offer a worthy reward."
"You truly are a brave human. Are you not afraid?"
"Should I be afraid of the goddess who willingly brought me here killing me? Or should I be afraid of going outside with nothing and getting killed by a monster?"
"..."
"And who knows. If you give me a decent reward, I might actually go and catch that Demon King."
"Hmm."
The goddess scanned me from top to bottom. She looked utterly unimpressed.
I admit it.
I'm a scrawny beanpole who's never properly exercised in his life.
No, seriously, whether it was soccer or basketball, I never once got a pass, so how was I supposed to play sports with anyone?
Well, not that I had any hobbies anyway.
"For you to say that, you don't look at all like a traditional hero."
"Well, that all depends on what I do from now on, doesn't it?"
"I agree. Your strength, agility, intelligence. They are all pathetic. To the point where not a single one is worth mentioning."
"Ugh..."
"But there is just one thing. Your presence. That infinitely faint quality might just be useful."
"Infinitely faint. You're not insulting me, are you?"
"Not at all. Just because it was useless in your land does not mean it will be useless in this one. I shall place my bet on that special quality of yours. And on the shrewdness that allows you to bargain even with a goddess."
In that instant, a pure white light burst forth from the goddess.
[You have awakened as the Goddess's Hero.]
[You have gained the power to adapt to the new world.]
[Lv.1 (Student) - Strength: 3, Agility: 3, Intelligence: 5, Total Combat Power: 10]
Hmm, that's strange.
Since I have no point of comparison, I shouldn't know if these numbers are high or low, but why do they seem so low?
On the other hand, contrary to the somewhat unpleasant sensation, vitality was surging through me.
I could tell that even I, who had never exercised, had become quite a bit stronger.
Even if it was just a 'little bit'.
"This is the same thing you gave the other kids, isn't it?"
"You're quite impatient. There is still something left for you."
[You have changed your job to Assassin.]
[Some stats have been adjusted.]
[Lv.1 (Assassin) - Strength: 5, Agility: 7, Intelligence: 10, Total Combat Power: 80]
[You have acquired an Assassin-exclusive skill.]
[Rear Attack (Lv.1)]
[Delivers a critical strike when attacking an enemy from behind.]
I don't know how the Total Combat Power is calculated, but it became 8 times stronger in an instant.
Just looking at the raw numbers, it wasn't a small increase.
The righteous Kim Hong-seop would have cleanly backed off at this point.
He would think he got what he was owed.
But I'm different.
My life is on the line here.
If I was going to walk away with just what she gave me, I wouldn't have started negotiating in the first place.
"Why did you change my job without my permission! What about my potential!"
"Your potential? With those stats?"
"..."
That one hit right in the gut.
"Your starting stats are abysmal. You would not survive easily as you are. That said, I cannot just give you anything. There is such a thing as fairness in this world. That too falls under the law of causality."
Causality.
The law of cause and effect, was it?
It seemed to be quite important in this world.
"Therefore, a job change is the best option. It is merely fast-forwarding something that is already part of the system governing this world."
According to the goddess, even without changing jobs this way, you could get a job change by reaching level 10.
In other words, it was one of the abilities you get relatively early on.
"Tsk, still, I might have been a better fit for another job..."
"No. You are an assassin."
"You're quite firm about that."
"Do you think it's easy to deceive a goddess?"
"I wasn't deceiving you, though..."
"And that is what makes it so impressive. Your power is reminiscent of the lost god of assassins. You should trust my choice."
In the first place, it wasn't like I had a way to not trust her.
Whatever she gave me was her choice.
All I could do was my best to squeeze out as much as possible.
"I am grateful for the grace you have given me, my lady. I will never speak of the fact that you left me out, anywhere, ever again."
I started laying the groundwork for my next move.
"You say the strangest things."
"I'm just stating the facts. I have received sufficient compensation for you leaving me out and for my silence on that matter, but I have not received anything for your other secrets. The fact that there is a Great Goddess, and that we are one of dozens of batches of heroes you have summoned."
"Holding an opponent's weakness and shaking it is certainly a good strategy. But have you not considered this? The thought that it might be your own life hanging at the end of this negotiation?"
In an instant, the goddess's eyes glowed with a blue light. The immense aura that poured out in that moment was something I could not hope to withstand.
That is why I didn't stop talking until the very end.
"It's only a negotiation because my life is on the line, isn't it?"
A solitary man standing before a god.
Unintentionally, that's what I was experiencing.