Become Overpowered CEO of Hero Clan

Become Overpowered CEO of Hero Clan – 209

Lee Geon-ha’s Rift (6)

Team Leader Lee Geon-ha, who had just left the CEO’s office, raised his eyes sharply.

“You guys. What brings you up here?”

It was none other than the familiar group of four trainees lined up in the lobby.

Seeing the determination etched on their faces, Geon-ha was certain. If he let these kids into the CEO’s office, all hell would break loose.

“If this is about the contract, I’ve already explained it well. You’ll be able to sign new contracts with revised payment terms soon, so calm down and go back now. Don’t make a fuss over nothing, okay?”

“…No. We have to go. We don’t have much time left. We’re also tired.”

Seo Eun-ha’s mood had become somehow wistful.

The other kids were far from their usual cheerful selves too. It’s not like they were gladiators facing a life-or-death battle. Why on earth were they acting so solemn in front of the CEO’s office?

“Team Leader! Thank you for everything. But we have something we need to do. We have to go home with someone very, very precious to us!”

Someone very, very precious.

As that pure, untainted phrase brushed past his ears, one side of his chest ached involuntarily.

It was because the faces of trainee Gil-seong and hero Gil-seong overlapped in his mind.

HR Team Leader Lee Geon-ha pushed aside his empty feelings and struggled to ask:

“What’s this all of a sudden. Where exactly are you saying you’re going?”

Whoosh.

Before the question was finished, Hwang Man-deuk, who had suddenly appeared right in front of him, thrust out his right hand, and Lee Geon-ha’s right hand, accustomed to handshakes in his social life, reflexively extended as well.

Grasp.

The handshake with the muscular aspiring action actor was unexpectedly romantic. Because he could feel that Hwang Man-deuk was sincerely bidding farewell.

“Thank you so much! Team Leader. You must have been an assistant helping us all along. Thanks to you, we were able to hold on until now! You’re the best, Team Leader! This world will probably disappear soon, but we won’t forget you!”

“…”

There was a lot he wanted to say.

But he couldn’t bring himself to utter it.

Because Lee Geon-ha, who had returned to a peaceful daily life, had been denying from the very first day of their meeting that these kids might actually be the four heroes of the Harmony Clan.

“Thanks for taking care of us. I won’t forget you either, Team Leader.”

Yeo Jin-soo’s simple farewell, accompanied by a bright smile, flew like a dagger and pierced Geon-ha’s heart.

Nevertheless.

“I told you, I explained everything well. So why are you all acting like this! Even if there’s something you don’t like, just bear with it a little longer. I can change everything, okay? So can’t you just stop saying weird things and go back now? Hmm?”

Lee Geon-ha, exhausted in body and mind, clung to the present.

The life of a hero, performing dangerous missions with the risk of death at any moment, in a body forcibly possessed by others.

It was something that couldn’t be endured without going mad.

‘You fools. This is Earth from a different timeline.’

Although he didn’t know how the kids had crossed over, this world wasn’t a fictional space-time.

This was another reality existing in the multiverse where office worker Lee Geon-ha had desperately lived.

“We’ve been trying to persuade someone for a long time. But in the end, we failed. So… Now we’re going to drag them out by force if we have to. Thank you for all your hard work. For training us inadequate trainees to become idols.”

With Seo Eun-ha bowing her head at a 90-degree angle as the final gesture, the members passed by Geon-ha and reached the door.

Knock knock knock.

Click.

As soon as the door opened, a bright sunset light poured in.

No sooner had they blocked the intense rays with their palms than the kids disappeared beyond the door.

Soon, a conversation that confirmed Geon-ha’s suspicions reached his ears as he stood rooted to the spot.

—The Leader’s mind is just contaminated. We’ll save him soon.

—This is the most difficult Rift to conquer I’ve ever encountered. It’s been over three months since we came in here. Stop resisting and come back with us!

Seo Eun-ha’s gentle voice and Hwang Man-deuk’s thunderous shout.

It seems that while Lee Geon-ha was winning in office politics and excelling as an HR Team Leader, those kids had been bustling about diligently too.

‘Were they looking for me?’

Thump.

However, between the heroes and HR Team Leader Lee Geon-ha stood one solid door.

Trudge. Trudge.

His footsteps were heavy.

Even so, he had to walk.

Forcibly taking steps that refused to move, Lee Geon-ha distanced himself from the door.

‘All this time, me… What am I? I’m just an office worker.’

[A small ball of light sparkles.]

The war ended in defeat for the Ethereal Kingdom.

HR Team Leader Lee Geon-ha’s job was to adapt well to society and live a happy life.

After grueling hardships, everything had finally been set right.

—Still saying that? I am not your Leader or whatever. I’m just the CEO of Innovation Core Media.

Whoosh!

Boom—

Crash!

Soon, a loud explosion was heard from the other side of the door.

Kaboom!

Aaaaah!

Screams and thunderous sounds echoed through the lobby. Miraculously, the building was still standing.

“Ugh, aaaah! Damn it!”

Though his eyes were now moist with tears as he forcibly dragged his feet that refused to move, HR Team Leader Lee Geon-ha ultimately clenched his fists tightly.

“Team Leader.”

A familiar voice made him stop in his tracks.

The person standing where Lee Geon-ha turned his head was none other than CEO Benjamin’s personal secretary, who bore a striking resemblance to Secretary Hwang Bora.

“Shouldn’t you go in?”

“…Me? On what grounds?”

The world beyond the door.

The world inside the door.

The two different worldviews divided by a single door were likely split into the genres of fantasy and reality.

“I want to live Lee Geon-ha’s reality.”

Office worker Lee Geon-ha lived in reality, while hero Isaac lived in fantasy. The space-time on the other side of the door was likely fraught with extremely dangerous anomalies.

The moment he stepped in, his survival probability would plummet dramatically.

Despite HR Team Leader Lee Geon-ha’s harsh attitude, the secretary continued steadfastly.

“The reason Satanael’s transcendence is dangerous is because it maximizes the instincts of living beings. It shows the Leader’s desires infinitely like this.”

The transcendence of Demiurgos Satanael, the final boss of the Clan of Heroes world view, was contamination.

It was a mind control of nothingness that contaminated all things and turned them into monsters.

Perhaps Secretary Hwang Bora’s words might be right, but.

“From my perspective, you are all fiction.”

Lee Geon-ha was born on a realistic Earth where heroes and villains did not exist.

Therefore, he had been playing a virtual reality game against his will for a long time.

“I don’t want to make wrong judgments swayed by emotions.”

Even if the children on the other side of the door were really the first-string squad of the Harmony Clan, he was ready to willingly turn a blind eye.

Having finally reached the ending and escaped from the long immersion, he couldn’t bear to take on unrewarded duties again.

Nevertheless.

“So this is purely a choice of my own free will.”

In the end, HR Team Leader Lee Geon-ha arrived at a single black door. Seeing Lee Geon-ha like this, a gentle smile lingered on Secretary Hwang Bora’s lips, as if she found him admirable.

“Won’t you regret it?”

“I don’t know. But I do know one thing. That forced conscription and voluntary enlistment are completely different.”

Perhaps this was the second choice.

Hadn’t the crossroads to switch the genre of life from fantasy to reality come once before?

‘In the end, I got tired again.’

With this, he repeated the misdeed of ignoring office worker Lee Geon-ha and choosing hero Isaac twice.

The world that unfolded as he turned the doorknob right after was.

Swish. Click.

“The art hall?”

It was the scene of the first mission where office worker Lee Geon-ha had been dispatched as hero Isaac.

It was Congressman Jung Gil-sang’s book launch party, which many political and business figures had attended.

With such a sci-fi development that deviated from reality, Lee Geon-ha realized that he had finally gone and done it.

He finally faced the fact that the world he had been living in as a manager was nothing more than an imaginary world.

“Team Leader Lee Geon-ha. Why did you come back?”

The figure addressing him from midair while spreading the realm of shadows was none other than ‘Isaac Benjamin Greenwood’.

Surprisingly, he was perfectly fine without a single scratch.

And those words also meant.

“Ugh… T-Team Leader?”

It also meant that the members who had bid a poignant farewell were unilaterally overwhelmed.

The evidence was hero Hwang Man-deuk lying at his feet, bleeding profusely as soon as he opened the door.

【Information Window】

▶ Name: Isaac

▶ Level: ???

▶ Classification: ???

▶ Mutation: ???

▶ Skill: [Final Finish]

After confirming the opponent’s simple specs, Lee Geon-ha slowly looked around at the incapacitated members.

“Why… Why did you come in? Ugh.”

“Haa, let’s all hang in there! We’re heroes, aren’t we? We should be able to protect at least one civilian!”

As Seo Eun-ha, whose forearm had been reduced to a rag, forcibly raised her body, Gil Seong-ah, whose right upper arm was similarly crushed, raised her sniper rifle.

Indeed, Team Leader Lee Geon-ha was the only person who had treated them kindly during the difficult three-month-long conquest of the imaginary world.

Even if they were to fail the conquest, they didn’t want to see the tragedy of him losing his life before their eyes.

Woooong!

Therefore, the members who didn’t know that Lee Geon-ha was their Leader were about to make a last-ditch effort by raising their magic power to the limit, but.

[‘Final Finish’ has been used.]

[The next attack is enhanced with one-hit kill power.]

Gooooo───!

Due to the intense magical energy wave emitted by HR Team Leader Lee Geon-ha, everyone’s movements froze as if possessed by a ghost.

“Team Leader Lee Geon-ha. You’re a fake. Do you think you can win against me?”

“All talk and no action, you shell. If I’m fake, how do you explain this?”

Whoosh!

Fwoosh!

Before Lee Geon-ha’s rebuttal could even finish, what appeared on his left and right were a grotesque black tiger and a sparrow engulfed in blue flames.

Because the two summons were so familiar, ripples spread through the eyes of the incapacitated members all at once.

“Leader?!”

“How is the Team Leader…?”

Just as they were about to fall into self-loathing at the possibility that they might have wasted time on the wrong person during the three-month conquest of the imaginary world, and the fact that they hadn’t recognized their real Leader until now.

HR Team Leader Lee Geon-ha’s order fell.

“Phase 2 begins.”

[The King’s Authority ‘Account Synchronization’ has been activated.]

Even without the King’s Authority ‘Account Synchronization’, the members’ actual combat power was at a 5-star level.

Just how high was Isaac’s level, who was maintaining his composure while simultaneously facing four 5-star heroes with good synergy?

“But what are you? Are you some evil spirit planted by Satanael in the imaginary world?”

“I am Isaac Benjamin Greenwood. The CEO of ‘Innovation Core Media Co., Ltd.'”

Isaac, of unknown origin, who had single-handedly subdued the heroes, was still adhering to his corporate position.

Lee Geon-ha played along with him.

“Is it right for a CEO to beat down trainees? As a manager, I can’t forgive this.”

Woooong!

While Isaac and Lee Geon-ha continued their war of words, the members, after repeated flashy awakening scenes, lined up behind Lee Geon-ha with their wounds completely healed.

Asura Amazon Hwang Man-deuk.

Void’s Redeemer Seo Eun-ha.

Final Battle Weapon Gil Seong-ah.

Sword God Yeo Jin-su.

‘I do what I can do well.’

After half a year of corporate life, which felt long yet short, he met them again. Suppressing his passionate emotions for a moment, HR Team Leader Lee Geon-ha stared straight at the boss monster of the imaginary world.

‘I am a game player.’