Chapter 6: Dreams and Debts

Shin Seoyoon, a teacher at Hope Orphanage, is an incredibly pure-hearted person.
Thirty-three years old. She might seem like a stern elite at first glance, but her eyes sparkle when she smiles.

She was born into a wealthy Seoul family.
What follows is a rather clichéd story.
One day, she felt guilty about the harsh lives of children outside her bubble and decided she had to leave home immediately.

Not exactly a wise move.
Strictly speaking, it’s not even that noble.

Maybe it’s because I’ve seen too many people like her, in both my past and current lives.
I can’t help but let out a bitter smile.

The purity of these people rarely ends well.
They either meet a tragic, untimely death or get betrayed by the very people they approached with good intentions.

Idealists inevitably clash with reality.
Having grown up in a greenhouse, they don’t know how to fight the real world.

Ten years ago, when Shin Seoyoon first arrived at the orphanage, she was on the same path.
At first, she threw herself into the work, but over time, she started noticing things that didn’t add up.

– What? Shouldn’t we at least let the kids see how much is in their accounts? It’s money they earned themselves.
– Calling it social training, but isn’t the workload too harsh? Let the kids rest a bit.

Hope Orphanage wasn’t a normal place.
At least, it didn’t align with the common sense Shin Seoyoon had from living in Seoul’s city center.

She began to stand out, arguing with the orphanage director.
Eventually, she was outright shouting.

– Isn’t this embezzlement?
– The kids’ hard-earned money is going to your wife, and you’re saying it’s not embezzlement?

For someone raised in a greenhouse, Shin Seoyoon had a fiery temper.
She was never the delicate rich girl you might expect.

– This is child exploitation!

Back then, I was eight, but I had my past-life memories.
I could immediately grasp what was happening.
And where things were headed.

Hope Orphanage had little hope to offer.
The director was embezzling government funds and the kids’ wages, running a human trafficking operation under the guise of adoption.
And that meant the orphanage was under the shadow of criminal organizations.

That’s why I kept my head down.
At eight, my body couldn’t wield swordsmanship properly.
I could take down a few adults, but waging war against an entire crime syndicate would be tough.

Shin Seoyoon’s situation was worse.
She wasn’t a swordsmanship genius or particularly strong.
Eliminating a lone rich girl with no family ties? That’s a simple task.

I made contact with her.

“Teacher, you’re gonna get in big trouble like this.”
“Huh? Why?”
“There are scary people around the director. They’ll probably try to kill you soon.”
“Wooyeon, what are you talking about?”

I was a bit too mature for an eight-year-old.

“Just quit and go home. Instead of working here, you could donate a ton from home.”

For a moment, twenty-three-year-old Shin Seoyoon wavered, but she just patted my head and gave a gentle smile.

“It’s okay. Nothing’s going to happen to me.”

Her eyes looked at me with pity.

People like her always say the same thing.
And their endings are always the same.
If I hadn’t leapt out of bed at dawn and rushed to Shin Seoyoon’s quarters, she might’ve vanished forever, never to be found.

Thud!

Two masked men collapsed instantly.
Shin Seoyoon, wide-eyed, looked between the floor and me, then asked,

“Are they dead?”
“Just knocked out.”

Worrying about others’ lives even after nearly dying herself?
But her next response caught me off guard.

“Then can we tie them up?”

Seeing her sly grin, I realized something.
She wasn’t ordinary.
Specifically, I noticed it from her hands.

“Teacher, you’re carrying a gun…?”
“Yup.”

Not every greenhouse flower is delicate.
I might’ve saved the lives of those attackers instead.

Post-apocalyptic Korea.
The story of a rich girl volunteering at an orphanage didn’t end in the usual tragedy.

Because her family wasn’t your average rich family.

[Congressman Shin Changseon’s Granddaughter Attacked While Volunteering at Orphanage]

That dawn assault lit a fuse.
The orphanage’s corruption, fraud, and shady dealings made headlines daily, and the topic spread.

[Column] Time for War on Crime, Season 2.
Orphanages Turned into Crime Syndicates. Is This Okay?

Criminals were rounded up like sausages.
The director and his wife, who’d ruled the orphanage, were no exception.

“No way, you’re a congressman’s granddaughter? You should’ve told us!”
“Miss, listen, it wasn’t on purpose, we were just thinking of the kids…”

In front of the director’s excuses, Shin Seoyoon—granddaughter of Congressman Shin Changseon, guardian of Hope Orphanage, and everyone’s teacher—flashed a bright smile.

“Get lost.”

Hope Orphanage was normalized by overwhelming power.

That’s when the orphanage’s welfare system started functioning properly.
Government funds were used correctly, and with public attention, the funding even increased.
The kids could finally receive the full rewards of their labor.

It happened about five years earlier than my plan.
I was going to wait until my body matured, then sweep away the director and liberate the orphanage.

Shin Seoyoon, the one who made it happen,
that terrifying woman, was standing right in front of me now.

I don’t know why she’s still working at the orphanage after ten years.
She’s someone with both terrifyingly pure conviction and terrifyingly meticulous cunning.

“I checked with the other kids. You borrowed money from them before leaving the orphanage, didn’t you?”
“I’m sorry…”
“Sorry doesn’t cut it. What did you do with the money you got from your friends?”
“Well, I used it to buy streaming equipment. I planned to earn money and pay them back.”

Shin Seoyoon let out a deep sigh.

“Can you return that stuff?”
“Probably not. Once a virtual reality device is imprinted on a user, it can’t be transferred to someone else.”
“So you can’t.”
“Yeah.”
“Then what’s your plan now?”
“Well, um… I’ll earn it back and pay them?”
“Wooyeon.”
“I really have a plan.”

If she thinks I’m some con artist scamming orphans, she’s dead wrong.

“You might not know, Teacher, but people leaving the orphanage often pool their money to set up a life together. This is kind of like that.”
“So you’re saying you’re setting up a life with three guys? Oh my, how scandalous. Did I get that right?”
“Gasp.”

It wasn’t seduction—it was my epic swordsmanship that won them over. The girls just didn’t get the romance of it.
But that excuse wouldn’t fly, so I changed the subject.

“You know my swordsmanship skills, Teacher. At the very least, I won’t fail to make money. Right now, I’m streaming for an easy life, but if push comes to shove, I can run dungeons or fight monsters. The amount I borrowed might seem big now, but give me a little time, and I’ll pay it back quick.”
“That’s one issue, but there’s another. If other kids see you and start borrowing money left and right, what happens then? What if someone can’t pay it back and gets in big trouble?”
“Those guys aren’t Joo Wooyeon.”
“Sigh…”

Shin Seoyoon’s sighs seemed to multiply, but for a bright future, there’s no helping it.

“So what’s your detailed plan? It’s not just about looks and skill, right?”
“First, I’ll climb to the top ranks, then network with the people there. Most top rankers stream, so I can get a lot of help with my channel. Plus, just being a ranker boosts your stream’s credibility.”
“How do you network?”
“You meet and talk in-game. It’s virtual reality.”
“Oh, what? It’s a virtual reality game? Like, you actually go into a game world and swing swords?”

Guess being in her thirties makes her slow to pick up new tech.

“It’s been a thing for years, and you didn’t know?”
“Oh! That’s why you kept talking about swordsmanship! I was wondering what it had to do with gaming!”
“Yup.”

Then came a long explanation.

What kind of game I’m playing.
How much money I can make, and where my skills stand.
How I plan to grow my streaming channel and generate revenue.

A three-and-a-half-hour explanation.
An exhausted Shin Seoyoon stared at me blankly.

“What even are you?”
“I’ll show you I can succeed with streaming.”

First, I need to climb the ranks in the game.
To do that, I’ll have to mercilessly crush some weak souls.