The Chicken Legend's Game Becomes Reality - Chapter 65
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 65
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I had defeated the Gate’s boss monster and pocketed a substantial sum of money—leaving this house was child’s play if I really wanted to.
But then.
The moment I stepped inside, Baek Hee-an was waiting for me at the entrance.
“Why are you coming home so late?”
“I told you I was moving out. I was looking at apartments.”
“Are you really planning to move? Are you serious about this?”
“What else would I be? Joking?”
“Why? What’s so uncomfortable? What’s the problem? Where in South Korea could you find a house more convenient than this one?”
Irritating as it was, Baek Hee-an’s words were entirely true.
The luxury of the house went without saying.
More importantly, the refrigerator was always fully stocked, and I had people handle all the cleaning and laundry.
It was incredibly comfortable, but that’s exactly why I wanted to leave before I became too accustomed to it.
“Do you even understand what cohabitation means? Jeong Hee-ji and everyone else keep getting the wrong idea about us! And what about Jeong Si-do! Because of you, I’m getting tangled up with all these weird people!”
“That’s not my—”
“Forget it! Let me ask you something I’ve been dying to know. I can’t hold back anymore.”
A sigh.
The question hadn’t even left my lips before I was already sighing.
“Tell me honestly. Why won’t you let me leave this house? What am I to you? Some livestock? Are you raising me just to—”
“Wh-what are you talking about? Why would you say something so—”
There it was.
I’d struck a nerve.
Baek Hee-an’s composure cracked—he looked flustered and averted his gaze.
“Explain it properly so I can understand. I feel like I’m being kept in captivity. I know you feel sorry for me. But this is excessive. You and I barely knew each other except for that one incident back then. Isn’t this awkward for both of us? So why did you bring me here and keep telling me not to leave? Isn’t this the prelude to a horror movie? Are you some kind of cannibal? I genuinely can’t shake this suspicion—I have to escape!”
All the questions I’d been harboring and my tangled emotions came pouring out at once.
Baek Hee-an’s mouth fell slightly open.
“Excessive? I had no idea you were thinking like this… Your legs became the way they are because of me, and because of that, you’re now—”
“I said I was moving out, not that I wouldn’t take compensation. Damages are always welcome.”
That seemed to displease him—his mouth clamped shut for a moment.
“That’s not actually—”
“If you’re sorry, pay me in money.”
The shrewd Baek Hee-an completely ignored my words and spoke in a careful voice.
“I can’t sleep without you here.”
“Money…? What?”
“After the accident on that MT trip, I developed trauma. So I’ve been taking psychiatric medication all this time—”
It was something I never could have imagined.
‘Psychiatric medication?’
Baek Hee-an had been taking psychiatric medication because of that incident all along.
“Strangely enough, just having you on the upper floor was enough to help—so I stopped taking the medication. It’s like… inter-floor noise ASMR, I guess you could call it—”
“….”
I was so dumbfounded that my thoughts came to a complete halt.
He’d stopped taking his medication.
“Congratulations. I’ll be going then.”
The moment I turned to leave, Baek Hee-an stepped in front of me and raised his voice.
“I told you not to go! Your leg still hurts, so why do you keep trying to leave the house?! I’m doing everything I can for you, so why do you keep—!”
He wasn’t wrong.
The problem was that his kindness felt too overwhelming, and I couldn’t accept it in good conscience.
“I’ve already owed you enough. I’m grateful, but I don’t want to be entangled with someone who causes me pain just by looking at them. I have the money to find my own place, so there’s no reason for me to stay here.”
“If I let you go, then I—!”
He’d just be letting me leave; it’s not like he’d lose money, yet he clung to me so desperately.
“I’m the one who ruined your leg! Don’t you think about my guilt?! Please, let me take responsibility for your life!”
“…?”
Something about that statement felt off.
I understood the context, but anyone hearing this would think we were having a lovers’ quarrel.
‘No wonder Hwang Beom-young got the wrong idea.’
Now that I thought about it, Baek Hee-an was genuinely serious about being entangled with me.
“Responsibility? I was the one who butted in with my big mouth and ended up like this. If I took it to court and filed a formal damages claim, I’d definitely lose.”
In fact, I’d once seriously considered how to get compensation when I saw Baek Hee-an thriving back then.
But unexpectedly, Baek Hee-an had been the one searching for me first.
Baek Hee-an had been kind enough to me.
“I have no feelings for you anymore.”
That was true.
The rage that used to boil up just from seeing him had vanished.
I’d found a way to fix my leg, earned new income through broadcasting, and accumulated enough money to find another place to live.
“If you have no feelings, then I’ll create them from now on!”
“…What are you talking about?”
Here I was, trying to forgive him.
I stared at him in disbelief, and Baek Hee-an poured out his words with bloodshot eyes.
“You’re my savior! Do you know how much I’ve suffered thinking about you?! Where you were eating, why no one had your contact information, why you saved me back then, whether you were staying healthy!”
“….”
“I worried about you so much… and when you appeared before me in such a… shabby state, my heart….”
“You really have a way with words, don’t you?”
His skill at subtly criticizing someone’s appearance was remarkable.
Baek Hee-an, who had grown momentarily wistful recalling the past and his tangled emotions, suddenly glared at me with fierce intensity.
“And then you’re leaving? You want me to go crazy? I’m still looking into ways to fix your leg. Until the damages are fully settled, you’re not leaving my house, so remember that.”
Since when did he get to decide that?
‘Is refusal even an option?’
If I were to be honest, the prospect of continuing to live in this luxury house on someone else’s sympathy wasn’t unappealing.
‘I’ll admit it. This isn’t some fleeting, cheap pity.’
But whenever I recalled that incident where my biological father had brazenly siphoned away the deposit on that shabby, cheap semi-basement jeonse, my appetite vanished entirely.
‘If I stay here much longer, I’ll definitely end up in a pathetic situation depending on Baek Hee-an’s mood. Am I insane? Do I really have to go through that again?’
I truly didn’t want to become accustomed to this kind of kindness.
It was better to fend for myself with my own strength than to rely on someone else’s possessions, constantly anxious and uncertain about when they might be taken away.
That’s what I thought.
“Ten million won per broadcast sponsorship!”
I froze.
My feet, which had been moving to coldly push him away, came to an abrupt halt.
“…What?”
“He’s saying the standard unit for broadcast sponsorships will be ten million won from now on.”
Gulp.
A standard unit of ten million won.
Having already received such generous amounts, the reality of it hit me viscerally.
“That’s nothing to me. Do you have any idea how much wealth I have? You have no idea how ruthlessly I’ve been accumulating money for this moment.”
He sounds insane.
Baek Hee-an’s eyes seemed to be gleaming with excitement, but I was genuinely curious.
The total assets of the world’s top-ranked player.
“H-how much are we talking about?”
“My asset manager told me this. If we calculate the value of my current holdings, it comes to several trillion won.”
“S-several trillion?! How many exactly?!”
“…With the recent surge in cryptocurrency and gold prices, I think they said it was around seven trillion won.”
Whoa.
Even one trillion was an insane amount, but this was seven times that.
My head was spinning.
“Of course, it’s not all in cash. It’s the approximate value when all the stocks, cryptocurrencies, high-value items, buildings, and territories given to me from countries around the world, including the United States, are converted to actual assets. If you’re skeptical, I can even arrange for you to meet my asset manager directly.”
What I was hearing seemed unbelievable.
‘He received territories? What era are we living in, the Middle Ages?’
But it was fairly well-known that Baek Hee-an received various miscellaneous things instead of cash from poor and wealthy nations alike.
In other words, the likelihood that this insane claim was actually true was extraordinarily high.
“Then, then give me a hundred billion won!”
“A mere hundred billion? I could give you that right now. But if you take that money, you’ll leave this house immediately, won’t you?”
“…”
He was right.
If I had that money, I never would have crawled into Baek Hee-an’s house in the first place.
“You… you really are sorry to me, aren’t you?”
My voice trembled.
Money.
If you’re sorry, a hundred billion won!
“Yes. I promised to take responsibility for your life, didn’t I? I can promise you this. I’ll compensate you with consistent broadcast sponsorships and unlimited free housing in this house. Think of it as an installment plan.”
Damn it.
With 70 billion won at his disposal, his pettiness over refusing a mere 10 billion grated on my nerves—yet somewhere deep down, a strange certainty took root.
‘…At least this bastard won’t take back what he gives like my father does, claiming he has no money.’
And the broadcast sponsorships!
If Baek Hee-an kept sponsoring me with 10 million won at a time, that alone would serve as a catalyst, drawing in donations from others.
The sponsor White Eyes was already a household name among my viewers.
Sigh.
‘Maybe this could work….’
My resolve, which had seemed so unshakeable, began to crumble like a salt fortress caught in the rain.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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