Not All Heroes From Earth Are Bad

“You, you too. You come too.”

Choi Hyun-seok pointed at several soldiers while walking around.

In total, he picked five soldiers.

They would make excellent bait.

Looking at the selected bait candidates, Rachel tilted her head.

“Hero, I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“Is there a specific reason you picked those five?”

“Not really. Is there a problem?”

What’s most important when it comes to being bait?

Speed.

After all, it would be a pointless death if they met a monster but couldn’t escape and got eaten.

“Look! Especially this one who looks like a sloth seems like he’d be really slow!”

“It’s fine. Their running abilities are all about the same anyway. Those who’ll live will live, those who’ll die will die.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. So I just picked the ones with annoying faces.”

Choi Hyun-seok said with a grin.

Rachel nodded with a slightly bewildered expression.

“Ah… I see…”

Just going by how he talked, he seemed more like an unhinged psycho killer than a hero.

‘Since the hero will deal with the Demon King’s Army anyway, it’s not really a problem…’

While there wasn’t a problem, it just left her feeling somewhat complicated and ambivalent.

“Well! Enough chitchat, let’s get started.”

Choi Hyun-seok brought the five selected soldiers to a secluded spot.

“I’m going to give you all a very special mission now.”

“Mission?”

The soldier who resembled a sloth asked with a puzzled expression.

Even the way he tilted his head was so slow, he really did look like he’d be slow at running too.

“Yes! This is a very important mission.”

Choi Hyun-seok nodded with a serious expression.

“Hey sloth. Why do you think we came to this forest?”

“To hunt.”

“That’s right! But we can’t hunt right now, can we?”

“That’s correct.”

“Right! Right! Like you said, we need to hunt but we can’t. This is a serious problem!”

“…”

“That’s why I need your help.”

Choi Hyun-seok raised his hand to point at the forest.

“Go make one round through there and come back.”

All five members of the Demon King’s Army tilted their heads 45 degrees.

As if to say, what nonsense is this?

“What do you mean? I don’t understand.”

The sloth asked as their representative.

“Just go take a walk in the forest and come back.”

“There are monsters in that forest.”

“I know.”

“We’ll die if we go alone.”

The sloth spoke quite logically.

The other soldiers nodded in agreement.

“No, no! ‘Will die’ is wrong.”

Choi Hyun-seok wagged his index finger.

“‘Might die!’ That’s the correct way to put it.”

“Isn’t that basically the same thing… Anyway, I don’t want to go.”

All the soldiers nodded in unison at the sloth’s words.

“Right. Why only us?”

“I want to live long and eat lots of meat!”

“I don’t want to go either. Kurook! The forest is scary! Kururook!”

The soldiers raised their hands and each made their complaints.

The atmosphere quickly became chaotic.

Choi Hyun-seok sighed while holding his forehead.

“Haah, can’t be helped.”

Unlike his troubled expression, Choi Hyun-seok was actually at ease.

This level of resistance was well within expectations.

‘If asking nicely doesn’t work, I’ll have to threaten them.’

Choi Hyun-seok decided to bring out his next negotiation card right away.

“I’m going to give you two choices now.”

Choi Hyun-seok pointed at the forest with his finger.

“First. Quietly explore the forest as I said. You might die, but you might also live.”

He then moved his finger from the forest to point at Bobo beside him.

“Second. Explore the inside of a very hungry Bobo’s stomach right now. With this one, you might die, and you definitely won’t live.”

Perhaps understanding Choi Hyun-seok’s words,

Saliva dripped heavily from Bobo’s mouth.

“Kwang!”

His energetic bark seemed to urge them to choose the second option.

Choi Hyun-seok leaned in close with a devilish smile.

“Choose. What will it be?”

***

Naturally, all the poor soldiers chose the first option.

Having a chance of dying was better than certain death.

“Good. Are you ready?”

“Th-this is strange! This is strange!”

The sloth shouted as if struggling.

“Chef! You said to go for a walk! This isn’t a walk!”

“What are you talking about? This is all for your convenience. Instead of making you run round trip, I changed it to one way. You should be grateful.”

Currently, the sloth soldier was being held by Usaru.

With one word from Choi Hyun-seok, the sloth would have the rare experience of flying through the air.

‘It won’t work if these guys just wander around nearby and come back.’

There would be no point if the ones meant to lure monsters just circled the area.

After some thought, Choi Hyun-seok decided to have Usaru throw the bait.

“Don’t worry too much. See the fire we lit? Just run towards the smoke when you see it. Easy, right?”

“Sa-save me! Save me!”

“Someone might misunderstand if they hear you.”

Choi Hyun-seok smirked and lightly tapped Usaru.

“You know? Throw with all your might, full power.”

Usaru nodded with a bright smile.

He seemed really excited, as if finding this situation fun.

“Alright. Throw!”

“Usaru!!!”

Usaru swung his giant arm.

Whoosh!

A sound of air being torn rang out.

And simultaneously, the sloth flew through the sky.

“Kyaaaaaaa~!”

Watching the sloth quickly disappear into the distance, Choi Hyun-seok smiled with satisfaction.

“Good. Next, throw in that direction.”

“Usaru! Got it!”

Usaru picked up the next sacrifice.

“P-please spare me! Chef!”

The soldier even switched to honorifics to try to survive, but it was useless.

“Someone might think you’re going to die. Just run and you can live.”

“N-no!”

Choi Hyun-seok casually wiggled his finger.

“Throw.”

“Usaru!”

“Kyaaaaaaa!”

The second soldier also flew through the sky.

“Hero, they’re really flying far!”

Rachel shielded her eyes from the sun and craned her neck.

She seemed curious about how far the soldier would fly.

“Hero, I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“What if they die right when they land?”

Choi Hyun-seok fell into thought at Rachel’s question.

That was a problem he hadn’t considered.

“Hmm, they’ll probably live, right? In movies and anime, they always hit tree branches or something and survive.”

“But they’re not main characters.”

Only main characters survive like that.

Would minor extra soldiers from the Demon King’s Army have such luck?

“You have a point…”

It was quite convincing.

Scratching his head, Choi Hyun-seok spoke.

“I don’t know. Let’s just throw them all and wait and see.”

They were busy keeping the bonfire going to send up smoke.

If the thrown soldiers were alive, they would return by following this smoke.

“Continue.”

“Usaru!”

The excited Usaru kept throwing the bait one after another.

“Kyaaaaa!”

“Save meeeee!”

It didn’t take long for all five pieces of bait to fly through the sky.

The cooking soldiers watched trembling.

“Kik! I want to live a long life…!”

“The chef human is insane.”

“They’re just crazy…”

Complaints could be heard from here and there.

But no one actually stepped forward.

It was obvious they’d end up as bait if they spoke up unnecessarily.

The Demon King’s Army was an organization where rank equaled power.

Here, only Usaru and Bobo were stronger than Choi Hyun-seok.

Of course, if the soldiers attacked together, they could subdue Choi Hyun-seok instantly.

But as mentioned above, with Usaru and Bobo present, that was impossible.

With two extraordinary monsters standing guard, the soldiers wouldn’t dare think of attacking even in their dreams.

“Hmm… They’re quite late.”

Choi Hyun-seok frowned while looking at the sky.

“Hero, let’s wait a bit more. It’s only been 10 minutes.”

Rachel said while checking her wrist.

There was a clock drawn with pen there.

“Maybe they all died from the fall like you said?”

“That’s possible too.”

“Hmm, what should we do.”

“Hero, how about throwing a few more?”

“Throw more?”

“There’s no harm in having extra bait ready.”

“That’s true.”

The only loss would be the lives of those thrown.

Just as Choi Hyun-seok was seriously considering throwing more soldiers…

“Aaaaah!”

Screams started coming from inside the forest.

“Ooh! They’re coming!”

Rachel said in an excited voice.

“Sa-save me!!!”

The first bait to return was the sloth.

Unlike his previous sluggish movements, he was sprinting through the forest at incredible speed.

“See? Even the slow ones get fast when they’re desperate.”

“Oh, you’re right.”

“Wonder how many they brought though.”

Choi Hyun-seok watched the forest intently.

“Kwaaaa!”

“Keeek, keek!”

There weren’t many monsters chasing the sloth.

“Only three…”

All were monsters he’d seen in ‘Useful Encyclopedia! – Monster Edition’.

It didn’t seem too difficult to handle even alone.

“Well then, shall we?”

Just as Choi Hyun-seok was about to step forward.

“Usaru!”

Excited at seeing the monsters, Usaru rushed out first.

“Hey! Hey! Where are you going! Hey, you!”

Choi Hyun-seok tried to catch up belatedly, but he couldn’t match Usaru’s superior physical abilities.

“Usaru!”

Arriving in front of the monsters, Usaru started swinging his giant 2-meter wooden club.

“Usa! Usa! Usa! Usa! Usa!”

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Usaaaa~! Ru!”

Kwang!

It took less than 10 seconds for the monsters to become bloody pulp.

Looking at the monsters reduced to bloody mush, Choi Hyun-seok wore a dejected expression.

“Wonder if we can salvage any meat properly…”

It seemed they’d have to use it all as ground meat.

***

The bait operation was carried out several more times.

The results were all the same.

“Usa! Usa! Usa! Usa!”

Whenever Usaru saw monsters, he’d get excited, rush out, and turn them all to pulp.

“Kwang!”

With the hungry Bobo joining in too, it became a complete monster battle.

In between, Choi Hyun-seok desperately tried to gather experience points but the results were disappointing.

“Only gained 2 levels in total…”

Despite hunting dozens of monsters, his level barely increased.

Choi Hyun-seok returned to the kitchen with a dejected face.

“Good work everyone today. Rest well and see you early tomorrow morning.”

The cooking soldiers left with gloomy faces at Choi Hyun-seok’s words.

“I want to quit being a cook…”

“Mom! I miss mom!”

“I-I taste bad! I taste bad!”

Some soldiers who became bait were showing symptoms of PTSD.

They would all spend sleepless nights worrying about who would become bait next.

“Yeah yeah. Good work everyone and see you tomorrow.”

He couldn’t care less what happened to the Demon King’s Army.

Hero Choi Hyun-seok just waved his hand casually and returned to the kitchen.

“Now the real fight begins.”

While the hunting soldiers’ work was done for the day, the cooking soldiers were just getting started.

As the chef, Choi Hyun-seok naturally had many tasks left too.

“Where’s Golum!?”

Choi Hyun-seok looked for the sous chef Galum.

“H-here I am!”

Galum came running out from inside the kitchen in a hurry.

‘Why is he calling me again…’

He was already troubled by all the meat being brought as ground meat.

He anxiously watched what the crazy human chef would order next.

“I called because I have something to ask.”

“Yes.”

“The officers who eat food made in the kitchen start from battalion commander, right?”

“That’s correct.”

“Where do they eat? Do the officers come here directly?”

Galum shook his head.

“Assigned soldiers come to take the food away.”

“Ah, is that so?”

Choi Hyun-seok’s mind worked quickly.

‘Hemis said to operate the kitchen normally from tomorrow. So the officers will eat from tomorrow or the day after.’

In other words, they could use today’s meat however they wanted.

After finishing his thoughts, Choi Hyun-seok looked at Galum.

“Gather all the cooking soldiers. We’re going to have cooking practice now.”

It was a good opportunity to assess the soldiers’ cooking skills.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! If you would like to support me or read advanced chapters, you can do so by unlocking chapters.

https://ko-fi.com/ippostranslations