Na Hee-seon called Seo Jung-woo first, just as he had advised.

One of the big men who had gotten out with Choi Sun-Myung saw her and ran over, smacking her hand. The smartphone flew and crashed into the wall. The impact shattered the glass and the power went off.

The big man walked over to the wall and completely destroyed the smartphone.

Choi Sun-Myung frowned.

“Judging by how she said a few words into the phone, it must’ve connected to 112, huh? Is this your first time doing this? Amateur. You should’ve stopped her before she could report it!”

The big man returned and offered an excuse.

“I didn’t think she’d call right away…”

“Shit. If we stay here, it’s going to be a problem. We need to change locations. Get Oh Dong-Cheol into the car first. Someone drive that car, too. Nice ride. Hey, Oh Dong-Cheol. I heard you don’t have money, so that’s probably not your car. Did you land a rich bitch or something?”

The big man pointed at Na Hee-seon and asked,

“What should we do with her?”

“Are you nuts? You really have to ask? Of course we’re taking her with us! Look at what she just did! If we only take Oh Dong-Cheol, it’s obvious she’ll borrow someone’s phone and report us!”

As soon as Seo Jung-woo answered the call, Na Hee-seon’s voice came through first.

- Right now, in front of ES Enter—Kyah!

The call was cut off right after a short scream.

“An attack?”

Seo Jung-woo immediately replayed the automatically recorded call audio file.

Na Hee-seon’s voice came through. At least he confirmed the location.

“Right in front of ES Enter.”

Thanks to turning the volume to the max, other sounds were faintly audible as well.

‘Sound of her hand being struck while holding the phone, the wind noise as the phone flew, sound of impact with a hard object, glass shattering.’

The call ended right after that sound.

Seo Jung-woo analyzed the situation.

“An assault. She managed to make the call, so the confrontation just happened.”

The culprit was obvious.

‘Choi Sun-Myung is already moving? Not the law office, but in front of ES Enter? His target must be President Oh. There’s no way he came alone, he probably brought some thugs.’

If Na Hee-seon gets hurt, he won’t be able to face that world's Park Cheol-woo. They had been married since before the worlds split.

But right now, Seo Jung-woo is at home. ES Entertainment is quite far from here.

He turned his gaze toward the room. Inside was a weapons-packed armored suitcase.

But this time, he couldn’t use guns.

If he saves someone in danger, that person naturally becomes a witness. In this world, firing a gun complicates things.

Seo Jung-woo placed his phone on the living room table and stood up from the sofa.

No time to deliberate. It’s already been 30 seconds since the call. There’s only one way to immediately move in front of ES Entertainment.

He used his parallel dimension teleportation skill on the spot.

The scenery before his eyes shifted from his living room to a nearly ruined vacant lot.

No monster bloodlust was detected. This was a danger zone where gates opened more frequently than elsewhere, but since clean-up is thorough, it's usually quite safe. Hidden among the nearby debris was a weapon box he had stashed just in case.

In the distance, he could see his house in this world. He walked toward it.

Lee Seon-hwa was lying on the living room sofa, watching TV.

In this world, TV was an incredibly important source of entertainment. Since most amusement parks and musical theaters had been destroyed, people lived with TVs or radios constantly on.

Lee Seon-hwa had been clinging to the sofa even earlier when Seo Jung-woo left the house for an errand. She was still in the exact same position.

Seo Jung-woo grumbled.

“This is basically your house now, huh?”

“The house is big, the food’s good, there’s soda, and you’re here too.”

She gave a thumbs-up while watching the TV.

“This place is the best.”

“Of course it is.”

She turned to him and asked,

“But you’re empty-handed? You usually come back with a bag full of stuff.”

“I’m busy today.”

“Tch. I thought I’d get to try some new snacks.”

“If you keep eating like that, you’ll gain…”

Even lying on the sofa, her figure was flawless.

“Hey. You’ve been eating a lot lately, so why do you still look the same? You should be at least bloated.”

“Hehe. They say if it’s tasty, it’s zero calories. Maybe it’s true.”

“Where did you hear that nonsense?”

“From Sora.”

Seo Jung-woo had been giving Seo Sora cultural content like movies and dramas purchased via VOD from the other world. Thanks to that, Seo Sora was able to view the other world through videos.

Lee Seon-hwa originally had a body type that didn’t gain weight easily. If she ate a lot, her weight would increase slightly, but it would drop quickly with some effort.

But right now, her figure looked exactly the same as the perfectly maintained body of the other world’s Lee Seon-hwa, even without any effort.

‘That’s kind of strange.’

“Did you perhaps awaken some kind of no-weight-gain skill? You used to bloat a little if you ate a lot.”

Lee Seon-hwa sat up with a scowl.

“Shit! If I had awakened a skill, do you think I’d be lazing around here?”

She hadn’t awakened any skill. That was the only reason she couldn’t land leading roles in movies or dramas.

If someone awakens a skill, they immediately become aware of it. However, figuring out what the skill does requires testing it personally.

Lee Seon-hwa said,

“Maybe it’s a side effect from the curse? Ever since then, I haven’t had hangovers, and I don’t gain weight even if I eat a lot.”

“No, that can’t be it.”

The necklace he had given her was a legendary-class relic. No trace of the curse should remain.

Lee Seon-hwa proposed another theory.

“Ah. Ever since I got rid of the curse, I’ve only been drinking real alcohol and eating delicious food, right? Maybe that’s why.”

Seo Jung-woo had brought that alcohol and food from the other world.

“That’s not likely either.”

‘People in that world get hangovers easily and gain weight fast from eating that stuff.’

Seo Jung-woo headed to the basement to get weapons.

There were weapons on the first floor too. He had hidden a few guns in various places in case of ambushes.

But the majority of weapons were stored in the underground shelter.

“I can’t take any guns right now.”

He couldn’t bring firearms from this world to a place where there were witnesses.

‘But I don’t feel comfortable going in bare-handed without knowing what’s going on over there.’

All he had gathered from the call recording was that Na Hee-seon had just been attacked, and her current location. He didn’t know how the situation had developed beyond that.

‘If President Oh can hold out even for a bit, that would help. But he might already be caught, so should I take some throwing weapons?’

This world devoted a lot of resources to weapons development and production. Short-range anti-air missiles, which had high usage rates, were practically mass-produced in factories.

But the electronic guidance device used in those missiles is far inferior in performance compared to the latest weapons of the other world. That’s because this world’s guided missiles have developed in a direction focused on being cheaper and mass-produced.

Mechanical weapons that use no electricity at all come in various types and are highly effective. However, most of those weapons are designed not to kill people, but to hunt monsters. Their magazines are enlarged to fire more rounds, and armor-piercing rounds are used to penetrate monster hides or shells.

Most of the weapons in his armory are also meant for hunting monsters, so they are too powerful. He couldn’t take those. The only suitable option for use against people was a suppressed pistol, but even that couldn’t be used this time.

Seo Jung-woo picked up a flashbang, then put it down.

“This would be perfect for this job, but I can’t use this either.”

With just one flashbang, both the enemy and the hostage could be temporarily neutralized. If he made the enemy unable to see or hear and then subdued them, he could safely rescue the hostage.

He continued rummaging through the armory.

“Ah, the goblin tube was here. Hm. This one’s poison isn’t fast-acting, so it’s useless. Huh? This whip… why is this even here?”

He searched for a while, but found nothing suitable.

For now, he only packed a single pair of shoes made from monster leather and went up to the first floor.

Lee Seon-hwa mimed drinking toward Seo Jung-woo.

“Let’s have a drink tonight.”

“You’re going to drink the alcohol from here and eat the meat from here too, huh?”

“Why? You’re being stingy? Should I go buy some instead? If I bought it, would it suddenly taste better? Oh my, oppa! You’re so cool!”

“Seon-hwa, you’ve learned a new kind of coercion, haven’t you?”

The kind of food that the poor actress Lee Seon-hwa in this world could afford wasn’t tasty.

The answer was already decided. Seo Jung-woo’s taste buds had already adapted to the food from the other world.

Lee Seon-hwa pressed him.

“Make a decision! If you tell me to go buy something, I’ll go right now! And I’ll come back with the worst stuff imaginable!”

“Aren’t you going home?”

“I failed the audition. I don’t have work tomorrow either.”

In the other world, the idea of Lee Seon-hwa failing an audition was unthinkable.

Over there, Lee Seon-hwa never even needed to audition. If a project was really high-quality, she might end up competing with other actors, but even then, she’d win based on other conditions without an audition.

No one ever questioned Lee Seon-hwa’s acting skills over there.

But in this world, she wasn’t even auditioning for a lead role—and she still got rejected for a supporting role.

“Why’d you get rejected? I heard things were looking good this time.”

“They were. But then the role I was aiming for suddenly required action scenes. Because of budget issues, I got beaten out by someone with combat skills.”

In this world, if an actor didn’t awaken a skill that could help reduce production costs, it was even harder to land a role than someone who couldn’t act in romance scenes in the other world.

Seo Jung-woo thought of the stacks of scripts piled in the other world’s Lee Seon-hwa’s home.

‘Should I really just bring back one? A romance script that doesn’t need action. With Seon-hwa as the lead.’

Seo Jung-woo knew nothing about producing movies or dramas. He would need someone who understood production well.

‘If I get enough money, I should meet Kim Seong-jun of this world. Ask him to assemble a director and staff and make a film with Seon-hwa as the lead.’

This world generally produces films with low budgets.

But the script he was planning to bring had originally gone to Lee Seon-hwa. No one would want her as the lead unless it was a script meant to spend production money generously.

With that kind of script, no matter how frugally they filmed, it would still cost a lot.

‘If I just sell one sacred item, the movie funding wouldn’t even be a problem.’

The problem was that sacred items were national treasure-level artifacts even in that other world. Although their value might be even greater here, national treasures were still extremely expensive over there. And even if he gathered about ten national treasures and brought them back, there might not even be a single sacred item among them.

For an individual to own ten national treasures, it would normally be impossible without immense wealth.

When Lee Seon-hwa was cursed, he had brought back the relic of a high monk from the Goryeo Dynasty to save her. And to continue protecting her, he hadn’t returned it.

But he couldn’t do that with other national treasures.

‘Isn’t there a national treasure-level artifact lying around somewhere without an owner? Like ten of them.’

At that moment, both his and Lee Seon-hwa’s phones rang with a small alert sound.

Seo Jung-woo checked his phone.

“A gate alert just went off in the next neighborhood.”

“It’s a small one. We just don’t go in that direction, right?”

“Don’t even step outside this house until the situation is resolved. Ah, if we’re unlucky, we might not get any TV signal.”

“No way! I have to watch my drama!”

“Then read a book or something.”

Two hours later, Seo Sora returned home.

That night, Seo Jung-woo drank soju with Lee Seon-hwa. He drank just a little, preparing for tomorrow’s battle, but Lee Seon-hwa and Seo Sora drank to their hearts’ content.

Seo Jung-woo drank and thought.

‘Choi Sun-Myung.’

Right now, in the other world, Choi Sun-Myung had attacked Na Hee-seon. That was the first issue to deal with once he returned.

‘The guy connected to the Knife Gang.’

The Knife Gang of that world and the White Shark Guild of this one shared key figures. The Knife Gang had been annihilated, but the White Shark Guild still wielded powerful influence.

‘Choi Sun-Myung of this world is also connected to the White Shark Guild. If I go after this world's Choi Sun-Myung, the White Shark Guild will react, right?’

“Getting along with Baek Shark is going to be tough.”

Seo Sora said,

“I’ve gathered rumors about the White Shark Guild. I didn’t dig actively, so there’s no risk of them tracing it back. There are a lot of people who hold grudges against the White Shark Guild. The number of victims is just too high.”

“They must be grinding their teeth.”

“Yes. If we gather those people, we’ll have enough numbers to form a backup unit. They’ve already attempted a few ambushes, but all failed because of the boss, Jeon Chang-su. He’s a double-skill hunter, and since his awakened skills are shooting and detection, ambushes don’t work on him.”

Lee Seon-hwa exclaimed in shock,

“Huh? What? That guy has the same skills as you? Then that’s dangerous. No! Don’t fight him!”

Seo Jung-woo explained,

“If things continue like this, we’re going to clash eventually. If not now, then soon.”

“T-then win! You have to win! No matter if the skills are the same, you’re stronger, right? Right?”

Seo Sora said,

“Unni. Of course. Oppa is much stronger than Jeon Chang-su. And he has triple skills… Ah. Never mind.”

Lee Seon-hwa widened her eyes.

“Huh? What was that? Triple? Oppa has a skill I don’t know about? Don’t tell me you kept it secret from me? Is that it? How could you do that to me? What is it! What skill is it!”