How a Delinquent Commander Dotes on the Hero C11

Chapter 11

Have you ever had your life completely ruined overnight?

Well…

I have.

Right here.

Right now.

The life of twenty-six-year-old Joo Gihyeon was being utterly destroyed in real time.

I’d done my military service, sure…

But I had absolutely no idea how one was supposed to handle having an affair with a superior’s wife.

To make matters worse…

I’d apparently smashed my head while trying to run away and lost consciousness.

And everyone at the party had witnessed it.

Socially speaking…

I was already dead.

Wherever I went from now on, I’d forever be remembered as the shameless homewrecker who got caught cheating, had his pants fall off, and cracked his skull while fleeing.

And somehow…

I was supposed to reach the final quest while enduring the ridicule of the entire world.

“…Ha… haha.”

Maybe I should just jump off a cliff.

Wouldn’t that send me back to reality?

I opened the window wide and seriously considered it.

But I wasn’t quite willing to gamble my life on a theory.

Instead, I simply screamed into the open air…

Closed the window…

And violently ruffled my hair.

God…

This was so unfair.

Ridiculously unfair.

How had my life ended up like this?

“…Haa.”

After spending a long while wallowing in self-pity, I leaned against the window and chain-smoked cigarette after cigarette.

I’d quit after leaving the army.

Yet this game somehow managed to make me start again.

This damn game really is trying to kill me in every possible way…

Still…

The nicotine helped clear my head.

Since my life was already in ruins…

I decided to calmly organize my situation.

Opening the memo function in the system window, I wrote down everything I needed to think about.

Goal: Escape the Game

My ultimate objective was simple.

Escape this world.

Return to reality.

Take back the life of Joo Gihyeon.

There wasn’t much else that needed saying.

The real question was how.

As I saw it, there were only two possibilities.

Escape Methods

1. Clear the True Ending.
2. Find another method.

The first was the intended route.

The second…

A shortcut.

Starting with the first…

It actually seemed fairly promising.

I’d already experienced the final boss once.

Thinking back to what Gillian had said during the previous timeline…

I felt like I already understood the solution.

“We tried everything to kill it before it matured inside the egg… Yet it survived while mocking us.”

If I could kill the Reverer of Death before it hatched…

Maybe the final quest wasn’t as impossible as it seemed.

The problem was everything before that.

Countless battles.

Countless hardships.

Even if everything went perfectly…

It would probably take years.

And since I had no idea how time flowed back in reality…

Choosing that route wasn’t easy.

The second option was appealing for exactly that reason.

Games weren’t always meant to be beaten legitimately.

Sometimes exploiting bugs was faster.

Far more efficient.

The only problem…

Was that I had no idea what bug I could actually exploit.

You can’t abuse something you don’t know exists.

Then…

Just moments ago…

I discovered an intriguing possibility.

Main Quest: Journey’s End (5)

The truth behind the chaos that consumed Arkerion shall finally be revealed…

(?■Progres±u…Æ??)

== SYSTEM LOG ==

Fatal system error: An unknown error has occurred during gameplay.

Please contact the administrator.

Quest (Recovering from error…)

The moment I watched the system produce errors in real time…

A new hypothesis formed.

Somewhere in this world…

There existed a godlike being responsible for bringing me here.

And…

That being was probably on my side.

The reasoning was simple.

If its goal was merely to kill me…

There would’ve been no need to make things so complicated.

It could’ve simply dropped me into a nest of monsters the instant I arrived.

Instead…

I awakened atop a watchtower.

With the system calmly instructing me to proceed with the final quest.

Sure…

The difficulty was absurd.

But not irrational.

After all…

I’d actually survived until just before the final boss.

That alone proved it.

I summarized my thoughts in the memo.

Question 1

Why was I transmigrated?

• It wasn’t to kill me → Otherwise I wouldn’t have received a system.
• The system even warns me when I’m in danger → More evidence it isn’t trying to kill me.
• It’s clearly connected to the final quest → Just like the darkness controlled by Verdictus.
• Was the goal to make me clear the True Ending? → Still uncertain.

After staring at the memo for a while…

I added another question.

Question 2

Is Helior connected to my transmigration?

I didn’t have enough evidence yet.

Still…

There was strong circumstantial proof.

After all…

Helior had manipulated my system window and reset the game.

More importantly…

His final actions raised countless unanswered questions.

It felt like I was overlooking something important.

“…Still…”

“Helior can never be the villain.”

Several suspicious details came to mind.

Yet I stubbornly rejected every one of them.

Helior was the type who threw away his own life fighting evil gods.

Even if my transmigration somehow involved him…

There was no way his intentions were malicious.

Things probably just spiraled out of control while he was trying to uphold justice.

Maybe that’s how he’d accidentally ended up manipulating someone else’s system.

I spent a good while making excuses on Helior’s behalf…

Then left the second question unanswered.

In any case…

The conclusion itself was clear.

The system window was a gift bestowed upon me by some divine existence.

The information inside it was most likely meant to help me survive.

Please contact the administrator.

In other words…

The system itself had just informed me…

That somewhere in this world…

There existed an Administrator.

That night…

Convinced the Administrator was real…

I made a decision.

There was just one problem.

“…Y-You’re resigning?”

“Shh!”

I pressed a finger against my lips.

Rickby immediately shut his mouth and nodded.

At the moment…

We were sitting inside the Fifth Unit’s dining hall.

This cafeteria was…

A little unusual.

It had been remodeled according to Allen Kalstein’s tastes.

One entire wall had been converted into a bar.

As a result…

It felt more like a tavern than a military mess hall.

Considering how many mercenaries and former street thugs served in the Fifth Unit…

The place hosted a drinking party every single day.

Naturally…

Today was no exception.

“To Young Master Allen’s recovery!!”

“Glory to the Blue Frost Flower!”

“Young Master Allen!”

“Don’t hold back!”

“Drink up!”

They’d brought out entire crates of vodka under the pretense of celebrating my recovery.

The first burning mouthful vanished beneath the overwhelming atmosphere almost immediately.

Drink.

Laugh.

Shout.

The former mercenaries stomped their enormous boots while chanting battle songs from every corner of the continent.

The former street rats blew fire from their mouths like circus performers.

Anyone seeing this would mistake us for an entertainment troupe rather than the Hero Squad.

“Hey!”

“What if Headquarters sends inspectors?!”

“Hahaha!”

“We’ll just drink ourselves to death before then!”

The sound of shattered glasses rolled across the tables.

Laughter echoed throughout the room.

I’d seen this exact scene countless times in-game…

So it wasn’t surprising.

But…

For some reason…

It left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Watching it from behind a monitor…

It had always seemed hilarious.

Knowing these idiots were actually my subordinates…

Made everything feel much darker.

Well…

That wouldn’t matter after today.

“Rickby.”

“Don’t you think this is completely hopeless?”

“A junior officer assigned only two months ago sleeps with his commander’s wife.”

“Someone’s obviously coming to destroy me.”

We were quietly whispering in a secluded corner.

I didn’t know what Allen Kalstein’s military career had been like.

But I remembered mine vividly enough to talk about it all day.

Which meant…

I already knew exactly what would happen.

“I mean…”

“This is still the military.”

“I don’t even have to see it.”

The greatest feature of military life wasn’t training.

It was vicious political infighting.

Factional struggles.

People stabbing one another in the back.

When you’re an ordinary soldier…

You simply obey orders.

Once you’re wearing rank…

Choosing the right side becomes everything.

And I’d already managed to infuriate my commanding officer.

In a strict chain-of-command organization.

What a nightmare.

“Then…”

“Are you planning to return to the Duke’s territory?”

“But His Grace would never allow that.”

“Do you remember how furious he was when you nearly got expelled from the academy?”

“Just imagining it makes my heart stop…”

Rickby shivered violently.

Strictly speaking…

His true master wasn’t me.

It was Duke Kalstein.

Even though he’d earned a knighthood through his own merits…

He was still just a common-born mercenary in front of a genuine noble.

And Duke Kalstein…

Even in the original game…

Was famous for never compromising.

Honor.

Discipline.

Military pride.

Those principles defined him.

Now imagine…

His only son…

Who’d spent his entire life causing trouble…

Suddenly quitting the army and crawling back home.

The final boss wouldn’t kill me.

My own father probably would.

“Young Master.”

“I honestly think staying here might be better.”

“Everyone already knows about your reputation with women.”

“Sure…”

“People will gossip.”

“You’ll probably get punched a few times.”

“But eventually they’ll stop caring.”

Getting beaten until the problem solved itself…

Ridiculous.

Yet strangely convincing.

Rickby wasn’t wrong.

Allen had always been like this.

He’d been slapped countless times after getting caught cheating.

Once…

He’d even escaped through a window after seducing another man’s lover…

Only to break his leg.

And despite all that…

He still kept visiting brothels until he was effectively exiled to the military academy.

Though…

The original story briefly implied he’d awakened some rather questionable tastes there.

Let’s just pretend that never happened.

Anyway…

Rickby had a point.

Even so…

I shook my head firmly.

“No.”

“Once Headquarters has their eyes on me…”

“It’s already over.”

If all I wanted was an easy life…

Then staying here would’ve been perfectly fine.

Sure…

I’d get beaten occasionally.

But I probably wouldn’t die.

Unfortunately…

That wasn’t my goal.

Defeating the final boss was impossible by myself.

I needed to build up the Hero Squad.

And as a veteran player of Journey of the Hero Squad…

I knew exactly how important the early game was.

The fundamental principle of strategy games—

Snowballing.

Win small battles early.

Accumulate advantages.

Turn them into overwhelming momentum.

Only then could you dominate the late game.

So…

What was the easiest part of the game?

Obviously…

The opening battles.

Unfortunately…

Allen Kalstein and the Fifth Unit started with atrocious stats.

The early game was already difficult.

This made it infinitely worse.

Just look around.

Other than Rickby Hegment…

This entire unit was hopeless.

How was I supposed to fight monsters with these idiots?

Were we supposed to perform circus acts in front of them?

Or perhaps serenade them with drunken karaoke until they applauded themselves to death?

…

Honestly…

I’d have better odds researching cloning technology and creating five Rickby Hegments.

Let’s just admit reality.

The final quest wasn’t something I could clear like this.

When I’d first awakened…

I’d been overflowing with confidence.

I thought I could accomplish anything.

Then I witnessed Allen Kalstein’s actual circumstances.

And suddenly…

I became a much humbler man.

Besides…

Wasn’t there something else I needed to do?

Find the Administrator.

Ask whoever they were…

To send me home.

That was my real objective.

So my plan was simple.

“If they won’t let me resign…”

“…then we’ll desert.”

“Rickby.”

“There’s no future here.”

“So let’s run.”

스노볼링 (Snowballing) is a strategy game term describing how a small early advantage grows larger and larger over time—just like a snowball rolling downhill. It’s commonly used in MOBAs, RTS games, and strategy RPGs.

Note: 후안무치 (厚顔無恥) literally means “thick-faced and shameless.” It refers to someone who feels no embarrassment or guilt despite disgraceful behavior, making it stronger than simply calling someone “shameless.”