The Power of One Person
In the D-class heroes, over four hundred of them, the ranking had long since settled into the top one hundred. Batori, ranked one hundred and sixty-six, had changed more than anyone expected. She was living with an intensity she had never known before, working harder than ever.
“Ehehe….”
At six in the morning, the moment her eyes opened, she slowly rolled around in bed.
Ever since middle school and high school, the habit of waking up early to commute had stuck with her into adulthood. Of course she woke up. But the drowsiness was impossible to ignore.
“Mmm….”
Blowing out a silly sound, Batori hugged the blanket, the pillow, and her doll tightly and rolled around.
After about ten minutes of that, when she finally woke up—
“Haaaaam…”
Right away, a huge yawn exploded from her mouth.
Compared to normal people, her body was far healthier and stronger. Still, fighting off sleep was no easy task. She let out the yawn loudly, determined to win the battle against it.
If she had stayed comfortably lying on the mattress underneath the blanket, she would probably have fallen back asleep. But since the yawn had already been fired while sitting, she stayed awake and slowly began to get up.
Her face was still heavy with sleep. If she had gone back to sleep right then, she would have slipped into it in an instant.
But the Special Agent had only two more days left before they met, so today she would work hard too. Yeah, that was it!
Thanks to that one person who kept her motivation high, the goblin girl was starting her day with full energy.
From the tiny bed in her one-room apartment, one that was far smaller than Charlotte’s and could be bought for maybe fifty thousand won, Batori slid off. She started preparing breakfast first.
No matter how much she hated it, skipping breakfast all day would burn up far too much energy.
As a D-class hero, the salary from the Association had risen, but it was still nothing like a normal office worker’s pay. She had to pay the rent herself.
Breakfast was already short of being a proper meal. Cooking skills were also terrible, but that was part of the reason.
“…Oh, no more rice.”
That was why she had wanted to wrap it in seaweed. But the seaweed she had bought last time was all gone. For side dishes, the last kimchi she had received with last week’s delivery food was all that remained.
“Water rice it is, then…”
Batori’s choice was simple—pour water over the rice and eat it.
She had already passed the growth stage, yet the meal was terribly lacking in nutrition. But Batori never complained. She focused only on how she would spend the day.
It was six o’clock, so wash up, get ready, and she would leave around seven. These days the factory area was so noisy… She should go there. Yeah, that sounded good!
She sat alone in her tiny room, staring at the map app on her phone and planning her route while eating the watery rice.
If Charlotte had seen her, she would have started worrying about the lack of nutrition and listed every concern. But this was Batori’s own apartment, and this was her daily life.
She was actually quite comfortable with how things were now.
“Mhm… Yeah, this should work.”
Batori made no more plans. She finished the morning prep and stood up from the floor.
“Kyaa!?”
She had been carrying the bowl to the sink in the adjacent kitchen and accidentally stepped on the table where she had left things unpacked.
After everything was ready, she took the bus from the stop right in front of her building and headed toward the industrial district, the place she would work hard as a hero and arrest all the bad people.
The industrial district was on the exact opposite side of her apartment, so she had to ride for about two hours.
[Me] : Special Agent
[Me] : You awake?
[Charlotte, Special Agent] : Yes, I’m up. Are you heading out for work today?
“Hihihi…”
Batori usually used these messages with Charlotte as their daily contact.
She had no real hobbies or interests. She was just a hero who worked hard every single day.
Charlotte had become the biggest influence on her lately.
Smiling, she sent the message without holding back.
She was in the bus, but the back row was empty. Still, there were too many people around. She couldn’t laugh out loud, but she couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from rising either.
[Me] : Yeah, today I’m going to the factory side instead of the downtown area!
[Charlotte, Special Agent] : Ahaha, yeah, the factory side has been pretty rowdy lately. But I’m sure you know you have to be careful, right?
[Me] : Of course! I’ll work carefully so you don’t have to worry at all~!
[Charlotte, Special Agent] : Heehee, that’s good. If you need anything, just contact me, okay? My time is free anyway~
“…Contact.”
She really wanted to keep talking, but she knew Charlotte didn’t want to interrupt her morning work, and she knew Charlotte had her own time too. So she didn’t continue.
She just… checked through the chat history.
No new messages. She spent the rest of the bus ride like that.
When Batori finally reached the industrial district, she walked into a small cafe where few people came and the owner, a kind lady who never bothered her, was working.
She ordered one coffee as usual.
“Ugh…”
[No dispatch requests yet.]
Batori sat at the single-person table in the corner. She would wait for dispatch requests from now on.
Normally, a hero could only fight on site after accepting a request. But since none had come yet…
Most cases were already handled by regular police or security guards.
Batori sipped her cheap coffee slowly while waiting.
“No one yet…”
Was it morning? Were everyone at work?
While thinking this and that, she naturally looked at the background photo she had set on her phone last time.
Just a single small flower.
“Hihihi…”
It was a common saying that if there were many flowers in a phone background or profile picture, the person was older. But she had never chosen it for that reason.
“…I’ll be promoted to C-class soon. Yeah, yeah… I’ll make the Special Agent happy!”
She had taken a photo of the flower Charlotte had given her last time and set it as the background. Since the flower was real, if she left it too long it would rot.
While looking at the happy photo on her phone, she prayed for a dispatch request to come soon, so she could raise her achievements and get promoted to C-class quickly.
“Ah!”
A dispatch request came from a place only two kilometers away. The level was E-class.
It was the kind of job that normal police or lots of security personnel could handle easily.
Batori didn’t bother checking the level. Her goal was to take as many dispatches as possible all day long.
“Eat well, everyone!!”
Before anyone else could even react, the moment the request arrived, Batori accepted it immediately. She greeted the owner with a tiny voice and dashed out of the cafe.
Two kilometers was a long walk for normal people—ten minutes at best, usually twenty. Plus the factories in the industrial district made the roads complicated, so the time would only increase.
But the body of an awakened person was far stronger than anyone thought. Especially for Batori’s ability [Eodeokshini], it was not only her body that grew with attention—it was also stronger in itself.
It was far more powerful than Saran’s ability to strengthen only speed, precision, and a little strength.
In just five minutes, she arrived at the site as if she had teleported.
“D-class hero! I’m here! Stop the violent act right now! Surrender…!”
She said it with maximum embarrassment, swallowing the shame as hard as she could.
At the scene were one man holding a heavy construction two-handed sledgehammer—the kind people called “ohhamma”—and several victims of the damage from it. Also, the villain who was shaking while holding the hammer, and people watching him nervously.
“If you don’t surrender, I will use violence to suppress you!!! Citizens, please evacuate quickly!”
The moment Batori arrived, she shouted those lines.
There were already several people injured by the hammer around them, but she still had to give the warning first. The distance was far enough that she couldn’t swing the hammer at a person immediately.
“Surrender!”
Once again.
But the opponent held the ohhamma, turned his body only slightly toward her, and did not surrender.
Instead, he gave her a mocking look, as if he were saying “A small fry like you thinks she’s a hero?”
“Once more…! Surrender!”
She tried again.
But at only 135 centimeters, because the attention and focus on her had not been concentrated enough, she had not grown beyond her basic size.
She could only look like a fragile little girl.
Plus, she was wearing the oversized clothes Charlotte had prepared last time, so it was even more obvious she was nothing special.
“…Suppression will begin!”
But that kind of gaze, that kind of thought, no longer mattered to recent Batori.
As long as there was one person who believed in her more than she believed in herself, she could ignore almost everything.
“An elementary-school student acting like a hero?!”
“An elementary school… no, I’m not!”
Batori approached the villain to suppress him. At the same time, the villain swung the hammer with force and threatened her, and Batori dodged the attack.
“Hup!!”
“Ugh…!”
While avoiding the ohhamma, she landed a light punch to the ribs.
At the same moment, a loud crack echoed from the villain’s ribs. Unlike the people she had suppressed before with one light punch.
The opponent only staggered a little.
But with that single punch, Batori could tell his abilities.
“…A hardened awakened person, huh?”
“How did you know?”
“The feeling when I hit was different. Ribs are weaker bones than you think, so they break easily with a punch, but I didn’t feel much breaking sensation. I felt like hitting a steel plate… and the sound of my fist sinking in was different too.”
Strengthening the body could be used in many different ways.
Not just raw power—sensory enhancement came with it too. Batori could roughly guess his abilities…
“Doesn’t matter! Die!”
He paid no attention to any of that and kept swinging the ohhamma, continuing his attack. Batori kept dodging it.
Hardened, an awakened who made the body harder… in this case, using bare fists was inconvenient for suppression.
“…It’s going to hurt a lot, you know…”
Batori took the knuckle duster from her pocket.
She did not use it often, but when facing a villain with tough skin and everyone else had already fled, using a weapon was far simpler.
To suppress quickly and then wait for the next villain, she needed to shorten the suppression time.
“Shut up and die yourself!!!”
“Huh, hup…!!”
The same as at the beginning.
From above to below, a diagonal attack from right to left.
After dodging the ohhamma sideways, the right side of the stomach was fully exposed right below the ribs.
Batori’s left fist was aimed exactly at the villain’s liver.
*Crack…*
Even if the outer body was hardened, when struck directly by a true liver shot, even with the knuckle duster added…
The shock traveled deep into the skin and muscles.
There was no way he could hold on any longer and collapsed.
“Suppression complete…!”
Batori had suppressed the villain.
She handed him over to the Association staff who arrived a few minutes later. The moment that was done—
“Ah! Another one… another request…”
She set out to find the sacrifices she needed for promotion to C-class.