The Worst Loop
"Cough, cough…!"
"Professor…"
Oh Ji-seok slumped against the wall, repeatedly coughing up dark mouthfuls of blood. Tears spilled from Ariel's eyes as she hovered over him, trembling with panic.
"C-Can you move?"
"Mmh…"
"P-Please, don't force yourself."
Ariel turned and lowered her back, desperate to hoist Oh Ji-seok onto her shoulders.
"…Ugh."
Her own body was in terrible shape. Even though Professor Oh Ji-seok had split her damage and absorbed half of it through his ability, the toll on her frame was already severe.
"Ngh…"
Yet she gritted her teeth, stubbornly trying to lift him.
"I'm all right."
"…What?"
At the sound of his voice, Ariel froze. Oh Ji-seok looked up at her and spoke in a steady, measured tone.
"Go on ahead, Miss Ariel."
"Excuse me?"
"If you follow this corridor straight ahead, you will find an emergency passage leading to the dormitory quarters. Rendezvous with Rank 2 Hero Miracle Shine there."
Ariel looked at him, her eyes trembling violently.
"There is something I must do."
His face was set with iron resolve.
"B-But…"
"It will be fine. I promise I will return to see you."
Terrified, Ariel grabbed his left hand, clutching it tightly. Yet Oh Ji-seok merely looked at her with a calm, gentle smile.
"I'm not leaving my last will and testament. I even have a present I need to give you. I won't die, so please, do not worry."
"Professor."
"I am strong, Ariel. My ability is specialized in defense—survival is my forte—"
"That isn't the point!" Ariel clenched her fists, her voice breaking. "How could I possibly leave you behind by yourself?!"
"……"
"You ended up like this because of me! Please, let me take responsibility!"
Oh Ji-seok let out a faint sigh, a trace of amusement touching his breath.
"You truly are the finest hero."
Then, unexpectedly, he raised his left arm.
"…Miss Ariel, what model of smartphone do you carry?"
"A-A Mega Racer. But why are you asking that now…?"
"Ah, excellent. Then you won't be caught in the blast."
Having tossed out that bizarre question, Oh Ji-seok looked satisfied as he summoned a barrier from his fingertips.
Zzziiing—!
"P-Professor?!"
Panic seized Ariel as the translucent wall materialized between them. The barrier expanded, steadily pushing her backward down the corridor. Desperate, she slammed her fists against the surface, screaming at the top of her lungs.
"Professor! No! You can't!!"
Ruuuumbleeee…!
"Professor!!!"
At that exact moment, the corridor shook violently.
"NOOOOO—!!"
The ceiling gave way. A cascade of shattered concrete and steel collapsed between them, cutting off the path, and Ariel's scream echoed down the ruined hallway.
"…Well, I made the promise."
Oh Ji-seok gasped for air through ragged breaths as the sound of her voice faded.
"Whether I can keep it is another matter entirely."
The disguise dissolved. The ordinary face and voice of Oh Ji-seok peeled away, replaced once more by Kang Haneul.
Grrroooaaar…
From the far end of the corridor, grotesque monstrosities—shedding their human guises—surged forward in a writhing swarm.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Watching them advance, Kang Haneul formed a faint smirk. He raised his arm, manifesting another barrier.
Zzziiing…
"At the very least, I'll tear the Association down before I die."
Beyond the monstrous horde, the reinforced door of the Server Room reflected squarely in his clear, sky-blue eyes.
"Trauma."
"……"
Several tens of minutes later, deep within the seminar facility's inner sanctum, in the central conference room.
"You did well to drag yourself all the way here."
The Chairman of the Hero Association regarded the masked man limping through the shattered doorway, a venomous smirk curling his lips.
"I knew we should have designated you an Extra-Grade threat much sooner. Dithering about only inflated our losses."
"…Cough."
Trauma covered his mouth with one trembling hand, coughing up another pool of blood. Around the conference table, elite top-ranking heroes glared at him with predatory eyes.
"Chairman. Should we bring forth Truth…?"
"No. There is no telling what chaos might unfold if we summon it now."
Cutting off the suggestion from Rank 4 Hero Resurrection, the Chairman scrutinized Trauma's battered condition and scoffed under his breath.
"No matter how transcendental you may be, an Extra-Grade cannot take on every single one of us at once."
"Is that so?"
Trauma tilted his head slightly, his voice rasping through the mask.
"Do you truly believe that?"
That ominous murmur set off every alarm bell in the room. The heroes immediately braced for an attack—
KABOOOOM—!!!
A thunderous explosion tore through the chamber as the atmosphere itself detonated forward.
"Guh—?!"
"Th-This power is…!"
Blown backward like ragdolls, several top heroes slammed into the reinforced walls. Their faces drained of all color as they recognized that dreadfully familiar aura.
[Strike — LV MAX] has been activated!
◈ Price Paid: Permanent loss of the right arm
Kang Haneul ignored the groaning heroes entirely, his gaze fixed on the floating text before him.
"Well, look at that. It actually works."
His right arm, charred pitch-black and shriveled to the bone, crumbled away into fine gray ash and drifted onto the floor.
"H-How…"
"How am I using Justia's power?"
The Chairman stared at him with trembling pupils. Trauma returned the gaze, his voice falling to a quiet, dry murmur.
"Because I've lost quite a lot."
Through the jagged fracture in his mask, a faint, sorrowful smile touched his lips.
[Fa Jin — LV MAX] has been activated!
◈ Price Paid: Permanent loss of the right eye
"I have so many things left that I wouldn't mind sacrificing as a price."
The chamber hummed with an ominous vibration before the pressurized air detonated once more across the top-ranking heroes.
Rank 7 Hero Impact Event, wielder of the Concept of Pulverization, and Rank 8 Hero Gardener, wielder of the Concept of Shield, threw themselves forward in a desperate bid to hold back the tide. It was entirely futile.
"K-Khhk…!"
"No… it's impossible…!"
In life, Justia was a force that every top-ranking hero combined could never hope to conquer. Facing Trauma, who drew upon her legacy to its absolute ceiling without the slightest regard for the backlash, the battered remnants of the Association had no answer for sheer, transcendental power.
"I-I will handle him."
Rank 10 Hero Pause dragged her mangled frame forward, stepping into the breach.
"I will halt time. The instant the pause lifts, Lord Resurrection, evacuate everyone else."
Her Concept was 'Pause'. To the world, her ability was known as temporal suspension—an ability that froze everyone in place, leaving only herself free to move. An overwhelmingly lethal power.
Snap—crackle…
'I have to sever his throat in a single strike.'
Slamming her pocket watch onto the floor, she shattered the casing to trigger her terrifying power.
'Should I take the neck? No, the heart…'
Inside the frozen chamber where all motion had ground to a halt, Pause took a deep, focused breath and stalked toward Trauma. But then—
"You just played your worst possible hand."
"……?!"
Trauma spoke. The sound of his voice struck Pause like a thunderbolt, freezing her in her tracks.
"H-How… are you moving?!"
"It's simple. Long ago, out of sheer curiosity, I analyzed your ability. And I uncovered a rather entertaining truth."
Trauma looked down at her, his voice low and deliberate.
"Once, while apprehending a villain during what you called a time-stop, you were struck by a sniper bullet from several kilometers away, weren't you?"
"That's…"
"If your ability truly halted time, a bullet fired from miles away could never have reached you during the freeze."
"That… that was Class-1 Top Secret intelligence…"
Trauma watched the panic spread across her face, murmuring with faint nostalgia.
"Before I took up this villain routine, I occupied quite a high seat."
He stepped forward, closing the distance between them at a leisurely pace.
"Rank 10 Hero, Pause. Your ability doesn't halt time. It halts human perception."
"……!"
"In other words, it's a psychic ability."
He reached up and stripped away his shattered mask. Seeing the face revealed beneath, Pause's eyes dilated in sheer terror.
"K-Kang Haneul…?!"
"And I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I happen to be entirely immune to psychic attacks."
Kang Haneul, the psychic-ability killer. A top-tier decision-maker from the Secret Intelligence Bureau, blessed with absolute immunity against any mental manipulation.
"…D-Damn it—!"
Recognizing the face that every psychic ability user in the underworld dreaded, Pause frantically tried to cancel her power, but—
KABOOOOOM—!!!
Kang Haneul was faster. He triggered another maximum-level technique.
Without the slightest chance to raise a guard, the top-ranking heroes took the raw brunt of Justia's maximum-output strike head-on. In an instant, every single one of them was wiped out.
◈ Price Paid: Half of remaining lifespan
"Ran out of usable parts because my body is already this wrecked… so now you harvest my lifespan instead?"
Kang Haneul forced his fading consciousness to hold together, leaning heavily against the wreckage. Eventually, his strength gave out entirely, and he collapsed onto the rubble.
"…I promised Ariel. I have to keep it…"
Rustle…
"……?"
A presence stirred behind him. Kang Haneul turned his head toward the sound.
"Who's there?"
Both of his eyes were gone, leaving only empty darkness behind his sockets. His question came out bewildered and hollow.
"Shattering the era of peace… tearing the Hero Association apart limb from limb."
"……"
"Was that truly what you wanted?"
The moment he heard that voice, Kang Haneul's face went completely blank.
"Noona…?"
Having arrived too late at the ruined chamber, his older sister, Great Order, stood looking down at him with freezing, contemptuous eyes.
"Justia is dead, and the Association is in ruins."
Breaking the suffocating silence, Great Order—Kang Maru—stepped forward, looking down at her younger brother with visceral revulsion.
"Just as the prophecy foretold, you truly grew into a magnificent villain."
"Noona, I—"
"Shut up. Don't you dare call me Noona with that filthy mouth."
Closing the distance until she stood directly over him, she reached down and wrapped her hand tightly around his throat.
"I will end you with my own hands, A-Class Villain Kang Haneul."
"I… I just wanted to…"
Whatever he tried to say was strangled out of him as her iron grip tightened around his windpipe.
"…Khk."
Choking, he began to struggle weakly against her hold.
"Noo… na……"
"Just die, you maggot."
For several grueling minutes, Kang Haneul weakly fought for breath beneath her fingers. Staring down at his persistent, futile struggling with dead, exhausted eyes, Kang Maru reached into her coat to draw a handgun and end it once and for all.
"Ah."
And at that exact second, Lumia—her body covered in lacerations and blood—pushed open the heavy conference room door and walked inside.