I Found My Successor

“Hmm. Right here in Seoul, on my patrol route—a full-grown adult beating up minors. I didn’t think thugs with guts this big still existed.”

Whoosh—!

“C-could that voice be…?!”

The moment Strong heard, at his back, the voice of that unhinged “hero” who had subdued him days earlier like some worthless street thug with no ability at all, his muscle-packed body shrank tight—like a mouse before a tiger.

“S-S-Smile…! N-no! Why now of all times…!!”

Cold sweat poured over him at once. His body shook against his will, frozen so solid he couldn’t even dare look behind him.

“R-right…! I’ve got hostages! You touch a single hair on me and I’ll snap these brats in a—GYAAAAAH!! M-my arm—!!!”

“Oh? A hostage stunt right in front of me. Now there’s a line I haven’t heard in a long while.”

And though nothing had been visible a second before—somehow, before Strong could even finish speaking—the arm pinning the two girls was crushed in an instant.

Muscle and bone that two grown men with a heavy saw couldn’t have scratched… shattered like dry stalks of reed, just like last time.

“GYAAAAAH…! N-no…! I’m still recovering—if the same place gets hit again, my ability’s max output will…!”

It was pure, overwhelming force. A fat fly, no matter how plump, cannot stop a typhoon that swallows even great trees. Strong—a villain who had ranked among Korea’s absolute top tier—crumpled face-first into the dirt and blacked out before a natural disaster that had simply appeared out of nowhere.

“When an A-class or higher villain breaks free, a hero may, at their discretion, execute them on the spot. I’ll see you get a trial—but don’t expect too much mercy from me.”

Ugh… I only caught this guy a few days ago, and he’s already out? He’s got some real talent for this.

I’d been patrolling from the air when I spotted two students in familiar uniforms dangling by their heads in some huge man’s grip. Suspecting an ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ability-related assault, I dropped down to check—and never expected the A-class villain I’d bagged a mere three days earlier to pop back out.

On top of that, according to Ravi, this guy was a genuine heavyweight who might even climb to S-class soon. Honestly, S-class or A-class makes no difference to me—but by ordinary hero standards, the gap in threat level between those two ranks is nearly tenfold. Running into him here was enough to startle even me, and I deal with villains every single day.

So why was a guy like that bullying kids in a back alley like some two-bit punk…? Well, I guess the kind of thing these types do never really changes.

Right. A thug who scales up becomes a gangster, and a gangster who scales up becomes a villain. Old habits die hard—he probably just got nostalgic for the petty crap he used to pull.

Anyway. I just took down a villain in front of civilians, so I’d better do the rest of the routine.

So I looked down at the two girls staring blankly up at me—one a ponytailed young woman with a calm, composed face, and the other a short-haired girl whose eyes sparkled like someone had jammed stars into them, glittering like little lights. I put on the bright, media-friendly smile that gets plastered on toys and figures by the truckload, and spoke in the thoroughly “heroic” voice the Status Window loves so much.

“Hahaha! Any injuries, students? Glad I made it in time. This villain’s a pretty dangerous one, you know.”

“Hwaaah…!! I-it’s Smile! The real Smile! D-do you remember me?! I-I heard your speech at school today!”

“…Hmm. Now that you mention it, I do. That glowing hair of yours stood out even from a distance.”

During today’s speech, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠even in a packed auditorium full of students, she alone had lit up the space around her like a spotlight. I’d written it off as maybe some light-emitting hair ability—never expected to see her again so soon.

Well, no hero hopeful would get by on something that vague. She’s probably got something else.

Come to think of it, there was a faint scorched smell in the air and an unnatural crater nearby. Traces of them fighting back against the villain? Two students—maybe one could make pits and the other used fire or something similar.

“Haha! Anyway, if neither of you is hurt, I need to haul this villain off, so I’ll just—”

“…Um, e-excuse me. I-if it’s not too much…! N-no, if it’s all right—could you please sign this…? I-I already wrote my name underneath…. M-my name is Lee Seol-a.”

Out of nowhere, the blank-faced ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠girl flushed bright red. Completely at odds with her calm impression, she even bit her tongue as she hurriedly pulled a notebook and pen from her bag and held them out to me.

“Ah! Right—an autograph! Can I have one too?! I’ll put it in my treasure box and keep it as a family heirloom forever!”

“Hahaha! Of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠course. No matter how busy I am, I can always spare an autograph for aspiring young juniors!”

…Hmm. That platinum-blonde girl with the ponytail… I feel like I’ve seen her somewhere before. Just my imagination? Looking at that face gives me this weird ache in my chest.

And the moment I took the notebook and pen to sign—

“A-and… it was so long ago you probably don’t remember, but… you saved my older sister and me once before. Um, I-I was too shocked to say anything then, but… thank you so much.”

Wait…? Hold on. Is this the chairman’s daughter—the one whose dad tried to gift me a whole building?!

Suddenly a chilling memory from about ten years ago surged up—the time the Status Window had nearly blown my heart clean out of my chest.

There’s a military contractor under Golden Star, Korea’s top conglomerate, called Star Labs. They make cutting-edge hero reinforcement suits, support gear, even some of the small arms mass-supplied to the military. Years back, I’d rescued the chairman’s second daughter and youngest after a villain kidnapped them.

If it had stopped there, I never would’ve remembered—rescues like that are a dime a dozen. The problem was the chairman’s idea of gratitude: he casually tried to gift me a high-rise in the middle of Gangnam to use as a hero office.

Back then society had barely entered its “stable period.” There was no welfare system like basic living subsidies. Every night I slipped into quiet mountain forests where no one would see me and slept there. The Status Window would lecture me that hunting cute forest animals wasn’t “heroic.” I scraped by foraging wild greens and planting potatoes—living less like a mountain hermit and more like a wild animal, far bleaker and more broken than even now.

And so, when that lavish gift was offered… I hesitated a whole one second before refusing. Just long enough to think, maybe I should just take it. In that single second I nearly blacked out from agony worse than anything I’d ever known. If I hadn’t clung to consciousness and refused immediately—if I’d clung to that greed even 0.1 seconds longer—I would have passed out from that hellish pain and had my heart shredded into dozens of pieces.

The moment that hair-raising memory clicked into place and I realized who this girl was, I instinctively glanced at my own chest, cold sweat prickling down my spine as I forced out an answer.

“…Haha! You were just a little kid back then, and look how you’ve grown. Of course I remember. Even at that age you didn’t cry—you were comforting your sister.”

“Hngh…! Y-you really remember…? I-it was so long ago…!”

“Of course! How could I forget such an admirable child? And to think that little girl has grown up so splendidly and wants to be a hero… that truly makes me happy.”

“Wooow…!! I’m so jealous, Seol-a!! Smile actually remembers what you did as a kid…!!”

…Looking closer, she really was a rich young lady. Still just a student, not even a pro hero, and she was wearing one of those absurdly expensive reinforcement suits on her right arm. Even if I saved up for ten years while skipping the canned ham I only eat on birthdays, I couldn’t afford the paint job on that thing.

Whew. Old memories nearly gave me a heart attack. For a while after that, every time someone offered me a villa or a watch, I grabbed my chest without thinking…

Ding—!

Right then the Status Window popped up in front of me and tossed out a few notifications similar to the ones at lunch.

…Huh? So that Suitability thing really can be raised this way? Hmm. She’s got way higher Suitability than the other students, too. Exactly half of Ravi’s, isn’t it?

Of course, both of them were still stuck at two decimal places, so it didn’t mean much. And there was no way Ravi—an actual S-class hero—was only twice as strong as a student who hadn’t even graduated. As expected, that number seemed to factor in more than raw power: future potential, age, hero values, the whole package.

Anyway, that’s a relief. If the system lets me raise the number bit by bit, then Ju Eun-ha’s potential must be on a completely different level from the rest.

So I decided I needed to meet her as soon as possible. Quietly, I handed the signed notebook back to the Star Labs chairman’s daughter, who had ducked her bright-red face in embarrassment. Then I took the notebook from the lively-looking girl beside her—still sparkling with anticipation, her star-shaped eyes glittering.

“All right. What’s your name, student? I’ll write it under the signature, just like your friend’s.”

“Hwaaah! Thank you so much!! Hehe! My name is Ju Eun-ha! I absolutely want to become a hero who won’t bring shame to Senior Smile!!”

“Ju Eun-ha, is it? A wonderful name. Somehow it matches the person I’m looking f—”

…Wait. Hold on. What did you say your name was?