Anomaly
“Ah, a-anyway! Get your hand off me…! H-how long are you going to keep petting me…!”
“Haha, sorry. I just couldn’t help thinking of the old days.”
“I-I get it, so let go already…! O-other heroes will be here any second—what if someone sees…!”
Thwack—!
When I kept stroking her hair, Ravi shoved my hand away like she truly couldn’t stand it anymore, then jerked back and bolted off into the distance.
…Back in the day, she used to get a little embarrassed when I did this, but she still seemed to like it well enough.
Well, yeah. She’s past the age where you can just ruffle her hair without thinking.
Right. She hadn’t said much earlier, so it hadn’t really registered, but Ravi was already twenty-five. I’d known her since she was a little kid, so I just… forgot sometimes.
Anyone looking in would have gotten exactly the wrong idea, just like she’d said. These days a hero was basically a massive celebrity—swarms of fans, constant TV appearances and ads, far more attention than most popular entertainers ever got. A high-rank beauty like Ravi getting tangled up in some pointless scandal would be a real problem.
Honestly, with all those memories of her as a brat still stuck in my head, I couldn’t see her as a woman at all… but other people wouldn’t feel the same way. She was right—I needed to be more careful about this kind of thing.
And right as I was making that resolution, telling myself I’d watch it in front of others from now on—
Kuuung—!!
“Guaaaaagh…!! I—I clearly obtained a ‘regeneration’ worthy of being called ‘immortal’…! And still, still I can’t even reach you…!”
Eternox, his regenerative power completely spent, his entire body dried out like a withered branch and hovering on the edge of death, roared like that.
…Well, of course. No matter how close to immortal his regeneration was, it wasn’t actual immortality. Keep hitting him with damage far beyond what it could keep up with, and he was always going to end up like this.
“Grrrk…!! Just how—just how much higher did you climb in those ten years I spent endlessly enduring the agony of death…!”
He went on, trembling in disbelief at a power that hadn’t grown at all compared to even fifteen years ago, let alone ten.
(…I mean, I was already invincible from the moment I first possessed this body.)
With every muscle gone from his frame, he shuddered and muttered in hollow despair.
…Anyway, looks like I can just leave him and he’ll die on his own. I need to get to sleep soon, so let’s finish what needs finishing and head back.
So I planted myself in front of him as he barely held his violently shaking body upright, glaring at me with pure resentment. In a steady, heavy voice and with the clear-eyed look of a hero blazing with justice, I delivered the kind of line that fit the moment and wrapped things up.
“…Foolish, Eternox. Did you really think power trained for nothing but your own filthy desires and selfishness could ever reach someone who has walked this path to save countless lives?”
“Kh-kh-khk, khuhuhuh! Gwahahahahaha…!! Fine, I admit it! You really are the greatest hero of all, Smile…! You shine so pure and lofty, like the sun itself in the heavens—so bright it burns the eyes of a wretch like me who doesn’t even dare look up…!”
Thud-thud-thud-thud—!
…Huh? What’s that. The heroes who got the support request aren’t even here yet, but the broadcasting station drones already arrived?
Right on cue, dozens of camera drones that had apparently come to cover the scene streaked across the dark night sky and swarmed around us.
Well, there’s a broadcasting building right nearby, so they probably came from there.
And Eternox, who had been laughing like a madman with his mouth split wide open—maybe his mind had finally snapped before death—suddenly started spouting nonsense while staring at the drones filming us.
“…But even a sun that lights the world alone in lofty solitude must eventually give way when night falls. Let me tell you something useful, Smile. Originally I couldn’t freely soar through the skies the way you do. The powers I was born with… at first, there were only three, excluding ‘Flight.’”
And in that instant—
“What…! Smile! Get out of the way—!”
Huh…? What the hell is that? Did he have other abilities too…?
Eternox’s dying body gave one last thrash of defiance—
…From his gaunt wing bones, tiny bird wings studded with black feathers. From his hands, nails gone and looking hideous, beast-like claws that weren’t particularly sharp. From a body that had seemed completely spent and on the verge of death, though weak enough that it clearly couldn’t kill anyone… still visible enough to the eye: scorching fire, blue lightning, pure white smoke, freezing ice—
More than ten powers that couldn’t possibly belong to the same category erupted in a chaotic mess, wrapping around Eternox’s dying form.
…Okay, what the hell is this now. I possessed him before I ever saw the ending, so I didn’t know—did this guy have a Phase 2 or something?
Well, he was the final stage boss, after all. Having one last hidden card up his sleeve wasn’t that strange.
…Honestly, all it would do was shave another minute or two off my sleep. Just another annoying little event, nothing major.
Ding—!
…But as I started walking toward him again, watching that seemingly useless final thrashing, the status window suddenly floated up in front of my eyes, blocking my path—and shoved an absolutely impossible notification in my face.
Congratulations. The final boss Eternox is about to die. As of this moment, Normal Mode has been completely cleared.
Ding!
From this point onward in Hard Mode, every time a Villain Unit kills a Hero Unit, they will receive a permanent buff of a certain amount to all stats.
…What? Wait—Hard Mode? That game had something like that…? And what the hell is that second part even saying?
While I stood frozen in shock at the status window’s bombshell revelation—
“Uwahahahaha—! Villains of this nation, let me tell you something amazing! If you kill and devour ability users as strong as heroes, the potential of your own powers will ‘blossom’ far more powerfully!”
Whoosh—!!
“…You lunatic! What kind of insane garbage are you spewing right now!”
Eternox—who had been a horrific cannibal serial killer even before abilities ever appeared—made the status window’s words crystal clear as Ravi’s flames slammed into him and he staggered weakly.
KWAANG—!
“…Kh-kh-khk! Still don’t believe me even looking at my body? Handling more than four abilities at once is too much even for me, so I normally never drag out this trash… but every word I speak is pure fact. If luck is with you, you can even steal the victim’s ability outright.”
Fwoosh!
“…So either devour one another, or capture the strong heroes who come hunting you and use them as feed. There is a far easier way to grow your powers than any harsh training. The stronger the ability user… the better the ‘feed’ for growth.”
Ding—!
And that madman, still wearing a twisted smile even as his regeneration failed and death closed in, spoke right as that damn status window chimed again.
“…Meaning, if someone could just swallow that sun-like monster standing right in front of me… ruling this world alone would no longer be an empty delusion.”
Additionally, from Hard Mode onward, the number of villains targeting your city will increase sharply.
KWAANG—!
“Shut up…! Smile, I smashed every camera! If we tell the Ministry of Management, no broadcasting station will ever air that maniac’s garbage!”
“…Heh heh heh. Sorry, but those are drones I prepared with one of my own abilities—so I could show the citizens the sight of Smile being eaten by me. My words are already being live-streamed across parts of Incheon.”
“What…! You can even hijack broadcasts…?”
No longer able to walk properly, he crawled toward me like a beast, eyes rolling as he fixed them on me.
“…Smile. You won’t understand, but the greed of filthy humans like me is sometimes as foolish as moths that throw themselves into a great blaze beyond their station.”
Grit, grind—
He ground his teeth with a nauseating sound, looking genuinely delighted that he had landed one final blow before dying.
“The sun in the heavens… must eventually set. …So when those pieces of trash see your light and come rushing, when the mountain of corpses piles higher and higher… you, who have far too much to protect and can never simply run, will one day collapse.”
His face, which had looked surprisingly young for seventy thanks to his power, was now deeply wrinkled and suddenly ancient—yet he still wore that smile as he spoke his final, foul curse.
“…Ahhh! Someday, when the filthy corpses of those insects pile so high they blot out your light and you fall to the ground just like me… I will watch that day with perfect clarity from the afterlife!”
With those words as his last will, he met his death right in front of me.
Ding—!
.
.
.
…What? What the hell is this even saying?
But—
Even with Ravi right beside me, kicking Eternox’s already-dead body and yelling that he had no right to put Smile’s name in the same sentence as trash like him… even with all the chaos his dying words were about to unleash on the world… my eyes were locked solely on one thing.
…The status window that had floated up moments ago—the one I would have loved to grab and wring the life out of if I could only touch it—and the incomprehensible notification it was showing me.
Ding—!
All unused stat points will be automatically allocated before entry into Hard Mode.
Unused Stat Points to Date: 2,897,431
…What? How many points did you just say?