Retired Hero: Shooting Star (2)
Beep—!
Trembling atop Deok-gu in exhaustion, Sara's ears rang with tinnitus. A headache like her brain vessels were about to burst crashed over her.
...Who the hell are you.
Her blurred vision sharpened.
Fuck, where the hell am I? Why the hell... why the hell am I rolling around naked with this disgusting pig bastard?
Reason flickered back into Sara's eyes. The sweet fog filling her mind cleared, and twenty years' worth of sealed true memories slammed into her brain like a tsunami.
That night twenty years ago. On her way back from a mission. Thwack!—A black envelope suddenly lunged at her from a back alley, followed by a dull impact. When she awoke after the kidnapping, she saw Deok-gu's sinister, sleazy grin.
F-Fuckin' bitch...! D-Do you know how much I donated...!
And then the endless days of horrific abuse that followed.
Fuckin' bitch, your pussy won't stand up straight like a log!
Deok-gu, consumed by vicious inferiority over his pathetically small dick, disguised his brutality as BDSM and ravaged Sara mercilessly.
Thud!
Kyahaaaak!
Splat!
I love you! I love you, honey!
Under the hypnosis of "love taps," Sara gasped in ecstasy amid the agony of shattered bones and torn flesh.
And not just that.
Ha Deok-gu, your debts get settled with my wife's body, got it?
Memories seeped in of Deok-gu, mad for gambling, drugging and hypnotizing her to sell her off to shadowy loan sharks to pay his debts. Even as she was gang-raped like a sow in a sewer basement.
Aaang...! Your dicks are too small, I can't even feel them...! My Deok-gu's cock is way bigger and feels so much better...!
She wore a blind, adoring smile, panting for the men. Even as she was thoroughly defiled, her creepy face praised only her husband, reflected in the eyes of her rapists.
All those truths flooded in at once.
"Ah... aaaah...!"
Rage like her guts were being ripped apart set Sara's entire body ablaze.
Twenty years. Twenty years of what should have been her radiant youth and life, toyed with by that worm worse than trash.
"Give it back...."
"What? You fuckin' crazy bi— Augh, you retarded bitch, still shaking your ass there? Fuck off into retirement!"
Right after sex. Precisely after her real orgasm. Her body was at its hottest.
And after twenty years of abuse, Sara's whole body was covered in bruises and inflammation. It burned with fever daily—she just hadn't noticed, thanks to the hypnosis.
Dormant in her blood. The C-grade hero Shooting Star's ability she'd forgotten, never used once in twenty years.
Acceleration kicked in at maximum.
Shwoooo—!
The room's air screamed from the pressure difference.
Still straddling Deok-gu, Sara's upper body snapped upright into a pounding position in an instant.
"Huh? Fuck, what the— you crazy bitch, get off...!"
Deok-gu, eyes off his smartphone, yelled in panic.
But.
"You... you fuckin' bastard!!! My life! My twenty years!!! Die!! Just fucking die!!!"
His words drowned in Sara's roaring scream.
At the same time, her fist—accelerated beyond sight—smashed mercilessly into Deok-gu's face.
Splat!!
Splat!!
Crack!
Thud thud thud thud thud!!!
Acceleration turned mass into destructive force. C-grade or not, she was a physical enhancement hero. That C-grade rating had been capped by youth protection laws during her assessment.
The day Shooting Star plummeted to the bottom. Hero HQ had rated the adult Shooting Star as A-grade.
An A-grade hero's wrathful fists showed no mercy.
Craaack—!
Craaack—!
Three blows caved in Deok-gu's nose and shattered his jaw.
Snap—!
His eyeball burst, skull pulverized—the gruesome sounds filled the master bedroom.
Deok-gu died instantly without a proper scream.
"Give it back! Give it back!!!! The twenty years I lost... give back the people who died while I was blind!!!!"
Sara didn't stop. Ignoring the pain of her own hands crumbling and flesh tearing, she hammered Deok-gu's head like pounding mortar.
Until his skull was completely mushy red sludge soaking the sheets.
Shooting Star's desperate judgment continued.
"Huuu... aaah...."
How much time passed? Stunned, covered head to toe in sticky blood and brains, Sara staggered off the bed. Her broken hands dangled.
Like a marionette with cut strings, she shuffled to the bathroom.
Under the harsh fluorescent light.
Standing before the bathroom mirror, Sara faced her true appearance with clear eyes for the first time in twenty years, hypnosis fully lifted.
"Ah...."
A living corpse.
Her ragged nipples oozed yellow pus mixed with blood. Opening her mouth revealed broken, missing teeth leaving black holes where her dazzling smile once shone.
Her belly was covered in countless fist marks, cigarette burn scars, and crudely carved obscene tattoos.
Her hair was patchy, skin sallow and lifeless.
In the ruins of twenty years' delusion, only thoroughly ravaged, destroyed meat remained.
"Pretty.... hehe... hehehehehehe...."
Sara grinned twistedly at her reflection. Crushing emptiness washed over her.
As the illusion shattered, paradoxically, memories of her truly radiant past flashed by like a montage.
Glamorous modeling gigs between hero work, thanks to her stunning looks, and the crowd's hot reactions.
Whoa, Shooting Star's justice pouch is insane! She could debut as an actress and kill it!
Unnie, you're so prettyㅠㅠ Must-buy magazine issue!
Kids' pure eyes lighting up at a cheap autograph, beaming like they'd won the world.
Woooow! Real Shooting Star! Thank you, Shooting Star unnie! I'll grow up to be a cool hero like you!
Thanks, noona!
Her sweet crush with a rookie hero colleague, blushing back-to-back in missions.
Um, Sara...! After patrol today... if you're free, wanna grab dinner? I know this amazing pasta spot.
And the sky-like senior, A-grade hero Rapid Star, firmly patting her shoulder.
You're the one to carry my legacy. Don't give up. You'll be the greatest hero for sure.
Up to that heart-swelling moment of recognition.
All that dazzling potential.
Snuffed out forever by some trash's finger flick.
But... at least...
At the end of her wretched life, one shred of solace surfaced.
The child born from forced delusion.
"I love you... Ohu...."
The maternal love she'd given her son Ohu. The devotion poured into him. That much was real, not fake.
At least she'd given him pure love. That faint comfort barely held Sara's crumbling sanity together.
"Heh... huhuhuhu...."
Letting out hollow laughter, Sara twisted the faucet with her broken hands.
Gurgle gurgle.
Cold water filled the tub.
When it overflowed and sloshed.
Sara dragged her bloodied body into the narrow tub, lying down. Slowly, ever so slowly, she submerged to the top of her head.
"Stay healthy.... my son...."
Suffocating pain came. Sara didn't resist. She pulled her knees to her chest, curling up.
Like a fetus embraced in its mother's warm amniotic fluid.
Picturing the first love she'd known—her mother's love—Sara exhaled her last air bubble in the cozy water like womb fluid, quietly ending her life.
With death, her rotting, ruined body regressed like an embryo to a zygote, crumbling and seeping into the black water.
Soon, only dark, murky water mixed with blood and flesh chunks filled the tub, bubbling with decay gas.
Blub blub.
The black water boiled with an eerie sound.
The gas stench permeating the bathroom yellowed even the piercing white light.
Anyone opening the door would think, Ah, this is a total shitshow family. The wrecked home's evening scene.
Silence blanketed the house.
Only the stench of blood and rot lingered like shrapnel.
And days later.
Beep bleep, click, whirr—ka-chunk.
The door lock chimed as a magnetic key touched the ownerless home.
The heavy front door opened, and someone staggered inside.
"Haa... haa... What the fuck... where the hell is this place...."
* * *
Days since possessing this unfamiliar body for unknown reasons. Plagued by chaotic memories, he'd wandered the streets till dawn like a madman.
His identity, original name—all blurred.
Then, a text on his blaring phone screen became his sole clue.
Ohu student! Tomorrow's mock exam test review and parent consultation. Don't be late for school.
Fuck, name's Ohu? Who names their kid that?
From the text, he barely grasped he was a repeater named Ohu.
But the real issue was the home address.
Clawing his fragmented memory, Ohu scoured his phone's map app and messages all night for traces.
But cruelly, the battery died black soon after.
Only clue left: a tiny door-lock magnet key rattling in his pants pocket.
In the end, half-dazed, he'd zombie-shambled through neighborhoods and apartments for days and nights. Mindlessly slapping the key on every door.
Finally.
"Fuck! Finally! This is home!"
The miraculous ding as the door opened.
"Urk...! F-Fuck! What the hell is this smell!"
Entering, a nauseating stench stabbed his nose. Like meat left rotting at room temp for a month, mixed with sewer sludge.
Exhaustion vanished instantly.
Pinching his nose, Ohu cautiously headed to the master bedroom, stench's source.
And through the open door, he witnessed the horror.
"Ah...!"
On the bed. A naked man's decayed corpse, head literally pulverized to nothing.
The sheets crusted black-red with blood and pus.
"What... what the fuck...!"
Ohu's legs buckled. Heart pounded wildly.
At the same time.
Wait... this scene, definitely seen it somewhere...
An unpleasant déjà vu hit, like he'd seen it once before.
Just déjà vu. The smell was new.
Staggering, Ohu turned to the bathroom beside—worse stench wafting.
Inside the open door. The tub brimmed with unidentifiable bloated mush and vile black water.
Another visual déjà vu from media.
The nose-stabbing rot, first time.
"No way... that...?"
Dragging shaking legs, Ohu stared at the mirror over the bathroom sink.
Reflected: the unfamiliar, repulsive man's face he'd checked hundreds of times wandering.
Matted greasy hair. Protruding gut. Shifty eyes. Clearly 20, but looked like a creepy late-40s pervert.
"Ah, fuck... even possession into this kinda bastard...."
Ohu muttered hollowly at his gross mug.
"Haa... no wonder a 20-year-old gets called 'hypnosis creep' on the street looking like this."
Days of wandering. Unpleasant body. Horrific corpses before him.
Scattered clues clicked into one picture.
Ohu realized.
This place he stood was the world of the eroge he'd bought on half-off sale: Hero Hypnosis Corruption Diary.
And this gruesome scene was the brutal ending—and intro—of the first episode, Retired Hero: Shooting Star.
"Fuck, it was so hard I quit at 1:59 and refunded..."
And got isekai'd.
Maybe 'cause of his 5700-char savage review. Hit submit, boom—possessed.
And worst.
This Ha Ohu he'd possessed would inherit the Hypnosis App relic from his meat-sludge dad's corpse in the bedroom.
Becoming the ugly protagonist, Hypnosis Creep, who corrupts countless heroes in this world.
"We're fucked, shit...."
Fuckery overwhelmed him. Body, mind, soul—all trash.
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20 Years Ago: C-Grade Hero Shooting Star
