The Significance of an S-Rank Hero's Existence
BAM-!! At the Korean Hero Committee headquarters in Seoul, South Korea. The thick desk in the director's office of the External Cooperation Division—which boasted the agency's tightest security—shook violently as if it might shatter into pieces.
It was because Rapidstar had slammed it down.
"Why me! Why the hell do I have to fly across the Pacific to clean up some other country's mess?!"
The roar bursting from the mouth of an S-rank hero made the blinds rattle. The killing intent pouring from his explosively muscled frame crushed the air in the spacious office, weighing it down like lead.
"Rapidstar! Everyone knows why!"
Across from Rapidstar sat the director of the External Cooperation Division, a man with graying hair and exhaustion etched deep into his face. He pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a heavy sigh. On the wide table before him floated a precise hologram emitting a blue glow.
The hologram displayed the devastation in an abandoned factory district in Detroit, Michigan, USA. In the footage, the cityscape was a nightmare: massive steel beams weighing hundreds of tons and dozens of scrapped cars hovered in defiance of gravity, swirling through the air. A storm of crimson magnetic force had engulfed the entire factory zone like a dome.
The director loosened his tie with a weary expression and shot back. "The US government and the World Hero League specifically requested you, Rapidstar. You can see that with your own eyes, can't you? Do you have any idea what kind of monster this Magnet Floyd, the S-rank villain who's taken over Detroit, really is?!"
With a gesture from the director, a graph in the hologram spiked upward.
"His power has already surpassed mere metal manipulation! He's turned that entire abandoned factory district into his personal domain—and it's still expanding! Magnet Floyd's ability has evolved to the point where, the moment anything enters his territory, he detects not just metal gear but even the trace iron in human blood through magnetism. The instant he senses it, he intercepts with tens of thousands of steel shards—not to mention unleashing indiscriminate anti-air barrages by hurling up steel masses and manipulating them magnetically."
In essence, the US had unwittingly harbored a hostile anti-air battery within its own borders, capable of downing anything in its airspace at any time. As a result, the entire American air network had ground to a halt.
"That abandoned factory district has essentially become a single living organism called Magnet Floyd!"
"Doesn't America have any heroes?! Where the hell are all those arrogant Yankees' champions? Why me?!"
"Three of America's A-rank heroes already tried entering—and they're dead! The US is even recalling its own S-rank heroes from overseas deployments! They're planning a breakthrough operation in Detroit using only S-ranks—and you're one of them!"
The director raised his voice, refusing to back down. Hero rankings had originally topped out at A-rank. But in recent years, abnormal growths and mutations among villains in certain nations had overwhelmed even A-rank heroes. To force an international duty upon them—to transcend borders and save humanity—the absolute new tier of S-rank hero had been created.
The director's sharp rebuke struck Rapidstar's eardrums.
"You're one of the first seven in the world to be designated! The wealth, fame, and extraterritorial privileges beyond national borders that you enjoy—they're the price the world handed you to spill blood in global catastrophes like this!"
A national-level dispatch request. The unassailable justification carried by the crown of S-rank.
The director's words held not a shred of error. Deep down, Rapidstar knew full well the international pressure and duty that made refusing this mission impossible.
Back then too... it was because of an overseas dispatch...!
But even so.
"I can't go! Why us, of all people?! Japan's got heroes too!"
Rapidstar threw a tantrum, refusing to leave Korea immediately. He had a vicious, pathological reason he couldn't tell a soul.
No. I can't leave my post right now.
Only one woman's face obsessively haunted his mind: Han Eunbyeol, the aspiring hero in her shabby costume, clutching that worn pager, gazing up at him from a rooftop with eyes full of awe. She was his disciple, cloaked in the lingering shadow of his protégé, Shooting Star. Right now, she was wandering dark alleys, chasing a dangerous snuff film villain.
What if, while he crossed the Pacific to Detroit... Eunbyeol fell into the villain's trap, pressed the pager in peril, and he couldn't reach her in time...?
The villain's bomb terror site. His wife's screams as her limbs tore apart in the flames, calling for him.
I can't lose her too! Back then, I was late because of an overseas dispatch!
The trauma of failing to protect his wife from that bombing. The loss of Sara. It had twisted into a warped possessiveness toward Eunbyeol, paralyzing his reason. His eyes darted, desperately seeking any excuse to escape this room.
"If... if it has to be an S-rank..."
Outmaneuvered logically, Rapidstar grudgingly dragged another S-rank hero's name into it as a shield.
"Is there only one S-rank in Korea—me?! Send OniSevenDay! That lunatic woman's raw destructive power outstrips mine by miles—why me?!"
OniSevenDay. One of Korea's only two S-rank heroes, alongside Rapidstar.
But at Rapidstar's forced excuse, the director let out an incredulous scoff.
"Ha... Rapidstar. You think that's a valid excuse?"
The director irritably shut off the hologram and yanked at his tie.
"If OniSevenDay deploys, it'll punch a hole straight through our deterrence against China! And you know her power better than anyone!"
Frustration dripped from the director's voice. OniSevenDay was also the world's youngest S-rank hero. She had zero accomplishments. Yet no one in the international community dared question her ranking. The day she racked up "results," an entire nation might vanish from the map within a week.
Her ability was Bombardment. Her base physical prowess was no better than an ordinary person's, but activating it forcibly tore open a "dimensional gate to a parallel world at war." From beyond that gate poured endless secondary-world tanks, fighters, and missiles in a merciless barrage—that was OniSevenDay's power.
The director tapped the desk with his finger, driving the point home.
"Think about it! Every weapon she fires is solid metal. What do you suppose happens when OniSevenDay dumps infinite metal shells into the domain of Magnet Floyd—that magnetic freak who rules steel? It'll just get sucked into his magnetism, every single one, ballooning his size and destructive power exponentially!"
Far from dealing damage, it'd supercharge him.
"It's the absolute worst matchup imaginable!"
"Th-that's...!"
"Only overwhelming physical might that can punch through raw magnetism! Only a pinnacle body-enhancement hero with pure flesh impervious to magnetism and hypersonic breakthrough speed has a shot at breaching that dome and snapping his neck! That's why America named you!"
Even his excuses were logically dismantled. Reduced to a sullen mute, Rapidstar fumed. Outwardly, he feigned outrage for his country's security and defense... but inwardly...
Or I could contact her right now... tell her to halt the mission immediately...
...the trauma of losing his wife and his obsession with Eunbyeol were eroding his sanity.
No... if I leave, she'll...
As Rapidstar stubbornly dug in, rearing back to slam the desk again—
"Enough, Father. You're putting the director in a tough spot."
Creeeak—
The heavy door to the director's office swung open without warning, ushering in a voice both icy and elegant.
"...Ayoung?"
"Ah, Director Park!"
Park Ayoung stepped inside with poised, refined strides, impeccable in her tailored suit. And in her pale hand dangled the very object Rapidstar so desperately fretted and obsessed over: the battered black pager he'd given to Eunbyeol.
"You—why the hell do you have that?!"
The moment Rapidstar spotted the pager in her hand, his eyes bulged. Thud. Thud. Thud. He stormed toward her with the ferocity to throttle her on the spot.
"Why is that pager in your hands?! What did you do to that girl?! Spill it—what's your game?!"
"Rapidstar!"
Even the director faltered under the dripping malice of his pressure. Any normal person would have pissed themselves and collapsed—but Ayoung gazed calmly up at her father without a flicker of unease.
Ohoo had preemptively implanted emotional control commands in her for just such a contingency.
Ayoung lightly shook the pager before Rapidstar's eyes and spoke flatly.
"So this is why you're throwing a fit and refusing to deploy, Father."
"Shut up and answer me! Where's the girl?!"
"No need to worry about Miss Eunbyeol."
Ayoung began reciting the scenario Ohoo had scripted for her, delivering the lies with natural sincerity.
"You're aware I'm secretly preparing a new hero crew project in the Planning and Coordination Division. Well, it just so happened that one of my long-targeted informants—the very Nyestringer that Miss Eunbyeol was chasing—agreed to join as our crew's intel source. I'd already persuaded him to quit the snuff film trade."
"What?!"
"Miss Eunbyeol crossed paths with me and my team while pursuing Nyestringer. It was the perfect chance to test her resolve and Flight ability, so I made her an offer. Since she's an unlicensed aspirant anyway, I'd fast-track her debut as a special member of my project alongside Nyestringer."
She wrapped the fabrication in truth.
"Right now, Miss Eunbyeol and Nyestringer are in a safehouse I arranged personally, starting group training under my protection and guidance. We're also tracking the criminal organization's tails through the Planning and Coordination Division's intel network, in collaboration with Nyestringer."
Ayoung stepped closer, pried open Rapidstar's thick hand, and firmly placed the worn pager into his palm.
"So you don't need to fret over some outdated pager anymore. If you see that girl as Sister Sara's successor, then let me raise her in Sara's place—the safest, most systematic way possible."
"......"
"Leave Miss Eunbyeol's worries to me, and go raise Korea's stature as its S-rank hero in Detroit."
Ayoung paused, choosing her words.
And then.
"Right, Daddy?"
"....!"
Daddy.
Silence crashed through Rapidstar's mind.
Ayoung had called him "Father" with stiff formality ever since growing up. The rage churning over being separated from Eunbyeol... was suddenly overlaid with disgust and fresh fury at his loathsome birth daughter daring to call him "Daddy" so intimately.
And paradoxically.
As the target of his rage shifted from obsession with Eunbyeol to hatred for the daughter before him, his paralyzed reason began coldly snapping back into place.