The Lightning-Struck Hero
The target, A-rank hero Triple Power, was rolling right into Ohoo’s lap, having shaken off countless competitors all on her own. Just as he thought the stage was perfectly set for her recruitment, drip. Plop. A heavy droplet fell onto Ohoo’s cheek.
“Huh? Is it raining?” Eunbyeol looked up at the sky and reached out a hand.
Patter-patter! Whoosh-! In mere seconds, the dark, ominous clouds that had swallowed the blue sky tore open, and a fierce, torrential downpour began to beat mercilessly against the sea and the Yeongjong Island area. The weather had deteriorated rapidly.
As the strong wind and rain lashed out, Ayoung actually smiled, feeling relieved. “That’s fortunate. If it rains, it will put a massive strain on that suit’s engine and thermal control system. Now, without the energy to pull any tricks, she’ll have no choice but to truly give up and fall right in front of us, nice and tame.”
Ohoo nodded at Ayoung’s logical analysis. He could picture it: approaching the A-rank hero as she crashed, shivering and pathetic in the rain, and handing her a warm towel and the bait to recruit her.
But then.
Rumble-!! Flash! CRACK-BOOM!!
The sky over the dark, storm-tossed sea split wide open, and a bolt of lightning slammed into the water.
“Eek!” Eunbyeol shrieked, covering her ears and cowering at the sound of the thunder, but—
“Ooh!! It’s tingly, nyang~!!”
Miyang, an electric-type ability user, was actually excited by the natural energy erupting from the sky. She stood her cat tail straight up and burst into giggles. “The lightning in this neighborhood is super hot, nyang! The electricity I put out can’t even compete! So tingly!”
Ohoo, watching Miyang jump around in excitement, looked back and forth between the lightning-filled, storm-clouded sky and Triple Power’s suit, which was struggling to maintain flight beneath those clouds as it returned to land.
“.......”
A delusion crossed his mind. A delusion that shouldn't come true.
“Hey, Miyang.”
“Yes, Master!”
“But...... that woman. She’s wearing a suit made entirely of metal, isn’t she?” Ohoo asked, his voice dry as he pointed toward the rain-lashed sea. “Isn’t she going to get hit by lightning like that?”
“......Nyang?” Miyang looked puzzled for a moment at Ohoo’s sudden question, then snorted and waved her hand dismissively. “Ayy, no way, Master! You sure have a vivid imagination!”
Miyang burst into laughter as if the idea were ridiculous. “The sea is endlessly wide, and there are so many clouds in the sky! How could lightning possibly strike a person as tiny as a grain of rice? They don’t even do that in movies! Nyang-hahaha!”
Just as Miyang was boldly laughing at the probabilities of nature, the dark clouds in the sky swirled, and the negative and positive charges in the atmosphere began to collide.
Flash-!!!!
The world was bleached pure white in an instant.
“......Huh?” Miyang’s laughter cut off abruptly.
KRAAAAAAASH-------!!!!!!
Before Miyang could even finish her sentence, the lightning bolt that tore through the sky struck—as if it had been fired by a precision-guided missile—directly onto the crown of Triple Power’s metal suit, which was struggling to fly over the sea, without a single inch of error.
“......!!!”
“AAAAAAH-!!!”
Mixed with the sound of the waves and the rain, it sounded like the woman’s scream. At the same time, there was a pop sound from the Triple Power suit’s thrusters. Sparks flew, and the suit, having lost all power, along with the small woman trapped inside, began to plummet helplessly into the middle of the raging, rain-drenched sea without any resistance.
Splash-!!!!
A column of water erupted, and the A-rank hero Triple Power was sucked into the dark waves without a trace.
“.......”
“.......”
“.......”
Ohoo, Ayoung, Miyang, and Eunbyeol, who had been standing on the breakwater, stood there with their mouths hanging open, unable to believe the scene that had just unfolded before their eyes.
“F, fucked, nyang......!” Miyang’s perked-up cat ears flopped down toward the ground. “Th, that crazy woman really got hit by lightning! What do we do, Master!”
Even Ayoung, who had maintained her composure, turned pale and screamed, her glasses sliding down to the tip of her nose. “This is a disaster! That suit alone weighs dozens of kilograms! If she falls into the water with the power off...... she’ll sink to the abyss before she can even take the suit off!”
Ayoung shouted as she rushed toward the pickup truck. “At this rate, an A-rank hero, a valuable asset to the Republic of Korea, might just drown and evaporate in the sea for nothing......!”
Recruitment and everything else were out the window. They had to save the person sinking into the sea right now.
“A, Ahjussi! What do we do! She’s going to die! We have to save her quickly!” Eunbyeol cried, stomping her feet, looking ready to jump into the sea at any moment.
But—
“Save her? With what!” Ohoo shouted, taking the brunt of the heavy rain.
This was the edge of a closed-down yacht marina breakwater, without even a single inner tube in sight. In front of them was a raging sea, storming with lightning and dark clouds. Ohoo’s Acceleration ability wouldn’t be of much use in the ocean. Miyang was a cat-beastkin electric user. Ayoung was an administrative civilian with nothing but a regeneration ability and average swimming skills. Eunbyeol’s Flight ability was their only hope, but—
It was far too slow.
Screech-!
Just then, a car screeched to a halt behind the desperate group, kicking up dust. A man stepped out of a bright red sports car, walking through the rain, and spoke nonchalantly.
“Oh, what’s this? I’m not the first one here?”
“......!” Ayoung turned around and froze in place.
“Tr, Triple Crown......!”
The synonym for excessive force. The last member of the Triple A crew, the A-rank hero Triple Crown, was standing there. The man glanced at Ayoung and approached with a grin.
“Manager Park, you came to catch Yeoksam too? I thought I knew Yeoksam best, but I got beaten to it. Even though I have the seniority of being in the same crew.”
Triple Crown called Triple Power “Yeoksam” without hesitation and shoved his hands into his pockets. “What are you doing here......”
To Ayoung’s question, Triple Crown shrugged. “Well, I heard Yeoksam caused an accident, so I came to clean it up. Triple Axel-hyung isn’t here, so who else would clean up after that girl but me? But why don’t I see her? I thought she’d be back by now since she’d be out of fuel.”
At his relaxed attitude, Ohoo urgently pointed at the sea. “She just got hit by lightning and fell into the sea over there!”
“......What? Lightning?”
Instead of being shocked, Triple Crown burst into loud laughter, clutching his stomach. “Pwahahahaha! That girl really got hit by lightning? Wow, as expected of Yeoksam’s class, it never fails! But don’t worry. Her suit has all sorts of emergency features, so she’ll pop out on her own...... oh, she’s out.”
Just as he said. Splash- Something surfaced through the dark waves. The metal suit was nowhere to be seen, likely having sunk to the bottom of the sea, but Triple Power had surfaced, barely, wrapped in a large, tube-shaped life-saving device.
“Puh-ha, *cough cough!* Help me!”
She was saying something like that, but due to the sound of the waves, it didn’t reach Ohoo’s group.
“She’s probably saying something like that, right?” Triple Crown interpreted the sound of the waves for them. However, because of the raging wind and waves, Triple Power looked extremely precarious, as if she might flip over again at any moment. Her small frame being swept away by the waves looked incredibly dangerous.
“Hey! No matter how notorious she is, she’s an A-rank hero! Save her already!” Ohoo shouted at Triple Crown.
But Triple Crown waved his hand. “Me? My ability is very far from rescue.”
Triple Crown started to scan his surroundings, and then—
Crackle-! A sound never heard before erupted from Triple Crown’s body.
Crunch-! His muscles and bones began to multiply at an abnormal speed, and his body began to expand massively.
Zzzzt! Pop-! The clothes he was wearing, perhaps made of a special material, seemed to tear to shreds, but then they clung to his expanding body and began to adapt to it.
Rumble-! In just a few seconds, Triple Crown transformed into a 15-meter-tall giant, and as he stood tall, the ground vibrated from his massive mass.
“Whoa......!” Eunbyeol and Miyang tilted their heads back, looking up in shock.
The giant Triple Crown added in a voice that seemed to shake the mountains. “The problem is, I can’t swim. I’m just big, so floating on the water is all I can do. If the waves hit, I’ll get swept away too.”
Ayoung whispered into Ohoo’s ear, cold sweat dripping down. “That’s why he’s Triple Crown because of that ability. Disciplinary actions and complaints never end. His destructive power is certain, and above all, even though he is capable of precise manipulation with that size when Triple Axel isn’t on the scene...... he deliberately doesn’t minimize damage and smashes every building in sight.”
‘Capable of precise manipulation?’ Ohoo’s gaze shifted between Triple Power in the tube being swept away by the waves and the 15-meter giant standing in front of him.
Regardless, she had surfaced thanks to the tube, so there was a possibility. Ohoo looked up at the giant Triple Crown and shouted boldly.
“Hey! Giant!”
“Huh? Did you call me?”
“You said you’re capable of precise manipulation, right? Then you don’t need to swim!” Ohoo grabbed Eunbyeol’s arm and demanded. “Throw me and Eunbyeol accurately at Triple Power floating in the sea over there!”
“......What?”
A rescue on a raging sea that even an A-rank hero had given up on. A mischievous smile spread across the face of the giant Triple Crown, who looked down at Ohoo’s proposal, which was no different from a suicide mission, as if he found it interesting. “Oh. I like your guts.”
Triple Crown bent his knees, and—
Rumble-! “Get on.” He reached out his giant hand toward Ohoo and Eunbyeol.
“Wait for me! Miyang! Come here!” Ohoo quickly turned around and called Miyang. “Come under the eaves over there.”
Ohoo headed to a yacht rental shop that wasn’t operating to avoid the pouring rain. When Miyang followed with a questioning look, Ohoo didn’t hesitate to turn around and offer the back of his neck.
“Accelerate me. Fry me with electricity.”
“......Nyang?! Master, are you crazy?! You’re really going to save her......?”
“There’s no time. If we leave her like that, she’s really going to die. Hurry!” At Ohoo’s firm command, Miyang bit her lip hard. “Haa...... seriously, just come back. If you die, I’ll chase you to hell, bring you back to life, and then kill you myself!”
Crackle! Miyang, with tears in her eyes, placed her hand on the back of Ohoo’s neck and sent a current through him.
“Ugh......!” Ohoo’s entire body’s muscles began to expand, emitting high-heat steam. The warm-up was complete.
“Eunbyeol, let’s go.” Ohoo, breathing heavily, led Eunbyeol by the arm and leaped onto Triple Crown’s palm.
Thump, thump.Triple Crown began to move toward the end of the breakwater to get as close to the sea as possible with the two people on his hand. The waves hit the giant’s knees.
“Ah, Ahjussi...... are we really going to fly with this?” Eunbyeol asked in a trembling voice, taking the fierce wind and rain on the giant’s palm.
“Yeah. Hold on tight. Wrap your arms around my waist and don’t let go.” Ohoo explained the plan quickly after having Eunbyeol wrap her arms firmly around his waist. “I’m going to fly over and grab Triple Power who’s fallen into the sea. The moment I grab her, use your Flight ability to hold on. Since it lifts regardless of weight, if it’s the weight of the three of us, we won’t sink into the sea and can float in the air.”
“B, but......!” Eunbyeol asked back in shock. “That giant Ahjussi is going to throw us at an incredibly fast speed...... is it possible to snatch someone who’s fallen into the sea at that speed?! You won’t even be able to see her!”
“It’s possible. I felt it for sure when I fought Deogi at Bupyeong Station last time. When I’m in an accelerated state, my dynamic vision adapts to the speed to some extent.”
Furthermore. “If we fly carried by that giant’s throwing speed, a relative synchronization will occur, so even if it’s not dramatic, the target floating in the sea will look visible enough for me to grab.”
Ohoo added with conviction. “And if I can just grab that Triple Power woman somehow, she’ll be able to send us back to land with her ability. Even if the suit is broken, she’ll find a way to survive with her original ability.”
Eunbyeol gulped as she listened to Ohoo’s plan.
“Now, are you ready?!” Triple Crown’s giant voice boomed. He pulled one leg back and began to pull his right hand, with the two people on it, back behind his head as far as he could.
“Hold on tight!”
“Eek......!”
Whoosh-!! As Triple Crown’s giant arm cut through the air, Ohoo and Eunbyeol were launched toward the drifting Triple Power.