The F-Rank Hero

Rooooar—!

The waves roared without a moment’s rest. "Ugh, so noisy..."

It wasn't exactly the open ocean. I could see a breakwater in the distance, but since no one was watching, it might as well have been the middle of nowhere. "......So embarrassing."

Even though no one was around, I wanted to cover my face in shame. An A-rank hero, getting struck by lightning and left adrift while acting like a hotshot. This was the state I was in the moment Mr. Hoseop left.

Tap-tap! Rat-tat!

Raindrops lashed at my face mercilessly. It seemed that even the rain didn't think much of an A-rank hero. It toyed with my face without hesitation. I wanted to wipe the water away, but Triple Power couldn't lift a hand to wipe her face, nor could she turn her head to avoid the waves. My suit had lost power and sunk into the water, forcing me to deploy the emergency full-body tube—my last survival protocol—before sinking into the sea.

Wrapped tightly from the neck down in the inflated special life-tube, I felt like I had returned to my pathetic days.

‘......I really am the spitting image of a tire company mascot.’

A wry smile spread across Triple Power’s lips as she stared blankly at the sky through the rain and wind. I remembered the mocking nickname my peers used to call me: Michelin.

When my innate ability went out of control, my whole body would puff up like a bouncy ball. It was a nickname my classmates had given me while pointing fingers.

‘Back then, I was so...... annoyed and embarrassed that I wanted to bite my tongue off.’

Triple Power squeezed her eyes shut. I would have preferred those days. Even if I was teased for being talentless and blushed with shame, at least back then, there were peers by my side who would burst into laughter at my ridiculous antics. There was the warmth of people I could get angry at, fight with, and trade blows with. But now, there was no one.

Mr. Hoseop, who reached out to me when everyone else had left... Triple Axel had hopped on a plane and left for the other side of the West Sea.

‘I’m such ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a total idiot.’

To think I’m drifting alone in the middle of the ocean, stuck in a tube, after trying to act tough to catch Mr. Hoseop. ‘I’m no different from how I was before I met Mr. Hoseop.......’

The waves pushed my body up roughly, only to slam it back down into a deep valley.

First semester of the third year at the Hero Academy. Triple Power was a very famous student on campus. In terms of mechanical engineering, I didn't fall behind my peers. The hero equipment blueprints I submitted drew interest even from active pro heroes, and my classmates would tell me every day to customize their gear after graduation. Of course, the other students were hero hopefuls, so they didn't need to learn mechanical engineering. Mechanical engineering wasn't even in the academy curriculum. Still, because I had excellent talent in mechanical engineering, I achieved good grades in the hero hopefuls' subjects without difficulty. Not just in First Aid and Hero Law, which were necessary for hero activities, but also in operational planning for large-scale terror attacks.

However, contrary to my theoretical grades, I was an underachiever when it came to ability utilization and practical evaluations.

The ability defined by the Association for Triple Power at the time was 「Elasticity」. It was the ability to manipulate the arrangement of muscles and cells in the body to increase and deform the body's elasticity like rubber. The problem was that the elasticity coefficient was so low it was embarrassing to even call it a hero ability.

On the final grade evaluation day before graduation, Triple Power showcased a finishing move I had devised to prove that my ability was by no means useless in front of the examiners.

"Haaah!"

With a shout, I applied elasticity to my right arm, transforming it into a long, whip-like shape. Snap! The power wasn't bad. It was a whip, after all. But.

"......."

At the evaluator's ruthless feedback, snickers erupted from the classmates waiting behind me. The basic martial arts evaluation went even further, spiraling into a disaster.

Triple Power gritted her teeth and engaged in the sparring. But as the fight began and adrenaline surged while trading blows, I got too excited, and my elasticity ability went out of control.

"Yah! Uh, uh-huh?!"

The moment I stepped on the ground to throw a punch, elasticity stuck to my lower body muscles. Every time my two legs touched the mat, I bounced away as if I had become a bouncy ball. Boing-. Boi-oing-.

"Kyaaaak! St-stop! My legs won't stop!"

My basic martial arts stance and center of gravity completely collapsed. Far from hitting the enemy, I couldn't even control my own body, bouncing ridiculously around the training ground and constantly slamming into walls.

"Pwahahaha! Hey, isn't that Michelin?!"

"The Bouncy Ball Hero! Is your ability to bore villains to death?!"

Eventually. On the day the report cards were distributed after all graduation evaluations were finished. Out of hundreds of students, Triple Power had to stand on the very last podium. In the midst of that festival where peers were cheering for receiving at least D-ranks, and the talented honor students were receiving C-ranks.

On Triple Power's chest hung the most humiliating and miserable tag, one rarely seen in the history of the academy.

It was a judgment that I was essentially a talentless person whose value as a hero had been completely castrated. At the time, I ground my teeth at that miserable humiliation, but according to what Triple Axel told me later, the Association had valued my talent as a suit creator. So, they intentionally gave me the lowest F-rank to make me give up on the dream of being a field hero... Of course, since Triple Axel was a person who could skillfully tell shameless white lies to reassure others, the reliability of that statement was close to zero.

The contrast immediately after graduation was cruelly distinct. Peers who received C-rank ratings and talented honor students were scouted as interns for famous A-rank hero crews ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠before the graduation ceremony even ended, reserving a path of success. Even peers who received D-ranks scattered to find jobs at small-to-medium regional crews or police cooperation departments. However, there wasn't a single place in all of South Korea that sought the only F-rank, Triple Power, as an intern or assistant hero. I didn't even receive a hero name.

‘......Well, it’s what I expected.’

While packing my bags in the empty academy dormitory, I calmly accepted reality. Realizing early on that my ability was useless junk in actual combat, I had shifted my career path toward suit creation and equipment engineering. The day after receiving the F-rank, I took my design blueprints, got a job at a famous workshop under the Association, and began my life as a full-time suit creator.

‘Let’s think positively. It’s better this way.’

Every night, while wearing welding goggles and hammering iron plates inside the workshop where sparks flew, I comforted myself as if brainwashing myself.

‘If I’m a suit creator, I don’t have to go to the front lines, bleed, or fight for my life. Plus, if my skills are recognized, I can rake in much more money than most heroes. This is winning at life.’

My head accepted it. But in a corner of my heart, there remained a hole that could never be filled. If I was going to live like this, stuck in a narrow workshop, making suits and inhaling metal dust.

‘Why on earth did I pay that expensive tuition and attend the Hero Academy...?’

When I already received love calls from the mechanical engineering side in middle school, if I had started working as a technician or researcher early on, I would be raking in money and holding a lab director position by now. Three years at the academy... No, since I received love calls in middle school, it’s six years if you include high school. Why did I waste six years of time? If I was going to do that, I should have at least played around. Did I have to be discarded at the academy while being despised as an underachiever?

There was only one reason.

‘Me too.......’

Triple Power put down the welding torch she was holding and wiped her face with soot-stained hands.

‘Because I, too, wanted to become a hero who saves the world... like those guys.’

Even though my ability was pathetic and lacking. I wanted to become a shining existence called a hero. That aspiration burned in my heart no less than my top-ranked peers. So I had no regrets. Because I had sweated and rolled together with bright hero peers who, even if they laughed at me, always made the world a just and brilliant place. Because those three years were a precious meaning and shining memory for Triple Power that could not be exchanged for anything.

"If I can't fight, I just have to make the strongest suit so my friends can fight for my share."

As I steeled my heart like that, I poured my soul into meticulously crafting combat suits and weapons for my academy peers to wear when they went out to the field. I felt vicarious satisfaction by replacing my inferiority complex with dedication and watching them appear on the news and perform brilliantly. That was how one year passed as a full-time suit creator. And.

During that short year. Among the peers who went out to the field wearing the suits I had painstakingly made while pulling all-nighters....... Exactly half returned as cold corpses.

"......."

Triple Power sat slumped on the workshop floor, staring blankly at the remnants of the suits I had made, which had been returned torn and caked with blood and pieces of entrails. No massive disaster had occurred. No national event where the former S-rank villain 「Saurustyranno」 ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠devastated Jamsil, nor a large-scale terror attack causing hundreds of casualties at once had occurred. It was just a very ordinary, daily patrol mission in a slum or back alley. It was just a common local skirmish where they blocked third-rate thug ability users wielding knives or small-scale bank robber villains. But why did they die?

The reason was too futile and miserable.

‘Because those kids...... were too righteous.’

I hugged the blood-stained suit pieces. They didn't run away. Even though they could have avoided it at the scene where the villain was running wild. Even though the fire was collapsing the building. To save one more civilian. To protect a mother holding her child. Because of their sense of duty, they jumped in without sparing their own bodies. They showed the hero ideal she had dreamed of without leaving anything out. That was how they lost their lives in a futile and miserable way.

And above all. Most of the peers who jumped into the jaws of death like that and died first were. The very honor students who had smiled the brightest and most dazzlingly at the graduation ceremony one year ago, received C-rank ratings, and were gloriously deployed to the field.

Because they were righteous and talented. Because they were shining stars with more courage than anyone else. They were the first to be broken, crushed, and oxidized by others.

On the other hand, the most pathetic and incompetent F-rank underachiever, who had no ability and was stuck in the corner of the safest workshop, trembling in fear while inhaling metal dust.

I alone was alive and breathing, without a single scratch. I was wretchedly clinging to life.

Eventually.

"This kind of suit...... making it for a hundred days is useless!"

Triple Power threw down the hammer and stormed out of the chief engineer's position. And all night long, I drew blueprints and personally welded and made a combat suit designed solely to compensate for my weaknesses and maximize combat power. I quit being a suit creator and ran out to the field to personally execute villains. Still as a pathetic F-rank who hadn't even received a re-evaluation.

‘I’m confident. No, I’m going to kill them all.’

Driven by something closer to an obsession than courage or a sense of duty.

‘If it’s the suits and equipment I’ve forged, they’re more than enough to make up for my lacking ability. I can overwhelm everything with equipment.’

That was how Triple Power raided the hideout of a B-rank villain organization that was distributing drugs in Busan alone. But.

"Kuhk......!"

Thwack-!

"Where did this bitch pick up that tin robot and act tough?!"

The armor of the suit she boasted about was shattered into pieces by just three strikes from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the forepaw swung by 「Kuma」, a B-rank heteromorphic bear-beastkin villain. I had put in too many functions. I had filled it with an inferiority complex about my lacking ability. Because of that, once the suit's power line was cut, it became a lump of metal that couldn't perform any function.

"Cough, ugh......."

Even if it was a B-rank villain, there was no way a workshop technician with zero combat experience could beat someone who lived every day as a villain in real combat. No matter how good the equipment was, since the body utilizing that equipment wasn't supported, it was just a punching bag trapped in a heavy lump of scrap metal.

"Fucking bitch, you trashed the workplace. Catch her. Let's feed her drugs and fuck her since it's annoying."

The villains narrowed the encirclement toward the fallen Triple Power.

‘Ah...... so this is how I die.’

I was crawling on the floor, covered in blood. My vision blurred. I sensed death from within. But.

"Hraaaah!"

I didn't want to die even more. Even if I was F-rank, I had a hero license. I couldn't die to a villain. I couldn't die yet. I hadn't saved a single person.

Triple Power squeezed her elasticity ability to the limit to survive and poured it into both arms that were touching the floor. And the short moment she tried to bounce her body away to escape.

Whoooom-!

For the first time in my life, I encountered the flow of energy wrapping around and circulating through my body.

Slide.

When my fingertips brushed the floor, the sensation of the cold and hard cement floor of the junkyard feeling like rubber was transmitted.

‘......Huh?’

It wasn't my body, but elasticity was granted to the external object my hand touched.