A Hero's Day
A Hero's Day
Heroes.
Being a hero didn't mean working every single day.
In fact, heroes only had a chance to act when villains appeared, so during most periods without villains—their usual downtime—there wasn't much to do.
As such, heroes tended to spend most of their villain-free time quite leisurely.
Low-rank heroes who could barely survive on the Association's salary mostly held separate primary jobs and treated hero work as a side gig.
Aside from those low-rank heroes, even A-rank and higher heroes responsible for South Korea mostly spent their free time on their own personal affairs.
Icicle, Lee Seol-ah, spent most of her time without villains running her company. Lee Seol-ah's Yuseong Group was already deeply entrenched in politics and finance and had reached the point where it could barely function without her widespread influence. As such, she practically lived at the office.
Shadow Walker, Kim Ja-hyun, lived like a vampire who slept by day and operated by night. He usually spent his time fooling around with his girlfriend or honing his abilities.
And lastly. Stardus, Shin Ha-ru.
She also spent her remaining time on things other than hero work—most notably university. Now a fourth-year student in her graduating year, she attended classes, completed assignments, and lived much like an ordinary college student.
But this was Stardus.
The most special of South Korea's three A-rank heroes, the only one close to S-rank. And the most righteous figure among them.
Being who she was, she differed from the other heroes who only shone briefly when a villain appeared, then spent the rest of their time focused on daily life and forgot all about hero work and villains. Even while juggling university life, she never forgot her identity as a hero and could be found working in her spare time, either stopping by the Association office or researching how to capture villains from home.
At present—
Shin Ha-ru sat at the computer in her Association office, working.
"Stardus. Please don't hesitate to call if you need anything."
"Yes. Thank you."
With that, the association staff member left.
Clicking her mouse again, she entered a certain site, just as she always did.
[Egostic Fan Cafe]
"....."
Even though it had been quite a while, a friendly yellow interface welcomed her back as if she'd returned to her hometown.
She had only one reason for coming to this cafe: to gather information.
What kind of information? Information on Egostic, obviously.
"Haah..."
She was a hero.
As a hero, her duty was to capture villains operating secretly across the nation, carrying out terrorist attacks, and throw them into a detention center.
For Shin Ha-ru, the current top hero in South Korea, to investigate Egostic—the top villain just as intensively—was as natural as the north and south poles of a magnet locking together. In fact, even if she had spent the entire day agonizing only over Egostic, no one would have blamed her. If anything, people would have praised her.
Having finished that long and elaborate self-justification for browsing the Egostic Fan Cafe, she cast off her guilt and decided to check out the cafe's most popular posts first.
Stills from Egostic's attacks, Mangostic cosplay, shipping him with Ego Stream members, and so on...
Egostic terror still shots, Mangostic cosplay, shipping with Ego Stream members, etc...
Still, just in case, she went into all of them, diligently engaging by liking the posts she enjoyed and refuting the ones she didn't with comments.
Again, she wasn't playing around. She was strictly researching a villain as a hero.
After diligently reading all the popular posts like that.
Returning to the main screen, she suddenly felt a sense of emptiness.
...While she went through all that trouble for one tiny scrap of information about Egostic, his companions already knew everything about him, didn't they?
Shin Ha-ru felt her chest tighten at the thought.
I'm the Egostic expert.
But compared with them, I barely know anything about Egostic.
"Sigh...."
'We're like family. Very close.'
Her mood soured again at Egostic's voice echoing in her ears.
...Haah. In any case, Egostic was a villain who'd committed multiple acts of terrorism. He was a villain, so she had to arrest him, but...
"..."
She didn't know.
Strangely, whenever she thought about Egostic, her mind seemed to turn foolish.
He had done all sorts of villain acts, pretending to be a terrible guy, yet he had appeared at the crucial moment to save her.
...Now, when the moment came to capture him with her own hands and throw him in prison, she wasn't even sure anymore if she could do it.
"...What am I thinking."
Right. No matter what, he was a villain. A walking time bomb, with a criminal record already in the dozens.
As a hero, for the sake of the public who supported her, she shouldn't have been thinking that way.
Yeah. She had to work. Work.
She focused on the monitor again.
...All right. What should I look into this time?
Maybe I’ll reread the reports from the Association.
Her office was cozy, sunlight streaming through the window and making her blonde hair shine.
Bathed in the warm sunlight, Shin Ha-ru returned to work.
That was when, as she read through the documents—
the monitor suddenly switched off.
"....?"
What was this? Had it broken?
As she glared at the monitor, trying to figure out the problem.
Flick-.
The monitor lit up again.
Oh, it was back on.
The moment she thought that—
she realized something was strange.
A screen that just moments ago had displayed a white document.
The document had vanished from the screen.
The screen was now stained pitch-black,
with only a huge moon floating there, lonely and alone.
"....What is this?"
A moon had suddenly appeared on her monitor.
The sight immediately filled Shin Ha-ru with foreboding.
Something was strange.
And at that moment, a metal-scraping sound came from her monitor and the association speakers mounted on the ceiling.
[Ah...]
[Ah... you people...]
[I am Cheon Wol-hwang, the Moonlight Cult Leader.... It is my first time greeting you. Have you been well....]
Moonlight Church.
Her face immediately hardened when she heard that.
Alongside Egostic, it was one of the villain groups the Association watched most closely.
The organization that nearly annihilated Seoul last time using the Moonlight Priestess.
"Stardus!"
"Yes, I'm listening."
She gestured for the Association employee who had rushed in to be quiet, then listened closely to the Moonlight Cult Leader.
The sound from the speakers continued in that same metal-scraping voice.
[Yes... ah, yes.... I am very pleased that everyone seems so happy.... Are you all spending a day blessed at home and at work?]
[The sight of you rotten humans gathering together and dragging one another into the abyss of evil is truly... truly delightful indeed....]
[To all of you who lead the world toward ruin every day... disasters unto yourselves.]
[I have a gift for you....]
[Look at the moon above.]
[Is the moon not truly bright?]
The Moonlight Cult Leader had suddenly told everyone to look at the moon in broad daylight.
Shin Ha-ru frowned at the cryptic words, which sounded like some incomprehensible riddle.
Suddenly—
The moment the Moonlight Cult Leader finished speaking—
"...Huh?"
At the same moment, the sunlight that had been blazing moments earlier abruptly vanished. Everything turned pitch-black.
The world suddenly sank into darkness.
"....It's night?"
[....Heh heh heh.][This is my first gift to you, foolish ones....][And allow me to give you... one more.][I will give you a chance... to escape this dreadful world where people try to kill one another...][and walk the path of salvation.][All who have not attained salvation... walk with the moonlight, and the path to salvation shall open to you as well.]
[For apostates, there is only death.]
The moment the Moonlight Cult Leader finished speaking—
A bizarre, enormous howl echoed from one side of the city.
Gwooooooooooooooo-
SKREEE
"Stardus!"
"Yes, I'm leaving now!"
Already fully suited up, she immediately launched herself into the pitch-black sky, now devoid of a single point of light.
"....."
The city had been swallowed by sudden, dense darkness.
Shin Ha-ru flew above it toward the source of the enormous, grotesque noise.
Her expression looked more anxious than ever.
Ominous.
More ominous than ever before.
That was what her instincts warned her.
***
A house swallowed by darkness in an instant.
[All who have not attained salvation... walk with the moonlight, and the path to salvation shall open to you as well.][For apostates, there is only death.]
The moment the Moonlight Cult Leader finished speaking—
Shit. We're seriously fucked.
I spat out a curse.
No, shit. Seriously, why...
"Big bro! What is going on?"
"Dain! It suddenly got dark outside. What's happening?"
"Hey... what the hell's happening right now?"
Amidst the chaos even within our Ego Stream.
[Breaking news! An unidentified monstrous lifeform has reportedly appeared in one area of Seoul!]
My face hardened when I heard the report on the radio.
Moonlight Church. The sudden darkness descending. The monstrous lifeform.
Shit. This is absolutely one hundred percent that thing from the Moonlight Church.
One of the Soldiers of the Apocalypse that appeared in the final battle of Phase 2.
"...Silver."
"Huh?"
"Seo-eun, gather every bit of silver we have. Now!!!"
We're fucked.
If we don't stop this fast, we're screwed.
I hurriedly moved toward the basement.
No, fuck you, you goddamn cult leader.
Why the hell are you bringing out the ultimate weapon now?
And so, in the city shrouded in darkness—
two figures set out to stop the calamity.