Let There Be Light
Let There Be Light
A dark city.
A woman hiding in one corner sat collapsed at the side of the road, trembling.
'No... shit. Where the hell did a monster like that come from...'
SKREEE!!!
"Eeeek!"
The woman, who had screamed before she could stop herself, quickly covered her mouth.
The disaster had struck without warning while she was at work.
In an instant, broad daylight vanished and the city turned gray.
Then that monster appeared in the middle of downtown.
As everyone screamed at its hideous appearance, it raised one hand.
People nearby flew through the air as if dragged by an invisible hand, pulled toward the thing.
Then, after one final scream, every one of them fell dead.
'...It's all over now.'
The woman kept thinking, still trembling.
She had never seen anything so hideous in her life.
The next time the monster raised its hand, she could be the one it chose.
She would end up like the assistant manager lying cold and dead beside her.
Boom. Boom.
Of course, that monster wasn't the only thing in this dark city.
Heroes had rushed in as soon as the disaster began.
At first, seeing the heroes gave everyone hope that they would resolve the situation.
'...Not a chance.'
Booooom.
Another sound of destruction.
The trembling woman turned her head to look behind her.
Beyond the corner, she saw—
SKREEE!
-Urgh...
There was the blonde-haired hero, being driven back without respite.
Far from defeating the monster, she looked like she could barely block its swinging attacks.
Even as they fought, more people were dragged out of nearby alleys. They screamed as their souls were pulled free, then collapsed lifelessly to the ground.
'...I'll be next soon.'
She had already given up.
Another hero seemed to be carrying out rescue work, but there was no sign of them coming her way.
Ha. If I'd known I was going to die like this, I should've slapped that fossil of a department head first.
...Maybe that department head was already dead too?
No. With how tenacious that bastard was, he might still be alive.
As she thought that, now openly watching the battle—
Off to one side, she spotted a man holding his phone.
'...What is that guy doing over there?'
She narrowed her eyes. He was holding his phone sideways, and it looked like he was... filming the battle.
'...Ha. This is insane.'
Leaving behind the man who seemed to be livestreaming on YouTube or something even with death moments away, she turned back to the battle.
The hero was still being pushed back one-sidedly.
Her name was... Stardus, right? Stardus was still fighting, but even an ordinary civilian could see her strength draining away.
Looking again, it didn't seem like Stardus would win.
But...
'...Still, she's fighting with everything she's got.'
She thought bitterly.
She was still holding on, but for how much longer?
Soon, she probably would...
-Save me! Aaaah!
Before long, more people were being dragged through the air again.
They clawed at their throats in agony. Something white was pulled from their bodies, and they collapsed lifelessly to the ground.
She watched, peeking out with lifeless eyes.
-Thud.
Her eyes met the creature’s.
"...Ah."
She hastily turned her head and hid her body against the wall again.
Her body was trembling, heart pounding, and she held her breath behind the wall.
She realized it without being told.
'I'm next.'
Her terror intensified when she looked again at the cold corpse lying beside her.
Even her teeth were chattering.
She had definitely given up just moments ago, but when death came right to the door, she suddenly felt a desperate desire to live.
'Please... Stardus... please...'
She poked her head out again and started practically praying to Stardus.
Please. Please, let a miracle happen. Stardus, could you beat that thing just once? Please.
But Stardus was still being driven back just as before.
Now she was being hurled into buildings amid the chaos.
The creature raised its hand again and charged at Stardus.
The woman watched from behind the wall, peeking out at the battle.
'No, no...'
Suddenly, she felt as though something had seized her body in an iron grip.
Just as she was about to have her soul drained like the others—
she was dragged toward the monster, screaming.
Aaaaaaaaah—!
A woman's fierce battle cry rang out.
At the same time—
at the heart of the battle between Stardus and the monster—
the moment Stardus swung her fist—
Flash-
A blinding light flashed from the center.
Finally, when that light shot toward it—
THUD.
BAAAAANG-
A thunderous roar, louder than anything she had ever heard, shook the city.
A wind strong enough to send her flying whipped around them.
The entire city flashed with an enormous yellow light at its center, as though a nuclear bomb had detonated.
-Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuumble.
SKREEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
"...Gah!"
The tremendous light made her scream and squeeze her eyes shut. When she opened them again, she saw—
SKREEE... KRAAAAAAAAH!!!
the monster floating in the air, howling in pain.
Violet light poured from cracks all over its body.
And with its final death throes—
-Shoooom.
BOOOOOOOOOOOM—
Amid a searing white light, the monster—
Pop.
exploded.
"Eep!"
Her body, which had been suspended in the air, dropped to the ground.
For a moment, she rubbed her aching backside.
"Ugh..."
"Huh? Assistant Manager?"
The man who had been lying beside her, cold and dead—
something white and luminous, almost like a soul, entered his body.
His face regained color, and he started to groan.
Watching that scene, she—
"Stardus... she actually b-beat it?"
She stammered without realizing it.
Soon, the people who had been lying around like corpses began regaining consciousness one by one.
She staggered to her feet from behind the collapsed wall, paying no attention to her filthy suit. What she and everyone else who came to at that moment saw was—
the darkness over the city receding as the sun rose again.
At the center of it all, floating with her fist still clenched, the first to greet the returning light—
was Stardus, her blonde hair streaming behind her.
Watching Stardus's back, silhouetted against the rising sun—
the woman murmured before she realized it.
"...A hero."
So that's a hero.
Stardus floated alone in the light after defeating a monster that had seemed impossible for anyone to face. She was the very image of a hero.
Everyone who saw her—
before they even realized it—
could only stare blankly at Stardus.
They simply stood there, staring—
at the shining figure who had saved all of us.
At the hero.
And from that day onward—
footage of Stardus's battle, recorded from beginning to end, spread across the nation.
Her popularity exploded.
***
The darkness vanished, and the sky grew bright again.
On a rooftop at the center of it all, I laughed.
"Hahaha, fuck. What a fucking pushover. One shot and—cough—it's over, huh?"
After cramming the weapon full of Silver Bullets and firing it like a bazooka, I killed the thing with nothing more than a pathetic skree.
I had even fired at the exact moment Stardus threw her Star Punch and the light flashed, so anyone watching would think she had defeated it. Even Ha-ru probably believed she had done it herself.
The flash was so intense and the thing went down as though struck by a nuclear warhead. Even I thought for a second that Stardus had defeated it herself.
Of course, no matter how powerful Ha-ru's Star Punch was, that thing would never die unless it was attacked with silver, so that couldn't have been what happened.
Still, at least this had awakened Star Punch—one of her near-finishing moves—far earlier than in the Original Work.
Under the brightened sky, Stardus hovered for a moment after finishing it off, then collapsed once all her strength ran out. She would wake after recovering from the exhaustion... I was the problem now.
"Hoo... How do I—cough—get home now... cough... couuugh."
Ah, shit.
Even in this mess, I coughed up blood again.
It felt like the backlash was only hitting now that the tension was gone, after overdoing it with the long-distance teleport to get here.
After vomiting a basinful of blood onto the building's outer wall, I wiped my mouth and began gathering up the anti-materiel rifle to head home.
Ha... how am I supposed to get back?
I also had to explain everything to Lee Seol-ah, who'd been worried sick... I had a lot to do.
Thinking that, I picked up the rifle and was just about to turn around.
"I knew it was you."
The voice behind me made me freeze.
When I turned around, standing before me was—
...Shadow Walker?
It was Shadow Walker, black-haired and ringed with deep dark circles.
His eyes were exhausted, but the corners of his mouth were still slightly raised.
...No, what the fuck? Why is he here?
While I stood there dumbfounded by the sudden encounter, he rubbed beneath his nose and spoke to me.
"No need to be that surprised. I've known everything from start to finish."
"...Known what?"
"I already realized that you were a hero pretending to be a villain. And judging by what I just saw, you were the one who eliminated that thing too, weren't you?"
He stood there blabbering in front of me. No, seriously, where had he come from, and what was he even talking about all by himself?
Seeing me just rolling my eyes at him, he somehow made his own judgment and wiped under his nose again as he spoke.
"Anyway... allow me to speak for the heroes. Egostic, I offer you my thanks in their stead. Egostic."
Then he even gave me a thumbs-up.
"You're a man I acknowledge... a true man!"
...What is wrong with this dude.
"Uh... Thanks?"
I gave that one response to the guy putting on a one-man show all by himself.
...Well, Shadow Walker was someone I planned to recruit anyway, so it was good if he thought positively of me.
I had no idea what was going on, but...
But I should at least say this.
I added while he was still holding up his thumb.
"Oh, and don't tell anyone else I did this, okay?"
"Heh. Who do you take me for? I understand that you have your own reasons for doing this. I'll definitely keep it a secret."
"Right. Thanks."
"So, could you leave now?"
I felt like I was about to lose my mind.
"Yeah, thanks. I need to get going too—cough."
Ah, fuck.
In the end, I vomited blood right in front of him.
His expression hardened when he suddenly saw blood pouring from my mouth.
"...Hey, you. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, so—cough—will you go now?"
Ah. Come to think of it, I had been so flustered that I forgot to maintain my polite-speech persona.
Anyway, when I waved him off and asked him to leave, he finally started walking away, his expression still tense.
"...You, hmm... Never mind, fine. Hmm... Alright, I'll go first."
He stammered to himself, thinking about something, then trudged over to the rooftop door and left.
I wondered why he wasn't using Shadow Movement, but then I realized it wasn't night anymore.
I blankly watched him walk away on foot, then clutched my head and groaned.
Right... The surprise event was somehow resolved.
Ah. How was I supposed to get home then?
It couldn't be helped. Teleporting in my current condition was risky, but it was better than risking anything else.
...If I collapsed, Ha-yul would heal me, so I'd be fine, right? Surely I wouldn't die on the way.
Having made that judgment, I carried out the long-distance teleport again.
Life is hard.
****
[Yes! This is the on-site video just uploaded! This is the scene of Stardus finally defeating that monster! Stardus has saved everyone! We will now take a moment of gratitude once more for Stardus, who has shown us the very image of a hero. Long live Stardus! Long live Stardus! Long, long live Stardus!!!]
[Anchor Kim Tae-won, get down from that desk right now! Who climbs onto the desk during a live broadcast? Cut the feed! Cut the feed!]
After that day's incident—
a true Stardus craze swept across South Korea.
A fervent support unlike any hero had experienced in the nation's history.
Stardus had fought to the end for a nation trapped in despair, finally bringing the monster down in a brilliant flash and delivering salvation to everyone. In the public eye, calling her a national hero almost felt insufficient.
The public showered her with passionate love and attention.
And at the center of it all stood Stardus—Shin Ha-ru.
'...I definitely saw someone on the rooftop at that time...'
Popular or not, she put all that aside and was struggling to recall the last sight she'd seen before collapsing from exhaustion.
'I definitely heard a gunshot and thought I saw someone wearing a mask...'
'Did I hear wrong? No... but...'