The World's Only Hero Everyone Is Obsessed With
National-level shamanism... hero.
Ha Min-ah's breath caught in her throat in an instant.
The grotesque bird had not even lured away any Decoy Unit aggro, yet it plunged straight into the apartment complex without a trace of nest-building.
It was a pattern never recorded in any operation manual.
Five years in the military, dozens of real-world missions, and she had never seen anything like it.
She could sum it up in a single word.
Irregular.
“No... why fly off there without even making a nest?”
As a monster, it should have instinctively chosen the easiest hunt—any helpless human wandering a downtown street.
Yet this grotesque bird was targeting an apartment complex where tens of thousands hid in underground bunkers.
It was tearing through the concrete walls that made eating “uncomfortable.”
‘Is this a type that eats suffering...?’
It made no sense.
Moreover, the complex had already been designated a priority evacuation zone; most civilians should have been heading to the bunkers by now.
Logically, the apartment should have been nothing but an empty pile of concrete.
“This can’t be...”
But her current mission was observation, not analysis.
Under Plan B, solo action was permitted, so Ha Min-ah lifted her high-resolution camera and snapped shot after shot of the unpredictable creature.
She had to record every erratic movement and report it back to headquarters.
Her lips went dry.
She forced herself to swallow and was about to press the shutter when—
“Hic... ugh...”
“!!”
A sob pierced her ears. She reflexively drew her pistol.
Finger curled around the trigger, she whipped her head around.
And her eyes widened.
At the entrance of the apartment.
A small shadow staggered out from the swirling dust.
It was a young boy.
Whether he had missed the evacuation order or had been separated from his parents, she could not tell.
His tiny shoulders were covered in dust, and tears streaked his cheeks.
Shocked by the tremor ripping through the entire building, he staggered toward her and reached out with trembling hands.
“Are you okay?”
“Hic... y-yes...”
Ha Min-ah held her breath for a second, then slid her pistol back into her holster.
As a soldier, her instinct wanted to maintain Plan B—record the monster’s pattern and report it.
But the soldier’s first priority was always protecting the citizens.
It was only a ten-minute walk to the bunkers.
She could easily run with the boy.
Would she ignore a clearly savable civilian to just hold up a camera?
According to the manual it might be “right,” but it was not something Ha Min-ah could accept even personally.
“Don’t worry. Auntie will take you to the bunker.”
She lowered herself, ready to carry the boy on her back.
But—
“A... inside... Mom is...”
“...!”
Her heart seemed to drop into her stomach.
The worst variable.
Parents injured and unable to evacuate?
Right now, while the grotesque bird’s beak was indiscriminately tearing apart the apartment?
Even concrete had limits.
Cracks were already spiderwebbing across every outer wall.
Soon this massive building would collapse like dominoes.
Yet the boy clutched her hand, sobbing.
His small fingers trembled, but his eyes were clear.
He was not asking to be saved—he was begging to save his mother.
Ha Min-ah clenched her teeth.
“Damn it... in a situation like this...”
As a soldier, maintaining the operation would be correct.
But as a human being... the answer was already decided.
She immediately scooped up the boy and dashed into the cracked, groaning apartment.
The staircase was buried under debris, and the concrete walls were laced with spiderweb cracks from the monster’s shockwaves.
The elevator was out of the question.
Disaster Manual 1: When collapse is imminent, the elevator becomes a coffin.
The boy pulled her hand, sobbing.
They reached the fourth floor—relatively low, but with the whole building tilting, it could not be called safe.
She shoved open the door and froze.
In the center of the living room lay a woman collapsed on the floor.
“Ma’am!”
Ha Min-ah rushed over and checked her condition.
Blood was pouring from the head side, soaking the back of her neck.
Shattered light-bulb shards littered the floor.
She must have been hit by the falling lamp during the violent shake.
She quickly assessed the patient.
“No consciousness... pupils reacting slowly. Pulse slightly irregular. Breathing stable.”
Concussion.
Possible serious spinal injury.
Survival rate would plummet without immediate evacuation.
Ha Min-ah clenched her teeth.
“Damn it, we don’t have time.”
She recalled the standard emergency first-aid manual and carefully adjusted her posture.
She stabilized the neck first, then carried the patient on her back, securing the arms.
Even a stretcher was not in the soldier’s equipment, but there were no other options.
At that moment—
BOOM!
The entire apartment screamed as it came alive.
Cracks raced from the outer walls, and concrete chunks rained down onto the floor.
Dust roared in like a storm, blocking their vision.
“Ugh! The apartment... is collapsing!”
Ha Min-ah instinctively judged.
This building would collapse any second.
No more time to hesitate.
Grabbing the boy’s hand, she carried the mother on her back and sprinted toward the exit at full speed.
Her feet slipped on crumbling debris, and dust poured like a storm from the ceiling.
Her heart pounded as if tearing her lungs apart.
Then—
“...Eh?”
At the end of the corridor, a strange figure stood motionless.
‘Civilian? ...No, what’s with that outfit before that?’
180 cm tall. Adult male build.
Not military uniform.
Long coat. Civilian camouflage.
But the gait was wrong.
Not even a tremble despite the collapsing building.
Civilians could not walk like that.
Instead, the steady rhythm reminded her of a trained combatant.
Yet the face was hidden behind a bone mask.
A decorative item completely different from standard military gear—purely for show and psychological intimidation.
‘...Is he crazy? Cosplay hero play?’
Self-proclaimed heroes who had appeared after the monster outbreak—fools who lost their minds trying to imitate cartoon characters and paid with their lives.
Ha Min-ah instinctively placed the figure before her on that blurry line between reality and illusion.
“Hey! This building is about to collapse! If you’re a civilian, evacuate immediately!”
She would have liked to take the boy, the mother, and this man with her, but her arms and shoulders were already at their limit.
So she just shouted, hoping he would move on his own.
But—
BOOOOM!
“Wha...!”
For a split second, her vision flipped.
Before a single scream could escape, her body was hurled into the air.
Everything slowed into slow motion.
The woman she had flung was still clutching the boy’s hand.
Hundreds of concrete fragments swirled around them in the air.
A whole section of the wall tore away, and the debris followed like a tidal wave.
‘Damn... this is the end.’
With her landing technique she could save one body, but the rubble above was hopeless.
She would die before hitting the ground.
The boy, the mother, and she herself—all gone.
The conclusion was crystal clear.
Ha Min-ah clenched her teeth.
The exhaustion in her muscles, the years of training until she became squad leader... all of it crushed to nothing by one flap of a monster’s wings.
The grotesque bird’s silhouette skimmed overhead.
As if humans were nonexistent to it, it continued ripping the outer wall.
At that moment, something surged deep in Ha Min-ah’s chest.
—Do humans not even qualify as insects to these things?
‘Dam... n!!’
Tears welled up, blurring her vision.
Just as she closed her eyes, sensing the end—
Wuuung.
“...?”
The impact of collision never came.
The hard concrete floor was right in front of her, yet her body did not fall.
The boy, the mother, and she herself hovered in mid-air, suspended.
As if supported by an invisible hand.
When the hellish fall froze like a nightmare, Ha Min-ah swallowed hard.
But the debris pouring from above—
A single outer-wall chunk the size of a person fell mercilessly, and she finally closed her eyes.
Crushed.
This time there was no escaping it.
But—
Thud.
“Are you all right?”
The sound ringing in her ear was a low voice, ringing like a mirage.
She opened her eyes again and found herself carefully lowered to the floor.
The concrete debris that had been about to bury her, the boy, and the mother had vanished.
Instead, the man in the bone mask stood there.
One massive fist held a chunk of outer wall the size of a bushel; the other casually tossed aside the shattered rubble.
BOOM!
The shockwave rolled like an earthquake.
Even though tens of tons of debris had been slammed into the ground, his arm showed not a twitch.
Ha Min-ah’s lips trembled on their own.
“Who... who are you?”
It was impossible to believe.
She didn’t even have the words for “impossible.”
This was not something a human could do.
Yet the man immediately walked over to the woman who had collapsed near the boy.
Ha Min-ah tried to stop him, but it was already too late.
The man’s palm descended onto the bleeding woman’s forehead.
“Blood Eclipse Art.”
As the words were softly murmured, a black whirlpool rose from his palm.
As if the shadow on the floor had condensed and ascended, fluid-like darkness seeped into the wound.
“U... uh?”
Then, like a miracle, the woman’s breathing steadied.
The young boy wiped his tears and cried out.
“Mom!”
Ha Min-ah’s eyes instinctively widened.
Clearly a skull fracture, concussion.
Emergency surgery was required at a major hospital.
Yet healing with just one palm placed on it?
‘...Treatment? No, this isn’t treatment.’
What she was witnessing was not medicine or science—it was something beyond understanding.
Ha Min-ah barely moved her lips.
“You... what exactly are you?”
The man did not answer.
Instead, a sky-tearing roar replaced his voice.
KEEEEEEEK!
The grotesque bird changed direction and dove straight at them.
A massive shadow swept over the apartment debris.
Ha Min-ah shouted reflexively.
“We have to get out of here!”
But the man showed no hesitation.
He lifted his head and stared at the grotesque bird.
And one word.
“Hero.”
From behind the bone mask came a low murmur, then he kicked off his feet and soared into the night sky.
BOOOOOOM—!
At the moment he took off, the surrounding air tore apart.
Only seconds earlier, that grotesque bird had survived multi-barreled rocket fire and 120 mm cannon shells.
A Disaster-class monster’s hide could bounce tank shells and endure bombing runs from close air support aircraft without a scratch.
Yet now—
The abdominal armor that had neutralized all that firepower cracked apart with a single punch.
BOOM!
‘Hero. It’s not just cosplay... it’s the real hero!’