Chapter 11
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: Meeting (2)
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“I'm surprised...”
A-Rank Hero Kinesis, Lee Seo-yul, recalled what had happened at the cafe just moments ago.
She had stopped by this cafe again purely by coincidence.
Of course, she had thought that if she wanted to see him again, she could just come here, but right now, she was on a long-overdue day off.
It was true that she wanted to meet him and chat, but she had no intention of letting work creep into her time off.
She had to keep business and personal matters strictly separate.
'Still, I had so much I wanted to talk about, but when we actually met, I couldn't bring myself to say a word.'
The main thing she wanted to ask about was probably those recent rumors.
Even if she asked, she doubted he'd answer, and she was pretty much convinced it was true anyway, so there was no real need to bother.
“The parfait... was delicious.”
She'd ordered it because she was craving something sweet, and it turned out better than expected.
He didn't exactly look like the type to make desserts like that.
“Maybe I should come here more often...”
As a customer, that should be fine.
He seemed a bit uncomfortable about it, but she would just be a patron.
“Hehe...”
It would be okay.
After my shift ended and I got home, I immediately geared up for hero activities.
'Not sure if this'll be enough...'
I hadn't worried much before, but lately, more than one or two people were showing interest in me.
I had my face almost completely covered with sunglasses, a mask, and a hood, but in an intense fight, the sunglasses could slip off.
'Should I get a mask or something?'
The best option would be a custom hero mask, but that wasn't something I could get my hands on.
I wasn't registered as a hero yet, and I couldn't register anyway.
If I weren't powerless, I could have made great use of it. What a shame.
'I'm just trying to scrape by and make some money like this...'
With the power I had, I could easily be at least A-Rank. And A-Rank heroes made bank—on a whole different level.
Of course, A-Rank heroes were strong enough to get offers from around the world.
I didn't have connections or anything; all I had was my strength. And now I was branded powerless to boot...
If anything, this was more about building a foundation before making money.
'I've gotten pretty used to wielding my power now.'
I could leap and bound across rooftops without a second thought.
Usually, when a villain alert went off via phone GPS, it sent emergency disaster texts to people nearby who had opted in with location services enabled.
For me, nothing beat that. Unlike official heroes who got full briefings before deploying, I had no one to fill me in, so those texts were like rain in a drought.
'Villains popping up every day like this, and the world still chugs along peacefully somehow. Makes it feel different from the world I knew.'
Most were low-level crooks committing minor crimes, but crime was crime. If someone with real destructive power broke the law, heroes would hand them over for arrest.
Either way, for me, it was a golden opportunity to build notoriety.
'This one's on a rampage, huh.'
This incident looked pretty serious.
A monstrous figure with a deformed body was wreaking havoc.
Smashed cars everywhere, cratered roads, flames rising—it had gone full berserk.
'The alert came less than three minutes ago.'
And it had already caused this much chaos.
I scanned around for casualties, but luckily, most people had fled.
With alerts hitting phones instantly, what else could they do?
Still, a few bystanders caught in the initial frenzy were injured here and there.
KABOOM!
I landed on the road after jumping from a building and spotted someone trapped in an overturned car. I hurried over.
“You okay? You conscious?”
“Ugh... ah... p-please... save me...”
“Any injuries?”
“I don't know... feels like I'm dying...”
She could talk, so she was probably fine.
“Hang on, I'll get you out right now.”
To avoid hurting her more, I lifted the car as carefully as possible.
Then I rotated it steadily and set it back down.
“H-He lifted the car...”
“Come on out.”
“Y-Yes...!”
The car was already totaled, but thanks to the clean flip, she could crawl free.
She had a minor head wound bleeding a bit, but she could move.
“Th-Thank you...!”
Just then, other nearby low-rank heroes arrived to help with rescues one by one.
They were too weak to take on the rampaging villain but registered enough to handle civilian saves.
She'd be fine now.
I'd only stopped because I was passing by anyway. Washing my hands of it, I approached the man still raging at the world.
“What's got you so pissed off?”
I asked cautiously.
“Who the hell are you, asshole?! Get lost! Wanna die?!”
“Keep this up, and you'll get yourself killed. You okay with all the people getting hurt because of you?”
“I'm the one about to get fucked over! Like I give a shit!!”
Well... no villain's without their sob story.
And this guy had plenty, judging by that bull head.
'Is there a superpower like that?'
Beastman powers existed, sure.
But a full-on bovine head? Never heard of it.
Not in the original story, and I'd seen plenty of heroes—no one that inhuman.
'A bug, maybe...'
What the hell happened?
“What... you think it's because your head turned into that?”
“What else, you fuck?! How am I supposed to live like this!!”
Still, trashing the place like this was another matter.
“I get it, sort of... but you crossed a line here.”
No fatalities, thankfully, but this was too much.
For venting frustration over his transformation, it was way too reckless... wasn't it?
'I'd be pissed too if it happened to me...'
But why did it happen?
“It has to be... those pills I took back then... no way... this is a dream...”
SLASH!
“Guh... ugh?”
His eyes rolled back, and the villain collapsed.
'What...? I didn't do anything.'
Wasn't there a slicing sound just now?
But his body showed no major wounds.
'What happened?'
As I stood there confused, someone emerged from behind the falling villain.
A woman in a black suit, with long silver hair and blue eyes, held a sword and stared right at me.
“Nice to meet you.”
“...”
She greeted me.
A greeting out of nowhere...?
“Uh, yeah...”
I returned it politely while thinking.
She'd taken out the villain I was handling, so whatever.
But something felt off.
Really off.
Lots of weird things, but the biggest was...
'Why's she in a fighting stance?'
She looked ready to charge at me any second.
That was a problem.
Heroes before had told me to surrender or said they couldn't let me go, trying to apprehend me—but never with outright hostility like this.
“Hey?”
“I'm A-Rank Hero Sword Fairy.”
A-Rank Hero Sword Fairy.
Han Yu-ah.
The youngest daughter of the Hanseong Group, who'd earned her A-Rank through pure skill at a young age.
Her superpower was “Heart Sword.”
She could manifest and swing a sword from her mind.
And now she was glaring at me with clear enmity.
'Time's up, huh.'
I was doing good deeds, but my vigilantism was still illegal.
Not weird if they came to arrest me.
Previous heroes had urged surrender but never gone all-out to subdue or hunt me.
I was catching villains for them, after all.
But this one was different.
'She's serious...'
Unlike the others, she genuinely looked ready to attack.
“...From this moment, I will deploy all measures to subdue you.”
“Sigh...”
“Brace yourself.”
Looks like I'd have to fight this hero.