Chapter 18

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Translator: penny

Chapter: 18

Chapter Title: Terror (Interlude)

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“Wow, what the hell happened here...”

Thirty minutes had passed since the explosion rocked the heart of Seoul.

It was hard to believe this desolate wasteland had been perfectly fine just half an hour ago.

“What about the villain?”

“Heard he got caught at the epicenter. Apparently, it was that unidentified ability user we saw earlier.”

They recalled the battle that had just ended and Kinesis, now covered in wounds and being rushed to treatment.

“A villain strong enough to push Kinesis that far... and he took him down just like that...”

A-Rank Hero Isis muttered with a grim expression.

Kang Yoon-seo, Kinesis's dedicated supporter who had been analyzing data nearby, pushed up her glasses slightly and spoke.

“...Not entirely sure about that. But the measuring devices showed the explosion exceeded the limits of the villain's power.”

“Exceeded the limits?”

“Yeah. The blast was way beyond what that villain should've been capable of. Something that could wreck downtown Seoul like this would've been at least A-Rank from the start.”

“But...”

“This villain, 'Sechsner,' was only rated D-Rank.”

“Lame name... Wait, hold on. That's a huge gap!”

Isis exclaimed in shock.

“It's just speculation, but... back at the beginning, when Kinesis was pressing him hard. He blocked all her attacks, right?”

“Yeah, he did...”

“He must've absorbed every single one of those. There's no other way to explain that output.”

“No way...”

If that was true, it made sense.

It meant he could unleash power beyond his limits.

But then, what the hell was that guy who overwhelmed the villain just moments ago?

“How did he beat him so overwhelmingly...?”

“Not certain on that part, but I have a guess. The villain has a limit to how much he can absorb at once.”

The storage capacity for energy could be massive.

He'd blocked all of Kinesis's attacks and absorbed them with decent efficiency, so his storage space was clearly vast.

But how much he could take in at one go was a different issue.

“So... you're saying each of his punches hit harder than the multi-meter building chunks or boulders Kinesis hurled...?”

“Pretty much.”

“What kind of monster is this guy...?”

“We'll know more after they interrogate the captured villain.”

Yoon-seo shrugged.

“A real freak... Still, stepping in to save Kinesis at the critical moment and taking down the villain instead? Kinda cool...”

Isis, picturing the masked man, suddenly turned to Yoon-seo with a thought.

“By the way, his original ability was energy absorption, right?”

“Yeah. No idea why, but it looks like he gained the ability to release it.”

“Superpowers don't just evolve like that out of nowhere...”

As she muttered seriously, Kang Yoon-seo nodded.

“We've sensed anomalies for a while and started investigating. Looks like we finally got some solid results today.”

“Yeah... There's only one group that'd pull something like this.”

The two exchanged nods.

“...Doomsday Cult.”

“Ugh... Of all places, them...”

Doomsday Cult.

They had begun moving in earnest.

At that very moment.

A black-hooded figure sat perched on the edge of a building rooftop, having watched everything from the start.

“Never thought she'd get overwhelmed that badly.”

The battle that had just concluded.

No matter how you sliced it, it wasn't a fight between ordinary superpowered individuals.

'A physical-type hero? No... that wasn't it...'

The superpower detector he'd brought to test if the drugs worked properly hadn't picked up a thing from the masked man.

It could be a mechanical glitch, but he was certain it wasn't.

'Another one like me... One of the survivors from back then?'

He'd thought he was the only one who made it out alive. Could there have been another test subject in a different room?

Of course, it wasn't certain.

But if someone without superpowers had that level of physical ability, they sure as hell weren't normal.

Must've been a body experimented on, just like his.

“And yet he's out there playing hero.”

His lips twisted at the difference between them.

He hated this damn world with a passion—the society that had twisted him like this and discarded the powerless without a care.

No, it wasn't just hate anymore.

He loathed it.

He despised the world.

For someone who'd endured the same experiments to still try being a hero? Utterly idiotic.

A strange sense of kinship mixed with tribal loathing ground his teeth together.

'Hoo... No need to get pissed here.'

That guy would learn the truth about reality soon enough.

When he did, he'd follow the same path.

And then, he'd gain a powerful ally.

'Let's watch and wait.'

The man's silhouette rose and vanished.

All that remained was the crumbling building.