Down with Masat!!
Hero Association, basement level two. The training room.
Drones carved swift arcs through the air, their rotors a rising electronic whine. Round targets hung from their undercarriages like ripe fruit.
"Hah!"
Baek Seoha exploded upward. Her spinning kick punched through a plywood disc and blew it to splinters. She touched down and drove forward in the same breath, a flying kick reducing a target that had erupted from the floor to wreckage.
There was no time to rest. Overhead, the drones opened fire, paint rounds stitching the air in a rattling storm. Baek Seoha kicked off the floor and slipped the kill zone, then raced along the wall as if gravity itself had simply forgotten her.
"Hyaaaaah!!"
She twisted through empty air and smashed a drone with a descending strike.
"Ngh..."
Another drone locked onto her from dead ahead.
Hongryeon...
She hated to admit it, but that woman was a formidable fighter. Their exchanges had flowed like water. In her mind, Baek Seoha replayed Hongryeon's kicks again and again.
...A follow-up strike, right here!
She hooked the drone she had just smashed with her heel and yanked it around on centrifugal force.
"Hraaaaah!!"
Spinning in midair, she hurled it straight at the machine ahead. The two drones collided in a burst of wreckage, and Baek Seoha landed lightly on the floor.
"Hah. Hah..."
Right on cue, the training room speakers crackled to life.
"That was incredible! Hit rate: zero percent. Reaction speed at 3.7 times the average. You've gotten even faster than last time."
Seo Aegyo, Baek Seoha's attending physician — the woman who treated Baekho whenever she came in wounded.
"Your muscle-fiber recovery is abnormal, and fractures are knitting in a single day... At this rate, you could sit the A-Class promotion exam without the slightest problem. Like I said before, your Gift may finally have awakened."
Even under the praise, Baek Seoha shook her head, her expression dark.
"I'm grateful for the kind words. But I'm still nowhere close to reaching that man."
Ultimate, captured by Masat. She had taken a single blow from him and been left combat-ineffective, wounded to the brink. And then there was Hongryeon. Against that murderer, the gap in skill had been so overwhelming she hadn't been able to lift a hand or a foot.
I have to get stronger.
Hongryeon's words circled through her mind, over and over.
"Ngh!"
It stung — but not a word of it was wrong. To make justice real, you needed overwhelming power.
Beyond the training room's one-way glass, Seo Aegyo watched Baekho and swept her bob behind her ear. A ruby earring flashed at the lobe.
"Hmm..."
She leafed slowly through Baekho's medical chart, then ran her tongue across her lips. A moment later she took up the microphone again.
"Actually... there's a new drug we've developed recently. Clinical trials aren't finished yet, but... I'll tell you the moment it's ready. So don't get too impatient just yet."
Baek Seoha's head snapped up.
"A new drug...?"
"Ah? O-oh... look at me. That's Association classified... now what do I do..."
Seo Aegyo let the silence hang, then let her voice slip out, slow and careful.
"It's called BM-21. Temporarily amplifies a hero's power more than tenfold. But the side effects..."
Baek Seoha didn't wait to hear the rest. She spun toward the one-way glass and shouted.
"I need that drug!"
"Ah? But... the clinical trials still..."
"I don't have time to wait on procedure!!"
She slashed a hand through the air, her voice rising.
"An innocent civilian has been taken by Masat. If we delay any longer, I cannot guarantee that person's safety!!"
The corner of Seo Aegyo's mouth curled, just slightly. Then her face went serious, and she spoke into the mic.
"Absolutely not. We have no idea what the side effects might be. The risk is far too high."
Baek Seoha pressed a hand to her chest and cried out.
"A hero is someone who presses forward through any hardship! I have always been prepared to take the risk!!"
Tears welled in her eyes as she looked up at the glass.
"So please — give me the strength, Doctor!"
Seo Aegyo switched off the microphone and smiled.
"What a good girl you are, Baekho..."
In the end she opened the automatic door and walked into the training room. She drew a case from the pocket of her white coat and held it out.
"Honestly. I just can't say no to you."
"Doctor..."
Baekho took the case and opened it. A red syringe lay inside.
Seo Aegyo brushed Baek Seoha's platinum hair back from her face, her tone turning grave.
"I truly don't know what the side effects might be. So treat this as a last resort. Never — and I mean never — unless you have absolutely no other choice. Understood?"
Baekho clutched the case to her chest and nodded.
"Thank you, Doctor."
"Don't thank me. I'm the one who should be thanking you. Hehe."
"Pardon...?"
Seo Aegyo gave her a little wink.
"Isn't that obvious? I'll always be grateful to a hero who works day and night for the world."
Baek Seoha beamed and bowed her head.
"Even just hearing that gives me strength! Heh! Well — I have the regular hero assembly, so I'd better go!"
"Of course. If anything starts to hurt, you come right back."
Hero Association, basement level three. The grand assembly hall.
Baek Seoha pushed through the crowd and took her assigned seat. Built to hold every hero in the Republic of Korea, the chamber was overwhelming — circular tiers of seating that rivaled a World Cup stadium. Heroes who couldn't attend because of duty watched through holograms and camera feeds.
At the center of the hall, on the highest dais, Association President Jang Taegwon opened the session.
"Order. As of this moment, the regular assembly of the Korean Hero Association is now in session."
Baek Seoha had been waiting for exactly that. She slammed the bell on her armrest and surged to her feet.
A shrill tone cut through the hall.
The Red Bell — speaking priority granted only for emergency agenda. Every eye in the chamber locked onto Baekho.
Jang Taegwon folded his hands, his voice even and measured.
"Hrm... Hitting the Red Bell the instant the session opens. This must be quite the matter. Very well. Let's hear it."
Baek Seoha turned to the assembled heroes and bowed from the waist at a perfect right angle.
"I offer my gratitude to every hero who deploys day and night for the peace of Korea — and of the world. I am Baekho, a B-Class hero assigned to Seoul."
A ripple ran through the hall.
"Oh... Baekho. I've heard that name somewhere."
"Come on, you know the one. Went toe-to-toe with that lunatic scientist."
"Ah — the one they just designated an S-Class Main? His name was..."
"Masat. Masat. The maniac who dropped a big one on Seoul. How do you forget that?"
"Shit. When that missile came down I nearly had a heart attack. Ugh. Still gives me the shakes."
"Wait, wasn't he mixed up in some really brutal crime recently too?"
"Ugh. Terrifying. Just terrifying."
Jang Taegwon swept the chamber with a look and rapped his gavel.
"Order! This is a Red Bell agenda. Everyone, give your full attention to B-Class hero Baekho."
Baek Seoha dipped her head to the President and pressed on.
"I believe you've all heard of the serial dismemberment murders that have been occurring across Seoul."
Of course they had. The corpses had been sliced as fine as sashimi. It had been a nightmare of a case.
"I witnessed the perpetrator at the scene. And that perpetrator's identity is..."
The hall went so still that no one seemed to breathe.
"The S-Class Main who fired a missile at Seoul... Masat! It was him!!"
A wave of voices broke across the heroes like surf. Baek Seoha clenched her fists and raised her voice.
"Masat abducted a boy who is only ten years old, along with an innocent civilian, to use them as test subjects! He is a man who conducts unethical experiments on citizens! If we wait any longer, there is no telling what horrors will follow!"
She stared up at Jang Taegwon, eyes wide and burning.
"...Therefore I, Baekho, hereby request the formation of an emergency subjugation unit, Mr. President!"
Jang Taegwon held his silence, turning the matter over. But the first to speak was not the President. It was the SS-Class hero seated at the center of the eleven holograms around the round table — Sinnyeo.
"Your courage is admirable. But don't try to rattle the Association with rabble-rousing. B-Class."
Baek Seoha bit down hard on her lip and glared at her.
"Don't tell me you're defending him?"
Sinnyeo narrowed her eyes and propped her chin on one hand.
"Hah? B-Class heroes these days sure have gotten mouthy with their seniors."
With one hand, she folded the leg of a little straw doll.
Straw Doll Binding — Forced Prostration
The target's knees are compelled to the earth against their will.
"Ah—?!"
Against her own will, Baek Seoha's knees slammed to the floor.
"Ngh..."
She was pinned flat, face to the ground. She clenched her teeth and held on.
"I can't give up like this..."
Sinnyeo's curse crushed down on every inch of her. Trembling from head to toe, Baek Seoha slowly, painfully, pushed herself back to her feet.
"I have been driven to my knees by Masat... twice. I couldn't protect the civilians. I couldn't protect justice."
Baekho's eyes flew wide, her voice cracking into a roar.
"I don't want to feel this helpless anymore!!"
The hall erupted.
"Whoa... she broke SS-Class Sinnyeo's curse? And she's B-Class?"
"Didn't something like this happen before? You know... that hero they called the Super Rookie."
"Ah... Ultimate? Shame what happened to her. She was a real talent."
"I don't know. Looking at this, Baekho might be the new rising star to take Ultimate's place."
Sinnyeo narrowed her eyes and looked down at Baekho.
"Hmph."
She drew a talisman from her sleeve and flicked it. It burst into flame in midair, and fire roared up from beneath Baek Seoha's feet as if the floor itself had exploded.
"Ngh!"
The blaze died as quickly as it had come. In its place, a pair of boots lay gleaming with a pure white radiance.
Sacred Boots — Collaborative Relic
Forged with Japan's S-Class hero, the Onmyoji Inazu. Radiant white greaves that carry a hero across any battlefield.
"This is...?"
Sinnyeo crossed her legs at the question.
"Hmph. Divine Relic: Heavenly Stride. I made it in collaboration with Japan's S-Class hero, the Onmyoji Inazu."
"Why are you giving this to me...?"
"What? Weren't you so sure of yourself?"
Sinnyeo's hologram leaned against the round table and propped her chin in her hand.
"Use this and go cut that bastard Masat's throat."
She tipped back against her chair and twisted a lock of black hair around one finger.
"But let me make one thing clear. We S-Class heroes will not be moving."
Baek Seoha wasn't the only one who stared. A shock ran through the heroes as well.
"What? Why...?"
How were they supposed to subjugate an S-Class Main without a single S-Class hero?
Sinnyeo snorted.
"The day I left my post, that thing fired a missile at Seoul. Leave the house empty, and there's no telling what that cunning bastard will do next. Tch..."
She flicked Baekho a look that held nothing at all.
"If you don't have the guts, stay down."
Baek Seoha hesitated only a moment. Then she pulled on the Heavenly Stride. She stamped down with everything she had, and a white shockwave rolled out across the vast chamber.
In that instant, a roar of cheers exploded from the heroes.
"Woooooooh!!"
"Advance on the Super-science Dungeon!!"
"Down with Masat!!"