The Death of Ultimate

"……A hero?"

I asked again at once.

"Did you just say a hero?!"

My voice jumped a full two octaves. Pumpchi ducked behind Hongryeon's skirt.

"A hero's invading and you're laughing…? Just what kind of Main did the Mausoleum Temple send us?!"

Heh heh heh.

How could I not laugh?

Seocheon Power Plant, South Chungcheong Province. Why hadn't I made the connection sooner? This was the dungeon Ultimate had visited in I Became a Hero with Ten-Thousandfold Experience — the very place he'd come to test a new technique called Nuclear Punch. After vacuuming up experience points like a man possessed, Ultimate would go on to challenge the Netherworld Lord in his inner sanctum.

"Kishishishi!!"

Ultimate, stuffed to the gills with protagonist buffs, had come to save me! This godforsaken courage training was finally over!

"Hiyohhohohot!!"

I let out a whoop of joy and bolted straight for the emergency stairs. Hongryeon, Pumpchi, and Mechaman scrambled after me. Hongryeon's cassette crackled from behind.

"Shut up! Don't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠follow me!!"

I slammed the first-floor emergency door shut, locked it, and ran like hell. I didn't need to act anymore. Ultimate was going to crush them all.

"Yahoo! Freedom!!"

I burst out of the administration building wearing the sunniest smile I owned. Black smoke belched from the thermal plant's smokestacks. A crimson barrier sheathed the entire grounds, trapping the fumes until they hung over the sky like a bank of storm clouds.

From the warehouse buildings I raced past, countless scrap-metal Mains came creaking and clanking into the open. And these guys — every last one of them was chasing me.

"That's why I said don't follow me!"

What was I, the Pied Piper? Scrap metal came rolling in like a tide, shoving wrecked tires and oil drums ahead of them.

The parking lot — the dungeon's front door — came into view. It was a graveyard of crushed, abandoned cars, and the wreckage of scrap-metal Mains lay scattered among them. At the center of it all stood a muscular man, a blue cape embroidered with the mark of the Hero Association snapping in the wind.

"Ultimate!!"

I called out joyfully, waving both hands. Ultimate looked at me with a puzzled frown.

"A human…?"

Without a second's hesitation I dove into his arms, then turned the most pitiful look I could muster up at his face.

"Ultimate! Please save me! I've been kidnapped and locked up by Mains for three whole months! Sob, sob!"

Ultimate stroked my head with a blue-gloved hand.

"You've done well to endure this long. Leave the rest to me."

I gazed at that broad, reliable back. Damn! That is so cool! This was what a maxed-out, overpowered munchkin hero actually looked like in the flesh!

Then a building collapsed, and a gigantic pumpkin heaved itself out of the wreckage. It didn't stop there. It kept swelling until a pumpkin the size of a sports field hung in midair.

"You insolent hero! How dare you raise a ruckus in my territory?!"

Molten lava drooled from its zigzag mouth like saliva.

What the hell?!

That's Pumpchi?

I was trying to threaten THAT thing?

Ultimate clenched his fist and dropped into a stance.

"The dungeon lord himself coming out to greet me from the start. How entertaining. Hmph!"

That stance?!

The scene from the original work — the first time he ever used Nuclear Punch — was about to unfold right in front of my eyes. So Pumpchi had been the sacrificial lamb!

I watched with my heart hammering. Then Pumpchi's voice thundered across the lot.

"A Main has his pride! You go charging in all fired up and immediately become the hero's hostage? Makes me look like an idiot for even flinching for a second!!"

Ultimate turned his head.

"A Main…?"

His narrowed eyes locked onto me. I shook my head so hard my neck cracked.

"No — do I look like a Main to you? Don't fall for that guy's slick talk! He's the Main! Hurry up and blow that pumpkin head apart with Nuclear Punch!!"

A whirlwind gathered around Ultimate's right fist, which began to glow. He seemed about to advance on Pumpchi — then suddenly spun toward me.

"You… how did you know I was going to use Nuclear Punch? This technique is a new move I haven't shown to anyone."

Ah…

For a moment I had nothing. Nuclear Punch. The core keyword of this entire work. Ultimate's finishing move. And I knew its name.

At this point, excuses were a luxury I couldn't afford. This was as good as confessing I was a transmigrator who'd possessed a character inside the novel!

"Th-that's— I…"

But Ultimate wasn't even listening.

"Shut your mouth!"

His eyes flew wide as he charged.

"Hmph! I've already seen through your lies! You Main bastard! Using telepathy, are you?!"

"No, that's not it! Wait! Listen to me!!"

He thrust his fist at my face.

What do I do!

How the hell do I survive this?!

In this state I was a hundred percent dead. A technique with enough destructive power to erase an entire mountain. There was no world in which an ordinary human walked away from a Nuclear Punch at point-blank range.

I bit my lip. So this was it. What a shitty life this had been.

Fuck.

I slowly closed my eyes.

Then warm liquid splattered across my face.

Huh?

I opened my eyes in a daze. Ultimate was coughing up blood right in front of me.

"Khack!"

I wiped the blood from my face with one hand — and in the same motion, slicked it straight back through my hair. What in the world…

A disbelieving laugh escaped me at the absurdity of the sight.

"Huh… hahat……"

A mannequin's hand had punched clean through Ultimate's left chest. The blood-soaked fingers still held a beating heart — then clenched, and crushed it.

Crunch!

Ultimate muttered his last words.

"A… trap……"

His eyes rolled back and his head dropped. The mannequin hand withdrew, and Ultimate crumpled pitifully to the pavement.

Thud—

Hongryeon activated her cassette.

Instead of answering, I covered my face with one hand and burst into wild laughter.

"Kishit… kihihit. Kishishishishishishit!!"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Ultimate was dead? The only hero capable of taking down this work's final boss…?

I'm losing my mind! Hahahat!

This is a joke, right?

"Kihahahahahahahahahahaha!!"

I threw my head back and laughed like a madman.

"Ultimate! Ultimate is dead! He's dead! Kishishishi!!"

Why did he die? Why the hell!!

My eyes went wide. Don't tell me… he died… because of me?

In the original plot he was supposed to take down Pumpchi with Nuclear Punch and skyrocket in level. From there he would enter the Mausoleum Temple and barely manage to defeat the Netherworld Lord. That was the flow. But it had gone off the rails. Hongryeon, who should have been at the Mausoleum Temple, had come down to an upper-rank dungeon. The sequence got tangled, the power balance shattered, and Ultimate died.

I clutched my hair and hung my head.

Fuck.

This was a catastrophe.

Hongryeon played her cassette.

I lifted my head and looked around. I was ringed in by countless scrap-metal Mains. Breaking through this encirclement was impossible. And slipping out of Hongryeon's hands — the same hands that had killed Ultimate in a single blow — was even less realistic.

Then Pumpchi's gigantic pumpkin slowly descended toward us.

"What's this 'Lord Mesart' crap! As you all just saw, that guy betrayed us Mains and sided with the hero! He was just a human all along!!"

The color drained from my face. I hadn't kept up the act because I never imagined Ultimate would lose. I'd been so terrified I'd just thrown myself into his arms. After watching that in real time, I had absolutely nothing to say in my defense. Surrounded on all sides. Checkmate.

And yet.

Hongryeon cranked the cassette's volume to maximum and hit play.

Pumpchi belched fire.

"What did you just say? My thinking is shortsighted…?"

Hongryeon reverse-played the cassette, rewinding the tape.

Excuse me?

My performance? I was being completely sincere just now.

And what plan, exactly?

Hongryeon proceeded ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to inform me of facts I myself did not know.

Pumpchi's flames died down a little. The pumpkin shrank until he returned to his boy form and landed on the ground.

"I'm cool, so I'll admit that was a little dangerous just now. But what's that got to do with the new administrator?"

Yeah, I'd like to know that too.

What's it got to do with anything?

Hongryeon creaked her mannequin head from side to side in a slow shake, then played the cassette again.

A faint jet of fire leaked from Pumpchi's eyes.

"Which means……"

Ohh… I see.

So that's the deep meaning behind it.

Hongryeon thrust the cassette toward me.

If I said yes here, I'd be branded a human. Two hundred percent chance my heart would go on an unscheduled vacation, just like Ultimate's. I squeezed my throat as tight as I could and bellowed.

"Hiyohhohohot! Absolutely Excellent!! Magnificent! Hongryeon, I'm almost ashamed I ever tested you! As this body's exclusive maid, I award you a passing grade!!"

Hongryeon lifted the hem of her maid skirt ever so slightly and bowed her head.

Pumpchi snorted out a puff of flame and crossed his arms.

"Guess I have no choice but to accept it."

The biggest wild card, Pumpchi, had tucked his tail. Could I finally breathe easy?

The instant I thought that, Pumpchi added one more thing.

"But remember this. The hierarchy among Mains can flip the second anyone shows an opening."

Cold sweat ran down my back. I absolutely could not let them find out I was human.

Fuck.

Then where the hell am I supposed to rest?! I have to keep up this insane scientist act three hundred and sixty-five days a year? Am I going to die of stress first?!

All around me, led by Mechaman, the scrap-metal Mains blared in Morse code.

It was so thunderous the ground itself trembled. I poked Ultimate's corpse with a crowbar lying on the pavement. Not even a twitch. Yep. Dead.

If things kept going like this, the world-ending bad ending was locked in. I needed a plan. And I needed it now.

Well. That aside.

For now……

I hoisted the crowbar high and laughed like a lunatic.

Ah, to hell with it.

It would work itself out somehow.