Chapter 24
Chapter 24
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: The Future Chosen by the Human Yoon Do-hwa
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◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ A-Rank Hero of the Hero Union, 'Ignition'.
Her real name: Yoon Do-hwa.
Her family wasn't well-off by any means,
but it was an ordinary home that hadn't fallen on particularly hard times.
Do-hwa was a girl who grew up enveloped in her parents' overflowing love.
She wasn't a congenital ability user born with supernatural powers,
but she secretly admired the righteous figures of heroes she saw on the news and in articles.
She wasn't gifted academically, but her cheerful personality and good nature made her popular.
'A bright and upright child, like a sunflower under the sun.'
That's how her teachers and friends described her during her school days.
She had no outstanding talents, nor a wealthy family,
but it felt like she'd live forever in that joyful, happy environment.
Until her father—the sturdy pillar of the household—passed away in a sudden accident.
It happened on Do-hwa's birthday, during her second summer vacation of high school,
when sunlight blazed down more brilliantly than her orange hair ever could.
She was spending a fun time with friends, heart fluttering as she waited for her father,
who had texted that he'd prepared a gift she'd love.
Then, abruptly, her phone rang.
It was a call from the hospital staff, saying her father was in critical condition and she needed to come right away.
"Dad... Dad!!!!"
Before shock could make her collapse, she broke away from her friends
and raced to the hospital in a taxi, only to find her father mangled beyond description.
His body was crushed, covered in so much blood it defied words,
surrounded by doctors rushing about in urgency and the heart monitor beeping faster and faster.
He had clung to life with one desperate wish:
to see his daughter's face at least once more,
just one more glimpse of his precious girl.
...With that heartfelt longing, her father held on.
The moment he saw Do-hwa, he miraculously sat up and caressed her cheek,
only to pass away moments later.
She fell into profound grief.
Her dad, always so kind and endlessly forgiving like the sea,
who had never once been ill or frail, was gone in an instant.
It felt like half her body had been severed—a searing, violent sorrow.
But the world offered no time to mourn.
With the family breadwinner gone, their finances plummeted,
and her gentle, affectionate mother shut herself away in even greater despair.
"Do-hwa... I'm so sorry for being such a weak mom...?"
Whenever Do-hwa returned from school, her mother would guzzle soju,
slurring apologies in a half-unconscious stupor.
Cold relatives who offered no help despite the hardship.
Friends who suddenly grew distant, as if they'd been waiting for this.
Everything that had once been bright and joyful flipped in an instant to torment her.
Why were her friends avoiding her?
If she could just grit her teeth and graduate, she could endure.
Relatives pretending not to see her plight?
She could treat them as if they never existed.
But her mother, perpetually soaked in alcohol, earning nothing,
helplessly crumbling under depression—and their crumbling home—that was the real problem.
Red eviction notices plastered everywhere.
Bills and payment demands pouring in via phone and mail.
The grief of losing her father was pain enough,
but 'money' made even overcoming that grief an impossible burden.
Do-hwa dropped out of school in her mother's stead and started earning.
Her hands, never once dirtied by labor, gripped sizzling meat platters.
Her ears, once filled with praise and kind words, rang with curses and shouts.
She manifested her supernatural ability exactly 33 days after her father's death,
while hopping from one grueling part-time job to the next without a day off.
The ability that awakened in Do-hwa was 'Fire Emission'.
The news of the commotion in the city center spread like wildfire,
and the very next day, the Hero Union came knocking with a scout offer.
"We're well aware of Do-hwa's difficult family situation."
"Hero work is dangerous, staking your life on the line... but the rewards are equally immense."
The promise of immense rewards.
Even to Do-hwa, for whom the concept of 'money' wasn't fully ingrained,
it was clear those rewards meant big money.
She accepted the Hero Union's offer,
undergoing rigorous training in ability control and physical enhancement until she turned twenty.
In life-or-death battles against villains,
her exceptional ability and matching talent propelled her to A-Rank Hero at just 23.
She earned top-tier fame and money as an A-Rank Hero,
but her mother, unable to bear the grief, succumbed to alcoholism.
Saving people brought cheers and acclaim as her daily life,
but she faced plenty of criticism, slander, and backlash too.
She'd sacrificed everything to become a hero for money and honor,
only to lose all the precious things once around her.
For her now, there was just one reason to live.
The praise and cheers from people resembled most closely what she once held dear.
She craved hearing that praise just once more.
She yearned to hear thanks from the crowd even one more time.
Like a beautiful flower precariously blooming on a cliff's edge,
the vibrant, fresh hero's true self was fragility incarnate.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Dark.
So incredibly dark.
Why... am I in a place like this?
"Hello? Is anyone there?"
No matter how loudly she called, no response came.
There was definitely something she absolutely had to do.
- Click... click... click...
As if hearing her desperate cries,
the sound of heels approached from far away—someone walking in dress shoes.
"Wh-what? Who's there? Can you hear me?"
- Click... click... click...
No answer, just the clicking growing closer,
the endless rhythm echoing in the impenetrable darkness, setting her entire body on edge.
And after a few seconds, finally...
The source of the footsteps revealed itself before her.
"Hello? Nice to meet you."
"Huh...?"
Standing before her eyes was unmistakably herself.
That orange hair and eyes.
The neat ponytail—yes, it was her.
But... she exuded a vibe that felt somehow not quite her.
Like a succubus from some fantasy world,
she radiated an irresistibly seductive, bewitching aura.
And that outfit... if it could even be called clothes.
It barely covered her sensitive chest and groin,
a cheap black latex getup that clung obscenely tight.
Something straight out of those comics or videos.
Even her body... unlike Do-hwa's toned muscles, this version was more voluptuous,
with fuller breasts and hips.
"I... I don't wear trashy clothes like that... and my body isn't like that...?"
"Huh? What are you talking about? This is you right now."
She strode forward, enveloping Do-hwa in a mind-numbingly intoxicating scent and presence,
then casually pinched her cheeks between two fingers.
"When you lost everything and were thrown into the world... how did that feel?"
"What are you saying?"
"Nineteen years old. My birthday... your birthday. Remember?"
"Th-that..."
No matter how she tried to forget, she could never erase that day.
The day her father died in a sudden accident,
and everything around her flipped negative in a heartbeat.
"You've been through so much, Do-hwa."
"Wh-what?"
This woman, so eerily similar yet worlds apart,
released her face and pulled her into a tight embrace with that voluptuous body.
"You don't have to force yourself to help people anymore.
No need to hide how hard it is... just live by your desires."
"My desires...? I... I don't have any desires...?"
"To the one superior to all... the one stronger than anyone...
Live basking in his endless love and rewards...♥
To do that, you received his abundant love,
becoming just like me now...♥"
Yes... that's right...
I'm a perverted sex-processing slave who'd do anything for him...♥
"Now... you don't need to rely on anything else.
Just serving and loving Dominator will fill you up completely...♥"
She'd lost everything to live this life,
all for the moment she'd meet the man who would become her master.
With that cock grander and superior to any in the world...♥
Filled to bursting with semen...♥
He saved me from wandering in the darkness...♥
It all came flooding back...♥
"Mmm...♥ You've awakened to your true self...?
The moment you remembered everything... you evolved one step further as his servant.
Now then... open your eyes and greet him...♥"