episode_0001
by fnovelpiaWhen I was a kid, I wanted to be a hero.
Modern society, the so-called ‘age of supernatural powers’, was a world of heroes and villains.
A villain who commits evil deeds using the various supernatural powers granted to the chosen ones.
And a hero who condemns those who cannot be dealt with by public power alone in the name of justice.
There was probably no one my age who didn’t have the same dream as me while watching the cool heroes on TV.
However, the majority of friends who did not have superpowers and were not chosen soon realized the invisible wall and gave up on their dreams.
But I was different.
I am the chosen one.
Like heroes, he had special abilities from birth.
My ability is a SSS-ranked fraudulent ability that nullifies all of the abilities of others.
Just having that ability allowed me to gain special admission to the National Hero Training Academy.
But the grand and brilliant dream was soon shattered into pieces at the academy.
Clearly, my ability was an unprecedented, masterful ability.
However, the limitations that were revealed one after another were all too clear.
Limitation 1. My ability was limited to only be activated when it was in contact with others.
What that meant was that if you couldn’t even lay a finger on your opponent, you wouldn’t be able to activate your ability.
Limitation 2. The duration of the ability did not exceed 3 minutes.
Even if I activate my ability on my opponent, if I don’t touch them again within 3 minutes, the nullification will be lifted.
Assistance from renowned professors at the Academy.
And despite all his efforts, the limit never widened.
In the end, I entered the academy as a promising hero.
On the graduation day, I could only watch from afar as my classmates who passed the hero recruitment exam received their certificates on the stage.
Should I call it a substitute? Or should I call it foolishness?
I became a civil servant at the Hero Bureau under the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, which manages nationally certified heroes.
Since I was an academy graduate, becoming a civil servant in that position was a piece of cake.
Of course, compared to a hero, it was a really insignificant job.
I was satisfied with being able to deal with them up close.
It was a time when I was spending my busy days as a civil servant.
* * *
My workplace. I was in the middle of leaving work at the Hero Bureau office.
“… … … … .”
I stopped dead in my tracks as I walked home.
I raised my head and glanced at the shadowy front.
Today, the tree-lined street is strangely deserted.
Only men in suits with their backs to the sunset stood motionless in front of me.
It was clear that the atmosphere was not ordinary, as they all had sturdy physiques.
“Mr. Jo Seong-hoon. You must come with us.”
A word from a man who can’t see his eyes because he’s wearing dark sunglasses.
First of all, you know my name.
You suddenly want me to leave without any explanation?
What is this sound now?
I was just a civil servant who did his job diligently without committing any wrongdoing.
But now, the situation was like I was being dragged in because I had done something wrong.
“Mr. Jo Seong-hoon. This is not a request or a suggestion. It is an execution.”
While I was hesitating.
The man in the suit spoke to me again, like an emotionless wooden puppet.
I barely managed to open my mouth, sweat dripping down my face.
“House… What a move. I didn’t do anything wrong… … . Who the hell are you guys?”
“I can’t tell you here.”
The answer was immediate.
I swallowed hard, my throat parched.
Still, my pounding heart did not calm down.
Anyone can see that this situation is a sign of kidnapping.
When I was young, my mother’s advice to not follow bad guys around kept lingering in my head.
Should I run away at full speed right now?
But that thought was quickly abandoned.
No matter how much I developed my physical abilities at the academy, I was only slightly better than the average person.
Then should we call the hero loudly?
The fastest and safest way to protect my body in this age of paranormal phenomena.
Since kindergarten, I was always taught to shout ““Help me!!”” in a loud voice in times of danger.
With the assurance that if I do so, an apostle of justice will appear from somewhere and save me from danger.
Okay, let’s do that.
After quickly coming to a conclusion.
It was the moment when I was trying to keep my mouth shut and forcefully cry out the lump in my throat.
The man who had been talking to me quietly put his hand inside his suit jacket.
“We just came to pick up Mr. Jo Seong-hoon. Please refrain from any actions that could make a big deal out of it.”
Crunch!
Soon, a black monster was pulled out of the jacket by the man’s hand.
The dull sound of the pistol’s slide being pulled back rang loudly in my ears.
I stopped breathing for a moment, not even making a sound.
Since when has this country allowed people to carry guns around like wallets?
Is it more real than that?
No, in a situation where I feel so uncomfortable right now, there’s no way that it’s not real.
“… … Ah, ah, I understand. Okay, I’ll follow. I’ll follow. ”
I slowly raised both my hands and eventually gave in to the violence of the polymer material.
Immediately after my declaration of cooperation.
One of the group of suit men approached me and put a thick blindfold over my eyes.
As my vision was blocked, I found myself breathing heavily without realizing it.
When I was a curious elementary school student.
It was because I suddenly remembered watching a video of an actual kidnapping and confinement in a foreign country without knowing it.
“Please don’t worry. I’ll tell you everything when you get in the car.”
“Vehicle… … ?”
A heavy hand gently stroking my back.
I moved my feet cautiously, following an invisible guidance.
Soon a metallic clanking noise was heard ahead.
This is probably the sound of a van’s sliding door opening.
I sat down inside the invisible vehicle, safely guided by the cool guidance of the hands.
thud!
As soon as I heard the door close, the blindfold covering my eyes was removed.
As expected, the place I ended up was inside a van.
In addition, all the windows had blackout curtains, making it quite dark.
Soon the car moved forward smoothly without any jerking.
While I was fidgeting with my hands clasped together in vague fear.
The man sitting across from me took off his sunglasses.
“Please forgive my previous rudeness. I am Tae-seok Lee, the head of the National Intelligence Service’s Strategic Crisis Response Team.”
A person with sharp eyes that make you think he would be better off wearing sunglasses.
A man who identified himself as Lee Tae-seok bowed his head politely.
“National Intelligence Service… … .”
When I heard his affiliation, it made perfect sense that he suddenly pulled out a gun.
By the way, the Strategic Crisis Response Team?
I hadn’t done anything that would have been a crisis, and the word strategy had absolutely nothing to do with me.
I was sure.
“Excuse me. Team Leader Lee Tae-seok? What on earth am I involved in right now?”
“First of all, I apologize for not being able to tell you about this because it is top secret. I will pass it on to you right away.”
I just asked out of curiosity, but I ended up hearing something that sounded incredibly important: ‘special class.’
In addition to the chilly feeling on the back of my neck, my knuckles began to tingle.
I was just living an ordinary civil servant life, so what on earth is going on?
If only the blunt NIS agent Nari wasn’t there in front of me, I would have wanted to cry right away.
Whatever.
Team Leader Lee Tae-seok took out a small tablet and placed it on his lap.
Soon his thick fingers gently touched the play button floating in the center of the black screen.
The video has a lot of static noise and the image quality is significantly degraded.
I saw something like a long iron tube hanging vertically in the air.
And inside, there was a woman with black hair with only her head sticking out.
[Villain registration number 02-1. Evaluation level SSS rank. Petition for interrogation of Ruina.]
Team Leader Lee Tae-seok’s low voice can be heard faintly in the video.
More than anything, there were two words that were getting on my nerves right now that I couldn’t just ignore.
“SSS Rank Villain… … . Ruina… … ?”
Of course, I work in a hero-related field.
The name of a famous villain known to people all over the country, if not the world, was heard in the video.
I aimed my tablet and looked at Team Leader Lee Tae-seok.
“Is this true? Is this woman really that Ruina?”
“… … … … .”
Team leader Lee Tae-seok simply pointed at the tablet with his chin as if telling us to shut up and keep watching the video.
I bit my lip in considerable discomfort and stretched my neck toward the screen.
Villain Ruina.
As the saying goes, SSS-rank, that villain was a walking disaster.
In addition to superior physical abilities, the ability he possesses is absolute destruction.
The ability to instantly destroy anything, no matter how strong or hard, with just a touch.
It wasn’t uncommon for an entire city to be reduced to rubble with the appearance of Ruina.
Aside from that, he was a villain about whom no information could be found.
The name Ruina, which means destruction in Latin, was not her real name or something she gave herself, but a code name given by the National Hero Committee.
In addition, he was always wearing a baggy hooded coat that made it impossible to tell what his body shape was, and a simple mask with only eye holes, so even his gender was unknown.
However, in the video, Team Leader Lee Tae-seok clearly refers to the woman in the coffin as Ruina.
About a week ago, Ruina suddenly disappeared and I was wondering what was going on… … .
His words, that it was top secret, began to sink in right away.
[What a surprise. Not only did you capture us, but now you’re asking to talk to us first.]
[Hehe. I have a favor to ask~]
A bright female voice, heard for the first time, followed by Team Leader Lee Tae-seok’s polite sarcasm.
This is top secret… The raw voice of an SSS-class villain… .
For a villain so powerful and evil that no one dared approach him, his voice was extremely ordinary and cute.
[Depending on your request, I may not be able to grant your request.]
[Ahaha. It’s not like that’s a big request.]
[Please tell me what it is.]
[That’s right? I want to try dating, you know.]
… … Gulp.
The sound of dry saliva sweeping down the back of the throat.
That sound was coming not only from my throat, but also from Team Leader Lee Tae-seok in the video.
A SSS-class villain with a high level of danger. What Ruina asked for was… … .
“Love… … ?”
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