Ch.102Join Me

# “Ha, haah…!”

“Iyaaap!”

“Jaaaaat!”

The training hall was filled with strange, exaggerated battle cries.

Students and heroes were demonstrating their special abilities with all their might.

Everyone’s gaze kept darting to one spot.

In the corner of the training hall stood Yeo Un-jae with his disciples on either side, all A-rank heroes.

And beside them was a hero whose face I recognized.

Cage stood there with female A-rank heroes following him.

Not only that, but on the opposite side was a hero I’d never seen before.

A man with long hair hanging down in front, wearing an unusual gun at his waist.

On one of his wrists was a bracelet loaded with large-caliber bullets I’d seen once before.

That man must be Baskerville.

Regarding the two S-rank heroes who had been present since the beginning of class, Yeo Un-jae explained they were merely observing the future heroes.

The students weren’t particularly surprised, suggesting this might happen occasionally.

The two S-rank heroes in the training hall engaged in quiet conversation.

“I never expected you to come in person.”

“When I heard about promising superhumans, I couldn’t resist coming to see for myself.”

“Aren’t you busy these days? I wonder if you should be coming to places like this.”

“Don’t worry, my preparations are complete. If anything, I’m concerned about your side.”

“I’m ready anytime.”

A faint killing intent and tension leaked from the two.

After their cryptic exchange, the two heroes examined me while discussing my ability.

“So… Limit Break. Quite an old-school ability.”

“Do you think there’s potential for S-rank?”

“It might take time, but considering he reached A-rank level on his own, he has talent.”

“Another S-rank hero candidate? The cities lacking heroes will be pleased.”

“Though… he seems quite lazy. Wouldn’t fit in my team.”

I yawned while lying down among heroes who were enthusiastically demonstrating their abilities.

Since coming to A City, I’ve been losing sleep every night because of Gu Seo-ryong and Sa Gu-gu.

“Two S-rank heroes and Senior Yeo right in front of him, yet he acts like that. Is it confidence, or just thoughtlessness?”

“Either way, it’s clear he has absolutely no admiration for heroes.”

“Would you two mind keeping quiet during class?”

When Baskerville and Cage continued their conversation, Yeo Un-jae, who was teaching the students, frowned.

Cage nodded with a slight smile, while Baskerville scowled.

Then, Yeo Un-jae’s boring lesson continued.

“Your ability’s instantaneous output is greatly affected by emotions. If you can control your emotions, you can reduce unnecessary waste of your ability, and conversely, you can also increase your ability’s output…”

Another day of talking about human abilities—class content that isn’t particularly helpful to me.

I ignored it and dozed off, but soon after, it was sparring time again.

However, the students were completely distracted during their matches, making a mess of things.

Overly flashy abilities, more like peacocks showing off their feathers than actual combat.

Seeing the pointless matches, Yeo Un-jae clapped his hands to stop them.

“…Today, perhaps watching would be better than direct sparring.”

Yeo Un-jae approached me as I was yawning silently on the floor and extended his hand.

“Park Deun-deun, would you like to spar?”

“Hmm.”

Feeling bored anyway, I got up and sparred with Yeo Un-jae.

First, I kicked at him to wake myself up, and Yeo Un-jae threw me much higher than before.

This is fun.

“Is his judgment poor, or is he just using the same move repeatedly?”

“His movements are too exaggerated.”

After I kicked a few more times asking to be thrown, Yeo Un-jae twisted his neck and arms with a cracking sound and gestured for me to come at him.

It seems he wants to move beyond warm-up and get serious.

Well then, let’s change the game.

I extended my fist and fired rapid shock waves at Yeo Un-jae, their speed and power doubled thanks to the technique I learned from him.

“Oh? With just his physical body…”

“But using shock waves against Senior Yeo? That’s like throwing firewood into a fire.”

This time, Yeo Un-jae didn’t deflect the shock waves with his hands but absorbed them with his body.

Boom! Ripples of impact spread from Yeo Un-jae as he stomped the ground, then were sucked back in and amplified.

Momentarily emitting an S-rank level aura, Yeo Un-jae arrived in front of me with speed that would surprise even monsters and extended both hands forward.

“Ha!”

An intense shock centered on my abdomen spread throughout my body, with the painful sensation of skin and muscle completely separating.

That hurt a bit, so I grabbed Yeo Un-jae’s wrist and swung him hard.

Crash! Slammed into the ground, Yeo Un-jae redirected the impact of his body straight back at me.

As my hand strength weakened from the rare sensation of numbness, Yeo Un-jae slipped away from me like flowing water and delivered a kick.

My vision turned red as it connected with my jaw, and the organs inside my head burst out. I recovered quickly and looked at Yeo Un-jae with my now-healed eyes.

An application method of absorbing surrounding impacts, filling the body with them, and momentarily strengthening the body.

Movement made possible not by directly moving the body but by moving the ability filling the body.

Yeo Un-jae, who had been momentarily strengthened, was weak again.

The moment I realized my opponent was weak, my vision narrowed instinctively.

Sensing killing intent, Yeo Un-jae quickly pulled back, but my hand struck his prosthetic arm.

My raised nails tore off the metal prosthetic, and cables and wires from the damaged prosthetic caught on my fingers.

Then, swoosh, I accelerated by twisting my waist as I’d learned and swung my hand sharply, slicing off Yeo Un-jae’s prosthetic as it caught on my fingertips.

“Well, well, let’s stop here.”

Yeo Un-jae detached his prosthetic from his arm like a lizard and picked up the severed prosthetic.

The cross-section was smooth as if cut with a knife through soft tofu. Yeo Un-jae happily threw the prosthetic piece and cut it into several pieces.

“Accelerated force becomes stronger and sharper toward the extremities of the body. I haven’t even taught this yet… focusing just on your fingertips will be faster, more like this.”

“Hmm.”

After seeing Yeo Un-jae’s demonstration, I picked up a piece of the prosthetic from the floor and sliced it with my hand in the same way.

Yeo Un-jae looked at me and clapped his hands in delight.

“Excellent. As expected.”

“…To think there’s another person who can master that.”

“Indeed, his talent is overflowing.”

At that sight, Baskerville, who had been watching from a distance, spoke in a surprised voice.

Followed by Cage’s satisfied voice.

Yeo Un-jae continued the class, explaining what he had just demonstrated to the students.

“Here, Park Deun-deun is an excellent example. Pure physical enhancement without special abilities. With training, any of you can develop techniques like this…”

Meanwhile, the two S-rank heroes continued to whisper.

“I can’t sense any ability wavelength at all. To be so discreet… if he had revealed himself earlier, he could have been a good horse.”

“He’s incomprehensible in many ways. Seeing him at an educational facility makes me doubt he’s a villain employed by the government. He’s even openly using an obvious alias.”

“Didn’t your team member register him? What did they say?”

“Something about him being like an old-school hero, rare these days.”

After class ended, the students hesitantly left the training hall.

As if disappointed, they kept glancing back at the S-rank heroes inside.

Some had pens and notebooks ready to give to Cage.

However, the surrounding A-rank heroes gestured for them to leave quickly, as if it wasn’t time for fan service.

As I was following the students out, I was stopped by Yeo Un-jae’s two disciples.

“Park Deun-deun, this way please.”

I couldn’t leave the training hall and remained with the S-rank heroes.

After all students and heroes had left, Baskerville was the first to speak.

“Hey, you. I’ll keep this brief. Join me.”

“Hmm?”

“The secretive nature of your ability—I can best utilize that advantage. I’ll teach you what you lack. I’ll make you the leader of the Hound team.”

“Hmm?”

I was wondering why I was suddenly brought here—I thought they just came to observe superhumans, but what’s this about?

As I frowned in confusion, Cage, standing beside me, extended his hand with a smiling face.

It seemed like he wanted to shake hands, but when I didn’t take his hand, Cage casually folded his arms.

“Nice to meet you. Is Park Deun-deun acceptable?”

“I am Park Deun-deun.”

“I heard you haven’t been back in A City for long. First, let me welcome and thank you. As an A-rank superhuman, your mere presence is beneficial to A City.”

“Hmm…”

Is that so? I nodded at the unexpected greeting, and Cage continued with annoying questions.

“However, I’m sorry, but as the strongest hero in this city, I have a responsibility to ask about you in detail. To determine whether an A-rank hero superhuman is a potential threat to the city.”

“I’m not a villain.”

“I’ve heard that. Do you have family?”

“No. Do you?”

“All killed by monsters.”

“Hmm, only my mother died.”

“I see. Then we share the common point of having lost family to monsters.”

Cage smiled a seemingly good-natured smile.

“You and I are both superhumans, and we share the same pain. But you’re not a hero, and I am. So here’s my question: What do you think is the difference between a hero and a superhuman?”

“Isn’t a hero someone who acts for humans?”

“Correct. To be more precise, it’s responsibility. The difference in responsibility for this power bestowed upon us is what separates heroes from superhumans.”

Cage tapped his chest as if to indicate that his responsibility lay there.

“As a superhuman, you must know? We are different from humans. Humans of the old era are inferior, and we are superior. Of course… I’m not talking about differences in humanity. It’s strictly about ability.”

As someone with special abilities, one can’t help but empathize with Cage’s words.

A body that breaks knives when stabbed, easily crushes iron, destroys the ground, uses special abilities, and hunts monsters that hunt humans.

“Superhumans are like a new human species that evolved in response to the monster environment.”

At Cage’s words, all the superhumans present shared the same look.

However, the underlying flavor of that emotion, as sensed by monsters, varied slightly.

“Then, what should we do as the new human species that has awakened and moved ahead? It’s simple. Superhumans must lead the inferior humans. That’s the way to benefit humanity as a whole in this monster era, and it’s also proof that superhumans are superior to humans.”

“Is that so?”

“If this doesn’t resonate with you, let me put it more plainly… How did you feel when your family was killed by monsters? Wasn’t it despairing and painful?”

Cage clenched his fist in front of his chest.

“We awakened through that pain. Our abilities arose from survival, struggle, and the desire for revenge against monsters, the natural enemy of humans. Will you let humans weaker than you, humans suffering as you did when you awakened, experience the same pain as you? Can you allow that cycle to continue?”

“Hmm…”

“Of course we absolutely cannot allow it! We must kill them all! Those filthy monsters!”

Cage subtly spread his ability’s wavelength, adding physical force to his words.

“Some heroes used to say this habitually: If there’s something that must be done, those who can do it must do it.”

“Hmm?”

“The power is already in our hands. The power to lead ignorant humans and reduce suffering, the power to tear apart and kill even one more monster. So, we must do it.”

Why are these words coming from Cage’s mouth? After saying these somehow familiar words, Cage quietly calmed his emotions again.

Cage spoke with firm conviction and raised his palm to point at me.

“Your power can save many people. You have the power to do what needs to be done. I will help you use that power correctly.”

His hand, which had been extended to me, came down naturally and offered a handshake again.

“Join me.”