Ch.27S-Rank 5th Place (2)

Heroes who were barely even side characters in the original story, classified as B-rank or lower.

But I suppose they’re all still an elite group who earned those difficult-to-obtain hero licenses.

‘I thought they were just Extras A and B… but they’re surprisingly competent?’

They were definitely cut from a different cloth than ordinary people.

I tried to shake them off while moving through different parts of the city, but it was as if they were sharing information about me among themselves.

They wouldn’t let up, and whenever some dropped out due to exhaustion, new heroes would immediately fill the gap.

“Don’t let him escape at any cost!”

“The moment we lose him, C City will be swept by a massive bloodbath!”

“The target is a near Level 1 monster! C-rank heroes and below, prioritize civilian evacuation! Only B-rank and above pursue the creature!”

This is why you need to experience things firsthand.

I couldn’t tell from behind a screen, but now that the game genre had shifted from MMORPG to VR, everything felt much more real.

The Hero Association.

Humanity’s last bastion, with many plot threads still unresolved when I quit playing <Monster Frontline>.

Monsters were naturally considered threats.

But it seemed the Association wasn’t to be underestimated either.

Well, even so.

I paused.

“?!”

“He stopped…?”

“The monster is suddenly turning to look at us?”

This level of opposition shouldn’t be giving me this much trouble, but…

“KRAAAAAAAH!”

“Wh-what?!”

“That horned-mask monster…”

“It’s charging right at us!”

How many hours have I been running now?

No matter how hard I tried to shake them off, it seemed impossible for an individual to escape a group’s pursuit.

And I needed to get back quickly.

After my one-sided “I’ll be home late~” notification, I had no idea how the young lady was doing by now.

I’d even turned off my phone to prevent any more calls, so I couldn’t keep Miss Hoshino waiting any longer.

This wasn’t a metaphor—I genuinely thought I might physically die.

So, striking while the iron was hot, I planned to just rough them up a bit—not enough to kill them—since they were going to pursue me to the end anyway.

“KRAAK! KRAK!”

“You there! I am the B-rank hero Tempest Hanist—?!”

*Flick*

“Kuhek?!”

“Hanister!”

“This monster…!”

“He took down Tempest Hanister with a single hit?!”

I wondered how I could defeat them without killing them.

While running, I’d mentally simulated countless ways to deal with “moderately strong humans.”

And I reached a conclusion.

*Whoosh. Whoosh.*

No matter how great a hero might be, no human could withstand a punch that could destroy monsters.

So after careful consideration, I came up with an attack that uses the elastic force of my thumb and middle finger to deliver a powerful impact to the opponent’s forehead.

In other words, a “forehead flick.”

“H-hey, Hanister. Are you alive…?”

*Thump. Thump. Thump.*

“Huff, huff!”

“G-good! He’s unconscious but still alive!”

“Looks like just a mild concussion!”

*Phew.*

I’d been a bit worried, but the spandex-clad hero who had charged at me was just rolling his eyes, merely unconscious.

I let out a sigh of relief that he was just knocked out.

And with this, the “effectiveness” of my technique was proven.

*Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.*

“Grrrr!”

‘Let’s end this quickly.’

“H-here he comes!”

“Everyone maintain formation!”

“Horned-mask monster! I am the B-rank hero! Passionate Capine—”

*Flick*

“Gack?!”

“N-no! Passionate Capinero!”

“What a cruel bastard…! He’s deliberately targeting only the head!”

The peculiarity of mediocre heroes:

They introduce themselves before fighting, giving plenty of opportunity to strike.

I took advantage of this trait and knocked out each hero who came at me, like they were completing some penalty game.

Well, occasionally…

“Wait, unnamed monster.”

“Kruk?”

“I am the A-rank hero, Marine of the Red Rose!”

I vaguely remembered seeing her in passing during some gacha pulls—not a 3-star but a 2-star, not an SSR but just an SR-tier hero with moderate significance.

‘Hmm… I’m pretty sure I pulled her before?’

“The red roses swirling around us will tear you to shreds—”

*Flick. Flick.*

“Khik?!”

For those who didn’t go down with one hit, two flicks were enough to knock them unconscious.

About 10 minutes passed like this.

“Krururuk?”

‘Is there anyone else left behind?’

I had successfully defeated the entire hero pursuit team that had been chasing me for hours.

“Kruk. Kruk.”

‘Now I need to find a secluded place to undo my monster transformation.’

Fortunately, thanks to the monster alert, the city center where I stood was completely deserted except for the unconscious heroes.

If I went to E City in this form, I’d likely have to repeat this “annoying process” all over again.

‘I’ll return to human form near the barrier so I can cross directly into E City.’

I was planning to run toward the 50-meter-high city barrier that blocked the entire horizon.

But at that moment.

*Bang*

“Kruk?!”

A bullet aimed precisely at the back of my head.

“Kruruk?”

‘Where from?’

I was confused when, after turning around to dodge, another bullet came flying at the same spot.

‘I turned around… but they’re still targeting the back of my head?’

It was like a monster’s instinct.

I couldn’t explain it in words, but I could somehow sense exactly where the bullets were aiming.

That’s why it was even more perplexing.

I was clearly dodging by moving my body in various directions, but the bullets kept targeting only the back of my head, as if fired by a group.

What was more surprising was that I initially thought it was an attack by multiple people, but…

‘The timing between shots is too consistent…’

The speed and weight of the incoming bullets.

Above all, the feeling of the sniper was exactly the same as what I’d felt initially.

This meant that the person targeting the back of my head from all 360 degrees was just one person.

As soon as I realized this…

‘…Could it be?’

The only person who could do something like this.

Recalling a gacha character who fought this way when I played <Monster Frontline>, I looked up to confirm.

Then.

*Bang*

As I expected.

The reason they could always target the back of my head no matter which way I faced:

When I realized it was accomplished through impossible ricochet shots…

‘Is it Yoon Ha-eun?!’

The female character who not only emptied my wallet in the past but also changed the game’s rating from 15+ to 19+, clearly designed with “that” in mind.

The perverted Yoon Ha-eun… no, the hero known as Weapon Master—it seemed we were reuniting after a whole decade.

***

On the rooftop of a skyscraper where the horned-mask monster looked as small as an ant.

*Click*

“Wow! So this is what a near Level 1 monster is capable of? He keeps dodging my shots!”

Yoon Ha-eun was sniping the monster below without using a scope, lying in a prone position.

She was using ricochets between walls, and by now the monster should have been hit at least once.

Yet Kang Jang-hoon was still dodging her bullets by paper-thin margins, and she was gradually getting wet between her thighs.

With sweat, of course.

“I was trying to first confirm how much damage my bullets would do, but at this rate, I can’t even experiment!”

If that was the case, it was time to change tactics—a woman who only teases eventually gets tired.

It was time to thrust it in.

The bullet, of course.

And so.

*Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!*

Yoon Ha-eun fired all five rounds at once, each toward different building exteriors.

*Ping.

Tak.

Tuk.*

Each of the five bullets ricocheted differently, but they all had the same destination.

That was the horned-mask monster who had been dodging by turning his body.

“Kruk?!”

They targeted all directions around him—up, down, left, right, and above.

“Right, left, front, back, and above your head—there’s nowhere to dodge!”

Well, he could go underground, but that would be a different story, and he surely wouldn’t do that.

He wasn’t some “mole monster” after all.

If that kind of movement was possible, he would have used it long ago.

This was checkmate.

“Take this!”

Yoon Ha-eun was certain she had blown the near Level 1 monster’s head off, expecting it to collapse while spurting blood.

*Grab*

“…Huh?”

She was about to get up from her position with that certainty.

The next moment.

The horned-mask monster caught all the incoming bullets as if playing catch, unable to dodge them.

She was dumbfounded by such an impossible action.

“He caught my bullets… with his hands?”

“Kruruk.”

“A-and he’s holding all of them between his fingers?!”

What was that?

In over three years of hero activities, rising to S-rank, she had never seen anything like this.

Even the Level 2 “Cockroach Monster” she had recently defeated could block her bullets but never catch them mid-flight.

That was because the bullets from the monster she had “contracted” with carried a powerful curse that would tear flesh apart upon contact.

But now they had “misfired” like this.

‘Impossible… the monster I contracted with should be “Special Class” in terms of danger level!’

Yoon Ha-eun’s body trembled.

A powerful enemy she had never encountered before, one that could actually kill her.

And the monster had such good eyesight that it was making direct eye contact with her from kilometers away.

Perhaps that’s why.

*Drip…*

The area between her thighs became even more soaked than before.

Due to cold sweat, of course.

It felt like she might roll her eyes upward and make a double peace sign.

With the terror of “falling” looming right before her.

*Click. Clack!*

“This is so exciting!”

While a normal human would have panicked,

Yoon Ha-eun instead stood up from her now-exposed sniping position, eager to take down this thick, mighty, and enormous monster.

She moved to find a new sniping position.

“You’re the one for today!”

As her target to defeat, of course.