Chapter 11: Little Girl Part 2

“…….”

“Don’t let a single one of them in!! Not until my demands are met!! I’m not letting the hostages go either!!”

I hid behind the wall and kept waiting for the right opportunity…

But I couldn’t see any chance to take down that crazy villain.

How many people did he capture, seriously…?

It wasn’t just one or two; he had taken dozens of students from a single lecture as hostages.

If something went wrong and a bomb went off in there, innocent people would be gravely injured at best, and most would die in the explosion.

…How are we supposed to get in?

Even though I had rushed over in the middle of a date with Min-hyuk oppa…

There hadn’t been any progress whatsoever at the scene.

Why doesn’t the Association have a strategy yet…?

Even from the Association, there had been no solid orders given.

In this endless standoff, everyone was gradually wearing down.

…Huh?

From inside the building, which should’ve been locked down, I heard the sound of someone charging in.

“Stop them!! Stop them now!!”

Boom!

“……?”

Someone running up the stairs must have destroyed them, because a thunderous crash rang out.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

As they came up all the way to the sixth floor, I heard seven more tremors in total…

Boooom!!

And then came the eighth and final crash.

The one who had made it up here was a villain, and when I realized that the Hero Association staff couldn’t pursue him up the stairs,

An accomplice?

I tried to subdue the supposed accomplice right then and there using my telekinesis.

…Min-hyuk oppa?

I saw Min-hyuk oppa… coming up to this floor wearing a villain’s mask.

H-His body… Why is it…?

I saw a man whose entire body was covered in wounds.

Blood was flowing from his hands…

His body was burned all over, like he had jumped into a fire on purpose…

And his eyes—

His eyes were filled with the desperate look of someone determined to protect something.

***

Boom! Boom! Boom!

I smashed the landing between the stairways so the Hero Association staff trying to stop me couldn’t chase after me any further.

Besides Mobia, I couldn’t think of any other hero who might be able to get to the upper floors of this building.

As long as Mobia doesn’t come… No, wait. I hope Mobia does show up… Just save Seo-yoon. Please, just save her…

Shoving aside my scattered thoughts,

I forced the elevator doors open and made sure both elevators were out of commission.

“Huff… Huff…”

“Who’s there!!”

As I caught my breath for a moment…

I heard a voice from inside the large guidance hall with the doors shut. It was the voice of someone who seemed to be the villain behind this whole incident.

Creeeeak—

I used all my strength to open the guidance hall door.

“What about my demands?”

“…What are your demands?”

“Bring Professor Ki Nam-yong here, now!! Or I’ll kill everyone in here, got it?”

I saw dozens of students gathered on the stage, surrounded by countless bombs.

Seo-yoon… Seo-yoon… are you there? Seo-yoon—

I checked each student’s clothes one by one.

Even though their faces were covered, I tried to see if Seo-yoon was among them.

“Haah… Why are you there… little girl… why…”

I saw a girl crouching down, wearing the exact same outfit as the girl I had drinks with at the café.

“What the hell are you saying, you bastard!!”

“I… I’m not a Hero.”

“What?”

“I destroyed the stairs on my way up… so no other Heroes could get here.”

“Huh?”

“So please… please let them go. The kids over there… just let them go.”

I steadied my breathing, trying first to resolve the situation through conversation with the villain.

“Shut up!! You think you understand what I’m going through?!”

“I don’t.”

“Ki Nam-yong!! That fucking piece of shit!! He molested my sister… my sister!!”

“…I see.”

“I-I just need to kill that bastard. That’s all. So… so!! Bring him here, now!!”

“…I’ll help you get out of here safely. So please, please… let the students go first, and then we can talk.”

“Don’t fuck with me!! You think I’ll fall for that??”

I knew how unfair this all was for him, but…

Seo-yoon hadn’t done anything wrong.

So please just let her go.

“I’m not trying to trick you… Yeah. Money…what does it matter if it’s money? Here… I’ll give you all of this… Why won’t it open…!”

I fumbled with it, shifting it this way and that, but the zipper on the duffel bag must’ve melted or something. It just wouldn’t open.

Zip—

So I tore the duffel bag open. The money inside started spilling out in a cascade.

“Here… I’ll give you all of it, so please… just let the kids go. Please… okay? Come on… It’s not like the Hero Association would ever pay a villain, right? So—”

“You trying to fool me with counterfeit money?”

“I’m not trying to trick you..! Please..!!”

“Don’t raise your voice at me!!”

He was the one yelling…!

“Huff… huu…”

“Don’t try anything! If you even move a little—I’ll kill every single brat in here!!”

“…Where is he? That Ki Nam-yong guy or whatever… where is he?”

“I don’t know! I just know he’s somewhere in this building!”

God… if you’re going to carry out a terrorist act, at least plan it out properly, this idiot…!

“…Just wait here a moment.”

There was no other choice.

If I wanted to save Seo-yoon, I’d have to find that professor, Ki Nam-yong or whatever his name was… No, wait a second.

He wasn’t even the one who got hurt. It was his sister, wasn’t it? If he’s the kind of idiot who came this unprepared… this might actually work.

A thought hit me, and I immediately jumped down toward the remains of the staircase I’d destroyed earlier.

Thud!

When I landed there and cracked part of the floor, I saw some Hero Association staff standing there, keeping watch on the upper floors.

Among them—

“Mmgh!”

“Don’t say a word. Just stay quiet.”

After grabbing the neck of a moderately old-looking staff member, I held him just tightly enough to restrain him.

I made sure he couldn’t speak.

Thud— Thud— Thud—

I pushed off with strength, climbing up the debris of the broken staircase with one hand.

“Huff… huff… huuuff…”

My stamina had truly hit its limit.

I could feel my body falling apart in different places, and I could hear it creaking.

Just a moment… Let’s rest… Just a moment…

I came to a halt right there.

While I was taking a brief rest…

Thunk—

“…….”

The Hero Association staff member whose neck I was holding…

I saw him inject something into my leg.

But—

Squeeze—

Just as he had pushed in about half of the liquid from the syringe,

I had no choice but to yank it out and leave him with a warning not to try anything foolish.

“Don’t try anything stupid… I’m not exactly thinking straight right now. I might just crush your neck right here…”

“Mmgh..!”

Maybe he understood my warning.

He gave me a shaky nod and his face was clearly filled with fear.

I need to finish this quickly.

Before whatever drug that was could spread further through my body,

I got up right away and headed to the guidance hall where the villain was.

“I brought him from Professor Ki Nam-yong’s office.”

“You son of a biiitch, Ki Nam-yong!!”

Just as I thought…

That dumb bastard had clearly come without even properly checking Professor Ki Nam-yong’s face.

He must’ve heard only that his sister had been sexually harassed, and in a blind rage, rushed straight to the university building with barely any information.

That’s why—

“Son of a bit*h!!!”

When the guy, armed with a sharp blade, lunged to stab a staff member of the Hero Association, mistaking him for Ki Nam-yong—

“People instinctively let their guard down around someone who speaks politely.”

I swiftly pulled the Hero Association staff member out of the way.

Bang!

Then I grabbed the villain’s face and slammed it into the guidance hall wall.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

I bashed his head into the wall so hard he couldn’t even scream.

Crunch—

Suddenly feeling pain in my hand, I lifted him up—

“Wow… you’ve got quite the ability, huh?”

I saw his half-shattered face slowly beginning to regenerate.

“I… can’t die… I said… I can’t die.”

“Can’t die?”

His eyes were filled with the absolute conviction that he was immortal, thanks to his regenerative powers.

“Alright then, let’s bet on it. Let’s see if you really can’t die.”

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

I started slamming his head nonstop.

When the wall gave in from repeatedly smashing his face into it, I switched to driving his head into a desk inside the lecture hall.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

I didn’t stop.

Pain continued to throb in my hand, and I could feel my flesh being torn off by his teeth.

But with the surge of adrenaline flooding my system, the pain had been pushed to the back of my mind.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

I kept slamming his head against whatever surface was within reach.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Crack—Splat..

“Huh?”

The guy who had kept saying he absolutely couldn’t die—

At some point, after the final sound of bones shattering—

His body went limp, taking on that unmistakable lifeless state of a freshly dead corpse.

“So much for not dying, you bastard.”

Whip—

I casually tossed the villain’s now-dead body aside.

“Hey, kid… Oppa’s here.”

I slowly made my way down to the podium, where someone was cowering in fear—

“Please… please… don’t kill me… I don’t want to die…”

—it wasn’t Seo-yoon.

Thud…

Seeing that it wasn’t Seo-yoon but another woman, all the tension drained from my body in an instant.

I collapsed right on the spot.

“Ugh…!”

As I dropped to the ground, struggling to hold myself up, a few students saw their chance—

They bolted up the guidance hall stairs and began fleeing the scene.

And since I didn’t stop them from leaving the hall…

I saw the other students, catching on to the situation, suddenly take off running out of the place.

The stairs are all destroyed. How are they planning to escape? Ah, maybe they’re going to use the emergency descent device.

“…Is this really the time for me to be worrying about the others escaping…?”

Once all the students had cleared out of the hall, I slowly pushed myself up.

My body felt a little better, and just as the thought crossed my mind that I needed to get out of here quickly—

“Over here!! Here!!”

Suddenly, I heard voices from outside the guidance hall. They were students calling out like they’d found someone.

“Lady Mobia!! Over here…! The, the stairs are gone!! Please help us down…!”

Ah… she’s here… Of all times, why now…

I heard the unmistakable sound of Hero Mobia arriving on the scene. Finally…

Phone… where’s my phone… There it is…

I picked up the phone lying among the scattered bundles of cash…

And as I remembered how she insisted a girlfriend should always be number one and had set herself as speed dial 1, I pressed the key and called her.

– I’m on my way, babe! Just hang in there a little longer! I’m getting there as fast as I can!