My mind, dazed from the blow, grew clear.
My exhausted body seemed to have recovered as well, and strength surged through me.
Had about five seconds passed?
The gem, which had lost its red aura and turned transparent.
It soon shattered, and blue flames erupted across Fire Man’s entire body.
The flames devoured his body in an instant, and only ashes remained where he had stood.
[‘Fire Man.’ A death befitting his name, indeed.]
I let out a small sigh and looked around.
Sin Jonggak cowered with an “Eek!”
I had killed a man.
I wasn’t tormented by guilt as much as I had expected.
It had been a situation where if I didn’t kill, I would be killed.
Now that I had actually done the deed, I began to worry about the police and Heroes.
Even if he was a villain, extrajudicial punishment was a crime.
I too had become a target for arrest.
Soon enough, the police would enter led by a Hero called Iron Fist.
I needed to cause a bit of confusion in the investigation.
I picked up a post-it from the lectern and wrote “Kidnapper” with a pen.
I placed the post-it on top of the ashes.
I spoke, filling my voice with a hatred that didn’t even exist.
“The only thing that can be given to those who wield their abilities recklessly is death.”
A stance that made it seem as if I had suffered greatly at the hands of an Awakened and hated them.
I pretended to look like a vigilante with convictions.
The students’ attention focused on me.
‘Ugh. So embarrassing.’
Escaping the present situation was one thing, but this was also necessary for the future.
Most likely, those who had recently died or been injured by Awakened would rise to the top of the suspect list.
A female student stepped forward and bowed her head.
“Th-thank you.”
Other students began to open their mouths one by one.
“Thank you for saving us.”
“….”
It wasn’t exactly something I had done to save them.
But receiving their gratitude felt strange.
This was my first hunt.
Class 2, Grade 3.
A classroom where only ashes remained.
The investigators who arrived late scratched their heads.
“This is vicious. Looks like it wasn’t ordinary resentment?”
“Seeing that he was burned to death, I get a feeling. It seems highly likely that this is one of Fire Man’s arson victims.”
“Do you know how many victims this bastard has? Countless property victims, and the human casualties are in the triple digits.”
They were the ones who had to investigate them.
The investigators, envisioning a terrible future, sighed simultaneously.
“Investigator Gang Hyeonseong! We’ve finished organizing all witness testimonies.”
“Yeah. Good work.”
Investigator Gang Hyeonseong took the documents.
He felt like he was on the verge of grasping something, yet not quite.
“It seems he’s indeed a victim of ‘Fire Man’ for now. The fact that he stabbed with a knife despite having flame abilities must have been an act to inflict pain.”
“Yeah.”
Cases like this were common.
Victims of crimes stemming from grudges were mostly killed in painful ways.
“We’ll have to search among those who recently awakened or showed such signs. Especially of the flame type.”
“Sigh. It would be better if we find them among the Awakened.”
***
From this point on, I punished criminals one by one and grew stronger.
There were many stronger than me, but I dealt with those who relied on their abilities with Laura’s help, and those who didn’t by sealing their abilities and ambushing them.
A year passed like that.
Soon would be the long-awaited Academy entrance exam.
A famous brand café downtown.
It was the café I always went to.
I took a sip of coffee and spoke so that only I could hear.
“Status Window.”
------------
◈ Name
Sin Noda
◈ Stats
[Strength 042 C]
[Agility 224 D]
[Intelligence 337 E]
[Luck 659 E]
[Overall D]
◈ Skills
[Succession 366 A]
[Dragon Heart --- A]
[Psychokinesis 223 E]
--------------------------------
Growth achieved in merely a year.
At this level, it was equivalent to continuously using the “Growth Orb” that came from dungeons.
Growth Orbs are beads that drop when killing monsters in dungeons, and in “Hero Name: ZEUS,” you feed them to characters to make them grow.
‘Even like this, I still can’t meet the specs the protagonist had when he enrolled.’
Initial stats differ for each character.
The protagonist and surrounding characters start from Overall C, and at this level, they are evaluated as rookies.
An Awakened with a bad start like me cannot catch up to them through normal means.
‘I’ve roughly seen everything about the entrance exam, so should I do some internet surfing?’
I fiddled with my tablet and entered a community site.
Hero Korea.
The hero topic site with the most domestic users.
I saw the best post visible as soon as I entered and choked.
“*Hack, hack*.”
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There might be people who only learned of Dark Knight’s existence through the video going around these days, but I’ve known about this person from quite early on and was cheering for him.
I’ve organized this separately; these are the villains Dark Knight has eliminated so far.
Confirmed ones:
C-rank villain ‘Fire Man’ – Murder, Arson
D-rank villain ‘Cheolhyeolmujeok’ – Murder
C-rank villain ‘Blood Sucker’ – Murder
D-rank villain ‘Incubus’ – Rape, Blackmail
C-rank villain ‘Grand Master’ – Founding a violent organization, Instigation to murder, etc.
E-rank villain ‘Pet Hater’ – Animal cruelty
B-rank villain ‘Psycho’ – Murder
Ambiguous ones:
E-rank villain ‘Heroin Body’ – Drug trafficking
Yongsan assault gang (Not Awakened) – Murder, Robbery
D-rank villain ‘Homicide’ – Murder, Illegal possession of firearms
Dark Knight’s trademark is burning the criminal’s body and leaving a post-it at the end, but the bottom three don’t have that.
Still, witness testimonies say a guy in a black robe did it, so they’re counted as ambiguous.
What’s the point of Heroes catching villains diligently? They escape every other day, or say they’ve reflected and repented, get sentence reductions, come out quickly, and commit crimes again.
These bastards never change, they need to be isolated from society forever lololol
People who want them all killed like Dark Knight, hit that upvote lolololol
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