In the original story, the B-class and lower heroes barely had any presence.
But according to the setting, were they actually an elite group that had obtained the notoriously difficult hero certification?
‘I thought they were just extras—like A or B-tier at best… but they’re surprisingly persistent.’
They were definitely different from ordinary people.
I had been running all over the city, trying to shake them off, but somehow, it felt like they were sharing information among themselves.
No matter what I did, I couldn’t lose them. Whenever some of them ran out of stamina and tried to fall back, new heroes immediately filled the gap.
“Don’t let him escape!”
“If we lose him, C City will be drenched in blood!”
“Our target is a quasi-first-class monster! All heroes ranked C and below must prioritize evacuating the civilians! Only B-class and higher will pursue him!”
This is why people need to experience things firsthand.
I never realized it through the screen, but now that this game genre had shifted from MMORPG to VR, it felt much more real.
The Hero Association.
The last bastion of humanity, where even by the time I quit Monster Frontline, all the mysteries had yet to be revealed.
Monsters were, of course, something to be wary of.
But that didn’t mean the Association should be underestimated either.
Well, still…
I stopped.
“?!” “He stopped…?” “The monster just turned around and looked at us?”
As if I would struggle against them over something like this.
“KRAAAAAAH!”
“W-Whoa?!”
“That horned-mask monster… it’s charging straight at us?!”
How long have I been running now?
No matter how much I tried to shake them off, it seemed impossible for a single individual to escape the pursuit of an entire group.
And I really needed to get back soon.
That girl must be wondering what happened after I sent that one-sided message: ‘I’ll be home late tonight~’
I even turned off my phone to avoid getting another call from her, but I couldn’t afford to keep Hoshino waiting any longer.
Not as a figure of speech—literally, I might die.
So, as the saying goes, strike while the iron is hot.
Since they were going to chase me to the bitter end anyway, I might as well beat them down here—just enough so they wouldn’t die.
“KRAAK! KRAK!”
“You! I am the B-class hero of R City, Gale Fist Hanister…?!”
Smack.
“Guhh?!” “Hanister!” “No way…!” “He took down Gale Fist Hanister in a single hit?!”
How should I make sure the rumors spread that I didn’t kill anyone?
While running, I simulated countless scenarios in my head on how to deal with ‘moderately strong humans.’
And I reached a conclusion.
No matter how great a hero was, there was no way a human could withstand a punch that could take down a monster.
So after much thought, I came up with a technique—using the sudden elasticity of my thumb and middle finger to deliver a powerful flick to the opponent’s forehead.
Its name: Flick Strike.
“Hey, Hanister… Are you still alive?”
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
“Huff… Huff!” “He’s fine! Unconscious, but still alive!” “It looks like a mild concussion!”
Whew.
I was a little worried, but the tights-wearing, jiggly hero who lunged at me only had his eyes rolling back in his head.
Just unconscious.
I let out a sigh of relief.
And with that, my technique had been proven effective.
Flick. Flick. Flick.
“Grrrkk!”
‘Let’s finish this quickly.’
“He’s coming!”
“Everyone, maintain formation!”
“Horned-mask monster! I am B-class hero, Passionate Capine—”
Flick.
“Guhh?!”
“No! Passionate Capine!”
“You bastard…! You’re deliberately aiming for the head!”
A common trait of mid-tier heroes:
They introduce themselves before a fight, giving me plenty of time to take them down.
I used that to my advantage, knocking out each hero who rushed at me, as if I were completing a punishment game.
Well, occasionally…
“Wait! Unnamed monster!”
“Grrk?“
“I am an A-class hero, Red Rose Marine!”
…there were some ambiguous mid-tier heroes.
Not the 3-star ones from pickup gacha, but the 2-star ones.
Not SSR, but just SR-level heroes.
‘Oh… right, I think I pulled this guy before?’
“The red roses swirling around us will tear you apart—”
Flick. Flick.
“Urghh?!”
If one hit wasn’t enough, I just flicked them twice until they passed out.
And after about ten minutes…
“Grrrrk?“
‘Is there anyone left back there?’
The hero pursuit team that had been chasing me for hours was finally wiped out—without any casualties.
“Grrk. Grrk.“
‘Now I just need to find a secluded place and revert back from monster form.’
Luckily, due to the monster alert, the city was completely deserted, aside from the unconscious heroes lying around.
If I went to E City like this, I’d just have to go through another round of this nonsense.
‘I should revert to human form near the city walls so I can enter E City immediately.’
Looking at the massive 50-meter-high city wall stretching across the horizon, I started running in that direction.
And then—
BANG.
“Grrk?!“
A single bullet struck me in the back of the head.
“Grrrk?“
‘Where is it coming from?’
I had barely dodged the first shot when another bullet flew toward me from a different angle.
‘Even after turning my back, another shot aimed directly at my head?’
Was this part of my monster instincts?
I couldn’t explain it in words, but I could feel exactly where each incoming bullet was targeting.
And that made it all the more unsettling.
I was twisting and turning, dodging with precision, yet the bullets kept coming, all aimed exclusively at the back of my head.
At first, I thought multiple snipers were firing at me.
But then—
‘The shooting intervals… they’re too consistent.’
The speed, the weight of the bullets—
Most of all, the feeling I got from the sniper was exactly the same every time.
Which meant…
There was only one person shooting at me, yet they were somehow able to snipe my head from all 360 degrees.
And the moment I realized that—
‘…No way.’
There was only one person who could pull off something like this.
As I recalled a certain gacha character from Monster Frontline—someone who fought using this exact method—I instinctively looked up to confirm my suspicion.
And then—
Bang.
Just as I had expected.
The reason why they could keep aiming at the back of my head no matter which direction I turned…
It wasn’t because they were repositioning.
It was because they were using ricochets.
Their bullets weren’t coming directly at me—they were bouncing off surfaces, making impossible shots a reality.
‘…Yun Ha-eun?!’
The same character who drained my wallet dry back in the day—
The one responsible for getting the game’s rating changed from 15+ to 19+ because of ‘certain features’—
That crazy woman, Yun Ha-eun…
No, the hero known as Weapon Master.
It seemed that after ten years, I was finally reunited with her.
From the rooftop of a high-rise building, where I must have looked no bigger than an ant—
Click.
“Wow! As expected of a quasi-first-class monster! You keep dodging all my shots!”
Lying prone without even using a scope, Yun Ha-eun was sniping at me from below her perch.
By now, her ricocheting bullets should have hit me at least once.
Yet somehow, I was dodging every single one of them—just barely.
Watching this unfold, a dampness began to spread between her thighs.
Of course, it was just sweat.
“I was trying to see how much damage my bullets could deal to you first, but at this rate, I can’t even test anything.”
Then, she changed tactics.
After all, no woman likes to keep playing around forever.
It was time to move on to the real thing.
Of course—
She meant the bullets.
And so—
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Firing five consecutive shots, Yun Ha-eun sent each bullet toward a different building’s outer walls.
Ping.
Tak.
Thuk.
Each bullet ricocheted differently, bouncing off various surfaces.
But their destination was already determined.
Their target?
The horned-mask monster—who had been dodging all this time.
“Grkk?!“
They were coming from all directions.
“Right, left, front, back, and even above! There’s nowhere to escape!”
Sure, if he could burrow underground, that would be a different story—
But that was unlikely.
He wasn’t some ‘Mole Monster,’ after all.
If he could move like that, he would have done so already.
And that meant—
Checkmate.
“Take this!”
With the anticipation of seeing him spew a fountain of blood, Yun Ha-eun smirked.
She was sure—absolutely sure—that her bullets would blow the quasi-first-class monster’s head apart.
And then—
Snatch.
“…Huh?”
Just as she was about to get up from her position—
The horned-mask monster had caught the incoming bullets.
All of them.
Before she could even process what had just happened—
“He… caught my bullets with his hands?!“
“Grkk.“
“And he… interlocked them between his fingers?!”
What the hell?
Yun Ha-eun had been a hero for over three years now.
She had climbed all the way to S-Class.
But never had she seen anything like this.
Even the second-class Cockroach Monster she had recently fought—while it could block her bullets, it had never managed to catch them mid-air.
And for good reason.
The bullets she used were infused with a powerful curse, courtesy of the monster she had formed a contract with.
Anyone touched by them would have their flesh torn apart.
And yet—
This time, they had simply… failed?
‘Impossible… The monster I’m contracted with is classified as Special Grade in terms of danger level.’
Yun Ha-eun’s entire body trembled.
She was facing something unlike anything she had ever encountered.
A foe powerful enough to actually kill her.
And as if that wasn’t terrifying enough—
His eyesight was perfect.
Even from kilometers away, the monster locked eyes with her exactly.
And at that moment—
Drip…
A fresh wave of cold sweat trickled down her back.
It felt like she was about to collapse, flashing a peace sign with rolled-back eyes in pure terror.
Like a descent into corruption, she could feel the shadow of death looming over her.
But then—
Click. Clack!
“Ahh…! This is the best!”
Any normal person would have panicked by now.
But Yun Ha-eun?
She was thrilled.
Instead of hiding, she stood up from her exposed sniping position.
She couldn’t wait.
She needed to take down this huge, thick, and monstrous foe—
With her bullets, of course.
And so, without hesitation—
She began searching for a new sniping spot.
“You’re mine today!”