Chapter 015
Become Overpowered CEO of Hero Clan – 015
While his personality might be a mess, the tension that had been building up due to his unwavering admiration for a hero with exceptional skills finally eased.
It seemed like it was all over now.
[Bow down, the Great One is here.]
[Let’s go!]
[Cheer up!]
[Why are you so late ㅠㅠㅠ]
[(]0[)/]
Mr. A let out a sigh of relief, empathizing with the viewers’ reactions.
Isaac walked towards the terrifying ghost, exuding a golden aura.
How confident must one be to look so relaxed while heading into battle? As if it’s bothersome to even exert energy on such trivial matters.
‘What the heck?’
Is this the vibe of a strong person? His leisurely steps were as if he was casually going to a neighborhood convenience store. Yet, those steps looked incredibly sturdy.
Groooan… Gruuuh…!
The ghost groaned weirdly as Isaac approached.
Just when Mr. A could no longer bear to watch and squinted his eyes, isaac’s aura dramatically changed.
‘Hmm!’
Black and red smoke flowed.
With each step Isaac took, the ominous waves surrounding the field subsided.
Just like the spotlight that shines on the protagonist on stage, only the area around Isaac was bright.
‘Huh.’
He almost let out a moan.
The chilling disaster scene seemed to be purified by Isaac alone.
The golden aura around him flared up in a sacred manner.
Step. Step.
Click.
Isaac, who seemed like he would defeat the monster in one breath, suddenly stopped near the ghost.
A gust of wind blew due to the conflicting energies, and Isaac’s golden hair wildly fluttered.
From an awkward camera angle, isaac’s eyes flashed indifferently.
‘Huh… what?’
Isaac looked down at the ghost, bathed in a golden backdrop and covered in blood.
It was strange.
Isn’t that a life-threatening disaster scene?
It felt off.
Because the terrifying ghost had never attacked from the beginning.
‘Eh?’
Then Mr. A saw something he hadn’t noticed before.
The ghost was…crying?
Gruuuh… Grrr…!
Blood and flesh splattered.
The ghost was tearing its own arms and legs as if trying to restrain itself.
It was shocking.
It contradicted Mr. A’s understanding of things.
Isaac spoke.
[She was the one who helped us.]
The leader seemed to know the truth. Even though he didn’t understand what was going on, he suddenly felt sad.
Are not all monsters the same?
The blood-stained ghost looked up at Isaac. Tears of blood flowed down its cheeks and fell to the ground.
Drip.
[Rest in peace now, Go Ah-hyun.]
Whooong.
Isaac placed his finger on the ghost’s forehead.
Then, very gently, he applied the world’s softest slap.
Boom!
shockwaves spread out.
The powerful shockwave instantly swallowed the red mist, and the red moon in the sky vanished in an instant.
Whooong…
A single, soft slap.
It seemed as if the abyss that had confined the students was purified. The school, which had been submerged in a dark red, gradually regained its color.
‘Oh my, oh my!’
The ghost, hit by the slap, had somehow turned into a young female student. A sense of touching liberation spread across her pale face.
Thud.
The student collapsed into Isaac’s arms.
Isaac gently stroked the unknown student’s hair. The sight was unbearably sad and touching.
‘Is this a movie!’
It was unbelievable that this wasn’t a high-quality HMV but a raw, unedited live broadcast.
[Saaaaaa]
The student who had been a ghost disintegrated into tiny particles of light and scattered into the air, embraced in Isaac’s arms. The child’s final appearance seemed heartrendingly radiant, as if they had finally regained their freedom after a long nightmare.
The dense clouds began to disappear, and rays of bright light shone down from between them.
With that, the disaster situation was over, and peace returned to Seoul Maple High School.
Meoww—
My mind was utterly dazed.
‘What did I just witness?’
The aftermath lingered.
For the rest of the day, I felt a strong urge to browse YouTube and hero community forums, speculating about the tragic tale of the ghost with fans of the hero world, and wanting to spend hours watching pictures and clips of Isaac and Yeo Jin-soo.
‘I want to go home now!’
My plans for the day were reconstructed in an instant.
***
[VICTORY!]
[The Nightmare has been purified.]
[You have gained 500 points.]
[You have defeated a strong enemy and gained 300 points.]
The red moon began to set.
The total points gained from this mission, including the Nightmare purification reward, was 900. It was a sweet supplementary income. In other words, there’s another primary income.
This is what I meant.
「Unique Magic Stone – Spectral Arts」
▶ Category: Magic Stone, Unique Magic Stone
▶ Grade: Hidden Piece
▶ Description: A magic stone imbued with a Lord’s power, it looks absorbable.
▶ Effect: Extracts souls from corpses to serve as minions.
This was the Hidden Piece left behind when the Rift Boss vanished into me.
It could be considered a gift from the evil spirit of Go Ah-hyun .
‘It’s bittersweet.’
Go Ah-hyun ‘s soul had been corrupted into this magic stone and turned into an evil spirit. But some of her will remained, and she erected a blue barrier, not attacking me at all during our battle.
She didn’t want to harm the students and had no choice but to spread the Nightmare due to her being contaminated with dark energy.
Woooong—
Police cars and ambulances started entering through the main gate.
The police officers and paramedics hurriedly entered the school’s main building.
The live channel was popping with embarrassing chats and donations. It started to feel real.
‘Did I save people again this time?’
If I hadn’t defeated the Rift Boss today… a greater disaster would have struck somewhere in Seoul.
It was fortunate that some of her will remained, otherwise there would have been numerous civilian casualties starting from the evil spirit wave pattern.
I was lucky in many ways.
“All members, gather around.”
After summoning my teammates, I checked their injuries and mental state.
It seemed like no one was seriously injured, and stress levels weren’t high enough to induce mental disorders.
The awkward part? They all looked at me with sparkling eyes.
Zing
Even though my headache was getting worse in real-time, I had to say something.
“Everyone, good job.”
Suppressing my headache, I barely managed to get the words out, lighting up the faces of my teammates.
“You too, leader!”
“Everyone worked hard~! Hehe.”
Good that I spoke.
I felt trust emanating from their expressions and gestures. We still have a long way to go, but at least some foundational trust has been built between the leader and the members.
‘Today’s Yeo Jin-soo was quite moving.’
Especially with this exceptional young boy, we shared something that could be called ‘rapport’. If I had to choose an MVP for this mission, it would undeniably be Yeo Jin-soo.
The youngest member of the squad had grown splendidly in a moment of crisis.
‘Ah.’
I felt a warm feeling in my chest. Yeo Jin-soo, who was staring at me intently, had slightly reddened eyes.
[Stress has increased.]
[You need rest.]
Even though my body was overwhelmingly tired and I didn’t want to do anything more, I somehow managed to squeeze out more words of praise.
“Especially Yeo Jin-soo, you were excellent today.”
“Ah……! Yes!”
A bright smile spread across Yeo Jin-soo’s lips. Seeing him smile, I realized why the viewers gave him a nickname.
I believe it was something like Timid Gangster Mouse.
“Salute!”
As the sun started to be covered by clouds, a police officer with two Rose of Sharon on his badge approached us.
I conveyed a general account of the disaster incident and informed them that the situation was fully resolved.
We left the school to the civil servants and boarded the van we had on standby.
During this, what appeared to be the parents of the students engulfed in the Nightmare kept expressing their gratitude. My brain was too foggy from stress to wave back, but…
‘It was tough.’
I finally managed to get off work.
The members ended the live broadcast after sharing ‘We are safe!’ type interactions with viewers.
Maintaining a smile even when you’re exhausted to death. Being a hero isn’t for just anyone.
‘But it was rewarding.’
A mission I would have missed if I hadn’t thoroughly checked the list.
Through this, I gained a Hidden Piece, a large amount of points, and even saved the lives of students. I spent about five minutes recollecting the mission. My mind started to blur.
‘Everyone’s knocked out.’
Glancing at the back seats, it was obvious that the heroes were all asleep, sprawled in various positions.
Soon, only the sound of their soft, intermittent breathing filled the vehicle.
***
The next morning, the Harmony Clan officially released their stance on the Seoul Maple High School disaster. They mentioned the truth about Go Ah-hyun being possessed, stating that they hoped a proper investigation into her murder would be conducted.
Cyber influencers, who had a knack for picking up on sensitive issues, started producing various speculative videos. This became the catalyst for a friend of Go Ah-hyun to post an article on a famous community site. The post claimed that Go Ah-hyun was a victim of ongoing school violence, and despite her death, the perpetrators faced no legal consequences.
The witnesses even appeared.
An explosive topic featuring Isaac, whose mere mention would cause a spike in views, and now a sensational school violence incident, this was a combination too irresistible to ignore.
Large Cyber influencers who had been collecting data on the incident churned out content one after another. Driven by their hunger for views, they accelerated public discourse with provocative headlines and conjecture.
[The Truth About the Demons Who Killed Their Classmate]
[The Grand Murder Play Organized by the Police and the School]
[True Story! School Violence Victim Returns as a Ghost]
A few days after this snowball started rolling, credible media outlets, after verifying the recording of ‘Ji-Woo’s’ murder in Isaac’s Akashic Record, broke their neutrality and began producing persuasive articles and news featuring interviews with students.
The final blow was the statement from the director of the “Dark Energy Research Center” on a public broadcasting station.
[Director, you mentioned that there are several confirmed cases like this. Could you talk about that?]
[Yes, what I mean by ‘contaminated by dark energy’ applies to all monsters and villains. I’ve said several times that dark energy has a form of ‘will’. It’s attracted by human negativity and can, in some cases, consume ’emotional information’ remaining in a corpse to transform into what we call ‘evil spirits’…]
In summary, victims who die from school violence can temporarily emit a large wave of emotional energy, and this energy can respond and ‘transform into a monster’.
The expert concluded with, “Therefore, we must not commit any act that could give rise to grudges. We still live in a dangerous world.”
[I seriously want to beat the hell out of those jerks who almost killed my cousin.]
[Villains or school violence perpetrators, they’re all the same. Capital punishment is the answer.]
[The importance of birth control ^^]
[Hope all the missing perpetrators are safely dead!]
[Don’t commit sins recklessly… Ghosts will get you.]
[Expose the parents of the perpetrators! Also, arrest them. Make everyone involved, from the school principal to the police, pay!]
Public opinion was sharply critical of the perpetrators and their protective school and parents. Eventually, under public pressure, the police announced they would reconsider their investigation. Around this time, Go Ah-hyun ’s family and friends sought help from the Harmony Clan, who could have a decisive influence on the trial.
An opportunity for image improvement that had come to them voluntarily.
The Harmony Clan pledged to do their utmost to ensure that the truth about Go Ah-hyun was clearly revealed and that the perpetrators received the punishment they deserved.
The Harmony Clan, whose reputation surged, uploaded a video on their official YouTube account just as the uproar surrounding the near S-rank hero Isaac and the concealed murder case began to appear and flow within the hero community.
[Awaken]
It was their first HMV since the establishment of the clan.