LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 109 - Reactions
An utterly ordinary residential home.
The eldest son and second child of the household, a young man, let out a long yawn before sighing wearily.
“Kkhueung…! Haah…”
On the desk before him, hero exam study materials were strewn about rather haphazardly.
“Ueik…”
After briefly regarding them, the young man dropped his pen with a look of annoyance and leaned back in his chair.
“…Let me rest for a bit, just a little while.”
A few months away from graduating high school, this ordinary aspiring hero was studying with his family’s support, having belatedly developed ambitions to become a hero.
However, despite his passion, fatigue was unavoidable.
Rubbing his heavy eyes, the young man decided to take a short break.
“Haah…Is there anything fun?”
He promptly pulled out his phone and accessed a community he frequently visited.
“Here it is. HijiGel.”
The Aspiring Hero Gallery, nicknamed HijiGel.
A community where aspiring heroes like himself shared various concerns and minor tips, conversing and exchanging perspectives as fellow aspirants.
Among the available tags, the young man chose [Chit-Chat].
A tag utilized when users wished to post without specific content.
[“Ugh…GigaChad, I’m so sad.”]
[I took this exam, you see!!]
[Finally, a student became a hero .manhwa]
The Chit-Chat tag was replete with diverse posts.
Some posts utilizing internet memes particularly caught his eye.
The young man clicked on the top post.
[“Ugh…GigaChad, I’m so sad.”]
(Black-and-white AI-generated image of a muscular Russian man.)
“Oh, HissatPi…What kind of Pussy problem are you whining about today?”
(Emoji of a crying female game character.)
“GigaChad…I think I’ll have to give up on my dream of becoming a hero…
Because of this, I constantly argue with my family, and I’ve lost contact with all my friends…
I’ve been working hard, thinking this was all I had left, but I ended up failing the exam too…
I’m so sad…”
(Black-and-white image of the Russian man glaring intensely, eyes glowing red.)
“Stawp! HissatPi!! You faking idiot!!
The more you keep having bad thinkings in your room, the more of a Pussy you’ll become…”
.
.
(Omitted)
.
.
===
Addressing the author as ‘HissatPi’ with a cute-sounding name, the fictional alpha male character GigaChad berates and consoles the depressed or lazy author before ultimately encouraging them.
While not immediately hilarious, GigaChad’s varied reactions based on the author’s statements gradually elicited chuckles from the young man, finding the meme amusing.
-Thank you GigaChad!
-GigaChad…Can someone like me become a hero too?
ㄴ……
ㄴ…GigaChad?
‘It’s been a while since I encountered a refreshing meme.’
A rare positive meme arising amidst an anonymous community often obsessed with insults.
Chuckling as he read it, the young man proceeded to the next post.
[I took this exam, you see!!]
(Still image of a green tracksuit-clad movie actor.)
Why did someone like you come crawling back here?
===
-We didn’t want to take it again either, jerk…
-Hic…hic…
-Life sucks…
‘An exam, huh…’
He would likely have to take one himself in a year.
The mere thought made him feel uneasy, so he decided not to dwell on it for now.
As the young man lazed about on his bed, his sister suddenly entered, carrying a black bag.
“Hey, what are you doing? Not studying?”
“Just taking a short break.”
Plop. His sister plopped down on his bed.
“Do you really think you can become a hero by lazing around like that? Huh?”
“Ah! I said I’m just taking a quick bre-“
His protests were cut short as his sister jabbed his abdomen with her foot, eliciting a yelp.
Chuckling at his reaction, his sister proceeded to chide him.
“Honestly, for someone who never studied, what wind possessed you to suddenly want to become a hero? If only you had this drive back when you started your senior year.”
“Whose fault was it that I was sent to buy idol goods during that time instead?”
“That’s because you were such a hopeless case back then.”
“Ack!”
Jabbing his abdomen once more, his sister then rummaged through the bag, retrieving a freshly steamed bun and handing it to him.
A touch peeved, the young man silently accepted and ate the bun.
“So, are you still chasing after those pseudo-heroes, the Red Heroez, or whatever?”
“Geez, I gave up on them ages ago! And they’re done for. I’m not the only former fan who’s moved on.”
The Red Heroez.
An idol group his sister once adored, now utterly disgraced following an incident at one of their concerts.
“I see? Then all that effort was for naught, huh.”
Around half a year ago, during one of their massive concerts, his sister had managed to secure excellent seats but fell severely ill with the flu. Regrettably, she had sent her brother to at least purchase merchandise on her behalf.
‘But then those villains showed up, rendering the whole merch thing moot.’
After it came to light that the Red Heroez had intended to abandon their fans, over half their fanbase deserted them, leading to their complete downfall.
“Come to think of it, you seemed to develop an interest in heroes after that incident.”
“……”
“Did something significant happen back then, little bro? Is that why you aspire to be a hero now?”
His sister’s query prompted the young man to ponder for a moment.
‘The reason I want to become a hero is probably because of that…’
The chaos among the citizens.
The selfish heroes and dangerous villains.
His own helplessness.
And the emergence of a true hero amidst that crisis.
Along with the vivid, vast sky-blue lace that had been etched into his memory…
Lace…
“Sis.”
“Hmm?”
“Thank you!!”
No matter how much he reflected, it seemed his desire to become a hero stemmed from that indelible memory.
The notion that by becoming a hero and pursuing Maker, he might witness such a sight again.
An utterly worthless motivation.
“What’s with you all of a sudden? Is this because I bought you that bun?”
Of course, his sister simply misunderstood, assuming he was reluctant to share something.
“Anyway, just study hard, alright? I’m off then.”
“Okie.”
Thump.
After his sister departed, the young man retrieved his phone once more.
“…I’ll take a little longer break before getting back to it.”
As he browsed the community, a particular anonymous post caught his eye.
[Have you guys seen this?]
“…Huh?”
The post contained images of mangled corpses – a gruesome murder scene.
Excluding their faces, the bodies were mutilated beyond recognition.
“What’s that?”
Additionally, a flamboyant card with the letter ‘α’ printed on it stood out in each image.
With cards placed beside every victim, it was clearly a serial murder case.
“……”
Indiscriminately killing heroes, villains, and ordinary citizens alike.
Beneath each corpse, victim profiles were meticulously listed, akin to personal dossiers.
“Ueuk…Who would create something like this?”
Sickened by the mutilated bodies, the young man quietly reported the post and navigated away, oblivious to the firestorm it would soon ignite online.
Within the Hero Association’s headquarters.
“Haah…”
A chaotic atmosphere enveloped the entire facility.
The Hero Association was currently grappling with a perplexing incident.
“How many victims is this now?”
“According to that senior staff member, one per day, so seven in total.”
“Quite the diligent bastard, isn’t he?”
A baffling series of murders.
The victims shared no apparent connections.
Their residences, genders, ages, occupations, and roles were all disparate.
Yet it was deemed a serial killing precisely because of this paper.
“At the very least, thanks to this paper card left beside the victims, we swiftly identified it as a serial case.”
Despite their differences, each crime scene featured the same flamboyantly styled paper bearing the letter ‘α’, rendering impersonation difficult.
“So what? We still haven’t caught the culprit’s trail.”
Nevertheless, apprehending the perpetrator remained elusive.
“Come to think of it, one of our own was among today’s victims, wasn’t he?”
Indeed, a hero had fallen victim today, their corpse strewn at the scene.
Consequently, the atmosphere was noticeably more frantic than usual.
“It seems my initial assessment of the criteria was accurate. Most people have a general idea of why these individuals were targeted. Word’s even spreading through civilian communities.”
“So? Are you going to start praising that serial killer as righteous like those civilians?”
“Aye~ Of course not, senior.”
As a gathering place for people, the Hero Association was rife with diverse information and rumors spreading rapidly.
Aside from the flamboyant printing on the paper cards and the victims’ bodies being mutilated to the brink of unrecognizability, this serial killer displayed no remarkable distinguishing traits.
In fact, those two characteristics were commonplace among serial killers, rendering investigation challenging.
Hence, the investigators assigned to the case decided to examine the victims themselves, hoping to uncover potential connections instead of fruitlessly pursuing the elusive perpetrator’s trail.
This revealed…
“All the victims possessed histories that could label them as evildoers?”
“Yes. Anyone with access to their information would likely be aware.”
The hero killed today was also infamous for behaving despicably, despite the heroic title.
“Apparently, civilians are celebrating the emergence of a ‘true hero’.”
“Like they haven’t made a fuss over such things before?”
“Maybe we should conduct a covert investigation? If we manage to apprehend a criminal of this caliber, we might even receive a reward and some vacation time.”
“Asera. You might end up getting seriously hurt, you know.”
Despite the junior’s enthusiasm, his senior merely scoffed dismissively, dissuading him.
“We small fries just need to follow orders from above. They’ll likely issue some directives soon enough, so let’s wait and see.”
“I see…”
Shubuk. Shubuk.
Having concluded their conversation, the two men exited the lounge to resume their respective duties.
“……”
The now vacant lounge…
Kkiiiik.
“Serial killings, huh…”
Having overheard the men’s exchange, Ice Queen furrowed her brow, her expression pensive.