A hero must be compassionate, selfless and courageous.

But that isn't all. Because a hero must also be powerful.

In this world, power is everything. Strength decides who gets to save lives and who's left with community service. That’s why I was nothing — a rank 50 E-Class reject, skating through the streets, saving what little I could while the real heroes battled gods and monsters.

Then one day, I died. Almost.

Dragged into the abyss, I was given a second chance: the Forever Core. An armor that evolves. A system that never stops adapting. Every battle, every hit, every mistake, I come back stronger.

Now, the monsters that once crushed me can’t kill me the same way twice. 

I must adapt. Evolve. I must grow stronger and fight harder. Because humanity is worth fighting for.

Even if I have to burn every villain alive to prove it.

I could feel goosebumps sprouting up on my skin. Not from fear— but excitement, anticipation, inquiry. 


From beyond the darkness of the long road, countless sounds of footsteps, far greater than the first two times, reverberating loudly. 


The entire vesinity fell into dead silence, and I took the opportunity to begin counting the numbers of the enemies via the sound of their footsteps. 


Thanks to my high perception, I could separate out each of the footsteps to their original owners. 


There were a total of 51 different footsteps.


The nervous tension was palpable from the clearly writ large on the faces of the heroes. It seemed to me that they also had more or less figured out the size of the enemies numbers from the sound of their footsteps. 


Chapter 44 - Gone Down