Z City, Hero Association branch.
Click, click, click...
"Team leader! Team leader!"
The clicking of high heels abruptly stopped in the gleaming marble corridor.
Above the burgundy heels stretched a pair of long, straight legs clad in black stockings. Their owner wore a tailored Hero Association suit, its fitted pencil skirt tracing a perfectly alluring S-shaped curve. Beneath her wavy blonde hair sat a pair of burgundy glasses matching her heels.
It was Lanny.
Holding a stack of documents against her chest with one arm, Lanny adjusted her glasses with her free hand. "What's so urgent?"
"Headquarters just updated the latest hero rankings. The hero names and ranks for the two promising heroes we submitted have both been finalized!"
"Oh, that." Lanny nodded, her gaze turning chilly. "Those useless seat-warmers at headquarters are as inefficient as ever. We stressed those two heroes' combat capabilities repeatedly, and they still dragged it out this long... Never mind. Let's go to the meeting room first."
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Mr. Josen! Are you Mr. Josen?"
Josen had just stepped out of a milk tea shop near the police station. He had barely taken a sip through his straw when two men in black suits, both drenched in sweat, blocked his path.
"I'm Josen. And you two are?"
"Mr. Josen, we finally found you!" One of the young men, wearing sunglasses and an earpiece, wiped away his sweat. "We're staff from the Hero Association's Z City branch. We've been sent to invite you..."
BOOM-
Suddenly, the earth shook!
Violent tremors and thunderous noises kept coming from the distance. Even the surrounding buildings began to shake and sway. The two Hero Association staffers stumbled, only avoiding a fall because Josen caught them with his telekinesis.
People in the street ran and screamed in terror. As panic spread, the recently installed emergency loudspeakers along both sides of the road began broadcasting.
"Emergency announcement! Emergency announcement! A giant unidentified monster is attacking urban Z City. Suspected disaster level: Demon! All citizens nearby, please proceed immediately to your nearest shelter and await rescue under staff instructions!"
"Repeating the announcement! In urban Z City..."
"Whatever it is, we'll talk later. Looks like I need to head over there first."
Josen helped the two staffers regain their footing, then rose into the air and flew toward the rampaging monster.
"Wait, but... He's already gone?"
"I can't even see him anymore... So fast! Just what you'd expect from Z City's first Class A hero!"
"But we haven't completed the assignment Ms. Lanny gave us!"
"Uh, there's nothing we can do under the circumstances, is there? We'd better let the team leader handle it herself..."
Z City, Seventh Shelter.
The Hero Association had tried all sorts of approaches to responding to emergencies and major disasters.
Among them, urban shelters were one of the key projects being heavily promoted at this stage.
Using the association's vast financial resources and construction capabilities, multiple large shelters had been built in major human cities. Equipped with powerful defense systems, they could theoretically withstand every type of attack during a major disaster.
They could both buy time for professional heroes to carry out rescues and preserve as many civilian lives as possible.
Today, the shelter in Z City was packed with shaken citizens, and all its installed defense systems were operating at full capacity. That meant...
A disaster-or rather, a monster-had already struck.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Residential buildings were struck by unknown attacks and collapsed one after another, sending waves of grit and dust billowing in every direction.
In the blink of an eye, several bustling neighborhoods had become hell on earth.
Through the clouds of smoke emerged a massive figure almost as tall as the city's elevated roads. Thick, jointed limbs, sharp mouthparts, a shell as tough as alloy, and a grotesque human face growing on its head made up a giant insect that had been seriously overfed.
The monster, "170,000-Year Cicada Larva."
Disaster level: Demon!
The professional heroes active nearby had rushed into battle at once. They were Class C, Rank 299, "Student"; Class C, Rank 140, "Red Scarf Fighter"; and the promising newcomer ranked 64th in Class B, "Dark Flame Dragon Blade Wielder."
The three young heroes joined forces and, after a fierce battle, finally succeeded...
In getting driven off by the monster.
Fortunately, they escaped with their lives, merely fleeing into the shelter with the crowd, battered and covered in dust.
Seeing the heroes so routinely hyped up as powerful reduced to such a sorry state, quite a few of the Hero Association's self-appointed stakeholders immediately lost it.
"Hey, hey, hey! What kind of heroes are you idiots supposed to be?!"
"You've got to be kidding! Why did you come in here too? What if you lead the monster right to us?"
"Useless! Absolutely useless! And to think I donated all that money to the Hero Association just a few days ago!"
The defeated heroes had little to say in their defense.
There was only so much their individual strength could accomplish. Escorting so many civilians safely into the shelter already counted as doing their duty.
For that, there were plenty of grateful voices too.
Quite a few levelheaded citizens were present. Anyone with common sense knew a monster attack was no joke.
As the shelter doors closed completely, at least those who had made it inside were now safe.
As for that freakish monster outside, whose shell couldn't even be scratched by a blade, it was beyond what a few ordinary Class B and C heroes could handle.
Defeating an enemy of that caliber was impossible. They couldn't manage it in their entire lives.
All they could do was hide in the shelter and wait for the monster to die of old age.
Hearing Red Scarf Fighter make such a defeatist remark threw the trapped crowd into even greater chaos.
"...You bastard! What kind of thing is that to say?"
"Are you kidding? How many years would it take for that monster to die of old age?"
"This is a problem..." Amid the crowd, an utterly unremarkable young man with black hair listened to the chatter, sweat gradually forming on his forehead. "What did they just say this place was?"
"It's a shelter," said a young office worker beside him, her long black hair hanging straight down. Looking relieved to have survived, she smiled reassuringly at him. "We're safe once we're inside. We're finally saved!"
"That actually makes things worse..." Under her puzzled gaze, the black-haired young man scratched his head in frustration. "I thought following those people who called themselves heroes would lead me to a monster, but I ended up following them into a shelter. Say, can that door be opened?"
"Uh..." Unable to follow his train of thought for a moment, the young woman replied hesitantly, "Once the other heroes get here and deal with the monster destroying the city, I suppose it'll open?"
"Oh, good, as long as it can open!"
The black-haired young man's face brightened at that, and he immediately pushed through the crowd toward the doors.
The young woman said, "Huh?"
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