‘Hero K’s Fan Signing Event’

For some reason, I had always admired Hero K, whom I often saw on TV as a child. What was once just a childhood desire to be like him eventually led me to dream of being a hero, making me covet the title itself.

But heroes do not exist in this world.

No one flies through the sky on a cape, and there are no grotesque monsters. Yes, Hero K was nothing more than an illusion planted by adults. I realized this when I was about ten years old.

If there were no heroes, I thought I should become someone who protects people. A police officer, a firefighter, a soldier—things like that. Dreaming of those roles, I built up my stamina and grew my strength.

Stupidly giving up on my studies in the process.

I was truly an idiot. When I was young, I was really stupid. Police, firefighters, soldiers—they were all roles that required intelligence to achieve.

But I went all-in on nothing but 'stamina,' and the result was a total defeat.

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Eventually, the place I got a job at was an ordinary company in America. I had submitted my resume half in doubt, wondering if it would even work, but surprisingly, it passed. Because of the job, I ended up heading to America, a place I had no real interest in.

I spent a week enjoying the feeling of leisure that somehow comes from such a vast land. On my first day of work a week later, I was very nervous. However, contrary to my expectation that it would be an ordinary company, the place held quite a few secrets.

Processing anomalies, recording them, researching them...

It didn't matter what the person sitting in front of me was saying. Only the words written in the company slogan,

“Salvation begins with us.”

Salvation begins with us.

Only those words circled in my head. Salvation begins with us. That meant that I, we, this company, were the salvation that saves the world. Then, as a savior of the world, was I a hero?