11 Virtues A Hero's Civilian Friend Must Uphold - Chapter 26

As I have been doing this job, I have become accustomed to certain things.

Sudden calls. Unexpected terror attacks. Screams erupting from everywhere.

Attacks aimed at vital points, rushing in before even going through the thought process.

Just when I thought I was used to accidents and incidents, Seo Hee Won let out a low sigh, meaninglessly wishing that they could just stay put quietly on days like today, and pulled down his hat.

The time Yoon Na Eun usually returns home after tutoring is 10 PM.

But today, she said it would start late and go past midnight.

To save on gas, she didn’t bring her car today, so he was waiting for her at the subway station she would arrive at.

The subway, which should have been calmly following the tracks, suddenly stopped with a loud noise, and smoke rose from inside it.

People waiting on the platform ran out of the station screaming.

From the train that had stopped in an awkward position quite far from the platform, with smoke coming out but the doors not opening, only the desperate screams of people inside leaked out.

Whether it was an accident or a terror attack was a matter to be judged later.

Already skilled at saving people, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, his body moved before his thoughts.

Since it was a sudden accident, he couldn’t do a complete change of clothes, so he roughly changed into a hat, mask, and top.

After sending a confirmation reply to his frantically ringing cell phone, he first jumped down onto the tracks and approached the train that had stopped in the middle.

He calmly assessed the internal situation and immediately took action.

The thick smoke from the fire that had spread from the end had already reached the front car.

Even though there must have been a safety device inside to open the doors, the panicked crowd, suddenly faced with the accident, could not act calmly.

First, he removed the door of the front car that was visible first.

After quickly evacuating the crowd pouring out of the train to survive, he walked towards the back.

The increasingly thick smoke and the foul smell unique to toxic gas pricked his nostrils.

“Save me. There are people here.” Shouting and crying sounds spread from everywhere.

Although he was not particularly moved by it, his body moved like a machine.

As he went towards the back of the train, a hellish scene unfolded.

Perhaps due to the recoil of the suddenly stopped train, the last two cars were half-collapsed and burning fiercely.

As soon as he smelled burning flesh, Hee Won quickened his movements.

He first pulled out a dozen people trapped in the second to last car.

Except for one or two, they were all unconscious. He left them on the tracks a little away from the train and hurriedly ran to the very last car.

The thick smoke obscuring his vision was not a problem at all for him, who had different eyesight from ordinary people.

The problem was the people here, including himself, who were continually inhaling toxic gas.

If they stayed here even a minute longer, even if their bodies were dragged out, they could all die.

Moreover, no matter how superhuman he was, Hee Won also had no resistance to the toxic gases generated by the fire.

In other words, he was in the same position as ordinary people.

Fortunately, there were no people trapped in the last car.

However, he found three people trapped and unable to move between the fallen, burning train and the central wall. Two men and a child.

He felt regret at not having special gloves and pushed up the train with his bare hands.

The metal mass heated to high temperatures burned his palms, but he didn’t care much.

With his recovery ability, he would only suffer for a few days anyway.

While he supported the end of the train with both hands, the three people trapped between the walls hurriedly escaped.

Fortunately, the two men were conscious, and although the child was unconscious, the two seemed able to hold and move the child.

After thoroughly searching the last remaining people and the inside of the burning end car just in case, Hee Won confirmed that there were no more people who had not been rescued and stepped back.

Counting the number of unconscious people he had left on the tracks earlier, Hee Won began to move the ones who looked most critically ill to outside the station, holding them in his arms for now.

At times like this, he missed Lee Sun Jin.

She, who could move surrounding objects as she wished, could probably rescue these more than ten people at once with just a flick of her finger.

But he, who did not have the same ability as her, had to choose the path of his body suffering.

It was fine until he succeeded in moving 6 people. Hee Won felt himself gradually suffocating from the smoke.

If he were an ordinary person, he would have already fainted and stopped breathing, so it was fortunate that he could still endure thanks to his superhuman abilities.

His lungs, which had been continuously breathing in hot air, were also increasingly crying out in pain.

5 left.

He thought as he put down the 2 people he was holding outside the station.

The area around the station was already crowded with all kinds of fire trucks, police cars, and crowds due to the station fire.

He briefly pulled the mask away from his nose to take in the cold air from outside, and with a deep breath, he went back into the station.

He easily rummaged through and wandered around the station interior that had turned black with smoke, which would be difficult for an ordinary person to even take a step into.

This was because his vision was still clear.

However, his burning lungs were now signaling to him that they had reached their limit.

What a pain.

He thought as he rushed into the innermost part of the station.

Why am I doing this? Still, his legs were running towards the inside where the train had fallen, regardless of his thoughts.

If it’s not counterterrorism right in front of his eyes, saving lives is his job. So this was just him working.

Since he could move only 2 people at a time with his arms, and there were 5 people left,

moreover, if he was exposed to toxic gas to this extent now, Hee Won himself was not sure if he could go back and forth to the outside a couple more times.

It was also because his physical condition was not good, as he had been staying up all night for two days straight to complete missions.

In the end, Hee Won rescued 3 more people and collapsed outside, leaving 2 people inside the station.

The area around the station was in chaos with barricades set up and ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars entangled.

After moving the three unconscious people and handing them over to the firefighters, Hee Won knelt down and fell to the ground due to the heavy headache and dizziness filling his mind, and he cursed inwardly for a moment. Damn it.

Perhaps it was because he suddenly worked in a frenzy. The string of the mask suddenly snapped. Even though he was wearing a hat, it was meaningless.

Today, it wasn’t a complete disguise, so it was easier for his identity to be exposed.

As soon as his face was revealed, he could see the crowd surrounding him and taking out their cell phones, even with his blurry vision.

“Did you see? Oh, the mask right now… Is that person J.G.? That tenth hero. Did you see his face? I didn’t see it properly! Hey, hurry up and take a picture!”

Their whispers among themselves were all heard clearly thanks to his unnecessarily good hearing.

He had to cover his face, but he didn’t even have the strength to lift his hand.

The carbon monoxide he had been inhaling for a long time was churning his mind, and he couldn’t even properly control his body.

It was the moment when the sound of clicks and camera flashes without any consideration were about to go off from all directions.

Swish, something was covered over his head. And he was tightly embraced in someone’s arms.

“Get a grip.”

He closed his eyes. Even in the midst of his fading consciousness, he found himself feeling relieved.

He didn’t particularly identify the other person by their voice.

The moment he was embraced, that body temperature, that scent, only one person came to mind.

“Put away the cameras.”

She, who had rushed over, pushing past the blocking police officers, and covered Hee Won’s face with her outer garment, pulled him into her arms as he collapsed and sat down, lashing out at those around.

“Put away your cell phones!”

The surroundings became chaotic at Na Eun’s shout, asking if they didn’t know the reason why this person was active while hiding his face, and if this was how they should treat the benefactor who saved them.

Most of the crowd, who had a sense of shame, carefully put away the cell phones they were holding.

Hee Won let the strength out of his body.

Na Eun, who had tightly wrapped his head and shoulders with her own clothes while hugging him, felt Hee Won’s weight shifting more into her embrace and tightened the arms holding him.

“Your friends have arrived too. It’s okay now.”

A small voice that could only be heard by him seeped into his ears.

They’re not my friends, they’re your friends.

To me, they just feel like co-workers.

If he had the energy, he would have joked like that, but for now, he decided to just close his eyes and listen to that lullaby-like voice.

Thanks to her jacket covering him up to the top of his head, he couldn’t see ahead, but he buried his face towards Na Eun’s shoulder and slowly breathed in.

Even in his fading consciousness, he clearly began to feel his headache improving.

Hee Won guessed that this was not due to his superhuman recovery ability.

Don’t do it.

His instincts swayed from afar and warned.

Don’t realize it.

You won’t be rewarded even if you die anyway.

He doesn’t fight losing battles. Participating in a game that he’s bound to lose is something only fools do.

Seo Hee Won is someone who is always capable in hand-to-hand combat and psychological warfare.

So he habitually suppressed this strange sense of defeat that had started to bloom from sometime, downwards.

No. I didn’t lose. I never participated in the game in the first place. So I’ve never lost.

Even if it might seem a bit cowardly, his extraordinary mind that knew there would be no answer once he started to lose, controlled himself that way.

It was the pride of a man who had never been inferior to anyone in terms of emotions.

Savoring the warmth of Na Eun, who worriedly hugged his head wrapped in her outer garment with both arms, he affirmed with his eyes still closed.

Let’s make today the last time I feel the helplessness of my heart racing while relying on this meaningless affection.