OMH Chapter 42

Oh My Hero – Episode 42

42. Hooligan (6)

I thought Park Geonhyung was showing signs of a rampage, so I tried to deal with him quickly.

Especially since espers like Park Geonhyung have fire-based abilities, the damage would be significant.

Even now, he’s struggling and using his ability while caught in my grasp, so how chaotic would it get if his rampage intensified?

Fortunately, this guy can only ignite what’s within his line of sight, so it’s easy to subdue him.

It’s a relief that no damage is being done because his head is turned in the opposite direction of me and Woojin.

With Park Geonhyung’s head twisted in a safe direction, I answered that the hooligan would be handled according to the Association’s procedures.

I didn’t mention that I was going to summarily execute him to reduce the damage of his rampage, though.

However, thanks to Woojin, my head cooled down a bit, and I started thinking about the powder on Park Geonhyung’s lips again.

Recalling the existence of the powder, a slight problem arose.

Park Geonhyung wasn’t showing signs of a rampage. The black powder on his lips supported that fact.

That powder is a hallucinogen called ‘Coco Powder’. It’s widely used among team members working in the field outside the Association, and like other hallucinogens, it excites or suppresses the central nervous system, making them feel sensations that don’t actually exist as if they’re real.

If he inhaled that stuff through his mouth, nose, or anywhere else, I could understand Park Geonhyung’s behavior of having black powder on his face, bloodshot eyes, and gesticulating wildly at empty space.

And that’s simply the effect of the hallucinogen, which created a problem in dealing with Park Geonhyung. Because Park Geonhyung wasn’t about to rampage, I lacked the justification to deal with him on the spot.

The EGA Association pretends to guarantee a civilized society, so it doesn’t tolerate murder and violence without sufficient justification.

Justifications are hard to come by in Association facilities due to heavy surveillance, but they become easier to create when you’re outside like this. It’s just a hassle to create them.

Dealing with him under the pretext of the risk of a rampage would be the easiest, but seeing that he ingested Coco Powder at the hideout, a bunch of Coco Powder will likely be found inside the hideout.

The Association would realize that Park Geonhyung’s symptoms weren’t due to a rampage but were caused by the hallucinogen, and I would be disciplined for excessive force.

“Kuaaak!!”

Even as I was having these thoughts, the hooligan I had subdued was convulsing while using his ability.

Thanks to that, the flames all around were intensifying, and smoke was billowing everywhere, which could lead to suffocation if left unchecked.

I can’t let Woojin feel his life is threatened because of a worthless hooligan.

I put strength into my left hand, which was gripping the back of the hooligan’s neck.

Since it’s true that the hooligan is threatening us, I can just cut off his breath and then make up a justification that it wasn’t an overreaction.

I need to be careful not to cut off his neck as well as his life by using too much strength.

If I cut off his head in front of many people, someone will say the visuals are too gruesome, and the Association will rule that I used excessive force.

The hooligan, who was screaming and cursing, started making a strange sound like he had phlegm in his throat, even though I hadn’t directly blocked his airway yet.

There’s no way Woojin, who was right next to me, didn’t hear that sound, and Woojin showed interest in the hooligan who was making the sound.

‘I can’t show Woojin something hideous like someone being strangled to death, can I?’

I turned the hooligan I was holding in my hand away so that Woojin couldn’t see him.

However, curious Woojin took a step closer to see the hooligan instead.

The hot blood flowing down from the hooligan’s burst right ear flowed over my hand and fell to the floor.

I looked down at the hooligan and my appearance, which were a mess with blood and scorch marks, and saw Woojin, who looked neat and tidy because he had teleported here, even though he was also in the sea of fire.

Seeing Woojin, who looked like a hero who had come to save the world, I suddenly thought that I shouldn’t be next to him in such a hideous state.

I turned around and ran wildly to get away from Woojin.

I heard Woojin calling me in a flustered voice, but I didn’t look back, following the voice in my head that told me I shouldn’t show Woojin something so hideous.

Kugugung!

But I hadn’t even taken a few steps when the ground suddenly shook, and darkness enveloped me.

I immediately realized what had happened to me.

I couldn’t see much because it was too dark, but I knew I was caught in a monster’s teeth because of the moist humidity, the foul odor, and the pain I felt in my side.

‘Maybe if it were someone else, it wouldn’t have ended with being caught in the teeth and they would have been cut in half?’

I must be in this state because I won’t be sliced by the monster’s teeth thanks to my Adamantine Body/Invulnerable Physique ability.

Moreover, my ability doesn’t just prevent me from being chopped into pieces by the monster’s teeth, it also blocks the acidity in the monster’s saliva dripping inside the monster’s mouth, so I won’t be digested by the monster.

Although cuticles like hair melt away with the smell of burning protein, what happened to Park Geonhyung, whose body was about half liquefied and flowing down into the monster’s throat, won’t happen to me.

I threw away Park Geonhyung’s hand, which had melted until even the bones were mushy, and groped around the surrounding terrain.

Flesh like gums, not teeth, could be broken through sufficiently even if the ability output wasn’t high.

Thinking that, I swung my arm wildly, and found out that if I stretched my arm to the left as far as possible, I could grab something hot and hard.

Hoping that this flesh was the monster’s jaw joint muscle, I tore at the flesh.

I could feel the hard chunk of meat being torn along the muscle fibers.

At the same time, the monster’s hot body fluids gushed out, spraying my arms and face anew.

“Ugh…”

It was very unpleasant, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it because the monster vibrated greatly, and the surroundings suddenly brightened.

The fresh air from outside flowed in with the bright light, allowing me to check my condition.

My knees to waist were caught between the monster’s teeth, and my upper body was facing the monster’s throat.

No wonder the smell was so bad.

The monster just let out a scream and immediately closed its mouth.

It became a dark, humid, and confined space again, but I had already figured out the situation, so there was nothing to regret.

I stretched my arm towards the monster’s gums that I had spotted when the light came in.

I grabbed the hot, moist, and firm flesh that was firmly holding the monster’s teeth.

I tore at it mercilessly.

Whether the monster was struggling in pain from having its gums torn, my body was also shaking wildly along with the space, but I didn’t stop moving my hands.

Eventually, I tore off enough flesh that the teeth that were pressing on me from the left became loose.

Using that gap, I escaped from the monster’s teeth.

I had escaped from the gap in the monster’s teeth, but there was another problem.

While grabbing onto the inner walls inside the monster’s wildly shaking mouth, I looked out of the monster’s mouth.

Outside the mouth, I could see the blue sky, the hooligan’s hideout, and the ground.

It was a scene that clearly showed the monster was thrashing around in all directions.

If I just went out like this, I would definitely be swept away along with the monster’s thrashing.

‘Isn’t there a safer way to escape from inside the monster’s mouth?’

I grabbed the corner of the monster’s mouth tightly and stuck my head out to think about a way.

I could see the clear and bright sky, and below, the hooligan’s hideout and the people, which looked like miniatures.

And I could see the monster’s body, which looked like a giant wall that stretched endlessly. The body was smooth with nothing attached to it.

No wonder it didn’t touch its mouth directly even while thrashing around, it must be an entity without hands and feet.

Anyway, now the monster seemed to be raising its head towards the sky, so it was easy for me to deal with it.

‘I can use my ability and gravity together, so it’s less work, which is good.’

If I use the monster’s skin like a zipline, won’t I land safely? The only safety device is my hand, though.

If I’ve decided what to do, I just need to put it into practice.

I breathed in the clear air of the high place and slightly tore the corner of the monster’s mouth with both hands. Then, I inserted my fingers as deeply as possible into the torn wound and firmly grabbed the monster’s outer skin.

Then, I jumped towards the ground.

*

After I succeeded in escaping from the monster’s mouth, all the work for our team disappeared.

The monster that tried to chew me up was a huge one with a mouth diameter of 5 meters, and it suddenly popped out from underground.

The monster succeeded in putting me and Park Geonhyung, the head hooligan, into its mouth in a surprise attack, but it soon died because I, who was stuck in the molar area, tore its mouth wide open.

But when this monster died from having its mouth torn by me, it thrashed around and crushed the other hooligans.

Thanks to that, our team had nothing to do.

Originally, our job was to keep the hooligans in check and assess their movements, so there’s nothing to do if they all die like this.

“Senior! Do you know how anxious we were? It’s a relief that Jo Yong carried Guide and ran like crazy. We almost got crushed to death by the monster too.”

“Ah…”

“The monster saliva splattered everywhere because Senior tore its mouth, you know. Do you know how dangerous it was? That’s why you should try not to harm the people around you when you kill a monster. Senior, are you listening to me?”

Thanks to Jang Hana, who chased after me as soon as I came out of the monster’s mouth and told me everything in detail, I was able to quickly grasp the situation without much difficulty.

I’m grateful that our junior Jang is quick to inform me of the situation, but I would have been more grateful if she had informed me a little later.

While listening to Jang Hana’s chatter, I wiped my body with a smelly rag. The rag was corroding as it absorbed the monster’s body fluids on my body, so I needed quite a bit of it to wipe everything off.

After roughly wiping off the monster’s body fluids, I wrapped the remaining rag around my body.

My body was safe because I have the Adamantine Body/Invulnerable Physique ability, but my clothes weren’t, so I needed something to cover my body.

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