Book Of The Dead - Chapter 18: Friendly Faces

“Heroes killed my parents. Now I wear the mask of one. Until I can bury them all.”At seven years old, Hernan Vale watched his parents — two powerful heroes — brutally executed in their own home by the very people they trusted most: the legendary super-team known as the Zodiac 13.They thought he was dead.They made sure the world blamed villains.They covered their tracks.But Hernan survived — and never forgot.Ten years later, under a false name, Hernan enters the prestigious Hero Academy, hailed as a prodigy. To the world, he’s a rising star. To his classmates, he’s charming, calm, unstoppable.But inside?He’s a weapon. Waiting. Smiling. Counting names.As he trains to become a licensed hero, fights real villains, and rises through the ranks, Hernan plays the long game — earning the trust of the Zodiac, learning their routines, studying their weaknesses. One by one, he’ll bring them down.And this time, he won’t hide in the closet.But the deeper he goes, the more blood he spills — the more he wonders if he’s becoming worse than the monsters he’s hunting.And when love, loyalty, and lies collide, Hernan may have to decide:Will he save the world like they think he will...or finish burning it down?

A 34-year-old NEET otaku, chased out from his house by his family, found that his life is reaching a dead end. He then recalled that his life could actually have been much better if he had made better choices in the past.

As a transmigrator turned extraordinary creature of the human race, he found the world to be more colorful than he had imagined.To more easily access everything this new realm had to offer, he first needed a special resume. Then, he had to find the right place in a city perennially shrouded in fog to fill out an application, and the last and most critical step...— was to kill a chicken or catch a mouse.

As a child with an unattainable dream, I yearned to become a Hero, but I veered off the right path. Looking back, my aspiration to save others was nothing more than a foolish dream. I now realize the magnitude of my sins and the impossibility of atoning for them.