"What's with those clothes?"
"Hey, is today Halloween?"
"Those are still in the market?"
People were talking with each other while riding a subway; they were pointing at a person who was wearing a blue cape and a yellow underwear on top of his green pants.
Lex, the 'D' rank hero, was returning home after successfully failing to get any job done today too.
The suit he was wearing cost him around eight million dollars. Last year, after getting promoted to 'D' rank, he bought this suit, which was a 'B' rank item.
He wanted to be future-proof; he took a loan of five million from the bank and paid the rest with cash.
But suddenly last year, dungeons, gates, and towers disappeared into nothing, and the world returned to its former peace.
The heroes who were the saviors of humanity became a laughing stock in public eyes because they were taking millions from their respective governments and doing nothing.
Every hero was jobless in about 15 days after the sudden disappearance of those foreign objects.
The 'S' and 'A' ranks were just surviving while still doing podcasts and TV shows with their popular battle stories, but 'D' rank, like Lex, was in the worst situation.
Imagine earning millions in a year and planning your life according to that style only to realize you don't earn that much or anything anymore.
35 years old, Lex was married and had responsibilities, so today, after a year-long wait, he was prepared to give up his dream of being a hero.
"Mock all you want; I used to protect these pathetic people." Lex shook his head in disappointment.
He used to think how great his profession was; he was a hero, a being in a million. There were only some thousand heroes on the planet of 8 billion beings, and they were the saviors of the whole humanity against those monsters, but looking at the mocking gaze of the people, Lex just shook his head.
Reaching his apartment, he sighed with regret; on his head he had about 6 million dollars in loans. Opening the door of his apartment, he looked at his pretty wife with satisfaction.
The only thing that didn't betray him in these days was his wife; she stood beside him when he was at his lowest and still didn't give up on him.
"You came back? What did Director Smith say? " Sheng Ling asked while looking at her tired husband; he didn't look this tired when he was smeared with blood and was in the dungeon for 3 straight days.
"The U.S. government won't give us any compensation, they said. 'We don't need a HERO. They offered me a manual labor job because I am strong. That's all," Lex said while removing his suit.
Sheng Ling, a third-generation Chinese-American, was a very pretty woman, and Lex was handsome enough; both of them started dating when they were in high school and lived on the same street in the Queens, NYC.
When calamity hit the earth, only a handful could manifest hero-like abilities, and Lex was one of them. Sheng Ling always supported Lex's ideas and quietly followed his lead.
"Alright, go wash up; dinner is ready," Sheng Ling said while she gave a reassuring smile to Lex.
Lex nodded his head, threw the whole suit in a bucket, and went to take a bath. After 15 minutes of wearing comfortable clothes, he sat on the dining table.
"Rice is such a nice thing; we Americans should eat rice more often," Lex said while eating rice with chopsticks.
"Alright, let's address the elephant in the room, shall we?" Sheng Ling said while banging her hand with chopsticks on the table.
Lex flinched a little but didn't stop eating; he peeked through his rice bowl only to see Sheng Ling looking at him with a fierce gaze.
"Sigh! Alright," said Lex while putting down his rice bowl.
"You should quit it; don't try to be a hero anymore. I know we're at our lowest, but it will pass. Let's do some normal jobs; you're a doctor of juridical science; you can earn anything between 200K and 300K dollars easily." Sheng Ling said she was trying to convince Lex about him being a hero, which has zero demands.
"Well, we've a loan of five million on our heads," Lex said while reclining a little; he wanted to give up too, but the lust for money is something else.
"It's decided. The world doesn't need any saving; even if it does, I don't want you to take any risks. I'll work too to pay our debt, so don't worry too much about it," Sheng Ling happily said while giving a big portion of meat into Lex's bowl.
"I... Well, it's nothing." Lex wanted to say something but stopped himself, then took the chopsticks in his hand, ready to eat.
"Tell me, what?" Sheng Ling asked happily as her mood was cheerful.
"Nothing."
"Tell me." A woman gets anxious after hearing half sentences the most.
"Well, I was thinking how it would have been great for you if you'd accepted the 'S' rank Ethan's proposal instead of me back then." Lex just said it, and Sheng Ling's face looked like it was about to explode with anger; it was red like a tomato.
As Lex was about to react with saying sorry and stuff like he usually does, he felt a tremor nearby, not just any tremor; he felt it before it was the tremor of a gate opening nearby.
He was so happy that he forgot to see his wife taking off her sandal from her feet and threw it at him.
Usually, Lex always dodged the sandal, but this time he was careless, and it directly headshot him.
Feeling the pain from the sandal, Lex looked at his wife with a shocked expression because he was a 'D' rank hero, and he felt pain from a housewife's sandal.
[Congratulations on activating 'Ex' Level Talent: Extremely OP Protagonist.]