The room was completely destroyed.
Broken walls, shattered pillars, and cracked stone covered the floor. The air smelled of blood and gunpowder. Bodies were piled everywhere—men who had tried to fight, men who had tried to run, all of them dead.
At the very center of the room, on top of that mountain of corpses, sat a single man.
Blood covered his face, his hair, and his clothes. Deep bullet holes tore through his arm and chest. His breathing was slow and uneven. Each breath felt heavier than the last.
Yet, he was calm.
In his shaking hand, he held his phone.
His thumb kept pulling down on the screen, refreshing the same website again and again.
"Come on, Murata… just drop it already," he whispered weakly.
The page reloaded.
Nothing.
He refreshed it again.
Still nothing.
Blood ran down his arm and dripped onto the floor, but he didn't react. The pain didn't matter anymore. His body was already broken beyond saving.
He knew it.
He didn't have much time left.
His vision was starting to blur around the edges. His heartbeat felt slower, weaker. Any moment now, everything could end.
And before that happened, there was only one thing he wanted.
To read the final chapter of his favorite manga—One Punch Man, by ONE and Murata.
He had followed it for years. Through every arc. Every fight. Every delay. It was the one thing that always made him smile, no matter how bad life got.
Yes, he already knew the ending from the webcomic.
But that didn't matter.
He wanted to see it drawn one last time. He wanted to see how Murata would turn that ending into something bigger… louder… more insane.
His thumb refreshed the page again.
Suddenly—
A new chapter appeared.
For a moment, he forgot the pain.
His eyes widened. His lips slowly curved into a weak smile, stained red with blood.
"…Finally," he whispered.
His finger moved toward the screen.
But before he could tap it—
His vision shook.
The world started spinning. The room faded. The bodies blurred into shadows. Darkness crept in from all sides.
"No… not yet…" he muttered, forcing his eyes open.
His hand trembled. His strength was gone. Too much blood had already been lost.
The phone slipped from his fingers and fell onto the pile of corpses below.
His eyes slowly closed.
And just like that—
Everything went dark.
He died.