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Translated by BiasNil
· · ────── ꒰ঌ·✦·໒꒱ ────── · ·
"Ugh… I'm dying here…"
After the terror attack ended.
Having teleported straight home to escape Stardust—who'd come to capture me—I collapsed on my bed from the backlash of using my ability.
Ugh… seriously, what's so special about teleportation that it has to give me this kind of recoil…
That was the last coherent thought I had that day.
"Urk."
In the end, I passed out right there and fell asleep.
…Living isn't easy.
***
When I finally managed to open my eyes again, it was already the next morning.
Clutching my throbbing head, I sat up and turned on the TV first. I wanted to see if there was any coverage of what I'd done yesterday.
And sure enough—
[News Wide – In-Depth Analysis of Villain Egostic]
The channel I'd randomly turned on was already talking about me. Of course, I'd forcibly shut down all three major terrestrial networks and made everyone watch my terror broadcast, so by now practically the entire nation had to know about me.
Still, seeing myself on TV—black robe, white mask covering half my face—gave me a strange feeling. Look, Mom, your son's on TV. I've become famous. As a villain, but still. Haha.
After sitting on the edge of my bed for a moment, watching TV with idle thoughts, I finally dragged my aching body up. Let me check the internet first. That's where all the public reactions would be compiled.
With that thought, I stripped off the cumbersome robe-like thing I'd been wearing, changed into comfortable clothes, and turned on the laptop on my desk.
…I need to leave this place soon. I've been living too long in what was supposed to be temporary housing.
Once the computer finished booting, I immediately went to the news section of a portal site.
And sure enough—
"Wow… Oh. As expected. It's complete chaos."
Literal chaos. All related to the terror attack I'd caused.
The entire portal headline was filled with stories about me.
[Large-Scale Terror Broadcast Live… Who Is the Villain 'Egostic'?]
Starting with this article at the top, complete with my photo, every article below was packed with stories about me.
Such intense interest. Yes, as I thought, nationwide broadcasting was the right answer for drawing aggro. Next time, I should stream on YouTube too, not just terrestrial networks.
I quickly skimmed through the articles talking about me.
Yesterday's incident had been like a massive variety show—except for the part where people's lives were actually at stake. Maybe because of that, the public had watched with sweaty palms, and even online communities were in an uproar. Well, it was about whether or not to press that button.
And at the end, like something out of a movie, the hero's speech made people have a change of heart, and ultimately no one sacrificed others to save themselves—no one pressed the button. It seemed like an uplifting, humanistic ending that generated even more buzz. In the end, while it was a terror attack, no one had died.
After roughly surveying people's reactions that way, I divided the gains from this terror attack into two major categories.
First: making my name known nationwide.
Egostic. My unique villain name, derived from "egoistic" and crafted to avoid overlapping with other villain names—now the entire nation knew it. The fact that it was distinctive and easy to remember was an advantage. For someone like me who plans to keep operating, raising my recognition and interest this much was an enormous gain.
…Though when I saw a comment in the comment section transforming my name Egostic into [Catch that Mangostic bastard!], I did briefly regret not choosing a different name. But anyway.
The second gain was making Stardust's name known nationwide.
Association-affiliated A-Rank hero Stardust. She was already fairly well-known among the public. Unlike me, ordinary people couldn't recognize her face because of her recognition interference trait—but somehow they could tell from her aura or something that she was pretty. Plus, there weren't many A-Rank heroes to begin with.
However, the problem was that in the original work, Stardust's image gradually deteriorated… As the story progressed, villains cunningly tormented Stardust and manipulated public opinion, successfully giving her a reputation for being rude.
Eventually, they dragged down not only her social standing as the hero Stardust but also Shin Haru's social position—true misery in every sense.
And having read that with great anger, I had no intention of letting that happen. Our Stardust will only walk the flower path, you hear? I'll clear away the interfering villains, and she'll only have to deal with me. Let's create a terror-free South Korea.
…Anyway. As a result of my intentions, Stardust's recognition skyrocketed from this terror attack. And not for her looks, but for her righteousness. Her heroism. I'd firmly planted a positive perception of her.
Looking at online communities and news comment sections filled with praise for her, my plan to have her give a speech had clearly hit the mark. Yes. Our Haru gives great speeches, doesn't she? I was glad everyone recognized it.
"Now that I've taken the first step…"
After finishing my review and closing the laptop, I stood up.
No time to rest, no time to rest. I still have so much to do. I need to deal with numerous other A-Rank and even S-Rank villains… and plan more terror attacks… Sigh. Living as a villain isn't easy either.
"Ah. Look at the time already… I should meet with her first."
Looking at my smartphone, I muttered to myself.
As I mentioned before, planning and executing everything—from terror attacks to schemes—was incredibly exhausting. That's why I needed an accomplice.
And that was her.
The girl who helped me hijack the broadcast. In the original work, she becomes an S-Rank villain, but I took her in before that, changing her future.
I operated my phone and called her.
"Hey, Seo-eun. Oppa's up. …Ah, yeah. I was passed out until now. Yeah, yeah. Sorry for contacting you so late. Were you worried? …You weren't? Anyway, got it, I'm coming now. Yeah~."
After the call ended, I grabbed my coat and headed outside. I could teleport, but as you can see, my ability is limited, and if I travel long distances, I pass out… so I decided to just walk. Well, the weather's nice today anyway.
***
Outside the window, spring rain whispers softly.
A six-mat room is another country.
…As if mocking the nice weather, small raindrops suddenly began to fall, so I opened an umbrella and walked. After about an hour, I arrived at a residential area.
An ordinary house stood there.
Walking up to it, I naturally entered a four-digit password on the door lock and went inside.
But once inside, there was another door with another lock. Is this what they call double security?
Having been here many times already, I wasn't particularly surprised and entered another password.
One difference—this one was over ten digits long.
As I entered the password again—
Rumble.
Instead of the door opening, the floor beneath my feet vibrated and began descending like an elevator. Down below.
How long had I been descending while looking at the black wall in front of me?
After a short time, with another thud, the elevator stopped.
Then, white walls and LED lights filled the interior that spread before my eyes. A scene you'd only see in near-future sci-fi movies.
A large underground space hidden beneath an ordinary residential area. Walking through it a bit further, I was greeted by a large room where numerous displays filled one entire wall, like a NASA research lab from a movie.
And in the center of those glowing monitors, sitting in a massive leather chair twice her size, was a girl with silver bobbed hair.
This was the girl who'd helped me hijack the broadcast.
The one who would later appear in the original manga as an S-Rank villain.
"Seo-eun, Oppa's here."
"You're here, hyung?"
The genius hacker, Han Seo-eun.
Walking over to where Seo-eun was sitting and ruffling her hair, I asked her,
"Why do you keep calling me hyung…? Anyway, what were you doing?"
"What do you mean? I was dealing with the mess hyung caused."
As I stroked her white hair, Seo-eun purred and tilted her head.
Short and pretty-looking, Seo-eun was unmistakably a girl… yet she stubbornly insisted she was a boy.
Already knowing from the original that she was a girl, I just found this cute. Maybe she has some trauma about being female… was all I could think. Though it did feel strange to keep hearing a middle-school third-year insist she was a boy.
"Oh. And Seo-eun, you really did a great job with the broadcast hijacking yesterday. You edited the footage like some kind of producer, you know? Seriously, what would I have done without you?"
"What are you talking about? That was easy—anyone could've done it."
Though she answered curtly, I could see her lips twitching upward despite herself when I praised her. Yeah, I see that smile, kid.
"Also, hyung. That's not the problem right now. We've got a situation."
"What situation?"
As we talked, she suddenly seemed to remember something and started tapping away at her computer. I tilted my head at her words.
"Remember that woman I mentioned before? Lee Su-bin? The one I said might become a new ally for us."
"Oh, right. The woman you said was active on the deep web? You mentioned she seemed like a fan of mine…"
"Yeah. I said that because she's in the Eumjingdi Oppa fan club… Ah. Look at this. It seems she's gotten caught up in something weird right now."
Seo-eun turned the screen toward me.
On it was—
[Followers of Egostic are currently staging a terrorist attack with hostages in the middle of Incheon! They've planted bombs in the building and…]
Some unidentified bastards were pulling crazy stunts while invoking Egostic's name.
…Who the hell are these assholes suddenly using my name to cause trouble?