Chapter 5: After The Show
Chapter 5: After The Show
“Oh, my… I feel like dying…”
Gosh.
I am really going to die.
“Ughhhh… Ugh.”
At last I got to lie on the bed, I fell asleep like a baby.
“Ouchhh…”
Save the villain!
***
“Oh, man.”
I opened my eyes the next morning.
After sleeping for almost half of a day, I woke up with a sore body and turned on the TV. The news was all about yesterday’s incident.
[Newswide – A deep analysis on villain Egostic.]
Two panels on TV were giving an explanation about me.
They talked about my superpowers, hacking skills,…
Then suddenly my face appeared on TV.
Black hair with a gray mask that covers half of my face.
“Wow! Mom, I’m on TV! Oh, she doesn’t exist in this world, right?”
Mom, how are you doing over there?
I became a celebrity in this world.
But everyone is trying to catch me.
“Oh, my god. My body is worn out.”
I got out of bed while punching my back.
I don’t have time to lie down like this.
When I got up, I was still wearing the same clothes from yesterday.
Wearing a black robe that comes down to the legs.
Perhaps because I slept with it on, it got crumpled here and there and I did not like it.
“Man, let’s get changed.”
After changing to more comfortable clothes, I turned on my laptop.
The window sound effect popped up while whirring.
I looked around my room as the laptop was starting.
A small studio with sunlight from the windows.
“Jeez. I need to leave here soon too.”
I have been living in this room for a while ever since I fell into this world. But now that I have earned some money, there is no point in living here.
Now that I am an A-class villain, I should be living a little more formal life.
Not an A, I think I am an AAA-class villain.
Why haven’t they promoted me to class S yet?
Well, I haven’t done much evil stuff yet though.
By the way, I wonder how people reacted.
I went to the laptop that was turned on, went on the Internet, and…
“Well, let’s see… Oh, it’s crazy up here.”
My story is all over the portal headlines.
[Live broadcast of the massive terrorism. Who is Egostic?]
“This is my first time getting this much attention.”
As expected, it was a good choice to drag an aggro.
Who would have known if I had kidnapped ships in that corner of Han River, right?
As for The Hero Association of Korea, they must have tried to ask without anyone knowing. Well, it must have been mentioned in the headline on the 9 o’clock news…
[At 2 P.M today, an act of a massive terrorism almost occurred on the cruise ships on Han River. Fortunately, there were no casualties.]
It probably came out and just ended right on time.
They would not sit and talk about me all day long like this moment.
The sense of realism is scary.
Think about it, someone was playing Nintendo with their friends and suddenly the TV turned off.
Then, all of sudden, I came out. Black clothes, gray mask with a wicked smile.
And then I put bombs on ships? But the person who pressed it first could live?
I shuddered every time I watched this in the theater, but how focused would the Korean people have been when they saw it as a real situation?
Honestly, this is a huge entertainment show. Shouldn’t I have taken some PPLs? Put a Coke poster on the wall of the cabins.
Having my own silly imagination, I continued to look at the comments on the Internet.
He’s scary, he’s amazing… And so on. The public paid attention to the new A-class villain. That’s true, the impact of the hijacking and death of the two villains would be huge even when I think about it.
I also have to praise humanity. Eventually, no one pressed the button. Justice prevails blah, blah, blah. This incident proves that human beings are not selfish and that they are good.
Having grasped the general atmosphere after hours of searching, I decided to sort out what I got from the show.
The first thing I got. Making my name known to the whole country.
Egostic. Honestly, I don’t think it is a good name.
When I think about my black robe, I should have named myself “Black Robe” or “Persona”.
Well… It is too late now.
Let’s leave the past behind.
However, I started to regret it a lot when I saw a comment on the article telling them to catch the ‘Mango Stick’. Oh…
Anyway, the second profit. Promote Stardus to the nation.
Stardus also became very popular. She was the second face to be shown the most on the 9 o’clock news.
Stardus was quite popular with the public in the original work. First of all, she’s pretty. Not many heroes have that kind of beauty.
But as time went by, Stardus’ image became not so good to the public. The reason she was famous at first was because of her beauty…
Villains became more creative in the second half of the story after the first and second volume. In the public’s opinion, they succeeded in giving the perception that they were “naughty” through various devices.
On top of that, not only the social relationship as Stardus, but also the social position as Shin Haru, is a true waste that leads to the destruction.
Ha. I feel angry again just thinking about it. I am going to get rid of all the bad villains, so our Stardus will only have to think of me. A Seoul without crime, a South Korea without terrorism. I am going to do all of that. I am the only one who is going to do crime and terrorism.
So, first of all, I promoted Stardus to the public this time.
Not because of her appearance, but for justice. As a character with ‘heroic’ personality, she struck a positive perception.
…She struck, right? Well, when I looked through the comments and the community, most of the reactions were positive. She did a good job with her speech, and I am certain that my praise worked on her. The enemy’s acknowledgment is the most objective. To people’s perception.
“For now, the first step went well.”
I got up from my seat.
There is no time to rest. There is no time to rest. It is time for the next plan.
Now I am going to assassinate… No, I mean, eliminate. Eliminate another A-class or S-class villains… and plan another terrorism. Well, it is terrorism but make sure to have no casualties. Nothing is easy.
“First, I have to meet that person again.”
Who am I meeting?
The one who helped me hijack the radio.
She became an S-class villain in the original work, but I have changed her future before she would become a villain.
I took out my phone and started making a call.
“Yeah, yeah, Seo-eun. Oppa just woke up. Oh, yeah. Oh, things like that happen. I told you it’s tiring! Okay, okay. Uh-huh, I’ll be there now. Okay.”
TN: Oppa Means Older brother the term is used when the woman is calling or talking to an older man, whether he is related to her or not.
I hung up, picked up my coat and headed out.
I can just teleport but as you have already seen, due to my lack of ability, if I travel a little far, I would collapse from exhaustion.
So, walking it is.
The weather was nice today.
***
Night rain whispers from outside the window
of this tatami room. It is someone else's country.
TN: From “Easily Written Poem” by Yun Dongju
I walked a little while holding an umbrella under the gentle rain.
A residential area appeared after an hour of walking.
There is a very normal-looking house.
A door lock hanging on the door.
I entered a 4-digit passcode.
There is another door inside.
Another door lock on the door.
Is it a double lock?, as I thought to myself, a regular home showed up after I entered the passcode.
But there is a secret to this door lock.
You might think that the secret is in the passcode.
For that, I just entered it in order.
It is a 13-digit long passcode.
…I know it because I am a fan of the original work. I would not be able to memorize it for the first time.
It was not long before I pressed all the numbers, then a sudden vibration from the inside.
At the same time, the bottom of my feet slowly sunk in, and I began to lock up.
Slowly going down there…
Where am I going?
It’s like going to the abyss… Should I call it an elevator?
Well, I took something called a foot lift and went down.
Down, down…
But the thing is…
Hmm, come to think of it, I could have just teleported from the ground to the basement.
All right, it is better to save my power.
After such a short time, the lift stopped.
A neat gray-walled interior.
As I walked inside, the LED lights on the wall surrounded me.
It was like a scene from a sci-fi movie about the near future.
Then if we go deep, deep inside, there is a large room.
With countless displays attached to one wall, it was like a place from NASA’s research center in the American space movies. Where someone would say ‘Houston, Houston’, then suddenly someone would answer ‘This is Houston, over’. That kind of place.
A kid sitting in a large leather chair that looks twice as big as her figure, amid countless lights from the monitors.
This kid was the one who helped me hijack the radio.
In the second half of the original comic, she appeared as an S-class villain.
“Hey, oppa is here.”
“You’re here, ‘hyung’?”
TN: Hyung means Older brother. The term is used when a man is calling or talking to an older man whether he is related to him or not.
She is Han Seo-eun, a genius hacker.
I went to the chair where Seo-eun was sitting and pulled her hair up.
“Why do you call me ‘hyung’…? Anyway, what were you doing?”
“What else? I was fixing this.”
Seo-eun frowned and shook her head as I stroked her white hair.
She is short and pretty. She is certainly a girl. But she insists she is a boy.
As I have already read the original, I think it is cute because I know that she is a girl. I wonder if she has any trauma about being a girl. I don’t think so, but then why
It is a little weird to hear a girl call you ‘Hyung’… She is only in her third year of middle school. Well, obviously she does not look like it at all.
“You did a great job in hijacking the radio yesterday, Seo-eun. My face just came out all over the country.”
“Well. Anyone could have done such an easy thing.”
She spoke so bluntly, but her lips twitched when I complimented her. I could see her smile.
“And hyung. That’s not the problem. Something just happened.”
“What? What’s the problem?”
No way there is a problem.
“Now, look at this.”
Soon after Seo-eun showed me the video on one of the displays, my face was bound to stiffen slightly.
“What the hell is this?”
[Egostic’s followers are causing a bomb attack in the center of Incheon. They are now claiming to cause more explosions with bombs…]
Who the hell are they? Why are they selling me out?