Broadcast
Broadcast
Three terrorist attacks across Seoul that no hero could stop.
Just when everyone was falling into despair, the Ego Stream airship appeared on the scene like a comet, seizing everyone's attention.
And when Egostic's broadcast finally turned on,
South Korea went, quite literally, insane.
“Hello, everyone! This is Egostic!”
The moment his face appeared on camera,
The live chat erupted simultaneously.
A storm of wild support.
[holy shit lol is this real lol]
[Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic!]
[Aaaah what took you so long i'm literally losing my mind!!!]
[god dammit I never doubted you!!!]
[Man-ya-ho~ Man-ya-ho~ Man-ya-ho~ Man-ya-ho~ Man-ya-ho~ Man-ya-ho~ Man-ya-ho~ Man-ya-ho~ Man-ya-ho~ Man-ya-ho~ Man-ya-ho~ Man-ya-ho~ Man-ya-ho~ Man-ya-ho~ Man-ya-ho~ Man-ya-ho~]
[God exists, and He has the shape of a mango]
[fuck the chat's so fast I can't even see it lol]
[We are living in the age of Egostic We are living in the age of Egostic We are living in the age of Egostic We are living in the age of Egostic We are living in the age of Egostic We are living in the age of Egostic]
[honestly if you teared up the second his stream went live smash that like lol starting with me lol]
[missed you so fucking much lmaooo]
The chat was flooding so fast that regular viewers couldn't keep up.
Considering it was also being broadcast on national television at the same time, it was staggering.
Whether he knew those reactions or not, he kept smiling and greeting everyone in his usual cheerful tone.
"Yes! So good to see you all. Feels like quite a long time since we last met!"
[no shit lol it's been almost half a year since you disappeared ^^]
[I fr thought he was dead]
[he hasn't shown his face once since that Busan attack lol]
[I knew it felt like forever, and it actually was forever lmao]
[The months without our Mango... ugh, my head...]
With a flood of complaints from the Mangostic fandom confirming it really had been a long time,
Egostic, whether he was aware of the reactions or not, kept smiling, adjusting the mask on his face.
"Yes, yes. It has been a while, everyone. Ah! But you know, I hear a lot of things happened while I was away?"
[a ton of shit happened alright, goddamn]
[nothing much, just Seoul collapsing and talk of moving the capital... yeah]
[fr nothing much, just a few dozen buildings destroyed, the country going to hell]
[fuck is that "nothing much" you lunatics lol]
[these people are completely off their rockers lol]
[fr it was a total shitshow, I don't even have a house anymore fuck]
"Yes! Exactly! It was absolute chaos while I was away! A pink storm swirling in the night sky, Seoul collapsing, citizens in shock! Chaos doesn't even begin to cover it. Chaos."
He flashed a grin after saying that.
Then he finally started to get to the point.
"Yes. So I came down personally to see what all this was about."
"Exactly! I'm currently inside that very storm!"
He shouted it out,
And sure enough, the chat went up in flames.
Comments scrolling by like mad.
And as he watched the reaction, still smiling,
He quickly began delivering the crucial information.
“And everyone, I want to tell you here what my investigation uncovered.”
"All of this attack is the scheme of a cult called the Moonlight Church. A bunch of crazies who basically believe the Moon God is going to show up and destroy the world."
"And the one who created this storm is someone known within the Moonlight Church as the Moon Priestess, a person capable of using special magic. She reportedly did all this on the cult leader's orders."
"So to sum it up, the mastermind behind all this is a cult called the Moonlight Church. Some batshit crazy leader trying to swallow up Seoul, then the country, then the world, pulling this garbage."
With those few sentences,
The chat caught fire once again.
Obviously. He'd just casually rattled off the entire truth behind this terrorist attack, something the government and the Association had been completely failing to uncover.
[no way lol how the hell does he know lol]
[in like no time flat he's blown the whole thing wide open - the mastermind and the official Moon Priestess name lol]
[no way lol the Association still didn't know something this simple? lol]
[Breaking News) It's been 5 minutes since the stream started and he's already spilled this much info]
[one Mango >>>>>>>> the entire Association]
[stream's legendary from the opening seconds lol]
And after saying all that,
He grinned and spoke.
"But here's the thing."
"Isn't it just unbearably arrogant?"
"South Korea's largest villain alliance, Ego Stream, is already planted right here! To put it plainly, I don't appreciate some Moonlight Church lunatics running wild behind my back."
At that moment,
The camera slowly pulled back, steadily widening its shot of the exact spot where he stood.
Around him, the pink winds howled, yet the place where he stood was perfectly calm.
The image of him standing at the eye of the hurricane.
[???]
[wtf? isn't that the center of the pink storm?]
[how the fuck did he get in there lol]
[he's starting the stream literally at the final boss stage, what the hell lol]
[how is this even working right now? actually clueless;;]
[wait isn't that the storm that not even Stardus or Shadow Walker could break through? how is Mango in there lol]
[no wait then shouldn't the priestess be there too? why is Egostic standing there alone?]
[fuck lol peel back every layer and it's still legendary lol]
As viewers started losing it over the sudden reveal,
Egostic just smiled inscrutably.
He raised a hand and tossed a single line at the camera.
"So if you break the rules of the game, you pay the price, right?"
With that, he quietly snapped his fingers.
Simultaneously, the camera shook and a colossal roar rang out.
***
Late at night.
In downtown Seoul, where no one was sleeping and everyone was watching Egostic's broadcast,
People began to panic at the sudden turn of events.
Right after the broadcast showed Egostic snapping his fingers,
From the pink typhoon that was destroying the city center, a beam of purple light so bright it could be seen all across Seoul erupted, accompanied by a deafening roar.
At the same time,
Violet lightning began swirling around the storm.
A tremendous crashing sound rumbled out from its location,
The storm itself glowing brightly enough to be seen from the edges of Seoul.
A fierce wind whipped up immediately after.
Egostic's broadcast began to shake so violently you couldn't see an inch ahead.
The chat descended into chaos at the sudden turn.
The city center was thrown into pandemonium by the abnormal phenomena happening in real time.
And then.
KABOOM.
With a tremendous roar, the storm quite literally exploded.
And at the center of that storm,
Egostic's broadcast showed the scene.
Through the thick pink smoke,
An unfamiliar, mysterious woman started to appear hazily.
Dressed in white priestess robes, with long, straight black hair and crimson eyes, a beautiful woman radiating an enigmatic aura.
Everyone who saw her realized instantly.
Ah. That must be the Moonlight Priestess who caused all of this.
With the camera still fixed solely on the woman,
People watching the stream began to wonder, puzzled, why Egostic was nowhere to be seen.
[no seriously wtf is going on right now]
[outside my window it's flashing and going absolutely crazy]
[Where did Mangostic go?? I'm starting to get a little worried]
[...what's this? did she set off this explosion to take out Egostic?]
[nah come on, no way that happened]
[don't tell me it just ends like this, pathetically?? no!!!]
Just as the viewers' questions were piling up,
As if to put an end to their uncertainty,
Egostic's figure emerged hazily behind the woman.
Even with him behind her, the Moonlight Priestess stood perfectly still, not flinching.
Then, his voice came through from behind her.
"Yes. That's right."
"I have put a stop to this flashy but utterly graceless and charmless form of terrorism."
He stared directly into the camera as he spoke from behind her.
At the same moment, he continued,
"And I hereby declare on this very spot."
Egostic, standing behind the Moonlight Priestess, spoke and wrapped his arms around her from behind.
He lifted one arm to her face—more specifically, her chin—and tilted her face up with his fingers.
His voice was as soft as a whisper, yet crystal clear.
He stared into the camera at the entire nation watching the broadcast.
Then he spoke with a grin.
"Yes. In short."
"From now on, this Moonlight Priestess is mine."
"Which means, from this moment, she's no longer part of that cultish Moonlight Church. She's part of Ego Stream."
"Isn't that right, Priestess?"
He whispered it smoothly,
And the Moonlight Priestess, still held in his arms,
Murmured quietly with her earlier cold expression completely vanished, a slight blush rising on her face.
“Yes....”
Egostic smiled as if satisfied with the reply from the woman in his arms and turned toward the camera.
"Ha-ha. You all heard that, right?"
"I hope you'll all show lots of love to the Moonlight Priestess, the newest member of the Ego Stream lineup! Ah, and to the Moonlight Church folks?"
He raised a hand toward the camera and flipped them the middle finger.
"Keep up the hard work."
He grinned as he said it.
The expression was truly villainous.
***
At the Association tent set up before the storm.
Shin Ha-ru, lying there receiving treatment, was silently thinking.
...When he had stroked her head, that was definitely the first time in her life she had ever felt an emotion like that.
But now.
"..."
The screen beside her bed showed Egostic embracing the woman known as the Moonlight Priestess from behind.
Watching it, she felt another emotion she had never experienced before.
'.....This is kind of annoying.'
But this one was somewhat negative, unlike before.