After the Incident
After the Incident
The violet storm gradually weakened.
The footage broadcast live nationwide ended with the airship serenely disappearing through the storm.
[Hahahahaha! Everyone, take care now!]
The masked man, Egostic, smiled at the camera and disappeared with a casual wave.
The Moonlight Priestess remained quietly cradled in his arms, her face flushed.
Beside the two of them stood a calm woman in a white robe.
The airship faded into the distant night sky, and the broadcast finally ended.
The night passed. The next day.
Across South Korea—
online and offline, everywhere—
there was absolute chaos.
*
A cable news debate program.
[So, look at everything Egostic has done! At this point, is he not worthy of being called a real hero?]
[Uh... th-that's an odd thing to say. No matter what, Egostic has committed terrorist attacks—]
[And! Has a single person died? Has anyone?!]
[....There haven't been any fatalities so far, but things easily could have gone wrong—]
[Be quiet!]
A man bellowed while the middle-aged panelist beside him broke into a sweat.
The mock jury sided with the man supporting Egostic.
*
An investigative journalism program.
[Egostic. Until now, a man known to everyone as an A-rank villain. But have you ever heard the rumor that he may once have been a hero?]
[Our program conducted a detailed investigation into a man who once entered a hotel attack site in Busan, claimed to be an S-rank hero, and then vanished.]
[An A-rank villain. And an S-rank hero. What, exactly, is the truth?]
*
The news.
[Good evening. This is the nine o’clock news. The Moonlight Priestess attacks that had devastated Seoul left many citizens trembling in fear. The third attack ended while it was still underway—stopped by none other than the villain Egostic. Reporter Kim Dong-han brings us this unbelievable story.]
*
A financial newspaper.
[KOSPI Rebounds for the First Time in a Month After Egostic’s Counter-Terror Suppression... (Photo: Cheering securities-firm employees)]
*
YouTube.
[Thanks to K-Villain Egostic—who shocked the United States, turned Japan upside down, and even startled the British monarch—South Korea’s prestige has been broadcast to the world? “I want to live in Korea, where a villain is indistinguishable from a hero.” Korean immigration projected to hit an all-time high!]
*
Needless to say, Egostic’s fan cafe.
[The greatest villain in the world lol]
[Best villain alliance of the era = instant upvote lol]
[There are still bastards reporting an SSS-rank hero as a villain?]
[Calling fire support) Petition the National Assembly to re-evaluate Egostic as a hero, let’s go]
[Upvote if you’ve been living in the cafe without taking a single day off since yesterday lol]
[Mangostic <- this guy is just good at everything lol]
[Half a year of waiting was worth it, holy shit lol]
[No, but seriously, the Ego Stream members are legends now lol]
[Three A-rank heroes <<<<< one Egostic, fr lol]
*
[Hey, God. Why are you not starting the meeting?]
(A meme image of a god staring straight ahead)
“Egostic hasn't yet arrived.”
=[Comments]=
[Zero comments but a thousand likes—is this thing broken or what lol]
*
[We are living in the Era of Egostic]
For real, without Mango, Seoul would have been right on the brink of annihilation.
How the hell did he seduce the Moonlight Priestess—no, seriously, how did he do it? lol
=[Comments]=
[Good at terrorism, good at picking up women—there's literally nothing he can't do lol]
[No, but seriously, it looked like he literally seduced her lol. Did you see her blushing?]
└[First time seeing the Moonlight Priestess, and that was her blushing in Mango’s arms, holy shit lol]
[The Moonlight Church or whatever just got NTR’d lol]
└[Gold Sun Mango... shortened to Gold Sun God, damn]
└[Wooooow! Moonlight Church priestess acquired ☆]
└[No, but when he flipped off the camera, I seriously thought he was the Gold Sun God for a second lol]
*
[MangoStar and IcyMango were all paper ships lol]
Now is the era of Moonlight Mango.
(Photo of Egostic holding the Moonlight Priestess)
(Photo of the Moonlight Priestess blushing in Egostic’s arms)
Has Egostic ever had this much physical contact with any other woman around him?
Ah lol, if everything before this was squeezing juice from nothing, now it is real lol
=[Comments]=
[Boarding the Moonlight Coin like a madman lol]
[Fr lol, and they're on the same Ego Stream team, so the possibility is insanely high lol]
└[Electra is a villain too, though... did everyone forget EgoTra?]
└[Who's that? Don't even remember her]
[And did another new woman not get caught on camera at the end of the video? The one in the white silk clothes]
└[Yeah, she was mentioned on the Ego Stream homepage too. Moonlight and Saintess were added. That woman is probably Saintess?]
└[Mango has a suspicious number of women around him lol]
[Yeah, this time footage of Egostic stroking Stardus’s hair before entering the storm leaked online~ EgoStar is eternal]
└[? Where did you see that?]
└[Hold on]
└[No, holy shit, someone posted it on a blog a moment ago, but then the whole blog vanished—what the hell?]
└[Delusional bastard....]
└[So this is the average EgoStar shipper...?]
└[No, you bastard, it really was there!!!!]
└[Look at the EgoStar shippers resorting to propaganda and fabrication now that facts don't support them, tsk tsk]
└[No, damn it, I'm dying of frustration here]
[But I’m so damn curious about the Association’s reaction right now lol. What are those guys doing?]
***
The Korean Association of Superpowered Individuals.
The conference room of the organization better known as the Hero Association.
“Ha ha ha ha ha!! I haven't felt this refreshed in ages.”
“Chairman... if you could just, ah, maintain some dignity...”
“No, what am I supposed to do when I'm in a good mood? Ha! This time, to put it crudely, I really thought we were all screwed. We were at the point of abandoning Seoul and relocating the capital. But then that damned Egostic suddenly appeared and solved everything—how could I not be happy? Ha ha ha ha ha!”
The chairman’s booming laughter rang through the middle of the conference hall.
The Association officials seated beside him addressed him with awkward expressions.
“Chairman, I don't think this is the time to be laughing. The media keeps running stories asking what the Association did while a villain resolved the crisis...”
“Ah, that? What's our media-response team doing, then? Tch. I'll dictate it, so tell them to run a piece like this. Ahem. ‘Thanks to the Association’s heroes, who endured until the very end, this incident was resolved with minimal damage. Though a villain’s affiliation may have changed, the Association will press on unshaken.’ Something along those lines.”
“Understood.”
“Ha ha ha ha! Anyway, that's barely even a problem. It's better than Seoul being destroyed!”
After laughing for a while longer, the chairman finally composed himself and began the meeting in earnest.
“So. What are our heroes doing now?”
“Stardus is currently receiving treatment in a hospital. Icicle has returned to Yuseong Group and is providing support to the victims. And Shadow Walker... we're told he's still holed up at home.”
“Good grief. That fellow Kim Ja-hyun, honestly... a man can taste failure once when he's young. Why is he sulking so much?”
“His girlfriend is still trying to contact him, apparently... but it seems to be no use.”
“Tsk. Well, I suppose time will settle it. Let's leave that problem for later. Are there any other matters to report?”
At the chairman’s question, one staff member who'd been gauging the mood cautiously spoke up.
“Ah... and lately, we've been receiving an enormous number of inquiries about Egostic.”
“What?”
“Inquiries about when he'll be promoted to S-rank. His subordinate, the Moonlight Priestess, is already S-rank. People are asking why Egostic, who leads a major alliance of A-rank villains with her at the forefront, is still A-rank...”
“That? Did we not submit an inquiry to the International Association’s central committee last time? Stardus and Egostic—have they still not been promoted to S-rank?”
“No. We heard the headquarters is currently in chaos because of villain attacks, so that may be causing the delay.”
“Is that so? Was the headquarters in America? Honestly, those Americans can't go a single day without some commotion. Anyway, that's beside the point. What about tracking the Moonlight Church, as Egostic mentioned?”
“Yes. Our earlier deductions appear to be correct. We estimate it's a religion that worships its leader as a divine apostle, and that the leader possesses a special ability. However, the organization is so insular that obtaining information is proving very difficult.”
“....Just how on earth did that bastard Egostic know all that? Well, anyway. Still, now that they've lost the Moon Priestess to Egostic, they must have taken a heavy blow too, no? Ha ha ha ha!”
***
Deep underground stood an alien cathedral.
In its shadows, a follower approached the cult leader, knelt, and spoke.
“...My apologies, Leader. It appears the connection to the Moon Priestess has been completely severed.”
At his quiet report,
the cult leader seated in the chair fell silent. Then a faint, scraping voice emerged from him.
I see. An apostate was never granted eternal life, in any case.... She was merely a slave to god, so whatever becomes of her shall return as her karma.... Our plan is wholly unaffected, so fret not, my child. You may withdraw now.
Though the cult leader spoke as though it were nothing,
the follower saw the hand gripping the armrest tremble violently, lowered his head, and fled.
Left alone once more, the cult leader
muttered quietly.
Egostic, is it....
Yes.
....A whelp worth remembering....
***
The Moonlight Cult Leader was seething with anxiety.
The Korean people were singing praises.
And the whole world was watching K-Villain Egostic, the Guardian of Seoul.
“Dain. Why exactly did you stroke Stardus’s hair? Are you advertising to the whole neighborhood that you like her?”
“Hey. You... hugging the Moon Priestess in public like that, touching her face like that... was that not a bit, you know, excessively provocative?”
“Dain, someone named Lee Seol-ah keeps calling you.”
....
Meanwhile, I was engaged in an in-depth discussion with my team about my relationship with Stardus and the entire villain-recruitment process.
The Moon Priestess, Baek Eun-wol, was still clinging firmly to my back.
....Save me.