A Villain's Daily Life
A Villain's Daily Life
[Japan Is Shocked, America Horrified, Europe In Chaos! The K-Villain Who Shook the World. "Why Don't We Have a Villain Like Egostic?" Japanese Hero Association Spokesman Breaks Down in Tears!]
"Tsk..."
I had to put my phone down.
I mean, I was just happily watching some YouTube. Why the hell did this crap have to pop up?
"I... I need some sugar."
Seeing my own face in one of those dizzying nationalist hype videos made me feel as though I urgently needed sugar. Christ, how was it exactly the same as my old world?
Ironically, the comic world that had become my reality was remarkably similar to my original one.
True to the setting of a world where superpowered individuals just happen to exist on an otherwise ordinary Earth, it was basically identical—minus all the heroes and villains.
Meaning nationalist hype videos were just as profitable in this universe. I didn't really understand why some YouTubers stooped to using villains to fuel people's national pride, though...
I left my room and trudged toward the refrigerator.
All I wanted was some orange juice, and I had to walk down a whole damn hallway.
Is this for real? I seriously need to get a mini-fridge for my room.
I had more than enough money by then. It was time to spend it.
After arriving in the auditorium-sized living room, I opened the fridge.
...Only one bottle of Minute Maid was left. I could've sworn there were two. Why was there only one left? Did Seo-eun drink the other one?
Well, she liked sweets as much as I did.
Right, speaking of her, what is she up to?
I changed direction and headed for the Main Sector of the underground base, where Seo-eun usually was.
Of course, I didn't forget to swig my orange juice on the way there. Ahh. Nothing beats a cold drink. Goes down so smooth.
When I was a little younger, I used to prefer chocolate milk. But by then, I was all about orange juice.
...Well, let's be honest. They're just two flavors of the same childish palate.
Walking through yet another long corridor, I spent a moment mulling over Seo-eun.
Han Seo-eun. A girl in her third year of middle school.
In the original work, she appeared as a villain later in the series.
She single-handedly crashed South Korea's entire network and disabled the security system of the Eastern Superpowered Detention Center, sparking the Great Prison Break.
That was the event that kicked off the Korean Calamity, the main event of Part 3 of Stardust!
She appears as the final villain of the Korean Calamity arc. After that... well, she dies and never shows up again.
Unlike her boyish short cut at the time, she appeared in that arc as an adult, long silver-white hair flowing down her back as she attacked Stardus with every weapon she'd ever invented.
And in the end, Stardus stopped her, and she died.
Back then, her alias was the White Witch.
...Of course, I couldn't even imagine that version of her then.
These days, she just feels like a sweet-toothed middle schooler with a foul mouth.
Han Seo-eun. Judging by her feats in the Original Work, she was a monstrous genius.
Her main specialties were computer hacking and invention. With a brain like hers, there was practically nothing she couldn't do. She was basically the author's balance-breaking character, which was probably why she only appeared so late in the story.
Her life story is definitely a tragic one.
A lab rat for the Han-eun Group ever since she was a kid.
Under the pretext of artificially creating superpowered individuals, they ran every kind of illegal experiment on her and the others, and eventually, they got results.
By chewing up and spitting out hundreds of innocent children, they managed to create four kids with special abilities.
Our Seo-eun was one of them. The researchers called her designated ability 'Super Intelligence.'
The other kids developed more direct superpowers. Electricity attacks... ice abilities... that kind of thing.
Even after the children awakened, those bastards at Han-eun Group kept subjecting them to horrific experiments.
But even in that despair, the four of them clung to each other and survived.
Until one of them died.
Since they were each other's sole emotional support, the shock that hit the three remaining kids—Seo-eun included—was devastating.
And the overwhelming stress eventually caused another child's power to run wild, killing everyone caught up in that lab.
Well, not everyone.
Seo-eun survived.
She'd been living alone in this underground hideaway ever since, hiding from the Han-eun Group, until I finally came for her.
In the original work—the one where I didn't exist—she kept hunting the Han-eun Group by herself, seeking vengeance against the executives who went into hiding after that catastrophic rampage.
Eventually, she tracked them all down and succeeded in her revenge.
But after vengeance, there's only emptiness.
Shaking from the unbearable emptiness, she eventually just... kind of... cracked. She suddenly decided that what had happened to her and her siblings was the fault of an incompetent government and its heroes, then turned to terrorism and became a villain.
Of course, now that I'm here, I'm not going to let her become that kind of villain.
Wait, come to think of it, she's already an accomplice to my crimes. So isn't she already a villain??? Uh...
Let me rephrase. I'm not going to let her become that kind of crazy villain. A moderate amount of villainy is good for the soul.
Since this world mirrors my original one, especially in South Korea, it's definitely better to be a villain than a hero.
Honestly, at first, I didn't care what happened to Han Seo-eun. I only approached her to use her tech skills. But after spending time with the kid... damn it, I got attached.
I couldn't just let her die a meaningless death.
With those thoughts, I stepped into the Main Sector.
***
The moment I walked in, a symphony of monitors greeted me.
One screen showed CCTV footage, another some kind of data.
The sheer number of screens was enough to make my head spin.
The Main Sector of our underground base.
Hmm, maybe giving this room a cool name would make it sound even better.
Surveillance Center?
Seo-eun was sitting in her chair busily typing away.
And right next to her, Soo-bin was working just as hard on something.
"Seo-eun, whatcha up to?"
She finally looked up at me as I approached.
"Big bro, come over here and take a look at this."
"Hm? What's this?"
I walked over to see what she was showing me...
"The 13th International Ice Cream Festival?"
"Yes! It's coming to Korea for the first time ever. I've wanted to go so badly! Let's all go together some time, you, me, and big sis Soo-bin."
"Uh... sure..."
Beside me, Soo-bin was smiling shyly.
Soo-bin...
"Alright, so you wanted to go to an ice cream festival, Seo-eun."
Man, I could really see how much brighter she'd gotten.
It felt like just yesterday that she had been baring her spikes at me like a wounded little hedgehog...
Now she was asking me to go to an ice cream festival with her. I had no clue why something like an ice cream festival even existed, but...
Sure, it's great. It's nice she's innocent and cheerful. It is nice... but...
Hey, weren't you working?
I thought you were studying those monitors so hard because you were hatching some new plan, and I was so proud of how diligent you were being.
...So you were busy planning for an ice cream festival.
Never thought I'd be hitting up an ice cream festival at my age...
"Anyway, we'll just go to that when it's time. So, do we have a plan for our next target?"
"A next target?"
Hearing me, Seo-eun placed a finger to her lips and went, "Hmm..." as she began to think.
"Oh! Right—big bro, what was that thing you mentioned? The Good Samaritan?"
"Yeah. But that one's another large-scale attack. Can't really pull it off right after the last one, only a week apart. It'd cause public fatigue. We've gotta wait until people start forgetting about that boat attack, then boom! Hit 'em with a surprise."
"Right, and what did you say we'd do in the meantime? Villain extermination?"
"Exactly. Just gotta kill time until then. Got any recommendations? We've got nothing but time to spare."
"Hmm... what was it you wanted again, big bro? Didn't you say you'd choose based on that threat-level chart of yours, or whatever?"
Seo-eun tilted her head at me.
It was a terrorism threat chart—basically, a list of people who would commit terrorist attacks later in the Original Work.
I had vaguely explained that I knew it through some mysterious 'method' of mine...
"I already took out the two most critical ones last time, so we're good. Now we can just pick any name off the list I gave you."
"Oh, yeah? Let's see here... Big sis Soo-bin, can you pull up that villain list for us?"
"Okay!"
She answered energetically as she tapped at her keyboard.
We'd been living together for about a week now, and she seemed to have finally settled in a bit.
She was scared stiff of me at first, so I'd spent the whole week trying to smooth things over. It had been a lot of work. I thought she was better by then, but she still seemed a bit afraid of me. Come on, we were on the same side now. I wasn't going to hurt her. Had I scared her too badly last time?
"Let's see here... out of the A-rank villains, how about this one? The one who teleports. Teleporter."
"That guy? Ah, he's gonna be a pain in the ass to kill."
To take these bastards out in secret, two things had to work: first immobilize them with telekinesis, then either blow their heads apart or shoot them.
But if he could teleport? Immobilizing him with telekinesis wouldn't matter; he'd just slip right out of it. That would be a huge headache.
"Big bro, the more troublesome an enemy is, the sooner you're supposed to get rid of them."
"Ugh... yeah, you're right."
Fine. Better to get the worst over with first.
Let's go smoke that son of a bitch first.
So could you please stop looking at me like I was just some lazy kid trying to get out of doing his homework?
"Alright, guess I'd better start getting ready. And hey, Seo-eun?"
"Yeah?"
"Wait, you've been calling me 'big bro' this whole time. You finally dropping the boy act?"
I grinned as I spoke, and Seo-eun's face instantly started turning bright red as she realized her slip.
"Ah, I kept calling Soo-bin 'sis,' so it slipped out... You misheard me!"
She immediately started spluttering excuses, so I made a swift exit.
When that kid gets embarrassed, she starts yelling at me.