The Thirsty Dig Their Own Wells
The Thirsty Dig Their Own Wells
[Why is the new girl from this terrorist attack so cute lol]
For real watching this I didn't even think of her as a villain it felt like watching a granddaughter do a talent show lol
Her roasting Stardus by calling her 'old lady' and calling Egostic 'big bro' was seriously cute lol
=[Comments]=
[The way she yelled "I'm your first teammate!!" was also cute for real lol]
└[Ah so she was upset nobody had acknowledged her until now lol]
└[+That plus her getting all excited bragging to Egostic thinking she'd beaten Stardus is seriously lol]
[She uses polite speech just like Egostic but when he does it there's this whole vibe, with her it was just cute lol]
└[She said she's a high schooler so using polite speech to adults makes sense lol]
[Wait why staged an attack happen and no one is talking about the fear of terrorism and instead calling the terrorist cute?]
└[Please refer to it as the 'Main Event' not a terrorist attack]
└[It was a Mango Concert though]
*
[Just what kind of place is Ego Stream...]
A genius hacker high school girl who rode in on a bioweapon (100% true not a single lie)
A Death Knight who revives even if you kill him
A Moonlight Priestess they NTR'd away from someone else's cult
And a suspiciously influential Mangostic on top of that...
And apparently they're all as tight-knit as family???
Damn it!! Mangostic just what the hell have you created!!!
=[Comments]=
[Make way for Mango Stream, the Hero Association is out~]
[Did you dare to look down on Korea's treasure Egostic?]
[Wait why did you completely leave out Electra, the first member of Ego Stream, from your post?? What the hell?? Are you trying to start something???]
└[That's a suspicious amount of anger... by any chance are you with the Electric Mango faction?]
└[Whoa the Egostic x Electra faction is still around? That's tenacity right there lol]
*
[Something meaningful about the 'one house' statement this time]
Considering Egostic's statement that the members are like family
And the hacker high schooler's statement this time about hacking from the same house
MAYBE all the Ego Stream members live together in one big house???
=[Comments]=
[Gasp]
[This for real has serious potential]
[As confirmed so far aren't there at least 4 women among the Ego Stream members? Gasp]
└[Haremstic damn damn damn damn damn]
└[Is this the sign for the Electra faction to make a dog-like resurrection???]
└[It means the Moonlight Mango faction is rising even more, where does some electric roasted bug get off butting in]
└[Didn't you see them appear together this time with the Moonlight Priestess? Saying that after seeing them being held in his embrace like that]
└[Hey rookie... the 'Ice Mango' angle is still alive...]
└W[You crazy bastards don't fight about ships in my comment section you f***ers]
└[Seeing you get mad means the poster is probably from the Stardus faction lol]
└W[How did you know]
└[Lmaooo lol]
[If that thing about all the members living in one house is really true, what do they all do together normally? I'm genuinely curious]
***
Deep within a mountain range where no one could find them.
A grand house standing imposingly in the middle of it all.
That was the headquarters of Ego Stream.
Beyond being the greatest villain alliance in South Korea, it was now on its way to becoming the greatest gathering of superpowered individuals in the country.
I was the founder and leader of this alliance.
At the moment, I was busy comforting a crying Seo-eun.
"Hic..."
"It's okay, it's okay."
Right after waking up from being unconscious all night, Seo-eun had been sitting blankly on the bed before suddenly bursting into tears.
Startled when she began crying the moment she woke, I frantically tried to soothe her. I mean, what had upset her enough to make her cry like this?
"Hic... I could have won..."
Ah, so that was what she had been upset about.
...Though Seo-eun, uh. It didn't really look as though you could have won.
Still sniffling in my arms, Seo-eun soon started to apologize to me.
"I'm sorry, big bro... If I had done just a little better, I could have won..."
"No. It's alright, it's alright. And you didn't necessarily have to win."
"Waaaah..."
Holding the crying Seo-eun in my arms and soothing her, I quietly thought to myself.
The truth was, Seo-eun... that had been a fight we weren't supposed to win in the first place.
Ego Stream itself was an organization designed to give Stardus periodic trials, so it would be a problem if we actually ended up defeating her for real.
...Or is it? Would she push herself harder if she loses instead?
While I was having such thoughts and stroking Seo-eun's head, the faces of Soo-bin and Choi Se-hee popped out from the door behind Seo-eun.
They must have come hearing the crying.
Choi Se-hee mouthed to me, 'Can we come in?' so I gave a slight nod.
Yeah. Help me calm this kid down.
Choi Se-hee, having entered the room like that, soon spoke to Seo-eun from the side.
"Hey, Seo-eun."
"Eek?!"
Startled by Choi Se-hee's voice suddenly coming from beside her, Seo-eun jumped.
Then she hastily pulled away from my arms and said.
"Uh, big sis?"
"Yeah, it's me. Stop crying and look at this."
Saying that, Choi Se-hee handed over her phone.
Taking it, Seo-eun read the posts displayed on the screen with her eyes slightly red from crying.
"...Big sis, what is this?"
"What do you think. Posts saying you were cute in this attack. How about it, does it pep you up a bit?"
"...Big sis, do you think I'm a grade-schooler who gets happy just from seeing stuff like this? I don't usually care what other people think."
Seo-eun, it might have sounded more convincing if you'd said that with the smile wiped off your face.
Seo-eun stared at the phone for a long while. She even read other posts. She was reading so intently that Choi Se-hee, who was standing in front of her, reached a point of saying, 'Uh... can I have that back now?'
After fervently reading through the posts on my fan cafe, Seo-eun's crying demeanor from earlier was nowhere to be seen, and as if suddenly energized, she clenched her fist and declared.
"...That's right! My terrorist attacks won't just be this one time, there are more left in the future so I can just win then!"
After speaking with sudden confidence, Seo-eun, still clenching one fist tightly, quietly and solemnly whispered to me sitting in front of her.
"...Big bro, my Starbuster 2.0 will be different from the last one. I'll make sure of it."
"Uh... right. Fighting?"
"Alright, big sis!!!"
"Uh, uhhuh?"
"Follow me, to the basement! We're making the new Starbuster starting today!"
"Hey, wait a second!"
Choi Se-hee hurriedly chased after Seo-eun, who had suddenly leaped out of bed filled with motivation.
"..."
Well.
She recovered her spirits, so I supposed whatever worked was fine.
For the record, Soo-bin caught Seo-eun running through the living room and scolded her for racing around immediately after waking from unconsciousness.
Oh dear.
***
"Phew..."
With the Seo-eun issue nicely resolved.
After watching Seo-eun chatting away cozily with Eun-wol and Choi Se-hee while lying together in bed, I came back out to the living room and flopped down on the sofa. I fiddled with the remote nearby to turn on the TV.
[Egostic has caused a new terrorist attack recently, what is the public's reaction?]
[Yes. Once again this time there were no anomalies. There were no casualties whatsoever, and the hostages were released safely. In particular, one of the people taken hostage stated that they are usually a fan of Egostic and had never been happier.]
...I decided to stop watching.
Roughly flipping through the channels to switch to one showing a movie, I let out another deep sigh.
"Ehya..."
"Big bro, why are you sighing like that?"
Right then, Lee Ha-yul, who was in the nearby kitchen, came scurrying over.
She looked at me with worried eyes.
I honestly told her about my troubles.
"No... I definitely caused this terrorist attack to drop my popularity, but there's been zero result..."
It was truly incomprehensible.
Since when did imprisoning people in iron cages to threaten them and menacing them with guns become not a problem at all?
As I thought, South Korea in this world was wrong somewhere. I had diligently and sincerely carried out a terrorist attack, so the strange ones were the people who refused to acknowledge it.
Ha-yul gave me a slightly conflicted look before answering.
"...Uh, big bro. To be honest, I think unless someone dies in your terrorist attacks at this point, your popularity is just going to keep going like this. Since it is kind of weird that there are zero casualties in a terrorist attack after all..."
Even while trailing off, she finished her conviction-based statement.
I told her flatly in response.
"...Killing people isn't an option."
One thing I promised myself when I resolved to become a villain here.
I would not kill civilians. For the most part.
...No, wait. Casualties aside, I'd taken hostages and committed attempted murder dozens of times. So why did everyone pretend not to know and simply not care?
"Sigh... but yeah, that's becoming a problem."
"Big bro, you look tired. Shall I do a little healing so you can clear your head?"
"Huh? Sure. I'd appreciate that if you did. Thanks."
When I finished speaking, Ha-yul sat me down on the sofa and started massaging my shoulders.
???
"Uh, Ha-yul, weren't you going to use your healing ability?"
"It's more effective if I knead like this and use my ability at the same time, so please stay still."
"Um... okay. Thanks."
Ha-yul's massage was refreshingly good.
...I didn't quite remember how I'd ended up receiving a massage, but anyway.
Later that night.
I was alone at the desk in my room, browsing through a video sharing site.
"Wow... no way, there are seriously that few?"
When I typed Egostic into the search bar, somehow all the videos bashing me were gone, and only videos treating me like they were discussing some celebrity were left.
Egostic_Highlights, Egostic_MAD_Movie, K-Villain Egostic that Shocked the World, things like that.
...Is there really this little bashing of me?
It was only then that I felt a great sense of alarm.
I mean, in the hero movies I'd watched before, even a decent hero who merely shot webs was viciously slandered by some news outlet run by an old man. Yet in this world, no one criticized me, an actual villain?
Thinking that, I tried typing in 'Egostic criticism'.
The search results dwindled drastically.
Even the videos that did exist were all uploaded during the early days of my terrorist attacks, so it was as good as none.
While I was scrolling down with a serious face, at that moment.
"...Found one."
There was exactly one.
A video where some woman was asking, bewildered, 'Isn't Egostic a terrorist?'
Obviously, it was hit with a dislike bombing.
Watching that video, something flashed through my mind.
"...Right."
If no one is going to maliciously slander me.
Couldn't I just make a broadcast myself that maliciously slanders me, just like in that hero movie?
"..."
...I might be a genius.