Ant Hole
Ant Hole
In the Original Work, the final boss of Phase 2 was the Moonlight Church.
With an unprecedented scale and as the first South Korean villains to launch attacks aimed at the whole world, their power was truly overwhelming.
This was the period when South Korea, which had drawn little attention in the ability-user world, began to gain serious recognition. It was also the trigger for the emergence of catastrophe-level villains, one after another.
But that didn't mean all the villains before the Moonlight Church had been weak.
Some had abilities but hadn't fallen to villainy yet, and others were simply preparing terrorist attacks without carrying them out...
And today, I'd come to find the bastard who causes a large-scale terrorist attack early in Phase 3.
"Big bro, is this the right place?"
"Yo, a place like this actually exists. That's wild."
On either side of me, Eun-wol and Choi Se-hee followed right behind.
I was walking with the two of them along a suspicious underground passage beneath someone's house.
"Yeah... This is the base of our target for today. We're here."
I told them that.
The spot we'd teleported to was the hideout of the future S-rank villain, Weapon Master.
A lunatic who calmly commits atrocities like weapon development and kidnapping people for modification. For reference, this guy contributes heavily to turning New Seoul—already in chaos from monsters—into an even bigger disaster zone.
In other words, I had to kill him then, before it happened, while he was still merely building weapons.
So I'd left Desik to guard the house, brought Eun-wol and Choi Se-hee, and now I pulled out my phone in front of his base.
"Alright, before we really go in, let's start the broadcast first."
"Got it, big bro."
"You're gonna clear that rumor up, right? Fine, hurry up."
Once they'd both spoken, I levitated my phone with telekinesis and started the broadcast.
I couldn't be bothered to bring a separate camera for something like this, so I decided to make do with the phone cam. It's only going up on YouTube anyway.
Anyway, after briefly straightening my outfit, the moment I went live, a flood of question marks popped up and then chat messages poured in all at once.
Every time I saw it, I wondered how so many people flooded in the instant I began streaming. Had they set notifications or something?
"Hello everyone, I'm Egostic!"
I greeted them with a grin.
Since it wasn't an official broadcast anyway, I just gave a casual wave. Waving loosely, like I was meeting a friend.
Even so, the chat was flooding in as fast as if it were an attack livestream.
But somehow, the chat window was on fire.
*
[Why's the stream quality like this lol]
[Is he filming on a phone? Kinda has an off-the-cuff vibe lol]
[What is this, a new broadcast only two weeks after a terrorist attack!!!]
[Moonlight Priestess and Electra are behind you too, is this a new attack?]
[Forget all that, are you really dating Mist? That's what I need to know, answer already, I'm getting dizzy here]
[So you're dating Mist? So you're dating Mist? So you're dating Mist? So you're dating Mist? So you're dating Mist? So you're dating Mist?]
[Egostic explain yourself 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥]
[For real, explain your crime of toying with viewers' hearts!!! 🔥]
[Mangostic, you wouldn't do that, right? Mangostic, you wouldn't do that, right?]
[🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥]
[Why the hell are you bastards going so nuts lol]
[Explain 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥]
[Let's just riot for now 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥]
[The sight of a chat window on fire over a villain's dating rumor... This is a rare treat.]
*
But well, this was already expected.
Over the past two weeks, variety shows kept bringing me up whenever they got bored, so this kind of reaction makes sense.
...Though the chat looked even more on fire than I'd thought, so I grinned like I knew nothing and spoke.
"Oh right, I've been hearing some talk lately. Rumors that I'm in some kind of romantic relationship with our new Ego Stream member, Mist."
In response, the chat filled with [yeah yeah yeah yeah] showing agreement.
To them, I declared:
"I honestly don't know why you're all so interested in who I date or whatever, but regrettably, Mist and I are nothing! All Ego Stream members are simply my colleagues, so I hope there's no misunderstanding. At the end of the last attack, Mist was just joking around because she was curious about your reactions."
[For real?]
[You're not lying?]
"And besides, if it were true, wouldn't I just cleanly admit it? Why would I bother denying it?"
"That's right. Big bro Egostic and big sis Mist aren't like that."
With my casually laughing reply and Eun-wol backing me up from the side, the chat suddenly began to calm down.
*
[Hmm... really?]
[Well, just this once? I'll believe you.]
[I believed in Egostic from the start ^^]
[No true Mangostic fan doubted our Mangostic, right?]
[Aw, what, I thought they were actually dating.]
[Mist, you're such a prankster lol]
[Now that he says no, I'm kind of disappointed lol]
[Dammit, I totally believed it~~]
[The Ice Mango angle is still alive!!]
[Why are these bastards calming down so fast lol]
[No but the chat got as docile as if hypnotized lol]
[This is definitely gonna end up in the news again lol]
[F***, why are we telling a live villain to clear up his dating rumors and he actually does it lmao]
*
Everyone switches attitudes so fast.
Anyway, having achieved my intended goal, I naturally changed the subject and spoke.
"In any case... well, that's enough on that topic. The reason I started this broadcast is to announce this."
With that, I flipped my phone around and showed the corridor ahead.
While chat filled with curious responses like [Where is this?]...
After switching the camera back to my face, I told the curious viewers what I was going to do.
"Today, at this time, I'm planning to hunt a villain who doesn't listen to me. It's the first time in years since I caught that Teleporter last."
*
[Oh???]
[Villain hunt??]
[You mean Egostic's signature villain-hunting content that newcomers don't know about is back??]
[Aaaah, why are the recent broadcasts so packed!!!]
[This won't do, I'm gonna watch this with popcorn.]
[All good but please do something about the quality, what's with the phone cam]
[Now this is what I'm talking about lol]
*
While the viewers were brimming with anticipation for what would come next...
I gave them a dose of cold reality.
"Yes! So, you'll probably be able to see the results on tonight's news, I imagine. Now that I've given the preview, that's all for today's broadcast. Thank you!"
*
[?]
[???]
[Wait, you're ending the stream here? What does that mean?]
[You got us all hyped up and now you pull this!!!]
[No, come back, come back, come back]
[This can't be real!!!]
[I'm sorry, I don't care if the quality sucks, I won't complain, please]
[? I just popped all this popcorn and you're ending the stream??? No!!!]
*
Yep.
I waved my hand like that and ended the broadcast.
Since this place could actually be dangerous, keeping the stream on was risky.
"I kind of feel sorry for them..."
Only the kind-hearted Eun-wol said that.
"Alright, that's done. Let's move on."
"Yawn... Is it over? Fine, let's go."
Once the broadcast ended, Choi Se-hee, who'd been leaning against the wall yawning, stretched out her arms and straightened up.
After confirming Eun-wol was ready too, we walked down the corridor.
"Whoa... this place is weird."
Only a short walk in, we came upon rooms that looked like storage rooms.
They were piled high with all kinds of guns. From ordinary military rifles to something that looked like a space gun coated in white.
And on the wall hung a blue screen displaying a weapon blueprint. Beyond that, stacks of various types of bombs.
We kept walking through this place lined with rows of all kinds of weapons.
The deeper we went underground, the more Choi Se-hee's expression—which had been looking around curiously at first—began to harden.
"...Hey, Dain. Why are there so many weapons here? It's creepy."
"I told you, it's the hideout of a weapons expert."
"Holy shit. That huge thing is a bomb?"
And the deeper we went, the more we began to see all sorts of twisted weapons.
Finding a bloodstained mace on the floor was pure horror. Eun-wol had already been scared stiff and was clinging tightly to my arm for a while... Eun-wol, you're way stronger than a few dozen maces.
"Ugh, it's kind of spooky."
"Maybe it's because it's underground. Why do villains all make their hideouts underground?"
Han-eun Group had been like that, and so was that place. They all dug underground bases like anthills. One of the villains who would appear later had also built a base underground.
...As I thought that, I remembered that our Ego-Base had originally been underground too and decided to remain quiet. Mm, well. Underground places were warm and pleasant.
After passing that spooky path, we suddenly came to a fork in the road.
Standing there, I said to Choi Se-hee and Eun-wol:
"You two go that way. I'll go this way."
"Huh? By yourself?"
"No, big bro. It's too dangerous!"
I managed to persuade the two of them, who were looking at me worriedly, and successfully split off.
Though they still hesitated and looked back at me until the very last moment.
Walking alone down that gloomy corridor, I thought to myself.
...All right, bastard. I was alone then. What was he going to do?
With that thought, I glanced at the hidden black CCTV camera.
He's probably watching. Shouldn't you make a decision before it's too late?
Thinking that, I got ready to pull out the black tentacles I had hidden inside my clothes at any moment.
...It looked as though I would be using Behemoth for the first time in a while.