Time of Choice
Time of Choice
Terror attacks.
Just hearing the words, you would think it was simple enough—throw one bomb and you were done.
In reality, though, it was incredibly complicated and required a great deal of design and planning. I ought to know, seeing as I had already staged two large-scale terrorist attacks. Probably.
Tie people to a track a train is about to use.
Just hearing that, it sounds easy. Doesn't it?
You would think all you had to do was grab someone and tie them up.
But doing it for real was not easy at all.
First, finding people to tie up was difficult. What if I grabbed a genuinely ordinary civilian and they ended up dying by accident? How awful would that feel?
I might have been a genuine villain with plenty of blood on my hands, but if I did something like that, I would not be able to sleep at night. Until recently, I had been an ordinary, law-abiding citizen of South Korea.
So I picked out some real scumbags: people who had committed serious crimes, received slaps on the wrist, and walked free. They were still living like human garbage, which made them relatively easy to kidnap.
Even after somehow managing the kidnapping, tying them to the tracks was another major problem. It was related to the kidnapping, really. South Korea had far too many security cameras. They were not quite everywhere to the point of invading people's privacy, but somehow they were always exactly where you did not want them.
Sure, I could get past the cameras with my teleportation and Seo-eun's hacking skills, but tying people to the tracks...
Thanks to Shadow Walker, a hero who was effectively invincible at night, getting caught doing anything after dark in South Korea would be disastrous. If every villain went wild at night at once, Shadow Walker could not handle them all alone, which might have made things easier. But villains were all cowards who kept their heads down at night, so making a scene by myself would have been asking for trouble. Tch.
That was why I had to teleport around in broad daylight, tying people up. It was embarrassing, uncomfortable, and deeply strange. Even without any cameras around, doing this while the sun was up made the whole thing feel... wrong.
Then there was the train. This part really was my fault. After the cruise-ship bomb incident and the building bombings carried out by my followers, explosives screening had been tightened everywhere, so planting a bomb on a train was no longer possible. Soo-bin had to do the hard work instead. She sedated the train driver and took over the controls herself.
Soo-bin. I was fairly sure she had said that she had no friends growing up and had always stayed home, yet apparently there was nothing she could not drive—helicopters, trains, excavators, even planes. When I asked how she did it, she said she had learned through computer simulators, and I nearly passed out.
It made no sense by ordinary standards, but when she told me she had started studying for the college entrance exam only a week beforehand and still gotten into Seoul National University, I decided to accept it. Right. Geniuses must have something different going on.
She was so timid that I'd assumed she was the same type as me, but I had forgotten that she was a genius who could actually talk technology with Seo-eun. Was I the only ordinary person here again? That really stung...
Anyway, Soo-bin would drive the train. It'd be a problem if the original engineer suddenly stopped because he refused to run people over—or tried to drift or something. And if necessary, Soo-bin could threaten to derail the train and take everyone with her.
Staging a terrorist attack took time, effort, and insurance. As I kept saying, I had a frail body that could die from a single punch by Stardus. I could tell her to pull a lever, only for her to pull out my spine and send me straight into the afterlife. I needed safeguards. Soo-bin, who could derail the train, was the first. The bombs I had planted where the people were tied down, in case Stardus attacked the train, were the second. Nothing about this was easy.
Still, if this was what it took...
If I could show the public just how dangerous a villain I was!
If I could bring public opinion of Stardus back up!
I, Dain, was willing to sacrifice myself for my favorite character.
And right on cue, there she was, flying toward me.
Stardus came soaring in, her blonde hair streaming behind her as she wore that red latex suit. I had no idea when she had found the time to change.
Every time I saw her, I was struck by how beautiful she was.
Would I ever date a woman as beautiful as Stardus in my lifetime? Probably not.
If we were judging by looks alone, Soo-bin might actually have been comparable to Stardus... but still.
Anyway, it was time to get back into character.
The more I did it, the more my hands and feet seemed to tremble instead of getting used to it. Still, this was the persona I had chosen. I would stick to it through pure evil and sheer nerve.
"Ah, our guest of honor for today. Stardus, you've arrived!"
I applauded by myself as I welcomed Stardus.
She landed a short distance away from me.
"You scoundrel! What are you up to this time?!"
Huh.
It was not as though my act was the only strange one.
I had not noticed while reading the manhwa, but hearing Stardus speak like that in person was... well.
You and me both. We had both chosen the wrong kind of persona, had we not?
Hearing an ordinary college student like Shin Ha-ru speak like a character in a historical drama in modern times was incredibly awkward.
Not that I was any better, of course.
"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! What am I up to, you ask? I merely wanted to see what kind of 'moral' choice you would make."
"You fiend. Do you really think you'll get away with trying to slaughter civilians like this?"
*
[Civilians (They are not)]
[Massacre (Never happened)]
[Why is Stardus trying to smear our Mangostic?]
[fr does she think mango is a joke?]
[I'm starting to like her though...]
[Who are you saying you like?]
[I said Stardus was likable. It is sarcasm. It means I dislike her.]
[??? Did you not say you liked Egostic before?]
[That time I meant I actually liked him]
[wtf why does 'like' have two meanings]
[Figure it out from context]
[This guy got his first taste of internet slang and can't handle it lol]
[Free Kim Seon-woo Free Kim Seon-woo Free Kim Seon-woo Free Kim Seon-woo Free Kim Seon-woo Free Kim Seon-woo Free Kim Seon-woo Free Kim Seon-woo]
[Stop spamming!]
[I cannot stand Stardus]
*
...I checked the chat once more while I was talking, and even in this situation, people were still piling on Stardus. No. I had to turn this around quickly!
I raised my voice with exaggerated force.
"Now! That's not the issue. The problem is that even as we speak, the train is approaching, and at this rate it will run straight over five people! Why do you not go down there and decide whether to pull the lever?"
As I taunted her, I could practically see a vein bulging on Stardus's forehead.
"...Is there any reason I shouldn't just take you down right here?"
"What? Of course there's! Here—you know what this is, do you not?"
I quickly pulled the detonator from my robe. Wait, had I not explained this part? Now that I thought about it, I had not.
"See this? If I press it, all six people over there die. All of them. And if I die, the subordinate driving the train will not take it lying down either. I suggest you calm yourself."
Stardus clearly hated it, but she seemed to accept the situation. Phew. That had been close.
But we were running out of time. The train seemed almost here.
"Now! Breaking news: the train is almost here!"
The moment I finished speaking, I teleported down to the lever below the cliff. Looking up, I saw Stardus glance around for me before noticing where I had gone and flying down after me.
"Now, now! The moment of choice has arrived. What will you do? If you do not pull the lever, the five people tied down over there will die. Ah-ah, do not go toward them! I might just derail the train. Yes, the lever. Pull it, and only one person dies. Decide quickly whether you will sacrifice one person to save five."
After rattling that off, I returned to the top of the cliff.
From there, I filmed Stardus agonizing in front of the lever. Then came the sound of the train drawing near.
"Now, now! The pentakill express is arriving. What choice will our dear Stardus make?"
*
[Obviously gotta pull the lever]
[If she pulls the lever, doesn't that make it Stardus who kills that one person? If she stays still she's innocent, but pulling the lever means she kills one with her own hands]
[From a utilitarian perspective, you save four by pulling it, so pulling is correct lol]
*
The chat was divided as well.
Even so, most people seemed to expect Stardus to pull the lever.
Yes. I had figured everyone would think that.
But I knew.
The Stardus I knew was not that kind of person!
The train was almost upon us.
After agonizing in front of the lever, Stardus ultimately did not pull it.
Instead, she clenched her fist,
then started running toward the train.
[Aaaah! Dain! She's running straight at me! What do I doooo?!]
Soo-bin's scream came through my in-ear monitor. She must have seen Stardus charging straight toward her from the driver's cab.
I hurriedly muted the camera microphone and answered her.
"Don't worry, Soo-bin. She's probably not coming to hurt you."
She was probably trying to stop the train with her body.
Yeah.
The Stardus I knew—Shin Ha-ru, more righteous than anyone—
would choose a path where no one had to be hurt.
Now it was my job to make her shine for that choice.
I unmuted the camera, put on a disbelieving expression, and screamed.
"No!!! How can this be? What on earth is Stardus doing?!"
That pterodactyl shriek made my throat hurt immediately.
Stardus, are you watching?
That was how willing I was to make a fool of myself for her...