A Critical Moment
A Critical Moment
Okay.
Let me sort this situation out.
First, this had been my plan.
Teach that Monkey Tap Dance—or whatever his name was—a lesson for pissing me off.
To do that, I'd draw his attention while he was filming his live threat video.
Once he panicked and stopped recording, I'd run my mouth until he got even angrier.
Then I'd squeeze out every last scrap of telekinesis and kill all his subordinates in one shot.
That'd make him think I was incredibly strong and put him on guard.
One snap had wiped them all out. He'd be terrified of what two snaps might do.
Originally, I had planned to teleport away immediately after that.
I would deliver a line like, "How boring... You're nothing special," then take Seo-eun and Soo-bin and run.
That whole performance where I sauntered away as if fighting some petty criminal was beneath me—didn't it sound great?
In reality, I planned to get the car from the underground garage and flee to Seoul while Busan was in chaos.
But the plan hit a snag.
Apparently I had pushed that telekinesis thing just a tiny bit too far.
I'd thought, Surely I can manage this much? It turned out I really couldn't manage even this much.
I had felt it from the moment I snapped my fingers and controlled everything at once. Felt what? That I was completely fucked.
And sure enough, I couldn't move now. Ta-da.
So I changed the plan.
Grand Egostic Plan B: talk my way through hell.
I would act like some shadowy mastermind, gesture as though I could kill him whenever I pleased, and keep talking so he would not dare attack.
Then I would stall. Until when? Until a hero arrived.
I figured Northern Sea Ice Maiden would come, and it'd take her a while to get here.
The key was to keep Monkey Spanner stalled with my mouth until then... or so I had thought.
And surprise! Northern Sea Ice Maiden was already here.
And with Shadow Walker and Stardus too.
"..."
What the fuck was this?
"Monkey Spanner! Order your men to drop their weapons and surrender. You're surrounded!"
Stardus's booming voice filled the vast hotel lobby.
As a fan, hearing her voice in person instead of just in the manhwa was a pretty fun experience. Like watching a live-action film.
Which would've been really great if it weren't happening right now, you know?
"I'll say it once more! Drop your weapons and..."
Stardus's booming voice
grew quieter and quieter.
Because no matter how she looked around,
there wasn't a single armed robber left holding a gun.
"......?"
She couldn't hide her confusion at the unexpected sight.
Northern Sea Ice Maiden, who'd entered with her, looked just as bewildered. Of course she did. They'd come to subdue armed robbers, only to find those same robbers already sprawled in tatters across the floor.
Meanwhile, Monkey Spanner was looking for a chance to escape.
"Hrgk... ack!"
The situation had become even more chaotic, and the first man to try to flee was immediately subdued by Shadow Walker.
"I might be low on strength right now... but I can still handle someone like you."
Before anyone knew it, Shadow Walker stood over Monkey Spanner and pinned him down with shadows.
Monkey Spanner ended up helpless on the floor without managing to do a single thing.
He looked pitiful, with his hands, feet, and mouth all bound in shadow.
He had boldly launched a terrorist attack with his subordinates, but within a few dozen minutes he had lost every last one of them and ended up restrained himself.
No matter how formidable Monkey Spanner might be,
he could not offer any resistance to Shadow Walker at night.
That was simply "common knowledge."
Granted, Shadow Walker appeared to be in pretty bad shape.
He was staggering.
Of course, that wasn't the main point. Even if he seemed strange, he had still taken down Monkey Spanner with ease.
Seeing Monkey Spanner with his head driven into the floor after a weakened Shadow Walker subdued him...
Um... poor bastard.
I did feel sorry for him, but...
one wrong move and I might end up exactly like that.
After taking down Monkey Spanner, Shadow Walker's gaze shifted to me.
Well, of course it did. A stranger no one had ever seen was sitting alone atop a mountain of chairs with his legs crossed.
The same went for the Northern Sea Ice Maiden and Stardus.
Northern Sea Ice Maiden looked utterly puzzled, while Stardus appeared slightly tense.
Hmm. Now that I thought about it...
Those three still did not know I was Egostic, did they?
They had stormed in only after everything was over, so they probably had no idea what had happened. Monkey Spanner had also cut the livestream before I appeared.
Most importantly, my mask was different. I had previously worn a gray half-mask; now I wore a yellow mask that covered my entire face.
Having successfully subdued Monkey Spanner, Shadow Walker was looking up at me with a quizzical expression. A "what the hell is this guy?" look.
Looking up at me, a visibly exhausted Shadow Walker spoke.
"...Who are you? We came here to capture Monkey Spanner, but..."
He trailed off and looked around.
Dozens of armed terrorists lay collapsed, drenched in blood.
And Monkey Spanner, frozen in an awkward stance.
And then there was me, sitting above him with my legs crossed and looking down.
Anyone with common sense would have realized it immediately:
I was the one who'd taken everyone down.
That left a single question in their minds.
‘Who was this guy?’
My methods were far too excessive for a hero. I had killed every one of them. And there I sat arrogantly above everyone with my legs crossed, my chin propped on one hand, and a mask over my face. I looked exactly like a villain.
But as a villain? I had stopped a terrorist attack and had been confronting Monkey Spanner. Judging solely by my actions, I looked like a hero. They had simply never seen a masked hero like me.
Northern Sea Ice Maiden and Stardus's suspicious gazes.
Then there was Shadow Walker's gaze, seeming to bore straight through me.
And I could barely move even one finger.
What the hell.
Why were all of South Korea's A-rank heroes gathered in one place? Did Monkey Spanner really warrant that kind of response? Of course not!
And why did all three of them have to converge on me precisely when I was at my most helpless?
Guys, stop staring at me. You're going to wear a hole in my face.
"..."
A life-or-death crisis.
My brain kicked into overdrive.
I imagined Seo-eun and Soo-bin watching me anxiously from far away. They were actually too distant for me to see their expressions, but that was probably what they looked like. Don't worry. Trust your bro! I could handle a crisis like this.
First, what shape was my body in?
My goal was simple: teleport over to those two, take them to the car, and flee.
That meant I only had to teleport that far. It was not far.
If only I were in decent shape right now, I'd have bolted already.
But the problem was that I wasn't.
A few minutes.
If I had just a few more minutes, I thought I could barely squeeze out one jump. I had no idea how badly it would wreck my body afterward...
Either way, I only needed a few more minutes.
And a great villain could buy those few minutes even in a crisis like this.
How many superhero stories had I read by now?
I could do this.
The three of them continued to stare at me.
What had he asked me again?
Right. Who I was.
I had to choose my answer carefully.
Saying, ‘I'm Egostic,’ would be suicide.
The three of them would have jumped me and beaten me senseless. Then my body and spirit would have hurt a great deal. So that was absolutely not happening.
My goal was to stall for time.
To stall for time, I had to make sure none of them attacked me before I could escape.
To accomplish that, I needed to fake an identity.
They did not know me. I had to exploit that.
In their eyes, I was a complete stranger in an unfamiliar mango-yellow mask who had somehow killed dozens of terrorists by an unknown method.
I had to bluff.
I had to feed them an enormous lie.
Seated high above them all, I looked down arrogantly and slowly opened my mouth.
I could not show even the slightest hint of tension. I had to sound relaxed, as if I were merely stating an ordinary fact.
"...You asked who I'm? I'm—"
Right, the best lie was to claim that I was a hero. I had to present myself as a hero who operated outside Korea and whom they therefore didn't know.
So I gave them my answer with a perfectly straight face.
"I am an S-rank hero operating in South Korea while keeping my identity hidden."
"..."
I declared myself a hero with solemn arrogance.
The atmosphere around me suddenly stirred. Some people thought it was complete nonsense; others wondered whether it might be true.
Our Stardus was firmly in the former camp.
"...We've never once heard that there was another S-rank hero. There's no mention of one anywhere in the Association's documents or records. What kind of absurd claim is that?"
A sharp rebuttal.
Well, it was not really a sharp rebuttal. Of course she had never heard of one... I had invented the whole thing seconds ago.
Only a third-rate villain would stumble over something like this.
As a first-rate villain, I only became more shameless in situations like this.
I made my voice as solemn and weighty as I could while keeping it arrogant. Then I spoke.
"Naturally. Do you not understand what operating in secret means? Of course Koreans wouldn't know."
The Egostic-Style Secret Art, ultimate technique: Brazen Insistence.
What do you know.
Got any proof?
Anyway, I had said I was a hero, so I was a hero.
I put on my thickest skin and doubled down.
I projected my heavy, solemn voice so it carried throughout the lobby.
"You three. I've heard of you before. Shadow Walker, Nor—Icicle. And Stardus. But aren't all of you merely A-rank heroes? There is a world of difference between a veteran and a rookie, so show some respect when you speak to me. This veteran hero is—Apple Mango."
I smoothly gave them the hero name I had just invented on the spot.
The expressions around me grew even stranger, but so what?
There I was, a mere villain who could not even move,
facing three heroes who could crush me with a finger,
and I had said it without a shred of shame.
Yeah, fuck it. I was S-rank, so they could speak politely.
The three of them stared at me as if their minds had gone blank, wondering whether they had misheard me.
I did not care. I would only become more shameless. Use polite speech, damn it. Wasn't this the land of Eastern courtesy?
Northern Sea Ice Maiden responded, utterly incredulous.
"What?"
"'What?' is casual speech. Use polite language."
I did not even know anymore. Fuuuck it. Let's see how far this could go.
And so, that night in a Busan hotel lobby, a complete shitshow was about to break out.
Second verse, third verse—hell, let’s run this bit into the ground together.