The Big Picture
The Big Picture
Deep beneath Seoul.
In one of the countless rooms there.
In a room designated as the conference room, I sat with my arms crossed and a grave expression.
With a whiteboard labeled "Sixth Regular Egostic Meeting" behind me, I spoke.
"We need to clearly decide how we're going to operate from now on."
"Isn’t it just you, big bro? Not 'we'? You suddenly pull that whole Apple Mango—"
"Seo-eun. Bring that up one more time and I won't say a word for a week. I'll lock myself in my room. And cry. Sob my eyes out. One sentence from you'll make a grown man cry. Can you imagine anything more terrible?"
"Fine. Can't even make a joke."
"Of course, I know how much you care about me. I was deeply moved when you sobbed after I finally woke up a week later—"
"Agh! I-I can't hear you. Just get on with the meeting or whatever."
Before we started, I headed off Seo-eun's teasing. She had been teasing me with "Mango" nonstop ever since I woke up... I needed to rein her in a little.
"Right. Anyway, we need to decide what our operating policy will be."
I sighed deeply.
"This whole mess happened because I tried to stop Monkey Spanner or whatever without thinking, just like last time. I must have forgotten my position for a moment. I'm a villain, not a hero."
"Um... sorry, big bro, but people seem to see you as a hero these days. Your fan cafe has already spread this whole list of Twenty Reasons Egostic Is a Hero..."
"Ah..."
I swallowed a groan. Right. I had drawn far too much attention lately.
My identity as a villain was growing less distinct by the day.
"Then there's only one answer."
"What is it?"
"We go dark."
At my sudden declaration that we were going dark, Seo-eun looked dumbfounded. So did Soo-bin, who had only been listening.
Their stares asked how on earth I'd reached that conclusion.
I calmly explained it to them.
"People's interest... is like a pot. It heats up quickly, but if something goes unmentioned for a while, it cools just as fast. Then everyone forgets."
"So... you’re going to make everyone forget about you, big bro?"
"Yes, for a while."
Seo-eun looked unconvinced.
Then again, whenever we planned an attack, Seo-eun always complained that she was tired but got more excited than anyone.
Soo-bin, who had been listening, spoke up.
"Then... what will we do in the meantime?"
"Right. If the goal is to stay out of the public eye, we should stop catching villains too, shouldn't we?"
I nodded.
"Right."
That was what I told Seo-eun and Soo-bin, but the real reason was different.
I had already done plenty.
I had killed almost all the villains who appeared early in the Original Work. Among those currently active, I had also eliminated the ones who would awaken later. Enzodiac and Teleporter alone were already plenty.
As for the attacks... Stardus was already far stronger than she should have been at this early point in the Original Work. Almost at her mid-story level, perhaps? The falling-plane incident had originally happened around the middle...
On top of that, one of the smaller goals behind my attacks—raising Stardus's public popularity—had also been achieved. The Stardus Fandom was a fan club that had never existed in the Original Work. Whoever had named it had done a great job, hadn't they?
"Then what are you going to do during the break, big bro? Keep running the Stardus Fan Cafe?"
Seo-eun asked with a cold look.
Huh?
"H-huh? What do you mean?"
"Aren't you the manager of that Stardus Fandom cafe or whatever, big bro?"
Under Seo-eun's narrowed-eyed interrogation, I suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.
"N-no?"
"Big bro... I can hack government agencies. Did you really think I couldn't crack one little community on a portal site?"
"Ha ha..."
No... Even if she could, why would she ever think to break into it?
Ahem. I cleared my throat and tried to change the subject.
"That's not the point. We've been running nonstop all this time, haven't we? We need a break. Think of it as a vacation. A vacation."
"So we're really going to stop working and just rest for a while?"
"Well... aside from the occasional little thing I have to handle?"
"Well, fine."
Only then did Seo-eun seem convinced.
Wait. It was my break, so why was I asking her permission...?
Anyway, that was how we went dark.
Everyone, please forget about me!
***
Just because I had stopped appearing in public did not mean I spent all my time fooling around.
I had fought hard to create this free time, so I needed to use it to plan ahead.
"..."
In my room deep underground.
I stared at the whiteboard on the wall, thinking.
For now, one major worry was off my shoulders.
I had dealt with all the troublesome villains from the early part of the Original Work. The ones left could be knocked out by a single punch from Stardus, so they were nothing for me to worry about. I could just watch on television with some popcorn...
I had also strengthened Stardus considerably, so I could feel secure for a while. There was no real need for me to intervene.
"No major events for now..."
There wouldn't be any major incidents for a while.
Of course, a truly massive incident would occur in a few months, but I could stop it when the time came. Basically, things were safe for about half a year.
What should I do until then?
I thought back to my goal.
My goal was to give Stardus a smooth, happy life.
And, ultimately, to survive to the very end.
Things were extremely peaceful right now.
Sure, one large-scale attack erupted every month... but for this world, that counted as remarkably peaceful.
A few years from now, all kinds of villains with insane abilities would pour out as the power balance collapsed.
Worse, the only heroes truly capable of handling them would be Stardus and the Northern Sea Ice Maiden. Naturally, the two of them could not cover everything... and the world would become a complete shitshow.
As the world grew more dangerous, a fragile villain like me would end up getting decapitated just walking down the street. Horrifying.
That could not happen. Absolutely not...!
What could I do to stop it?
According to the Original Work, villains would start pouring out later.
Which meant there were people who were not villains yet but would eventually become them.
Right. Seo-eun was the prime example.
In the Original Work, she became a villain who destroyed the administrative infrastructure, paralyzed the government, and hacked the Association.
But because I had taken her in before she could turn dark, she was no longer a villain.
So the conclusion was simple.
I just needed to stop those kids before they became villains.
Then I could put them to work for me. Every one of them had an incredible ability. Just look at Seo-eun. Without her, I could not have carried out a single attack. There was a reason she had been the first person I took under my wing after arriving in this world.
I looked at the date.
Right. Around now, those siblings should have been going through that...
I sketched out a rough plan.
There was only one thing I dreamed of.
Take in every future villain and build a massive villain alliance!
I could call it something like Ego Squad.
Nice, nice.
Having reached a reasonably satisfying conclusion, I erased everything on the whiteboard and sat down.
Surely I was allowed this much if I wanted to survive in this shitty manhwa where the power balance fell apart, right?
"Phew..."
I had meant to rest, but apparently there was no time for that.
I opened my laptop. I had used my brain too much again. I needed to recharge.
I naturally opened the Stardus Fan Cafe I had bookmarked. Its banner appeared as soon as I entered. Stardus's face was visible behind the words "Stardus Fandom."
Yeah, there was no point hiding it. I had made this cafe. No! I just wanted to fanboy over my favorite character from my favorite manhwa. Who could possibly stop me? I had been forcibly dragged out of a comfortable life in the real world and into this place. Surely I deserved this small pleasure.
"Ahem, ahem."
Making excuses in my head to no one in particular, I clicked one of the categories.
Stardus Best Shots.
It was a collection of photos of Stardus.
"Ahh... yeah, that's the stuff."
When Stardus rescued civilians, what were they supposed to do?
Run? Of course they should run, but taking a few pictures on the way was fine, right?
The photos taken that way.
Mm.
As expected, she was beautiful.
If they had cast an actress who looked like her in a live-action adaptation of this manhwa back in my old world, it would have broken ten million admissions easily.
I soothed my weary heart for a while by browsing photos of Stardus. Yeah, that did the trick...
I had even funded a contest inside the cafe out of my own pocket: the Prettiest Stardus Photo Contest.
Stardus did not only face A-rank heavyweights like me every day. She also dealt with plenty of mediocre B- and C-rank villains.
And whenever she did, click, click went the cameras.
I saved every photo from the flood of contest entries, then closed the laptop.
That was plenty of rest.
Now what?
Oh, maybe I should write in my journal.
I pulled a notebook from deep inside the bookcase.
This was my journal. I had even put a lock on it in case Seo-eun or Soo-bin ever found it.
It contained everything I had written since the day I woke up in this body.
I was recording everything in advance because this journal would be essential when I dealt with a certain villain later.
Writing a diary at my age was a little humiliating, but it only recorded the incidents I had caused and the emotions I had felt, so I could recall them later.
Probably no one besides me would ever read it.
...Probably not, right?
After finishing my journal entry, I leaned back in my chair.
Now... should I get back to playing around?
And so I happily went back to fooling around.
It felt great to rest properly without causing any attacks.
Maybe Stardus was relaxing too, now that I had not caused any incidents lately?
***
Shin Ha-ru had a plan.
The next time she met Egostic, she would uncover the truth he was hiding. No matter what.
But...
"Why has he been so quiet lately?"
Egostic had not appeared once since the hotel incident.
For three months.
‘There's no way he'd stay quiet this long.’
Without realizing it, Shin Ha-ru was growing slightly restless.
Where the hell had Egostic gone?