Return
Return
The new terror attack I was planning wasn't going to be just any attack.
It was a two-birds-one-stone attack that would prevent one of the Original Work's main events.
Han-eun Group.
One of South Korea's largest corporations—and a den of lunatics who had tried to mass-produce ability users through illegal human experimentation on orphans.
Our Seo-eun was one of the victims of those experiments. She had gained extraordinary intelligence as a result, but of course, the process had subjected her to horrific pain.
Anyway, that insane corporation—which the public knew as a perfectly normal company—was about to have its true nature exposed.
It was the first main event in the Original Work where people died in droves.
Even after their little experiment went down in flames last time, they still didn't learn their lesson and kept doing shady crap behind the scenes.
That alone would've been manageable, but then a new madman joined the project and threw everything off course.
His goal was 'Post-Human.'
I had no idea what that batshit nonsense was supposed to mean, but anyway, the guy decided to make a monster.
And ta-da! He actually succeeded in creating a monster.
Except he couldn't control it.
A giant test subject made of sticky black slime, sprawled out like a skyscraper lying on its side.
When it moved, it looked like an enormous black wave.
It was a horrifying bastard that corroded everything it touched.
The problem was that this thing—these things? Anyway, the Giant Black Gummy Worm escaped.
They had no eyes, so they simply charged straight ahead without thought.
And of course, those crazy bastards at Han-eun Group were doing this in an underground lab in Seoul.
Yeah. They devastated Seoul.
After bursting out from underground, they cut straight through Seoul from south to north, heading farther and farther up.
The things, like black waves, devastated the city in a straight line as they continued northward.
Yeah. Into North Korea.
North Korea had been minding its own business when black monsters from the south suddenly swept through and devastated it.
South Korea at least had everything below Seoul left untouched because the disaster began there. North Korea, meanwhile, had its entire territory ravaged in a straight line.
It almost started a war because they were screaming about how those wicked South Korean bastards were finally trying to destroy the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Worse, instead of continuing into China, they settled in North Korea and drove its government insane. By the time they reached the northern border, they had grown strong enough to fly.
The Northern Sea Ice Maiden would eventually go and deal with them, but that was a story for much later.
Thankfully, their weakness was water. Water was common and easy to obtain, which was why the Northern Sea Ice Maiden would later be able to dispose of them relatively easily.
In the Original Work, this was the first truly bleak event. It signaled that the manhwa would be far darker than the usual light superhero story.
The story's tone had been fairly bright up to that point, but it started growing more and more depressing from then on.
So I absolutely had to prevent it.
The world I lived in was about to turn into an eighties version of Gotham City. Was I supposed to watch that happen?
That was why I'd been agonizing over it for a while.
How was I supposed to stop it?
To be honest, the best method would have been to stop the experiment itself, but in the long run that wasn't a good idea.
This incident would expose all the vile atrocities Han-eun Group had committed and become the decisive trigger that removed its entire leadership.
Besides, without something like that, it was nearly impossible to bring Han-eun Group down. The influence it wielded over Korean politics and the media was monstrous—ordinary measures couldn't even scratch it.
So the conclusion was that I needed to let the Giant Black Gummy Worm run loose while minimizing the damage.
How?
I spent a long time stuck on that. Then it suddenly hit me.
A line from the Original Work.
'Damn it. There just had to be a bridge across the Han River along their route. If only that bridge hadn't been there...'
Exactly.
The reason they had been able to advance all the way to North Korea despite being weak to water and emerging in Gangnam.
There just happened to be a bridge along their route.
What if that bridge hadn't been there?
They would've plunged straight into the river and died. How perfect was that? Problem solved!
They had only just been born and were still weak, so they really would have crashed into the river and died. Later they could fly, making the river trivial to cross. If only that bridge over the Han River hadn't been there.
Right.
All it needed was for the bridge not to be there.
Then couldn't I simply destroy the bridge myself?
A bolt of lightning struck me.
Eureka.
Let's destroy the bridge.
The event was important enough that the Original Work gave its exact timing, so I only needed to bring the bridge down immediately beforehand.
Once I decided to destroy it, I moved without hesitation.
I had Seo-eun build bombs, worked out the angles for the demolition...
Then another bolt of inspiration crackled through my mind.
Wait. An explosion. Wasn't this a terror attack?
Then couldn't I simply blow up the bridge during an attack?
That was how the plan came together.
"We're going to blow up the bridge."
[Ninth Regular Ego Squad Meeting]
I made that declaration with a chalkboard behind me announcing that this was already our ninth meeting.
"Great, what do we need to prepare?"
Seo-eun asked, eyes sparkling.
"When are we doing it?"
Soo-bin, curious about the exact timing.
"Um... why are we carrying out a terror attack in the first place?"
And our healer Lee Ha-yul, wearing an expression that said she had no idea why she was here.
With all the members more or less gathered, I laid out the plan.
"Ha-yul, you might not understand yet, but the more terror attacks, the better. We need to inject some tension into this complacent peninsula. We plan to carry it out in a few weeks. As for preparations, we'll start planning them now."
"Big bro, you still haven't thought any of it through?"
"Right! There's a reason the bridge has to be destroyed, so we're going to destroy it. Now let's figure out how to turn that into a terror attack."
"Got it. Hmm... a bridge, a bridge. Which bridge are we talking about?"
"You know that big bridge over the Han River. That one."
"That one? Ah, so that's why you asked me to make the bombs so idiotically powerful?"
"Yeah. Looked like we'd need something pretty big to bring that thing down."
"Hmm... we're creating another dilemma, right? And we have to involve that damned Stardus again?"
"Ahem. Seo-eun, calling her ‘that damned Stardus’ is a bit much. But yes."
"U-um... so why exactly am I here?"
While we were deep in heated discussion, a quiet question suddenly came from the side.
Everyone turned their heads toward the source of the voice, and there was Lee Ha-yul, flinching slightly at the sudden attention.
"Ah, Ha-yul. You're practically family to us now. And family should help with the family's plans, right? I called you here so we could put our heads together. Collective intelligence, okay?"
She murmured, 'Family...' and nodded. Her gaze grew a little more motivated.
...Collective intelligence was part of it, but I had also invited her repeatedly so she would gradually become one of us. Becoming accomplices built intimacy and deepened bonds. If we kept growing closer, perhaps one day she would reveal her healing ability to us.
At any rate, we put our heads together.
Ideas were proposed and discarded one after another, until—
Seo-eun clapped her hands as if she'd just remembered something.
"Oh! Big bro! Remember that thing we didn't use last time? The one you named the Good Samaritan or whatever?"
"That one?"
Right, there had been something like that. It had been scrapped because we'd ended up staging a different attack. But that wasn't really something we could use on a bridge, was it?
"No, big bro. I'm saying we should modify it for this."
Then Seo-eun explained her idea.
Oh, that was good.
At that moment, Ha-yul, who had been quietly listening, spoke up from the side.
"Um... wouldn't it be good to do this here too? Since you said there wouldn't be any casualties, maybe we could..."
"Oh. That's not bad either."
And so we spent the next several days refining the plan.
Several days passed.
"Alright, this should do it."
The preparations were complete.
***
Shin Ha-ru.
Recently, she had developed a new habit.
[Mangostic fan here. I made an Egostic—how'd I do?]
[The quiz show was peak Mangostic]
[True Mangostic fans know the train attack was peak]
[Mang, mang, mang—why do all these posts start with mang? Is it because this is a Mangostic cafe?]
[Day 118 of eating mangoes in gratitude while praying for Egostic's return]
[The real reason Mangostic has no choice but to appear this week]
[Repost: Five reasons Egostic isn't coming back]
Her new habit was reading posts on Egostic's fan cafe.
She'd started checking for new information about Egostic, but reading it every day had gradually become a habit.
Most posts were meaningless nonsense, but she was idly skimming them to pass the time when—
A new post went up.
[yo Egostci new vid droppped ajskdfjksdf]
"...?"
At the same time.
Posts began flooding the cafe.
[IT'S UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]
[Holy shit, this is sex lmaooooooo]
[Thank you thank you thank you thank you]
[Yo, it's up lololol]
[I'm watching TV—what the hell is this lol]
[He's here lololol]
[Our guy came roaring back lololol]
[Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic!]
[New porn finally dropped after 118 days lololol]
[Yo, holy shit, it's up lololol]
[Why is this real? Why is this real? Why is this real? Why is this real? Why is this real? Why is this real?]
[There's a community celebrating a terror attack? Pew pew!]
[Turn on the TV or YouTube right now]
[Damn it, I knew I could count on him!!!]
[Where is that? Hurry up and analyze it lol]
Shin Ha-ru grasped the situation in an instant and hurriedly opened YouTube.
A video was already featured on the front page.
[《Live Stream》Hello, this is Egostic.]
At the same moment, the Hero Association contacted her.
"Yes, yes. I saw it. I'm on my way now."
She sprang to her feet and started running.
He was back.