Public Opinion
Public Opinion
The next morning.
"Are you really okay now?"
"Yeah, yeah. I told you I feel great."
"Weird... No way you'd bounce back in a day. Are you pretending you're fine because you don't want to go to the hospital?"
In the living room, I told them I woke up and my condition had improved.
Since nobody believed me, I demonstrated by zipping around the room with Teleportation—zoop, zoop. What was I even doing first thing in the morning...?
"What the... you really are better?"
"Huff, huff. I told you. Why are you so suspicious?"
"Strange... How'd you recover in a single day?"
Everyone looked puzzled—yesterday I had been coughing up blood and dying, and now I was suddenly full of energy—but my "Hey, if it's good, it's good~" attitude was enough to make them let it slide.
Over there, Ha-yul quietly smiled as she stroked the head of her delighted younger brother, who kept saying what a relief it was.
She seemed to be feeling a little better today. Honestly, last night she had turned into a monster possessed by late-night emotions, and it was a little scary... Seeing her drown in guilt and blame herself like that had made me feel bad.
Then again, she might look like an adult, but she was still only a high-school junior. Ah, with the year changing next month, she would be a senior, wouldn't she?
Come to think of it, Seo-eun was in her third year of middle school, so she would be a high schooler next month. She still acted like a middle schooler, though. Tch.
Anyway, the day had dawned, so I decided to get a report on the last terrorist attack's results.
Soo-bin had organized all the data. No, she'd looked crazy busy lately taking care of three kids—when had she even done this?
In broad strokes, the outcome of my terrorist attack was as follows.
The complete collapse of Mapo Bridge.
The entire structure, pillars and all, had been blown apart. It was gone so cleanly that it looked as though no bridge had ever stood there. They had no idea how many years it would take to clear the wreckage and rebuild it.
Good. Perfect.
Now that insane black tentacle monster would not be able to charge into Seoul and reduce it to rubble as it had in the Original Work.
Just imagining it charging ahead without a care in the world, only to plunge straight into the Han River, already made me happy. Ah, I absolutely had to get some popcorn and watch the live broadcast that day.
The beginning of some grimdark story? No such thing. I would remove in advance anything that could turn my life into a grimdark tragedy—for Stardus's sake and my own.
Anyway, they said that for about three years, restoring even a single pillar—let alone the bridge itself—would be nearly impossible. All my preparations were complete.
According to my memory, the incident was supposed to happen next March—about four months away. But in case I had remembered the timing wrong, or events moved up as they had when I recruited Ha-yul, I had destroyed the bridge with plenty of time to spare. Now there was nothing to fear!
So my goal of smashing the bridge was perfectly achieved.
And I also got some unexpected news.
"What? There are more people badmouthing me?"
"Yeah, big bro. At this point, public opinion is almost entirely against you."
"No... I mean, becoming a terrifying villain was my goal from the start, so getting cursed out is one thing. But why now? They cheered when I tried to destroy ships, tied someone to a train track, and dropped a plane."
They had stayed quiet when I threatened to kill fifty people however I pleased, so why now, when this had even been decided by a public vote?
"Here's what happened..."
What Seo-eun told me was absurd.
During the attack, everyone had gone, "Hehe, free one hundred thousand won, easy money," but once it sank in that seven million people had each taken one hundred thousand won, they were apparently rather shocked.
All the people who insisted there was no way we'd pass five million in that short time, that a million was a stretch, all shut their mouths and played dumb.
In other words, they had proved my point that humans were selfish.
But that was where things got weird.
Foreign outlets started reporting this incident on their national news.
They covered the incident in South Korea, a small peninsula nation in the East, reporting that "seven million Koreans had actively participated in a terrorist attack for personal gain" and lamenting the disappearance of humanism.
In other words, South Korea turned into a bit of an international disgrace. Foreign netizens tsk-tsked at the selfishness too.
Then the Nationalist Hype TV channels suffered a bout of cognitive dissonance. Their whole business was scraping foreign communities for praise of Korea, but all they could find was criticism. The shock was enormous.
They directed all that anger at Egostic, who had caused the incident. Unable to live up to their own name, the Nationalist Hype TV channels began uploading video after video denouncing him.
Their rough conclusion was that every foreign reaction was the fault of that heinous bastard Egostic, while the Korean people were innocent victims deceived by his scheme.
These groundless, illogical videos spread fast among the older generation, who'd been distressed watching foreign news...
Journalists picked the story up and mass-produced articles, until the final conclusion was that they had been victimized by Egostic, the scumbag who toyed with people's hearts.
They could simply have refused the money, yet they turned around and blamed everything on Egostic. It was shameless.
The result: Egostic, who'd had a decent amount of likability, suddenly became a public enemy.
"Uh..."
Hearing all this, I was a bit dumbfounded.
Yeah, it was true that I had been flustered by the public favor ever since I became a villain.
And I did think I wanted to get some hate so I could be a proper true villain, but...
Now that it had happened this way, though, I found it kind of funny.
"Hmm. Well, it happened because of an attack I planned and orchestrated, so I guess you could say it was my fault in the end...?"
"How is that your fault, big bro? Seven million people chose to do it themselves, and now they're blaming you? That's ridiculous. You didn't force them into anything."
"Exactly! You didn't do anything wrong, big bro!"
Cha-yun, Ha-yul's little brother, had come out while getting water and chimed in to defend me as he passed. Haha...
"Tch... Does that mean the Mangostic Fandom is gone now? Did even they turn against me?"
"The Mangostic Fandom? No. If anything, they've become even more united."
"Banded together?"
What's this now?
"You think people only cursed big bro? Obviously they cursed your supporters too. So they all just linked arms and rallied together. Look."
Really?
I turned on my phone and opened the Official Egostic Fan Cafe.
I opened the hot posts list and browsed the titles—yep, they were absolutely blazing.
*
[Why are you cursing our Mango when you took the money yourselves?]
[Look at them shutting up after getting 100k from Mango lol]
[Just admit you're selfish. Why the fuck are you taking it out on Mango?]
[Came back from educating some kids at school who were badmouthing our Mango (proof attached)]
[Upvote if you're disgusted by people scapegoating Egostic lol]
[Live from our university campus app... Who the hell is this guy?]
*
"Hmm..."
I looked through the hot posts list and let out a groan.
Even a quick glance at the top showed a total mess.
"Ha. I'm not saying big bro did anything good, but acting as though it was entirely his fault is ridiculous."
Seo-eun, who'd been sitting on the couch behind me and looking at my phone, flopped onto her back.
"Big bro, you destroyed the bridge because you said those Han-eun Group researchers nearby would release some kind of monster through their experiments, right? And if it appeared, it’d have to cross that bridge?"
"Yeah? Yeah, that's right."
"Ha. I'm really curious what'll happen if things go exactly the way big bro said."
Seo-eun gave a sharp, wicked smile.
"So if a monster really gets stopped because of big bro, what kind of reaction do you think people will have then?"
Huh?
Good point.
I'd briefly forgotten after seeing all the hate, but if a monster the size of a high-rise plunged into the Han River, the whole country would see it. There would be no way to hide it.
Well, people's reactions will be funny when that happens. No, come to think of it, they might even turn into fervent supporters. They'll likely back my claim that it was a coincidence. Because otherwise they'd just be idiots.
Well, that's a story for then.
I simply relaxed and watched the news. Until the Black Monster Plunge incident, I'd stay home, make plans, and take it easy.
While I was looking at internet news, a particular article jumped out at me.
[Han-eun Group Technical Advisor Kim Seon-woo Released on Parole.]
"Oh."
I let out an audible exclamation.
Finally, just as in the Original Work, that bastard had gotten out of prison.
The guy who sparked this whole situation.
The man chiefly responsible for Han-eun Group's downfall.
And the very reason I destroyed the bridge—the one who ran the "Black Monster" project.
"Now that he's out, it's only a matter of time."
Something big is coming.
***
Seoul. Beneath the Han River.
In a deep underground laboratory, researchers in white coats all bowed their heads in unison.
"Dr. Kim Seon-woo. Welcome back."
"Yeah, enough. Guide me."
"Yes, sir!"
The man who made them all bow was a gaunt, bespectacled researcher with thinning hair.
Han-eun Group's technical adviser.
And the final supervisor and director of the secret project, "Post-Human."
Kim Seon-woo.
"Have the others report later. How close is 'it' to completion?"
"Almost finished. It's now showing signs of developing intelligence."
"Good, good. Let's see."
Other researchers guided him as he tapped at a tablet and strode forward.
Eventually they passed through a long, dark corridor and dozens of iron doors.
What emerged was an impossibly vast hall-like space hollowed out underground.
Countless researchers buzzed around, and there stood a water tank so enormous you couldn't take it all in with the naked eye.
One wall of the vast chamber was not a wall at all, but glass. Except for the area where the researchers stood, the entire space was one enormous tank.
A tank filled not with water, but with some pale green chemical solution.
Dr. Kim Seon-woo walked forward quietly and laid a hand on the glass wall of the tank, which was dozens of times his own height.
"Currently, the condition of Behemoth Beta is extremely stable."
"Good, good. So that's where we're..."
He gazed into the tank with a faraway look in his eyes.
Inside the green tank, something like a massive, house-sized black tentacle mass was curled up, writhing.
"...Soon, I'll complete you. Behemoth."
The doctor stared into the tank with fiery eyes.
And those eyes of his were burning with pure, unadulterated madness.
***
"Yep~ Behemoth is scheduled to plunge straight into the Han and get wiped out, right? Five years of research is scheduled to go down the drain, and the company is scheduled to go bankrupt, right?"
"Big bro, where did you pick up that weird way of talking? That’s streamer slang!"
I'd gotten excited muttering to myself after the news about Kim Seon-woo's release, and Seo-eun scolded me to use proper Korean.
A middle schooler scolding an adult to stop using frivolous newfangled words and speak seriously.
...Was that right? I'd seen adults scold middle schoolers for speaking improperly, but the reverse was simply...
No, Seo-eun, this is good news for you too.
Of course, my protest was ignored.
So mean.