Followers
Followers
[Egostic's followers are currently carrying out a bombing in central Incheon. After planting explosives throughout the building, they claim they intend to set off more... The group remains barricaded inside and has made no demands, claiming they want nothing but death. At least three people are currently believed to have been killed.]
My expression hardened as I watched the news Seo-eun showed me.
Who the hell were these bastards, calling themselves my followers and using my name for this crap?
And more than that—what? Casualties? They killed people?
It felt like something inside me snapped.
I'd pulled all that shit yesterday to build recognition and establish my image.
And they tore it down the very next day.
...What a fucking joke.
Who do you think you are, using my name to stage an attack?
And doing it like this—a crude, savage, violent method completely out of step with my style?
"..."
And people died.
When I chose this villain's path, I was resolute on one thing: no civilian casualties. Not ever.
But three people are dead.
Since the people responsible were calling themselves my followers, that effectively made it my responsibility.
My face still hard with tension, I turned to Seo-eun, who was sitting in her chair.
"Seo-eun, help me one more time. I need to clean those people up, then take care of something afterward."
"Yes. I thought you'd say that, so I got things ready in advance."
Seo-eun rummaged through a drawer and handed me a phone.
I took it and walked toward the elevator.
"Ha. I'm actually speechless..."
I let out a hollow laugh.
Seriously.
Two days in a row? This is too much.
***
Korean Association of Superpowered Individuals.
Though no one actually calls it that—the Hero Association.
The mood inside the Hero Association was tense.
"What's the current situation?"
At the Association President's low-voiced question, the agent seated before him replied at once.
"The perpetrators are still barricaded at the scene. It appears around three hundred hostages are trapped inside the building."
"Any additional casualties?"
"No more so far."
"Understood. Are the heroes on their way?"
"A team of B and C-rank heroes is on standby. However, the perpetrators are threatening to detonate the bombs, so the team cannot approach."
"Damn those bastards. Did that bastard Egostic bring them here?"
"We're investigating whether they have any connection to him... but so far, we don't know."
"Right, got it. Ah, yes. Where is Stardus right now?"
"I'm told she's currently observing the situation from nearby. In an emergency, she'll likely attempt to storm the building."
Exactly as the agent had said.
Shin Ha-ru, Stardus, was watching the scene intently from a nearby rooftop.
'Damn it, what do I do...'
The Hero Association exists for a simple reason.
Villains with supernatural abilities were difficult for ordinary police officers to apprehend.
The Association had therefore been founded on the principle that people with supernatural abilities—superpowers—would apprehend them instead.
Contemporary acts of terror are almost exclusively committed by villains with superpowers.
Most attacks were committed by people who had awakened as villains, either to flaunt their power or out of resentment toward the world.
That made an attack carried out by people without superpowers, like this one, a rare occurrence.
The reason being...
'Egostic. That bastard.'
Shin Ha-ru ground her teeth.
His style of using almost no superpowers and pressuring heroes with bombs alone had definitely inspired others.
'No. Seeing as this happened the day after his incident, that son of a bitch put them up to it.'
Yeah, that was the far likelier possibility.
The alternative—that someone organized a mass terrorist attack like this in a single day—made no sense.
Clearly a premeditated crime.
'I should have caught him yesterday... Wait, what's that?'
Just as she spotted something, her in-ear piece crackled with a report from command.
[Stardus. Egostic has appeared at the scene. I repeat: Egostic himself appears to be on-site. He is currently streaming himself on YouTube. Confirm immediately.]
She didn't need the urgent dispatch from headquarters to know he had arrived.
She could see him—Egostic, appearing right in front of the building where the criminals were holding the hostages.
"YouTube...?"
Headquarters had mentioned something in the dispatch about them streaming on YouTube.
She hurriedly turned on her phone and opened the app.
The #1 trending video was right there on the main page.
[Egostic LIVE]
She tapped the video.
***
A building gripped by cold tension.
A street with not a soul in sight.
There, a figure in black appeared.
A black robe covered his entire body.
His hair was as dark as his clothes.
A half-mask concealed his face.
Yep. That's me. Egostic.
*
[wtf is this?]
[villain live stream holy shit]
[is Egostic seriously live-streaming a terrorist attack rn???]
[the greatest villain of our era Egostic has arrived lol]
[oh I had nothing to do today this got interesting all of a sudden lol]
[chat is full of lunatics this is an active crime scene you fucking psychos]
[yeahhh as long as it doesn't happen to me ~~~~]
[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]
[why's the chat gone to shit lmaooo]
[how come YouTube hasn't taken this down?]
[thinking about how he hijacked the airwaves yesterday, maybe YouTube literally can't take it down]
*
...And the sight of me walking was being streamed live on YouTube.
The phone filming me was held in place with telekinesis.
To rescue my reputation from its obvious free fall, this had been a necessary choice, but...
A quick glance at the chat was already making me regret it.
In any case, I kept walking.
And before I knew it, I was standing in front of the building.
I entered without anyone stopping me and found the interior dark.
And inside sat a vast crowd. So many people.
The ones who were standing wore black outfits and masks, much like me.
Their masks covered their entire faces, unlike mine, which concealed only half.
I stepped into the building's spacious lobby.
The people standing there with guns looked momentarily startled when they first saw me.
But soon, recognizing me by the black robe and half-mask, a few of them started whooping and cheering.
Then a terrorist's voice echoed through the lobby.
Seeing me, he spoke with a voice brimming with glee.
"Our hero, Egostic himself, has graced us with his presence!"
The followers surrounding him joined in a chorus, led by the first one who had spoken.
"Egostic! Egostic!"
"He's here! He's really here!"
"Keeeeeeek!"
The mob shrieked when they saw me.
While in their midst, the hostages did nothing but huddle and tremble.
And as I watched them...
"..."
'This is a complete clusterfuck.'
...I bit my lip.
However much I'd resolved to become a villain, before my transmigration, I was just an ordinary South Korean citizen.
So, deep inside me, I felt something starting to burn.
Hey, you ignorant bastards.
This is just a riot.
No subtle aura of menace from the scene, no novel methodology, no psychological pressure at all.
It was a crude attack built on nothing but raw violence and threats.
And they did all this while claiming to follow me and using my name?
After entering the building, I hadn't said a single word.
Instead, I slowly looked over each of them.
Every single one of these black-robed, masked figures had a gun.
And somewhere among them, one had to be holding a detonator.
[The one standing at 3 o'clock has the detonator.]
A voice came through my earpiece.
Seo-eun really was a genius hacker.
She told me exactly what I needed to know.
...Though how she'd figured that out, I had no idea.
People packed the spaces between the perpetrators.
Hadn't they said there were around three hundred?
"..."
All right. What should I do with these guys now?
Mm... Yeah.
First, let's put on a smile.
"Haha. Hahaha."
So I did just that—I gave them a nice, hearty laugh.
"Hahaha. Hahahahahaha! Well, this is amusing. Hahahaha!"
When I did, only my laughter echoed through the silent building.
Something in that laughter...
"..."
The self-proclaimed followers seemed to sense the strange mood and fell silent.
After I'd had my fill of laughing, I cut it off abruptly and spoke.
"I heard I had followers here, so I came to see what this was all about... My, my, my..."
As I deliberately drew out my words, a tension began to build inside the room.
"My, you've all done a truly... magnificent job!"
The moment they heard that, I could see the followers visibly relax.
Perhaps relieved, the man who seemed to be their leader spoke up.
"Ha, haha! Thank you! We're your fervent—"
"Magnificently."
Just as he was speaking.
I cut him off coldly and slipped a hand inside my coat.
"You've done a truly magnificent job of fucking everything—"
Even as I spoke, I pinned both the apparent leader and the one holding the detonator in place with telekinesis.
"—up."
The moment I finished speaking.
Bang. Bang.
I pulled the gun from my coat and shot them both.
Unable to move because of my telekinesis, the two were helpless as the bullets struck and they collapsed, bleeding.
"Aaaah!"
The hostages screamed as the guns went off right in front of them and people collapsed.
Amid the self-proclaimed followers, whose bewilderment was obvious even behind their masks, I calmly put the gun away again.
Yeah. Right. Since this mess started because of me, I should clean it up myself.
All right. Time for some attitude adjustment.
Thinking that to myself, I loaded fresh rounds.