Eve of Terror
Eve of Terror
Pulling off a terrorist attack right away and seeing Stardus again would be nice, sure.
But before that, there was something essential I had to do.
"Come inside."
"....Where is this?"
Choi Se-hee was watching me with guarded eyes.
Late at night, I'd grabbed her and teleported us to a house.
More precisely, the house with the Underground Base beneath it.
"My home."
"....Right."
She followed in silence, looking strangely resigned.
What had happened to turn someone as strong-willed as her into this?
I genuinely couldn't understand what could have happened in a single week.
Still, whatever. This was better than constant defiance.
She obediently followed me inside, and I was about to show her a whole new world.
"All right, step inside."
"Mm-hm..."
The place Choi Se-hee and I entered was the Teleportation Device in the room.
The bizarre-looking machine stood inexplicably in the middle of the house. She tilted her head at it, but entered the capsule without a word.
I activated the device.
After a brief spinning sensation, we stepped out of the capsule.
We had definitely been inside an ordinary house when we entered.
But when we came out, a grand mansion nestled among the mountains stretched before us.
"...And where is this?"
"This is my actual home."
I had two houses.
I said that and headed toward the forest in front of the mansion.
She followed, glancing back at the mansion.
A man and a woman walking into the woods in the middle of a dark mountain valley.
She'd followed without a word and stopped when I stopped, completely ready to do whatever I said.
...No, seriously, what was with her? This wasn't how her character was supposed to act. No matter how I looked at it, changing this much in one week made no sense. It was weird.
"Ahem."
Anyway, I stopped in the middle of the woods and spoke to her as she stared at me blankly, looking slightly desperate.
"All right. There's no one here. Just the two of us, and nothing is watching this place."
"So?"
"Here, you can use your ability as much as you want. Go ahead—let the electricity out."
"...Didn't you say you were staging an attack?"
"Who said we were staging the attack right away? We need to prepare first. Go ahead and use it as much as you want. Full power."
"As much as I want?"
"Yeah."
When I told her to use her ability freely—as much as she wanted—she hesitated instead.
Well, of course she would. She'd never had a chance to use her power freely in her life. Now that the moment had come, it probably felt strange—a little frightening and a little thrilling.
I nodded to encourage her as she hesitated. Come on, hurry up!
After watching me, she steadied her breathing and opened her hand.
At the same time, sparks began flying from her palm.
"Hnnng..."
When she finally let everything go and unleashed her power freely, electricity flashed from her fingertips.
At the same time—
Crackle—
electricity burst out in every direction around her.
It shot from her entire body like lightning.
Branches of electricity sprayed outward like a fountain.
It didn't stop there. Her entire body began to be engulfed in electricity.
Then, as though something inside her had snapped—
sparks flashed and streaked through the entire forest like lightning.
"Ooooh...."
I watched from a safe distance, impressed.
It was such a spectacle that I wished I had popcorn beside me.
Electricity poured around her like a massive dome, and against the dark night it looked like fireworks. Black and yellow filled my vision.
The branches of electricity split and scattered through the air, smashing the surrounding trees to pieces. It was complete chaos.
Of course, I wasn't just watching in admiration. I was also checking the strength of her electrical attacks. My conclusion was—
'She's strong, as expected.'
The firepower was considerable.
No matter how much she had stored up, continuously producing that much current was impressive. A single branch of electricity could shatter a tree, so its power spoke for itself.
She had spent decades unable to discharge that much electricity, bottling it up alone. Of course the stress had made her irritable. She stood out too much; talent like that could never stay hidden forever.
After the fireworks continued for a while, they came to an end.
Apparently satisfied after venting everything she wanted, she drew the electricity back in.
I'd kept my distance and only approached after it was over.
"Hah... hah..."
She had collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath.
I handed her a bottle of water I'd prepared in advance.
"Satisfied? Here, have some water."
"Huh? Oh, thanks."
Sitting there sweaty and dazed, she took the bottle and immediately gulped it down.
Her face flushed red, she lowered the bottle from her lips.
Her orange hair clung to her neck, soaked with sweat. She was still breathing hard, clearly exhausted... but she looked incredibly relieved.
Of course she felt great. It was the first time she'd ever displayed her ability to her heart's content. In the Original Work, she never got this chance, so she did the same thing in the middle of the city one night and was dragged off to a detention center.
Now She'd let her destructive instincts run wild and shattered every tree around her. Even the grass had been scorched black.
She stayed seated on the ground, and I extended my hand to her, saying:
"If you stay with us... you'll never have to hide your ability again. You're not an ordinary person. You can't live your entire life suppressing your talent. Only with us can you live as your true self."
"These attacks you stage... they don't hurt people, right?"
"No. I'm a pacifist."
"...That's a bold thing to say after everything you've done."
She scoffed, but still took my hand and stood up.
I smiled at her and said:
"Welcome to Ego Squad, Choi Se-hee."
"Ego Squad... what the hell is that...."
***
Now that I'd recruited an Ability User, let's stage an attack right away!
...Would have been nice, but reality wasn't that simple.
There was plenty to do before an attack: preparation, researching the timing, drafting the plan, and more.
On top of that, Choi Se-hee needed training with her ability.
"...You're saying I can fly by firing electricity at the ground?"
"Yeah. Think of it as wrapping yourself in electricity and firing it toward the ground."
"Mm-hm.... Oh, that actually works?"
Under my special training, based on my knowledge of the Original Work, she improved quickly.
She'd gone so long without using her ability that she didn't even know how to apply it, so I stayed beside her and coached her.
Of course, we'd dropped the formal-speech act the night before. We'd be seeing each other every day, and keeping up that polite persona forever... my cringe tolerance...
"Hah, hah."
"Here, a towel."
"Big sis, here's some water!"
"Huff. Thanks."
While training her ability, she temporarily moved into my mansion.
As a bonus, she also became close with Seo-eun.
"Hey. Go wash up. You stink."
"Excuse me? Why are you picking a fight?"
I avoided her glare, turned my back, and headed toward the mansion as if I hadn't noticed. For the record, she'd grown much closer to me too. We spent all day training together; it'd've been stranger if we hadn't.
Just then, a bolt of electricity shot past me. That crazy woman!
"Ack! Hey! What are you doing shooting that at me? I'm a civilian!"
"Bullshit. How are you a civilian? Get over here. Today I'll show you the difference in power."
"Seo-eun, save me! She's trying to kill me!"
"...Big sis Se-hee, just hit him with a hundred thousand volts."
"Han Seo-eun, you too!"
It felt like there were fewer and fewer people I could trust in this house.
Anyway, time passed rather quickly like that.
She was worse at using her ability than I'd expected, so coaching her one-on-one took longer than planned. Still, time was the one thing I had plenty of. We had a long way to go before Kim Seon-woo pulled that stunt, so there was no problem taking it slowly.
Choi Se-hee adapted well to life in the house.
Having worked in the service industry since graduating, she got along well not only with Seo-eun but also with Soo-bin and Ha-yul. After quitting her part-time job, she drifted around not knowing what to do until Seo-eun's devilish temptation got her hooked on games.
"....Games are fine, but shouldn't you sleep at night too?"
"Yes...."
"Sorry, big sis...."
Of course, the two of them once stayed up all night gaming, got caught by Soo-bin, and were scolded. Idiots. They should have escaped around five in the morning like I did.
"But big bro stayed up with us until dawn too."
"....Dain, really?"
"......"
Of course, thanks to that traitor, I was scolded along with them.
In any case, a month had already passed since Choi Se-hee began staying with us.
At last, for the first time in a while, I called everyone into the meeting room in the Underground Base.
"......"
Four pairs of eyes watched me.
I opened my mouth and declared:
"All right. Today, we're finally going to prepare a new attack."
The curtain rose on Egostic's new concept: outsourced terror.
The era of staging attacks alone was over.
The age of collaborative attacks had arrived.
I explained the plan to them.
After hearing the whole thing, Choi Se-hee spoke.
"....So basically, I'm doing everything myself from beginning to end?"
"Yeah. That's right."
I needed a break too.
This time, you do it.