A Stepping Stone for the Future
A Stepping Stone for the Future
After Electra's debut and the announcement of the villain alliance's founding, I decided to take another break.
The advantage of being a villain was that after one big job, I could take a few weeks off whenever I wanted.
Well, really, I was merely waiting for the Original Work's main event to happen.
Anyway, we were spending our days peacefully like that.
"....I can't look at entertainment news these days."
A lazy afternoon.
As I was playing a game on the TV in the living room with Seo-eun, Choi Se-hee's voice came from behind.
"Why can't you?"
"Haah. Because every time I open it, this stuff shows up."
She sat on the sofa and held her phone out toward me.
The screen displayed an article that read [Egostic X Electra: A Collection of Their Explosive Presence and Chemistry.zip].
"Big bro! In front of you!"
"Huh? Agh!"
And while looking at that, I died in the game.
"Trash game."
If a game killed me merely because I glanced away for a second, it was trash. What else could it have been?
"Haah... What did you see? Show me too."
While Seo-eun looked at Choi Se-hee's phone, I spoke to Choi Se-hee.
"Don't take it too seriously. It's just people who don't know us spinning fantasies."
"No... but it's plastered right on the main page like that. Doesn't it bother you?"
Choi Se-hee gave me a complicated look.
Me?
Come to think of it, I had been genuinely startled when the dating rumors with Stardus first appeared—enough that I had considered blowing up the broadcasting station.
But well. Now.
"You get used to it after a while."
"...That's real helpful."
As I dodged Choi Se-hee's sour look, Seo-eun, who was beside me, spoke up a bit curtly.
"No. I've been by your side the longest, so why does everyone only notice big sis Se-hee?"
"Why? Because you were behind the scenes, and Choi Se-hee stood in front of the camera with me."
"Ugh. Don't even mention the camera. Do you know how embarrassing it was acting in front of it? When I said, 'I'm Electra!' I almost bit my tongue from the cringe."
"...But even so, you seemed to be enjoying it by the middle of it."
"Me? Ha! That's ridiculous."
She clammed up, her face slightly reddening as if my jab had hit home, and she turned her head.
Beside me, Seo-eun muttered, "Me too... an attack..."
Hmm.
Still a peaceful day indeed.
***
Still, our Ego Squad—no, it was Ego Stream now—did not spend all its time playing around. When there was work to do, the members did it.
Seo-eun and Soo-bin were busy continuously building the Ego Stream website. They said something about running macros, but I didn't really know what that meant.
Ha-yul and Cha-yun were busy studying. Cha-yun in particular had declared his ambition to join the Association and help me when he grew up. Very commendable.
Choi Se-hee was still training to control her ability.
As for me.
I was standing in the middle of downtown Seoul.
An ordinary street you could see anywhere in Seoul, lined with old buildings.
I entered a small red-brick one among them.
The interior was so shabby it seemed about to collapse.
Once inside, I immediately took the stairs down to the basement.
The basement was just as dark and run-down as the floor above.
It looked like an ordinary path leading underground.
The difference?
No matter how far down I went, the stairs continued endlessly.
"....Good."
I muttered to myself for no particular reason.
This is the right place, right?
As if nothing was wrong, I kept lightly descending the stairs. Then, suddenly, I kicked the wall beside me with a bang.
"Anyone home!!!"
At the same time, the wall crumbled as if made of sand.
And beyond the crumbling wall stretched a long corridor.
I was in the right place.
Green candles softly illuminated an antique stone corridor, a stark contrast to the dilapidated building above. Moss added to the mysterious atmosphere as I strode through it. Seriously, who still used candles in this day and age? If it were up to me, I'd replace them all with LEDs. This place needed industrialization.
While I was entertaining such idle thoughts, I soon found myself at the end of the corridor.
And in front of me stood a black door.
It was an antique obsidian door covered in intricate decorations, but that was none of my concern. Wooden, obsidian, automatic—doors were made to be opened. So I threw it open with a bang.
When I stepped through, I saw a somewhat spacious room, softly glowing with the same green candlelight.
Passing by various frames and a bubbling cauldron, I marched straight toward a pale green curtain hung like a veil.
My outfit? Black hat, black shoes, cape, mask—the complete Egostic suit. I had changed along the way. Honestly, she would probably see through my identity anyway, but it was better to be safe.
I pulled back the veil to reveal a small round table. And on it, a crystal ball.
And there, facing me, was a woman.
"Hello?"
When I greeted her as I entered, she silently nodded.
Her deep green robe covered her head and hid her face. She was the villain who would immediately receive an S-rank classification once the Association discovered her identity: the Vine Witch.
Once I sat down, she finally spoke.
"A new face. What brings you here?"
"I came to commission a job."
Right. The reason I'd come to her was to commission a job.
I pulled out two leather notebooks I'd brought in advance.
One was my diary, and the other was a blank one.
"Please place a sealing spell on these two."
"For how long?"
"Until I die. Both of them."
As I said that, I pulled something else from my pocket.
In a small box were dozens of gemstones in all colors of the rainbow.
When I placed the box on the table, she nodded and took the notebooks from me.
Then she began chanting in a low voice.
With her hand resting on my notebooks, she murmured, and both books started glowing green.
A short while later, the light went out.
She handed the two notebooks back to me as if the work was done.
As I examined both, I saw that green runic patterns that hadn't been there before were now etched on the covers.
"...Now, no one except the owner will be able to forcibly open them or peek at their contents."
"Thank you."
With that, I stood up.
My business was done. It was time to leave.
I said that and pulled back the veil to step outside. As I headed toward the door, a voice suddenly came from behind.
"...You walk a hard road."
Her voice swept past me, and I paused.
That single remark, as if she saw right through me, made my steps slow of their own accord.
As expected, someone of her level could see through me at a glance.
How should I reply?
...Right.
"...Because it's a road someone has to walk."
"Stay strong."
She offered a brief encouragement in response.
Had the Vine Witch ever said anything like that in the Original Work? I couldn't remember her ever offering encouragement.
I quietly closed the door and walked down the corridor.
A hard road, huh.
I chewed on the words and chuckled.
If it hadn't been hard, I wouldn't have started in the first place.
***
When I got back home, I gazed at the two notebooks spread out before me.
The first was my diary. With Choi Se-hee now living in the house, the risk of someone finding it had risen, so I sealed it outright. It contained my goals and everything else; discovery would be disastrous.
The other was a newly purchased notebook.
I planned to fill it in little by little. I'd do that later.
Having roughly finished my tasks, I logged into the Stardus fan cafe.
The country's largest hero fan cafe, which I had created myself: the Stardus Fan Cafe, home of the Stardus Fandom.
Watching the cafe grow larger by the day filled me with a strange sense of pride.
...The only problem was that its membership was not even a quarter of the Mangostic Fandom's. Did it make any sense for a villain's fan cafe to be larger than a hero's? I pitied anyone who did not understand Stardus's appeal.
I grumbled to myself while managing the cafe.
Stardus pictures—save. Stardus praise posts—like. Stardus dating rumors—delete. Stardus and Egostic looked good together? ...Hmm. That one could stay.
While handling things one by one, I came to a sudden halt at the title of a post.
[Heard from an acquaintance who works at the Association: the day Egostic went underground at Han-eun Group, Stardus went in too?]
I immediately deleted it and banned the poster.
You knew too much.
After that swift deletion, I started thinking back on Han-eun Group. Seo-eun and Soo-bin's enemy. The megacorporation that conducted secret experiments. And the escaped chief, Kim Seon-woo, along with his researchers.
Looking at the calendar... yeah. It was almost time.
"Finally, I'll finish them off."
Yes.
This time, I'd completely destroy Han-eun Group—the Original Work's mid-boss and a living misery factory—once and for all.
I rose from my seat.
It was time to prepare the broadcast and draw up the plan.
And this time, I'd make sure to call Stardus out by name.
"..."
There was absolutely no way I was doing it because I had recently seen a post on my fan cafe claiming that Egostic seemed to have abandoned Stardus.
Absolutely not.