Omen of Destruction
Omen of Destruction
Come to think of it, this world was a complete shitshow.
That thought crossed my mind as I stared out the window at the cities below.
From the outside, everything looked normal. Countless people scurried between towering skyscrapers. Looking at it, one might have thought it was no different from the world I had lived in before.
But the reality was vastly different. Mostly in the shitshow department.
For starters, people simply awakened superpowers at random. It'd have been one thing if those powers were only moderately strong. The problem was that every single one of them was ridiculously overpowered.
Case in point: Stardus could easily level several dozen buildings if she put her mind to it. The others were the same. Overseas, it was an even greater disaster. One could say without exaggeration that almost every country faced an extinction-level crisis every month.
Of course, perhaps because of some balance in the world, heroes stronger than most villains kept appearing, so society somehow continued to function. Without heroes, countries could not operate properly at all. The government therefore had far less influence than the Association. Even the president was a little paranoid.
And were villains the only problem? No. If Han-eun Group was any indication, the megacorporations were all batshit crazy too. Secret experiments were the baseline. Their rival, Yuseong Group, was the true mastermind pulling strings behind the scenes in South Korea by pressuring the government and the Association. Since Han-eun Group's collapse, they had probably begun seriously trying to swallow the whole country. Well, that actually worked in my favor. Once it happened, I'd only have to manage Lee Seol-ah.
Anyway, my point was this: the world wasn't normal. People with superpowers went around blowing things up, the government was useless, corporations ran the show, and gods and the afterlife existed on top of all that. It was absolute chaos. I missed my old, peaceful world.
"..."
I kept staring out the window, lost in thought.
And the real kicker? Even this was considered peaceful.
From here on, stronger villains would keep appearing, and the world would descend into even greater chaos.
And Stardus alone would have to shoulder all of it.
"Big bro, what are you doing staring out the window and moping all by yourself?"
"...Nothing. Let's get moving."
Seo-eun's voice from beside me finally snapped me out of my reverie. I turned my head.
Yeah.
In the end, it fell to me to stop all of it.
***
The manhwa I'd transmigrated into, Stardust!, was unofficially divided by fans into four major phases.
Phase 1 featured Stardus's growth and some slice-of-life elements. That was roughly the current point in the timeline, the most peaceful period.
Then came Phase 2, which began in earnest after the Han-eun Group Incident. From that point on, villains started appearing more frequently, armed with even stronger abilities.
And the event that fans labeled the start of Phase 2—the moment that cemented that world as a grim-dark nightmare—
was the Han-eun Group's Seoul Invasion Incident.
People died on a scale that made the Behemoth Incident look like a joke. Stardus was tormented by helplessness and self-blame for failing to stop it. The Association and government creaked at the seams. Seoul burned.
As outrage—“What had the heroes been doing?”—swept the nation, South Korea was devastated.
The city center became a living hell. Buildings and people were smashed to pieces. Forest fires raged.
But...
But I already knew it was going to happen, did I not?
Han-eun Group, you bastards were screwed.
A thrilling revenge story against the heroes from the Original Work? A glorious final blaze?
Not a chance, Seon-woo!!
"Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh."
"Dain. You really shouldn't do that in a crowded place..."
"Big bro..."
"Is he always like this?"
"...Bro?"
On our way down from the observatory.
I hadn't even realized I was doing it, but I let out an evil laugh, which immediately drew criticism from the group.
I was doing it for their own good, you know.
"...Whenever big bro laughs like that, it means he's plotting something evil again."
Only Seo-eun, who'd long watched me from the side, muttered under her breath with a disapproving look.
Calling it evil.
Here I was, trying to save humanity, and that was the thanks I got. I felt so wronged I could die.
Of course, from the perspective of Kim Seon-woo and the rest of Han-eun Group, it must have seemed like a nightmare come true.
***
Han-eun Group.
South Korea's top conglomerate publicly cultivated a friendly image, while secretly plotting to dominate the country through force behind the scenes.
Their illegal, inhumane human experiments and secret monster creation were exposed through the Behemoth Incident.
As a result, the company went bankrupt, and while the chairman and other high-ranking executives fled overseas, the researchers who conducted the experiments, led by Dr. Kim Seon-woo, couldn't escape.
In the Original Work, Kim Seon-woo hijacked Behemoth and fought Stardus, but he was ultimately defeated and forced to flee.
After that, he and the other employees realized they were finished. Since they were as good as dead anyway, they decided to set off one final catastrophe and take everyone with them.
That plan became the Han-eun Group Seoul Invasion Incident.
And the method they chose to turn Seoul into a sea of fire was—
a colossal weapon.
***
"So Han-eun Group is going to drag a giant robot into Seoul at night as one last desperate attack?"
"It's a weapon, not a robot, but yes."
"....."
The meeting room in the Ego Underground Base.
Seo-eun, Soo-bin, Choi Se-hee, and Ha-yul were all gathered there. I explained the situation to them.
"...What exactly is this giant weapon?"
"Imagine something vaguely octopus-shaped and as large as a mountain range. Its main body is a hemisphere with long steel limbs attached..."
"No, wait, hold on."
Choi Se-hee, who had been listening to me, cut me off and asked with obvious disbelief.
"A giant weapon is going to invade Seoul soon? And how do you know that?"
"I know everything except what I don’t know."
"What? That doesn’t make any..."
Choi Se-hee stared at me, eyes wide with disbelief, but I only smiled brightly back.
They said a man with many secrets was more attractive. Probably.
"Anyway, the plan is to hijack that giant weapon."
"Hijack it? How?"
"What do you mean, how? I’ll teleport to the control room, beat everyone there senseless, and we’ll take over. Done."
"You think it’ll be that easy?"
"What would make it difficult?"
Just as a human dies when the brain dies, a giant weapon is finished once its control room is captured.
"...But wouldn’t they have anticipated that and prepared defenses?"
"Of course they did."
More precisely, they had prepared for Shadow Walker, who could teleport anywhere at night.
They coated the weapon in a darkness-repelling substance extracted from Behemoth, preventing him from entering.
I explained this, and Choi Se-hee looked even more puzzled.
"....And you? What about your teleportation?"
"Me? Naturally, they didn't even consider me."
"Why?"
"Because I'm not a hero. I'm just an ordinary villain...?"
"Ah."
She made a stupid little sound as though the answer had only just occurred to her. What did these people think I was?
"Dain, is that machine really so powerful? Can we not just fire a few bombs at it?"
"No."
I shook my head.
It was no ordinary weapon. In the Original Work, its sheer size made anyone who saw it immediately think, “That cannot be stopped.” Whatever people fired at it, not even a scratch appeared. No one could tell what the astonishing thing was made of.
There was a reason it was called the final boss of Phase 1 in the Original Work. It was simply overwhelming. Nothing Stardus had faced before could compare. It was the true final boss.
So much so that even Stardus gave up trying to destroy it.
After explaining just how powerful, overwhelming, and extraordinary the weapon was, I summed it up in one sentence.
"And I'm planning to swallow it whole."
I flashed an evil grin as I said the words.
Yeah. What was my goal in this world again?
To give Stardus only trials she could handle.
And this was absolutely beyond what she could handle.
So in that case.
I could simply step in and turn it into a trial she could handle.
"It'll probably happen this week, so everyone should prepare in advance. Choi Se-hee, you're coming with me."
With that, I began laying out the plan.
It was a golden opportunity to finish Han-eun Group for good and help Stardus grow.
And especially for those bastards at Han-eun Group, led by Kim Seon-woo.
I couldn't wait to see their faces when the final blow they'd prepared so carefully went completely to shit.
Heh-heh... Hahahahaha.
****
Somewhere deep in the countryside.
Han-eun Group Secret Base, Sector C.
Deep within an underground complex whose end was impossible to see, countless people moved busily about.
They were gaunt and filthy, as though they had not washed in ages,
but their eyes burned with a fierce, venomous light.
As the white-coated researchers hurried around, one man cut through them with purpose.
He looked older than anyone else there.
He also looked the most exhausted.
Yet his eyes burned with the fiercest venom of all, as though he wanted to chew anyone in his way to pieces.
He had been the chief director of Han-eun Group's Behemoth Project.
Abandoned by the Board of Directors and left behind in Korea.
Dr. Kim Seon-woo.
He spat the words at the researcher hurrying beside him as if he wanted to bite their head off.
"So. You've completed the final inspection?"
"Yes, Doctor. We only need your command to deploy."
"I'll see for myself."
He walked on, his footsteps echoing, until he arrived at his destination.
An enormous empty chamber, as if an entire city had been turned upright and buried underground.
And filling that entire space—
several times taller than a skyscraper and as wide as a mountain range—
stood the ultimate masterpiece Han-eun Group had forged from its last dying flame, made solely for destruction, collapse, and chaos.
A weapon built for annihilation: Project Octopass.
"Yes... At last. It's finally complete."
Kim Seon-woo gritted his teeth and murmured.
Then, unable to contain his excitement, he shouted to the entire staff on the spot.
"All personnel, listen up!!!"
His destructive volume filled the vast chamber.
A researcher beside him hurriedly set up a microphone to broadcast his voice throughout the facility.
His voice echoed underground.
"How much have we sacrificed for Han-eun Group and for the advancement of this nation!"
"What have the people who condemn and vilify us—who devoted ourselves solely to creating a better world—ever done for this country?!"
"How they oppressed us for trying to rewrite human history through evolution, and now seek to purge us!"
"This rotten country is no longer needed!"
"Now it is our duty—our final calling—to turn this hateful country into a sea of fire with our own hands!"
"Tomorrow, we—"
He spat the final words through gritted teeth, his eyes burning.
"—will annihilate Seoul."
When the speech ended, cheers erupted around him. Agreement. A sea of fire. Annihilation. Rage.
Amid all the noise, he quietly closed his eyes.
Yes. Tomorrow.
Seoul would finally learn the meaning of apocalypse in his grasp.
***
"So, what was the plan for hijacking the weapon again?"
"I teleport to the control room and crack the operator over the head with a monkey wrench. Done. Then it is ours."
"...You think it'll be that easy?"
"Yeah."
See? Easy.