Hijack
Hijack
The southern coast of South Korea.
There, with the seawater rolling around us, we sailed a yacht toward our destination.
"Phew... now this is the life."
The salt-scented wind slapped my face, and the fierce sea breeze whipped my cape around.
We cut across the sea toward our target.
"Hey, Soo-bin. Where the hell did you learn to pilot a boat?"
Apparently bored of standing around on the yacht, Choi Se-hee approached Soo-bin at the helm and asked.
Soo-bin answered her like it was nothing.
"Where? I just taught myself at home. Off the internet."
"??? You're telling me that's possible?"
Choi Se-hee sounded like she couldn't believe it, so I chimed in from behind.
"There is nothing Soo-bin cannot do. She even knows how to operate trains and planes."
"...What? Seriously?"
"Yep."
"No... damn."
Choi Se-hee clutched her head as if dizzy. Se-hee, Soo-bin lived in a different world from the rest of us. Don't try to understand her.
As their casual conversation showed, the two had grown much closer than before.
How had that happened? It was a little strange, but they'd bonded while we were thoroughly wringing out that Han-eun Group researcher we'd caught and Kim Seon-woo. More accurately, after the whole armed-weapon incident, Seo-eun and Soo-bin—who both had plenty of pent-up anger toward Han-eun Group—had been joined by Choi Se-hee in thoroughly tormenting them before we dumped them on the Association.
How bad had the torment been? Well, let's just say Dr. Kim Seon-woo was a broken man by then and leave it at that. That was what he got for performing human experiments. He ought to have been grateful I hadn't killed him.
Anyway. Our current target was in the waters south of Busan.
One single objective.
"There... it is coming into view."
Through the hazy sea mist, a massive ship began to slip into view.
A vessel like something Vikings might have used, fitted with cannons and crowned by enormous white sails, emerged into view.
And the special thing about that ship was—
"Hey, what the... it's... floating?"
Yeah.
The ship was floating in the air.
That enormous flying vessel was Alice, the villainous pirate ship we had come to hijack.
*
After Han-eun Group's giant weapon attacked Seoul, the Original Work, Stardust!, grew steadily darker, beginning with the devastation of the capital.
The greatest reason for that darker mood was the continuing appearance of powerful villains.
To be honest, up until then, the villains had all been fairly mediocre. Except for the truly unstoppable disasters, the average villain had been a pushover.
From this point on, the atmosphere changed. The villains who appeared grew stronger, gradually becoming more than Stardus could handle.
Their numbers increased as well. With strong and distinctive villains appearing in both quality and quantity, social chaos was inevitable.
Unlike before, when most attacks had been concentrated in Seoul, powerful villains began appearing one after another in other regions too. It was the Warring States era of villains.
In the Original Work, this gradually exhausted Stardus and darkened the story, beginning the truly bleak part of the narrative... but—
That had changed considerably because of my appearance. Stardus had grown stronger faster than in the Original Work, and from then on I planned either to win over the various villains or deal with them myself.
And as the first step toward that—
We had come to capture the villain who would wreck Busan.
"Whoa... what is this?"
Choi Se-hee looked up and clicked her tongue as she spoke.
It was an astonishing sight the first time anyone saw it: a massive airship floating through the sky.
Choi Se-hee, who had been marveling at the sight of a battleship cutting not through the sea but through the sky above the sea, turned back to me and asked.
"So. What's the plan again?"
"First, we go up there and beat the crap out of them."
I said it plainly. If they were beaten into reforming, they would join our side. If not... well, they would become fish food.
"Anyway. Here. Grab my hand. Soo-bin, we'll be back."
"Sure. I'll be waiting here, so go on ahead."
"Haah, fine. Let's go."
Choi Se-hee cracked her knuckles and loosened her hands, then grabbed mine.
And just like that, we teleported straight onto that flying ship.
Time to rehabilitate some villains.
***
The three villains who commanded the flying ship and used it for plunder called themselves the Lepis Squad.
Their most distinctive feature was that they all wore what looked like motorcycle helmets with something like rabbit ears attached.
They mainly operated in other countries, raiding ships from that cannon-laden airship. Their first appearance in the Original Work began with an attack on Busan, where an unprepared Icicle was beaten badly. Of course, things would be different this time.
Anyway. The giant flying ship.
Standing there, overlooking the sea stretching in every direction, were three figures.
In the center stood the figure wearing the red rabbit-eared helmet, with two others in matching blue and yellow helmets beside them. The three were whispering among themselves.
And behind those bastards, the two of us landed lightly.
The moment a creaking sound came from the spot where we touched down, they whipped their heads around to look at us.
"What was that? Who goes there?"
What they saw was me with my black hat and fluttering cape, and Choi Se-hee loosening her fists off to the side.
The one in the center shouted at the two of us.
"Who are you!"
The guy in the center yelled the second he saw me.
I answered him with a yawn.
"Your boss, you idiots."
"What the hell are you talking about? Blue! Yellow! Intruders! Grab your weapons!"
"Yes!"
"Yes!"
The two beside him started scrambling to grab their weapons.
Me?
Watching them, I simply used telekinesis to float the baseball bats we'd brought in a bundle.
And beside me, Se-hee was clenching her fists and sparking with power.
Looking at those guys winding up to charge at us, I broke into a grin.
Nothing worked better on bad guys than a beating.
"Get them!!!"
With that shout from the one in the middle wearing the rabbit helmet,
All three charged at once, and the fight began.
***
Some time later.
"So. What was it you said earlier?"
I tapped my bat on the floor in front of the three kneeling figures.
"Who's the boss?"
"Egostic is, sirrrrr!!"
"Good, good."
How much time had passed?
The villains who had received 'socialization' training from me and Choi Se-hee were now showing signs of having realized their sins and feeling remorse. What a beautiful sight!
"Hey, Red."
"Y-yes!"
The man in the red rabbit helmet at the center flinched and answered. Good. A prompt response was always nice.
"Good. From now on, you're in a temporary alliance with Ego Stream."
"Huh?"
"You're the second team in the Villain Alliance, Ego Stream. Do you understand or not?"
"U... understood, sirrrr!!!"
I swung my bat and extracted the desired answers from them.
"...Wow, watching this, I seriously can't tell who the villain is anymore."
Choi Se-hee, who'd been watching from behind me, clicked her tongue and said that.
...Hey, I was a villain, you know?
"Anyway! Welcome to Ego Stream!"
I spread my arms wide and shouted.
Villain rule number one: after a fight, everyone is friends. My new friends might have been kneeling in front of me, but they were still friends.
After several hours of my "socialization," the Lepis—or Rabbit, whatever they were—had been completely broken and even sworn from the bottom of their hearts to commit only good-natured attacks from now on. Very effective.
After finishing all the preparations, I contacted Icicle—Lee Seol-ah.
"Right. The preparations for the Busan invasion are complete. We'll sail in on a cannon-equipped airship and go bang-bang at the city. How do you want to handle it?"
[...An airship? You really do bring the most outrageous things. What date were you thinking? Then... I can warn the citizens about the air raid in advance and score some points... and if I put on a show of stopping you, it should improve my image...]
"And hey, get me a cool-looking sail made. Black."
[Huh? Fine, sure. That's easy enough. Then...]
After conspiring over specific terror dates and execution plans, I hung up. Good. That's taken care of.
Next up... Right. I said to the former villains, who were still kneeling and watching my every move.
"You guys said you wanted to raid Busan, yeah?"
"What? No, sirrr!!! We'll quietly go home now!!!"
"No, no. That's not it. Don't do that. Let's do a job together."
I said that with an even bigger smile.
These rabbit villains were trembling hard at my bright grin.
We should get along, right?
We're partners now.
And so I prepared the attack with them.
Sail a flying ship to Busan and fire a few cannonballs. That was an attack.
It was all a rigged game I was playing with Icicle anyway, so there was nothing really to it. We just had to make sure the broadcast footage came out well.
And so, the day of the showdown dawned.
***
Downtown Busan.
In that peaceful place, sirens suddenly blared.
Weee-oooh. Weee-oooh.
And soon, a voice rang out across the entire city.
[Ah-ah. This is an announcement from Yuseong Group. Terrorists are currently attacking Busan! We detected them before the Association and are contacting you urgently. Evacuate immediately!]
Icicle's urgent voice rang out from every electronic device made by Yuseong Group.
Caught off guard by the sudden situation, the citizens were flustered but quickly began evacuating.
And how much time had passed?
Beyond the sea horizon visible from Haeundae, something enormous was flying in.
A ship so enormous that it was hard to believe it could float in the sky.
It flew in magnificently over the sea from the south.
Attached to the top of that massive airship was a giant black sail.
And written on it in huge letters was the word EGOSTREAM.
I stood on the foremost deck of that ship, arms crossed, cape billowing, looking down at Busan visible far ahead.
"Egostic! All preparations are complete!"
"Boss! The cannons are also prepped and ready!"
"Excellent, men. Increase the ship's speed at once!"
I shouted like that as I looked down at the wide cityscape of Busan.
Hm. Staging an attack by the sea instead of in Seoul felt fresh.
And so, feeling the ocean breeze, I prepared to turn on the broadcast.
All right. Shall we begin the show?
***
[Ego Stream Broadcast ON]
[Broadcast is live go go go go go]
[Oh wtf what's with the airship lol]
[Damn that ship is hella cool lol]
[Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic! Mangostic!]
[??Isn't this Busan???]
[Mangostic appeared in Busan lol]
[Busan boys, have a taste of mango delivered straight from Seoul lol]
[Icicle is about to get a massive popularity boost, holy shit]
Shin Ha-ru, who had been about to deploy immediately upon hearing that Egostic had appeared, read the chat and found herself rubbing her eyes and looking again.
But no matter how many times she looked, the message was the same: Egostic had appeared in Busan, not Seoul.
"The terrorist attack... isn't here?"
Shin Ha-ru found herself muttering, her eyes dead.
...Why?