Chapter 9 - Her Daily Life

Shin Haru.

A student currently enrolled at Yeonhui University.

With her blonde hair and looks that turned heads wherever she went, she seemed ordinary in every other respect. Well, being pretty wasn't exactly ordinary in itself, but...

In any case, very few people knew that she was a Hero.

It was a secret known only to a handful of agents at the Hero Association and her fellow Heroes.

Thanks to that, she was able to enjoy a relatively normal university life.

...Of course, she did have a suspiciously high number of absences compared to other students.

That wasn't all.

She skipped the opening general meeting, missed orientation, skipped the MT retreat, missed after-parties, skipped festivals...

Having never participated in a single school event, she had very few close friends.

Of course, that was partly because she deliberately kept her distance from people. Still, she did have a few close peers and seniors, so it wasn't really a problem.

And so she managed her double life as both a university student and a Hero reasonably well.

Terrorist attacks didn't happen frequently in Seoul.

Maybe once every two weeks or so?

Honestly, even that was pretty often, but the world was chaotic enough that it was at least manageable.

After all, Korea hadn't seen that many powerful Villains emerge yet.

America, the world's strongest superpower, supposedly dealt with terrorist attacks daily, befitting its massive population.

But they also had enough S-Rank and A-Rank Heroes to maintain a certain balance.

There was even a saying that A-Rank Heroes were a dime a dozen in American cities.

Considering that all of South Korea only had a handful of A-Ranks, that just showed how exceptional America was.

That's why Haru didn't think her abilities were particularly impressive, despite being A-Rank herself.

What were her powers, really? Just super strength and flight. Nothing more.

That was all she had, which was why she could only stand by helplessly when Egostic pulled that stunt last time.

"....."

Tap. Tap.

She tapped her finger against the glass containing her smoothie.

Egostic.

At first, when she saw him going around killing Villains, she was filled with rage.

Back then, this was what she thought of Egostic:

An immature brat who gained power and ran wild.

Her theory went like this:

Some attention-seeker gained power and thought, 'Hey, can't I just take out all the bad guys with this?' and got excited running around killing other Villains.

Instead of officially registering as a Hero and becoming part of the judiciary system.

A little shit who wielded excessive power as he pleased, acting as if he were justice itself.

There were those who, upon gaining power, threw themselves into vigilantism and reveled in the public attention that followed.

Bastards who fell into the delusion that they were 'heroes' unlike the so-called 'goody-two-shoes Heroes.'

They were the type she despised most.

Attention-seekers.

That suspicion turned into certainty when she saw that bastard write her name—Shin Haru—in blood at a murder scene.

Disgusting bastard.

What kind of savage writes things in blood? Ugh...

Up until that point, she was fully intent on throwing him in prison.

...Though even then, she had no idea how he'd found out where an A-Rank Villain who concealed his identity lived.

Right, back then, no one knew.

Just how insane this bastard really was.

[Yes! If the passengers look toward the center of their boats, you'll see a detonator with a large red button. The detonators I've installed on all three boats... each one will blow up a different boat. That's right! They're devices that blow up the other boats, not your own.]

[Time limit: thirty minutes. All you have to do is not press the detonator during that time.]

He wasn't just some kid drunk on power.

He was a true Villain, one who planned large-scale terrorism.

And more than that—a kind of psychopath who toyed with people's hearts.

She didn't show it outwardly, but inwardly she was horrified.

How could a human being conceive of something so inhumane?

If Egostic heard this, he'd probably protest indignantly that it wasn't his original idea but an homage to a movie from his past life—but there was no way she could know that.

The man who revealed his name as Egostic.

According to community analysis, his name seemed to be derived from the English word "Egoistic."

The connection between his name and his statement that humans are selfish—

Even that alone showed he wasn't a normal person.

And then, last week.

When she first heard that Egostic's supporters were carrying out bombing attacks, she could only sigh.

One lunatic appeared, and like a trickle-down effect, other Villains came pouring out.

What's more, somehow—she had no idea how—they carried out their attack the very day after Egostic's terrorism.

The attack was so meticulously executed that it could only have been a pre-planned operation.

But since the method itself was a copycat of what Egostic had done, she had to acknowledge it.

Genuine fanatics who worshipped Egostic had emerged in a single day, and they were active enough to launch a terrorist attack the very next day.

Before the Association could even discuss countermeasures against copycat bombings of Egostic's attack.

The terrorism happened too quickly, and she too was caught completely unprepared, unable to do anything.

But her self-recrimination and anxious observation of the situation didn't last long.

Egostic himself took the stage.

Honestly speaking.

She was extremely nervous.

That lunatic, whose next move was impossible to predict, came there in person? To a place with hundreds of hostages?

It would have been stranger not to worry in that situation.

And so everyone at the Association, including herself and the other Heroes on standby, watched with bated breath.

...Of course, they could only watch through his broadcast. Even though his face was covered in the close-up shots, he looked so shameless that she wanted to run over and punch him—but she held back and kept watching.

And he proved, once again, that he was a lunatic.

He looked at his own followers and told them to stop their bullshit, then shot them all dead in one sweep.

Then he released the hostages just like that. Even with a promise to give them money. Apparently, the money really was deposited into the victims' accounts. Though they said it couldn't be traced since it was sent through borrowed-name accounts or something.

And he didn't just give them money? He apologized too. Said he was sorry his followers caused trouble. Right there on the broadcast he himself had started.

At that point, she became truly confused.

What the hell is this bastard even doing? If you're a villain, act like one.

And to be blunt, if you look at just his actions that day, he actually seemed more like a hero.

...Of course, she wasn't condoning vigilante justice. It's just that the Association had already authorized lethal force to safely rescue the hostages, so they were dead men walking anyway.

That's exactly why she found it so strange.

Among all the villains she'd encountered, there had never been anyone like this Egostic bastard.

Indiscriminate murder, bombings, arson, kidnapping, terrorism.

Villains who committed such acts were extremely common.

But a villain like this Egostic bastard who seemed to have some kind of 'conviction'?

This was her first time seeing such a case.

Of course, there might be similar cases somewhere else in the world, but at least in South Korea, this was unprecedented.

Ding.

Having finished her assignment, she stepped outside the café.

A beautiful day, with warm sunlight enveloping her body.

She habitually stretched her arms out wide, arching her back.

"Mmm~"

As she stretched with her arms extended, several men walking by glanced her way, but she remained oblivious.

"Egostic..."

'...He knows where villains are, can hijack broadcasts, knows the bank accounts of hostages he's never met, and has plenty of money.'

What the hell does this bastard even do?

In her mind, Egostic had already become her top priority target.

Which meant.

The man called Egostic now occupied a significant portion of her thoughts, whether for better or worse.

'...I will definitely uncover your identity.'

***

"Sniff. Someone must be talking about me somewhere."

"Bro, isn't it because you haven't been washing lately?"

"Seo-eun. I know full well you're a girl, so why do you keep calling me bro..."

"Bro. Be. Quiet."

"Fine..."

"...Should I. Draw you. A bath?"

"Ms. Subin, why are you acting like that too? You don't have to do anything, just relax. And I wash thoroughly every single day. This is slander, slander."

"...Okay."

"Why do you look like you don't believe me? I'm telling you it's slander!"

In the heart of Seoul.

In a seemingly ordinary house, dozens of floors deep underground, lay a secret base.

Egostic's base. Or Ego-Base for short.

"Bro. Why do you go around naming other people's houses whatever you want?"

"Tsk. Seo-eun, between you and me, what's yours and mine? Your house is my house and my house is your house."

"You sold your house, so you don't even have one anymore."

"......"

Right, I moved.

To Seo-eun's underground secret base.

With all the work I had ahead of me, I figured it would be better to handle food and lodging here where all the equipment was gathered. Plus, there was the issue with Ms. Subin.

Seo-eun readily agreed.

Even though I had no idea how deep underground this place was, it was bright and pleasant, covered in LEDs. Besides, the place was incredibly spacious with many rooms, so there were no real problems.

Thanks, Seo-eun.

When I looked at Seo-eun with gratitude while lying in bed, she frowned as if asking what I was staring at. That bratty little... I wanted to say more, but I held back since I was lying down due to the side effects of teleportation.

My closest confidant and genius hacker, Han Seo-eun.

A very small child with silver bobbed hair. She was only in third year of middle school, after all. At first, I thought she was in first year.

She keeps calling me 'bro' and insisting she's a boy...

Seo-eun, I actually read the original work, so I know you're a girl...

I never thought the day would come when I'd be called 'bro' by a middle school girl...

But it wasn't just Seo-eun and me living here.

The woman who claimed to be my follower, whom I had sort of kidnapped?

"...?"

Looking up at me with frightened eyes, Ms. Subin was also living with us.

...How I ended up picking her up is a long story.

"Haah..."

Somehow it feels like the number of people living together keeps growing, but that must be my imagination.