Chapter 11 - The Daily Life Of A Villain

[Japan is shocked, America is stunned, and Europe is turned upside down! The K-Villain who shook the world. "Why don't we have a villain like Egostic?" Japanese Hero Association spokesperson, in tears!]

"Ugh."

I couldn't help but put down my phone.

I was just watching YouTube peacefully—why does this nonsense keep popping up?

"I need... I need sugar."

Seeing my face appear on the dizzying Nationalist TV video, I felt my blood sugar plummeting rapidly. Good grief, how is it that this kind of thing hasn't changed one bit from my previous world?

The world of a comic turned reality was, paradoxically, very similar to the original reality.

True to the comic's worldview of "just an ordinary Earth, except with superpower users," aside from heroes and villains, it was practically identical.

Which means even in this world, Nationalist TV makes money. Though I have no idea why they'd go so far as to turn villains into nationalist fodder...

Leaving my room, I walked toward where the refrigerator was.

I just wanted some orange juice, yet I have to walk down a hallway to get it.

Is this for real? No matter how I think about it, I need to get a personal fridge for my room.

Now that I have plenty of money, I should spend it generously.

After arriving at the living room—which was as big as an auditorium—I opened the refrigerator.

...One bottle of Minute Maid left. I'm pretty sure I drank two bottles, so why is there only one left? Did Seo-eun drink it?

Well, Seo-eun likes sweet things just like me.

Right, since I'm thinking about her anyway, I wonder what Seo-eun's up to?

I turned around and headed toward the main sector of this underground base where Seo-eun would be.

Of course, I didn't forget to drink the orange juice on the way. Ahhh. Nothing beats something cold and refreshing. Goes down so smooth.

When I was younger, I preferred chocolate milk, but these days orange juice is better.

...Well, either way, I still have the taste buds of an elementary schooler.

Walking diligently down another corridor, I thought about Seo-eun for a moment.

Han Seo-eun. Age-wise, a third-year middle school girl.

In the original work, she appeared as a villain in the latter half of the comic.

Single-handedly crippled South Korea's computer network and neutralized the security system of the Eastern Detention Center—where the worst villains were gathered—triggering the Great Escape.

This was the event that opened the Korean Catastrophe period, the main event of Stardus! Part 3.

She appeared as the final villain in the Korean Catastrophe event. In later issues, she didn't appear, having died.

Unlike now, where she has a boyish short haircut, when she appeared as an adult, she let her white hair flow down and attacked Stardus with all sorts of weapons she had invented.

And ultimately, she was stopped by Stardus and died.

Her nickname back then was the White Witch.

...Of course, right now I can't imagine that version of her at all.

She's just a middle school girl who likes sweet things and has a bit of a foul mouth.

Han Seo-eun. As you can tell from her activities in the original work, she's an incredible genius.

Her main specialties are computer hacking and invention. Actually, her mind is so brilliant there's nothing she can't do. Essentially a power-balance-breaking character created by the author. That's probably why she appeared in the latter half of the original.

Her life story is quite tragic too.

A life raised as an experimental subject for Haneun Group since childhood.

Under the pretext of artificially creating superpower users, they conducted all sorts of illegal experiments, and eventually bore some fruit.

Grinding up hundreds of innocent children, they finally created four children with some special abilities.

One of them is our Seo-eun. The researchers dubbed her ability "Superhuman Intelligence."

The other children all awakened direct superpowers. Electric attacks, the ability to emit ice, and so on...

Even after their awakening, those bastards continued conducting horrific experiments under orders from Haneun Group's leadership.

Even in such a desperate situation, the four children endured together, comforting each other.

However, during this time, one of them died.

Since they were each other's emotional support, the shock felt by the remaining three, including Seo-eun, was enormous.

Eventually, due to the overwhelming stress, one child's ability went berserk, and everyone in that laboratory was caught up in it and died.

Of course, not everyone.

After all, Seo-eun survived.

Having survived alone, Seo-eun evaded Haneun Group's eyes and lived underground until now. Alone, until I found her.

In the original work without me, she continued tracking Haneun Group by herself. To punish the Haneun Group leadership who had gone into hiding after that horrific disaster.

Eventually, she found them all by herself and succeeded in her revenge.

But all that remained after revenge was emptiness.

Trembling with profound hollowness, she eventually became slightly... unhinged. Suddenly claiming that what happened to her and her siblings was because of the incompetent state and heroes, she committed acts of terror and became a villain.

Of course, now I'll step in and not let Seo-eun become that kind of villain.

Wait, come to think of it, isn't she already a villain since she's my accomplice? Uh...

Let me correct that. I'll step in and not let Seo-eun become that kind of insane villain. Being a villain in moderation is good for your health.

Since this is a world modeled after the original world I lived in, in South Korea, it's better to become a villain than a hero.

Originally, I didn't care what happened to Han Seo-eun and only approached her to use her technical skills, but after spending time together, I've grown attached to this kid.

I can't just let her die such a futile death.

With those thoughts, I entered the main sector, having arrived before I knew it.

***

As soon as I entered, I was greeted by a symphony of countless monitors.

Some monitors showing CCTV feeds, others displaying various data.

This space that makes your eyes spin.

This is the main sector of the underground base.

Hmm, wouldn't it be cooler if we gave this space a name?

Surveillance Center?

Seo-eun sat in her chair, busily doing something.

Subin was next to her, also working hard on something.

"Seo-eun, what are you doing?"

As I approached and asked, Seo-eun finally turned her head to look at me.

"Oh, oppa, you came at the right time. Look at this."

"Oh, what is it?"

As I moved closer to look, what she showed me was...

"The 13th International Ice Cream Festival?"

"That's right! This is the first time it's coming to Korea. I've wanted to go so badly! Let's go together next time. Subin-unnie too."

"Um... sure..."

Subin was smiling shyly beside her.

Subin...

"Yeah, okay. So Seo-eun, you wanted to go to the ice cream festival."

Right. Looking at her like this, I can really feel how much brighter Seo-eun has become.

When we first met, she used to be so guarded around me, like a wounded baby hedgehog—it feels like just yesterday...

Now she's even asking to go to an ice cream festival with me. Though I still have no idea why something like an ice cream festival even exists in this world.

Right, right. It's nice that she's so pure and bright. It is nice, but...

Wait, weren't you supposed to be working on something?

I saw you staring intently at the monitor, so I thought, "She must be planning something!" and felt all proud of you.

...Turns out you were planning a trip to an ice cream festival.

Never thought I'd be going to an ice cream festival at my age...

"Anyway, we can just go to that whenever. So, have you planned anything for our next objective?"

"Next objective?"

Hearing my question, Seo-eun placed a finger on her lips and started thinking, going "Hmm...."

"Ah! Right, what was it you mentioned, Oppa? Good Samaritan?"

"Yeah. But that's another large-scale terror attack, so we can't execute it right away after just a week. It'll cause fatigue among the citizens. We need to wait until the boat terror incident fades from memory a bit, then bam—hit them with it."

"Right, so what else did you say we'd do? Villain elimination?"

"Yeah. We should do that in our spare time. Got any villains you'd recommend? We've got time to kill anyway."

"Hmm... What was it you wanted again? Didn't you say we'd decide based on that 'predicted terror probability' thing you mentioned?"

Seo-eun tilted her head and asked.

Terror probability. In other words, the ones who'll cause terror attacks later in the original work.

I'd roughly explained that I knew through various methods...

"I already eliminated the two most important ones last time, so we're good. Now we can just pick anyone from the list I gave you."

"Oh really? Let me see... Subin Unnie, could you pull up that villain list?"

"Sure!"

She answered energetically and started working the computer.

Since we've been living together for about a week now, she seems to have adapted somewhat.

She was pretty scared of me at first, so I had a tough time calming her down this past week. She seems better now, but I think she's still a bit afraid of me. Come on, we're on the same side now—I'm not going to hurt you. Maybe I scared her too much last time.

"Let's see... Among the A-Rank Villains, how about this one? The guy who can teleport instantly. Teleporter."

"Him? Ah, he's going to be hard to kill."

For me to secretly kill these bastards, I need to first immobilize them with telekinesis, then either blow their heads off or shoot them—both steps need to work.

But if he can teleport instantly? Telekinetic immobilization becomes pointless—he'll just slip away, which is incredibly troublesome.

"Oppa, you're supposed to deal with the troublesome enemies first."

"Haah... I guess so."

Right, take your beating first, as they say.

Let's try taking that bastard down first.

So please stop looking at me like I'm some kid who doesn't want to study, okay?

"Fine, I should start preparing soon. And Seo-eun."

"Yeah?"

"You've been calling me 'Oppa' this whole time. Did you decide to drop the act?"

As I grinned and said that, Seo-eun's face finally caught on and started turning red.

"Ah, I was calling Subin Unnie 'Unnie,' so I just... You must have misheard!"

As she started mumbling something, I quickly made my escape.

She tends to yell at me when she gets embarrassed.