Chapter 57 - Doubt To Certainty

[The cleanup operations for Mapo Bridge, which collapsed due to the villain Egostic last Wednesday, are nearing completion. Thanks to the A-Rank Hero Stardus, there were no casualties in this terror attack, despite the entire bridge being destroyed from the pillars up.]

[Experts have stated that it will likely take several years to rebuild the bridge. Meanwhile, Seoul citizens are voicing complaints regarding traffic congestion caused by the bridge collapse....]

***

Shin Haru.

If someone were to ask Shin Haru who her nemesis was, she would answer "Egostic" without hesitation.

In truth, the reason Egostic became her Arch-enemy was quite simple.

It was simply because Egostic always singled out Stardus.

Egostic.

Frankly speaking, if asked to pick the most famous and influential villain in South Korea, almost everyone would pick Egostic.

If one were to pinpoint when he began his activities in earnest, it has been less than a year. Yes. In just one year, he surpassed other villains with decades of history to proudly claim the number one spot. To the extent that anyone who doesn't know Egostic must be a spy.

In fact, when you get down to it, it is only natural. He has live-streamed every single terror incident he caused on the Three Terrestrial Broadcasters.

Of course, that is just the reason he is famous. If one were asked to explain why he is popular, there would be countless reasons...

Ultimately, the important thing is that he is famous and popular.

And because of that, the popularity of his counterpart, Stardus, also began to rise.

In fact, B-Rank Heroes with neither popularity nor recognition all hope to fight Egostic.

Well, in a way, it is only natural. Becoming his adversary means their fight would be broadcast live across the nation, providing a golden opportunity to make themselves known to everyone in a single stroke. After all, if you become the rival of someone famous, you get to share in that popularity to some extent.

However, regrettably, such opportunities did not exist for them.

That was because Egostic designated Stardus as the one to stop him in every single terror incident.

Egostic's peculiar fixation on Stardus is actually a quite widely known fact. After all, he named Stardus in both of the first crimes he committed—the assassination of the two villains.

The one who left the message "To Stardus" at the crime scene. It was a message that seemed to imply he had caught the villains as a gift for her.

And the terror incidents he committed after that.

On the ship and the train, he designated Stardus as his adversary.

In these two incidents, Stardus thwarted his terror with a speech and brute force respectively, and because of this, her popularity also skyrocketed.

Because of these events, a great number of people began chattering about the relationship between Egostic and Stardus. It even reached the point where Dating Rumors emerged... The video of Egostic closing the eyes of an unconscious Stardus, who had collapsed after barely stopping the train, and then leaving is still listed as a trending video.

And that is as far as the public knows.

Stardus herself, however, knows much more than this.

"......"

There was a high probability that he knew her.

That is, her true identity. That she was Shin Haru, not Stardus.

The terror incident that occurred at the festival she attended.

It was too late to stop by the Association to receive Recognition Interference magic, so she was about to step forward prepared to expose her face.

He suddenly appeared and suppressed the terror.

citing the absurd reason that the villain had simply offended him.

Fine, that could be called a coincidence.

However, there was something only Shin Haru knew, something unknown to others.

The words he whispered so that no one else could hear.

'Don't even think about stepping forward with your face exposed in the future.'

'Your life will become exhausting.'

The question she had the moment she heard those words.

How on earth did he know that she intended to expose her face?

Did he know she was there? Is that why he stepped in? To buy time for her?

'It's speculation,' she had thought at the time.

However, consider what he did afterward.

Causing the airplane terror incident... and while she was merely watching the falling airplane helplessly.

Calling her to tell her to save the falling airplane.

Add to that his usual track record... terror incidents with no casualties, the assassination of other dangerous villains, suppressing terror under a different identity, and so on.

As these events pieced together, she began to suspect.

Egostic. Is he truly just a simple villain?

Swept up in these thoughts, she finally made a decision.

That if that jerk Egostic caused another terror incident, she would definitely figure out what he was aiming for.

But the problem was that he disappeared without causing any terror for four months.

And as the waiting time grew longer, her doubts only grew larger. It was that uneasy feeling, like when you leave the house but can't be sure if you turned off the gas valve.

Just as she was thinking about Egostic for longer periods, and when she even found herself looking into the Egostic Fan Cafe wondering when he would appear.

He finally returned. With his fourth terror incident.

As soon as she heard the news, she put on her Suit and flew straight to the Association.

Since he had called for her in the past three terror incidents, she was convinced he would call for her in the next one as well.

However.

Her expectation missed the mark completely.

Warning that he would blow up the bridge if Heroes approached, what Egostic staged was a sort of social experiment targeting the public.

Saying things like he would hand out 100,000 won...

Hearing that, Shin Haru was reminded of his first terror incident.

Something about humans being selfish blah blah...

'Right, but even during that first terror, he told me to give a speech. Wouldn't he do that this time too?' she speculated, but.

There was nothing of the sort. He just giggled and played around with a person claiming to be his fan on the bridge, appearing not to give a single thought to Stardus herself.

'Bad guy.'

She had spent every day waiting and worrying about him, yet he seemed to not care about her at all.

After making her fall into this swamp of suspicion, he acted like it was none of his business.

And then, in the end, he blew up the bridge.

Well, she had expected that. Egostic was the type of guy who did whatever he wanted.

Having been waiting near Mapo Bridge around 7 PM as he had forewarned, she mobilized from the front the moment the bridge exploded. Since she was a Hero, the most important thing was ultimately saving people.

Egostic, floating in the air, watching her.

Ha. He hadn't even pretended to acknowledge her until now, and only now is he looking at her?

Although she was deeply displeased by the fact that she seemed to be cleaning up the mess he caused, she did what she had to do anyway.

The moment she saved the first car and flew to save the second one.

She realized.

I can't save that one.

She had succeeded in getting right in front of it, right under its nose.

But the moment she reached out, she felt it intuitively. That she was just one step short.

A sense of despair washed over her.

However, at that moment.

The car falling just past her fingertips paused slightly.

And she succeeded in saving the falling car that had seemed unreachable.

For a moment, she thought she had seen it wrong.

But really, it felt as if the car had stopped falling in front of her for a brief moment.

And there was only one person here capable of doing such a thing...

Holding the car in both arms, she jerked her head upward.

And what she saw was Egostic, looking down at her with his arm lowered.

Having met her eyes, he turned his head as if nothing had happened, covered his body with his cloak, and vanished just like that. Using Teleportation.

....To make eye contact and then leave so hurriedly at that exact timing—doesn't he know that makes it even more suspicious?

And so, this time, she had no choice but to be almost certain.

Is he... perhaps not actually a villain?

***

Of course, such a hasty conjecture was incredibly dangerous.

First of all, Egostic was a villain who had caused four large-scale terror incidents involving property destruction and mass intimidation of people. Even if it was just a coincidence that there were no casualties.

...Of course, thinking about it now, she was confused whether it was a coincidence or if Egostic had intended it all. Anyway.

The important thing was that it was extremely dangerous for her to think about this alone. One wrong move and she could end up underestimating a villain, which could lead to major problems later.

Therefore, she needed someone to consult with about this.

A friend who knew her secret and with whom she could discuss Egostic.

And she had only one such friend.

Lee Seol-ah, a fellow A-Rank Hero and a friend she had grown up with like a sister. She was better known as Icicle, the hero in charge of the Busan region.

Late that night, the two of them sat in an empty cafe.

Upon hearing that Haru needed advice, Seol-ah had traveled all the way from Busan to Seoul via teleportation to meet Shadow Walker.

Having rented out the entire establishment, the pair sat on the second floor, where the night view peeked through the window.

Seol-ah quietly sipped her green tea, listening intently to what Shin Haru had to say.

Haru confided her theories to her friend.

The fact that Egostic's terror attacks resulted in zero casualties.

The discovery through Association records that every villain Egostic had killed posed a colossal threat.

And the two instances where he had actually suppressed other terror attacks.

On top of that, she revealed things she hadn't told anyone else: the phone call she received from him during the airplane hijacking, and how he had paused the falling car just long enough for her to catch it during the recent incident.

She told her everything.

Seol-ah quietly listened to Shin Haru's lengthy explanation, sipping her tea all the while.

When the story finally came to an end, Seol-ah looked up.

She set down her teacup.

Covering her mouth with both hands, Seol-ah spoke.

"Oh my god, Haru...! Were you actually believing that rumor that Egostic is the secret S-Rank Hero 'Apple Mango'?"

Seeing her friend stare at her with wide, incredulous eyes, Shin Haru began to regret this immediately.

Ah. Maybe I shouldn't have asked for advice.