Chapter 88 - Bus

# A Penthouse in Busan

Through the floor-to-ceiling windows offering a panoramic view of the Busan sea, two women were sitting together.

"Ah, Haru, Haruuu."

"What?"

"I'm so jealous..."

"Of what?"

Sitting at the veranda table, sipping cool mango juice with ice cubes while gazing outside was a blonde woman—Shin Ha-ru, an ordinary college student hiding her life as an A-rank hero who had come to visit her friend.

And the woman whining to her, lying on the sofa with a light blue ponytail, was also an A-rank hero, Icicle, Lee Seol-ah. Unlike Stardust, she didn't hide the fact that she was a hero.

"What do you mean 'of what'? You're about to become S-rank. The first one in the Republic of Korea!"

"Haha, is that why?"

Finally understanding what Lee Seol-ah was talking about, Shin Ha-ru laughed awkwardly.

"I'm so jealous of S-rank... I wanted to be S-rank too..."

"Well. To be honest, it doesn't feel real to me yet. And I wonder how much difference just changing one alphabet in my rank really makes."

Shin Ha-ru spoke nonchalantly while stirring the ice in her juice with a straw.

In response, Lee Seol-ah shook her head as if telling her not to say such nonsense.

"What are you talking about! Becoming S-rank changes everything. Your status will be completely different. The difference between S-rank and A-rank in people's eyes is like heaven and earth."

"Is that so? I don't know... Oh. I guess for you, higher status is better for your company, so that makes sense."

Shin Ha-ru nodded as she spoke. She knew that Lee Seol-ah ran a company alongside her hero activities. She also knew that Seol-ah's hero work was more about image-making for her company than any sense of justice.

"Right. Sigh... I want to increase my rank too. But for that to happen, I need stronger villains to appear so I can build up achievements. Everyone here is too weak. There's no one distinctive! I wish I had someone like Egostic, like you do."

When Egostic suddenly came out of Seol-ah's mouth, Shin Ha-ru flinched.

Whether she noticed or not, Seol-ah continued.

"Ah! Maybe I should take this opportunity to go up to Seoul? There aren't many villains around here these days anyway. Haru, next time Egostic commits terrorism, can I handle him?"

"...No."

"Huh?"

Haru had reflexively blurted that out without thinking.

Seeing Seol-ah's puzzled expression, she realized what she'd said and hastily added an explanation.

"No, it's just that whenever he causes trouble, he always threatens me to come, so if someone else confronts him, who knows what impulsive thing he might do? And, um..."

"Okay, okay. Why are you getting so flustered?"

Seeing Seol-ah smiling and telling her to calm down, Shin Ha-ru exhaled.

'...Why did I answer like that?'

She was surprised by her own words that had come out without passing through her brain. What was that? Somehow... she felt resistance at the thought of Egostic fighting with any hero other than herself.

...Right. It's because she knew Egostic best and had been fighting him the longest. She was worried Seol-ah might get hurt dealing with him. Since he commits unpredictable and difficult-to-prevent terrorism, it would be too much for Seol-ah to handle, so she was concerned and wanted to fight in her place. Yes.

While she was making these excuses to no one in particular, Lee Seol-ah, who had been sitting beside her with arms crossed and a suspicious smile, finally stood up.

Stretching her arms and making "uuugh" sounds, she spoke to Shin Ha-ru again.

"Mmm... Haru, I need to stop by the company for a bit today. I have some business to take care of, but I'll be back soon! Just wait a little while, okay?"

"Huh? Oh, okay. See you later."

"Yeah, bye~."

With a bright smile, her light blue ponytail swinging, she left the living room, leaving Haru alone, still touching her lips and lost in thought.

Soon after, she arrived at her company headquarters.

And as soon as she entered the building, her face instantly returned to an expressionless state.

With a completely different cold expression from earlier, as she entered the hallway, nearby employees all greeted her.

"Hello, CEO."

"Good afternoon, ma'am."

Looking around at all the bowing people, she finally smiled slightly and acknowledged their greetings.

"Yes, yes. Hello."

Of course, after greeting them, her expression returned to being emotionless. And when she reached the top floor where her office was located, the atmosphere of the building changed noticeably.

Rather than being bright and energetic like the lower floors, a solemn and slightly heavy air enveloped her.

After getting off the elevator, she let down her tied hair and began walking. Click, click. The sound of her footsteps echoed around her. Soon reaching her office, she spoke to the security guard standing in front.

"Don't let anyone in while I'm working. Understood?"

"Yes, miss."

After nodding at his robotic response behind sunglasses, she entered her office.

Her spacious office was larger than most living rooms.

In that empty place except for her, she walked click-click to her desk and sat down with her back to the window.

"Phew..."

She pulled out one of the stacked approval documents.

Then she took out a pen from nearby and began signing the documents.

As she worked with her head down for a while.

How much time had passed?

She put down her pen, picked up a cup of coffee, and before taking a sip, she spoke.

"Instead of just sitting there quietly, why don't you say something?"

Her voice echoed through the empty office.

And soon, a male voice was heard from in front of her.

"Shall I?"

When she raised her head and looked forward.

Someone was sitting in the chair in front of her desk, which had been empty until she entered.

A man wearing a black hat, black cape, sitting with his legs crossed, and a gray mask covering half his face.

Then, he smiled slightly at her and opened his mouth.

"Hello, Ms. Lee Seol-ah. I'm Egostic. Nice to meet you."

***

A real man's specialty.

Charging in headfirst without a plan.

Having impulsively headed to Busan, I was now face to face with Lee Seol-ah, who had long light blue hair flowing down.

As if she had been expecting my arrival, she sipped her coffee with an indifferent face.

....I decided to pretend I didn't notice her fingers trembling slightly.

Actually, I also decided to erase from my memory how she had been yawning while working, then suddenly flinched when she belatedly realized I was sitting in front of her. It was a bit funny how she flinched and then pretended as if she hadn't seen anything, focusing back on her paperwork, but anyway.

After I had secretly teleported in front of her and sat there for a while, she stubbornly continued pretending not to notice and kept working on her documents. Only after some time passed did she finally put down her pen and address me.

She spoke to me calmly and quietly, in a way that was hard to believe she was addressing a villain who had illegally entered her personal space.

"Instead of just sitting there quietly, why don't you say something?"

So I kindly answered her.

"Shall I?"

"Hello, Ms. Lee Seol-ah. I'm Egostic. Nice to meet you."

In response to my smiling greeting, she quietly nodded.

After taking a sip of coffee, she opened her mouth again.

"So, why are you here? Have you finally decided to turn yourself in?"

Smiling sweetly as she asked me that, I responded with an equally sweet smile.

"Haha. How could that be? I'm just interested in Lee Seol-ah, who pretends to be a hero while secretly trying to devour the Republic of Korea as the actual controller of Yu-seong Group."

"Oh my, is that so? I thought our Egostic, who pretends to be a villain while secretly helping Stardust and protecting the Republic of Korea, had made up his mind to enter the detention center voluntarily."

"Hahahahaha!"

"Hahaha."

For a moment, my boisterous laughter and her dry laughter filled her office.

After laughing for quite some time.

We stopped laughing simultaneously as if we had planned it.

"...Amazing, Ms. Lee Seol-ah. As expected, I thought you would have anticipated this much."

"Me too, you're amazing, Egostic. I didn't expect you to think of me that way. Where did you get that information from? It shouldn't have been leaked under normal circumstances."

"Haha. Isn't it true that there are no eternal secrets in this world?"

I said that while crossing my arms.

It's important to appear relaxed and smiling here. With Lee Seol-ah, if I let my guard down, I might get completely exposed. She's such a terrifying woman.

Looking at me sitting cross-legged and smiling leisurely as if I were in my own living room, she sighed as if giving up and opened her mouth.

"...Fine. So, why did you come to me?"

Finally asking me directly, I grinned and answered.

"Ms. Lee Seol-ah. Would you be interested in forming a 'cooperative relationship' with me?"

The first rule of surviving in this crazy hero comic book world.

Team up with the mastermind.

Masterminds aren't meant to be defeated, but to be used as your ride.

***

"......."

Shin Ha-ru, who was visiting her friend Lee Seol-ah's house and taking a break, suddenly felt a chill down her spine.

"...What was that?"

She had the intuition that something very bad was happening right now...