Chapter 94 - Planned Performance

# The Battle Begins

The battle planned as the main event of this terror attack.

Egostic versus Icicle.

The curtain of that battle has risen.

"Hahaha! Let's see if you can withstand this too!"

With that shout, I operated the ship and fired a few more cannons toward Icicle.

Boom-

Boom-

With the loud firing sounds, countless cannonballs fell toward her.

Seeing dozens of shells flying toward her,

Icicle paused briefly in mid-air, then took a deep breath and exhaled ice in all directions.

"Hup!"

Light blue ice enveloped her body and spread in all directions.

Soon, the numerous cannonballs flying toward her all froze and stopped mid-air.

"Oho..."

Watching this scene, I quietly marveled to myself.

Icicle... she handles her ability better than I expected?

In the original work, the focus was so heavily on Stardust that Icicle wasn't mentioned much, but seeing her now, she seems to fight quite well. Her ice-breathing ability is refreshingly good too.

Anyway, that's not important right now.

I glanced at the chat window.

[Whoa how did she block that]

[Wait Icicle fights better than I thought???]

[I'm telling ya, Lee Seol-ah ain't bad at fighting. She's Busan's pride, ya know]

[A chaebol heiress coolly breathing ice ㅗㅜㅑ]

[She seemed less impressive compared to Stardust but she's actually pretty good?]

The reactions to Icicle were quite favorable.

Realizing things were going well, I nodded slightly and refocused on the battle.

By now, she had broken through the bombardment and was approaching my ship, creating ice platforms in the air as she moved.

I smiled wickedly at her and shouted again.

"Hmm, you're quite good! Then how about this? Go, No. 1!"

"Huh?"

I handed a gun to No. 1, who had been operating controls beside me, and threw him toward Icicle.

Seriously, after all our rehearsals, why is he freezing up now?

"Aaaahh!"

Floating in the air by my psychokinesis, No. 1 was thrown outside the ship. He soon regained his senses and shouted at Icicle with a trembling voice.

"U-u-uaaaah!"

...It sounds more like screaming than shouting.

Anyway, his fighting spirit is good. He charged at Icicle with a loud cry, firing his gun rapidly.

"Hmph! Do you think I'll be hit by something like this?"

As the shower of bullets flew toward her, Icicle crossed her arms in an X-shape and created ice in front of her to block the bullets.

She continued to advance slowly, blocking the bullets with ice.

"U... uaaah!"

Finally reaching right in front of Icicle, No. 1 tried to strike her ice-covered form directly with his gun.

Naturally, this stopped the bullets from flying, and Icicle took the opportunity to extend her hand and shoot a freezing beam at the approaching No. 1.

"Uaaaagh!"

With a final groan, No. 1 became a frozen ice statue.

Ah... he was a good extra.

I wiped away a tear and used my psychokinesis to move his frozen form back to the ship. I'll have to thaw him out when this is over.

[No. 1 lolololol why is he so pitiful lololol]

[Omg the way he's treated lmao]

[No. 1's achievements today: self-introduction, battle cry, shooting, then straight to ice...]

[Like a shrimp caught between fighting whales, No. 1 got crushed while Ego and Icicle fight lol]

[Icicle could probably defeat most villains with her ice beam?lolol]

[She's going strong lolol]

The chat window paying respects to No. 1.

If No. 1 is gone, what's next?

"Next is you! No. 2, deploy!"

"What? U-uh. Understood! Uaaaah!!!"

So No. 2 deployed as well.

Soon after, there were two rabbit-helmeted ice statues on the ship.

"Tsk... No. 3, you...."

Looking at No. 3 in his yellow rabbit helmet, trembling as he looked at me, I changed my mind.

Right, someone needs to pilot the ship.

"Very well! Good, Ms. Icicle. You've defeated all my loyal subordinates!"

[Just a moment ago they were friends, now suddenly demoted to subordinates lmao]

[Friends where?]

[So they were just subordinates after all lol]

[I mean, who throws their friends at enemies like that lol]

[Team Mango's subordinate rabbit team... that's actually cute]

[Ice statues for sale, inquire within]

[Sending his subordinates first while staying back himself, what a villain lol]

Don't worry, I'm stepping up now.

As Icicle, having defeated No. 2, ran unhindered toward the ship, I finally made my move.

"Impressive, very impressive. It seems I must face you directly now!"

Saying that, I jumped off the ship with my cape fluttering.

At the same time, numerous weapons scattered around the ship's deck began to float.

And me?

I remained floating in the air, extending my arm to point at Icicle while shouting.

"Attack all at once!"

As soon as I finished speaking, countless weapons launched their attacks toward Icicle.

Seeing the weapons raining down on her, Icicle gritted her teeth and blasted freezing beams in all directions.

The real battle had begun.

***

[Wow Mangostick is so annoying lol]

[For real lol just standing there toying with her]

[Starting to feel sorry for Icicle...]

[Has Icicle even moved 5cm? She's so busy blocking with ice she can't move]

[Mango you jerk, move a little!!]

Tsk.

These people really think using psychokinesis is easy.

Do they know how hard it is to lift all these things with psychokinesis? I'm already going to cough up blood.

But a first-class villain never shows how difficult things are.

I just stood still, smiling smugly, and said:

"Ms. Icicle, is this all you've got? Hahaha! I had high expectations, but this is disappointing!"

I said that with an exaggerated voice, flailing my arms. Icicle continued to silently endure my weapon bombardment, her body still encased in ice.

Just as viewers were starting to whisper about feeling sorry for Icicle,

something unexpected happened.

Icicle, who had been silently enduring with her body covered in ice.

During a brief moment when my attacks weren't perfectly coordinated and slightly lessened,

she suddenly lowered her arms that were covering her face and began blasting ice forward!

"Uah!"

With her battle cry, she released all the power she had been storing up while enduring my attacks.

A much thicker and more powerful freezing beam—no, a destructive ice ray—shot toward my airship.

I quickly escaped using teleportation, but

her attack wasn't aimed at me in the first place.

Crash-freeze-freeze-freeze.

The ice destruction ray was aimed not at where I was standing, but at the front of the airship.

When her concentrated power hit the ship, the front section immediately began to freeze.

Sky-blue ice rapidly covered the front of the ship, overflowing with frigid energy.

"Aack! Boss! Save me!!! The ship is tilting!"

Hearing No. 3's wail from above where he was operating the controls, I turned to look at the ship.

The airship's front was almost completely frozen, precariously tilting.

And me?

Seeing this, I slapped my forehead as if I'd been caught off guard and shouted to Icicle.

"How could this be! I was wondering what you were aiming for, but you were targeting the airship itself rather than me!"

I said that while laughing, "Heh heh," and continued.

"Well, you got me there."

Got me? This was planned from the start. We had discussed her attacking the ship beforehand.

But the viewers had no way of knowing that. As we predicted, they were sending enthusiastic responses.

[Wow didn't see that coming]

[Icicle's big picture move]

[Is this what they call attacking the east while striking the west?]

[Mangostick got owned lmao]

[Whoa that ship looks like it's about to flip over]

[Meanwhile No. 3 trembling is the highlight lol]

[That ship looks unusable now, what's he gonna do?]

What am I going to do?

"Egostic! The airship you prepared is now useless. What will you do now?"

Looking at Icicle shouting at me from a distance, I grinned.

"What will I do?"

Well, you know.

"I'll run away! Goodbye!"

The play is over, that's what I'm saying.

At my sudden declaration of retreat, the viewers' reactions were pure shock.

[????????]

[No!!! How can it end like this!!!!]

[Don't go don't go don't go don't go don't go don't go don't go don't go don't go don't go]

[Already over? Already over? Already over? Already over?]

[When he fought Stardust it didn't end this quickly... this is all because the opponent is Icicle...]

[Where's the "one more thing"???? What is this????]

[My chicken just arrived and you're doing this!!!]

Sorry. That's just how it is.

Despite the viewers' pleas, the airship started its engines and began to move.

"Are you running away like a coward! Fight fair and square!"

"Coward? This is a dignified retreat. Next time I won't back down so easily, so be prepared. Oh, and if you follow me, I might have to launch dozens of bombs I've prepared in Busan!"

"Tch..."

Icicle made a perfectly disappointed expression, as if she'd gotten better at acting. I left her behind and threw a farewell to the camera.

"Well everyone! The Ego-Stream Show ends here! Goodbye to you all."

[Don't gooooo]

With that final chat message, the cameras turned off.

I, who had been standing on the ship smiling, immediately slumped against the bow once the cameras were off.

"Oh my god, I'm exhausted..."

"Are you alright?"

Gone was her hostile expression from earlier, replaced by a look of genuine concern.

I could only answer her weakly.

"Ugh... I'm dying a bit, but I'm okay. More importantly, is it okay for you to talk to me like this? Isn't this being recorded?"

"Hmph. Who do you think I am? I'm Lee Seol-ah. Everything here is under my control, so don't worry."

"Really? That's good then."

"Anyway, Egostic. Thank you so much. My name is already in the news alongside yours. Yu-seong Corporation's stock is already starting to rise. This effect is really good, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Be as grateful as you want. I can't do this often, so don't expect it. Oh, by the way, could you thaw out our No. 1 and No. 2?"

"Oh? Sure."

As soon as she snapped her fingers, the two ice statues melted smoothly.

The three rabbit team members reunited tearfully, then started operating the ship.

The ship was now picking up speed.

"By the way, your ice ability is stronger than I thought? I didn't expect much?"

"That's hurtful. I may be overshadowed by Stardust... our Ha-ru, but I'm quite strong too, you know? Let's have a proper fight next time."

"Sure, sure."

I chuckled as I answered.

But thinking about it, is this really okay?

A hero and villain who were fighting to the death just moments ago are now chatting and laughing as if nothing happened as soon as the cameras are off. If someone were to see this, it could be a real problem.

Just as I was about to tell Icicle, who was still chattering in front of me, that we should part ways,

I saw something approaching from far behind her.

Wait, what's that? Did that president guy fire another missile? Can't he get a grip?

"Hey, wait."

"Yes?"

As soon as I spoke while looking behind her, Lee Seol-ah sensed something was wrong and immediately turned around.

Is that really a missile?

No, it's too small to be a missile.

...Is it a person?

While I was momentarily confused, whatever it was flew fiercely toward us.

When it got close enough to see with the naked eye, I could identify who was approaching.

The person flying toward us with blonde hair fluttering was a woman in a red latex outfit.

....Stardust?

"...Wait, why is she here?"

I muttered involuntarily.

It seemed Lee Seol-ah was also taken aback.

Before I could properly assess the situation, I quickly shouted to the rabbit team with a first-class villain's reflexes.

The Ego-style secret technique #36-

The Great Escape.

"Hey!!! Floor it at full speed!"

I don't know what's going on, but let's run first!!