Chapter 137 - Troubled

There was an old piece of advice that elders often gave.

Above all else, health comes first. Take care of your health. Your body is your most valuable asset, things like that.

And every time I realize it.

The elders are never wrong.

"........"

"........"

The sky, where the city streets could be seen at a glance.

The atmosphere there suddenly turned awkward.

Damn it. This is why I shouldn't push myself.

I seriously brought the car right up to the edge, but I didn't expect to bleed just from teleporting this much.

I guess I should be thankful it wasn't a full-on coughing up blood.

Anyway, the mood got weird for no reason.

Stardust looking at me with a surprised expression.

Yeah, how confused she must be. The villain is dripping blood from his mouth before the fight even starts. Anyone watching would think she'd already landed a few hits on me.

Stardust's face hardened as she watched me floating in mid-air doing nothing but bleeding from my mouth. How dumbfounded must she be for her face to freeze like that? She's definitely thinking, "What's wrong with this idiot?" Does she think I bit my tongue?

But this is exactly when you shouldn't panic. When unexpected things happen, a professional just smiles and moves on like nothing happened. I wiped the blood from my face as naturally as if I were dusting something off, then continued speaking as if nothing had happened.

"...Anyway, you surprised me this time, Ms. Stardust! I never expected you to stop the surprise attack I prepared to commemorate the last day of the holiday so easily. You're truly beyond my imagination. cough Excuse me for a moment."

As a cough came out at the last moment, I naturally covered my mouth with one hand. Then, as I lowered my arm, I quickly checked my hand and, sure enough, there was blood on it.

Yeah, I knew this would happen. If I hadn't covered it, I would have shown myself coughing up blood in front of the whole nation.

After naturally lowering my arm, I discreetly moved my hand behind my back to hide it. By the way, during all this, Stardust's eyes followed my hand down and then back up. What's with that? Why are you staring at my hand?

Anyway, if I stay here any longer, I might continue spitting blood, and I don't know when Stardust might charge at me. Let's end this quickly.

After clearing my throat with another "ahem," I spoke.

"Now that I've clearly seen your full power... next time won't be like today. Well then, adios!"

With those words, I snapped my fingers and simultaneously set off the smoke bomb I had prepared.

Gray smoke instantly rose and enveloped my body.

Stardust, who had been staring blankly at my hand with a frozen expression until then, rushed toward me in a hurry, but I had already teleported away long before.

I don't know why Stardust was so distracted, but it was an opportunity to escape, so I took it.

Haa, what a tough day.

Let's just go home.

***

The terror attack carried out by Egostic on the last day of the holiday.

This attack, which happened after about three months, once again became a hot topic in hero-villain related communities.

The main discussions were about the newly appeared Starbreaker, the combination of Electra and Death Knight, and so on.

But of course, people also focused on the incident that occurred at the end.

*

[Is Egostic seriously sick?]

I mean, he was just standing there when blood suddenly dripped from his mouth

Would that happen if his body was normal?

He barely did anything that day, so why would that happen?

I'm worried

=[Comments]=

[I was worried when he kept coughing, and then seeing him bleed was really chilling]

[Mango needs to live a long time, so it's concerning]

[Well, heroes and villains bleeding isn't really that unusual... is what I'm thinking]

ㄴ[True, but didn't Mango do nothing this time except throw bombs? Seeing him suddenly bleed makes me think something's wrong with his body]

[Come to think of it, hasn't he been letting his members handle the terrorism lately instead of doing it himself? Could that be why? Gasp...]

ㄴ[Oh my!!!!!!!!!]

ㄴ[Hey, why is this speculation evolving?]

[Is Egostic terminally ill? Coughing up blood is a sign of terminal illness]

ㄴ[Seriously, stop with the nonsense]

ㄴ[This is just delusion lolㅋㅋㅋㅋ Why not curse him while you're at it?]

ㄴ[You'd think he was coughing up blood or somethingㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

*

[There's even an article???]

Breaking News) Egostic 'Health Concerns?'

Health concerns about A-class villain Egostic have newly surfaced. During yesterday's terror attack around 4 PM, Egostic was seen with a stream of blood flowing from his mouth during a national broadcast. Netizens are expressing concern, saying "Could there be a health problem?" That day, Egostic was conducting a terror attack with three villains from his group under the broadcast title "Commemorating the Last Day of the Holiday" when he was defeated by A-class hero Stardust and fled.

-Youjung News Reporter Lee Ki-young ()

There were quite a lot of comments too

=[Comments]=

[Is this reporter a Mango fan?]

ㄴ[This incident has already been covered a lot on other communities...]

ㄴ[Well, it was broadcast live on three major networks, so everyone saw itㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

ㄴ[Wouldn't the news comments be full of older people cursing Egostic?]

ㄴ[No. Looking at the comments, they're sad that Egostic's theme stocks will fall and wishing Mango to get well soon]

ㄴ[Damn ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Those stock people are reallyㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

***

"....."

Shin Ha-ru stared blankly at her phone before sighing and putting it down on the sofa.

Her head was about to explode.

And of course, the reason was Egostic.

Listening absently to the sound coming from the TV in front of the sofa, she tried to organize her tangled thoughts.

Was the man at the beach Egostic?

She found it hard to be certain now.

Thinking carefully after returning home, there was actually no evidence. It was just her feeling... without any basis, she just thought he seemed like Egostic. In fact, after coming home and losing that sensation, she realized what she'd done was just delusion.

And most importantly, while she was talking with him, Egostic was already carrying out a terror attack elsewhere. This alone proved that he wasn't Egostic.

Her baseless delusion versus a clear alibi.

As a hero, as a national servant receiving government pay.

What she should believe was already determined.

'...Right, I must have been mistaken.'

Her instincts had never been right anyway.

If he was just an innocent man, she felt sorry for interrogating him like that.

...Of course, some suspicion remained, but as a hero, it would be wrong to pursue her delusions when there was clear evidence to the contrary.

Besides, investigating Da-in separately would be illegal surveillance of a civilian by a high-ranking public official.

In fact, there was something else that concerned her more.

It was Egostic suddenly bleeding from his mouth during the terror attack.

When she first saw that stream of blood on his lips, her heart sank for some reason. She didn't know why.

And, though no one else seemed to notice,

when he coughed at the end, she thought she saw blood on his hand.

It could have been her imagination, but still.

...Why was that happening?

Had he pushed himself too hard?

"...Why am I thinking about this?"

As she was troubled by these thoughts, Shin Ha-ru suddenly hardened her expression.

...There she goes again.

Get a grip, Shin Ha-ru, no, Stardust.

He's a villain, and you're a hero.

'He's done good things too, so calling him garbage doesn't seem right.'

She ignored the objection that arose in her mind.

Doing good deeds doesn't justify doing bad things.

Instead of thinking about capturing and defeating a villain who's actively committing terrorism, who are you worrying about?

Are you worried about a villain who was just committing terrorism?

'...Right. Whatever happens to a villain, it's none of my business.'

As she sat alone, suddenly finding her resolve, a voice from the TV caught her ear.

[...So, that terrorist Egostic brought his gang and committed another vicious crime. What is the government doing? What is the Association doing? Instead of throwing that trash in jail as soon as possible!...]

[Now, now. You're too excited. Please calm down.]

[How can I calm down now! Just thinking about that psychopath running around the city with bombs makes me too scared to walk the streets! That trash should immediately...]

Listening to this, Shin Ha-ru just picked up the remote and turned off the TV.

...He is a villain, but he's not trash.

And that woman, I think I've seen her on YouTube before.

"Sigh...."

Egostic is a villain, so there's no need to worry about him.

Whether Egostic is sick or not doesn't matter to me.

Egostic is sick.

Why is he sick?

"....."

For a moment, the image of Egostic bleeding from his mouth yesterday overlapped with the image of Egostic bleeding after being attacked by a monster in her place, and her heart sank.

She shook her head again. What's wrong with me, stop thinking about it. Stop thinking about Egostic.

...As she stopped thinking about Egostic, she started thinking about Da-in again.

Him, laughing and chatting with her at the beach. For her, it was a rare occasion where she enjoyed talking with someone she had just met.

Although she had concluded that he probably wasn't Egostic.

No, but he really did look similar.

"...Argh! Really!"

Realizing that she was going around in circles with the same thoughts like a hamster on a wheel, Shin Ha-ru ended up hitting a cushion next to her.

...This is going to drive me crazy. My thoughts are all over the place with no order, but in the end, all I think about is Egostic. I already have enough to worry about with other villains like the Moon Light Church, but these thoughts keep coming.

Right.

Come to think of it, whenever her mind was this complicated, she always consulted with Seol-ah.

And afterward, things would somewhat sort themselves out.

"...Maybe I should call Seol-ah."

Having made that decision, Ha-ru picked up her phone and called Seol-ah.

"...She's not answering."

...Actually, she was also curious about why Seol-ah didn't come when Egostic was causing terror yesterday. She also wanted to ask about Da-in.

Is she busy right now?

***

-Ring ring.

"Ms. Seol-ah."

"Yes.."

"Did you do well? Or did you do wrong?"

"...I did wrong."

***

She must be busy with work, I guess.

I'll call her again later.

Shin Ha-ru simply thought that way.