Chapter 144 - Fourth Dimension

# Rapidly Changing Situation, Approaching Storm

The current world situation, excluding the Republic of Korea, can be summarized like that.

Of course, Korea is still relatively safe compared to overseas, but that's only because I've been blocking things behind the scenes. If I step back, everything will quickly fall apart again. Though since Stardust has become stronger than in the original story, it probably won't be that bad, but still.

Anyway, the conclusion is that military power will be important going forward.

Of course, our Ego-stream is already strong. We're strong, but... when you think about it, the only ones with actual combat power are Electra, Moon Priestess, and Death Knight. And since Death Knight isn't even human, that's just two people.

That's why we need stronger people.

In other words, we need to keep recruiting new villains.

Especially as time passes and the world becomes more chaotic, more ability users will emerge. I'm planning to gather and manage them under a different identity. But that's not important right now.

Now is the time to recruit a new villain.

After carefully selecting from numerous villains, I narrowed it down to two.

One man with brown hair, and one woman with purple hair.

When I asked Ha-yul's younger sibling which one they preferred, they said they liked the woman, so we finally decided to recruit her.

"Dark Spirit..."

A villain known by the clean name "Dark Spirit" in the original story.

With purple hair and purple eyes, she was quite famous among villains for always wearing a black hood.

She was one of the popular villains who boldly showed her face without any recognition filters, becoming a "today's_villain_beauty.jpg" meme. Her half-closed eyes and dreamy atmosphere made her popular with readers. In the original dark story, the atmosphere would lighten whenever this cheerful fourth-dimensional character appeared. Like me, she never caused any casualties during her terrorist acts.

In the original story, she appeared at night with purple will-o'-wisps floating in the air. As seen from her nighttime terrorism, she was the third after Han Eun Group and Moon Light Church to ignore Shadow Walker's abilities. This was when the reputation that "Shadow Walker rules the night" began to crumble.

Anyway, she's a top priority recruit because her ability is quite overpowered. Her main ability is will-o'-wisps, and as the saying goes, the less an ability is explained, the stronger it is. She has versatile applications for her power. She can summon purple flames, which is quite unfair.

"...So, the problem is how to recruit her."

Yes. That's the biggest issue.

How to persuade her to join our team.

'Oppa, are you seducing another woman?'

...Using the expression "seduce" reminded me of what Seo-eun said to me this morning, making me flinch for a moment, but I quickly regained my composure.

That's not important. First, I carefully recalled how I had recruited our Ego-stream members so far.

Seo-eun. I successfully recruited her with the proposal to destroy Han Eun Group. That took the longest, by the way. I had to persuade her almost like the famous "three visits to the thatched cottage." It wasn't easy to unlock Seo-eun's heart. Now, well, we've become the closest.

Ha-yul. With Ha-yul... my original recruitment plan went sideways and I almost had to kidnap her, but honestly, it was luck. How could I have known her younger sibling would like me so much? It's heartwarming to see the siblings studying hard.

Choi Se-hee. I just gave Se-hee electric lighting and successfully recruited her. Even now, she enjoys blasting electricity to clear trees on the mountain behind us. She must have been so frustrated holding it in before.

I just bought Death Knight at an auction, and I was able to recruit Eun-wol by freeing her from the Moon Light Church leader's curse.

And now this purple-haired woman, the flame ability user Ja-young. The character known as Dark Spirit in the original story.

Her personality, in a word, is four-dimensional.

First of all, she loves staying home so much that she just stays inside, and then complains about being bored and causes terrorism. That alone shows she's not ordinary.

So what's my conclusion after researching how to persuade this woman?

'...Can't I just ask her to join Ego-stream?'

Yes. That was it.

I mean, even in the original story, she committed terrorism because she was bored. So can't I just straightforwardly suggest she join us for terrorism to relieve her boredom?

She's probably sufficiently bored around this time.

So it's time to go harvest.

"...Shall we go?"

With that brief thought, I teleported.

I mean, this can't fail, right?

***

"I'm bored."

That was the conclusion Ja-young reached.

Lying spread-eagle on a blanket on the warm floor, wearing only a black hoodie.

The warmth from below made her feel hot, so she committed the extravagance of turning on the air conditioner.

Warm below, cool above.

In that peculiar state, she stared at the ceiling with her characteristically purple, dazed eyes and muttered.

"I'm bored..."

Yes.

She was bored. Very.

Of course, just lying at home is fun at first, but it's natural to get bored as days pass.

Additionally, since she didn't even use her smartphone for internet or games, her only pleasure was turning on the TV and staring blankly at the ceiling.

Of course, she wasn't just staring at the ceiling.

"...Hmm."

In the middle of the living room.

There, she summoned purple flames in the air.

Heatless flames floating in the air like will-o'-wisps.

After creating several and spinning them in a circle, she yawned and muttered.

"Maybe I should clean... Oh, I've already cleaned everything."

When you stay at home with no hobbies, you end up cleaning. Cleaning is fun, after all.

The marble floor in her house was already shining as if polished. Probably from all the cleaning.

Of course, since she often skipped meals, she didn't eat much in a day, but when she did cook, it was almost at an artistic level.

"I'm bored."

She unconsciously muttered about being bored again.

Then she struggled to pull her arms out of her oversized hoodie sleeves and used the remote to access YouTube on the TV.

She entered the site intending to play any recommended video as background noise like a radio.

What caught her attention on the main page was a video titled "Ego-stream Second Half Terrorism Highlights Collection."

"Hmm..?"

Terrorism.

Interested, she used the remote to play the video.

Soon, it showed Ego-stream villains flying through the sky and confronting heroes.

"....That looks fun."

Unusually turning her head to watch the video with dazed eyes, she gave that brief review.

Terrorism. Terrorism.

"Hmm..."

That's what she had been thinking about recently.

Maybe she should commit terrorism.

As someone who extremely disliked going outside and moving her body, she had a firm belief. If she had to move her body and go outside, she needed to make it worth the effort.

And terrorism seemed like it would provide enough fun to justify physically going outside.

"...But it's troublesome."

But that's only if she went outside.

For now, she had no intention of going out because it was troublesome.

Unless she became extremely bored, she might not go out. For now, home is best. Why go outside when all cooking ingredients can be delivered?

The only problem was that the intensity of her boredom had been increasing lately. Almost to the point where she wanted to go out and move her body.

"Yeah. Maybe I'll try terrorism..."

So she had been contemplating that lately.

It's unclear what logical process in her brain led from boredom to terrorism, but she had always lived by following her impulses.

It seemed like it would be easy using her purple spinning flames.

"But I'm bored right now..."

But even if she planned to do that later.

What about her current boredom?

She thought about that while absently listening to the sounds from the TV.

Wondering if something interesting would happen.

And for someone who spent her days thinking like that, something actually did happen.

"Hello. I'm Egostic."

"...I didn't expect this."

She muttered with a dazed look at the man standing in front of her.

Black hat, black clothes, black cape, gray mask.

Come to think of it, this is interesting.

As she was mixing Jetty into a cup of milk, she stared blankly at the intruder who suddenly broke into her house...

"Want some of this?"

She abruptly offered the cup.

Just because. She suddenly wondered if villains also drink Jetty.

***

Ja-young.

Already known for her four-dimensional behavior and various eccentricities in the original story, I prepared myself thoroughly before meeting her.

And when I actually met her.

Just as described in the original story, purple hair, purple eyes, and half-closed eyes that looked dazed.

After ringing her doorbell and barging in, I saw her with that uniquely mysterious aura.

She looked at me and held out a cup.

"Drink."

So I awkwardly accepted the chocolate milk.

...This is getting dizzy from the start.

But she was watching me with such interest through her half-closed eyes that I had no choice but to drink it. Hmm, it's good.

"How is it?"

"It's good."

...What kind of conversation am I having?

Though I expected it, I was slightly taken aback by the development that exceeded my imagination. I gathered my thoughts and remembered why I came here.

Right, recruitment. I need to recruit her.

"Ms. Ja-young. Are you bored these days?"

"Hmm? I am bored."

"In that case..."

I spent 10 minutes earnestly proposing Ego-stream recruitment.

After listening to my speech, she put a finger to her lips, thought briefly, and then.

"No."

She answered simply.

...Well, this won't be easy.