Chapter 191 - Founding

# After Kathedal

After visiting Kathedal, I'd been quite busy—deciphering premium information, making contact with a Japanese villain boss—so I was taking some time to heal at home.

[Breaking news: S-class villain Seven Hun has appeared in Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul, and hero Stardust is fighting against him! We now go live to reporter Lee Jae-hyun at the scene!]

"Wow. Now that's a hero."

Popcorn in one hand, computer in the other.

Lately, I'd been so busy that moments of peaceful rest were rare, but I still made sure to catch Stardust's live broadcasts without fail. Mainly for the entertainment of seeing how much stronger she'd become.

"...Wow, she can really control that Star Punch freely now."

I marveled as I watched Stardust beating down villains with her fist glowing with yellow light.

Star Punch. It was one of Stardust's techniques that original fans had nicknamed, characterized by the light emanating from her fist, presumably from the power of stars contained within. Naturally, it showed much greater power than a normal attack.

...In the original work, it was used as a finishing move in extreme situations, until she reached a certain level and could use it freely. If I remember correctly, that happened after the Moonlight Gate incident, but she can already use it now, which shows tremendous growth.

It seems she awakened after the fight with the Demon King, which was truly remarkable. She probably knows better than anyone how villains simply collapse when hit by that Star Punch.

Anyway, that made me feel more at ease.

The calamities that would happen in the future—if the current Stardust continues to grow stronger, she should be able to prevent them.

'....We've already progressed quite far compared to the original work.'

I muttered to myself.

Well, you could tell just by turning on the news. Villains appearing daily, the world falling apart.

Though people haven't realized it yet, they'll soon start to feel it subconsciously—that the world is becoming increasingly strange.

Brazil as a country has completely collapsed.

In Japan, the conflict between the corrupt government and villains is intensifying.

S-class villains have formed an alliance called Kathedal.

And here in Korea, some Demon King-like entity has appeared...

'And in a few months, humanity will face extinction once.'

Of course, saying "extinction" is just a figure of speech—ultimately, that time manipulator will sacrifice himself to make it all "never happened." But since that person, humanity's last bastion, will die in the process, the situation will naturally worsen.

And then, when our Moonlight Church starts unleashing monsters across the world beyond just Korea, it'll be the icing on the cake. In short, chaos will unfold.

This means I need to prepare by training other ability users beforehand. Since Stardust can't be in multiple places at once, looking at what's coming based on the original work, I need to cultivate other heroes in advance.

That's how the hero training academy—no, the PMC—that Seol-ah and I created began. We gather ability users under the Yu-seong Group name, train them, and then deploy them when disasters strike.

And now, with some time to spare, it's time to officially start. The recruitment is already complete.

"Hmm...."

So after watching Stardust's live event, I was reviewing documents for the final PMC confirmation.

Unexpectedly, we received quite a lot of applications. Names I recognized from the original work and names I'd never heard before.

I approved those I had marked from the original work, and for those I hadn't seen before, I thoroughly investigated them with Seo-eun and Yu-seong Group's resources, approving only those who seemed controllable.

After filtering through everything, only 4 remained.

'....Seems a bit few, but... well, anyway.'

I selected this few because I'll be teaching them personally, and after training these ones and opening a second recruitment, we'll accept dozens more, so it's not a big issue. Later, they'll become a massive Ego-stream division freely operating throughout Korea...

After giving final approval and contacting Seol-ah, I sighed and closed my laptop.

That's when Seo-eun and Eun-wol suddenly appeared in my peripheral vision.

"Oppa, are you finished?"

"Ugh... huh? Oh, yeah, I'm done now."

After I answered, Seo-eun nodded and then anxiously glanced at the documents.

"....Oppa, what is that?"

"Huh? Didn't I tell you? It's about organizing those PMC people. I just gave final confirmation."

"Hmm...."

Seo-eun fidgeted with her fingers, seeming unsatisfied.

Then she asked me in a small voice.

"Oppa... you're not planning to abandon our Ego-stream and join another team, are you?"

"Huh? What are you suddenly talking about? Why would I join another team?"

I was momentarily blank before being startled by her words. What kind of random question was that?

As Seo-eun kept her mouth tightly shut and nervously fidgeted with her fingers, Eun-wol spoke instead.

"...Da-in oppa keeps gathering other ability users and creating something, and lately you've been focusing only on them, so Seo-eun found it suspicious."

"....! When did I! That's not what I meant..."

Seo-eun's face turned red at those words, and she waved her hands in denial, but it seemed Eun-wol had hit the mark.

I don't know exactly why Seo-eun thought that way, but I did my best to explain that wasn't the case. That Ego-stream is the main team, and the PMC is just a subsidiary, and so on...

After my sincere persuasion over an extended period, Seo-eun finally seemed to let go of her anxiety and accept it.

"Right. Those people are all B-class, C-class and such. All our Ego-stream members are A-class or above, right?"

"Hmm... that's true."

"And compared to our genius hacker Seo-eun, what tech ability user wouldn't pale in comparison?"

"Hey, oppa. Stop joking around."

Despite saying that, Seo-eun was clearly in a better mood, smiling slightly.

Looking at her, I decided not to mention that because their abilities weren't as good, I would need to focus on caring for them intensively for a while. Somehow, it felt like I shouldn't say that...

After putting out that urgent fire, I decided to rest at home during my free time. Of course, by "rest" I meant working from home, but doing it casually, so it counts as resting.

...But wait, I'm supposed to be a villain, so why am I working so hard? Aren't villains supposed to have an image of lazing around and committing terrorism?

Though thinking about it, most high-ranking villains in the original work were diligent, so maybe I'm the normal one. In this harsh modern society, half-baked villains can't survive...

After reviewing the PMC, considering new Ego-stream members to recruit, and spending time having tea with Su-bin.

Before I knew it, the time had come.

Time for the official establishment of the PMC.

***

Yu-seong Corporation's PMC, known as "Yu-seong Squad."

Publicly, it was established as a private organization created by Chairwoman Lee Seol-ah, who recruited ability users under the pretext of providing security for the company.

However, the reality was the opposite.

It was a military organization for the defense of the Korean Peninsula, created by me, the A-class villain Egostic, and A-class hero and Korea's shadow power Lee Seol-ah, joining forces.

Through the original work, I knew that in the future, many ability users would emerge, and most would become villains. To prevent this situation and to counter the monsters and villains that would eventually swarm, we were hiring ability users with our own funds. Naturally, since most lacked combat experience or the right mindset, they would need some training.

So we recruited PMC personnel by offering 100% identity protection unlike heroes, and by throwing money at them.

I arrived at the place that would accommodate them.

But...

"Wow...."

"What do you think? Nice, right? I put some effort into it."

As I got out of Seol-ah's limousine, a tall building stood before me.

It was quite high with a sky-blue glass exterior that gleamed, with the words "Yu-seong PMC" shining at the very top.

"Wow... why did you put in so much effort?"

"Hehe, isn't this the first collaborative project between me and you, Da-in? Of course I put in some effort."

Seol-ah said as she walked forward with her sky-blue hair swaying, her heels clicking on the ground.

I followed behind her.

Security guards lined up in formation.

Escorted by them, we entered the building, where impressive facilities greeted me.

"Now, here are the living quarters... here's the dining hall... here's the recreation area..."

She guided me through the floors.

I had asked her to create something like a dormitory for the PMC people, but she had created facilities better than any association.

"And the basement is the key."

She smiled at me in the elevator going down to the basement, and when the doors opened, she presented her creation with a "ta-da."

What was in the basement was a truly massive space.

A space about the size of a baseball stadium greeted me.

"When ability users train together, what else would they do besides combat?"

As Seol-ah boasted about the absolutely unbreakable outer walls made with cutting-edge technology diverted from the Han Group, I quietly marveled. Indeed, this would be enough to have the same effect as the open forest where Ego-stream usually trained.

"Wow, I didn't expect you to go this far. Thank you so much."

"Hmph. After what I've received from you, this is easy. And anyway..."

Seol-ah said with a coy smile, then grabbed my collar, stood face to face with me, and spoke.

"I heard that you're doing all this to save everyone here."

"Well... if you put it that way, yes."

"Then of course I should help. Yu-seong and Korea are one body."

"Haha... what's scary is that's not just a metaphor."

"Anyway, I look forward to working with you in the future. Oh, and..."

"Yes?"

"About Stardust lately, a bit..."

She tilted her head slightly after saying that much, then smiled again and said.

"No, it seems like nothing important. It's nothing."

How anticlimactic.

I chuckled and got back into the elevator with Seol-ah.

'....Now then.'

It's time to meet the new people.

The members of my long-cherished Ego-squad... no, Yu-seong Squad.

...I just hope they'll listen well.