Chapter 229 - Uneasy Premonition

".....Hmm."

After the Shinetia incident.

I spent time tracking down all the culprits behind this incident, destroying their base, and extracting all their data. They seemed to fancy themselves as some kind of information guild from a game, so they had quite a lot of stuff.

Of course, most of the information wasn't particularly important to us, so I gave it all to Lee Seol-ah...

But there were still some interesting tidbits to be found.

"Oppa, what are you doing?"

"Huh? Just reading through everything."

I either memorized them or saved a few pieces of information separately.

...Though evidence is still lacking, there are some quite interesting stories. They're likely fake information, but still.

Of course, this is almost coming to an end now.

"Let's stop here for today and finish the rest tomorrow, Seo-eun. I think we've done enough."

"Yaaawn. Yes, okay."

After nearly finishing the analysis, I put the sleepy-looking Seo-eun to bed first and got ready to sleep myself.

...The sudden actions of those guys created a lot of extra work, but it was still a learning experience. It had been a while since I'd encountered a villain group not mentioned in the original story.

Of course, villain groups not mentioned in the original story aren't particularly threatening. They're just small fry. Just like how these guys got baited by false information.

Anyway, that wasn't the issue...

I had a different problem.

"......"

It was about that day when I intentionally avoided eye contact with Stardust.

Since that day, I've had this extremely unsettling feeling. Like I'd done something I shouldn't have...

"....Sigh."

I tried to ignore it, but somehow the anxiety grew stronger with each passing day. It felt like my intuition was warning me that something terrible was happening. No, what could possibly go wrong? A villain can avoid eye contact with a hero sometimes.

However...

'....Hmm, let me think about this from the opposite perspective.'

What if I was causing terror and mayhem, and then encountered Stardust. But Stardust deliberately ignored me. Instead of growling "Egostic...!" whenever she saw me like usual, she didn't even make eye contact and ignored me. As if I wasn't threatening at all, treating me like I didn't exist.

"Hmm...."

...Huh. Somehow I feel like I did something wrong.

That night, after turning off the lights and lying in bed before sleeping.

I paced around my room alone, lost in thought.

...Of course, I know I'm overthinking this. To begin with, it's not normal for a villain to be this concerned about a hero not making eye contact with them.

However, thinking about it again, my relationship with Stardust is special compared to others. We're arch-enemies to each other, aren't we?

...Should I have at least acknowledged her somehow back then?

".....Sigh, what am I even worrying about."

After deep contemplation, I just shook my head. I'm getting too immersed in this. There's no way Stardust would care about such things. She probably just thought, "Oh, he came and quietly left~" and that was it.

Right. I should just go to sleep.

With those thoughts, I fell asleep.

And that night, I had a nightmare.

***

"....Da-in oppa, are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, Eun-wol. Yeah. I'm fine. Just couldn't sleep properly last night... Yawn."

The next morning.

Eun-wol found me nodding off in the living room with dark circles under my eyes, and asked with a worried voice. I smiled bitterly and waved my hand dismissively.

.....Maybe my dreams have been unsettled lately. Why am I having such dreams?

'...This is your home from now on.'

I think I dreamed about being imprisoned somewhere strange and having a deep conversation with a blonde hero, but I don't remember clearly. Maybe because I was thinking about Stardust before sleeping, she might have appeared in the dream...

Anyway, just the idea of being imprisoned was an extremely anxious dream. Isn't being captured and locked up by heroes what all villains fear most?

"Da-in, please drink this warm beverage and rest a bit this morning."

As I was sprawled on the sofa, with Eun-wol holding one of my hands and massaging pressure points with both of her hands, saying she would try something.

Su-bin, who already knew about my condition, brought me a cup with something warm in it.

"Ah, thank you."

After drinking the warm tea Su-bin made for me, I felt my mind calming down a bit. The clear, light green tea seemed to infuse strength into my mouth. I wasn't sure what kind of tea it was.

Anyway, with those thoughts, I naturally turned on the living room TV.

And there was the screen I had turned off the previous day.

[The wicked Egostic again! Trying to pin his crimes on another innocent civilian, Mr. Kim...]

A satisfying channel that was working hard 24 hours a day broadcasting Egostic criticism was visible, but seeing Eun-wol beside me whose mood seemed to be deteriorating in real-time, I quickly decided to change to another channel.

Then came the news-like broadcast I always watch.

There, Stardust's appearance was shown after a long time. Stardust, who had apparently defeated a villain yesterday.

And there was Stardust, walking out expressionlessly after dealing with a villain.

I listened with joy as the host explained how amazing Stardust was. Yes, our Stardust is indeed amazing.

However, before the news ended, the host added a meaningful comment.

[And recently, people have been saying that Stardust's expression has become more blank. Of course, she's always been expressionless, but lately she seems even more intimidating. I wonder if something's bothering her? In any case, villains who face her should be prepared to deal with her anger.]

"....."

...Haha. So our Ha-ru seems to be in a bad mood these days...? I didn't know because I haven't visited Stardust's fan cafe lately. Hmm.

...Well. It could happen. She's human too, after all. Life has its ups and downs. It could be happening regardless of me.

...That must be it, right?

"....."

...I feel like I need to come up with some kind of plan. To get rid of this uneasy intuition.

As I held my throbbing head, feeling the inexplicable anxiety growing stronger than usual, Su-bin returned and asked me with a concerned voice.

"Da-in, are you still tired?"

"Haha, I'll be fine soon. Don't worry. I just had a restless night because of bad dreams."

"...Still. If it's because your bed is uncomfortable, you can come sleep in my room. The bed is big enough."

Su-bin said with a kind smile.

...Isn't she too nice? Of course, I couldn't impose on Su-bin like that.

I laughed and just said I understood.

...Thinking it was fortunate that Seo Ja-young or Choi Se-hee didn't hear our conversation. They would misunderstand again.

By the way, why hasn't Eun-wol returned from waking up Seo-eun? Is Seo-eun using the high school student's secret technique, "Just five more minutes"?

While I was thinking that, Eun-wol finally came walking in, holding Seo-eun's hand.

"Yaaawn..."

Seo-eun yawning like me.

...It seems Seo-eun is a bit weak in the mornings, so she's always half-asleep during morning hours. Still, since becoming friends with Eun-wol, she's been waking up a bit earlier thanks to her.

"Mmm... oppa."

Seo-eun sat down next to me on the sofa.

Then she naturally leaned on my shoulder and started dozing off.

...She'll naturally wake up in a few minutes when it gets noisy anyway, so let's leave her be for now. I'm tired too, so I understand how she feels.

Anyway, starting today, after reading through the remaining information, it's time to initiate the next operation.

Preparing to hunt the S-class villain, Scream Maker, which was delayed because of those Saintess guys' mess.

...I'll be broadcasting this one too, I wonder if people will like it again.

***

Scream Maker.

A muscular, skinhead villain wearing something like an oxygen tank resembling a jetpack on his back, attacking by releasing gas through a connected hose.

One of his peculiarities is that he creates a special poison gas using his ability. Anyone who inhales even a little of the smoke he creates involuntarily screams. And then dies.

This guy, who sounds dangerous just from the description, was naturally classified as an S-class villain in the original story. His ability was specialized for mass attacks, capable of taking out dozens of civilians at once.

...In other words. There's a reason why I'm specifically going after him first. Besides his dangerousness, too many people die in his first terror attack. Stardust was fine with just inhaling a little smoke, but the rest weren't so lucky. Since the original story was dark, Stardust naturally failed to catch him at first. She suffered greatly in front of the numerous civilian casualties.

...And of course, I had no intention of witnessing that.

After all the effort I've put into maintaining Stardust's mental state. I can't let it break now. And too many casualties would occur.

So finally, after gathering enough information about him, I planned an operation with Seo-eun and our other Ego-stream members.

The atmosphere was good until then. It wasn't the first time I'd done something like this. However.

"...What? You're going alone?"

When I said I would handle it alone, the atmosphere suddenly changed.

Seeing Su-bin's worried face and Choi Se-hee looking at me as if I was talking nonsense, I realized.

...This won't be easy to convince them.