Chapter 230 - Slander And Defamation
# Scream Maker
After telling the members that I would handle Scream Maker alone that day.
There was fierce opposition, but after quite a long time persuading them, I finally succeeded.
"Oppa. If you seem to be in danger, Eun-wol will be waiting nearby and will come right away."
"...Hmm. Okay. She can come when I look 'extremely' dangerous."
"And if something goes wrong, we'll all rush in, blow up all the buildings with something like missiles, and rescue you first, so keep that in mind."
"Hmm..."
"Oh right. And this time, make sure to take the ring that Death Knight gave you. Got it?"
"Yeah..."
...It wasn't easy, of course, but anyway. What matters is that I managed to eliminate opposition to going alone.
Even like this, it's better for me to go alone. Not only is his ability, poison gas, dangerous even with minimal inhalation, but especially considering what I found out about where he lives.
Right. After running several simulations based on the original work, it's most desirable for me to go in alone and take this guy down. I also know his attack patterns best.
...And.
"Hmm..."
I fell into deep thought.
Scream Maker. Like how I'm not leaving this to Stardust and taking the risk myself, he's very tricky to deal with if you don't know anything about him. Especially in the latter part of the original work.
Particularly, the Association later gave other villains names ending with "Maker," and these guys formed a villain organization called "The Maker Trio" and caused absolute havoc. Among them, our Scream was the trickiest.
"Hmm..."
With those thoughts, I read through the file I received once more.
He lives in a huge pension on the outskirts of Seoul in Injidemun, which is essentially a laboratory. Inside, it's full of scientific equipment. Essentially weapons to chase away intruders.
Villains these days are so thorough.
"..."
...Ah. I miss the old days. Villains like our Teleporter. In the original work, we could just attack them while they were napping at home—those pure villains from the early days. Now only crazy ones who fortify their homes remain...
Of course.
That doesn't mean we can't catch them.
Anyway, we continued planning like that.
"Oppa, you really need to be careful, okay?"
"Da-in. If it seems dangerous, make sure to run away. Understood?"
"...Da-in oppa. I'll be right next to you, so if anything happens, I'll come right away."
"Okay, okay. Well, I'm really going now."
Somewhere on the outskirts of Seoul.
I prepared to move to a suspiciously large penthouse built alone on some flat land.
Of course, I set up a camera in the air.
Now, let's start the broadcast.
***
After Kim Cheol-woo's Egostic broadcast.
The Mangostick fans across the country who loved whenever Egostic started a broadcast were quite satisfied.
Although the broadcast itself only lasted a few minutes, experts had already extracted all the GIFs from the video and uploaded countless memes and shorts. Beyond that, it was especially meaningful since he usually strictly limited his appearances to once every three months, about four times a year. This time, he started earlier than usual.
Therefore, no one expected it.
That Egostic would start another broadcast just a few weeks after his last one.
*
[?????????]
[Is this for real?]
[Wow, Mangostick started a broadcast after just 2 weeks ㅠㅠ]
[Yeah, this is it ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[Mangtaesik is back!!!!!]
[KingGodEmperorGostic <= Like if you believed ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[But why broadcast before 7 AM?? I'm dying of sleepiness]
[Best choice for the subway commute]
[Like if you're watching on your phone with your eyes barely open ㅋㅋㅋ Me first ㅋㅋㅋ]
[Death to the sweet-sleeping bugs ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ When they wake up, Egostic's broadcast will already be over ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
*
Yes.
In the still chilly morning.
On the outskirts of Seoul, feeling the light breeze blowing across the empty flat land with no high-rise buildings, I smiled brightly at the camera and greeted everyone.
"Hello everyone. This is Egostic!
The flood of chat messages.
Looking at the chat scrolling down too fast to read each one, I chose what to say.
Alright. From here, I need to speak carefully.
What I'm about to do is a villain hunting broadcast with its own history and tradition.
After deciding to eliminate Scream Maker this time.
One thing I particularly considered was what justification to use for taking him out.
This might seem trivial, but it's actually a huge issue.
Since I've established myself with a villain concept, if I go around hunting other villains indiscriminately, it could backfire. No matter how many I kill, I need a clear justification. If I just eliminate other villains because I'm bored, how am I any different from heroes?
Actually, more than that, the problem is other hidden villains. They might think, "Am I next on Egostic's list?" In other words, I'd gain more enemies. To prevent that, I need clear justification.
That's why whenever I've had to deal with other villains, I've always provided some justification. Like their weapons look cool, or they're being too noisy and annoying, or they're making weapons right under my feet! Things like that.
Actually, this time I could just use the same logic as when I dealt with Weapon Master—"you look dangerous so I'm eliminating you"—but using the same reason twice in a row doesn't feel right.
So I reluctantly decided to frame our Scream Maker.
Sorry, Scream Maker..! But you're already bad enough, so a little false accusation is okay, right? Yeah. That's what I think.
"Everyone. The reason I started this broadcast today is simple. It's because I received a declaration of war."
With that, I made a bombshell statement just tens of seconds into the broadcast with a serious face.
The chat filled with [?????] at my sudden announcement.
With a very regretful expression, I held my forehead and said:
"Yes! As it happens, some other villain left me a message. When I checked what it was, guess what! They said they don't like me and will destroy me and Egostream. They said they'll come to eliminate us someday, so wait for it."
*
[Gasp]
[For real? What a crazy guy ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Fearlessly provoking Ego wwwwww]
[Is this some new concept of suicide declaration?]
[Second victim after Saintess ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
*
Of course, it's all nonsense.
This Scream Maker guy is too busy with his own work to care about me. He's probably researching how to cause the maximum number of deaths most efficiently.
But there's no one here to refute me anyway, right? So from today, he's someone who declared war on me. The fight between first-class villains is cold-blooded. True first-class status comes from not hesitating to slander and frame your opponents.
So I brazenly announced to the camera:
"This person identified himself as Scream Maker, and since he threatened to destroy me, I was too scared to just sit still! So I traced the message he sent and came here first to deal with him!"
*
[Ah ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[It ends up like this ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[Farewell, Scream whatever... you won't go far]
[One word created a thousand nyang debt ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[This is revenge, I agree. Being threatened first]
[What confidence did he have to provoke Korea's #1 ranked villain? Truly clueless]
[He can't complain even if he gets destroyed first ㅋㅋㅋ]
*
....Toward Scream Maker who instantly became the crazy guy who provoked Egostic, I expressed mild condolences. Though I wasn't particularly sorry.
Anyway, with this, I secured my justification.
Now everyone accepts my going after Scream Maker. Good. This way, they won't call me some dark hero who catches other villains.
Which means I can freely cause havoc.
With that thought, I boldly walked through the front door of the penthouse.
"Come forth!"
BANG.
With one kick, the front door shattered.
Of course, it was staged using psychokinesis, but anyway...
That's how I bloodlessly entered the penthouse, Scream Maker's stronghold.
A neatly organized interior.
More precisely, it was a house with dust accumulated in perfectly aligned angles, making it doubtful whether anyone lived there.
*
[Oh, what's this?]
[Did he come to the wrong place? Doesn't look like anyone lives here]
*
"Hmm... He should be somewhere around here."
As viewers began to doubt.
I approached one wall of the house, which was unusually small for such a large penthouse. I felt around and pressed a switch.
And.
Ziiiiiiiiing.
With the sound of machinery operating, the wall opened upward like a garage door.
Behind the suddenly revealed outer wall was a sloping corridor leading downward, made of gray walls.
Seeing the viewers' surprised reactions, I grinned.
"As expected, I knew it would be like this. There's always a hidden secret."
Now that I've opened the path to his stronghold, it's time to prepare.
He must have noticed the presence of an intruder by now.
With that thought, I naturally turned my back to the camera and switched my mask to a gas mask.
"Now, let's go in."
Saying that, I moved toward the secret corridor.
...The moment of battle was approaching.
***
"Hmm..."
Shin Ha-ru.
Waking up and stretching in the morning, she rubbed her sleepy eyes and took water from the refrigerator.
After drinking the cold water, she sat with a blank expression, trying to wake up.
While doing so, she naturally turned on the TV to check if there was any news overnight.
And there was Egostic's figure as soon as it turned on.
[It looks like some kind of laboratory? It's quite dark. I guess villains these days like this style.]
Egostic walking down a dark corridor making frivolous jokes.
And next to it, a mark that said [LIVE]..?
"....?"
Stardust was instantly wide awake.