CH 105

Ep105. Her Despair

Since the last fight with Death Knight, a member of Egostic’s Villain Union.

Stardus, Shin Haru was living a peaceful life like how she wanted.

‘My name is Paprika! Turn you into  paprikaaaaaaaaa!!!’

The occasional pussy-clad psychopaths, she handled them with just a fist.

‘My name is Celestian. Stardus, I’m here to knock you down. Hehe, I’ll defeat you here!’

…

‘…Sob. I’m sorry. Please, spare my life… Argh! Don’t hit me! This is over-execution!’

Villains who come at her with special abilities are all defeated fairly with a fist.

“…..”

She was living a peaceful life, eliminating villains like a machine without any difficulty.

“……Ha.”

….And she repeated that routine.

She felt like she was becoming, slowly, dull.

[The Villain Union of A-Class Villain Egostic has been in hiding for a while since he last launched Death Night. Now it’s widely believed among experts that Ego Stream will cause terrorism once a quarter. Cheol-gyu, do you think Egostic will cause terrorism within this year?]

[Oh, that’s unpredictable. In fact, the terrorist attacks every quarter are just rumors that are circulating without any clues among netizens. In fact, if you look at the terrorism caused by Egostic, it’s very irregular. However, if you look at his terror cycle so far, this pattern certainly exists.]

[What’s the pattern?]

[If he hasn’t been on the show for too long, he’ll come out when he’s about to be forgotten. And it was estimated that the long period for him is around three to four months. In other words, I don’t know when he will come. However, if he hasn’t been here for about three to four months, it will definitely come out soon.]

[Aha. So his attacks can happen in a week, but at least not more than 4 months compared to the previous one?]

[That’s right. And the point here is, it’s not necessarily terrorism. It can appear in any way, whether it’s a self-introduction of a new villain or a way of intercepting another villain’s terror.]

[In conclusion, when is the period that we can definitely see Egostic?]

[At the end of this year or early next year. He’ll come before then, and if he doesn’t come by then, he’ll definitely come during that time.]

Beep-

Egostic news sometimes comes out on TV.

And when his story came out, Haru quietly switched the channel.

…She didn’t mean to say that she switched it as soon as he came out, but she did change the channel after watching everything, but anyway.

She’s dealing with Jobvillain these days, deliberately opting out of thinking about Egostic.

As if to prove her own will, she hasn’t been to Egostic’s fan cafe even once recently.

“……”

Of course, it became a habit now, and there were times when she pressed the bookmark without realizing it. At that time, she only skimmed through popular posts and did nothing else.

‘Haru, aren’t you focusing too much on Egostic?’

She realized it after hearing what her friend Lee Seol-ah said.

Yeah. She’s been thinking too much about Egostic until now. To the point where it disrupted her daily life

In fact, he’s just another villain.

There are so many villains in the world, and it’s a waste of time to think about what a villain who’s not even terrorizing might be doing by now.

That’s how she cut back on her thinking about Egostic.

She wonders what he’s doing when he’s not terrorizing.

What’s his name, and how does he usually live his daily life?

She also wonders why he’s causing terrorism.

She also wonders why he attacked only her from the beginning.

Why does he always cheer Shin Haru up even though he’s a villain? Also, why did he sacrifice himself for her?

All, everything.

Tied deep in her heart, she tried not to think any more.

He’s not causing terrorism now.

When he doesn’t show up, there’s no proper way to catch him anyway, so instead of caring about him who doesn’t show up, she’ll focus on other stuff.

… Rationally, she thought so.

“Haa…”

Still, as expected.

Without Egostic, everyday life is peaceful. In other words, it’s boring. 

Now that she’s got a lot stronger, all the villains on her way look just like sandbags.

She recalls once again that only Egostic makes her go all out.

Unknowingly, she waited only for the new year.

‘…Next year. I wonder if he’s going to come out.’

And so, a year has passed.

***

Eventually, until the end of the year, everything went smoothly without Egostic coming.

A new year has begun.

“Yes, this letter. It’s a report that terrorism will occur in Seoul when the first snow falls, but high chance that it’s likely just a prank. But just in case, be prepared for that day.”

And, a word was spoken at the meeting of the Hero Association.

Just like the tip-off, actually.

The evening of Seoul when the first snow falls

BOOOM.

Terrorism indeed happened in the middle of Seoul.

As soon as she heard about it, Shin Haru thought it was Egostic coming back with another terrorism, but seeing that the broadcast wasn’t on, she realized that it couldn’t be.

As her mood was killed, the association told her not to worry about it because Shadow Walker had already been dispatched. They said that it’s been a long time since  a terrorist attack happened at night, while laughing.

As Shadow Walker has never been able to handle an evening terror in a short period of time, she thought while wearing her suit. Maybe by the time she gets there, the case’s already solved.

But

When she actually got to the scene, the situation was quite different.

Countless citizens were screaming and evacuating. Buildings were crumbling helplessly

“AAAAAAH!! What’s wrong with my ability?!! It doesn’t work!!”

Swoooosh.

City night sky was filled with bizarre pink and stormy winds.

In front of her, Shadow Walker was screaming and losing his mind, tearing his hair out.

Looking at the situation where only the ominous pink is filling the sky. Only then did Shin Haru realize.

Something, she thinks, is wrong.

***

It hasn’t been long since the peaceful city center, where people enjoyed the first snow, began to collapse like this.

A woman in a white suit walked into the middle of the city street, which was just peaceful as usual.

Swoooosh-

Suddenly around her, a pink storm began to blow.

And after a while, a pink tornado suddenly spins at a great speed.

Swooooosh-

BOOOOOOOM.

Suddenly, with the appearance of a pink whirlwind visible from far away, citizens who were already accustomed to terrorism began to scream and run away quickly.

Starting with screams and sirens in the city center, the peaceful night was colored by a huge pink tornado that gradually grew.

Like a dreamy CG, a pink tornado grows in the middle of a stark gray city as if to devour the whole city.

Something purple in the shape of the star gradually begins to form in the air.

And at the same time that the storm made it hard for people to stand, suddenly the purple stars between the storms,

They started to fly around with physical force and destroyed the city center recklessly.

BOOM.

BOOM.

The city in the evening turned into chaos in an instant.

But people weren’t as horrified as expected.

The attack happened at night.

The invincible Shadow Walker will take care of everything within the night.

And now, that Shadow Walker.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

In front of the pink storm, the road was just going wild, tearing its head helplessly.

***

“Okay. So, if we get close to that pink storm, we will lose our strength?”

“Yeah. I can’t even move the shadow anymore, my secret weapon!”

Seoul’s city center is now painted in pink.

As the letter of warning, the association had put agents and low-ranking heroes on standby throughout the city, where civilians had been evacuated in advance, and the heroes were standing in the streets and having a serious meeting.

Icicle tilted her head in front of Shadow who was haranguing. 

“I mean. Is it really that bad?”

“Yeah. Strangely, the closer you get to the center of that storm, the more you lose strength and you can’t even use my ability. If you get hit by the purple star-shaped thing flying in the air, your body will bounce off.”

“…That doesn’t sound good.”

Icicle, who was in Busan and just came up to Seoul by Shadow Walker’s ability, looked serious as she saw a pink storm occupying the city center.

If it’s an opponent that can beat Shadow Walker of the night, will she be able to defeat it?

“Oh, right. Stardus. How about Haru?”

“She said she would have a check and went inside.”

And the moment Shadow said that.

Thump.

Inside that pink storm, Stardus bounced off from something and crashed to the ground.

“Haru!”

Icicle rushed to her in surprise, wiping the blood around her mouth and waking up to Stardus.

“Are you okay? You…”

Icicle, who was in a hurry to examine her, soon met Stardus’ eyes and freaked out.

Stardus’ eyes were looking toward that storm.

The snow was almost burning, full of venom.

“Get out of the way. I’ll try again…”

“Huh? Oh…”

Lee Seola stepped back from her words, which sounded like she was going to eat it up.

Then, going past her, Stardus went into the storm.

Icicle, who was agonizing, also followed her in.

***

‘Again.’

Shin Ha-ru clenched her teeth as she entered the storm caused by the villain.

A strong wind made her long hair fly like crazy, and it’s hard to walk with her eyes open.

And strangely enough, her power weakens rapidly when she comes inside this.

“Urg.”

Shin Ha-ru barely opened her eyes, barely punched something in the shape of a large purple star that flew furiously toward her.

Boom. Boom.

The wide city center was covered with pink winds.

In the meantime, unknown purple stars were floating and flying toward her.

And if she managed to get through them after a few attempts and barely approached the center.

Ziiiiing-

Somewhere inside no one can see, a purple ray or something like that

-BOOM.

“Urg…”

She tried to hold out by crossing her arms with an X in front of her chest, but she doesn’t think that she can endure it.

Eventually, she couldn’t resist the reaction and bounced off.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”!

She can hear Seola’s scream from the side.

The two, who bounced back at every attack, gasped.

Still, Shadow Walker is struggling to break through the storm.

Shin Haru, clenched her teeth.

Yeah, it was too peaceful these days.

Why didn’t she realize? The world is full of malice.

There’s always an enemy somewhere stronger than her.

There’s a villain in front of her, destroying the city and hurting people.

A sense of hopelessness made her feel like she cannot do anything.

Is it a punishment for the past year in which she’s been conceited about taking down all the villains with one punch?

Frustration and helplessness that she felt for the first time since Egostic dropped the plane filled up inside her.

And now, there’s no Egostic to tell her to cheer up.

And that villain, she’s not going to walk away laughing like Egositc.

And of course, Egostic is not going to show up now.

She clenched her teeth even harder.

This is a real game.

And in this situation, she realized once again.

Egostic has been looking out for me all this time.

Terrorism with him was just a joke.

A real terrorist attack has to be like this.

“…That doesn’t sound good. What should we do? Haru, are you crying?”

And at Seola’s words, who spoke up next to her, she finally returned to reality.

“…What are you talking about?”

She put her hand on her face at Seola’s words, wondering what she was talking about.

Only then did she feel it.

A tear was flowing down her cheeks without her knowing.

***

“Oh, my!!! Haru!! I’m sorry!! I’m coming now!!”

“Da-in, are you crazy? Calm down!”

“Hey, what’s wrong with you? Sit down!”

“Da-in, calm down! You said you’d just watch today!”

While watching TV, everyone next to me forcibly grabbed me, who got up with tears pouring down like a waterfall.

No! How can I stay still when our Stardus is crying?!! She’s crying because she’s upset!!

“No! Stardus! I’m going now!!!”

“Soobin! There’s nothing we can do now. Shoo some electricity at him!”

“Let go! I’m going to… Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”