Chapter 9: Her Everyday Life

Shin Haru, a student currently attending Yeonhee University.

Aside from her striking blonde hair and stunning looks that would make anyone turn their heads, she appeared pretty ordinary. Well, being pretty isn’t exactly ordinary, but...

Anyway, not many people are aware that she’s actually a hero.

This is a secret known only to a handful of agents from the Hero Association and her fellow heroes. Because of this, she’s been able to lead a relatively normal college life.

...Of course, she does miss more classes than most students, raising some suspicions.

And it’s not just that.

She’s skipped orientation, the opening ceremony, the MT (Membership Training), after-parties, festivals...

Due to her complete absence from college events, close friends are incredibly rare in her life. While this is largely because she intentionally keeps her distance from people, she does have a few close acquaintances or seniors, so it’s not a problem.

So, she’s been managing her dual life as a college student and a hero pretty well.

Terror attacks are not frequent in Seoul.

Maybe once every two weeks?

While that’s frequent enough, the world is already chaotic, so it’s tolerable.

Until now, there haven’t been many formidable villains in Korea.

Of course, she has heard that in the United States—the world’s most powerful country—terror attacks are rampant every day. But they also have a balanced number of S and A-class heroes to maintain equilibrium.

There’s a saying that in the U.S., A-class heroes are as common as pigeons in a city. Given the scarcity of A-class heroes in South Korea, it’s clear the U.S. is exceptional in this regard.

So, despite being an A-class hero, she doesn’t think her abilities are anything special.

What are her abilities? She’s really strong and can fly, but that’s about it.

That’s why when facing a villain like Egoistic, she couldn’t do anything but stand by helplessly.

“.....”

Tap. Tap.

She tapped her fingers against the glass containing the smoothie she was drinking.

Egoistic...

Initially, when she saw him killing villains, she was filled with rage.

Back then, she thought of Egoistic like this: Some ignorant kid got power and went on a rampage.

Her speculation was as follows:  Just an attention-seeker who got powers and thought, ‘Hey, isn’t this the way to get rid of all villains?’ and happily started killing other villains.

Instead of officially registering as a hero under legal jurisdiction, he acted on his own whims, wielding excessive power and behaving as if he were the epitome of justice.

There are those who, upon receiving power, become intoxicated with their own personal justice and the ensuing public attention.

People who are deluded into thinking they’re ‘heroes,’ unlike the so-called ‘professional heroes.’

She despised this type the most.

Attention-seekers.

That feeling transformed into certainty when she saw her own name written in blood at one of his crime scenes.

Disgusting.

What’s with the barbaric act of writing in blood? Sigh...

Until then, she was full of plans to lock him up in prison.

...Of course, even then, she had no idea how he knew the location where an A-class villain was hiding.

Yes, no one knew back then...

...That this guy would turn out to be such a madman.

[Yes! If the passengers look toward the center of the ship, they will see a detonator with a large red button. The detonator that I have installed on three ships... each of them is designed to blow up a different ship. That’s right! Devices to blow up ship other than your own.]

[You have a 30-minute time limit. As long as no one presses a button in that time, you’re fine.]

He wasn’t just some kid intoxicated by his powers.

He was a bona fide villain, planning large-scale terrorism.

On top of that, a psychopath who plays with people’s emotions.

Though she didn’t show it, she was inwardly horrified.

How could a human being harbor such inhumane thoughts?

In truth, if Egoistic heard this story, he would feel wronged, dismissing it as a mere homage to a film from his past life—had he known.

The one who declared himself as Egoistic.

In online communities, people say that his name came from the English word ‘Egoistic,’ implying selfishness. The connection between his name and his pronouncement that ‘humans are selfish’ is evident.

Even from this, one can tell he’s not a character to be considered sane.

And then came last week, the long-awaited moment.

When she first heard that Egoistic’s followers were causing bombings, she could only sigh.

When one lunatic appears, others follow like a waterfall effect. Incredibly, Egoistic executed a significant event the very next day after instigating the terror attack.

It was a meticulously carried out terror, so well-planned that it seemed premeditated. Even though the method mimicked what Egoistic had done, she had no choice but to acknowledge it.

Genuine fanatics who revered Egoistic appeared overnight, so proactive that they instigated another terror attack the next day.

Before any countermeasures against Egoistic’s copycat bombings could even be discussed within the Association, the terror occurred too swiftly. She was left unprepared and utterly vulnerable.

But the self-blame and anxious observation of the situation could only last for a moment.

Egoistic himself took the stage.

To be honest, she was extremely tense.

What could this unpredictable maniac do, coming directly to the scene? Especially to a place where hundreds of hostages were held?

It would have been strange if she hadn’t been worried. She, along with the other waiting heroes at the Association, watched with bated breath. Of course, they had no choice but to watch through his broadcast.

Despite his face being hidden, his audacity was infuriating, tempting them to rush in and strike him down. Yet they continued to watch.

And then he, once again, proved he was a lunatic. He looked at his own followers and gunned them all down, telling them to quit their nonsense.

He then released the hostages, even promising to give them money. It turns out that the money was actually transferred to the victims’ accounts—though it was sent in a way that made it untraceable.

Did he just give them money? No, he also apologized. Saying he was sorry for the craziness caused by his followers, and he did this right in front of the live broadcast he set up.

At this point, she was genuinely baffled.

What kind of person was he? If he’s a villain, he should act like one.

And to be frank, if one were to look at his actions that day, they were actually quite heroic.

...Of course, this isn’t to say that vigilantism should be condoned. It’s just that the Association had already authorized lethal force to safely rescue the hostages, so their lives were at stake anyway.

So, what she found strange was this: Among all the villains she’d encountered so far, there had been no one like Egoistic.

Random murders, bombings, arson, kidnappings, terrorism.

Such acts were quite common among villains.

But a villain like Egoistic who seemed to possess some sort of ‘belief’?

This was a first for her.

Of course, similar cases might exist globally, but at least in South Korea, it was unprecedented.

-Ding-

Having completed her assignments, she stepped out of the café.

It was a pleasant day, the warm sunlight enveloping her body.

As a habit, she stretched her arms out wide.

“Ah~”

Men walking by glanced over at her stretching, but she remained unaware.

“Egoistic...”

‘...He knows the locations of other villains, can hijack airwaves, knows the bank accounts of hostages he’s never met, and seems to have a lot of money.’

Just what kind of person was he?

In her mind, Egoistic had already become her top priority for caution.

Which means,

Whether for better or worse, Egoistic had taken up a significant portion of her thoughts.

‘...I will definitely uncover who you are.’

***

“Hmm. Feels like someone’s talking about me.”

“Hyung, it’s not because you haven’t been showering lately, right?”

“Seo Eun, I know you’re a girl so quit calling me ‘Hyung’...”

“Hyung. Be quiet. Please.”

“Fine...”

“...Should I warm the water for you?”

“Why are you acting like that, Soo-bin? You don’t have to do anything; just sit still. And I do shower every day. This is defamation.”

“...Yes.”

“Why do you look so skeptical? I told you, it’s defamation!”

In the middle of Seoul.

A seemingly ordinary house hides a secret base several stories underground.

It was Egoistic’s base. Or, for short, Ego-Base.

“Hyung, why do you just go naming other people’s houses like it’s yours?”

“Tch. Seo Eun, between you and me, there no your home and mine? Your home is mine, and mine is yours.”

“You don’t even have a house now; you sold it.”

“......”

Yes, I moved my residence.

To Seo Eun’s underground secret base.

Given the various tasks ahead of us, it seemed best to stay where all the equipment is assembled. Plus, this woman Soo-bin is another issue.

So Seo Eun readily agreed.

It’s hard to tell how deep this place is, but it’s bright and cheery thanks to LED lighting. And the space is vast, with plenty of rooms, so there’s no issue with space.

Thank you, Seo Eun.

As I lie on the bed, filled with gratitude, and look at Seo Eun, she scrunches up her face as if asking why I’m staring.

That ungrateful brat. I wanted to say more, but the side effects from teleporting made me too uncomfortable to move.

My closest associate and a genius hacker, Han Seo Eun.

She’s a very small child with silver bobbed hair. To begin with, she only graduated from middle school. At first, I thought she was a middle school student.

She keeps calling me “Hyung” and insists that she’s a boy...

Seo Eun, I’ve read the original story, so I know you’re a girl...

I never thought I’d hear a middle school girl call me “Hyung” in my lifetime.

That said, it’s not just Seo Eun and me living here.

There’s also a woman who claims to be my follower, whom I semi-kidnapped?

“...?”

The woman, Soo-bin, who looks up at me with fear in her eyes, is also living here.

...How I ended up taking her in is a long story.

“Ha...”

It feels like the number of people I’m living with keeps increasing, but that’s probably just my imagination.

︵‿︵‿୨ * ୧‿︵‿︵

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