Chapter 316: Analyzing villains

It’s been a few days since I fell into this comic book world with no memory.

“Da-in, please have some of this tea.”

“Oh, thank you, Soobin.”

I was adjusting to this life quite quickly.

I accepted the tea from Soobin, who handed it to me with a smile, and sipped it in the living room before returning to my room.

“…It’s amazing to see.”

I muttered to myself, looking at my closed door.

A mysterious door with some sort of magic charm on it, locked only by my will.

Perhaps there is something secret I do in this room.

And maybe that’s what I do, compare it to the original and plan my future.

With that thought, I opened the white  laptop on the desk. There was a password on it, but it was the same one I’d always used, so I had no trouble cracking it.

What I’ve been doing lately is reviewing what I’ve been up to and my plans for the future.

‘Seo-eun, you have my diary, right?’

‘Yes? How did you know?’

‘….’

Anyway, in consultation with Seo-Eun and the other members of the Egostream, I agreed to give myself a week to recover my memory.

I searched the internet and my files to find out what I had been doing and I realized one thing.

‘…Why am I putting my life on the line?’

I realized that in certain moments, I had taken a lot of gambles. I’ve literally been ‘risking my life’. In other words, I’ve been close to death a lot of times, and I’ve jumped through all of them.

I even wondered  if it was all staged and I had a plan, but the flow of thoughts in my notebooks and notepads proved otherwise. I really did live like a fire moth.

“…..”

…Well, I can’t really criticize myself for losing my memory and not knowing anything. I’m sure I had my reasons, especially since I’m guessing there was a three-year gap before I met my first coworker, Seo-Eun, and I’m sure I had a lot of trouble.

And most of my risky behavior had to do with Stardus…

‘…I’ll think about that later.’

My head throbbed at the thought of her for a moment, so I moved on to other things.

After all, my remaining plan was to stop the Sun God.

‘…Is this it?’

I had my doubts, but I put them aside, figuring I’d be good at it.

In fact, when I looked at the plan organized on my computer, it said that I would work harder on external activities in the future.

With Cathedral and the East Asian Villain League, it seemed like they were going to stop terrorizing and start working in earnest. It seems that the terrorist side is gradually taking a retirement angle.

Well, the plan itself seemed untouched. I mean, I’ve been working on a few projects, but they’ve all fallen apart and I’ve been drawn into this world, so I’ve been focusing on one big thing, the Saving the World Project, and I’ve spent a lot of time on that.

I’m like, “Wow, I just fell into this superhero comic book world….”

I thought to myself, and moved my hand. And there it was, a cup in front of me.

“Interesting.”

I muttered to myself, and spun the cup in the air.

To my surprise, I was granted two superpowers upon entering this world: telekinesis and teleportation.

They’re two of the staples of superpower comics, so it seems like a scam, but…

‘Not good.’

I can only offer such a mild assessment.

Telekinesis is useless because I can’t lift anything heavy, and Teleportation doesn’t seem to have much promise outside of running away.

The reason for this is that both of these abilities are incredibly taxing on the body, meaning that they’re not something I can use over and over again for the duration of the casting time, but rather a one-time use skill that makes me sick and has a cooldown of several days.

Of course, a casual observer might say that this is a scam, and how can you get this and cringe? It’s actually incredibly powerful, and if I had it in my world, it could eat the planet, depending on how I use it, but…

‘Not here.’

In this power-balanced world, it was impossible. Sure, it’s enough to maintain my personal security, but what’s the point of living alone when the world is hurtling toward destruction in real time? Running away from meteorites, tidal waves and crazy people.

That’s why I recruited my allies.

A coalition of villains of my own making. The Egostream.

…Actually, I preferred the name Egosquad, but I couldn’t figure out why it became an Egostream. Was there external pressure?

Regardless, this Egostream was the centerpiece of my plan.

To take people who are good at heart, but who have been turned into villains by an unfortunate accident, and convince them to become my allies.

Indeed, as of now, I have many people by my side that possess abilities comparable to S-class. Han Seo-eun, the white witch, Baek Eun-woo, the moonlight maiden, Lee Ha-yul, the saint who can save anyone, and Shinryong.

There were also Electra, Seo Jae-young, Death Knight, and many other powerful people who could definitely take on 1.5 people.

So I was living with such companions of mine, and we seemed to be very close.

“…You’re going to sleep with me?”

“Yeah. I always do.”

In fact, at night, Seo Ja-young, who wore a purple hoodie, came over and said that we used to sleep together, and she naturally entered my futon like a cat. When I asked her later, she said it was true…

Well, since she was small, the bed wasn’t too tight, so I just slept with her. …Of course, it was a bit exciting to be in bed with a woman I barely remember.

But

“Mmm……Seo Ja-young, what are you doing?”

“…I got caught.”

I felt a weight on me in my sleep, and when I woke up to find her on top of me, looking down at me with her purple eyes, I was terrified.

…What the hell was she doing holding on to my clothes?

Anyway, that’s how I was living.

“Da-in, look at this!”

“Da-in… It’s me, Eun-woo, Ariel, please choose.”

“Hoo-hoo, Da-in. Have some more of this.”

“Hey, Da-in, do you want to play a game with me to get your memory back?”

And one more thing I realized while living like that.

“…”

…that the people I live with care about me a lot.

No, they didn’t just care. It was the kind of affection that only a fool would feel.

I mean, I could feel that they really liked me.

And they didn’t seem to think that I didn’t notice this…

‘No, so I’ve been gritting my teeth and ignoring all of this and putting up with it…?’

It was ridiculous.

No, it’s so blatant that it makes me blush.

…Plus, I have a suspiciously high number of women in my Villain Alliance.

Looking back at the notes I left, I realize that I was very much about group cohesion. We actually live together in this house to build trust and get to know each other better, because even one of us betraying would be the end of the world, and the best way to make sure we don’t even think about it is to treat each other like family and develop affection.

In fact, if you look at the atmosphere among my coworkers, it’s actually because of my efforts that everyone is close and incredibly harmonious around me. I can’t be calculating this far… This is too delusional.

Suddenly, I remembered a dear friend I had left behind in the other world. What would Jae Yeon think if he knew I was doing this? Would he be worried about me falling into the ruins, or would he be annoyed that I’m living with a bunch of pretty girls?

Actually, I’m thinking about her because I love her, but that’s not the problem.

Stardus, she was the problem.

“Phew…”

I said, and sighed.

Stardus, the country’s only S-class hero, the hero of this world, the only key to stop its destruction.

…And I’ve been going through the archives, analyzing Stardus’ reaction when she first saw my amnesiac self in this world.

I’ve come to one conclusion.

Stardus seems to like me.

“……”

This was not an overly self-conscious realization, but a thoroughly rationalized one. How could a high-minded woman like a villain, I wondered, given everything I’d done up to this point? I’m like Stardus’ Black Knight, running to her when she’s in danger.

I don’t even need to look at my past records, the Stardus I’ve seen in person says it all. The concern and affection in her eyes for me was palpable.

…And, in fact, I think I have a heart of my own, judging by the way my heart beats at the mere thought of Stardus. Of course, my colleagues’ hearts are beating as well, so I guess that’s not an accurate test, but whatever.

‘…What am I going to do with this?’

And the scariest thing was, I didn’t seem to have realized it yet. It took me a while to come to terms with it, too. As a Stardus who never had a chance with a guy in the original, the idea of her liking me was hard to accept. I’m looking at it objectively from a third party’s point of view, but what about her, and I’m sure she’d even carry out the attack herself.

…Well, at least I know now. When I get my memory back, I’ll realize it all, because my current memories won’t be blown away.

Anyway, I’m done with my reflections. I should get the diary from Seo Eun and regain my memory. Actually, reading the diary would give me the most information, but I didn’t open it for fear that my memory would return in the middle and my reflection would end.

With that thought, I began to scribble my realizations in my notebook out of habit.

[Stardus seems to like me.]

“…That should do it.”

With that thought, I closed the notebook.

Okay, in a few days, I’ll read the diary and go back to the original me.

As I stretched out my arms with that promise, I stopped in my tracks.

…Wait, me. I just killed another one of the Sun God’s creatures.

Is this one going to be okay with Celeste?

***

~Meanwhile, in America, on the day that the Egostic eliminated the Wish Granter~

Wham.

“…..”

Celeste noticed that one more candle had been extinguished in her prayer chamber.

She sighed and walked out of the prayer room.

Then she heard news from abroad.

[Carqueas, currently under the control of the Korean Association, is said to be collapsing! It was caused by the S-class villain Egostic…]

“….”

She stared blankly at the image on the TV.

Opening her eyes for the first time in a long time, she turned and left the room silently, her silver hair whipping behind her.

The time for the next Cathedral meeting was drawing near.