Chapter 370: What if?

“…Damn. No answer.”

In the burning city, flipping her tanned blond hair, Stardus muttered lowly.

[Ihihihihihi! Where was he hiding?]

“North Sea Ice Maiden. What’s the situation now?”

Stardus’ voice was quiet and hoarse.

In the earpiece, Lee Seola’s voice could be heard along with her heavy sigh.

[…There are no survivors in that area anymore, withdraw. We’ll deal with the Reapers later.]

“….”

Lee Seola conveys the facts in a heavy voice.

Stardus gritted her teeth, and finally muttered under her breath.

“Understood. We’ll withdraw…”

[Yes. Return safely.]

With those words, the communication was cut off….And with that, Stardus walked away from the ruined city, the only sound being the howling of the villain’s mind.

Suddenly, lightning crackled in front of her.

-Kwaaaah.

“…Ha.”

An orange-haired woman landed, hugging the brunette next to her.

“…Electra.”

Stardus muttered upon seeing the woman.

“I heard something happened, so I came…Are you running away now? What’s going on here?”

The woman with the orange ponytail, who was called Electra, frowned and looked around, then she asked.

“…There are no more survivors here. We are evacuating.”

Stardus replies in a calm, dejected voice.

“What? Fuck you!”

Electra responds harshly.

The brown-haired woman standing next to her, clad in a white robe, held her with pleading eyes.

“…I think it’s true, Se-hee, there’s no survivor response here right now.”

“Damn it…”

Choi Se-hee muttered.

Stardus, standing there with a cold face, was about to walk past her.

“…You.”

…She paused and turned her head back to face Electra, who was about to open her mouth in anger.

“What the hell have you been doing, all this time?”

“…”

“What the hell have you been doing, all this time, while all those people died, what have you been doing!!!”

“…I didn’t even have a chance to do anything.”

“Se-hee, stop it!”

The brown-haired woman grabs Electra’s hand as she begins to squirm but her touch doesn’t stop Electra, and only makes her angrier.

“The world is getting to this point, and even a villainous idiot like me is doing something about it. What the hell are all those smug associations and heroes doing, huh?”

“Choi Se-hee!!”

“…..”

The woman next to her screamed.

“…No, it’s because I’m frustrated.”

Electra grumbles in a muffled voice at such a loud voice.

…Stardus glanced at the woman standing next to Electra.

She already knew the brown-haired woman.

The woman is called the Saint of Villains, Lee Ha-yul.

They had been acting together ever since Choi Se-hee, aka Electra, had escaped during the last great escape.

…Now, it didn’t matter.

“Ha…”

Choi Se-hee scratched her head.

She spat out a harsh breath, turned around, and walked toward the ruined city.

“That’s it, I’m the asshole you expected. Let’s go, Ha-yul.”

“Okay. Stardus, I’m sorry on her behalf.”

With a flash of lightning, Electra and the Saint of Villains disappeared.

Alone again, Stardus stared at the ruined city with unfocused eyes for a moment before resuming her pace.

…She was exhausted.

Korea seemed hopeless.

After the Moonlight Gate events, her home country had fallen into complete chaos. The entire country was attacked by monsters, and the country’s already low number of heroes was decimated.

Since then, Lee Seola has relocated the capital several times, but the situation hasn’t gotten any better.

Especially after the disappearance of Shadow Walker, one of the few A-list heroes, she was left to fend for herself.

Even then, she had no answers.

In a surprise attack, a group of Korean villains escaped from prison.

Dozens of people banded together and destroyed the city, saying they would take revenge on Stardus herself, and even the White Witch who planned it all. In particular, it took too much sacrifice to kill her.

But it was okay, she thought.

It would be okay, really, now.

Until the inflationary event that suddenly unleashed the powers of all superhumans.

“…..”

In the aftermath of that event, not just Korea, but the entire world was thrown into chaos.

A global alliance of villains, the Cathedral, emerged.

As such, it was no longer possible to hope for aid from abroad as it had been in the days of the Demon King as everyone was suffering.

Korea’s overpowered villains appeared in groups and began to destroy all the places where people lived, one by one so much so that she couldn’t stop them.

Now, just three months later, the entire country is in ruins.

…Moderate villains like Electra, now go unpunished and untouched.

“….”

Stardus glanced up at the reddened sky, her eyes sharp.

She sometimes wondered if the world was conspiring against her.

When she pushes one problem under the rug, another arises.

When she mourns the death of one, ten more die.

Just when you think there is no place to fall, the bottom is revealed even further as if the world wants her despair.

‘…..’

Where did it go wrong?

How did this world come to be like this?

With such thoughts she quietly closed her eyes and floated up into the sky.

She prayed fervently that a peaceful life would come to her someday.

Click.

“….hhh. Hmph.”

Early morning, waking up with sweat all over her body, Shin Haru grabbed her sticky hair, got out of bed, and opened the window.

As she opened the curtains, she saw a blue sky with warm sunlight shining through.

After staring at the window for a while, she grabbed the remote control and turned on the TV.

The anchor’s energetic voice was broadcasting the news.

[Yes! The return of Egostic has been very popular, and people are excited to see it again! Let’s take a look at the streets of Seoul, which have become lively after a long time, and find out the breaking news of the day. Reporter Ryu…]

The television screen shows the city in the morning, still bustling with people even though so much has happened.

But the world is still calm and full of people going about their daily lives.

“….”

Staring at it with blank eyes, Shin Haru thought quietly.

…It was like a nightmare, a nightmare so terrible, she never wanted to go back to it.

With that thought she hugged the cushion beside her and closed her eyes.

She felt that she should cherish this moment.

***

“Hahaha, that’s it!”

After the power inflation that plunged the world into chaos…We, at the Egostream House, were somehow more boisterous.

“This is the power of lightning, I tell you!”

-Kwagwagwagwagwagwagwang

Choi Se-hee raised her hand and unleashed a massive lightning bolt on the forest.

“Se-hee, you’re so excited.”

Ha-yul is smiling bitterly while looking at her.

“Ugh, why don’t I have the ability to fight like this?”

…Seo-eun, who laments that her ability hasn’t increased.

…Choi Se-hee, who was particularly obsessed with her abilities, was overjoyed by this increase.

“Hmph. Shouldn’t I be able to defeat Stardus with this?”

“No. I don’t think so.”

“What did you say?”

Seo Ja-young criticizes the excited Choi Se-hee, and Choi Se-hee bickers when she sees Seo Ja-young like that.

Seeing the same routine as always, I asked Mr. Desik, who was gardening with a big pair of scissors next to him.

“Mr. Death Knight. Have you been feeling stronger lately?”

[Hmm? Not really, which is a shame….I feel rather bad, in a strange way. Hahaha!]

“…I see.”

I swallowed my disappointment as I said that.

The only members of the Egostream who are affected by inflation are those who are related to the Sun God’s power: Choi Se-hee, Seo Ja-young, Ha-yul, Ariel, and Halo.

These are the only ones who are directly affected, and nothing has changed for Eun-woo or Seo-Eun. Of course, Eun-Woo was always stronger because she used magic, and Seo-Eun was a baller, so it didn’t matter.

Oh, of course, there were others who became stronger.

“…What are you looking at?”

Shinryong was lying on a sunbed under a parasol in front of the garden, sipping a drink through a straw,

Now, she had taken off the white clothes she usually wore and was lying down wearing a comfortable t-shirt and sunglasses like kids these days, she looked like a young woman in her 20s.

At least it feels like the hairpin she wears behind her head is the only thing that protects her roots.

Anyway, Shinryong was also one of the people who became stronger. …A person? A dragon? Whatever.

In fact, considering that most of the dragons died while fighting the moonlight monsters and had never been seen in Phase 4, this result was something even I had never seen before.

So dragons were also created by the gods.

“Anyway…”

As I sat in the garden, watching the bustle of the house, I sighed quietly.

Such a peaceful life. In a normal manga, this would be the time for it to end but of course not this damned world.

There was still work to be done to prevent destruction.

With that thought, I rose from my seat.

It was time to move on to my next plan.