I Became The Villain The Hero Is Obsessed With: Chapter 5 Part 2

Anyway, the second order of business: making Stardust known across the nation.

Stardust really did become well-known to the public. My face was broadcast second most frequently after the 9 o’clock news.
Stardust was a character with significant recognition among the public even in the original work. First off, she’s pretty. It’s rare to find someone with such beauty among the heroes.

However, as time passed, Stardust gradually started to foster a less favorable image among the public. After all, her initial fame was because she was pretty…
As the story progresses through volumes one and two, the villain becomes more and more creative in tormenting Stardust. They succeed in swaying public opinion and through various schemes make the people view her as ‘having a bad attitude.’

On top of that, not just her social relations as Stardust, but also her social standing as Sin Haru steadily leads to destruction—a true tale of devastation.

Ha. Now that I think about it, I’m getting angry again. Those wretched villains will be taken care of by me, so all our Stardust has to do is think of me. A Seoul without crime, a South Korea without terror. I am the one who will create it. Because crime and terror are mine to administer.

So for now, I’ve reintroduced Stardust to the public.
Not with an emphasis on her looks, but with an emphasis on her righteousness. I’ve firmly planted the perception of her as a figure of ‘heroic’ virtues.
…I did plant it, right? Well, skimming through news comments and community forums, the majority of responses were positive. The speech went well, and the support I gave probably worked too. Enemy recognition is the most objective, after all. That’s people’s perception.

“The first step is done,” I muttered.
I rose from my seat.
No time to rest, no time to rest. It’s time to plan the next step.
Next, I have to eliminate… no, not assassinate, eliminate the other S-class and A-class villains… and I also have to plan a terror attack. But a kind that doesn’t result in any casualties. Nothing is easy.

“First… I need to meet him again,” I decided.
Who, you ask?
The guy who helped me with the broadcasting hijack.
The one who, in the original work, would become an S-class villain, but whose future I altered before that could happen by taking him under my wing.

I pulled out my smartphone and started to dial a number.

“Hey, Seo Eun-ah. Yes, your brother just woke up. Yes, that’s right. Oh, that can happen. Ah, you know how hard it was for me? Yes, yes. Okay, I’m heading your way now. Yep~.”

After finishing the call, I grabbed my coat and headed out of the room.
Teleportation would be possible, but as you can see, I lack the power, and covering a long distance exhausts me to the point of collapse.
So, I shall walk.

The weather’s nice today, anyway.

***

Rain softly patters outside the window.
The six-panel room feels like a foreign country.
After walking for about an hour under the umbrella in the gentle drizzle, a residential neighborhood comes into view.
A normal-looking house amongst them.
A door lock hanging on the door.
I punch in the four-digit code and step inside.
Inside, there’s another door.
Another lock on that one.
I guess it’s a double lock… I think to myself, and punch in a different code to open the door, revealing a typical family home.

But this door lock has a secret.
A secret within the secret code, you could say.
I input the sequence of numbers methodically.
A password surely exceeding 13 digits…
I only know it because I’m a fan of the original work; had it been my first time hearing it, I’d never have been able to memorize it.

As soon as I enter the final number, the room starts to vibrate.
With that, the floor beneath my feet begins to sink, and I start to submerge.
Downward, slowly…

Where am I heading, I wonder.
It feels as if I’m descending into the abyss…

✧˚·̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥·̩̩̥͙✧·̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥˚·̩̩̥͙✧ 𝑔𝓇𝒶𝓋𝒾𝓉𝓎𝓃𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁𝓈 ✧˚·̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥·̩̩̥͙✧·̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥˚·̩̩̥͙✧