Ch19 - The End Of The World

If you tie people to the rail and just leave the train running, it will hit five people, but if you turn the lever, only the one that was tied on the other track will be hit. So will you turn the lever?

Egostic made a dilemma.

In fact, it's a quite philosophically well-known dilemma.

The so-called "Trolley Dilemma".

If the train keeps running, it hits five people. But if you turn the lever, it only hits one person.

In a utilitarian way, it's right to turn the lever. Since four people can be saved.

But can you really turn it?

It's a sad accident when the train hits five people. In this world, they might consider it as a sad terrorist attack. But if you turn the lever, it's not an accident anymore. It's an accident when five people die, but once the lever is turned, you will be the one who killed that one person. The one who didn't have to die will die because you turned the lever.

…Well, it's this kind of dilemma.

And I embodied this dilemma in the real world. Stardus had made a brilliant breakthrough by taking action from a situation that cannot be solved in a verbal dilemma.

She did not even think about where to turn the lever and head the train.

She stepped up and stopped the train herself.

Stardus has superpower.

She is different from a man with double abilities like me. She is powerful, and she can fly in the sky at the same time. .They are called superhuman strength and flying ability to be exact.

She also has double abilities, so her abilities are a little flawed like me. Of course, not as much as I am.

For superhuman strength, the one that has this ability only can collapse buildings alone. The same thing for the one who has flying ability only, that person can fly at Mach's speed in the sky. Of course, both are heroes in the U.S.

Stardus isn't at the same level as them. She's powerful but not enough to make a building collapse in one punch, and she cannot fly at a supersonic speed.

…And of course, as the ones who have double abilities, we still have some flaws, but she's much better than I am… Still, it's true that she's a little lacking.

Of course, people with double abilities are pretty rare, and the superhuman strength and flying ability are very compatible so that's why she got graded as class A, but there are at least 2% of disappointment.

But she's the main character of this comic.

The unique characteristic that differs from others is the improvement of her abilities.

The ability that helps her go through hardships and adversity to become stronger.

That's why I arranged an event for her to strengthen her muscles.

Make Stardus Great Again.

Honestly, she wasn't able to stop the running train, but when the actual situation came, she was filled with the desire to save every person.

And her favorability has also improved.

Somehow her popularity, which dropped after confronting me, has risen again because of this chance. Her action of throwing herself like a clamp to block the train has impressed people who watched it on television across the country.

It was good that people started to like Stardus again.

But why did a love scandal break out?

***

I'm watching TV in vain.

After the rebellion, I teleported home and woke up after a good night's sleep on the fatigue recovery capsule.

Seo-eun grabbed my hand and dragged me to watch TV. She sat me on the sofa.

The big title of today's show is shown on TV.

[Egostic – Stardus Love Scandal]

"What the hell is this?"

I shouted as soon as I saw what was on the TV.

But no matter what I said, people on the TV already started saying what they wanted to say.

"Hello, this is the Weekly Entertainment show! These two are the hottest topics these days, right? Villain Egostic, which is the most popular in Korea at the moment! And the rising hero Stardus! Their love scandal is sweeping the Korean entertainment industry these days. Reporter Park, how did it lead to this love scandal?"

An entertainment program on terrestrial TV.

The female anchor asked the question to the male reporter who looked somewhat like a professional.

"Yes, we can see it from Egostic's actions."

Suddenly, the man brought out a panel from below and put it in front of him.

There are stickers on the white panel.

An impressive pink texts that are written in pink at the top, "Egostic ♡ Stardus".

"The first reason is Egositc openly chasing for her love."

He took the white sticker off the panel, I could see letters and pictures which were folded inside.

[1. Egostic's love letter]

The man continued with a serious look on his face. Speaking with such an expression, he was wearing a suit and horn-rimmed glasses, he looked like a CEO reporting the performance at the general shareholders' meeting.

Of course, what came out of his mouth is nothing but a ridiculous rumor.

"Egostic's first step was killing S-class villain Enzodiac and A-class villain Rhino. But that's not the main point. This is what matters."

He pointed to the picture on the panel he was holding.

In the picture, you can see the letters that were written in blood. The letters were written like this.

Death to a worse man than me.

Death to someone weaker than me.

To you, Stardus.

Today's phrase, which the reporter probably does not know, was the result of me, who chose a concept to go with and committed the crime for the first time in this world, rushing without knowing how far I should keep my concept.

Perhaps because it was my first time, I was very motivated. And perhaps because it was my first murder, I was too drunk on my emotions as I did drug myself a bit before that. I have seen it somewhere before and I thought it was cool so I wrote it down in my blood.

But in that sober state, I couldn't realize how cheesy it would be.

Now, I'm still adjusting the cheesiness in my concept, but anyway, since I thought it was cool, I wrote it down and things turned out like that. Gosh…

Honestly, at first, I was proud of myself because of the perfect rhyme that I wrote. Of course, I realized how strange it was when Seo-eun burst out laughing as soon as she saw it… Now, it has become my dark past. Every time someone mentions it, I blush so hard. I think I'm a little traumatized because Seo-eun keeps teasing me like, 'Death to someone weaker than me blah blah~'.

Anyway, now that reporter has finally revealed the dark past that I wanted to erase so badly. Looking to my side, Seo-eun is bursting into laughter again. I feel relieved that Soobin is not next to me…

The reporter analyzed my dark past with a very serious expression.

"Now, can you see these words here? It's a message left at the scene himself after Egostic committed his crime. The thing that we should notice is, again, the last line, 'To you, Stardus.'. In fact, from the beginning, Egostic consistently was hitting on Stardus. He eliminated the villains and gave them to Stardus as gifts. He is actually openly chasing after her."

I didn't give them to her as gifts, I was just trying to drag an agro.

What if I worked hard on doing bad things but they assigned some weird hero instead of Stardus? That is why I refer that note to Stardus to drag an agro. Do they know how much Stardus hates vigilantes…?

"The second reason is the terrorist attacks. Honest, we can barely call Egostic's terrorism as a proper terrorism. Because the results show zero casualties. It's worth nothing in both of his attacks, he only triggered Stardus, and she handled both of them excellently."

The scene of my terrorist attacks came out on the screen. They were showing the footage where Stardus spoke to the people on the ships and blocked the train by herself. Hmmm, she looks cool.

"And what Egostic said afterward is also very significant. Let's listen to it."

And now my voice is coming out.

That is what I said to her while I was wondering after the ship terrorism was defeated.

[It was because of you.]

[Everyone suddenly became united after your speech.]

[Okay. Alright. I guess I underestimated you. It was something that no one else could do. You wouldn't just enlighten the public with a single word, right?]

Oh, I said that?

Before my confusion went away, another voice came out.

This time, it was what I told her in the previous train attack.

[Yes, Ms. Stardus. Good job. I did not expect you to save everyone in a way that I could never have imagined. It's your victory.]

The reporter, who was quietly listening to my voice, suddenly jumped out of his seat.

Ignoring the surprised anchor, he began to shout loudly.

"Look at this!!! If this is not love, what is it then?!!! When Mango Stick said that last sentence and closed Stardus' eyes, Stardus fell asleep soundly!!! If they are not dating then how do you describe dating?!!"

He started screaming, tearing his hair out! That crazy guy! Am I really watching a terrestrial broadcast?

"What the hell is this?!!"

I screamed as I picked up the remote control and threw it at the TV.

Seo-eun, who was watching next to me, has been laughing for so long that she can hardly breathe.

The camera suddenly turned to the surprised anchor looking at the reporter then finally switched to commercials.

The caption [Checking The Broadcast] was put on the screen, so I guess it was a broadcasting accident.

Fuck, yeah! Who would call me Mango Stick on a show?

I could only hang my head low and feel frustrated.

No matter how hard I think about it, the Republic of Korea is crazy.

I found out later that the reporter was a member of my passionate fanclub, commonly referred to as 'Mango Union'.

Although he faced a relegation due to the sudden accident, he received a bonus rather than disciplinary action as the show recorded a high rating.

Seriously, the world is coming to an end…