Chapter 277: The Post-Catastrophe World
Chapter 277: The Post-Catastrophe World
The events of the so-called Moonlight Gate Catastrophe, when the Moonlight Lord opened gates across the world and unleashed his monsters to attack the entire planet has finally come to an end.
[Folks! The sun is rising again! Yes, we've won, folks!!!]
Under the dark night sky, the gates that constantly spewed out monsters disappeared one by one.
When they finally saw the bright sun rise again, they realized.
Ah, it's finally over - and done.
Though many cities were destroyed there were few casualties in the battle.
Unlike the original, where everything eventually collapsed, the world was still standing.
A triumphant victory, as heroes and villains, civilians and governments alike, united to drive back the invaders in a global catastrophe unlike anything the world had ever seen.
Though the nations of the world would be scrambling for some time after the battle to clean up the aftermath and rebuild their shattered cities, the survivors had survived, and the experts knew the damage would be short-lived. With the gates gone, and the monsters mostly cleared out, it was just a matter of repairing the damage.
After the catastrophe was over and things had settled down a bit, people were looking for answers as to how it all ended and then they saw a video.
It was a recording of a broadcast that was watched by millions of people around the world, in real time.
[Hello, everyone, it's Egostic!]
A villain in a black hat and a white mask, called Egostic, was broadcasting from South Korea, home of the Moonlight Church.
He smiles and says he'll stop it, then fearlessly heads to a black, ominous-looking tower.
[It's a simple story, we reversed the gates you made.]
He made his way to the tower, manipulated the gates, and saved the world from an onslaught of monsters.
Finally, he confronted the Moonlight Lord who caused this disaster, surviving an onslaught of a monster so huge that blocked out the sky, and even a dimensional attack.
[Yeah... how could you, in your human form, survive the rapids of that dimension...]
[Well, it worked, so why not. What else is there to do?]
[Ladies and gentlemen, today's Egostic surprise. That's it for dealing with the Moonlight Gate. Did you enjoy it?]
[Yeah, I think we're going to call it a day. Bye, everyone!]
[You...!]
[Bang-]
The video ended with the Moonlight Lord, who had caused all of this, being defeated, and the bright sun rising behind him to dispel the darkness.
*
[Do you know Egostic?]
[Reply]2463
*
[Do you know Egostic?
He had become the center of global conversation.
His name is constantly popping up in broadcasts and communities everywhere.
And Egostic, who is receiving the world's attention like that.
"Hmm... The grapes are delicious."
"Da-in, would you like another one?"
"Oh, yes. Thank you."
I was relaxing at home.
I'm tired.
***
After we finally suppressed the terror of the Moonlight Church we fled together while everyone was still in a daze and returned home, and I've been recuperating in the mansion since that day."
"Kuluk..."
Perhaps because I burned my body this time, I used all my teleportation and telekinesis powers to the limit, I was in a bad shape.
However, thanks to Ha-yul heels and Seo-eun's fatigue recovery device, I'm feeling quite a bit better now.
I was still mostly in bed, but my body was fine.
"Da-in, give me some grapes, too."
"Here."
"Ouch."
I put one grape in the mouth of Seo-eun, who was smiling while lying next to me, and I put the other one in my mouth too.
After stopping the Moonlight Gate Catastrophe, which I had been preparing to deal with for years, I concluded one thing. It's time to take a break.
Maybe it's because I've made the PMCs, entered Cathedral, met with the association leader, and made a fuss to stop this, but when I finally stopped it, I felt like a student who passed the SAT and got into college.
The reason why I was able to take such a long break was that I thought I could devour phase 3, even though I had only just finished phase 2 of the original 4-phase series.
In the first place, the biggest problem with Phase 3 was the Moonlight Gates, which were still open, and all the monsters that kept appearing, as well as Seo-Eun, the final boss of Phase 3.
However I've already moved all of the gates to the ocean side, and I'm quite relieved that Seo-Eun, the final boss of this phase, is lying next to me, looking at her phone.
...Of course, there's still the problem that there are still powerful villains. Especially in Phase 3, when a whole host of villains with unusual abilities are introduced, and the world's history has been altered so drastically by my premature ending of the Moonlight Gate incident. It's not safe to rely on the original anymore.
But hey, maybe our Stardus will take care of the rest...?
That's when I thought to myself.
"Wow. But, man. You're really going crazy right now."
"Crazy about what?"
I turned my head at Seo-Eun's words.
She giggled and turned on the TV in front of her with the remote control.
Then, on the TV, my face popped up in a very natural way.
[Nowadays, Korea's S-class villain, Egostic, is a hot topic around the world, right?]
[Yes, that's right, Egostic is a very hot topic in all the media these days, and there is a lot of interest in him from all over the world for preventing the Moonlight Gate Catastrophe.]
After the anchor finished speaking, the screen switched to a series of screenshots.
There were dozens of photos from overseas communities.
[Yeah. As you can see, he's very popular overseas as well, and the phrase "S-class hero" has already taken hold around the world, especially since so much of what he's been doing in Korea has become known abroad... His Moonlight Gate broadcast has now surpassed 100 million views...]
After listening to that, I shook my head and pulled out the remote to turn off the TV.
"I was just getting to the fun part. S-class hero Egostic!"
"..."
I grabbed my dizzy head.
It was always like this lately.
Ever since I had broadcast the entire process of defeating the Moonlight Church, people's interest in who the hell had prevented this catastrophe had increased, and now the name of Egostic had spread far and wide, even overseas.
When I saw the foreign community shouting "K-Hero Mangostick!" in English that Seo Eun showed me, my head really spun.
...To be honest, I didn't expect this to happen. I thought that broadcasting the process of stopping the Moonlight Church would attract some attention, but the problem is that I didn't expect to get this much attention, and the future me who had to deal with it is now the present me.
No good can come from this much aggro on a global scale... I can't help it. I can only hope that the attention will die down over time, but on the plus side, Stardus has gotten a lot of positive mentions along with me.
"Da-in, the fan cafe...Awesome. It's really fun, check it out."
While I was thinking about that, Seo-Eun showed me the fan cafe again.
And, as usual, the titles of the dizzying array of popular posts.
*
[Egostic <<<< If you're a proud K-hero, that's cool lol]
[(Sup) Collection of overseas Mangostick reactions]
[Haa The whole world is K-Pop TV... America, Britain, France, Japan all talk about Mangostick...]
[Everyone is forgetting about this disaster Egostic's honest stardom.gif]
["Jesus. Why aren't you starting the meeting?"]
[If you're a pureblood mango who hid in an underground bunker and watched Mango Broadcasting live, you're a dog...]
[Egostream members all jumped out and caught the monsters, so Egostream is a hero group]
[Just love Egostream]
[Overseas idiots are belatedly binge-watching old Egostream videos haha]
[Electra's intuitive story is revealed haha]
[Republic of Korea = mango-rich country]
[Thank you GOAT worship GOAT thank you GOAT worship GOAT thank you GOAT worship GOAT thank you GOAT worship GOAT]
*
...I'm more scared of the titles of those posts than I am of the tens of thousands of views they've gotten.
"What are you two flirting over?"
"Oh, sister!"
"...Seo-eun, aren't you too close to Da-in?"
"Ehe~."
Anyway, I've been playing like this lately, relaxing while recuperating. I thought it wouldn't be unreasonable to retire if I had finished preparing for the early and middle of phase 3, when it was relatively easy.
'But... What is Stardus doing now?'
As I was resting, I suddenly thought to myself.
Well, with her personality, she's probably working hard on the aftermath so I shrugged off the thought and moved on.
***
~In the Seoul Hero Association~
"Ha..."
After dealing with the reporters and returning to her office, Stardus staggered to her seat.
After the attack of the Moonlight Church, she had returned to Seoul thinking that it was all over and that the remaining monster forces hiding in various places had been eliminated.
However, she was surprised to see a crowd of reporters in front of the association, and after being bombarded with questions, she was only able to escape when the head of the association himself came down to help her.
After defeating the giant Moonlight Beast it was inevitable that she would receive quite a bit of attention and she also became Korea's first S-class hero.
Now that she's reached the pinnacle of Korean heroism, there's only one thing on her mind.
"...I want to see Egostic."
Yes. All she could think about was how much she missed him.
She had already decided that he wasn't evil after the events of the Moonlight Gate and her intuition of the other world.
With the last of her psychological resistance gone, her heart was pounding whenever she thought of him.
"...He's a villain, I shouldn't be doing this..." was no longer an excuse.
She already had only one thought: to see him one more time and to be with him.
The fact that he was a villain didn't matter to her anymore.