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Translator: Vine
Chapter Title: The Colossal Weapon
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This world, when you really think about it, is a messed-up place.
I thought that as I looked down at the cities from the window.
On the surface, it looks normal. Countless people bustling between towering buildings. From this perspective, it seems no different from the world I lived in during my previous life.
However, the reality is vastly different. Mostly in a messed-up way.
For starters, people occasionally awaken superpowers. But if these powers were just moderate, that'd be one thing. The problem is, they're all ridiculously strong.
Right now, Stardust alone could shatter dozens of buildings if she put her mind to it. The others are no different. And if you go abroad, it's even more chaotic. It's safe to say that almost every country faces the threat of destruction every month.
Of course, perhaps thanks to the world's balance, or because heroes stronger than most villains emerge, things are somehow limping along. In other words, without heroes, nations wouldn't function properly. Because of this, the government's influence is significantly diminished compared to the Association. Even the president is a bit paranoid.
Are villains the only problem? Not at all. As you can see with the Haneun Group, even conglomerates are just insane. Secret experiments are a given, and their rival, Yoosung Corporation, is the shadowy force pulling strings behind South Korea, pressuring the government and the Association. They've probably been trying to devour South Korea in earnest since the Haneun Group fell. Well, for me, that's actually more beneficial. Then I'd only have to control Lee Seol-ah.
Anyway, my point is this: this world isn't normal. Superpowered individuals freely unleash terror, the government is useless, corporations pull the strings, and there are even gods and an afterlife—it's just chaos. I miss the peaceful world I used to know.
....
I continued to gaze out the window, lost in thought.
What's even funnier? This is actually quite peaceful.
Soon, even stronger villains will emerge, and the world will plunge into even greater chaos.
And Stardust alone will have to bear the brunt of it all.
"Oppa, what are you looking at all by yourself, looking so melancholic?"
"...It's nothing. Let's go now."
Seo-eun's voice from beside me finally broke me from my reverie, and I turned my head back.
Right.
Ultimately, I'm the one who has to stop all of this.
***
The webtoon I was transmigrated into, [Stardust!], is arbitrarily divided into four major phases by fans.
Phase 1 features Stardust's growth story and some slice-of-life developments. This is roughly the current timeline, and the most peaceful period.
Then comes Phase 2, which truly begins after the Haneun Group incident. From this point, villains start appearing more frequently, wielding even stronger abilities.
And the event that fans named the start of Phase 2, the one that cemented this world as a grimdark story.
That is the Haneun Group's Seoul Invasion Incident.
People dying in numbers incomparable to the previous Behemoth incident, Stardust suffering from helplessness and self-reproach for failing to stop it, the creaking Association and government, and a burning Seoul.
A terrifying incident where the nation was engulfed in accusations of 'What have the heroes been doing all this time?!' and Korea was utterly devastated!
The city plunged into pandemonium! Buildings and people crushed! Wildfires!
But...
I already know that's going to happen, don't I?
Haneun Group, you guys are screwed.
A thrilling revenge drama against the heroes from the original, a glorious self-sacrifice?
None of that, Seon-woo!!
"Hee hee hee hee hee."
"Dain, you shouldn't act like that in front of so many people..."
"Oppa..."
"Does he usually act like this?"
"Hyung...?"
On the way down from the observatory.
I involuntarily let out an evil laugh, and my companions' rebukes followed.
I'm doing this for all of your sakes.
"...When Oppa laughs like that, it means he's cooking up another evil scheme."
Only Seo-eun, who had watched me for a long time, muttered beside me with a displeased expression.
Evil, she says.
I'm trying to save humanity, and I'm dying of injustice.
Of course, for Kim Seon-woo and the Haneun Group folks, it'll be infuriating.
***
The Haneun Group, South Korea's top conglomerate, projected a friendly public image while secretly plotting to dominate the nation through force.
Engaged in illegal and inhumane human experimentation and monster creation in secret, all their schemes were exposed by the Behemoth incident.
As a result, the company went bankrupt, and high-ranking executives, including the chairman, fled overseas, but the researchers who conducted the experiments, led by Dr. Kim Seon-woo, couldn't escape.
In the original story, Kim Seon-woo managed to hijack Behemoth and even fought Stardust, but he was ultimately defeated and fled.
Ultimately, the employees led by him realized they were finished. Since they were all doomed anyway, they decided to go out with one last bang, a plan to take everyone down with them.
That was the Haneun Group's Seoul Invasion Incident.
And the method they chose to turn Seoul into a sea of fire was...
A colossal weapon.
***
"So, the Haneun Group is going to launch a final desperate attack on Seoul soon, bringing a giant robot with them at night?"
"It's not a robot, it's a weapon, but anyway. Yes."
.....
The Ego underground base's meeting room.
Seo-eun, Soo-bin, the newly joined Choi Se-hee, and even Ha-yul. With everyone gathered there, I brought up the topic.
"...What exactly is this 'colossal weapon' like?"
"It's as big as a colossal mountain range, somewhat octopus-like, with a hemispherical body and long steel limbs attached..."
"No, wait, wait."
Choi Se-hee, who had been listening to me, cut me off and asked with a bewildered expression.
"A colossal weapon is going to invade Seoul soon? How do you know that?"
"I know everything except what I don't know."
"No, what is that supposed to mean...?"
Choi Se-hee stared at me, eyes wide with bewilderment, but I merely offered a faint smile.
Apparently, men with many secrets are attractive. Probably.
"Anyway, our plan is to seize that colossal weapon."
"That? How?"
"How else? Just teleport to the control panel, beat up all their guys, and then we operate it. That's it."
"It's that easy?"
"What's so hard about it?"
Just like a human dies when their brain dies, a colossal weapon is finished once its control seat is taken.
"...But wouldn't they have known that and prepared for it?"
"Of course they would have."
To be precise, they prepared for Shadow Walker, who can teleport anywhere, but only at night.
They just smeared the place with a substance extracted from Behemoth, a substance that counters darkness, to prevent him from coming.
As I explained this, Choi Se-hee looked puzzled.
"....What about you? Your teleportation?"
"Me? Of course, they wouldn't have even considered me."
"Why?"
"Because I'm not a hero, I'm just a mere villain...?"
"Ah."
She let out a sound like she had just realized something idiotic. Seriously, what do they take me for?
"Dain, is that machine really that powerful? Can't we just shoot a few bombs at it?"
"No, we can't."
I shook my head, denying it.
It's not just any weapon. In the original story, it's utterly overwhelming, with a colossal size that makes viewers exclaim, 'There's no stopping that,' and it's a truly miraculous object that doesn't even get a scratch no matter what you shoot at it, made of who knows what.
It wasn't called the final boss of Phase 1 in the original for nothing. It's just overwhelming, I tell you? It's incomparable to anything Stardust has faced so far. Truly the ultimate boss.
Even Stardust eventually gave up on trying to defeat it.
After explaining to everyone how strong, overwhelming, and miraculous this thing was, I concluded with a single sentence.
"And I'm just going to gobble it up."
As I said that, I involuntarily let out an evil laugh.
Right. What was my goal in this world?
To give Stardust only trials she can handle.
And this, she absolutely cannot handle.
Then.
Wouldn't it be better if I personally modified it into a manageable trial for her?
"It'll probably happen this very week, so let's all prepare in advance. Especially you, Choi Se-hee, you're coming with me."
Saying that, I formulated the plan.
A golden opportunity to definitively finish off the Haneun Group and help Stardust grow.
Especially Kim Seon-woo and those Haneun Group bastards.
I'm really curious to see the look on their faces when their grand final move, which they prepared so thoroughly, goes utterly to hell.
Hoo hoo ha ha ha ha ha.
****
Somewhere deep in the provinces.
Haneun Group Secret Base, Sector C.
In the middle of an endlessly deep underground, countless people were bustling about.
They were all skin and bones, their bodies emaciated, and they looked disheveled as if they hadn't washed.
But their eyes burned with a fierce venom.
As they, clad in white lab coats, moved busily, a man walked through them, heading somewhere.
He appeared to be the oldest among them.
The most exhausted among them.
Yet his eyes, more than anyone else's, blazed with a venom that seemed capable of devouring anyone.
He was the overall director of the Haneun Group's Behemoth Project.
Abandoned by the board of directors, remaining in Korea.
Dr. Kim Seon-woo.
He spat out words as if chewing them, to the researcher bustling beside him.
"So. The final inspection is complete?"
"Yes, Doctor. It's ready for deployment."
"I'll see it."
He strode purposefully until he arrived at a place that was...
An empty cavern of overwhelming size, as if an entire colossal city had been turned on its side and crammed underground.
And filling that space was...
Its vertical length easily several times that of a skyscraper, its horizontal length like a colossal mountain range.
The Haneun Group's ultimate masterpiece, forged from their last dying embers, created solely for destruction, collapse, and chaos.
The weapon built for ruin: Project Octopass.
"Yes... Finally. It's finally complete."
Seeing it, Kim Seon-woo gritted his teeth and muttered.
Then, unable to contain his own excitement, he spontaneously shouted to all the staff.
"All staff, listen up!!!"
A destructive volume that filled the vast hall.
As a nearby researcher hastily set up a microphone, broadcasting his voice throughout the entire facility.
His voice echoed through the underground.
"How much have we sacrificed until now, for the Haneun Group, and for the advancement of the nation!"
"The citizens who criticize and condemn us, who dedicated ourselves solely to a better world! What exactly have *they* done for this nation?!"
"How much have they oppressed us, who sought to create a new history for humanity through evolution, and now they even try to purge us!"
"This rotten nation is no longer needed!"
"Now, for us! Isn't it our final mission to turn this hateful nation into a sea of fire with our own hands?!"
"Tomorrow!"
He spat out his final words, as if chewing them, with blazing eyes.
"We will destroy Seoul."
As his speech concluded, cheers, agreement, cries of 'sea of fire,' 'destruction,' and 'rage' echoed around him.
Amidst all that noise, he quietly closed his eyes.
Yes. Tomorrow.
Seoul, in his grasp, would finally understand what true annihilation was.
***
"So, what's the plan for seizing that weapon?"
"Go to the cockpit, bash the head of whoever's operating it with a monkey wrench. Done. Then it's ours."
"...It's that easy?"
"Yep."
"Pretty easy, right?"