Chapter 281: Unexpected Encounters

An open sky.

Above the city, sunlight glinting and reflecting off the glass of several new buildings.

Stardus was looking down, her expression impassive.

“…..ha.”

Feeling her blonde hair whip around in the breeze, she searched for the villain below and there, on the other side of the city, was someone in a rather odd outfit that must be the villain responsible for this latest attack.

With that simple thought, she flew downward, kicking the air as she went.

Then she heard her voice.

“Hiaaaaah! Hiiii, are you afraid of me?”

As she said that, the villain was attacking in all directions with the strange mechanical arms on her body.

The villain appeared to be an androgynous figure with sunglasses and long black hair.

Wearing a long, long coat, the villain was attacking in all directions with two mechanical arms on her back.

Naturally, everyone quickly ran away as soon as they heard something explode, like trained soldiers, so it was a bit pitiful to see her standing alone in an empty street.

After all, she’d dealt with enough of those kinds of miscellaneous villains.

Descending to the ground, Stardus landed in the air in front of her, and of course she spotted her.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, aren’t you the famous Stardus?”

At the words of the villain, who opened her mouth while looking at Stardus, who had arrived in front of her with an expressionless face, Stardus opened her mouth and said in an emotionless voice.

“Villain. Put down your weapons and surrender obediently, and I’ll put you in jail without hurting you.”

“Fuhaha, that’s ridiculous. What am I, crazy?”

“….”

She clenched her fists silently, not expecting much in the first place while the villain smirked at her and lowered her sunglasses with her hand.

The villain’s eyes, however, had a curious twirling quality to them.

“May I introduce myself? I am the Dungeon Maker and I will conquer this city today. Ahaha.”

“…Ha.”

Stardus sighed as she watched the woman laugh as she wielded her mechanical arm.

…All the villains she met lately have been this crazy. No, they’re crazy because they’re villains.

She wondered why she never gets to see Egostic, but only these villains.

It didn’t matter who it was. They’d all go down fair and square with a single punch from her.

She was already feeling quite confident now that she had taken down the giant Moonlight Beast.

“Haha, I see. Once I take you down, it’ll be over.”

With that, Stardus muttered and floated off into the sky.

“Hmph….”

The self-proclaimed Dungeon Maker laughed quietly, not the least bit wary, and watched as she moved her hands.

‘…What is it?’

Stardus felt an uneasy feeling well up inside her.

It was something ominous, an odd, extrasensory warning she got from the villain with mechanical arms, a feeling that something was going to go wrong.

Stardus instinctively knew this wasn’t going to be easy, as her heroic instincts had almost always been right on the money.

There was nothing more she could do now, but…

…with that ominous sensation riding up her back Stardus steeled herself, forcing herself to calm down.

‘I can’t help it now. I must fight….I don’t know what the hell she is, or why I have this ominous feeling.’

Finally, she swallowed hard, tensing her fists and emitting a yellow glow.

The villain, Dungeon Maker, also now had her hand up, about to do something.

It was one of those moments that made Stardust tense up.

“…Haha, I see you’ve already decided to have some fun without me.”

Above the quiet street, with the two of them facing each other a man’s voice rang out, a voice that sounded all too familiar to her.

“…Huh?”

“Hmph…?”

At the sound of the voice, the two who had been confronting each other looked up and there, on the roof of a nearby low-rise building a man stood smiling, with a mask on his face.

She’d been waiting and waiting and waiting but she hadn’t expected to see him today.

“…Egostic?”

It was the figure of her arch nemesis.

Despite his sudden appearance, Stardus couldn’t help but stare up at him blankly.

‘…You, why are you here…?’

His sudden, unexpected entrance made her body relax.

That’s right, the moment she saw him, she felt a strange feeling for a hero to feel when he’s in the middle of a confrontation with a villain and another villain bursts in.

It was a relief.

…and a little. No, actually, a lot. Much more than she realized.

***

This world is fucked.

That’s what I’ve been thinking since the day I fell here. It’s probably because the original is a wreck, but whatever. A prime example of this is the villains’ abilities.

Admittedly, up until the first phase, the portrait abilities were still pretty simple.

Stardus, for example, was simply strong, flying, teleporting, and so on.

Those with more than one ability, like Stardus, were basically A-grade. Teleporter that teleports, Crocodile Man who turns into a giant crocodile man or Electra who uses lightning. How simple.

But in Phase 2, when all the villains start getting S-class powers, things start to get complicated.

Considering Eun-Woo uses magic, which is a completely different system from superpowers, I’m done. Seo Jae-young and the other villains I’ve faced all have crazy abilities.

And now, Phase 3.

This is when the villains’ abilities are at their worst.

There are villains with all sorts of crazy abilities. Naturally, they’re creative in their harassment of Stardus and there’s a lot of talk among readers at this point about how much they miss Phase 1 villains and Phase 2 villains…

…Of course, then, in the Great Jailbreak event at the end of Phase 3, all of the previous Phase Villains came out and went on a rampage, proving once again that they were just as powerful with simple abilities.

It’s only natural that a villain with a simple “punch the sky” ability would be stronger than one with a complicated explanation…

Anyway, my point is this.

There are some upcoming villains that Stardus won’t be able to take down unless she knows what type of ability they’re using. I don’t care how strong Stardus is, it’s impossible.

And that brings us to the villain I just saw on TV, Dungeon Maker, one of the three makers of the villainous coalition formed by Scream Maker.

I found our Scream Maker and took care of him, but I couldn’t find the Dungeon Maker, however she showed up on her own.

In any case, she’s a gimmicky boss, meaning she’s hard to deal with if you don’t know how to play her. In fact, Stardus almost dies the first time she faces her in the original.

Of course, the original Stardus was always going to die, but that’s one thing and this is another.

So here I was, standing on a rooftop above a mall building, giggling and looking down at the woman confronting Stardus. Ha, thank goodness I’m not too late. Any later and she would have been in trouble.

…Of course, in all my haste, I didn’t forget my camera. In times like this, sneaking around without a camera is more suspicious.

*Photo.

[KingGodGeneralEmpireMeat100%MangostickMouthGalGalGalGalGalGalGal]]

[I’ve been waiting for a villain like you, I’ve been waiting for a villain like you, I’ve been waiting for a villain like you, I’ve been waiting for a villain like you, I’ve been waiting for a villain like you, I’ve been waiting for a villain like you]

[This is fucking Yas~~~~]

[The Mango Dancers, who came running with a huge grin on their faces as soon as it was broadcast, are a bunch of dogs…]

[The first broadcast after achieving real ‘S-class’ heroic Egostic S-class lol]

[God, I have been waiting for you, I am serving you, GOD]

[This is it, this is it, this is it, this is it, this is it]

[Mango, you’re here to help Stardus again]

[Type Ego-Stardus if you think these two should confess and get together sooner rather than later.]

[Haha the whole world is Mango Star… Even Egostic is Mango Star…]

*

The chat window was instantly ruined.

…There were too many foreigners, so even though I excluded all chats except for Korean, it was a chat window that went down so fast that I couldn’t read it. Maybe I should ask Seo-eun to put in a slowdown feature.

Anyway, that’s not the point right now.

“…Huh? Egostic?”

I giggled as I watched Stardus say that, her eyes widening in surprise as she looked at me. Yeah. I’m glad she’s okay.

…And then.

“Whoa. Who is this, the famous…Egostic?”

The woman with the sunglasses and mechanical arm standing in front of her, Dungeon Maker, also looked up in my direction, smiled, and said so.

…I didn’t like her. Her concept overlaps with mine.

I smirked at that woman and opened my mouth.

“Haha, hello, I heard someone was harassing my arch nemesis in my front yard, so I came to check it out, and it turned out to be you.”

“Ahaha. I don’t know why this city is your front yard, but yes, I’m sorry to hear that I’ve caused you trouble as a junior villain. Can I call you dear from now on?”

“…Haha. No.”

I accepted her words with a forced smile.

…She’s even crazier than I thought, but that’s because she’s so confident in her abilities.

By the way, I see Stardus down there talking to me and her, and all of a sudden her eyes narrow and she starts to stare… I better do something fast.

Just as I was thinking that.

“Hmmm… Well, now that I think about it, maybe taking out that famous S-class couple will boost my reputation?”

Dungeon Maker actions were faster.

“That’s right, senior, why don’t you become a sacrifice for a junior!”

With those words.

-Kuung-.

The surroundings, which had changed in an instant, suddenly turned dark.

-Keyskeyskeyskeyskeyskeys

Out of thin air countless, tiny, white, blocky things, so many that they blocked out the sky, popped up in a line, so suddenly, and began to fly toward us.

Oh yeah. It’s happening.

“Hmmm… Huh?”

The moment I flew over to Stardus, who was panicking at the sight faster than anyone else, and hugged her from behind.

“Stardus, will you excuse me for a moment?”

“Huh? Huh? Ah? Okay, wait…?”

She stammered, her face flushed with embarrassment at my sudden approach.

All around us, the white boxes heated up and just like that, we were transported into the labyrinth made by Dungeon Maker’s unique ability.

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