Chapter 33: HERO
The passengers screamed and grabbed the seat armrest.
[I can\'t believe you’re making sounds! I\'m going to cut the last line, too! BOOM!]
The popping sound can be heard again,
The plane began to crash faster and faster.
And all of this was being broadcast live to everyone.
"Crazy punk…"
Of course, there were people who were watching it in real-time.
"…President, what do we do now?"
[What do you mean?… Give up. I\'m busy writing a statement of condemnation. Phew, I will have to go around while lowering my head again. You come and get ready to write me an apology for throwing popcorn at me. Oh, damn it, some reporters are already here. I\'m hanging up now.]
The Association’s president hung up the phone.
Stardus remained by herself, she could only look up into the sky with a mixed mind.
"Haa…"
The plane is slowly falling.
It\'s falling so slowly that you might think it\'s landing normally.
The smoke on both wings showed that there was something serious going on.
Stardus thought.
Isn\'t this the biggest terrorist attack ever?
Egostic… He\'s finally committing a real crime.
The most frustrating thing was she couldn\'t do anything and could only watch.
The speed of an airplane is at least 1,000 kilometers.
Considering the speed of the train that he barely blocked is about 100 km, it\'s about 10 times faster.
Trying to stop that, it’s simply like banging rock with an egg. It\'s like an ant trying to stop a car.
In other words, there is nothing she can do.
Just helplessly, she has no other choice but to write a report.
When she looks up with such a complicated mind.
Suddenly, she could hear the phone rang from her in-ear earphones.
"…?"
She frowned at the unexpected phone call and tried to hang up by turning off her earphones.
‘Wait… But these earphones surely are only connected to the Association\'
She picked it up by tapping her earphones one more time.
It was a man\'s voice.
And Stardus pricked her lips at the familiar voice
[Hello, Stardus. It\'s Egostic]
"You garbage…"
She almost threw her earphones out on the floor because she couldn\'t control her anger.
But as he continued, she shut her mouth for a moment.
[I\'m just curious. Why aren’t you saving them?]
"…What?"
[I mean, don’t you have to fly up and save the plane? What are you doing?]
Stardus got burned up for a moment when he spit out those words so nonchalantly.
However, she thought that if she got angry here, she would be involved in his scheme, so she tried to calm down her anger and spoke calmly.
"….So now, you want me to stop the plane from crashing? The one you dropped?"
[Yes, of course]
Shin Haru seriously wanted to give this guy a punch in the face by talking so shamelessly.
A punch that is strong enough to kill him on the spot.
Holding down her anger, she spoke up.
"How can I… stop that? Huh? That thing that\'s falling at 1,000 kilometers per hour? You want me to die? Oh, I guess so. You crazy punk."
…She\'s losing her temper, and her concept is starting to unravel.
But before she could scream, Egostick interrupted her.
[No, you can do it.]
For a moment, his voice on the phone sounded more serious and sincere than anyone else. She was speechless for a moment.
[You can do it. Stop the plane from falling.]
As if he was stating a completely undeniable truth.
As if he was telling the obvious that the sun rises when the moon goes down.
His voice is too assured.
After being speechless for a moment, she caught her senses and quietly spoke up.
"…Does that make sense to you? You think I don\'t know you’re just going to take this opportunity to eliminate me?"
[Why would I want to kill you?]
And then he continued with his calm voice.
[Without you, what would life mean to me? Without you, I\'m just a common villain.]
[You complete me.]
[So step up. Clench your fists, strain your legs, and fly into the sky to save people. You can do it. Because that\'s you.]
And at the end, the phone was cut off.
Left alone, she was possessed by the sudden development of the situation, and blanked out for a moment…
She shook her head as she had come to her senses.
That crazy guy is just saying his usual crap.
That\'s what the guy said when he blew up the plane in the first place.
She knows her ability, how can she stop that?
Isn\'t he just trying to kill her this time?
However, what he said echoed through her mind.
‘No, you can do it.’
‘You complete me.\'
‘Clench your fists, strain your legs, and fly into the sky to save people. You can do it. Because that\'s you.’
As those are unbelievable words that only her fans would say.
But this is what her enemy, that Egostic guy, said.
‘Isn\'t there more reliability and objectivity?\'
Her brain was now in a state of confusion.
She was feeling helpless and hopeless at the same time, saying that she would only be able to watch everyone in that plane die in real time.
When the villain who dropped the plane called her and told her to go and save them, she ended up losing her mind.
‘Yeah, I blocked the train, so why can\'t I stop a plane? In fact, looking at airplanes, isn\'t it a kind of flying train? What\'s an airplane? Isn\'t it short for an air train*? I mean, wouldn\'t I be able to stop the plane?\' *TN: Airplane in Korean is ‘비행기(Bihaengi’, and train is ‘기차(Gicha)’. So in this part, Stardus is convincing herself that airplane is shorten for ‘비행기차 (Bihaenggicha)’, which literally can be translated to ‘Air train’
She began to think using some seriously flawed logic.
Finally, her mind came to a conclusion.
[The 247th Shin Haru Brain Regular Decision Council]
[Result of the subject: Let\'s go get the plane.]
‘Yeah, if I watch they die anyway, I will be crushed by guilt for the rest of my life. Rather than do it without regrets.\'
And immediately.
She flew in the sky.
***
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah"!
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaah."
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"
Inside the plane, it was filled with people’s screams.
Although the fall itself was somehow going smoothly despite the explosion, that didn\'t mean the fear was gone.
Out of the window, it seemed to be getting closer to the ground.
At first, only clouds could be seen clearly, but now the sea can also be seen.
People were screaming, and praying to God. Some people fainted, some just gave up as they closed their eyes quietly.
So gradually the plane is getting closer to the sea, and now people start to lose hope as they think, ‘So there are only a few minutes left before I die.’.
Thump-.
They began to hear a sound from the front.
Thump-. Thump-. Thump-.
The sound continued.
A thud sound can be heard as if something keeps hitting the front of an airplane.
And the sound of the wave.
THUUUUUMP.
"Huh?"
Suddenly, a huge shock can be felt at the front.
The passengers recalled themselves as if they were bouncing forward in unison.
The shock would have made people bounce off if everyone hadn\'t been wearing their seat belts.
The shock came and went as if something had hit the front of the plane like a car hit a tree on the street.
The speed of the plane that was running to break into pieces toward the sea.
Slowly.
Slowly.
It started to slow down.
"…Huh?"
So the passengers were shocked at something hitting the front that they even thought, ‘Now, I’m dead.’ but they noticed something was off.
They are definitely getting close to the ground.
The plane gradually slows down as if it were landing.
"Huh…? Huh?"
The plane was getting slower and slower.
Soon, it landed in the sea with a roar.
Thump.
"AAAAAAAH!"
Of course, in the process, there was a slight impact so the plane suddenly split.
As a result.
All the passengers survived.
"…What happened?"
The passengers were stunned by the sudden situation.
They didn\'t know what was going on, they didn\'t realize they were alive, and they couldn’t even feel happy.
Some of them woke up and went inside to find the crew.
The crew members were knocked out.
People woke them up and they opened the door of the plane and set up a slide for people to get to the lifeboat out of the gate and ride it.
People saw something when they got on the lifeboat and rowed to the front of the plane with their absent mind.
A blonde woman in red tights was sweating and catching her breath in the front of a heavily dented plane, holding the plane by herself so tightly that it was dented.
It was Stardus.
People instinctively realized that she saved them.
One of them unknowingly muttered.
"Hero…"
The protector.
The hero.
The savior.
Everyone there felt that as they watched her catch her breath in a shabby way on a huge plane.
That\'s.
That person.
Just saved everyone.
That\'s our hero.
***
[Yes!!! Stardus!!! Has succeed in landing!!! The plane!!! All passengers are safe!!! They are getting off!!!! Everyone!!! Korea is safe!!!]
[Yes, and as you can see… Wow. She did it! Viewers, The Korean A-class hero Stardus just stopped the plane from crashing in midair! Unbelievable that it happened in Korea.]
[はい、ちょうど韓国のヒーローStardus-sanが飛行機を上空で止めることに成功しました. すごいですね. 韓国ができることはありますか?]
[韓國的英雄星塵攔住了飛機. 是的,這對於半島上一個流氓國家來說很棒.]
[En Corée, un petit pays à l\'Est, un héros a arrêté un avion dans le ciel. Elle s\'appelle Stardus.]
[Who is the hero Stardus? The one that made The U.S. surprised, Japan shocked! And got praised by China and feared by France. “Japan now has to admit that we completely lost to Korea when it comes to heroes. Even if we combine the Japanese heroes, we won\'t be able to beat Korea." Japan\'s Interior Minister\'s Shock Revealed!]