BXBX NOVEL Chapter 255: Latecomers
Some may agree, some may disagree, but one thing is for sure.
And that is.
‘With great power, comes great interest…’
“Oh no…”
I muttered as I tossed and turned in bed.
The price of the brain-accelerating doping pills I had taken before the Knight of God Raid to ensure the success of the operation had finally arrived.
Is this why our ancestors told us not to rely on drugs…?
The good news, of course, is that the after-effects aren’t as severe as the ones I suffered after using my powers. I woke up in a flash, unlike the week-long blackout after my last attack.
“Da-in…!”
Of course, it had been a long time since I’d fainted, so I was a bit apologetic for worrying everyone, but whatever.
I was able to get back to my feet pretty quickly, which is weird since I didn’t do it myself in the first place.
Anyway, now that I’ve beaten that Knight of God we just need to focus on those otherworldly monster-loving Moonlight Church bastards until the scourge of the Cult’s heart-pounding monster summoning!
…Of course.
“…..”
Aside from that, I had other things on my mind.
“Stardus….”
Yep. Something about her.
‘…Okay. Will you tell me later?’
“Mm-hmm…”
After three days of forced bed confinement by the overly worried Soobin and Ha-yul, after my collapse, I was able to return to my room.
I sat there in my chair, spinning in circles, worrying too much about Stardus.
…Something about her demeanor has softened, hasn’t it?
Of course, I could be mistaken. There’s no reason for her, the hero, to be softer toward me, the villain.
But something….
Thinking back to our recent conversations…I think we’ve gotten pretty far away from the normal hero/villain relationship. How many times have I saved her in the first place, and how many times has she saved me directly or indirectly?
‘…Yeah. I must be mistaken, right?’
…For the time being, I had no choice but to conclude that.
It was a ridiculous hypothesis to begin with, and it was more plausible that Stardus knew she couldn’t get me anyway, so she was lulling me into a false sense of security and planning to catch me. Scary, Stardus. How far can you see…!
“….”
Okay. Rather than worrying about such trivialities, why don’t I focus on the Moonlight Gate so that it won’t destroy the Earth?
With that thought, I dialed the number.
Let’s go check the PMC.
***.
The four I’ve been training for the Moonlight Gate catastrophe.
In fact, they were a group of talented individuals that I assembled after much thought.
Lee Se-gum is a swordsman, Seo Chae-young specializes in long-range sniping, Heo Da-hee is a tank who can take a beating, and San-sua supports them.
Unlike the original members of Ego Stream, who were mostly recruited on the fly, they were thoroughly planned from the beginning.
Like building a party in an RPG game, their roles are independent of each other.
Lee Se-gum, the sword wielder, number one.
Seo Chae-young, who can shoot arrows of light, No. 2.
Heo Da-hee, a tank who wields a flaming greatsword, No. 3.
San-sua, who can create soap bubbles that buff nearby allies, No. 4.
As you can see, these four have very different roles, but they shine best when they fight alongside each other.
Against stronger enemies, Heo Da-hee can tank and draw aggro while Lee Se-gum slaughters up close with his sword and Seo Chae-young provides safe support from afar, and San-sua buffs them all.
As you can see they look more like raid party members in a game than heroes but that’s how they were designed from the start.
The PMC, the Ego Squad, was created for one purpose: to take on the giant monsters that will emerge from the Moonlight Gate.
Stardus alone could not protect this vast nation from the monster waves, so I bred them as weapons against the great monsters.
If my calculations are correct, they can all work together to fight better than Stardus against single monsters. 1:1 and 4:1, but of course…
‘…It wasn’t easy.’
It wasn’t easy picking these guys either.
My plan from the beginning was to pick as few PMC first-year students as possible, and then let them be the seniors and pick more second-year and third-year students. Obviously, four is not enough to take on so many beasts.
That’s why I had to be more careful than anyone else when choosing my first cadets. They had to have the right abilities, the right party harmony, and most importantly, the right personality. And they had to believe in me and follow me.
…In the end, I succeeded.
Of course, there’s the problem that they followed me a little more than I thought they would, and that they found out I’m Egostic, but the point is, I succeeded.
I joined hands with Lee Seola to create the Moonlight Gate Catastrophic Beast Slaying Squad. That’s how the first class of Ego Squad was born.
And now, the second batch of students has been selected.
‘The second class…’
The second batch students are much easier to raise than the four from the first batch.
Unlike Nr.1, 2, 3, and 4, who I’ve gotten to know and teach, they’ll be taught by us 1-4 instead of me since I’ve taught them how to do this.
This is the miracle multi-level nurturing method. I raise 4 people, and those 4 people raise 12 other people, and those 12 people raise 24 other people…!
This was possible because for the second batch of PMC students I gave up the strength of the first batch and brought in only the most gentle and kind-hearted people.
And since last time, the four of them have been working hard to raise them.
…I lost contact with them at some point while they were whining about how hard it was, but they must be doing well, right?
With that thought, I arrived at the PMC and met the kids right away.
“Master Da-in~”
“Uh-oh.”
Heo Da-hee hugged me as soon as she saw me, Seo Chae-young crouched next to me, while Lee Se-gum and San-sua looked tired.
It’s the first time I’ve seen the faces of my squad since I brought the second-year students to this PMC building.
…They all looked a bit more mature than usual. Maybe it’s because they have to train their juniors.
“How’s everyone doing?”
“Don’t talk…”
No. 2, Seo Chae-young, twisted her yellow hair and sighed heavily as she said that.
Apparently, it was their first time teaching and guiding someone, so it was quite difficult.
However, they’ve been learning from me and watching Stardus, so they’re getting the hang of it.
“How are the juniors doing?”
“Well… They’re all learning hard.”
He answered my question so vaguely.
Of course, it wouldn’t be easy for someone who has lived an ordinary life to learn combat techniques against great beasts right away. It will probably take some time.
Still, everyone seemed to be picking only those with good character, so there wasn’t much of a problem.
“Anyway, I’ve asked everyone to wait in the training center auditorium over there to greet Master Dain. Why don’t you stop by and talk to them face to face…”
Lee Se-gum asked me.
It’s like he caught exactly what I was going to say and prepared in advance. I didn’t see them during the second-year students’ face-to-face interview, but I should take a look.
“Okay. Let’s go.”
“Yeah!”
With that, I headed to the auditorium where the 12 PMC 2nd year students were waiting.
And then
“Hick….!”
“We’re here, we’re here!”
“Is that the teacher of the teachers…?”
I could only stare in disbelief as they all stood there, straight and tall, oohs and aahs in unison.
…Is this the PMC, the army of psychics…?
“No… What’s wrong with them?”
“Haha…That.”
Seo Chae-young touched her hair as if to shrug it off.
Apparently, it’s good to talk about me as if I’m a scary person when teaching kids, so that’s what she did. If they don’t do it right, I, the head of the PMC, will come and beat them up, or something like that…..
Well. It’s not a bad way to go, because fear of the higher-ups can make an organization more cohesive.
Anyway, that’s not the point, so I’ll say what I have to say.
I stood at the front of the auditorium, looked down at the kids, and gave a sort of speech about how happy I was to see them.
I basically said that they have a very important role to play, and we needed to get to work to bring peace in this country as soon as possible. Something like that.
“Huh…”
…What’s wrong with them?
When I was done, I turned to the kids.
“Did you get it?”
“”””Yes!!!””””
“…..”
They all cheered up, and the cheer was huge.
“Okay. Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.
With that, I had a final conversation with the PMC kids and headed back home.
Good, our Moonlight Gate Beasts opponent legions are developing well.
With that thought, I dialed a number somewhere.
…An international call, to be precise.
“Good morning, Katana.”
Okay, time to get to work.