ALL NOVEL Chapter 39
Chapter 39
In a franchise fast food restaurant in downtown S-city.
Thanks to its location on a busy street, it had many customers coming and going,
and being a franchise, it guaranteed a certain level of taste in its burgers.
“Hmm.”
A woman with a refreshing fashion and captivating beauty, wearing skinny jeans, a black crop top,
a small, thin see-through cardigan covering her shoulders, and round glasses,
sat quietly in a corner of the restaurant, sipping on a cola.
Chaeryeong, a member of the top executives ‘Four Knights’ of the villain organization Dark Knights,
and the possessor of the ability ‘Doppelganger’.
After escaping from the cafe where agents trying to arrest her were swarming,
she was momentarily quenching her thirst before moving to another location.
‘It was so elaborately set up… but now it will be hard to go back.’
The cafe she had been staying in until just now was run by her for amusement,
and also served as a temporary hideout in case of emergencies related to the organization.
‘I wonder where the others have gone…’
Unlike the other Four Knight executives who were active in different regions up until the attack,
Chaeryeong had stayed at the hideout, attending to the Kaiser, the leader.
And just before the Hero Coalition’s raid,
She had left the hideout with the Kaiser and stayed at the cafe.
Chaeryeong, having stayed at the cafe for several days, using clones to gather information,
knew that the encirclement was tightening and was prepared to move to another hideout.
‘Sigh… I did well to evacuate the Kaiser elsewhere first.’
Chaeryeong, who was with the leader, anticipated the hero and agent’s attack in advance,
and had moved the leader to a villa owned by the organization on the outskirts of S-city a few days ago.
Thus, today’s capture operation involving ‘Ice Queen’ Seolumi, ‘Ignition’ Yoon Do-hwa,
and dozens of Hero Coalition agents were set in motion.
She attempted to escape through the back door using a pre-installed smoke disperser,
but was detected by the agents positioned around the cafe building.
However, her ability ‘Doppelganger’ was not merely about creating clones.
She could create up to three clones that shared visual, auditory, and other senses,
and could even switch positions with her clones.
In case her real body was in danger,
she could swap places with a clone she had strategically placed elsewhere.
The reason she let herself be caught by the agents
was because she could employ a strategy akin to ninja substitution techniques.
‘With one clone currently in that villa… I guess I need to go there first.’
After finishing her cola and leaving the burger shop,
Chaeryeong tried to switch places with the clone she had placed at the villa where the Kaiser was staying.
‘…Huh? This isn’t right?’
Chaeryeong was bewildered when the switch didn’t occur,
but the issue wasn’t just that the switch didn’t happen.
The clone that should have been with the Kaiser in the villa had completely vanished.
‘Why did the clone suddenly disappear…? I definitely placed it there…’
– Clapㅡ!
The trigger to activate Chaeryeong’s ability ‘Doppelganger’ was clapping.
The villa was just a matter of going back,
but the disappearance of a perfectly made clone was odd.
However, only the sound of her claps echoed through the street, time and again.
Not even someone vaguely resembling her clone appeared.
‘What’s going on…? Did the Coalition do something to my body without me knowing?
No, that can’t be…’
Contrary to what Chaeryeong thought in her confused state,
The Coalition didn’t possess groundbreaking technology to control superpowers.
The Hero Coalition had invested astronomical capital into superpower research,
bringing together numerous superpower users and researchers for decades of continuous study.
They sought to understand how humanity gained superpowers,
what kinds of superpowers existed in this world, and other fundamental questions.
And how superpowers could be controlled,
even attempting to create artificial superpowers.
However, the Coalition, along with other research groups, could hardly uncover the secrets of superpowers.
They only managed to grasp when the concept of superpowers began among humans,
and the infinite variety of superpowers.
If the Coalition had such convenient technology,
dealing with villains like Chaeryeong wouldn’t have been this cumbersome.
‘This has never happened before… I need to go to the villa first.’
Chaeryeong decided to put her confusion aside for now,
and started looking for a taxi on the street to head to the villa where the Kaiser was staying.
– Vroomㅡ!
Not long after she started looking for a taxi,
an empty taxi soon drove by, stopping in front of her.
– Clunkㅡ
“Oh my! Where would you like me to take you?”
A kind-looking taxi driver asked her for her destination.
‘The villa is located near the highway from S-city to B-city, in a quiet area…
I should ask to be dropped off near B-city airport.’
“Go to B-city air… the back gate of Seongnam University, please.”
“To the back gate of Seongnam University? Ah! Are you a student? Haha!
I’ll get you there in no time!”
Chaeryeong was about to mention B-city airport, her intended destination,
but instead asked to be taken to the back gate of Seongnam University in S-city.
‘This… is strange? Suddenly, my mouth won’t move at will.’
The fact that her ability wasn’t working as intended was already troubling and frustrating,
and now she couldn’t even speak freely.
‘Something’s off. I tried to tell him to go somewhere else just now…
but my mouth just won’t open.’
As if someone had cursed her to keep silent,
all Chaeryeong could do was grimace, unable to speak.
“Miss? Is something uncomfortable? Should I open the window if you’re feeling stuffy?”
The taxi driver, noticing Chaeryeong’s grimaced face in the rearview mirror,
thought she might be feeling unwell.
“Ah! No, I was just lost in other thoughts…”
She desperately wanted to say, take me elsewhere,
or just stop the car here immediately, but her efforts to move her mouth freely were in vain,
and to her dismay, the taxi arrived quickly at the back gate of Seongnam University.
“Here we are.”
“Here… you can keep the change.”
Chaeryeong hurriedly handed a ten thousand won bill to the driver,
and stepped out of the taxi at the back gate of Seongnam University.
“Seongnam University… it’s dangerous here with the Coalition headquarters nearby…”
From Seongnam University to the Hero Coalition headquarters, it’s about a 30-minute drive.
If Chaeryeong lingered in this area for too long,
She risked being caught again by heroes or agents desperate to find Dark Knights executives like her.
“I need to catch another taxi quickly and head to the airport… but my feet!”
Among the places close to Seongnam University, besides the Coalition headquarters, there was another:
the base of the villain ‘Dominator,’ who keeps two A-grade heroes as his thralls.
The hideout of the villain organization ‘Utopia’ was also nearby.
“Argh…?! No…! Why are my feet moving on their own!”
‘It was like my mouth earlier… my body isn’t listening at all…!’
It wasn’t just that her body wasn’t moving as she thought.
It felt like someone was forcing her body to move.
Chaeryoung felt as if she had lost control over her own body.
One step.
Another step.
After walking diligently for over 10 minutes, she arrived at a commercial building.
Chaeryeong stopped in front of a building she had never seen before.
“Where am I…?”
Her feet, stopped in front of the building, turned towards the stairs,
opened a large glass door, and began to head underground.
‘Why has my body come here… what’s supposed to be here?’
The front door on the first basement level bore no signs or labels.
It was just an ordinary door handle with a домашний замок (home lock) like you’d see in a house.
– Beep beep… Ring-a-ling!
As if it had been waiting for her,
The door lock made a cheerful sound.
– Creeeakㅡ
A woman with bare, fair skin, wearing only white leggings, an apron,
and a headdress on her purple hair, greeted Chaeryeong with a bow.
“Welcome. The master has been waiting for you.”
“Master… you say? Who are you? Why are you in this place…”
The woman, dressed in what looked like a risqué cosplay, greeted her with a bright smile,
and mentioned someone called ‘the master’ was waiting for her, guiding her inside.
‘What is this place… why was I brought here?’
Chaeryeong tried to calm her anxious heart,
yet couldn’t fathom why she ended up coming to such a place on her own.
Even as she followed the maid cosplayer inside,
she looked around, trying to figure out where she had entered.
‘The inside looks like a luxurious office… or perhaps a cocktail bar.’
Past a somewhat dark entrance, a luxurious sofa and bar table caught her eye.
“Hey there.”
A man sitting on the sofa waved at Chaeryeong.
“Finally meeting in person. The executive ‘Trickster’ of the Dark Knights.
Or should I call you Chaeryeong? Would that be easier for you to respond to?”
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