## Chapter 39 – Shall We Gaze Upon the Face of the Great Trickster?
***
A franchise fast-food restaurant in downtown S City.
Thanks to its location in a bustling area, it’s frequented by many customers, and as a franchise, it guarantees a certain level of taste in its burgers.
“Hmm.”
Skinny-fit jeans, a jet-black crop top, a small, thin see-through cardigan draped over her shoulders, and round glasses.
A woman with a refreshing fashion sense and captivating beauty sat in a corner of the restaurant, quietly sipping her cola.
Chae-ryeong, a member of the Dark Knights’ top executive ‘Four Knights’ and possessor of the ability ‘Doppelganger.’
After escaping from the cafe swarming with agents trying to arrest her, she was quenching her thirst before moving to another location.
‘I put so much effort into decorating that place… now it’ll be hard to go back.’
The cafe she had been in until recently was a place she ran as a hobby, and it also served as a temporary hideout in preparation for any potential issues with the organization.
‘Where on earth are the others…’
Unlike the other Four Knights executives who were active in other regions until just before the raid, Chae-ryeong stayed at the hideout, attending to Kaiser, the leader.
And just before the Hero Alliance’s surprise attack, she abandoned the hideout with Kaiser and stayed at the cafe.
Chae-ryeong had been staying at the cafe for several days, using information gathered by her clones, and was preparing to move to another hideout, knowing that the encirclement was gradually tightening.
‘Hoo… I’m glad I evacuated Kaiser-nim to another place first.’
Chae-ryeong, who was with the leader, anticipated the attack by heroes and agents and evacuated Kaiser to an organization-owned villa near S City a few days prior.
And so today, ‘Ice Queen’ Seol Lumi and ‘Ignition’ Yoon Do-hwa, along with dozens of agents from the Hero Alliance, executed the arrest operation.
Chae-ryeong tried to escape through the pre-installed wireless smoke dispersal device and the back door, but she was discovered by agents stationed around the cafe building.
However, her ability ‘Doppelganger’ was not just a simple clone creation ability.
The clones, up to a maximum of three, could share senses such as sight and smell, and even switch positions with the main body.
A method of switching positions with a clone 미리 placed elsewhere when the main body was in a dangerous situation.
The reason she was willingly captured by the agent was because of this strategy, similar to a ninja’s substitution technique.
‘One clone is inside that villa now… I guess I should go there for now.’
Chae-ryeong finished her cola and left the burger restaurant. She tried to switch positions with the clone stationed at the villa where Kaiser was staying.
‘…Huh? This… this isn’t right?’
Chae-ryeong was flustered that she couldn’t switch positions with the clone, but the fact that she couldn’t switch positions wasn’t the problem in the first place.
The clone that should have been inside the villa with the leader had completely disappeared.
‘Why did the clone suddenly disappear…? I definitely placed it there…’
– Clap!
The trigger for activating Chae-ryeong’s ability ‘Doppelganger’ was a clap.
The villa could be reached again from here, but the fact that the clone she had created had disappeared was strange.
However, only the sound of her clapping echoed through the streets several times. Not even a remotely similar person appeared, let alone a clone.
‘What is it…? Did the Alliance guys do something to my body in the meantime? No. That can’t be…’
Contrary to what Chae-ryeong thought with a flustered expression, the Alliance did not have any groundbreaking technology to control abilities.
The Hero Alliance had invested astronomical capital in research on abilities, and had been conducting research for decades with numerous ability users and researchers.
Fundamental questions such as how humans acquire abilities, and what types of abilities exist in this world.
And they even attempted to control abilities and even create artificial abilities.
However, the Alliance and other research groups were barely able to uncover the secrets of abilities.
They were only able to grasp the time when the concept of abilities began to emerge in humans, and the infinite variety of abilities.
If the Alliance had such convenient technology in the first place, it wouldn’t have been so cumbersome to subdue villains like Chae-ryeong.
‘I’ve never had this happen before… I’ll have to go to the villa for now.’
Chae-ryeong decided to suppress her flustered feelings for a moment, and started looking for a taxi on the street to go to the villa where Kaiser was staying.
– Vroomㅡ!
Not long after waiting for a taxi, an empty taxi quickly passed her and stopped in front of her.
– Clickㅡ
“Oh my! Where can I take you?”
A taxi driver with a kind impression asked her for her destination.
‘The villa is located in a secluded area near the highway that goes from S City to B City… I should ask to be dropped off at B City Airport nearby.’
“B City Air… Please go to the back gate of Seonnam University.”
“The back gate of Seonnam University? Ah! I see you’re a college student. Haha!
I’ll take you there right away!”
Chae-ryeong was about to say B City Airport, where she was going, but she stopped herself and asked to go to the back gate of Seonnam University in S City.
‘This… this is strange? Suddenly my mouth won’t move as I want it to.’
It was already unsettling and frustrating that her ability wasn’t working as she wanted it to, but now even her words wouldn’t come out as she wanted them to.
‘Something’s wrong. I was trying to tell the driver to go somewhere else right now… but my mouth won’t open at all.’
As if someone had cursed her to not be able to open her mouth, Chae-ryeong could only frown, unable to open her mouth.
“Miss? Are you feeling unwell? Should I open the window if you’re feeling stuffy?”
The taxi driver saw Chae-ryeong’s frowning face in the rearview mirror and thought she looked uncomfortable.
“Ah! No, it’s okay. I was just lost in thought for a moment….”
She desperately wanted to tell him to go somewhere else, or even to stop the car right there.
However, despite her efforts to move her mouth as she wanted, the taxi arrived at the back gate of Seonnam University all too quickly.
“Okay! We’re here.”
“Here… you don’t have to give me the change.”
Chae-ryeong hurriedly handed the driver a ten thousand won bill, opened the taxi door, and got out in front of the back gate of Seonnam University.
“Seonnam University… it’s dangerous because the Alliance headquarters is nearby….”
The Hero Alliance headquarters is about a 30-minute drive from Seonnam University.
If Chae-ryeong stays in this area for a long time, she risks being caught again by heroes or agents who are desperate to find her and other Dark Knights executives.
“I need to catch another taxi quickly and go to the airport… but my feet!”
Besides the Alliance headquarters, another place near Seonnam University is the base of the villain ‘Dominator,’ who has two A-class heroes as his minions.
The hideout of the villain organization ‘Utopia’ is located nearby.
“Ugh…?! No…! Why are my feet moving on their own!”
‘My mouth earlier too… my body isn’t listening to me at all…!’
It wasn’t just a feeling that her body wasn’t moving as she thought it would.
It was a feeling of being forcibly moved by someone.
Chae-ryeong was in a state where she had lost the authority to control her own body.
And so, one step.
Another step.
After walking diligently for over 10 minutes, she arrived at a commercial building.
Chae-ryeong stopped in front of an unfamiliar building she had never seen before.
“Where is this…?”
The feet that had stopped in front of the building turned towards the stairs inside, opened a large glass door, and began to go underground.
‘What on earth is here… that my body came all the way here?’
There were no signs or writing on the front door of the basement floor of the building.
There was only an ordinary door handle and a door lock that you would see in a regular house.
– Beep beep… Ding-dongㅡ!
As if waiting for her to come, a cheerful sound rang from the door lock.
– Creakㅡ
A woman with fair skin exposed, wearing white leggings and an apron, and a headdress on top of her purple hair.
The unfamiliar woman with a cute impression bowed to Chae-ryeong and greeted her.
“You’ve arrived. Our master is waiting for you.”
“Master…? Who are you? Why are you in a place like this…”
A woman who seemed to be wearing some kind of sexy cosplay greeted her with a bright smile, saying that someone called ‘master’ was waiting for her and led her inside.
‘What on earth is this place… why was I drawn to a place like this?’
Chae-ryeong tried to calm her uneasy mind, but she didn’t understand why she had come to a place like this on her own.
As she followed the woman in the maid cosplay, she looked around to see what kind of place she had entered.
‘The inside is just a somewhat luxurious office… or maybe a cocktail bar.’
Passing through the slightly dark entrance, luxurious sofas and a bar table came into view.
“Yo.”
And a man sitting on the sofa waved at Chae-ryeong.
“Finally, I get to meet you in person. Dark Knights executive ‘Trickster’-nim.
Or should I call you Chae-ryeong-ssi for you to understand?”
