## Chapter 99 – 10. A Complete Thug
It was a rather shocking statement.
Kang Chaeyul, the leader with the ‘tough girl’ concept and the one who had almost been raped by Go Muyeol, flared up.
“W-What are you talking about?! Paying tribute! How can you even say that—”
“We all knew this industry was dirty when we started, didn’t we? Honestly, what’s the big deal?”
“What?!”
“It’s not like anything wears out from getting laid. If we can keep working and earn billions because of it, then paying tribute is the right thing to do.”
For Kang Chaeyul, it was an unacceptable remark.
How many nightmares had she had, how much mental anguish had she suffered after being pinned down by Go Muyeol that day, and now they were saying she should just accept it?
Besides, how much effort had her mother, the CEO, put into preventing them from becoming sexual offerings?
That was precisely why Nokonoko Headquarters had remained a small agency. It was because of the CEO, who chose the right path instead of the easy one.
And yet…
Now they were saying, ‘Why can’t we just pay tribute and keep working?’
It was practically an insult.
It was something she couldn’t understand, nor should she.
No matter how good money was, how could they do that?
Unfortunately, she was the only one who thought that way.
“Um… I, I honestly… think Mina’s right…”
The gyaru girl cautiously raised her hand, agreeing with the opinion.
Following her, the Triad girl and the Yakuza girl subtly nodded in agreement.
“Y-You guys…!”
Kang Chaeyul stared at the members with a shocked expression.
Her mind went blank, and her mouth fell open involuntarily.
So, this was what they were thinking…!
“How can we throw away this opportunity we finally got…? It’s too precious to just run away.”
“I don’t want to live an ordinary life… I want to live as a successful idol.”
“We don’t even know if we can succeed in America…”
“We’ve been number one for four weeks in a row! My dream is finally coming true, and I don’t want to give it up for that reason.”
“…”
The members seemed to have already made up their minds.
‘D-Did they… maybe share their opinions in secret…?’
Overwhelmed by shock and betrayal, Kang Chaeyul trembled.
“Let’s go back and talk to the CEO. Okay?”
“N-No way… You guys don’t know how it feels… You don’t know what it’s like to be pinned down and helpless!!”
“Chaeyul!”
Chaeyul shouted desperately.
No matter how good the money and success were, go back to him and be pinned down again?
To quietly accept being raped??
Absolutely,
Absolutely not.
Absolutely unacceptable!
“…If that’s how you feel, then just we’ll do it.”
“!!”
“Yeah. Chaeyul, you can opt out. That’s fine. If it’s four out of five, he’ll probably be lenient.”
“So let’s go and tell her.”
“Y-You… guys…”
That far…?
Were they really this determined?!
“If you hate even this, then we—”
That was when it happened.
Clunk!
The car stopped with a sound.
“Kyaa!”
The sudden, sharp braking caused the members to lurch to one side.
Click.
The partition in the driver’s seat opened, and the managing director peeked her head through.
“Are you girls okay?!”
“O-Onni…!”
“What’s going on??”
Thankfully, no one was hurt.
They all caught their breath and steadied themselves.
The manager sighed in relief.
“Haa… I, I don’t know what happened either. The car suddenly stopped…”
Of course, she was only in the driver’s seat as a precaution, and the driving was entirely handled by AI.
Accidents like this were almost unheard of, with the AI being so thorough in every aspect.
And yet, the car suddenly stopped?
Moreover, even when she tried to switch to manual driving, the controls wouldn’t respond.
She heard that the escort vehicles were experiencing the same symptoms.
‘C-Could it be…!’
The manager had an ominous feeling.
+++
“Those are the vehicles.”
“The location is perfect too. Begin.”
“Yes.”
Late at night.
Sooa loosened up as she watched several vans traveling down a deserted road.
One main van, presumably carrying the Nokonoko Girls, and four escort vans carrying the bodyguards.
One might think the security was excessive, but considering they were targeted by the Goryeo Group, it was actually a small number.
‘Why bother resisting for nothing? So stupid.’
Personally, she didn’t understand.
Did they not know the power of the Goryeo Group, or were they simply ignorant of the world?
If they were born with those faces and bodies, they would end up spreading their legs anyway. If they had just grasped their situation from the start and offered their bodies, they could have received rewards beyond imagination.
So why were they resisting?
Or they should have run away a long time ago.
What kind of nerve did they have to anger the Goryeo Group’s young master and still be active?
“That’s why people need to have metacognition.”
She attached silencers to two handguns.
Four escort vans meant at least twenty people.
Some of them would have implants, so it would have been a difficult fight for her in the past, or she might have even lost.
But…
‘I can’t lose now.’
She had been upgraded through the Goryeo Military Services.
In addition, she had brought almost all of the Red Team members with her.
Even if she wanted to, she couldn’t lose.
At least not to mercenaries that a small idol agency could hire.
“Sniping positions secured?”
– Beta One, deployment complete.
– Beta Two, deployment complete.
“Eliminate the heavily armored ones first when I signal.”
– Roger.
– Yes.
“Insertion team, are you ready?”
– All clear.
– All complete. No problem.
– “No problems here~.”
The insertion team, which would infiltrate the enemy lines and cut down the bodyguards, consisted of five people, including Sooa.
Among them was Levi, the bodyguard Go Muyeol had received from Min Jia and the leader of the Red Team.
This was more than enough.
“Begin operation.”
“I’ll take control of the vehicles.”
The ponytail girl pressed down on the screen of a transparent tablet.
Tap.
Screech!!
The five vans stopped simultaneously.
Late at night, it echoed through the quiet neighborhood, creating a chilling tension.
“W-What’s going on?!”
“…Emergency situation. Everyone to your positions!”
Perhaps because they were well-trained, the bodyguards jumped out of the vans as soon as the situation occurred and prepared for battle.
There were a total of 24 people, six from each van.
Four of them were heavily armed.
They wore thick reactive armor on their bodies, which were nearly two meters tall, and held heavy portable railguns in both arms.
Their menacing appearance was enough to make most opponents give up.
“Protect the targets! And contact the CEO.”
Ten people surrounded the Nokonoko Girls’ van.
The remaining 14 spread out at specific intervals, watching in all directions.
Seeing that, Im Sooa climbed onto the railing of the building’s rooftop.
It was almost 200 meters in a straight line to the enemy lines.
Even just considering the height, it was over 50 meters, but it didn’t matter.
She lowered her body on the railing.
And,
Thwoom—,
Like a bullet being fired, she rushed towards the enemy lines.
At that signal, the rest of the insertion team also used their respective implants to infiltrate the enemy lines, and the snipers fired anti-tank rifles at the heavily armed ones.
It was like using a butcher knife to catch a chick, but this level of waste didn’t matter.
The bullet, drawing a long line in the air, hit its target.
Splat – !
The heads of the heavily armed men, protected by thick helmets, exploded.
Two of them at the same time.
“!!!”
“Sniper!!”
“Damn it, one shot??!”
However, they didn’t panic.
They were professionals.
They had anticipated this situation.
They took cover and began detecting.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t catch anything, but they felt it intuitively.
The enemies were coming!
Tap.
The first to appear was Im Sooa.
Landing in what she thought was a cool pose, she suppressed a groan.
‘O-Ouch…!!’
Even with shock-absorbing devices plastered all over, it seemed jumping from a building was a bit much.
Or maybe she wasn’t used to it yet.
“!! Th-“
However, there was no time to leisurely feel such things.
She quickly raised her gun and shot the two closest guys in the head.
Phew!
“You bitch!!”
The enemies spotted her and raised their weapons.
But it was meaningless.
Kiiing – !
She increased the time dilation felt by her brain to three times with neural acceleration.
And at the same time, she tripled her reaction speed with the acceleration implants embedded in the bones of her entire body.
In fact, the specs allowed for up to 10 times the speed.
But after training, the brain couldn’t handle it.
Using 10 times the speed felt like her brain was burning, making it almost impossible to use in actual combat. Even reducing it to 5 times was the same.
Three times was the limit she could use in her current state.
‘Everyone’s so slow.’
But even that was a disaster for the opponents.
“Youuuuuu’reeeeee deeeeeaaaaaad.”
“What’s she saying?”
She pressed the muzzle of her gun firmly under the chin of the guy slowly raising his weapon and fired.
Splat!
Leaving behind the head exploding like a watermelon, she leaped about 5 meters and neatly shot the guy who was gaping in shock between the eyebrows.
In that way, she circled the van in about 1 second and cleaned up.
As she turned off neural acceleration, the corpses finally collapsed comfortably onto the ground.
“Haa,”
Sooa reached for her heart, then stopped.
‘A-Amazing…! So quickly!’
She wasn’t properly trained yet, so there were slight signs of strain coming from various parts of her body.
But compared to the results, that level of pain was bearable.
‘If I can properly use 10 times the speed in the future…?’
Even if she couldn’t reach the level of a knight, could she grow to just below that?
As she was lost in thought, she suddenly came to her senses.
Still in battle.
Don’t let your guard down—,
“Suppression complete.”
“…Huh?”
But.
It was over?
She looked around.
The rest, excluding the six that Im Sooa had taken down, had been neatly cut in half.
Swish.
Red Team Leader Levi wiped the long blade with a white cloth.
Blood and oil flowed, staining the white cloth as it absorbed them.
“I recommend using a sword from now on. Guns are too slow.”
“Crazy.”
What was this guy?
Was he a knight or something??
