## Chapter 49 – Three Knights (1)
***
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Recent villain attacks on citizens are occurring frequently throughout the city.
Due to dozens of violent assault cases happening regardless of time and place,
the Hero Alliance, which had been closely monitoring the situation, has declared that they will take action.
This is reporter Yeom Sang-hyun.
***
A main street in S City, where citizens are commuting home.
A large man, shirtless, wields a weapon and attacks citizens,
and next to him, a woman with a unique appearance throws explosives, destroying the street.
Soon after, several dispatched heroes appeared and attempted to subdue them,
but they were brutally defeated by the two villains, presumed to be ability users.
The villain organization ‘Dark Knights,’ which was reported to have been annihilated by the Hero Alliance’s efforts a few months ago.
Tonight, due to the attack by a man and a woman known as executive-level villains of the organization,
dozens of citizens, including the dispatched heroes, were injured, and six buildings were destroyed.
“I thought the heroes would come and quickly suppress them,
but I never imagined that we would be helpless like this.”
The two villains defeated all the heroes dispatched by the Alliance,
entered the destroyed buildings, looted valuables, and then calmly left the scene.
In response, an official from the Hero Alliance released a statement.
“After the annihilation of the organization, we arrested most of the villains presumed to be executives,
but we are facing some difficulties in suppressing a few villains with powerful abilities.
We would like to apologize to the citizens who are feeling anxious because of this.
Currently, we are conducting a large-scale search operation with hundreds of Alliance agents and heroes,
and we will arrest them all as soon as possible so that citizens can live safely.”
The number of villain attacks on cities is increasing every year.
It is time for close cooperation between the Hero Alliance and the police to share information,
and for clear and decisive punishment for heinous villains.
This is STV News, reporter Yeom Sang-hyun.
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“What? The report is more boring than I thought. Tch!”
A woman with a bright red bob haircut as if cut with a knife.
She crunched on a piece of crispy toast,
staring at the monitor screen showing the news about the villain’s city attack that happened today.
“Hey. Don’t you have anything more stimulating and intense than this?”
Then, she nudged the shoulder of the person sitting next to her,
annoyed as if the news, despite its sensational content, was boring.
“I, if you press the o, other… related video… over there… you can see more… stuff…”
The woman whose shoulder was nudged timidly raised her head,
pointed to the monitor with the replay button displayed, and said.
“What? Are you telling me to find it myself, you bitch! Is that what you’re saying? Huh?”
“Hiii?! I, I’m sorry….”
She has bright fluorescent green dumpling-shaped hair.
The red-haired woman, with a deeply furrowed expression, shouted loudly, startling her and causing her to fall backward.
“Hey. Are you out here to play around?”
“What?”
She heard a thick voice calling her name,
and she got up from her chair in a fit of anger.
– Thud!
A gaze as cold as a corpse and pale skin.
However, the man, with a muscular physique contrasting with his appearance, lightly caught her fist.
“No time to play around. We need to find either the Boss or Trickster as soon as possible.”
“Easy for you to say? Looks like you two went on another rampage earlier.”
She took a comb out of her pocket and neatly combed her bright red hair.
Villain ‘Crazy Chain’ Shin Da-in continued to grumble despite the serious words.
“It was unavoidable. Some nobodies who didn’t even know which organization they belonged to kept sticking to us.
Wasn’t that right, Firecracker?”
“P, please don’t call me that… just call me Seorin… or Ruirin….”
Villain ‘Firecracker’ Hong Ruirin fidgeted with her fingers at the man’s words.
“And in the process… we secured enough funds.”
The man calmed her down and threw a large travel carrier on the floor.
Ruirin opened the zipper of the carrier to check inside,
and a huge amount of cash, mixed haphazardly, spilled out.
“That should be enough for about a week.”
Villain ‘Executioner’ Park Gyu-han lay down on the old bed next to the computer, looking tired.
“Tch… bragging after making a big fuss all over town.”
“Isn’t it normal? For this kind of thing to be on the news.”
She was the one who kept sneering,
but he just responded indifferently as if it was nothing.
She was even more annoyed by him nudging her,
but she knew that it wouldn’t be good to fight in this situation.
“So, did you get in touch? That cat-like bitch is with the Boss, right?”
“I was able to contact her until two days ago. She was supposed to meet me one-on-one.
But Trickster didn’t show up. I lost contact with her.”
When the Dark Knights’ hideout was raided by the heroes,
three of the four knights, except for ‘Trickster’ Chae-ryeong, were not at the hideout.
Only after receiving a call from Chae-ryeong, who was quickly escaping the hideout with Boss Kaiser,
did the three realize that their organization was in danger.
“Isn’t she being chased by heroes again somewhere?
Seriously… that cat-like bitch. I never liked her anyway.”
“According to the subordinates who survived and were able to contact us,
she was last seen at a fast food restaurant in S City.”
“Y…yes! I, I also heard from my subordinates….”
Ruirin and Park Gyu-han knew to some extent about her last whereabouts,
but Shin Da-in seemed to have no idea, tilting her head.
“Why don’t my subordinates tell me that kind of stuff? Why am I the only one being ostracized!”
“That’s what happens when you treat your subordinates badly.”
“T, that’s right…. Hehe….”
In fact, strictly speaking, the two of them weren’t exactly well-regarded by their subordinates in the past either,
but Shin Da-in’s case was on a different level.
She had a very strong sadistic tendency, so she often mistreated or harassed her subordinates,
especially if there was someone among the combatants with a pleasing appearance, regardless of gender.
Stories like tying dozens of subordinates with attractive faces with chains and strangling them,
or peeling off the skin layer by layer from muscular combatants with toned bodies.
She used not only the citizens captured by her subordinates,
but also her loyal subordinates to satisfy her desires.
Those stories spread among her combatants,
and there were constant requests to be transferred to other combat units.
Of course, she was faithfully acting according to her desires by carrying out destructive activities,
so she didn’t really care about what her subordinates thought of her.
“I don’t care. Anyway, you guys will take care of everything, right?
I just need to pick out a guy or girl I like and play with them.”
“Hehe… I, I also… want to blow everything up soon… Hehehe…!”
“You guys are hopeless. Sigh….”
He had been maintaining a blank expression all along,
but he frowned and sighed as he looked at them, who were so devoted to their desires that it was dizzying.
“Anyway. We need to make a quick decision.
Whether to find Trickster first, or to find Boss Kaiser first.”
“Isn’t it obvious? We need to find the Boss first.
Who cares what happens to Chae-ryeong?”
“As I said before, she was the one who took the Boss with her.
Without her, we’ll have to find the location of the hideout with only that vague information.”
“T, then… like before… shouldn’t we all… split up and search…?”
“What? Are you telling me to scatter again, how annoying!”
Shin Da-in complained about the method suggested by Ruirin.
She kept grumbling, making one wonder why she kept doing that,
but this time, there was a clear reason for her complaints.
Dark Knights, like any mid-sized villain organization,
had prepared several hideouts in advance in addition to the main hideout, in case of an emergency.
However, due to the nature of villain organizations, members and executives alike often died or were arrested,
so even the highest-ranking executives were not fully aware of the organization’s detailed circumstances.
“None of the three of us know the information about the organization’s hideouts, right?
Now that the hideout has been destroyed, it will be difficult to find the confidential information that was stored there.”
“I, I’ll release my subordinates… to find out… where Trickster… is…!”
“I’m not as good as her, but I also have a vague idea about the hideout.
I’ll keep searching for a place where the Boss might be.”
“Wh, what? Why are you all looking at me like that!”
‘Executioner’ Park Gyu-han and ‘Firecracker’ Hong Ruirin decided what to do,
and looked at ‘Crazy Chain’ Shin Da-in, who had been listening without saying anything.
“What are you going to do? Decide quickly. If it’s hard to choose, you can follow me or her.”
“You’re acting like you’re my superior? Ha! I’ll do what I want.”
Then, she slammed the table with her fist,
kicked her chair and ran out of the place she was staying.
“She’s really uncooperative. Rui… was it Rin?”
“Y, yes…!”
“Please contact me if you have any good news or information to share.
I don’t think I can stay here for long either.”
– Thump thumpㅡ!!
“Wh… what’s that noise o, outside!”
“Looks like some annoying gnats are chasing us again.”
