A young man with blonde hair sat in a chair.
His hair stood up like a broom, he wore a diamond-shaped eye mask, a yellow-and-blue striped costume, and a cape—looking for all the world like a circus magician…
The second Trickster!
An acquaintance!
Yuri never would have guessed that the goon quartet’s boss was none other than The Trickster—the very guy he’d reasonably claimed compensation from yesterday.
Thinking back carefully, when Yuri had chased him onto the rooftop, the guy had been muttering something about “Blacksmith” and “joining up.” At the time, Yuri had thought he literally wanted to become a blacksmith.
Now it seemed “Blacksmith” wasn’t nearly that simple.
Combined with the info about “Network” from the four goons, the connection between Blacksmith and Network had to be tight.
No wonder small-time thugs like Jem could connect with Network—it was all because of The Trickster.
Although this second Trickster was kind of weak, he was still technically a supervillain, so it made sense Network would want to recruit him.
“Boss, you told us to get more help.
They’re all here now.” Jem and Tangrui reported to Axel with flattering smiles.
It turned out that besides Yuri, Busk and Patch had also been brought in by the pair.
These two thugs had terrible social skills and hardly knew anyone; pulling Yuri in was just to make up numbers.
Axel scanned Yuri and the others.
“Five…
barely enough…
Wait, why is there a kid?”
Suddenly, Axel’s eyes locked onto Yuri, his expression darkening in an instant.
“The Rogues never involve women and kids in dangerous business!
Even if The Rogues are gone, criminals in the Twin Cities still have to abide by this rule!” Axel roared angrily at Jem and Tangrui, completely unconcerned that this was a public place.
Yuri stole a glance out of the corner of his eye at the others in the bar.
The “Vin Diesel” bartender acted as if he hadn’t heard a thing, wiping down glassware from start to finish without a single flicker of emotion.
As for the white-haired drunkard, after Axel shouted about The Rogues, his only reaction was drinking even faster—otherwise, nothing.
Axel’s outburst barely raised an eyebrow; Yuri even felt like they were used to this sort of thing.
Clearly, this bar wasn’t exactly a law-abiding joint, or else Yuri wouldn’t have been allowed inside in the first place.
*This guy actually has…
a code of honor?* Yuri could tell that the second Trickster was genuinely pissed, not just putting on a show.
“Uh…
Boss, Yuri is…
his situation is a bit special…” Jem broke into a cold sweat, stammering shakily.
Jem proceeded to embellish Yuri’s financial distress, painting a picture as if Yuri was so broke he could barely afford meals and had to take desperate risks for this gig.
While Jem explained, Tangrui secretly shot Yuri glances, frantically signaling him not to speak out of line.
Yuri gave him a reassuring look, and Tangrui let out a long breath of relief.
“Your name is Yuri?” After hearing Jem’s explanation, Axel out of nowhere popped the question.
“Yes, Boss.”
“You’re here for money, right?”
Yuri nodded from the bottom of his heart.
He really did want to get paid.
Axel reached into his pocket, seemingly intending to pull something out.
But before he could, his movement froze mid-motion, and he pulled his hand back out of his pocket.
Naturally, his hand was empty.
“Ahem.
Yuri, I allow you to join.”
The moment the words left his mouth, Axel’s expression instantly turned serious, his voice dropping low enough that only the few around them could hear.
“Network doesn’t mistreat anyone who gets the job done.
As long as you complete today’s assignment, each of you can get at least a million dollars in reward money!”
Hearing the words “a million dollars,” the four goons’ eyes lit up like Christmas trees.
“Boss, what’s our mission?
Murder?
Or kidnapping?” Busk and Patch, the two addicts, were the first to ask.
Their minds were currently filled with thoughts of “how much powder can a million bucks buy me,” and they were willing to do anything for it.
“Neither.
We just need to steal something.” Axel smiled mysteriously.
“In fact, I’m the one doing the stealing.
You guys just need to act as my lookouts.”
The four goons exchanged bewildered glances.
That simple?
What kind of heist pays at least a million dollars just to stand lookout?
Rare gems?
Famous paintings?
Advanced technology?
Axel didn’t reveal any extra info.
After all, there were outsiders in the bar, so detailed plans couldn’t be discussed openly.
Yuri and the goon quartet followed behind Axel toward their destination.
Axel stepped into his Air-Walkers, walking through the air, while Yuri and the others trailed behind him in the Rustbucket.
Although The Trickster couldn’t run faster than a car, the terrain advantage of moving through the sky kept his speed on par with driving.
The destination was close to the bar—they arrived in less than ten minutes.
Getting out of the car, as soon as they saw the destination, both the four goons and Yuri immediately understood why the pay was so high.
They had parked below an incline, and atop the slope stood a high-rise building bearing the sign: “Federal Bureau of Investigation – Keystone City Field Office.”
Stealing from an FBI field office—Yuri gave the second Trickster a mental thumb’s up.
Many people assumed official authorities in American comic book worlds were weak, but in reality, that wasn’t the case at all.
Though Yuri hadn’t read the comics, he at least had sixteen years of memories living in this world, so he knew what the general public knew.
Up to now, the registered metahuman population worldwide had surpassed thirteen million.
In other words, out of seven billion people globally, roughly one in every five or six hundred was a metahuman—and that was just the official record.
Even though the vast majority of metahuman abilities weren’t particularly outstanding, they provided governments worldwide with top-tier recruit material.
Combined with various secretly developed high-tech equipment, units formed this way possessed formidable combat power.
Taking the United States alone, there were two major agencies: A.R.G.U.S.
and the D.E.O.
Generally, A.R.G.U.S.
handled external threats while the D.E.O.
managed internal affairs.
These were the publicly known organizations, while shadow agencies like Spyral and Checkmate operated in secrecy.
Yuri couldn’t reach Spyral, but he had heard the names of A.R.G.U.S.
and the D.E.O.
all too often.
The FBI naturally had its own metahuman agents as well.
Without looking far, the original Trickster, James Jesse, was currently serving as the head of the FBI field office in Central City.
Whatever gear the second Trickster had, the original Trickster naturally possessed too, along with far more experience in using it.
If trouble broke out at the Keystone City office, it wouldn’t take James more than a few minutes to rush over.
Would the green rookie, the second Trickster, Axel, be a match for old James?