Violet Banquet.
It was the most famous website on the dark web. Still, it had over a million members. The real pearl of Violet Banquet wasn't the website, but its 'sellers'. The Violet Banquet was only a place for them to gather.
Plentiful sellers flocked at the anonymous information, weapons, bounties, and commission trading website, which didn't care for the law. While the government knew about this underground market, they had no choice but to stay silent as this black market was frequented by almost all Heroes. As a joke, a Hero wasn't called a true Hero unless one had a Violet Banquet membership.
Naturally, one needed to pay an enormous sum to become Violet Banquet's member, but Zen Shigaraki was able to steal an account from one of the bigger gang leaders.
Changing the profile to his liking, Zen moved towards the best information broker. The laptop he got gifted by one of the dead gang leaders didn't lag one bit.
[Foresight] - Finding his goal, Zen began uploading his request.
[All information about Kim Chundong and his friends, a student in the hero military high school in Korea - must be in the final year now.]
[Commision: 100,000 won]
Taking a look at his bank balance, Zen found he had around 3 million won left. He was able to make a lot of money in the past six days - extortion was very easy when it came to their life.
In the end, Zen Shigaraki still killed them all either way. He couldn't let his face spread too much.
The current situation of Kim Chundong made Zen slightly curious, however that wasn't his only goal. There was a fat friend along with him, who had a very useful gift for hacking and computation.
Zen wanted it. The era of the internet was in full bloom and it could come handy in more than one way.
Adding a million into his Violet banquet's account, Zen Shigaraki continued searching for his next target.
[Jeronimo Mercenary Group] - a front cover for the Chameleon troupe.
A group first revealed halfway through the story, the Chameleon Troupe was the most powerful gang in the novel, whose members would play an important part until the late stages of the novel. The group's name was derived from a chameleon's ability to camouflage. Just like how a chameleon changed its color to hide, the Chameleon Troupe was a secretive group whose members' identities remained absolutely hidden.
As of now, one seat of the Chameleon Troupe was empty. This seat would remain open for another year or two, and come to play an important role when Kim Hajin came along.
Zen knew who the Chameleon Troupe's leader was and where she operated. Other than Chameleon Troupe's members, he should be the only one who knew this information.
Hence, he looked into the [Jeronimo Mercenary Group], contacting them directly might make them paranoid about him. Being able to find their identity out of nowhere would make him look suspicious.
Zen Shigaraki could only show off his abilities and make them take the lead in exposing their identities.
Chameleon Troupe was a gang of criminals, but they also rejected Djinns. And in this world, Djinns were the absolute evil, which made Zen scoff.
'Absolute evil?.' Zen couldn't help but remember how these djinns behaved in the novel - 'The novel's extra'. He could only label them as mentally retarded.
'If I could become a Chameleon Troupe member....I can begin moving without holding back. I might be able to transform them into pawns for my biddings.'
The Boss of the Chameleon troupe has the strength to stand at the peak of this world. Being able to make her move for himself was his main goal for now.
Not long after, Zen was able to find their front cover - [Jeronimo Mercenary Group] in the Violet banquet.
In the main page, he found the joining option and quickly drafted a resume for himself.
Zen didn't hide anything, they would find out later anyway.
'....How greedy.' Zen stared at the laptop blankly.
Just to apply for joining, he had to pay 200,000 won - being accepted wasn't even guaranteed.
Thinking about it deeper, knowing the Boss's (Byul)'s obsession with money, it made sense.
After sending his resume, Zen laid down on the bed with a bored expression. School would start tomorrow and he couldn't say it was exciting.
'Chae Nayun....She would be hard to corrupt thanks to her strong family, But....I will still do it.' Zen smiled mildly with contempt - not even her grandfather's existence could make him hesitate.
'All the nine star members possessed strong gifts - I will have to locate them down after growing stronger.'
Staring at his palm, Zen Shigaraki could feel that his bones were stronger than before. Predicting it to be due to [Spearlike bones], his bones grew stronger with this gift. In the future, other quirks might also affect him more.
'Worth looking forward to.' Zen closed his eyes after this last thought.
.....
The main headquarters of the Chameleon troupe - The seat of yellow, Jain - walked into the dim cave-like room, a smug grin attached on her face.
The seat of yellow could be thought as the main component that kept their alias as the [Jeronimo Mercenary Group] running. Her disguising ability allowed every member of the troupe to work as a mercenary using their second identity.
Finding her target, Jain greeted enthusiastically: "Boss! The darkness just increases your charm as always!"
"....Just get to the point."
Long black hair seemingly weaved out of shadows, full pink lips, and a smooth white skin adorning a graceful figure... A woman, who seemed to be the manifestation of modern beauty, spoke without the slightest change in her expression.
"It's night, so don't make too much noise." The boss stared at Jain blankly.
"Okay~, This time there were three people who applied to join our mercenary group~ Isn't it surprising? Even after Boss put such high charges~" Jain stared at Boss in fascination. She didn't mind making some extra money though.
"....So what? Send them some low rank quests, if they can complete it - they can stay as usual." Boss lost most of her interest quickly.
After pausing for a second, she continued: "And that 600,000 is mine, transfer it to my account later."
"....Okay~. Besides that, I did find one of the resumes interesting this time." Jain's expression grew slightly serious.
The boss signaled her to continue with her eyes.
"This, Zen Shigaraki, he is a little famous - the only survivor of the 'Demolition incident' which happened near Tokyo. His face is atleast to my liking, he~" Jain passed on her tab to Boss, which displayed Zen's resume.
The Boss felt her interest piqued, hearing about the 'demolition incident'. It happened almost out of nowhere, a whole city was flattened within a night and there was actually a survivor?
"....." Boss's eyes grew blank as she looked at the resume immediately.
"You find his face striking a resemblance to the former boss too, right~" Jain asked with a knowing smile.
"....A little." It wasn't Zen's visage to be exact, they felt the atmosphere around them very similar.
'His eyes....' Gazing at the faded white eyes, Boss felt herself pulled into them. Her concentration returned as Jain began speaking.
"He seems to have awakened a gift recently, though he hasn't disclosed any information about it. He might make a good candidate for the next seat holder in the troupe."
The boss's expression changed slightly as she contemplated internally.
"We will see."