Yuri POV

We're already done searching four provinces. Still, we haven't found her. It's already been three days since we started our search. The Chair has been doing his own search through scanning CCTV cameras from the four provinces too. Unfortunately, the same as us, he got negative results.

"Damn. we're going nowhere in this." The Vanquisher snapped. He sat beside me on the grass. Apparently, we decided to take a break by the riverbank here in North Jeolla. "There's already thirteen of us here plus two remotely and still we got no freaking progress."

I sighed deeply, "We have to get used to this low number. We already deployed our men protecting our families back in Seoul."

"What if they are in North Korea?" the Master suddenly snapped.

"Nah. I don't think so. It's not that easy going from South to North." the Vanquisher responded.

B-BOMB snapped, "What if the Goddess found the Tycoon out of the country?"

I answered, "No records of her flight anywhere."

"What if she rode a ship instead?" Changseub asked.

"That one, we're unsure of... We're still confirming with the Chair's father on that."

The Vanquisher then snapped at me, "You know... I think the one who sent those recordings to the Goddess just wanted to fuel up her hatred to the Tycoon. Probably, that person was also the one who had the Chair targeted just to fuel up her anger too."

"The question is, why her? Why that person have to do that just to infuriate her? Was it really important to do that to the Goddess?"

He added, "Why out of all people, it's the Goddess? Why out of all people, it's the Tycoon?"

I sighed deeply, "It's impossible that it's the Phantom's doing. The Phantom will never dare let the Goddess be in danger. That's the last thing he'll definitely do."

"But, what if it really was him?"

I chuckled, "One thing I know about the Phantom which is the absolute truth is, he loves the Goddess more than anyone in this world."

"What if that was a lie too?"

"I highly doubt it was a lie..."

We stayed in silence for a long moment. It was only almost an hour when the Monster went near us while holding my laptop. "Boss, the Chair's calling."

I took the laptop and answered the video call, "What's up, Chair? Any news?"

It was not the Chair who was in the video and instead, it was my ever beautiful Angel. "Oh. He finally answered!" She waved her hand then flashed her adorable eye-smile, "Hi my baddy bad Devil~" Yup. I felt my heart warmed and flutter with joy. *Sigh*. she really brightens up my day.

"Awwww~ Yeppeeeooo~" all my colleagues around mumbled as they peeked at the laptop screen too.

I responded back, "Hi, my Angel. How are you doing?"

She pouted cutely and pulled off her aegyo, "I'm missing you so much."

"I miss you too. Anyway, did you call just for that or something?"

"Oh. No.  The Chair actually went to the bathroom for a bit." then, she suddenly laughed. She immediately covered . "Now, that sounds so creepy."

"Did he finally answer?" we heard the Chair snapped from the call.

"Yup." she responded.

"Alright. Move away. Shoo. Shoo." The Chair forcefully scooted to get a clear view on his laptop screen. My Angel just glared at him in return. "We got a lead on the Phantom's location."

"Who's the Phantom again?" my Angel asked.

The Chair looked at her boringly and answered, "Taeyeon-hyung."

"Oh. Okay. Got it. Gee, you people use so many aliases. It's getting me confused."

"You know what? Be an Angel and get out of here."

She laughed loudly, "This is getting creepier. The Chair's asking me to leave." She then moved away.

"I didn't have a choice but to embrace that stupid alias because of that freaking Vanquisher!" Then, he redirected back to me, "So... We've been tracking the Hijacked vehicle he used for escape and found it in Andong. Good thing there are CCTV cameras placed around the area and found the car in one parking lot. Upon checking it's still parked in front of a small Inn there."  Then, I received an email from him. "There, I already sent the details of the location to you."

"Alright. Thanks, Chair. We'll head there right away."

"Alrighty." and he ended the call.

I redirected to my colleagues, "Alright, this is it. We're heading to Andong right now."

Zico the Master then butted, "We'll be searching the nearby counties to make our search faster."

"Great. Let's go."

---

It was already 4:30 PM when we arrived at the small inn in Andong. The Chair was right, that, the vehicle the Phantom used was still parked here. We split our team into three to search for the whole province. The Master's triad team went to Uiseong. The Vanquisher took four of my security team with him to scan the half while the rest of us on the other.

The hotel confirmed a white-skinned and not-so-tall guy checked in their hotel named under Park Seunggi. It could be the Phantom. There's a high chance that he's just around the corner. Also, judging from the CCTV footage the small inn humbly let us view, the man seemed to resemble the Phantom's posture. Unfortunately, the quality of the video footage wasn't that good so we're still unsure.

Another hour has passed and we still haven't got positive results from our search.

"We're almost done scanning the half of the city, boss, and still we're going nowhere." Rap said as we walked in one empty street.

Changseub then uttered, "Asking people door-to-door isn't helping either. We can't be sure they're just conniving with the Phantom or something, though. Probably, they're just lying that they didn't see anyone that resembles him."

I snapped, "We can't exactly lose hope in this right away, people. We already found his vehicle so why surrender now?"

Rap responded, "This could just be a trap, though. Or, probably a diversion. The Phantom purposely left his getaway vehicle here and even checked in just to mask where he really is."

"Or, it could be what my Angel always says..." I stopped and turned to face them. "...the most effective disguise is when you overdo it."

"What does that got to do with this?"

"In short, make it too obvious you're hiding. If it's too obvious, your seeker will never see you. He purposely placed his vehicle visible to surveillance cameras. He even booked a room in that small inn. It's pretty much a diversion because we will think the other way around just like what you two have thought of. But, that just really means he's just here in this very place, hiding. So, not until we confirmed he's not here, we shouldn't stop searching."

Rap snapped back, "But, what if the Phantom knew that belief of your Angel too and thought you're going to think of the same thing? He's probably, really hiding somewhere too far from here, you know."

I sighed in defeat, "You're right. Damn it, Monster. You sure are smart." 

"Thanks, boss."

I turned and continued to walk on the empty street. *sigh*. empty parked vehicles. There's not even a single person around. There's not even a single light open from the residential houses. It's like this street is deserted. Now, I'm getting suspicious. 

"Stay alert." I uttered to my team. "I'm sensing something different in this place."

Then, all of a sudden, dozens of hooded and masked men are coming towards us.

"What the actual ..." Changseub mumbled while staring at them in horror.

"Run!" I shouted. However, there were also attackers on the side where we're running away too. 

... we're so much outnumbered.

"Get ready." I whispered.

"Aye, aye." they uttered back.

The attackers started to get closer to us to have us fully cornered while aiming guns at us. With the right distance, We pulled out smoke grenades and threw them on the ground. That gave us a chance to assault the attackers. I successfully got the weapon of one in front of me and then knocked him to the ground. Three men then attacked me simultaneously. I had them immobilized by shooting them in their legs.

As we finish the batch of attackers til the smoke clears, another batch came in to assault us too.

"Damn it. Why are they so many?!" Changseub shouted. We all ran to find blockages to hide too. The new batch of attackers started to rain bullets at our direction. We fired back. However, just by only eliminating half of their number, we already ran out of bullets. 

The surviving attackers are now coming near, still raining bullets at us.

Fortunately, the Vanquisher's party arrived. He came out and jumped from the roof of the residential house. He slashed with his medium-length dagger and engaged them in close combat. "Getting rusty, Devil?!" he shouted.

I went out and fought the two other attackers in close combat too. With a small dagger, I stabbed one on his forearm then pulled out another same weapon and stabbed the side of his torso. I unleashed a kick on the other attacker and successfully hit him in the jaw. Another assaulted me yet, I got him in a headlock. I choke him to knock him out.

"Whew." The Vanquisher mumbled as he pretendedly wiped beads of sweat on his forehead. "I guess that's the last of them." Then, he redirected to me, "So, what are we gonna do with these?"

I sighed deeply, "Tie them up somewhere for questioning."

"Alrighty."

---

As planned, we had the attackers abducted to an abandoned aluminum factory, all the injured and unconscious only, though. Half of my men had those who were in fatal condition transferred to err-- 'somewhere'.

"I really don't get why we need to treat the