His wayward subordinates in the Dollar Cabal believe that it is one of his hidden subordinates that is responsible for the marks.
So even though that subordinate has been showing weakness and indications that there is something wrong, it is not enough for them to come to the conclusion that he is dead.
He has only lost contact with them for two months. They need more time and more tests to determine beyond reasonable doubt that their boss, Diamond Dollar, is gone from their lives.
They were partly afraid and partly full of hope for their future because of the absence of their boss.
They are afraid that this is a test from that boss, so he is not dead. They are also afraid that Diamond Dollar is dead, and the person who killed him might come after them.
But they are also full of hope that they will finally be able to get their freedom. What's more, they have a large business now and a lot of money from it. They will like to be in total control of it and not have to share 50% of their profits with their boss.
But they are also afraid that their large market share will make enemies swarm them after news of the death of their boss is confirmed.
This fear made them begin to consider downsizing on their own instead of being forced to reduce their productivity and market share.
They didn't know what to feel about the absence of their boss, so they didn't know what to feel when they got news and confirmation that their boss was still alive.
Kelvin watched their reactions with interest.
He had sent two shadows. One of them was Glory-1, created on the basis of his ability in the first slot. That ability used to be the Myriad Physique, so Glory-1 was able to use his diamond transformation and impersonate him.
The second shadow was created based on his third slot containing the Mind Domination Network. So Glory-3 was able to use the Mind Domination Network ability to present himself with the identity of the hidden subordinate who placed the mark on them.
Glory-1 truly looked like a diamond man, so there was no doubt about his identity. There was no doubt about Glory-3 either because he was a three-dimensional shadow that could become difficult to perceive once he hid in shadows.
His ability to hide made him fit his identity as the hidden person that tortured their minds. So Kelvin was finally able to have a separate identity for his cabal.
It meant that he could truly pretend to be someone else now that he could appear somewhere else together with his other identities. This made him happy.
The money that they had saved for him also put a smile on his face. But he became even happier when he learned that they had listened to his orders to look out for talented people and found someone with an ability that actually interests him.
They found a boy with a speedster ability. He is a psychic class super, which is the fastest type of speedster.
He is not lacking in speed, thanks to Juggernaut's Armament. He is actually faster than other supers of his class. But his speed is lacking compared to that of a speedster.
Not only will a speedster have a higher top speed than him, but they will also have faster acceleration, precise control of their speed, and better reflexes. So he was very interested in the ability.
"With this ability, I'll blow the advancement game to pieces. I will also be able to fight better on the foreign battlefield, and my chances of escaping death will be higher now."
He can picture just how much the speedster ability will change his life, and its impact is extensive. The more he thought about the impact of the ability on his life, the more excited he became.
He had been having some thoughts about Alena, the speedster he encountered in his first game, and was thinking of visiting her after gaining the ability to travel all over the world. But now that one has appeared in his backyard, he doesn't have to go looking for it himself.
"Earning money and finding good abilities. This is why an organization is good."
"If a cabal is already this good, I should expand it into something bigger. Besides, a cabal is too small for me now."
A cabal is not enough for him anymore. He is already thinking of expanding it. After all, if Lady Dimitri can have thoughts about having a villain league, he has the right to consider it too.
He is A-rank but can kill S-rank enemies. Lady Dimitri is just B-rank, so he has more right than her to think about making a villain league.
He doesn't plan to announce that he is making a league yet, though. Je wants to reach S-rank first before he attempts that. But in the meantime, he will start expanding his cabal to prepare it for the transition into a league.
"I should probably start with killing her. It will appease the people and the heroes. It will give me rep with the villains and also make the Corpos like me. What's not to like?"
He liked the plan so much that he put it into action. But he himself didn't do anything. Instead, it is his shadows that will do all the work.
He instructed Glory-1 and his other shadows to begin expanding the cabal and also join the hunt for Lady Dimitri.
Both his cabal and shadows will hunt for her. Meanwhile, he will sit back and watch from behind the scenes.
In the meantime, the speedster was bound and escorted into the wilds for him to pick up later.
He was interested in knowing how they managed to capture a speedster in the first place, so he investigated with his shadows. The answer they came up with was exactly what he had suspected.
The speedster used to be an important person in the city. But he fell on hard times when he got addicted to drugs.
He sold off all of his properties and used up his connections for drugs. Then he fell to rock bottom, where he became easy to kidnap.
At this point, they didn't even need to bind him. They could drug him, which will remove any resistance from him.
"Drugs are good, but I can stop there. I have to expand into every illegal business. When I control arms dealing, human farms, smuggling channels, abduction rings, and information brokers, I won't need to fight much when I declare myself as the leader of a villain league."
He nodded to himself that it was a good plan. The best part of the plan is the fact that he doesn't need to do anything himself. He likes that part very much.
His shadows will do the heavy lifting and bear the risks. Even if they fail, he will have very little to worry about.
Only in special situations where his shadows make a powerful enemy that can kill them and trace things back to him will there be trouble for him. But this is a kind of trouble that he is looking forward to.
It is because he has confidence in himself. If anyone can defeat his shadow clones, it doesn't mean that they can defeat him.
In fact, they won't have a 30% chance of defeating him because he is the combination of all of his shadows. He is the final boss, so to say.
So the reward that anyone who can get past his shadows will get is to die to him. He, on the other hand, will get the reward of getting a new ability from a powerful enemy.
Plus, if the shadow clones are killed, he can easily recreate them. So all in all, he is very little to loss and a lot of gain with the plan. It made him very pleased with the plan, and he is looking forward to its results.
With his mood better and his state of mind relaxed, he decided to perform the second fusion he had in mind.
He uses the Mind Domination Network as the basis of the fusion while he removed the Life Domination ability from its slot and used it as an additive for the fusion.
The pain accompanying the fusion was equal, if not greater than, the pain of his previous fusion attempts.
He writhed on the ground because of the immense pain. He even screamed in pain.
What made the pain worse was when it ended and he realized that the fusion had failed.
There was no pain at that point, but the disappointment made him feel as if he experienced the pain in vain. It even brought back phantom pain.
He couldn't understand why the fusion failed. So he asked himself, "Why not? Could it be because one is mental and the other is physical? Is that why the pain was worse?"