Only I Am A Reader-Chapter 585: Burning Greed

'I can almost tell from their faces.'

In Leo's eyes, the supposed kind older sisters' smiles were nothing but dark, putrid poison. Rather than supporting seniors, these thorns were worse than a pack of hyenas.

Although the novel didn't spare them that many pages, it still laid out their background story in full. In the times when the few numbered True Heroes were busy trying to save humanity, the Thorn Trio had somehow turned into their worst nightmare.

Not only stooping down to hunting their own kin, no different than lowly cannibals, they specifically targeted the few good souls who actively struggled to push back the monster waves!

'Logically it makes sense…'

There was simply no better prey. On account of frequently engaging in fights with the monstrous invaders, the bodies of proper Heroes were often fully covered in injuries, essentially making them no different from walking pieces of meat.

'Of course, that is only the case in the minds of heartless psychopaths like them.'

Trapping them was easy as well. As expert schemers, the sisters' pleas for help were usually very convincing.

They could easily put on bright smiles before leading a clueless Hero into a pit covered in the thorns grown by the unassuming 'victims'.

In addition, while most of them were experts when it came to fighting monsters, having never pointed their weapons towards their own people, valiant Superhumans usually tended to be clumsy when battling other humans…

Moreover, perhaps it was because they rolled around the most, the power they siphoned from proper heroes tasted like it just had the right seasoning.

'It's not like they are after necessity or efficiency either.'

Rather than the most efficient way, the perverted trio's preferred hunting method was hostage manipulation, making the Hero trade his life for a normie!

Unlike other methods, using hostages took some effort to set up the stage, but the power the sisters felt from the superiority provided by their position as hostage holders tickled their brains in the right way.

So much so that this was the most frequent method they used.

In fact, in order to derive more pleasure from it, they always made sure to do it differently every single time.

At certain times, they would make the Heroes stay still before having the hostage stab at them until they could no longer resist, after which, they would still kill the hostage before devouring the Hero for their Cultivation.

When they felt extra twisted, they would have a Hero practice self-harm until he became powerless, only to reveal that the hostage they had was actually a fake; it turned out that it was simply one of their slaves picked at random!

'One of the few groups that could be described as True Villains, paraded as great heroes… What a joke.'

Enigma City was indeed full of Villains, but most of them were simply looking out for themselves while ignoring the interests of others. The Thorn Trio, on the other hand…

'They are one of the main reasons why Enigma City turned out this way.'

If the True Heroes they had devoured over the years were still around, they would have never allowed Enigma City to become a City of Villains like this!

To make things worse, all three of them had the Chosen One complex. In a world of stagnant Superhumans that lacked the ability to even save themselves, they were the only ones that could grow stronger!

True Chosen Ones! Who else if not them?

The fact that others like Cassian existed wasn't known to them, but Leo firmly believed that even if the Thorn Trio had that knowledge, they would still somehow justify the fact that they were the rightful rulers of the world.

"As exciting as this prospect might be, we will still have to conclude this media conference at that. Our Great Heroes must be very busy! After all, they still have to get familiar with each other in preparation for the amazing endeavors to come!" 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Even as the parade was coming to an end, Leo could see that Thorn Trio were still daydreaming about their great catch.

Weakening an Ability User was a necessity for their special ability to activate, and the order they received was precisely that.

Naturally, they were planning to turn Aurora into a rag as ordered, but that would be the exact moment when their cooperation with the higher-ups would come to an end!

Once they had the chance to devour an Ability as strong as Aurora's, all reasons for compliance would cease to exist.

With their superior numbers and compatibility, that big jump in strength was all they needed to start openly devouring other Superhumans.

By the time the higher-ups realized the extent of the threat they posed, they would have long since obtained the power to make even the strongest Heroes bow under their feet, allowing them to continue their feeding frenzy.

'You can keep dreaming.'

Unfortunately for them, the end result of their daydreaming would be just that, an empty dream. Even without Leo's interference, the supposed Chosen Ones were undeniably destined to fail.

While everything else was aligned with their intentions, the 'Light' ability that they were licking their lips at the thought of wasn't something that the likes of them could covet.

It might be awfully negligent when it came to protecting their user or looking out for their well-being, but it was still extremely possessive of Aurora.

If not Aurora, then nobody else would do. In the end, while the Thorn Trio were successful in carrying out the higher-ups' directive, they still met their end, and there was only one way to properly describe it.

'Well deserved.'

As poetically mentioned by the novel, the Thorn Trio were incinerated by their very own greed, and their faces were full of unbelieving expressions to the very end.

'That being said…'

Taking one last look at the beaming older sisters as they completely disregarded the new addition to their team, Leo matched them with a smile of his own.

'This time, things will be even worse.'

The three sisters' fate was far more grim than they imagined it to be.