Chương 9: Chapter 8 – Missions make great video backgrounds

The pack didn't need telling twice. By the time I walked around the minivan, all six were inside, buzzing like a kicked beehive. I dropped into the shotgun seat and tossed the laptop back.

"This is for V." I drew my phone, and tapped on the photo of the truck's navigation. With a smirk, I wrote the address into navigation, and placed my phone so that the driver could see it.

"We drive there." He slammed the gas, the minivan bolting forward.

"Shouldn't we ask V though?"

"Yeah," another added from behind.

"Mission plan had one target."

"Precisely one," another one pitched in.

"We should get it approved first." The others nodded.

"Right now," I said, "whoever's organizing it doesn't know the hub got compromised. If we wait, they'll find out, and they will have time to run and to hide their operation or equipment. If we are faster than the news, they won't be prepared at all." They exchanged glances, and the driver sped up.

"Are you all right?" someone asked from behind.

"The red blood looks like yours." Oh, it was. Right now I was a smoldering mess of burns and dried blood, the red mine and the blue the kaiju's.

"I'm fine. I'm an endurance build, so I'll recover fast."

"Wouldn't it be easier to… not get hit?" I snorted.

"Yeah. But I'm bad at that. I'm really good at getting hit though." Half of the pack chuckled.

"We could see that." We pulled away from the burning complex, the entirety of which was now covered by teal flames. Nobody had called the fire department yet. Camden being Camden.

"So," the boy behind me said, leaning between the front seats.

"The container throw. Do you do that often? It looked practiced."

"Not practiced. Throwing heavy things is just one of the best ways to use strength."

"Sick," three of them said at once.

"Did the mage scream?" one of the girls asked.

"It looked like he screamed."

"The explosion erased him in an instant." They all made a sound like I'd shown them a puppy. I let them chatter and watched the road. The route ran us back over the bridge, then south, and kept going south. City turned to suburbs, suburbs turned to farm stands and gas stations, and then the pines started, black walls of them on both sides, the road running through like a cut. As I suspected. This place didn't bring in the kaiju powder. It distributed the local production.

The area confirmed it, as we obviously didn't go toward a depot. With no major roads or other infrastructure, this was the place for an operation that wasn't meant to be smelled. The work phone buzzed with a message from V: 'Why is it on fire, again?'

'The blue powder is awfully volatile. But I've taken you a souvenir.'

'I look forward to receiving it.' Hmph. The new division leader couldn't be more different from the previous one. The navigation started showing we were close.

"Kill the lights," I said.

"No reason to let them see us coming."

"Right!" the driver turned off the lights.

"But now I can't see anything."

"Your eyes will adjust."

"Let me drive then," a girl said from behind.

"Or get glasses." another added.

"Or night goggles." Even I snorted.

"Park on the meadow over there." He did. The van stopped, engine dead. I could see the target from here. A mansion, behind a brick wall with an iron gate. A loading dock had been grafted onto the east wing, raw concrete against original stone. The decorative gravel drive had tire ruts pressed into it. Industrial power lines ran in from the road on fresh poles, and another path led from the northern section toward the forest.

"I'll go in alone," I said.

"But this place has too many exits. You six will guard them and eliminate or catch anyone who tries to escape." They all perked to attention.

"Like, for real?" one asked.

"We go do actual agent work?" another joined in.

"For real for real?" I looked over their anime character pins. They each had different ones.

"Yeah. Sukuna and Mikasa watch the forest path. Innosuke and Rukia take the main road. Zoro and Hinata hold this one." I opened the door, and started getting out.

"Get in positions."

"Yes!" They all piled out of the van, heading for their assigned posts. And they moved fast, movement naturally fluid. Young they might have been, but they were still werewolves. I better not slack, then. After I cracked my neck by stretching it, I pushed power into my eyes. The world's colors inverted to my vision. No signs of any mana or anything unusual anywhere. I turned it off, and bolted to the house. With a quick jump, I vaulted over the wall, and rushed to the main door.

No alarm rang, so if they had security cameras, nobody noticed. I reached the main door, and ran into one wing with my shoulder. The wood exploded upon impact, and I got through. No guards. They were most likely sleeping for the night. No reason to be up at three in the morning. I dashed through the hallways into the main hall. Not much suspicious here, just a lot of ventilation shafts that ran by the walls up to the roof. So, the lab was downstairs.

I ran a bit around, doing my best to be silent, and found the stairs. I ran down the stairs. That took me to a high-tech hallway, all walls steel and sterile. I ran toward the center. A steel door blocked the hallway ahead. These looked reinforced. I sped up, and rammed into them with my shoulder. Pain shot through me, but the frame exploded from the wall at the same time. The laboratory filled a vaulted cellar the size of a gymnasium. Stainless steel tables under cold white light.

Drainage channels cut into the floor, stained dark. A row of holding cages along one wall, industrial bars, all of them dented outward, all of them empty. A crab-type carcass the size of a truck hung from a chain hoist, half taken apart, ribs of chitin peeled back. Rows of drying racks holding trays filled with a whole lot of the kaiju blue powder. So far, I've found the powder twice, and it tried to blow me up twice. This time should go better. I walked in. Steps echoed from the laboratory's other side.

A man stepped out from behind the hanging carcass. Tall, wiry, sleeves rolled up over forearms covered in rune tattoos. He carried a two-handed cleaver over his shoulder. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Ah, shit, here we go again. I activated the level scanner.

'Name: Emilio Krat Age: 44 Level: 41' His eyes flashed as he scanned me back. Whatever number he saw, it didn't scare him enough to run.

"Who set this whole thing up?" I asked.

"You bozos didn't fund it."

"Now, that is a bit insulting. Vex and I simply saw a business opportunity, took the chance, and upscaled." Hmph. I didn't see any symbols of any organization anywhere. And, technically speaking, two medium-level mages were more than enough to work out an operation like this. They also could have simply taken a business loan for the setup.

"Who's Alsen?" He frowned, eyes darting to a side. His walk ended, his body setting into a stance with the cleaver held by both of his hands sideways above his head.

"Where have you heard that name?" That little glance gave him away. I followed where he looked. A thick, leather-bound tome lay on one of the stations. He charged. In a blur, he bolted to me, swinging down the cleaver. He was too fast for me to dodge. I raised my arms. The cleaver hit my gauntlets. A shockwave spilled over on me, but the blade bounced off, the weapon shaking in his hands. Not enough wrist strength. I stepped in with a short left hook. The gauntlet bounced off a shield that flashed next to his face.

I followed-up with a right straight. The shield blocked it, and he stepped away for another, faster and weaker cut. I blocked with the gauntlet. He spun the cut into a slash. I put the gauntlet in the way, but the blade vanished before it, and cut my thigh. Blood sprayed out. That hurt. He probably used to illusion-based tricks. The size of the slash made recovery slow, so I put weight on the other leg, and punched as fast as I could. The shield flashed, but also cracked from the third right straight.

He jumped back to gain more space. Not a chance. I caught up in an instant with another quick left hook. My fist passed through his face. I spun on instinct. The cleaver slashed my back as he was now to my side. A bit of pain shot through me, but it didn't cut bones. I spun after him, continuing with another punch combo. That big cleaver really wasn't helping him up close. I landed eight more quick punches, all blocked by the shield, but it shone bright now, cracks appearing. My fist straight passed through him.

I jumped sideways. The cleaver cut my side, Emilio now on my other side. I darted to him, rammed my shoulder into him, and launched a massive uppercut, aiming under his ribcage. Shields flashed, and broke, but he jumped away just in time. He slashed at my eyes. I blocked with the other hand, leaning back. The cleaver vanished before my gauntlet, hitting my other side. Blood spilled out. I gritted my teeth, and bolted after him. The next punch passed through him. I whirled. No cut came. I glanced around.

I didn't hear any rushing steps. In that second, I noticed two things. One was him standing by a console on the far side. The other was a reinforced plexiglass door, behind which was a barred door, which hid individual cells. Those had people inside, four at the first glance. They looked alive, though not doing well. Shit. I bolted after the mage. His cleaver lay on the console's top, his hands hammering the keyboard. Alarm rang through the lab, red lights flashing.

A screen flashed near me: Self-destruction sequence initiated. Oh, for fuck's sake, I really needed this place to not blow up. Especially with there being prisoners in here. I reached him, swinging wide. My gauntlet passed through him. His whole shape dissolved into mist. And a cleaver swung at my neck. I leaned into it. The blade cut into my back, but I hit him with the shoulder. With a short weight shift, I hit him with an uppercut. His shield shattered. My punch hit under his ribcage, my fist digging into him.

Bones cracked and organs smashed. The punch lifted him off his feet, launching him at another console. Got him. I turned to the console, looking for a way to stop the self-destruction. The whole system seemed to be locked out.

"How do I stop this?" He cackled, coughing blood, sliding off the console and just barely landing on his feet.

"You don't. How are you…" He stuttered.

"So strong?" I punched the console. The machine broke, but the other screens around the lab kept flashing. Damn it. I wasn't strong. I knew mages thousand times stronger than me. He just wasn't one of them. I turned from the console, and darted at him. He raised the cleaver for one more swing. Too slow. I punched him in the chest with my full weight behind it. The steel fist hit his ribcage, shattered it, and passed through, almost breaking through his back. His body went limp.

I threw him off, and sprinted for the prison door. [LEVEL UP!] [AVAILABLE STAT POINTS: 5] [PLEASE SELECT ALLOCATION] Green screens floated in the dead center of my vision, just as I was turning for the prison. Not now, for fuck's sake! I kept running while I selected endurance, and confirmed it. [PLEASE CHOOSE YOUR NEXT SKILL] [DEMONIC FLAME SHIELD x STATBOOST – 2 stats x STAT BOOST – 4 stats] That blocked my vision almost completely. I missed the door and ran into the wall.

The steel wasn't impressed and bounced me off. I stumbled back. Demonic flame shield was an active spell that cost mana, so no. I didn't need four stats. Two sufficed. I selected that. [PLEASE SELECT TWO STATS] And the list of stats. I was going to murder whoever made this update. I selected endurance and speed. My strength already scaled off endurance, so I didn't need to overstack it. But I was low on speed and it felt really important against the kaiju because I wasn't out-strengthing those.

[CHOSEN BONUSES: +30 POINTS TO ENDURANCE AND +30 POINTS TO SPEED] [PLEASE CONFIRM THE ALLOCATION OR RETURN TO PREVIOUS SELECTION] Drawing a sharp breath, I confirmed it. The screens finally vanished. Through the prison door, I saw the screens now had a countdown. … 7… 6 Fuck. Even Asura needed like twenty seconds to charge up. I glanced over the prisoners. A flashing line led to a box on the wall, clearly a bomb made for the self-destruction. I exhaled. Sorry.

I dashed to the tables, grabbed the book, and ran for the hallway. I barely made it to the hallway when the laboratory exploded behind me. The shockwave threw me through the hallway and into the wall, face-first. The flames followed in split instant, scorching my back. I shouted with pain. This hurt. My vision blurred, edges becoming black. Everything around me burned, but the shockwave passed, so I ran up the stairs. The floor of the main hall vanished, the entire mansion on fire.

Someone screamed above, and a crash cut the scream short. I ran out. Half of the mansion collapsed behind me, the rest already on fire. Fuck. I wrenched over, vomiting blood, doing my best not to stain the book. If it wasn't illegal already, I would say this blue powder shit had to be banned. Once the vomiting stopped, I pushed power into my eyes. Once again, I saw these weird little teetering clouds of nothing. They weren't mana, they weren't anything I had seen before, but they were there.

I headed for the minivan. Cleaver-bro realized death came, and decided no one was getting his research. Had I used any of my serious techniques from the start, I might have killed him before he made that call. But I knew I was going to win the fight, so why use serious techniques? Sure, he had only about ten levels fewer, but I had a build fully created and optimized for combat. The System offered an endless variety of powers, many of which were of off-combat nature.

Even for combat, it had an endless variety of spells and abilities that most people used to create a versatile build. I didn't. Since I started in Secret Societies around people way above my level, I had to spend every single stat and skill point on combat power, all focused on a single scenario, a duel with a being much stronger than me. Cleaver-bro probably had a nicely well-rounded build for all types of combat scenarios and off-combat activities.

He just happened to face me in the one precise scenario that I put all my focus on. No one made it out of the building, as far as I could see. When I got closer to the van, the pack was already there, filming another K-pop dance with the burning mansion as a background. One of them spotted me, and they quickly packed the tripod and the phone, hiding it behind their backs, acting as if nothing happened. Team Sukuna and Mikasa had blood splattered all over them.

So, someone did try to run, and ended up being the pack's first mission kill, upon which they immediately went to record a celebratory dance video, judging by the bloodied ones dancing at the center.

"We're done here," I said, motioning at the van with my head. We got into the van, and the driver, a girl this time, drove out. I texted V: 'Need cleanup at my current location.'

'I do not remember approving of another strike.' I snorted.

'I don't remember not being allowed to make on-field decisions.' She sent back a smirking emoji, and'How much on fire is the location?'

'Enough to be seen from a satellite.'

'I will attach firefighters to the clean-up crew then.'

'Thanks.' I had drenched my seat with blood before we got on the road. The book's leather binding held, for now, so I kept it in my lap and tried not to bleed on it.

"Are you okay?" someone asked from behind.

"You don't smell okay. You smelled burned."

"I'll get over it."

"What's that book?" a different one asked.

"It looks important." I looked at the cover.

'On the Energies of Emptiness', written by: 'Alsen'.

"It could be. I'll study it tomorrow."

"You really don't look okay," another one said.

"V once took us a Texas barbeque, and meat smelled less burnt than you." The others nodded in agreement. It was less pulverized too.

"Focus on the road. We might be followed." They all darted to windows, looking around and back. I relaxed into the seat. They dropped me at the northern wall at four-forty, all six waving out the windows like I was shipping off to war, and the minivan rolled into the dark with the bass still thumping. The camera on the north wall had a blind post by the building the size of a bus. First though, I took off my suit, and stuffed it into the nearby garbage bin.

The scorched remains barely counted as a suit though, and peeling them from my dried blood was a lot of fun. I climbed over the wall, and headed straight for the showers. I cleaned up, gritting my teeth to not scream with pain as the cold water hit my burns. When I made it back to the room, the alarm clock had two hours left until morning PT. I stuffed the book under the pillow, tucked myself in, and tried to catch at least some sleep. The next day's morning hurt.

By midday, a message from V arrived:'We have gone through the souvenir laptop you have sent me. The two mages were operating by themselves, so that wraps up the missions until your deployment.'

'All right. Could use a bit of recovery.'

'So I have heard. Did the pack practice K-pop dances during the mission?'

'No.' A video arrived with the next message:'What is this then?' The video played the dance they recorded by the distribution hub. I replied:'Not a practice: -)'