by L. M. Kerr
It was empty of Morenkai. A strange sight for the supposedly Morenkai-crowded Tower, but he wasn't going to complain.
Micheal didn't hesitate. He jumped onto his Life Orbs and flew down the hallway, trying to remain as absolutely silent as possible. His senses were expanded to the maximum as he carefully moved forward, ready to react to any threat whatsoever.
In just a few seconds, he finished rushing down the hall and reached the large doors. He peered through a set of small windows on the face of the door, his eyes narrowing.
A large auditorium could be seen, exactly what he was expecting. The Godfather Organization had just recently been in here and gathered information on the layout of the building, info he was able to put to his advantage as he zeroed in on one spot at the right of the stage.
Just as reported, a large, watermelon-sized orb stood floating about 3 meters up in the air. This orb was colored gold and gave off a faint, aura of light.
Strangely enough… there were no Morenkai in this room at all either.
Micheal put up a frown when he noticed this. The report he'd read through had stated the room was swarming with Morenkai. Internally, all he did was sigh, as if in grudging respect and expectation of something.
He pushed past the doors and walked into the auditorium without further hesitation.
The room was truly very large. There must've been at least several thousand seats, set up in long rows with a few balconies on the sides, and an overhanging section up above. Micheal had entered from the middle on the side, a few levels back from the stage.
His eyes swept through the room in an instant. He looked all around for signs of any Monster Class Morenkai, or any Morenkai at all. He had just finished scanning the lower half and-
A loud clapping interrupted his thoughts, drawing his attention to the overhanging theater section above.
"I had a feeling I would meet you here, Heron." A commanding, but cheerful voice echoed out, filling the large, empty room.
Micheal turned his head towards the speaker, his face emotionless.
Sitting on the very front row of the overhang section was a rather calm looking man.
He had short, golden-blond hair that looked as if it had been recently cut, giving his face a stern look. His eyes were green, and flashed with green light, something Micheal recognized as the tell-tale sign of his World Matrix Type Ability. He stood a little taller than Micheal and wore a simple set of khaki pants and a white polo shirt.
His legs were currently kicked up on the edge of the overhang as he sat back in his chair, looking down at Micheal from above.
Next to the man were two black spears that had been planted on the floor of the overhang, wedged between a few seats. When Micheal saw them, his mouth couldn't help but twist slightly.
Not at the spears themselves, but at what was on the spears.
Each spear bore the corpse of a Morenkai.
A Monster Class Morenkai.
He recognized the two of them instantly. They were none other than the infamous 'Twins' that had caused him quite a bit of grief with his own operation here the other day.
Each of the duo was clearly dead, covered in various bruises, cuts, and other injuries that looked incredibly surreal on their skin. Monster Class Morenkai had durability to a rather extreme degree. Seeing injuries like this on them so casually, it was an incredible feat in and of itself.
"Director Prime." Micheal sized the man up, his heart rate spiking as he faced down the First Layer legend.
The strongest man in the First Layer, the highest-ranked S Ranker, a genius tactician with the power to stop time itself.
"It's about time we had a talk."
.
Chapter 74
Director Prime stared at Micheal, a hint of interest appearing in his glowing eyes.
“You aren’t… surprised to see me.” He stated it as more of a fact, rather than a question.
Micheal shrugged.
Prime’s ability to stop time allowed him to intensely examine a person’s expression, to see how tense they were, to detect any facial tics or anomalies. He could even dissect someone to track their heart rate over a series of stops to see how they were reacting.
The only way to fool him was to believe whatever it is you were using to fool him, or to be a literal God of lying.
“You aren’t wrong. I’m not surprised.” Micheal replied stoically.
“I find that very interesting, very interesting indeed. You don’t fear me, you aren’t surprised to see me here… and, huh…” Prime paused, his face the picture of a neutral expression,
“You actually might have the power to destroy this Monster Class Nest.” The powerful S Ranker leaned back in his chair lazily, not even bothering to look at Micheal.
Of course, in reality, he was likely freezing time a half dozen times a second, examining Micheal’s reactions in extreme detail. That was just the kind of man he was.
When Micheal heard Prime’s words, he didn’t outwardly react. Inwardly, he remained perfectly calm, without a hint of worry. Hidden deep within his Soul, however, he couldn’t help but smile.
‘He took the bait.’
Prime’s words could only mean one thing. He’d found the tiny, barely visible hint of a damaged window Micheal had left behind. He inwardly marveled at the man’s tenacity. To freeze time and sweep through any and everything in the nearby area just as a precautionary measure… it might seem excessive. And it was. But it was something Micheal could use.
If he’d left the hole there for anyone to see, while also pretending to know about Prime and expect Prime was here, the Director’s attitude and reactions would adapt to that fact. However, with the extremely minute mess he’d left behind, it was more than believable that he had thought his cover was perfect.
All of that, put together, made it really look like he had expected Prime would be here.
In actuality… he hadn’t. He had been roughly 90% confident that Prime would be in the Nightrunners' territory, helping them defend the Permanent Nests. The man was known, in history, for his loyalty to his sworn allies.
However…
Given the struggles he’d faced recently, Micheal had drafted up a couple of plans to deal with any unfortunate encounters.
Essentially, he tried to think of the absolute worst things that could happen. And, with that, he then planned as if he expected absolutely everything that could go wrong, to go wrong.
Prime showing up here, waiting for him in the Monster Class Nest…
This was one of the worst possible outcomes and should’ve been extremely unlikely to occur.
‘Freak.’ Micheal wanted nothing more than to strangle the calm looking Director and force out how in the world the man knew to be here.
He ignored all of that, however, as he maintained his calm demeanor and replied,
“Yes, I’m pretty confident I can break the Monster Class Nest. I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.” Micheal casually patted his Ashari Blade as he continued,
“And there’s a reason for that. In fact, there’s a reason for everything that has happened between us.” Micheal nodded at Director Prime.
“And I suppose you’ll share that reason with me today, here and now?” Prime studied Micheal with a questioning gaze.
Micheal ignored all of Prime’s physical reactions and speaking tones. Nothing the man showed was real. Every reaction he gave was one he had planned over a series of minutes, hours, or even days. Holding a conversation with this man was incredibly nerve-racking.
“Yes, that’s right. It’s a pretty simple reason.” Micheal put on a cheerful smile,
“I’m from the future.”
.. .. .. .. .. ..
A quiet thud rang out as Shin appeared behind one of the gun-wielding Nightrunners on Nest B’s skyscraper’s rooftop. His appearance was so abrupt, no one on the rooftop had time to react to anything he did.
The person he’d targeted was wielding a type of heavy-duty shotgun, fu
ll of armor-piercing rounds. The man was heavyset with a large, potbelly and muscular arms that were visible through the black armor he wore. His heavy-duty shotgun was an especially potent weapon at short range, but one he was using in a lackadaisical manner as he tried to avoid killing.
According to Sophia, the people fighting on the roof were only fighting because they were forced to. As lower-level warriors, they didn’t really have a say in any of this, but it was likely most of them weren’t pleased with what was happening.
The same applied for both sides. In actuality, they might not even be bad people.
The Shin of the past would’ve felt guilty for even thinking about attacking them.
However, after the battle where he lost his arm and Sophia nearly lost her life, Shin had begun to feel as if something in him had changed. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
The change was a sort of realization that had come over him, one that was swept up in Micheal’s grand vision and master plan.
If he didn’t get serious about each and every fight he got into, people he cared about would die. And even beyond that, it was possible their mission would fail in its entirety. Not only would people he loved die, but his entire race might die.
He couldn’t afford to hesitate. He was no longer just fighting for himself. He was fighting for something much bigger than that.
And, as he appeared behind the Nightrunner warrior, he did not hesitate.
His Soul Pistol was already in his hand, pressed up against the gunman’s head. By the time anyone realized he was here, he had already fired.
The bullet, not unexpectedly, instantly killed the gunman, the special rounds Shin used obliterating the man’s headgear in a fraction of a second.
.
—-Points Notification—-
Points: 2,018
.
The notification placed that the man he’d just killed was, as predicted, not even an A Ranker. 2,000 Points was a nice get, but only enough to place him at B Rank at most.
As soon he received the notification, Shin immediately activated a second Ability.
‘Expand!’
It wasn’t his bullet that he expanded, nor his gun. Instead…
It was his arm.
Specifically, the Melding Plate Arm Artifact he had obtained, grafted on to replace the left arm he’d lost to Number 6’s spear strike.
After he obtained this Artifact arm, and had enhanced it as much as he could, he’d gone about testing it in every way he could.
He’d found that, after a great deal of practice, the arm reacted almost identically quickly to how his previous left arm had reacted. In fact, as he got better at manipulating it, it almost seemed to move even faster, roughly equal to his main, right arm.
Shin knew full-well that he wasn’t ambidextrous, so such an upgrade was a pleasant, silver lining to the drastic loss of the entire appendage. Still, Micheal said he could get it back on a later Layer, so Shin didn’t take it too much to heart.
After adapting to use the arm in his everyday life, he gradually got used to using it in combat. He could aim his Soul Pistol with either arm now, though he still instinctively preferred to use his right arm.
The Melding Plate Arm was much stronger than his regular arm, boosting his strength by at least 35%. It was far more durable, able to block bullets or most weapons with ease.
And, most importantly of all…
It was a magical Artifact. It wasn’t actually part of his body.
And his Expand Ability could affect almost everything, including most Artifacts. Including this arm.
A split second after he activated his Expand Ability, his Melding Plate Arm began to grow at a hypersonic rate.
His hand was the first part to expand. The metallic fingers stretched outward, forming a giant, faintly glowing palm that slammed down hard onto the roof of the skyscraper, stretching an amazing 3 meters in height and 2 meters in length.
Behind the palm, the knuckles, wrist, and rest of the arm expanded to meet his humongous palm. However, the farther up his arm one went, the smaller and smaller an expansion each part received.
When one went all the way up to the connecting shoulder piece, it was as if his Melding Plate Arm had never expanded at all and was maintaining its natural size.
In a split second, a huge, metal shield-palm had formed, completely covering Shin up from the attackers.
Not a moment later, a slew of gunshots and a couple of explosions rang out as several of the stunned Nightrunner guards attacked. The warriors here, while only B Rank extras that held little, overall importance, were still one and all elites. Their reaction speed to Shin’s attack was admirable, if ineffective.
The bullets smashed into his gigantic Melding Plate Arm and pinged off ineffectively. Two bolts of white energy, cast forward by a white wand held in the hands of one of the leather-clad guards, exploded against the huge palm and did nothing.
The warriors seemed to temporarily forget their differences as they all turned their attention to Shin.
For a single, split second, they had their focus centered directly on him.
That tiny moment was enough.
A slew of crackling sounds rang out as more than a dozen black streaks of energy shot through the air and slammed into the heads of all of the distracted B Rankers. These bolts of energy were long and clearly not made entirely out of energy. Instead, they appeared to be made of a mix of energy and some type of hardened, spider-silk.
As one, the distracted guards all collapsed and fell down to the rooftop in a resounding thump.
Killed instantly.
Shin wiped the sweat away from his forehead as he shrank his Melding Plate Arm. The feeling of expanding and shrinking it was eerie and unsettling, but he couldn’t help but admit how useful it was.
In its Expanded state, his control of the Artifact was limited, but he could still make very good use of it.
He flexed his arm a few times, able to detect a slight tingling sensation, the only result from the slew of bullets and explosions that had collided with him.
Just as he began to look his arm up and down, the members of the Godfather Organization rushed out from cover and sprinted across the bridge to the Nest B skyscraper rooftop. Sophia, Asim, and Vladimir all ran up to Shin, the last two giving him a thumbs up while Sophia merely nodded.
“Nicely executed, Shin. Everyone, prepare to enter the skyscraper!” Executive Riana’s voice was relentless as she reached the rooftop, her eyes glinting.
From her back, 8 unsettling, black legs had emerged, each one giving off a faint black sheen of energy. These legs stretched out about 2 meters each, but somehow managed to maintain their balance as they rested on her back.
Executive Riana’s Vast Gaze Ability was what she was renowned for. However, her Nature Type: Black Spider Ability was half of where she got her nickname, ‘Stunning Spider.’ The black threads of energy she had shot forward each contained the force of a powerful bullet, spawned into existence by the odd-looking legs.
Riana gestured at everyone and then motioned towards the entry shed, reiterating her meaning.
Their attack was two-pronged, with the roof team striking first and then heading down. Most of the enemy forces, according to the scouts, were located on the lower floors. Clearing out the rooftop was intended to create a staging area to create a solid, trapping anvil, with Admiral Cardell’s team working as the crushing hammer.
Almost in unison, the rest of the elite warriors charged towards the entry shed, silent determination sweeping through the crowd as they prepared to attack the Nightrunners with everything they had. Asim and Vladimir charged forth bravely first, while Sophia clung to the back and slunk in at the end of the group, moving secretly.
Shin nodded back at Riana and then simply vanished, choosing to teleport directly into the building down below.
In just a few scant seconds, the forces of the Godfather Organization disappeared inside the skyscraper, va
nishing out of sight.
A stiff breeze swept across the rooftop roughly one minute later, carrying with it tides of change, tides of the unknown, and tides of possibility.
As that breeze swept past, a quiet thud echoed out as a pair of feet landed atop the rooftop, clad in a set of sharp looking dress shoes. A warm, golden Aura spread out from the bearer of those shoes, covering the rooftop in a half-second.
An Aura full of righteous might, power, and authority.
The Aura of… a ‘Hero.’
.
Chapter 75
The first person in Executive Riana’s team to reach the site of the internal schism was, unsurprisingly, Shin. His warping speed surpassed everyone else’s movement speed by a sizable margin, allowing him to be the first member of the Godfather Organization to reach the combined 4th and 5th floor of the skyscraper.
Beyond the standard ground level floor, the bottom four floors of Nest B’s skyscraper were unique, something everyone had been briefed on before their mission.
The fourth and fifth floor that Shin had reached were combined to form a tall section that held 4 very large, individual rooms. Each room was wide and open, decorated with several very large, water-filled glass containers. These glass containers twisted in a myriad of designs and shapes, linking up with all of the other glass containers on the extra-large floor. The water in them was backlit by a myriad of blue and green lights, giving the containers a natural and exotic feel.
In other words, these two floors contained a large aquarium.
No living creatures spawned into this aquarium naturally. After all, Morenkai were the only species native to this strange world. However, the unique lightning and only slightly foggy water still managed to give the bottom floors the appearance of a world-class aquarium, lacking only in the actual fish themselves.
When Shin teleported in, he warped into a nook that was set in the side of one of these aquariums. He’d taken to teleporting into smaller, tucked away areas whenever he could. It was better to be out of sight of any potential enemies when teleporting into a new place, mostly to give himself enough time to prepare.