Chapter 24

The Lord of Vermilion’s Test 7

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It was a typical day in the FNN building.

The midday sun was shining but the heat wasn’t felt inside the building due to the good air conditioning system.

The birds were singing

The flowers were blooming

The sky was devoid of any clouds

It was the perfect time for a pretty girl wearing a white one piece summer dress to frolic amongst the flowers.

Just to clarify:

Pretty girl in white one piece summer dress = heavily armed men clad in jet black armor

Frolic amongst the flowers= running at combat speed on top of the hallway that connected the parking lot to the FNN building.

There was a reason why the plan was set during lunch time.

The FNN had 3 very impressive cafeterias at the 10th, 20th and 30th floor.

The food was excellent despite the cafeteria looking like the standard run of the mill.

As such, most people ate there.

And because of this, a lot of the floors had very little people in them.

The main reason why the assault groups climbed to the very top of the parking buildings was so that they could skip the crowded 20th floor for the largely vacant 21st floor.

As the one with the toughest armor among the group, Theo ran at the front of his pack on top of the overpass that connected the parking building to the FNN building.

As they approached the purely glass wall, Theo made a quick scan for any civilians in the room they were about to enter.

Fortunately, there were none.

While running, Theo fired his AK47 into the window, thus damaging its structural integrity.

Thanks to the generally noisy state of Vermilion City, Theo’s gunfire went unnoticed.

Theo used his adamantium arm as a battering ram as he recklessly charged into the glass wall.

With a shattering sound, Theo swiftly ran into the room with the 9 mercenaries right behind him.

Theo exited the room with his gun drawn and headed to the hallway where he set up a perimeter.

3 other mercenaries followed suit.

With the 4 of them, they were able to secure the hallway in a matter of seconds

“Group 2. Inside” said the leader of Theo’s group over the comms.

“Group 1. Inside”

“Group 3. Inside”

“Smoke. Inside”

“Bug. 4 minute window. GO!”

The minimalist communications may confuse people, so here’s the explanation.

Group’s 1-3 were the strike teams that were to climb to the top of the buildings to secure their targets.

Diego was in group 1, Theo in group 2 and one of Lord’s men in group 3.

The Smoke group stands for Smokescreen and their job was to run as a distraction for the law enforcement that would eventually come.

One of Lord’s men led this group.

Group Smoke initially went with Group 3 but instead of entering at the 20th floor, they went in the 10th.

The Bug group was the 10 non-combatants that infiltrated FNN by walking into the front door.

Aside from datamining, their task was to delaying any information from making out of the building and to ensure that the elevators that group 1-3 took went straight to the top.

It was impossible to stop completely cut off the FNN from the outside since the ones on the top floor had a lot of means to call the cops.

Hence the Bug group’s mission of ‘delaying’

Besides, their priority was datamining.

Once they were done, it would be group Smoke’s job to delay the pursuers.

Bug group’s transmission of ‘4 minute window’ meant that their datamining would be done in 4 minutes. After that, the elevators would no longer be in their control.

Group 1-3 had only 4 minutes to take the elevator as high as they could.

As such, groups 1-3 wasted no time and began moving.

With guns drawn, Theo’s group made their way to the elevators as fast as possible

Thanks to Lord’s detailed maps of FNN’s interior, all the groups easily found their respective elevators.

While the elevators were large enough to fit all 10 of Theo’s group, they split into 4 and took separate elevators up.

It was a simple precaution, nothing more.

For some reason, Theo had the elevator all for himself.

He couldn’t help but chuckle at this arrangement.

Truth be told, this actually worked to his favor.

Theo took out 3 of his lethally high calorie energy bars and ate it with gusto.

With the threat of potentially facing off against a hero later on, he may be forced to use his ‘super secret awesome technique’ to its absolute limit in order to win.

“ With no Rank S and Rank A heroes around, this mission is a bit easier…. Who am I kidding… this mission is still shit hard!”

Superheroes were ranked from E (lowest) to A (highest) with S as a special rank that transcended strength.

Omegaman was rank S for being so messed up strong.

However, Crow was also rank S despite being only human.

There were only a handful of S rankers and a couple of them were not monstrously strong.

In terms of pure combat ability alone, Crow would be in the middle B rank.

Let that sink in for a bit.

A person at the highest point a normal human can achieve was only B rank!

The very idea that Theo may face off against someone like that terrified him to no end.

In order calm his nerves, Theo decided to listen to some comedy.

He turned on a frequency interceptor and began searching for the frequency his group was using for their ‘secret chat’.

Why else would they do their best to keep Theo out of earshot?

He listened in for a bit, and true enough, the content of their conference put a smile on Theo’s face.

“HAHAHAHA! Awesome! These guys didn’t disappoint! I’m going to so much fun later!”

While Theo was holding his laughter in, the elevator suddenly stopped.

“Bug! Interference! Split!”

“..Oh shit…”

The Bug group was experiencing interference.

The word ‘split’ meant they were going to, in Lord’s words, ‘make like a banana and split’.

You may cringe at your leisure

The full translation: ‘We are experiencing interference too great for our capabilities. We’re abandoning our support duties in favor of datamining’

“Boss, you read me? We’re moving to Plan B3.” Said the leader of Theo’s group over the radio.

“Roger that. My elevator stopped between the 38th and the 39th floor.” Replied Theo with a grin

“Got it. We can expect an ambush the second we exit the elevators. Split up into 2 groups. 5 on the 38th and 5 on the 39th. You take the 39th Boss.”

“Roger that.”

“~Oh my~ so that’s your plan huh? Fine. I’ll play along for now. But later…. fufufufu”

Theo forced his way through the elevator’s roof.

While he could use his Midas Alchemy to instantly make a hole in the roof, this would leave some clues to who he was.

He wasn’t going to risk it.

Thus, he used his adamantium to punch a hole into the ceiling

He looked at the 3 elevators beside him and saw that his back up was still working making an exit of their own.

Theo decided not to wait and do some recon of his own.

He forced the door open ever so slightly and took a peek.

Visually, he couldn’t see anyone and since he wasn’t peppered with bullets, the other side must be in ambush position.

Theo aim with his left hand and fired the arm mounted gun 5 times into different parts of the ceiling.

The gum drones went online and confirmed Theo’s suspicion.

There were about 10 MIBs with bullet proof vests and M4 Carbines.

Good choice in guns.

For some unknown reason, there was a guy with an RPG.

What kind of lunatic would use an RPG inside a building?

All of them were hidden behind pillars and desks outside the vision of someone who would walk out of the elevator.

A perfectly planned killing zone.

These guys were good.

Theo took out a not-gold gold coin out of his utility belt.

“Just to inform you guys, but I’m no slouch either.”

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