- Unknown Village, Avalon Empire’s territory–

- two days later -

- 1400hrs, local time -

The wind is blowing mildly outside of the window of Jaeger and Coyote’s room at the inn they stayed in. The old dirt street was full of busy villagers and adventurers walking here and there, doing each of their own business. Coyote is currently laying down on the bed, not trying to sleep but focusing on his controls on the nano drones in a shape of a fly that Jaeger scattered an hour ago. The drones are controlled by his thoughts since his exoskeleton is the one sending out signals for it to be controlled, it’s also well programmed in that it has safety measures with sensors during conducting a high-speed chase to not crash into any obstacle in its path. Currently, 4 of those drones are flying around inside the nearby Church, looking here and there while monitoring the priest and nun’s activities.

From the observation, there are several nuns and 2 priests. Though, one of the nuns was oddly different from them, and he’s currently investigating her. During his current state, Jaeger kicked the door open as he entered the room, his hands are full of swords and armour that he bought to justify the reason that he said to the guards two days ago to not raise suspicion and also, Jaeger registered to the adventurer guild. It’s quite fortunate that there is nothing like magic measurement or something similar as one of the requirements to join.

“what the hell? That’s a lot of swords dude”

“oh shut up, some are holographically changed into a sword to hide our guns” As he said that, two of the swords visually change into the weapons they left in the Dropship. “good thing optical camo doesn’t give out [Mana] signatures or fantasy bs or the likes. It’s gonna be annoying if someone noticed me carrying these.” He continued, dropping the swords and the armour on the floor while the guns were put inside the nearby wardrobe.

“Did they bring ammo for us though?”

“no they don’t. OF COURSE THEY DO YOU IDIOT! It’s on the new backpack I brought with me” he put down his backpack from his shoulders and mildly threw it to the floor beside the bed.

little did he know, since he was using an exoskeleton, the seventy-kilogram backpack that he put down made an extremely loud thud that slightly cracked the floor tile. Coyote jolted out from his half-unconscious state, only to see Jaeger having a disbelieving look at his mishap, having both of his hands behind his head. The power of the exoskeleton is way too much that he didn’t realize the weight of the backpack is abnormal for someone to carry on the back. The two look at each other in awkwardness while the guest in the other room slammed the wall, telling them to be quiet.

“Holy crap dude! The innkeeper gonna be pissed at this!”

“I’m sorry okay! It was damn light that I thought it doesn’t have much stuff inside it!”

“screw this! I ain’t paying the repair bills”

“It’s not like you’re handling the money that was given by the kingdom anyway”

“… fair point” They had a small laugh after Jaeger lifted the bag to assess the damage that was inflicted by his mishap. The crack was centred on the point of impact, and the tiles were shattered to pieces at the epicentre, kind of unexpected even though the floor is made out of some sort of hardened carved stones. Though, their laugh resided when Point contacted them, “1-1, do you read me? I found something interesting”

“Go ahead 2-1”

Point is currently at the tallest position that could monitor the whole village, which is the clock tower. Scoping down with his DMR that’s using a thermal scope. “a suspicious female is going on in the alleyway near your position. I can’t identify her since she’s using a cloak”

“the hell? Using a hood in broad daylight? Why isn’t anyone suspicious of that?”

“Apparently, some people in the traffic around the village do use hoods”

“so it’s a common thing? What is this? A city with edgy kids?”

“Mate, we’re literally in a fantasy world full of people that uses magic and sword, and creatures that are unknown to our bloody knowledge. Don’t compare it to the kids back on earth that are mostly keyboard mugs.” Point sighed, pinching his eyes slightly. “look, I need your orders now sir, we might find some information regarding our mission”

“no worries, 1-2 already flew the drone to the location. Good work, keep on monitoring the church. 1-1 out”

Point didn’t have any words to say at his squad leader’s decisive action. He kept on looking around from his vantage point with his thermal scope and also a binocular that he brought with him, he was also tasked to provide sniper cover for 60 if he went into trouble. Well, 60k on the other hand, went on and look around the city, cheerfully talking to the locals and the children around, which proved to be a good thing since he met several orphan kids that are under the Church’s protection. for 2 days, he already talked to the priest and the nuns around, slowly gaining their trust. Nevertheless, 60k did find an abnormality with the aforementioned nun, even though she’s adored by the kids for her kindness and mature way of handling them, the way she looked at them wasn’t as kind as the kids thought as 60k knows a face of someone that put on a public mask. The short investigation did prove correct about Christina’s notes, using a radar scanner in the area, they did found an abnormally large man-made cavern underneath the village connected to the Church. And with that, the raid that was planned earlier will indeed be initiated tonight.

- 210hrs, local time -

The streets were rather silent since the people is either already inside their own houses, having fun in the tavern or already asleep. Jaeger and Coyote are on their final checks on their equipment, as they fill up the magazines of their weapons with ammo, recheck the batteries of their visor, load their weapons and slid in the ceramic plates on their body armour. The time has come for them, if it wasn’t as expected, all they do now would be just a murder conducted on another planet. But all those thoughts aside, the two then headed to the abandoned shack at the outskirts of the village as planned, meeting up with 60k.

On their way, the dirt street they were walking on had some slight cloud of dust with every step they took. Though, It wasn’t an inconvenience. The moon shone brightly in the sky with scattered clouds, the dim light from it helped their view with Night Vision as it only needed a minimal light source. Sometimes, they could see some people walking by and meeting up with someone. Who knows what they’re doing since Jaeger & Coyote ignored anything and walked hastily to their rendezvous location. It’s a good thing only they could see what the villagers are doing and not vice versa, as now they currently have their guns on their slings out in the open. As they arrived, Jaeger knocked several times in a pattern at the door. It was the pattern that only they know of as they already discussed it beforehand. It didn’t take long for 60K to open the door, it creaks as it swing inwards since the shack itself isn’t maintained at all.

“is the area clear?” 60k ask, glancing left and right outside the shack. “yeah, most of the civies were asleep” Coyote’s remark assured his teammate as he slowly close the door shut.

“Alright then, 60k, contact Point, I’ll contact our pilots to affirm our connection back at Hornet’s Nest, I hope people there are still awake.” 60k quickly contacted Point while Jaeger does his role at the same time. The pilots on their transport replied to Jaeger quickly as expected, they notified him that the connection is slightly delayed back at their FoB and the king himself wanted to see how they work on the field.

“His Majesty is present? Are you sure??”

“I’m not capping, it’s Ms. Himmelsdorf herself said it to us earlier.”

“well crap, we need to do our best performance huh?”

“the pressure’s on you, not us the pilots. Though, good luck out there Reaper”

“you guys still call me that huh?”

The pilot chuckled, “Most of us do, you did put up quite a show back at Kiel a year ago”. Remembering how it went, Jaeger shivered slightly and sighed. “can’t deny it”

“Ah- the broadcast is now live, again, good luck Alpha team.”

The Pilot hung up their conversation. Jaeger glances back at his shoulder, looking at his teammates that are waiting for his order. He tilted his head for a fraction of several seconds, telling them that the mission is initiated now. But as they walked to the exit of the shack, Point suddenly lowly shouted through the radio. “1-1! Several unidentified men are approaching your location! I say again, they’re approaching the shack!”

“Are they armed?” Jaeger remarked, turning on the cloaking system of his cloak while giving an order to the other two to do the same. “three of them are carrying a sword, and the others are carrying spears and probably other weapons.”

“Well I’ll be damned, did we got spotted or something??”

“It's a possibility Coyote, did you cause some shenanigans on your way?”

“No, but my clapping of my buttcheeks is loud probably”

“hahahaha! Goddamnit!” Jaeger and 60k also joined their laughter, who would expect someone serious would say something out of the ordinary yet hilarious. Though their laughter stopped as they hear footsteps in the distance, it was a great thing the shack is dark as they didn’t light up any light source they brought along.

They then hide on the corners of the shack, behind some wooden rubbles. Outside, they hear someone shouting and some swords drawn out sounds were heard. “are you sure you saw someone go inside this place? Didn’t Mr Edwin leave years ago after his late wife passed away?” one of them asked, as he went inside first.

“I’m sure about it! It was dark but I can see three or four shadows went inside!” another male remarked, from his tone, it’s a teenager. “I don’t know but it’s scaring me… who in the right mind would go out in the middle of the night in the first place” he continued, receiving some nods from his friends that are outside.

“heh, this kid,” 60k said, whispering. he wanted to laugh but he saw a glimpse that Jaeger is looking at him straightly, even with his Optical camo on and the visors covering Jaeger’s eyes, he could still feel that he was glaring at him. “ah- sorry boss,” he said in a very low voice through the mic of their ear protection.

Creaks of the deteriorated wooden floor as it was being stepped on started to get louder as many people started flooding the room, though, from the sounds it was just the older men that went inside. Though, what they don’t know, is that three invisible mercenaries pointing their rifles at the group, their fingers on each of the triggers of their weapons. The three were anxious, as they were not told how to handle the situation if the mission haven’t been initiated and civilians spotted them moving to the objective. Their survival instincts kept telling them to pull the trigger but their sense of humanity is holding them back

[Jaeger! Should I shoot at one of the men?! Our mission will be compromised if either of you got spotted!] Point shouted through their headphones, increasing the mental stress of the raid team.

“Point, Hold your fire! I say again, hold your fire!” Jaeger replied in a low voice, sounding slightly desperate as he don’t want any eyewitnesses. [our RoE is to not blindly kill anyone in the first place! These people are a hazard to this operation!]

“Point… don’t. shoot. Last warning” Point’s breathing could be heard through the radio as he was anxious since the mission nearly got compromised. Luckily, the group of armed men then stopped their search around the shack as they didn’t find what they were called for and stepped out from it. One of them jokingly slapped the teenager who shouted from outside.

“c’mon man, don’t make us do stupid searches, there are deadlier monsters outside the village and we need to guard the gates, that’s why us adventurers were here in the first place”

“But I swear I saw someone or something went inside! Maybe it’s some sort of new monster… or even a de-“

Another man then shut the kid's mouth, he was standing taller than anyone in the group, wearing a fancy white armour that he got from a famous blacksmith, “Don’t jinx us with that, if it’s truly a demon that went inside, then we don’t stand a chance in the first place and this place is doomed.” He then looked back to the shack, eyes peering through the front window of the shack. “even though my skill said that there is a presence inside… but we didn’t find anything is already quite off…”

He then told the group to keep an eye out around the place and one is willing to stay on guard around it. The group then left, leaving the volunteering man behind. Inside the shack, Coyote and 60k slightly sighed in relief, deactivating their optical camouflage. They rather not use any violence of action before they even start the main phase of the operation. “it’s a good thing they left. in a way, it was intense somehow”

“yeah, but I wonder…” Coyote raised an eyebrow, wanting to know what 60k wanted to say. “what is it?” he ask, fixing his cloak slightly.

“what the heck is a skill? What is this? An RPG game or something?” the two looked at 60k with a flat expressions. “what?? Don’t you guys find it weird? I thought magic in this world is already out of the ordinary and now there are skills? It’s not like this is an RPG game and has a status panel or something that floats in midair when we say [open status]!”

Out of nowhere, a flat rectangular floating object appeared in front of 60k. In a surprise, he took a step back, slightly shrieking. “WHAT THE F**K!?” Coyote cursed as he was also taken by surprise.

“No way! How am I even able to summon this thing!?! Wait a minute… is this a status screen!!?”