For the rest of the week, Mirai has been busy working, whether in my room or the working lounge of the hotel. She has been restricting her movements outside as much as possible to avoid the frequently patrolling drones. I do not know what she has been working on, but I hope that it is to address our 'pathetic budget'.   I am watching the news on the television. There are recently all sorts of news reports referring to 'A Mysterious Disease spreading in Cairo' and 'Irregular Activities' that deluge all of the headlines. There has been a record-high Intruder presence in the area, showing how determined they are in trying to kill us. At this point, I believe the information about us has spread to the entire Intruder forces occupied on Earth.   It is the weekend, so I might as well do something rejuvenating. The hotel offers some spectacular massaging services, and I find no reason not to indulge myself in a free treat using the premium key card. I head

  The blinding flash slowly fades and the scene of a slightly damaged underground base materialises in front of our eyes. This means that the Intruders have insufficient time to repair the damages from the last time, but instead they choose to pursue us as a higher-level threat.    -          All connections are stable. A third of our remaining units are stationed on top of the base in the Sahara desert region. Ready to engage in combat. - Mirai updates me on our formation. -          Nice. All set. Ready to enter deeper, Mirai? -          Yes. According to the Intruders' density, we will follow strategy A. Split up and follow this highlighted route. I will send further instructions.     The portal again leads us to the Intruders' dormitory. We then split into two different directions, aiming for the central region to take control over i

In the dim light of the electric factory, there stand two individuals, one with wisdom and logic, the other with mysteries. Mirai has soon known that even with a forty-five years' worth of advantage, she would still struggle fighting head-on with an Intruder whose overall rating reaches the ninety band. Whatever happens next further confirms her fear. Behind the Intruder, she can see the dark, faint shape of some large weapon-like machine, characteristic of a Scientist class. To remind you, besides ratings, Intruders are also split into classes, the Physical, the Engineer, the Technician, the Scientist, and the Commander, in increasing power and authority order. Intruders with higher ratings are eligible for higher classes. However, the Intruder is showing a very calm expression. The entrance to the electric factory is not shut. It does not plan to trap Mirai here. Rather, it is just a display of an overwhelming power gap, where the aura of the Intruder itself is telling Mirai that

Only after stepping on fire and experiencing the scorching heat first-hand that one can understand how hot the fire is. After being in the deepest of the deep, Albert first met his saviour, who helped him clear all of his worries and returned what is lost. The instantaneous feeling of successful revenge was satisfying for a fleeting moment, and then regret emerged like a lion. Even if what had to be done was settled, Albert knew that his hands now shed blood. Furthermore, after the incident, the mysterious person rarely contacted him. Albert did not even know the name of the person. He only received a silenced pistol and a small telecommunication device, the only piece of equipment that helped maintain the contact between the two. Sometimes, Albert would be instructed to transport a small box or assassinate unknown targets under the pretext of serving justice. Due to the contract, Albert could only bite his teeth and try to push through the missions. However, he could never co

The incident quickly makes it to the mass media. Countless credible newspaper headlines and television broadcasts garner massive attention towards Africa. Many countries send research teams to fight over the corpse of the fallen Intruder. Samples are retrieved and experiments are conducted. The internet community comes up with various conspiracies to explain the phenomenon, not realising that some of them are exactly what is happening. People all over the globe engage in heated debates and discussions. The sudden attention forces the Intruder to be less aggressive, giving time for us to build up our arsenal again. For a while, Intruder activity across the entire continent has been low enough for us to have sufficient freedom, but we cannot drop our caution. For the past five years, Mirai has been sending more small satellites into the low Earth orbit to observe the Intruder activity globally. Every once in a while, we launch attacks on their facilities outside Africa for distract