- What the hell do you think, barging into the men's massage area? If you want a massage, at least wait first.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Mirai stands in front of me with the tablet, while I am effectively half-naked. After getting startled, I quickly jump from the bed and wear the linen suit. Mirai presses the screen of the tablet to my face as if I am extremely myopic.
- See these numbers? Something is already going on. We need to hurry!
- At least wait until I get out of this massage room first, can you?
I have to cut short my session. After paying an apology to the massage worker, I head to the changing room where I put back on my normal clothes and go out of the lobby, where Mirai is already impatiently waiting.
- What do you think w
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
It does not take long for me to reach Mirai, who is lockpicking a door to a building when I see her. - So, would you mind elaborating on your next phase? - After we cut their reinforcements, I will attempt to breach the security of this base. Meanwhile, you destroy their remaining forces. If we succeed, we will move to the third phase. - Okay, how many phases do we even have in your plan? - Enough so that the word 'phase' is in its plural form. I do not see any point in trying to be evasive. But sure. After a few minutes, Mirai successfully opens the door, and we enter the building. Again, it does not take long before we reach the control room after climbing a long flight of stairs. Mirai injects a cable from her hand into one of the ports. Despite a d
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
Thursday... Messing with the Intruder, especially the ones with high ratings, is in no universe a clever idea. When Mirai told the ninety-rating Intruder to drop us in Cape Town, it soon looked through her intentions, that the destination is merely a decoy. With all of the current evidence, for the last few days, even Mirai did not leave the hotel. After the assault which is supposed to be the final one, not only the base will be technically permanently inaccessible, but we also expend excessive resources. On top of that, her satellite data shows an overwhelming amount of hostile units across the continent. The barrier between accidental exposure and capturing us cannot be any thinner. Thanks to the incessantly patrolling, invisible drones, as well as the current lockdown policy of the corporation, I can spend more time in my room, doing whatever I want. The plan I desire is that every morning, I will sleep to my heart's content before forcing my ass up at twelve and rushing my w
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
- And, sent. After some hesitation, Albert finally sent the email to the Counter-Extraterrestrial Association. Immediately, a machine-generated reply email was sent to him to confirm the reception of his email. It said that a person working at the association would be sent to his house to discuss any necessary procedures as soon as possible. Everything seemed to have settled, so Albert could head to his bed. The next norming, Albert was sleeping very soundly, when he was woken up by the sound of his doorbell. Half-awake, he dragged his lethargic body to the entrance and opened the door. In front of him was a woman in her late twenties. Her jacket was embedded with the logo of the Counter-Extraterrestrial Association. Albert was surprised at the rate at which the association responded. The woman bowed politely. - Good morning, sir. My name is Halina, and I work for the Counter-Extraterrestrial Association, also known as CEA, Australia branch. - The staff greeted
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
I have already settled the payment for the damaged door. There should be no other reason he sends me something. However, I still have to check it. I click on the highlighted mail. "Sorry. It seems that I cannot hold any secrets longer. Please, run away while you two still can. You do not know what dark abyss you are heading into. They are coming." Very brief, but also too abstract. What does he mean when he says the secret? Is it related to the incident before? I immediately send a reply, hoping that things would come to the light. Other work email notifications quickly pop up. I am distracted by Albert's email. I should start doing my work before Mirai comes back. Half an hour later, the door opens and Mirai returns with a pack of goods from the nearby market. She takes out the kitchen utensils from the tablet archive and starts cooking. Nowadays, to adapt to the small environment we have to live in, Mirai specifically spends a portion of the archive storing those basi