We sat on a nearby rooftop as we surveyed the area. In this job, we were supposed to steal a rather important yet not important Crystal from a gang. They said that the Crystal was stolen from Quantum Innovation, which made it really valuable to certain people in the market. After surveying the area for a while, I turned to look at Eliz, who was also surveying the area, and said, "Here's the game plan. I'm going to hack into the surveillance mainframe of their base and sneak into the base to steal the crystal." I looked at the big fucking sniper that she put beside her, "I'm assuming with that thing, you're a sniper, right? You'll be my backup and lookout. Is the plan okay with you?"
She looked up at me and gave me a thumbs up, "Sure. I'll comm you if anything unexpected happens."
"Understood," I nodded and started making my way down to the ground floor. After getting to the ground, I started blending in with the crowd as I started making my way towards the building. The building was near where I used to live when I first got here before Nova picked me up, which was in Section-1, Little Night District, which was arguably the worst district in Darkhaven. It was a dumpster fire that corporations were too lazy to put out. The building was half-broken. According to the net, Darkhaven was hit with a strong earthquake in 2034 and although most of the buildings were repaired, many buildings in Section-1 were not. And since corporations didn't give a crap about this place, the place was a rat fest of thieves, gangs, and scrappers. The people who had the crystal were from a relatively small gang known as Tiger Fist or something. With only 30 members, it could barely be called a gang. Still, I would never underestimate them, especially since this was my first mission as well. I didn't want my first mission to be a failure.
After going across the road and reaching the target building, I comm Eliz. "Test, Test, Eliz, can you hear me?"
A distinct voice in my head replied, "Roger. Everything's as planned. Also, call me Nightmare."
"Nightmare?" I asked back, confused.
Her excited voice replied, "Yeah yeah. That's my callsign. Do you have a callsign?"
You can't be a nightmare if you're that cute, which was what I wanted to say but I didn't. My mouth twitched, "No. Why?"
She seemed to get agitated, "Callsigns are cool. And it's better if many people don't know your full name other than friends and fixers."
I shrugged. There weren't many people I cared about in this world anyway. Although I cared a little about Nova, if they tried to target her because of me, I wouldn't even need to do anything because they would be dead. I laughed at that thought.
Eliz... no, Nightmare continued, "Well, I'll give you a callsign."
I protested, "Why can't I give myself one?"
"Just like you don't get to pick your own nickname, you don't get to pick your own callsign either," a smug voice replied. "Let's call you... Huntress. Pretty cool, yeah?"
"Where did you get that from?" I asked, a little amused.
"Don't you like it?"
I slipped away from the crowd and went into a dark alley. From my previous surveillance, I could sneak my way into the building from the back. I replied to Eliz, "No, no, I liked it. I was just asking why you chose that name for me."
"I don't know. It just came to me the first time I saw you."
I didn't know what to say. "Uhh, thanks I guess."
"No problem."
After concluding that little conversation, I started hacking into the mainframe as I made infiltration AI at the same time. I didn't need it to be very advanced or sophisticated. I only needed it to surf through the surveillance to find the target and do as I commanded. I started by slowly working on the security. The security of the surveillance was very sloppy and it would be very easy to infiltrate but I didn't hurry. There could be many traps that I didn't notice so I slowly checked the system as I slowly advanced. And indeed, I found a few traps that would notify the mainframe as soon as a camera was infiltrated. After making sure I've removed all the traps, I infiltrated and uploaded my AI. It moved through the surveillance system and quickly took over the mainframe of the entire building. That meant the entire building was under my control. I commanded it to unlock the door in front of me. After that, I sneaked in, taking the first step into the building. Cameras weren't my concern anymore as the AI was camouflaging me in the camera in real-time. I sneaked through the building until I reached the 15th floor. The entire side of the floor was missing, allowing me to look outside. I walked deeper inside until I was in front of a room, 1527. I commanded the AI to unlock it and I sneaked inside. I glanced around stealthily as I found my first victim. He was looking over the city as he smoked, leaving his back exposed. That guy was probably supposed to guard the door but were slacking off.
I slowly moved towards him as I took out the knife from my belt and span it around in idle. As soon as he was within reach, I stood up and clumped his mouth shut from behind as I stabbed the knife right into his throat. It slid in without any resistance and I watched as he slowly stopped struggling after about 3 seconds. I slowly put him down to not make any noise. I sighed. Although I didn't want to kill, I was not strong enough to knock the guy out. And I knew better than to leave loose ties behind. I was not about to make the mistake most anime main characters made. I span the knife as the blood flies off the blade. 1 down, 29 more to go.
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You've gained 100XP.
I froze for a second, I gain XP from killing people? Then what about the two I killed at the train system? I frowned as I quickly looked through the notification history. And indeed, two notifications told me that I gained 150XP from killing the first guy and 100XP from the second guy. Why is there a difference? Is it because the first guy had a lot more cybernetic? I shook my head, it was not time to think about things like this. Instead, I should focus more on the mission. I made my way through the building, avoiding as many people as possible. Ninjutsu was really helping me out here. Although most of the techniques in the knowledge were old-school and didn't include technology, they were still extremely useful. Especially the stealth and assassination part of it. After avoiding about 5 guys, I finally arrived in a room that had more than one guy. Three guys were just sitting there and talking around. One of them had a lot of cybernetics, especially on his hands, body, and legs. From what I could see, none of them had cybernetic heads or spines, probably because those were extra expensive. Either way, that meant that their weak point was the head.
I took a deep breath and comm Eliz, "I need backup. You ready?"
The reply came quickly, "Yep, I have my thermal, you're on the 15th floor, room 1527, right?"
"Right. Can you see me?"
"Yeah, I see you. Who do you want me to take out?"
"The one that's farthest away from me."
"Got it."
"On my mark. 3, 2, 1. Shoot!"
After ending my countdown, I threw my knife at one of the guys. Then I heard a bullet whooshing through the air and a thud as the bullet pierced through the ceiling and floor to reach the farthest guy. Then I took out another knife. I jumped on the nearest guy who was the only one left standing and I piggybacked him as I stabbed the guy through his chin into his mouth. He couldn't even make a sound as he collapsed.
You've gained 100XP.
You've gained 100XP.
"Damn, that's brutal," Eliz's voice sounded through the comm. I ignored it. After looking at the surveillance, I confirmed that the last room had the crystal and the boss of the gang was talking with someone on his comm. The boss was wearing a red jacket and had spiky red hair. He was definitely a punk wannabe. I shook away the useless thoughts as I slowly approached the room. I timed the unlock with the talking of the boss. I slowly opened the door as the boss was facing the other way. As soon as I finished opening the door, the boss also coincidentally turned around, spotting me instantly. I cursed, "Nightmare, take out the other guys."
"Way ahead of you. Only this big guy left. He's too far inside, my bullets can't reach him. He's all yours."
I took out the katana that Nova gave me as a gift. I didn't use my guns as they made too much noise and the other gangs and scrappers would check the noise. I wasn't going to face a fucking army. I instantly started slashing. The boss blocked with his hands, which were, of course, fucking cybernetics. I wished I had a thermal katana. Still, I didn't give him time and continued aiming for various parts of his body that weren't cybernetic. Even as I was pressing forward, the boss had time to take out his weapon. A big-ass machete. Sparks flew as the two weapons met in the middle.
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Eliz watched the surveillance through her optics as the two fought. Raven gave her access to the network as soon as she had finished hacking into the system. And through it, she was able to coordinate with Raven and take out every goon she left behind. Now, she was watching her fight with the boss. Honestly, she was very impressed with Raven's skills. Her blade work was like a dance, making it unpredictable where she would strike next. She had never seen such an odd style of fighting before. Raven danced around the boss and her katana was like a phantom, striking wherever and whenever it pleased, making it very beautiful to look at. She could also tell that the boss was slightly distracted and was unable to block a few of the strikes as wounds started to appear on him. In contrast to Raven, the boss fought with strength. It was very clear that he had never had proper training with a machete before and it showed in the fight. And she could see that his gun was on the other side of the room, which was very convenient for Raven. Suddenly, the boss took out a small knife and threw it at Raven.
But she, almost supernaturally, dodged it before it was even thrown. Like, she reacted and dodged to the side as it even left his hands. As he was busy throwing the knife, Raven slashed the katana elegantly, very cleanly cutting the head off. Eliz's eyes shone as she watched her battle. She was very excited to continue working with this enigmatic woman and honestly, Raven reminded her of her own dad.
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I tried to control my heartbeat after I beheaded the boss. I had to be thankful that most of the gang members were outside, doing gang stuff.
You've gained 150XP.
Blade level up.
Blade - 4
I vomited. I clearly remembered the feeling of my katana going through the guy's neck. It wasn't pleasant at all. After vomiting for a bit, I finally controlled myself. To be honest, I didn't feel any guilt for killing these guys. I had already prepared myself and I knew that these were gang members. After the scrappers situation, I learned how to turn off my guilt for these types of guys. I shuddered in horror as I realized that I... enjoyed killing these people. Am I becoming more of a murderer? I thought to myself as I paled in horror. Surely not, right? I took a deep breath and inspected myself. I did indeed enjoy killing.
Essence - 2
The notification popped up. Why did it go up? Does it mean realizing myself? Does it represent how well I knew myself? I frowned. I shook my thoughts away quickly and grabbed the head of the dead boss. I clicked behind his neck and a slot popped up. Inside was the crystal we were looking for. I reported into the comm, "Target acquired. Prepare the bike."
"Roger Roger."
For some reason, that sounded a lot like the droids from a certain famous movie series. But that couldn't be. I have searched for the movies I was familiar with and none of them were here. So that couldn't be a reference. I left the same way I came in. By sneaking out with my amazing skills and not getting caught. Let's forget that the boss caught me red-handed.