All the lights suddenly turned on, revealing all the Operators that were hidden in the darkness. Behind Sebastian he could clearly see a banner reading "Welcome back!" Written rather messily. It was clear that the job was rushed.

Yue walked forward, standing beside Oliver with her arms crossing.

"This wasn't my idea. Don't get any ideas..." she whispered coldly.

Oliver rolled his eyes before rubbing the back of his head.

"Geez I didn't know I was this popular" Oliver chuckled.

Stepping to the forefront, a very professional looking man who looked to be in his twilight years, greeted him. He wore a white coat, which actually clashed with the usual squad's coat colour being black.

"I am Walkner Pios... I'm the man who set up this party for you, Investigator Rand"

Hearing his name coming out of walkner's mouth, Oliver immediately became giddy. Walkner Pios was an AR tier researcher/doctor famous for his study into descent energy, and it's application into medicine. He wasn't that well known in the public consciousness, nor was he one of Oliver's favourites, but getting to meet a high ranking Operator who has contributed immensely to the medical field was still a momentous occasion for him nonetheless.

"Hi I'm Oliver Rand! Wait you probably already knew that... Well I really liked your paper on how descent energy could be used to treat infections due to it's aggressive nature towards foreign lifeforms!" Oliver said, shaking his hand vigorously.

Walkner laughed, finding his enthusiasm very refreshing. He placed his hand on Oliver's shoulder before smiling.

"Thank you thank you. It's rare to find children who like reading nowadays. Even some adults seem to hate reading..." Walkner looked at Yue.

Yue mumbled a few things about his research being boring before walking out of the tent in a hurry.

"Anyways... I'm glad that you're such an enthusiastic young man. From what I've heard from Investigator Alabaster and some of your old teammates, I expected you to be a gloomy and moody young man. I'm pleased to see you're not as they claimed" Walkner chuckled.

Oliver gave Sebastian the side eye, causing him to scoot away in embarrassment. Turning back to Walkner, he asked why he held a party for him.

"I only rejoined today, so I don't get why you would go to such lengths for a B tier cadet like me" Oliver laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head.

Walker smiled before turning away. He put his hand in his pockets before telling Oliver it was for no reason at all.

"I just enjoy parties…"

Laughing awkwardly, Oliver felt as if he was cheated a bit. However he didn't have much time to think about it, as one of the squad captains informed everyone that the raid would begin in half an hour.

"I guess I should enjoy the party while I still have time..." Oliver sighed.

Walking over to where the food table of food, Oliver grimaced. What was in front of him wouldn't be considered a feast even a famine. Half eaten rations, mysterious red liquid that he would rather not know the origins of, a "Charcuterie board" which even Oliver didn't want to describe, and a lone piece of fried chicken.

His mouth watered at the sight of the drumstick. Even if it was just fried chicken, after seeing the disappointing selection of food earlier, it was like finding an oasis in a desert. Reaching out to grab it, someone stopped him. They grabbed his arm tightly, insisting on not letting him go. From their small hands and slender fingers, he realised it was most likely a woman. He tried shaking her off gently, but she only resisted more. Gritting his teeth, he turned to her with a cold glare.

"I want my fried chicken"

Instead of reacting, the brunette haired woman just stared at him, intensely. Like any normal person, Oliver was freaked out. He blinked a few times, before timidly asking her to let go off him. She did, before poking at the chicken.

"I just wanted my chicken...." Oliver said, sounding a bit sad as he soothed his arm.

The woman looked at the piece of fried chicken, before looking back at Oliver. In a very monotone voice, though not as monotoned as Shirou was, she explained to him that it wasn't chicken.

"It's an artificial organism I created to resemble chicken, I suppose..." She said.

Oliver grimaced, telling her that if she wanted to eat it so badly, she could just have it.

"Making up something ridiculous as that is ju-" but before he could finish his sentence, the woman stabbed the chicken.

The fried chicken screamed out in pain, causing Oliver to scream out of fear. He hid behind the nearest person as he pointed at the woman accusingly.

"Witch! Witch!" Oliver said, sobbing slightly.

The person he hid behind, suddenly began trembling after hearing the word witch. He held onto Oliver tightly, screaming and sobbing.

"What? Witch? Where?!!!" A pathetic looking young man with black hair and purple eyes said.

Oliver looked at the man solemnly, with slight disappointment in his eyes. This man was clearly the same age as him, but some how he was even more pathetic than he was. He slowly pushed the man off as he began dusting himself off.

"Untrained monkey..."

As he said that, Sebastian appeared behind him. This shocked Oliver, causing him to lose his balance and fall down. He was about to fall face first into the ground, however somebody caught him using a rather elaborate martial arts move.

"Woah easy there buddy!" A female voice said.

She lifted him, crossing her arms with a slight smirk on her face. Looking at the woman, she looked completely different to how Oliver expected. Instead of some martial arts freak, she was wearing an extremely elaborate and frilly dress. The disposition made Oliver's jaw drop slightly, causing the woman to laugh awkwardly. She then turned to Sebastian, asking who Oliver was.

"A stupid asshole. His sister's even more stupid..." Sebastian said, putting his hands in his pockets.

Oliver glared at him, but Sebastian only rolled his eyes.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Welcome back I guess, Oliver..." he responded, walking away nonchalantly.

Oliver tried to throw out a comeback, but Sebastian left before he could say anything. Oliver's eye twitched; frustrated that he couldn't say anything witty. He sighed before turning to the three operators from before. They were all looking at him expectantly, as if they were waiting for him to do something. He scratched his head before asking them what they wanted. The three perked up a bit before huddling together to discuss something.

"Great leave me out of it why won't you..." Oliver thought, grimacing.

After a while, the timid man took a stem forward as he began explaining their sudden interest in him.

"W- well it's just that we're a part of the same team!" He said, fidgeting with his fingers.

Oliver was taken aback by his statement. Was he demoted? Back when he first started, he was with the likes of A and B tier investigators who had honed their skills over many years. However when looking at the three investigators in front of him, they were no better than C tier. He felt extremely cheated by Yue, believing he deserved better for all he had done.

"Damnit why did I have to be paired up with these fre-" but before he could finish that thought, he realised what he was doing.

Looking at his opened palm, Oliver realised that he was doing the exact same thing he hated others for. He didn't know their strengths... He didn't know their weaknesses... He didn't know anything about the three people in front of him. However, because of his own prejudice, he judged them to be weak.

Clenching his fist tightly, Oliver took a deep breath.

"You wanted to be better right? Then be better"

Oliver put on a smile, before reaching his hand out to the man. The man was a bit shocked, but shaked his hand nonetheless. With a cheerful tone, Oliver looked at the man with a new look in his eyes.

"Really? Then I should introduce myself... I'm Oliver Rand. I'll be in your guys' care!"

Oliver's smile started to waver as he noticed at the three investigators staring at him in silence. This made Oliver extremely embarrassed, wondering if they found him annoying. Though his fears would be disproven as he felt a light tap on his back.

"You got it! But you gotta watch our backs too okay!" The martial artist woman said, grinning.

Oliver looked at her for a moment before softly smiling. He nodded his head, promising that he'd do his best.

"I can let down my new friends right?"

Both the timid man and the martial artist woman smiled, while the researcher woman blankly stared into Oliver's soul.

"Is she always like that...?" Oliver asked, pointing with fear.

The martial artist woman sighed as she crossed her arms.

"Alice is always like that... Oh yeah that reminds me! We haven't introduced ourselves!" She panicked a bit.

She began shaking Oliver's hand as she told him her name and who she was.

"I'm Tabatha, I'm a B tier cadet! You can call me Tabby by the way!" She grinned.

"Alright Tabatha!" Oliver smiled back.

She slowly stopped shaking his hand, taking a few steps back as she began laughing awkwardly.

"O- okay then.... Well I'm really into martial arts! Can't you tell by how I dress?!" She said with passion.

"Y- yeah... totally! Anyway that's uh... super cool...!" Oliver said, trying his best not to be a prick.

Tabatha's eyes lit up, clearly she wasn't used to people being interested in her hobbies.

"Really! Yeah I mean totally! I love martial arts so much cause-" but before she could finish her sentence, Alice pushed her away.

Oddly enough, she continued to go on about her hobbies, even though she was quite literally talking to the air.

"And I thought you were weird... But it's kinda inspiring" Oliver said to Alice as he looked at the strangely impressive sight.

Alice nodded in agreement, before taking out a tape measurer. She began measuring Oliver, bringing him a lot of confusion.

"Excuse me what are you doing?" Oliver laughed.

Still focused on measuring Oliver, she told him that she was measuring an exact size for his test tube.

"Test... Tube?" Oliver shook a bit.

Alice looked up at him with her cold eyes, before telling him it was a joke.

"Gosh you're really dense aren't you... Can't you understand simple jokes?" Alice said, continuing to measure him.

"Well I'm sorry I thought a woman who made an artificial creature look like fried chicken wouldn't try to stuff me in a test tube!" Oliver exclaimed.

"Exactly... I forgive you" Alice commented.

Oliver's eye twitched after hearing that, but to keep his own promise to himself, he decided to let it go.

"... So why are you measuring me then Alice" Oliver said with a sigh.

She rolled up the tape measurer before explaining that she needed to know his size for documentation reasons.

"You might think that because I'm so smart that I would be in the Experimentation department... But I work in the documentation department instead... I suppose..." Alice said, in her usual monotone voice, though he could sense a little pride in her voice.

Oliver just nodded, his patience running very thin with her. Before he could pop any blood vessels, he turned to the timid man from before, who was visibly shaking.

"So what's your deal?" Oliver asked.

The man perked up before doing a salute.

"I- I'm Roland Smith tier Investigator, C!" The man said, perspiring profusely.

Upon the mishap, the two sat in silence. They looked at each other, both knowing that they heard the same thing. However, instead of making fun of him, or being disgusted, Oliver nodded understandingly. This man was just another him. He must pay his respects.

"I too am C"

The two nodded to each other before Roland stopped his salute and tried walking over to Oliver. As if they were a part of some sitcom, Roland slipped on his own sweat. He hit his head on the table of food, causing it to break and have the food come crashing down on him. Even for someone like Oliver, this was too pathetic for him to ignore. He at least had the decency to not laugh at him, but he did look down on Roland.

Roland looked up with beady eyes, but nodded understandingly. Without uttering a single word to each other, these two men had completely understood each other. Oliver reached out to try and help Roland up, but thanks to the mysterious red liquid he had dreaded from before, he slipped and fell on his face.

All the operators stared at the pathetic sight, wondering if it was all a practical joke.

"A- are they alright....?" Tabatha said, rubbing the back of her head.

"They better be alright. The mission starts in two minutes. The higher ups want every Investigator to get ready on the front lines" an operator informed.

Wiping off the concoction of processed meat, cheese and some fruit, Oliver slowly got up.

"Ugh now I gotta kill Festers... I hate my life..."

Stepping foot in front of the entrance to leighburne town, Oliver felt a little nervous. Behind the large barrier that had been set up to avoid any more casualties, were hordes of plant-like festers roaming about. He doubt they would be called plant type Festers anymore though, since they've evolved to the point of looking like animals.

"Even from the outside, I can tell that all of them are no weaker than the advanced class... Just how did this happen?" Oliver thought to himself.

Thinking back to his training, an outbreak wouldn't have gotten this bad by itself.

An outbreak is caused because of two factors. The first, is reproduction. Outbreaks are usually caused by plant based and insect-like Festers, due to their ability to reproduce and spread like a plague. The second factor, is a leader. If outbreaks were only caused by rampant Festers swarming one area, then the world would have already fallen. Like any hostile take over, what makes an outbreak successful is if they had a leader. Usually this leader would be a hyper class Fester or above, however something was off this time around. Festers controlled by other Festers, are obviously more feral and dangerous. However the Festers in Leighburne city, were very methodical, calculative... almost calm.

This was clearly the work of a contract holder. Just the thought of someone being able to control those many Festers, made Oliver shiver. He just prayed and hoped that he wouldn't have to deal with a maniac like that anytime soon. If ever.

Rubbing his face, Oliver braced himself for the mission ahead. Looking around him, he found Tabatha boxing the air to get ready. He gave her a little greeting to catch her attention, before asking her if she was ready.

"Ready as I'll ever be. I know that we've got some pretty strong people on our team... But I'm still scared I can't take down an advanced class Fester..." Tabatha said, rubbing the back of her head.

Oliver nodded, understanding how she felt.

"I know what it's like to fight a battle you don't think you can win. But don't worry, I've got your back!" Oliver said, giving a thumbs up.

Some of Tabatha's worries went away after hearing his encouraging words. She grinned before punching her palm.

"Alright let's do this!"

The leaders of each "area team", fired off their flares, signalling to the other teams that they were ready to start. A few moments after the last flare was shot, a small hole appeared in the barriers. His teammates began rushing in quickly, disorientating Oliver. In the blink of an eye, he was the only one left.

Getting himself together, Oliver took a deep breath, before smiling. He ran into the town, with the hole in the barrier closing up behind him.

[Mission log: end the outbreak as soon as possible.

Team A1 - South area of Leighburne.

Notable investigators: Olivia Carmine Rand, Ying Renyuan, Elizabeth Rodrigram, "The Nine Tailed Fool".

Team A2 - East area of Leighburne.

Notable investigators: Grim Hearthorn, Yuu Jung-Oh, Katherine Ying, "The Grains of Burning Sand".

Team C1 - North area of Leighburne.

Notable investigators: Bianca liverstein, Oliver Liam Rand, Tabatha Jackson, "The Evermotion River".

Team C2 - West area of Leighburne.

Notable investigators: Sebastian Alabaster, Roland Smith, Paul Rodriguez, "The Frost Moon Blade".

Safe journeys]