Knock, knock!
Inside a filthy, stenchy apartment, three men stared at the door with curious looks.
One of them was a strange man wearing a propeller hat and a kid-looking set of clothes, with bright colors and childish designs. “Did anyone order anything?”
“Probably the landlord,” said a man with an eerie appearance, with sunken eyes and an eerie complexion.
“Just open it already!” a man with a bald head shouted, annoyed by the fact that someone disturbed him from the show he was watching on the living room television.
The childish man rolled his eyes and approached the door, his footsteps loud and clear to any person with superhuman senses.
Bingo. Braun gave the signal to the rest of his team, and everyone immediately struck in an instant.
Threads burst out of the door, while two rubber bullets flew in from the opened window.
The trio inside the stinky apartment was quick to reach though, as the childish man abruptly dropped to the ground, while one transformed into a strange shadowy mass of gas, and the bald man simply exploded.
Fire and smoke burst out of the room, obstructing Nora’s view of the room.
Tsk, as expected of serial murderers. These bastards just had to acquire superpowers. Nora cursed, but she remained calm and operated her sniper to try and find any opening.
“Don’t worry, I got this.” Braun casually kicked open the door and saw the childish man kneeling on the ground, a pair of toy tanks at his sides.
“Fire!” he ordered, and as if the toy tanks were real tanks, they shot out explosive shells.
Braun simply walked forward, tanking through the pitiful attack power of a Level 1 Super, and punched the childish man in the face.
He cried out in pain and fell to the ground, knocked unconscious in one blow.
The two other people in the room heard his cry and hurriedly responded. One of them darted out of the window and exploited the fact that they were currently made out of gas and could fly in the air.
On the other hand, the bald man who exploded directed their hands to the doorway and grinned.
Another burst of explosions erupted out, blasting the rest of the living room. Braun, who was grabbing the childish man by the neck, swiftly erected a wall of threads in front of him.
“You got that?” Braun asked.
“Yep!” Nora responded and pressed the trigger, using the burst of light from the bald man’s explosion to locate where he was in the smoky room.
Another rubber bullet tore through the air, and without anything to obstruct it, smashed right against the back of the bald man’s head.
The last of the three, the one that transformed into dark gas, inwardly rejoiced that it was still alive and swiftly flew away, but as if to cut off its joy, a bright barrier of light abruptly formed around it in the form of a sphere, trapping him within.
“That’s three,” said Braun.
Grabbing the bald man by the neck just like the childish man, he leaped out of a window and rapidly descended towards the ground.
Silvery threads extended out from his hand, latching onto a nearby wall, stopping his descent in the nick of time.
Jonas and Terry, who stood atop a floating barrier, landed right beside Braun.
Braun passed the two bodies to Terry, while Jonas willed for the spherical barrier that trapped the eerie-looking man inside to float beside him.
Kaya came flying in with the original Nora in tow, while Karsen came last.
The five gathered near the scene of the crime, with Aegis’ workers already rushing in from a wide crack in space to repair the burning apartment.
“That’s three in one go,” commented Nora.
“Supers are becoming more common, huh?” Terry remarked.
“Especially Monsters,” groaned Braun. “Those bastards are annoying to deal with, especially when they’re inside the city.”
“Tell me about it,” Terry laughed.
As the team complained about the recent spike in super activities in the city, a couple of workers took the apprehended supers and placed them inside containment units, before rushing off into the portal.
Blue light slowly gathered thousands of meters in the air, signaling the start of the memory erasure procedure.
While the rest of the team walked back into the portal, they didn’t notice the hooded figure watching their every move from a nearby building.
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“Five Level 2, and one Level 3. Body Hardening, Raven Transformation, Cloning, Barriers, Threads, and Cards.” The figure slowly stepped into the shadows, while a small grin formed on their hooded face.
“Soon, I’ll have that artifact for myself and make my winds undergo a qualitative change!” he said with great desire. Once I comprehend the secrets behind corrosion, I will be one step closer to reaching Level 5!”
Blue light descended from the sky, enveloping the entire city, and erasing everyone’s memories of the preceding events.
…
More than a week had already passed since Braun had first joined Aegis, and a lot of things had happened. The most recent operation was just one of the many dangerous situations he had been in, with plenty of super-related encounters deepening his view and understanding of the world that was once hidden away from the eyes of his once normal status.
Returning to his room, Braun swiftly opened his nearly completed program and his eyes twinkled with excitement. Even though he was tired, just the sheer fact that this was almost done made him work without waiting to rest, all so that he could finally be done with this project and get an assurance.
Besides the organization’s vast amount of resources, from manpower, wealth, monsters, supers, and artifacts, there was one other thing that acted as Braun’s biggest allure.
Knowledge was practically free to learn when you’re part of Aegis, from the most complex research papers on biology that was decades ahead of the current world, to nuclear technology that was closest to making nuclear fission a reality—without superpowers.
He had knowledge, both mystical and scientific alike, at the grasp of his fingertips. If he was forced to leave Aegis, then this mere fact alone would make him truly sigh in regret.
So, this was his top priority above all else. He had been practically using all of his free time to either train in combat or finish coding his latest project, and this project was in no way easy—he had to learn so much stuff that he was basically one of the top experts in the art of programming in the world already, and this was all done for this one thing.
As he rapidly tapped in the last of the line of codes, Braun stopped typing and stared at his laptop’s screen with shining eyes.
Without waiting for a single more second, he rapidly transferred the program into a USB stick and waited for it to be copied. While he did so, he swiftly took a shower to freshen up and put on a pair of white shirt and black pants on top of the usual skintight black suit he always had to wear for work purposes.
Then, to add his own stylistic sense regarding his outfit, he added a layer of black shirt and black pants, which blended seamlessly with the black fabric of the bodysuit.
When he returned to his room, the program was already transferred into his USB, which he then pocketed.
Closing his laptop and deleting the very existence of that program from all of his digital traces, he soon walked out of his room and headed for a certain part of the base, a place where knowledge is gathered and a place many researchers usually visit.
It was the Archives.
Since Aegis wasn’t stupid enough to let its researchers access its files anywhere they wanted and potentially get leaked to outsiders, they stored it all in one place, meaning if you wanna learn, you gotta be in the Archives.
While it may not be the perfect method out there, it was definitely a practical one, and no one complained since the ones who spend the most time inside the archives, Aegis Researchers, usually spend their time inside the base itself so it doesn’t really affect them that much.
A short while later, he arrived right in front of a large open hall with the words ‘Archives’ written on top. Plenty of men and women clad in white clothes walked in and out of the grand archives while giving a cursory glance towards Braun, wondering why a super like him was visiting the archive.
Of course, no one was barred from the world of knowledge and simply ignored him after that.
Displaying the same attitude as them, he simply ignored them and soon found himself a nice little spot. He sat on a chair, booted up a terminal, and observed the area around him where no one else resided.
This meant that, as long as he was careful and acted accordingly whenever someone neared closer to his area, he would succeed—well, as long as his program succeeded that is, but he had enough confidence that even if it failed, he wouldn’t be detected.
He already achieved success once by hacking the satellites, now he was just simply gaining permanent access to the Archives.
Upon launching the terminal, he swiftly inserted the USB containing his painstakingly coded program, causing the terminal to freeze for a split second before the screen abruptly turned black. Waiting for his program to take effect, he kept watch of his surroundings and made sure nobody noticed him.
He lowered his presence and blended in with the background, using his past experience as a student when he didn’t want to be picked to recite by a teacher, only this time, it was far more effective due to the sheer absurdity of Zenithral Power and his monstrous talent that could turn any random skill into something supernatural if he gave enough effort.
If he wanted to, he could even learn how to balance ten pens on top of each other in weird angles, but that was just a waste of his time. Maybe it could be used for a party trick, but the only party he’ll be attending is one full of blood and death.
Soon enough, the terminal once again booted up and the screen lit up, revealing a prompt asking for his login info. Swiftly typing in all of his credentials and browsing through random articles so that his digital trail wouldn’t be unusual, he left after a short thirty minutes and headed to his room with expectant eyes.
Upon arriving at the entrance to his room, he clutched the USB in his pockets and walked into his bedroom. Dismissing all of his rowdy thoughts, he pulled back his chair and turned on his laptop.
Braun took in a deep breath and calmed himself down.
If this succeeds, then he has truly done an amazing feat that would make him one of the world’s greatest experts when it came to programming, even in the ranks of Aegis.
His laptop slowly turned on and he patiently waited for it to boot up. When it finally did, he slipped the USB into one of its ports, causing his whole laptop to glitch for a moment before returning to normal, albeit with one simple difference.
Instead of revealing his home screen and his cute anime wallpaper, it instead displayed a simple black-and-white UI, with a search bar on the top right side of the screen, and the words ‘Aegis Database’ smackdabbed in the middle.
His body deflated like a balloon as relief washed over him.
Success… A smile formed on his face and he couldn’t help but sigh, staring at the ceiling with wandering thoughts. As long as I remember the code and the credentials needed to access it, I basically have permanent access to Aegis’ Database!
Even if I desert, I could constantly keep track of them, deepen my access levels, and basically know whatever they know!
If he ever had to fight against the whole organization as a lone man, this would prove indispensable, as by knowing their every move, he could react in the most optimal way possible!
Slicking back his hair, Braun slowly stood up and mumbled, “This deserves a round of drinks!”
His eyes glowed brightly, and he hurriedly headed for the cafeteria.
Although Braun may have strict discipline for himself, it didn’t mean he was an emotionless machine that would willingly work without pause. Having a little bit of fun here and there would prevent him from burning out and act as a tiny source of motivation for him to keep improving.
As he entered the cafeteria, he excitedly ordered a large amount of alcohol, “I’m definitely gonna pass out this time.”