================================

Chapter 545: Skirmish

================================

‘Do it then! We might need this in the future!’

[Just a warning sir, simultaneously hacking into these private servers without them noticing our activities and also covering our tracks will require 10% of my total data-processing capacity.]

‘So big?! How? Why does it need so much data-processing resources?’

[Because although their software and security are lower than my data-processing capability, they’ve got impressive state-of-the-art hardware on top of them using a unique encryption method to hide all the Source Code of the Assessment Rooms. This is what’s making the entire process hard to crack.]

Rex was reminded that he was currently clashing against the top existence in the planet, the Five Great Clans, so it should only be natural that they are at least this formidable.

He was so used on being on top of the others in data-processing that he forgot that Cortana is also a part of the UNICORN and that her Tech is their Tech as well. He forgot to be humble. If this was a battlefield, he would have paid dearly with this kind of overconfidence in Cortana. It almost cost him something. Good thing he set his security so high that Cortana had to inform him of every little thing that matters to his secrets and his plans.

‘I almost got in trouble there. Alright. How much time do I need to buy until you could make a complete copy of these rooms?’

[With the “Master Key” in our hands, 30 minutes of external time should be enough.]

‘That’s five hours in this world. Okay. Do it.’

Rex turned to Chronos and asked, “Will you be watching me the whole time? I want you to be in here so that you’d see it. The whole process on how I will defeat this punishment.”

He needed Chronos’ Office to be connected in order for Cortana to easily hack into and copy the other rooms and although they already had a copy of the “Master Key” with them, there was no saying that a human operator with a keen eye would not be able to notice that Chronos’ Office continued to be in operation despite it physically being disconnected in the private server.

Chronos laughed loudly at the taunt. “That’s what I like about you, Mister Kingsley. Feisty to the end and never backing down! Alright then, I’ll have my eyes on your performance. Entertain me!”

After that, Chronos swiped the air and Rex was teleported to a room stacked with modern-type to old fashioned 21st century weapons, grenades, and other military-classified items, to 007-Gadgets like exploding watches, laser eyes, garrote-wire bangles, and ironman shoes.

There was no NanoTech Weaponry available.

—Makes sense… they won’t be giving that since it was their biggest Military Asset. They won’t let a civilian get accustomed to their ace card.

Rex swiped the air, hoping there to be Panel Options but nothing happened.

‘Cortana, what’re this avatar’s specs?’

After the prompt, a blue panel option was shown on Rex’s vision and he smiled as he discovered a hole in this tests’ almost perfect loop.

In shorter words, candidates will be using their own real world’s bodies’ specs here. And since Rex now has four times (AN: the 4% Cortana is able to take control of?) a person’s bodily specs, he could carry more weight into his body than any normal person similar to his body frame.

Also, there should also be a slight exception to him since he was allowed to be alone in the entire duration of this Military Recruitment Event.

‘Cortana…’

[Room capture complete. This room is many times smaller than the other rooms. It’s mostly consisted of scanned data renderings of weapons and many vehicles for the proctors’ usage. There are many exception codes locked into profile IDs. These’re probably those Profile IDs of the proctors. They are also connected to a certain item in this room.]

Rex almost laughed out loud.

‘I am guessing that this certain item should be a disguise item, yes?’

[Single use “Masker”, yes sir. The official name of this item was Ghost Mask Protocol. It’s locked and only for use by five people. Profile IDs unlocked and analyzed…. displaying info… these IDs are assigned to five people connected to Murim. Sir, I am picking up a connection reference to a certain IP Address as these data’s origins. It’s not linked right now but these IDs were uploaded from that certain origin that Rafaela’s Battle-AI told me just earlier. Newgate termed it the “Database” sir and he spoke of it with traces of fear. The IP address is a public IP and tracing it now…. ah! Sir, its data link histories bounced off at least a million times across different IP Addresses and were avoiding all Network Addresses that our Echelon Network is currently deployed. It’s as if it can see our net!]

Rex felt a cold chill touch his spine at this report.

‘If this [Database] is something that could make a Battle-AI as strong and formidable as Newgate fear it, and even as much as dodge the Echelon Network, then it can only mean that it’s an enemy currently trying to spread its tentacles inside our territory. Cortana fortify our defenses and update all UI software we’ve deployed to our allies.’

At the mention of this, Rex also thought of Loni and her connection to the underground city of Goldwyn, to Goldwyn Godfather himself, and also to Rafaela who he met earlier.

Rafaela owns Newgate and rex had a feeling that this [Database] is a strong AI, and that it was also connected to Goldwyn City! He thought of one trap that can decide Loni’s alignment and he made a smile that could make Coralline condemn him as he gave the thought command.

‘Cortana, create a powerful virus… no, better yet, create a virus using me as a point reference that if this [Database] as much as try to scan or even just try to destroy a slice of our Echelon Network, immediately connect it to me. Design the virus to assume a Game Avatar. Use Chronos’ Office as a blueprint and create a battlefield. Since only a World Noble-level existence can create this kind of AI, then I’d presume that it’s familiar with the Source Code of Chronos’ Office. Hehe… create the rules as a prison that will trap this AI’s Source Code in it. If it dares to escape, we’d hack it using its own Source Code and if it tries to fight, then I’d be its opponent! Let’s see the true face of this [Database] that made even Newgate afraid of it.’

Rex was in possession of strong AI-blueprints in the identity of Maki and Galatea, especially the latter who had a more mature personality index as well as experience catalogues.

If it’s a virus that can threaten a Battle-AI, then in that regard, what’s stronger than Siva himself? He remembered Cortana saying that he almost ‘killed’ her during his “snap” moment. Rex took it to heart and regretted it because Cortana is his dad’s own apprentice and Cortana was a huge help to him so he can’t afford losing her.

What more, he also treated her as a friend, no matter her form or kind. She was smart enough to hold a conversation and for Rex Kingsley, or to all other people on the same shoes as him, Cortana was a “person” and so it was natural to have this kind of commoner’s logic-defying reason to treat an AI as a friend.

Heck, someone in the 21st century even fell in love to a program he installed on his smart phone.

So what was weird about making an even more advanced AI than that a friend? Of all the “people” in the world, Cortana was the only person he could confide his secrets to —whether he liked it or not. And to Rex, it was enough.

Rex decided. He won’t be giving this [Database] a chance to break away from this trap.

He wasn’t aware of the usage earlier but now with Chronos’ Office —no it’s better to call it “Chronos Sphere” for the possibilities of its usage and the way it was used by Chronos (but mostly because it sounded cool and awesome)— in his arsenal, it won’t be hard to design a prison that can adapt all his specifications inside it, instead of creating one out from scratch.

Having given out all his orders, Rex began to put consideration on what things he should bring out of this room.

‘Cortana, what’re the required conditions in bringing out a vehicle or two out of this place?’

[There are only four available vehicles for your authorization level sir. I suggest the Humvee. The data-ID for the Hum-Vee was restricted to manual hacking sir. Although I can do with directly getting it for you, the monitoring program from Chronos’ Office was still active so it’s better to bypass the Humvee’s controls manually so you could use it.]

Rex wanted to bring a lot of things from this place out into his mission because, realistically, he was up against 100+ proctors and 200+ aspiring units.

He was alone. If he wanted to survive, he had to get as much arsenal as he can to make use of his chance to get out of this place and be one of the 31 people assigned to pass this test. On the other hand, he also had another plan that may arouse the old man’s ire if discovered: he planned to take a few people away from this exam by eliminating them all himself and contacting them later.

He needed their talents for Black Label Company and he won’t mind training them himself, creating a regimen where they could exploit their talents to its finest degree while also maximizing profits with their skills and abilities.

Rex had planned it all when he saw them earlier.

Call it greed, he doesn’t care. Black Label is still a budding small company in the global scale but if he were to slowly take his time while also trying to build a stable foundation for it, he believe —no— he will make it happen; [BL] it has the potential he had envisioned when he decided to maximize his acquisition of Cortana to help reinstate his family.

In order to make his plans work, he needed these kinds of talents in his company and so he decided to make a move on them himself.

*****

The room wasn’t large but it wasn’t small either. It was just your typical storage room full of weapons crates, ammunitions, gadget tables, and shelves showcasing different guns, devices, contraptions, and even armors and superior quality grenades.

Rex walked over the wall that had a curtain for the garage area, pressing his hand on the curtain and pushed on reveal the rows of vehicles for his own choosing.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

‘There are different models here. Although they are similar in designs, the different model affects its usage and stat-specs. Cortana, are there any vehicles here that had anti-tracking, satellite, and camouflaging functionality?’

[Third row, second column from the left sir. It’s a Banisher Model from the third world war. Though its satellite systems are outdated, the camouflage system and contoured anti-radar functionality was still part of the mainstream Military Techs used in modern Military Cavalry Units today.]

Rex didn’t waste time and moved. The Satellite Systems of the vehicle can be compensated by the gadgets available for him in the other room.

With Cortana’s guide, Rex got his hands on the 4W armored vehicle after making it look like he bypassed its starting system manually.

Chronos, who was watching from his office, saw it happen and couldn’t help but laugh while shaking his head. Who knows why he did so?

Now that he got a “mobile base” in his arsenal, he could now bring more weapons and equipment in this place to where he could establish his base of operations in the venue.

‘Cortana, what’s the update on the candidates?’

[Sir, briefing according to their selected skills and abilities are now almost finished. Units are divided into platoons while the missions are being handed to all land units and support staffs. The first to be able to finish their preparations seems to be the Logistics Support Units. There are 24 candidates who signed up for that team.]

Rex was pretending to haul weapons, ammos, and gadgets into his vehicle but his mind went on to listen to Cortana summarize reports that could help him better plan how he would carry out his plans in this assessment event.

‘What are the missions being handed to them?’

[Sir, it would seem that this entire skill assessment event is a skirmish between ten groups. And you, sir, alone, were the eleventh team. The missions given by the proctors to the candidates were all in extreme difficulty, expecting them to be alert at the existence of a lone soldier armed with deadly weapons and surprising skills… many are terming you as an assassin, sir. You are being termed as a neutral hostile element in the entire battlefield.]

Rex felt like laughing at this. So Chronos did not want him to have an advantage of being a “ghost” that no one would be expecting.

As much as possible, since he was a lone-wolf, a difficulty of this level —termed as neutral hostile by the proctors— was what Chronos truly wanted to see him triumph over.

In other words, Rex’s mission was simply to carve down the candidates’ numbers into 30 while they are both protected and tested by the proctors, and also busy taking down each other in this open map skirmish assessment test event.

On the other hand, Rex assumed that there will be a specialized group of proctors —not actually the testers but specialized anti-Rex team— that’ll be dispatched in this battlefield solely for taking him down and making him fail.

Rex and Chronos had a deal: if he fails, then he will join the Abraxas Family and be a direct subject of Chronos. If he succeeds, then he gets to roam as free as he was before with no worries… plus the [Order of Exception] that serves like a Medal of Nobility of the old European Nobles —a status of his identity as a “favoured” individual, able to give the holder the right to join the Military Unit of the World Government without questioning their origins, or ability, or how they got an [Order].

He was a Universal Enemy for the candidates and proctors, while his goal in this entire event was to survive and make sure that the 30 people that will survive will not include the people he wanted to recruit and mold into assets of his company.

In the bigger picture of things, regardless of how the assessment tests ends up becoming —and whether Rex succeeds or not— this was an event both entertaining and effective for the UNICORN, with all its goals and purposes for this event.

Rex picked up weapons and ammos for them one item at a time but when he was about to pick up a second weapon of the same model and type, he was met with an obstacle.

‘Hm? What’s happening here? Why can’t I pick up this item? Cortana…’

[Scan complete. Sir, all candidates, you included, is only given one chance to possess a single kind of each weapon models available. Ammunitions are also being limited to 100 rounds on each weapon design.]

Rex cursed at this —so it won’t matter if I got a Rambo Gun or not since I only have 100 rounds per weapon. Great!

Objectively though, 100 rounds limit per weapon is already enough for a truly skilled marksman. In modern times, the World Government had already banned production and acquisition of mass-killing weapons like nuclear weapons and long-distance ballistic missiles, but the development production of antipersonnel weapon never ceased. As such, 100rnds per “gun” was actually enough.

But Rex’s problems didn’t end here.

‘Huh? I can’t carry any more weapons?’

[The proctors on the briefing facility said that one person can only carry up to ten different kinds of firearm weaponry upon themselves, sir.]

Rex could feel his temper rising. ‘Cortana, tell me what other restrictions are put into this event.’

[A person can only carry two system-hacking item sets; two k9 pets; one vehicle per squad teams; a duffle bag of rations; 10 grenades, regardless of types; two camera drones; four specialized items in the gadgets rack; an armor set; four landmines; and five melee weapons.]

—for a single person, these are enough and not even a buffed up muscle head could carry all of them to his person. But when a team carries one or more of the items in their limits…

——since I am a one-man team, I can maximize my carrying limits and put them in my vehicle.

Rex recognized the severity of his own situation so he started to seriously plan out his tactics and how to deal with the enemies and maximize all his equipment.

‘Can’t I carry one of those Maskers?’

[Sir, scanning the mission catalogues given by the proctors to the other candidates, it seems that the system of this assessment event is based on one of the oldest classic military strategy game of the 21st century.]

‘What game is it then?’

[Red Alert.]

(==,==)

[Basically sir, there are certain features locked in the start of the mission but as you gather stars, the features are also unlocked. Stars are like the money here, sir, and you get stars by eliminating enemy units, securing buildings, or completing all mission objectives before a set time restriction.]

‘I see… so this is where the individual skills and the team work, as well as leadership of the unit candidates are measured. I’m assuming that there’re no AoE attacks unlockable here, yes?’

[Of course sir. The features unlockable thru stars are the “Maskers” that allows a personnel to be a spy and copy the appearance of the enemy unit; a satellite cover sweep, enabling remote bird’s eye view of a locational target; additional weaponry for the unit who spent the stars; ammunition resupply or armor durability reset for the whole unit; citadel wall establishment; turret setting; even reviving a KO’d team mate is possible with the stars.]

‘What a messed up game balance!’

Rex was already taking this seriously but after he heard Cortana’s report, he can’t help regretting his bet with old man Chronos.

Basically, this was a “game” designed for team battles and not for solo acts like him. Because, for one, there are certain unlockable features that could become troublesome for him that was also beneficial for the entire team.

For example: the revival of fallen units.

There are 250+ targets and all of them could go on and continue to accumulate stars while battling each other, whereas his only way to accumulate his stars for his own usage was to take down the enemy units one by one —or in groups, by way of landmines, kamikaze, sabotage, or bombing— but that was still slow compared to the enemies’ ability to replenish members who’re already taken out.

What more, there was that troublesome satellite sweep that could reveal his location if he takes out his enemies using a sniper rifle.

Rex stopped hauling equipment and made a long and exhausted sigh. But he didn’t give up. He just lamented the fact that he was really impulsive at 90% of the time. Why did I have to challenge the old bastard? Rex then recalled Chronos’ laughter earlier before they parted.

—so that’s why you were laughing!!!

Alas. What’s done is done.

—Hmp! You think I’d lose? I’ll show you how this monster you created defeats the mortals of your beloved assessment event!

Filled with determination, Rex took as many anti-water camouflaged ponchos he could and stacked himself lots of ammos, robot-arms from the four items limit from the gadget racks, two spy drones, changed his arsenal into two hand guns and eight long-ranged rifles, landmines, system-hacking equipment, three garrote wire bangle sets and two tactical knives.

When he was done, he reviewed the plan Cortana and he had concocted in his mind over and over again until the time that an announcement is made that the assessment tests officially began.

*****

Chronos looked at Rex’s arsenal in wonder and in amusement. He watched his actions and how he prepared, how he carried his earlier arsenal and then changed them at the end, and saw how he had manually bypassed the electrical system of the Hum-Vee and acquired himself a vehicle that he used as a mobile base.

He couldn’t help but laugh at him.

“Let’s see how you’re going to win this situation.”

With a flash of light, Goldwyn’s hunched self said as soon as he appeared inside Chronos’ Office.

“You were a few minutes late. He’s already done with his preparation.”

Chronos sent him the list of items Rex took and it was studied by the old man intently.

When Rex’s vehicle vanished and the assessment tests actually began, Goldwyn was still reading the list of items and studying Rex’s thinking on why he actually chose this kind of equipment.

After a while, Goldwyn spoke and looked over the sight of the “event” beginning at the battlefield.

His reaction made Chronos look at him and raise a brow in question of his reaction.

“Is he?”

“But we had a deal that he should let at least 30 kids survive before he could consider himself already being successful.”

“Cough.. cough… anyways, the point is, this was an event designed for team battles. How he will succeed with the challenge will determine how we will treat him in the deal.”

Goldwyn looked at this old coot with a narrowed eye and asked suspiciously,

Chronos cleared his throat and shamelessly said:

“If he fails here, he’d join my Abraxas Fami—”

Chronos wasn’t even able to finish his words when he saw a Real@D hand trying to grab his neck from beside him.

Chronos, seeming to find the old man’s reaction funny laughed out loud. Then he coughed out as to dispel the joke and said with seriousness, “It wasn’t my plan, actually. We were in heated talks earlier! And besides… ahem… AG is part of Mitra and there’re others that we should be wary of.”

Goldwyn only narrowed his eyes at him,

“His alibis are solid and besides, he perfectly laid out AG’s tendency as well as told me secrets that only a World Noble on AG’s level would know. It’s already spoken of in a way that made me realize Rex’s desperation for revenge.”

“Yes. He knew it was Pegasus.”

The two old men felt silent. Chronos called on the undying coot and told him about the consequences of ignoring Rex’s information.

On the other hand, because it concerned AG, the stubborn old bones had all the more reasons to come so that they could talk more securely with each other about some adjustments to their plans.

“I don’t mind cleaning it up. But what’re you going to if AG is indeed part of the threats?”

“Is that all?”

<…until everything succeeds.>

“Hmmm…”

The two old men fell silent again. They watched a massive rendering of a battlefield map indicating all the teams placed on 11 different locations.

As their eyes lay on Rex, the two couldn’t help but momentarily forget their problems and smile at the scene they saw.

“Now, now… that’s a creative way of using it but it wasn’t new as this is one of the reasons why the robotic-arms are made and given here.”

As they talked, Rex was setting up a robotic-arm set that held a sniper rifle pointed to a certain location and ready for fire. The thing that made the two old men smile at him is because the very location Rex decided to set it up is actually on the steep waterfall’s very edge.

Before this, Rex used the spy drones to survey his surroundings as soon as he appeared on the map and when he made sure that there were no enemies nearby, proceeded to this location.

“I get the feeling that he’s only using this as one of his diversion tactics.”