Chapter 32
Max decided to speak first to the Ninja riding in the passenger seat next to him.
After all, she was someone he had to work with on this mission.
“I’m Max. I look forward to working with you.”
“Usagi.”
The other party glanced at him before looking straight ahead. She gave off a strong vibe that she didn’t want to talk.
Max didn’t force the conversation to continue. He was satisfied just hearing her name.
“Usagi? Probably not her real name.”
It was likely an alias referencing her traits as a Rabbit Beastman.
Among mercenaries, there were far more who used aliases than those who used their real names, like Max.
Silence continued inside the vehicle heading to District 41.
Max only managed to arrive in District 41 after the sun had set.
“We have arrived at the Rally Point. You can head to room 306 of the Blueline Motel ahead. The door is open.”
The place where the three mercenaries were to gather was a rundown Motel adjacent to the Harbor.
After relaying the information, the Driver left Max and Usagi behind. Looking around, Max and Usagi saw no sign of anyone else.
Even though it had grown dark, only the Gantry Crane and the Tower Crane moving containers under the lights caught their eyes.
“Shall we go right in?”
At Max’s words, Usagi gave a small nod and started walking.
They passed the empty Counter with a single chime bell sitting on it. Since it was a building without an Elevator, they had to use the stairs.
Taking the stairs two at a time, Max noticed a sense of incongruity.
'…There’s no sound of footsteps.'
This was a Ninja named Usagi. She was walking right in front of him, yet he couldn’t hear her footsteps, even though this was a space where sound echoed.
Whether she was doing it intentionally or it was a habit so ingrained in her body that she did it unconsciously, it gave the impression that she had mastered the fundamentals.
'It makes me wonder what school she’s from.'
Harboring curiosity about what school Ninja Usagi belonged to, they arrived on the 3rd floor.
Usagi took the lead and clattered open the door to room 306. A voice rang out from inside.
“Usagi! It’s been a while. We both sure have tough lives.”
“…”
Usagi gave a small nod and entered the room.
As Max followed and revealed himself, a burly bald man welcomed him.
“I’m Bivol. You must be the New Face.”
“Max.”
Max took Bivol’s extended hand and shared a brief handshake.
Bivol a light blinked in one eye, making it clear that it was a prosthetic.
And the peculiar patterns were etched into his skin.
Those pitch-black tattoos filling his skin in harmony with his Cyberware weren’t meaningless decorations.
“Tattoos engraved by the druid bloodline.”
Max had only seen them by chance in his past life.
He couldn’t distinguish exactly what kind of druid he was. He only knew the fact that it was a very rare power.
“Are you unaugmented with no machines in your body, Mister?”
“Because I’m a mage.”
“Ah~ so you’re a precious one. This mission might just get a bit easier.”
As if that were answer enough, Bivol nodded. mages had a tendency to maintain their natural bodies.
“Let’s sit down first.”
They went inside and sat casually around the table.
Lacking chairs, the large Bivol had to sit on the bed. He slyly began the Identity Check.
“We still have time before we start, so let’s verify our information first. Usagi and I are old acquaintances, but we don’t know anything about you, Max, since this is our first time meeting. You said you’re a mage, but what attribute do you Handle?”
“Non-attribute.”
Max used his magic power to lift the table slightly.
Bivol tapped the floating table and nodded.
“Hmm, looks like you’re a Psychokinetic Type.”
“That’s right. What about you two?”
At Max’s question, Bivol revealed a hand axe hidden in his coat.
“I do Close Combat using an axe.”
Following that, Max and Bivol’s gazes naturally flowed toward Usagi.
Usagi gave a calm answer.
“Ninjutsu.”
It was a concise answer. Max didn’t ask any further.
He lacked knowledge about Ninjutsu, so there was no point in asking what kind of Ninjutsu it was.
'It’d be better to ask if something is possible depending on the situation.'
Max used Psychokinesis to bring over a pen and paper sitting in the corner and placed them on the table.
He immediately moved the pen to draw a Blueprint.
The Operation Area remained clearly in his head. His memory, at least, was quite good.
“Wow, mages really are different, huh?”
Bivol marveled as he watched Max’s drawing.
Ignoring Bivol’s words and continuing to move the pen, Max suddenly felt he was bored.
'Candy.'
He pulled a Lollipop from his pocket. He used Severing on the stick part with his magic power and slipped it under his mask.
Bivol was openly showing his face, but Max, like Usagi, had no intention of lowering his mask.
“Such a waste.”
A Lollipop without a stick - it was a truly cruel picture.
The flavor of the candy, with only its head remaining, was cola.
Despite the unconventional way he ate it, he found the taste to his liking.
“Drawing it in detail is a Waste of Time, so I’ll stop here.”
The pen, released from his Psychokinetic hold, lay flat on the table.
Max recited the Request Details.
“Starting from a certain time, we lock down the Harbor, take out the group bringing in the goods, and dispose of the distributed items. Then, we destroy the ship coming in at dawn. You know this, right?”
“From what I hear, they use at least 80 mercenaries just for Harbor guards when the goods come in. Even if they’re weaklings, having that many is a pain.”
Naturally, it wasn’t just riff-raff.
The Real Deal was mixed in as well.
“We need to whittle down their numbers as much as possible before engaging in a Direct Confrontation.”
“That’s not the kind of job for my type, so should I leave it to the mage and the Ninja?”
Max nodded, and Usagi remained silent.
“I have a method in mind, so let’s reduce their numbers as much as possible.”
“Good. I’ll just kill them as I see them and be done with it.”
Bivol’s plan was simple. He wasn’t wrong.
Because there was no one who warned them not to kill anyone.
“The information said this Harbor is owned by a Corporation called Neptune, and it subcontracts the security to a Company called Aqua Shell. Do you remember?”
At Max’s question, Bivol nodded.
“Since Neptune is completely ceding control of that time slot, depending on the identity of the goods, are they accomplices?”
“Put aside any thoughts of judging good and evil. Let’s just do our job.”
“Hah! I’m just saying. You’re pretty stiff, Max my friend.”
Bivol laughed heartily. It wasn’t a bad atmosphere.
Max drew a bunch of circles on the Blueprint. They were the locations of the security cameras.
“Once we enter, if the guards' movements seem strange, I plan to destroy the cameras with Psychokinesis, but I can’t touch the Server Room, so Handle yourselves accordingly.”
“Max. Max. That’s Usagi’s specialty, so we can just move comfortably.”
Usagi, who had been listening quietly, pulled out a Ninja’s weapon hidden on her thigh.
It was a kunai.
“You’re going to smash the cameras with that?”
Usagi shook her head side to side.
“EMP Kunai.”
Max marveled silently.
She was carrying a good item.
“Then we shall check the location of the Server Room.”
Max and Bivol continued their discussion over the map until their mouths went dry.
Usagi threw in a word here and there, lending a hand to their progress.
Just conceptualizing the Mission Flow like that consumed two hours.
The mission time was approaching.
“When Usagi heads to the Server Room, I’ll move this way, so Bivol, you wait here until I give the signal.”
At Max’s words, the two nodded in understanding.
The rough outline was finished.
Max borrowed a lighter from Bivol and burned the paper with the Blueprint drawn on it.
Bivol let out a deep sigh as if exhausted from the meeting and expressed his doubts.
“Even if we smash the Harbor like this today, won’t the bastards giving orders from behind just move somewhere else and continue their deals? And we’ll get called there again. Plus, what are goods that still leave a profit even after paying for a Harbor Rental and hiring 80 mercenaries? What exactly are they bringing into the Harbor…”
Perhaps realizing the growing danger and the tightening security, Bivol showed concerns uncharacteristic of a Mercenary who needed work.
Max spat out the end of his Lollipop and voiced his opinion.
“It’s probably enough to disrupt the District 41 trade and make Neptune’s Harbor unusable. Operations like this usually secure another Harbor in advance before using it. If this becomes widely known, corporations that own harbors won’t easily agree to outside deals either.”
“You catch on a lot faster than uneducated mercenaries, huh? Is it because you’re a mage?”
“That’s a prejudice.”
“Anyway, you’re saying we have to succeed in this mission to root out the mastermind behind this. Even if we don’t know what the Association is trying to root out.”
It was dark outside.
Checking the time, Max began preparing to leave with his comrades.
'I wonder how it’ll go.'
Max’s perspective on this mission was split into two branches.
The first was the view that the current incident was a branch derived from the Gaia Food situation.
To put it simply, the conclusion was that in the aftermath of the future Max had twisted, a mission that didn’t exist Before Regression had been created.
'It’s merely a guess, but…'
And the second was a more realistic and cruel hypothesis.
The perspective was that this mission had proceeded regardless of the Gaia Food incident, and that the mercenaries dispatched by the Bohemian Association had failed miserably, thereby keeping it from becoming known to the outside world.
Max was keeping these two hypotheses in mind.
“Kuhaha! Shall we go make some money?”
Bivol laughed heartily and attached Cyberware to both his ears and jaw.
Clack! Clack! The metal connected together, covering his face. His prosthetic eye linked with the visor.
Max and Usagi simply adjusted their masks lightly, and that was it.
The three people left the Hotel and slipped into the pitch-black alley without even a streetlight.