42 My First Mission and Encounter

The school ended with a rang from the school bell. Everyone had already done packing their stuff beforehand, so when they heard it, all of them just burst out of their classroom.

Michael once again blocked my way out. He was still being stubborn to take me as his friend and I was still adamant in rejecting him. This time he spread his arm to make himself look bigger. What are you? A Bear? Anyway, I took it as a challenge.

Taking a green-colored glasses out of my bag and a hand-egg... I mean football. I prepared my running stance.

'This is it. I can see my road!' I thought while looking at the green line of arrows around Michael, showing a way around him.

I dashed toward Michael while he also prepared himself with one hand behind him to tackle me. Once I was nearing him, I shorten my step while still maintaining my speed.

"You shall not pass! Spear Tackle!" yelled Michael, while making a stabbing motion with his right arm. I could see a silhouette of an armored white knight riding a white horse with a lance behind him. His and the horse's eyes were censored in mosaic patterns, protecting someone from a copyright strike.

'I only have one chance, I will lead my team and become the champion!'

A gust of green mist started to cover my body. While taking a small step using my right leg, I used the trick I develop during my training. I could see a flashback of a shirtless John Wick, drinking sake right from the bottle while saying, "All you have to do, is believe in yourself!"

"Devil Bat Ghost!" I yelled. A silhouette of laughing Devil Bat appeared behind me. Its eyes were also censored to protect someone from another copyright strike.

Michael's Spear Tackle hit my chest and it went through my body, but there was no feeling of hitting a body.

"Nani!?" said Michael in confusion. Just like an illusion, my body turned into a green haze as it went pass Michael's body.

'I did it! I beat him!'

All of these were played out while my other classmates watching us with a weird face from the sidelines. What they were actually saw was me, juking Michael while he tried to grab me and tripped. They then saw Michael's flopping body on the floor and I, continuing to dash out of the classroom.

"What are they doing?" asked Will, helplessly.

"Just ignore them... Let's go. It's embarrassing to share the same oxygen with them," said Hannah while silently walking out.

After I passed through the school gate, somehow, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. I could have used one of the School Buses, but Chris said he would come to pick me up. Since there was still no sign of him yet, I wanted to go to an arcade center nearby where he agreed to find me at, if he was late. We already made a plan to have lunch with Claire, to celebrate my first day at School.

Before I could walk further, I noticed that the surrounding students were looking behind me while whispering to their friends.

"Look, that's her. I heard her parents worked for Umbrella. She must be so rich if she had her own chauffeur, taking her on and off school."

"No wonder she looks beautiful for her age. Her parents must have to spend a lot of money to take care of her."

I heard the gossiping students' banter. Not only one, but many more talked about her, mainly talking about the same topics. I turned my head just to see who it was. A short-haired blonde girl was walking while ignoring the commotion around her as if it was a normal occurrence for her.

It was Sherry Birkin, the daughter of Dr. William Birkin, who injected himself with the G-Virus and turned into the main boss of Resident Evil 2. She was one of the protagonists from the Resident Evil series. The damsel in distress, but without the annoying traits, they usually had.

Recalling the previous gossip about her, my chest turned hot with anger. She was 12 for god's sake. They were purposely looking for reasons to bully her, even if it was absurd.

Our eyes met once she went into her car. I suddenly recalled that she grew up without her parents. Even before the Raccoon City accident, she was all alone. Her parents were too busy experimenting in their damn Labs. I feel bad about his fate.

The chauffeur then closed the door for her and started driving the car. I was still looking at the car even after it disappeared from my vision. I turned around and walked toward the arcade

The Arcade Center I went to, was not too far away from the school area. It was rather new from its designs and decorations. There were a lot of different games inside, varying from racing games to fighting games. There were also the rigged claw-machines filled with stuffed dolls and toys. For others, it might be frustrating, but for me, it was my specialty. I gave the Claw Machine a Reinforcement and began my hunt.

There was a bit of an explanation of how to use the machine and some minor information. I already understood how my power works. A simple Reinforcement would give a Weak buff to it. If I wanted it to increase its effect, I have to know every single part and function of the item.

If it was a gun, I have to know what type of bullets it used. What material it was made from. What the name of its parts was and their function. How it was made. Everything. That was why, after reading a bit of introduction to the Claw Machine, I got Low increase instead of the usual Weak increase in improvement.

<Claw Machine>

<Grants Low increase in the claw's grip stability and steadiness. Once every 5th try would automatically give the user a successful result.>

<Duration: 31 minutes.>

With that, I started taking out the stuffed animal dolls one by one. I make a motion of putting the prizes in my bag when I actually put it in my Inventory Bar. I could have reinforced my bag, but 31 min duration was too short, and I worried that if I forgot to recast it, all of my stuff would spill out.

When the owner started looking at me with cold eyes, I stopped and switched to play another game on one of the arcade machines. He started checking the machine and tried it. When he realized its performance was too good, he put a paper with "out of order" written on it.

The game in front of me was Tekken 3. It was a newly released game of this year, so a lot of people played it right now. I could even hear the occasional praise from my surroundings.

"Woahh... look it just moved like real life!"

"Look, their face has a lot of expressions!"

"It this the new generation of 3D games!?"

"Look! It can move downward and upward!"

"It's mind-blowing! It's the future!"

I looked at them while smirking. Peasant! If only I could show them the future games that were about to come.

Tekken was one of my all-time favorite fighting game, followed by Smash Bros at second place and Street Fighter in the third. I picked one of the machines and picked Jin as my main. Tekken 3's Jin was the best since it shares some moves with Kazuya. Ahem... I seemed to get excited a bit.

While local kids only spammed button, I started showing my combos, achieving perfect rounds each time when suddenly, my screen froze. New Challenger!

The Arcade machine was made opposite to each other, so anyone could play together on a separate screen. I wanted to see who it was, but my challenger already picked Paul and the game was about to start.

'Ahh... Damn it, I knew where this is going to.' I thought in my mind. Right at the beginning of the round, Paul launched a Death Fist. An OP move that could take more than half my health points if it hit. My opponent keeps spamming that move, every single time. It was just about time until I lose miserably.

You Lose. Continue? 10... 9... 8...

'Ohh, this is how you gonna play?'

I proceed to pick the super cheapest and most absurd character in the game, Eddy. All I need to do is just sit down and mash up the buttons, and voila! Instant win. Some passersby commented and advised me to pick Paul as well when I started losing again. But the thought of controlling the character that beats mine, makes me feel dirty somehow.

"Just give up, Edward. You can't beat me." said the unexpectedly familiar voice.

I leaned my body and saw him. Michael with his evil smug face.

'Oh, that's it, you bastard!'

I picked Eddy again, not wanting to give up. Meanwhile, Chris arrived a few minutes later. Watching a group of people surrounding an arcade box while chanting.

Eddy! Eddy!...

Paul! Paul!...

Chris couldn't help but scratch his head while looking at this commotion. Fast-forwarding a bit later, I was on the Family Diners, complaining about Michael non-stop to my Uncle and Aunt. The just laughed hearing my story. The final score for the match was 8 for me - 10 for Michael. Although I lost today, I promised to return it far worse for him.

'A Redfield always pays his debts.'

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nightfall came, and the nocturnal animal started roaming the surface. I was standing at one of the small alleys, observing my target with a binocular. I was wearing the same attire I wore when taking the entrance test the Continental 3 days ago.

The Mission that John gave me was simple, eradicate a minor gang that had been threatening my client for the past week. The payment wasn't much, but what I wanted wasn't that, but the reward from the system.

In front of me was a golden paper, the contract that I received earlier. After I accepted the mission, the golden contract automatically writes the details including rewards and punishment.

Unlike the quest, I couldn't gain EXP from killing mobs, but I could gain it when the contract was completed. The reward would vary, depending on its difficulties, from Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard, and Insane. I didn't know how it evaluates the difficulty, and just simply didn't care. For now, I just wanted to focus on grinding.

"You're ready?" a voice was heard from my earpiece. It was a device that John gave me so that we can communicate during missions.

"Yes, can I go now?" I didn't wait for his answer and just turned into Stealth mode.

"Decide your infiltration route from the start. Although you have your ability, they would notice something wrong when one of their guys stop reporting."

Although they were a minor gang, there was a reason that they could still walk freely around the city. The place this gang currently in was a dilapidated apartment, downtown. There were a lot of these old abandoned buildings here. It was the perfect hideout for them.

I recalled the information about them. They have around 20 active gang members. Their leader was a buff old man in his 50's.

I started counting for their numbers.

1...

3...

6...

10...

16...

All of them were here. It will be easy to round them up. I didn't use my guns and just equipped a knife on each hand.

I roamed the building, starting from the bottom floor and upward. They couldn't detect me, even after I have killed most of their men in their sleep. Since the other gang members wouldn't be suspicious about their sleeping friends, they become my first targets.

In 10 minutes, half of them already gone. Next was the patrolling guards. Their fate was also the same. No resistance, even after I cut their throat one by one.

After another 10 minutes, the only one left was their leader and his two bodyguards. Currently, they were inside their room, sniffing white flours. It was all too easy. I cut both of his guards' neck, soundlessly. Even until now, the leader was unaware.

Slash!

With a simple swipe, his life vanished in an instant.

Surprisingly, I didn't feel much resistance than I expected when I started killing a fellow human. This was not my first time killing a person. The first one was crowned to the man who murdered my parents that night.

I wondered why, but I was strongly leaning to my experience of killing countless Genma from the Onimusha Series, back then in, Paris.

"All's done," I reported to the intercom.

"Good. Contact the Continental's cleaning support and you can take your rewards later. There's no need to take their body as proof of clearing Mission. The Continental would always trust their members, but if somehow you lied, it will be your responsibility to take. Understood?"

"Yes." I pretty much understand what John meant. I have to be careful and check again if there was any mistake. After I was sure that there was nothing, I turned off Stealth Mode and contacted the Continental's support unit to clean everything without leaving any evidence.

John said that I could return home for today and rest. The reward from my client would be given tomorrow. The reward from the system would also be given at the same time as the other reward was given, so there was nothing much to do here anymore. I looked at one of my dead targets and looked at the watch. It was 0:40 AM.

'It already past midnight, I better return for now and sleep.'

Before the mission started, John already drilled me in another extensive training. Although the mission couldn't be called hard, my body was still tired from his training, earlier.

I turned on my Stealth once again and ran home. Raccoon City during the night was quite beautiful if I must say. Since it was out in the middle of nowhere, I could see the glittering stars. Although it was a bit dim, it was still better than the other bigger cities.

When I was halfway toward home, I suddenly stopped. Something caught my attention. Correction... It wasn't something, it was someone.

On the empty Raccoon Park, a girl was sitting on a swing, looking down.

'What is she doing in the middle of the night?' I thought in my mind.

It was Sherry Birkin.

avataravatar
Next chapter