The Mission Machine (2)

About 15 Miles away from the sanctuary...

At a cul-de-sac of a residential area...

(Cul-de-sac: Basically a dead-end small-roundabout of a street)

Jeff looked around at this battleground.

The houses here were in ruins now. Broken wooden planks, dry wall chunks, concrete blocks were scattered everywhere on the ground. Cracks and dents on the asphalt road... It's as if something had exploded there. Trees snapped broken. Cars flipped over onto the lawns. The air here reeked of burnt tires.

More importantly, there were 2D black strips sitting in mid-air. Some were the size of a finger. Some were the size of a ruler. Looking into those stripes, it was pitch black inside, void of anything visible.

Looking at the flow of the dust in the air... These void rifts were slowly sucking in air like a vacuum.

Looking at this scene, Jeff raised his brows.

'You know what. I'm not even surprised at this point.'

'Even if a tentacle god revived, or capitalist aliens invaded, or something... Nothing can surprise me anymore. Nothing.' Jeff slowly nodded.

"A group of thugs had assaulted one of our scavenger teams yesterday." Liam walked around. "And those thugs somewhat fit your description."

"Somewhat?" Jeff turned his gaze to Liam.

"Wellll... They didn't have black-droplet tattoos on their foreheads. You know Avatar?"

"Which avatar?"

"The air bending one."

"Ok. Yes?"

"Like Avatar's body markings... But thinner, black in color, and chaotic, similar to roots." Liam made hand gestures. It didn't help much.

"I know you've got beef with those thugs. But I would be careful if I were you. Apparently, upon their death, those thugs would self-detonate into... these." Liam pointed at a void rift. "But not these closing-up mild ones."

"Thanks for the information." Jeff nodded in thought. "In this case, looks like the sanctuary will be hitting back soon..."

"... Yes." Liam nodded. "Now that you have seen this. Should we..."

Everly's bubblegum bubble popped. "Wait Liam. Before that, since we are already here, shouldn't we test if this guy is the real deal?"

"I mean. Can we reeeaaally trust this guy with the mission." Everly stared at Jeff with a questioning gaze.

"I sure won't give my back to this random dude." Everly turned to her brother.

"If this guy gets his ass kicked by that monster, we'll be in some reeaal deep shit. We'd be totally fuu-aahhh-ked." Everly sang in high pitch. 

"Excuse me. Language?" Jeff looked at the girl.

"How old are you. 90? Lecturing me on language as if you don't curse. Fucking double-standard hypocrite."

Jeff raised his brows and took a deep breath. 'I'm NOT losing my temper to a teenage girl. Nope. Not happening. Not today.'

"Alright. First of all, you guys didn't mention that you'd be near the battleground." Jeff raised a finger. "Secondly-"

"What. Did I step on your tail old man? Did I just call you out? Why can't we be near the battleground. Why? What are you hiding?"

Jeff: ???

"Alright. Where's your team. Let's see them." Everly clapped and looked around.

"What are you talking about?" Jeff looked at Everly, then at Liam. He was genuinely confused on this one.

"Oh?" Everly put on a smile, as if she had seen through Jeff.

"Let me give you some examples."

"45 days ago. The Shadows (Hunter Squad), led by an S-rank, failed to eliminate an S-rank monster. 1 S-rank and 8 A-ranks, together, had to flee from that monster. But you, a single person, managed to eliminate it."

"18 days ago, you claimed yet another solo elimination of a S-rank monster."

"You think we'll just buy into your bull crap? Pleeeaaase." The girl shook her head.

"An invincible lone hero." The girl gestured like she was drawing an invisible rainbow.

"The strongest hunter. 100% success rate. Ohhhh~ You can count on me. I'm here to save the day. Nice pitch. Golden brand. But simply too fake. You know what I mean." The girl looked at Jeff, as if she was giving Jeff good advice.

"So let's be honest here and now. Let me see your team. I promise I'll keep this a secret. If you guys pass my evaluation, we'll move on with the mission. And you get the dagger."

"If not, you still got this information for free. Fair?"

Jeff: ...

This was Jeff's first time being in this situation.

"So you guys are looking for a fight as well." Jeff sighed. "Well, you are the clients. And I do want that dagger. So I guess I'll have to prove myself."

"But let me be clear. I don't do escort missions. Once you step onto the battleground, you are on your own."

"Tsch. Trying to scare me off huh? Is this where you are going?" Everly smirked.

Jeff sighed.

"Alright. Try me." Jeff wiggled his fingers at himself.

"Alright." Everly raised her hands. In an instance, a small pink pistol popped into her hands.

BAM!

The gunshot echoed throughout this neighborhood.

Everly widened her eyes at Jeff in disbelief. Pulling on her own hair, she seemed to be freaking out.

Jeff just got shot.

Sure. S-ranks were strong. But they were still made of flesh and bone! Getting shot still meant injury or even death!

"Why didn't you dodge!" The girl panicked like she got into trouble. "I thought you could dodge that!"

"Relax Everly. Relax. I can heal him."

Putting on a calming smile, Liam walked up to Jeff. "Don't worry. You'll be ok."

"Thanks. But I am actually fine." Jeff pulled on his shirt and looked through the bullet hole.

"Huh. Left a red spot..." Jeff rubbed that area. The red spot disappeared as well.

The Evansteins widened their eyes, as if their worldview had been shuttered.

"But if that's all you are capable of, I'd highly recommend that you stay behind, and stay away from battle."

"S-rank battles is no joke. I-"

"Yeah? I'm not done yet!" Hearing Jeff's recommendation, Everly chuckled in anger.

"Try this!" Everly's pink pistol suddenly disappeared.

In an instance, an AR-15 (semi-automatic rifle) popped into her arms.

Even after turning on [Haste], Jeff still couldn't catch how Everly's pistol disappeared, or how her AR-15 appeared.

The rifle just popped into existence.

[ Unique Quest: Spacetime Disturbance Data Collection (Incomplete) ]

[ Quest Description: A (Supernatural-Early) tier spacetime disturbance has been detected. Stay within (20) meters of the source of energy signature for (5) seconds... ]

[ Quest Reward: Inventory Slot * 1 ]

[ Now recording spacetime disturbance data... ]