An old friend?

[Attempt 75: Failure]

[Completion Rate: 10%]

[Reason for Failure: Death]

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It wasn't really surprising that he had failed another round at this point.

He didn't even expect a resolution.

While he had been waiting to meet the Familia's men he had considered that he might not make it out of the confrontation alive.

The fact that an 'ordinary' civilian had somehow managed to wipe out a squad full of hardened criminals was extremely suspicious in itself.

Adding to the fact that the civilian was the best friend of their young master, there was definitely something fishy going on.

When it comes to the mafia, they often follow the creed of - Kill First, Ask Questions Later.

But…

He didn't even get a chance to meet them.

Before the war was even over, the entire warehouse was blown up by an explosion.

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It may or may not have been the same bomb, but one thing was clear.

There was someone else here other than Damien's Familia and the Bratva he had seen in the warehouse before.

More members of the Bratva sent as reinforcements?

If that was the case, maybe the Bratva wasn't as incompetent as he had originally thought.

But why did it seem like they were hell-bent on preventing a meeting between him and Damien?

Surely it was just a coincidence.

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[Attempt 77]

After clearing out the warehouse, Sebastian once again made his way to the vantage point where he had been hit by the time bomb.

This time he decided to stop just before entering the place.

He tightened his grip on the pistol in his hand as he heightened his senses and put his back to a wall.

Once his enemies realized that he was still alive, they would surely send another attack his way.

This time, he would be ready.

Sebastian held a bloodstained wristwatch that he stole from one of the corpses in his left hand as he waited for the bomb to go off.

The time was 10:01 PM.

It was around 9:55 when the captor died, killing the eleven mobsters just took around a minute or two and the rest of the time was spent in coming to this spot.

Sebastian stood still with bated breath as he watched the second's hand move.

'Tick'

'Tock'

'Tick'

'Tock'

*BOOM!!!*

It was exactly 10:02 PM.

The windowpanes all shattered with the force of the explosion as the top of the building caught on flames.

Sebastian decided to keep waiting.

Anytime now.

They should show themselves.

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It hadn't even been 3 minutes.

They could have come from the left, they could have come from the right, they could have come from straight ahead.

Sebastian had even considered the possibility of them jumping on him from right above.

What he had never expected was for them to come from behind him, right through the goddamn wall!

A katana of all things stabbed him right through both the wall and his heart.

Sebastian was barely able to hear his killer snickering before he lost consciousness.

"While you might have avoided the bomb, did you really think that you could escape?"

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[Attempt 78]

This time, Sebastian headed off for a different vantage point.

The key here was that this person mentioned something about him being able to escape.

This means that Sebastian was being hunted down right now for killing everyone in the warehouse.

This person seemed to be an avenger sent by the Bratva.

He/She might even be the actual boss of the scenario.

Alternatively, it could be the simulation screwing things up for him as he detracted too much from the given scenario.

Anyways, now that he knew he had a hunter on his tail, Seb just needed to avoid them.

His number one priority was to get to Damien.

He won't let anyone else distract him from his goals.

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[Attempt 90]

Sebastian had gotten distracted.

Well, it wasn't like it was completely his fault.

Whenever he approached a vantage point one of the following two scenarios always occurred.

In the first case, he was met with an explosion on a timer that set off just as he arrived. If he tried to avoid the explosion, the avenger of the bratva would somehow manage to stick a katana into him.

Always, from the back.

In the case that there was no bomb, he would get assaulted by a 10-man squad of the Bratva. Looking at the neat little number, there was no way Seb would be able to resist trying to kill them all.

So, he did just that and wasted quite a few attempts at it.

Killing them all didn't do him any good. Before he could make his way to another vantage point, the avenger would find him once again.

It's not like Sebastian didn't try fighting the monster that brought a sword to a gunfight, but he couldn't shoot what he couldn't see.

Even if Seb managed to time and dodge the first attack, he would just get cut off by the second.

Now he could try dodging around in a row and spend multiple attempts to grasp the attack pattern of the avenger… but killing him now won't be useful at all.

Sebastian wasn't even sure if he could use his body to defeat this enemy.

For some reason, he was reminded of the school shooter from the first phase of the tutorial.

That also involved a seemingly human person possessing supernatural abilities.

While there was nothing supernatural about a knife, Seb did feel that there were some supernatural elements to the attack.

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[Attempt 100]

Sebastian had finally made some progress.

As he swept around all the vantage points in the city, he eventually came across one where the members of the Familia interfered while he was being assaulted by a 10-man bratva squad.

They helped Sebastian clear out the enemies, but before he could speak with them they all ran away in the direction of the warzone at the warehouse.

Since the reinforcements of the Bratva were somehow teeming all over the place, it was reasonable for the Familia to have some of their own.

Of course, he was killed by the avenger shortly after.

The point is, that as Sebastian continued to sweep across the points in the city, his encounters with the Familia gradually increased in Frequency until he managed to find a general direction from where they were all coming.

It was an extremely huge building called the Rockhearst Tower.

It wasn't Sebastian's first choice to check because the building was the private property of a commercial firm... but in retrospect, it seemed a likely place for the hideout of a modern mafia to exbe located.

Within plain sight.

The real question here is what was the warehouse doing in sniping distance of the hideout.

Were they trying to get killed?

Or maybe they wanted Damien to have a front seat row as he watched his best friends kill each other.

That did kind of make sense.

Since the Bratva had powerhouses like the avenger which they could order around, the members in the warehouse were probably all just pawns that had been sacrificed.

Things started to make a little more sense now.

The avenger must be the boss of the scenario. Now all he needed to do was get Damien to help him kill that guy, and summon the hidden boss.

If bullets don't work, surely a few grenades will do the trick.

Now that Damien's location was clear, Sebastian decided to make a beeline for it.

This time he was assaulted by multiple squads of Bratva members on the way, thankfully the Familia members were nearby and helping him take care of them, and with Sebastian's current skill level, taking out a few enemies while having help was as easy as taking candy from a baby.

Which is not that hard, but is morally disgusting and attracts strange looks from those around.

Basically, the same situation.

The Familia didn't seem too thrilled about the mad pistol skills Sebastian was showing off.

As the fights went on, they started to help out less and less.

Perhaps due to the constant interference of the Familia, the Bratva's avenger didn't show up this time.

Finally, around 9:15, Sebastian made his way into the tower.

The tower had tight security and was manned by members of the Caputo Familia.

As Sebastian entered in, he was finally greeted by a member who had deigned to acknowledge his existence.

"The young master wishes to see you. Please follow me."

Sebastian simply nodded his head before following behind the Familia member in front of him.

The man was pretty old, approaching well into his seventies.

He seemed to be either a veteran member of the Familia or a butler of some sort tasked with taking care of the 'young master'.

It was perhaps both.

Making his way out of the elevator, Sebastian got out on the 13th floor.

Considering the fact that he used to live on floor 44 in reality, he had no room to complain about the inauspiciousness of the number and quietly entered the room the Butler had guided him to.

The room was mostly empty except for a sniper rifle leaning against the window aimed at a nearby warehouse.

There was a chair in which sat the sole occupant of the room.

"If it isn't my old friend Damien Caputo."

Sebastian smiled sarcastically as venom filled his voice.

"Or should I call you, Young Master of the Caputo Familia?"