Chapter 4

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{Isaac pov}

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[ The player has joined a party~! ]

<Effect: The user will recieve half a fallen enemies exp when killed by non-player within your party.>

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'I might as well just hop on the leader's back while I'm at it...' isaac thought as he was guided through the wilderness.

The moment the leader of this strike force took him along a notification had popped up into view chiding a arcade jingle into his ear canals. Still though....this was quite convenient. With this new development he was practically playing afk arena.

Just sit back and let these elite soldiers do the heavy lifting while he himself could play the part of a civilian as they gave him exp from every kill they made from this point on.

'Thank you gamer Jesus'

Instructed to stay close to the medic he simply grabbed the hem of her pants as they slowly made their way closer to the enemy camp. Each step they made was calculated and made the least bit of sound in order to prevent enemy detection.

Soon the strike force were presented a vantage point of the camp below their position. It seemed the stargazer had developed their base of operations around and inside the ruins of a once prosperous pyramid shaped temple depicting statues and structures similar to those of the aztec civilization based in central mexico.

"Shit...the situation is worse than we thought. Those bastards actually found another ruin..." Johnston, the army medic by his side spoke in a whisper filled with merth towards the organization.

"Hah...no doubt those greedy fuckers down there will auction every bit of that 'history' just for some rich prick to use it as a decoration in one of their bathrooms...." Masando scoffed, his thick nigerian accent making his english sound a bit off to the boy.

Yet he couldn't help but let out a suppressed giggle at imagining such a thing, earning a disapproving look from his current gaurdian he clung too, causing him to avoid her gaze out of sheer embarrassment. But in all honestly it was more than possible that would be the fate of most of the architecture in that crumbling ruin. Just simply shipped away to be decorations for the elite instead of being seen by all to inquire of its design.

"That's enough you two. Hernández, remain with the boy and take out any potential whistle-blowers while we make our way in. No need to start an all out fire fight today." O'Reilly whispered ahead of them to which the woman wearing a plated mask with optical lenses nodded on confirmation as he turned his attention to him with a stern stare. "And you stay put and keep quiet. She'll look after you until we come back."

Hernández: "Si, señor sargento."

Isaac: "Okay...."

Thus the team continued on down the steep hill towards the structure while the two of them remained. Keeping his word he simply layed in the brush along side the hispanic woman and who remained silent as a ghost in concentration.

It didn't take long for her to pull the trigger of her rifle as the weapon silently let out a muffled discharge from its silencer equipped barrel.

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[{Stargazer - mercenary} killed!]

[+450 Exp] = (+225 exp)

[{Stargazer - elite sniper} killed!]

[+1000 Exp] = (+500 exp)

[{Stargazer - researcher} killed!]

[+10 Exp] = (+5 exp)

[Stargazer...]

[Stargazer...]

[Stargazer...]

[Stargazer...]

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[{Job class: Technomancer} leveled up!] x7

(Lvl.2 -> 9)

[+7 Attribute point, +3 Gacha tokens (Bronze), +3700 Eddies]

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'God damb...they're on a killing streak down there...' he thought as the notifications kept slowly continuing to come in giving the boy a large haul of xp and levels.

Unfortunately, a individuals fortune cannot last forever as the number of panels depicting mercs and other manner of soldiers they had in their payroll became few and fewer to the point of only researchers coming in one after another. The experience one alone gave compared to others were abysmal, were they truly that insignificant to the system?

Boredom quickly set in for the two as time continued on, even his companion seemed to grow weary of the wait, she even put aside her weapon due to eliminating most of any possible targets.

Out of childish curiosity he garnered the courage to ask the lady to try out her advanced military headgear. To his glee she allowed it and spent the rest of their wait fooling around with it. It was a bit heavy though...

To his amazement the mask was not as simplistic as he thought. The very thing seemed to have sensors that seemed to respond to the user's intent and the optics extended from the sockets themselves!

Night vision...infrared...auditory and movement sensors...and... ultraviolet radiation detector? He never recalled such a feature in such things. Camera's maybe but definitely not in such optics. Then there was a red vision feature unknown to him. It even had zooming capability!

If he had to guess they salvaged yautja vision tech and the mechanics that allowed the species to use their bio-masks without needing to interact with them. That was the only logical explanation.

By the time the notifications from his system ceased and the others notifying Hernández that it was safe to bring him down the sun, that had once been over their heads, was now nearly passed the mountains to the east, bathing the sky in a warm red and orange hue as the inky darkness of night seeped ever closer.

Making their own way down to the ruins it didn't take long to get inside and see the bodies of both civilians and combatants littering the stone floor of its interior, his gaze especially lingered on the corpse of a black middle aged man sprawled on a collapsed table holding a laptop tightly in his arms.

With a thought Isaac quickly brought up a map of the area provided by the system, it cost him having to go download it, then have the interface update itself once more.

Thankfully it was very brief compare to the first.

To his relief, the rest of Hernández's squad were slowly making their way towards them from different directions of their location.

The very room he was in looked to be a makeshift archeological site and lab mixed into one. More than likely its purpose was to allow the staff to study the archeological finds and determine their rarity and mineral value.

Cleary the history and knowledge these artifacts could've unraveled wasn't their main focus...

Stepping towards the man's deceased corpse he kneeled down and placed a hand upon them to give his approaching protectors the illusion of the boy morning his father.

Continuing his charade he next reached for the computer in his stiff grip and had to literally pry it away. 'Uh...I think I'm going to be sick...' he gagged as the feeling of the dead man's frozen digits bones bend and snap in his efforts to get the device free.

It didn't help that the bastard smelled like shit from devoiding his bowls after he passed on...

"Got it..." with one last yank it was finally in his hands. Turning back to the now gathered group of adults he could see their eyes look to the laptop in his grasp and back to him with looks that silently told him to explain his actions.

"T-this computer was with him whenever i saw him, never seen it leave his side, even when we were on the move." Isaac meekly spoke as he walked over to hand it to the one in charge. "It could be important...I think..."

But as sergeant O'Reilly reached down to take it he suddenly felt his mana instinctively flow into the device, circuits and all. In attoseconds his mind delved deep into its inner workings. All the data it stored was surging through his mind like a title wave, yet it didn't remain indefinitely...it was though a river was rushing before him and his brain was a bear striking at the water to catch a fish(data).

Yet as his perception returned to normal and the man took the device away he was only able to catch a few fishes before he felt the line connecting them fade, but he could still feel a lingering signal tether him with the technology.

It felt like a new kind of awareness had awoken inside himself that opened his eyes to a new spectrum. Like he no longer needed to touch the tech in order to delves into it this time.

Just as the feeling to reestablish the connection returned he quickly reigned himself in from doing so as the soldier opened it to skim through files of data he couldn't make heads or tails of from where he stood.

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[The user has independently unlocked a new skill!]

▪︎ [Skill: Netrunning] (Active) - Lvl.1/100 (Novice)

< Effect: Through internal or external cyberdeck enhancement most individuals of this profession can hack any form of tech as long as their chrome and skill is good enough to not get caught and burned in the process. But your netrunning capabilities are special, through the system and mana the user is able to hack into any kind of technology or use quickhacks on anyone regardless whether or not they are connected to a network. >

- [Quickhack: Ping] (-10 mp)

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[The player has successfully extracted data]:

<Coordinates: secret stockpile locations, Offshore account: $1,200,000.00, +2 Levels (Proficiency: Netrunning)>

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Isaac's eyes widened behind his mask at seeing the bank account balance. Sure he knew it would be a lot when he yanked it out of the device but not to that extent! And that was only one of many accounts he saw in there!

Now...onto the topic of those stockpiles...

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A/N: Picture spectre from from operation raccoon city. That is what Hernández and her mask looks like.