Mercenary Realm

"Of course, there is, otherwise with Maxim and Bronya living in the middle of Siberia, how else could we take commissions". Bronya looked at him with a pitying look. Uesugi took a blow from that before he regained himself

Coughing slightly, he asked, "Can you look for an assassination commission against someone called Cocolia, she should be a leading figure in Anti-Entropy". The organization's public face was a gaming company but its true face lay in mecha technology and quantum mechanics which were dug up from the Previous Era's remains

Bronya knew he wasn't bloodthirsty and believed he had his reasons. Taking out her phone and said, "There's a site for mercenaries globally called Mercenary Realm, while there are some people who can't use Honkai Energy, it still shows information about Honkai". A ping was heard before she showed her screen to him

Bobbing down since her body was small, Uesugi saw a list of commissions ranging from assassinations, military support, and finding information. The clients were anonymous and the descriptions were vague until a mercenary received the mission

Typing down "Cocolia", the search results appeared.

"Assassinate Cocolia of Anti-Entropy", will you accept this commission?

Reward: 10 Million USD

It was precise and simple, Uesugi saw the reward and thought, 'Whoa'. While it was meager for major organizations for puny mercenaries, it would be a lifetime's worth of saving unless they knew her true abilities

Nodding at the information and pictures provided, Bronya pressed Yes and a call was immediately sent.

"Silver Wolf of Urals? Never heard from you but I'll tell you the last whereabouts of the target, she should be at an Anti-Entropy branch in Toronto". The call ended leaving sounds of beeps behind

Clients in the Mercenary Realm were those with money and without power. The caller's attitude was only because Bronya still hadn't made a name for herself

Seeing that they got their information, they began to set off for Toronto. This time, they bought a car using the money Bronya 'saved' with Maxim. Uesugi somewhat knew where some of it came from but he kept silent

"You... Don't know how to drive?" Bronya looked at him speechless, while their ages were in the early teens, she thought that he had some privileges to 'borrow' a car occasionally

"So this is why you didn't want to drive". Uesugi kept quiet because he had no excuse. In his past life, he was old enough to drive with his girlfriend and commute to work. However, he had none and wasn't bothered to obtain one

Sighing at his lack of response, Bronya pointed to the passenger seat while she entered the driver's seat. "Bronya will drive so you just sit there". She adjusted the seat and tapped on everything to get a feel

Uesugi was surprised but seeing her genius at work, he trusted her skills. In any case, a car crash won't kill them

Exiting the lubricant city boisterous with traffic and noises, Uesugi began to remember his shut-in lifestyle and felt that was the best. Looking at the girl next to him, he smiled

"Does Bronya have something on her". She said, touching her face and feeling nothing. "Nothing", without saying anything else, Uesugi looked out and stared at the changing scenery

The car drive was anything but peaceful, its speed surpassed 100km/h when he glanced at it. Surprised by the numbers, Uesugi asked, "Uh, Bronya where did you learn how to drive". A flash of horror surged from his eyes when he recalled that she lived in the snowy plains

A smug face appeared on her face and she replied, "Where else but games, I played many simulation games that HOMU has to offer and driving is no different".

A fire burnt in her eyes when she felt she could continue increasing the car's speed. While Uesugi felt that the situation was dangerous, he could only calm himself down by closing his eyes, leaving the rest to fate

*Broom* *Swoosh*

The flat roads were scorched with burnt traces and screeching noises rang, Uesugi instinctively held onto the safety handle when Bronya made drastic turns

Luckily, there weren't any cars on the road since unless someone's got work or has a vacation, roads traveling to cities would be empty until then

Since the speed was beyond his expectations, looking at his phone and checking the distance, Uesugi estimated that it would take at least 2 hours until they reached Toronto

******

"Silver Wolf of Urals? A nameless mercenary wants to deal with me". An elegant voice can be heard on the top floor of a skyscraper. She had blonde hair and was dressed in a green business suit that outlined her curves. Holding her wine, she listened to a phone call on the table

"It's only for caution, anyways you can deal with him when the time comes". The phone revealed an emotionless voice that seemed to be robotic.

Snorting with displeasure, she couldn't refute the other side as she sipped her wine and occasionally glanced at the files on her table. There were profiles of young children, summaries of reports, and a sealed file on her desk

Hints of hesitance appeared on her face before she regained her composure. Placing her wine down, she said "You will act as promised right", without waiting for a response she turned off the phone and crushed it

The other side heard the beeps and turned off his phone. Leaving his area which was covered in the darkness he left with an umbrella in his hand despite it not raining

The blond woman sat on her chair and felt exhausted, seeing the profiles of children, her face became a mixture of relief and sadness. "Girls, I'll have to sacrifice you if the time comes"

******

"Wake up Shuu, we're here". Someone shook his body, waking up from the pleasant dreams. He looked at his phone and saw it only took an hour

Surprised by his estimate being wrong, he sensed traces of Honkai Energy where the fuel was and saw that his clothes were sparkly cleaned without wrinkles

Staring at Bronya who looked guilty, he got the gist of what happened.

"Alright, let's find Cocolia's location". Ignoring what might have happened in the car, Uesugi got out of the car and started walking to the Anti-Entropy base in Toronto

Sighing in relief that Uesugi didn't notice, Bronya followed Uesugi and glanced back at the car's engine, or where the engine was supposed to be. Along the way, Bronya noticed Uesugi was sleeping and an inspiration arose from her mind

Without further ado she released Project Bunny 19C and placed it around the engine, propelling the vehicle beyond the car limits. As a result, the engine exploded and the car tires rubbed out so she had to carry the car until she replaced it with a new one

Uesugi and Bronya saw the towering buildings and long roads that stretched infinitely. Uesugi can be considered a country bumpkin since he lived in rural areas without visiting the cities as much

The sights had their bustles, but when they passed by the ocean, its vastness blew his mind as he felt he should settle down here one day

After passing through many scenarios, the Uesugi pair finally reached Anti-Entropy's branch. 

While its public face was a gaming company, its alliance management has created a skyscraping building for it which surpassed nearly 99% of the other buildings

Uesugi sensed that there were underground floors and remained quiet about it, knowing the atrocities Cocolia may have done in it

"So, what is our next course of action". Bronya asked seeing his blank face. Snapping out of a stupor, Uesugi released his mental energy to sense the presence in the building

Surprisingly, the building only had one presence on the tallest floor. "Bronya, the enemy knows about our existence, it seems Mercenary Realm isn't a foolproof source"

"Of course, only hidden sites or black markets can one retain full anonymity and that's only when they fully hide their identity". Replying to his question, she saw Uesugi looking at him with pleading eyes

Realizing that Uesugi was out of ideas except for a head-on confrontation, Bronya sighed and searched for any alternatives

Her eyes stopped at the base of the building as a nefarious thought appeared. Telling Uesugi about her plan, a strange look appeared on his face and he thought, 'Becoming a demolitionist... no, more like a terrorist shouldn't be so bad in these times, right?'

He forgot that he played a building like Jenga in Lupus City but that was because Honkai Beasts destroyed the city

While he thought of flying from another building, he could sense someone was watching them and their presence was so faint it blended with the ordinary people

The surprise attack should be effective, but..." Glancing at the surroundings, if they truly blew up the building then the innocent people will get caught up in the crossfire

"We'll have to dress up as terrorists, Bronya put a mask on, and transform Project Bunny 19C into a rocket launcher," Uesugi said while he took out Lightning Soul

Bronya asked, "What are you going to do then", he didn't have any cold weapons on him so she wondered what he would do

"I'm gonna act like a gangsta", saying that, he approached a store and began waving his sword, threatening the store owner, and 'borrowed' some masks to use before knocking him out

The surrounding people screamed and fled from the scene, Uesugi saw the chance to put his mask on and began to chase out the people

After a while, Uesugi returned to Bronya's side. "Here, wear this", Uesugi handed her a yellow HOMU head costume which completely captivated her.

"Thank you, Shuu", looking at him with gratitude, she got into action