Chapter 244
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 244
Chapter Title: Verit Base Assault Operation (3)
Inside Verit Mountain, access was sealed off by a high fence, preventing anyone but authorized personnel from approaching.
Walking down the path leading from the entrance, something hidden among the trees revealed itself.
It was a building, camouflaged so discreetly that one might not notice it at a glance.
The structure itself was designed to be half-buried in the ground so as not to rise above the trees.
Furthermore, its drab, windowless, gray exterior was covered in a chaotic tangle of green vines.
If one were looking down from above instead of seeing it head-on like this, they would likely fail to notice its existence unless they had an exceptionally sharp eye.
Indeed, it was hidden with painstaking care. For a moment, I thought it was just a rock.
‘The official story was something like… a monitoring station built with permission to prevent outsiders from harming the environment on Verit Mountain.’
Of course, to someone who knew the truth, it was a ridiculously blatant excuse.
It wasn't some military installation. What need was there for a monitoring facility to check hundreds of security cameras on an ordinary mountain?
Naturally, the true purpose of this station on Verit Mountain was something else entirely.
It existed solely to protect the hidden base of the Metahuman Liberation Army.
I assumed it was structured to send an immediate alert if anyone suspicious was spotted.
The existence of this facility was one of the reasons we had gone to the trouble of disguising ourselves as employees to get this far.
“We’re here from Albireo! Please open the door!”
“Ah… you’re here. Has it already been a week? You lose track of time cooped up in here. Oh, right. Come on in.”
Raven approached what appeared to be the entrance, held up an ID card, and raised his voice.
After a short delay, a section of the wall slid back to form a door, revealing a somewhat disheveled woman.
Judging by her clothes and overall demeanor, she seemed to be an employee working at this monitoring station.
Perhaps she wasn't allowed to leave the station during her shift, as she had a rather haggard look.
We rolled our carriers inside as the door opened into the station.
The employee seemed to have been working here for a while. She barely glanced at the ID before closing the door with a sleepy expression, then let out a yawn that was almost a roar.
“Hwaaah… I don’t need to explain what to do, right? Please take care of cleaning and organizing the facility. I’m going to go get some sleep…”
“Is that so? Then I’ll help you sleep soundly.”
“Huh? Gkh…! Ugh…”
Was she just an ordinary human who had taken a job at a suspicious company?
She failed to notice Raven silently closing in behind her and had something injected into her neck.
It was a so-called Clean Shot, a needle-less syringe.
The sedative that entered her system instantly knocked her unconscious.
Strangling a civilian or knocking them out with a blow could leave lasting damage.
This was a fast-acting sleeping agent composed of ingredients that wouldn't react with most other drugs and were harmless to the body.
Raven gently leaned the woman, who had slumped over with her eyes closed, against the wall.
He then took a device that temporarily jammed outgoing signals out of his carrier and issued instructions.
“Like we discussed, we finish this in five minutes. David, you go to the control room and hack the computers. Alice, to the underground facility. Yuria, you take the opposite direction from me. Everyone will regroup in the monitoring room once your tasks are done. Understood?”
“Yes.”
“Understood.”
“...!”
“Contact me immediately if an emergency arises. Alright, move out.”
Although we had already planned our movements in advance.
Raven repeated the instructions to ensure there were no mistakes, and we quickly moved to our respective positions.
Perhaps because everyone inside the monitoring station was just a powerless civilian.
I confidently walked forward, grabbed any employee I saw, and forcibly administered the sedative to neutralize them.
Then, after carefully laying them on the floor to ensure they were in a comfortable position.
I dragged the carrier I had left at the entrance and headed toward the control room where David had gone.
“How’s it looking? Is it difficult?”
“No, it’s just as expected. This is just standard corporate-level security. It seems the Metahuman Liberation Army… has outsourced all their electronic security to Cygnus.”
“Well, they’re the types who hate humans so much they won’t even ride in cars. They probably think they can solve everything with magic. That should make your job easier, then. I’m counting on you.”
“Yes. Leave it to me.”
There, amidst the snoring employees, David was frantically typing on a keyboard.
He was writing code to prevent the base from being alerted to the neutralized status of the monitoring station.
We only needed to deceive them for about an hour at most.
Creating such an algorithm on the fly didn't seem particularly difficult for him.
As expected of a world-class hacker. I couldn't understand any of it just by looking. I was truly envious of his brilliant mind.
As I stood there, idly fiddling with Echo and blinking my eyes.
The control room door burst open, and Alice, who had gone to the basement, was the last to enter, shouting loudly.
“Jin! I found it! Just as we thought, there’s a sewer in the basement that leads somewhere!”
“I knew it… So the theory that the monitoring station also served as a supply transport was correct. It’d be too much to handle the food supply for so many people with magic alone. Good work, Alice.”
While Raven and I were neutralizing the personnel inside the station.
The sharp-witted Alice had explored the underground facility and discovered a sewer connected to somewhere else.
The Association had calculated that it would be impossible to supply the personnel in the estimated secret base with magic alone.
It seemed their prediction that supplies were being transported from the monitoring station through some method was accurate.
After all, this wasn't another world overflowing with magical energy where you could make plants sprout with a spell.
It was only natural that handling food and consumables with magic would be a challenge.
Raven gave a slight nod, pleased that the plan was proceeding smoothly.
He then rummaged through his carrier, pulled out my and Alice's things, and tossed them to us.
“Then while David is working… you two go get changed. We’ll head for that sewer as soon as we’re ready here.”
“Okay. Yuria, let’s go.”
“Okay.”
Alice and I easily caught the clothes and gear thrown our way.
Clutching them in our arms, we quickly exited the control room into the hallway.
If it were a situation where every second counted and we couldn't afford to worry about modesty, it would be a different story.
But for now, we had to wait for David to finish his work, so we had some time.
And even if we were like family, changing right in front of them still felt a bit awkward.
…Honestly, it’s embarrassing. It’s about maintaining certain boundaries. Mhmm.
Perhaps because I was lost in such thoughts, staring blankly into space for a moment.
Alice, who was in the middle of pulling down her zipper, looked at me and spoke somewhat cautiously.
“Oh, by the way… Isn’t that outfit a little too small for you? Are you okay?”
*Poof.*
“Ah, you can change back! Hehe, this height suits you best, Yuria.”
“…”
Saying the smaller version suited me didn't exactly sound like a compliment…
Having returned to my original form with the Tesseract, I looked at Alice with a sullen expression.
But she, having tossed off her clothes and now in her underwear, simply laughed off my gaze.
She casually reached out and patted my head. She really doesn't understand a delicate heart.
Hmph, she can tease me all she wants now.
My future is a winning lottery ticket that won't lose to Alice, anyway.
Grumbling inwardly, I took off the baggy work uniform and changed into my usual maid outfit.
It was the sturdiest and easiest to move in of all the clothes I owned. There was no need to even consider anything else.
“This is definitely the most comfortable. Alright, let’s do our best, Yuria.”
“Yeah!”
I re-entered the situation room with Alice, who had changed into a modified kimono with a daringly high-cut thigh.
Raven and David were there, also back in their usual attire.
However, both of them had one new feature that was different from before.
Raven had a thick, familiar-looking sports bag slung over his shoulder, and David was wearing long gloves that reached his forearms.
Alice tilted her head for a moment, as if seeing them like this for the first time.
But I, who knew a bit about the future from the original story, watched them with quietly shining eyes.
‘This is… they’re both completely serious.’
Both were in a serious mode, fully intending not to hold back any of their power.
Perhaps because of how reassuring that was, the tension that had been building inside me subsided a little.
Hehehe, in this state, I wouldn't worry even if one of the Seven Extremes showed up right now.
I nodded to myself and approached Raven with Alice.
Just then, David’s hacking must have finished.
Raven, who had been quietly watching the screen, turned to us, now changed, and spoke.
“Alright. With that, our preparations are complete… Shall we get going?”
From this point on, it was the real deal. We were heading into a place filled with enemies.
I steeled my resolve, feeling the distinct presence of my psychokinesis deep within my body.
But perhaps because I could see the faces of my fellow Fixers before me.
My heart was unusually calm. Right now, I felt like I could defeat anyone.
*
But perhaps a person's future is always unpredictable.
Fast-forwarding time a bit, to just a few minutes before the Association was set to make its move.
I found myself in a ridiculously difficult situation.
The first reason was that I had been separated from the other Fixers and was now alone…
“What, a cat beastkin? What are you doing there, hurry up and move! The humans have infiltrated the base! We need to take them out before *he* finds out!”
“…”
The second reason was that I was in my cat beastkin form, something I hadn't used since the St. Maria Hotel incident.
Why was I currently transformed into a beastkin, being mistaken for an ally by the Metahuman Liberation Army?
To understand why… I have to explain what happened along the way.
The beginning of all this trouble was the moment we reached the secret base through the sewer.