Chapter 252: Mission Room
———Lynda———
<10: 59 am>
“...What’s this?” I muttered as I found a weird facility hidden behind trees. It’s off the beaten path and didn't seem to be there last week. That’s suspicious. I didn’t expect to find anything as I am taking a walk to sober up a bit more.
No one else is with me, and I’m not sure if someone else had noticed this place. Just what is this? It’s not under construction or anything. It’s fully built and probably has some sort of important role in the future. There’s even a teleport pad just outside as well, so clearly we are supposed to come here. Now what is this place used for? Does the door even open for us?
…It does automatically open the moment I get close, so it is certainly operational. It’s weird to go in even if it’s technically open.
Let’s see here… Some sort of control panel with a map on display? How does this work? Hmm…
Ah. There’s a sign here with the rules… A mission room? What does that mean? There is a lot to look through so let’s read it all the way down before summarizing it.
…Looks like they know full well that the place is hidden. This is basically something akin to a beta test. Letting whoever managed to find it play around with it. Seems to be some sort of room meant for us to go around solving problems that the locals can’t, and considering how much focus they put into it, they’re clearly talking about something needing a lot of fighting force.
The rewards aren’t certain but it’s said to not be required to graduate. So this is meant to be an optional thing for anyone with nothing better to do I guess? It’s better than it being mandatory. At that point it’s hard to consider this school anything more than a place to make tyke bombs.
I mean. I guess this will work as a workout. There is a risk assessment so I’ll just pick something easy before… What’s this?
There is a history log of a mission someone did? Looks like the first one was by two people doing… Huh? The invasion in the nearby town? That thing that happened an hour ago? The timeline matches up too… Someone must’ve used this to go there to kill and dip. The gadget you get for the mission lets you come back here the moment the requirement is fulfilled. An item that you can bring with you and let you teleport is absurd, yet here it is. Obviously all of us are somewhat desensitized to the idea of teleportation, but from an outsider's perspective this is still hard to believe. Even footage of the school is sometimes scrutinized as edited.
I wanna do something that isn’t a dungeon run or fighting another student anyway. This might be somewhat refreshing…
…Why are there missions that take us to other countries? Are we crazy? I’m not doing any of that. I’ll just stick to places that can speak English, at least.
All of them are clearly urgent to some degree, but I don’t want to take those high rank missions to start. Let’s do this one, the window to join will only last a minute but it seems pretty easy.
Alright, let’s pick this, grab a bracelet, and go into the center of the room to start.
*Zoom*
“Put your hands up!” I heard that simple phrase ring out as I am teleported to… Why am I on the roof? Where am I?
I look down and I see someone being surrounded by the police. Is this what I need to do?
“<The mission is to subdue the criminal you laid your eyes on.>” A robotic voice rang out just loud enough for only me to hear it, it came from the bracelet I’m wearing. The summary did say that the guy is way stronger than the local law enforcement. Alright then, let’s quickly get this down and over with.
*Leap* *Strike*
I got down from the rooftop and hit him right in the back of the head, sending him flying and tumbling before anyone could even properly react. He seems to have blacked out just from that, allowing the others to easily cuff him.
“Who are you! Freeze!” A police member yelled out with a gun pointed at me. Come on dude.
“<Mission accomplished. Do you wish to return?>” I mean, what else am I supposed to do?
“Yeah.” I said as more guns are pointed at me. Staying here is just asking for trouble.
*Zoom*
“<Congratulations. With rewards still pending, you will receive points to trade in for items at a later date.>” A mechanical voice rang out as I returned. Those rewards could be anything with the abundance of resources they have.
…So that was over in only a few seconds. It’s very anticlimactic, actually. I think I should pick something harder. Let’s go with this one.
*Zoom*
“<The mission is to stop the three criminals from causing havoc and extorting the town.>” The voice from the bracelet rang out as I am teleported to somewhere most people can’t see. Another rooftop.
A trio this time around, they certainly looked a bit more formidable, and unlike last time the police is keeping its distance, probably knowing they don’t have the best of chances. Last time if it wasn’t for me ambushing him and hitting the one area he isn’t guarding, he would’ve probably caused a ton of property damage at minimum.
Right now I don’t have the luxury with three people I have to deal with in this small town. It’s actually small, and feels very… rustic, I guess. It’s on the outskirts of major cities, is what I’m trying to imply. It does explain why the three think they can conquer this place with such a limited number. It’s a relatively small area to work with.
“And this town will be-
“Shut up.” I interrupted the leader of the three as I waltz up to them making a grand speech in front of a building.
“Who the hell are you?” The one I interrupted asked as I pulled out the giant axe I got. The three are noticeably spooked by the sudden appearance of a weapon.
I take a brief glance back towards the crowd that are as taken aback as them. It’s not exactly the best condition I have to work with. I don’t want any of them to get caught in the crossfire.
“Hey! All of you better run! Things are about to get ugly!” I yelled out to all the bystanders before I shifted into a combat stance.
“You got a lot of nerve you-
*Leap* *Evade* *Slash*
I jumped in and started swinging, and the three of them quickly ran away as if they’re already scared, wrecking the area in front of the building a bit.
*Dash* *Parry* *Block* *Smack*
All three of them ran at me at the same time, but with my long axe and higher strength they can’t even get close to me without getting hit.
Its excellent craftsmanship also helped out a lot. Despite its size I don’t feel like it’s weighing me down at all, and it’s obviously very durable with no clear fault in its design, with even its flashier appearance than common weapons not taking away from its quality.
This seems to be some sort of office building with a pretty expansive front yard, so I got a bit of space to work with without needing to force the fight to move onto the streets, but that’s only if I deal with them quickly.
All of them are clearly confused as to where I came from and how can I overpower them so easily. I probably should apologize for fighting people below my weight class, but then again I probably shouldn’t. They’re clearly planning on something sinister.
*Slide* *Stab*
I slide over to the one closest to me with a stab using the tip of the axe. His defense is paper thin to me, and just that alone will be enough.
“Bastard!” The other lackey yelled out as he ran at me with his sword raised.
*Swing* *Slide* *Smash*
He swung it down but I slid away while also swinging my axe at him simultaneously, hitting him right in the side and sending him flying while also tearing into his innards.
“W-What the hell did you do!?” The leader screamed out after witnessing the disposing of his two men that occurred in a few seconds with nothing more than a few pretty simple moves.
…Simple in terms of the school anyway. I don’t really know why they’re so insistent on us learning how to wavedash, it’s far from a simple technique despite not having many use cases. It’s a quick momentum shift but on most surfaces it’s not that hard to halt your momentum by just planting your feet on the ground and dashing in the other direction. I guess this is technically better even with that, but it’s quite precise. I’m really only doing this now to flex. There is room for errors.
“Whatever, time for you to die.” I said while pointing my axe at him.
*Dash* *Evade*
“Oh?” He managed to avoid that. I know I was being a bit conservative with the strength output in case I overshoot and end up hitting something behind him as well.
I guess I shouldn’t underestimate someone who looks like he’s as furious as he is terrified. He didn’t come this far by being a coward, if I were to guess.
*Parry* *Block* *Clash*
I slowly increase the power input with each strike, just to see how far he can take it before keeling over. With each attempt to counter it looking more and more desperate. He’s close to his limit already.
It’s to be expected when I am determined as overqualified for this mission, but there is a tinge of disappointment that the bark doesn’t match the bite.
Still, there are more opportunities in the future, and it’s best for me to not dwell too much on the disappointment unless I start fighting someone I can’t beat. Let’s just end this quickly.
*Swing* *Shatter* *Slide* *Splat*
I easily shattered the twin blades before moving up to him and smashed his head in with the axe, ending his life in a mere moment.
Unfortunately, I don’t have those sealing collars that Wiina has, so killing or incapacitating is the only option. With this one, there’s no stated penalty for it.
The resulting hit was quite gruesome. The back of the axe may look like it’s made of wood, but it’s still very hard and tough.
“<Mission accomplished. Do you wish to return?>” Yeah yeah.
“Go home.” I said lazily as I saw a few people looking at me.
*Zoom*
Looks like they won’t bother explaining it a second time and just opt to show me how many points I got. It’s more than last time but with fewer extra bonuses since I didn’t finish it as fast.
…I think that’s enough for now. I actually feel a bit nauseous. We all ate a lot just this morning alone, so I shouldn’t even fight right now anyway. Histon probably can, maybe that’ll help calm him down and stop him from feeling bored.
Time to get out of here. Return the bracelet and maybe show them this place a little later. Who knows when this place will be officially recognized. There are certainly a lot of things they just don’t bother to clarify, but this one seems a bit bigger than the others things, as weird as it is to say.
“Hmm…” I mumbled to myself as I walked onto the main road, seeing the building obscured from here. It’s just barely out of sight for anyone not focusing on the other buildings or the road in front of them.
I’m not really sure what would happen if everyone found out about this rather small building with a very interesting function to it, I shouldn’t publicize it, at least. Let’s just keep it to our group… and whoever those two were.