A new mission?
What did that mean?
The system had acted again, showing that it had no proper moment for missions, everything about it was uncertain. Luke reached his hand toward the panel that had formed from the message.
[ Mission Details:
Target: Portre Group (4 male targets)
Reward: Epic Skill
Time Limit: 48 hours ]
[ Accept Deny ]
Luke instinctively pressed "Deny," but every time he did, a message appeared. [ Error ]. Preventing Luke from moving forward, until there was truly no other way left, Luke pressed "Accept," opening a new panel.
[ Mission accepted, specifications will be available in the mission menu. ]
Luke turned over on the couch, there was a digital clock on a shelf, it read 00:34, with a two-day time limit, Luke calmed down a little, knowing that he could at least sleep in peace, for now.
The light showed faintly through Luke's eyelids, indicating that morning had come, Luke slowly opened his eyes, adjusting to the light, and checked the time. It read 09:43, a good night's sleep. A very pleasant smell filled Luke's nose.
And now? Do I make up an excuse to leave? Or do I tell Zhiang about this...?
Telling the truth is going to look very suspicious...
Luke got up, ran a hand through his messy, flattened hair, and stretched, Zhiang was already in the kitchen, making fried eggs with a few strips of bacon.
"So, princess? Sleep well?"
"It felt great to rest after yesterday, I still can't believe we..." Luke let out a huge yawn. "... made it out alive."
"Yeah... but we did, now come help me here!"
Luke went over to the stove, and offered to cut and fry the bacon, the two of them made a good breakfast, and while they were in that calm moment, Luke felt a heaviness in the air, and Zhiang spoke.
"Last night, some people were lurking around my house while we were asleep."
Luke took his attention off the bacon and turned it to Zhiang.
"What do you mean? Why? I thought it was over."
"I don't know... but I assume it was because of you, nobody has ever come around here before. The camera by the front door recorded two men I didn't know trying to force the lock open." Zhiang kept frying the eggs as if he were talking about something as ordinary as the weather.
"It's not like they were going to succeed, I have reinforced security, but Luke, you don't, if you had been anywhere else, I suspect you wouldn't have seen the sun rise today."
The possibility that Luke might have died without even knowing what had happened flooded his mind, and on top of that, he had possibly put Zhiang, a colleague he had come to admire, at risk. Luke was flooded with guilt.
"You're going to let the bacon burn! Careful!"
Luke came back to his senses and went back to frying the strips of bacon.
How is he so calm? We could have died!
Is he already used to this kind of situation?
Breakfast was finally ready, the two sat down, Zhiang's calmness was still strange to Luke, it wasn't supposed to be like this. Luke was in conflict with himself at that moment, whether he should tell Zhiang the possible reason for the attempted break-in, or deal with it alone.
He... deserves to know.
"Zhiang."
"Hm?" Zhiang had his mouth full, still chewing when Luke asked the question.
"Last night, before I went to sleep, my system assigned me a mission spontaneously... and I was forced to accept it, the mission was an assassination, 4 victims, I think those people might have been them..."
Zhiang listened very calmly, and did not respond immediately, he slowly chewed the fried egg still in his mouth, took a sip of water, and went on to answer Luke.
"It really would make sense... but, two questions: How were you unable to refuse the mission, and what makes you think they were the same people? The intruders and your targets."
"As for the first question, I genuinely don't know, the option to refuse existed, but no matter how much I pressed it, it failed, the only option available was to accept... and it was just a hunch, usually this system seems to predict some things..."
Zhiang thought for a moment before answering, by telling the truth, Luke felt relieved, but at the same time tense, afraid of seeming suspicious in Zhiang's eyes.
"I'm going to believe you, back at the tribunal I saw that you have some kind of memory problem or something like that, right? If you don't know something now, you probably just need to remember."
Luke felt an inexplicable relief, and the next moments were lighter. The two finished their breakfast, and Zhiang went to his room, keeping the door closed for a few minutes, in the meantime, Luke sat on the couch.
Zhiang came out of the room.
"Let's go?"
"Let's go where?"
"Well, to take care of those guys from your mission."
Zhiang was wearing different clothes, and was carrying two short blades, both in sheaths, he threw one of them toward Luke, along with a belt to attach the blade to.
"You don't need to-"
"You're in my house, I'm the one in charge, now let's go already!"
Luke put on the belt, and followed Zhiang, who was heading toward the exit. The two went outside, and Zhiang pulled a small remote from his pocket, when he pressed a button, a garage opened, revealing a car.
Zhiang and Luke got into the car, Zhiang was driving, he started the engine, pulled out of the garage, and closed the gate.
"So, what's the targets' name?"
"The system called them the Portre Group, and specified four male targets."
"I know who those guys are! They stiff a bunch of distributors around the city! Do you think that mission might've been sent by one of their enemies?"
"I really have no idea, but it's better for me to complete this mission."
From that moment on, Zhiang began driving with a destination in mind, Luke, looking out the window, watched the city as a whole, there were places with a lot of noise, others with only the sound of metal cans rolling across the ground, or people fighting.
One single thing was common everywhere, a smell, a very strong fuel smell, it was not a bad smell, but it would bother noses that were not used to the place.
Eventually, Zhiang parked the car behind a building.
"Their base is a block away from here, we're going to stay hidden and wait for them."
"Okay."
Both of them went up into a building facing the Portre base, a four-story building, gray in color, with an unremarkable facade, several cars passed by, but none entered its parking lot.
Luke and Zhiang watched until late afternoon, the sun was already dimming and their eyes were getting tired from staring, they took turns dozing off. Until,
[ Targets identified
Distance: 20 meters ]