Chapter 539: The Journey Begins (1)

Chapter 537

The next day arrived in the blink of an eye.

And to be honest, the cohort hadn’t slept a wink... well, all except Van, who had slept like a baby while working on something in his room—only waking up when the sound of his alarm finally dragged him from his sleep.

The others?

They hadn’t slept a wink, as anticipation and anxiety clouded their minds and made their hearts skip hundreds of beats as they waited for the morning light to rise.

Even before the first rays of sunlight illuminated the world, they were all ready.

Fully dressed and prepared to tackle the journey ahead.

The night before, Ray had been going around the place, gathering a lot of things into his inventory.

Spare uniforms, delicious food that had been freshly cooked, different delicacies, and tons upon tons of meals that could feed dozens of people—he also stored other essentials inside his inventory that would be useful during the journey.

He didn’t carry a single bag whatsoever since everything he needed was inside his System.

After brewing himself a cup of tea and pouring it into a bottle, he finally stepped out of his room, closing the door behind him to find the other cohorts already ready.

They each had backpacks slung over their shoulders, their eyes steady and focused as they looked at one another.

Then, with a firm nod, they all moved downstairs, heading toward the garage where their vehicles were parked.

They didn’t say a single word to one another.

The tension hung heavily in the air as they made their way downstairs, only to find the usually busy hallway strangely quiet.

All the Vanguards in the base were watching them descend, their gazes following the group as they headed outside.

"I hope he dies on this expedition." A Vanguard whispered to his comrade, his eyes remaining locked on the Tribrid’s back.

"Yeah, I hope so too. With him in our midst, humanity will begin seeing us less."

Of course, Ray and Felix heard them as clearly as day, but they chose to ignore them.

There was obviously no time to waste on these gossipers.

Upon reaching outside, they could see Bonny and Johnny anxiously standing a few metres away from Raze, checking their equipment one last time.

Meanwhile, the Captain was leaning against an Aeroglide with his arms folded across his chest while Captain Ella stood before him with a slight frown on her face.

"Do you have to go all alone with them? We could arrange a s—"

Captain Raze didn’t even blink in her direction as he stared at the approaching cohort.

"—I asked for only eight of us on this expedition because I didn’t want to lose a single Vanguard. I don’t want them dragged into something they know nothing about.

None of them want Ray here. Nobody does. And if, after defending him in the trial room, I called for an expedition and dragged innocent people along, don’t you think I would be hated?"

Ella stared at him for a moment before clicking her tongue.

"Do you even care what people think about you?"

"I don’t. But you do."

That was it.

Raze said no more as the cohort now stood before him.

Giving him a firm salute, they then turned toward Ella and saluted her as well.

Chloe tilted her head toward the Aeroglide parked outside.

"Uh, Captain... I don’t mean to question you, but you said we would be taking our bikes. So why is the Glide parked outside?"

Raze pushed himself off the Glide and then turned toward it with a stoic look on his face.

"To make our journey faster, we’ll take the Glide and park it in Wall Steel—at the Aspirant Corps—before taking the bikes straight to Wall Rose.

It will save us a lot of time."

Raze didn’t say anything more as he began walking toward the stairs of the Glide that led upward.

"I’m still lost, though." Chloe muttered as she continued looking at the Glide.

Caster sighed and decided to explain as he followed after the Captain.

"If we use the bikes from here, it would take three days at most to actually get to Wall Rose. And that’s without breaks in between.

Taking the Glide to Wall Steel, we’ll get there before noon. Without resting, we head for Wall Rose from there. So by tomorrow, we should have arrived."

"Oh."

A step away from disappearing into the Glide, Ella’s face briefly contorted with concern.

"Don’t do something reckless over there, otherwise I will kill you."

Raze’s expression didn’t change one bit.

"Sure thing."

And then, he walked inside.

Johnny zipped the backpacks shut and lifted them up, following after Bonny, who was excitedly on the heels of the cohort as they disappeared into the Glide one after another.

Ella watched as the stairs folded inward, eventually closing off the entrance.

A minute later, the Glide could be seen lifting into the air with effortless grace, barely disturbing a speck of dust beneath it.

Within two minutes, the Glide was already dozens of metres above the ground, hovering there for a moment as though waiting for something.

Then, without warning, it simply shot forward with astonishing speed, leaving the Vanguard’s base in a matter of seconds.

Ella could only watch the vehicle’s rapidly disappearing form.

Her hands curled into fists as her heart pounded with worry.

’Come back safely, you sleepy head, otherwise I will kill you myself.’

With a scoff, she turned around and began walking away, only to see some Vanguards peeking out from the entrance, apparently checking whether the group was truly gone.

"Oi! What the hell are you all gawking at? Fucking get back to work before I smash your heads in!" she barked furiously.

The Vanguards immediately scrambled away with unsteady steps, hurrying back to their posts.

Nobody wanted to have their heads smashed by the Skull Crusher.

If even the Aberrants couldn’t survive it, how could mere humans like them?

Seeing that the Vanguards had left, she finally followed suit after lingering for another second and glancing toward the sky.

The Glide was already long gone from view.