Novel Full Chapter 832: The ’Joke’ Mission
Chapter 832: Chapter 832: The ’Joke’ Mission
The holographic board had vanished as silently as it appeared, leaving a hollow that crowded his chest with each breath. He forced himself to sit, the weight of the token in his palm suddenly unbearably real. More text had followed on that screen—mission details, equipment notes, fallback clauses—and Ronan had read every line with a mounting sense that he was already dead. Somehow, though, he reached the end, numb, and rose with his two new teammates so the next batch of candidates could enter for their briefing.
“Hold,” the masked man—Darius—said, voice low and practical. “Before any of you run off to imagine glory or die on a whim, there’s one thing I need to explain about that mission.”
His words stopped the three about to leave. They listened as Darius outlined the impossible question on everyone’s lips: how could three ordinary unawakened people be expected to take down a six-star beast tamer?
“You’re not,” Darius said bluntly. The word landed like a stone. “At least, not in the way you imagine. This mission isn’t about a fair fight.”
Relief and fresh fear flickered across the room. Ronan’s hands loosened a little.
“We’ll give you equipment. Disguises, tools, poison, drugs, information—whatever you can reasonably request. If you can’t bring him down, you can still take half the points if you find him and lead us to him. That’s the only mission with a backup. The only one with that clause.”
At those words, even the seemingly self-assured (suspected mercenary) masked teammates relaxed their stances. Clearly, they too had been overwhelmed by the idea of bringing down someone so powerful by themselves. Half-points for intel. It sounded less insane, a little more practical.
But while they were looking at Darius and the others with relief and admiration, none of them were aware of just how badly the consciences of Darius and the others was pricked, because…this was technically their ownmission. It was their task to track and take down the mysterious existence called a ’Knight,’ but they’d chosen to pawn it off onto the new recruits.
Afraid that the beacon momentarily emitted by Airalai still drew some people to his vicinity, Kain had been extra vigilant. From Airalai’s memories, he’d pieced together the existence of a class in the Black Dawn called a ’Knight,’ and there were 3 in Airalai’s memories who he considered most likely to take up the task of finding her in this region.
And so he’d been constantly on the look out for the 3 faces as he’d been wandering the city. Kain had also drawn Bea into the sweep, letting her use her splits to scan through the countless memories of citizens across the city. Until one day, at a sweep of the train station one familiar face had shown up in the subconscious of several strangers. This confirmed Kain’s suspicions Someone had been sent out.
Based on Airalai’s memories he knew that the knight was likely a 6-star beast tamer and completely outclassed Darius, Malzahir, Jax, Garret, Miya, and Lira. The strongest of the bunch being Malzahir with a yellow-grade contract and spiritual power, followed by Darius’ orange-grade contract and the red-grade contracts of the other 4. Even if they all worked together they’d be slapped to death instantly.
Kain really didn’t expect them to take down the Knight alone, but offered them whatever resources they’d need to track down the Knight and they could then choose to call upon himself to take him down. But Darius and the others sought to go above and beyond, unfortunately after looking for several days they had no success and thought it best to increase the number of eyes looking for the target.
It had actually been Jax who’d jokingly suggested it, “Give it to the newbies for a shitton of points. If they’re dumb enough to click it, they deserve the reward. Besides—who’d expect someone like that mostly blind recruit to be the one tailing a Knight? Surprise factor.”
Jax continued, “And if they’re stupid enough to click it,” he said, voice containing amusement, “then they deserve a shitton of points. Might as well make it worth their trouble.”
A ripple of laughter followed at the ’joke’. But Darius actually began to think about it. Using the unawakened newbies had several benefits:
1) Surprise and Underestimation. A Knight watches for professional rivals and obvious threats. Ordinary folk, even dangerous ones in appearance, dodge that scrutiny. A masked courier or a quiet handyman is invisible in the places a Knight expects danger.
2) Widening the Net. Recruits fanning out make many more eyes on the ground. They can easily blend into markets, docks, alleys.
3) Filtering for Commitment. The number of points and the danger rating weed out the half-hearted. Only the desperate or truly hungry will bite, which is what Kain wants: loyal, indebted people.
4) Psychological Advantage. If the Knight is used to being the hunter, being hunted by anonymous, miserable people will throw him off. He won’t be on full alert for the little things—faces, receipts, couriers—because who expects those to be threat vectors.
…which led to the creation of this mission for the new recruits that was completely not authorized by Kain.
But the new recruits didn’t need to know all of this. “As I’m sure you know, terrorist attacks have been more frequent in the Empire as of late. We have recieved news that a high-ranking member of that terrorist organization, called a ’Knight’ has arrived in Dark Moon City for an unknown purpose.” He didn’t say how they knew; that belonged to the spheres of power and secrets the recruits were not to enter. Instead, he emphasized the operational logic: ordinary people can slip through where soldiers and beast-tamers would raise alarms, which was their strength in this mission. The more ’ordinary’ they appeared, perhaps the greater their chance of success.
Ronan realized, quietly and with no small amount of dread, that he had no business being here—yet he had chosen anyway. The mask on his face felt heavier. His palms trembled as the reality closed around him.