Chapter Ten

10: A Blank Canvas (Part 1)

    THEY GOT caught.

Jay had murmured every possible curse word he could think of, all while sprinting his way out of the abandoned storage room he was previously in. Like a chicken with its butt blazing with fire.

He only bought one weapon with him, and it’s a sniper at that. How could he possibly fight back those three men, with one who has the physique of a bulldozer? Don’t be kidding. He would long be squashed to the ground and become a meat paste by then. The medium amount of muscles he has are all just a display to attract girls and doesn't have any function at all, aside from carrying his babies.

"Don't go to the elevator, fool! Go to the stairs!" Zeke felt his throat drying because of all the shouting he did. He endured the urge to go get a cup of water so he wouldn't miss anything that was happening on his screen. His eyes were deadly serious and the previous haughty attitude he had had was nowhere to be found. 

Jay can only cry without tears as he was scolded by his teammate and was even branded as a fool. All he ever wanted was to snipe in peace, now he could not even attack since he's too much of a muddle head to bring an extra weapon for defense.

He wouldn't even be in this situation if he didn't decide to play sniping from the beginning. His eyes were fixated on the snipe, that he named as beauty, the moment he entered the weaponry room. And decided to use it as his main weapon for today's practice mission.

                                                                                         

Avyanna fixed the creases in her uniform, soothing them out. She tried to not make a sound as she sought a place to hide amongst the trees. She can vaguely feel the presence of her pursuers behind her. 

"They are all over the vicinity. There's no place to escape within the campus." Lei maintained his calm expression and proceed to blend in among the sea of students who are panicking because of the explosion. He followed the current of their waves and was then brought outside the campus. His eyes wandered around, and said with a stern voice, “There seems to be a warehouse on the eastern part of the campus. Though there were not many people coming out from there. “

Zeke went to look for the warehouse on his computer. “Oh, there is one. It seems to be a restricted area since there’s a barricade around it. “

"Don't do anything for the meantime. The cops wouldn't take long to arrive. Let's wait for the right time." Avyanna's cold and indifferent voice resounded on each of the teammates' earpieces. The three could only obey their leader, enhancing their senses to look out for the other party's presence. A particular boy was still running around the building.

They made the huge mistake of not planning and gathering more information beforehand. Each overestimated their skills and thought the mission would just be an easy task. Resulting in their current predicament.

All of them forgot two important facts: this was their first-ever mission as a team, and none of them had tried working together before. Naturally, they will be unfamiliar with how others work, and how should they act. Not leaving the fact that two of them would often clash with one another, it's not surprising for their team to collapse in imbalance and lack of teamwork.

The second thing is they took an SS-class mission. Being reckless and arrogant should've been the last thing they did. 

Mr. Black smiled gently as he took a slow sip of his tea. His laptop was sitting over his desk across his line of sight, an earpiece can be seen plugging on his right ear.

Who would have thought that the PSIA would be involved in their mission?

An hour and a half ago

"You can all just submit yourself to me, peasants. And let this Almighty one rule over you," Zeke said with a smug tone. A grin was plastered on his face.  

 

Since he can watch over them, naturally he should be the one to give commands. Such a perfect role should be hand over to the perfect one!

Jay subconsciously wrinkled his eyebrows. He was in deep thought as he position his sniper in place. There's only one person who he would want to rule over him.

His eyes immediately went wide and he blushed when he realized that his thoughts drifted to his master. 

"The target can be handled by the woman alone. Right? You can do that much, huh, phony?" 

Avyanna didn't respond. Who is this jerk referring to as a phony?

"Hey, I'm talking to you, woman!" 

"Oh--" she indifferently poked her left ear with her pinky."--I thought you were a bug."

A tick mark appeared on his forehead, but before Zeke could even respond, Lei interrupted. "We should probably stay for the meantime and find out if she is the culprit," he said.

"Way to recite what's obvious, Captain." Zeke snorted as he tried to calm himself. "Well, just do what your guts want you to do, ey. I'll be here overseeing everything." 

Zeke was serious about being the one to give orders. He doesn't mind how he sounds as long as some sham, little assassin doesn't become the leader, he would act all mighty without care about others.

Here, feel his wrath!

The two friends can only shake their heads since they have all been together for quite some time and both are used to the person's haughty attitude. If before they would often lower their heads in shame, now they have gotten used to it to the point that they wouldn't even be surprised to see him barking at everyone he sees on the street.

 

Avyanna sighed and decided to turn off her earpiece. 

Before going to the third floor of the literature building, Avyanna went to the cafeteria to grab some snacks since it is not that far off from her target location. Her stomach has been growling nonstop considering that she hasn't yet eaten anything for three whole days.

Some baffled students can't help but stare at her figure whenever they heard a rumbling sound coming from her direction, their eyes would subconsciously land on her stomach.

After buying some snacks, she went ahead to the literature building while observing her surroundings. 

Since Avyanna has a distinct color on the tip of her hair that will be easy to remember, she wore a long, blonde wig. She also put on reading glasses and was forced by a fan to stuff her face with makeup.

Never did she know that she'd later thank Jay for forcing her to paint her face.

As she made her way inside the building, she immediately felt something odd. Several distinct presences are lurking around the vicinity, especially on the higher floor. She discovered approximately five figures with the presence a typical college student shouldn't have.

Odd. They don't even seem to mind showing off their auras for her to sense it. Could this be deliberate? Or is it just unintentional? Either way, it wouldn't be nice to be spotted by them. Such a powerful presence would just bring her nothing but trouble.

Well, she can easily handle the five on her own. But something tells her not to face them as it will hinder her initial plan. And she lived long enough to know better than to ignore her instinct. 

For now, she decided to see how the situation will unfold.