Chapter 413: Gathering in Suroma |
March 23rd, Suroma Capital, Human Consortium Office.
"As expected of Suroma... even an office building is constructed so magnificently!"
Yang Ran walked into the spacious hall, marveling at the opulent golden decorations surrounding him.
Li Meng, Guan Tong, Chen Na, Silver Fox, and Bai Xuewu entered one after another. The six of them had arrived here on a special flight from Beixing precisely to rendezvous with teams from other member nations of the Human Consortium and execute the assassination mission against the Fire Thief Worship Cult.
The Republic of Fahe, where the Fire Thief Worship Cult is entrenched, is located on the same continent as the Suroma Empire, relatively close in distance. Therefore, the Human Consortium decided that the Joint Action Team would first assemble here before setting out together.
Over a dozen people were already in the office hall, precisely the action team members from other Human Consortium nations.
The most eye-catching among them was the Suroma Empire team led by Adam.
Adam had a tall, slender figure with shoulder-length blond hair, possessing an androgynous charm. Coupled with his great fame, he always attracted much attention.
He was currently conversing with the team from the Kingdom of Xisiya. When the Beixing team arrived, his eyes immediately lit up, and he quickly approached.
Beixing and Suroma are located on opposite ends of Tianshui Star; even by plane, the journey takes over ten hours.
Li Meng smiled slightly. "No need. We've been sitting the entire flight; standing for a bit now is actually resting."
"Haha, that's true too."
Adam laughed, his gaze sweeping over each of them one by one, finally settling intently on Guan Tong's face.
"Speaking of which, we should thank those cultists. If they hadn't caused trouble, who knows when we might have gotten the chance to meet."
Upon hearing this, the expressions of the Beixing team members turned odd, unsure of the relationship between the two.
Guan Tong himself felt that for a first meeting, this guy was being rather mushy.
He only said flatly, "Hello," and then said nothing more.
Adam didn't mind, turning his gaze to Bai Xuewu instead. "Miss Bai, we meet again."
The two had previously served together in the human coalition force on the Black Flag Country front, eliminating many parasitized forms together, so they naturally knew each other.
Bai Xuewu said, "It seems you are the captain of the Suroma team."
"Yes. Let me introduce our team members to everyone."
Adam called his team members over. Including him, there were two men and two women, four in total.
He first introduced one of the two women, a woman with a prominent nose and deep-set eyes. "This is Amanda, the assault specialist of our team, and also one of my wives."
"Hello to everyone who has come from afar." Amanda nodded in greeting.
"This is our Diviner." Adam then introduced the other woman. "Moon Key."
Hearing the name "Moon Key," several people looked over in surprise.
She wore a purple robe covered in star patterns, along with a light purple veil. Her appearance suggested chronic sleep deprivation; even heavy eye makeup couldn't conceal the thick dark circles under her eyes.
"Moon Key" was a fairly well-known Ascendant, famous for her divination and predictions, with an extremely high accuracy rate. Many Ascendants would specifically bring heavy gifts to seek her help in calculating their fates.
No one expected her to join the action team this time.
Although Chen Na was young, she wasn't shy. Even at a first meeting, driven by curiosity, she directly asked, "Sister, can you really see the future?"
"Although the future can be seen, it doesn't mean it cannot be changed. When a certain future is seen by me, perhaps that future already ceases to exist."
Moon Key's mysterious words left Chen Na confused.
Adam smiled. "In scientific terms, it's a bit like quantum theory, how observation itself affects the outcome or something... Actually, I don't really understand it either."
Then he introduced the last member of the team, a white-haired young man. "This is Peter."
Peter spoke very politely. "Everyone, nice to meet you. I'll be troubling you to look after me in the upcoming battles."
"Of course, of course!" Yang Ran said boisterously. "We'll look after each other!"
Hearing Peter's name and looking at his face, Silver Fox mentioned with interest, "Aren't you that Peter who made it to the finals?"
During the previous Doomsday Rule period, the competition held by Suroma, Peter was one of the contestants who made it to the very end, with the ability to control lightning.
However, the finals were interrupted by the bomb attack orchestrated by the Fire Thief Worship Cult, so no final champion was decided.
But now, since Peter was placed in Suroma's action team, it was clear his strength had been recognized by the higher-ups.
"Yes," Peter said. "Although the competition wasn't completed, I was fortunate enough to gain the favor of the Senate afterward, which allowed me to join this team."
"Oh~ I see."
Silver Fox narrowed her eyes. Those familiar with her knew she seemed not to like this arrangement.
Afterward, Li Meng also introduced the members of the Beixing team. Once the team members from other member nations arrived, they all got acquainted with each other.
Excluding the command personnel from each country, the Joint Action Team consisted of a total of nineteen members.
Among them, the Beixing team had six people, with five present. Wenren Yizhi, who was not present, would provide remote assistance through her black and white chess pieces.
Suroma had four, Xisiya had three, and the six small nations led by Luruiguo each contributed one person, forming a six-person team.
The person dispatched by the Sakura Prayer Country was none other than Uenoshi, wearing a mask and sunglasses.
She had previously said she would participate in this operation, originally planning to secretly enter Fahe. But after discussing with Guan Tong, she decided to participate as the Sakura Prayer representative.
The reason for doing this was that the people sent by the six small nations were generally not very familiar with each other. They all felt they were just there to make up the numbers, with the main combat to be handled by the team members from Beixing, Suroma, and Xisiya. Therefore, the six of them weren't familiar with each other either, not even knowing each other's abilities, so Uenoshi wouldn't expose her own intelligence.
Thus, she didn't openly converse with Guan Tong. Both sides tacitly pretended not to know each other, though Silver Fox and Chen Na glanced at her a few extra times.
Clearly, having participated together in the operation against Yuzawa Jun, they were somewhat familiar with Uenoshi.
Nineteen team members, plus some command personnel. Half an hour after everyone had assembled, they all entered the operations room to begin the operational briefing.
The meeting was chaired by a Senator from Suroma, who displayed the specific situation and arrangements on a large screen.
"Regarding the Republic of Fahe you are going to, currently almost the entire nation has been abandoned. Only one city is still functioning, and that is Lianluo'an City."
"This Lianluo'an City is the stronghold of the Fire Thief Worship Cult. The city's population is roughly around one million. Currently, it can be judged that this million-strong population has basically all become believers."
Everyone's expressions turned serious upon hearing this.
Fahe, this once internationally powerful nation, had now fallen to the point where only one city was functioning, with its entire populace becoming Fire Thief Worship Cult believers... It couldn't help but evoke sighs.
But everyone also understood this wasn't an active choice made by the Fahe citizens; it was likely related to mind control.
"According to intelligence, the targets of your operation this time, the Your Holiness of the Fire Thief Worship Cult and several bishops, usually operate here."
The screen zoomed in on a picture of a building, accompanied by a layered demonstration of the structure. It appeared to be a large library.
"This is the National Library of Fahe, with six floors in total. After the Fire Thief Worship Cult was established, they renovated the interior of this library. Believers within the cult refer to it as the 'Fire Worship Cathedral.' The mission of the action team is to assault this location and eliminate the cult's high-ranking leadership, headed by Your Holiness and the bishops."
Li Meng spoke up to ask at this point, "If this Fire Worship Cathedral is indeed the enemy's nest, wouldn't it be more effective to first destroy it with ballistic missiles, then have the action team mop up the battlefield?"
The Senator shook his head in refusal. "Missiles are not a panacea. If we fail, the cult's leadership might escape. Finding them again afterward wouldn't be so easy."
Li Meng felt puzzled upon hearing this but didn't say anything more.
"Our Suroma will provide teleportation-type items that activate via coordinates," the Senator continued. "The action team will teleport to the outside of the library and directly enter the cathedral to complete the assassination mission, avoiding entanglement with other cultists. As for what the situation is inside the cathedral, how many enemies there are, that will have to be explored by the action team members themselves. I believe with everyone's capabilities, you are more than sufficient to handle those cultists."
After the Senator finished explaining the situation, he announced that the operation would officially commence tomorrow morning.
Afterward, the team leaders from each group met, communicated about their respective team situations, then each went to discuss and brief their own team members.
In the Beixing team's room, the members sat around together. A tablet with an active remote video call was placed on the table for synchronized communication with Wenren Yizhi. Although she was in Beixing, as a team member, she still needed to understand the specific situation.
"Be extra careful after you teleport over tomorrow," Li Meng earnestly instructed. "When I say careful, I don't just mean careful of those cultists... but also careful of the other teams."
"Careful of the other teams?" Bai Xuewu frowned. Chen Na and Yang Ran also looked puzzled.
Silver Fox, however, pointed it out bluntly. "We need to be careful of the Suroma team, right?"
Li Meng looked at her. "Silver Fox, why do you say that? Did you notice something?"
Silver Fox shrugged. "Didn't notice anything else, but I don't like that they selected that Peter for the team. I don't feel comfortable going into battle alongside someone like that."
Li Meng nodded. "I understand what you mean. Peter killed many people during that competition. That kind of approach is indeed hard for us in Beixing to accept. But my suspicion towards Suroma is that I feel that Senator was withholding something."
Guan Tong said, "Is it because he refused to use long-range missiles to bombard the Fire Worship Cathedral?"
"Exactly. Since it's confirmed the cult's leadership is in that building, long-range bombardment followed by ground personnel cleanup is the most stable and effective combat method. Suroma's refusal to do this definitely isn't just about fearing to alert the enemy."
"Hearing you say this, it feels like there's some conspiracy!" Yang Ran scratched his head as he listened.
"In any case, Guan Tong, as the captain, be extra vigilant after teleporting over tomorrow. More than completing the mission, pay closer attention to the safety of the team members."
"I understand."
Even without Li Meng's reminder, Guan Tong would prioritize the lives of his team members over killing enemies.